Innholdsfortegnelse for No. 94 i History of War

19-21 April 1919 VILNA OFFENSIVE 01 The Polish Army captures the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius from the Soviets after several days of fighting in the city. Four other cities in the nearby vicinity are also captured by the Poles, with the Red Army launching a failed counteroffensive at the end of April 1919. 1918-19 EXPANSION & COMMUNISM An independent Poland is re-established with the creation of the Second Polish Republic at the end of WWI. The Poles want to expand their border eastwards into modern Belarus and Ukraine to strengthen their new state against Russian expansionism. Meanwhile, Russia’s new Bolshevik government wants to advance into Europe to assist other Communist movements. Poland stands in its way. 18 November 1918-March 1919 WESTWARD OFFENSIVES Soviet forces advance into the new republics of…

For well over a century, the Polish national consciousness had existed in a political netherworld. Their country was partitioned three times in the 18th century by powerful neighbours Germany, Russia and Austria, the people of Poland had been subjugated, and their culture almost eradicated. However, the upheaval of World War I and the internal strife that beset Soviet Russia offered an opportunity for lasting redress. The champion of the Second Polish Republic and its nationalist supporters, Marshal Jozef Pilsudski, pursued a policy of territorial expansion that he hoped would ensure the preservation of the republic, bring ethnic Poles together, and even encompass lands in Belorussia, Ukraine and the Baltic States. Pilsudski, a moderate Socialist, had fought for the Central Powers against Russia during World War I, and indeed on 6…

01 GRUPPE WEST ATTACKS MALEME Split into three, Gruppe West is the largest of the fallschirmjäger assaults and is led by the most senior German officer involved in the landings, Generalmajor Eugen Meindl. Casualties are catastrophic, with one battalion of 600 men losing 400 killed during the landings. 02 GRUPPE MITTE (CENTRE) ATTACKS RHETHYMNON Landing in the first wave on the morning of 20 May, Gruppe Mitte is leaderless from the start when its commander – Wilhelm Süssmann – is killed along with his staff when their glider crashes onto the island of Aegina on the way to Crete. 03 GRUPPE OST (EAST) ATTACKS HERAKLION Scattered on landing, Gruppe Ost’s commander – Oberst (Colonel) Bruno Bräuer – gathers as many men as he can and tries to capture the city,…

“THE GUARDS WERE GOING TO PUT DYNAMITE IN THE PRISON SO THAT IF THE AMERICANS CAME WE WOULD BE KILLED” The Cuban Missile Crisis took the world to the brink of nuclear war when the Soviet Union installed missile sites on Cuba. Fidel Castro had closely aligned himself with the Soviets following the Bay of Pigs and requested that the missile sites be established to deter a future invasion. They were discovered by an American U-2 spy plane in October 1962 and a tense standoff ensued between President Kennedy and Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev. Inside Castillo del Príncipe prison, Lopez de la Cruz was initially unaware of events due to being in solitary confinement: “I didn’t know anything because I had no communications in the cell. When they got me…

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, represented the British monarchy for almost 70 years and was the longest-serving consort of a reigning British monarch. However, his early life was formed by war, neglect, tragedy and dogged endurance. Born on 10 June, 1921, on the Greek island of Corfu at Mons Repos, Philip was the only son of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice of Battenberg who already had four daughters: Cecilie, Sophie, Margarita and Theodora. He was born during a turbulent time for Greece and his stay in the country of his birth would not last long. Philip’s father Andrew was absent at his birth as he was away fighting in the Greek Army during the Greco-Turkish War (1919-22). Andrew was the commander of the Greek Second Army…

A metal device designed to be worn in pairs on the heels of riding boots, spurs direct horses or other animals to move them forward or laterally while in the saddle. During the Middle Ages, the status of a knight became closely related to his horse and so spurs became a symbol of chivalry. To become a knight, a squire had to literally ‘win his spurs’ because they were presented during the knighthood ceremony and regarded as an important token. Wealthy knights or royalty would commission elaborate examples that were engraved, gilded or inlaid with precious metals or stones. Spurs were first used by the Ancient Celts but by the Middle Ages they had developed a revolving disc at the end of the neck. This disc was known as a…

Marshal Jozef Pilsudski once said of his socialist political leanings that he had “taken the Red streetcar as far as the stop called Independence and gotten off.” Pilsudski was a socialist, but he was much more a Polish nationalist. Revered today as the father of the Polish Second Republic and the architect of the greatest victory in his country’s military history, he was no stranger to privation; familiar with hardship, a fearless foe of the implacable Russian enemy, and a leader whose cult of personality yet survives. Pilsudski, who rose to lead independent Poland in 1920 and sought to expand its territory during the war with the Soviets, had always believed that Russia was his country’s greatest enemy. Born on 5 December 1867 near the village of Zalavas, then part…

