English Democrat "Reprisal" is murder

There has been some interesting fall out (excuse the pun) from my last blogpost about the suggestion by English Democrat candidate for the Crime Commissioner post Steve Uncles that the Western powers should threaten Daesh (ISIL) with a Nuclear strike on Mecca the next time there is a terror attack in the West.

In the follow up of the debate on Twitter there were questions about my ancestor’s political affiliations and what I would do with Cyril Smith… The most disturbing seems to be Collective punishment.

A simplistic way of putting it is what happened to my Grandfather at school when the head teacher caned an entire class because someone had drained the radiator to fill their water pistol and as he lined them up he said “The innocent will suffer with the guilty.”

I will let you interpret the tweets for yourself and see if you come to the same conclusion as I have;

What do you think?

My interpretation, added to the original post about nuking Mecca during the pilgrimage as punishment does concern me greatly and leads to this “Collective responsibility” and took me to thinking about other examples of this in the past.

First one that popped into my head was the village of Lidice in the Czech Republic. Three Czech “terrorists” assassinated the German governor of Bohemia & Moravia Reinhard Heydrich on the 27^th May 1942 (he died on 4^th June). In reprisal for this terrorist act and to try to stamp out similar acts the German authorities liquidated the village of Lidice including executing all of the men, most of the children and sending the women to concentration camps. Buildings were flattened, animals were executed and even the dead were disinterred and their remains destroyed. In total 1300 people in the protectorate were killed in these reprisals.

Another example, sadly again from the World War Two era, are the executions of civilians for each German soldier killed ten local civilians would be shot. This happened in Greece (where whole male populations were liquidated) and notably in Russia with these duties falling to regular Wehrmacht troops not just the Nazi SS.

Although Mr Uncles has distanced himself by saying We can all agree that National Socialism is a terrible thing. I still cannot see the difference in the reprisal by nuclear weapon killing innocent civilians and the Karbiner 98 rifle shooting innocent civilians…

In the United Kingdom we have our own sordid past with the rounding up of women and children in South Africa during the Boer War, their property burnt and their internment at concentration camps where many died from disease and poor conditions. There is the reaction to the 1857 rebellion in India which saw British subjects, military and civilian being murdered and brutalised was avenged by British troops bayonetting civilians (including women and Children) in Delhi;

These were not mutineers but residents of the city, who trusted to our well known mild rule for pardon. I am glad to say they were disappointed reported the Bombay Telegraph.

Another report stated;

The orders went out to shoot every soul… It was literally murder… I have seen many bloody and awful sights lately but such a one as I have witnessed yesterday I pray I never see again. The women were all spared but their screams on seeing their husbands and sons butchered were most painful… Heaven knows I feel no pity, but when some old grey bearded man is brought and shot before your very eyes, hard must be that of a man’s heart I think who can look on with indifference.

All in the aim of ending “Terrorism” and protecting British/English citizens and rule.

In my mind, and I leave it up to the reader to make a final decision, there is little difference between these lamentable periods of history and threatening to launch a nuclear strike on Mecca as a reprisal for a terrorist action in the West.

The one constant between the Lidice, Feldpolizei, Indian Mutiny and Boer War examples AND a strike on Mecca is that a large/extreme number of people face or have been MURDERED in reprisal for actions carried out by a few.

My family have been involved in Policing for over a century with my Great Grandfather Walter joining the Metropolitan Police in early 1914 and the immutable faith in the notion of Justice has been passed down from generation to generation and the ultimately the biggest nuggets of knowledge have been –

1.) Don’t make idle threats
2.) Two wrongs do not make a right

Murdering civilians in their hundreds of thousands during a pilgrimage in Mecca is ethically and morally abhorrent and is on the same scale as the terrorist who blows up a bus of commuters and the Oberleutnant who orders a nearby village levelled because one of his men was shot by a terrorist. 

As far as Mr Uncles is concerned, the only difference is that ISIS are not signed up to the Geneva Convention so are seemingly exempt from its protection. I'm sorry to say that this is not how the convention works a                                          

Nazism is based on Populism not on the left and right

    By Christopher Sams Ba (hons) PGC

There are many arguments and discussions about where Nazism sat on the political spectrum and the age old belief that Fascism and Nazism were the final expression of the Right is being challenged by historians who point to the Socialist policies and the deep involvement in the state as an expression of the left akin to Stalin’s regime in Russia. Indeed the article by Dr John Ray (here) that I was sent tries to link the two in quite a general way but his arguments can be quite flawed.

Nazism was reactionary rather than a thought out ideology and this was its’ great strength and its’ undoing. It reacted to Versailles, it reacted to the 1929 crash, it reacted to economic growth and it reacted to the calls of total war albeit two years too late. It reacted with whatever means were available to it and it reacted against Communism and the conventional political system controlled by moderate Conservatives, the very people that were perceived to have lost Germany the Great War.

