Innehållsförteckning för Issue 12 från Iron Cross

The Messerschmitt 410 ‘Hornisse’ (Hornet) was a German heavy fighter and Schnellbomber which was created through an incremental improvement of the Messerschmitt 210. The ‘remodelled’ aircraft was given a new wing planform, longer fuselage and engines of greater power. The changes were significant enough for the aircraft to be renamed the Messerschmitt 410. Development of the Messerschmitt 210 had been underway since 1939, but the aircraft proved unstable and was not considered for full-scale production. Modifications produced the Messerschmitt 210C and 210D, which proved somewhat superior. As studies progressed on the Messerschmitt 210D, and with separate parallel attempts to improve on the 210 with the Messerschmitt 310 in the second half of 1943 — which provided almost no improvement over the 210’s risky handling qualities — it was instead decided…

All images via author unless otherwise credited. (Red Kite) When a Heinkel 111 H-5 of 9/KG76 was brought down at Bendish House, Whitwell, Hertfordshire, on the night of 8/9 April 1941, while en-route to attack Coventry, it was not a particularly notable event for this period of the Luftwaffe’s night ‘Blitz’ against Britain. As usual, an investigating officer from the RAF’s technical intelligence section, A.I.(g), poked and prodded around the meagre wreckage left behind after the aircraft had plunged into the ground. And, as usual, the investigating officer commented on the engines, armaments, bomb racks, bullet holes, markings etc. The report he eventually filed did not generally reveal any points of specific interest when compared to those relating to other similar aircraft that had come under investigation by A.I.(g) around…

King Tiger Move The Tank Museum has announced that the King Tiger V2, the only one in existence, is going on loan to The Swedish Tank Museum. The King Tiger has been on loan to the Netherlands Nationaal Militair Museum since leaving The Tank Museum, Bovington, following the end of the Tiger Collection exhibition in 2020. The Swedish Tank Museum was keen to display it while it was still in Europe, but transport was set to cost 35,000 Euros. While a sponsor was willing to pay half, the museum still needed to raise 18,000 Euros. Stefan Karlsson, the Museum Director of Arsenalen, The Swedish Tank Museum, told Iron Cross magazine: “We have been amazed and incredibly pleased by the response we received. After just two weeks, we raised the funds needed…

All photographs via author unless otherwise credited. (Colour by RJM) On 29 December 1941, Adolf Hitler had insisted that the Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen be brought back to the North Sea to counter any possible invasion of Norway by the Allies, or else to be paid off and their guns used for coastal defences. Vizeadmiral Otto Ciliax, Befehlshaber der Schlachtschiffe, agreed that the ships could be brought through the English Channel only if they had total air cover, which was agreed with the recently appointed Generalleutnant Adolf Galland, General der Jagdflieger, who would be personally responsible for the planning and coordination of the air effort. Operations ZERBERUS (Cerberus) was thus born and feverish preparations for what became known as the ‘Channel Dash’ were put in motion. (AS) Earlier, and…

All images via the author unless otherwise credited. The town of Ipolysag lies on the right bank of the Ipoly River, forming a portion of the northern border between Hungary and modern-day Slovakia. Positioned on the southwestern exit of the southern extension of the Carpathian Mountains, Ipolysag lies astride the historic invasion route to Vienna used during the 16th and 17th Centuries by the Ottoman Turks. To the west, beyond the narrows in the mountains formed by the Ipoly River, the terrain opens up into the Vienna Basin, a flat, relatively open expanse that forms the northern portion of the Hungarian plains or Puszta, broken only by the last great obstacle in the Red Army’s path: the Gran River. After penetrating the German and Hungarian defensive line east of Budapest…

As an aircraft type operated by the Luftstreitkräfte during the First World War, the Rumpler C IV is certainly not an aircraft which is as readily well known as types like the Fokker Dr I, Fokker D VII or the Albatros, for example. Although arguable, it might even be regarded as a relatively obscure aircraft type. And yet it was an important asset for the German air arm during the latter years of the war. The relative ‘obscurity’ of the Rumpler C IV might, in part, be because it was not an aircraft which features heavily in the popular narratives or iconography of war in the air during the 1914 – 18 period. In other words, it was not a machine flown by the famous ‘aces’ of air combat. Indeed,…

