Innholdsfortegnelse for No. 40 i History of War

“Franco is about to deliver a mighty blow against which all resistance is useless… Basques! Surrender now and your lives will be spared!” – Nationalist radio broadcast, 25 April 1937 The 20th century saw increasingly deadly and effective technology used both on and off the battlefield. In the new era of total war, civilian populations became targets for bomber crews, and 80 years ago, on 26 April, the Basque town of Guernica was one such target. At this time the aerial bombing of civilians was nothing new, but as Göring would later remark during his trial at Nuremburg, the destruction of Guernica was a deliberate opportunity to test new weapons and train his fledgling air force for a new era of warfare. Though over time this terrifying tactic would set…

1918-42 RENDEZVOUS WITH DESTINY Although the division was founded in 1918, 101st Airborne’s active history began in 1942 when its first commander, Major General William C Lee, observed, “The 101st has no history, but it has a rendezvous with destiny.” 1942-45 WORLD WAR II The 101st’s most distinguished service occurred during WWII when its troops fought with distinction in Normandy, Operation Market Garden and the Battle of the Bulge among others. 1957 LITTLE ROCK NINE In a significant milestone for the American Civil Rights movement, elements of the 327th Infantry in the 101st escorted nine African-American students to the formerly segregated Little Rock Central High School. 1965-72 VIETNAM WAR Over seven years, the 101st fought in 45 operations including the Tet Offensive and the Battle of Hamburger Hill. The North…

The exploits of Lieutenant Richard Winters – who rose to the rank of major during World War II – and his Company E, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, were immortalised in the book Band Of Brothers by historian Stephen Ambrose and the subsequent 2001 HBO miniseries. At Brécourt Manor, Winters exhibited extraordinary bravery, initiative and leadership qualities. In one of their earliest actions, his troopers received three Silver Stars, 12 Bronze Stars and four Purple Heart medals for their heroism. Winters’s commanding officer, Colonel Robert Sink, recommended the lieutenant for the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest award for valour. However, Winters received the Distinguished Service Cross instead. A US Army policy of one Medal of Honor recipient per division precluded that award going to Winters. Lieutenant…

Throughout its history, the 101st has deployed specialised units that operate varied equipment and serve in different capacities related to mission fulfilment. These include combat troopers engaged as pathfinders, medical personnel, ordnance, logistics and supply specialists and aviators. ‘FILTHY THIRTEEN’ PARATROOPER, C.1940S NAMED AFTER THEIR LACK OF PERSONAL HYGIENE IN THE RUN UP TO D-DAY, TROOPS OF THE 101ST LOST HALF THEIR NUMBER SECURING VITAL BRIDGES The men of the 1st Demolition Section, Regimental Headquarters Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, set themselves apart. The nickname, the Filthy Thirteen, came from the fact that the 13 enlisted troopers in the section seldom bathed or shaved and rarely washed their uniforms while training for the D-Day invasion. None of the unit’s other antics is as famous as the bold statement made hours…

“MANFRED VON RICHTHOFEN SCORED HIS FIRST CONFIRMED AIR KILL IN A RED-COLOURED D.II” ROYAL FLYING CORPS AIRCRAFT ROYAL AIRCRAFT FACTORY B.E.2 The B.E.2 was one of the first RFC aircraft deployed to France in 1914. It was militarily impractical as the pilot sat in the rear seat while the observer’s view was obscured from the wing. By 1916 it was an unpopular aircraft due to its vulnerability and slow speed. AIRCO DE HAVILLAND D.H.2 Although flimsy in appearance the D.H.2 ‘pusher’ biplane was manoeuvrable and initially had an excellent rate of climb. It was the RFC’s first effective fighter and helped win back Allied air superiority in 1916 from the ‘Fokker Scourge’ but by 1917 it was past its prime and was vulnerable to German Albatros fighters. ROYAL AIRCRAFT FACTORY…

