Coinage of the Third Reich

The coinage of Germany during World War II is almost an exact mirror image of events from the previous world war. However, during World War I, the people of Germany did not have the ideals of Nazism radiating from everywhere, every loudspeaker, every signpost, even from their own pocket change.

Two versions of the 5 Reichsmark coin
with President Hindenburg on the reverse

In 1933, when Hitler rose to power in Germany, the obverse, or front, of all German coinage were changed to show the German eagle holding in its talons the Nazi swastika. This would be the norm for the rest of the war, when it was removed of its swastika during Allied occupation. In the shift of power, there also were changes in the actual mintage of coins as well. For example, there was a short-lived push to replace 5 Reichspfennig coins with 4 Reichspfennig coins (a pfennig being the equivalent of a penny to the dollar, 100 Reichspfennigs to 1 Reichsmark). Also, the composition of the 1 Reichsmark coin was changed from silver to aluminum, while silver Reichsmarks were those of 2 Reichsmarks and 5 Reichsmarks, and the 3 Reichsmark coin being discontinued altogether.

Pre-war 2 Reichspfennig coin

Aluminum 50 Reichspfennig coin

As the war wore on, as in the first world war, the composition of German coins changed according to war materiel shortages. Similar to the United States in World War II, where their pennies were minted from steel in 1943 due to copper shortages, the lower denomination Reichspfennigs were changed from bronze-plated aluminum to zinc and aluminum, which is why German coins from this time period look black today, because the aluminum is corroded. Also, the 50 Reichspfennig coin, once silver, was now aluminum, as was the other Riechsmark coins.

Wartime 5 Reichspfennig coin

At the end of the war, under Allied occupation, German coins were minted virtually unchanged from their wartime design, save for the removal of the swastikas. It was not until 1948 that two separate German coinages would define the new East and West Germany's. Until next time, take care, and thank you.

Stars and Stripes Review: December 2, 1944

The front page of this issue of The Stars and Stripes, the US Army's daily newspaper,details the newest exploits of General George S. Patton's Third Army. The Third Army is battling in and around the Saar Basin, the land previously renewed to Germany before the war. German resistance seemed to be mounting the closer the Allies got to the German border. Further south, French troops were only ten miles from the German border, and near the Ruhr, the industrial heartland of Germany.

Other newsworthy articles in this issue include the testing of a new model of P-51 fighter, the most famous American fighter of the war, though not the most produced (that honor went to the Republic P-47). Also, there is an article warning American soldiers of German soldiers disguised as GIs. These were English-speaking Germans who would infiltrate Allied lines and sever communications, ambush supply columns, and gather intelligence prior to major Allied offensives. This led to GIs asking 'security questions', such as 'If Betty Grable walked out of the woods, what part of her body would you be looking at?', or 'Who scored the most home runs for the Dodgers last season?'. If the German gave the wrong answer, the GIs would know him to be an enemy.

There are also articles of propaganda against Germans, presumably intended for Germans who might capture an American with this paper. There is one column about how silly Hitler and Nazism really are, portraying the Fuhrer in a tantrum. Also, a series of pictures of German cities and the title 'Hitler has doomed these cities' send a clear message to the enlisted men of the German Army: that Germany has lost because of Hitler.

Besides articles relating to the war, there are also features talking about domestic issues. There is a mention of the death of the Secretary of the Interior under Harding who participated in the Teapot Dome Scandal. Also, there is an article about the upcoming Army-Navy game in Baltimore. Finally, there is a Li'l Abner comic strip, showing hi jinks worthy of Wile E. Coyote himself.

This feature, and others like it, will act as a supplement to my other articles as period coverage. Until next time, take care, and thank you.

The Battle of Britain



Contrails from German and British planes during a dogfight

 August, 1940. France and the Low Countries have fallen. The British have performed nothing short of a miracle by evacuating their expeditionary forces from Dunkirk beach. Now, it seems that these troops aren't out of the woods. In fact, Hitler now sets his eyes on knocking Britain out of the war. First, though, Reichsmarshall Hermann Goering assures Hitler that his Luftwaffe will be able to destroy the Royal Air Force and achieve air superiority in time for the invasion, Operation Sea Lion. These months would see the heroism and tenacity of the RAF play out against the veteran pilots of the Luftwaffe in what would come to be known as the Battle of Britain.

The first dedicated attacks on the RAF occurred on August 12. Previous months had seen Luftwaffe attacks on Channel shipping, to which the RAF had to respond to. It was in these attacks that RAF pilots began to see weaknesses in the German planes. This is why whenever the RAF intercepted German bombers, there was massive carnage. However, this did not mean the Germans weren't having any success. Indeed, when Goering released the Bf109s (Germany's most produced fighter-interceptor) to free-roam instead of escorting the bombers, the Luftwaffe inflicted many British casualties on planes when they were returning to base low on fuel or ammunition.

However, these shot down planes did not mean that the RAF was losing. One key advantage the RAF had when fighting over Britain was that when an RAF pilot had to bail out, he could do so over his home soil and return to the fight relatively quickly. The Germans, on the other hand, were losing planes and pilots to the British. It was these losses that prompted a change of tactics in the Luftwaffe, to what Londoners would call "the Blitz".



St. Paul's Cathedral during the Blitz



It was on August 25, 1940 that British Bomber Command sent 81 planes to destroy industry centers in Berlin, in response to an accidental bombing of London by a lost German bomber. Up until this time, Hitler himself had declared that air raids against Britain would be restricted to targets of industry and air force targets. Now, with this raid against German soil all bets were off. Hitler ordered Goering to begin large-scale terror bombings of major British cities, especially London, to bring them to their knees, as it were. While many square bocks of London were leveled and many more London residents were killed, Britain held firm. It was during the Blitz that Winston Churchill gave his famous 'Finest Hour' speech to the nation, praising the deeds of the RAF and declaring that Britain shall not fall.

Churchill's words would come true. By the beginning of 1941 the Luftwaffe had sustained heavy losses from ground antiaircraft guns and RAF fighters. This, coupled with the postponement of Operation Sea Lion, spelled the end of the Battle of Britain. Outnumbered almost 3 to 1, the RAF was able to keep air superiority over Britain, defying the will of Germany, and signaling the fist major defeat of Germany, the first of many to come. Also, the Battle of Britain stirred sympathy across the Atlantic. It was during this time that the United States approved the Lend-Lease Act of war materiel to Britain, in addition to the formation of the volunteer RAF Eagle squadron. It was a foreshadow of things to come.

