Innehållsförteckning för Issue 18 från Iron Cross

Arguably the most famous tank of all time – and almost certainly of the Second World War – more words have probably been published on the Tiger than on any other tank. At Iron Cross magazine, we have certainly been guilty of adding to that abundance of printed coverage! This volume of printed material on the Tiger, however, is notwithstanding the fact of its relative low build numbers - just 1,347 coming off the production line. This total, set against some 84,000 Soviet T34s, 50,000 Shermans, 8,275 Valentines and even 8,553 Panzer IVs - as just few examples - demonstrate that it was a relatively ‘rare’ tank during the Second World War. This ‘rarity’ has played into the survival of Tiger I tanks today, with only ten known to survive,…

The German military had originally considered antiaircraft artillery primarily being for the defence of the homeland against attacking enemy aircraft. However, because of experiences during the Spanish Civil War, Germany expanded the role of Flak guns after having assessed the lessons learned in Spain where anti-aircraft artillery also served as an infantry support weapon. At the beginning of the Second World War, Germany had 2,600 heavy and 6,700 light Flak guns in service. By classification, light Flak guns comprise guns up to 40 mm in calibre. In this calibre range, smaller calibre anti-aircraft guns were previously and predominantly of 20 mm calibre, but the larger 37 mm calibre gun offered a useful increase in range and projectile weight over 20 mm guns. The first 37 mm antiaircraft gun design was…

All images via the author unless otherwise credited There can be no doubting that war crimes and excesses were committed by all combatant nations during the Second World War. It was not something that was solely the preserve of troops serving the Third Reich and there are indeed examples of Courts Martial against members of the military from the Allied nations. However, the scale, brutality, criminality, and nature of the excesses committed by German soldiers against civilians and POWs throughout the Second World War needs no elaboration here. And that is besides the inhuman suffering and genocide inflicted on racial groups, Jews, and others deemed to be undesirable by Nazi doctrine. Suffice to say, as well, that such crimes were sometimes even committed by the German military against their own…

When he was interrogated by RAF intelligence officers, Franz von Werra was confronted with the text of his recent broadcast. Already, his captors would have known the claims to have been somewhat fanciful and perhaps it was for that reason that von Werra denied the broadcast. Otherwise, it is hard to imagine why a personality like von Werra’s would not have boastfully admitted and confirmed all that he had said: “I was flying as the Kommandeur’s wingman as part of the Stabsschwarm when we attacked a formation of about 20 Hawker Hurricanes. Their formation and then ours dispersed and we fought individually. I was involved in a dogfight with a Spitfire [Note: von Werra’s claim for this aircraft seems to record it as a Hurricane] belonging to a second unit…

As pieces of art, the watercolours featured here perhaps have no great artistic value, but, on the other hand, they can be regarded as significant in that the paintings record an infamous moment in the history of the Second World War. And it was a moment which saw one of the greatest and most dramatic naval engagements of the war. Additionally, they were accompanied by the artist’s notes and further annotations that had been added by a senior Kriegsmarine officer when first published in the German military propaganda magazine, Signal, during September 1941 On board the SMS Prinz Eugen during late May 1941, Propaganda Kompanie (PK) Marinekriegsmaler (naval war illustrator) Leutnant Julius Schmitz was about to witness and record an event that saw the loss of the world’s largest and…

With an improvement in the weather and an increase in the intensity of RAF Bomber Command’s attacks, I./NJG 2 increased both its own activity and its success rate over Britain as it continued with what Oberst Josef Kammhuber had called the campaign of “smoking out the wasps.” In that context, of course, Kammhuber’s ‘wasps’ were the departing or returning aircraft of Bomber Command and it was a campaign that had already seen some fair degree of success. And I./NJG 2 were the pest controllers, charged with keeping the pestilent British bombers in check at their ‘nests’. For I./NJG 2, that success amounted to 13 bombers claimed as destroyed during May 1941, although it transpired that four had just been damaged while another five cannot be linked to any RAF losses;…

Each day during the Second World War, the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, was sent intercepted and translated German coded messages most mornings for his daily briefing. In these transcripts it was soon noticed that British secrets were being talked about in the German messages. Clearly, there was a leak. The security services were tasked to find the origin, soon discovering that the Axis powers were obtaining their information from the US Embassy in Cairo. There, the embassy used ‘Code II’ when transmitting important and secret information to Washington. In September 1941, and whilst the USA was still a neutral country, Italian security service operatives had broken into the US Embassy in Rome and stolen a copy of the diplomatic ‘Code II’. This they photographed and then returned the document…

