Innholdsfortegnelse for No.34 i History of War

“A film was later made called A Bridge Too Far but how could it have been too far when I was there for days? It wasn’t too far for me.” – Stephen Morgan, Market Garden veteran In September 1944, more than 10,000 paratroopers of the 1st Airborne Division were dropped over Holland. The objective was to take and hold the bridge at Arnhem – one of the key points in Montgomery’s plan to bring an end to the war. This issue we are proud to present the stories of two former paratroopers who fought at Arnhem. They witnessed the tragedies and sacrifices made during the operation, as careful Allied plans turned into chaos. Reading the accounts of veterans is always a humbling experience, bringing sobering…

FIELD MARSHAL SIR WILLIAM SLIM YEARS ACTIVE: 1914-52 ALLEGIANCE: 6TH GURKHA RIFLES Bill Slim (1891-1970) led the Fourteenth Army (the “Forgotten Army”) in India and Burma during World War II and, afterwards, became the first British officer who had served in the Indian Army to become chief of the general staff and the 13th governor-general of Australia. Slim made his name as a junior officer during World War I, being twice wounded in action. As governor-general, many Australians regarded him as an authentic war hero who had fought with the Anzacs at Gallipoli. Commissioned as a temporary subaltern with the Royal Warwickshire Regiment in August 1914, he was badly wounded at Gallipoli, where he first acquired his admiration for the Gurkhas, and an ambition to join the Indian Army. Given…

In 1914, the Indian Army contained 39 cavalry regiments, 138 infantry battalions, the Corps of Guides, three sapper regiments and 12 mountain batteries. There were also 20 cavalry regiments and 14 infantry battalions from the Princely States. During the war, more than 1 million Indian troops served overseas, providing an Imperial reserve – with units including the Gurkha Rifles and Mysore Lancers. MYSORE LANCERS THE 15TH CAVALRY BRIGADE PLAYED A HUGE ROLE IN ALLENBY’S ADVANCE IN 1918 Forces belonging to Mysore and other states had previously remained separate from the Indian Army, but the Mysore Lancers were reorganised in 1892 as part of the Imperial Service Troops (IST) scheme. The IST had been established to train troops from the armies of the Indian princely states up to the standard of…

By September 1944, Allied armies had pushed the Germans almost completely out of France and Belgium and the front line stood several miles short of the Dutch border. With success came crippling supply problems and it was agreed to give one army priority to carry out a plan to deal a final blow to the Germans, who were perceived to be on the point of collapse. The honour fell to the British 2nd Army under Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery and the plan was codenamed ‘Operation Market Garden’. Montgomery’s plan was to fly three divisions (35,000 men) and land them in various parts of the Netherlands to capture five key bridges. This part was ‘Market’. ‘Garden’ was the ground element, where British tanks of XXX Corps would simultaneously clear the front…

“THERE IS NO DOUBT THAT, HAD IT NOT BEEN FOR THIS OFFICER’S INSPIRING LEADERSHIP AND PERSONAL BRAVERY, THE ARNHEM BRIDGE COULD NEVER HAVE BEEN HELD FOR THIS TIME” David Lord was a pilot in 271 Squadron, RAF Transport Command. At Arnhem, he was the captain of a Dakota aircraft that was detailed to drop supplies over the battle on 19 September 1944. At that time, the paratroopers had been surrounded into an area that was highly defended by German anti-aircraft guns. Lord’s Dakota was hit by AA-fire at 450 metres near Oosterbeek, which set his starboard engine on fire. At this point, Lord would have been justified to disengage but as his crew were uninjured and his drop zone was only three minutes away, he continued. Flying at 275 metres,…

