Innehållsförteckning för Issue 23 från Iron Cross

Having been commissioned on 24 August 1940, Bismarck was, along with her sister ship Tirpitz, the largest battleship ever built by Germany. She was also one of the most formidable warships ever constructed by any European power. If a vessel of her capabilities was able to slip into the enormous expanse of the Atlantic, she could do serious harm to Allied shipping. Worse, with a top speed of over 30 knots she could outpace almost any of the Royal Navy’s capital ships that would be sent after her. It was, therefore, only a matter of time before she entered the fray. On 6 February 1941, Hitler issued Führer Directive No.23 – his directions for operations against Britain’s War Economy. In response to this, Grossadmiral Erich Raeder drew up plans for…

Class and type Bismarck-class battleship Displacement 41,700 t (41,000 long tons) standard 50,300 t (49,500 long tons) full load Length 241.6 m (792 ft 8 in) waterline 251 m (823 ft 6 in) overall Beam 36 m (118 ft 1 in) Draft 9.3 m (30 ft 6 in) standard Installed power 12 × Wagner superheated boilers 148,116 shp (110,450 kW) Propulsion 3 × geared turbines. 3 × screw propellers Speed 30.01 knots (55.58 km/h; 34.53 mph) during trials Range 8,870 nmi (16,430 km; 10,210 mi) at 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph) Complement 103 officers. 1,962 enlisted men. Sensors and processing systems FuMO 23 Seetakt radar Hydrophone Armament 8 × 38 cm (15 in) SK C/34 (4 × 2) 12 × 15 cm (5.9 in) SK C/28 (6 × 2)…

The morning of 15 July 1918 was quiet. Then, suddenly, one of the heaviest artillery barrages of the whole war initiated what was to be the last German offensive of the war. Between Chateau-Thierry and the area north-west of Epernay 6,253 german artillery guns fired on the allied positions. After the artillery barrage, the German infantry followed up by an infantry attack on enemy positions. One of the German units was the Württembergische Gebirgs Regiment (WGR), an elite mountain unit founded in 1915. After the third battle on the Aisne, the German army had reached the Marne river. Further German advances, though, were stopped by US and French troops around Chateau-Thierry. Nevertheless, the German Oberste Heeresleitung (OHL), under the command of Erich Ludendorff, planned another attack in this area. The…

As the last ships of Operation Dynamo, the Dunkirk evacuation, wearily returned to port on 4 June 1940, it was realised, by both sides, that against all expectations a larger part of the British Expeditionary Force had been brought home - although minus almost all its equipment. In the days that followed, France collapsed and forced its new government to sign an armistice on 22 June 1940. Hitler’s forces were now perched on the coast of northern France. Apart from the heightened menace that this created to Britain’s seaborne lifelines, there was also the harsh fact that the world’s largest air force was now within an hour’s flight of much of southern England. Acutely aware of the predicament his nation found itself in, Winston Churchill gave a rousing speech in…

Galland had been a successful fighter leader on the English Channel front during the Battle of Britain but was later critical of the senior political and military leadership and the Luftwaffe’s tactics during the battle, especially its fighter tactics whilst escorting bombers and how this played into the inability of the Luftwaffe to gain air superiority. Shortly after the war, Galland wrote: “Insofar as it functioned at all, the system of escorting bombers functioned very poorly. There were neither special tactical rules, nor uniformity of conception; each fighter Staffel carried out its mission as it thought best. Hence, the quality of performance attained in these fighter sorties was variable. Some units executed their mission in an extremely satisfactory manner. Others did very badly. It was not until very late in…

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As the battleship Tirpitz makes its way in convoy through Norwegian waters, a team of sailors work atop the Cäsar (Ceaser) gun turret painting it dull red to aid recognition from the air. The turrets on Tirpitz were named alphabetically, front to aft, thus: Anton, Berta, Cäsar, and Dora. Each turret was armoured to 360 mm thickness and each mounted two x 38 cm (15 inch) guns which packed a considerably powerful punch. Additionally, the ship carried a total of 56 other guns of varying calibres and included 12 x 20 mm Flak guns. Later, 58 x 53.3 cm Flak guns and eight x 53.3 cm torpedo tubes were added. In this photograph, the next ship in the line following Tirpitz is the Admiral Scheer, a Deutschland class cruiser. The…

