Tabla de contenidos para Issue 10 en Iron Cross

REAL TO REEL Germans of ‘The Longest Day’ Many of the German actors in the epic war movie The Longest Day had actually seen service during the Second World War. Here, Robin Schäfer looks at the military careers of some of them. The classic 1962 film, The Longest Day, based on the book of the same name by Cornelius Ryan, is arguably the most famous war movie of all time. Filmed in docudrama style, it narrates the key events of the D-Day landings on 6 June 1944, the largest amphibious operation in history, when 156,000 Allied troops landed on the coast of Normandy in German-occupied France. It was one of the most important events of the Second World War and saw the beginning of the liberation of German-occupied western Europe.…

LETTERS FROM THE FRONT Letters From Stalingrad Letters to home from men at the front, censorship aside, have always held a powerful immediacy in the telling of events as they happened. This is especially so in letters sent from the men of a beaten German army at Stalingrad. The Battle of Stalingrad is considered by many historians to have been the turning point of the Second World War. While this might be debatable, there is no doubt that the German defeat at Stalingrad had extraordinary symbolic power for the Soviet people; the German army had been beaten on an enormous scale and news of it spread around the world like wildfire. The German army and its allies had taken about 850,000 casualties during the battle - which lasted from 26…

THE EASTERN FRONT: WAFFEN SS FOREIGN VOLUNTEERS OSWALD VAN OOTEGHEM – INTERVIEW WITH AN ‘OOSTFRONTER’ The Van Ooteghem’s were a staunchly nationalist Flemish family. Herman Van Ooteghem – Oswald’s father – was a partner in a thriving architect’s practice and a former commander of the Grizje Werfbrigade, the VNV’s paramilitary arm. His mother, Gaby Van-Ooteghem Guenther, was also influential in the VNV and Oswald was a leading light in the Dietse Blauwvoetvendels youth wing. Enlisting among the first 405 recruits for the SS-Legion Flandern in August 1941, he fought at Leningrad, was wounded and became a war reporter. He covered the battle of Krasny Bor in February 1943 and was then selected to train as an officer at the Bad Tölz academy. Commissioned, he was given command of a cohort…

WAR IN THE AIR: THE JUNKERS 87 OVER BRITAIN Withdrawn from Action? Across the decades following the war, the Junkers 87 has been perceived as a failure during the Battle of Britain, with unacceptable losses resulting in its withdrawal from operations. Andy Saunders examines the real story of the Stuka in 1940. All images via author unless otherwise credited For its role during the Battle of Britain, the Junkers 87 Stuka is usually remembered for what are perceived as disastrous and unsustainable losses and that the aircraft was a hopeless failure when pitched against Britain. And yet, up until 16 August 1940, the casualty rate had not been particularly high. Some attacks had even got through unhindered and without loss. For instance, an attack on RAF Detling on 13 August…

The day summarised By the end of the fighting that day, the RAF had lost 28 fighters with twelve pilots killed, twelve wounded and one who had baled-out over the sea to be taken POW. Against this total, the Luftwaffe lost 56 aircraft with 81 aircrew killed, 63 taken POW and 31 wounded. Additionally, a number of aircraft returned home damaged and with wounded crew members on board. However, the initial claims of 185 destroyed were still very heavily over inflated. On this basis, the RAF certainly scored a victory that day, although the Luftwaffe was far from a defeated or spent force. All the same, escorted daylight raids now declined as the bomber force restricted itself to largely nocturnal activities. Meanwhile, the Luftwaffe modified some of its Messerschmitt 109…

COMPETITION Win a pair of new books from Osprey Publishing! ‘Panzergrenadier’ by Thomas Anderson and ‘Blitzkrieg’ Dr Stephen Hart and Dr Russell Hart ENTER ONLINE TODAY! WIN ONE OF TWO SETS - ONE OF EACH BOOK! These two superb books, recently released by Osprey Publishing, will greatly appeal to many of our readers at Iron Cross magazine and you can now win a copy of each by entering our competition and correctly answering the simple question below. Both these books are high quality publications by authors who are specialists in their individual fields. In ‘Blitkrieg’, the authors take us through every stage of the German advance across Europe, covering Poland, Norway and right up to the fall of France and Dunkirk. They do so with a profusion of maps, photographs,…

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Defensive Tactics An RAF Fighter Command memorandum in 1940 dealt with issues relating to the attacking of Junkers 87 Stuka dive bomber formations, noting that such formations were often just a ‘disorganised mass of aircraft’. While this may well have appeared to be the case to attacking RAF pilots (especially if delivering attacks just as the bombers went in to bomb) the very opposite was the case, although the stepped-up masses of aircraft may have seemed to have no form or cohesion to the British defenders. There was, though, considerable order to it all. Hauptmann Helmuth Bode, leader of III / St.G77 in 1940, was one of those who realised there was a flaw in the plan of having formations stepped-up in the manner flown by the I and II…

CONFLICT ARCHAEOLOGY Dornier Mystery Solved When the wreckage of a Dornier 17 Z-3 was found on a French beach in 2013, its identity eluded investigators until the story was recently unlocked by Iron Cross magazine, as Andy Saunders explains. When the RAF Museum recovered a Dornier 17 Z from the English Channel in 2013, any positive identity eluded investigators after the wreckage had been taken for examination and conservation at the museum’s Cosford site. (See also Iron Cross magazine, issue #1) Similarly, the wreckage of another Dornier 17-Z which was uncovered on a beach on the French English Channel coast (also in 2013) initially defied positive identification. However, it was assumed that the aircraft had come down sometime during the Battle of Britain, or possibly during the Blitz of 1940…