When Reinhard Heydrich, the dreaded Reichsprotektor of Bohemia-Moravia, breathed his last in a bed in Prague’s Bulovka Hospital, police officer Bernhard Wehner observed a serene countenance, which belied the legacy of torture and murder the top Nazi left behind. Wehner noted an, “…uncanny spirituality and entirely perverted beauty, like a renaissance cardinal.” It was a moment of supreme irony, and only the beginning, as the Nazi hierarchy and its puppets within the administration of Czech President Emil Hácha, heaped their lavish tributes on Heydrich. An extended period of ritual mourning followed the Reichsprotektor’s death. A six-man SS honour guard stood vigil around the flag covered coffin, topped with a grandiose wreath, as the body lay in state in Prague’s Hradcany Castle. Behind the bier hung the sinister black banner of…

Both the English and Scottish armies at Falkirk used tactics that were quite original for the time, and in both cases the lessons learned from the battle would inadvertently influence the way wars were fought in the future. Edward’s army consisted of English, Irish and Welsh infantry along with a powerful body of cavalry. At the time, the cavalry was the dominant unit in Medieval armies and massed charges were seen as the most effective way to defeat infantry. Nevertheless, archery was becoming increasingly important in England, so much so that royal statutes demanded that every man owned and practised with longbows and officials regularly checked them. At Falkirk, the English cavalry noticeably failed against the Scottish spearmen, causing Edward to issue a ruthless order to his archers to concentrate…

HO CHI MINH TRAIL The Ho Chi Minh Trail ran almost 1,600 kilometres from North Vietnam through Laos and ends near the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City). MACV-SOG teams routinely conducted reconnaissance and surveillance on the trail, guiding in US bombing raids to target logistics convoys and troop movements. BATTLE OF KHE SANH Khe Sanh was the site of one of SOG’s most famous battles – the last stand of RT Kansas. Sent in to capture a prisoner, the 14-man team ended up holding off an NVA regiment, suffering nine dead, before the timely arrival of helicopter gunships broke the back of the human wave assault. COMMAND & CONTROL NORTH Command and Control North (CCN), the largest of the three SOG field commands, was based…

Writer: Andrew Davidson Publisher: Heron Books Price: £20 Released: Out now It really did not seem possible to shed new light on World War I – one of the most written about conflicts in history – but in this remarkable book, Andrew Davidson does just that. For three years, Colonel Graham Chaplin of the 1st Cameronians served on the front line making him, so far as we can tell, the longest-serving frontline officer of the war. Almost every day he wrote to his wife, Lil, who he had married a year before the outbreak of war, and who he left pregnant with their first child when he sailed to France as part of the British Expeditionary Force. There have been many collections of soldiers’ letters home, but what sets this…

“IN THE AFTERMATH OF HIS MASTER’S FINAL DEFEAT, MARENGO WAS TAKEN BACK TO ENGLAND AND PUT ON DISPLAY – BECOMING, IN A SENSE, A LIVING SOUVENIR OF THE FAMOUS BATTLEFIELD” After the Prussian and British allies won the field at Waterloo on 18 June 1815, they found among the spoils of their victory a small grey stallion. It was of fine breeding and was well cared for. This was Napoleon’s own horse, Marengo, who had served under the emperor for 16 years, having been purchased during the Egyptian Campaign (1798-1801). The emperor had named him after his own famous victory against the Austrians on 14 June 1800. In the aftermath of his master’s final defeat, Marengo was taken back to England and put on display – becoming, in a sense,…

TOM GARNER As well as sitting down to chat with two WWII veterans, this month Tom found a chance to return to his Medievalist roots, exonerating the Braveheart- induced vilification of Edward I (or was it the IV?) over on page 58. ROB SCHÄFER Rob continues his Heroes of the Reich series, exploring Imperial Germany’s complex WWI medals system, as well as the stories of bravery behind them. This issue, read an account of Georg Meiser’s death-defying trench raids (page 82). MICHAEL HASKEW Now the subject of two new films, Operation Anthropoid was the only successful high-profile assassination of a Nazi official during World War II. Mike has unpacked the daring mission and its target: Reinhard Heydrich on page 48.…