Dr Ray uses this quote from Engels to illustrate that Hitler drew on ideals from the left concerning the rise of the German Empire and the all conquering Teutonic hand:
True, it is a fixed idea with the French that the Rhine is their property, but to this arrogant demand the only reply worthy of the German nation is Arndt’s: “Give back Alsace and Lorraine” For I am of the opinion, perhaps in contrast to many whose standpoint I share in other respects, that the re-conquest of the German speaking left bank of the Rhine is a matter of national honour, and that the Germanisation of a disloyal Holland and of Belgium is a political necessity for us. Shall we let the German Nationality be completely suppressed in these countries while the Slavs are rising ever more powerfully in the East?

It does indeed sound like a Nazi style ideal and is argued to show that Hitler had sympathies with the left. This is of course nonsensical as the author fails to remember that Engels was a German, and the German national pride over the territories of Alsace and Lorraine demanded their return. Germany was a late player on the international scene and as such had not been really involved in the great land grabs for Africa or the Pacific territories and only managed to grab the parts Britain hadn’t been to interested in or in the case of the Caroline islands, bought them from Spain in the aftermath of the American Spanish war. Alsace-Lorraine had been a heavily disputed area of land for generations with both German and French nations laying heavy claims onto it. It is not an alien concept for Engels, as a proud German and Hitler, a German Nationalist politician of Austrian decent, to agree that these territories should be returned to the Vaterland and that fresh territorial gains in Holland and Belgium should be sought. I am sure that you could not label Kaiser Wilhelm II nor any of the officers of the German General staff like Von Moltke a Communist either, yet territorial gains from weaker European nations and the gaining of a Germanic Empire in continental Europe was clearly one of their aims.
 The idea of the rising power of Russia was also not an alien ideal across the whole of Europe. In the wake of the Napoleonic wars many Western nations became concerned by the Russian military might, especially Great Britain who saw her as the next great competitor to her power. The advance of the Czar’s armies and the ease with which he dealt with Napoleon’s grand armies concerned British political thinkers for a whole century. The worry that the Russians could march through the German states or annexe the Balkans and finally gain a warm water port dominated military thought and planning and culminated in the Crimean war. Although an impasse was reached there was always a watchful eye on the Eastern borders of Europe lest the Russian Bear mobilise its armies. Being aware of this does not tie one to any ism in particular; it was just an on going fact within Political and military thought throughout the Nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Dr Ray’s article then moves to focus on Anti-Semitism as a root of all Nazi ideals and again quotes Marx:

Let us consider the actual, worldly Jew – not the Sabbath Jew, as Bauer does, but the everyday Jew. Let us not look for the secret of the Jew in his religion, but let us look for the secret of his religion in the real Jew. What is the secular basis of Judaism? Practical need, self-interest. What is the worldly religion of the Jew? Huckstering. What is his worldly god? Money. Very well then! Emancipation from huckstering and money, consequently from practical, real Jewry, would be self-emancipation of our time… we recognize in Jewry, therefore a general present-time-orientated anti social element, an element which through historical development – to which in this harmful respect the Jews have zealously contributed – has been brought to its present high level, at which it must necessarily dissolve itself. In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Jewry.

Anti-Semitism was also not a wholly Nazi ideal, true it is what it will be remembered for and the Holocaust against all Untermenschen is a blight on Mankind’s collective history as well as Germany’s but it was a pan European ideal. Countries like Latvia, Lithuania even western nations like France and Holland showed support and willingness within elements of the population to rid themselves of “The hated Jew.” The advancing German military found to the Einsatzgruppen’s joy, that towns had murdered the Jewish populations as they reached the city limits or were willing participants in the hunting down and denouncements. Throughout the nineteenth century Anti-Semitism had been very vivid. Ghettos, labels, curtailing of political and individual freedoms – all hall marks of a later displayed by Nazi planners and the Totenkopfverbunde SS. Despite the centuries of the pan-European anti-Semitism it reached fertile ears within Germany from many political backgrounds in the post World War One era because of the perceived betrayal of the Jews. Joseph Chamberlain had stated that British policy was to create Zion for the Jews in Palestine should they win the war and it was perceived that the German Jews stopped giving their support to Germany as a way to bring about British victory. Also, with the collapse of the German economy and industry it appeared that German Jews had done quite well out of the war and ultimately prospered at everyone else’s misery thus reigniting an age old hatred.
 
Marx and Hitler would have indeed seen eye to eye over the prominence of the Jewish international banks controlled by families like the Rothschild’s and as an anti-capitalist in a time where Industrialist and international capitalists were causing misery to millions of workers across Europe it would have appeared symptomatic of a wider problem. For Hitler and the Nazis it was about the International threat of Jewry and their ultimate plan of world domination and self preservation. The Nazis argued that a German Jew was firstly a Jew and their loyalty was not to the state, which they believed the Jews had betrayed during World War One and this was also crudely coupled to the idea of a Jewish conspiracy and the label of “Profiteers”.