“DURING WORLD WAR I, THE ZIONIST MOVEMENT LOBBIED THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT TO MOBILISE THREE BATTALIONS OF JEWISH SOLDIERS. THESE WENT ON TO BE KNOWN AS THE JEWISH LEGION” Following Israel’s Declaration of Independence on 14 May 1948, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion’s first formal order was to announce the establishment of an official army for the new nation – the Israeli Defence Force. This organisation combined several military groupings and militia and went on to acquire a status and level of superiority to rank as one of the world’s most effective fighting forces. Membership of the IDF included not only armed personnel from Jewish military groups active during World War II, but also Europeans who had survived the atrocities of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. In 1948, the IDF superseded all…

“BOLÍVAR’S HOME COUNTRY WAS THE CRUCIBLE OF THE SOUTH AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENTS AND THE OLDEST TO ATTEMPT INDEPENDENCE” PANAMA The independence of Panama developed separately to Bolívar’s campaigns but the country declared independence in 1821 and voluntarily joined Gran Colombia. It remained in a union with post-Bolívarian Columbia until 1903. COLOMBIA The only American country to be named after Christopher Columbus, Colombia was formerly known as New Granada and declared independence in 1811. It became the last part of Gran Colombia when the republic broke up in 1831. ECUADOR Ecuadorians first rose up against Spanish rule in 1809 but the 1822 invasion by Bolívar and Sucre secured its freedom from Spanish rule. Ecuador gained full independence from Gran Colombia in 1830. PERU Peru largely owed its independence to the Argentinean…

 Writer: Peter Clarke Publisher: Bloomsbury Price: £25 Released: 9 February 2017 “IT’S A FORENSIC EXAMINATION OF THE CAUSES OF WAR WITHIN A VERY NARROW FOCUS. THIS NARROW FOCUS REQUIRES OF THE READER A REASONABLY BROAD KNOWLEDGE OF THE POLITICAL PERSONALITIES OF EARLY-20TH CENTURY BRITAIN AND AMERICA TO AVOID FREQUENT WIKIPEDIA STOPS” This isn’t a book about trains. Let’s get that clear from the start. But having worked through its 358 pages, this reviewer is not entirely sure he can tell the prospective reader what the book is actually about. Usually, a book’s subtitle is there to explain to the browser what he or she will find on its pages but in this case, ‘Money, Empire, Power and Guilt’ is so wide ranging as to include almost everything. So, in his…

TOM GARNER History of War’s staff writer had his head in the clouds this issue, manouvering through the carnage of Bloody April (page 28). Over on page 54 he also pays homage to South America’s conquering revolutionary, the peerless Simon de Bolivar. MIGUEL MIRANDA Lifing the lid on yet another obscure chapter in military history, this issue Miguel explores the bizarre state of Transnistria, a troubling hotbed of nationalist facionalism where the tensions of the Cold War are alive and well (page 78). WILLIAM WELSH The Crimean War saw some of the most famous victories and mishaps of the British Army. At Inkerman, the thin red line was pushed to breaking point by wave after wave of Russian conscripts try to break the siege of Sevastopol (page 40).…

“TO HONOUR THEIR COMMANDER PARATROOPERS YELLED ‘BILL LEE!’ WHEN THEY JUMPED OUT OF THEIR AIRCRAFT ON D-DAY” WILLIAM C LEE FATHER OF THE US AIRBORNE YEARS: 1895-1948 RANK: MAJOR GENERAL Commissioned as an officer in 1917, Lee served in WWI with the American Expeditionary Force as a platoon and company commander and stayed in the army after the Armistice. As a major, he observed the development of German airborne troops under the Nazis and became convinced that the US Army should have a similar outfit. Despite initial opposition from his direct superiors Lee’s ideas eventually reached the White House, and President Franklin D Roosevelt was so impressed that he immediately ordered airborne planning and training. Lee became the first commander of the 101st Airborne and promised his new recruits in…

