Tabla de contenidos para Issue 11 en Iron Cross

EASTERN FRONT TO BERLIN: WAFFEN-SS FOREIGN VOLUNTEERS Hitler’s Vikings In the previous issue of Iron Cross magazine, JonTrigg looked at the Flemish units which fought with the Waffen-SS. He follows up that feature with an account of the Scandinavian volunteers who served Hitler’s Third Reich. All images via the author unless otherwise credited. The Nazis were racial fantasists, and in their delusional world view, the peoples of north-western Europe were Aryans; the master race, or ‘herrenvolk’ destined to achieve global domination. The SS would lead on this central tenet of warped Nazi philosophy, specifically through its armed wing: the Waffen-SS. This would bring together what was considered the very best of Aryan manhood to defeat a Bolshevik communist menace. Casting its net wide across the Netherlands and Belgian Flanders for…

Zeppelin Bombs Zeppelins carried two bomb types on raids over Britain – high-explosive (HE) and incendiary. The combination of types and the weight of bombloads was at the discretion of each Zeppelin commander. Navy and Army Zeppelins carried bombs of different designs. The HE bombs used by the Navy Zeppelins, known as the Carbonit bomb, were constructed by Sprengstoff A.G. Carbonit in a distinctive teardrop form, the most common type being the 50kg, but 100kg and 300kg versions were also deployed. While the incendiary bombs employed by the Navy and Army are often called Goldschmidt bombs, after a German chemist, Hans Goldschmidt, who patented the thermite chemical reaction for use in welding, they were different in shape. The Navy bomb was cylindrical and contained benzol (petrol) and thermite, a pyrotechnic…

WAR IN THE AIR: LUFTWAFFE AIRLIFT CAPABILITY The Air Transport Conundrum The Wehrmacht’s efforts to expand its available airlift capacity during the Second World War is examined by Dr Graham Goodlad and the reasons for its lack of success outlined. The transport capability of the Luftwaffe at the outbreak of hostilities was fundamentally geared to short campaigns where Germany possessed control of the air. The ubiquitous Junkers Ju 52/3m and its counterpart, the DFS 230 glider, were the twin workhorses of Blitzkrieg, dropping paratroopers and supplies into the war zones of northern and western Europe. Neither machine, however, could move the larger quantities of men and materiel required as the war lengthened and expanded into new theatres. The Luftwaffe’s response to the need for heavy lift was remarkable for its…

WOMEN AT WAR Female Eagles Around 300,000 German women and girls served as Luftwaffenhelferinnen during the Second World War. As Victoria Taylorexplains, their presence reflected the growing demands of the German air war and were also an important anomaly in Nazi gender roles for women. In November 1942, the German propaganda magazine ‘Der Adler’ (‘The Eagle’) ran a feature on the women who were under service with the Luftwaffe. In that feature, the writer proclaimed that: ‘The call of the Luftwaffe will be joyfully received by the German girls, who now also have the opportunity to strengthen the German front wherever they are deployed - and to secure the final victory.’ The jingoistic nature of this piece of propaganda aside, it nevertheless reflected Nazi Germany’s increasing utilisation of womanpower during…

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THE INCENDIARY BOMB The Germans developed the type of incendiary bomb used in the Second World War in the late 1920’s. This type of bomb was dropped in large numbers from containers and were designed to start major conflagrations. The bombs contained thermite incendiary fillings, with the bomb body itself constructed of magnesium. On striking the ground, or any hard object, the incendiary filling was ignited and the bomb burnt furiously. Versions with a high explosive element (often referred to by the British as Incendiary Bombs Explosive Nose – I.B.E.N) were also developed. Despite being small, this type of bomb could be extremely dangerous and caused widespread damage. British Civil Defence records detail an attack with incendiary bombs of the I.B.E.N type on Verwood, Dorset, on 24 April 1944 thus:…