However, it must not be forgotten that the Battle of Britain could have ended much differently. Had the Germans not pulled their planes from military strikes, the RAF would not have lasted as long as it did. Furthermore, had the Luftwaffe not discounted the importance of Britain's radar, the priorities of the German planners might have been different, poised to rob Britain of its technological superiority rather than its planes. Finally, had there been no sustained bombardment of London, the resolve of the British people might not have been so solid when the invasion came. Ultimately, it was Hitler's impatience to deal with Russia and acquire his 'lebensraum' before knocking out Britain that would spell the doom of the Third Reich. Today, every September 15, in memory of Churchill's words, "never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few", the Imperial War Museum stages an air show with restored and refurbished period aircraft, reenacting the finest hour of the RAF. Until next time, take care, and thank you.

The Saar Plebiscite

A 1934 campaign button for the reunification of the Saar

In March of 1935, Germany made one of its many prewar land acquisitions, land under the protection of the League of Nations. This time, it was the territory of the Saar basin. The Saar is located on the French-German border. It was taken as a League protectorate in 1920 under French rule, but by 1933, with the rise of Hitler to power, Germany wanted the Saar back. Germany waged a voting campaign throughout Germany and in the Saar itself for absorbing the Saar into Germany. The vote revealed in the Saar that 90% of those who voted favored aligning with Germany. In January of 1935, the action was approved by the League of Nations, with the Saar becoming part of Germany in March of that year.

By the end of the war, however, the Saar was once again under French rule, and remained that way until 1955, when the Saar once again rejoined Germany. Today, the modern German state of the Saarland has similar borders as the Saar once did back in 1935, and where once the population was about 800,000 it is now over 1 million. Until next time, take care, and thank you.

Messerschmitt Me-262: Birth of the Jet

On July 26 1944, the Allied powers got their first brief taste of a new kind of airplane. Germany had beaten all the other Allied powers to the successful development and deployment of the world's first operational jet fighter: the Me-262 Schwalbe (German for 'sparrow'). While the Allies would deploy their first jet fighter, the Gloster Meteor, just one day later, the Germans are credited for revolutionizing the air war for the next seven decades and beyond.

The Me-262 was originally drawn up in 1939. The design process might've gone on much faster had there not been significant delays due to the lack of reliable jet engines.The first test flight of the plane wasn't until 1941, but this was only the most basic problem. Hitler wanted the 262 to be a high-speed bomber (Shnellbomber), rather than a defensive interceptor as initially designed. While it is not known how badly this delayed production of the 262, it certainly put the Allies that much closer to Germany while their jet was still grounded.

The Me-262 is easily recognized by its swept wing design (the wings taper backward instead of going strait out from the body of the plane). This gave the 262 improved airflow over the wings at high speeds. However, the issue of the engine still plagued the plane's development. It wasn't that jet engines didn't exist, but there was a severe shortage of materials that could withstand the high temperatures inside the engine. Without these materials, the engines were prohibitively unreliable.

However, despite these setbacks, the Me-262 did eventually get deployed into combat. The Allies were at a loss in the beginning as to how to combat this new plane; the 262 could go at least 100mph faster than any plane the Allies had at the time. However, it was soon learned that when the 262 was either taking off or landing, it did not have excessive speed and could be taken down.

Nevertheless, the vast majority of Me-262s destroyed were not in the air. As the war progressed, it was seen that the 262 used up huge amounts of fuel. With the need to prioritize fuel allocation, the 262s were often grounded, and destroyed on the ground by Allied planes on strafing missions.

After the end of the war, with the mad dash to get any and all advanced German technology, the Allies acquired a number of Me-262s. By studying the design, the US was able to construct such planes as the B-47 bomber and the F-86 Sabre fighter, a plane which would make a name for itself in the Korean War. Also, the Me-262 continued to be made after the war. Since the main production facilities were in Czechoslovakia, the Czechoslovak Air Force used Me-262s up until the 1950s, where they were replaced by Soviet-designed planes.

Today, surviving examples of the Me-262 can be found in many museums across the world. They are a fitting testament to a revolution in aerial warfare. Until next time, take care, and thank you.

Germany's Forgotten Aircraft Carrier

Graf Zeppelin docked in Stettin 1942

When one considers aircraft carriers in World War II, one usually thinks of the carriers of Britain, Japan, and the United States. However, did you know that Germany had an aircraft carrier too? She was named the Graf Zeppelin, after Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin. It was Germany's attempt to spread her naval arm outside the Baltic Sea and the North Atlantic. Alas, it was not to be.

The Graf Zeppelin was ordered in 1935, as part of Germany's rearmament. It was an attempt to create a well-rounded navy, to fit in with the times where a biplane with a torpedo can sink the mightiest of battleships (much like Bismarck). Her hull was completed and launched in 1938. However, she was never officially commissioned.

Work to complete the Graf Zeppelin was on and off throughout the war. Work would only resume in 1942, when the power of aircraft carriers had been demonstrated numerous times before. However, other issues arose concerning the aircraft. It was initially thought that specially-designed carrier planes would be built. This was not possible, however, due to the already stretched aircraft industry in Germany building planes for ground-support and air superiority roles. The idea then came to modify existing planes to carrier duty. In the end, this did not work, and the Graf Zeppelin was an aircraft carrier without any planes.

The Graf Zeppelin was moved from port to port as needed when the Allies were advancing. Since she was never completed, she was not a big threat. There was only one air attack specifically against the Graf Zeppelin, but did not receive any confirmed damage. After the war, the Graf Zeppelin fell into the hands of the Soviets. For a time, there was a movement to finish the carrier and commission it in the Soviet Navy. However, this did not happen, and she ended up being towed out to sea and scuttled.

She was found, however, in 2006 by a Polish fishing ship. Subsequent dives to the wreck confirmed that it indeed is the Graf Zeppelin, sunk 264 feet down off the coast of Poland, where she remains today. Until next time, take care, and thank you.

Operation Bodenplatte: The Luftwaffe Falls

Battle plan for Operation Bodenplatte

In the morning hours of New Years Day 1945, Allied air bases in France, Belgium, and the Netherlands were attacked by a large force of German fighter planes. This was Germany's last attempt to regain air superiority in Europe, in support of their troops involved in the Battle of the Bulge. The name of the game: Operation Bodenplatte (German for 'baseplate').

The operation was originally scheduled for mid-December 1944. However, bad weather forced the plan to be postponed. Ironically, bad weather was the main reason the Germans attacked in mid-December, because the Allies wouldn't be able to get air support for their troops. The British code-breaking team intercepted intelligence reports of air assets massing in the area, but did not realize a major operation was afoot.

Indeed, there was so much secrecy placed around the operation that many German anti-aircraft units were not informed of any major Luftwaffe operation. Since by this time the Allies had virtual air supremacy, the Germans automatically assumed that any large formation of planes had to be Allied planes. Unfortunately for the Germans, this resulted in many squadrons suffering from friendly fire. Nevertheless, the attack commenced on New Years Day, since the Germans believed that the Allied pilots would've been relaxed from festivities the night before. At the first bases attacked, the Allies were taken almost completely by surprise.