One-hundred kilometres from the mainland, Crete is the second-largest of the Greek islands, a strip of land measuring 258km from east to west and just 12km at its narrowest. Dominated by the White Mountains that form its spine, it has a rich history of invasion and occupation, with the Romans, Arabs and Venetians among others all having left their mark, especially on the likes of Khania, Rhethymnon and Heraklion on its more populated northern coast. Historically fought over, it had been a relative backwater for years until World War II erupted and thrust it centre stage in the spring of 1941. The Mediterranean war Fascist Italy took the lead for the Axis in the Mediterranean, its military weakness cruelly exposed by the December 1940 British offensive in the western desert…

When the Ottoman Empire collapsed at the end of WWI, Greece moved troops into western Turkey to protect the large Greek population and to assert its historical claim over the region. The Greeks and Turks had long been traditional enemies and the Greek invasion was largely informed by a nationalist dream to create a ‘Greater Greece’ based on the Byzantine Empire, with Constantinople (now Istanbul) as its seat of government. On 15 May 1919 Greek troops landed at Smyrna and occupied the city under the cover of the Allied navies. They already occupied Eastern Thrace and went on to create a Greek zone of occupation that covered most of western Asia Minor. At this stage King Constantine took personal command of the army. The western Allies formally partitioned Turkey at…

THE JUST AN EPIC STORY OF COURAGE AND SURVIVAL Author: Jan Brokken, translated by David McKay Publisher: Scribe UK Price: £25 Released: Out now In The Just: How Six Unlikely Heroes Saved Thousands of Jews from the Holocaust, Dutch author Jan Brokken tells a tale that is so remarkable as to be almost unbelievable. That every word is true and that the story is little known even today makes it a book that needs to be read. In this sensitive, compelling translation by David McKay, Brokken tells the story of Jan Zwartendijk, the Dutch consul in Lithuania, and a small group of friends who defied the rules and risked everything to save thousands of lives. As desperate Jewish refugees in Kaunas, Lithuania, sought a means of escape from the Holocaust,…

AN AFRICAN PATRIOT Taken: 2019 An Ethiopian veteran of the Second Italo-Ethiopian War poses with his medals and full uniform. After Italy’s successful invasion of Ethiopia (then known as Abyssinia) in 1936, Emperor Haile Selassie fled the country but many Ethiopians remained to resist the occupation. Hundreds of resistance fighters were operating in the capital Addis Ababa, as well as in rural villages across the country. Years later during the Allied East Africa Campaign these soldiers, known as Arbegnoch (meaning Patriots), joined the British, Commonwealth and African forces in the battle against the remaining Italians. PRINCE’S HONOUR Taken: 8 June, 1948 The Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip, inspects a Guard of Honour of Royal Marines at the Guildhall Yard prior to receiving the Freedom of the City of London. Still…

The heady days of conquest were in the past as the Polish Army stood on the brink of defeat in mid-August 1920. Under Marshal Jozef Pilsudski, the Poles had driven victoriously eastward in the early stages of the Polish-Soviet War, and apparently established a favourable eastern frontier with Soviet Russia. However, a dazzling counterattack by the Red Army had compelled the Poles to retreat – and then came the realisation that the Russians had no intention of halting. Their objective was Warsaw, the Polish capital city on the River Vistula. Exhorted by their leader, Lenin, the Red Army intended to thrust even beyond Poland, perhaps into Germany and Western Europe, advancing Communist ideology at the tip of its spear. Western leaders watched with growing concern. Even though Pilsudski’s expansionist ambitions,…

Germany was late to develop its own submarine, promoted vigorously by the German Torpedo Inspectorate despite opposition from the naval hierarchy. On the outbreak of the war in Europe in early August 1914 the Imperial German Navy possessed two flotillas comprising 28 operational U-boats – U1 to U28 – with U29 to U41 either nearing completion or in relatively advanced stages of construction. Of those which were operational, U1 to U4 were primitive designs, quickly relegated to training vessels, while U19 to U28, powered by new diesel engines over previous kerosene versions, were among the most advanced submarines yet built by any nation. Given that Germany was a relative latecomer to submarines the Imperial Navy began the conflict with two main misconceptions regarding their potential use. First, after pre-war tactical…

“THE P-26A WOULD BE A MAINSTAY OF THE US FIGHTER FORCE UNTIL SHORTLY BEFORE THEY ENTERED WORLD WAR II” With its external bracing wires and fixed undercarriage, the Boeing P-26A looks antiquated compared to later 1930s aircraft, but looks can be deceptive. The P-26A came at a turning point in aircraft design, when lighter and stronger monocoque fuselages were still wedded to weight-saving devices like fixed undercarriages. It would be the US Army Air Corps’ (USAAC) first monoplane fighter, and the first to be fully metal skinned. It was also their last to have an open cockpit or external bracing wires. Entering squadron service in 1934, the type would face many teething problems that naturally accompany a new design. Landing speeds were a particular problem. Pilots used to biplanes had…