While researching Luftwaffe unit emblems, the editor rediscovered a photograph in his archive which had always been puzzling. The image (right) features a Schnauzer dog contemptuously cocking its leg over a map of England, a stream of ‘pee’ directed on London. For years, the story behind it had been elusive and no trace of the comical image could be found in published sources detailing Luftwaffe unit badges. Could it have been just a personal emblem applied to an aircraft by a pilot or crew member? Or could it be that it was an obscure Staffel or Gruppe emblem that had simply never been recorded before? The truth, when its history was finally unlocked, was not at all what the editor had expected! OPERATION STEINBOCK The photograph was included in a…

(Colour by RJM) On 22 April 1915, soldiers in the Allied lines outside Ypres saw a strange phenomenon creep toward them. Drifting across No Man’s Land, caught in a light breeze blowing away from the German lines, was a rolling sea of yellow-green cloud. Heavier than air, the lime mist moved at little more than walking pace. To avoid the strange ‘weather’, all the French troops in the trenches needed to do was run. Mostly, they were from Algeria and Martinique. And yet, to a man, they stayed where they were. Watching. They’d never seen anything like it. They didn’t know what would happen. They didn’t know they would die. The men were staring at 168 tonnes of chlorine gas, seeping out from 5,730 canisters positioned along a mile-long section…

In issue #11 of Iron Cross magazine, the identification and burial of German battlefield casualties during the First World War was covered, and a supplementary feature discussed casualties of the Second World War and the work of the German war graves service, the Volksbund Deutsches Kriegsgraberfursorge (VDK). Of the Second World War German fatalities for which the VDK maintains a responsibility, 80% were on the Eastern Front, and of these, some 1.5 million currently have no known grave. One of them was the writer’s grandfather. During the First World War, many casualties of both sides simply disappeared without trace in the ferocity of battle. These men were either blown to pieces, lost in the quagmire and confusion of conflict and never found or else were buried as unidentified casualties. In…

Publisher: Wing Leader Ltd Web: www.wingleader.co.uk ISBN: 978-1-908757-24-1 Softback: 80 pages RRP: £19.95 This is number 13 in what has already proved to be a truly exceptional ‘Photo Archive’ series from Wing Leader Ltd, the titles either exclusively authored by or edited by Mark Postlethwaite, the well-known aviation artist. The unique format of these books presents the subject matter in a landscape and softback A4 layout, incorporating an absolute wealth of imagery laid out logically across 80 pages. These images are largely unknown or little-known photographs of the aircraft type with each section of the publication covering different aspects of the aircraft – eg, camouflage and markings, equipment, cockpit, armaments, and crew station details along with a wealth of detail and data which can only be marvelled out. In presenting…

(Colour by RJM) British tanks went into action for the first time during the First World War on 15 September 1916 at the Battle of Flers-Courcelette. This battle was part of the larger Somme offensive, and of the 32 Mark 1 tanks that made it to the start line, only 18 went into action. These tanks were employed in supporting the attack and met with some success, but many were either disabled by shellfire, suffered mechanical failures or became stuck in the difficult terrain. Lieutenant Harold Mortimore, commanding the tank ‘Daredevil’, was tasked with attacking enemy strongpoints at Delville Wood and then to provide support for the attack on the village of Flers. He recounted: “I managed to get astride one of the German trenches in front of the wood…

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All images via author unless otherwise credited. The residents of Eastbourne on the East Sussex coast were used to aerial attack, but the sound that resonated above the town at about quarter-to-eleven on a rainy November night in 1943 was quite terrifying. First, above what was a distant and high-altitude droning hum of aero engines, there was a short thump-thump-thump. Cannon fire. Those who were brave enough to venture out saw red and orange flashes flickering in the clouds, which then glowed with a bright orange light. Then, there followed the roaring of a diving aircraft, its engines screaming at full throttle and building to a deafening crescendo. It seemed to go on for minutes before a fiery meteor plunged through the bottom of the low cloud base in a…

