Innehållsförteckning för Issue 24 från Iron Cross

Welcome to Issue 24 of Iron Cross. Other than a different name buried within the information panel and at the bottom of this editorial, I am hoping that you, the reader, will find few changes in terms of content in this edition of the magazine. Founding editor Andy Saunders has done such a fine job since creating the publication in 2019, I feel there is little that requires alteration going forward. As with the previous 23 editions of Iron Cross, in this issue I have tried to ensure that the articles published cover as wide a range of topics relating directly to German military history as possible. To that end, the magazine contains features on Zeppelin raids, merchant U-boats, S-Boote, Panzers in Poland, Luftwaffe fighter-bombers and female test pilots, to…

It was a cold, clear day in February 1936 when Hanna Reitsch sent her glider spiralling down to earth, scattering the crowds below her in the Olympia-Kunsteisstadion. Enjoying herself, she then calmly rolled sideways, lifting into an elegant loop. The wingspan of her beautiful DFS Habicht (Hawk) was wider than its length, the fuselage entirely white apart from the swastika on the vertical stabiliser. Hanna was among the group of German glider pilots assembled for the 1936 Winter Olympics, not to compete but to demonstrate the sport for approval for the planned 1940 Tokyo games. Eventually, she brought her ‘bird’ swooping down to land on the frozen lake in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Bavaria, where the world figure skating championships would soon take place. Then she climbed out onto the ice, shook her…

By the late summer of 1939 the tensions that had been building up on the European continent for years threatened to erupt in a new war. After the occupation of Bohemia and Moravia in 1938, the Third Reich had tightened its foreign policy course. In the spring of 1939, German troops marched into the rest of Czechoslovakia, ignoring the Munich Agreement that had been signed just six months earlier, and occupied the country. Until then, the Soviet Union had been considered the most dangerous enemy in Poland, but now a far more threatening situation was developing in the west. The Polish government was forced to declare partial mobilisation. Finally, in April 1939, the Führer, Adolf Hitler, instructed the leadership of the Wehrmacht to prepare for a campaign against Poland. An…

Atruly unique armoured vehicle, Tiger 131 was the first example of its type to be captured intact by the western Allies in the Second World War. Officially a Panzerkampfwagen VI Ausf E Tiger I, the Kassel-built machine was knocked out by Churchill tanks from either the 142nd Regiment Royal Armoured Cars or 4 Troop of the 48th Royal Tank Regiment at ‘Point 174’ (Gueriat el Atach) in Tunisia on 21 April 1943. Subsequently returned to working order with parts from other destroyed Tigers, the tank was displayed in Tunis and formally inspected there by both King George VI and Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Following testing and evaluation in Britain, Tiger 131 was passed on to what is now known as The Tank Museum by the Ministry of Supply in September…

ENTER ONLINE TODAY! This book from Iron Cross Consultant Editor Andy Saunders throws new light on the battles between the infamous Junkers Ju 87 Stuka and RAF Fighter Command in the West in 1940–41. Lavishly illustrated throughout with specially commissioned artwork, diagrams and maps, this fascinating book will tell you things about Stuka operations which you may not have known – as well as laying to rest some of the myths about the aircraft’s role during and beyond the Battle of Britain. Softback, and running to 80 pages, this is a volume that ought to be on the bookshelf of any enthusiast of the aircraft type, Luftwaffe operations or the wider story of the Battle of Britain. So, for a chance to win yourself one of five free copies being…

With the Focke-Wulf Fw 56 Stösser positioned above the Deutsche Forschunganstalt fur Segelflug (German Research Institute for Gliders) DFS 230 glider, Karl Schieferstein started the engine of the parasol-winged aircraft. Minutes later, with Kurt Oppitz flying the glider, the curious combination, towed by a Ju 52/3m transport, swayed along the grass before lifting off and gaining height. The Junkers tri-motor cast off the tow and the strange Huckepack-Verfahren (piggy-back system) combination flew off under the power of the Stösser. This experimental operation was designed to see if small assault gliders could be transported by air without the need for larger aircraft being employed as tugs. The idea worked, but its ultimate deployment was as a last-ditch bomber, codenamed Mistel (Misteltoe), in which a Focke-Wulf Fw 190 or Messerschmitt Bf 109…

THE KING’S GUESTS When two German aircraft were brought down in Windsor Great Park in 1940 and 1941, the surviving Luftwaffe airmen became ‘guests’ of His Majesty The King, in whose garden they had ended up. Consultant Editor Andy Saunders explores the fascinating tale of both aircraft, and the men who flew them. (1) OPPOSING JUBILEE On 19 August 1942, the landing of more than 6,000 predominantly Canadian infantrymen at Dieppe during Operation Jubilee was the first attempt by the Allies to carry out an assault from the sea on a selected port in occupied Europe. The Canadians were heavily defeated on the beach, and German propaganda was undoubtedly the winner. Using unpublished documents and photographs, Thomas Anderson attempts to convey the German defenders’ view of an attack that was…

In January 1944, following more than four years of often bitter fighting in the hotly disputed waters of the English Channel, personnel of the six Schnellbootsflottillen (Fastboat Flotilla) in the west viewed the new year with growing trepidation. During the course of 1943, they had sunk just 26 ships, representing a little more than 26,000 tons – a drop of some 30 per cent from the previous year’s achievements. To make matters worse, attrition was on the rise (15 S-Boote, known to the Allies as E-boats, had been lost, 84 men killed in action and 37 captured) thanks to the increasing threat posed by Allied aircraft roaming at will along the Channel coast targeting the S-Bootsflottillen bases in the Netherlands and France. A total of 46 S-Boote were declared operational…

To the workers toiling at Black Robin Farm on Beachy Head, the distant whine of aero engines was something that did not unduly concern them. It was Wednesday, 20 May 1942, and such things were an everyday occurrence. Even the distant ‘crump’ of bombs exploding attracted scant attention. Moments later, however, a lone aircraft unexpectedly hopped over the cliff edge trailing a banner of white vapour as it headed towards them, before suddenly careering across a meadow on its belly until an awkward pirouette saw the machine come to a halt in a swirling cloud of dust. Gingerly, the pilot heaved himself out of the cockpit and fired his pistol into the engine in what seemed to the astonished farm labourers to be nothing more than frustrated rage. Earlier that…

As soon as Britain declared war on Germany and Austria-Hungary on 4 August 1914, the Royal Navy swung into action to curtail the movement of German shipping, particularly in the North Sea. By maintaining a blockade of enemy ports, Britain hoped to cut off supplies to the enemy from the outside world, in effect using its powerful navy to starve Germany and Austria-Hungary into submission. A key part of this plan involved the Royal Navy implementing a policy of ‘distant blockade,’ the intention being to try and prevent any vessel trading with the enemy from gaining access to the English Channel and the North Sea. In almost no time, the Royal Navy was making its presence felt. ‘Every German merchant ship, from the earliest moment when the entry of Britain…

Across recent decades, British police forces have carried out arms amnesty campaigns whereby members of the public have been invited to hand in illegally held guns and other weapons without fear of prosecution. Unsurprisingly, these campaigns have led to a number of war trophy weapons being surrendered. Among them was the Belgian-manufactured 1922 Fabrique Nationale (FN) 7.65 mm Browning pistol featured here, which was handed in to Sussex Police in the late 1970s. Although this weapon had originally been developed for the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later known as Yugoslavia), it subsequently had the dubious distinction of being produced in larger numbers by FN than any other firearm during the Nazi occupation of Belgium. The German designation for the Model 1922 was Pistole 626(b), although another variant was…