The Ottoman Empire’s entry into the war in October 1914 had threatened British interests in the Middle East, particularly with its attempt to seize the Suez Canal (1915-16). Contemporaneous British offensives resulted in withdrawal from Gallipoli and surrender at Kut-al-Amara, but the initiative was gradually regained with the capture of Baghdad in March 1917. Stalemate in Palestine was broken by the appointment of Commander-in-Chief Sir Edmund Allenby, who captured Jerusalem in December 1917, but the German Spring Offensive of 1918 forced Allenby to abandon his plans, as troops were transferred to the Western Front. Allenby then rebuilt his forces with Indian Army formations, and resumed his attack on the Ottomans. 1. ALLENBY’S PLAN OF ATTACK Allenby decided to attack along the coast on the Plain of Sharon, where the terrain…

“IT WAS AWE-INSPIRING, I’D NEVER FLOWN IN SOMETHING LIKE THAT BEFORE” Unlike the teenage Morgan, Tom Hicks was a seasoned soldier who had been in the army since war broke out. “I was called up for six months in 1939, but when the war started, they kept me for six years.” As a sapper in the Royal Engineers, Hicks was keen for adventure, “After being in a Royal Engineers railway section for about a year, I thought, ‘This isn’t terribly exciting’. Churchill wanted paratroopers so I thought, ‘Here goes,’ and joined in 1942.” Hicks became part of the 1st Parachute Squadron, Royal Engineers and took part in operations in North Africa and Sicily before returning to take part in Market Garden. This would be on a different level to his…

JAROSLAV SUSTR A captain in the FCA, Sustr was largely responsible for training the Operation Anthropoid agents, in preparation for their mission. He also accompanied them aboard the aircraft that dropped them into the occupied Protectorate of Bohemia-Moravia. JOZEF GABCIK A former locksmith from Slovakia, Gabcik was the triggerman in Operation Anthropoid. His cheaply made Sten Gun, nicknamed the ‘Woolworth Gun’, jammed and failed to fire when Gabcik was only a few feet away from Reinhard Heydrich’s Mercedes convertible. JAN KUBIŠ The son of a Moravian peasant family, Kubiš hurled the Type 73 anti-tank grenade that inflicted the mortal wounds on Reinhard Heydrich. A staff sergeant in the FCA, Kubiš fled Czechoslovakia and had fought the Germans in France in the spring of 1940. JOSEF VALCIK Born in Valasske Klobouky,…

WALES When Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, prince of Wales, failed to pay homage to Edward for his lands, Edward launched an invasion. In the subsequent fallout, Llywelyn’s political authority and his lands were reduced to the mountains of Snowdonia. The Welsh were also fined a war indemnity of £50,000 (£25 million today). When Llywelyn was later killed in a second invasion, Edward disinherited the Welsh nobility and imposed an oppressive English administration. FRANCE In the 13th century, England had a close and complex relationship with France. The English elite was French-speaking and Edward’s grandfather, John, had lost many ancestral lands in France, including Normandy. Edward had to pay homage for his remaining French lands to Philippe IV. However, war broke out when Philippe tried to forfeit Gascony. The king responded by…

“MACV-SOG WOULD SOON BECOME THE MOST LETHAL, EFFECTIVE AND COVERT SPECIAL OPERATIONS UNIT WITHIN THE WAR” Their missions were secret, some remain so even to this day. Many of the special operations soldiers, sailors and Marines who conducted them took their stories to the grave. Their existence and the incredible operations they conducted were only officially acknowledged in 2001 after years of lobbying by SOG (Special Operations Group) veterans. Like everything to do with SOG, their beginning was cloaked in secrecy. In 1961, US President John Kennedy ordered the CIA to begin establishing what he called “networks of resistance” in communist North Vietnam. The CIA was assigned the task of running covert operations within the region, including inserting undercover agents into the north and carrying out cross-border reconnaissance missions. The…

