Innholdsfortegnelse for No. 68 i History of War

TOM GARNER Tom was privileged to speak with two veterans of the Normandy campaign this month: George Batts, who landed on Gold Beach, and Cedric Wasser, who landed on Sword. Starting on page 26, they share their incredible stories. JAMES HOLLAND This year the renowned historian and broadcaster has published two new books on the 1944 invasion: Big Week and Normandy ’44. Starting on page 40 he describes how the Allies’ air campaign was critical to their success on 6 June. CHRISTIAN JENNINGS Christian is a former foreign correspondent and author of several history titles, including his most recent, The Third Reich Is Listening. On page 62 he explores how German intelligence operations tried to decode the plans for D-Day. FOR MORE FROM THE HISTORY OF WAR TEAM VISIT: WWW.HISTORYANSWERS.CO.UK…

“MONTY CAME ROUND AND SPOKE TO US. HE TOLD US WE WERE GOING ON THE BIGGEST ADVENTURE OF OUR LIFE” Gold was the central-most Allied beach. After the beachhead was secured, the British aim was to link up with the Americans at Omaha and Canadians at Juno while also capturing Bayeux. Soldiers began landing at 7.25am but high winds made disembarkation difficult. The British also came under attack from German embrasure, emplacement and artillery fire, which resulted in over 1,000 casualties. Bayeux was not captured until the following day but Arromanches-les-Bains was taken and the British made contact with the Canadians. Among the thousands of British troops who landed was Sapper George Batts of 1049 Port Operating Company, Royal Engineers. Batts was only 18 years old but he cleared mines…

Author: Tobias Straumann Publisher: Oxford University Press Price: £16.99 A book on a financial collapse could easily be dull and dry, but Tobias Straumann has produced what can only be described as a riveting account of the breakdown of the German economy in 1931. The potential pitfalls for such a book are obvious – explaining the intricacies of the financial system without either boring or confusing the reader is far from easy, but Straumann is able to present a highly complex story that is comprehensible and fascinating even for those with little or no understanding of how economies work. The more recent financial crisis adds to the relevance of this book, while lurking in the background is the sinister shadow of the Nazi Party and Adolph Hitler. The German situation…

For this special issue, marking the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings, I felt it only proper to begin with the words of none other than the Supreme Allied Commander, General Eisenhower, which were issued to over 175,000 troops on the eve of the invasion. By the time a successful foothold had been established in Normandy, several thousand of these men were dead, wounded or missing in action. As the numbers of surviving veterans sadly continue to dwindle, this poignant milestone provides another chance, if one were needed, to reaffirm, “We will remember them.”…

SIR RICHARD GALE THE “BLUFF” BUT SUCCESSFUL COMMANDER OF 6TH AIRBORNE DIVISION 1896-1982 MAJOR GENERAL UNITED KINGDOM Gale joined the British Army at the outbreak of WWI and was commissioned as an officer in 1915. He saw heavy action the Western Front in machine gun companies during the battles of the Somme and Passchendaele and was awarded the Military Cross in early 1918. Gale remained in the army throughout the interwar period but, despite his heroic war record, he was only a major by December 1938. Nevertheless, Gale was known as a “strong personality and leader with plenty of ambition” and he was promoted at the direction of Winston Churchill to command 1st Parachute Brigade in 1941. Although he was physically unsuited to parachuting, Gale was popular with his…

On paper at least the Allied airborne landings supporting D-Day were simple enough. The idea was to protect the flanks using two American divisions to the west and one British division to the east. The only problem with this was that nothing had been attempted on such a scale before and the landings the previous year in Sicily had not gone well. To make matters worse Field Marshal Erwin Rommel had flooded large areas of Normandy just behind the coast and sown it with obstacles quaintly dubbed “Rommel’s Asparagus”. To some the whole enterprise seemed madness. In particular, it greatly troubled Air Chief Marshal Trafford Leigh-Mallory, in overall command of the Allied air forces. His staff estimated that the airborne assault could suffer over 80 per cent casualties – if…

With the cannonade in full voice, those aboard the invasion fleet lined the gunwales to watch an enemy shore be pummelled by a cascade of shells, bombs, and rockets. It seemed impossible anyone could survive. From their perch aboard heavy cruiser Tuscaloosa, two avid observers were William B. Donovan and aide David K. E. Bruce. “Wild Bill” Donovan was the chief of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), America’s World War II spy agency. The nickname came from World War I, in which Donovan’s heroics had earned him the Congressional Medal of Honor. David Bruce was OSS chief for Europe, with headquarters in London. This was 6 June 1944. Both Donovan and Bruce had a keen interest in the invasion. The OSS, other spy services, the French Resistance, and so…

Director: Trevor Nunn UK Cinematic release: Out Now The naivety of youth has a price – as Hitler’s private secretary Traudl Junge came to face in the documentary Blind Spot. As it turns out, youthful ignorance, especially in times of war, is not an excuse. After all, Junge was of similar age to fellow German Sophie Scholl, who was executed at the age of 21 in 1943, as a member of the anti-Nazi resistance group, the White Rose – having by then already clearly seen Germany for what it was. Yet whilst the horrors of national socialism are now self evident to all – even today, with the luxury of hindsight, many peoples’ delusions about communism and Stalin’s USSR still persist. As often found in western European discourse and student…

