SPECIAL ISSUE: EL ALAMEIN 75TH ANNIVERSARY
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•The Campaign •The Commanders •The Men •The Weapons •The Air War
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BREAKING THE SPELL Unlikely Australian VC Hero In Far East War
ONE HUNDRED AND THREE DAYS IN HELL
Experiences Of The Men Who Fought at Passchendaele
SEPTEMBER 2017 ISSUE 125 UK £4.70
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From the Editor... T
HIS MONTH we mark the 75th anniversary of that epic struggle in the sands of the Western Desert; the Second Battle of El Alamein. The story of the battle, of course, is more than well-known - but it is the story told in this issue from the men who fought, rather than the equipment, tactics, outcomes and statistics which make for the compelling narrative of El Alamein. And, as with our Dunkirk coverage last month, we felt it important that the role of the RAF was not forgotten. In this respect, Andy Thomas recounts the exploits of the RAF’s Kittyhawk squadrons, the subject of our dramatic front cover illustration. At El Alamein, and in the North African campaigns, the Luftwaffe’s much-feared Junkers 87 Stuka operated with great effect against the Allied forces and, although the link is tenuous, there is a connection, here, to this month’s Editor’s Choice: The Women Who Flew for Hitler (page 82). One of those women, Melitta von Stauffenberg, was a noted German aviatrix who took up professional flying as a wartime test pilot and often tested the Ju 87, working on refinements and improvements to a weapon which came to symbolise Nazi power. Here, however, lies a dichotomy in that Melitta had Jewish blood although was declared ‘Equal to Aryan’ by the Nazi regime and allowed to continue her important war work. That is, until the family connection to the von Stauffenberg Hitler bomb plot almost ended her career and her life. Reading Clare Mulley’s tale of these two women, one is struck by the contrast between the two. The other woman was Hanna Reitsch, an ardent Nazi who survived the war, whilst Melitta, the half-Jewish test pilot, engineer and secret enemy of the regime, who narrowly survived the post bomb-plot purge, would eventually be shot down and killed by a USAAF fighter almost on the eve of Germany’s surrender. It is difficult not to wish that fate had allowed Melitta, rather than Hanna, to survive. Such are the fortunes of war.
Andy Saunders (Editor) EDITORIAL Editor: Andy Saunders Assistant Editor: John Ash Editorial Correspondents: Geoff Simpson, Alex Bowers, Rob Pritchard, Lauren Cantillon Group Editor: Nigel Price EDITORIAL ENQUIRIES Britain at War Magazine, PO Box 380, Hastings, East Sussex, TN34 9JA Tel: +44 (0)1424 752648 or email:
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Assistant Editor John Ash
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FEATURES
32 Breaking The Spell
In an action which broke the myth of Japanese invincibility in battle, one Australian soldier emerged as an unlikely hero and Victoria Cross recipient; Jack ‘Digger’ French.
44 103 Days In Hell
Marking the centenary of the Third Battle of Ypres, often known as just ‘Passchendaele’, Alexandra Churchill takes a harrowing look at events through the eyes of those who were there.
104 The Myths Of ‘Operation Jericho’
The precision raid against Amiens prison is an enduring legend of RAF operations during the Second World War – but how much was fact and how much was fiction? Simon Parry examines the evidence.
129 ‘Ace’ Sopwith Camel
Regular contributor Chris Goss shines a spotlight on the story of a high-scoring Sopwith Camel laying behind a photograph of the aircraft, taken by the Germans, of its shot-down and crumpled remnants.
96 Angels One-Five
Our Editor explains the mysteries and intricacies of RAF Command and Control during the Battle of Britain and how the finely-tuned Dowding System worked to ensure victory for ‘The Few’.
Contents ISSUE 125 SEPTEMBER 2017
22 Desert Kittyhawks 4
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44 Passchendaele
96 RAF Command & Control
EL ALAMEIN: SPECIAL CONTENT
Editor’s Choice
22 Shark’s Teeth In The Sand
The remarkable role played by the pilots of Britain, Australia and South Africa in the desert war, and at El Alamein, with their P-40 Kittyhawk fighter-bombers is told by Andy Thomas.
59 El Alamein 75th Anniversary
In this month’s special content, and marking the 75th anniversary, Peter Hart takes us through the Battle of El Alamein which led to victory and the first good news for the Allied cause during the Second World War.
82 Women Who Flew For Hitler
In this month’s Editor’s Choice, Clare Mulley writes of the lives and careers of two remarkable and yet very different women who both flew for Hitler’s Third Reich in the capacity of test pilots.
REGULARS 6 News
News, restorations, discoveries and events from around the World.
42 Image Of War
The vital role of the RAF’s air-sea-rescue service is highlighted in this month’s image showing RAF aircrew being plucked from the North Sea.
52 Recon Report
Our editorial team scout out the latest books and products, including a review of a new book on RAF Bomber Command’s Battle of Berlin.
93 Fieldpost
Reader’s letters, views and feedback.
56 First World War Diary
Our ‘at-a-glance’ monthly analysis follows the progress and key events of the Great War, looking at the situation as it existed 100 years ago during September 1917.
A subscription to Britain at War makes a great gift. Please see pages 90 and 91 for more details.
112 Great War Gallantry
The continuation of our look at the awards listed in the London Gazette reaches September 1917 and includes Lord Ashcroft’s regular ‘Hero of the Month’.
COVER STORY
Two shark-mouthed P-40 Kittyhawk fighter-bombers operate over a dusty desert airstrip during the Battle of El Alamein, each carrys a single bomb on the centre pylon. The nearest aircraft is flown by Sqn Ldr ‘Billy Drake, CO of 112 Sqn, the fuselage adorned with his distinctive '?' emblem in place of the individual aircraft letter. Air power during the Battle of El Alamein proved crucial to eventual victory. (IMAGE BY ANTONIS KARIDIS)
119 Militaria Collecting
In this popular series, Austin J Ruddy looks this month at the wide scope available for those collecting Second World War Home Front memorabilia.
124 War Artists
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War artist Eric Ravilious produced some remarkable paintings depicting various aspects of the Second World War before he was lost in an RAF aircraft over the North Atlantic as Phil Jarman explains.
130 First World War in Objects
This month we feature personal body armour designs, both practical and impractical, from the Great War and as used by British and Empire forces. www.britainatwar.com
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News • Restorations • Discoveries • Events • Exhibitions from around the UK
"A Museum, And Story, For All"
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BRITAIN AT WAR News Correspondent, Lauren Cantillon, reflects on her visits to the newlyrefurbished National Army Museum. Let’s get something clear before starting – I like the newly refurbed National Army Museum (or #newNAM for those of you who tweet!). Like most with half an eye to the online world, I watched with interest as it was verbally ripped apart and called every negative thing under the sun. After visiting (I went three times whilst writing this piece) I did have to wonder if those people had visited a different museum, or walked around this one with their eyes closed. A third of what is on display has never been on display before, and approximately 2,700 items are showcased. It look me until my third visit to find the much lambasted children’s play area, and even then that was only because I used a very specific WC and turned the wrong direction when exiting. What was much more in evidence is the wealth of objects on display, both your traditional armour and sword type regalia you expect in an army museum, but also the more unexpected, such as 18th century campaign furniture, modern film posters, Kate Adie’s body armour, the skeleton of Napoleon’s horse...
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In the new NAM, objects such as these illustrate a complex and ever-changing narrative about and around the British Army, rather than being on display for their own sake. But, each to their own. The museum’s use of technology has been another Marmite area, with some feeling the move towards digital has left some exhibits
lacking the deep analysis they were expecting, leaving them feeling patronised. Some have called it a modern fad. “It’s not a fad,” says curator Dr. Peter Johnston: “we’re embracing technology, moving away from the old ‘book on the wall’ way of displaying information that people were becoming bored by.” He added: “the information is there – if you want to spend 20 minutes in front of those screens you can, but equally so you don’t have to.” The screens show more in depth content, context and supporting information, doing these stories justice. Content that was, by the way, prepared by the museum curatorial team and sent to an external editor to ensure consistent style and voice. At maximum 30 words a piece, artefact captions have to be short, telling a visitor only essential
information. Text and interpretation is structured to appeal to several levels of understanding, with traditional captioning acting as an introductory explanation. Heavier analysis is found within the digital boards.
Reactive History
The new digital boards also enable content to be changed and updated much more easily than with traditional displays. This has actually proved useful, and within the first couple of days of the reopening. In the Army gallery (lower level, First Floor) sits an item titled ‘Slave ledger, 1801’. Initially the object was called ‘Account Sheet’. Dr. Johnston was approached by a member of the public who noticed the mistake, which was checked and (after the daily system update) rectified. Responses to such stimulus “allows
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What’s on at the National Army Museum? www.nam.ac.uk War Stories with Peter Snow and Ann Macmillan. 4 October, 7pm, £15, concessions £12.50. Join Peter Snow and Ann Macmillan as they uncover 31 stories of those affected by war throughout history in a fascinating account of ordinary people swept up by the horror of war.
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Prisoners of War: Experiences and emotions, 6 October, 11.30am, Free. Dr Clare Makepeace explores the experiences and emotions of British prisoners of war and tells the story of wartime imprisonment through the love, fears, fantasies, loneliness, frustration and guilt felt by these men.
The Aden Insurgency 27 October, 11.30am, Free. On the 50th anniversary of the British withdrawal from Aden, historian Jonathan Walker looks at the controversial campaign and its legacy as the British attempted to secure one of its last bastions of Empire.
www.britainatwar.com
A Selection of the events on offer at NAM London this October. Redisplaying the D-Day Museum with Curator Andrew Whitmarsh. 13 October, 11.30am, Free. This talk discusses the current transformation of Portsmouth's D-Day Museum and looks at the approach that the museum is taking to telling the story of D-Day and the Battle of Normandy.
Exhibitions from around the UK • Events • Discoveries • Restorations • News
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us to be more reactive, we can upload edited and new content easier and quicker”, explained Dr. Johnston. It’s also a forward thinking way of getting around the problem of the museum’s central London location – space is finite, and there’s only so much physical space to play with without cramming too much in. An interesting element of the technology is the ‘like’ buttons at the base of the screens, with the idea being that if people enjoy the information and want the museum to develop a topic, the more ‘likes’ it will get, and the more information added to those slides. If people ‘like’ a screen explaining the history of army recruitment posters (honestly far more interesting than it sounds!) the team can add more posters to the display, digitally. The ‘likes’ constitute visitor feedback that it would otherwise be difficult to acquire, unless a staff member was stood there asking questions – arguably a waste of precious
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resources in a cash-strapped Heritage sector. “It’s a tradeoff,” points out long-serving and highly respected curator, Dr. Alastair Massie. “We are blessed with having a museum in the centre of a population, next to the Royal Hospital Chelsea essentially a ready-made audience. We have maximised our ability to
A relic from more than 250 years ago was unearthed in a Canadian city. The 200lb projectile is thought to have been fired by the British at Quebec City from across the St Lawrence River as they besieged Quebec while fighting the French at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham during the Seven Year's War. The British victory was a milestone towards the end of French rule in what is now Canada. Bomb disposal experts collected the device, saying it was still viable. Master Warrant Officer Sylvain Trudel, said: 'With time, humidity got into it and reduced its potential for exploding, but there's still a danger. Old munitions are hard to predict. You never know to what point the chemicals inside have degraded.' The shell is now at a safe site and will either be disarmed or destroyed.
present the collections in the most entertaining and informative way we can think of inside a wonderful new building that has been completely redesigned to allow us to do this.” This issue of space (or a lack of) brings us onto the presentation of the artifacts, ergo, why is the museum laid out thematically, rather than chronologically? “We found people wanted to know the really basic questions, like why we have an army?” says Dr. Johnston. “Military experience is not widespread in British society anymore – no National Service for example – so now we have to cater for the visitor who has no military experience, little to no concept of what the army is, or what it’s for,” adds Dr. Massie. They have a point, and it’s worth remembering that the National Army Museum is a public institution; public consultation will inform the new approach. The museum also used an academic advisory panel, who were asked to comment upon the thematic approach and the themes of each gallery. They gave it a thumbs up. “Some people think we are a mouthpiece for the Ministry of Defence, or that Heritage Lottery Fund had a say in what we have on display because the refurbishment
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received HLF funding. This is just not true. We are an independent voice, intending to give a balanced view.”
‘How Similar Their Voices Are’
Personally, I enjoyed how the thematic approach pulls together different conflicts the British Army has been involved in. The Soldier Gallery depicts the physical and emotional experience of serving throughout the army’s history. Here a pair of early 20th century sunglasses (possibly worn during the Great War) sit with a mid 18th century Bible (carried by John Moore until his death during the Peninsula War, 1808-14) and a Taliban Hunting Club patch badge (popular with serving soldiers but banned by the Army in 2011 for being perceived as offensive and politically insensitive). By grouping these artefacts together, a much more interesting comparison of a soldier’s personal items emerges, as well as allowing smaller conflicts to be highlighted and a narrative drawn through the history of soldiering. A modern object or voice can also be a point of access to a visitor with little or no understanding of the army – it makes the experience relatable. This is beautifully
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Iron Maiden frontman and rock legend Bruce Dickinson recently took a pre-show flight to remember, in one of only two flying Lancasters. The aircraft is based in Hamilton, at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, which invited Dickinson and his family to visit knowing he is a major aviation fan. Museum CEO and pilot David Rohrer shared why the Lancaster holds a special place in Dickinson's heart, telling CBC News: 'the first model airplane [Dickinson] ever built as a young lad was a Lancaster'. Hamilton's Lancaster was built in 1945 at Victory Aircraft in Malton, Ontario and was used to train crews and later for coastal patrols and S&R work before retirement in 1963. The Warplane Heritage Museum bought it in 1977 for CAD $10,000. Volunteers led by Royal Navy aeronautical builder Norm Etheridge spent 11 years restoring the bomber which flew again on 24 September 1988.
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depicted in the cinema, where the fragmented screen shows recent photographs from Iraq and Afghanistan alongside historic paintings of the Napoleonic Wars. These are layered with written and spoken accounts from soldiers through the ages, with it very quickly becoming strikingly apparent how similar their voices are despite the gaps in time. A group of serving soldiers were asked to review the choices of the exhibits, specifically whether they reflected their experience of the army. It was important to get their seal of approval, especially as the museum is essentially a living museum, in that its story develops and evolves every passing day. The old NAM never talked about what it was like to be a soldier and serving personal have fed back that it’s fun to see their story reflected in the new museum. The British Army is not consigned to the past – they are active and present in society, and the input of serving soldiers has ensured an authentic modern voice. Back to the thematic approach, this is truly the only way to incorporate the contemporary experience within the museum, as a chronological one would demand
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News • Restorations • Discoveries • Events • Exhibitions from around the UK
never-ending extension works! “We want this building to be a place to come and discuss things regardless to an individual’s attitude towards the army, and this means we need to include all opinions.” This includes showcasing the darker history, especially the Army’s role in slavery and colonisation. “We give an honest appraisal of history as it happened, and then it’s up to people to decide how they feel” says Dr. Johnston. “These are stories we can’t ignore and we cannot ignore the events that have formed the Army’s history. It’s an emotive place, an emotive history,” Dr. Massie continued. Both are conscious that if events are swept under the carpet, people will complain. In terms of the story of black soldiers within the Army, it is not a question of post-colonial guilt that has had NAM feature the story of slavery alongside it – it is fact, a part of a narrative that must be acknowledged.
Strong Opinions Wanted!
The team did expect the redesign to generate strong opinion. “There’s nothing worse than
A British Second World War-era depth charge has been safely disposed of off the coast of Tabarca, Spain. The 75-year-old device was discovered by members of a local diving club who, in turn, notified local authorities of the find, discovered at a depth of 29 metres. A team of eight Royal Navy divers were tasked with inspecting the site and the device itself, before it was raised from by a series of balloons. The depth charge was then moved to a safe location near Santa Pola, where it was subsequently deactivated. Experts now believe this incredible find originates from an air attack on the U-boat U-77, which took place on 28 March, 1943. Heavily damaged by attacks from two Gibraltar-based Hudsons from 48 and 233 Sqn RAF, U-77 was scuttled the day after.
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indifference,” is Dr. Johnston’s take: “Our brand is about inviting more questions and answers, we are a place open to debate. We wanted the redesign to spark a conversation, because that is the history of the Army.” Dr. Massie added: “We have to reach out to new people whilst cherishing our traditional audience and hoping it will give them food for thought, making them look at subjects once thought of as familiar and seeing that they can be looked at in a different way.” NAM have faced significant criticism about closing over the majority of the Great War
centenary years. “There is no good time to close, there’s always an anniversary! But the museum had got old, the facilities weren’t great, and if anything we were worried that with the anniversary of the Great War it would have fallen apart with higher visitor numbers than usual. Instead we took the museum out, spending a lot of time on the road, doing outreach and different events and roadshows across the UK, and loaned objects out to local museums. We also upped our digital offerings.” The NAM team want people to visit and make up their own mind for themselves. The events programme is full of talks, workshops, a book club, conferences, and it is noticeable that many of them tap into previously less visible or controversial groups within the Army. There have been a series of events about the role of women in the Army, the LGBTQ community and the Army, upcoming talks will debate the idea of masculinity, analyse the Battle of Passchendaele 100 years on, cover Indian Independence, and much more. NAM are trying hard, in the best way possible. “It’s up to us to improve, up to us to take the stories to people and reach a wider audience to give the story the reach it deserves.” This is a museum, and story, for all.
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A Mansfield soldier who died days after the end of the Second World War has been honoured. Albert Henry Ward contracted Tuberculosis and died in May 1945, and as such did not appear on any Roll of Honour. A new commemorative stone remembers his sacrifice. Granddaughter, Karen Dowsing, said: "It's been a long road, but now, everything that is being done for him makes it all worthwhile."
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A Loughborough soldier has been honoured 95 years after his death. Sgt. Thomas Marston served in the Territorial battalions of the Royal Leics. Regiment during the Great War and succumbed to gas poisoning in 1922. Originally buried in a 'pauper's grave', Marston has now been recognised for his service with a polished black headstone, courtesy of the Royal Leicestershire Regiment Association.
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News • Restorations • Discoveries • Events • Exhibitions from around the UK
Painting the Sand - Herrick EOD Ops. Lauren Cantillon Interviews WO1 Kim Hughes GC
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KIM HUGHES is the most highly decorated bomb disposal operator serving in the British Armed Forces. He currently serves in 11 EOD Regiment, Royal Logistics Corps as Warrant Officer Class 1. Hughes was awarded the George Cross after defusing 119 bombs on a six-month tour to Afghanistan, Op. Herrick 10, which ran from April to October 2009. Painting the Sand is his account of what happened on that tour, and how he and his unit, Brimstone 42, dealt with the sights and sounds they were faced with - everything from firefights, ambushes and awkward encounters with Estonians. Painting the Sand is unflinching, informative and a complete emotional rollercoaster. The best thing about it is the honesty. Hughes’ style is straightforward
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and true, detailing his unit’s highs and lows, including the not always brilliant working relationships between one another. ‘One of the reasons of wanting to do the book was to give [bomb disposal] a human element; it’s not all about going down the road and cutting wires, all this Hurt Locker nonsense. You do have conflicts on the ground with other forces, you have conflicts on the ground within the team, and you have to work through that. I wanted to get that across because it tells the story that yes, we are such a close-knit team, but there are still issues and there are still things that need ironing out. There are still mistakes to be made and personalities clash.’ ‘I’m not a writer’, says Hughes, ‘I struggled early on. I loved it, don’t get me wrong, but
One of the last operational coal fired twin-screw steam tugs has celebrated its 90th birthday. The Royal Navy gave the ST Portwey a salute as she moved down the Thames, passing by the Navy's permanent shore establishment, HMS President. Built on the River Clyde in 1927, ST Portwey was involved in preparations for D-Day and assisted vessels hit or sunk in the Channel. The tug also rescued vessels from the notorious Slapton Sands disaster. Today ST Portwey is managed by a charitable trust and manned by volunteers. Chairman of the Trust, Steven Page said: 'We want future generations to see Portwey and our next goal is to get her to her 100th birthday, but if this is to happen we need more volunteers and we need to generate thousands of pounds to keep her running.'
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it was like a rollercoaster of emotion.’ The book is crammed full of tiny details and moments which catapult the reader into Hughes’ head, with each chapter conveying a rich picture of the realities of life in Afghanistan. ‘I still have all my old reports, and most of the stuff I did out there I remember as if it were yesterday,’ says Hughes. He found going through the finer details of the reports triggered memory after memory, and the process of writing ‘takes you back to those darker moments when we were out on the ground.’ It’s Afghanistan, not everyone survives. At some points Hughes left the book alone for two or three weeks at a time, not wanting to deal with the memories that came flooding back. However, the support of
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friends, family and colleagues, as well as the desire to show potentially struggling teenagers that the grass is greener on the other side, propelled him to keep working away. ‘My [Commanding Officer] had to read it, which was a bit ‘oh no, here we go’, but he came back to me and said it was fantastic. That was a good thing to hear.’ Hughes also had to deal with the fact that, as a still serving soldier, some aspects of his story would not make the cut. ‘I’m still serving, so in theory I’m not allowed an opinion, or if I’ve got one I keep it to myself. I took certain parts out myself because you don’t really want to rock the boat and get people’s backs up.’ ‘I think I rewrote it probably three times, and the outcome is that it’s fair – it’s an opinion.’
An original 'Keep Calm and Carry On' poster has been sold for US $15,000. The iconic poster was part of a major sale at Swann Auction Galleries, New York, to mark the anniversary of the United States' entry into the Great War and was bought by a private collector. Released in 1939 by the British Government as a motivational slogan and moral booster, 2.45 million copies were printed. However the poster was rarely publicly displayed, and many copies were lost. The poster was little known until a copy was rediscovered at Barter Books, and has subsequently become a mass produced and marketed slogan recognised around the world. It was thought only two original copies survived until a collection of approximately 15 was brought to the Antiques Roadshow in 2012 by the daughter of an ex-Royal Observer Corps member. Where the poster in the New York sale was sourced is not known.
Exhibitions from around the UK • Events • Discoveries • Restorations • News
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Hughes has managed to make one of the most dangerous jobs in the world seem less stressful than boiling a kettle. I asked him if he ever feels scared whilst working on a device. The answer? A resounding no. ‘If you’re scared or you’re worried about it you have no right whatsoever being down at the device. We’re trained to such a high standard; to be able to look outside of the box of these random situations that have occurred, you’re able to look at a situation methodically. There’s [a sense of] excitement about a new device, because for us it’s almost like a puzzle which you’ve got to try and solve.’ There was one thing that did scare Hughes though - the survival and wellbeing of his team. ‘The only scared moment or real concern that I had was not being able to bring all my guys home, and not being there for them. That was my biggest fear while I was there, but not doing the bombs themselves.’ Hughes is ultimately a team player, and when I asked him about his George Cross he tells me he wears it ‘on behalf of my team, it was a team effort.’ Being told he was to join the elite club of George Cross holders (there have been 407 awarded to date) was completely unexpected. ‘It was just so surreal, and I’m absolutely proud and so grateful.’
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The Kim Hughes I spoke to was humble about his achievements, but Painting the Sand thoroughly deals with what he names his ‘God Complex.’ Arguably a way of dealing with the mental strain of tour life, Hughes is open about developing a bad attitude towards bomb disposal, how after several weeks of clearing IEDs he began to feel immune to their dangers. ‘I used to think I was invincible, thinking ‘I’ve been doing bombs
The fourth set of Royal Mail's five-year series of specially commissioned Great War stamps have been released. The new set shows historic memorials, artefacts, portraits, poetry and commissioned artwork. The centenary of Passchendaele is marked by a stamp showing the Tyne Cot cemetery and a life-saving Bible has also been included. Pte. Lemuel Thomas Rees carried the book in his left breast pocket and while serving at Passchendaele, Rees was 'hit' by fragments of a shell which exploded nearby, only to realise his Bible had protected him from the worst. The photograph clearly shows the damage sustained to the book, with parts of it completely destroyed. The stamps are available in Post Offices across the UK, as well as from Royal Mail's website.
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out here for however many months, which could instantly turn me into red mush. No one’s going to shoot me, I’m going to be fine.’ That’s the arrogant attitude which I fell foul of.’ Painting the Sand does not just cover Hughes’ Herrick 10 experiences, but paints a picture of him initially as a struggling teenager with little sense of direction or options, compounded by a difficult home-life and bullying at school. It’s a big leap from there to being a George Cross holder. Hughes is open about his passion for and pride in what the Army has allowed him to achieve. ‘The Armed Forces opens up doors for you. Yes I struggled at school, I was bullied and picked on, and I had a relatively crap upbringing, but that was then, and now I’m doing a job I love. It’s fantastic, and I really wanted to push that point, it’s not all doom and gloom. Also, if it wasn’t for everything that I experienced when I was younger, I wouldn’t
be the person that I am today.’ Indeed, he is a shining example of what can be achieved with grit and determination. WO1 Kim Hughes loves his job, although he admits that, as the furthest person forward, it can be a lonely task dealing with a device. ‘We did it because we love doing it, we did it because we enjoy doing it. I was in my element when I was on top of a device trying to figure out what was going on, trying to render it safe.’ Despite this pleasure in making land safe again, I want to delve further into how he relates to the devices which have the potential to blow him apart. ‘I have the utmost respect for the device I am working on because you have to – if you don’t it will absolutely bite you.’ Painting the Sand is published by Simon & Schuster, and is available now. ISBN 978-1-471511-56-7-00 RRP £18.99
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A Dunkirk survivor's son has been reunited with the 'little ship' which saved his father. Sgt. William Wilson was one of 712 soldiers rescued by the 50ft Count Dracula. Wilson's son, David, 79, could not believe the chances of the boat turning up at his yard, 'Wilson's of Hayling', and said: 'My father only spoke a few times about Dunkirk but he told me Count Dracula was the boat which rescued him. It's incredible she has now turned up in my boat yard after all this time.' Count Dracula was initially built for the German Navy, and served at Jutland, helping transfer Admiral von Hipper from the SMS Lutzow to SMS Moltke. When the German fleet scuttled at Scapa Flow in 1919, the boat was salvaged by the Royal Navy before seeing use with variosu owners. Mr Wilson aims to restore Count Dracula in a £200,000 project due for completion in time for the 80th anniversary of Dunkirk in 2020.
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Portsmouth Dockyard Yields Up Its Secerts
Shoes to Sea Mines – 20,000 Items Recovered During Preparations for the Arrival of the Royal Navy’s New Aircraft Carriers
ABOVE A cannon that was dredged from Portsmouth Harbour. (ALL IMAGES MOD/CROWN COPYRIGHT 2017)
study. Amongst the most unusual objects brought to the surface was a human skull which was passed to the local police. Captain Iain Greenlees, Head of Infrastructure at Her Majesty’s Naval Base Portsmouth, said: ‘The dredging was the culmination of twelve years work monitoring the seabed environment around the harbour and unearthed a huge array of items, some of which may be historically significant, and underlines again Portsmouth’s long maritime history.’ Speaking on the announcement of the finds, Defence Minister Harriett Baldwin said: ‘Upgrading the future home of HMS Queen Elizabeth is another completed step in the carrier’s journey to becoming the nation’s flagship, ready to operate around the world and help keep
us safe in a world of intensifying threats. The work to prepare for our naval future has unearthed objects from our naval past which are part of Portsmouth’s proud maritime history. More than £100 million has been invested in Portsmouth’s naval base to ensure that it is ready for the state of the art Queen Elizabethclass aircraft carriers.’ Although the main dredging work has now completed there will be an on-going need to remove new material that naturally settles in the channel over time. This will be achieved by maintenance dredging on a yearly basis. BELOW The aero engine that was dredged up was a Junkers Jumo 211 engine, possibly from a Junkers 87 Stuka or Junkers 88 – several of each were brought down in the immediate area during the Second World War.
ABOVE An angle crown Admiralty anchor (right) and an Admiralty anchor (top) that were dredged from Portsmouth Harbour.
BULLETIN BOARD
AS PREPARATIONS continue at Portsmouth Naval Base to receive the Royal Navy’s new flagship, the 65,000-tonne aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth, and her sister ship, HMS Prince of Wales, it has been announced that thousands of tonnes of mud have been dredged from the harbour and its approaches. The work, which began two years ago, has led to the recovery of more than 20,000 artefacts, many dating back several centuries. A number of the discoveries involved unexploded ordnance, finds that required immediate action. The recovery of an unexploded German SC250 bomb on the morning of 22 February 2017, for example, led to the closure of the harbour entrance.
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Personnel from the Royal Navy’s Southern Diving Unit 2 recovered the bomb from the dredging barge and transported it further out to sea where it was lowered to the seabed and destroyed in a controlled explosion. Other ordnance uncovered during the removal of 3,200,000 cubic metres of sediment – the equivalent to 1,280 Olympic swimming pools – included a German sea mine, a British torpedo, four further large bombs and a wealth of bullets and cannonballs. Amongst the large finds were eight cannon, an aircraft engine, and thirty-six anchors. Elsewhere the dredging uncovered bottles, plates, ceramics and shoes which probably belonged to sailors – all of which were passed to Wessex Archaeology for examination and
AXxxxxxx Second World War veteran, Fred King, and his wife, Susie, have been commemorated in a room naming dedication at YMCA Wirral, Birkenhead. Fred joined the Royal Navy in 1940, aged 18, as a stoker on HMS Gentian and was based on her for the remainder of the war. Gentian was attached to the Western Approaches, escorting convoys across the North Atlantic. The convoys were a challenging environment with escorts like Gentian having to match the speed of the slowest ship – sometimes as little as three knots. YMCA Wirral was a special place for Fred and wife as it was where they first met in 1942. They married the following year. Their daughter, Barbara, was delighted her parent’s memory will live on, saying: 'With the room dedication we will always have that as a happy memory.'
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The Royal Navy’s new flagship, the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth, entered her home base at Portsmouth just as Britain at War went to press. Recently, 820 Naval Air Squadron, with its Merlin Mk 2 helicopters, embarked on the Queen Elizabeth for sea trials although its complement of fixed-wing strike aircraft, the F-35B, are not due to become operational for some while yet. However, next year there will be initial sea operating trials on board the new carrier with the F-35B as the Royal Navy moves towards delivering a full sea-borne strike aircraft capability. During early August the carrier took part in manoeuvres with the carrier USS George H W Bush and her strike group off the Scottish coast.
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RIGHT The view from the bridge of Cato as the recovery work gets underway. (COURTESY OF DR IAIN MURRAY)
‘Highball’ Bouncing Bombs Recovered From Loch Striven
BULLETIN BOARD
ON WEDNESDAY, 19 July 2017, three Highball bombs broke the surface of Loch Striven for the first time in more than seventy years. They were among as many as 200 of the Barnes Wallisdesigned munitions tested on the loch ahead of Operation Chastise. It was early in 1942 the idea of a ‘bouncing bomb’ was first considered by Barnes Wallis and initial plans and tests saw him develop a spherical bomb. By September 1942 test drops of this design were conducted at Chesil Beach in Dorset, the results of which led to the authorisation for the development of two variants of the ‘bouncing bomb’. The first was a small spherical mine codenamed 'Highball', the second was the larger 'Upkeep'. The Highball bomb was around three feet in diameter and weighed 1,200lbs. Though described as spherical, it had flattened sides. A large number of the Highball bouncing bombs were tested on Loch Striven, which lies off
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the Firth of Clyde about thirty miles west of Glasgow, with aircraft from RAF Turnberry flying up the loch to ‘bounce’ their bombs towards old ships which were used as targets. Footage from the tests was gathered for analysis by photographers from the Marine Aircraft Experimental Establishment (MAEE) at RAF Helensburgh. Prior to launch, the bombs were spun by the opening of an air duct under the aircraft, after which they had to be dropped at a set speed, altitude, and precise distance from the target. The bombs used in the tests contained no explosives and are generally described as being made of steel filled with concrete. The actual number of bombs used in the tests at Loch Striven is unknown, nor, indeed, how many were recovered at the time. Estimates of bombs used vary between 100 and 200. The recovery project was initiated by Dr. Iain Murray of Dundee University, who had been aware of
There are fears for the survival of a registered war memorial at the site of the old Memorial Hospital in Cirencester which is due to be demolished to make way for a multi-storey car park. The memorial is to Major Edgar J Bannatyne DSO, RFC, who died on 9 September 1917 as a result of injuries sustained in a flying accident on 30 August. Major Bannatyne died in the hospital, and his family later donated an impressive oak staircase in his memory. There has been considerable local disquiet about its possible destruction, but the nature of the memorial, and its size, make its reconstruction in any other location seem rather problematic. His death raised further questions at the time as to the provision of parachutes for pilots.
the presence of the Highballs for many years. After an initial dive in May 2010, which was carried out to assess bottom conditions and visibility, the plans for a full recovery finally came to fruition this summer, the project involving personnel from the Archaeological Divers Association, the British Sub-Aqua Club and Royal Navy clearance divers from the Faslanebased Northern Diving Group (NDG). During recovery the Highballs were winched out of the water on to the NDG’s workboat Cato. After being secured they were then moved to shore for transport in wet tanks containing a special salt-water solution to prevent them from corroding. Dr Iain Murray, who was present when the Highballs emerged from the water, said: ‘To be here at Loch Striven to see the Highballs finally pulled out of the water has been fantastic. It’s been a long-term ambition of mine, knowing they were here, to have them recovered for people to be
able to see them. The bouncing bomb is probably the most legendary weapon in the British military arsenal and this particular example of the Highball is the only one we don’t have on display to the public so we’re filling that final gap.’ It is planned that the recovered munitions will eventually be placed on display in the Brooklands Museum in Surrey and de Havilland Aircraft Museum in Hertfordshire.
ABOVE One of the three recovered Highballs emerges from the water for the first time in some 75 years. (COURTESY OF DR IAIN MURRAY)
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Dutch authorities confirmed that work has commenced at Wartena in Alde Feanen to recover Lancaster R5682, lost overnight on 4 September 1942. Three crew were killed and four taken POW, but Flt Sgt J F Cooper RCAF, was never recovered. It is hoped he can be found, but the operation will be lengthy, and involves the construction of a dam as R5682 lies in 25ft of water.
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Vandals have destroyed a First World War memorial in a St Leonards churchyard. In daylight, the 8ft monument had been torn from its concrete base and thrown over its surrounding railings, landing on the main path. Anyone with information is urged to contact Sussex Police, at sussex.police.uk/appealresponse quoting serial 955 of 14/07.
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New Home For Great War Tank ‘Deborah’ Tank Survivor to New Cambrai Tank Museum
THE MARK IV tank, Deborah D51, is carefully lowered into her new home in the purpose-built Cambrai Tank 1917 museum. Poignantly, within sight are the headstones of the four of her crew who were killed when she was destroyed by artillery outside Flesquières. On the 26 July the tank and crew were briefly together after a hundred years apart. The casualties were: Gunner J Cheverton, Gunner W Galway, Gunner F W Tipping and Lance Corporal George Charles Foot, DCM, whose headstone lies to the left of the others. The Museum, which is about six miles south of Cambrai, has an official opening later this year and will be open to the public early in 2018. RIGHT 'Deborah' is lifted into her new home beyond the graves of her crew.
Death Of ‘One Of The Few’ Battle of Britain Pilot Ken Wilkinson
BULLETIN BOARD
FLYING OFFICER Ken Wilkinson, AE, who has died aged 99, qualified for the Battle of Britain Clasp when flying Spitfires in October 1940, writes Geoff Simpson.
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Kenneth Astill Wilkinson was born in Barrow-in-Furness on 29 June 1918 and attended Cheltenham Grammar School. He joined the RAFVR in March 1939 and was called up in September, two days before the outbreak of war. There were delays in his training, but he converted to Spitfires in September 1940 and joined 616 Squadron as a Sergeant Pilot on 1 October that year. On 17 October he moved to 19 Squadron. Thus, Ken Wilkinson achieved what he regarded as the highlight of his career, flying with the Duxford Wing. In an interview with 1940 magazine in 2013, he recalled his pleasure at the banter over the radio between “Tin Legs” Bader, leading the wing, and the controller, “Woody” Woodhall. Having taken part in sweeps over
It has been confirmed that principal photography will begin in September for a new feature film based on the exploits of the Polish pilots of 303 Sqn during the Battle of Britain. Stray Dogs Films and Matt Whyte are producing ‘Hurricane’, with Milo Gibson (son of Mel Gibson), playing the role of Flt Lt ‘Johnny’ Kent who flew with the squadron as a Flight Commander during 1940. No further details are available at the time of going to press, but, coming hot on the heels of ‘Dunkirk’ and ‘Hurricane’, comes further reports that Ridley Scott is also due to make a Battle of Britain related film for 20th Century Fox in the very near future – thus making 1940 themed films a popular subject!
