Innholdsfortegnelse for No. 130 i History of War

This issue, History of War has a distinctly American feel to it, with features spanning from the nation’s birth (p46), to its latest world-leading military hardware (p60). Our Frontline this month takes a look at the US Navy Construction Battalions (Seabees), which literally built the path to liberating Europe (p12). The Seabees’ motto We build, We fight, embodies their dual roles as engineers and soldiers, and is a sign of the skill and adaptability required of professional militaries: both during the Second World War and today. Of course, sheer grit, bravery and endurance are ubiquitous traits across centuries of warfare: you’d be hard-pressed to find a better example than that of Sergeant Bennie Adkins (p52). SCAN TO GET OUR WEEKLY NEWSLETTER SUBSCRIBE & SAVE! Take advantage of our fantastic subscription…

American troops photographed aiming their weapons during the First World War. While the majority of enlisted Black Americans served under the Services of Supply section in the US Armed Forces, which at that time was segregated by race, some saw active service in the 92nd and 93rd Infantry Divisions. Most notably, the 369th Infantry Regiment was assigned to the French Army in April 1918. They became known as the Harlem Hellfighters, serving at the Second Battle of the Marne and the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. Private Henry Johnson was one of many from the 369th recognised for their bravery and was the first American to be awarded the Croix de Guerre. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor in 2015.…

During early 1944, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel had begun preparations to repel an Allied amphibious assault that the German High Command knew was coming somewhere along the coast of Nazi-occupied Europe. He ordered millions of mines to be sown and the construction of steel hedgehogs and Belgian gate obstacles to hinder approaching landing craft and armour. When the ‘Longest Day’, June 6 1944, arrived, the Normandy beaches were the scene of heavy fighting. British, American, Canadian and Free French troops stormed ashore, and among the first to set foot in France with the US troops at Utah and Omaha beaches were men of the US Navy Construction Battalions. The Seabees were trailblazers in Normandy on D-Day, as well as afterwards, with many of their number having trained as combat demolition…

The Brandenburgers were originally established in late 1939 as a unit within the Abwehr, the German military intelligence service. The idea for this unit came from Theodor von Hippel, an army intelligence officer, who suggested recruiting members with developed foreign language skills. These men would be tasked with carrying out operations behind enemy lines, such as striking at lines of communications and logistics or performing other acts of sabotage. Although there was resistance to the idea, Hippel was given the go-ahead to form a company. The unit went through several name changes during its existence. These included its original title of Deutsche Kompagnie, then Baulehrkompagnie 800, then Bau-Lehr-Bataillon zbV 800. However, it was more commonly referred to as the Brandenburgers because of its original formation in Brandenberg. Its recruits were…

While this article’s focus is on British mistakes before and during the Saratoga campaign, the Americans had problems of their own. First, readiness of the American Northern Department in the spring and early summer of 1777 was hindered by dysfunctional command and control and neglect by the commander-in-chief and Congress. Despite anticipating another British invasion from Canada, the American Northern Department was thrown into confusion over who – Horatio Gates or Philip Schuyler – was actually in command. Schuyler, the designated commander, had left the department without permission to lobby Congress. In the meantime, Gates had been directed by Congress to command the garrison at Fort Ticonderoga, which was part of the Northern Department. Instead, in Schuler’s absence, Gates assumed command of the entire department at Albany and never travelled…

OPERATION U-GO FAILS Unprepared for a prolonged campaign, harangued by Lieutenant General Bill Slim’s fighting withdrawals and undermined by his own divisional commanders, Lieutenant General Mutaguchi’s offensives at Imphal and Kohima end in failure. The loss of over 50,000 casualties is one of the largest defeats for Japan in the war. Mutaguchi is blamed for the failure of the operation and relieved of command. ALLIES ADVANCE INTO BURMA With Assam secure, the Allies make tentative incursions into Burma in late 1944, slowed by the monsoon season. Amphibious landings along the Arakan coast and islands lead to Slim’s 14th Army crossing the vital Irrawaddy River in February. Slim advances across upper Burma. Mandalay is recaptured after hard fighting by the 19th Indian Division in March 1945, enabling Slim to push southward.…

Author: David Thomson Publisher: HarperCollins Price £25 (Hardback) Released: Out now In The Fatal Alliance, film critic David Thomson examines what the book’s blurb calls the “twisted relationship between war and the movies”. What it delivers is a highly stylised, often witty history of the war movie that is not what it first seems. Rather than offer us a chronological account, Thomson instead leads us on a meandering journey through 100 years of film. From All Quiet on the Western Front to Apocalypse Now, all the classics are present, while entire chapters are devoted to the likes of Saving Private Ryan and The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. Plenty of lesser-known movies are mentioned too, and the sheer quantity of films referenced demonstrates not only Thomson’s encyclopaedic knowledge but…