“THE GERMANS WOULD BE SITTING ON THEIR AIRFIELDS HAVING SCHNAPPS AND LOOKING AT FRONT LINES THROUGH THEIR BINOCULARS OR TELESCOPES.”Norman Franks is the co-author of Bloody April 1917, which will be published by Grub Street in April 2017. See page 95 for more details TO WHAT EXTENT DID BLOODY APRIL MAKE THE REPUTATION OF MANFRED VON RICHTHOFEN? His Jasta (11) got the most victories during that month so it must have made some impact. He certainly had the idea that you should always attack while being protected from behind but he had other good pilots who such as Karl Emil Schäfer and his brother Lothar who had the nous to do the right jobs and shooting. It was certainly something that he took in his stride. When he joined the…

HASHOMER Founded in the spring of 1909, primarily by Socialist members of the modern Zionist movement, Hashomer absorbed a prior organisation, Bar-Giora, and sought to further the settlement of Jewish immigrants in Palestine and to protect the growing populace from attack by hostile Arab groups without dependence on foreign governments. Although continually challenged in its attempts to obtain arms and financial support, Hashomer was the first organisation of its kind to attempt to protect all Jewish settlements in Palestine. JEWISH LEGION The formation of a British Army unit comprised of Russian Jewish immigrants to fight the Ottoman Empire during World War I and liberate Palestine failed in 1915. However, two years later the Jewish Legion was authorised as the 38th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers. Before the end of the war, the…

 Bolívar’s campaigns of independence were not a straightforward clash between revolutionary South Americans and their Spanish overlords. Only 10 per cent of the ‘Spanish’ soldiers actually came from Spain and the vast majority were American ‘royalists’ who were fighting against their own people. From this confusing conflict emerged two military groups that helped determine the fate of the continent: the foreign ‘legions’ and the ‘llaneros’. “MANY OF THE SOLDIERS BELIEVED THEY WERE HELPING TO FREE SOUTH AMERICA FROM ANOTHER FORM OF CONTINENTAL OPPRESSION AND THE 2ND BRITISH LEGION’S MOTTO WAS ‘MORIR O VENCER’” Republicans initially suffered from a lack of men, training and local support, so Bolívar recruited foreign mercenaries. He found a rich resource in recently unemployed soldiers from the Napoleonic Wars. Most of these recruits were British and…

 The newspaper report on the bombing of Guernica by The Times journalist George Steer was greeted with shock, horror and anger. Reprinted in both The New York Times and the French L’Humanité (it was this version that was read by Picasso), it provoked an immediate outcry. “THE DENIAL… OF ALL KNOWLEDGE OF THE DESTRUCTION OF [GUERNICA] HAS CREATED NO ASTONISHMENT HERE… I HAVE SPOKEN WITH HUNDREDS OF HOMELESS AND DISTRESSED PEOPLE, WHO ALL GIVE PRECISELY THE SAME DESCRIPTION OF THE EVENTS” The New York Times ran a highly critical editorial the following day, but lack of certainty over the details left them to refer only to ‘Rebel airplanes of German type’. American congressmen, senators and religious leaders joined in the angry condemnation of the atrocity. In London, The Times came…

The Purple Machine combined two electric typewriters for inputting and printing out messages, meaning a single person could operate it. Pressing a key would send an electrical signal to the cryptographic assembly. This consisted of a plugboard, four electrical coding rings and various wires and switches. The Enigma plugboard paired letters on its plugboard – for instance the letters E and O might be swapped around. Purple was more fiendish, in that it contained input and output plugboards. This supported any permutation of letters. For instance, the fact that the letter E enciphered as letter O, did not necessarily mean O would decipher to E. Instead of using clunky rotors that moved with each key press, the Purple Machine used four electro-mechanical ‘stepping switches’. The SIS codebreakers assigned the letters…