One instance of the Allies being forewarned of an attack is documented in the Dogfights episode "Death of the Luftwaffe", where a patrol of American P-47 Thunderbolts spotted a large formation of German planes outside of their home base and engaged the enemy formation, startling the attackers.

It turned out that out of 34 German formations in the air, only 11 of them arrived on time and achieved any measure of surprise. When the battles were over, both sides had lost many planes. However, the key difference between the Allied losses and the German losses is that the Allied losses were replaced in a matter of weeks. The Germans, on the other hand, not only lost many valuable planes, but many more irreplaceable pilots, leaving the veteran population of the Luftwaffe virtually exhausted.

This operation would be the last major Luftwaffe operation of the war. Despite Germany's best efforts, they did not regain control of the skies and they did not hurt the Allied air forces badly enough to affect the tide of war turning against Germany. Until next time, take care, and thank you.

Oflag IV-C: Colditz Castle

Colditz Castle during the war.

In the town of Colditz in Saxony, Germany, there is a castle atop a hillside overlooking the town. It was built in the 1200s and had assumed various roles over the centuries, from fortress to mental institution. In World War II, however, it would become notorious as being the German's best POW camp around. The Germans thought it was impossible to escape Colditz. The prisoners thought otherwise.

At first, the majority of prisoners were either Polish, French, or British. Later, there would be Russians, Slovaks, Americans, Australians, and many more nationalities. Among these prisoners were the 'prominente', prisoners that held relations to key officials in the Allied governments. One was the nephew of Churchill's wife, and another the nephew of a Soviet general. These prisoners were kept separate, and were possibly seen as potential bargaining chips for the Germans should they lose. All had a common goal once in the castle: to get out by whatever means possible. The castle was designated Oflag IV-C, Oflag being short for Offizierslager, or officer's camp. The German Army watching over the castle believed it to be inescapable. Needless to say, they were wrong.

While the sheer number of escapes undertaken by the prisoners is too verbose to cover in a short amount of time, there are a few notable escape attempts. While tunneling through the castle was a daunting task, and more uncommon than other methods, the French were able to start a tunnel from the top of the clock tower and burrow almost the entire way outside the wall. It might've been successful had the tunnel entrance not been discovered. Another notable escape attempt was the ambitious plan to impersonate one of the German officers, and walk out the main gate, hopefully leading to a mass escape. Unfortunately, at the last checkpoint his cover was blown, and the guard on duty accidentally shot the impersonating prisoner. He would recover, but his escaping days were over.

Another unusual escape attempt was for a prisoner, taking advantage of a bend in the trail to the prisoner's exercise yard, would throw a blanket specially prepared with leaves and twigs over himself and play dead on the side of the trail while the guards walked by. This was one of the many successful escapes from Colditz. However, with each escape attempt being either successful or not, the possible avenues of escape out of the castle were blocked off one by one.

The only known photo of the "Colditz Cock"

When news of the escapees from Stalag Luft III being shot came to the castle, morale sank. It was followed shortly thereafter by an announcement by the German Army saying that any caught escapees would be killed. After that, escapes dried up to almost zero. However, there was one last plan conceived, one that could only have been conceived at Colditz: build a glider and fly it off the roof. The glider would seat two people, and be slung off the roof of one of the buildings and land in a field across the river. The glider was actually completed, but before it could be flown, the Americans liberated the camp, and to this day only one photograph is known to exist of the original "Colditz Cock".

The prisoners were freed, and the castle still remains to this day. However, the castle has not given up all of its secrets. One of the two hidden radios the prisoners kept was only found by the Germans in 1992. Also, a half-converted uniform, some money, and a map of Germany were found under some floorboards in 1998. Maybe someday more artifacts will be uncovered. For a more thorough account of Colditz' history as a POW camp, there are numerous books, but I recommend "Colditz: The Untold Story of Germany's Great Escapes" by Henry Chancellor. Until next time, take care, and thank you.

Munich: The Sigh of Relief Before the Plunge



Chamberlain declaring "peace in our time"



On September 30, 1938, a treaty was signed which would not only give the rapidly expanding Germany more land, but also give British prime minister Neville Chamberlain to famously proclaim "I have secured peace in our time." This would turn out to be the last peaceful conference between the powers of Europe before the outbreak of World War II. To the Czech, it was known as the Munich Betrayal, but to the rest of Europe it was known simply as the Munich Agreement.

Germany had already annexed Austria in the Anshluss and moved troops into the Saar earlier in the decade. Now, Hitler had his eyes on occupying the Sudetenland, the border region of Czechoslovakia with a German-speaking population. Of course, the Czech government was not about to give up its territory and pleaded to the British for help. As both the British and French had seen, Germany was being very aggressive in its foreign policy and both wanted to prevent war at all costs.

Tensions were heating up between Germany and Czechoslovakia. The Czechs ordered a partial mobilization in anticipation of a German invasion. Hitler demanded from the British the immediate ceding of the Sudetenland to Germany. When both Britain and France agreed to this, Czechoslovakia refused, but an ultimatum was issued to the Czechs for acceptance from Britain and France. Czechoslovakia gave in on September 21, by which time Neville Chamberlain was pleading to Germany for a conference to settle the issue.

So the Munich Agreement was signed by Germany, Britain, France and Italy. Basically, Germany would occupy the Sudetenland, and get control of the rest of Czechoslovakia as long as Hitler promised to go no further in his territorial campaign. Czechoslovakia was informed that either they would cooperate, or resist Germany alone. Reluctantly, the Czechs agreed to cooperate. It was just after the conference had concluded that Chamberlain approached Hitler and asked for a peace treaty between Britain and Germany, to which Hitler was delighted to comply with. This is what Neville Chamberlain spoke about to the British people when he proclaimed that "peace in our time" had been secured.

One consequence of the Munich Agreement besides the virtual dissolution of Czechoslovakia, which was divided into independent Slovakia and the German-controlled Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, was that German troops now had troop positions all along the Polish border. Also, because of the unwavering rapidity to comply with Hitler's demands, the Soviet Union feared that should Germany have territorial claims on Russian soil, that the British and French would stand by and let that happen as well. This was one of the causes of the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the peace resolution between Germany and the Soviet Union.

Much to many people's dismay, and many more people's expectations, the Munich Agreement did not sate Germany's ambitions, and almost a year later, on September 1, 1939 Germany invaded Poland. So began the Second World War in Europe, a war that many thought had been prevented by the Munich Agreement. Until next time, take care, and thank you.