Parachutes are a centuries-old invention, older than aviation itself. The oldest known sketch of a man-carrying parachute originates from the 1470s, and legends about parachute jumps date back to antiquity. However, they only became popular towards the end of the 19th century with increasing numbers of balloon flights. Daredevil showmen and women - such as Hermann Lattemann and Käte Paulus in Germany or Dolly Shepherd in England - earned a living by performing parachute jumps. While most jumps were made from balloon baskets, the American Albert Berry jumped from an aeroplane as early as 1912 and Frenchman Adolphe Pégoud did so in 1913. Thus, when aeroplane designers began to apply for support from the military, many parachute developers followed in their wake. Meanwhile, the Prussian army had been testing various…

Western Australian by birth, Tony Holmes was a published aviation author by the age of 20. Moving to England in 1988, he has been involved full-time in aviation book and magazine publishing ever since. Tony has written more than 60 books and edited a further 500. He has also written articles and bookazines for publications both in Britain and across the globe. Many of Tony’s published works focus on Second World War aviation, which is a particular area of interest to him as his grandfather served with both RAF Fighter Command and RAF Coastal Command during the conflict. He thus brings with him to Iron Cross an exceptional skill set, wide ranging military history knowledge, and extensive experience across all genres of publishing.…

The operational doctrine of the German Panzer divisions in the Second World War required the highest possible degree of motorised capability, and as early as 1939, in addition to the tank units themselves, practically all sub-units were equipped with cars, trucks, or half-track tractors. When the war began, the typical Panzer Artillerie-Regiment (PzArtRgt) had two Abteilungen (battalions); the 1. Abteilung with twelve 10.5 cm le Fh 18, the 2. Abteilung with twelve 15 cm s FH 18. These guns were mobilised by powerful half-track tractors, the light field howitzers by the ZgKw 3t (SdKfz 11), the heavy field howitzers by the m ZgKw 8 t (SdKfz 7). The allocations were made depending on availability, and occasionally m ZgKw 5 t (SdKfz 6) or s ZgKw 12 t (SdKfz 8) were…

When the German army attacked Poland in 1939, the world was now facing the rapid, efficient, and modern mobile machinery of warfare. One country after another was overwhelmed across Europe; the so-called Blitzkrieg had been born. These stunning successes confirmed one thing to the German military leadership: that is, that nothing could ever stop them. This perception was also reflected in the equipment of the Wehrmacht; almost no weaponry or special equipment had been developed by Germany for defensive purposes since the end of the First World War. That perception all changed for the Germans when their advances in the east slowed down in the vastness of the Russian plains, before the military juggernaut finally came to a halt at the end of 1942. Now, the troops needed to hold…

In a desperate attempt to augment the woefully inadequate invasion fleet, Oberst ‘Fritz’ Siebel came up with an ingenious design to get troops and materiel across the Channel: the Siebel Ferry. These were flat bottomed vessels - or pontoons – that were propelled by aero engines and propellers but were only built in small numbers and hardly addressed the Wehrmacht’s dire maritime transportation issues for Seelöwe. The full story of the unique Siebel Ferry was told in Iron Cross magazine #7. Back issue are available by going to page 92. TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS ■ Crew: Ten ■ Length: 24.25m ■ Width: 13.70m ■ Draft: 1.20m ■ Capacity: 100tons ■ Propulsion: Initially, four inboard Diesel Ford V8 Engines, some variants supplemented by two to three (depending on variant) BMW VI aircraft engines…

Nazi Germany’s 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union – Operation Barbarossa – ignited the greatest battles of the Second World War, and indeed in all of human history. The theatre of operations was huge, extending about 2,200 miles from the Arctic Ocean to the Black Sea, and roughly 1,500 miles from Stalingrad to Berlin. Over these vast distances the contenders fielded more divisions, employed more tanks, advanced further and faster, formed larger encirclements, and captured more prisoners than any two rivals have ever done, either before or since. The task of making the course of this titanic conflict comprehensible to Germany’s senior leadership fell to cartographers in the General Staff of the Oberkommando des Heeres (OKH), the German Army High Command. Every day, they produced a very large scale Lage…

In Iron Cross # 21, author Mark Hillier presented the intriguing and well-researched article Downing the Red Devil relating to Manfred von Richthofen. This piece was based upon his acquisition of a logbook by Royal Flying Corps pilot Captain William Matheson of 25 Squadron, an F.E.2b unit engaged by Richthofen on 24 January 1917. It is an undisputed fact that in that combat the ‘Red Baron’ shot down F.E.2b 6997 – flown by Captain Oscar Greig with his observer 2nd Lieutenant John MacLennan – for his 18th victory. The new information from Matheson’s logbook was his statement that he ‘Brought down Red Devil that brought down Captn Greig.’ Richthofen did indeed make a forced landing immediately after the fight, but he stated in his combat report: ‘I myself had to…

