Innehållsförteckning för Issue 25 från Iron Cross

Essentially heavy cruisers that were constructed in accordance with the restrictions imposed on Germany by the Treaty of Versailles, the Deutschland-class vessels boasted six 28 cm (11-in.) guns in two triple turrets and a further 11 weapons of smaller sizes in a hull that displaced just 10,600 tons. These guns, combined with new, advanced production techniques where riveting was replaced by welded construction and modern MAN diesel engines were fitted in place of steam turbines, made the Deutschland-class pocket battleships far superior to the cruisers fielded by rival navies. The disassembling of Germany’s once powerful High Seas Fleet in the immediate aftermath of the First World War – 52 vessels scuttled in Scapa Flow in June 1919 and the seizure of the remaining ships by the Allies as part of…

By May 1943, the Afrika Korps was rapidly losing its grip on the Mediterranean coast as Allied troops advanced from both the east and west, forcing the Germans into an ever-shrinking area in northern Tunisia. Surviving soldiers were increasingly reliant on the air link with southern Europe for ammunition supplies and casualty evacuation, although Allied fighters were exacting a heavy toll on the transports involved. Amongst the units tasked with keeping the air link open was Luftransportstaffel (LTS) 290 equipped with a pair of four-engined Junkers Ju 290A-1s – a type developed from the pre-war Ju 90 airliner. In March 1943, LTS 290 was assigned operations under Lufttransport-Fuhrer Mittelmeer, the unit being led by Hauptmann Heinz Braun and based at Grosseto, on Italy’s western coast, with orders to supply airfields…

Paul Nash (1889–1946) is one of Britain’s best-known war artists, and when he arrived at the Ypres Salient in March 1917 as an officer in the Hampshire Regiment, he was initially struck by the ability of nature to regenerate the battlefield – something he regularly featured in his many war paintings. After breaking a rib when he fell into a trench, Nash was sent back to England to convalesce in May 1917. Only a week later, his regiment was all but annihilated in an assault on Hill 60. His homage to his comrades in arms, The Landscape of Hill 60 (1918), depicts a scarred vista of earth and water ravaged by shellfire, with dogfighting aeroplanes and explosions in the sky above. Nash returned to Belgium as an official war artist…

Typhoon IA EJ956 of No 486 (NZ) Sqn was almost certainly the only example of the temperamental Hawker fighter to be flown by the Luftwaffe. The aircraft, having departed Tangmere, in West Sussex, on 23 March 1943 as part of a two-aircraft ‘Rhubarb’ (smallscale freelance fighter sweep against targets of opportunity) with New Zealander Flt Sgt William K Mawson at the controls, was hit by light Flak crossing the French coast at low altitude. The pilot managed to belly-land the stricken fighter in a field near Cany-Barville, in the Normandy region of northern France. Recovered virtually intact by the Luftwaffe, the aircraft was eventually repaired using parts from other downed Typhoons and tested in a series of ground runs, possibly at Orly, in France – where this photograph was probably…

An unidentified observer, map clearly visible in his right hand, and his pilot purportedly search for their target to bomb ‘somewhere over southern England’ on 15 August 1940 according to the brief caption that accompanied this photograph when it was released as a Luftwaffe propaganda postcard. They are sat in the distinctive, heavily glazed nose section of a He 111P medium bomber. The observer, who was almost certainly the aircraft captain, is wearing a full length Luftwaffe officer’s greatcoat – rarely seen on aircrew undertaking an operational mission, particularly in the height of summer. It would, therefore, seem likely that this photograph was in fact a posed propaganda shot taken either on the ground or during a training flight sometime before 15 August 1940. Although perhaps not depicting an actual…

When the soldiers of 8. Württembergisches Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 126 (IR. 126) ‘Großherzog Friedrich von Baden’ left southern Alsace on the night of 14 August 1914, they had already experienced days of hardship despite the First World War having commenced less than three weeks earlier. The regiment had paid a high price in both men and materiel when repelling enemy attacks and then going on the offensive during the bitterly contested Battle of Mühlhausen/Mulhouse – the French Army’s opening campaign of the First World War. IR. 126’s lineage stretched back to 18 March 1716, with the regiment subsequently participating in a number of important wars in European history through to 1871. The actions in which the regiment was involved included the Austro-Turkish War of 1716–18 and with Napoleon in the Russian…