Tirpitz: Menace Unseen

Tirpitz in its former glory

If one should ask for the name of a battleship, the two most common answers might be Arizona and Bismarck. Arizona is, of course, known as the ship that sank in Pearl Harbor and still remains today. Bismarck is well known for its short tirade around the north Atlantic, sinking Hood, pride of the Royal Navy, and forcing Winston Churchill to order "Sink the Bismarck!" However, did you know that Bismarck had a sister ship? Tirpitz was just as powerful and threatening as Bismarck, but her career was not as action-packed as Bismarck. Still, her mere existence was enough to give the RAF as much concern as when Bismarck roamed the seas.

Tirpitz was commisioned into the Kreigsmarine on February 25, 1941. While her sister ship would end up at the bottom of the Atlantic in May 1941, Tirpitz was based in occupied Norway. The British knew that Bismarck had a sister ship, and like Bismarck she was almost unsinkable by ship. It was torpedo bombers from aircraft carriers that crippled Bismarck, so the RAF would take the lead in fighting Tirpitz.

Tirpitz was stationed in Norwegian waters because supply convoys to and from Russia had to pass by Norway, putting Tirpitz in a good position to raid the convoys, Bismarck's intended purpose. However, when a supply convoy actually went by, Tirpitz didn't sink any of them. When the British learned that Tirpitz was going to intercept the convoy, they ordered the convoy to scatter, knowing that a battleship attacking a cluster of defenseless cargo ships was a bad thing. Ironically, after the convoy scattered, U-Boats sank 24 ships from the convoy over the next ten days. This proved one thing: the British could not allow Tirpitz to continue to float.

From 1943 onward, the RAF planned numerous operations to sink Tirpitz. Many were cancelled due to fog around the fjords where Tirpitz was docked, or the Germans being forewarned of the attacks by scouts and laying down intense antiaircraft fire. Fourteen operations were planned, though not all were conducted. Those that were either missed their target, or only scored glancing blows. Tirpitz suffered major damage to her superstructure and many of her crew had been killed, but Tirpitz's armor was still intact, her guns were still useable, the ship still a threat.

Finally, on November 12, 1944, Operation Catechism was a go. This attack caught the Germans by surprise, mainly because the bombers  came from the east instead of the west, flying over neutral Sweden. This raid would prove to be the final victory. Tirpitz was hit hard, having two bombs pierce her top deck and explode, blowing a hole in her port side, and creating fires, which ignited an ammunition magazine in one of her turrets. Eleven minutes after the first hit, Tirpitz was sunk.

Tirpitz capsized after the attack

This removed the last major surface threat in Germany's navy. Britain could now send ships in reserve at home to the Pacific to make a seroius effort there. However, the ironic thing about Tirpitz's career is that her main guns, the same kind of guns that sank the pride of the Royal Navy, only fired on one mission, in a support role for a German invasion of Spitzbergen, Norway, and never at any enemy ship. After the war, the wreck was mostly cut up and scrapped, although a large piece of her bow is where it sank. Today, though, Tirpitz's armor is still used by Norway's Public Roads Administration as temporary road surfaces. It shows that a once feared battleship is reduced to nothing, and virtually forgotten or ignored. Until next time, take care, and thank you.

Stalag Luft III: The Story of the Great Escape

Richard Attenborough rousing the men, James Garner befriending the German guards, and Steve McQueen riding his stolen motorcycle across the German countryside. These scenes will forever be immortalized as being from the 1963 film "The Great Escape". The riveting story of the men who chose to still fight World War II, even as prisoners. However, in light of the film's popularity and fame, it is vitally important to remember that the events depicted, though details were changed, actually did happen.

Stalag Luft III was a POW camp located just outside the German town of Sagan ( Stalag Luft meaning a prison camp for airmen, overseen by Luftwaffe officers). It was intended to be a camp to group together all of the 'repeat escapees' into one camp so that a better eye could be kept on them. In this act, however, the Germans unwittingly assembled the greatest escape team ever, second only to the prisoners housed in Oflag IV C-Colditz Castle.

The men assembled initially were British, Canadian, Polish, and some Russians, who were kept for labor purposes. Later on in the war, American airmen would be housed in the camp. However, because the men assembled were frequent escapees, they knew what worked and what didn't. One of the overarching lessons learned with tunneling is that tunnels fail because either the sounds of digging are detected by microphones, or more commonly the entrance is discovered before the tunnel is completed. Even if a tunnel was successfully dug out of the camp, the most anyone could hope for was getting a dozen or so men out before the tunnel is discovered. This is why what Roger Bushell, head of the X organization, proposed was so stunning when first heard: dig not one, but three tunnels at once, and once one tunnel gets out, spring 200 men, each with forged documents and faked garments. This level of audacity is why this plan would come to be known as 'the great escape'.

The Plan

The three tunnels were to be nicknamed Tom, Dick, and Harry. tom and Dick would run parallel to each other out of different huts, while Harry would run perpendicular to Tom and Dick from the opposite side of the camp. Each tunnel's entrance was smartly concealed, and the film accurately portrays these, although mixed around. Tom's entrance was in a dark corner of Hut 123, Harry's entrance was hidden beneath a stove in Hut 104, and Dick's entrance was at the bottom of a drain in the showers of Hut 122. Dick's entrance was so well concealed, in fact, that the Germans never found it, and it remained hidden until the early 2000s when archaeologists uncovered it.

Map of the camp and the tunnels

Nevertheless, before anyone could escape, the tunnels had to be dug first. The tunnels themselves were about two feet square, making them a tight fit. Digging the tunnels got even harder because since the camp was built on yellow sand, not only did it make dispersal of the sand difficult on the brown soil, but there were numerous collapses of the tunnels. Thus, wood was stolen from almost every conceivable source, and to disperse the sand, a method was created to stuff the sand in modified tube socks, hide them in their pants, and release the sand in such a way that they could shuffle the sand into the soil surreptitiously. This is why those men relegated to this duty were known as 'penguins', due to their stiff legs from all the sand.

Diagram of Harry

To avoid being detected by underground microphones lining the fences, the move was made to dig the tunnels 30 feet below the surface, to minimize any sound travelling through the ground. However, this did not negate the digger's need to breathe and see. the digger's burned candles to see, but this consumed even more precious oxygen. The solution to get air into the tunnels was a pump and a system of air pipes made out of Klim tins (milk spelled backwards) sent to the prisoners via the Red Cross. Later on in the digging, a clever prisoner was able to steal a good deal of electrical wire from some careless German workers, who were so embarrassed to find the wire missing that they didn't report it! This gave light in the tunnels without burning candles, thus saving oxygen.

The Operation

The forging of the documents was a tricky business, made that much more difficult by the wide variety of papers needed to get anywhere inside, and especially out of Germany. However, the necessary documents were often procured by bribing the German guards with goods that were in short supply in Germany: chocolate, cigarettes, lingerie, and so on. In one case, it was necessary to take pictures of all the escapees, so the prisoners made their own. When one of the guards was able to smuggle a real camera in, the prisoners found their homemade camera worked better! In another case, a prisoner was able to blackmail a guard into smuggling in a typewriter for the forgers! In the end, all 200 of the expected escapees had forged papers in one form or another.