In this new publication, the story of the Luftwaffe’s attacks on the British Isles is covered through fascinating and insightful content which looks at all aspects of those air operations, bringing that story to life through hundreds of images. Many of those images are colourised, while others are original and contemporary colour images from the period. In total, over 180 of the photographs reproduced in the publication are in colour. The story of the Luftwaffe over Britain has never been told in such an all-encompassing and engaging manner before now and the publication will appeal widely to the general enthusiast, the specialist, and those with any interest in the history of the Second World War. WRITTEN BY ANDY SAUNDERS Military aviation expert and editor of Iron Cross magazine. Andy uncovers…

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For Adolf Hitler, the main rationale for allowing the existence of a nominally independent Vichy France was quite straightforward; in the absence of German naval superiority, it meant that this was the only practical means by which to deny the use of French colonies to the Allies. And the naval forces under the command of Vichy France were considerable. But as early as December 1940, German plans had existed for the occupation and control of Vichy France should needs demand. However, such needs did not arise for just over two years. Then, on 8 November 1942, things changed. On that date, Allied forces landed in Morocco and Algeria as part of Operation Torch and thus a rapid German response – of some sort – was called for. Moreover, it was…

When a German company commander of the 119th Division was captured at Maucourt on 10August 1918, he bemoaned the fact that although Britain and France had successfully fielded thousands of tanks on the Western Front, Germany had failed to seize the potential of the new technology, having only made 20 such vehicles: “I consider the tanks a most magnificent weapon and I cannot understand why we have none to speak of. If only we had a large number, you would never have advanced as you have done” (Tank Corps August 1918 p21). Of these 20 tanks, A7V ‘Mephisto’, the sole surviving example of a German tank from the First World War, enables us to study and better understand this giant of the battlefield. As with most European nations, Germany had…

The Kriegsmarine penetrated not only North American waters, but in a sense also Canadian towns, streets, and public spaces. Over 14-15 May 1942, U-213 landed German spy Alfred Langbein outside the village of Salmon River, New Brunswick. Later, he purchased a ticket for Saint John with old Canadian dollar bills without arousing suspicion. Settling in Ottawa, his apparent luck stayed with him until 1944, when he ran out of cash. Langbein then wandered into the Naval Intelligence office and gave himself up to the incredulous staff. He spent the rest of the war in an internment camp, but his were not the last such escapades. The U-518 dropped off spy Werner von Janowski near New Carlisle, Quebec, on 9 November 1942. Janowski checked into a hotel under an alias, except…

On the morning of Wednesday 22 November 1939, Feldwebel Karl Hier of 1./JG 76 found himself outmanoeuvred and outgunned by fighters of the French Air Force in a brief but wild engagement over the Bas-Rhin region of France. With the rest of his Gruppe of Bf 109 Es, the pilots tried to fight off their determined attackers. In the engagement, Hier’s aircraft (Bf 109 E-3, Werk Nummer 1304) was hit and disabled, as was that of Leutnant Heinrich Schultz of 3./JG 76, with Schultz making a heavy forced landing at Remeling-les-Puttelage, his fighter suffering severe damage to its port wing and fuselage. Hier, meanwhile, had managed to execute a near perfect wheels down landing alongside an orchard at Goersdorf close to the town of Woerth. In the space of just…

Like so much else about Nazi Germany, smoking policy was contradictory. Strictly ‘verboten’ in Adolf Hitler’s presence, the Fuhrer’s dislike for tobacco drove antismoking campaigns in Germany in the 1930s, backed up by a mix of ideological, genetic, and health concerns. It was all an unholy alliance. Many tobacco firms went bust during the Weimar Republic and Great Depression. The result was a consolidated sector of fewer, bigger, more international firms by the mid-1930s. Nazi propaganda targeted this tobacco industry for its links to what it saw as international (Jewish) capitalism. Big tobacco was consequently incentivised to demonstrate patriotism and loyalty to the new regime to forestall government interference. And if Germans insisted on continuing to smoke, then the government would tax them heavily for it. The conditions were thus…

The Volkswagen Type 166 Schwimmwagen (literally, swimming car) was a four-wheel drive amphibious vehicle, used extensively by German ground forces during the Second World War with 15,584 of them produced between 1941 and 1944. It became an invaluable and versatile piece of equipment for the Wehrmacht across most theatres of operation, although its usefulness in the scenario shown in this photograph might be somewhat limited. Stuck firmly in the mud in the Vinnytsia area of Ukraine in November 1943, this vehicle (number plate 302098) belongs to the 1 SS Aufklarungs-Abteilung LSSAH and is one of the original Porsche built Vorserien Schwimmwagens assigned to the LAH in the middle of 1942. In the background can be seen two Panzerkampfwagen V Panther Ausf.A of I.Abteilung/SS Panzer Regiment 1. Of interest is that…