PHOTOS FROM THE FRONT #9 The E-V/4 Panzerkraftwagen Ehrhardt Colour by RJM. When the Belgian army introduced ‘armoured cars’ during the early part of the First World War, it did not take long for the German army to realise the potential value of such vehicles. Consequently, the Ehrhardt, Daimler and Büssing companies were contracted to provide prototype armoured cars for evaluation. Each prototype was rather more innovative than the Belgian creations which were little more than armoured and armed conventional touring cars. Instead, the German versions were far more ‘warlike’ and robust. And all were comparatively massive vehicles. The Büssing version was the largest of these creations and had a double-ended configuration which was deemed tactically useful with its high ground clearance. The Ehrhardt and Daimler versions, though, were quite similar…

WAR IN THE AIR: CAPTURED LUFTWAFFE FIGHTERS ‘Made in Germany -Finished in England’ When German aircraft were downed over Britain in 1940, it was sometimes only the end of their useful life as far as the Luftwaffe were concerned. As AndySaunders explains, the British repurposed many of them – especially Messerschmitt 109s. All images via author. Colour by RJM. Trophies taken from the battlefield have been a feature of warfare since time immemorial. Indeed, the very word ‘trophy’ has its origins in the Greek word: tropaion. In this context, it related to arms, standards and other military property taken during battle to represent the victories of a state, army, or individual combatant. Later, in 1513, the word trophée became the French word used to describe a ‘prize of war’ and…

UNLOCKING HISTORY The Kniewerk Raid On 22 February 1916, Germany’s Reserve Infantry Regiment 99 carried out a raid against the Kniewerk at Fricourt on the Western Front. Jonathan Porter has researched that raid in depth, his work unlocking the story behind what was hitherto a ‘mystery’ photograph. All images via the author unless otherwise credited. Under the title ‘Stormtroop Mystery’ in issue #7, page 117 of Iron Cross magazine, the image shown at the head of this article was reproduced and it was immediately noticed by the author of this feature. After four years of research for his recent book Zero Hour Z Day, including several weeks examining 28 Reserve Division archives in the Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg, Karlsruhe, the author realised it depicted the participants of a raid undertaken by RIR…

WAR IN THE AIR: DEATH OF A GENERAL A Perfect ‘Rhubarb’ Day Being a senior officer in the armed service of any nation does not protect that individual from death in action or on active service. Chris Goss narrates the demise of a Luftwaffe general in 1941. All images via the author unless otherwise credited. On the morning of 15 May 1941, the commander of the Luftwaffe’s I Fliegerkorps in northern France, Generaloberst Ulrich Grauert, together with one of his personal Staff Officers, Oberleutnant Heinrich Doenitz (a former member of the Legion Condor’s reconnaissance unit A/88) left their HQ at Beauvais. They were passengers in a Junkers 52 3/M (Werk Nummer 5595, code letters 7U+OM) of the Transportstaffel of I Fliegerkorps. The aircraft was headed to an unknown airfield in…

WAR IN THE AIR: NAZIFICATION OF THE LUFTWAFFE A ‘clean’ Luftwaffe? The Luftwaffe are often perceived as entirely honourable ‘Knights of the Air’ -professional airmen who were simply serving their country. Victoria Taylor considers the reality of that perception and the wider picture of the ‘Nazification’ of the Luftwaffe. As the highly decorated fighter ‘ace’ Gunther Rall recalled in his post-war memoirs: ‘We accepted the activities of the National Socialists as ugly side effects of a policy that had so far kept all its lofty promises.’ His statement encapsulates a complex political relationship between the Luftwaffe and the Nazi regime in the Third Reich. This German air force, however, is one that has often been characterised an apolitical branch of the ‘clean Wehrmacht’; an organisation that simply tolerated their Nazi…

