Innehållsförteckning för Issue 13 från Iron Cross

As this issue of Iron Cross was in production, so Russia’s illegal and horrific war against Ukraine raged on. Indeed, as I sat writing this editorial introduction, news arrived of more Russian cruise missile attacks against Ukrainian civilian targets. This, of course, against the background of Russia’s odious foreign secretary stating that Russia is simply trying to rid Ukraine of Nazis and, at the same time, offering the preposterous claim that Adolf Hitler was part Jewish. These current and unsettling world events only serve to illustrate the uncomfortable shadow of the Second World War which hangs permanently over all of us, and in particular over the tragic situation in Ukraine. The shadow that is cast by this current war includes the menace of those cruise missiles, too. In this issue,…

On 31 August 1942, U-256 was on her first cruise and sailing from Kiel to proceed to Lorient via the North Atlantic when she was attacked by a Whitley of 502 Squadron. The boat was so badly damaged that she was almost scrapped until a decision was made to convert her into a U-Flak boat. The U-Flak boats were four of the type VIIC boats (U-441, U-256, U-621 and U-953) modified to simply act as surface escorts for incoming and outgoing attack U-boats operating from the French Atlantic bases. They had greatly increased anti-aircraft firepower and were purely intended to lure aircraft into a trap. Three more U-boats were allocated as additional U-Flak boats (U-211, U-263 and U-271) but were never completed in this configuration and returned to duty as…

Publisher: Frontline Books Web: www.frontline-books.com ISBN: 978-1-13990-939-24 Hardback: 382 pages RRP: £25.00 For many, the Blitz on Britain means one thing: the Luftwaffe air attacks against the country between September 1940 and May 1941. However, there was another and much earlier ‘Blitz’ – the attacks by Zeppelin and aircraft during the First World War. Author Ian Castle is regarded as one of the greatest experts on WW1 German air attacks against Great Britain and has written extensively on the subject across three decades. (See also pages 20 – 27 of this issue. Editor) It would be true to say that this new volume of Ian’s work represents the pinnacle of achievement in his writing and research on this topic, and it will likely come to be regarded as the definitive…

Publisher: Osprey Publishing Web: www.ospreypublishing.com ISBN: 978-1-4728-4739-3 Hardback: 320 pages RRP: £20.00 This author needs no introduction to readers of Iron Cross magazine as a fine military historian and writer with a good many titles already to his credit. In his latest work, Tucker-Jones looks at the Battle of the Bulge from a German perspective. This alone makes the title attractive before one even opens the first page, as so many accounts are written almost entirely from the Allied perspective. While it is true to say – to coin an oft-used expression – that history is written by the victors, this work bucks any perception of that. And it is certainly grounded in facts and objective assessments. The author has produced a masterful and readable book which sets out a…

On a cool autumnal afternoon in the city of Brest-Litovsk, two men in very different uniforms stood side by side on a reviewing platform. One, distinctive in his Feldgrau greatcoat, was General Heinz Guderian, known as one of Germany’s leading armoured theorists and now the commander of the XIX (Armoured) Army Corps. His corps had swept across Poland as part of Germany’s brutal invasion of its eastern neighbour. After an intensive fight for Brest Litovsk in central Poland, Guderian had been ordered to turn the city over to Red Army soldiers now approaching their position. The city lay inside the Soviet zone of occupation under the terms of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, signed a month earlier. Guderian’s Soviet counterpart on the reviewing stand was Kombrig (Brigade Commander) Semyon Krivoshein. A decorated…

Bird of Prey We take an in-depth look at the Junkers 87 in action, including accounts of what they were like to fly, one pilot’s view of operating the aircraft in action, the technology involved and a conflict archaeology feature involving the investigation and recovery of a ‘Stuka’. (1) Wittmann: Tiger Ace Supreme It might be thought that everything that could be written about the notoriously famous Tiger ‘ace’, Michael Wittmann, had already been written. However, through Dietrich Maerz, we have been given access to his surviving archive, including documents, medals, and decorations. (NB: This feature has been held over from Issue #11) (2) Idflieg’s Errors In this fascinating article, Jack Herris examines the consistent failures, misjudgements and errors made by Germany’s military aviation authority, Idflieg, during the First World War.…

Introducing you to some of our main contributors for this issue:- DR JACK SHELDON Jack Sheldon retired from the British army in 2003. Since retirement he has written or co-authored 18 books and battlefield guides. He is a member of the British Commission for Military History, a Vice President of the Western Front Association and the 2022 Fellow of the Douglas Haig Fellowship. IAN ONA JOHNSON Ian Ona Johnson is the P J Moran Family Assistant Professor of Military History at the University of Notre Dame. His first monograph, Faustian Bargain: The Soviet-German Partnership and the Origins of the Second World War (Oxford University Press, 2021) won the 2022 Distinguished Book Award from the Society for Military History. IAN CASTLE Ian has been researching and writing about military history for…

As the U-boats became more heavily armed against air attack, so the RAF sought to find effective countermeasures. Illustrative of a new menace posed to U-boats during 1943 was the introduction of the Tsetse Mosquito by the RAF. This was a Mosquito Mk XVIII uniquely fitted with a formidable 57 mm ‘Molins’ anti-shipping gun with only 18 of this type being constructed. The huge six-pounder gun replaced the 20 mm cannons usually fitted, although the Mk XVIII retained its battery of four x .303 Browning machine guns. These served a dual purpose: to assist the pilot in his aim of the main weapon and to keep the heads down of any would-be anti-aircraft gunners during the run-in to target. Only 25 x rounds of 57 mm ammunition were carried. One…