CONFLICT ARCHAEOLOGY Digging History Rounding-off our Conflict Archaeology section for this issue, Andy Saunders reflects on the subject and how it has evolved across some 50 years. Conflict archaeology of the 20th Century is now an established area of research within ‘professional archaeology’. It was not always that way, especially in the UK. In Britain there are no 20th Century battlefield sites per se, but a profusion of wartime aircraft crash sites, aircraft which were either shot down or crashed due to other causes. Many of these involved deeply buried wreckage, while others saw aircraft debris strewn across pasture, moorland or high ground. Interest in these sites by grew exponentially in the 1970s, likely spawned by enthusiasm for the 1969 film Battle of Britain, which also kick-started the warbird preservation…

MILITARY TECHNOLOGY: THE PANZER IV COVER STORY The Wehrmacht’s Workhorse A pre-war devolpment, the Panzer IV formed the backbone of Germany’s Panzer divisions. Historian and Panzer expert Thomas Anderson takes a close look at the tank and its performance against its Allied adversaries. All images via author unless otherwise credited The creation of the German Panzertruppe was decisively influenced and driven forward by two visionary officers: Oswald Lutz and Heinz Guderian. These staff officers brought with them frontline experience from the First World War, but had never personally experienced deployment of armoured vehicles. Lutz was an engineer and from 1918 was commander of the Kraftfahrtruppen (Motorised Troops) in the war ministry. From 1924, he was head of the inspectorate for arms and equipment. Guderian had a colourful career in the…

ORDERS, DECORATIONS AND AWARDS Cross of Onyx The most extraordinary award of the Third Reich was the Grand Cross of the Iron Cross in onyx. Dietrich Maerz reveals its confusing story, the unique presentation to Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring and the tale of a decoration that has seen enduring controversy. Hardly any other award of the Third Reich has garnered more conflicting information than has the Grand Cross of the Iron Cross. The personality of the sole awardee, Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, adds to the narrative because of his love of decorations and uniforms, a passion which earned him the monikers ‘Lametta-Heini’ (Tinsel-Heini) or ‘Goldfasan’ (Gold Pheasant). However, much confusion arises from the multiple examples of the decoration that can be found, seemingly contradicting the fact that it was only awarded once.…

THE EASTERN FRONT: WAFFEN SS FOREIGN VOLUNTEERS Hitler’s Flemish Lions The Waffen-SS was the Nazi’s armed élite of Aryan supermen who would build the Thousand Year Reich. They were the very cream of German manhood - except they weren’t all German, as Jon Trigg explains. All images via the author unless otherwise credited The Schutzstaffel, or SS, was originally created in the early 1920s to protect Hitler from physical attack during the often violent street politics of the time. Answerable to him alone, they grew from a bunch of street toughs into an octopus-like organisation with tentacles in every facet of Nazi life. Their leader – Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler – wanted them to become a ‘second army’ within the Third Reich and obtained Hitler’s authority to form an armed wing:…

SOLDAT Panzermann Ignoring the widely published plethora of misinformation on the subject, Robin Schäfer gives an outline of Dr Franz Bäke’s extraordinary career as a tank ‘ace’ which is based around accredited modern sources and period documentary evidence. The German Panzer ‘aces’ of the Second World War arguably spark more interest t today than the legendary Experten of the Luftwaffe ever did. This is perhaps related to a rise in military history channels on YouTube and the World of Tanks video game franchise. In the past decade, millions have become tank ‘enthusiasts’ - the internet rife with ‘information’ about German armour, men of the Panzerwaffe, the ‘aces’ and their ‘kill’ numbers. Unfortunately, little of this is accurate or based on any historical evidence. Worse, much of it is based on…

CONFLICT ARCHAEOLOGY An eye-witness on the day… One of the pilots of 8/KG2 who participated in the same action over Britain on 15 September 1940 recalled how it was: “Beginning of take-off was at 1330 hrs. I flew as left ‘Kettenhund’ to Hauptmann Hubertus Lessmann who was leading the Gruppe. Today was the first day we flew in a wedge formation. Over Amiens, we met up with II/KG 2 and from there we flew back to Cambrai and then on to Etaples, the point where we would meet up with the fighters. The approach was too long, and we were tired before the attack. At the coast, we had to circle as the fighters were late. After that, I had a very uneasy feeling because we saw no fighters ahead…

PHOTOS FROM THE FRONT #8 Ausmarsch with a British SMLE All images Brett Butterworth. Colourisation Luc Heinrich A universal and enduring practice, worldwide, is the creation of portrait photographs taken before sons, husbands or daughters march off to war. Although unspoken, there can be no doubt that the underlying reason is not only to provide loved ones with a keepsake of the subjects while they are away, but also in the event that they should they fail to come home. In this respect, the German army was no different. Featured here are two so-called ‘Ausmarsch’ (lit: marching-out) photographs showing two Pioniere of an unidentified unit photographed in 1915. Fully kitted out and ready for war, whole units marched into local photographers to have final pictures taken before going off to…