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the Continent, Wilkinson became an instructor in January 1941. He returned to operations in 1943 with 234 Squadron and later served with 165 Squadron. He returned to instructing duties and was commissioned in 1944. Released from the RAF in November 1945, he later had a spell in the RAFVR. Ken Wilkinson worked as a quantity surveyor, with one of his major projects being the redevelopment of New Street station in Birmingham. He was a keen supporter of events organised by the Battle of Britain Fighter Association and the Battle of Britain Memorial Trust. Immediately after his death on 31 July, the council at Solihull, West
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Midlands, where he lived, flew flags at half-mast in his honour.
Medals belonging to a D-Day veteran were to go under the hammer with Richard Winterton Auctioneers as Britain at War went to press. The medals belonged to Frederick Balfour Scott, Lieutenant (later Major) of 2nd Battalion Ox and Bucks Light Infantry. He was part of a mission on the night prior to D-Day, code named Operation Mallard, which was an airborne assault by Horsa gliders landing behind enemy lines to attack and to aid the main D-Day assault. Lieutenant Scott, who had originally enlisted with the Duke of Wellington Regiment, but transferred to the Ox and Bucks, was awarded the Military Cross for his actions in leading his men under heavy machine gun fire to take enemy positions at Ranville, Normandy.
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Dunkirk – The Other Film!
Re-release of 1958 Ealing ‘Classic’
HOT ON the heels of Christopher Nolan’s recently-released film, Dunkirk, comes news that will be music to the ears of aficionados of the original film of Dunkirk starring John Mills and Richard Attenborough, writes Andy Saunders. The original
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film, of that well-known genre of the 1950s and 60s war films, has now been digitally restored and put onto DVD, Blu-ray and EST. This new release is sure to whet the appetite of not only those who remember the original film but also those who
have been drawn into the Dunkirk story by Nolan’s recent production. Certainly, in the case of both films, we are looking at cinematic representations of historical fact (essentially ‘entertainment’) rather than documentaries. However, in their own way, the two films both try to give as accurate a presentation as possible of many of the key elements of Operation Dynamo and the events at Dunkirk in 1940. In the case of the 1958 film, however, it was produced just 18 years after the actual event. Filmed in black and white, the original film also has very much a ‘period’ feel to it and, of course, most of the actors were every bit old enough to have remembered the actual event. In many cases, the actors who appeared in war films of the period had themselves
served. Additionally, the original film had serving Army officers of the period as ‘extras’ to portray the officers of 1940. For all of that, however, it was often the case that historical howlers were made in terms of uniforms, equipment etc. - even although much original material would then, in 1958, have been readily available! It is testimony to the attention to detail in Christopher Nolan’s film, however, which arguably sees greater accuracy in terms of equipment and war materiel in his film rather than the 1958 version. Of course, even in the new film, there are strict historical inaccuracies – for example, a ‘modern’ version of the aerial propaganda leaflets dropped by the Germans and the yellow noses on the Messerschmitt 109s which
Exhibitions from around the UK • Events • Discoveries • Restorations • News
would be incorrect for the period. Both variations from fact, however, were consciously made for greater cinematic effect in the telling of the story. Of course, the general story line and narrative of the evacuation is the same, although the story is viewed and treated entirely differently by the two directors. It was never Nolan’s intention to produce a re-make of the 1958 version. Not in any way could the two films be considered similar, and those who have seen Nolan’s epic production will find something completely different in the vintage classic if they have not seen it – a staple of Saturday afternoon TV viewing and film matinees for many years! One piece of film trivia, however, which may interest viewers of both films is that Richard Attenborough’s grandson, Will Attenborough, appears in Nolan’s Dunkirk as a Royal Navy officer, Sub Lt Howe. Whilst the 2017 film is, perhaps, more faithful to real-life events, the 1958 film has its plot centred around the dual perspectives of a jaded journalist in search of propaganda and war-weary soldier trying to get home, all told in a way that does not shy away from the gritty and visceral realities of war. Perhaps it might also be regarded as a tribute to the realism of the 1958 film that stills or film clips from that production are often passed off, or used, today, as genuine representations of the real event. Meanwhile, in the original film, we have a businessman (Richard Attenborough) sailing his ‘little
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ship’ across the English Channel to take part in the heroic rescue. In 2017, Mark Rylance makes a stellar performance in a broadly similar role. Unlike Christopher Nolan’s film, which was actually filmed on the beach at Dunkirk, Leslie Norman’s 1958 version was instead filmed on a look-alike location; Camber Sands, in East Sussex. Certainly, it was a convincing location with flat beaches and identical Ammophila grass growing on the wide expanse of dunes above the foreshore. Now, however, that same location is about to play host to the original version of the film once again. On 20th and 21st September, 2017, The Luna Cinema and The Vintage Festival, through Studiocanal, will be staging an open-air screening of the re-worked and restored film (also containing new and previously unseen content) on Camber Sands - on the site of the original film set! The evenings will also incorporate 1940s entertainment, food and drink, dance classes and re-enactments. Additionally, there will be a special guest introduction and a showing of a compilation of films by Screen Archive South East depicting imagery of the local coastal area from the period. Tickets are now available, but are sure to sell out fast. For more information, and to secure your tickets, contact the organisers at: www.scnl.co/ DunkirkPremiere The newly-restored version of 'Dunkirk' comes to DVD & Blu-ray on 25 September 2017.
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Wartime Navy Bomb Disposal Officer Remembered
TO MARK the publication of a remarkable Second World War memoir, copies of Secret Naval Investigator have been officially presented to Commander Del McKnight RN, the CO of the Royal Navy’s Fleet Diving Squadron. Written by Commander F. Ashe Lincoln QC, RNVR, Secret Naval Investigator is his account of his wartime service as a Royal Navy bomb disposal officer. A junior barrister, Ashe Lincoln had enlisted in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve as a Sub-Lieutenant in the
underwater weapons, sea mines and torpedoes of new and often unsuspected types, to destroy Britain’s sea power and starve the population into surrender. The part that Ashe Lincoln played in this battle had been decided upon because he was a naval officer who combined legal training with a specialist knowledge in this particular aspect of naval warfare. In time, Lincoln became a key figure in a small group in the Admiralty whose exploits have been almost forgotten. He found
ABOVE On behalf of the publishers, Frontline Books, John Grehan presents Commander Del McKnight with one of the copies of Secret Naval Investigator in the Royal Navy Clearance Divers Memorial Garden at Horsea Island.
ABOVE A complete recovered German BM 1000 parachute mine at Indian Head, Maryland, USA, during the Second World War. Commander Ashe Lincoln can be seen third from left.
PLACES TO VISIT
lead-up to the Second World War. On the outbreak of war he became determined to serve at sea and was posted to minelayers. But a mysterious midnight summons sent him hurrying from his ship to the Admiralty in London and a topsecret conference presided over by Winston Churchill. Ashe Lincoln soon found himself pitting his wits against skilful German scientists and technicians. These were the people Hitler had entrusted to devise secret
himself in extraordinary situations, including crouching on a bleak Scottish hillside dealing with the first parachute mine dropped by the enemy, knowing that Goering had boasted that no-one would live to do this. Based at Horsea Island, Portsmouth, the Fleet Diving Squadron delivers diving, underwater engineering and bomb disposal capabilities in the UK and overseas using the Northern and Southern Diving Groups, and the
Fleet Diving Group. Fittingly, the copies of the book were presented to Commander McKnight against the backdrop of the Royal Navy Clearance Divers Memorial Garden, which is located within the Horsea Island complex. Commander Del McKnight said: ‘It seemed to me, initially at least, that we are a far cry from our predecessors; the heroic men and women who fought for the very survival of our nation during the dark days of the early 1940s. On reading the book, however, I discovered many more parallels than I had expected to find. ‘Like Commander Ashe, we have struggled, in recent years, with ingenious individuals and organisations who have tried to invent ever more intricate ways to defeat our explosive ordnance disposal techniques. In Northern Ireland, Afghanistan and across the Middle East, to name but a few of the places naval personnel have had to deploy, often far from the sea, we have had to use our wits and intelligence to defeat the cunning of the bomb-maker. In addition, my teams have deployed to clear many of the sea mines
off Iraq and the Falklands that would have been familiar to the people in this book. Indeed, even today, my units in the UK are often called upon to deal with the type of historic bombs and mines described.’ The book is, in effect, a collection of Commander Ashe’s fascinating anecdotes, which includes, for example, his work in facilitating the Allied armies’ crossing of the Rhine in 1945. ‘Who would have thought that Royal Navy personnel would have been employed deep in the heart of Europe, miles from any sea, in a vital role to bring about the defeat of Germany?’, commented Commander McKnight, who went on to add: ‘It is an entertaining and often witty read which sheds light on many of the very human aspects of the war in Europe between 1939 and 1945. It shows the very real worries and concerns of the brave individuals who used their skills and intelligence to defeat the cutting-edge technology of the time that, had it succeeded, might have cut off the flow of men and material so essential to the ultimate victory.’
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Chesterfield Branch The importance of effective propaganda, ‘The British Way’, is the subject of Alan Atkinson’s talk on 5 September, 19:30 start. Venue: Chesterfield Labour Club, Unity House, Saltergate, Chesterfield S40 1NF. Contact:
[email protected] Tel: 0797 4693434.
Lincoln & N. Lincolnshire Branch ‘The Battle of Cambrai’ and the role of tanks will be discussed in Richard Pullen’s talk on 11 September, 18:30 start. Venue: Sobraon Barracks, Burton Road, Lincoln LN1 3PY. Contact:
[email protected] Tel: 0743 4460928.
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Avon Branch Comparing the Battles of the Somme and Arras’, a talk by Mike Coyle, takes place on 20 September, 19:30 start. Venue: Kingswood Community Centre, The Arch, High Street, Kingswood, Bristol BS15 4AB. Contact:
[email protected] Tel: 0117 9614270.
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Thames Valley Branch Stuart Hadaway, author of ‘From Gaza to Jerusalem’, talks about ‘The Palestine Campaign of 1917’ on 28 September, 20:00 start. Venue: Berkshire Sports & Social Club, Sonning Lane, Reading RG4 6ST. Contact:
[email protected] Tel: 01276 32097.
The Memorial
Pegasus museum
Dedicated to the men of 6th British Airborne Division. The 1st liberators to arrive in Normandy on June 6th 1944. Archive films, a guided visit and many interesting and authentic objects enable the visitors to relive this momentous time. The original Pegasus Bridge is on display in the park of the museum along with a full size copy of a wartime Horsa glider.
Open everyday from February to Mid-December Only five minutes drive from the Brittany Ferries Terminal at Caen/Ouistreham
Tel: +33 (0) 231 781944 Fax: +33 (0) 231 781942 Memorial Pegasus Avenue du Major Howard 14860 Ranville Normandy • France www.memorial-pegasus.org
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WORLD WAR TWO | AIR ACTION AT EL ALAMEIN
SHARK
IN THE SA F
rom the start of the War in the desert in June 1940 the front line had swayed toand-fro, but late May 1942 saw the 8th Army behind the defences of the Gazala-Bir Hacheim Line. Supporting them was the Western Desert Air Force (WDAF) that included eight squadrons that flew or were reequipping with the American-built P-40 Kittyhawk. These formed two Wings. Wg Cdr Barney Beresford led 233 Wing that comprised the Kittyhawk-equipped 260 Sqn RAF and 2, 4 and 5 Sqns of the South African Air Force. No 2 and 4 were in the throes of re-equipment from the earlier Tomahawk that 5 Sqn,
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under the redoubtable Maj Johnnie Frost, would fly through the rest of the year. At Gambut was Wg Cdr Clive Mayers’ Kittyhawk-equipped 239 Wing that controlled 112 and 250 Sqns alongside 3 and 450 Sqns RAAF. These Squadrons were all desert veterans and commanded by experienced officers. Typical was 260 Sqn, led by Sqn Ldr ‘Pedro’ Hanbury, a pilot with eight victories described by one of his pilots as: “… probably one of the best all round fighter leaders in the desert. In the air, he was the ‘steely grey’ type, intent on destroying the enemy, and he expected the same from all his pilots. He commanded respect from everyone on the squadron.” The other COs were
AIR ACTION AT EL ALAMEIN | WORLD WAR TWO
K'S TEETH
SAND Maj Andrew Bosman in 2 SAAF and 4 SAAF - Maj D D ‘Snowy’ Moodie. Whilst 239 Wings’s COs were Sqn Ldr Billy Drake in 112 Sqn, Sqn Ldr Mike Judd led 250 Sqn with 3 RAAF being under Sqn Ldr Bobby Gibbes and Sqn Ldr Alan Fergusson leading 450 Sqn. They were a formidable group!
RETREAT FROM GAZALA
The Kittyhawk was being switched to fighter-bomber work, and on 16 May, 112 Sqn had been declared operational as the DAF’s first ‘Kittybomber’ squadron. On the 26th, Rommel’s Afrika Korps began its assault on the Allies’ Gazala-Bir Hachiem line leading
The part played by British, Australian and South African Kittyhawks in the Battle of El Alamein is described by Andrew Thomas
to six weeks of heavy fighting - and a rapid retreat for the Commonwealth forces. The fighting was no less intense in the air, though a day earlier Bobby Gibbes had been hit by fire from a Ju 88 and forced to bale-out, breaking his leg. Flt Lt Nicky Barr – a rising star – temporarily took over, just six months after joining 3 RAAF, and still a Plt Off! At 09.30 on the 27th a dozen Tomahawks of 5 Sqn SAAF, led by Johnny Frost in AK195/GL-W, scrambled for Bir Hacheim. There, at 14,500 feet, a bomber formation was seen and Frost’s report being typical of many at this time: “I fired one burst from astern at close range on the last bomber, its starboard
engine caught fire and large pieces flew off. It rolled over and was seen to crash.” Frost’s Tomahawk was then hit by cannon fire which damaged the port elevator and wingtip. It was Frost’s 9th victory whilst flying AK448/GL-H. Capt John Hewitson shot down a Me 109 for his third success. Earlier, 2 Sqn SAAF had been in a fight, and Maj Johnny Human in ‘DB-G’, who had just assumed command, claimed his first victory when he shot down a 109 near Gazala. The fighting intensified, and a couple of days later 450
OVERLEAF
One of the most successful pilots on the Kittyhawk was Sgt ‘Eddie’ Edwards, 260 Sqn, who flew in the Alamein period. (J F EDWARDS)
BELOW
Wearing fearsome sharks teeth markings, a 112 Sqn Kittyhawk armed with a bomb raises dust on a desert strip. (112 SQN RECORDS)
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WORLD WAR TWO | AIR ACTION AT EL ALAMEIN RIGHT
Sqn Ldr Mike Judd sits in the cockpit of Kittyhawk I AK919/LD-B of 250 (Sudan) Sqn, that he led from April to November 1942. Around the exhausts is an attractive red arrow decoration. (D H CLARKE)
BELOW RIGHT
Kittyhawk I ET861/ HS-V of 260 Sqn was flown by Plt Off Ron Cundy, an RAAF pilot who claimed his first victory on 4 August 1942. (S M COATES) BELOW LEFT
In the fighting during the retreat to Alamein 4 Sqn SAAF continued to fly the Tomahawk IIb, such as AK428/ KJ-K flown by Lt J D Robertson. On 13 June he shared in the destruction of a Bf 109. (K SMY)
Sqn attacked Ju 87s of II/StG 3 over Acroma, shooting down two - one of which was shared by Sgt Don McBurnie. He also brought down the Me 109 flown by Ltn von Fritsch. Other 109s then intervened, bringing down three Kittyhawks, including Sgt Ray Shaw who was killed in AK998/ OK-O. The following evening, 2 Sqn SAAF were in action when covering an attack against a vehicle concentration west of Knightsbridge, spotting some Stukas and Me 109 escort. Johnny Human was leading his Squadron: “I looked round and saw a 109F attacking from above at a quarter stern. I started a medium turn to the right which converted into a steep climbing turn as he got within range. As soon as he passed underneath
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me I whipped round to the left and got in a good burst as he tried to turn right toward me. I saw him flick onto his back, before I turned to look behind me. When I turned around again I saw a flash of flame as it hit the ground.” Heavy sandstorms did little to blunt the pace of the intense air operations and much of the fighting took place at low level. On 31 May Frost left 5 Sqn SAAF and was replaced by the excellent Andrew Duncan, whilst John Hewitson was promoted to take over 4 Sqn SAAF. However, that evening, Duncan was shot down by Oblt Otto Schulz of II/JG 27 and so Frost returned and was soon back in action - as were other Kittyhawk squadrons that were attacking the advancing enemy and engaging German and
Italian aircraft. Successes and losses quickly mounted. At lunchtime on 3 June, 5 Sqn SAAF claimed eight Ju 87s and a Me 109 but then suffered the loss of five aircraft to the escort. One of 260 Sqn’s pilots, Sgt Eddie Edwards, succinctly wrote of that period: “June 1942 was another difficult period for everyone when the Germans were preparing for their advance, and 260 Squadron was primarily assigned to bomber escort duties over enemy concentrations. The enemy lines were only 25-30 minutes flying time from the Gambut airfields.” The Kittyhawks of 239 Wing were now concentrating on fighter-bomber attacks against enemy armoured forces in the tank battles around Knightsbridge. The charismatic Sqn
AIR ACTION AT EL ALAMEIN | WORLD WAR TWO Ldr Billy Drake of 112 Sqn engaged a Me 109, that was his first victory on the Kittyhawk and would soon see him become the leading RAF pilot on the type. It was a period of constant retreat as Rommel, sensing an opportunity, exploited his initial gains. The rapid eastwards advance saw the fall of Tobruk on 21 June. It had been a period of heavy losses for the DAF squadrons and included Maj John Frost on the 16th. He was the most successful SAAF fighter pilot of the war, though the fighting was by no means one-sided as the 51-victory ‘experte’, Oltn Otto Schulz was shot down, possibly by 260 Sqn’s Sgt Eddie Edwards.
BOTH SIDES EXHAUSTED
The British and Commonwealth forces fell back on the prepared positions around the tiny junction at El Alamein, just 70 miles west of Alexandria. Barely
RIGHT
Kittyhawk III ET512/KJ-H of No 4 Sqn SAAF after crash landing with combat damage at LG97 on 8 August 1942 with Lt T A Milne. (AUTHOR’S COLLECTION)
BELOW
Wg Cdr Barney Beresford (left) the 233 Wing Leader with other Kittyhawk alumni in June 1942. (L to R), Sqn Ldr Billy Drake (112 Sqn), Flt Lt Willy Williams (450 Sqn) and Sqn Ldr ‘Pedro’ Hanbury (260 Sqn). (J F EDWARDS)
taking time to rest his exhausted forces, Rommel’s offensive to take Egypt began on 1 July. All the DAF Kittyhawk squadrons were fully committed and soon in action, with Flt Sgt Eddie Edwards of 260 Sqn shooting down a Me 109F on the 6th, a feat repeated two days later by 112 Sqn’s CO, Billy Drake, who claimed his second flying Kittyhawks in his personal mount, ET790, that wore a ‘?’
rather than an aircraft letter. That same day 250 Sqn was also in action when Sqn Ldr Mike Judd and Flt Lt Alfred Marshall (who was flying ET916/LDA) each shot down a Stuka, and the Wing Leader, Wg Cdr Clive Mayers, flying with them in ET836/LD-U, destroyed a 109. This was the final entry in his log book which he annotated: “Leading 4 Sqns over LG21.
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WORLD WAR TWO | AIR ACTION AT EL ALAMEIN LEFT
Fg Off John Waddy was a successful Australian pilot who emphasised the international flavour of the DAF Kittyhawk squadrons who flew with British and South African units. (VIA C F SHORES)
BELOW
Two stalwarts of No 260 Sqn during 1942 were the CO Sqn Ldr ‘Pedro’ Hanbury seen on the left with the pipe and Flt Lt Ron Cundy. (J F EDWARDS)
Got Me 109F confirmed.” He was lost on the 20th and became a PoW. All Squadrons were increasingly employed on fighter-bomber work, and in spite of the losses were taking a heavy toll on enemy ground forces. The firepower of the Kittyhawks also increased as at this time 450 Sqn’s aircraft were modified to carry a 500lb bomb. It then kept hammering at the enemy for the rest of July, flying nearly 500 sorties, claiming a 109 and much motor transport destroyed. By the 19th, after much bitter fighting, the Afrika Korps were down to less than 30 serviceable tanks and ordered to dig in and consolidate. That same day, 260 Sqn’s CO, Sqn Ldr ‘Pedro’ Hanbury, was awarded a bar to his DFC and rested and replaced by Sqn
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Ldr P P Devenish, whilst Sqn Ldr David Haysom took over as the leader of No 239 Wg. A British counterattack reversed the Germans slightly, but gained little, and at the end of July, with both sides exhausted, the first Battle of El Alamein ended. A period of relatively settled and uneasy calm began, where each re-equipped and rebuilt ready for the next, and ultimately decisive, round. The air remained active, with units of both Kittyhawk Wings heavily involved. The jinx on 5 Sqn SAAF remained, however, and on 7 August they lost another CO when five-victory-ace, Maj Dennis
AIR ACTION AT EL ALAMEIN | WORLD WAR TWO LEFT
Maj ‘Rosy’ du Toit and his pilots of 4 Sqn SAAF pose in front of his aircraft during October 1942. (S F DU TOIT)
RIGHT
Flt Lt ‘Willy’ Williams and his bomb-armed Kittyhawk of 450 Sqn. Helate became a PoW but escaped from Stalag Luft III during the Great Escape of 25 March 1944. On recapture he was murdered by the Gestapo. (A W J TAYLOR)
Lacey, who had recently taken over, led his squadron to provide top cover to Kitty-bombers south west of El Alamein. Over the target heavy ground fire was encountered and his aircraft badly hit. Lacey turned for home and the subsequent events were described by his wingman: “Dennis must have been wounded for he turned for home. When about 20 miles from our LG, and just beginning to relax, they were jumped by two 109s. Dennis went straight in and blew up”. The 109s were from III/JG 53, and Lacey probably fell to Gefr Herman Dorman, who then himself fell, probably to Lt Jack in AN461/GL-K, who got in a short burst head on at the leading 109 that blew up. Lacey was the fourth commander of 5 Sqn to have fallen since the start of
BELOW
A few Tomahawks were also used for tactical recce work by by 208 Sqn and 40 Sqn SAAF. AK350 belonged to 208 Sqn and came to grief on 17 August. (VIA C F SHORES)
the enemy offensive, and in that same action two more Tomahawks were lost. Rommel’s final offensive against the Alamein line began against Alam Halfa on 31 August and resulted in a period of further heavy fighting and substantial losses for the Desert Air Force. The first day of September saw extensive air attacks on the enemy, but at considerable cost with Obltn Hans-Joachim Marseille of 3./JG27 in particular having a field day, so to speak. Allied pilots also made claims, including the now fit Sqn Ldr Bobby Gibbes of 3 Sqn RAAF, who claimed a Me 109 - his first since being injured. Billy Drake of 112 Sqn shot down two Ju 87s, and Capt Danny Saville got another Stuka. No 5 Sqn SAAF’s Tomahawks suffered, though, losing four. Also, 4 Sqn SAAF lost their CO in an accident, and so ‘Rosie’ du Toit was promoted to command; flying ET901/KJ-O. On the 7th he
bagged a 109 destroyed, though his Kittyhawk was damaged. The enemy had suffered heavy losses in their initial push, especially against the defences around Alam Halfa and a British counterattack on the 3rd forced them back, the German withdrawal being completed on the 5th. The losses in the Kittyhawk squadrons had been significant, 260 Sqn’s being typical, as Sgt Eddie Edwards recalled: “Many new pilots had arrived on the squadron and intensive training took place. By mid-September 1942 I was leading the squadron on occasions - as just a Sergeant.”
TRAILING FIRE AND STREAMS OF SMOKE
The DAF Kittyhawk squadrons truly were Commonwealth affairs – for example, Edwards was a Canadian flying with an RAF unit whilst Capt Danny Saville was a South African
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WORLD WAR TWO | AIR ACTION AT EL ALAMEIN RIGHT
The burned out shell of Kittyhawk III FR265/LD-S of 250 Sqn bears mute testimony to the fierce fighting after it was shot down by Italian Macchi MC 202s near Fuka on 20 October, resulting in Flt Sgt Roberts becoming a PoW. (GIOVANNI MASSIMELLO)
CENTRE
Flying Kittyhawk ET790/GA-? on 8 July. Sqn Ldr Billy Drake brought down a Bf 109F near the enemy airfield of El Daba. By then 112 Sqn was flying fighterbomber missions as is evident from the bomb under the fuselage. (AUTHOR’S COLLECTION)
flight commander in 112 Sqn and Flt Lt John Waddy, an Australian ace, flew with 4 Sqn SAAF. On 20 September, he was flying Kittyhawk EV321/KJ-G on a patrol of Burg el Arab when vectored to intercept an intruder. He later recounted: “Approaching Alamein, bomb bursts were sighted dead ahead. We were at 13,000 feet and went into a shallow dive and sighted enemy aircraft at about 5,000 feet. The leading section attacked and I observed three Me 109s do a right hand climbing turn. I immediately pulled out of the dive and made an almost full beam attack and saw strikes on the engine and cockpit. It then pulled straight up and I followed, making a rear quarter attack after which it stalled and went into a vertical dive and went straight in.” This was Waddy’s 12th victory (and last on the P-40) and his only confirmed ‘kill’ whilst with the South African unit. As the build up to the offensive at Alamein
RIGHT
Maj Johnny Human led 2 Sqn SAAF with great success through desperate air during of the period of Alamein, during which he personally claimed four victories. He later led 7 SAAF Wing. (SAAF VIA M SCHOEMANN)
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progressed, so the DAF Kittyhawk squadrons kept hammering at the enemy and their pilots continued to make significant claims. On 1 October elements of 112 and 250 Sqns found a large formation of Ju 87s raiding El Taqa and a number were shot down, the main honours going to Flt Lt Maurice Barber of 250 Sqn who claimed three. Additionally, heavy rain in early October turned the enemy airfield complex at El Daba into a quagmire as the Kittyhawk squadrons mounted a series of attacks on them to neutralise enemy air power prior to the coming offensive. This was part of the Allied ‘preparation of the battlefield’ that included continued attacks El Daba airfields complex.
AIR ACTION AT EL ALAMEIN | WORLD WAR TWO There, on the 22nd, Eddie Edwards of 260 Sqn, now a Flt Sgt and flying one of the new Kittyhawk IIs and having destroyed an MC 202 the previous day, now shot down a Me 109F to claim his fifth victory. He later described the milestone: “We saw two 109s climb, then level off. It was evident that they hadn’t seen my four Kittyhawks as top cover. We waited until the two Messerschmitts were about to pass under the nose about 2,000 feet below, and with a quick wingover I started down. The 109s began banking left. At about 150 yards I pressed the trigger then pulled back hard on the stick in a climbing turn to starboard. I could see my victim hit up front in the engine, and along the port wing ABOVE
Kittyhawk IIA FL341/CV-E of 3 Sqn RAAF taxies out with a 500lb bomb slung beneath. CV-E was occasionally flown by the 239 Wing Leader, Wg Cdr ‘Billy’ Burton. (VIA R BROWN)
BELOW
Sgt John MacAuley’s Kittyhawk of 112 Sqn shows the bomb carrying shackles on the centre line station as he prepares for another sortie in October. (AUTHOR’S COLLECTION)
deflection shot and hit him. He winged over into a near vertical dive streaming white and black smoke. I followed and broke off.” Two days later, appropriately, it was Sqn Ldr Bobby Gibbes who brought up his Squadron’s 200th victory when he shot down a 109F near El Daba. He later recounted: “I saw three 109s flying in line astern. The 109s were about 100 yards apart and I decided to aim at the middle one, so let go about 50 rounds. Immediately the third one in line belched smoke and went into an uncontrollable spin. I was amazed, as I hadn’t aimed at it. Later that night we had a terrific celebration party and I confessed that I had aimed for the other one about 100 yards away!” Another Australian who was successful that day was Flt Lt Ron Cundy of 260 Sqn who shot down a Me 109.
During the Battle of El Alamein, the Luftwaffe mounted heavy attacks with formations of Ju 87s, usually at dawn and dusk. One such was on the 1st, when 112 Sqn waded into a formation of Stukas of I and III./StG 3 near the Alamein front line, claiming six destroyed with seven ‘probable’s which accords with German losses of five with only one crew surviving. It was one of the last great ‘Stuka parties.’ Three days later, 260 Sqn welcomed back ‘Pedro’ Hanbury for another tour in command whilst in another day of heavy fighting Flt Lt Ron Cundy achieved his fifth victory. It was witnessed by Eddie Edwards: “Cundy spotted a Ju 88 flying low in a westerly direction and out to sea. Cundy dived on it, and his section followed. Within minutes he watched it career toward the sea. Cundy’s shot had hit the 88
root and fuselage, and heading straight toward earth, trailing fire and streams of smoke.” The following evening the bombardment began opening the Battle of El Alamein - and the infantry fixed bayonets…
NEAR VERTICAL DIVE
Under massive air cover to deny the enemy’s ability to concentrate forces, the Kittyhawk squadrons flew flat out, hitting enemy encampments and defences. The enemy fighters countered, and there were numerous combats. One, on the 26th, involved Capt Jack Parsonson of 2 Sqn SAAF who was flying EV326/DB-F as top cover for a Boston raid and about 10 enemy fighters broke through to the bombers. He recalled: “One 109F pulled up after his attack and came across my front. I pulled up and fired a full
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WORLD WAR TWO | AIR ACTION AT EL ALAMEIN BELOW
Like over Britain, the Luftwaffe’s much vaunted Junkers Ju 87 proved highly vulnerable over the desert. The Kittyhawk squadrons had several memorable ‘Stuka parties.’ (VIA JOHN WEAL)
in a vital spot. Sprays of water leapt high into the air as it crashed into the sea.” More significantly, 4 November saw Rommel order a general withdrawal and Commonwealth forces beginning their breakout of the Alamein position. The first major significant and decisive Allied victory against the Germans had been won; another soon followed at Stalingrad.
transferred to the SAAF, was flying ET977 30 miles west of Sollum when his section came across some 109s. He dived after one before he sighted a second: “He pulled up in front of me, but I caught him in the climb and had a deflection shot at him as he turned left. He half rolled into a dive and I followed him, firing about three more short bursts. When I thought he couldn’t pull out, I pulled up and saw
ABOVE Flt Lt Maurice Barber was a Rhodesian serving with 250 Sqn. He is seen here after a successful engagement where he downed three Ju 87s. He assumed command of 450 Sqn in November 1942. (D CORMACK)
BELOW
A trio of Kittyhawks line up for take off from a desert strip, such facilties were often no more than a patch of desert marked by oil drums and a few tents. (H W STRIKE COMMAND)
RACE ACROSS THE DESERT
As 8th Army began a general advance westward, bad weather hampered the Allies, as did many spirited enemy rearguard actions. The DAF squadrons also began to move forward in support and continued to encounter enemy fighters, such as when 2 Sqn SAAF covered 260 Sqn on a sweep to Tobruk on 10 November, with varying results. Charles Laubscher, having now
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him hit the ground.” His victim was Ltn Konrad Fels of I/JG 77. However, Capt Jack Parsonson did not return but his subsequent report gave the details: “South of Sollum we were attacked by ME 109s and 260 Sqn were engaged and so Red and then Yellow sections of my squadron dived down to engage followed by two aircraft from my section, leaving me and No 2 on top. Four 109s are in the air near us, two attacked. I got separated from my No
2 and then from the whole formation. While I was by myself I was attacked by a total of eight 109s. The fight took place from 14,000 feet to nought feet and lasted for perhaps 20-30 minutes. A shell pierced my oil tank, both mainplanes were hit and my radio was shot away. I forced-landed and hid behind my propellor boss while a 109 came down and set my aircraft of fire. Then I ran to a circle of stones which was strafed. The 109s circled until a German infantry party came up and took me prisoner.” Luckily, Laubscher managed to escape on the 14th and was picked up by a British patrol the following day. The advance reached Tobruk soon afterwards, and the Kittyhawk squadrons moved forward to Gazala on the 17th. This time, there was no going back.
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WORLD WAR TWO | WAR IN THE FAR EAST
BREAKING THE SPELL In a battle that shattered forever the myth of Japanese invincibility on land 75 years ago, a barber from a small Australian township emerged as its unlikely hero. Steve Snelling charts the life and gallant death of Jack ‘Digger’ French VC. RIGHT
French joined the Australian Imperial Force on October 22, 1939, and was posted to the 2/9th Battalion which was then in the process of forming at Redbank in Queensland. OVERLEAF
A wartime painting of Port Moresby, Japan’s strategic objective during their twopronged thrust into Papua New Guinea in the summer of 1942.
T
he Australian advance was painfully slow and bitterly contested. Supported by artillery and mortars, one company of infantry ploughed through ankledeep mud and chest-deep water before disappearing into a suffocating tangle of coarse kunai grass that rose above their heads. Though they did not know it, the desperate struggle for Milne Bay, a swampy, palm-fringed natural harbour in the south-eastern corner of New Guinea, was entering its final stages. Japanese resistance, however, was as fierce and frenzied as ever, as the men of B Company, 2/9th Australian Infantry Battalion, discovered to their cost on the afternoon of 4 September, 1942. In a see-saw clash which one officer likened to “a Chicago gang-fight”, the Aussies, many of them veterans of the North African campaign, battled in vain to make headway against a determined force of enemy marines occupying well-concealed positions marking the perimeter of their steadily shrinking beachhead. Twice they attacked only to be beaten back by a hail of fire from unseen light and heavy machine guns. Hurrying forward as part of another company to reinforce the second illstarred push, Private Frank Rolleston plunged into the maelstrom. “The din,” he wrote, “was terrific, with long bursts of fire from Bren guns, the rattle of submachine guns, combined with the noise of exploding hand grenades, while amongst the noise could be heard the lighter, whip-like crack of the Japanese rifles.” It was bloody and brutal, with no quarter asked or given by either side. At
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one point, the Japanese, convinced that the Australians were pulling back, leapt from their positions to pursue them only to be met head-on by a flailing fire that stopped them in their tracks. Taking advantage of the enemy’s confusion, the men of ‘B’ Company advanced a third time only to run into trouble again. Amid an inferno of shooting from both sides, some of the Australians were driven to ground by three enemy machine gun posts that were barring their way. With a hail of bullets shredding the razor-sharp grass inches above them, it seemed as if yet another attack was about to falter. That it did not do so was due entirely to the resolution of one man: a 28-year-old citizen soldier from the backwoods of Queensland. Ordering his section to stay under cover, Acting Corporal Jack French made straight for the nearest machine gun in an act of reckless defiance which signalled the start of the greatest individual feat of daring witnessed during the 12-day battle that dealt the all-conquering Japanese juggernaut its first serious land defeat of the Second World War.
‘AMIABLE AND GENTLE’
John Alexander French was a third generation
WAR IN THE FAR EAST | WORLD WAR TWO
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WORLD WAR TWO | WAR IN THE FAR EAST
RIGHT
The image of two bogged and abandoned Type 95 Light Tanks at Milne Bay, in the southeastern corner of Papua New Guinea, came to symbolise Japan’s first land defeat of the Second World War.
BELOW
The young Jack French, second from the right in the front row, grew up in the small Australian country town of Crow’s Nest, some 100 miles from Brisbane in Queensland.
just after the war broke out - came home again - just like an ordinary trip. And two months later he came out to me in the wash-house and said, ‘Well, Mum, you won’t be doing any washing for me from now on. I got my notice to go into camp today. I joined up two months ago.’ Later he told me that he’d been listening to the wireless after war was declared, and it came over him that he had to go out and do his duty.” He officially joined the Australian Imperial Force on 22 October 1939, and embarked for Britain as a private in the 2/9th Battalion, the first Queensland
RIGHT
Jack French, seen here on the far right during a family trip to the coast, was an accomplished swimmer and an enthusiastic allround sportsman. As a boy, he learned to swim in the creek close to his home.