To truly understand the ideas of Nazism you must first look at the ground into which the seed was sewn. Germany had completely collapsed at the end of the First World War, the economy lay in ruins, the people were starving in the grip of the Allied blockade and the German armed forces, who were still very much a capable force in the field and had not suffered the ignominious defeats they would in the Second World War, were forced to surrender with embarrassingly harsh terms meted out at Versailles. The German people did not feel that Germany alone was to blame for starting of war. There were reactionary politics everywhere as working class people blamed the old Conservative elites for dragging Germany into this depression and darkness. The Kaiser abdicated and former nobles lost lands and titles as it was all brought down. Into this mess a fledging workers party was formed – the National socialist workers party, and eventually it was noticed by the German Military Intelligence which was trying to avert overt Communist and Socialist groups. A young Corporal who held the Iron Cross for bravery, Adolf Hitler, was assigned to monitor them. Hitler, like many German servicemen was disillusioned by the state of modern Germany and the betrayal of the fighting forces by the politicians and industrialists. Change was needed to the political and social spectrums. Germany, unlike a pre-war Britain which had, under the Liberal Governments, brought in social reform and the basis of Welfare where as Germany had lagged behind and this had attracted a lot of will for change which was desperately needed. Socialist policies, which were no different to the British Labour party in this period, were exceptionally popular amongst Germans and indeed the working classes across Europe who had to deal with the mess and death caused by Empire building Conservatives, Industrialists and Monarchists and the Liberals who had been the opposition had failed to stop this.
Hitler did not see the Nazis as either Right or Left though and stated in Mein Kampf that:

Today our left-wing politicians in particular are constantly insisting that their craven-hearted and obsequious foreign policy necessarily result from the disarmament of Germany, where as the truth is that this is the policy of traitors […] But the politicians of the Right deserve exactly the same reproach. It was through their miserable cowardice that those ruffians of Jews who came into power in 1918 were able to rob the nation of its arms.

He went on to say that the party was not indeed exclusive to any one faction or class and instead drew from all of them;

From the camp of Bourgeois tradition it takes National resolve, and from the materialism of the Marxist dogma, living, creative socialism.

Hitler redefined socialism so that it was about the social collective, in this case Germany and the German Volk and that the Nazis were basically about making the German equal to every other German citizen and what was best for German citizens. He is quoted, on more than one occasion as saying;

Every hour, of every day you must think of Germany and the German Volk.

Volk is a difficult word to define, loosely it translates as People but it means more than that, it is like the nationality and almost German race as a collective, hence Volkswagen – the car for the people, affordably produced and sold to the people, or the Volksjager fighter jet, built by the people for the people’s benefit and flown by the people rather than by the Luftwaffe.

 Undoubtedly, there were many socialist and left wing ideas used by the Nazis whilst in power. Massive state sponsored mobilisation of workers, the Org-Todt, social programs for workers. There were also right-wing moves as well, such as the abolition of Trade unions, the overtly nationalistic fervour, the Volkisch racial supremacy and belief in uniting all of the German peoples under the one German flag as well as maintaining personal property and big business. There were no collective farms or factories run by Soviets or advised by Commissars in Germany as there were in Russia, it was not until defeat was near that the State took an active role in monitoring and directing production. Big Companies, such as Krupps, Messerschmitt and Porsche were not nationalised, rather they were allowed to carry on business as before which ultimately caused problems during the war as Messerschmitt wasted many resources developing a Four-engine bomber when the project was officially cancelled by the RLM and Feldmarschall Milch. Indeed the Nazi party itself was split between Conservatives under Goring and Himmler and Socialists like Goebbels and the  Strassers who wanted to bring down the capitalist systems and urged strikes.

The National Socialist party had evolved over time as well. In 1918 they were a group of malcontent social reactionaries who wanted change but also a return to the 1914 spirit of Imperial-Military Germany. By 1926 Hitler had to call the Bamberg conference to pull all the groups together and to come up with a final plan of what the party stood for. He argued that the party was based on the Leader and their will and not on a party program. Twenty-five points were agreed and formed the basis of the party’s policy:

1.       One Germany for all Germans.

2.       Equal rights for all German people

3.       All land and territory to be returned for lebensraum

4.       Only a member of the German Race can be a citizen (So Jew/Gypsies etc. are ruled out as citizens.

5.       If you aren’t a citizen, you are a guest in this country and live under legislation for foreigners.

6.       Citizens are the only ones who can determine law and vote.

7.       The State must be changed to allow every citizen a livelihood and if that is not possible then the guests must be asked to leave to make way for the German people.

8.       Immigration into Germany is to be stopped. All those who have arrived since 1914 are to leave immediately.

9.       All citizens have equal rights and obligations.

10.   Every citizen is to work both spiritually and physically

11.   Abolition of unearned incomes and the breaking of debt slavery.

12.   Confiscation of War profits for the state.

13.   Nationalisation of associated businesses

14.   Division of profits of all heavy industry

15.   Expansion of old age welfare.

16.   Healthy Middle class must be encouraged to grow.

17.   Land reform with private lands passing to the public and abolition of taxes on land.

18.   Struggle against those whose activity is injurious to the General interest such as profiteers.

19.   Creation of a Common German Law

20.   State to reconstruct the education program and to give fairer access to the poorer elements for gifted children to university.

