Innehållsförteckning för Issue 21 från Iron Cross

Just after half past eleven on the hot summer’s night of 17 August 1943, air raid sirens sounded at Peenemunde on the Baltic island of Usedom, the site of Nazi Germany’s top secret rocket and guided missile research facility. Generalmajor Walter Dornberger, in overall charge of the Germany’s rocket development programme, was initially unconcerned. A strict blackout had been enforced, and German anti-aircraft guns had orders to fire only if a raid was in progress. However, within half an hour of the sirens wailing, the first of five waves of four-engined heavy bombers - 324 Lancasters, 219 Halifaxs, and 54 Stirlings - started dropping their payloads during an operation which had been given the codename Hydra. Over the next 20 minutes, around 2,000 tonnes of high explosive and incendiaries rained…

Journalist Alan Haylock, then a Fleet Street office boy, was on board a London bus as it travelled towards Aldwych that fateful day. What happened left a vivid impression on Alan, the scene he witnessed being indelibly ingrained in his memory. Other bus passengers that day were not so lucky: “My bus struggles up the hill towards the Law courts and I hold on tight each time the driver changes gear. The conductor calls out “Chancery Lane. Anyone for Chancery Lane? Next stop the Law courts.” Two young men in pin-striped suits carrying briefcases descend the stairs. Then I don’t know what happened. The bus seemed to rear up like a frightened horse, settle for a brief moment, then veer over at an angle of 45 degrees, first to one…

George Campbell became well-known as the artist behind many of the stunning front covers of books from ‘After the Battle’ publications across the 1980s, particularly the titles which fell into the ‘Then and Now’ genre of books. Without exception, these were all painted from wartime photographs with George Campbell always adding both figurative and literal colour to the striking scenes and personalities he created. One of his paintings, though, has left behind a mystery. The painting depicted here was commissioned by an Allied soldier who was present at the occasion depicted – although what and when that event was is currently a mystery. Unfortunately, the story was lost when George Campbell passed away in more recent years. Pre-deceasing him was the mystery ex-serviceman who commissioned the painting and who never…

As dawn broke over the Normandy beaches on 6 June 1944, the Luftwaffe were notable by their relative absence, although the well-known strafing by Oberstleutnant ‘Pips’ Priller and his wingman, Unteroffizier Heinz Wodarczyk, of II./JG 26 over Sword Beach was an event which has given rise to a popular misconception that the Luftwaffe were almost entirely absent in the skies above the landing beaches. That might well have been the case initially, and certainly as the invasion began, but as the day progressed, so increasing numbers of German aircraft became active. For one German fighter-bomber unit, the day was a particularly harrowing one for pilots and groundcrew alike. The III Gruppe/Schlachtgeschwader 4 (III./SG 4) was formed from Major Fritz Schröter’s III./Schnellkampfgeschwader 10 (III./SKG 10) in October 1943, its role being…

Collecting battlefield trophies is a custom as old as warfare itself. For the most part, the practice was adopted by victorious combatants on the battlefield – especially with the symbolic capture of the rallying flags or colours of a defeated opponent. Very often, this might have extended to the capture of guns, arms, helmets, headgear, or other emblems which might be displayed or paraded by the victors to emphasise prowess in battle, to boost morale, or to act as historical reminders as to the excellence of the unit or arm of service that had captured such battlefield trophies. For individual soldiers, too, the collection of battlefield souvenirs became an almost accepted custom and practice across all arms of service. Such personal mementoes sometimes became individual talismans, or as objects to…

When the Wehrmacht launched its Blitzkrieg on France and the Low Countries in May 1940, it can be said without fear of contradiction that German High Command had not entertained for one moment the notion of capturing a group of small islands that lay off the west coast of France. However, with the British Expeditionary Force having departed from Dunkirk, the French Army routed, and Paris about to fall into their hands, senior German commanders suddenly woke up to the fact that the unthinkable might possibly happen; British territory, in the shape of the Channel Islands, was now within their grasp and thoughts were turned as to how best to capture this unexpected prize. A report compiled by the Kriegsmarine’s Group West after the actual event revealed that, on 20…

At around 18.43 hours on 8 September 1944, two massive explosions rocked Chiswick and Epping. At Chiswick, the first of the two blasts, three people were killed and 20 injured, ten of them seriously. Sixteen seconds later, another massive explosion tore through Parndon Wood, near Epping, but caused no casualties. To the public, there was no obvious explanation as to the cause; no enemy aircraft had been overhead and there was no air raid warning. However, the Allies had known for some while that V2 missile attacks were likely, although this had been kept from the British public, and since the first two strikes had caused little more damage than a V1 Flying Bomb, the real reason for the explosions was supressed. Initially, this was in the hope that no…

With the end of the bombing campaign against Britain during the Battle of Britain and Blitz of 1940 and 1941, only relatively paltry efforts by the Luftwaffe to continue the air campaign against Britain were possible. What were small ‘penny packet’ attacks were all the Luftwaffe could achieve after 1941, but in order not to give the British any respite, the island was to be bombarded with long-range weapons. Initially, this was by using several large-calibre guns firing from Atlantic Wall positions in the Pas-de-Calais. (See Iron Cross #20) However, their range was limited to coastal regions around Dover and Folkestone. London and the larger industrial centres remained out of reach. In the search for solutions, the Germans came across the work of senior engineer August Coenders of Röchlingsche Eisen…