 The weapons and equipment carried by the RTs were designed to accomplish two things – aid them in covertly inserting into an area, and to help them get out, particularly if an NVA reaction force was on their trail. The tiny RTs would be vastly outnumbered and needed every trick up their sleeve to discourage and slow pursuit until they could reach a safe landing zone. “MANY OF TODAY’S SPECIAL OPERATIONS TECHNIQUES WERE INVENTED, TRIED AND TESTED IN THE JUNGLES OF VIETNAM BY THE SOG” Many of today’s special operations techniques were invented, tried and tested in the jungles of Vietnam by the SOG. HALO parachuting, combat SCUBA and fast roping from a helicopter were all pioneered by the SOG.…

“THE DEVASTATING CONSEQUENCES CONTINUE TO HAUNT US TO THIS DAY” Writer: Robert Gerwarth Publisher: Allen Lane Price: £25 Released: Out now This book provides a clear and excellent account of the abrupt break-up of the Habsburg, Hohenzollern, Ottoman and Romanov empires and the difficult birth of their successor states during 1917-23. It also attempts to answer one of the central questions concerning World War I: the failure to provide a lasting peace once the Central Powers and their allies had been defeated, and to establish a viable end to the unrest and violence that had been unleashed by the war. While for the Western allies, November 1918 marked an end to the fighting, for much of the rest of Europe, the nightmare continued. The devastating consequences in both Europe and…

“IN REYNOLDS’S EYES, STALIN GENUINELY ENJOYED TOYING WITH PEOPLE’S LIVES” Studio: Simply Media Running Time: 90 mins Price: £19.99 This excellent two-part DVD opens by introducing us to a rather short, somewhat tubby man, who was fond of a drink and a smoke, and who saved Britain in World War II. The man was not Winston Churchill, however, but Stalin, the USSR’s ‘man of steel’. Professor David Reynolds, as writer and presenter, is as engaging and thoughtful as ever. He does not attempt the colourful impersonations that were such a feature of 1942 And Hitler’s Soft Underbelly (reviewed last month) although, in a surreal moment, a George Formby impression does find its way in. With a backdrop of the, “…horrific, life and death struggle between Nazi Germany and the Soviet…

“I WAS AFRAID THAT THE WAR WAS GOING TO BE OVER BEFORE I COULD GET OUT THERE” In September 1944, Private Stephen Morgan had just turned 19 years old, but he was enthusiastic and his reasons for going to war were personal: “I wanted to be a soldier. My family had lost seven close relatives and my father was gassed while he was in the Medical Corps in WWI. As a child I remember he was always in hospital and he died when I was 15.” After joining the army, Morgan almost immediately applied to join the Parachute Regiment and was accepted. His first action would be Operation Market Garden, where his own objective would be to help take and hold Arnhem Bridge as part of 2nd Battalion under Lieutenant…

“THE DASHING YOUNG OFFICER WHO CUT THE FIGURE OF THE ‘ARYAN IDEAL’ BECAME THE ARCHITECT AND HEAD OF THE SS SECURITY APPARATUS, THE SICHERHEITSDIENST” In the spring of 1939, the German Army goose-stepped into the streets of the ancient city of Prague without firing a shot. Hitler had completed his conquest of the neighbouring state and next in his mind was the exploitation of the territory gained and the harnessing of Czech industry for the benefit of the German war machine. Six months before the Führer plunged Europe into war, he divided the former Czechoslovakia into two Reich protectorates, Bohemia-Moravia and the Slovak Republic. To govern Bohemia-Moravia and implement his plan, Hitler installed Baron Konstantin von Neurath. Soon enough, however, von Neurath was judged as ineffective. Despite the fact that…

 The most visible aspect of Edward I’s impact on Wales today is the series of imposing fortresses, which he built to subdue the local population. The king employed an architect from Savoy called James of Saint George to construct the castles in an continental style. Built in stages between 1278-95, James used the best masons and carpenters available, and the castles’ high levels of preservation owe much to the skill of the workmen involved in their construction. Huge in scale and virtually impregnable, they are an enduring reflection of Edward’s pseudo-imperial ambitions towards his new Welsh subjects. “HUGE IN SCALE AND VIRTUALLY IMPREGNABLE, THEY ARE AN ENDURING REFLECTION OF EDWARD’S PSEUDO-IMPERIAL AMBITIONS TOWARDS HIS NEW WELSH SUBJECTS” BEAUMARIS Begun in 1295, Beaumaris was the last and largest castle built by…