21.   Forming a National health, ending child labour, encourage national sports and PE

22.   Abolition of Mercenary troops and form a national army.

23.   Legal opposition to the lies printed in the press and that all members of the press are Citizens.

24.   Religious freedom for all citizens.

25.   A powerful central Reich parliament to bring these reforms into being.

As you can see there are as many right wing policies to do with race and nation mixed with Socialist ideals and changes to make Germany fairer and more open with favour for the working lower and middle classes but there are no real Marxist ideals here. Indeed, as I have already illustrated, nationalisation and the return of war profits did not happen. Modern Political thinkers would describe much of the Nazis welfare and social reform as “Progressive” rather than Socialist as the Nazis wanted those who had come off worst in society, namely the working and middle classes, to be compensated and those who were responsible, the Upper classes, to pay.

Wehrmacht troops parading in Czechoslavkia after absorbtion

As time went by the NSDAP became less radical, even sacrificing its radical street fighters, the SA so as to be taken more seriously by voters. Conservatives like Von Ribbentrop were attracted to this group of radicals who wanted to Modernise Germany but still keep the old ideals of the Pre-war Second Reich.

The key value of Nazism was fighting. When you read Nazi slogans and political papers they are always waging war upon something. War on poverty, war on economic depression, Guns before butter etc. The other factor was evolution and the mightiest vanquishing the weak. This moulded themselves into the Nazi approach to policy and Government. If an existing party or department did not work then create one that would. If the approach to the problem was not working then try something else. The other idea was that Competition was the key to forcing through the best results from departments; this is why there were Nazi sections of state competing with existing ones. For example the Ribbentrop Bureau headed by Joachim Von Ribbentrop versus the German Foreign office headed by Von Neurath. Then there was Military intelligence (Abwehr) headed by Admiral Canarais versus the SS-SD section under Schellenberg and then another proposed by Ribbentrop through the Foreign office! The idea that they would compete to provide better results to problems and court the Fuhrer’s favour only succeeded in wasting time and resources. Hitler was also willing to follow Stalin’s path and drag the state to where he wanted it. The Four Year plan, designed to modernise Germany and sort out the economic mess caused by reparations and the 1929 crash. Seeing the Soviet Five year plan as a blue print to modernise and Communise Russia as a blue print and as a threat, the Nazi Government took immediate steps and dictated where the state MUST be by 1940. Public works, removal of non-citizens to free up space for Germans and the massive industrialisation and mobilisation of Military production including ship building schemes in violation of the London treaty, aircraft manufacture against the Treaty of Versailles which saw a force of some three thousand aircraft built and combat ready by the summer of 1940 and the creation of armoured spear heads. There were also defensive programs like the Siegfried line built employing many workers, both skilled and unskilled by the state within the confines of the Org-Todt. At no point were the companies nationalised only directed and given a completely free hand and whatever resources they needed to achieve the goals. Like everything else Nazi, it was a mish-mash of lots of ideas to reach a goal rather than one political dogma.

This mixing of ideas is probably what gave it such a broad scope of acceptance by Germans from all walks of life. There was something for everyone and the party played to the popular whims and gave the people what they want. My Grandfather, a wide-eyed school boy on an exchange program to pre-war Germany was over awed by how clean the streets were, with no graffiti, no homeless people, no litter and everyone going to work. Of course he wouldn't have seen the undesirables being rounded up and taken to Dachau. Many Germans, before the Gestapo really grew in powers, were happy with the Government that solved their ills and was just the right mix of progressive socialism and older values of Conservativism.

Nazism is a strange example of a Political force with no real spot on the spectrum. Its’ policies, although full of xenophobic and racially Nationalistic bent on waging war also convoluted with progressive left wing policies that were meant to benefit the working classes. Hitler’s party was about solving problems, both perceived and actual, through action and whatever means were necessary. Hitler was not an intellectual, Mein Kampf is not a politically ground breaking manuscript like Mills or Marx, rather a collection of ideas and an attempt to cobble together a train of thought for what the author thought would solve Germany’s problems with his understanding and reactions to Geography, eugenics, race, religion, politics and military matters. Nazism died out for a reason and that was not because of the Soviet flag fluttering from the mast on the Reichstag. It died because as a system it was too chaotic and reactionary for its own good and although it achieved goals in modernising Germany and her economy it has been postulated that had the Nazi regime conquered all of its enemies be they martial or political it would have imploded with no purpose.

Finally, recognition for Arctic convoy crews

By the beginning of winter 1941 the future of Europe looked bleak. The Swastika flew triumphantly from flagpoles across the continent and the sound of marching jackboots resonated in many streets. The Wehrmacht had rolled through all opposition only being turned back at the English channel. Now they had encircled Leningrad, sat poised at Orel as Denikin had some twenty years previously and forward detachments were in the suburbs of Moscow itself.