1806 With Napoleon carving up Central Europe, Russia seeks to control the Balkans and invades Bessarabia and Wallachia. This starts a long and expensive war with the Ottoman Empire. 1812 After the Treaty of Bucharest is signed, a war-weary Russia and the Ottoman Empire split the Principality of Moldavia between them. This puts much of Bessarabia under permanent Russian control. 1859 With the Ottoman Empire weak and ailing, the Balkan nations strive for independence. Wallachia leads the way in 1859 and two years later, it forms a union with Transylvania. 1918 The end of WWI and the Russian Empire’s collapse lead to Moldavia’s short-lived independence. Landlocked and populated by ethnic Romanians, it’s annexed by its mother country and enjoys peace. 1940 The Molotov-Ribbentrop nonaggression pact of 1939 cedes Bessarabia to…

“IT IS THE STORIES OF MEN SUCH AS SIR ALAN BROOKE, CHIEF OF THE IMPERIAL GENERAL STAFF, THAT MAKE THIS SUCH AN ABSORBING READ” Author: Stephen Bull Publisher: Bloomsbury Price: £40 Release date: Out Now The importance of Churchill’s indomitable spirit and bold leadership to Britain’s cause in WWII has been well documented. What is perhaps less well known, however, is the way he worked with those around him and the actual make up of the forces that he played a huge part (occasionally for the worse) in commanding. This exhaustive work is Stephen Bull’s superb attempt to shine a light on both. The book begins by detailing Churchill’s military experience prior to WWII, including his disastrous support for the doomed Gallipoli campaign that nearly finished his career, before examining…

“WHAT REALLY MAKES THIS BOOK STAND OUT ARE THE THREE PULLOUT SECTIONS CONTAINING A TOTAL OF 15 LOOSE COPIES OF GENUINE WAR DOCUMENTS” Author: Julian Thompson Publisher: Andre Deutsch Price: £40 Release date: Out Now As an island nation, Britain has relied on the might of its navy to project its power on the global stage for centuries. This beautifully illustrated history of 100 years of the Royal Navy fighting Britain’s enemies and securing the seas is a fitting tribute to its courageous sailors and cutting-edge technology. Instead of being a painfully detailed book that gets bogged down in examining the exact specifications of every ship and the lives of the men who commanded them, Thompson has created a wonderful narrative of exciting battles, supplemented with stunning photography and a…

“THE AUTHORS HAVE WRITTEN A HIGHLY DETAILED WORK THAT IS METICULOUSLY PEPPERED WITH EYEWITNESS TESTIMONY, QUALITY RESEARCH, ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS AND ACCESSIBLE STATISTICS” Writer: Norman Franks, Russell Guest and Frank Bailey Publisher: Grub Street Price: £15 Released: April 2017 By April 1917, the Western Front was a gigantic mass of blood and misery. The landscape of northern France and Belgium was pockmarked by a continued set of failed battles from Loos, Verdun and the Somme. Once the winter of 1916-17 was over, the British and French planned another land offensive at Arras and they would be assisted by their respective air forces. The air offensive would primarily be conducted by the Royal Flying Corps and, to a lesser extent, the French Air Force in attempt to provide detailed reconnaissance to the…

SURVIVOR: A PORTRAIT OF THE SURVIVORS OF THE HOLOCAUST A HEARTBREAKING MASTERPIECE AUTHOR HARRY BORDEN PUBLISHER CASSELL PRICE £20.40 RELEASED OUT NOW’ “The most insidious ally of the denier is scale. So often the sheer enormity of the Holocaust and its 6 million Jewish victims can be difficult to comprehend and in that uncomprehending fog the dangerous lie can grow and thrive. It’s partly as a reaction to this vastness that Anne Frank’s The Diary Of A Young Girl (1947) has endured, providing a face onto which its young readers can project their own experiences and through this understand the implications of state-sponsored slaughter. Survivor, a project by award-winning photographer Harry Borden, is a collection of portraits of more than 100 survivors along with a handwritten message (their biographies can…

