Innehållsförteckning för Issue 27 från Iron Cross

On 9 December 1914, the light cruiser SMS Dresden dropped anchor in Sholl Bay, off the coast of Chile, and the crew began to stand down from alert. The ship’s commanding officer, Fregattenkapitän Fritz Lüdecke, ordered a survey of coal stock and for the wireless operators to listen for British pursuers and, more importantly, their squadron mate SMS Nürnberg in case it too had survived the decimation of the Ostasiatische Kreuzergeschwader (East Asia Cruiser Squadron) the previous day. Since the commencement of the First World War four months earlier, Vizeadmiral Maximilian von Spee’s squadron, consisting of the armoured cruisers SMS Scharnhorst and SMS Gneisenau, accompanied by the light cruisers SMS Emden and Nürnberg, had been involved in a manhunt across the Pacific and Indian Oceans. By 13 October, Emden was…

Fortunately, Alfred Fleischer lived well into old age and, at the request of American historian William R Puglisi, he wrote an informal account of his experiences as a Jagdflieger in 1964. This flawed but evocative memoir, published in the Winter 1965 issue of Cross & Cockade Journal, forms the basis of this article. Like many young men of his generation, Fleischer’s fascination with aviation was inspired at an early age. He wrote: ‘I would like to mention a flying experience that strongly influenced me. It was in the spring of 1914 when the famous French flyer [Adolphe] Pégoud performed for the first time in the Berlin Johannisthal, demonstrating his grand nose dives and loops. At the age of 18, I was greatly inspired and, since that time, the thought persisted…

Five minutes before the Wehrmacht crossed the eastern borders of the neutral Benelux states on the morning of 10 May 1940 to signal the start of the Blitzkrieg in the West, German Fallschirmjäger (paratroopers) landed near the bridges over the Albert Canal at Kanne, Vroenhoven and Veldwezelt. They arrived in gliders literally on top of the Belgian fortress of Ében-Émael, which covered these crucially important crossings. Within a short time, not only had two of the three bridges fallen undestroyed into German hands, the fort, which was considered impregnable, was also put out of action and its occupants surrendered a day later. This quick and surprising tactical victory, the circumstances of which only became fully known after the war, was an important morale and propaganda success for Germany, and an…

In 1941, General der Panzertruppe Erwin Rommel needed heavy artillery to support his advancing armoured divisions in North Africa. Horse-drawn artillery was impractical in the heat of the desert, the logistics of supplying these animals with enough feed and water soon proving to be a nightmare. Rommel demanded that a solution be found. Although the Panzer II tank had performed well in Poland in September 1939, it was soon outclassed by some of the British and French tanks encountered during the invasion of France in May 1940. Considered to be obsolete by 1941, Panzer IIs were replaced by Panzer IIIs as soon as the latter came off the factory production line. This meant the Wehrmacht now had a surplus of Panzer IIs. In light of Rommel’s request, the decision was…

At the end of 1944, the German armed forces mainly used two types of rifle cartridges (apart from those fired by numerous captured weapons) – 7.92 x 57 mm with an sS (heavy spitzer) bullet for rifles and machine guns, and 7.92 x 33 mm kurz (short) with the short Mkb bullet for machine carbines (assault rifles). In order to make the cartridges more effective, a large number of other bullets such as tracer, hard core or even explosive projectiles were also used. Another route to increasing the performance of ammunition was explored in the autumn of 1944. If two bullets could be put in a single cartridge case, the target would incur double the destructive effect. Furthermore, there would be significant savings on raw material, weight and transport space,…

CAPTURING CRETE Unternehmen Merkur (Operation Mercury) was the codename for the conquest of the island of Crete in May – June 1941. From an Allied perspective, although Crete was of huge strategic importance it was poorly defended. Thomas Anderson describes the course of the costly fighting during the landing, which was carried out by paratroopers and tanks of 5th Panzer Division. (1) DEUTSCHLAND/LÜTZOW The lead ship for the Deutschlandclass Panzerschiffe (Pocket Battleship), Deutschland, which was renamed Lützow in late 1939, was a potent symbol of the Third Reich’s militaristic ambitions in the lead up to the Second World War. (2) A CAPTIVE ‘FRIEDRICH’ When Luftwaffe ace Hauptmann Rolf Pingel was forced down on the Kent coast on 10 July 1941, he delivered to the RAF a relatively intact Bf 109F-1. It…

Like every conflict, the Second World War accelerated many technical developments and had its share of ‘firsts’. Among these was the widespread use of aircraft over open water. While flying boat and especially land-based aircraft operations over water had been fairly limited during the First World War, the leaders of the newly-created Luftwaffe realised in the late 1930s that this was about to change in the next conflict. Such long-range missions would create a new challenge in the form of downed crews that needed rescuing. Having either ditched their aircraft or bailed out by parachute, aircrew would need to be found and retrieved tens or even hundreds of miles from shore in a fairly rapid way. Providing at least a minimal chance of survival would not only be important to…

Future high-scoring Arctic front ace Leutnant Heinrich Ehrler poses in front of a Bf 109F from 4. Staffel of Jagdgeschwader (JG) 5 at Petsamo, in Finland, in mid-summer 1942 – just prior to him being appointed Staffelkapitän of 6./JG 5 in August of that year. This Friedrich wears the Gruppe’s trademark camouflage scheme, which was not a standard factory finish but one that was reportedly applied at a Luftwaffe depot prior to final delivery. With his victory tally already standing at 34 by the time this photograph was taken, Ehrler was awarded the Knight’s Cross on 4 September with his score having just passed 50. Made Gruppenkommandeur of II./JG 5 in June 1943, presented with the Oak Leaves to his Knight’s Cross the following month and then promoted to Geschwaderkommodore…

PzKpfw VI Tiger ‘223’ of Schwere Panzerabteilung (s.Pz. Abt.) 502 has come to a halt alongside a recently knocked out Soviet Red Army KV-1S on 15 September 1943 during the Third Battle of Lake Ladoga. One of 1,370 examples of the Soviet heavy tank built in 1942–43, this particular KV-1S had been supporting the 67th Army’s ultimately unsuccessful attempt to break the long-running siege of Leningrad when it suffered a hit to its left side (note the crumpled, near-vertical fender above the left track). The tank also shows evidence of having endured a fire. The five-man crew of the KV-1S had the misfortune of coming up against s.Pz. Abt. 502, which had vast experience of operating the Tiger I in combat. Indeed, it was the first heavy Panzer battalion to…

On 22 September 1993, French diver Henri Delauze reported to the Marine Nationale that he had discovered two wrecks in the Hyères/Toulon area at a depth of about 80 m. One was Torpilleur (Torpedo Boat) 207 Étoile, which had been deliberately sunk by the Marine Nationale in 1913 after 16 years of service. However, the other wreck was an aircraft identified as an He 111, about which little was known apart from the fact the pilot was supposedly recovered dead after the crash. Recent exploration of the bomber by experienced wreck diver Peter Hornburger has revealed a little more about the Heinkel. On 13 August 1943, 40 He 111Hs from I. Gruppe of Kampfgeschwader (KG) 26, based at Salon-de Provence and temporarily commanded by Hauptmann Klaus Toball, and 20 Junkers…