Subordinate to Dr Joseph Goebbels’ Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda (Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda) but reporting through the Wehrmacht Propaganda department of Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW – Wehrmachtsführungsstab/Wehrmacht Propaganda), Luftwaffe Kriegsberichter Kompanien (Lw KBK) consisted of four Kompanien numbered 1 to 4 in Berlin, Braunschweig, München and Vienna in August 1939. There was also an independent Propaganda Zug (platoon) within Luftwaffen Kommando Ostpreussen in Köningsberg. In 1940, an additional four KBKs were established, as well as a Fallschirm Kriegsberichter Kompanie (paratroops) and a Luftwaffe Kriegsberichter Kompanie zur besonderer Verwendung (Lw KBK zbV). All had responsibilities for reporting at home (Heimat) or the frontline (Front). The task was simple, as dictated by Goebbels: ‘The propaganda troops of the Wehrmacht ensure the interaction between [the] propaganda and [the] weapons war…

BATTLE OF GRAVENEY MARSH When a Ju 88 was forced down at Graveney Marsh, in Kent, on 27 September 1940, shots were allegedly heard to ring out as the four crewmen emerged from the bomber. What followed has led to it being described as the last land battle in Britain against a foreign power since 1797. Andy Saunders unravels the truth behind one of the Battle of Britain’s strangest stories. (1) TRACKING BISMARCK As a follow-up to the Surviving Bismarck feature published in issue 23 of Iron Cross, Dr Scott A Caldwell chronicles the radar and signals intelligence used by the Kriegsmarine, the RAF and the Royal Navy leading up to the battleship’s demise. (2) ZEPPELIN SPÄHKORB A constant problem faced by Zeppelin crews targeting southern England during the First…

In 1942, the German war machine was at the height of its power. France, the ‘hereditary enemy’, was defeated and occupied. In the Soviet Union, Army Group South was marching inexorably toward the Caucasus. Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel’s Panzer Group Africa was also advancing, threatening Egypt and the Suez Canal. The German occupiers had established themselves in France. Captured weapons were incorporated into their own arsenal and the French armaments industry was producing equipment for the Wehrmacht. The invasion of the British Isles, Operation Seelöwe, planned for the late summer of 1940, could not be launched, however, due to the Luftwaffe’s heavy losses during the Battle of Britain. It now remained the last bastion of freedom in Europe. After Germany declared war on the United States on 11 December 1941, the…

In many phases of military training, recruits have no need for fully functional service rifles. For marching, undertaking parade drills, tackling obstacle courses or even when participating in ‘dry run’ lessons in handling weapons on the shooting range, standard service rifles are too valuable to be used. Dummy rifles are perfectly sufficient for this kind of use. In German, they are called Exerziergewehr (drill rifles). Optimally, they have the same appearance, size and weight as a bolt-action service rifle model, and, in most cases, the trigger is the only moveable part because it is needed for simulating the pull characteristics to give trainees a better feeling for firing their weapon. At the beginning of the First World War, the German army had used obsolete and captured weapons for training purposes.…

When Buckingham Palace was hit by bombs on 15 September 1940, it brought the war to the very front door of King George VI and his wife Elizabeth, the Queen consort. Just over two weeks later, the war also came to their estate at Windsor Castle, in Berkshire, with the ‘arrival’ of a Messerschmitt Bf 109E-1. Although the Battle of Britain is officially recognised as having ended on 31 October 1940, German daylight attacks had certainly started to diminish as September ended. However, it could be said that Luftwaffe missions over Britain on the final day of the month were, perhaps, one of the ‘last gasps’ of the major daylight offensive that had been waged since July. In the context of this account, we are concerned only with Luftwaffe operations…

Erich R Döbrich was born in Sonnenberg, Thuringia, on 31 May 1896 – he added ‘-Steglitz’ to his name following his service in the First World War. During that conflict, he had served as an Ulan with 4. Eskadron, Königliche Bayerische 2. Ulanen Regiment (KB UR) ‘König’, prior to joining the Maschinengewehr-Kompanie of Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment (RIR) 251. Döbrich was severely wounded on the Western Front in late November 1914 at Warneton, in France, while with 4./KB UR 2 1 and lightly wounded on the Eastern Front in 1916 with RIR 251. 2 Post-war, he joined the Sturmabteilung (SA) in Berlin in the late 1920s, and by August 1930 Döbrich-Steglitz had become Führer of the SA-Standarte I in Charlottenburg, Spandau and Moabit. That month, he was ordered by OSAF Stellvertreter Ost Walter…