Australian from the small Queensland township of Crow’s Nest, near Toowoomba, where he was known as ‘Digger’ French on account of having been born just two weeks before the outbreak of the First World War. Described by one of his section as “the most unassuming person you could ever see”, his early years were unspectacular if full. A fine all-round sportsman with a reputation for ‘fair play’, he was dubbed ‘the flying winger’ on the rugby pitch and it was said of him that he would
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“tackle anything, because he just didn’t know what fear was”. In the estimation of one head teacher, he was a typical product of a clean-living, well-ordered country home - “quiet, soft-spoken, amiable and gentle”. A practising Presbyterian, apprenticed into his father’s long-standing barber and tobacconist business, he was also a man who played his cards close to his chest. “He had a habit of never saying anything but always doing something,” recalled his mother. “He went to Toowoomba
WAR IN THE FAR EAST | WORLD WAR TWO
truly’ may be one of the unlucky ones. I have led an easy life and had a pretty good time, have no regrets and no terrors for what may come. Remember that it is our duty to think of those who remain and those for whom their ‘mortal coil’ have done with all earthly troubles.”
LEFT
Jack French, seen here on a trip to the coast.
‘BAPTISM OF WARFARE’
His first spell in a ‘war zone’ was in a beleaguered Mother Country
BELOW
Jack French the barber. He joined his father’s business in Crow’s Nest after leaving Toowoomba State High School and Technical College. BOTTOM
unit to be raised during the Second World War, in the following May. Shortly before leaving, Jack ‘Digger’ French delivered another shock announcement to his parents - news that he had become engaged to Dulcie McCahon. “He and Dulcie thought they should wait to be married until after the war,” said his mother, “because he said a girl couldn’t be tied to a man who might come home wounded.” Or, indeed, not come home at all. In a letter written while ‘at sea’ on 6 June 1940, he told his mother: “Please reconcile yourself to the idea that ‘yours
threatened by invasion. Between June and November 1940, French and his comrades in the 2/9th found themselves bolstering British units guarding against a Nazi assault that was expected on a daily basis. After a spell helping defend RAF Middle Wallop aerodrome, they formed part of Southern Command’s mobile striking force and then the Colchester Defence Scheme before being posted, along with the 18th Brigade, to the Middle East en route to a place in the 7th Division’s order of battle. Jack French’s “baptism of warfare”, as he called it, came days
Digger hero Corporal John Alexander ‘Jack’ French VC (1914-1942). He was the third of five children of Albert French and his wife Lucy Fanny May (née Donaldson) and one of three sons to serve during the Second World War.
later, in March 1941, with a short, sharp struggle to capture Giarabub, an enemy position some 150-miles south of Bardia, which he described as “the last Italian stronghold in Libya”. Having made their approach through shelling which fell “thick and fast”, they attacked with the Italians showing “no stomach for close quarter fighting”. In a letter home, French admitted: “We weren’t sorry to get it over as we had shivered through two nights on the ridges in shirts and shorts, almost without water and very little tucker.” The easy victory at Giarabub was swiftly followed by the much tougher proposition of defending the besieged port of Tobruk against a re-energised enemy force spearheaded by Field Marshal Erwin Rommel’s recently landed Afrika Korps. Between April and August 1941, French and the 2/9th formed part of the embattled garrison which endured all that the enemy could throw at them, from dive-bombing to armoured assault. The ‘Rats of Tobruk’, as they became known, maintained a vigorous defence, mixing audacious forays with stubborn resistance from their wired-in “burrows”. By late June, a kind of stalemate had been reached and French, who was then attached to ‘B’ Company headquarters, reckoned the flies had become “our main enemy”. His new and unwelcome role had earned him his first pay rise in more than 20 months as a soldier. Though cause for modest celebration, he did not anticipate rapid advancement. “Not being
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WORLD WAR TWO | WAR IN THE FAR EAST
LEFT
Jack French and a group of men from the 2/9th show off a novel hair-cut during their spell in the Middle East. RIGHT
Between April and August 1941, Jack French endured harsh conditions in the beleaguered garrison of Tobruk.
over efficient and with a smudge or two on the conduct sheet, I guess any promotion received will be for long service,” he wrote. Even so, he was not overly concerned. “Personally,” he added, “I am quite satisfied with the knowledge that I have never shirked the job because the going was tough and my nerves are still as good as ever.” The following month, contrary to his expectations, he was back with his platoon as an acting section leader. “It is a corporal’s job,” he wrote, “and I am more or less on probation.”
Having duly passed the ‘test’ he was made a lance corporal. It wasn’t much, he conceded, but it was at least “a start in the right direction”. By the end of the year, one stripe had become two and it was as Corporal French that he prepared to face the next challenge of his short military career. After spells LEFT
Official ‘mugshots’, the pictures which formed part of his attestation papers. RIGHT
Jack French, right, with a pal enjoying a short leave in Jerusalem following the hardships endured during the siege of Tobruk in 1941.
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recuperating in Palestine and manning border posts in Syria, the 2/9th, under its new commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Clement ‘Clem’ Cummings, received orders for a dramatic new deployment. Having confronted Italians and Germans, the Australians of the 7th Division were being sent eastwards to face a new enemy in another theatre of war much closer to home.
‘NO REGRETS’
Japan’s oriental blitzkrieg had already exploded across vast tracts of SouthEast Asia and the Pacific when French and his mates departed Egypt on 11 February 1942. Initially destined for southern Sumatra in the Dutch East Indies, the speed of the Japanese advance forced a change of direction. With allied forces in retreat everywhere from Burma to Java, and Malaya and Singapore along with most of the Philippines in Japanese hands before they had reached Ceylon (Sri Lanka), the decision was taken to divert the 7th Division to Australia. By the time they arrived on 20 March, the country was already on high alert. Java had fallen and Japanese carrier aircraft had launched a devastating air strike against the northern Australian port of Darwin. With New Britain, including the strategically important harbour of Rabaul, and the Solomons occupied, it appeared as if only New Guinea, the world’s largest island, lay between
WAR IN THE FAR EAST | WORLD WAR TWO
Australia and imminent invasion. In fact, the Japanese had a different strategy. Rather than invading Australia, they hoped to isolate it by capturing the vital island groups to the north and north-west. Key to their plan was the occupation of the valuable base of Port Moresby on the south-eastern coast of New Guinea. From there and Rabaul, the Japanese would hold sway over a vast chunk of the western Pacific, enabling their aircraft and ships to menace Australia’s eastern sea lanes as well as the northern mainland. The Battle of the Coral Sea, the first carrier-versus-carrier clash in naval history, in May, frustrated Japan’s intended seaborne seizure of Moresby, but it did not end their ambitions. Instead, the focus switched to a landward assault. Having already established bases at Lae and Salamaua on the northern coast of New Guinea, Japanese planners decided on a twopronged cross-country attack, via Buna and the Owen Stanley Range of jungleclad mountains in the north and from Milne Bay in the east. It was there, as chance would have it, that Jack French and the rest of the 18th Brigade were posted in August. Recognising the area’s strategic importance, Allied planners had begun establishing a base around Milne Bay in June. By the end of July the first of three airstrips was ready, with an Australian militia brigade and an assortment of US
engineers in place as a combined defence and construction force. Following spells of leave, anti-invasion duties and intense training, the 2/9th Battalion had received orders to be ready to move on 3 August. Writing home two days later, French commented: “At last we have a new interest - whether it is action or just another camp we don’t know, in any case the journey will be a long one.” Though their final destination was unknown, he clearly suspected it was overseas. “I might bring home a dusky maid from the Islands,” he joked, adding more fatalistically, “If it is action we are heading for, Mum, with a big chance of no return, I will have no regrets as I have lived a pretty full life. The past two years have been as good as ten so I should be considerably older than my years.” French and the 2/9th disembarked in Milne Bay on 15 August and he soon found himself taking up positions around No 1 Strip where they formed part of a mobile counterattack force tasked with responding to any threat that materialised. A week or so after, he found time to pen his first letter home from New Guinea, though he thought it “unwise” to mention his actual whereabouts. He gave little else away. “News,” he wrote, “is very scarce” and recalled instead his brief stop-over in South Africa en route to Australia - a visit that had convinced him “more than ever that the Island ‘down under’ was the only place in which to live”. The lull proved short-lived. Two days later, on the night of 25/26 August, two companies of the 5th Sasebo Special Naval Landing Force stepped ashore
ABOVE One of the Japanese barges and a scattering of supplies which fell victim to a strafing attack by Kittyhawks of the Royal Australian Air Force during the fighting in Milne Bay.
near the village of Waga Waga and the battle for Milne Bay was on.
‘KILL OR BE KILLED’
The 200 Japanese represented the vanguard of an initial 1,250-strong formation, which included marines of the 5th Kure Special Naval Landing Force and the 10th Naval Landing Force, a small unit of light tanks, medics and engineers. Their task was to push rapidly westwards to secure Milne Bay and its airstrips as a springboard for a swift advance on Moresby, some 175 miles further along the coast. Against stout-hearted resistance from
BELOW
Brigadier John Field (right), commander of 7 Militia Brigade, which bore the brunt of the early fighting at Milne Bay.
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WORLD WAR TWO | WAR IN THE FAR EAST
RIGHT
Lieutenant Colonel Clement ‘Clem’ Cummings. As CO of 2/9th Battalion, he directed the attack on 4 September and recommended Jack French for the VC. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for his part in the fighting. BELOW
Australian troops in a typical Milne Bay camp, ankledeep in mud and covered by a canopy of coconut palms.
militia units, the Japanese made some headway along the narrow coastal corridor but it was soon apparent that they had fatally underestimated Allied strength. Despite employing ruthless tactics, which included murdering unarmed captives, they were halted short of the easternmost airbase - the as yet uncompleted No 3 Strip - where three attacks were savagely defeated. Strafed continually from the air by day, with its landing barges destroyed,
battalion’s first encounter with the Japanese was a tough one. Moving on through the 2/12th who had taken a hammering from enemy positions astride the track,
‘B’ and ‘C’ Companies battled hard to dislodge their tenacious opponents. Struggling across a creek, assailed by fire, the men of ‘C’ Company suffered 34 casualties in a matter of a few minutes, including one man, Lance Corporal John Ball, who had raced ahead of his platoon and whose body was later found among the debris of enemy machine gun positions 25 metres beyond the creek. Jack French’s company, reinforced by ‘D’ Company, pressed on another 600 metres before being ordered to pull back slightly and take up defensive positions for the night. As they did so, a Japanese soldier carrying a white cloth was seen approaching from the rear. He was immediately shot and killed. Having already heard tell of Japanese atrocities, and well aware of their capacity for trickery, they were taking no chances. “We were instructed not to take prisoners,” wrote Private Rolleston, “and to make sure that every Jap, whether wounded or apparently dead, was really dead before we went past them.” It was in this atmosphere of ‘kill or be killed’ that Jack French prepared for the next day’s fighting.
‘A VERY STRONG POSITION’
The plan of advance on 4 September was a novel one. Lt Col Cummings later recalled: “I attacked first thing… I didn’t buggerise around. I used to hit, then send a company in 600 yards (to the flank), then 600 yards forward, then 600 yards down behind the enemy positions…” As a result of his tactics, the 2/9th made quick early progress. ‘D’ Company under Capt RIGHT
This Universal Carrier was destroyed by a ‘friendly’ land mine which detonated killing a party of medics from 2/10th Battalion. Note the thick mud which was a feature of the fighting at Milne Bay.
its two tanks bogged and abandoned ditches and hundreds of marines marooned on an island well to the north of Milne Bay, the Japanese advanced stalled and by dawn on 31 August the Australians were preparing to turn defence into attack with the veteran units of 18th Brigade leading the counter-offensive. Three days later, with the solitary track along the coast rendered impassable by rain and mud, the 2/9th were ferried forward from Gili Gili to KB Mission where a scattering of bloated Japanese corpses testified to the heavy fighting. As a light mist settled over the nearby hills, Jack French and No 7 Section, 12 Platoon, B Company, dug in for the night with their backs to the sea in readiness for the next day’s advance into what their unit historian described as the “uninviting” jungle. The
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WAR IN THE FAR EAST | WORLD WAR TWO
LEFT
credible to those who witnessed it.
The cairn of stones Private William Derrick was a member on the northof French’s section who were held up eastern side of No by the “heavy machine gun fire” that 3 Strip marked made it impossible to advance without the limit of the Japanese advance courting almost certain annihilation. at Milne Bay in At least three enemy posts, set up “in August 1942.
Richard Hooper, known as ‘Loop the Loop’ on account of his holding a pilot’s licence, reached Goroni by 0820, where they discovered further evidence of Japanese atrocities, before losing touch with one of his platoons and finding his way barred. Cummings intervened to order a bolder out-flanking move by Hooper and his two platoons designed to take the Japanese in reverse, in conjunction with a frontal attack by ‘A’ Company. But the scheme misfired after Hooper lost contact and, having engaged the enemy briefly, withdrew to the chagrin of his commander who sacked him on the spot. Undaunted, Cummings came up with a new plan: a two-pronged assault across the 20 yard wide Goroni creek with ‘A’ Company and 18 Platoon, ‘D’ Company, operating either side of the track and ‘B’ Company under Capt Alexander Anderson veering north and then south to take the enemy positions in the rear as per his favoured outflanking manoeuvre. The attack went in at around 1600 and was preceded by artillery and mortar fire. ‘A’ Company took their objective, but ‘B’ Company, in the words of the unit historian, “came up against a very strong position and was in trouble almost immediately”. Having crossed the creek and turned downstream through thick kunai grass,
they surprised a few Japanese before coming under heavy fire from the main enemy position across more open ground. Urging his men forward, Anderson was hit in the neck but carried on till he was felled by bullets in the back and left leg. Reorganising the men under cover of the kunai and scrub some 100 metres short of the Japanese, Lt James Paterson launched a second attack which went the same way as the first. In the inferno of shooting that followed, a misguided enemy counterattack was broken up before a third attempt to advance in company with reinforcements from ‘A’ Company was stopped short of the main Japanese position, at which point Jack French decided to take matters into his own hands.
excellent fire positions”, blocked their path. But the quiet Queenslander refused to be beaten. “Cpl French ordered us to take cover and himself advanced and threw a hand grenade into a MG Post, putting the gun and crew out of action,” wrote Derrick. Even then, he was already thinking of the next gun. “He… returned,” added Derrick, “and took my hand grenades and again went forward and by means of [those same] hand grenades silenced a 2nd Post.” To have come through one attack unscathed was remarkable enough, but to do so twice was nigh miraculous. But French was not yet done with the Japanese. With the enemy fire significantly reduced, the rest of his section started forward in support. However, he did not wait for them. As they advanced, they saw him making steadily towards the third machine gun. BELOW According to Private F W Quinlan, he The captured Japanese tanks at was not running, but “walking” straight Milne Bay provided at the enemy post, “firing a Thompson the backdrop rom the hip as he proceeded”. In the for a number words of the official account, French was of photographs seen to be “hit hard” but nevertheless as Australians strode on, making no obvious attempt celebrated their historic victory. to evade the enemy fire as he sprayed
‘COOL COURAGE’
Already acknowledged as a reliable and resourceful section leader, French’s willingness to shoulder responsibility had been duly noted by his commanding officer who recognised in his undemonstrative manner potential officer material. Although the one-time barber didn’t know it, he was listed as a future Lieutenant, but not even Cummings could have predicted the extraordinary example set by French that afternoon. Indeed, it hardly seemed
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WORLD WAR TWO | WAR IN THE FAR EAST
RIGHT
BELOW A newspaper hails Jack French’s heroism which
Field Marshal Sir William Slim shakes hands with Jack French’s mother during the ceremony to open the John French VC Memorial Library. Referring to his Victoria Cross, Slim declared: ‘John French earned it by, not just one sudden act of valour, but by a series of acts which made a complete difference to the part of the front he was on, inspired his comrades, and led them on, so that a victory was achieved.’
BELOW
Supreme sacrifice, a view of Port Moresby (Bomana) War Cemetery where Jack French lies among more than 3,800 Commonwealth servicemen who were killed during the South-West Pacific campaign.
resulted in the first Victoria Cross to be gazetted for an act of bravery performed in Australian territory. The photograph shows Jack with his airman brother Gordon, who was killed, aged 21, on August 11, 1943, during operations over Germany.
the post, until he was suddenly seen to “falter and then drop”, as Quinlan put it, some 15 yards in front of the by then silenced Japanese gun pit. French was still alive when Derrick reached him, but died shortly after. As Quinlan passed him, he noticed that he had been shot through the forehead. At the cost of his own life, he had wiped out the three enemy machine gun posts that were holding up the advance. It was a single-handed feat of “cool courage” which, in Cummings’ estimation, not only “saved many casualties” among his own section but was “greatly instrumental in allowing the attack to continue”.
‘INCREDIBLE ACTION’
The action cost the 2/9th 17 dead and 34 wounded, five of whom subsequently died, but its impact on the Japanese
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inside their diminishing perimeter was altogether more profound. By the end of the day an evacuation was under way which would continue through another day’s fierce fighting until the early hours of 6 September. To the fleeing Japanese, the jungle-covered peninsula marking New Guinea’s eastern tip had become “a death trap” they were glad to vacate, leaving the Australians to celebrate a resounding and historic triumph. For, as Field Marshal Sir William Slim later remarked, it was a hard-earned success which “first broke the spell of the invincibility of the Japanese Army”. It was, moreover, a victory characterised by obstinate defiance allied to no little skill of which Jack French’s magnificent solo charge east of Goroni creek was a shining
example. “To me,” remarked Lt Tony Worthington, the battalion’s intelligence officer, “this incredible action of sacrifice by a usually quiet, smiling, young soldier, stands out as a highlight of the campaign.” He was not the only one to think so. Four months later, the London Gazette of 14 January 1943, announced the posthumous award of a Victoria Cross to John Alexander French. The news prompted his grieving fiancée to comment: “We don’t know the worth of our quiet boys until they are called upon to do something big.”
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09/08/2017 16:36
IMAGE of WAR
PLUCKED FROM ICY WATERS Somewhere in the North Sea, 29 December 1942
This photograph shows an RAF ASR 'Whaleback' Launch, No. 185, rescuing the unidentified crew of a British aircraft from the icily cold North Sea. The white ‘splodges’ above the craft’s superstructure are marks made by the official censor to hide equipment or markings potentially helpful to the enemy once the image appeared in the media. On 19 August 1942, the day of the Dieppe Raid, RAF ASR launches saved 12 aircrew but took heavy losses with three vessels sunk and 18 other ranks and two officers killed. The raid led to the type being up-armed and protection improved. Their constant presence was a reassurance to RAF aircrew who stood a good chance of rescue if coming down around Britain’s coastal waters. (Courtesy of 1940 Media Ltd)
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GREAT WAR | PASSCHENDAELE
103 DAYS IN H ABOVE
Troops move into position against a backdrop of shattered trees. RIGHT
The Menin Gate memorial which commemorates the 54,391 British and Commonwealth troops who have no known grave in the Ypres Salient.
For many, just the name Passchendaele sums up the horrors of the First World War and in her recent work Alexandra Churchill has taken at look at the horrors endured by a selection of the men who served and often died in that hellish place.
T
he Third Battle of Ypres, commonly just known as “Passchendaele”, has become a watchword for the attritional and wasteful horror of The Great War. Critics at the time described it as ‘purposeless’, ‘a reckless gamble… with nothing to show but a ghastly casualty list,’ or ‘a muddy and muddle-headed adventure.’ Since the latter half of 1917, however, it has been dissected and evaluated from all angles;
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the planning, the execution, the conditions and the reasoning behind it. All have been called into question. Ypres, too, had become synonymous with the Great War. The British Army had entered the town and set themselves up on either side of the Menin Road to ward off the German approach in October 1914, when the dreaded salient was formed. The Kaiser’s forces tried to take Ypres in early 1915, but once again they failed
to dislodge its occupants. No major offensive action had taken place in the area since. It had, however, become notorious as a particularly unhealthy spot for troops rotating in and out of the British lines. Sir Douglas Haig had long favoured the idea of an offensive in Flanders, and in 1917 he would get his way. His long-anticipated offensive would have the ultimate aim of pushing northeast from the notorious salient, sweeping the enemy back through Belgium and away from her coastline in an attempt to win the war on the Western Front.
MESSINES
Before the principal blow could be delivered in Flanders, it was deemed essential to capture the strongly fortified ridge that stretched through Wytschaete and Messines. From it, the Germans enjoyed clear observation over the whole of the British salient about Ypres.
PASSCHENDAELE | GREAT WAR
N HELL Seventy-two tanks of a brand-new design had been allocated to make their first appearance in battle in support of the infantry at Messines. ‘B’ Battalion of the Heavy Branch Machine Gun Corps took receipt of its first Mark IV tanks in time for the battle, and amongst the crews were two Scottish friends who had already survived the fighting at Gallipoli: John Corrie and Robert Irvine. John’s role was to support the New Zealand Division, following the infantry to help put down any centres of German resistance and ensure that they reached their objectives. The battle was a clincial success. By 5am, Messines had fallen, but ‘B’ Battalion’s tanks had not had an easy time of it at all. The ground of over which John Corrie and his fellow crew members had to operate did not suit their 30-ton vehicle. It was marshy, and the bombardment had interfered with natural drainage meaning that
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GREAT WAR | PASSCHENDAELE
RIGHT
The scene of devastation around Ypres was on a truly shocking scale.
troublesome ponds had formed on the battlefield. Drawing fire from the Germans might have been a demonstration of their worth, but that would have been no consolation to the crews inside. Of the twenty tanks that ‘B’ Battalion had put into action at 3:10am, only three made it to their objectives. One, possibly the one driven by John Corrie, had done extremely well and made it north east of Messines. But the Scotsman would not survive the day.
PILCKEM RIDGE
BELOW
Of the twenty tanks sent into action by 'B' Battalion, only three made it to their objective.
Among the men detailed to venture into battle on 31 July as the main offensive began was a teenage officer who had only left Winchester College in 1915. Assigned to take one of the latter offensives on the first day of battle, as Denis Hewitt led his men into battle a shell fragment hit the young officer on the back. At the time, the 19-year-old was carrying a pack filled with rockets and flares for use later on and one of them ignited. He quickly caught-fire, first his pack and then his uniform. Throwing himself to the ground, Denis Hewitt rolled back and forth and managed to put out the flames. Dragging himself back to his feet, he was in a considerable amount of pain owing to burns and was visibly shaken, but the teenager made no attempt to depart the field of battle and seek help. Instead, he
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rallied his company and resumed his advance. His company pushed forward, regardless, and reached their objective. Having survived the horror of the fire, the young officer was superintending his men as they consolidated their new position when he was struck by a sniper’s bullet and killed. Denis Hewitt was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross. Up to 3,000 yards had been gained in some areas during the opening throes of the fighting in Flanders on 31 July and British troops now boasted valuable high ground and observation capability. In human terms, across the front in five days
some 32,000 men were killed, wounded or unaccounted for and not all of Gough’s objectives had been gained. The defence already demonstrated by the German surely ruled out the idea of smashing their line. Already, it was looking as though Haig’s much anticipated Flanders offensive might become another miserable, attritional affair like that on the Somme.
WESTHOEK
As rain teemed down after 31 July, Haig had warned Gough to be patient; to wait for two or three days of fine weather so that the ground might dry out. Gough ignored this cautious
PASSCHENDAELE | GREAT WAR
sentiment and battle resumed on 10 August. Conditions were appalling. German artillery barrages had combined with the wet weather to turn the ground into a featureless swamp, whilst their relentless pressure had also made the supply of rations and equipment hazardous through waterlogged terrain. In the rain, the misery of those in the employment of the artillery began as far back as the bottleneck where the ruined Menin Road left Ypres. Laying out plank roads and duck-boards to carry wagons full of shells up to the guns was a painfully slow process, and they were constantly under fire. For batteries such as those under the command of Laird Paul, digging to fashion any kind of firm shelter was impossible in the wet mud, and gunners lived in shell-holes filled with filthy water, with sheets of corrugated iron pulled on top of them to keep off yet more rain. As an example of just how impossible it was to work in such conditions, one battery claimed that the ‘ooze and slime’ was so bad that it took nearly seven hours to move one ordinary 18 pounder a distance of 250 yards. They needed to move six in total. At Westhoek, and on the Gheluvelt Plateau, Gough’s forces had managed once again to
make initial progress. But, as on 31 July, the problems really began when the enemy began counter-attacking in strength. Although the effort had been rightly aimed at the troublesome Gheluvelt Plateau, at a cost of 2,200 casualties, the British Army gained nothing on their right, and less than 500 yards of ground on their left.
LANGEMARCK
The rational response, after the failure to secure key points on the Gheluvelt Plateau on 10 August, might have been to call off the resumption of the full offensive along the whole front until this had been accomplished.
Conditions were still awful and prospects bleak, but Gough’s men were ordered to go back into action on 16 August. Arthur Young’s Irish battlaion were to act as ‘moppers up’ when battle resumed, meaning that whilst other battalions swept forward, his men would be eliminating the last of any enemy resistance still in hidden in strongholds and dugouts. But when Arthur led his men forward to play their part, “mopping-up parties were so scarce and strung out that the Germans were able to bring out machine-guns
LEFT & BELOW
Laird Paul commanded an artillery battery under appalling conditions at Passchendaele.
from… shelters, and fire into the backs of the leading men.” Arthur was killed during the attack. His legacy is a rare inscription on his headstone in Belgium that condemns the waste of his young life. His uncle was mortified when he vanished on the battlefield, quoting with venom the uncertainty that he had died ‘on or shortly after’ 16 August 1917, “… in an abortive offensive two days after he had come out of the trenches dead tired and weary! A fine reward for coming all the way from Japan to fight for the old country!” On the Gheluvelt Plateau, the failures
LEFT
Denis Hewitt was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross for his actions at Passcendaele.
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GREAT WAR | PASSCHENDAELE
RIGHT
The grave of Arthur Young with its damning epitaph. CENTRE
British soldiers and German prisoners cower under artillery fire as they recover the wounded from the battlefield. BELOW
of both 31 July and 10 August had been repeated at the expense of some 15,000 more casualties. In hindsight, it was inevitable that this would have been the case.
MENIN ROAD
By the end of August, casualties were approaching 70,000. Haig had opted for Gough’s aggressive style and rejected the more measured approach recommended by General Plumer before July, but now he summoned the victor of Messines. He simply
for Europe together and were now serving with the same battalion: George, Theo, and the youngest, Keith. The first stage of the renewed summer offensive was almost entirely successful. Plumer allowed the enemy to come at his men, luring them away from their preferred battle positions and then striking with a strong force. The Germans were unceremoniously shoved from their crucial positions on the Gheluvelt Plateau. But it was a costly venture. All three Seabrook brothers were killed in one attack. Per
All three Seabrook brothers, from Australia, were killed in one attack at Passchendaele; Theo (left), William and George.
wanted a fiercely resolved effort to conquer the Gheluvelt Plateau, above all other objectives, so as to be able to press on with the summer’s work. Plumer’s arrival meant the reintroduction of the Australian and New Zealand troops that had fared so well for him at Messines, including three brothers from the Sydney suburbs who had sailed
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yard gained, it had been more costly than the opening day of the offensive under Gough in July.
POLYGON WOOD
The following day, confirmation was issued that the second phase of Plumer’s attacks would go ahead as planned. Once again, pains were taken to make sure that the infantry did not move outside the range of their own artillery, and work began on dragging guns forward. The Battle of Polygon Wood would begin on 26 September. More than 15,000 casualties were caused during the Battle of Polygon Wood, and as night fell and the sun came up again, thousands of men
PASSCHENDAELE | GREAT WAR
After 26 September, the Germans were reeling. No ground lost was claimed back by their troops, and instead of being used to hit back at the British, their special counter-attack formations were sent to shore up the German line. By mid-morning, both Gough’s army and Plumer’s had almost entirely succeeded in their objectives. But the prized Passchendaele Ridge was still 4500 yards distant. There was much work yet to be done.
BROODSEINDE
working with medical units were attempting to evacuate and treat the wounded. Amongst them was Harry Tallon, a 28-year-old from Brighton. The flow of injured men into his field ambulance was steady as soon as the battle began. Soon they were under fire, and the Ambulance suffered heavy casualties. Harry was out collecting the wounded and escorting men back to collection points so that they might get treatment when he was seriously wounded. He died as a result of his injuries the next day.
From the moment that Plumer took over from Gough, it had been recognised that the third stage of his smaller-scale offensives would be the crucial one. The Kaiser’s men had coincidentally planned an attack for the same time as the British assault on the heights at Broodseinde. The operation was named Höhensturm and it would take place on 4 October. Amongst the men of the 212th Reserve Infantry Regiment was a young Unteroffizier, named Richard Genschow. He and his battalion had been well versed in the attack that they were about to undertake, with at least two large-scale practices, but when the regiment arrived prior to the attack on the night of 3 October they were in a state of near physical and mental exhaustion.
The initial attack ran straight into Australians who had begun attacking towards the heights at Broodseinde at the same time. The Germans had barely passed from their own lines when men returned, running, shouting: “The English are coming!” The Australian conquerors had passed over piles of German dead, many of them belonging to Richard Genschow’s regiment. Their losses had been catastrophic, some companies losing up to 95% of their fighting strength. Richard Genschow had been wounded. Collected by British stretcher bearers, he was evacuated to a casualty clearing station. He did not survive the day. Almost all of the Gheluvelt Plateau was now in British hands, but the British advance on 4 October added another 20,000 casualties to an evergrowing list of dead and broken men.
LEFT
New Zealander Arthur Talbot was one of thousands who simply disappeared at Passchendaele.
POELCAPELLE
Though the Battle of Broodseinde was a success, it papered over the cracks emerging in the campaign. Rather than a testament to British preparation and assaulting prowess, it had depended partly on luck and on poor judgement by the enemy. But at GHQ, Haig still hoped to a least push the Germans from their dominant positions around
BELOW
"The debris of the battlefield was everywhere..."
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GREAT WAR | PASSCHENDAELE
RIGHT
Canadian casualties of Passchendaele buried at Tyne Cot.
Passchendaele, from which they still enjoyed comfortable views of his men. The drizzle that began during the assault on Broodseinde was punctuated by much heavier downpours and went on for the next two days. The battlefield began to deteriorate into a thick, impassable swamp that would come to epitomise the fighting in Flanders in 1917. George Read, from Norfolk, was to be part of another attempt to capture the problematic site of Polderhoek Chateau. For three days before the battle, George and his comrades sat in the same miserable conditions under a German barrage. Every trench they
RIGHT
mounting, and Passchendaele Ridge seemed as far away as ever.
Alex Decoteau, aged 28, was killed on 30 October. He was a Cree Canadian, former Police Officer and an Olympic runner.
RIGHT
The conditions endured by soldiers fighting at Passchendaele were simply horrendous.
PASSCHENDAELE 1
Throughout the upper echelons of command, there was failure to understand what had happened on 9 October. With this in mind, it is hardly surprising that Haig, who still believed the Germans were about to fold in front of him, ordered another attempt on the heights at Passchendaele. The 12 October 1917 was the worst day of the war for New Zealand. Getting ready to lead his men into action was a 41-year-old school teacher from Temuka, some 85 dug fell in because of the rain. Their lines, and all the surrounding shellholes, anywhere that they might have taken shelter, filled up with water. In the early hours of the morning on 9 October, George was ordered forward to assault Polderhoek Chateau. The rain cascaded down and the battalion reached their assembly positions at about 4am after an immense struggle through the mud. The Battle of Poelcappelle achieved little. The lack of preparation, the foul conditions and the exhaustion of the troops had combined to make it disastrous when compared to the three staged advances carried out in the weeks before. Challenges were
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miles south of Christchurch. The sight greeting Arthur Talbot was beyond comprehension. “The debris of the battlefield was everywhere; tangled heaps of rusty wire, broken rifles, smashed field-guns, rotting equipment, torn and filthy clothing, empty shell-cases, old tins, riven helmets, and all the ruined litter that makes still more hideous the ugly desolation of an old battlefield.” Tasked with overwhelming objectives, over ground that was unfamiliar to them, the New Zealanders had had no time to prepare for their attack, and given the atrocious conditions, men such as Arthur Talbot were utterly exhausted
PASSCHENDAELE | GREAT WAR
before they even reached their assembly positions. The cost of the renewed attack on 12 October for the New Zealand Division was a hundred officers and more than 2,500 men killed in just a few hours, and all for minimal gains. In unthinkable conditions, Arthur Talbot disappeared. The attack on Passchendaele had failed. It had cost the British Army 13,000 men.
SECOND PASSCHENDAELE
Though by now the scale of operations had been drastically reduced, Plumer and Gough’s men would be compelled to fight on. With half of the Antipodean contingent exhausted after their endeavours, finally, the waiting Canadians, who had been sheltered thus far in order that they would have the optimum influence on the battle, were released to come forward and join the battle. After abortive attempts in sickening conditions throughout the last days of October, just after 7am on 6 November the Canadians were streaming through the ruins of Passchendaele and out of the other side. They fell upon the enemy, surrounded pillboxes and harassed them with Lewis guns and rifle grenades. Passchendaele was no longer a village. It was a pile of
shattered masonry and ruined walls, but it was now in Allied hands. By the time battle ground to a halt, Canada would have fought four battles in three weeks and repulsed more than twenty counter-attacks. But the price they paid was grim. In those short weeks, nearly 10,000 men were killed or put out of action in Flanders.
THE END
The final attack of the Third Battle of Ypres was made at night, on the 2 December 1917. Wider events had finally shown the dwindling campaign at Passchendaele for what it was; a costly assault on a position, that in the scheme of things, was just not worth the expense. The cost of the Flanders offensive was more than a quarter of a million British casualties, including some 70,000 men dead. When the enemy seized the initiative in the Spring of 1918, everything that had been gained at Passchendaele would be abandoned in just 72 hours. But the refining of the bite and hold method of attacking, the development and increasing effectiveness of artillery support, the progress of tanks and air power, and how both co-operated with troops on the ground, all of these lessons from the fighting of 1917 would contribute to Germany’s comprehensive defeat the following year.
This was of no consolation to the men who would be haunted by their experiences during the battle. To the man in the line, across 103 days in the second half of 1917, he had suffered the degrading indignity of being used as a tiny component in a giant machine that appeared to be spiralling out of control and where basic humanity appeared to have been forgotten. It was desensitised warfare on a scale the world had never seen.
ABOVE
The ruins of Ypres.
RIGHT
READER OFFER For 20% off the cover price of 'PASSCHENDAELE: 103 DAYS IN HELL' (RRP £25.00) by Alexandra Churchill go to www.helion.co.uk and enter PASSCHENDAELE2017. Offer open until 10 November 2017.
The entrance to the CWGC Cemetery at Tyne Cot.