This series of photographs show parachute manufacturing work underway in the Berlin Schroeder factory and include (1) the drawing office, (2) materials store, (3) fabric cutting, (4) stitching the canopies, (5) final assembly, (6) control and inspection, (7) final finishing of the canopy, (8) stitching and assembling the harnesses and parachute packs. The latter was a heavier task undertaken by male employees, whilst the lighter cutting and stitching of the canopy was carried out by the female employees.…

As the Staffelkapitän of 8./KG55, Oberleutnant Egon Knauer, briefed his nominated crew for a single-aircraft sortie on the night of 28/29 July 1940, radio operator Unteroffizier Kurt Böker could not help but notice the chalked symbol against his crew that the orderly clerk had marked onto the unit’s ‘state’ board: a cross signifying a casualty. Although Böker’s blood ran cold when he saw the chalk mark, he tried not to dwell on it. However, and under the circumstances of a risky night raid over British territory, then it was difficult not to see that chalked cross as anything other than an omen. Collectively, Böker’s fellow crew members laughed it off nervously as they busied themselves with pre-flight preparations and their routine checks of both aircraft and equipment. “We aren’t dead,…

Inspired by the indirect firing devices for rifles, a German soldier constructed a self-made device for the Raketen-Panzerbüchse 54, or better known as the Panzerschreck. In 1943 this weapon came to the front in larger numbers and was intended as a replacement for the Panzerfaust. The rocket-propelled grenade could penetrate 160 mm of armour, but the target had to be closer than 250 meters. It was therefore very dangerous for the soldier operating the weapon if he had to expose himself to the enemy and thus an indirect firing device would have been helpful. This idea from an inventive soldier was printed in the magazine Von der Front für die Front (From the Front for the Front) in October 1944. This magazine was sporadically published and contained a mishmash of…

From surviving wartime Luftwaffe records, this author and the historian Chris Goss can shed light on the units involved in the dropping of the leaflets, or Flugblätter as they were called. On the first recorded night of the operation, namely 1-2 August 1940, much of the task apparently fell to Luftflotte 3. More specifically, it was reported that two Heinkel 111s of II./KG 55 dropped a total of 14 packages on Southampton, while two more Heinkel 111s scattered an additional 14 packages over Bristol. The same records confirm that these aircraft did not drop any bombs. The Lagebericht, or Luftwaffe situation report, reveals that up to midnight on 2 August, 300kg of Flugblätter, stated in the actual document to contain the Führerrede (Führer speech), were dropped over London. The following…

Operation Barbarossa, Germany’s surprise assault on the Soviet Union in June 1941, was aimed at nothing less than the complete destruction of Communist Russia in a matter of months. It was the one period when the Germans had a chance of achieving victory – but the events of the campaign ultimately reversed the fortunes of the Third Reich. This atlas uses the contemporary daily situation maps produced by the German Army’s General Staff to provide a clear historical and geographical picture of one of the pivotal campaigns of the war. These maps show the configuration of the front line and the locations of major Axis combat formations, as well as the deployments and movements of Soviet combat units as the German military intelligence understood them. The maps are supported by…

This series of photographs were sent to Eugen Streich’s family and depict his military funeral in Caen, France. The funeral cortege with band, procession to the grave site, carrying the coffin to committal, a rifle volley salute, and an officer saluting the open grave all illustrate the elements of the ceremony. His grave was originally marked with the wooden grave marker adorned with a swastika which can be seen in the photograph at the head of this article. However, his grave has now been moved to the VDK German military cemetery at Bourdon, France, and marked with a simple stone memorial. Photographs like the series shown here were frequently sent to grieving families back at home in Germany.…

LAST JABO RAIDS ON BRITAIN When fighter-bombers of the Luftwaffe’s Jabo tip-and-run force carried out deadly raids against Eastbourne on Britain’s south coast on 4 and 6 June 1943, they saw considerable damage to property and civilian loss of life on the ground. Meanwhile, the striking force of SKG.10 suffered its own casualties. However, it was to be the swan song of the Jabo attacks; the tip-and-run raiders were destined never to return. (1) HITLER’S VALKYRIES Both Hanna Reitsch and Melitta Schiller volunteered to serve their country as test pilots during the Second World War, being the only women to undertake that role. Yet they would end their lives on opposite sides of history. (2) THE REAL VON BUTTLAR Horst Julius Ludwig Otto, Freiherr Treusch von Buttlar Brandenfels, was the…