Author: John Prados Publisher: Amberley Price: £14.99 The story of D-Day has been told and re-told many times, so much so that many of its details are familiar to even casual military history enthusiasts. The campaign that followed is less well-covered – in fact there is sometimes the impression that D-Day was more or less the end of the war. John Prados tackles this misperception with a well-written account of the Battle of Normandy, the struggle to break out of the beachheads secured on D-Day and puncture the German defensive line. The German defenders’ performance was little short of heroic following the Allied landings. Though outnumbered and operating with almost no air cover (they were even within range of Allied naval guns for much of the campaign), they stubbornly held…

“JAMES HOLLAND HAS PRODUCED A HARD-HITTING, AUTHORITATIVE NARRATIVE OF ONE OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR’S MOST CRITICAL MOMENTS, ONE THAT CULMINATED IN THE LARGEST AIR BATTLE EVER WITNESSED” Author James Holland Publisher Corgi Books, 2019 Price £9.99 During the third week of February 1944, the combined Allied air forces launched their first-ever round-the-clock bomber offensive against Germany. Code-named Operation Argument, this monumental air assault quickly became known as Big Week. The planners intended to attack the German aircraft industry to lure the Luftwaffe into a decisive battle where it could be damaged so badly that the Allies would achieve air superiority to ensure the success of the invasion of continental Europe. The air offensive took place at a time when the bomber war was not turning out as planned. They…

Although he was, and remains, a deeply controversial figure, Oliver Cromwell was indisputably one of England’s greatest generals. As the most influential commander of the New Model Army, Cromwell was instrumental in Parliament’s victory over Charles I. One of the key regicides that was responsible for Charles’s execution, “Old Ironsides” later fell out with Parliament and became ‘Lord Proctector’ of the republican Commonwealth. Ironically, when Cromwell died on 3 September 1658 he was king in all but name and oversaw a military dictatorship. His funeral at Westminster Abbey was designed to rival any previous monarch but his body quickly decomposed. Instead, he was privately buried before his elaborate public funeral on 23 November 1658, which featured an empty coffin. The ceremony closely resembled that which had followed the death of…

Sword was the easternmost beach on D-Day and stretched from Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer to Ouistreham. It was also the nearest beach to Caen and the responsibility for storming the sands fell to the British 3rd Infantry Division. The invading forces landed at 7.25am on 6 June against relatively light German defences and by 8.00am the fighting was mostly occurring inland. At 1.00pm, commandos from Sword achieved their objective of linking up with airborne troops but the British were unable to join Canadian forces from Juno Beach thanks to German counterattacks. Twenty-year-old Cedric Wasser was one of those who landed at Sword. A craftsman in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME), Wasser’s unit was attached to 7th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery. Like Batts, D-Day was Wasser’s first experience of combat and after…

The camera sweeps across the chaos of battle. Volleys of arrows are unloosed. Horses roll on the ground in agony. Newsreel type headings flash across the screen. This is “the war of the century”, and “God is on our side”. We are transported back to 14th century France and the opening clash of the Hundred Years War. And it is brought to life with frightening immediacy. Anthony Burgess was fresh from the success of his novel, A Clockwork Orange, its “ultraviolence” – the pursuit of brutal, senseless killing – shocked and disturbed its readers, and was rendered into a powerful film. Now he had a new project. Burgess, in a 90 page screenplay, had turned his attention from an imagined dystopian future to the historical past. His intended subject was…

“THE GERMANS SPARED NO EFFORT IN THEIR SEARCH FOR THIS ELUSIVE AMERICAN-BORN AGENT, KNOW TO THEM ASTHE ‘LIMPING LADY’” Author: Sonia Purnell Publisher: Virago, 2019 Price: £20.00 The title of this book belies the very real importance of its remarkable protagonist, the wartime secret agent Virginia Hall. Though the claim that Hall was the Second World War’s “most dangerous spy” might prove difficult to substantiate, “heroic” and “intrepid” certainly come to mind. It is worth noting, however, that Hall was viewed so great a menace that even one of the Gestapo’s most sinister investigators, Hauptsturmführer Klaus Barbie, took a personal interest in her capture. The Germans spared no effort in their search for this elusive American-born agent, known to them as the “limping lady” – a reference to her prosthetic…

Author: Will Fowler Publisher: Amber Books Price: £19.99 Will Fowler’s book promises to provide a detailed view of the first 24 hours of the Normandy landings, the invasion of France that moved World War II into its final phase. With such a book, where the focus is to be on a 24-hour period, there is always the question of how much background detail to include. Readers need to know how the stage was set, but if too much background is included there is the risk of the book becoming just another general history. Unfortunately Fowler chooses to devote about half of this book to the build-up to D-Day. Not only does this render the title rather misleading, it also leaves any reader who is familiar with the subject feeling let…

WORTH OVER £93 In this issue, History of War readers have the chance to win a brilliant bundle of classic war films, all brought into crisp 1080p quality on Blu-ray. This bundle includes critically acclaimed films such as Sink The Bismarck! and Lifeboat, as well as several titles from Eureka Entertainment’s Masters of Cinema series. This prize is worth a total value of £93.95. For your chance to win, simply visit HistoryAnswers.co.uk. LIFEBOAT After a Nazi torpedo reduces an ocean liner to wooden splinters and scorched personal effects, the survivors of the attack pull themselves aboard a drifting lifeboat in the hope of eventual rescue. But the motivations of the German submarine captain (Walter Slezak) might extend beyond mere survival. THE SAGA OF ANATAHAN Set during the dying stages of…