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RECONNAISSANCE REPORT | Battle of Berlin – Failed to Return
Steve Bond, Steve Darlow et al Publisher: Fighting High Publishing www.fightinghigh.com ISBN: 978-0-9934152-7-2 Hardback: 127 pages RRP: £25
B
THE BATTLE of Berlin that was mounted through the winter of 1943-4 was the longest and bloodiest of Bomber Command’s ‘set piece’ battles. Of the 10,817 sorties despatched no fewer than 607 heavy bombers were lost with the deaths of 3,347 aircrew with 992 others surviving, mainly as prisoners. This superbly produced book tells the moving stories of ten of those lost and follows on from an earlier ‘Bomber Command – Failed to return’ book from the same publisher. The seven authors have painted a real human story of each of the
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www.britainatwar.com
The Britain at War team scout out the latest items of interest
casualties covered, with access to diaries, log books, personal letters, photographs and the dreaded official telegram. The photographs, too, emphasise the personal angle with family ‘photos and those of loved-one’s present, but with very few images of their aircraft. This, however, works well in the book’s favour as it is about the men themselves rather than the machines they flew in; the machines which carried them to their unfortunate fate. Indeed, it is sight of the logbooks, letters, medals and personal memorabilia which is so powerful and thoughtprovoking in the telling of these men’s stories and these are all beautifully illustrated in colour. The rear cover of the book quotes ‘Bomber’ Harris in his message to his men as they set out for Berlin: ‘Tonight you are going to the big city. You will light a fire in the belly of the enemy that will burn his black heart out.’ Certainly, these were emotive words. However, the fact of the matter was that, in doing so, the young men of RAF Bomber Command were being lost
and sacrificed to the optimistic achievement of that ultimate goal. And quite apart from the ‘black heart’ of the enemy, countless families were left with their heart and their souls torn asunder by the losses of loved ones; sons, brothers, husbands and fathers – their RAF logbooks stamped simply: ‘Failed to Return’. Looking through these pages, it is easy to understand the impact that those three words must have had in the thousands of similarly worded telegrams and condolence letters sent out to grieving families. However painfully moving this book sometimes is, it is really difficult to put it down and to not get immersed in each sad human story, and it is those human stories, of course, which make up the narrative of war. Rather pleasingly, the author’s subjects in this work are the often overlooked ‘other’ aircrew that comprised a heavy bomber crew – the navigators, bomb aimers, air gunners, signallers and flight engineers. The inclusion of NCO pilots also highlights the fact that most ‘bomber’ aircrew were, or
at least started, as Sergeants, and often progressed quickly through the ranks to become commissioned officers. That is, if they lived long enough. And many did not, as this book so powerfully and poignantly demonstrates. This is a moving and at times quite emotional read and the loss is reinforced by the inclusion of a photograph of the grave or memorial to each of them. Quite rightly, these few of the many are not forgotten. A highly recommended read, albeit a somewhat sobering one. It is also a read which is so compelling in terms of the human tales of tragedy that it will appeal widely – including to those who might not otherwise be especially interested in the subject matter. This reviewer certainly hopes to see more in what will hopefully be a ‘Failed to Return’ series by Fighting High – a publisher who always excels in their quality of work. REVIEWED BY ANDY SAUNDERS Illustrations References/Notes Appendices Index
The Britain at War team scout out the latest items of interest
| RECONNAISSANCE REPORT
Pat Ware
Dazzle: Disguise And Disruption In War And Art
James Taylor
Poles in Defence of Britain July 1940-July 1941
THIS IS a heavyweight and scholarly
FOR THOSE old enough to
THIS IS a remarkable book which
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED in hardback
study of brigade command at
remember the ‘Protect and Survive’
details, for the very first time,
in 2001, this excellent book has been
the Battle of Arras, and sheds a
period of our recent history, and
the astonishing story of ‘dazzle’
updated and re-released in softback. It
great deal of most valuable light
a time when annihilation in a
camouflage as applied to merchant
covers the actions of the Polish pilots
on what might be termed as the
nuclear Armageddon seemed
and military shipping during the
that escaped their homeland and
BEF’s ‘middle management’ which
a distinct possibility, this book
First and Second World Wars.
reached Britain, where they manned
is underpinned by a vast amount
provides a chilling look back at
of comprehensive research.
the Cold War period and gives us
Royal Navy Commander, Norman
reached the front at a critical point of
Valuable as a reference work for
a glimpse of the whole gamut of
Wilkinson, the idea was that bold
the Battle of Britain and established
those studying this period, it is
those times; weapon systems,
and irregular patterns painted onto
a superb reputation in the skies over
also presented in a most readable
early warning, emergency facilities,
ships in zig-zags, stripes, lines
southern England. During the period
and engaging style and makes for
contingency plans, Government HQ
and diamond patterns would not
covered by this book, some 100 Polish
essential reading for any student of
establishments and Civil Defence
only break up the outline of ships
fighter pilots flew with the three national
the conflict.
among the subjects covered.
but, more importantly, create
units formed at that time and within
strange illusions that meant any
many RAF squadrons, too.
An Army Of Brigadiers
British Brigade Commanders at the Battle of Arras 1917 Trevor Harvey
This is most certainly a long-
Cold War Operations Manual 1946 – 1991
For those who were too young,
The brainchild of marine artist and
Robert Gretzyngier
frontline fighter squadrons. These men
awaited and valuable contribution
this certainly provides a very useful
distant attacker would have great
to our understanding of events
insight into what it meant to live
difficulty in judging the speed or
resulted in a detailed account of these
on the Western Front, and lets
through the Cold War, a sobering
even direction of movement of his
men, summarised in the comprehensive
the reader see the human face
reminder that, sometimes, things
target. Sometimes, the patterns
appendices, while the main text is
of command at Brigadier level. It
were quite precarious as tensions
were not only bold in design but
presented chronologically and includes
presents a detailed insight into
were always bubbling under the
also colourful in application with
personal accounts gleaned not only
this area of the conflict which
surface between East and West.
colours other than black, white or
from contemporary combat reports, but
no published work before it has
As ever with the Haynes manual
grey being applied. At first sight,
by interviews with surviving pilots and
done and Trevor Harvey is to be
series, this book is well written and
the patterns appear bizarre and
personal diaries. The faces of many of
congratulated for a truly first-class
designed and contains a wealth
the very antithesis of camouflage.
the men whose actions are described,
piece of work. Equally, Helion
of pictorial information, black and
Surprisingly, the schemes were
and their aircraft, are shown in the
and Company have produced a
white and colour, along with maps,
remarkably effective.
accompanying images. The heroism
very nice-looking book, printed on
charts and plans. It is certainly an
quality paper, well bound and with
excellent and handy reference to
with black and white and colour
their record is presented in a beautifully
excellent maps and illustrations.
that period and to topics not often
images, the author also explores
crafted work of excellent value, a worthy
Highly recommended – and an
covered. An excellent publication
the world of art and its associations
addition to the bookshelf for anyone
absolute must for those with
and an absolute must-have for
with ‘dazzle’. A terrific read on a
interested in RAF, Polish history, and the
specific interest in the Battle of
those with an interest in the Cold
fascinating and hitherto entirely
Battle of Britain. A worthy tribute to the
Arras and events of 1917.
War.
neglected subject.
Poles amongst 'The Few'.
Publisher: Helion and Company www.helion.co.uk ISBN: 978-1-1911512-00-4 Hardback: 435 pages RRP: £29.95
Publisher: Haynes www.haynes.co.uk ISBN: 978-1-78521-053-2 Hardback: 156 pages RRP: £22.99
Publisher: Pool of London www.pooloflondon.com ISBN: 978-1-910860-14-4 Hardback: 128 pages RRP: £20.00
Publisher: Grub St www.grubstreet.co.uk ISBN: 978-1-910690-15-4 Softback: 304 pages RRP: £15
In this lovely book, packed
The author’s exhaustive research has
of these Poles is well known, but here
www.britainatwar.com
53
RECONNAISSANCE REPORT |
The Hitler Conspirator
The Story of Kurt Freiherr von Plettenberg and Stauffenberg’s Valkyrie Plot to Kill the Führer Eberhard Schmidt
KURT FREIHERR von Plettenberg was an ordinary German Army officer. He was evidently a good leader of men as he rose through the officer ranks to command an entire regiment. But, in a war that engulfed tens of millions of people, his service for his country would have passed largely unnoticed – had he not been part of a group that tried to assassinate Hitler. Like so many Germans, Plettenberg, whilst not necessarily liking Hitler, was impressed by the Führer’s achievements in reclaiming the Ruhr, absorbing Austria and the Sudetenland into the Greater Reich, and of the Blitzkrieg that had swept aside Polish resistance so effectively. Then two factors changed everything for Plettenberg. The first was the mass executions of civilians in Poland and across the occupied
The Britain at War team scout out the latest items of interest
territories of the Soviet Union. The murders of thousands by the SS Einsatzgruppen shocked Plettenberg, bringing shame, as he saw it, on the name of the German Army. The second factor was that the war started to turn against Germany, and those Army officers who had opposed Hitler from as early as 1938 began to recruit more supporters, including Plettenberg. After serving on the Eastern Front, he returned to Berlin, becoming an important link between the conspirators fighting in Russia and those in the German capital. The plan, as Plettenberg told a junior officer whom he persuaded to join the conspiracy, was to kill Hitler and install a military government and then approach the Allies with an offer to discuss a peace treaty. The stakes for the conspirators could not be higher: ‘Failure [in an assassination attempt], we had known, meant death to us all … The methods of medieval torture, to which the Gestapo had already subjected a large number of our friends … left open the danger that names would slip out.’ If the plot failed, all those involved were likely to face a horrifying death. Yet they persisted. Plettenberg even considered killing Hitler by himself, long before the planning for the famous Valkyrie attempt on 20 July 1944 had taken
NEXT MONTH
shape. But, like so many of the conspirators, he was riddled with doubt. As a Christian, he struggled with the idea of murdering someone, even Hitler; and as a soldier, he had taken an oath of allegiance to the Führer. Killing Hitler would mean breaking both of these sacred vows. As is well-known, the Valkyrie attempt failed and, as predicted by the conspirators, there followed mass arrests, torture and executions. Plettenberg was not swept up in these early arrests and it was not until March 1945, just two months before the war ended, that he was seized by the Gestapo. He was taken to the Gestapo’s main prison at 8 Prinz-AlbrechtStraße, Berlin. On the seventh day of his imprisonment, he was informed that he would be the subject of ‘intensified questioning’. Knowing full well what awaited him, and that under torture he might reveal the names of other conspirators, he threw himself out of a third-floor window. This biography is an interesting account of one of the key figures in the resistance movement and his brave sacrifice to save the lives of others. Reviewed by Robert Mitchell
Dunkirk
The Real Story In Photographs By Tim Lynch
THE RECENTLY released Christopher Nolan film, Dunkirk, has triggered a bountiful supply of new or re-released publications on the subject. This little book, however, is a pleasure in that it captures the essence of the event through a pictorial record, tied into a brief narrative of events across the period of the evacuation. Whilst some of the images may be relatively well-known, the majority will not be and are drawn from the Mirrorpix archive and the author's personal collection. All of them, however, tell a part of the Dunkirk story and are brought to life by revealing captions. All of them, too, are reproduced in high quality on good quality paper. As a book which tells the story succinctly in words, and extensively through its varied images, it comes highly recommended. For those interested in Dunkirk, it is a must. Publisher: The History Press
www.thehistorypress.co.uk ISBN: 978-0-750982-73-3 Softback: 95 pages RRP: £15.00
Publisher: Frontline Books
www.frontline-books.com ISBN: 978-1-47385-691-2 Hardback. 198 pages RRP: £19.99
Illustrations References/Notes Appendices Index
Contributors for the forthcoming issue include Professor Eric Grove, Stewart Mitchell, Steve Snelling, Chris Goss, Alexandra Churchill and Mark Khan.
STUKA ATTACK – 1940
THE INDIAN OCEAN RAID
BRITAIN AT WAR MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2017 ISSUE ON SALE FROM 28 SEPTEMBER 2017 54 www.britainatwar.com
C_Ward_fp.indd 1
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FIRST WORLD WAR DIARY September 1917: England is pounded from the sky as Gotha bombers, Zeppelins, and a new giant of the sky, raid numerous targets throughout the month – an undertaking completed mostly by the aircraft of Kagohl 3. Despite the frequency of the raids on Dover and London in particular, the greatest tragedy is had at Chatham. Elsewhere, the British further their gains in Mesopotamia, while the offensive at Third Ypres continues.
HOME FRONT:
2 September: Two German aircraft attack Dover at 23:00, they hit the military camp at Northfall Meadow (behind Dover Castle). One officer was killed, with four servicemen injured. There was light damage to other sites such as a nearby Inn and a Post Office. 3 September: Five Gotha bombers raid Kent, aiming for Chatham and Sheerness. One aircraft turned back, but the remainder were over Chatham by 23:00. They dropped 46 bombs, many into the sea. At least 128 servicemen were killed and a further 90 injured in the worst single UK bombing incident of the war, when, at exactly 23:12 (the clock stopped by the blast) bombs hit the famous Drill Hall, today a University Library, then an overflow barracks. The Drill Hall was packed by around 900 sailors, as the loss of HMS Vanguard that July meant her replacement crew were forced to remain in the barracks. The bombs shattered the building’s glass roof, before exploding below. It took 17 hours to remove the dead and injured, with many mutilated or decapitated. Shock also took its toll, with many reported to have succumbed. Another sailor, a civilian man, and reportedly another female casualty, were found in separate locations away from the dockyard. Three days later, a mass funeral took place at Woodlands Cemetery, Gillingham, where 98 were buried with full military honours. 4 September: Encouraged by the lack of opposition, London and Dover were subjected to a night raid by 11 Gothas, though two turned back. Five aircraft hit London, killing 16 and wounding 56. At Dover, two were killed when their houses are hit, with two more injured. A third man was killed near Dover Priory Station, when a bomb crashed through his roof – but failed to explode. One Gotha was seen to be hit, probably from a gun sited near Borstal. Although later sighted flying out to sea, it was subsequently admitted as missing by the Germans. 24 September: The first raid in a week-long bomber offensive, 13 Gothas bomb London, Dover, Southend, Tilbury, Chatham and West Malling. Six were killed in Dover with 12 injured, a further 15 killed and 58 injured in London. Elsewhere damage was slight. The same night, ten Zeppelins strike the Midlands. Scattered by the wind, they achieved little, missing the Lincolnshire airfields that were their targets. The sum of their operation - three civilians injured. One New Zealand pilot, 2nd Lt William Cook, 76 Sqn RFC, was awarded for the MC for his tenacious but ineffective defence, chasing Zeppelins for nearly six hours in rough weather, eventually running out of fuel and ditching near the coast.
WESTERN FRONT:
20 September: Battle of the Menin Road Ridge, part of the wider attack at Third Ypres, begins. The British place increasing emphasis on the use of heavy and medium artillery, with double the guns made available than at the earlier attack on Pilckem Ridge, as they advanced into stronger fortifications. Launched in good weather, the British met most of their objectives by noon on the 20th, and the Germans were unable to retake lost ground. Five days later, a massive counterattack, which caused high casualties on both sides, was partially successful. However, the attack retook ground near Polygon Wood, which was very quickly recaptured. 26 September: Battle of Polygon Wood begins, and results in another British and Australian victory. Advancing in skirmish lines, supported by small columns of infantry and heavy artillery, and taking advantage of dry ground, mist, and smokescreens, the Allies met their, admittedly limited, objectives. In addition, the British were able to retake ground lost the day before in the counterattack against Menin Road Ridge. Several strong German counterattacks came, but none were successful.
96 www.britainatwar.com 56
EAST AFRICA:
19 September: As British troops advanced to the south of Kilwa, South African General van Deventer began a major offensive against German forces led by Lettow-Vorbeck. 30 September: British and South African troops pin a force of 14 Germans and 160 Askari, led by Heinrich Naumann, against Mount Kilimanjaro following an eight month, 2,000 mile, chase. Naumann surrenders three days later.
SEPTEMBER 1917 WORLD MAP WAR AT SEA:
4 September: A U-boat surfaced in Cayton Bay, Scarborough, in daylight. Visitors to South Bay watched as the U-boat traded shells with trawlersturned-minesweepers anchored offshore, before the boat submerged and slipped away. Although the attack was seemingly focused on the anchored craft, some shells hit Scarborough itself, where two were killed. A third person was killed on one of the boats.
EASTERN FRONT:
3 September: Riga, a major seaport and industrial centre, is captured by German forces. General Oskar von Hutier’s advance, beginning on 1 September, was relatively mobile and used innovative artillery tactics and effective use of deception and feints to cross the Dvina River and ultimately capture the city. German losses were around 4,200, while Russian losses were at least 20,000. 29 September: General von Hutier and elements of the Imperial German Navy began a major amphibious assault, Operation Albion. Extensive operations to clear mines and destroy coastal defences precede the main landings on islands, including Saaremaa, in October.
HOME FRONT:
25 September: Fifteen Gothas head for London, though only three arrived over the capital, killing 9. Other aircraft attacked Dover but were fended off, and bombs fell on several locations across Thanet. One raider was downed, claimed by the South African ace, Capt. Douglas Bell MC & Bar, and 2nd Lt. George Williams, flying a two-seat Sopwith 1½ Strutter of 78 Sqn RFC. 28 September: A large force of 25 Gothas, and two new Riesenflugzeug – ‘Giant’ - bombers head for London, but only Giants and three Gothas attack due to poor conditions. Bombs fell on Dover, the Isle of Thanet, Harwich, and Ipswich. One Gotha bombs Billericay and Meopham, believing the Essex town and Kent village to be London. One lady was killed in Deal by a falling shell, the only ground casualty of a series of raids that night which caused just £129 of damage. Three Gothas were lost and six damaged over the sea or while landing, one claimed by HMS Marshal Ney. 29 September: London and Faversham are targeted by four Gotha and three Giant bombers, with one Gotha lost off Ostend claimed by a Handley Page bomber of 7/7A Sqn RFC - conducting an anti-Gotha patrol, armed with five Lewis guns. A second Gotha was claimed off Dover. London was subjected to a heavy raid, which injured 87 and killed 40. Damage elsewhere was light, with no casualties.
MESOPOTAMIA:
28 September: The Second Battle of Ramadi begins after General Harry Brooking, GOC 15th Indian Division, attacks Turkish positions at night. He had previously established a series of ruses to mask the direction and timing of his advance, and used 350 motor vehicles to keep his force supplied with water. The ridges south of Ramadi were quickly taken, and cavalry and Indian troops had taken key points to the west and along the Euphrates Canal, blocking the Turkish retreat route. Stiff resistance was offered, the 39th Garhwal Rifles sustaining heavy casualties, but by 30 September, the Turks had surrendered. At least 3,500 were captured, with 129 killed and 200 wounded. The British sustained nearly 1,000 casualties, though the vast majority were light wounds caused by poorlyset Turkish shells.
30 September: In the final raid of the month, 11 Gothas and an accompanying single-engine type launched raids on targets between Dover and Clacton. Six aircraft attacked London, while Chatham, Margate, and targets in Essex were also hit. The lone single-engine type bombed Dover. Two fighters were able to intercept the attackers, one over Gravesend, the other over Lambourne – but neither engagement resulted in a ‘kill’. One incident over Dover occurred where ground defences claimed a Gotha, and wreckage was spotted offshore, but no loss was admitted. However, although none were lost, British pilots reported coming under fire from the ground. Throughout September, thousands of rounds were fired at German craft, with many guns becoming worn out. Such was the volume of fire, that numerous injuries and eight deaths were attributed to falling shells and fragments. www.britainatwar.com 57
N EW
The Real Story of Operation Dynamo A
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The operation to save the British Expeditionary Force from destruction, as Hitler’s panzer divisions raced to the Channel coast, was on a scale unprecedented in history of warfare. The story of the great evacuation is told, day-by-day, in this 100-page special publication, in the words of those soldiers, sailors and airmen who fought and survived those dramatic nine days in the summer of 1940. FEATURING:
BLITZKRIEG The full story of the campaign from the German invasion of France to the last ship to leave Dunkirk. THE LITTLE SHIPS The accounts of the volunteers who risked everything to sail their private yachts across the Channel. DEATH FROM THE SKIES Graphic details of the sinking of warships, ferry boats and pleasure craft by the Luftwaffe.
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05/07/2017 14:10
75TH ANNIVERSARY | EL ALAMEIN
EL ALAMEIN
75
th
ANNIVERSARY
IN OUR SPECIAL CONTENT MARKING THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF VICTORY AT THE BATTLE OF EL ALAMEIN, PETER HART TAKES AN OBJECTIVE LOOK AT THE BATTLE THROUGH THE EYES OF THOSE WHO FOUGHT IN THAT HELLISH CAULDRON OF HEAT, DUST AND ENEMY FIRE TO ULTIMATELY BRING SOME OF THE FIRST GOOD NEWS OF THE WAR TO A BELEAGUERED BRITAIN AND HER ALLIES.
www.britainatwar.com 59
EL ALAMEIN | 75TH ANNIVERSARY
EL ALAMEIN – 1942 SETTING THE SCENE
ABOVE
General Claude Auchinleck as C-in-C Indian Army, taken by Sir Cecil Beaton.
BELOW
Batteries of an advanced Italian position near Tobruk, Libya, 6 January 1942. (COURTESY OF
HISTORIC MILITARY PRESS (HEREAFTER HMP))
T
he war in North Africa had been a focus of British attention ever since it was triggered by the Italian entry into the Second World War on 10 June 1940. With France defeated and Britain facing the threat of invasion, Benito Mussolini sought to create a new Roman Empire by hoovering up British and French imperial possessions in North Africa and establishing Italian domination of the Mediterranean. It seemed a low-risk enterprise – after all, who was going to stop him? The ‘Italian Job’ was initially successful. They overran British Somaliland and then Italian Tenth Army invaded Egypt on 9 September 1940. They pushed forward some 60 miles before setting up defended camps in the Sidi Barrani sector. But on 9 December, a daring
60 www.britainatwar.com
British counterattack drove into the Italian camps, smashing the Italian force, before marching on to further crushing successes in Libya. During this brief campaign, some 130,000 Italian prisoners, 400 tanks and 1,200 guns were captured for relatively small British losses. The British disease of hubris then asserted its baleful influence. Firstly, it was considered that all Italian formations could be safely dismissed as of negligible ability. Secondly, they didn’t ‘finish the job’ and failed to press forward to eradicate Italian forces in Tripolitania. Thirdly, much of the British force was then reassigned to Greece. Fourthly, the successes masked the endemic problem that British armoured divisions were overly reliant on tanks and short of infantry and artillery - in particular selfpropelled guns. And finally, replacement units sent to join the newly-created British 8th Army had little or no battle experience and were new to desert warfare. Perhaps these problems might have been overcome, but a new factor burst into the desert war – the Germans.
ARRIVAL OF AFRIKA KORPS
In February 1941 Hitler intervened to prop up his ally, despatching the first elements (15th Panzer Division) of what would be known as the Deutsche Afrika Korps, under the command of Generalleutnant Erwin Rommel, to Tripoli. This was the beginning of the legend of the ‘Desert Fox’. Although nominally under Italian command, his force of personality ensured he had de facto control of Axis operations
in theatre. This was important, as the Italians had made a significant contribution despatching the (armoured) 132 Divisione Corazzata ‘Ariete’ and the (motorised) 102 Divisione Motorizzata ‘Trento’, which proved to be excellent formations. The passive posture of the British, preoccupied with their Greek adventures, gave Rommel the time he needed to organise his forces. Aggressive by inclination, he attacked on 31 March 1941. An epic series of see-sawing battles then commenced. The British were tumbled out of Cyrenaica, but it was decided to defend the port of Tobruk while the rest of the force retreated to Egypt. From April-November 1941, Tobruk was besieged, but, supplied by the Royal Navy, held out against all attacks - an epic story. The main features of the desert fighting were becoming evident, logistics being of prime importance. Without copious quantities of fuel, divisions could not move and aircraft could not fly. Munitions were of an obvious importance, but supplies of food and water were also a tremendous problem in the prevailing arid conditions. Both sides had extended supply lines, which were under constant threat. The desert was a harsh environment which was rough on the soldiers tormented by sand, dust, the heat of the day, the cold of the night, thirst, an inappropriate diet and the unwanted attention of millions of flies. Desert sores and raging dysentery were common afflictions. It was also harsh on the machines bouncing across often stony and rough terrain, with
75TH ANNIVERSARY | EL ALAMEIN
endemic maintenance problems caused by a combination of grit, sand and dust that abraded working parts.
NORTH AFRICA BECOMES A ‘SIDESHOW’
Of course, the campaign in the Western Desert was not waged in isolation. On 22 June 1941, Hitler ordered the invasion of Soviet Russia. At a stroke, North Africa became a ‘sideshow’; all but irrelevant to the ultimate destiny of the Second World War. The great questions would now be asked - and answered - on the Eastern Front. This ascendancy can be judged by the statistic that the Italians sent more troops to fight alongside the Germans in Russia than they deployed in North Africa. Sideshow or not, the defence of Egypt was still a priority to the British and a new Middle East Commander-in-Chief, Gen. Sir Claude Auchinleck, had been appointed and charged with hurling back Rommel. Auchinleck rightly judged that the forces at his command were too weak and inexperienced to allow for a successful immediate attack. He therefore not only demanded reinforcements, but time to train them under desert conditions. This would be a recurring theme of his period of command. Only on 18 November 1941, did 8th Army advance, employing an effective deception plan and striking hard in attempt to finally destroy the Axis forces. The fighting was intense and although 8th Army emerged victorious, heavy losses were suffered by the 7th Armoured Division at Sidi Rezegh, illustrating how wise Auchinleck had been to be cautious. Nevertheless, Tobruk was finally relieved on 27 November and Rommel fell back to El Agheila, with the British taking up defensive positions in the Gazala Line. That winter, the strategic situation grew appreciably bleaker for Auchinleck. The war with the Japan following Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 deflected reinforcements bound for North Africa,
whilst the naval and air situation in the Mediterranean was deteriorating as the Italians gained a measure of control and the vital naval base of Malta came under increasing Axis attack. Worse still, if the anticipated assault on Malta was successful it would free up the Axis supply chain and thereby allow Rommel to launch another serious attempt at the invasion of Egypt. Reinforced by additional Italian formations, including 133 Divisione Corazzata ‘Littorio’, Rommel by this time had a total of 90,000 men, 561 tanks and 542 aircraft facing the Allied 100,000 men, 849 tanks and 604 aircraft.
‘THE SOLDIER’S GENERAL’
Despite the gathering storm clouds, Churchill insisted Auchinleck attack, claiming he had an adequate numerical superiority in armour and aircraft. Auchinleck resisted, pointing out, with justification, his forces were not ready for a major offensive. In the event, the argument was ended when Rommel struck first on 26 May 1942. It proved devastating, as Axis forces swung south of 8th Army positions, before a second thrust came bursting through the centre, breaking up the British ‘boxes’ and triggering a chaotic retreat. This time Tobruk had to be abandoned and the British only stopped when they reached their old 1940 defences at Mersa Matruh. Perhaps Rommel should have then consolidated and waited for the planned capture of Malta, but the recently-promoted Field Marshal was determined to seize the moment and make a grab for the ultimate prize – the Suez Canal. He addressed his men with one more challenge: “Now for the complete destruction of the enemy. We will not rest until we have shattered the last remnants of the British 8th Army. During the days to come, I shall call on you for one more great efort to bring us to this inal goal.” Rommel persuaded Hitler to sanction
his offensive, and, in consequence, the invasion of Malta was postponed. Rommel was prepared to back himself and his men in North Africa. Faced with a desperate situation, on 25 June, Auchinleck intervened to take personal command of the 8th Army. He believed in sharing the same conditions faced by his men, an endearing quality that earned him the nickname of the ‘The Soldier’s General’. Far more importantly, he brought a sense of driven purpose, a focus on what really mattered - which was to do everything possible to avoid defeat. Auchinleck took decisive action, abandoning the isolated Mersa Matruh positions and falling back 150 miles to defences centred on the El Alamein railway station. Here the front narrowed to a mere 40 miles stretching between the near-impassable Qattara Depression and the sea. There were some defence works dating back to 1941, but much work needed to be done – and this was put underway immediately. Auchinleck centralised the control of artillery, which previously had been hopelessly dissipated, to allow for a tactically significant concentration of firepower. At the same time, the armoured forces were reorganised to improve their overall effectiveness. But at the same time, Auchinleck did not put all his eggs in the one ‘El Alamein basket’. He prepared defences in the Nile Delta in case things went wrong. All in all, Auchinleck demonstrated an impressive ‘grip’ on the situation. Not so his subordinate generals, many of whom lapsed into a state of despair which mirrored the understandable panic amongst the Egyptian populace on the streets of Cairo. Auchinleck challenged his men to take a more positive attitude: “The enemy is stretching to his limits and thinks we are a broken army. He hopes to take Egypt by bluf. Show him where he gets of.” The stage was set for the Battles of El Alamein.
LEFT
An RAF Hudson VI of the Middle East Communications Flight flying over the Pyramids, 1942. Thankfully, Axis forces never came this close to the ancient structures, found near Cairo and around 150 miles from the Suez Canal.
BELOW
Two 'Tankies' write home before the day's patrol, the mosquito nets keep flies away. (HMP)
www.britainatwar.com 61
EL ALAMEIN | 75TH ANNIVERSARY
THE BRITISH COMMANDER
GENERAL BERNARD MONTGOMERY ‘MONTY’ OVERLEAF
The iconic image of Montgomery, sat in the turret of his M3 Grant tank. (HMP)
B
ernard Montgomery was born in Kennington, London, on 17 November 1887. The son of a clergyman he spent much time in Tasmania before returning to Britain. He attended the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and was commissioned into the Royal Warwickshire Regiment in 1908. In the Great War he was badly wounded during the preliminaries to the First Battle of Ypres on 13 October 1914, but would return to the Western Front as a staff officer and rising to become Chief of Staff with 47th Division by November 1918. His career continued to prosper, attending Staff College, and, in 1939, rising to Major-General commanding 8th Division in Palestine. Returning to England, he would lead 3rd Division on the outbreak of war. The division performed well during the advance to into Belgium and subsequent retreat to Dunkirk and 'Monty' was attracting favourable attention as a competent professional, but his trenchant criticisms of higher command also created antipathy. In July 1940, Montgomery was promoted to acting Lieutenant-General commanding V Corps, charged with defending Hampshire and Dorset in the event of invasion. His relationship with C-in-C Southern Command – one General Claude Auchinleck – soon degenerated. In April 1941, Montgomery moved to command XII Corps in Kent and attracted both admiration and scorn for his obsession with improving the physical fitness of his men, and any officer he considered might ‘fold’ under pressure was removed from command. He then took over South-Eastern Command and further refined his ideas of careful training. The negative came in with his difficulty in forming relationships with superior officers. Montgomery’s command of 8th Army in North Africa is what made his reputation, his confidence seemed like bluster to some, but nonetheless it
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worked with the audience that mattered – his men. It gave them confidence victory could be achieved, despite the myth of the unbeatable ‘Desert Fox’. His actual tactical performance was not outstanding; indeed, Auchinleck probably had a better grip of the requirements for success – but he lacked Monty’s ‘common touch’. After El Alamein, his methodical advance continued, taking care that every move was sustainable and not vulnerable to Rommel’s trademark counterattacks. Montgomery played a useful role to ensure a concentration of effort in the overall planning the invasion of Sicily in July 1943. However, he also clashed with the competing ego of Lt-Gen. George Patton, GOC US 7th Army. This proved symptomatic of his problems with American generals, who in turn considered the prickly Montgomery to be a boastful charlatan. Following the invasion of the Italian mainland in September 1943, Montgomery was a constant critic of the divided nature of the campaign, considering that Allied forces were unnecessarily dispersed. In January 1944, he was recalled to lead 21st Army Group and made responsible for ground forces in the imminent invasion of Normandy, under overall command of the Supreme Allied Commander, Gen. Dwight Eisenhower. He again played a vital role planning D-Day - an extremely dangerous undertaking successfully achieved. Montgomery’s performance in Normandy was adequate, although he has been considered overly cautious and inflexible, while his tactless treatment of the Americans remained a source of friction. Controversy was also triggered by his irritating habit of claiming every setback to be part of a ‘master plan’, but bitter attritional fighting was indeed something the German Army could not sustain when they were already being hammered by the Soviets. Eventually, the Germans broke, but as at El Alamein, this was not some ‘new’
form of generalship, but rather the application of timeless verities of war: grind down the enemy and then strike, with the Americans breaking through to threaten German flanks while British and Canadian forces pinned and depleted German reserves. For all the disputes over Montgomery’s objectives, his contingency plans and much-changed orders, it is undeniable he achieved victory in Normandy, using secret ULTRA intelligence with considerable acumen. Perhaps another might have achieved more, but he did succeed. Eisenhower took command of the ground forces in September, but ‘Monty’ remained a key player, leading 21st AG and, perhaps in compensation, promoted to Field Marshal. Monty's greatest gamble, Operation Market Garden, September 1944, was also his worst failure for which he has been pilloried in leaving far too much to chance. It has also been pointed out he failed to give sufficient priority to the capture of the vital logistics hub of Antwerp. He did however perform well in stabilising the situation following the German counterattack in the Ardennes, then oversaw careful planning that got the Allies over the Rhine and leading the final drive to ultimate victory. After the war, Montgomery served as C-in-C, British Army of the Rhine, and then Chief of Imperial General Staff. Finally, he was Deputy Supreme Commander of NATO before retiring in 1958. He died on 24 March 1976. An overall assessment is difficult, but Montgomery was a sound, if cautious, general who could be trusted to get a firm grip on a given strategic situation. A complex and intriguing man, despite his slightly strange personality he had the power to enthuse his men who were appreciative of his efforts to minimise casualties. His detractors suggest he became overconfident, distracted by the politics of command and overly scornful of the abilities of others.
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EL ALAMEIN | 75TH ANNIVERSARY
THE GERMAN COMMANDER
GENERALFELDMARSCHALL ERWIN ROMMEL OVERLEAF
The 'Desert Fox' in conference with his aides. (HMP)
E
rwin Rommel was born in Heidenheim, Württemberg, Germany on 15 November 1891. He served as an officer with 124th Württemberg Infantry Regt. on the Western Front in 1914-1915 and was posted as a company commander to the Wurttemberg Mountain Bat., Alpenkorps, in September 1915. His best-known action was a daring flanking advance through the mountains and passes of the Isonzo during the Battle of Caporetto in October-November 1917. These feats brought Rommel the muchcoveted Pour le Mérite. Promoted to Hauptmann he served as a staff officer with XLIV Corps in 1918. Initially, his interwar career stagnated, serving as a company commander during various internal uprisings plaguing Germany and then as an instructor from 1929 to 1933, before his promotion to Oberstleutnant. Regimental command, liaison with the Hitler Youth and another instructor posting followed, before being appointed to command Hitler’s personal escort. During the invasion of Poland in September 1939, Rommel was close to Hitler, and although an infantry officer he took the opportunity to examine the developing use of tanks and motorised units which he saw as crucial to achieving the surprise and the flanking attacks he championed at Caporetto. Having the ear of the Fuhrer paid off, and Rommel would command 7 Panzer Division on the Western Front in February 1940. The end of the ‘Phoney War’ brought Rommel immediate success, particularly in his bold crossing of the River Meuse, overwhelming the French with blitzkrieg-style tactics. His eyecatching performance brought him to increased prominence as he drove on Lille and Cherbourg before the French capitulated on 22 June 1940. His reward was promotion to Generalleutnant and command of the Deutsche Afrika Korps. His performance in the Western
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Desert Campaigns earned Rommel the admiring nickname the ‘Desert Fox’ from the British. The violence of his attacking manoeuvres often disconcerted the rather more staid British generals and sometimes caused tremors within the German OKW HQ. He excelled in manoeuvring to secure local superiority, even when across the wider front he was outnumbered. Often, he tried to lure British armour into ‘traps’ where they could be destroyed by deadly 88mm guns and hull-down panzers. However, his willingness to take risks extended to logistical and fuel arrangements, which are not normally subject to ‘luck’. There was also an unwillingness to face implications of strategic realities as to the importance of North Africa within the general scheme of things to Germany. As the Allies grew accustomed to his methods, coupled with the arrival of reinforcements and copious quantities of war materiel which Hitler could not match, Rommel seemed unwilling to scale back his ambitions to secure the Nile Delta. He took ever greater chances to secure that victory, but in the autumn of 1942 he overstepped the mark and defeat at El Alamein was the result. Subsequently, he fought a series of defensive actions, falling back across Libya and Tunisia. In February 1943, there was one last flash of genius with his hard-hitting attack at Kasserine on American forces landed under Operation Torch, which threatened his Tunis supply routes. In March 1943, Rommel returned to Germany. His men would surrender to reality on 13 May 1943. Brief postings to Greece and Italy followed, but it was evident Rommel’s star had begun to wane. In November 1943, he was assigned to France with Army Group B, charged with preventing the anticipated Allied invasion. Rommel disagreed with the C-in-C West, Gen. Gerd von Rundstedt, who thought the coast could be defended against the power of Allied naval gunfire, and
preferred to hold back armoured forces deep in reserve until the location of the landings was clear - counterattacking as the invaders moved inland. Rommel however had bitter experience of the strength of Allied air power, believing concentrations of armour would merely provide juicy targets for aircraft. He wanted to defend the beaches, relying on immediate local counterattacks to hurl the invaders into the sea before they could establish themselves. The persuasive Rommel was allowed to set in train a massive engineering project to create a real ‘Atlantic Wall’, complete with extensive minefields and obstacles. However, von Rundstedt continued to maintain a strong central reserve, which meant neither suggested action was followed to the hilt. The landings in Normandy caught the Germans by surprise and counterattacks were mostly dispersed by air attacks. On 17 July 1944, Rommel was injured when a Spitfire strafed his staff car. Rightly or wrongly, Rommel was then implicated in the failed plot to assassinate Hitler on 20 July 1944. On 14 October 1944, to save his family and staff from reprisals, Rommel was inveigled into taking his own life by cyanide, leaving his reputation secure. Although generally seen as a chivalrous foe, his complicity as a sympathiser of Hitler and the Nazi Party cannot be washed away by his later doubts when it was evident the war was lost. Unless he was extraordinarily naïve, he cannot have been unaware of the darker side of the fascist regime he served so well. Truly a ‘Desert Fox’, aspects of the Rommel legend may be exaggerated but the underlying foundations are surely secure. Brave and resourceful, leading by example, often from the front, he sought to keep his enemies off-balance using mobile forces to strike quickly at points of weakness, followed up by determined exploitation to prevent the enemy regaining his balance.