Russian industry in the Ukraine and Belarus had been destroyed or overrun and the Luftwaffe roamed with impunity looking for fresh targets. New factories were being set up quickly in the Ural region to resupply a new Russian army to replace the one that was marched back to Germany as prisoners, but this would take time, something the Russians did not have.

Quick to get Stalin onside, Churchill promised convoys of lend lease equipment to sail by the quickest route from Iceland to Arkangel and Murmansk. The journey was a slow perilous one though. The water was freezing, so cold that if you were to fall in you would need rescuing in 30 seconds to survive. Ice formed around superstructures on vessels , winds were biting cold and with icy teeth and to touch metal with bare hands was to leave your hand behind and frostbite was a common problem.

Hidden Nemesis; Tirpitz

Then, of course there was the German Navy and Luftwaffe operating from Norway trying to stop you. In the first two years the Condors and Heinkel's mercilessly attacked the poorly defended convoys but with the advent of the fleet carriers they fell back to the spotter role for the U-boats and surface vessels. Although she only twice ventured from her lair KMS Tirpitz was a constant threat, the smaller vessels like Hipper were repulsed in the battle of the Barents sea and Scharnhorst sunk on boxing-day 1943. Had she got in range of the convoy it would have been over quickly.

As it was the lessons learnt in the Atlantic were used to great effect and the tide was turned against the German forces as Hurricane and Spitfires were gifted to the Russian airforce to replace their obsolete aircraft, trucks, rifles, clothing, fuel, raw materials came like a vital blood transfusion to a beleaguered USSR until May 1945. 85 merchant ships and 18 warships were lost in the conflict to the German's 4 warships (including Scharnhorst who took 1932 of her crew down to the depths) and 30 U-boats.

What reward or recognition was gifted by a grateful nation?

Nothing.

That was until yesterday's announcement at Prime minister's questions that a Star medal will be issued to veterans. This is far too late in the coming as many veterans are long dead or in their 80s or 90s. It is, however welcome that the brave souls who faced the elements and the business end of the German war machine in lightly armed and armoured merchant ships like their already decorated Atlantic comrades.

Remembrance day; The day the war stopped - The Laconia affair

U-156 & U-506 picking up survivors

This remembrance day I'm not going to talk about the horrors of war, life in the trenches or sacrifice that should be remembered.

Instead I'm going to talk about one of those rare moments where the rifles are laid down, human kinship and compassion transcend the state of war.

It happened at Christmas 1914 with a football match, or during the static trench warfare when a Saxon regiment sent warnings in dud shells to their opposing British regiment of impending barrages and to "take cover."

It also happened at sea at 22.00 on the 12th September 1942 when the German U-boat U-156 torpedoed and sank the RMS Laconia off the coast of West Africa. The Laconia had been pressed into war service as a troop ship and carried 463 crew, 286 British Soldiers, 103 Polish soldiers who were guarding a staggering 1793 Italian POWs taken in the war against Rommel and 80 civilian passengers.

Korvetten Kapitän Werner Hartenstein ordered his U-boat to surface to capture any of the ships senior officers and found himself surrounded by some 2000 people in the sea. On hearing Italian voices out in the dark he immediately feared the worst; he'd torpedoed an Italian vessel, it had happened before when a Messerschmitt 110 had shot down an Italian civilian air transport.

He began to pull survivors out of the water to try and ascertain the truth and rapidly discovered what had happened, including myriad reports from the Italians who had escaped.

After the torpedo struck Laconia the Polish guards left the POWs locked in their makeshift cells in the cargo holds. Meanwhile on deck the crew had a major problem as the ship began to list further and further they were only able to use a percentage of their life boats.
The Italian prisoners managed to break out or climb up vents and rushed the decks where they're attempts to rush the boats were met with gunfire and bayonets. Faced with a wall of steal many elected to jump into the sea.

Hartenstein hurriedly sent out a message to U-boat command;

Versenkt von Hartenstein Brite Laconia. Marinequadrat FF 7721 310 Grad. Leider MIT 1500 Italienischen Kriegsgefangenen. Bisher 90 gefischt. 157 CNN. 19 Aale, passat 3, erbitte Befehle.

Sunk by Hartenstein British Laconia. Grid 7721 310 degrees. Unfortunately with 1500 Italian POWs. Till now 90 fished. 157 cubic meters (oil). 19 eels 8 torpedoes, trade wind force 3. request orders.

In the water things were getting desperate. The evacuation was far from perfect and many lifeboats lay empty or half full. As the Italians tried to swim for boats they were shot at by inhabitants fearing their boat would be swamped and sunk. There were even reports of hands being severed by axes. The blood in the water attracted sharks.