Clothing was made mostly from modifying the prisoner's uniforms. On occasion, German guards were able to smuggle in items that the prisoners couldn't make themselves: buttons, belt buckles, etc. All of these items, the clothing, the papers, building materials, had to be hidden from the guards. Also, there had to be lookouts to alert busy forgers or tunnel diggers of the positions of all the Germans in the camp. So, a system of inconspicuous watchmen and hidden panels were devised to facilitate the work. It worked so well that no German ever walked in on any prisoner 'in the act'.

The tunnels were all progressing, but not as quickly as they'd wanted them to. The decision was made, therefore, to concentrate all efforts on Tom. The effort worked splendidly, but unfortunately Tom was not to be the prisoner's ticket out. A lucky German guard (called 'ferrets' by the prisoners) discovered the entrance to Tom. One of the guards volunteered to go down the tunnel, and discovered that Tom was just over 20 feet from going into the woods. Obviously, the Germans needed to destroy Tom, but they were unsure of exactly how to do that. their first attempt involved filling the tunnel with explosives, but when detonated, the shock wave traveled up the tunnel and blew a hole in the roof of the hut, leaving the tunnel virtually unscathed. finally, Tom was filled with concrete, and the prisoners were left with only two tunnels.

The decision was made to finish Harry, but winter had set in and there was nowhere to disperse the sand. The idea came out that since the camp had expanded outside of Dick's intended endpoint, the excess soil should be put in Dick. This was a brilliant move, because not only did Dick serve as a dumping ground for Harry's sand, but also a convenient storage space for forged documents and other tools. Also, the seats underneath the camp theater served as a convenient dumping ground for sand. Finally, in early March 1944, Harry had been finished. The escape was on.

The Escape

The escape was planned for March 24, a new moon night. All 200 escapees were assigned a number, with the first ones out of the tunnel those who could speak German well, had experience escaping and who had worked hard on the tunnel. Those who were later in the escape had little chance of actually escaping, because most spoke no German at all, and coudn't take any trains, resorting to going cross country. These people were known as 'hard-arsers'.

When the time came, the last three feet of the exit shaft were dug out, but to the prisoner's dismay the exit hole was twenty feet short! Not willing to call the escape off, the decision was made to set up a relay system for the escapees to exit the tunnel when the guard was at the far end of the compound. It worked, but it meant that instead of the planned two or three prisoners a minute escaping, only about ten prisoners an hour could exit the tunnel. The announcement was made that anyone with a number above 100 should go to bed, because their turn wouldn't come before daybreak. During this time, 76 prisoners made it to the woods. It was the 77th man, however, that gave up the whole operation.

He was spotted by a German guard, which caused the alarm to sound, and every guard was immediately alerted. However, since they didn't find the tunnel exit right off, they were forced to search the huts for the entrance, giving the prisoners time to burn their forged documents and clothing. Hut 104, interestingly enough, was one of the last huts searched, uncovering the intended escapees. The entrance wasn't found until a German volunteer found the exit, crawled up the tunnel, but couldn't find the entrance, and his cries for help forced the prisoners to open Harry up for the last time.

The Aftermath

Out of the 76 men who escaped, most had been rounded up within a day. More of them were eventually rounded up after a week or so. Importantly, in the film two of the prisoners are seen stealing a plane. Although this was attempted by escaped prisoners from Stalag Luft III, it didn't work and they weren't from the great escape. In the end, only three of the 76 men made it back to the Allies; two made it to Sweden aboard a cargo ship, and one was able to get to the British embassy in Spain.

When the escapees were rounded up, Hitler ordered all of them shot. However, at the behest of his advisers, the number was dropped to fifty. In the end, seventeen were returned to Stalag Luft III, three were sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp, two were sent to Oflag IV C, and the remaining fifty were shot. Their bodies were cremated, and today a memorial containing their ashes and the names of the fifty can be found just outside where the camp once stood.

The legacy of the great escape, though, is the ingenuity of the POWs to escape. When the Germans found out that 76 men had escaped, an inventory was taken to see what was missing. In this inventory, the Germans found that 4000 bed boards had been stolen, as well as 90 double-bunk beds, 635 mattresses, 192 bed covers, 161 pillow cases, 52 20-man tables, 10 single tables, 34 chairs, 76 benches, 1212 bed bolsters, 1370 beading battens, 1219 knives, 478 spoons, 582 forks, 69 lamps, 246 water cans, 30 shovels, 1000 feet of electrical wire, 600 feet of rope, and 3424 towels. It just goes to show how clever these men really were.


 In fact, there was actually a fourth tunnel, George, under construction underneath the camp theater, but was never completed because the prisoners were relocated near the end of the war. This also goes to show that even when their friends had been murdered, and they had been warned that any future escapees caught would be shot, their spirit couldn't be dampened. Today, although many have passed on, there are still many veterans alive who participated in one way or another in the mass escape from Stalag Luft III, the Great Escape. For a more comprehensive account of these events, I recommend the book "The Great Escape" by Paul Brickhill, an POW held in Stalag Luft III, of watch the film of the same name. Until next time, tke care, and thank you.

The V-Weapons: Things of Terror and the Future

In the early morning of June 13, 1944, the peace in London was disturbed by devices the people of London would soon come to call 'Doodlebugs'. This was the beginning of an era in the war: the era of the V-Weapons.

The V-Weapons ( or Vergeltungswaffe-German for 'revenge type weapons'), were approved by Hitler during a time when it seemed to many that Germany had lost the war. The first of these weapons was known as either the doodlebug, the buzz bomb, or more commonly, the V-1. The basic concept for a self-propelled bomb originated in 1934, even though the engine that powered it was developed in the mid-1920s. this concept was not taken seriously, however, until 1938, and even then, development of the V-1 wasn't authorised until 1942. Over the course of two years, the V-1 was developed, and finally perfected.

Schematic of a V-1

The basic premise of the V-1 is a bomb with a pair of wings attached to the body, and on the top is attached a pulse-jet engine. Instead of a conventional jet, which uses turbines and hot gases, the pulse jet has a series of valves that open and close with pressure, somewhat similar to the internal combustion engine in your car. However, unlike an internal combustion engine, which combines gasoline with air, the pulse-jet combines two chemicals, relatively harmless separate, but extremely reactive when combined, along with forced air. The two chemicals used, referred to as Z-Stoff and T-Stoff, were hydrogen peroxide and potassium permanganate. When the potassium permanganate (Z-Stoff) was shot into the combustion chamber and then mixed with the hydrogen peroxide (T-Stoff), a large amount of thrust was created. These two chemicals were also used in Germany's rocket interceptor, the Me-163. also, the bomb was built with multiple fuses of differing types. This level of redundancy was nearly perfect, because out of the 2700 V-1s that hit London, only four failed to explode.