During the 1970s and early 1980s, the crash sites of many of the aircraft lost during the Battle of Britain over the United Kingdom were subject to investigation and, very often, to excavation by enthusiast groups, small aviation museums, and private individuals. All were then operating on an unregulated basis, their activities neither controlled by specific legislation, codes of practice, or any formal archaeological standards for excavation, or for recording and conservation. For the most part, such activity was conducted with the best of intentions. Although that was not always the case. Activity in this field during the 1970s and 1980s was rife in Sussex and Kent, and across all the Home Counties – the districts which had seen the most intense fighting of the battle – and it also…

LOSSES ■ Focke-Wulf 190 A-6, 470582, Black B, 8./SG 4 Feldwebel Franz Brauneis, killed. Shot down La Bazoge, Le Mans, 15.48 hrs. Probably shot down by 78 FG. Unteroffizier Paul Ebert (mechanic) also killed. ■ Focke-Wulf 190 A-6, 470601, Black M, 8./SG 4 Hauptmann Heinz Mihlan, uninjured. Shot down at St Jean D’Assé, NW Le Mans c.15.48 hrs. Feldwebel Hans Eidam (mechanic) killed. Probably shot down by 78 FG ■ Focke-Wulf 190 A-6, 470585, White L, 7./SG 4 Unteroffizier Otto Speer, killed. Laval airfield. Probably shot down by 15 TRS. ■ Focke-Wulf 190 A-6, 650303, White A, 7./SG 4 Oberfeldwebel Martin Kolberg, killed. 8 km SE Laval airfield. Probably shot down by 15 TRS. Obergefreiter Erwin Ohlwein (mechanic) killed. ■ Focke-Wulf 190 A-7, 430472, Black V, Stab III./SG 4 Oberleutnant…

Oberleutnant Hans Grah was serving as Beobachter (observer) with the Heinkel 111 equipped KG 55 and participated in the attack on the Channel Islands – or the Tomateninseln (Tomato Islands) as he called them. The editor of Iron Cross magazine met Grah in Germany in June 1976 when he provided this contemporary account, written in July 1940, detailing his part in that attack: “As a Kette we attack troop embarkations and ships departing the British Channel Islands. We take off at 18.35 hours. The flight path was over Caen to the islands of Guernsey and Jersey. We look at the interesting northern French landscape beneath us with its small fields and hedges. From above the coast of the Cherbourg peninsula we can already see, laying in the haze, the islands.…

In previous issues of Iron Cross magazine, we have looked at the technology, history, and even the archaeology of the V1 Flying Bomb. However, we have not previously covered the dreadful effect that these weapons had (primarily) on London and the southeast corner of England. Recent unique access to a collection of original and mostly unpublished photographs depicting the aftermath of V1, V2, and other air attacks on London provides an opportunity to view the grim reality of such attacks. In presenting the images here, we thus mark the 80th anniversary of the V-Weapon attacks on Britain. Such weapons were, in effect, the first ‘cruise missiles’ and ballistic missiles, and it is sobering to think that we are going to press at a time when the 21st Century successors of…

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The fighting which broke out on 18 July 1936 was nothing new to Spain. Ever since Napoleon invaded Spain in the first decade of the previous century and swept away the ineffective regime of King Carlos IV, the liberales had become a political force in the country. Throughout the nineteenth century, the Carlist Wars pitted traditionalists against republicans, left against right. Though Spain had experienced peace (of sorts) for more than half a century, that period had seen its coups and revolutions, and when another coup was attempted in July 1936, war broke out yet again. This time, though, hardline left-wing and right-wing regimes ruled in two of the most powerful countries in Europe, and there was widespread fear in many quarters that the communist Soviet Union and fascist Nazi…

The general circumstances of the assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler that took place 80 years ago on 20 July 1944 are widely known. It was the decisive moment of Operation Valkyrie when a bomb went off at 12:42 hours in the Lagebaracke (War Room Barrack) at the Führer’s Wolf’s Lair headquarters near Rastenburg. Several people were injured, and a small number seriously injured in the blast. Some of these died from their injuries - either immediately, or shortly thereafter. These were the stenographer Heinrich Berger, Colonel Heinz Brandt, and the Luftwaffe Chief of Staff, Günther Korten. Then, on 1 October 1944, Hitler’s Chief Adjutant of the Wehrmacht, Infantry General Rudolf Schmundt, died as a direct result of his injuries from the assassination attempt on Hitler. What is perhaps less well-known…

The lumbering beast that was the German A7V tank appeared on the battlefields of the Western Front during March 1918 with the opening of Operation Michel, an attack by 74 German Divisions on the British 3rd and 5th Armies. Five tanks were fielded, but one went out of action prematurely with a burnt-out clutch, and another two became bogged shortly after the action began. The remaining two, numbered 501 and 506, rumbled forward through heavy mist and smoke, and, accompanied by storm-troopers, attacked the British line at Saint Quentin. Little useful information filtered back to the Allied lines regarding the nature and capabilities of this new German weapon, as all the tanks had been recovered by the German army and taken back for repair to their rear lines. It was,…