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EL ALAMEIN th 75 ANNIVERSARY
THE BATTLE IN RETROSPECT RIGHT
Montgomery with Lt. Gen. Herbert Lumsden (X Corps) (right) confer ahead of the decisive battle. (PA ARCHIVE)
BELOW
Sherman tanks of 'C' Squadron, 9th Queen's Royal Lancers, 2nd Armoured Brigade, 1st Armoured Division, 5 November 1942.
R
ommel laid his plans for the First Battle of Alamein. He intended to crash through the British lines and to exploit vigorously to the north and south, expecting the British to collapse. He was confident, but previous battles had taken a heavy toll of his divisions, which were left lacking in sufficient tanks, infantry and artillery. Despite these weaknesses, optimism was the watchword. When the opening skirmishes of the battle began on 30 June 1942, the fighting would expose errors in German planning process, relying as it did on dubious intelligence as to the composition and disposition of British forces, combined with a declining quality in ‘bread and butter’ staff work. But underlying everything else, was the increasing exhaustion of the Axis forces as they teetered at the end of a long supply line. Their only chance of victory was by swift manoeuvrist warfare, but what Auchinleck intended to give them was grim resistance and grinding attrition. Rommel was soon aware of the origin of his problems when his main attack began to flounder on 1 July: “Furious artillery ire again struck into our ranks. British shells came streaming in from three directions, north, east and south; anti-aircraft tracer streaked through our force. Under this tremendous weight of ire, our attack came to a standstill. Hastily we
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scattered our vehicles and took cover, as shell after shell crashed into the area we were holding.” The war in the desert was changing; the concentrated fire of Allied guns was beginning to have a real effect. Rommel modified his plans, and the next day tried again with an assault on Ruweisat Ridge. Again, British artillery performed, assisted by the Desert Air Force. Newly arrived 6Pdr anti-tank guns also proved their worth, as recalled by Lance Corporal Douglas Waller of 1st Rifle Bde who was interviewed for the
IWM Sound Archive in 2002: “A 2Pdr would knock out an Italian M13 but it wouldn’t touch a Mark III or Mark IV. With a 6Pdr you deinitely had a chance as long as you could hit them in the side, or the back. Not too much if you hit them on the front, because the front had reinforced plate in front of it. If you couldn’t get a side-on, you aimed for the turret, because there was a chance that if you hit it, it would dip down and it was not so thick there or at least it would cause lakes of metal to ly of inside the tank - and at least put the gunner out of action.”
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The numbers of operational panzers were being rapidly eroded, and far too many hulks littered the battlefield. On 3 July, the story remained the same as the Axis were again driven back. This time, Rommel had to call off the attack. He was short of tanks, fuel and ammunition, with 1,400 miles stretching back across the desert to the nearest viable port - Tripoli. On 4 July, there was no longer any doubt the Axis advance on the Nile would have to be postponed indefinitely. Auchinleck perhaps missed an opportunity to hit Rommel’s forces while they staggered, but he believed the long-term advantage now lay with him and commenced planning for the next offensive, intending to utilise the stream of reinforcements at last beginning to reach the Western Desert. However, Churchill, ignorant of practicalities, was seething at Auchinleck’s caution. Nevertheless, Auchinleck was not entirely passive, launching a series of operations in July, intended to keep Rommel off-balance, but execution did not match ambition. Confused staff work, coupled with a failure to realise the continued strength of enemy defensive positions, meant overambitious plans, plagued further by poor tank-infantry cooperation and endemic communication problems, resulted in a series of chastening failures. British 8th Army was capable of resolute defence, but the underlying problems of poor doctrine, inter-arm cooperation and training were soon exposed when they went to attack. Auchinleck was determined to improve cooperation between his infantry and armour, instigating a rejigging of the composition of his divisions to increase the infantry component of armoured divisions, whilst attaching armoured brigades to infantry divisions. He also instigated a series of measures to improve all-arms training and liaison. Auchinleck considered enemy positions too strong to be successfully assaulted until mid-September 1942 at the earliest. He began planning for an attack in the
coastal sector with extensive deception measures to keep Rommel’s eyes fixed to his more open southern flank. Until then 8th Army would stand on the defensive, with a continuation of the construction of precautionary defences in the Nile Delta.
A NEW COMMANDER – GENERAL MONTGOMERY
Auchinleck’s honesty in reporting the situation as it was, rather than through rose-tinted spectacles, proved fatal in dealing with Churchill, who needed to be reassured – and obeyed. It is also a sad fact that the ‘Auk’ failed to get his subordinates ‘on side’. Many kicked against the required organisational changes, while few grasped why they should simultaneously prepare for both defence and attack – so morale seemed decline. In mid-August, this perceived ‘negativity’ gave Churchill his chance to sack ‘Auk’. Popular, aggressive, with strong personal qualities, Lt. Gen. William ‘Strafer’ Gott, was selected by Churchill, favourably recommended by Anthony Eden – who had served alongside him. Churchill’s decision overwhelmed the objections of his Chief of General Staff, Gen. Sir Alan Brooke, who knew and liked Gott, but considered him long weary of the
desert and inexperienced at such high command. Regardless, it made little difference. Gott was killed en-route when his Bristol Bombay was attacked by fighters which downed and repeatedly strafed the stricken craft. Brooke’s original suggestion for an alternative commander, Lt. Gen. Sir Bernard Montgomery, was subsequently appointed. As the ‘Auk’ was no admirer of Monty, Auchinleck would also be peremptorily removed as C-in-C Middle East, to be replaced by Gen. Sir Harold Alexander. Auchinleck rejected the alternative of the newly-created Persia-Iraq Command and disappeared from the North African stage on 15 August. He may have been dismissed in some ignominy, but Auchinleck’s role in stabilising 8th Army, and then laying the foundations of the ultimate victory, should not be forgotten. Montgomery immediately stamped down hard on any idea of preparing for possible failure by continuing defensive preparations in the Nile Delta. To Montgomery, morale was a crucial element of success and, although this stance was essentially posture - and defensive arrangements remained in place in the Delta - it seemed to do the trick in boosting spirits: “We will stay and ight here. If we can’t stay here alive, then let us stay here dead.”
TOP LEFT
South African engineers training with new mine detection equipment in North Africa. ABOVE
An example of the propaganda leaflets specially designed for Australian troops deployed around El Alamein. They feature the insignia of 9th Australian Division - A Platypus over a Boomerang. Note: The mispelling of 'your' on the righthand leaflet.
BELOW
A decoy tank, which evidently became the subject of some heavy firing.
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EL ALAMEIN | 75TH ANNIVERSARY
ABOVE
British soldiers advance through the smoke, bayonets fixed. (PA ARCHIVE)
This might have been taken the wrong way, but he softened the message by pointing to the imminent arrival of strong reinforcements. All told, as Axis Forces were temporarily neutered, he held that the advantage lay with the British. He also asked for the creation of a strong armoured formation to act as a ‘corps de chasse’ in future decisive operations, to be created from 1st and 10th Armoured Divisions along with the motorised 2nd New Zealand Division. Interestingly, Montgomery also insisted he too would not attack until he was completely ready; ironic indeed given the dismissal of Auchinleck for his perceived tardiness. Montgomery was a strange man, very self-confident, prickly in the extreme; yet somehow blessed with the ability to give his men the impression they were being fully taken into his confidence. A long IWM interview with Maj-Gen. John Harding, conducted by Lyn Smith, was revealing:
RIGHT
A German Panzer III crewman lifts his hands in surrender to an advancing British soldier during the battle of El Alamein. (PA ARCHIVE)
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“He went round and saw everybody. They saw him. He told them what was what and what they had to do and why. This is the way to get morale going the right way. He was brilliant at carrying people with him by explaining to them what was going to happen: what was planned and then, of course, by carrying it out.” Not everyone was impressed, indeed, sceptics considered him a blowhard and resented his renowned obsession with physical fitness. Montgomery engaged in a thorough clear-out of senior commanders to get the men he wanted, some of the cull justified, some not. Fortunately, many of his selected replacements proved competent and little damage was done.
ROMMEL’S LOGISTICAL NIGHTMARE
Across the desert, Rommel was still plagued by the logistical nightmare, particularly the crippling shortage of fuel. Retreat was barely an option
given the intransigent attitude of Hitler. But Rommel too had received reinforcements in the German 164 Leichte Division, the Fallschirmjäger Bde ‘Ramcke’ and the Italian Divisione Paracadutisti ‘Folgore’. This encouraged Rommel to attempt attack on the night of 30 August. His plan was to send his force round the British left to advance on Alam Halfa Ridge, running parallel to 8th Army’s rear and toward the coast. Warned by ULTRA intelligence, the British could predict the thrust and Auchinleck had already done much to secure Alam Halfa, which dominated the route to the Nile. When the attack began on 30 August, the minefield caused huge delays, while the German and Italian armoured formations were bombed, hit by anti-tank guns and blasted by artillery. They then encountered Allied tanks. All together it proved too much and on 2 September, Rommel began to pull back. Montgomery did not follow up immediately. When it came to the point he too was cautious – and he too may have missed an opportunity, although his Desert Air Force remained well to the fore in actively harassing Axis forces. Belated small-scale counterattacks had little effect, other than confirming the continued defensive capabilities of both German and Italian units arrayed in front of 8th Army. When the main assault came, it would clearly not be easy. Of course, Churchill as ever, wanted an attack at once - and well before the landings planned under Operation Torch in early November; but Montgomery, supported by Alexander, followed the well-trodden path established by Auchinleck in demanding time. Meticulous preparations began, with Monty planning an attack during the
75TH ANNIVERSARY | EL ALAMEIN period of full moon in late-October. With no easily accessible open flank, established German defensive positions on a narrow frontage and with 5-mile deep minefields, the plans for Operation Lightfoot envisioned two separate attacks. Backed by strong artillery barrages, Lt-Gen. Sir Oliver Leese’s XXX Corps (9th Australian, 51st (Highland), 2nd New Zealand and 1st South African Divs.), supported by 23rd Armoured (Armd) Bde, were to make the main attack in the north, cutting through the minefields and breaking through to create viable bridgeheads. These would be the jumping off points for exploitation - before first light - by Lt-Gen. Herbert Lumsden’s X Corps (1st & 10th Armd Divs.) which was to cut German supply routes and trigger an engagement with German armoured formations. Meanwhile, Lt-Gen. Brian Horrocks XIII Corps, (7th Armd, 44th Div. and the Free French Bde) was pin German armour in their southern sector.
Deception plans would be enacted to convince the Germans the main thrust would be in the south, complete with dummy tanks, fake supply dumps and ‘dummy’ wireless signals indicating non-existent deployments. Later, he modified his plans to introduce the idea of a series of ‘crumbling’ operations after the bridgehead had been made, aiming at hitting Italian infantry, to try and provoke German armoured retaliation. This attritional intent was informed by the knowledge Montgomery had gained a clear numerical supremacy with 195,000 men, 1,029 tanks (plus 1,200 more in reserve or repair) and 530 serviceable aircraft facing Rommel’s 104,000 men, 489 tanks (half Italian) and 350 aircraft. Ironically, given Montgomery’s subsequent habit of criticising Great War generals, the planning process drew on much of the assimilated knowledge of that conflict. When they came, this time the Allies would be ready.
ROLE OF ARTILLERY CRUCIAL
ABOVE
The plans were ambitious and it was evidently crucial there could be no ‘hangups’ in crossing the minefields, which was the task of the Royal Engineers. Careful studies of previous failures in mine-clearance were conducted and a special School of Minefield Clearance was opened to disseminate best practice amongst 8th Army. The old method of probing with a bayonet was still often necessary, but a major step forward was the development of a reliable portable mine detector, which exponentially increased the speed of clearing minefields – although it was still crucial all the correct drills were employed, with tapes to delineate cleared areas, Gradually the lanes would be widened from an initial 8 feet to the required 40yds. A special tank had also been developed – the Scorpion fitted with a roller and chains to flail the ground and detonate mines. Sadly, there were few available and they would be kept back for emergencies. Given the strength of the German defences, the role of artillery would be crucial. By this time, it had been fully accepted the power of the guns had to be concentrated to achieve immediate superiority. The gunners drew up complex fire plans, with carefully calibrated guns, accurately surveyed
Churchill tanks advance through the desert sands. (PA ARCHIVE)
LEFT
Fast, low-profile, with the excellent 6Pdr gun and armour that was just about adequate, the Mk III Crusader was a useful tank. However, overuse, poor maintenance, and a lack of supporting infrastructure hampered the otherwise effective vehicle - though it was particularly susceptible to sand erosion, which led to overheating and leaks.
BELOW
British infantry advances in open formation towards German positions.
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EL ALAMEIN | 75TH ANNIVERSARY
Ghazal
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75TH ANNIVERSARY | EL ALAMEIN
EL ALAMEIN 1942
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EL ALAMEIN | 75TH ANNIVERSARY
ABOVE
Baltimore bombers from 55 Sqn RAF on the way to bomb 15th Panzer Division during the battle for El Alamein. RIGHT
Bombs fall on German vehicles as they retreat along the coast road between El Daba and Fuka.
BELOW
A lengthy line of 25Pdr guns, 2/8th Field Regiment, after the massive bombardment at El Alamein.
maps and up-to-date meteorological corrections to allow for the effects of air pressure and weather on a shell in flight. Bombardments would be synchronized by the BBC time signal so the opening shells would all burst on their targets together for maximum effect. German batteries were identified using aerial reconnaissance and flash spotting triangulation, ready to be ‘neutralised’ by a torrent of shells at Zero Hour although the restriction on using poison gas made this far more difficult than back in 1918. The ‘creeping barrage’ would also be employed to create a ‘wall’ of shells moving forward in front of the attacking infantry. It was not only improved artillery tactics: the artillery was also boosted by a vastly increased supply of the 6Pdr anti-tank gun deployed in anti-tank regiments and attached to armoured and infantry units to reduce their vulnerability to panzers. Perhaps just as important was the deployment of the 5.5in Medium Gun which greatly increased British hitting power. The increased weight of shell and range made them formidable, whether smashing
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defences or when engaged in counterbattery work. In the 1990s, the author was lucky enough to interview veterans of the South Notts Hussars. They had originally served with 107th Regt, Royal Horse Artillery, but after the unit was destroyed in the Battle of Knightsbridge in June 1942, the survivors were reconstituted as 107 Battery and became the first to be equipped with the 5.5in gun. Lt. Charles Laborde recalled the impact, literally and figuratively, of these powerful guns: “We set to learning how to operate these guns which of course were quite diferent. They were split-trail and the barrel had to be lowered so that the 100-pound shell could be put into it and rammed home and the charges and so on. Then it would be raised up again and then laid in the normal manner. When the men had learned suiciently how to operate the guns, we then had to take all these guns out into the desert and calibrate them. It was then we discovered what wonderful guns they were because they proved to be quite extraordinarily accurate. We found that their’ 100 per cent’ and their ’50 per cent’ zones were so small that we could really hardly believe it. On Charge One where the range wasn’t very great – only about 4 or 5,000 yards, but the shells almost fell in the same hole. It was quite an extraordinarily accurate gun.” The 100lb shells had four times the hitting power of the 25Pdr and even a near miss would stun a tank crew.
they represented an improvement - their 75mm gun could engage panzers on equal terms. There were also increasing numbers of Crusader IIIs with the 6Pdr gun. Finally, at last, 8th Army was getting self-propelled guns: 90 Priest 105mm SPGs were augmented by around 80 of the makeshift 25Pdr-armed Bishop. Together, they offered mobile artillery support to armoured divisions. Montgomery embarked on a programme of personal visits all around 8th Army, discussing plans, first, of course, with generals and staff officer, but then trying actively to engage the interest and support of as many as possible of his junior officers and the men. To his credit Monty recognised image was all-important and took to
THE NEW SHERMAN TANKS
Meanwhile, armoured units were undergoing intensive re-equipment and reorganisation. Shermans were being delivered and, while they had their faults,
wearing a non-standard beret with twobadges, as was recounted in an IWM interview with Sgt. Stephen Kennedy of 1st/6th Royal Tank Regiment: “General, will you wear our beret?” He’d already been tuned in and knew the form and he said, “Of course I will!” Next day he appeared in that beret and he had his general’s badge beside it. He’s probably the only general in the army who had two badges. Lt-Col. Cecil Lucas Phillips of the 102nd Anti-Tank Regt found a briefing by Montgomery to be inspirational: “To many it was a day of revelation. It was the day Montgomery inally and irmly impressed upon the Army not only his professional personality but also the inevitability of victory. In a rapt silence the gatherings of oicers – sunburnt, experienced, not easily impressionable, most of them already proved leaders, many of them bearing upon their persons or their clothing the scars and emblems of hard service – listened to that incisive, rather
75TH ANNIVERSARY | EL ALAMEIN
metallic, completely matter-of-fact voice telling them in professional form exactly what was going to happen. It was no mere pep-talk, no homily on heroics.” Whenever one hears cynicism as to the men’s response to Montgomery, the reality is he did impress, not everyone of course, but enough to make a real difference to morale. And morale is very important. And so, the battle drew nigh. On the evening of 23 October nothing more could be done, the plans were laid, units deployed - preparations made. Great War veteran Maj-Gen. Douglas Wimberley watched his men of 51st Division moving forward in the moonlight and hoped all would be for the best. Another generation was about to go ‘over the top’: “In the stillness that preceded the storm, I stood by one of the gaps in the wire and watched my Jocks in the moonlight. Platoon by platoon they iled past, heavily laden with pick and shovel, sandbags and grenades – the
oicer at the head, his piper by his side. There was nothing more that I could do now to prepare for the battle, it was only possible to pray for their success.” Then at 21:40 on 23 October the barrage crashed out. In the 1990s, I interviewed Gun-Sgt. Harold Harper of the South Notts Hussars who never forgot that night on his 5.5in gun: “It was beyond description. The entire lot started iring at the precise second and the whole sky seemed to burst. After iring ten or twelve rounds I suddenly thought, “Blimey, this is beginning to get hard work!” Then I noticed that one bloke was missing, hiding in a slit trench behind the gun. I dragged him out by the scruf of the neck in the middle of the barrage. I threatened to shoot him if he didn’t get back on the job. I had to do something drastic because if you do get that sort of thing in action and do nothing it becomes contagious. I would have shot him if I had to. I know it sounds terrible now but we were a diferent sort of animal in those days. He went back to the gun but was never quite the same again.” On XXX Corps front, in the north it appeared to be a hurricane bombardment, although with only 400 guns it could not really compare to First World War barrages. Yet many of the German batteries – and much of their communications - were swiftly overwhelmed by accurate and concentrated fire. At 21:55, there was a short pause as British gunners adjusted their aim to frontline targets, then as the guns blazed out again, mine-clearance parties and infantry made their way forward. Above them, Wellingtons and Albacores of the Desert Air Force bombed German positions and any identifiable concentrations of troops.
was on sick leave and although recalled would not get back for a couple of days. This hardly helped the coordination of the defence – especially as his replacement, Gen. Georg Stumme, died of a heart-attack while under air attack during the opening phases of battle. Meanwhile, British infantry was moving forward. In some areas, the attack went well but there were hold ups. On 51st Division’s front, Charles Barker was a liaison officer with the 5/7th Gordon Highlanders as they followed the creeping barrage: “The barrage was not far in front of us as we moved steadily forward and were soon in the fog of war. Grit and sand thrown up by thousands of exploding projectiles reduced what visibility existed, the clean air became foul with the smell of cordite as we paced out the distance we covered keeping direction by compass and the red tracer shells from Bofors anti-aircraft guns. It was important that
ABOVE
A Spitfire of 601 Sqn RAF, Desert Air Force, at the time of the El Alamein battles.Around 50 Sptifires had recently arrived in theatre ahead of the battle. (WW2IMAGES)
BELOW
A 25-pdr gun firing during the British night barrage which opened Second Battle of El Alamein.
A DECISIVE MOMENT
It was clear this was a decisive moment in the campaign, but Rommel himself
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EL ALAMEIN | 75TH ANNIVERSARY
ABOVE
Map-reading in the Western Desert before the opening of the British offensive. (HMP)
RIGHT
Lend-Lease vehicles advance down a cleared path through a minefield after El Alamein. (HMP)
RIGHT
German infantry surrender to a New Zealand Division Universial Carrier. A wounded prisoner can be seen riding in the back of the vehicle. (HMP)
we kept pace with the barrage in order to give the enemy no time to recover before we were upon him It was equally important that we did not get casualties from our own guns.” Later Baker was sent forward in a Universal Carrier to locate the battalion forward positions. As he went forward they came under heavy 88mm fire: “There was no warning, no whining of a shell’s approach, just a mighty bang and an enormous lash. On reaching the end of the gap I turned the patrol right and kept along the wire searching for the two companies but there was no sign of them. Our tracks were visible in the sand as we retraced our route and we were soon in the thick of it once again. The noise was appalling as the Germans opened up on us as we returned through the mineield gap. I spotted a Gordon lying wounded in the mineield. I stopped the carrier, leapt out, grabbed him and bundled him into the carrier and pressed on. Through a hail of ire, we arrived back at battalion headquarters.”
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Baker was unable to confirm they had taken the key Aberdeen feature, something that would delay the intended pre-dawn advance of 1st Armd Division. The fighting was often desperate and men were often ruthless in the frenzied fighting. Pte Frank Devaney of the 1st Black Watch explains: “A lot of people changed. They went berserk. A man goes down - well, he’s inished. You kill him – you’ve got to do that. It’s a pressure. It’s him or you and that’s it. You just shot or bayoneted the man who’s in front of you. The man that’s defying you from completing your task. Because while you were allowing him to survive, somebody beside him, or coming round, was going to take your life. So, in other words, you couldn’t allow anybody to survive. You had to kill him. After all, it’s in darkness. He’s not just a person standing up when he jumps up out of his slit trench shouting, “Kamerad!” or whatever. You can’t stop to think, because the quicker that you put him away, the better. He could have a
revolver in his hand, or anything - and it is dark. All you see is the igure. To you, the silhouette there is the enemy to be destroyed. There are no second thoughts.” This was not just a theoretical risk as Lt. Hugh Samwell of the 7th Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders soon found out: “There was a blinding explosion, and I staggered back holding my arm over my eyes instinctively. Was I wounded? I looked down rather expecting to see blood pouring out, but there was nothing – a tremendous feeling of relief. I was unhurt. I looked for the sergeant who had been beside me. At irst, I couldn’t see him, and then I saw him lying sprawled out on his back groaning. His leg was just a tangled mess. I realised all at once what had happened: one of the enemy in the trench
75TH ANNIVERSARY | EL ALAMEIN Next to them 2nd New Zealand Div. had also run into severe resistance, exacerbated because the supporting barrage on their front had not been so powerful. To Lt. Dick Wardell of 22nd NZ Bat. it was hell on earth: “It seemed impossible that anyone could advance into this ire, but we did. By now we were going through thick dust like fog caused by bursting shells and smoke from bursting shells. The creeping barrage was crashing shells overhead and bursting about 200yds in front of us. On we went and now right in front of us was a large German machine gun pit with about seven or eight Germans iring with all they had - we charged them with Brens, Tommys and grenade and inished them of. Then on again. We had come a long way by this time and still the ire was terriic. Then we were going through a very heavy cloud of dust and smoke, and I got a most terriic whack on my shoulder and a burning pain. I was on the sand again with blood had thrown a grenade at me as he came out with his hands up. I suddenly felt furious; an absolute uncontrollable temper surged up inside me. I swore and cursed at the enemy now crouching in the corner of the trench; then I ired at them at point-blank range – one, two, three, and then click! I had forgotten to reload. I lung my pistol away in disgust and grabbed a rile and rushed in. I believe two of the enemy were sprawled on the ground at the bottom of the square trench. I bayoneted two more and then came out again.” Although they fought hard, Axis resistance was just too strong and the 51st Division was unable to take its final objectives – leaving the situation in balance.
running down my arm onto my chest.” In the end, the New Zealanders did well, taking most of their objectives, although casualties were high.
DAWN, AND A CHAOTIC SITUATION
The secondary attack to the south was launched by XIII Corps, with lesser but still considerable, artillery support. The initial thrust was to be made by the 131st Lorried Infantry Bde to achieve a bridgehead for 44th Reconnaissance Regt, which in turn would be followed by 22nd Armd Bde. Although the attack was ‘real’ enough, the main objective was to ‘pin’ the 21 Panzer and Ariete Divisions to prevent them moving to the key battle in the north. Although they penetrated the first minefield they could not get through the second as resistance from the Folgore Division stiffened, leaving them trapped in No Man’s Land. Perhaps too many guns had
been allotted to this secondary attack; guns that could have made the difference in the north. Meanwhile, back in the main attack, the mammoth work on cutting two wide lanes through the minefields for the 1st and 10th Armd Divisions of X Corps had been going on. It was task fraught with difficulty and despite their best efforts, the sappers began to fall behind. As the delays built up, the tanks, which had set off at 02:00 on 24 October to move forward, were left strung out in long vulnerable lines trailing behind the sappers. If they were caught in situ in daylight they would be destroyed by 88mm guns and air attacks. Maj. Peter Moore of 3rd (Cheshire) Field Squadron, Royal Engineers watched the Sherwood Rangers go forward as dawn was breaking. It was too late: “We guided the leading tank up to and through the gap as irst light was coming. Almost immediately the irst tank was hit. I
LEFT
remember six tanks deploying left and right at the end of the gap and engaging some enemy anti-tank guns with their Besas, but by this time it was getting light. It was also becoming clear that the Sherwood Rangers could not get forward. Several tanks were hit and a crash action by an RHA battery in the open could not silence the enemy anti-tank guns. We had breached the mineields as ordered. But that irst night had been just not long enough. Whether another hour would have given the armour a clear run, I don’t honestly know.” Amidst the bitter fighting that followed, Trooper Arthur Reddish of the Sherwood Rangers saw a horrible death he never forgot: “A young tank oicer jumped on the side of the tank to converse with our commander. A heavy shell hit the tank, hurtling the oicer in the air and depositing him some 20 metres ahead of us. He lay there like a rag doll, with arms and legs at grotesque angles. A sapper took one look at the body and
ABOVE
German prisoners being searched after being captured at El Alamein. (HMP)
The powerful BL 5.5in Medium Gun, which remained in British service until 1980.
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EL ALAMEIN | 75TH ANNIVERSARY lucky, but only up to a point, as he later suffered from gas gangrene and his leg had to be amputated.
‘CRUMBLING’ THE GERMAN DEFENCE
ABOVE
The bright muzzle flash from a 25Pdr gun firing as part of the El Alamein barrage.
(THE TANK MUSEUM)
RIGHT
Maj. Gen. Raymond Briggs, Maj. Gen. Alexander Gatehouse, and Lt. Gen. Herbert Lumsden. Lumsden was sacked by Montgomery after the battle, but served as Churchill's representative to Douglas MacArthur. He was killed on 6 Jan 1945, on the USS New Mexico, by a Kamikaze.
(THE TANK MUSEUM)
BELOW
Shermans and Grants of 8th Armoured Brigade.
(THE TANK MUSEUM)
covered it with a blanket. The tank turret was crimson with blood and bits of lesh, bone and clothing were splattered all over the right side of the vehicle.” Dawn found a chaotic situation with masses of tanks, guns and vehicles stretched out in the two ‘corridors’ reaching back from the German lines. It was evident plans had been too optimistic as to the progress that could be achieved. Infantry and tanks remained in their defensive bridgeheads throughout 24 October. That night the armour attempted to edge forward. Amongst them was 2nd Lt. Neville Gillman of the 4th County of London Yeomanry, commanding a Crusader II. A ring of German tanks and anti-tank guns had gathered around the minefield exit. One by one, the Yeomanry tanks were being knocked out and they could make no progress: “Then over the R/T we got an order. Any tank that was still a runner was to go back through the mineield. I ordered, “Driver reverse left!” and we started the engine. As usual, I was squatting on the commander’s chair, searching for the gap in the dark. We were the only tank moving. Suddenly, there was a hell of a thump on the back of the turret and the tank just stopped dead. Several things happened simultaneously. I felt as though my right leg had been hit by a stick - nothing worse - and there was a noise of tearing armour plate. I looked at the sloping
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sides of the Crusader turret and the top was sticking in the air. There was absolute silence for a second. I fell of the seat on to the bottom of the turret, which was revolving on the hydraulic spade grip. I could see that my leg was broken: it was sticking out at an impossible angle and I could smell burning. There was a hundred gallons of petrol in the tank so I only had a few moments. I hauled myself on to the gun casing and through the lid on to the top. The top is six feet or so up. I was remarkably clear-headed. I remember thinking, “If I try to jump with a busted leg it won’t be good! If I roll sideways I’ll land better!” So, I rolled of.” As the tank caught fire, only he and the driver escaped. Gillman had been
Throughout this phase there was much confusion as to the exact location of various units, with the armoured and infantry divisions often differing in their assessment of the situation – and with a considerable amount of bitter recriminations flying about. The question was what to do? Press on, stand and fight, or withdraw? Amidst the chaos, the fate of early German and Italian tank counterattacks brought some grounds for optimism, the new Shermans coped well with the challenge to the great relief of Maj. Anthony Wingfield of 10th Hussars: “A little later in the morning some German tanks appeared in front of us and halted about 3,000yds away. I noted at least one of their new Mark IV ‘Specials’ with its long 75mm gun amongst them. It was now our new gunnery methods and our new Sherman tanks showed their worth. For, when the German tanks moved forward, both A and C Squadron began to hit their targets and several of the German tanks went up in lames. This was indeed a morale-raising sight, and I felt the Germans were surprised as they turned northwards and moved across
75TH ANNIVERSARY | EL ALAMEIN our front leaving several wrecks behind.” German 88mm guns were also proving vulnerable to long-range fire from both Shermans and the Priests. The 6Pdr anti-tank guns also took a heavy toll. But perhaps the most significant factor was the relentless pounding of Axis positions by nearly 1,000 missions flown by the Desert Air Force - preventing them from capitalising on what was undoubtedly a difficult situation for 8th Army. Montgomery’s process of ‘crumbling’ had begun – in effect nothing more than a grim attrition. On the second night, there were few positive gains. Then as the battle continued to rage, Rommel’s subordinates ordered a series of armoured counterattacks on 25 starting to stir impatiently back in London, it was important something concrete be achieved soon - or Montgomery might well have followed Auchinleck into the wilderness!
OPERATION ‘SUPERCHARGE’
October and their panzer losses increased rapidly. They had fallen into Monty’s less-than-subtle trap. Rommel’s return that evening did not change the approach and more attacks were launched to no avail, even though he had been made aware they were fast running out of fuel. When the panzers rolled forwards they were hurled back with yet more casualties. Rommel’s strength was draining away. His reserves, the 21st Panzer and Ariete Divisions, were facing XIII Corps in the south, but did he have the fuel to redeploy them? Fuel supplies were getting ever tighter and the loss of tankers further exacerbated the situation. In the event, Rommel took the plunge to move his 21 Panzer Division and artillery reinforcements north to counterattack alongside the 15 Panzer Division, 164 Division and the Littorio Division. Meanwhile it was evident Montgomery’s plans were only slowly coming to fruition as the ‘crumbling’ process was not achieving any significant progress forward. On 26 October, Montgomery and his staff reassessed the situation. They had started the offensive
with 1,060 tanks and had suffered 306 losses. As these mostly suffered damage from mines to their tracks, they could often be repaired and returned to the front at the rate of up to 50 a day. Monty’s 8th Army also suffered some 6,140 killed, wounded and missing. There were even increasing concerns over artillery ammunition if the battle lasted much longer. Faced with these factors, Montgomery decided to modify his plans. He would create a new reserve force to carry out Operation Supercharge, consisting of the substantially reinforced 2nd New Zealand Division, 10th Armd Division and 9th Armd Bde. This reorganisation would be undertaken between 26-28 October and was to be covered by a series of niggling offensive operations launched by 9th Australian Division. This triggered much vicious fighting at a considerable sacrifice of Australian lives. The main attack would commence at 01:00 on 2 November. The focus was further south than existing main operations, intended to strike at the junction of German and Italian forces. With Churchill again
The Operation Supercharge assault would be primarily carried out by the 150th and 151st Brigades of 50th Division, which had been attached to the 2nd New Zealand Division under the command of the hero of Gallipoli and the Somme, Lt-Gen. Sir Bernard Freyberg VC. They would attack behind a powerful creeping barrage, supported by Valentine tanks of 23rd Armd Bde. Their objective was the Sidi Abd-El Rahman track which ran from the coast road, south towards the Qattara Depression. Once this had been achieved, 9th Armd Bde was to exploit the advance – a risky task given the array of German anti-tank guns in the sector. As the Durhams moved forward they were under no illusions as to the risks they faced. Pte. Jackson Browne of 8th DLI remembered the drama: “‘Get your kit on!’ And then when the time comes, everybody’s just waiting. Half a dozen guns opened up, Then, all of a sudden you hear, bugger, the earth starts to shake. Well, you looked back and saw that lot. God Almighty! Hell! It was well organized. On each lank – on the battalion lanks – they had Bofors guns iring tracer every two or three minutes so that you could keep on line. The barrage was going now for about two minutes then they’d drop two or three smoke bombs – they were a bloody nuisance! But when they dropped you knew the barrage was lifting. You just moved in.” The concentration of artillery on a narrow front created an impression of the kind of barrage older officers and men could recall from their Great War service. The leading troops advanced trying to keep within 100yds of the falling shells of the creeping barrage. Not so
ABOVE
A Crusader MkII CS (with 3in Howitzer) heads a column of British and leadlease armour.
(THE TANK MUSEUM)
LEFT
Wrecked British Shermans, Grants, and Crusaders, as well as some captured Panzers, are lined up ahead of being taken to workshops for evaulation and repair.
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EL ALAMEIN | 75TH ANNIVERSARY
ABOVE
A British soldier gives the 'twofingered salute' to German prisoners at El Alamein, 26 October 1942.
BELOW
British and New Zealand soldiers rescued by British forces as they advance. (HMP)
far away was Lt. Wilfred White of 9th DLI, who recalled the mad scene unfolding in front of him: “The noise was terriic, gunire, shell bursts, mortars, rile ire, machine-gun ire, the skirl of the bagpipes, the shouts of our charging infantry all combining in an incredible and unbelievable cacophony of sound.” Pte. Ernie Kerans was also with the 9th DLI: “Bullets were now plucking at our clothes in large numbers. The bullets and bits of shrapnel came like a shower of deadly hailstones and we had to throw ourselves down to live. On the right, a vehicle burst into lames and by the light I could see ‘A’ Company men trying to advance. We were ahead of them but some of them were still on their feet, others were falling or had done. There were tracers amongst them and explosions all around them. Over the sounds of the barrage and the small-arms could be heard curses and the cries of the wounded. Someone in a pitiful voice was crying for his mother. From everywhere, “Stretcher bearer, stretcher bearer!” The screams and curses mixed with the chatter of the machine guns and explosions of shells continued.