A soldier from the British Army’s Parachute Regiment takes a call on a field telephone while young girls from the primarily Catholic Divis Flats housing estate talk to his comrades. This image was taken four days before the death of nine-year-old Patrick Rooney, killed in the Divis Tower during the 1969 Northern Ireland Riots. Allegedly under sniper fire from the tower, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) fired into the building using a vehicle-mounted machine gun, hitting Rooney in the head. His death was one of four in Belfast during the riots investigated in a police ombudsman report, which heavily criticised the use of machine guns in residential areas.…

The Second World War ended with the dawn of the nuclear age, and with it the demobilisation of the American military meant a decrease in US Navy Seabee manpower from its peak of more than 250,000 to approximately 20,000. Nevertheless, the Seabees were called upon to construct facilities of varied types across the globe, and maintain and upgrade existing ones. Among the most prominent Seabee projects during the immediate post-war years was the construction of a weather station on the Kamchatka Peninsula near the Aleutian Islands. Kamchatka was actually territory belonging to the Soviet Union, but the Seabees were authorised by the Soviet government to complete the project. Other projects involved the construction and repair of harbour facilities in Chinese cities such as Shanghai and Tsingtao, and the building of…

Otto Skorzeny has gone down in legend as Adolf Hitler’s daring commando leader. However, much of what has been written about Skorzeny since the end of the war owes itself to his own considerable efforts to paint himself as a hero. He is perhaps best remembered for his role in Operation Oak – the rescue of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini in 1943. Yet he neither masterminded nor led the operation. In truth, he was more of a glory hunter than an accomplished military commander, who did what he could to satisfy his own vanity. Nevertheless, his actions and operations remain historically intriguing. Operation Oak In September 1943, Skorzeny took part in his first successful ‘special’ mission of the war – Operation Oak. It is the operation he is best remembered…

In late August 1777, Britain’s King George III received momentous news. The great tidings so thrilled the monarch that he burst into his wife’s chambers waiving the message in the air exclaiming: “I have beat them! I have beat the Americans!” He had just learned that British Lieutenant General John Burgoyne and his army had captured the vital American fortress of Fort Ticonderoga, which sat astride the great Lake Champlain-Hudson River invasion route from Canada. This victory, achieved with almost no casualties, convinced the king and his ministers that the military strategy they had put in place the preceding spring to end the American Revolution was going according to plan. But less than two months after the king’s impromptu celebration, Burgoyne and his army met with an unprecedented disaster and…

JAPANESE VICTORY Realising that the Allies will seek to delay and attrite his forces, Lieutenant General Mutaguchi convinces his divisional commanders to make swift and bold attacks, bypassing well-prepared pockets of resistance in order to capture Imphal and Kohima. Sensing the great opportunity, General Kawabe Masakazu agrees to Mutaguchi’s request to follow up his attack with a strike on the logistics hub at Dimapur. Though his forces suffer large casualties, Mutaguchi’s gamble pays off and Slim’s defenders are forced to withdraw. ‘MARCH ON DELHI’ Britain’s inability to defend its positions in north-east India galvanises support for Subhas Chandra Bose’s nationalist movement, buoyed by the Indian National Army’s role in Operation U-Go. Though Bose’s promised march across the country does not materialise, mass uprisings put more pressure on the Raj regime…

FV4005 comes to TankFest After successfully raising £20,000 in 24 hours, The Tank Museum will restore its FV4005 in time to run at TankFest 2024 In partnership with historic vehicle restoration company AW Hewes and the patrons of its fundraising campaign, The Tank Museum is on track to have its FV4005 ‘Spud’ in running order in time for TankFest 2024. This will be the first time the tank has run since the FV4005 project was cancelled in August 1957. Reflecting on the success of the fundraising campaign, Chris van Schaardenburgh, head of collections at The Tank Museum, says: “We are incredibly grateful for this contribution from our supporters at a time when we appreciate that finances are difficult for everyone.” The campaign was also supplemented by a £20,000 grant from…