NOTES FROM THE ARMOURY Luftwaffe Bombs The Luftwaffe employed a wide range of air dropped weapons during the Second World War and across all theatres of operations. Mark Khan describes some of those used as well as their fuzing and delivery arrangements. All images via the author unless otherwise credited. During the Second World War, the Luftwaffe were required to perform both close support for the German army (tactical support) as well as strategic bombing operations. In this latter context, many towns and cities across Britain were subjected to bombing which often resulted in extensive damage to city centres, docks, rail infrastructure and industrial areas. In addition to raids which concentrated on specific targets, bombing of large areas also took place, notably during the London ‘Blitz’, but bombing also affected…

NOTES FROM THE ARMOURY GERMAN FUZES German bomb fuze types included time fuzes, impact fuzes, anti-disturbance, air burst and mechanical time fuzes. Whilst some were chemical or mechanical in action, most German bomb fuzes differed from those used by other countries, being predominantly of electric design. An electric fuze needs to receive an electric charge to allow it to become active. This is designed into a mechanism on an aircraft where a charge is delivered to the bomb just as it is dropped. The charge was delivered via a plug on an arm which was in turn connected to the top of the fuze and pulled free when the bomb was released. The electric type fuze has a number of advantages over mechanical types, including ease of production, simplicity of…

THE LUFTMINE Originally developed as anti-shipping magnetic influence mines, the Germans realised that if dropped on land these large thin cased high explosive mines could create a devastating blast effect. Modified versions were therefore developed to be dropped - specifically on land. These mines were indiscriminate in their effect, as they simply drifted to the ground suspended by the attached parachute and exploded wherever they landed. Two main types of mine were developed and designated by the Germans as the Luftmine A and Luftmine B. The mines were detonated by a mechanical time fuze that was activated as it left the aircraft. The clockwork mechanism of the fuze ran for five seconds after leaving the aircraft, then stopped. If the mine impacted on the ground or shallow water, and as…

CASUALTIES OF WAR: GERMAN WAR GRAVES “Ich hatt’ einen Kameraden” In terms of the identification and burial of battlefield casualties, Germany was a leader and innovator in the field.DrSarah Ashbridge looks at how German soldiers buried and commemorated their dead. In issue #2 of Iron Cross magazine, we explored the development of the German identity disc, the Erkennungsmarke, and how its use had facilitated the identification of fallen German soldiers. The German system would influence the use of identification systems by almost all Western European armies and beyond, with Germany playing a pivotal role in the implementation of new articles of the Geneva Convention which would require the victor of the field to respond to the dead on the battlefield. Germany, then, had been innovators in the introduction of identity…

Second World War Burials The traditions and cultures established for the burial and commemoration of German war dead during the First World War were maintained into the Second World War as outlined by Andy Saunders As with the First World War, the graves of a huge number of German casualties of the Second World War were necessarily field burials. Many, though, were buried in either established civilian cemeteries in the occupied countries where they had fallen, or else in civilian burial grounds in Germany in the case of service personnel who had died in their homeland. However, the burial of the German fallen of 1939 – 1945 generally followed the established funerary rites, marking of graves and the photographing of graves etc. as set out by Dr Sarah Ashbridge across…

WAR IN THE AIR: THE ZEPPELINS The Hapless L 20 Assailed by AA guns and explosive and incendiary bullets, or broken by crash landings, the crumpled wreckage of shattered Zeppelins became ever more commonplace as the Great War progressed. However, as Ian Castle describes, only one was destroyed by firing squad. All photographs via author unless otherwise credited. The First World War was a time of significant advancement in how wars were fought. Previously, conflict had been restricted to land or sea, but at the dawn of the 20th Century, war took to the air. In 1914, when flight was still in its infancy, and aeroplanes were but flimsy structures of wood and fabric, it seemed to many that the proven technology of airships would come to dominate the air.…