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We hugged the ground and bullets skimmed our heads.” When they got their chance, retribution could be brutal. Pte. Browne describes: “A hell of a lot got their come-uppance. Montgomery – he said the watchword is, “Kill Germans!” So that’s what they did. They were shooting the buggers down like they was lies. Blokes who’d never shot any bugger before were having a go. I don’t know if that’s good or bad. It was good from our point of view!” Both brigades attained their objectives and began to dig in. Now it was the turn of 9th Armd. The tank attack began at 06:15 on 2 November. Trooper Len Flanakin was in a Sherman with the Warwickshire Yeomanry: “We were soon in action against dug-in tanks and anti-tank guns including the nasty sort, the dreaded 88s. All the tanks by now were ighting their own individual battles and I was too busy to notice anything. The turret was illed full of acrid smoke each time the 75mm ejected a spent cartridge case and another shell had to be pushed in. The irst enemy shell to hit us knocked of a track and without mobility our chances of survival were nil. We continued iring away knowing that sat amongst all the metal lying about we had to catch another one sometime. When it eventually happened it was, thank God, in the rear quarters. Our driver’s voice came over the intercom informing us we were on ire. I don’t think I heard the order, “Bail Out!” I was on my way up between the commander’s legs and hitting ground level while he was still trying to unravel his ear phones! When I looked around, what a sight. There must have been over a hundred tanks in various stages of burning, while the ones left intact were either still ighting or carrying the
injured to safety. Our driver and co-driver bailed out through their escape hatch in the bottom of the tank, but unfortunately the co-driver got drenched in high octane petrol and was sufering temporary blindness. Apart from that all the crew were in one piece, but we were not too sure of the safest place to go.” It was intended 2nd Armd Bde of 1st Armoured Division would be the next to push forward. But the situation was too fraught and it was decided to advance cautiously, tacitly encouraging German counterattacks that would soon erode away their armour. Using these tactics, supported by self-propelled guns and the deadly interventions of the Desert Air Force, British armour gradually prevailed. Rommel realised what was happening: “Violent tank ighting followed. The British air force and artillery hammered away at our troops without let-up. Inside an hour at about midday seven formations, each of 18 bombers, unloaded their bombs on my troops. More and more of our 88mm guns, which were our only really efective weapons against the heavy British tanks, were going out of action.” Some 70 German tanks were put out of action. That night, Rommel was warned that although the British advance had been stemmed, he was almost out of panzers and running short of ammunition. He realised the game was up and ordered a retirement to defensive positions at Fuka. His message back to OKW must have made pleasant reading to British High Command when decoded by ULTRA: “An orderly withdrawal of the six Italian and two German non-motorised divisions and brigades is impossible for lack of MT. A large part of these formations will probably fall into the hands of the enemy who is fully motorised. Even the mobile troops are so closely involved in the battle that only elements will be able to disengage. The
75TH ANNIVERSARY | EL ALAMEIN
EL ALAMEIN’S DECISIVE WEAPONS THE SHERMAN
More than 300 of this ubiquitous Allied tank had reached 8th Army by September 1942. Of these, 252 had been modified to British requirements and for desert conditions, and stood ready for El Alamein. They equipped four brigades, one serving with the New Zealand Division, one with 1st Armoured, and two with 10th
Armoured and when the Sherman first rolled into action, it was at El Alamein. British armour, thanks to the up-gunned Crusader III and the lend-lease M3 Grant,
had already reached parity with some German designs and outclassed the Italian tanks they encountered. The Sherman however, offered the dual-purpose 75mm gun which made the Grant so successful, and paired it with adequate armour and mobility for the time, ease of production, and a more familiar and compatible
layout – with the Sherman’s main armament housed in a turret. British Shermans repeatedly engaged German Panzer IIIs and Panzer IV, with their long 50mm and mix of short and long 75mm guns, the latter introduced with the Panzer IV Ausf. F2. Both German types had been up-armoured and were potent machines and
although a number of Shermans were lost, the newly-introduced tank battled well at longer combat ranges, extended ranges unique to the desert and which had previously proved troublesome for the punchy, but approaching obsolescence, 2Pdr gun. The Sherman, together with the arrival of the first 50 Spitfires to the
desert, Kosacki’s Polish Mine Detector, and the 6Pdr anti-tank guns, helped to advance Allied superiority over the Desert Fox. The type would continue to serve the Allies well, though constantly and significantly upgraded, for the remainder of the war and beyond.
THE FK/PAK 36(R)*
The FK36(r) and its successor were conversions of some of the 1,300 Soviet M1936 F-22 field guns captured during Barbarossa, quickly pressed into service as antitank guns to defeat well-armoured tanks such as the KV-1, Matilda, and Valentine. The conversion saw the sights changed to German examples, changes in how
the gun was laid on target, and the cutting of the gun shield to lower the height of the gun. The FK36(r) relied on captured stocks of 76.2mm Soviet ammunition however, and was not fitted with a muzzle break. The PaK 36(r) was a more thoroughly modified gun and also a conversion from the M1936 F-22 or other similar
guns such as the ZiS-3. The newer conversion was rechambered to fire German ammunition, the same shells as used by the PaK 40, 7.5cm shells which were twice as large as the original rounds, with more than twice the propellant. The PaK 36(r) also was fitted with a muzzle break and other mechanisms to cope with the
considerable recoil generated by the German round. The type quickly became an important addition to the German anti-tank arsenal, also being used in the Marder II and Marder III tank destroyers. First allocated to German units in early 1942, around 500 guns were converted, with a further 900 for use in vehicles. First used
in combat at Bir Hacheim in March 1942, the FK36(r) was one of the more powerful anti-tank guns available to the Afrika Korps, which used around 120 examples.
Gradually, the PaK36(r) became the more commonly used weapon of the two. One gunner, Gunther Halm, was awarded the Knights Cross for using his PaK 36(r) to
knock-out nine Valentine tanks in a single engagement on Ruweisat Ridge and Rommel’s widespread use of anti-tank screens would ensure these guns could wreak deadly havoc. The guns offered a potent, cheap, if unwieldy, stop-gap anti-tank weapon and the PaK 36(r) in particular saw extensive use through North Africa and until the end of the war, in spite of the development and widespread use of the 7.5cm PaK 40.
*There is debate as to whether use of the (r) (russisch) designation was maintained by German forces. For consistency and to avoid confusion with other guns, our editors have opted to use the designation.
stocks of ammunition which are still available are at the front but no more than nominal stocks are at our disposal in rear. The shortage of fuel will not allow a withdrawal to any great distance. There is only one road available and the Army, as it passes along it, will almost certainly be attacked day and night by the enemy air force. In these circumstances, we must therefore expect the gradual destruction of the Army in spite of the heroic resistance and exceptionally high morale of the troops.” Hitler issued orders to stand and fight. Although Rommel made one last effort, he knew it was useless.
to their fate. The soldiers of the Ariete, Littorio and Trieste Divisions fought on as best they could to hold the advance. Most of their tanks were destroyed, their artillery silenced and the infantry surrounded and forced to surrender. Canon Gervase Markham of the 124th Field Regt, Royal Artillery watched the collapse: “My irst experience of advancing across a battleield was seeing a defeated army with all the relics that they’d left behind, and their dugouts still there with meals half eaten and Italian troops standing there waiting to be captured because the Germans had taken all
the transport and had driven away, leaving the Italians to look after themselves, without food or water or transport, and begging to be taken into captivity.” Months earlier, Auchinleck had exhorted his men to ‘Show the enemy where he gets off.’ Finally, 8th Army had.
BELOW
German and Italian prisoners captured in fighting in the El Alamein area. (COURTESY OF THE US LIBRARY OF CONGRESS)
The author wishes to thank his colleague, Bryn Hammond, author of the excellent El Alamein, (Osprey Publishing, ISBN 978-1-8490-8640-0) who was a major contributor to this feature.
RETREAT OF AFRIKA KORPS
Operation Supercharge had succeeded, by triggering the very ‘crumbling’ attritional fighting intended under Lightfoot, but conducted on a narrower front, where the power of the British guns and Desert Air Force could combine to eradicate Axis armoured formations. The only question was whether Monty could go on to gain decisive victory. On 3 November, the British widened the corridor with another series of attacks – not all of which were successful. The fighting was still hard. It was rarely anything else in the Western Desert against determined opposition. But the attritional fighting exposed the weakness of his forces. Left with little real choice, Rommel prioritised the retreat of his Afrika Korps, leaving most of the Italians
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EL ALAMEIN | 75TH ANNIVERSARY
EL ALAMEIN EPILOGUE
‘A VICTORY THAT DESERVES TO BE REMEMBERED’ BELOW
Soldiers preparing the El Alamein war cemetery in the wake of Montgomery's decisive defeat of Axis forces. The Allies had lost 4,810 killed or missing. (PA ARCHIVE)
V
ictory at El Alamein was celebrated wildly by the British – more out of relief than anything else. There was some disappointment in that not all the retreating Axis forces had been destroyed. A pernicious combination of a lack of deployable reserves, overcrowded roads, poor weather conditions and the general sense of exhaustion that settled upon 8th Army also seems to have overwhelmed
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Montgomery’s good intentions to immediately press home the Allied advantage. Nevertheless, he and his men achieved a significant victory and it marked the beginning of the end in North Africa. The Axis forces suffered some 20,000 casualties (killed and wounded) with a further 30,000 taken prisoner. British 8th Army had some 13,500 casualties. When considered on the world stage, the Battle of El Alamein seems
little more than a skirmish compared to the titanic clashes in Russo-German war on the Eastern Front, or the struggle between the Americans and Japanese in the Pacific. Yet, for the British Empire, it was a vital campaign they simply could not afford to lose. Defeat would have brought dire consequences in the Mediterranean and Middle East. It is a victory that surely deserves to be remembered.
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WHO FLEW FOR HITLER
The remarkable story of two remarkable women, test pilots in the Third Reich’s struggle against the Allied cause, is told by Clare Mulley.
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THE WOMEN WHO FLEW FOR HITLER | WORLD WAR TWO
LEFT
Hanna Reitsch (left) and Melitta Schiller.
I
t was a cold, clear day in February 1936 when Hanna Reitsch sent her glider spiraling down to earth, scattering the crowds below. Enjoying herself, she then calmly rolled sideways, lifting into an elegant loop. The wingspan of her beautiful DFS Habicht, or Hawk, was wider than its length, the fuselage entirely white apart from the swastika on the vertical stabilizer of its tail. Hanna was among the group of German glider pilots assembled for the
Winter Olympics, not to compete but to demonstrate the sport for approval for the planned 1940 Tokyo Olympics. Eventually she brought her ‘bird’ swooping down to land on the frozen lake where the world figure skating championships would soon take place. Then she climbed out onto the ice, shook her blond curls loose from her flyingcap, and paused, beaming around at the applause for her fabulous performance.
Less than six months later another female pilot, the darker, more aristocratic and seemingly rather shy Melitta Schiller, was performing for an even larger audience at Templehof airfield for the Olympiade Grosslugtag, or Great Flight Day, before the official opening of the now infamous Berlin Olympics. After an aerial display by group of parachutists and some
BELOW
Both women helped develop Luftwaffe aircraft, including the FW 190. It was in such an aircraft Hanna flew as passenger, wedged inside the fuselage, as it was pursued by Soviet fighters in the last days of the war.
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WORLD WAR TWO | THE WOMEN WHO FLEW FOR HITLER
RIGHT
Hanna in a Sperber Junior glider at Wasserkuppe in August 1936.
daylight fireworks, Melitta took up an engine-powered Heinkel He 70 Blitz, or Lightning, which had been designed as a mail aircraft but later served with the Legion Condor and in the wider Luftwaffe, briefly, in the fast reconnaissance role. Now Melitta showcased Nazi German capabilities in the sky with a daring stunt programme that drew gasps from the international crowd
RIGHT
Such was Hanna's fame that she was featured in a series of Garbaty cigarette cards.
below. Once again all the aircraft were emblazoned with swastikas; this was political theatre at its most spectacular. Unlike Hanna however, on landing Melitta made a discreet exit from the airfield.
HEART OF THE THIRD REICH
RIGHT
Hanna demonstrates the FW 61 'Deutschland' inside the stadium at the Berlin motor show during February 1938.
In little more than two years both Hanna and Melitta would be volunteering to serve their country as test-pilots during the new war; the only women to undertake that role. Not only brilliant pilots, they were also proud patriots with a strong sense of honour and duty, and their skills and convictions would place them firmly at heart of the Third Reich. Yet they would end their lives on opposite sides of history. Melitta had been a seventeenyear-old schoolgirl when she first stuffed her long, dark hair into a tight-fitting leather flying-cap and strode over to the flimsy wood and canvas glider she had finally been given permission to take up. After powered flight was temporarily
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banned in Germany under the Treaty of Versailles, gliding had become the aspirational sport for the nation’s youth, and competitions could attract crowds in their thousands. For months over the spring of 1920, Melitta had been enviously watching the young men risking their necks for the thrill and glory of flight above the Hirschberg valleys near her boarding school. Eventually her help with dragging the gliders back up the slopes, and fixing those that had landed less than perfectly, was rewarded with the chance to fly herself. Perching on the plank that served as a seat, Melitta found her balance, put both hands on the control stick, and gave a short nod. A moment later she
was powered into the air by two lines of young men in knitted jerseys, pulling rubber-chord tow ropes as they charged down the hill ahead of her. She pulled on the stick, released the tow, and soared above her ground-team as they ducked or tumbled into the grass. Then she curved away from the contours of the world. Although rarely effusive, right from the start, Melitta later confessed, ‘flying exerted an irresistible magic on me… I was dominated all along by the longing for freedom’.
CONQUEST AND GLORY
Hitler also took his first flight in 1920, although he was a passenger. ‘Cramped between canister and oil, and buffeted by the wind’ in an open biplane, Hitler
THE WOMEN WHO FLEW FOR HITLER | WORLD WAR TWO
was rushing from Munich to Berlin to take part in the Kapp Putsch against the Weimar Republic. Heavy rain soon drenched both pilot, Robert Ritter von Greim, and passenger, slowing their progress. By the time they arrived the putsch had failed, and Hitler reportedly donned a false beard to make his exit through the crowds. Although late, soaked to the skin, suffering from airsickness and humiliated by his retreat, the future Nazi leader had been inspired by what he recognised as the political potential of flight. While Melitta was sizing up gliders on the Hirschberg slopes, in a nearby suburb of the same town a spirited seven-year-old Hanna was also turning her face to the sky. Family legend has it that Hanna first experimented with gravity when she was just four years old, leaping with outstretched arms from a first floor balcony. ‘What child is there that lives, as I did, midway between Reality and Fairyland,’ she later opened her memoirs, who ‘does not long sometimes to leave altogether the familiar world and set off in search of new and fabulous realms?’ It would be another eleven years before Hanna, then nineteen, would take her first flight in a glider. Her natural ability was immediately evident, earning her the nickname ‘Stratosphere’. Just one year later, in 1932, she set the first of her many gliding world records, basking in the attention that it won her. Unlike Melitta, Hanna wanted more than freedom from her pursuit of flight, she yearned for conquest and glory. 1932 was the same year that Hitler climbed back into the cockpit. Having pioneered the use of aircraft for mass leaflet drops and aerial advertising, he now became the first political leader to campaign around his country by plane. His nationwide tour was called, ‘The
German Flight’, and would take him to up to five different rallies in a single day. Leaving the largest event until last, he would fly off at dusk above a sea of torches, then suddenly light up his aircraft in the dark sky to the cheers of the crowd below. ‘We experienced something new, almost cosmic up here’, Hitler’s press officer recorded, ‘It is beyond words’.
DARLING OF THE NAZI PRESS
Hitler gained power the following year and soon both Hanna and Melitta would be dutifully playing their part for the Nazi publicity machine. Hanna willingly lent her name and image to what she considered the dynamic new regime. Two years after the Olympics,
ABOVE
The barrage balloon fender device on a Heinkel 111 downed over Britain in 1941 owed its origins to testing by Hanna Reitsch who deliberately flew aircraft into balloon cables to tests results. BELOW
Hanna, wearing the Iron Cross 2nd Class, gives the Nazi salute when visiting her home town of Hirschberg on 5 April 1941.
she was billed as the star attraction at the international Berlin Motor Show. Already the first woman to fly a helicopter, she now became the first person to fly one inside a building. Having blown off all the gentlemen’s hats as she flew circuits of the great Deutschlandhalle, she landed her pioneering machine perfectly, stepping out while giving the famous Nazi salute. Such events quickly made her a darling of the Nazi press, but she was publically adored as much for her blonde and blue-eyed ‘Aryan’ good looks as for her skill in the cockpit. Not only did Hanna appear in propaganda films and on magazine covers, she was even promoted as a ‘Star of Beauty’ on collectible Garbaty cigarette cards. Unlike Hanna, Melitta was reluctant to stray into the limelight. A brilliant commercial aeronautical engineer as well as pilot, she preferred to spend her time working on design problems, while dedicating any spare moments to gaining every kind of flight license. Her life was not without incident - she won various competitions, and once, having crash-landed in a storm, had to be dug out of a field by two farmers who adamantly refused to believe that she – as a woman – could be the pilot. With the onset of war, both women suddenly became valuable to the regime in another capacity - as test pilots. Yet although they would often work from the same airfields, and spent many evenings at the prestigious Berlin Aero Club, neither woman had a good word for the other.
AWARDED THE IRON CROSS
Hanna first tried out a vast glider, the Gigant, whose wheels alone were almost as tall as she was. Not only did she have to sit on a cushion in the cockpit, she had to tie wooden blocks to her feet to be able to reach the pedals. This beast was designed to transport 200 armed men or a fully equipped tank into battle, but it never saw real action. Next Hanna was tasked with flying directly into steel cables suspended from a captured British barrage balloon. Almost invisible at night or high speed, these cables could easily down an enemy bomber. As a result, German engineers were developing bladed wing-fenders in the hope they would slice through the cables. It
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WORLD WAR TWO | THE WOMEN WHO FLEW FOR HITLER
keep control, her Komet plunged to earth, bounced, and slid to a halt after a 180-degree turn. Feeling no pain, Hanna cautiously ran her hands over her legs, arms and chest. It was only when she checked her face that she discovered ‘at the place where my nose had been was now nothing but an open cleft’. She had also fractured her skull in several places. Fearing that his popular heroine might succumb to her injuries, Hitler awarded Hanna the
RIGHT
The poster for the Olympics flight day at which Melitta performed aerobatics. NEXT RIGHT
Cover of the book for Hitler's airborne 1932 election campaign, which wedded Hitler to the importance of aviation. The following year Hanna and Melittta would start to play their part in the Nazi publicity machine. RIGHT
The Me 163 'Komet', with its formidable reputation, was test flown by Hanna.
was Hanna’s perilous task to test the theory. Although her aircraft juddered hard on impact, the blades did indeed shear through the cable - but the severed ends whipped back, smashing through Hanna’s propellers and sending shards of steel through the cabin, and into one of her engines. On the ground, the design team waited for the inevitable crash but incredibly, and not for the last time, Hanna cheated death with an extraordinary landing. She would later be awarded the Iron Cross, Second Class, for her devotion to duty with these tests, making her the first woman to receive the honour during the war. Some of Hanna’s most remarkable tests though, were with prototypes of the Messerschmitt Me163 Komet. These infamous, egg-shaped rocket planes were powered by the combustion of highly unstable fuels (C-Stoff and T-Stoff) kept in tanks behind the pilot’s seat. Several testpilots were killed when they touched down with even a small amount of unspent fuel still on board, which suddenly exploded. Others died
RIGHT
The wreck of the Fiesler Storch after it was flown into the centre of Berlin by Hanna just before the city fell.
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when the fuels corroded through the tank, leaking into the cockpit and sometimes through the unfortunate pilots themselves. Hanna was to practice gliding descents in the Me163, and there is no evidence that she took one up under power. Nevertheless, when her machine’s detachable undercarriage failed to jettison after take-off on her fifth test, she knew she was in serious trouble. As she struggled to
Iron Cross, First Class, while she was still in hospital.
TEST PILOT FOR THE JUNKERS 87 STUKA
If anything, Melitta’s contribution to the Nazi aeronautical development programme was even more important than Hanna’s. As an engineer, Melitta had already contributed to the development of commercial divebrakes. With the start of hostilities
THE WOMEN WHO FLEW FOR HITLER | WORLD WAR TWO
she found herself part of the team working on dive-bombers. She would quickly become one of the regime’s lead engineers and test-pilots for the Junkers Ju87 Stuka. Pilots would sometimes blackout from the pressure involved in conducting a near vertical dive in a Stuka, crashing spectacularly when they failed to pull up in time. To undertake one such test-dive successfully was considered an ‘racial burden’. Melitta meanwhile rarely deigned to mention Hanna at all. Unknown to each other, both were already seeking radical new ways to bring an earlier - but very different - close to the conflict. Hanna reasoned that her Fatherland could only be ‘saved from disaster’, if the war could be brought to a rapid conclusion through a negotiated peace. The Allies’ military position would need to be considerably weakened, however, for Nazi Germany to secure favourable terms. impressive feat. Returning to regularly repeat the experiment as designs were perfected was considered heroic. Melitta undertook over 2,000 testdives during the course of the war. Her aircraft’s armoured windshields might crack, and occasionally an engine fail, but she always kept or regained consciousness, managing to level out before impact and skim over the fields to land. She would then return to her drafting-table to improve her design solutions for dive breaks, visors and aiming devices. Melitta knew she had to work at the limits of what was humanly possible. It was only through becoming uniquely valuable to the regime that she hoped to help protect herself and her family. Although she had been raised a Protestant, Melitta’s father had been born Jewish. In 1937, she and her siblings had been defined as Jewish ‘Mischling’ under the Nuremberg Laws that enshrined racial discrimination into German law. Melitta did not yet know what the ultimate end of Nazi racial policy would be, but she saw the violence of the regime and recognised the direction of travel.
ABOVE
Eric 'Winkle' Brown interviewed Hanna post-war. LEFT
The piloted V1 'Reichenburg' which Hanna helped develop. BELOW
Ritter von Greim, Hanna's friend and the last commander of the Luftwaffe.
In 1943, Melitta was also awarded the Iron Cross, Second Class, for her work with dive-bombers. Official photographs show her looking rather cool about the presentation; the only allusion to the honour being the ribbon of the Iron Cross discreetly fashioned into a bow on her lapel. It was not until the following year that she and her siblings were reclassified as ‘Equal to Aryan’. Within months Melitta would be appointed to run a leading Nazi military flight institute – a position unheard of for a woman in Nazi Germany, let alone one formerly considered Jewish.
A SQUADRON OF SUICIDE PILOTS
By now, both Hanna and Melitta recognised that the tide of the war had turned against Nazi Germany. Increasingly fractious around one another, Hanna, who was back in the cockpit after several operations including pioneering plastic surgery on her face, and a punishing routine to regain her strength and fitness, started spreading rumours about Melitta’s
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WORLD WAR TWO | THE WOMEN WHO FLEW FOR HITLER
RIGHT
Melitta's family, pictured during the 1920s.
RIGHT
prove more difficult to find the right aircraft. Eventually Hanna started tests in a manned version of the V1, better known in Britain as the ‘Doodlebug’ or ‘Buzz Bomb’, becoming one of the very few to pilot a flying bomb.
Melitta on her bicycle in front of a Junkers 87 'Stuka', a type which she regularly test flew for development purposes. Melitta was shot down in a Bücker Bü 181 by a US fighter and died of her injuries on 8 April 1945.
RIGHT
Melitta at her drawing board and wearing the ribbon on the Iron Cross 2nd Class in her lapel.
CAPTURED AND EXECUTED
Melitta’s response to changing Nazi fortunes was no less dangerous or dramatic. In 1937 she had married Alexander von Stauffenberg, a dreamy poet and academic from an aristocratic family. When Melitta tried to protect her husband from front-line duty, she faced opposition from, among others, his own younger brother, Claus von Stauffenberg. Claus was a man of great personal honour and integrity. He was also a ‘This could only be done from the air’, Hanna argued, drawing up secret plans for ‘a rapid succession of devastating blows’ at factories, power plants, water facilities and shipping. In an extraordinary meeting with Hitler, Hanna then proposed a squadron of suicide pilots to undertake the task with absolute precision. Had anyone else advanced such an apparently ‘defeatist’ suggestion, they might have been arrested. Eventually however, although opposed in principle to suicide missions, Hitler grew tired of Hanna’s persistence and waved her away with permission to develop her ideas. She quickly recruited seventy volunteers for her squadron, ‘ready to sacrifice themselves in the conviction that only by this means could their country be saved’. It would
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natural soldier. Initially impressed by Hitler’s strong leadership, investment in the military, and annexation of disputed territories, Claus served with pride and courage in several theatres of the war. In late 1942 he lost his right eye, his left hand, and two further fingers while serving in North Africa. He had already started to question Hitler’s military leadership, when having learnt of atrocities at the front he concluded that military strategy had been wrongly subordinated to ideology. Now invalided back to Berlin, he started secretly working to overturn the regime and replace it with a leadership prepared to negotiate with the Allies. Melitta’s handwritten 1943/44 diaries provide a remarkable insight into her movements and meetings at this time. On 20 July, just two days after she had last stayed overnight at his Berlin apartment, now conspiracy HQ, Claus led the most famous attempt on Hitler’s life. Having placed a primed bomb in his attaché case beside Hitler during a meeting at his operational headquarters on the Eastern Front, Claus excused himself to take a telephone call. Although several people were killed when
THE WOMEN WHO FLEW FOR HITLER | WORLD WAR TWO
the bomb exploded, Hitler himself was largely protected by the heavy wooden map-table, which overturned, effectively shielding him from the main force of the blast. Unaware that Hitler had survived, Claus flew quickly back to Berlin to continue with plans for Operation Valkyrie, his planned political and military coup. He would be captured and executed later that evening. Melitta was arrested a few days later, along with thousands of other suspected traitors. Incredibly, she would secure her own release. She never received the Iron Cross, First Class, for which she had been nominated - but this was the least of her concerns. All her considerable determination and powers of persuasion were now focused on a perilous effort to protect whoever remained of the von Stauffenberg family, including Claus’s widow and four young children. Her remarkable achievements would earn her the nickname, the Angels of the Camps.
OFFERED CYANIDE TABLETS
Hanna was also risking life and limb for the cause she had pledged herself to. In April 1945 she joined her close friend, Robert Ritter von Greim, as he was summoned to a Berlin now encircled by the Red Army. In 1920, Greim had been the first pilot to take Hitler up in an aircraft, flying him to the Kapp Putsch. Now, almost a quarter of a century later, he was to be promoted to serve as the last Head of the Luftwaffe, an airforce that was now almost entirely defunct. As Greim took their flimsy Fieseler Storch into the airspace above Germany’s besieged capital, they were caught in anti-aircraft fire. Flak pierced the fuselage, cutting into Greim’s legs. As he slumped unconscious,
Hanna reached over his shoulders to successfully land the damaged plane on the city’s main East-West Axis. When Hanna and Greim finally reached the bunker, Hitler praised them for their courage and honour, and offered them cyanide tablets to give them freedom of ‘choice’ should his worst fears be realised. According to her own account, Hanna offered to fly her Führer out of Berlin, hoping to save the life that Melitta had tried to help end. Hitler refused, instead sending Hanna and Greim off again two days later, carrying with them the last orders to be flown out from the bunker. Hitler was dead and the war over within the week. Uncovering the truth about Hanna and Melitta’s lives - and there are many more remarkable stories - has not just shed new light on these women, but helped to illuminate life more broadly inside Nazi Germany; the limited options opened to some, and the courage it took to face realities and act on truths. Somewhere between complicit and culpable, Hanna and Melitta lived, served, supported and enabled, resisted and defied the Nazi regime under the perverting conditions of war and dictatorship. Taken together, their stories highlight the criminal absurdity of Nazi beliefs that women’s lives should be confined to the domestic sphere, and that there was no place at all for Jews, since the regime gave its highest honours to two women, one of whom was defined as part-Jewish, for their success as pilots was in direct defiance of such ‘natural’ laws. Ultimately, however, it is the contrast in Hanna and Melitta’s beliefs, decisions and actions that makes the story of these two remarkable pilots so fascinating and so important.
READER OFFER
TOP
'The Women Who Flew For Hitler'
One of the early versions of the Junkers 87 'Stuka' test-flown by Melitta.
ISBN: 978-1-4472-7-7420-9.
ABOVE
Clare Mulley is the author of published by Macmillan. RRP £20.00
Nina and Claus Stauffenberg were Melitta's sister-inlaw and brother-inlaw. Claus was later involved in the Hitler bomb plot.
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Our Letter of the Month is sponsored by Pen & Sword Books
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LETTER OF THE MONTH
The Taking Of Hillman
Dear Sir I am writing to thank you for the superb piece by Steve Snelling on the ‘Taking of Hillman’ (Britain at War, Issue 122, June 2017) from which I was deeply moved to read how Cpl. Stares lost his life. I came across Cpl. Stares’ grave at Douvre Military Cemetery, Normandy, shortly after the 50th anniversary of D-Day when I also visited the location of Hillman which I then found to be a little run down and neglected. As a result of my visit, I wrote a letter to Major Hugh Merriam, formerly of the Suffolk Regiment, who was there on D-Day. He told me that the site of Hillman was being used as a rubbish dump before the 40th anniversary of D-Day when the idea of its preservation first came about. Major Merriam wrote to say how kind the people of Colville had
been to their liberators on 6 June each year with many veterans staying in family homes in the village. I now treasure Major Merriam’s letters because so few of the Suffolk Regiment veterans are now surviving and I’m told how very popular he was with everyone in the regiment and who was involved in the D-Day operations. From being a very lonely and neglected place, Hillman is now very well preserved and has many visitors – although it is run solely by volunteers in the summer months and with access to Colonel Krug’s Command Post on certain days. In fact, Colonel Krug’s son has recently visited Hillman and donated his father’s memorabilia to be placed in his former command bunker. The land on which Hillman is located belongs to Madame Suzanne Lenauld, the daughter of a former Mayor of Colville.
Mme Lenauld will not allow any charge to be made for entry into the Hillman Museum out of her respect for the Suffolk Regiment, and the site is now run by an organisation called ‘Les Amis du Suffolk Regiment’. Thank you again for such a
superb article. I felt that I had to write to thank you, and especially in memory of Cpl. Stares who didn’t live to see the birth of his child. Yours sincerely, Russ Jones, Cressington, Liverpool.
James Nicolson Vc – Where Is Memorial Plaque Now? Dear Sir In past issues of your magazine you have covered various accounts of the VC action of Flt Lt. James Brindley Nicolson during the summer of 1940. He was the only RAF Battle of Britain VC. As a young apprentice I worked at the Mullard electronics factory during the 1970s and I was there when a plaque was unveiled by James Nicolson’s widow, Muriel, marking the spot where he had landed by parachute. I have attached some relevant photographs. I have now discovered that this plaque, marking the exact spot of Nicolson’s landing, has been
removed and there is no longer any trace of it at the site. I feel very strongly that this plaque should be re-instated, but first I would like to find out where it was removed to, why it was moved and where it is now. Can any of your readers help by throwing light on this matter? I really would be most grateful. Yours sincerely, Matthew Cartwright, Nursling, Southampton. (By email) NOTE: Readers with any information that would answer Mr Cartwright’s question should get in touch with us at contact@ britainatwar.com and we will pass on the relevant details.
The author of the Letter of the Month may select a book of their choice (maximum value £25) from the extensive range of titles available at www.pen-and-sword.co.uk www.britainatwar.com
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‘Bolt From The Blue’ Related Incident
ABOVE Could these workmen be stood watching the Eastbourne Me110?
Dear Sir I was intrigued to read ‘Bolt from the Blue’ by Andy Saunders in the August issue of Britain at War (issue 124) and especially the brief mention of the bombing of Knight’s Nurseries in Hailsham on 16 August 1940. As it happens, and as an aside, Andy and I are linked by joint family business connections to Knight’s Nurseries and I thought that both he and your readers may be interested in this photograph showing workmen clearing up the mess after a bomb had hit the coal store in the nursery grounds that day. You will see that they have stopped working and are clearly watching some aerial action going on overhead. Could they be watching the very battle in which the Messerschmitt 110 was brought down over nearby Eastbourne as featured in your article?
I know Andy is aware of this bomb incident, but he may not have seen this photograph which, coincidentally, was taken no more than 100 yards from the house where he was born and where he lived for many years. Yours sincerely, Alan Hillman, East Sussex. (By email) EDITORS NOTE: I was certainly aware of the bombing but had never seen this photograph before. So, thank you. Growing up, it had been tales about events like this which fired my interest in military history. Indeed, my boyhood bedroom window still had a cracked pane of glass, and this survived right up until the late 1980s – a result of this very incident, I was told. So, I literally grew up with a tangible reminder of the Battle of Britain in my bedroom!
Knocked-Out Tiger Tank In Normandy Dear Sir I read with great interest your features on the Tiger Tank (Britain at War, April 2017) as my late grandfather served in Normandy during the summer of 1944 under Michael Wittman. From what I heard in the family, grandfather did not think too highly of his commanding officer! But I don’t know why. Among my grandfather’s photographs was this one which family members recall being spoken of as: “…one of the others that got knocked-out with Wittman.” Could this be so? And if so, which tank? The wreck appears to be in what is left of an orchard, with houses just beyond, and the tank has been pretty comprehensively destroyed.
94
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However, to me, the terrain doesn’t look quite right for the area of the Wittman action. Nevertheless, I though your readers would like to see this interesting photograph. And maybe
someone will have an opinion about which tank it is, and where? Thank you for an interesting magazine. Although it is difficult to find in Germany, I must thank you for your fair, objective and
balanced coverage when you deal with stories relating to Britain’s former enemy. Yours sincerely, Hans-Joachim Schellmann, Dortmund. (By email)
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WORLD WAR TWO | BATTLE OF BRITAIN
The key to success during the Battle of Britain was the established Command and Control system of RAF Fighter Command; the ‘Dowding System’. Andy Saunders describes how it worked and how the ‘Few’ were controlled from the ground.
G N A ABOVE
Observer Corps plotters at an Observer Corps Group HQ track a German raid as reports come in from observer posts.
T
he classic war film ‘Angels-oneFive’, starring Jack Hawkins and Dulcie Gray, tells the fictional story of a RAF fighter squadron during the Battle of Britain; its title simply a reference to wireless telephony code for the fighter controller’s instruction for the fighters to climb to an altitude of 15,000ft. Interestingly, actor Ronald Adam played the fighter-controller in this film – thus reprising a role that he had actually played in 1940 as Fighter Controller at RAF Hornchurch. Quite possibly, no actor had ever been more appropriately cast! For Ronald Adam,
96 www.britainatwar.com
of course, the whole panoply of the command and control system was no mystery – but doubtless it is the case that watchers of films and documentaries have wondered how it all worked when WAAFs push markers around large map boards and unintelligible orders are barked to the airborne squadrons. In the air defence of the UK during the Battle of Britain, RAF Fighter Command was the sharp end of that defence, but the whole operation depended on an early warning system reliant upon radar and the Observer Corps. The information provided from these
sources was disseminated up through the command and control system, enabling fighter squadrons to be directed onto incoming raids. But that is an oversimplification of how it all worked.
THE DOWDING SYSTEM
‘All the ascendancy of the Hurricanes and Spitires would have been fruitless but for this system which had been devised and built before the war. It had been shaped and reined in constant action, and all was now fused together into a most elaborate instrument of war, the like of which existed nowhere in the world.’
BATTLE OF BRITAIN | WORLD WAR TWO
S L E G N NE– O
E V I F
- Winston S Churchill, War Memoirs, Vol IV Britain’s system of early warning, interception and control was called the ‘Dowding System’ after the C-in-C of RAF Fighter Command who instigated its planning and implementation in the years running up to the war. The first of its kind in the world, the system comprised a network which stretched from the Northern-most parts of Scotland down to the South Coast of England and whilst the inner workings of RAF Fighter Command’s system of command and control remained a
closely guarded secret a surprising public glimpse of the system was given in 1941 in the illustrated HMSO booklet ‘The Battle of Britain: August – October 1940’, which printed an outline of the system. However, the schematic diagram was somewhat economical in detail and, importantly, left one particular element out of the explanation as to how the organisation worked; radar. And it was upon radar the whole system of earlywarning, interception and control was based. Although the Germans were aware of radar and using systems of their own,
their failure to understand its role within the command and control structure of RAF Fighter Command placed them at a serious disadvantage. However, they were aware of the chain of stations that sprang up around Britain’s coast during the late 1930s sporting huge arrays of aerials and concrete bunkers. Although they appreciated these sites were significant, they did not understand to what extent. For this reason, their concentration of attacks on them was somewhat piecemeal. That said, the few attacks mounted on them did result in stations being knocked off the air, www.britainatwar.com 97
WORLD WAR TWO | BATTLE OF BRITAIN passed information by direct landline to the underground Filter Room at RAF Bentley Priory where it was sorted and disseminated.