"sharks darted amongst us. Grabbing an arm, biting a leg. Other beasts swallowed entire bodies" reported Corporal Monte

Jim McLoughlin was hauled aboard the U-boat and confronted by Hartenstein who demanded to know if they were Royal Navy, the Kapitän angrily said that had he known that she was a transport vessel he would never have fired upon her without warning.

Laconia slipped beneath the waves at 23:23 as U-156 began collecting survivors. Hartenstein ordered his men to bring in life boats that were half filled and fill them up with people fished from the sea.

In France Admiral Dönitz, commander of the U-boatwaffe ordered submarines from the Eisbar flotilla that was making its way to Capetown to disengage and head to Hartenstein. He was quickly over ruled by Hitler who didn't want the Capetown or U-boats jeopardised and Admiral Raeder, the Naval C-in-C ordered the boats and Hartenstein to carry on to their original target. Raeder and Dönitz ordered U-506 under Klt Würdemann, U-507 under Korvettenkapitän Schacht and the Italian submarine Cappellini to rendezvous with Hartenstein, relieve him of his survivors then proceed to the Ivory coast freeing up Hartenstein to go back to his original target. OKM, the Naval high command also contacted Vichy France who promised to send warships to relieve the U-boats.

By the next day U-156 had picked up 393 survivors and redistributed then or had them standing on the deck of the U-boat. U-506 and 507 arrived on the 14th and 15th September and also began work collecting survivors, redistributing and providing medical care. The U-507's log for 17th September states:-

Women and children had spent night aboard me. All survivors given warm meal, drinks, clothing and medical attendance where necessary.

The U-boats began to take the life boats in tow, patrolled the area and await the French vessels supporting the survivors as much as possible with the menagerie space and facilities they had aboard.

Where were the Allies?

Laconia sent a message at 22:22 after the torpedo strike.

SSS SSS 0434 South/ 1125 West Laconia torpedoed.

This was followed up by Hartenstein at 6am on 25 metre and again at 6.20 on the 600 metre international bandwidth:

If any ship will assist the ship wrecked Laconia crew, I will not attack providing I am not attacked by ship or airforces. I picked up 193 men. 4,53 south 11,26 west - German submarine.

British authorities believed it was a trap and that Hartenstein was laying in wait for rescue ships. On 15th a poorly worded message to the American forces stated that the merchant ship Empire haven was on its way to the area but made no mention of the U-boats and what they were doing. In his memoirs Dönitz was certain that one of Hartenstein's messages would have been received by the British.

U-156 as she was at the time of the US attack

At 11.32 on 16th B-24 Liberator flew over the scene and was signalled by Hartenstein and an RAF officer who was aboard saying they were on a peaceful mission. They also had a Red cross flag draped over the conning tower.

RAF officer speaking from German submarine, Laconia survivors on board, soldiers, civilians, women, children.

At the Ascension Island secret airbase Senior duty officer Captain Robert C. Richardson III who feared the Germans would move to attack their base or the Allied craft heading to the area and disbelieved any combat ship would fly the Red cross ordered Lt James Harden to return to the site and sink the sub.

At 12:32 he duly began his attack run. Hartenstein saw what was happening and ordered the lines towing the lifeboats cut and everybody back into the water so that the Submarine could submerge. Following an order that had come from Dönitz that he was to save as many lives as possible without endangering his own vessel or crew, he ordered the dive.

Lt. Harden claimed the Sub was sunk and the crew received medals later for their success.

Hartenstein's vessel survived with minor damage. Unfortunately, as he reported in his log;

While the tow with four lifeboats was being cast off, the aircraft dropped a bomb in the middle of these latter. One boat capsized

Hartenstein ordered the lifeboats to hold position hoping that the other two U-boats would collect them and with his damaged craft withdrew. Indeed a communique from Dönitz reaffirmed the stance that the Kapitän's first duty was to his crew and boat and if it was necessary to preserve them he had to be ruthless and abandon the rescue.

As the U-156 withdrew two life boats decided not to heed the German's instructions and headed for the African coast. The first boat made it to the coast after 27 days with 16 out of an original 68 survivors, the second was picked up by a British trawler some 40 days later with only 4 out of 52 occupants alive.

Dönitz sent fresh orders to the remaining U-boats telling them not to bother with the Red cross flags as he doubted the British would respect them in the light of what had happened to Hartenstein. A few hours later he requested an update.

U-507 held 491 (15 women & 16 children)
U-506 held 151 (9 women and children)
Meanwhile the Cappellini was picking up survivors set adrift by U-156.

Fresh orders were sent through to bring the Italians aboard, put the British and Poles into the boats, mark position and set adrift before heading to the rendezvous to meet the French. Dönitz felt that if they were to risk the lives of his U-boat crews it should be for their allies. Schacht and Wurdemann felt differently and disobeyed the order keeping the boats in tow.

The USAAF hadn't finished with them and five Liberators took to the skies. One spotted a lifeboat adrift and reported it to the Empire haven. Lt. Hardin spotted the U-506 and began an attack run. The U-boat cut its lines and crash dived and thankfully no one was hurt this time.