The Victors Waclaw Giermer was born in 1916 and at the end of his studies he joined the Polish Air Force, escaping to Romania and then France following the surrender of Poland. When France was invaded, he was flying Morane 406s and on 24 May 1940 he and Lt Marian Wesolowski and Sgt Jan Kremski shot down a Heinkel 111 of 8./KG 51, the crew all being captured. Two French aircraft, Waclaw’s, were damaged by return fire. Following France’s surrender, Waclaw fled to North Africa and then Gibraltar and managed to make it to Britain to join the RAF. Just after the end of the Battle of Britain he was posted to 43 Squadron flying Hurricanes from RAF Usworth. Despite experience in Poland and France, he was not considered ready…

Another pilot is lost On 7 January 1942, 4(F)/123 pilot, Unteroffizier Willi Quante, wrote in his diary: ‘We are up early and off on a mission. Unteroffizier Thune is flying a reconnaissance to sector ‘Siegfried’ and sector ‘Richard’ with Unteroffizier Quante. Today’s mission is to Plymouth, 120 kilometres over the water, which requires a drop tank. ‘At 10.58 hours, the two Me 109s took off. Oberleutnant Rüeck went to the command post to track the flight and pass the threat of fighter warnings. In the meantime, it has turned 12.11 hours. At low level, the aircraft ‘R’ passed overhead and landed a few minutes later. With anxious hearts, Bingler (Thune’s mechanic) and photo specialist, Obergefreiter Stuhn wait vainly for aircraft ‘S’, piloted by Uffz. Thune. ‘After shutting his aircraft down,…

WAR AT SEA: THE KRIEGSMARINE’S TORPEDOES The Torpedo Crisis During the early part of the Second World War, the Kriegsmarine was beset by problematic issues with its torpedoes asChris Sams explains Operation Weserübung, the invasion of Norway, was to be conducted swiftly and lean heavily on Luftwaffe paratroops and the Kriegsmarine’s ability to land troops in key ports, including the crucial port of Narvik on Norway’s northern coast. Thus, in the early hours of the morning of 9 April 1940, Kommodore Friedrich Bonte led ten destroyers into Ofot Fjord, passing shore batteries at Ramnes and Hamnes with seven of the group breaking formation to land Major General Eduard Dietl’s 3rd Gebirgs-Division. Bonte then took the Wilhelm Heidkamp, Georg Thiel and Berndt von Arnim into Narvik harbour, encountering two Coastal defence…

GERMAN BOMB TYPES German bombs fell into the following categories: | Sprengbomben (HE Bombs), SB Bombs (Großladungsbombe) Characteristics: Thin walled, total weight consists of 75% explosive content. | SC-Bombs (Minenbomben), High explosive demolition bombs Characteristics: Thin walled, total weight approximately 50% explosive content. Used on targets where blast effect was most efficient. | SD-Bombs (Splitterbomben), Fragmentation or Anti-personnel bombs Characteristics: Thick-walled body. Weight up to 1,000kg approximately 30% explosive content. Used on targets where fragmentation was most efficient. | PC Bombs (Panzersprengbomben), Armour-piercing high explosive bombs Characteristics: Thick-walled body made of high-grade steel for penetration ability. Explosive content 15 to 20% of total weight. Used for attacks against armour protected targets. | PC-RS Bombs, (Panzerdurchschlagsbpomben). n). Armour piercing high explosive penetration bombs Characteristics: Thick-walled short body. Accelerated after being dropped by solid fuel rocket…

CONFLICT ARCHAEOLOGY The Battlefields of Romania We interview Michel Bressan of The Romanian Military Archaeology Team about that organisation’s work investigating German military archaeology across Romania’s battlefields of the First and Second World War. In our occasional series on aspects of conflict archaeology, Iron Cross magazine has generally examined projects which have either been undertaken by professional archaeologists or by teams who have adopted archaeological rigour and established practices and procedures in their work (eg: the ‘Crater Locator’ organisation which examines V1 and V2 impact sites in Britain), or those individuals or organisations who have undertaken excavations with formal archaeological support. Nevertheless, we are conscious of the fact that conflict archaeology of the 20th Century is a discipline which has evolved on a worldwide basis since the 1970s, arriving today…