Publisher: Chandos Publications Ltd Web: www.chandospublications.co.uk ISBN: 978-1-9993-1653-2 Hardback: 362 pages RRP: £70.00 One of the joys of receiving books for review in the editorial office is the not infrequent arrival of highquality publications dealing with ‘niche’ but nevertheless important topics appertaining to German military history. And the arrival of this stunning title falls exactly into that category. Francis Marshall has taken an extremely unusual subject for what must have been, by any standards, a supremely challenging research task. Fortuitously, the author commenced his work in the late 1980s and 1990s when surviving veterans were still around who were involved in this littleknown aspect of Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine history. The history of the Messerschmitt Bf 109 T forms only a small part of the Messerschmitt design and just 70 were…

Publisher: Osprey Publishing Web: www.ospreypublishing.com ISBN: 978-1-4728-3638-0 Softback: 96 pages RRP: £15.99 Not only does this title fill a hole in published works relating to this somewhat ‘neglected’ but important Luftwaffe type of the Second World War, but it is also an extraordinarily well produced little volume. However, with the combination of Robert Forsyth as author, Tony Holmes as editor and Osprey as publisher then its excellence was surely a given. Following the tried and tested formula of the Osprey Combat Aircraft series (this is number 145 in the series), Robert Forsyth sets out the design and development of the aircraft, its introduction to service and its use on the front line from the Arctic to Africa. Particularly pleasing is the range of internal photographs of cockpit arrangements, contemporary diagrams,…

Publisher: After the Battle Web: www.afterthebattle.com ISBN: 978-1-8700-0679-80 Hardback: 264 pages RRP: £45.00 The arrival of this book in the editorial office was a bittersweet moment as it signalled the transition of the publishing ownership to Pen and Sword Books Ltd after being in the capable hands of Winston Ramsey for 50 years. An astonishing achievement, and during which time Winston and his contributors have added significantly to our collective knowledge of the Second World War. The reviewer is proud to have been a part of that decades-long journey. This book is Winston’s swan song with After the Battle in which he selects 21 of the best features from the long run of After the Battle Magazine. And there has certainly been a feast of subjects to select. It cannot…

As Hiram W Johnson remarked in 1917, the first casualty of war is truth. It is, of course, a reality often compounded by rumour and hearsay once the shooting starts. And very often, rumour, hearsay and twisted truth become so established within the narrative of conflict that they become part of its established historical ‘fact’. Across time, these ‘facts’ can become so firmly cemented that it becomes ever harder to dismiss them as the myths they are rather than being fact. However, there is often a grain of truth in the back story. A case in point are the accounts of wooden bullets being used by the Wehrmacht in France after the Normandy landings during June 1944. In 1944, the British press published a number of reports stating that the…

Publisher: Casemate Web: www.casematepublishing.co.uk ISBN: 978-1-612009-06-3 Hardback: 192 pages RRP: £35 This recent offering from Casemate is a fantastic collection of photographs, development summaries, and personal accounts bringing the story of the Panzerjagers to life. Realisation that towed anti-tank guns needed to be motorised and offer more protection to their crews, and that the standard towed anti-tank 3.7 cm gun was ineffective against most Allied tanks, sparked tank destroyer development. The author begins with a linear approach to development, starting with early models such as Ente, mounting a 4.7 cm Czechoslovakian gun on a Panzkerkampfwagen 1 chassis. Manned by three men, it had a high and vulnerable shield for protection. This first attempt at a mass-produced tank destroyer was insufficient based on Eastern Front experience. The breakthrough came with Marder…

Publisher: Helion & Company Web: www.helion.co.uk ISBN: 978-1-914059-40-7 Softback: 307 pages RRP: £25.00 Although other titles have looked at various aspects of Germany’s parachute troops, the Fallschirmjäger, this is a stunningly refreshing new look at the subject as seen through the eyes of those who were there: the Fallschirmjäger themselves. Author Greg Way has assembled a truly impressive selection of personal accounts from German veterans and brought these together in a most readable and highly engaging format. These he has woven around a narrative setting out the background to the various operations in which his subjects were deployed. Together with a wonderful selection of unique photographs, the book is a valuable record of this branch of the German military, preserving the testimony of veterans. That Greg Way had the foresight…

This state-sponsored film was an enormous box office hit when it was released on 20 February 1934, but is not as well-known as the other famous German war films of the period, All Quiet on the Western Front and Westfront 1918. There are several reasons for this. Firstly, the film Stosstrupp 1917 (Shock Troop 1917) is based on the published war memoirs of the film’s director, Hans Zoberlein, and were narrated in his book Der Glaube an Deutschland, a publication for which Adolf Hitler contributed the foreword. This alone marked it out as a film sympathetic to the National Socialists, notwithstanding its anti-war message. Indeed, the Nazis enthusiastically embraced the idea of the film since it was sympathetic to Germany’s ordeal during the First World War, whereas Lewis Milestone’s All…