THE OBSERVER CORPS
albeit temporarily. Had sustained attacks been made, then Fighter Command could have effectively been ‘blinded’ with the outcome certainly being different. As it was, the Luftwaffe could not ‘see’ their efforts and realised the towers were impossible to topple and the hardened structures difficult to hit. This, however, overlooked the fact that infrastructure (power supplies and communications) were being hit and stations disabled, even if no visible sign of damage was evident.
RADIO DIRECTION FINDING RADAR
The keystone was a network of R.D.F (radar) stations, and in the summer of 1940 the radar chain consisted of 22 “chain home” (C.H) stations, supplemented by 30 “chain home
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ABOVE
RAF and WAAF personnel at a Chain Home radar station receiver room feed incoming information through to the Filter Room at Fighter Command HQ.
BELOW
One of the Chain Home radar stations which were vital to the RAF's ability to detect incoming raids.
low” (C.H.L) stations for detecting low-flying aircraft. These stations were positioned to ensure that, in theory, every aircraft approaching the British Isles from the east, south, or south-west would be detected by at least two stations. The C.H. stations were capable of detecting aircraft at ranges of 100 to 200 miles, but in practice their performance was limited by atmospheric conditions, the skill of the individual operators, the height at which the enemy flew and the presence or absence of echoes from friendly aircraft or natural features. Accurate location of approaching raids at distances of 60 to 80 miles or more from the coast was not uncommon. Estimates of strength, although often vague, became more reliable as the range shortened. All of the stations (except those in Fighter Command’s 10 Group area),
Although the radar stations had some weaknesses in their operation, and in interpretation of results, it was also the case that they had one major shortfall; a fixed line of sight. In other words, they could only ‘see’ in the fixed direction the radar was aimed. This was away from the coast and towards the anticipated approach of threats. In other words, once a threat had passed overhead, and was inland and behind, then they became invisible to radar. From this moment on, approaching threats were monitored visually (or audibly at night or in poor visibility) by a network of ground-based observers; the Observer Corps. The Corps was by no means new in 1940. Their history went back to the First World War when the RNAS was responsible for Britain’s home defence. It was the duty of the local Police to act as observers and report to the Admiralty any sightings of enemy aircraft. It was not until 1921 that a civilian group of ‘observers’ were given the title Observer Corps; a title that was to stay with them when Dowding took over Fighter Command in 1936. Dowding saw their importance and immediately ensured they worked within the air defence system in conjunction with RDF Stations. Whilst the task of RDF was to detect hostile aircraft whilst still out to sea, the job of the Observer Corps to track them once they were over land. However, the Observer Corps were much more highly trained whilst operating under the general aegis of Fighter Command than they had been in the First World War. Lectures in aircraft recognition became mandatory, as did lessons in judging aircraft height.
BATTLE OF BRITAIN | WORLD WAR TWO
Although not equipped with elaborate instruments, it was mainly enthusiasm, an aircraft recognition chart, a pair of binoculars and simple sighting instruments that were the tools with which this dedicated band tackled their vital duty. Once radar had picked up a plot and the information passed on to the Filter Room at Fighter Command HQ, the Group Operations Room contacted the Observer Corps Command Centres who in turn notified small Observer Command Posts scattered at between six and ten miles apart along the coastline where it was calculated the enemy formation would be sighted. As soon as the call was received, the post, normally manned by three to five men, would scan the skies with their binoculars and keep a keen ear out for the sound of aircraft engines. In inclement weather or low cloud, visual sighting was almost an impossibility and detection could only be made by sound.
Once sighted, the observers had to detect the types of aircraft in the formation, how many, the heading they were taking and their height. All these factors were vital, because it would be the picture they presented which gave RAF Fighter Sector Stations an overview of the immediate situation. Unlike radar stations that gave Fighter Command HQ their sighting and contact first, the Observer Corps gave details of their first sighting to the Sector Station in their area so that fighters could be ‘SCRAMBLED’ as soon as possible. The observers would give the type of aircraft by name and were trained to observe formations and accurately estimate strengths, reporting as: ‘50 plus’ or ’100 plus’ etc.
FIGHTER CONTROL
Essentially, there were three levels of Operations Rooms in RAF Fighter Command during 1940: Command, Group and Sector. Each had clearly
ABOVE
The Operations Room at Fighter Command HQ. ABOVE RIGHT
Operations Room staff at Bentley Priory made decisions that were fed as orders through to Group HQs and also determined when civilian air raid warnings should be sounded.
defined purposes and functions which allowed information and orders to cascade down, but was reliant upon information being relayed back up the system via its eyes and ears (RDF and Observer Corps) in order to allow it to function in the first place. Without that information no orders or instructions could be disseminated, and although the hierarchy of command should ordinarily dictate that the Fighter Command Operations Room should be at the top of the tree it would be more appropriate to look, first, at the point from which every direction from Command and Group Operations Rooms originated. This then fed down to Sector Operations Rooms so that direct defensive fighter action could be ordered and controlled. The point of entry for this raw information from RDF and the Observer Corps was The Filter Room.
FILTER ROOM LEFT
The preserved underground operations room at Uxbridge, HQ of 11 Group, which is frozen in time as it was at 11.30 on 15 September, 1940.
‘The accuracy of iltering is of vital importance. At only one point in the whole vast network of the radar system does the information collected and forwarded by the radar chain assume a tangible form on which ighter action may be taken.’ - Air Ministry File S.47071, Minute 68 The Filter Room at HQ Fighter Command, Bentley Priory, was the most important link in the whole air www.britainatwar.com 99
WORLD WAR TWO | BATTLE OF BRITAIN
defence command and control chain, this importance succinctly set out by the Air Ministry in its minute (above) which established its vital significance. In broad terms, it was here that all incoming information was channelled for assessment and action. (This was on a country-wide basis, except for 10 Group which passed the information to the Western Filter Room in 10 Group’s area) The information was that received from RDF stations, Observer Corps centres as well as RAF Direction Finding stations that were plotting the movements of friendly aircraft. The information was displayed on a gridded map and passed by tellers through closed speech circuits to the adjacent Command Operations Room and to the operations rooms of appropriate Groups and Sectors. Usually, about four minutes divided first observations by radar operators from the appearance of corresponding plots in operations rooms. The mass of incoming and everchanging information was quickly assessed and interpreted by Filter Room staff and passed, simultaneously, to the Command Operations Room and Group Operations Rooms for dissemination and orders. Upon judgements and
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ABOVE
Plotters and tellers at the 11 Group Headquarters Operations Room.
assessments made in the Filter Room rested decisions made by Fighter Controllers for the deployment of fighters.
FIGHTER COMMAND OPERATIONS ROOM
RIGHT
Actor Ronald Adam played the role of Fighter Controller in 'Angels-oneFive' - a role that he played for real at RAF Hornchurch in 1940. BELOW
One of the General Situation Map markers; this one indicates the height of 20 aircraft of the Spitfire-equipped 72 and 92 Sqns.
In 1925 the Air Ministry purchased Bentley Priory at Stanmore, Middlesex, and by May 1926 had established it as the RAF’s Inland Area HQ. However, on the formation of Fighter Command in 1936 it was given over to that organisation and the construction of two temporary Filter and Operations Rooms. They were to be the centre of the ‘hub’ that was ‘The Dowding System’. However, an enormous excavation just to the East of the main buildings was commenced in January 1939 for
the underground command centre. The excavation reached 42 feet and reinforced concrete encased the underground rooms with the whole complex having its own services, air filtration and gas tight doors. It was completed in March 1940, just in time for the Battle of Britain. Whilst the Fighter Command Operations Room at Bentley Priory might be considered the nerve centre of the Battle of Britain it was, in reality, Group and Sector Operations Rooms which more actively controlled the battle. That said, the Command Operations Room gave the C-in-C (or a nominated senior officer) an immediate overview of the whole situation, Group by Group, Sector by Sector. From his gallery position the C-in-C could view the overall progress of battle whilst looking down on the General Situation Map (GSM) marked out in the British Modified Grip and with its constantly changing display of counters and markers being moved around by RAF and WAAF personnel. However, there were two important functions carried out by the Command Operations Room. The first of these was to allocate specific raids to the appropriate Group, and to then designate the raid to that Group. Once handed on, then the relevant Group’s Operations Room would, in turn, delegate to the appropriate Sector or Sectors and theirown Operations Rooms.
BATTLE OF BRITAIN | WORLD WAR TWO The other function carried out by the Command Operations Room was to operate the National Air Raid Warning System. This covered the whole of the country (with the exception of the Orkneys and Shetlands) which was divided up into 130 ‘Warning Districts’ determined by regional layouts of telephone networks. The officer responsible for ordering the warning to be issued could watch threats unfolding on the GSM and determine which districts were at risk.
GROUP OPERATIONS ROOM
In effect, the Group Operations Room was a scaled-down version of the Command Operations Room, but it was from here that an overall decision was taken as to which squadrons to allocate to each raid, and when. From his gallery overlooking the General Situation Map the Group Commander (or his nominated deputy officer) could see the incoming raids unfolding in his particular group. He also had to hand information relating to the availability of aircraft and pilots and their status on a regularly updated basis. Additionally, he had information as to convoys passing through his sea area and could duly allocate squadrons to provide fighter protection. It was here, then, that the detail of the battle began to be managed in terms of which squadrons to send where. When a decision had been made, this information was flashed to the Sector Operations Room which the Group Controller considered was best-placed to counter the threat. Already, Fighter Controllers at Sector Stations would be watching the plots unfold on their own GSM’s and would begin to anticipate the likely instructions from Group. Thus, when the order came, controllers would be ready to act. Today, the perfectly preserved underground 11 Group Operations Room is to be found at Uxbridge, its GSM and plots ‘frozen in time’ exactly as they were at 11.30am on Sunday 15 September 1940; Battle of Britain Day.
SECTOR OPERATIONS ROOM
The Sector Operations Room was a further scale-down from the Group Operations Room. The same principals of the overall operating methodology applied, although at this level the Sector Controller was only interested in controlling his fighters onto the raids as directed from the Group Operations Room. However, the Sector Controller was also being fed back real-time information on the plots on his table
ABOVE
The Sector Operations Room at RAF Duxford in 1940. Now part of the Imperial War Museum, this operations room is also preserved exactly as it was during the Battle of Britain.
direct from Observer Corps posts. Thus, he was working with up to the minute information to better enable him to control his fighters. Today, preserved examples of Sector Operations Rooms exist at Imperial war Museum, Duxford, (formerly RAF Duxford) and at the former RAF Digby. These two Operations Rooms had been built during the interwar period and were single storey brick buildings with
a pitched roof and protected only by the later addition of a blast wall; an earth bank and retaining wall extending up to eaves level. The unsuitability of these almost unprotected Operations Rooms on Sector airfields soon became apparent and their vulnerability pointed up the need to move these Sector Operations Rooms to remote locations
R AF OPERATIONS ROOM CLOCK Central to the function of all RAF operations rooms was the Colour Change Clock. Standard twelve-hour mechanical clocks, the faces were painted with coloured segments of red, yellow and blue in each 15 minute block. The purpose of the colour segments was: To provide a rough indication of the age (in minutes) of the plots shown on the table. To provide for regular removal of out-of-date plots and tracks. A plotter would receive information regarding the position and direction of flight and strength (i.e. number of aircraft) and the height of the aircraft or formation, together with a designation or identity number that had been allocated to that aircraft or formation. A typical report might be:- Hostile 15-20+ Height 10,000 feet. The plotter would then place arrows on the map indicating ‘visual’ plots obtained by sight or by radar, coloured to match the corresponding segment on the clock and in the order: red – yellow – blue. Once the blue segment was reached, then the red arrows would be removed, thereby ensuring that no plot was more than ten minutes old, and so-on, as the clock moved into the next fifteen minute quarter. Raid designations shown on three tiered plaques placed adjacent to the track of arrows were usually: Black H on yellow = Hostile Black X on yellow background = Unidentified Red F on white background = Friendly Additionally, other markers would be placed to follow the RAF squadrons. These included a ‘flag’ marked with the squadron number, and removable numbers that indicated the height and number of aircraft in that formation. In the case of the marker illustrated we are looking at a formation from 65 Squadron (Spitfires) flying at 20,000 ft, comprising nine aircraft. The Controller, positioned on a balcony overlooking the table, could then talk his fighters into position to intercept the enemy.
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WORLD WAR TWO | BATTLE OF BRITAIN
away from the airfields themselves. However, new ‘L’ shaped Operations Rooms were built and ready for the battle at Tangmere, Hornchurch and North Weald whilst that at Middle Wallop was completed during the battle itself. Meanwhile, Kenley, Duxford, Northolt and Biggin Hill all had to make do with the pre-war buildings although it wasn’t long before the RAF re-located these vital centres away from the airfields. How it worked at Sector level is best described by Sqn Ldr Anthony Norman, one of the Kenley Sector’s Fighter Controllers during the Battle of Britain: ‘By the summer of 1940 the system was well oiled and we were confident of its ability. Really, I believed that nobody could come inland without being seen by some element of our system and I had absolute confidence in our ability to intercept anything that crossed the coast. As soon as the first plots appeared I called our fighters held at AVAILABLE to READINESS. There wouldn’t be any SCRAMBLE yet, and it was the Group Controller’s responsibility to decide which squadron to use to intercept which raid. When that decision had been made, the order would be passed to the Sector Operations Room, but already I’d been watching the situation building on the map table. The first thing I’d see would be a raid counter appear on the map, but this would only give me the estimated number of aircraft, and their height. I’d have no idea if fighters or bombers. Or both. So, when I was eventually ordered by 11 Group to SCRAMBLE such-and-such squadron this would be the squadron that had been first called to READINESS, and Group would be able to see from their state board which squadron that was. 102 www.britainatwar.com
ABOVE
Observer Corps observers plot an incoming German raid and feed the details direct to the Fighter Controllers at RAF Sector Stations.
Once I had ordered a squadron off, it was my job to direct the CO not only to the interception but to get him up-sun if possible. I would not aim to go straight at the German formation, but instead try to climb at a slight angle away from the raiders and position the fighters so that they could then turn round and attack out of the sun. As a constant reminder, the position of the sun at any time was marked up on a blackboard facing me, with the raid details repeated along with the positions of our fighters.
After controlling them onto the engagement, our job was pretty much all but done, although it would often be the case that there would another raid to immediately control other fighters in the Sector on to. The policy of 11 Group was to have the first squadrons back on the ground re-fuelling and re-arming as the last squadrons were taking off. In theory, this made it possible to meet all raids and very seldom were there absolutely no fighters available although there was the now famous occasion when Winston Churchill visited the 11 Group Operations room and asked Park the question ‘Reserves?’ only to be told ‘There are none, Sir.’ Overall, it was a really good system. Along the way we tinkered with it, but the basic control arrangements in place at the start of 1940 worked efficiently throughout the Battle of Britain.’ Ronald Adam would have surely agreed with his contemporary, Anthony Norman, on the system’s efficiency when he issued his ‘Scramble Dogrose Squadron, make Angels One-Five, Vector two-three-zero. Buster’, with his plotters shuffling coloured pieces around the table until the fighter leader finally called: ‘Tally-Ho!’ Hopefully, the reader can now make some sense of all of this when they next see a Battle of Britain documentary or film, or else view the now iconic images of RAF Operations Rooms.
T ERMINOLOGY A range of code-words was used during the Battle of Britain during air operations, known as ‘The Fighter Code’. These were code words for specific actions. They are set out in an order in which they might typically be issued: Take off and set course immediately: SCRAMBLE Climb to: ANGELS Alter Course to: VECTOR Increase speed to normal full speed: BUSTER Increase speed to maximum full speed: GATE Reduce speed to normal cruising speed: LINER Circle and search: ORBIT Enemy: BANDIT Unidentified aircraft: BOGY Enemy sighted: TALLY HO Return and land: PANCAKE NOTE: Additionally, squadrons were never referred to by their number – always by their established code name; eg FIBUS, MYTOR, GANNIC, DOGROSE etc.
v
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WORLD WAR TWO | AMIENS JAIL RAID
‘Operation J The Myths of
The story of the low-level precision attack on the prison at Amiens, France, has gone down in the annals of the RAF as one of daring heroism carried out to free a large number of Resistance workers from certain death. But the account of the raid is not all it seems, as Simon Parry reveals.
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H
istorian Jean-Pierre Ducellier is a doctor in a village not far from Amiens, as had been his father before him. He also has a great interest in the air war over his part of France – the Somme. Some of his patients had been members of the various Resistance organisations in the region and he began to ask them about their experiences – in particular about the bombing of Amiens Prison on 18 February 1944. Dr Ducellier knew the story well; Mosquitos led by the daring Gp Capt Pickard racing to
break down the prison walls in order to free 120 resistance fighters, just hours before they were due to be executed by the Germans. But who were these 120 Resistance fighters? Who asked the RAF to free them? None of his patients could provide an answer. The bombing was, they told him, a tragedy for Amiens. Why, they asked him, did the RAF bomb their prison? Intrigued by stories that cast doubt on the accepted version of events, Dr Ducellier set out to discover the real
AMIENS JAIL RAID | WORLD WAR TWO
n Jericho’ facts behind the raid – and why history had got the story so wrong. Here, in ten points, are the facts and arguments he sets out.
World War in relation to the Amiens attack and the codename never appears in any documents. The attack was simply ‘Ramrod 564’ – nothing more.
1: Operation Jericho’ never existed!
2: Where did ‘Operation Jericho’ come from?
The most remarkable misunderstanding of the attack on Amiens Prison is the oft-repeated use of ‘Operation Jericho’ as the codename for the attack. It wasn’t. Jericho was never used during the Second
‘Operation Jericho’ first appears in 1946 as the title of a French film directed by Henri Calef. The reference to Joshua leading the Israelites into Canaan, laying siege to Jericho and bringing the walls
down around 1400BC by a combination of trumpets and his people shouting may well have had some resonance, but it had nothing to do with the facts of the air attack on Amiens! The film, was, however, dedicated to Group Captain Pickard and the Royal Air Force. ‘Jericho’ is a work of fiction, and to describe the film as a ‘dramatisation’ would be to stretch a point. The plot of the film is set just prior to
BELOW
Mark Postlethwaite's dramatic painting of Mosquitos roaring at low-level over Amiens Prison.
www.britainatwar.com 105
WORLD WAR TWO | AMIENS JAIL RAID the Normandy landings when a German train loaded with petrol has stopped at a station. To deter French saboteurs blowing up the train the Germans take 50 hostages who will be executed should the train be attacked. The Resistance do blow up the train and the hostages are duly lined up before a platoon of German soldiers. At the eleventh hour, just as the Germans raise their rifles, Group Captain Pickard’s Mosquitos roar in to attack the prison and release the prisoners who escape in lorries waiting nearby. The film ends with our hero’s Mosquito crashing to the ground. The main film set was constructed near the studios at Epinoy and ‘resembled’ the prison at Amiens. It reportedly cost two million Francs and was, of course, spectacularly blown up when the Mosquitos ‘attacked’ and huge breaches were created in its walls. The RAF gave their full cooperation, with Pickard played by the English actor Bruce Seaton who, apparently, bore a striking resemblance to him. It premiered at Palais de Chaillot in Paris. Among the many high-ranking officers and dignitaries in the audience was Sqn Ldr McRitchie, Wg Cdr Smith and other Mosquito crew members who had participated in the raid. On 10 April 1946, the film was shown in Amiens, and the Courrier Picard
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RIGHT
Wing Commander I S 'Black' Smith DFC led the attack and not Pickard as so often reported.
BELOW
Air Vice Marshal Basil Embry, AOC No.2 Group, RAF. BELOW RIGHT
Group Captain P C 'Pick' Pickard DSO & Two Bars, DFC.
reviewed it. The reviewer was keen to point out that it had little to do with the ‘tragic attack’. Whilst it is known that the idea of the Jericho ilm had as its starting point the bombardment of the prison of Amiens, and this is clearly one of the central points, the ilm has little to do with the actual event. Aside the ilm set of the prison, which resembles that of Amiens, the ilm tells the heroic and tragic history of the resistance in an anonymous city. The passage of time since the bombardment has been essential. One would have been in extremely bad taste had the most tragic attack that we have known served as a pretext for voyeuristic curiosity. The director, H. Calef, has ignored many things likely to bring back the tragic day of 18 February 1944 and enabled us to appreciate
‘Jericho’ more objectively. Nevertheless, the raid has become universally known as ‘Operation Jericho’ – a complete myth!
3: The Amiens Tragedy
The Amiens regional press reported the casualties during the three weeks that followed the raid, and although the press was under German control it was well informed. The first articles about the attack on Amiens Prison appeared in the ‘La progrés de la Somme’ and in ‘Le journal d’Amiens’ on Sunday 20 and Monday 21 February 1944. The former ran with the headline: The English Come As ‘Liberators’Bombing The Amiens Prison, 40 Dead And 90 Wounded. The story was as follows:
AMIENS JAIL RAID | WORLD WAR TWO The death toll lengthens as the diicult work of clearing up continues. One loses oneself in conjecture about the signiicance of the bloody attack that English lyers carried out, in broad daylight, taking the route d’Albert Prison as their objective. It is no secret to anyone that, apart from the common criminals incarcerated at the Prison, there were also people whose actions had caused diiculties to the occupying authorities. Consequently one can ask oneself, since it is clearly and irrefutably established that the prison was the target assigned to the aviators, what hidden motive led to the order? If it were about a ‘massive release’ the many corpses that lie bloodied, torn and crushed under the debris, attest to the complete ‘success’ of the cynical enterprise. Similarly, another daily Amiens newspaper, ‘Le journal d’Amiens’, featured a violent diatribe by its leader-writer J. Picavet against the Allies. This was printed on 21 February under the headline ‘British aviators bomb Amiens Prison and an old peoples’ home’, and also gave some additional details about the raid: The Liberators passed - The gangsters of the air, for the second time in less than a month, attacked Amiens on Friday. The prison was destroyed and several individual houses destroyed, with so many victims that it is not yet possible to quantify after 24 hours of clearing the debris, but it is not far from 200; such is the scale of this aggression. It is war, said some stubborn Anglophiles. War? With whom? Germany? Well, then! In what way can this destruction and these murders hasten the end of the war? We ask this of the men of TOP
Group Captain Pickard prepares to board his Mosquito. ABOVE
A crude model of the prison made so that aircrews could familiarise themselves with the prison and its layout. LEFT
A photoreconnaissance image of the prison, which is the dark rectangular building, bottom centre.
right spirit and balanced judgment. It is war, certainly, but war on the civilian population, war on our hearths, war on France, a cowardly war because France is disarmed, a wild and barbaric war. Why was the prison so clearly targeted? Was it to deliver the elements of disorder that are the best aids to England? It is possible. But then the goal was exceeded. They freed more than they wished, they were freed ‘permanently’. On Thursday 24 February 1944, Le Progrès de la Somme, printed an additional story regarding the raid: Religious service - At the cathedral, 49 coins were brought in and arranged in the nave. Mgr Martin, Bishop of Amiens, assisted by Mgr Fourcy and Canon Quentin, presided over the ceremony, while the organ played and the choir sang. Before giving absolution, Mgr Martin addressed a short speech to the dignitaries and the crowd said their prayers. Moved by those in sorrow, he assured them of the profound compassion of the church. Never had the cathedral seen gathered together so many victims of a cruel and mysterious bombing, said Mgr Martin, who inished by expressing the wish that all these deaths and all the sufering would be for France, the Peace and the Union of all its sons. The final death toll rose to 96.
4: No Executions Planned
If the people of Amiens could not understand why their prison had been bombed, the British seemed in no doubt. The first occasion that a reason for the attack appears, it is given in order AO 214, dated 18 February, the day of the raid. INFORMATION. MOSQUITOS OF 140 AIRFIELD ARE TO ATTACK THE PRISON AT AMIENS IN AN ATTEMPT TO ASSIST 120 PRISONERS TO ESCAPE. THESE PRISONERS ARE FRENCH www.britainatwar.com 107
WORLD WAR TWO | AMIENS JAIL RAID
PATRIOTS CONDEMNED TO DEATH FOR ASSISTING THE ALLIES. Prior to this message, there had been no reason or purpose for the attack provided to the aircrews. Ducellier’s first line of enquiry was to establish the identity of the ‘120’ prisoners about to be executed – but he found there were none at all. In short, and very curiously, the British reason behind the attacks appears to be a total fabrication. As with many similar penal institutions, executions did take place from time to time, but not at Amiens prison at this
time. In the past, executions had been carried out there, sometimes using a guillotine that had to be brought all the way from Paris. On 17 January 1944, Jean Roy of Nesle was executed in the Citadel at Amiens; André Dumont of MersLes-Bains was shot there on 5 February 1944. Earlier, on 2 August 1943, eleven members of the Resistance had also been shot at the Citadel. If one excludes the summary executions that took place towards the end of summer 1944 in what was known as ‘The Massacre of Gentelles’, where 27 people
ABOVE
Bombs are loaded onto the wing pylons of one of the Mosquitos. RIGHT
The Mosquitos streak low over Amiens as the first bombs strike the prison, throwing up dust. They have not yet exploded as they were fitted with 11 second delay fuses. LEFT
Technicians work on bombs before they are loaded into a Mosquito's internal bomb-bay.
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were killed, the execution of the eleven Resistance operatives shot on 2 August 1943, was the largest mass execution in this area. Had there ever been the execution of 120 prisoners, then it would have been an unprecedented act for this part of France. Detailed records of prison-related activities do survive, however, and on Thursday 17 February 1944, a request from the French Attorney General arrived at the offices of the National Gendarmerie of Amiens. Eight people (seven men and a woman) imprisoned in the prison at Amiens were to be brought to the Special Section of the Court of Appeal for judgement. The raid took place the following day, and a period of general confusion naturally followed. On 26 February, the same Captain of the Gendarmerie advised the Attorney General that: ‘The eight people who were to appear before the Special Section have not been able to be located among the prisoners currently held in Amiens Prison, nor among the identiied corpses recovered from the debris of the prison that was destroyed on 18 February. It is to be assumed that these individuals have escaped.’
AMIENS JAIL RAID | WORLD WAR TWO
The records are very detailed – and yet there is never a mention of any planned ‘mass execution’.
5: The Secret Agent Theory
An alternative reason behind the raid on Amiens Prison was that a ‘Secret Agent’ who knew when and where the D-Day invasion would take place was imprisoned there. It has been suggested that it was vital to ‘silence’ him at all costs. An agent of the SOE (Special Operations Executive) was arrested at the end of 1943 and other associated arrests took place in the St Quentin sector, which at that time was included in the administrative region of Amiens. Colonel Rémy wrote that two agents of the British Intelligence Service were imprisoned in Amiens on 12 February 1944. However, if any high-level agents were in the prison, then their identities have remained a closely guarded secret. Considering the utmost security that surrounded the planning for D-Day, one must also ask: is it really credible that any person at such a high risk of capture and torture would be privy to such detailed and important knowledge?
can be found to substantiate his claim. Eventually, Ponchardier refused to make any further comment. Whilst the lack of evidence of the much reported ‘call for help’ is unusual in itself, it should be considered that the RAF was not in the business of carrying out attacks on demand; particularly on an insignificant civilian prison.
7: The ‘Nazi’ Prison
The image of Amiens Prison in 1944 is one of a prison swarming with SS officers patrolling the grounds – yet this is very far from the truth. The prison at Amiens had originally been built as a civilian penal facility. It usually housed both male and female prisoners who had committed crimes
such as petty theft, burglary, arson, and capital offences such as murder. However, the fact that France was occupied by the Germans brought along a whole host of new categories of offences under both military and civil law. The prison was only ever intended for short duration sentences and was not built to adequately house the numbers of inmates that came in later. Problems arising from this included overcrowding, prisoner neglect and poor administration; all aggravated by a very simple sanitary system. Although under German administration, the prison itself had remained a French prison and having both French and German administrative and guard staff. The German team
ABOVE
A photoreconnaissance image showing damage to the prison and the breached wall.
BELOW
French civilians recover the bodies of Gp Capt Pickard and Flt Lt Broadley.
6: The ‘Resistance’ did not request the raid
It is claimed that the raid was triggered by a call from the Resistance, pleading for help to release members who would be executed in the near future. But is there any evidence to support this? After the war, one member of the Resistance, Dominique Ponchardier head of the ‘Sosies’ Network, did make a claim that he had been involved in requesting the raid, but no evidence www.britainatwar.com 109
WORLD WAR TWO | AMIENS JAIL RAID
on duty during the day of 17 September 1943, for example, consisted of six people; a French-speaking woman of Prussian extraction, who was the guard for the women interned by the German authorities, an Adjutant, an interpreter, a warrant officer, and two Austrians. Four German soldiers were seen cycling to the prison at 22.00 hours each evening. They were armed with submachine guns and one machine gun. They left the prison at 06.00 hours every morning.
8: Pickard did not ‘lead’ the raid
The traditional belief is that Gp Capt Pickard, flying ‘F-Freddie’, headed the raid. This is completely wrong, and surviving RAF records confirm this. Air Vice-Marshal Basil Embry had planned to lead the raid, but was ‘grounded’ by Air Marshal Trafford Leigh Mallory. Embry chose Group Captain Charles Pickard DSO (with 2 bars) and DFC to ‘lead’ the raid. However, a last minute change to the bombing instructions led Pickard to place himself at the back of the second attack wave – the 12th man. At the last minute, the instructions for the third attack wave were changed from backing up the first waves in breaking down the walls, to: ‘In the event of failure (by previous waves) it was requested of the crews that the whole of the building be bombed.’ This effectively meant that any idea of releasing prisoners was abandoned and that the aim was now to totally destroy the prison. This would have meant a huge increase in loss of life. Not wishing to delegate such an important decision, Pickard wanted to be in the best position to observe the attacks of the first two waves - the last man over the prison and make the decision whether or not 110 www.britainatwar.com
ABOVE, RIGHT & BELOW
The scenes of destruction at Amiens prison after the infamous raid.
obliterate the prison himself. Flying at the rear of the formation would put him at greatest risk of being ‘picked-off’ by fighters. On the raid itself, the pilot of the Film Production Unit Mosquito, Flt Lt Tony Wickham, cancelled the third wave’s attack.
9: Pickard did not bomb the prison Gp Capt Pickard was flying at the rear of the six Mosquitos of the second
wave. The first wave was running three minutes late, after missing a turning point, and the second wave were too close behind to allow the first attack to be completed before making its own run. The bombs – fused for an 11 second delay – would explode as the second wave passed over the prison and risk bringing them down. So, to lose time, a 360-degree circuit was flown south of Route d’Albert, while the first wave bombed.
AMIENS JAIL RAID | WORLD WAR TWO Mosquito ‘F for Freddy’, flown by Pickard, had dropped slightly behind the other five Mosquitos in the circuit. Some distance behind Pickard’s Mosquito, a FW190 dropped below the cloud cover its pilot had been lurking in. When Feldwebel Wilhelm Mayer emerged from the cloud, he spotted a small group of Mosquitos flying at high speed along the route d’Albert. Naturally, he selected the last and nearest aircraft in the formation to ‘pick-off’. At 12.04 hours his quarry made a sharp turn away from the prison towards Querrieu-Fréchencourt, closely followed by Mayer. The gap closed, but the Mosquito took no evasive manoeuvres and simply carried on flying straight and level. Having spotted the fighter behind, Pickard’s only option was to jettison his bombs and open his throttles in an attempt to out-run his pursuer. To weave would have slowed him down and to present an easier target; to climb would have slowed him even further and would again have made him an easy target. Jacques Bruaux, a farm labourer, looked up at the sound of aircraft engines. He saw an aircraft coming from the south pursued by another and heard the sound of gunfire. Jacques looked on in amazement as the aircraft in front lost its tail and disintegrated; the two sections tumbled and turned in the sky. The tail spiralled down and was later found crumpled on a shallow slope. The front section of the Mosquito reared up slightly then plummeted down at high-speed. On impact the spinning propeller blades thrashed the ground wildly, sending up flurries of snow and soil, before they smashed onto the frozen surface. The forward section, containing the bodies of Pickard and Broadley, disintegrated and caught fire.
The timing and circumstances of the combat show that Pickard never even reached the prison.
10: Why did the RAF bomb the prison?
The RAF ‘Legend’ of releasing 120 doomed Resistance fighters was created by the British Intelligence services and distributed by newspapers many months after the event – after D-Day. Having proved that the story has no basis in fact, one is left asking: ‘Why go to all that trouble to bomb a prison?’ It is Dr Ducellier’s belief that the bombing was part of a deception plan to ensure the German XV Army stayed in the Pas de Calais, even after the Normandy landings took place. In the event, the XV Army were kept in the Pas de Calais region until mid July, still awaiting the expected second wave of Allied landings there. In order to persuade German Intelligence that there would be a second invasion front, British Intelligence needed to convince the Germans that they had a credible source of information. This source had to pass on to them verifiable facts, and be totally convincing. From a British perspective, and three quarters of a century on, it is difficult to see how bombing the prison could help. But consider what might have happened had the tables been turned. In the summer of 1940 – at the height of the German threat to invade Britain – 18 German bombers attack a British prison – let’s say Wormwood Scrubs, London. 100 prisoners are killed, many others escape. British Intelligence Officers are at a loss to explain why such a deliberate precision attack took place and are seeking answers. A double agent
ABOVE
The damage inside the prison.
BELOW LEFT
An RAF airman and French civilian tend the graves of Gp Capt Pickard and Flt Lt Broadley at the war's end.
provides the answer, straight from Berlin; a German agent was in the prison with details of the invasion plan – he had to be silenced at all costs. Do you believe your double agent – and what he subsequently tells you? Whatever the truth of the matter, one thing is certain. And that is that the true reason for the raid was most certainly not as later presented. Frustratingly, and perhaps conveniently, no official files seem to exist to even partly explain the mystery of Ramrod 564.
READER OFFER 'The Amiens Raid' by J P Ducellier (Edited by Simon W Parry) is published by Red Kite and available at £40.00 direct from www.redkitebooks.co.uk ISBN: 978-0-9554735-2-4 (Postage and packaging free to UK customers only)
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GREAT WAR GALLANTRY
September 1917
GREAT WAR GALLANTRY September 1917 Throughout the First World War, the many announcements of British and Commonwealth gallantry awards appeared in the various issues of The London Gazette.. As part of our major monthly series covering the period of the Great War commemorations, we examine some of the actions involved and summarise all of the awards announced in September 1917.
RIGHT
Captain Noel Godfrey Chavasse VC, MC.
BELOW
Surviving German bunkers at Wieltje, in the approximate area where Chavasse had established the Regimental Aid Post in which he was mortally wounded.
T
HE PAGES of The London Gazette of 14 September 1917 contained a very rare announcement – the award of a Bar to the Victoria Cross. It was only the second time that such an event had occurred. The recipient was Captain Noel Godfrey Chavasse, VC, MC. A runner who had competed in the 1908 Olympic Games, Noel Chavasse had studied medicine at Oxford University. He joined the university’s Officers’ Training Corps Medical Unit and after further studies at Liverpool College resulted in his registration as a doctor, in 1913 he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps. He was attached to the 10th Battalion King’s Regiment (Liverpool), known as the Liverpool Scottish.