The launch sites for the V-1 needed special launch tubes and thrust trolleys in order to get the bombs up to sustainable speed. This meant the launch sites for the V-1 were, for the most part, stationary, making them prime targets for Allied bombers. This problem was supposed to be solved, however, by modifying the V-1 for deployment from bombers, not only to avoid the Allied bombings of the launch sites on the ground, but also to avoid the anti-aircraft batteries lining the coasts, which were beginning to shoot down the bombs before they reached their targets. All this effectively ended, though, in March of 1945. However, there was another weapon that, once launched, nothing could stop: the V-2.

The V-2's basic premise was actually developed not by military designers, but by rocket enthusiasts, specifically the Society for Space Travel, back in 1927. The military soon saw potential in rockets as weapons, and by 1937 testing on viable rocket motors. Despite numerous failures and setbacks, the first successful V-2 was launched on October 3, 1942. The Germans had a new weapon.

A V-2 seen in the National Air and Space Museum

While the V-2 is much too complex to sum up its mechanisms appropriately, it can still be appreciated as a mechanical marvel. Due to the German's fuel shortages, for example, they used essentially ethanol to launch their rockets. Also, the warhead explosive wasn't very powerful, as compared to others. It was chosen because the heat generated by the engine wouldn't ignite the explosive once the rocket reached the outer atmosphere. Unlike the V-1, the V-2 traveled well above the speed of sound, so not only would there be no sound to give it away, but no anti-aircraft battery in existence at the time had any chance of shooting it down, even if they did see it.

 Also, another major difference from the V-1 was that the V-2 launching sites were mobile. The rocket was loaded on the back of a modified truck, driven to a launch site, aimed, launched, and fired, then the truck simply drove away. This made Allied bombing of the launch sites impossible. However, in the end, the Allied advance through Europe made sure that any launch site in range of Britain was taken. Despite this, V-2s continued to be a looming threat until the end of the war.

There technically was a V-3 weapon, although it was never fired successfully, but if it had, it would've certainly been just as much a threat as the other V-Weapons. The V-3 was based on a concept conceived by American engineers back in 1885. It is a specially modified cannon that fires a special cartridge, and as the projectile travels down the barrel, the pressure wave triggers additional cartridges, adding more speed to the projectile when it exits the barrel.

The V-3 cannon

 The goal of the German scientists was to build just such a cannon in a place such as Mimoyecques, France and fire it into the heart of London, over the English channel. While this concept was theoretically possible, the scientists discovered, as the Americans did in 1885, that when it was actually built, the gun could never work, and even if it did, they couldn't get the range or accuracy required for their plan. This didn't deter the Germans, however, A couple of prototypes were built and tested. However, during testing, the projectile almost never landed on target, and other cannons downright exploded, killing many. Even if the Germans continued on this line of research, it wouldn't have mattered since the Allies captured the cannon sites, putting London out of their sights.

The threat of the V-3 was so serious, however, that the Allies created a program that the end result of which can be seen as the precursor to today's Guided missiles. Project Anvil, as the US Navy called it, was a plan to strip down a Navy bomber, remote control it, and fill it with Torpex high explosive.This was the Navy's derivation of the US Army air Corps's similar plan, Project Aphrodite. It was intended to crash remotely into the site where the V-3 was being built. The bomber was outfitted with many revolutionary new technologies of the time, such as radio control and television.

The plan was for two pilots to get the bomber into the air and on course for the V-3, and once near the coast of England, the pilots would arm the explosives and hand over control of the plane to a radio controller flying in an escort plane, and bail out. However, this plan was a dismal failure, because when the time came to hand over control of the plane, the television failed followed seconds later by the plane exploding. Both pilots were killed, one of them being Lieutenant Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., older brother of John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

In spite of this loss, the legacy of the  V-Weapons and the failed Project Anvil live on. After the war, there was a rush to capture as much of the German's new technology and their scientists as possible. One person who was looking for these scientists, and working with British Intelligence, was Ian Fleming, future author of the James Bond books. Also, German rocket scientist Werner von Braun escaped the Russians and went back to the united States, and not only helped the US in their ballistic rocket program, but also made significant contributions to the early space program. And today, smart munitions are guided by the same principles pioneered by Project Anvil and Aphrodite. It just goes to show history's legacy. Until next time, take care, and thank you.

Colorado's Lost B-17: A Terrible Tragedy



An example of a B-17

 This is a story of bad weather and bad luck. While it doesn't happen in the middle of a battle or around important people, the result is the same as it would've been if it had; the lives of the crew of a Boeing B-17 were lost, and very few people even know it happened.

It was a routine combat training mission on February 26, 1944. A B-17 was being flown from Clovis Army Air Base, New Mexico to Denver, Colorado, and back again. On this flight, the crew made it to Denver safely. However, about fifteen minutes into their return journey, ground control lost radio contact. While we may never know what really happened on that day, the most plausible theory based on the evidence gathered is that due to the overcast and snowy conditions around the Palmer Divide area, and perhaps a faulty altimeter, the plane ended up crashing into the side of a hill in Pike National Forest, killing the crew.



A piece of an engine as it looks today

 The wreck site wasn't found until May 22, 1945, over a year after the fact. the recovery teams were not able to recover all the wreckage, and to this day there are many identifiable pieces of the plane still there: four engine cowlings, landing gear struts, and a plethora of shredded and melted aluminum. However, the real heart of this story is not that the plane still exists pounded into the side of a hill, but the crew who were killed for nothing.

 It is important, therefore, that their names be remembered, as with any terrible tragedy, no matter how big or small: Second Lieutenant Joseph J. Beeson, pilot; Second Lieutenant Harry B. Davis, copilot; Second Lieutenant Harry L. Barry, navigator; Captain Fred Gentry, flight engineer; Second Lieutenant Jack T. Laird, bombardier; Corporals Ralph C. Judah, Glenn L. Stutsman, James F. Perry, James R. Young, and Joseph J. Fendrick, gunners. May their names and their loss never be forgotten.

U-869: A Story of Tragedy and Closure

In 1991, off the coast of New Jersey, deep sea diver Bill Nagle was investigating a site which was referred to him as possibly being a wreck. It wasn't until divers from Nagle's boat went down to inspect the hunch that not only was the site confirmed to be a shipwreck, but that of a German U-Boat from World War II.



An example of a Type IX C U-Boat

 Over the next six years, and at the loss of three divers' lives in the process, an investigation of the identity of the U-Boat was conducted. Spearheaded by the research and bravery of John Chatterton and Richie Kohler, the diver's first clue to the boat's identity was the discovery of a knife inscribed on the handle with the name 'Horenburg'. The only Horenburg serving in the U-Boat service was posted aboard U-869. However, this was not enough to solidly conclude the ship's identity.