In Dak To, South Vietnam, a wounded member of 173rd Airborne Brigade is given life-saving plasma on a ridge during the battle for Hill 875, while another soldier rushes past, weapon in hand. The Battle of Hill 875 lasted from 3-23 November 1967. The soldier was one of 1,441 US troops wounded in the fight, with a further 376 killed. The 173rd used flamethrowers to clear a network of North Vietnamese bunkers and trenches at the top of the hill in what became one of the bloodiest battles of the Vietnam War.…

“THEY UNLOAD AMMUNITION TO THE FRONTLINE, LOCATE AND DESTROY LANDMINES AND DEMOLISH OBSTRUCTIONS – ALL WHILE UNDER INTENSE ARTILLERY BOMBARDMENT” 5 March 1942 FORMATION The attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 forces the creation of a military unit to replace the 70,000 contractors working overseas for the military. Under international law it’s illegal for civilian workers to resist an attack, leaving the contractors liable to summary execution by the enemy if they fight back. The first cohort are trained three months after they are requested. 27 January 1944 INTRODUCING THE SEABEES The Fighting Seabees is released, starring John Wayne and Susan Hayward. The film explains the dilemma that led to the creation of the Seabees, depicting construction workers without military experience disastrously attempting to take on Japanese forces. After…

During the modern era, Seabee units have supported US and allied combat operations on numerous occasions. The US Navy Construction Battalions have deployed around the globe in recent years, and sporadic unrest in the Middle East has brought the Seabees and their specialised skills sharply into focus. In the autumn of 1983, US Marines were serving with a Multinational Peacekeeping Force in Beirut, Lebanon, as the country was wracked by civil war. On 23 October, the Marine barracks in the Lebanese capital were targeted by Hezbollah terrorists driving trucks laden with explosives, and 241 US service personnel were killed in the ensuing blast. After the attack, Naval Construction Battalion 1 was deployed from Rota, Spain, and its 42-man detail ordered to construct secure underground bunkers for the Marines stationed at…

By the end of 1942, Britain was reeling from a series of devastating defeats at the hands of a rampant Japanese offensive, most significantly losing the fortress city of Singapore and retreating from Burma. However, in 1943 Brigadier Orde Wingate launched the first of several special forces raids into Burma from neighbouring India, targeting Japanese positions and infrastructure. Japanese high command set in place a plan, Operation U-Go, to invade Manipur, north-east India. Capturing key strategic positions in the region would cripple any hope of the Allies recapturing Burma, and could even galvanise a significant Indian Nationalist movement, keen to see the back of British rule. What were Japan’s aims in Operation U-Go? When in early 1944 Tokyo authorised Operation U-Go and its associated feint towards Chittagong (Operation Ha-Go), the…

In the mid-1970s, the lengthy MBT-70 joint venture between the United States and the Federal Republic of Germany to produce a main battle tank collapsed due to divergent priorities with the developing weapons system. As a result, each country then pursued its own programme. In the United States, the result was the prototype XM-1, which was delivered to the US Army for field evaluation in 1976. By 1978, Chrysler Corporation initiated production, and two years later the first operational M1 Abrams third-generation main battle tank entered service, a contemporary of the German Leopard 2 main battle tank. A total of 3,273 M1 tanks were built for the US, introducing to the American arsenal a modern armoured vehicle replacing the latest in the Patton tank series, which had served since the…

Author: Robin Cross Publisher: Amberley Publishing Price: £22.99 (Hardback) Released: Out now This is a finely written biography on Winston Churchill by a well-established author who has a commendable track record in military history. His latest work focuses on Churchill’s extensive international travel and the impact this had on Churchill and the world around him. Churchill to his dying day was a great believer in the power of face-to-face meetings. The author covers with aplomb all the key Second World War conferences including Casablanca, Moscow, Tehran, Yalta and Potsdam, and he shows that many of these summits did not go as well as historical veneer might have us believe. Furthermore, the author explains that the prime minister frequently needlessly put his personal safety and health at risk by conducting his…

The Bletchley Park Naval Section played a critical role in keeping track of enemy ships. Ships like Haguro, a Japanese cruiser, was involved in nine engagements from 1942 to 1945 and was infamous for scoring the record longest torpedo hit of 22,000 yards (20,100m), against the destroyer HNLMS Kortenaer at the Battle of Java Sea. This index card on Haguro is one of 915 surviving examples from the Japanese warships index card collection. Every time a Japanese message giving information about vessels in the Imperial Japanese Navy was deciphered, the relevant card was updated with the date and location. It demonstrates Bletchley Park’s ability to follow the movements of the enemy fleet in almost real-time and the importance of keeping detailed records of all the information contained in decrypted messages.…