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Chavasse’s first award of the Victoria Cross was for his actions at Guillemont, France, on 9 August 1916, when he attended to the wounded all day under heavy fire. His Bar, however, was the result of his work at Passchendaele. On 31 July 1917, as the great offensive aimed at pushing the Germans back from the Belgian coast began, the Liverpool Scottish attacked the German positions opposite Wieltje. The battalion took its objective and moved its headquarters to Bossaert Farm. It was close by, at Setques Farm, that Chavasse set up his Regimental Aid Post in a
GREAT WAR GALLANTRY September 1917
GALLANTRY AWARDS GAZETTED IN SEPTEMBER 1917 Victoria Cross Distinguished Service Order Distinguished Service Cross Military Cross Distinguished Flying Cross* Air Force Cross* Distinguished Conduct Medal Conspicuous Gallantry Medal Distinguished Service Medal Military Medal Distinguished Flying Medal* Air Force Medal* Total
21 171 28 1,420 114 36 3,119 4,909
* Indicates an award that has not yet been instituted. Mentions in Despatches are not included.
captured German dug-out or bunker. It was as Chavasse was standing up and gesturing to soldiers to indicate the location of the aid post that he was hit by a shell splinter. Though the seriousness of the wound has since been debated, he was able to walk back to the dressing station at the Wieltje dug-out. There he was advised to wait until he could be taken to the casualty clearing station for proper treatment. Chavasse, however, chose to ignore this advice, claiming that there was no-one who could take his place up at the front. After the sun had set, Chavasse went out, as was his custom, to search for the wounded. Though what had been No Man’s Land at the time of the
attack was now in British hands the ground was continually swept by a German artillery bombardment. Having spent the night looking for the wounded, the next day, 1 August, saw Chavasse back at his post dealing with the queue of wounded that waited in the pouring rain for treatment. At one point, Chavasse was nearly hit by a shell which flew past him and down the stairs of the aid post, killing a man who was waiting to be carried away by the Field Ambulance. It may have been the case that Chavasse was wounded a second time in this incident, as one report says that he was wounded three times before he received his final, and fatal wound. The official history of the Liverpool Scottish supports this, stating that Chavasse was wounded again in the head and that from then onwards he was in intense pain – but this did not stop him from continuing to help others. This included Captain Owtram: ‘An hour later he [Chavasse] reappeared with stretcher-bearers drawn from the Pioneer Corps. They were Welsh miners whose peacetime labours can scarcely have been more arduous than that of carrying human bodies across a thousand yards, at least, of shellpitted ground now being turned into a morass by the rain that was falling steadily. Their supply of epithets to
describe the situation was copious and I felt with them, if not for them, as they slipped and slithered across the slimy and treacherous ground.’ Night came and as Chavasse sat in the lower room of the dug-out (which may actually have been a bunker) of his aid post another shell struck. Everyone inside the post was either killed outright or seriously wounded. Chavasse was struck by four or five shell fragments or splinters, the worst left a gaping hole in his abdomen from which he bled profusely. He managed to drag himself up the stairs and out onto the road to Wieltje.
TOP LEFT
Another view of surviving German bunkers at Wieltje. MIDDLE LEFT
An engraved pocket watch that was presented to Captain Noel Chavasse VC & Bar, MC, prior to his death. It was previously on display in the Liverpool Scottish Regimental Museum, but when this institution closed in 2009, it was transferred to the Army Medical Services Museum.
LEFT
Captain Noel Chavasse VC & Bar, MC, MB’s grave in Brandhoek New Military Cemetery, roughly four miles west of Ypres on the road to Poperinge. The cemetery contains 530 Commonwealth burials of the First World War and 28 German war graves.
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GREAT WAR GALLANTRY
September 1917
RUNNING TOTAL OF
GALLANTRY AWARDS AS OF THE END OF SEPTEMBER 1917 Victoria Cross Distinguished Service Order Distinguished Service Cross Military Cross Distinguished Flying Cross Air Force Cross Distinguished Conduct Medal Conspicuous Gallantry Medal Distinguished Service Medal Military Medal Distinguished Flying Medal Air Force Medal Total TOP RIGHT
The memorial paving stone commemorating Chavasse which is located outside St Peter’s College in New Inn Hall Street, Oxford.
(COURTESY OF STEVE DANIELS; WWW. GEOGRAPH.ORG)
335 5,852 791 19,256 14,310 67 2,201 70,963 113,775
He stumbled across a dug-out occupied by an officer of the Loyal North Lancs., and was then taken to the Potizje Aid Post. There he was seen by Captain Arthur Martin-Leake, the first man to ever be awarded a Bar to his Victoria Cross. Only three men have ever been awarded the Victoria Cross twice and by a strange coincidence the first two found themselves at the same place at the same time.
RIGHT
A view of the model of the bronze memorial depicting Captain Noel Chavasse VC & Bar, MC, which, created by sculptor Tom Murphy, can be seen in Abercrombie Square in Liverpool. Unveiled in 2008, the memorial commemorates Chavasse and the other men from Liverpool who were awarded the Victoria Cross.
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Chavasse’s condition was recorded by an American doctor, J.A.C. Colston, who was helping Martin-Leake: ‘An ambulance came up late tonight and in it was Captain Chavasse, VC, RAMC, of the King’s Liverpool Battalions of the 55th Division. His face was unrecognizable, all blacked from a shell burst very near and he seemed to be unconscious.’ Chavasse was moved on to the 32nd Casualty Clearing Station at
Brandhoek, between Poperinghe and Ypres. There he was operated on, all the shell fragments being removed and his abdomen repaired. But it was all to no avail. At 01.00 hours on 4 August 1917, Captain Noel Chavasse died of his wounds. He was the only double VC recipient of the First World War. Amongst the twenty other men awarded the Victoria Cross in September 1917 was Sergeant Ivor Rees, another recipient of the first day
GREAT WAR GALLANTRY September 1917
MIDDLE LEFT
A portrait of Sergeant Ivor Rees. LEFT
Corporal Leslie Wilton Andrew being awarded the VC by the King in Glasgow.
of the Battle of Passchendaele. Serving in the 11th Battalion, South Wales Borderers, part of the 115th Brigade, 38th (Welsh) Division, Rees was one of those in the fighting at Pilckem on 31 July 1917: ‘An enemy machine-gun inflicted many casualties when it opened fire at close range. Sergeant Rees, leading his platoon, gradually worked his way round the right flank, by making short rushes, to the rear of the gun position. At 20 yards from the machine-gun, Sergeant Rees rushed forward towards it, shooting one of the crew, and bayoneting the other. He bombed a large concrete emplacement, killing five of the enemy and taking 30 prisoners, including two officers and capturing a machine-gun undamaged.’ During the Passchendaele offensive, sixty-one men were adjudged to have performed deeds worthy of the award of the Victoria Cross. Men from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa were among their number, alongside individuals from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. One of the New Zealanders was Corporal Leslie Wilton Andrew. The New Zealand History website provides an account of his actions: ‘Following the successful Allied attack at Messines in June 1917, the Germans launched a number of counter-attacks, only to lose more ground. On 27 July, the New Zealand 1st Brigade captured the tiny village of La Basseville, a few kilometres south-east of Messines, but were driven out soon after. The New Zealanders suffered serious casualties
during these actions, many from a German machine-gun post in a twostorey inn. ‘On 31 July, the New Zealanders attacked La Basseville once again. The 1st Auckland Battalion was to hit the German defences while 2nd Wellington [which included Andrew] was to take the village and establish positions there. Shortly before 4 a.m. the New Zealanders began advancing behind an artillery barrage. Leslie Andrew led two sections sent to destroy the machine-gun position in the inn. As they moved forward, they saw that another machine gun on the nearby railway line was holding up other New Zealand troops. They rushed the position, killed the crew and captured the gun before turning back to their original objective. Approaching the inn from the side, the New Zealanders crawled through thistles to within striking distance. They threw in grenades and then stormed the position, killing some of the Germans and capturing a second machine gun. ‘While his men carried back the captured guns, Andrew and Private L.R. Ritchie scouted the area and found another machine gun in a trench. The two men rushed this position, throwing grenades and clearing it before returning to their company. ‘For his bravery and leadership during the attack, 20-year-old Leslie Andrew was awarded the Victoria Cross. The citation reported that ‘Corporal Andrew’s conduct throughout was un-exampled for cool daring, initiative and fine leadership, and his magnificent example was a great stimulant to his comrades.’
ABOVE John Skinner was an Acting Company Sergeant Major in 1st
Battalion, The King’s Own Scottish Borderers when, on 18 August 1917 at Wijdendrift in Belgium, he undertook the actions for which he was awarded the VC in September 1917: ‘Whilst his company was attacking, machine gun fire opened on the left flank, delaying the advance. Although C.S./M. Skinner was wounded in the head, he collected six men, and with great courage and determination worked round the left flank of three blockhouses from which the machine gun fire was coming, and succeeded in bombing and taking the first blockhouse single-handed; then, leading his six men towards the other two blockhouses, he skilfully cleared them, taking sixty prisoners, three machine guns, and two trench mortars. The dash and gallantry displayed by this warrant officer enabled the objective to be reached and consolidated.’
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LORD ASHCROFT'S "HERO OF THE MONTH"
Private George Imlach McIntosh VC
Private
LORD ASHCROFT'S "HERO OF THE MONTH"
George Imlach McIntosh
VC
AGGRESSION BOLDNESS • INITIATIVE LEADERSHIP • SACRIFICE SKILL • ENDURANCE
The many Victoria Crosses and George Crosses in the Lord Ashcroft Gallery at the Imperial War Museum in London are displayed under one of seven different qualities of bravery. Private George McIntosh’s award is part of the collection and Lord Ashcroft feels that it falls within the category of aggression: “For many actions killing is the means to the end. To prevail, maximum force has to be applied. Aggression is invariably fast and adrenalin fuelled. It epitomises the idea of ‘hot courage’, acting quickly in the mayhem of battle..”
RIGHT
A Portrait of George Imlach McIntosh TOP RIGHT
British troops crossing the Yser Canal at Boezinge, near the area in which McIntosh and his colleagues fought, on 31 July 1917. The condition of the ground that day was appalling, the movement of the infantry being seriously handicapped by mud, which made it almost impossible for them to move out of a walk.
(US LIBRARY OF CONGRESS)
G
EORGE IMLACH McIntosh was born in Rathven, Banffshire, on 22 April 1897. He was the son of Alexander McIntosh, a fisherman, and his wife, Mary. As a young boy, he lived in Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, and attended Fraserburgh Academy. In 1910, his family moved to Buckie, Banffshire, and McIntosh became apprenticed to Tom Jones & Son, a local wood merchant. Soon after beginning his apprenticeship, he
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worked on the Cluny Dock extension “For most conspicuous bravery to Buckie harbour. As a teenager, he when, during the consolidation of a was a keen footballer and played for position, his Company came under Buckie Thistle FC. machine gun fire at close range. In 1913, McIntosh joined the 6th Pte. McIntosh immediately rushed Battalion, Gordon Highlanders forward under heavy fire, and, (Territorial Force). On the outbreak reaching the emplacement, he threw of hostilities in August 1914, he was a Mill’s Grenade into it, killing two serving in Tom Jones & Son’s sawmill of the enemy and wounding a third. and, despite being only 17, was quickly mobilised. He arrived with his unit in France on 10 November 1914 and went into the line on 6 December. Subsequently, he saw action at many of the major battles including Neuve Chapelle, Festubert, Givenchy, Loos and the Somme. Early on in the conflict, he suffered from trench-foot, which forced his evacuation, but he soon returned to the front line. However, it was on the opening day of the Third Battle of Ypres that Private McIntosh showed such outstanding bravery that he was awarded the VC. The citation for his decoration described the role of McIntosh, ABOVE Men of the Gordon Highlanders on their way to by then aged 20, in fierce fighting the front in 1914. Pictured in Plymouth, the individual on north of St Julien, Belgium on 31 horseback is Colonel William Eagleson Gordon VC, CBE. McIntosh did not arrive in France until 1916. July 1917:
LORD ASHCROFT'S "HERO OF THE MONTH" Private George Imlach McIntosh VC
VICTORIA CROSS HEROES II Lord Ashcroft KCMG PC is a businessman, philanthropist, author and pollster. His sixth book on gallantry, Victoria Cross Heroes Volume II, was published in November. For more information, please visit: www. victoriacrossheroes2.com Lord Ashcroft’s VC and GC collection is on public display at Imperial War Museum, London. For more information visit: www.iwm.org. uk/heroes. For details about his VC collection, visit: www. lordashcroftmedals.com For more information on Lord Ashcroft’s work, visit: www. lordashcroft.com. Follow him on Twitter: @LordAshcroft
Subsequently, entering the dug-out, he found two light machine guns, which he carried back with him. His quick grasp of the situation and the utter fearlessness and rapidity with which he acted, undoubtedly saved many of his comrades and enabled the consolidation to proceed unhindered by machine gun fire. Throughout the day the cheerfulness and courage of Pte McIntosh was indomitable, and to his fine example, in a great measure, was due the success which attended his Company.” Hic VC was announced in The London Gazette on 6 September 1917. Just six days later, he returned to the UK on leave and, on 13 September, he arrived unannounced at his parents’ home in Buckie. After word spread of his VC and his homecoming, he was presented with a purse of fifty gold sovereigns by his pre-war employer. Such was his new hero status that further gifts soon followed. McIntosh received his VC from King George V in an investiture at Ibrox Park, Glasgow, on 18 September 1917. In an apparent attempt to prevent him facing further extreme danger, he was appointed as the batman to a senior field officer. However, he made it clear that he preferred to serve with
his battalion and he soon resumed his front line duties with the Gordon Highlanders. McIntosh survived the rest of the war and, after being demobbed, returned to Buckie where he worked as a herring runner for Thomson & Brown, a local fish sales company. In July 1919, he moved back to Fraserburgh where, in the post-war depression, his jobs included working as the groundsman at Buckie bowls club. On 27 April 1923, McIntosh got married in Elgin, Morayshire, to Alexandrina Sutherland, and the couple went on to have a son and a daughter. On 1 July 1939, McIntosh was appointed the janitor and groundsman of Buckie High School. As the Second World War dawned, McIntosh tried to rejoin his old regiment but he was too old, at 42, to be accepted as an infantryman. On 26 August 1939, he was mobilised into the RAF and thus played a role in the Second World War, although this time away from the front line. From 1940-1, he served as Flight Sergeant in charge of ground defences at RAF St Eval, Cornwall. In 1941, he was appointed as Station Warrant Officer at Reykjavik, Iceland. During this service, he was attached to HMS Manilla, a maintenance ship running between Iceland and Archangel, Russia. On one voyage, the ship was attacked and set on fire by enemy bombs. Although a number of crew were preparing to abandon ship, McIntosh showed both bravery and leadership in persuading them to remain at their posts and help put out the fires that threatened the petrol tanks. For his actions, he was Mentioned in Despatches. During the Second World War, McIntosh also served at various RAF fighter stations in the UK, including Manston, Kent, and Coltishall in Norfolk. In 1945, he was demobbed at
Ludham, Norfolk, and returned to his pre-war school janitor’s job. In 1955, McIntosh was made a Freeman of the Royal Borough of Buckie. In 1956 he attended the VC centenary celebrations in London, and four years later, in February 1960, he took a day off from his job to become the first and only “ranker” in the history of his regiment to take the salute at a passing out parade. Later the same year, he encountered serious health problems, including a series of heart attacks which resulted in two operations. McIntosh died in Woodend Hospital, Aberdeen, on 20 June 1960, aged 63. Four days later, hundreds of mourners attended his funeral when he was buried at the New Cemetery, Buckie, with full military honours. There is a portrait in his honour at the Gordon Highlanders Museum in Aberdeen. I become the proud custodian of McIntosh’s medal group in 1996 when I purchased it at a Spink auction in London. This summer I loaned this splendid medal group to the Gordon Highlanders Museum in Aberdeen to mark the centenary of McIntosh’s VC action.
TOP LEFT
George McIntosh's VC medal group.
LEFT
Private McIntosh, ‘C’ Company 6th Battalion, Gordon Highlanders, is presented with the Victoria Cross by King George V. BELOW
General Sir Ivor Maxse (GOC 18th Corps) presenting medal ribbons to men of the 51st (Highland) Division for acts of gallantry undertaken on 31 July. The ceremony took place at School Camp, St. Janster Biezen, on 21 August 1917.
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militaria Craig Leonard’s
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Home Front Collectables In all the areas of Second World War militaria, why collect British Home Front? Some view it as less appealing than more gung-ho military collectables, such as small arms or special forces items - but that, in the eyes of Home Front collectors, is rather short-sighted says Austin J Ruddy. The ordinary, and many not so ordinary, varied objects from the Home Front portray and exude the highs and lows of the British people during six long years of war - from the deprivations of rationing and the bombing of the Blitz to the cheery songs and elegant fashions. And, after more than 30 years’ collecting, I’m still finding fascinating new items and enhancing my understanding of what many of us consider the most important period in Britain’s history. When I was growing up, every older person seemed to have lived through the Second World War, all with their own interesting stories. My grandmother recounted tales of dark nights sitting in her Anderson shelter in Queensbury, London, as bombs flattened neighbouring homes. She also knew a woman who, 50 years on, still ‘bled’ glass from being hit by a blast-shattered window. In this, the first of three articles (the ARP and Home Guard to follow) we take an introductory look at some of the main areas of Home Front collecting.
DOUBLED IN PRICE
In the 1970s and ’80s, Home Front memorabilia could be picked up at junk shops, car boot sales and street markets at very affordable 'pocket-money' prices. It was viewed by many militaria dealers as near worthless. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one given wry smiles by bemused dealers when asking for Home Front collectables. Within a decade, those same smiles evaporated as the market turned and dealers scrambled to find such stock to sell. In 1990, with the 50th anniversary of the Blitz, greater media focus on the Home Front, in books, magazines and television, drew attention to the subject and its associated memorabilia. Prices and collecting grew. Dealers, such as Roger Miles, David Beeby, David Farnsworth and Merlins specialised in Home Front collectables, publishing catalogues and standing at militaria fairs, from London’s famous Camden Passage militaria market, Birmingham Motorcycle Museum
ABOVE Wartime sheet music is a popular and collectable home-front item. LEFT During the Second World War, everyone had one! Now, Ration Books are collectables.
and Shoreham Aeromart, to the larger Stoneleigh Militaria and the War and Peace Show. There seems to have been a peak interest in the Home Front around 2000, following Channel 4’s 1940s House series, drawing in many new collectors and re-enactors, and particularly women. Items such as women’s clothing and Women’s Land Army memorabilia, previously
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ABOVE & ABOVE RIGHT Wartime posters are highly collectable, but value
depends on condition.
RIGHT The public were encouraged to grow their own food where possible. this is a wartime guide for allotment holders.
relatively affordable, suddenly doubled in price. As one female re-enactor told me: “Women pay over £100 for a pair of new shoes without much problem, so why wouldn’t they pay that for a pair of genuine, stylish 1940s heels?”
HOME FRONT POSTERS
Perhaps the most colourful, stylish and eye-catching aspects of the Home Front were the many hundreds of posters produced. All government ministries generated their propaganda with the help of posters, designed by top artists. The fact that their numerous slogans, from ‘Careless Talk Costs Lives’ to ‘Is Your Journey Necessary?’ are still widely known, almost 80 years later, proves their efficacy. Sought out not only by militaria collectors but also art and design aficionados, the price of genuine posters has rocketed, varying from £35 to well over £1,000 for the more famous designs. Watch for reproduction copies, though! In 1976, the Marshall Cavendish part-work ‘The War Papers’ included reproduction war posters. Today, with 40 years of ageing, they are sometimes sold as originals. Look out for the serrated top and bottom trimming, the differing print, paper quality and size.
FINEST HOUR COLLECTABLES
It may have been just three months in our nation’s long history, but the Battle of Britain is arguably our most important and decisive episode since 1066. As a result, it is hotly-collected, particularly amongst RAF collectors. However, it is still possible to find relatively affordable items that typify the battle. A small lucky horseshoe ceramic calendar, bearing a line from Churchill’s tribute to The Few, can be bought for £50-£100.
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Check for damage, and that all the date cards are present. A souvenir bell, bearing a victory ‘V’ and the profiles of Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt, bears an inscription claiming it to be made from the alloy of crashed Luftwaffe aircraft – although there is some thought it is actually aluminium from the thousands of tons of salvaged pots and pans! Perhaps confirming this, another version of the bell carries no inscribed claim on it. These sell for £30-£60. Finally, a polished aluminium ash tray, ‘made from a Rolls Royce Merlin engine piston as used in the Battle of Britain’, bearing the RAF crest and a line from Churchill’s Few speech, sells for £75-£120.
CHURCHILL RELATED PIECES
ABOVE This bell, supposedly made from the metal of aircraft downed during the Battle of Britain, is another sought-after home front collectable. BELOW 'Dig For Victory' was the campaign aimed at encouraging all to grown their own vegetables. This is one of campaign leaflets. BELOW RIGHT 'Hitler's Terror' was this amusing porcelain Churchill Bulldog
ornament.
Decorative objects were also produced to spur morale and boost export revenue. Comparatively plain due to wartime restrictions, nonetheless, these wares still look good on a mantelpiece or desk. The ceramic caricature of Churchill, produced by the Bovey Pottery, was one of a series of figures, but due to its mass-production is the most commonly found. In good condition, it sells for £55-£100. Check there is a printed maker’s mark on his right foot and that Winnie’s cigar has not been chipped off! Another favourite is a canine interpretation of Churchill, portraying the premier’s bulldog spirit. Wearing a helmet marked ‘Hitler’s Terror’, the figure is usually green, sometimes with gold highlights. It retails for £50-£120. Not intentionally designed, but a positive from a negative, following the bombing of the House of Commons’ debating chamber on 10 May 1941, enterprising fundraisers for the Red Cross reworked the rubble into everything from birdbaths to paperweights, bearing a pictorial seal made from the lead roof. Dependent on the piece, prices vary from £25 to over £100 for larger items.
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DIGGING FOR VICTORY
If you’re stuck for what to have for supper, you’d have really struggled in the war. The introduction of rationing in 1940 limited the availability of food stuffs, right up until 1954. However, the nation wasn’t completely left in the lurch; official and unofficial advice was provided to keep Britain fed, producing a wide variety of ephemera. Ration books sell for between £5-£10, official War Cookery leaflets for £5-£10 and wartime cookery books for £5-£25. The war effort on the Home Front even extended to your back garden. Spades became weapons in the battle for food. Instead of flowers, gardeners planted vegetables. And to help even the most white-fingered of gardeners, official and unofficial advice was published. Experts such as C H Middleton became Generals in this Dig For Victory battle. As well as a series of 26 leaflets issued by the Ministry of Agriculture, a variety of commercial booklets were produced – and much of their advice still holds true! They vary between £5-£20.
CLOTHES, ENTERTAINMENT AND WIRELESS
A climax of the stylish Art Deco decades of the 1920s and ’30s, despite the nihilism of the war years, the 1940s remained highly creative and BELOW Another period Churchill souvenir was this porcelain model of the Prime Minister. BELOW RIGHT Once considered junk, these wartime utility radio sets are also
now collectable items.
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fashionable, as exemplified in clothing. This is a broad area of collecting in itself, from men’s wide-lapelled pinstripe suits to colourful women’s dresses and all items of clothing in between. Clothes rationing from 1941, austerity and utility, plus ‘make do and mend’, also add further interesting style variations. Beware of re-enactor reproductions or film props, though, sometimes sold as original wartime clothing. Care should be taken with original items to guard against wear and moth damage. Dresses vary greatly in price, ranging from £40-£300. For reference material, or even framed decorations, wartime magazines are affordable collectables. Periodicals, such as the excellent Picture Post, with its high-quality photographic spreads, sell for £5-£10. Meanwhile, songwriters, comedians and other artistes also did their bit in the vital battle of morale. A plethora of new songs were composed, initially about the war, but as the conflict intensified, featuring lighter escapism. Colourful songsheets sell for between £1-£10. Radio, or wireless broadcasting, was great family entertainment. Pre-war radios were prevalent but from 1944, a utility set, made by several companies to a specified economy design, was produced. Today, they retail between £50-£150, depending on condition. It is best to get an electrician to test the wiring, though! Also, check the fibreboard backing is still attached, as is the gold economy decal on the top. As with all areas of collecting - not just militaria - since 2000 it is a fact that fairs and static shops have dwindled. The focus is now internet-based. Individual webshops or international online auctions sell Home Front items. This increases the accessibility to these objects, but the buyer must rely on the seller’s sometimes selective descriptions and photography: as always, caveat emptor are wise watchwords: if something appears dubious, it often is. Despite its popularity, you can count on one hand the books published specifically about Home Front memorabilia. Shared knowledge, on internet forums or in person, is useful, although history books on the Home Front and wartime photographs provide many clues and background information for the collector. As our oft-dubbed ‘greatest generation’ now passes on, stories and objects from the Home Front are gaining significance. Collecting Home Front memorabilia, from a simple ration book to an eye-catching poster, is collecting and preserving an important and poignant symbol from our past by encapsulating the spirit, struggle and eventual victory of Britain at war.
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Phil Jarman reveals the artist’s story.
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LOST BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
Tragically lost in a dramatic rescue mission off the Icelandic coast in 1942, War Artist Eric Ravilious still leaves a creative legacy today.
ART OF WAR | ERIC RAVILIOUS
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A
s a renowned artist who was regarded as one of the most accomplished watercolourists of the Twentieth Century, Eric Ravilious was tragically lost in the prime of his creative career during the Second World War. Known for his ‘Englishness’, and love of the countryside, Ravilious enjoyed life to the full. Painting, printmaking, designing ceramics and book illustration were all combined with his passion for dancing, sport and socialising. He was also renowned for being a habitual whistler. Ravilious was the opposite temperamentally to many of his artistic contemporaries, he reflected his up-beat and cheerful personality in the methods he used to create artwork and the way he worked with people from all walks of life. His enthusiasm to fully engage in the moment, possibly led to his untimely death when trying to assist in spotting a missing aircrew in his final act of compassion in 1942. His commission to become an Official War Artist was perhaps not envisaged by an enthusiastic Ravilious, as he painted and made prints of the gently undulating farmland and landscapes of rural Sussex and Essex in the pre-war years. Growing up in Eastbourne, East Sussex, the young artist was awarded a scholarship at the town’s School of Art, before continuing his studies at the Royal College of Art in the 1920s. At the RCA, Ravilious became a close friend of painter Edward Bawden whom he subsequently collaborated
ERIC RAVILIOUS | ART OF WAR
with on a number of creative projects in later years. One of his greatest influences was his tutor at the RCA, Paul Nash, who introduced Ravilious to wood engraving. This particular image-making technique enabled the artist to develop an unusual personal style incorporating delicate marks, complex patterns and subtle tonal effects, which were evident in his ensuing commissions throughout his sadly truncated career. Following graduation from the RCA, Ravilious with his new wife and fellow printmaker, Tirzah Garwood, moved from their home in Hammersmith and joined Bawden in Essex where the artists worked together to record pastoral scenes and landscapes. The style adopted by Ravilious was to capture the quiet and calm of the rural views and ordinary people going about their business. Evident in much of the artist’s work was an absence of detail when depicting the human form, often faces lacked clarity or possessed a simplification of facial features. In his watercolours, Ravilious softened and smoothed lines and contours, slightly abstracting the detail of the humans recorded within his paintings. Alternatively, when employing the refined cutting tools he used when wood engraving, the artist achieved greater detail and intricate marks within this particular type of outcome. Familiar to many cricket lovers, the wood engraving depicting a
ABOVE LEFT
Aircraft circling around their carrier, HMS Glorious. Shortly after Ravilious recorded this scene, the ship was sunk with a cost of over 1,200 lives. ABOVE
batsman and wicketkeeper from the Nineteenth Century has adorned the cover of the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack since 1938, this image has virtually been ever-present since it’s creation by Ravilious. A prolific illustrator, Ravilious produced over 400 engravings and lithographs for books and publications during his short career, commissions coming from a variety of sources. Often, he returned to the South Downs and familiar coastal areas to capture visual material for his work. Ravilious continued to paint in watercolours, in many of his compositions he concentrated on the man-made influence on the environment, the structures, buildings, machinery, fences and pylons that contrast with the rolling hills and rural
scenes. His soft colour palette, subtle use of pale greens, blues and greys and often white paper showing through the pigment resulted in his paintings being applauded by collectors and art critics throughout the century. His compositions encompassed an air of calmness and tranquillity and were typical of artwork from the interwar years, with a traditional style combining with modernist undertones and influences. It was probably this aspect of the artist’s work that led him to be commissioned as an Official War Artist in late 1939. Awarded the rank of Honorary Captain with the Royal Marines, Ravilious was assigned to the Admiralty and in early 1940 he reported to the naval base at Chatham. There, he painted the dockyard
Combining the artist’s celebration of the British landscape and his fascination with machines, a De Havilland Tiger Moth makes a low pass close to an airfield in 1942. LEFT
Spitfires at the ready, recorded at Sawbridgeworth in Hertfordshire in early 1942.
OVERLEAF
Aboard HMS Highlander, adorned in dazzle paint camouflage, as she leaves Scapa Flow for Norway in 1940.
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ART OF WAR | ERIC RAVILIOUS
ABOVE
One of the series of lithographs produced by Ravilious of submariners at the controls of their boat, this image from 1941 is typical of the artist’s subtle use of marks and colour. RIGHT
HMS Ark Royal in convoy as part of the mission to Narvik in Norway, captured in watercolour by Eric Ravilious in 1940.
scenes, barrage balloons and coastal defences and gun emplacements which were defending this key naval establishment. His duties led to him sailing with the Royal Navy from Scapa Flow in the spring of 1940 as the bid to recapture Narvik in Norway was attempted. Aboard HMS Highlander, Ravilious recorded the aircraft carriers HMS Ark Royal and HMS Glorious in action as they evacuated Allied forces from Norway in early June. Unfortunately, shortly afterwards, HMS Glorious was sunk in the North Sea by the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau with a loss of more than 1,200 lives. On his return from Norway, Ravilious was posted south to Portsmouth and whilst having access to the submarine base at Gosport he produced a number of paintings of the boats’ interiors, these images show clearly the conditions and mass of machinery operated in a confined space, typical of the life of submariners at the time. Spending some months along the south coast, the artist captured the coastal defences and naval dockyards
RIGHT
A collection of Wedgwood mugs, another strand of the varied work practised by Eric Ravilious, note the Coronation mug of 1953, produced after the artist’s death in his style.
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before moving to Scotland again where he painted convoys and the work at the air stations where he drew and also flew in rescue seaplanes such as the Supermarine Walrus. This taste for flying led to the enthusiastic artist taking to the skies in the rear cockpits of Tiger Moths as he sketched in-flight activity at air training schools based north of London shortly before his illfated transfer to the extreme outpost of RAF Kaldadarnes, near Reykjavik, Iceland, during August 1942. Shortly after his arrival, during a regular patrol on the 1 September, a Lockheed Hudson failed to return to base. The following day Ravilious joined the crew of one of three aircraft flying from the air station to search
were lost during the conflict including Albert Richards, who was killed as the jeep in which he was travelling hit a landmine in March 1945 as he recorded the work of the advancing Allied forces as they progressed into Germany. Also, Thomas Hennell who transferred from the European theatre of war to the Far East in 1945 where he witnessed the victory parade in Rangoon featuring Lord Mountbatten, before moving to Singapore where he attended the surrender of the Japanese forces. Following hostilities he went to Indonesia where the Nationalist fighters captured Java and where he was presumed lost in action during November 1945. Long after his death, the work of
for the missing airmen. Unfortunately, the aircraft carrying the artist and four crewmen was also lost and after further searches they were declared missing in action and presumed dead. No wreckage or bodies were ever recovered. Consequently, Ravilious was commemorated on the CWGC Naval Memorial, Chatham. Other notable British War artists
Eric Ravilious continued to be in the public eye and exhibitions of his numerous paintings and collections have been seen in a number of galleries, his designs for ceramics being adapted, posthumously, for the Queen’s Coronation mugs in 1953 and, of course, the Wisden yearbook depicting his famous woodcut which is still going strong after nearly 80 years.
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Aviation and Military art on canvas, acrylic, metal and wood. Gifts featuring the artwork on mobile phone cases, laptop covers, mugs, wallets, purses etc. Buying pictures is as simple as 1, 2, 3... 1. Choose your picture from our image galleries 2. Select canvas, metal, acrylic or wood print (or gift type) 3. Choose your picture size
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SOPWITH CAMEL | GREAT WAR
‘ACE’ Sopwith camel A photograph recently acquired by Chris Goss shows the wreckage of what was obviously a British aircraft but closer examination reveals the serial; B6358. This proves it to be a Bentley BR 1- powered Sopwith Camel, which turns out to be an aircraft with quite a history.
B
6358 was delivered to Dover on or about 6 October 1917 and then moved to the Seaplane Defence Flight at Dunkirk on 21 October 1917. On 4 December 1917, Flight Sub-Lt J R Greene shot down a kite balloon flying this aircraft, only for him to then get lost in fog and make a forcedlanding at Pitgam, nr. Dunkirk. The Camel was damaged, but repaired at Dunkirk and then transferred to 9 Naval Squadron at the end of January 1918. Flight Sub-Lt. M S Taylor shot down a German aircraft at Pervyse on 28 January 1918 in B6358, after which the aircraft transferred to 10 Naval Sqn in early February 1918. Flight Sub-Lt L P Coombes then shot down a Pfalz D.III at Menin on 24 March 1918 and then an Albatross D.V north of La Bassee on 9 April 1918 in B6358 (10 Sqn now being 210 Sqn RAF) but when being flown
by 2/Lt. C J Shackell on 21 April 1918, B6358 suffered an engine failure and force-landed, causing slight damage. With its damage repaired, on 20 June 1918 it was transferred to 213 Sqn at Bergues and on 7 July 1918, Lt. G D Smith was credited with a German aircraft off Wenduyne. However, the following month B6358’s career came to an end. Second Lieutenant Edmund Charles Toy was born on 26 July 1899 and was the only son of Edmund and Emily Toy from Ascot, Berkshire. On 25 August 1918, one month and one day after his 19th birthday, and whilst flying B6358, he was shot down by Flugmaat Christian Kairies of Seefrontstaffel 2, thus becoming the German naval aviator’s sixth victory of the war. The young RAF pilot attempted to make a forced-landing near Ichtegem, northern
Belgium, but clipped a tree just before touching down. Edmund Toy was killed in the resulting crash. It would appear from the photograph that Toy’s body must have been recovered from the wreckage, and his wicker basket-work seat is clearly visible. Strangely, however, he has no known grave and his name is recorded on the Air Forces Memorial at Arras. It can only be assumed that Toy was buried in a field grave which subsequently became lost in the mayhem of war. Kairies, meanwhile, would shoot down just one more aircraft before he himself was shot down by Lt. Clement Payton DFC of 210 Sqn. Kairies would die of his wounds the following day, 2 October 1918, which was also the day that his victor, Clement Payton, was himself shot down and killed.
BELOW
The wreck of B6358 as recorded by this German photograph.
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The First W
rld War in Objects
BODY ARMOUR NO.38
In 1914, the British Army soon found itself embroiled in a kind of warfare it had never expected to experience and was entirely unprepared for. The war of brilliant manoeuvres and great set-piece battles for which it had practised rapidly degenerated into a gruelling war of attrition; one in which constant shelling and small arms fire inflicted horrendous wounds on men clothed in soft uniforms with little head or body protection. As well as the introduction of the Brodie helmet in 1915, which entered general issue the following year, some thought was given to the protection of a soldier’s torso – after all, some 60% of wounds were reported to be to the extremities, with 20% to the head and neck, and the remaining 20% to the torso. Indeed, in 1915 and 1916, the British Army Design Committee investigated the provision of personal body armour for use in the trenches. In particular an evaluation was made for a ‘Body Shield for Bombers’. The Imperial War Museum notes that body armour, often referred to as a body shield at the time, was first tried in battle in 1915: ‘As far as British usage was concerned, [such equipment was] used mainly on an individual basis as it never became a universal issue (it is understood that only enough body armour was available to equip 2% of the Army). ‘Of the types used by British personnel, there were three main categories: Rigid “hard” armour (often comprising metal plates sandwiched between fabric and worn as a vest or waistcoat); Intermediate armour (various forms of small square plates of metal attached to a canvas support to form a protective waistcoat); Soft armour (made of layers of silk/cotton/tissue & linen scraps sandwiched in a fabric waistcoat). ‘All three general types had inherent problems: Rigid armour was heavy and thus uncomfortable and not practical to wear in the assault, whilst the separate metal links of the intermediate, if hit with sufficient energy, could embed in to the man’s body with the projectile, and the latter type, although sufficient to absorb the impact of low-velocity strikes (as intended), was rendered useless in wet weather when saturated.’ In the UK it is believed that there were no fewer than eighteen designs which were commercially produced for private purchase. It is one of those designs which is seen here. It was manufactured by, or for, the wellknown London military outfitters, J.G Plumb & Son and, as the name marked on the label indicates, was worn by one R.F. Wilkinson. ABOVE A British soldier pictured wearing a Franco-British Cuirass. RIGHT The private purchase body armour manufactured by military outfitters J.G Plumb & Son. FAR RIGHT An advert for ‘The Bullet-Proof Jacket’ by the Wilkinson Sword Co. The advert appeared in The Morning Post of Monday 26 June 1916.
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