In the end, a plan was devised to gain access, with a staggering degree of difficulty and danger involved, to the sub's electric motor room, and there to attempt to find a spare parts box, usually inscribed with the boat's number in order to make sure the manufacturers shipped the part to the right boat. In this effort, on August 31, 1997, a box for a spare part of a torpedo aiming mechanism was found, and inscribed on the label: U-869. The identity of the wreck was officially confirmed.

This was monumental not only because it positively identified a wreck where there were supposedly none, but also rewrote history in that it was originally recorded that U-869 was sunk off Gibraltar. Also, it has given a sense of closure for the surviving family members of the crew, who have never known the fate of their loved ones, save that their ship was sunk.

After the wreck was positively identified, the question now was how did U-869 come to rest where she is today? Through the exhaustive research of Chatterton and Kohler, the story can mostly be pieced together. U-869 left for her war patrol in late 1944, bound for the east coast of the United States. However, her commander decided to take a less direct route into the Atlantic, burning more fuel than was originally calculated. U-Boat Command then sent orders to make for Gibraltar in order to hunt there. All the while, the Allies were intercepting their transmissions.

They knew there was a U-Boat headed for the US, and was ordered to Gibraltar, but due to atmospheric conditions over the Atlantic, it is assumed that U-869 did not receive her new orders, instead continuing for her original destination. An Allied hunter-killer group was assembled in order to sink her, but they never do. Plus, since there was a suspected U-Boat sunk off Gibraltar at this time, it is assumed by the Allies and history that U-869 was sunk off Gibraltar, not New Jersey.

There were several theories presented for how U-869 was destroyed. the ship's identifiers, Chatterton and Kohler, proposed that U-8699 met her fate due to a 'circle-runner': a torpedo equipped with acoustical targeting systems, which failed to hit its intended target, and instead homed in on the sub's engines. However, this theory is not recognized by the US Coast Guard, who after their own investigation concluded that the sub was damaged first by hedgehog bombs from the destroyer Howard D. Crow and later finished by the destroyer Koiner. This theory is supported by two holes in the wreck, which disproves the circle runner theory, as there would be only one hole from that. Therefore, the Howard D. Crow and the Koiner are credited for the kill.

However, amidst all this, it cannot be forgotten that except for one crew member, who was taken ill before the ship left for her patrol, U-869 was lost with all hands, and their memories should live on with respect, as fellow casualties of a devastating war. For a more detailed account of U-869's discovery and identity, I would recommend reading Shadow Divers, by Robert Kurson, or view the NOVA special "Hitler's Lost Sub". Until next time, take care, and thank you.

Graf Spee and the Battle of the River Plate



Graf Spee in its heyday



In August of 1939, two warships and their resupply vessels sail away from Germany to their designated war stations. These two warships are Germany's 'pocket battleships': battlecruisers built to conform with the restrictions of the Versailles Treaty, but also able to outgun any weaker vessels and outrun any stronger ones. The Deutscheland sets sail for northern waters, while the Admiral Graf Spee, commanded by Hans Langsdorff,  heads south. These two ships prepare for a mission that came close to succeeding in World War I and to be attempted again in World War II: merchant hunting.

Over the course of four months the Graf Spee sank approximately nine ships. Soon, when official hostilities broke out in Europe, the British ships in the South Atlantic, designated Force G and commanded by Commodore Henry Harwood, determined via the distress call sent by merchant ships that the Graf Spee was headed towards the trade routes around Rio de Janeiro-a very rich hunting ground.

Harwood dispatched three warships to intercept Langsdorff, on December 13, 1939. The strongest ship of the three was the Exeter, accompanied by the Ajax and the Achilles. They found the Graf Spee, though accidentally. It turned out that Langsdorff was waiting for a convoy to pass by when the three cruisers found him, and thinking the first ship he saw, the Ajax, was the convoy, he rushed towards them and brought his guns to bear.

Over the next hour, the four ships engaged in a gruelling battle. Only the Exeter had heavy-enough guns to do any serious damage to the Graf Spee, and she was Langsdorff's main target. Unfortunately for the British, the Graf Spee had a huge advantage over them: she was one of only two German ships equipped with a radar system used for the guns. Langsdorff was pounding at the Exeter within minutes, scoring direct hits on her bridge and knocking her forward turrets out, leaving Exeter with only her aft turret working.

Soon, all three ships had taken heavy damage and had exhausted their ammunition, and had taken up a shadowing course of the Graf Spee. The Graf Spee had taken very little serious damage, but Langsdorff's morale was hit hard. He set course for the neutral port of Montevideo, Uruguay. There, according to international law, he would have 24 hours before he was forced to leave. While Langsdorff pleaded with the Uruguayan government for more time to enact repairs, the British ships were waiting for him outside the harbor.

Also, the British set about a misinformation campaign to make Langsdorff believe that there were more powerful ships waiting for him than there actually were. When light came on December 17, Langsdorff believed the aircraft carrier Ark Royal and another battlecruiser were waiting for him. In reality, Exeter had left for the Falkland Islands, while Ajax and the Achilles, along with the cruiser Cumberland, were the only ships around.



Graf Spee scuttled

 With false information in his mind, Langsdorff sailed the Graf Spee into international waters and scuttled the ship. three days later, Langsdorff shot himself.In the end, it was proven that the Germans had powerful ships, but the British could use information to win almost any battle. until next time, take care, and thank you.

Enigma: A Code Broken and a Revolution Started

In August of 1939, the British government set up the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) on the small estate in Buckinghamshire known as Bletchley Park. It's mission: to break the codes used by the German armed forces, codenamed ULTRA. This task seemed nigh impossible due to the supreme complexity of the code-creating device known as the Enigma.

The Enigma was first patented by a German cryptologist in 1918. It was a cypher machine which used rotors to randomize letters. It was adopted by the German navy in 1926, followed soon after by the German army in 1928. However, it was the work of Polish cryptoanalysts that really expanded the general understanding of Enigmas. In fact, mere weeks before the German invasion of Poland, the Poles were able to intercept and decipher some German communiques. However, their involvement was reduced when the Germans invaded.

All was not lost, though, since some Polish scientists were able to smuggle their research on the Enigma to the British and French governments. With this information, the Allied cryptographers had a head start. However, there was still a long way to go in cracking the code of the Enigma, simply because of the sheer size of possible letter combinations.