On 17th September the British signalled Ascension Isles informing them that French vessels were now in the area. Captain Richardson, now fearing invasion recalled his bombers.

The French had indeed arrived and the Gloire picked up 52 survivors some 60 miles away and met the U-boats at 14:00 on 17th and transferred all but two British officers aboard. Gloire proceeded to the rescue area and recovered another 11 lifeboats. After a good sweep of the area and a meeting with another French vessel, the Annamite, a count was made.

373 Italians, 70 Poles, 597 Britons (including 48 women and children) had been saved.

The Cappellini was delayed making the rendezvous as the French vessel Dumont-d' Urville had found survivors of another sunken ship, the Trevilly and had paused to look for more. 6 Italians and two British officers were kept aboard whilst the others were transferred.

RMS Laconia

All in all 1113 of 2732 were saved from the water. Had Hartenstein not acted as he did the death toll would have certainly been much higher. Although those on Laconia found themselves in peril because of the U-165, Kapitän Hartenstein and the others risked the lives of their crews to try and save as many lives as possible. It was the last action of it's kind. Dönitz, fearful of losing men and ships in token gestures like this issued the Laconia order forbidding U-boat crews from aiding those in the water and to think of themselves first.

War is a tragedy and it is unfortunately the innocents who pay with their lives. I leave you with the story of one survivor's story.

One survivor, a missionary nurse called Doris Hawkins was one of the 16 who washed up in Liberia. She had been escorting a 14 month old girl, Sally, who was lost at sea.

"We found ourselves on top of the arms and legs of a panic-stricken mass of humanity. The lifeboat, filled to capacity with men, women and children, was leaking badly and rapidly filling with water; at the same time it was crashing against the ship's side. Just as Sally was passed over to me, the boat filled completely and capsized, flinging us all into the water. I lost her. I did not hear her cry, even then, and I'm sure that God took her immediately to Himself without suffering. I never saw her again."

Ref:

Wikipedia article "The Laconia incident"

Gudmundur Helgason's article "The Laconia incident" on Uboat.net which also features articles on Hartenstein and the U-boats involved.

Dönitz, K. "Ten years and twenty days" the memoirs of the Admiral.

Mallmann - Showell, J "The U-boat century; German Submarine warfare 1906-2006"

It isn't a Messerschmitt Mr Cameron

First published on the 11-10-2012 on my History blog.

Today, during his trip to the Imperial War Museum David Cameron referred to the Museum’s Focke-Wulf Fw 190 as a Messerschmitt. Normally this would not be a problem but unfortunately he said it within earshot of an amateur Luftwaffe historian – me.

Now it may not seem like too much of an error but to put it into context it would be like comparing a Spitfire to a P. 51 Mustang.

So if you’ll bear with me I will provide a brief biography of both aircraft and within you will see the differences.

BF 109 G's note the Daimler Benz inline engine & small cockpit

The Messerschmitt Me 109 was designed by Robert Lauser and Willi Messerschmitt at the Bayern Flugzeugwerke with the first prototype flying in September 1935 with a Rolls Royce Kestrel engine. It was designed as the Messerschmitt entry to a RLM specification for a new single seat fighter to replace the aging He. 51 biplane. The 109 saw of challenges from Focke-wulf and Arado fairly easily. The big competitor was the Heinkel He. 112, the competition was so close that both machines were dispatched to the Condor Legion in Spain to take part in the civil war. Despite the superiority of the Heinkel machine the 109 was chosen.

The 109 was the first fighter to kick off the revolutionary designs that would come to the frontlines of air forces around the world including the Dewoitine D.520 and Supermarine Spitfire. The 109 was the first all metal fuselage fighter with an enclosed cockpit with a new high-powered engine. The Me 109 R (later listed BF 209) one many pre war air races. During its brief spell in Spain the 109 acquitted itself excellently ripping through the older Soviet models of the Republican forces and hand in hand with the modern Heinkel He 111 and Junkers Ju. 52 bombers (as well as the excellent Junkers Ju 87 Stuka) handed aerial superiority to the Nationalists.

By the outbreak of the Second World war the Messerschmitt 109D (dora) was the standard model of the Luftwaffe which was slowly being replaced by the superlative E (emil) model. Whilst on a par with the Spitfire, Hurricane and D.520 they’re massed numbers over the Panzer thrusts and with superior tactics with experienced officers who had served in Spain quickly gained superiority.

When it came to the Battle of Britain the 109 E with its four machine guns and two MG FF cannons maintained superiority in the early months of the battle. It was only when the OKL directives to push the 109s to fly deeper over England that losses began to mount and the limits of the range became apparent. When the Luftwaffe switched targets to London the 109 was working at the limits of its range and only had enough time for twenty minutes of air combat over the capital which would mean that the Jagdflieger would have to keep an eye on the fuel gauge or risk ending up in the drink on the way back to France.

