Innehållsförteckning för Issue 26 från Iron Cross

On 11 September 1940, during the late afternoon, between 20 and 30 Messerschmitt Bf 110C/Ds from I. Gruppe of Zerstörergeschwader (ZG) 26 were assigned to fly as part of the fighter cover protecting a formation of more than 130 Heinkel He 111 bombers headed for London’s docks. Flying one of the Bf 110s in that formation was 2./ZG 26’s Feldwebel Hermann Brinkmann, together with his Bordfunker (wireless operator/gunner), Unteroffizier Erwin Grüschow. For them, it would be a one-way flight to England. Brinkmann recorded details of the operation in the following account, written in the 1970s: ‘It was the afternoon of 11 September 1940 at Clairmarais airfield [in the Pas-de-Calais] when my Gruppe received orders for a sortie to London. This was supposed to be a routine operation, but on this day…

The forced landing of a shot-up Junkers Ju 88A bomber of Kampfgeschwader (KG) 77 on the north Kent coast in late September 1940, during one of the bloodiest days of the Battle of Britain, gave rise to tales about its crew engaging in a gunfight with British troops of the 1st Battalion, London Irish Rifles. Subsequently christened the Battle of Graveney Marsh, was this really the first – and last – ‘engagement’ with enemy forces on British soil since February 1797? In its assessment of Luftwaffe activity over England on 27 September 1940, and particularly in relation to London and southeast England, the Air Ministry subsequently observed of the late afternoon raid: ‘The enemy’s major operations for the day were completed by this attack on London. It would have given…

There are many myths and plenty of confusion about the Panther II tank. Because of its name, people wrongly believe that it was the natural successor of the Panzerkampfwagen (PzKpfw) V Panther Ausf G, the last mass-produced example of this widely used and highly effective tank. To prevent confusion, the term ‘Panther I’ will be used in this article when referring to the Panther tanks that saw service with the German Army – the term ‘Panther I’ was not used during the war, however. Only the hull was built, a fact that again causes befuddlement. German armour enthusiasts have argued over the years about the type of turret destined for use with the Panther II hull. None of the original early designs were manufactured. The turret most people believe was…

During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, German troops faced an unexpected threat. The French Army used hot-air balloons, or Montgolfiers, for the first time for reconnaissance and intelligence purposes. Engaging these targets was impossible with the available artillery. The Krupp company delivered a suitable weapon relatively quickly, mounting a 3.7 cm gun on a pivot and then attaching it to a two-axle carriage. This guaranteed a degree of mobility, allowing the horse-drawn guns to follow the balloons drifting slowly with the wind. Following the introduction of steerable airships and aircraft, more powerful weapons systems were required to counter this aerial threat. In addition to light field guns that had been modified to engage aerial targets, designers also focused on light machine guns. By increasing the weapons’ rate of fire, the…

In this colourised Propaganda kompanie shot taken at the Sicilian airfield of Comiso in the first week of September 1942, high-scoring ace and II./JG 53 Gruppenkommandeur Oberleutnant Gerhard Michalski (right) provides Obergefreiter Rudolf Wagner with dogfighting instruction for the benefit of the photographer. Both men are being watched from above by a puppy that has been neatly placed within the air filter of a Bf 109G-2/Trop. The fighter wears the Geschwader’s distinctive ‘Pik As’ (‘Aces of Spades’) insignia, which adorned the unit’s Messerschmitts throughout the Second World War. Michalski was clearly someone worth listening to, for he had already been credited with 39 victories (on the Channel Front, in Russia and over Malta) by the time this photograph was taken. Perhaps Wagner did not pay close enough attention to what…

As the Soviet Red Army stubbornly resisted German advances on the Eastern Front in the summer of 1942, the total ammunition consumption of the Wehrmacht’s ground forces in-theatre dramatically increased. In August alone, 143,624 tons (more than 4,600 tons per day) was consumed. While this figure would only continue to rise into 1943, shortfalls in ammunition production due to damage inflicted by the Allied bombing campaign and a growing lack of raw materials were becoming painfully apparent. For example, light field howitzers fired more than 3.6 million rounds in August 1942, while only 2.8 million rounds could be supplied. The General Quartermaster of the Army noted ‘If the heavy fighting in the East continues, the ammunition supply can no longer be guaranteed’. During these difficult times, Dr. Erich von Holt…

On the morning of Sunday, 3 September 1916, farm bailiff Charles Lewis set out across the fields at Abbott’s Hall near the village of Horsley Cross, in rural Essex, to check on the wheat crop. He took his gun, hoping to get a shot at a rabbit. The previous night, he and others had heard Zeppelin engines overhead. One local, Robert Grimwade, also heard ‘a light rushing sound, then a light thud in the distance’. Lewis was now in for a surprise: ‘When I looked through the hedge I saw this queer-looking thing with its nose in the ground. Trailing away from it for about a mile was a tremendous stretch of wire. I guessed it was something left by the enemy, so I cocked my gun and peeped in to…

The creation of the Fw 58, Focke-Wulf’s first aircraft to feature a retractable undercarriage, was overseen at the company’s Bremen factory by 33-year-old Kurt Tank, who had been appointed Chief of Design and Testing on 1 November 1931 after previously working at Rohrbach Metallflugzeugbau on flying-boats. His versatile mind directed that aeronautical design should be along the lines of what makes an aircraft work effectively, and how capable it was intended to be in the role it was expected to undertake. In the case of the Weihe, its task would be to perform the role of a twin-engined trainer for would-be bomber pilots, combined with light transport work for military and civil markets. Yet the aircraft was something of an anachronism. In appearance, it fell between a streamlined futuristic shape…

When we think of the U-boat campaign during the Second World War, images often arise of silent predators gliding beneath the waves, steely and lethal, striking fear into Allied convoys. The myth of the ‘wolf packs’ has long been etched into the collective memory of the conflict, sustained by the imagery of Das Boot, or the drama of The Cruel Sea. But behind the U-boat’s fearsome reputation lay a far grimmer reality. The life of a U-boat crewman was defined not by glory and glamour, but by claustrophobia, filth, terror and the ever present spectre of death. These were men entombed in steel, chasing survival one depth charge at a time. When the Second World War commenced in September 1939, the U-boat arm was rather modest, consisting of barely 22…

Although the Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet could attain speeds in excess of 550 mph thanks to its Walter HWK 109-509A-2 liquid-fuelled rocket motor, the aircraft lacked the capability to taxi when on the ground. With no permanent undercarriage (wheels attached to a dolly used for take-off were immediately jettisoned once the Komet was aloft), and relying on a retractable skid and tailwheel for landing, the Me 163 needed specialised ground equipment to facilitate its movement. The requirement for a dedicated recovery vehicle had been identified by the Luftwaffe as early as March 1943, and the end result is seen here in action towing an Me 163B (possibly from JG 400) during late 1944. The Schlepper (‘tractor’), developed by Scheuch of Erfurt in close cooperation with Auto Union, was based on…