As seen in the diagram, an Enigma has a typewriter key setup, a bank of lettered lights, and a bank of rotors. Whenever a message was to be sent through the Enigma, the two machines needed to be set up in an identical way, by sending through normally which rotors would be used (usually three out of a possible eight rotors). Next, the sender must tell the receiving end to which letter each rotor must be set (for example, rotor 1 should be at A, rotor 2 should be at M, and so on). Only when this was completed could the message be typed in on the sending end and encoded. When a key was pushed, for example A, one of the rotors would turn and a corresponding letter would light up above the keys, ( the word ANT might come out BGW). Also, when subsequent keys were pushed, a different rotor would turn almost every time, making the sheer number of possible substitutions in the billions, if not trillions. This is what the code breakers at Bletchley Park were up against.

Nevertheless, the British were prepared for the challenge, by bringing together the best minds the Allies had: chess players, crossword writers, linguists, even Egyptologists were brought in to Bletchley Park. One such individual, Alan Turing, a pioneer in the early field of computer sciences, is one of the more well known members of the ULTRA team.

There were three different and separate enigma code systems for each branch of the German armed forces: the code of the Luftwaffe (air force) was the easiest of the three. The second hardest was that of the Wehrmacht (army). The most complex of these three codes, and the one threat Bletchley Park was assigned top priority to, was that of the Kreigsmarine (navy). Their was actually a fourth code in use by the Germans specifically for the German High Command, known as FISH. The machine, known as Lorenz, used a whopping twelve rotors instead of the usual eight, and worked by intermixing the real message with random letters in between ( for example THE CAT might end up as TYRHWEFGCVAHJT), and the other Lorenz machine strips out all the unnecessary letters, revealing the real message.

The emphasis on breaking the Enigma became so great that missions were devised to raid U-Boats for their Enigmas and their code books. Also,history was made at Bletchley Park when the first programmable computer was invented for the purpose of computing all the possible combinations of the Enigma messages. In the end, it was the German's over reliance on the enigma over radio that did them in, because the analysts at Bletchley Park could compare the thousands of intercepted messages and look for the similarities.



Colossus in action



Also, it was the German's patriotism in some cases that did them in as well. the tendency for German radiomen to end messages with "Heil Hitler", or something similar, gave the analysts a base of reference for decoding the entire message. Furthermore, remember FISH, the super-complex code used by the German High Command? Interestingly enough, that code was broken in 1941 by a lazy German radioman. He was forced to send the message numerous times using the same rotor combination setup, and he even abbreviated parts of the message at times. This was all the masterminds needed to 'filet' FISH.

The real impact of the ULTRA program was not only the hastening of the end of the war, but also, with the advent of the Colossus computer, it paved the way for the computer revolution into the future, and for this we are eternally grateful. Until next time, take care, and thank you.

Operation Husky: Patton Comes to Sicily

In the summer of 1943, after the surrender of the Afrika Korps in Tunisia, the Allies, being begged to open a second European front by Stalin, decide to 'strike at the soft underbelly of Europe' by invading Italy. But first, the Allies must take the island of Sicily to expedite the invasion of mainland Italy. The name of the game: Operation Husky.

Much like the future landings in Normandy, there was a campaign to mislead the Germans about the exact date and time of the Allied landings, known as Operation Mincemeat. This operation was successful, because when the main British landing force arrived at Syracuse, not only were the defending Italian units relaxing after the Allied planes carrying paratroopers had flown off, but they were also convinced that due to the rough seas in the area, the Allies wouldn't attempt a landing. This led to British landing units meeting nearly no resistance on the beaches.

It was planned that the British forces would land near Syracuse and head north toward Messina, while the American forces, including Patton's Seventh Army, would land at Gela, and protect the British left flank. It was determined that if Messina was taken, the Germans would have nowhere to run, and surrender.It was a pleasant surprise to Allied landing forces that the six battleship that accompanied the naval forces were able to destroy nearly all the coastal defenses relatively quickly.

The British were able to land in relative ease, but Patton's forces were not so lucky. Not only were the Italian forces on full alert at Gela, but the port itself was destroyed, making landing in that area that more difficult. However, the rest of the landing forces had a better time when airborne troop that had landed earlier had captured the bridge that led to  Syracuse, which quickly fell and the port helped the remaining forces disembark.

However, it was in Sicily that the great rivalry between Patton and British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery took shape. Patton felt that the Americans needed to take Palermo, and then take Messina, before the British. This was the struggle that put Patton at odds with the Allied high command, especially General Eisenhower. Against orders, Patton drove north to take Palermo and then took Messina. It was not only this that made Patton an outcast in Allied ranks, but his actions made the public believe that Montgomery had faced the worst opposition and Patton had smashed weak Italian units and taken all the glory.

Also, it was in Sicily that Patton was severely reprimanded for slapping a shell-shocked soldier, calling him a coward and saying he should be shot. However, despite this, Sicily was taken within one month, and the Allies began planning the invasion of mainland Italy. Of course, Patton was destined to do great things after his punishment in England, when he took command of the Third Army, which would make its name tearing through France and into Germany. Until next time, take care, and thank you.

Operation Torch: North Africa Intensifies

In September of 1942, with the attack on Pearl Harbor bringing the United States into the war, the Americans prepare to enter the European Theater of Operations. While a direct invasion of continental Europe was out of the question at this time, proven by the disaster at Dieppe, it is instead decided that creating a second front in North Africa is the best immediate way of getting US troops into the foray. It is decided that British and American forces would land on three separate beaches in Algeria and Morocco, facing not only German resistance, but the troops of Vichy France. The name of the game: Operation Torch.

In the planning of the operation, the one thing assumed-yet-unknown was the loyalty of French troops in Casablanca and Algeria. France, after the Germans invaded, was divided into north and south. The north, including Paris, was directly occupied by German forces. However, the southern portions of the country were left under self rule, but still loyal to Germany. This new government was led by Marshal Petain, and based out of the town of Vichy, hence Vichy France. It was this separation that Allied planners sought to play on. They figured that resistance would be minimal or nonexistent due to the French distaste for Germans and their good relations with the US in the past.

This thinking led to the Allied troops landing on the beaches without prior bombardment of the area. Thus, the landing troops were surprised when French resistance was stronger than expected. However, this resistance was not prolonged. After Hitler learned of the Allied landings, he ordered German troops to occupy Vichy France. This led to many French commanders surrendering to the Allies.

The main objectives of the landings included the ports of Casablanca, Algiers, and Lyauty, as well as airfield south of the town of Oran by American airborne troops, the first major airborne assault undertaken by the US.While most of the fighting occurred around these areas, the fighting didn't last long and these objectives were quickly obtained. German units were marshaled quicker than expected, but due to the vast numbers of Allied troops landing on the beaches and the main German forces engaged in the east, these units did little in stemming the influx of Allied troops.

With French North Africa secured, and the French troops now on the side of the Allies, the push across North Africa could begin. More importantly, the landings of Torch served as the debut performance of US General George S. Patton, who would make a name for himself as a great tank commander, and soon he would take command of the US Seventh Army in the invasion of Sicily. Until next time, take care, and thank you.