“THE SCREAMING EAGLES PROVED RESOURCEFUL IN ACCOMPLISHING THEIR ASSIGNED MISSIONS DESPITE INCREDIBLE ODDS” The Douglas C-47 transport planes bucked in the rough winds, antiaircraft fire flashed as shrapnel showered their sides like hail peppering a tin roof, and with the green light, cascades of paratroopers leaped into the night sky. After 22 months of training as World War II wore on, the 101st Airborne Division was at war for the first time. Charged with seizing and holding numerous objectives during the Allied invasion of Normandy on 6 June 1944, the Screaming Eagles proved resourceful in accomplishing their assigned missions despite incredible odds. Scattered far across Normandy, some units miles from their assigned drop zones, elements of the 101st nevertheless set to work. Assuming command Amid the confusion of the airdrop,…

MANFRED VON RICHTHOFEN Considered the ‘ace of aces’ of WWI with 80 confirmed victories the ‘Red Baron’ was an exceptionally formidable fighter pilot. Leading Jasta 11 throughout April 1917, his own statistics were impressive. Within his 20 victories that month were three on 13 April. Richthofen had now surpassed his mentor Oswald Boelcke and his overall score increased from 32 to 52. OTTO BERNERT Bernert began the war as an infantryman and a bayonet wound rendered his left arm virtually useless. He disguised his disability and became a pilot in 1916. Attached to Jasta 2, Bernert shot down four Allied aircraft between 1-3 April 1917, and was awarded the Pour le Mérite on 23 April. He celebrated the next day by downing a record five British aircraft in 30 minutes.…

UN GENERAL Y PRESIDENT Simón Bolívar as he might have appeared at the height of his powers as president of Gran Colombia in the 1820s. During the South American wars of independence the leading revolutionaries dressed like European generals as a symbol of their own military authority and to assert the legitimacy of their fledgling republics to established powers. In his left hand Bolívar holds a map of his large, but short-lived state of Gran Colombia, which was the most visible symbol of his success. Bolívar also treasured a medallion of George Washington that he wore around his neck. It was presented to him in a letter from the Marquis de Lafayette, Washington’s famous French ally during the American Revolutionary War. At the height of the age of imperialism, an…

After breaking field codes used by the Germans in World War I in 1920, William Friedman penned his first of many revolutionary codebreaking manuals, The Index Of Coincidence And Its Applications In Cryptography. It detailed a technique known as ‘coincidence counting’, which would later be applied to breaking Purple. In 1923 while working as chief cryptanalyst for the War Department, he published Elements Of Cryptanalysis, a manual that would later be expanded into a four-volume work. It rapidly became the US Army’s cryptographic Bible. In 1924, at the request of the Navy, Friedman tackled messages from a five-rotor cipher machine invented by Californian Edward Hebern. Friedman was able to crack messages by printing the letters on strips of paper, then sliding them back and forth until he observed ‘coincidences’ in…

“IN 1940S GERMANY, TOILET PAPER WAS REPUTEDLY SO SCRATCHY THAT SOME SOLDIERS PREFERRED TO USE THE SOFTER SHEETS OF THE OFFICIAL NAZI NEWSPAPER, VÖLKISCHER BEOBACHTER” Napoleon Bonaparte once said that “an army marches on its stomach” and it is true that the mundane features of war actually dominate military life rather than battles or campaigns. The German Wehrmacht of WWII was no exception and in 2016 a unique relic of their supplies was put up for auction: an unused roll of toilet paper. The unopened roll of “Klosettpapier” (toilet paper) would have been considered a wartime luxury, particularly in the harsh conditions of the Eastern Front, where troops would have commonly used other means to relieve themselves. In 1940s Germany, toilet paper was reputedly so scratchy that some soldiers preferred…