All images via Andrew Mollo and Kevin Brownlow. The film It Happened Here may not be a cinematic production familiar to many of our readers. It was not in the ‘blockbuster’ genre of films such as The Longest Day, A Bridge Too Far or Dambusters, it never went on widespread general release and – to the best of the writer’s knowledge - it has only ever had a single airing on terrestrial TV, but not on any other television platforms. And yet it was very much a ground-breaking piece of cinema, on many levels. As such, it is worthy of examination here. Portraying a Britain invaded and occupied by Germany during 1940, the film is a thought-provoking ‘What if?’ production which was shot in black and white and on a…

(Colour by RJM) The Wespe (wasp) emblem, the unique identifier of the Wespengeschwader, originated with the II Gruppe of Zerstörergeschwader 1 (II/ZG 1), and was designed by Leutnant Richard Marchfelder with the original emblem comprising three wasps above clouds, carried on both sides of the forward nose of the Messerschmitt Bf 110s of II/ZG 1. When II/ZG 1 was redesignated III Gruppe, Zerstörergeschwader 76 (III/ZG 76) at the end of June 1940, the Gruppe retained the ‘three wasps’ emblem, and carried it throughout the Battle of Britain. When that campaign effectively came to an end with the onset of the autumn of 1940, III/ZG 76 moved to the far north of Europe, remaining there until the Spring of 1941 when plans for the invasion of the Soviet Union were in…

Readers might be interested in some photographic evidence that gives a little background as to why the full-dress uniform ended up floating down from the sky over Rotherfield, East Sussex, on 11 September 1940. (Iron Cross #11, p.96, ‘Wardrobe Malfunction’) The photographs here show the visit of Reichsmarschal Hermann Göring to KG 26’s base at Wevelghem, Belgium, the previous day. The first photograph shows Oberst Robert Fuchs greeting Herman Göring, and in the background General Bruno Loerzer, Commading Officer of II Fliegerkorps (based at Ghent), talks to another officer. In the second photograph, Göring is seen handing out medals to personnel of 1./KG 26. To the left is Hauptmann Wolfgang Künstler, the Staffelkapitän of 1./KG 26. Künstler himself would be shot down and taken prisoner just 24 hours later, his…

A Question of Swastikas During 1940, a unit of Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters had the swastika emblems removed from the tails of their aircraft. We examine the background to this tale of intrigue and political machinations. (1) U-boat Miscellany A series of features looking at U-boat operations during the war of 1939 – 45, including a study of the extraordinary number of Allied aircraft claimed by Germany’s submarine fleet. (2) A Battle Ensign’s Story We investigate the history of a First World War Imperial Germany Navy battle ensign and consider whether it might have originated from one of the vessels sels scuttled at Scapa Flow in June 1919. (3) Luftwaffe Stick Pins The colourful and often curious emblems of Luftwaffe flying units of 1939 – 45 were often turned into…

When what appeared to be an otherwise ordinary but particularly dappled and dusty SS dagger was brought into the Leominster militaria shop of ‘War & Son’ in 2020, the object turned out to be something truly extraordinary – if not a little sinister in terms of its history. When inspected, the usual ‘Meine Ehre Heisst Treue’ motto and the Richard Herder maker’s mark on the opposite side were in evidence, but it was only when removing grease and imperfections with a dry cloth that the blade revealed its secrets in an unfamiliar Gothic script near the blade tip, along with a signature dedication that was not immediately recognised. Having only ever seen Röhm and Himmler dedications on SS daggers before, it initially baffled the store’s owners - notwithstanding their combined…

Colour by RJM. It is tempting to imagine these RAF men have been singing Joseph J Sullivan’s well-known music hall comic song of the late 1880s, “Where did you get that hat?”, to the officer wearing a German field cap (Mutze) who is seated in the cockpit of this captured Pfalz D IIIa. The photograph was taken at No.2 Aircraft Depot, Candas, on 26 April 1918 after the aircraft (8282/17) was hit by flak while on a practice flight the previous day. The pilot, Flg Andreas Köhler, was wounded and forced to land behind British lines at Vimy-Combles where he was taken prisoner. The aircraft carries the normal silvery grey finish applied to aircraft of this type, but the strange configuration of the fuselage cross is because the emblem was…