1884 Wanting to seize its own slice of Africa, Spain claims Rio de Oro as a protectorate. The move is recognised in the Congress of Berlin in 1885. In 1904, Madrid annexes Saguia el Hamra along the Moroccan frontier. 1920-27 Tough Berber highlanders and Moroccan nationalists resist the Spanish Protectorate during the Rif War, where rugged tribesmen face the newly minted Foreign Legion under the command of Millan Astray. 1936 The Tiercios de Extranjeros deploy to Spain as the civil war begins. Dubbed Los Legionarios, they serve under Francisco Franco’s colourful ‘Army of Africa’ against leftist Republicans until 1939. 1956 On 2 March, Morocco gains its independence after almost 80 years under European occupation. The French retreat to Algeria while Spain maintains its outposts in Ceuta and Melilla. 1957 Morocco…

“THE UNIT WAS EVENTUALLY SCRUTINISED IN WHAT BECAME THE LONGEST RUNNING INVESTIGATION INTO WAR CRIMES DURING THE CONFLICT” Tiger Force was the nickname given to a ‘Lurp’ or long range reconnaissance patrol (LRRP) platoon of the storied 101st Airborne Division. Its charismatic leader, Colonel David Hackworth, later gained fame through his political and military writings. During the Vietnam War, Tiger Force was considered a particularly effective unit, although it suffered heavy casualties. Indeed, like SOG, it was awarded its own Presidential Unit Citation. The unit was, like many in Vietnam, unofficially recognised because of its high body count. This fact alone should have triggered warning bells. LRRPs, again like the SOG, traditionally attempted to bypass and avoid contact with the enemy due to their small numbers, relying on stealth and…

“HIS PORTRAYAL OF 18TH-CENTURY ENGLISHMEN BEARS CLOSE COMPARISON TO MEDIA REPORTS OF BREXIT VOTERS” Writer: Jon Wilson Publisher Public Affairs Price: £25 Released: 25 October 2016 Question: how long does a guilt trip last? Answer: 504 pages. Let this reviewer nail his colours to the mast: he is a child of the empire. His father’s family worked for, kowtowed to and adopted its name from the British; were condescended to and condescended in our turn, and we ended up here in the UK. But, like the rest of the sub-continental diaspora, the people of India and its surrounding nations, we got over it. Ploughing through Wilson’s work, it would appear the author hasn’t. Not that Wilson doesn’t know his Marathas from his Mughals: there’s much of interest in this long…

THE A-Z OF VICTORIAN CRIME If you need to know your Fanny Adams from your Eliza Adkins, or your Thomas Simmons from your Thomas Smethurst, then this gas-lit delve into the annals of Victorian wrongdoing is for you. Seasoned readers might approach with a sense of trepidation, steeling themselves for the inevitable appearance of Jack the Ripper. He features, of course, yet it will come as a pleasant surprise to find he is far from the dominating figure. In fact, far more fascinating are the less famed cases dug up from the shadows. Though some cases are gruesome, the authors wisely avoid sensationalism. An ideal book for a long autumn evening; once you have made sure all the doors are locked. POISON PANIC During the 1840s, the eyes of Victorian…

Writer: Norman Hicks Publisher: Pen & Sword Military Price: £25 Released: Out now Tom Hicks fought throughout WWII from his enlistment in 1939 to being liberated by the Americans in 1945 as a prisoner of war in Germany. Like many of the wartime generation, Hicks was plucked from civilian life to take part in the most pivotal conflict of the 20th century. This book is another reminder that history is made, not just by the politicians and generals, but also by the ordinary people who take pride in their duty. Capably written by his son Norman, Captured At Arnhem follows Hicks from his life working on the railways in the 1930s to becoming a sapper in the Royal Engineers. Gripped by a sense of adventure, the young man volunteered to…