The pinnacle of the 109 design, the F (Friedrich) model was coming into the frontline. The F was superior to anything else in the air at the time and quickly maintained superiority over the RAF in the Balkens, Africa (where Marseille shot down six Hurricanes in one day – TWICE!) and Russia. When Hauptmann Pingel crash landed his Friedrich outside Dover in ’41 he handed the RAF an intact model for evaluation and soon the Spitfire was modified to meet the design.

The G (Gunther) came out in ’42 but was only meant to be a stop gap for the proposed BF 209 fighter but when it didn’t come it continued to be the mainstay of the Jagdflieger. The G was covered with “boils” with extra armament and additions to the fuselage but it took its toll on performance and the model was quickly out performed by the P-47 Thunderbolt, P-51 Mustang and the newer models of Spitfire – even by Yak 9’s in Russia.

Despite this there was the 109K (Kurfaust) which saw limited production which was designed for high altitude fighting, the 109 T which was a 109 E with an arrester hook for Aircraft carriers and the post war models including the Hispano Ha. 1112 in Spain (which was powered by the Rolls Royce Merlin and a squadron were used in the making of the Battle of Britain movie) and the Avia S-99 (powered by a Junkers Jumo 211 engine, which had been used in Heinkel He. 111 bombers.) which served with the Israeli airforce.

The 109 was the highest scoring fighter in the war. Aces like Erich Hartmann who scored over three hundred kills aided this. It was also the most heavily produced aircraft of all time until recent years with 30,573 machines built in Germany during the war accounting for 47% of all aircraft built for the Luftwaffe!

FW 190 A- note the radial engine and bubble cockpit

The Focke-wulf 190 was designed by Kurt Tank with the maiden flight being in June 1939 and, unlike the 109 was powered by a radial engine rather than the sleek inline liquid cooled engine. The Radial engine, which many experten claimed was a hindrance, actually gave the craft a greater lift and able to carry heavier loads. This led to the 190 being used for torpedo aircraft roles, anti-tank ordinance and the Mistellen. The original A1 model was fitted with four 7.92 mm Machine guns (two in the fuselage and two in the wing) and two outboard MG FF cannon on wing mounted pods which gave it quite a punch and it was swiftly nicknamed the Butcherbird.

After its eventual introduction in 1941 it quickly proved itself superior to anything the RAF had to offer until the Spitfire Mk. IX came to the front line which levelled the playing field again. On its arrival to Russia in 1942 it made an immediate impact despite the Soviet’s believing the 109 was the threat. With modifications the ground attack units became quite a menace to the Soviet armour.

The big problem with the 190 A was that its manoeuvrability at high altitude was quite poor in comparison to other craft but more than made up for it at medium and low altitudes. Focke-wulf quickly rectified this problem by using the inline Junkers Jumo 213 engine thus creating the amazing long nosed Fw 190 D (dora). However this model lacked the high rate of turn and roll that the A model had had. The Dora was supposed to be a stop gap according to Kurt Tank for the Ta. 152 which when tested by Herr Tank left six Mustangs that “bounced” the prototype in its dust!

However positive feedback of the Dora from the pilots changed the minds of OKL. Unfortunately for the Luftwaffe it was too little to late as it didn’t come into service until the end of 1944. The retreating Wehrmacht and destroyed German production meant that there was a shortage of numbers being produced and the ageing 109, far beyond its useful production life and the vicious 190 were unable to stop the tide of Allied aircraft.

Video: Inside Libdem HQ

Who says I take my politics far too seriously???

Here is CCTV camera shot in Libdem HQ of Nick's recent meeting after the apology and a forecast of our run in the Coalition...


-Made me chuckle!

Captured U-boat sails up the Medway?

U-570 as HMS Graph undergoing sea trials

I was reading on the Medway Memories website the other day about the possibility of a German U-boat being captured in August 1941 and being escorted by a Short Sunderland up the Medway to Chatham dockyard. This immediatly caught my attention and I went beavering away to Wikipedia and Uboat.net to look into the possibility and to follow up on the lead that the site gave me U-570.

Eureka, I have an answer.

The short answer to whether a captured German U-boat came up the Medway (namely U-570) is no.... The long answer is Yes she did....

Now bear with me on this one as I prepare to weave you a narrative about the ill fated U-570.

On April 15th 1941 the type VIIC U-boat U 570 was launched and commissioned at the Blohm and Voss ship yards in Hamburg where she immediatly began her shake down cruises and tests before reassignment to Norway where she took on her new crew and began training excercises with her inexperienced crew. She was then assigned to Trondheimsfjord and the Lofjord Naval base where she was part of the 3rd Flotilla.

Her Commanding officer Kapitanleutnant Hans-Jurgen Rahmlow was a seasoned naval officer with a history of commanding Coastal batteries and had only recently transferred to U-boats (although having briefly commanded the training vessel U-58), her First officer Bernhard Brandt had only been serving on U-boats for a few months, the Second watch officer had only just been commissioned and most of the crew were new recruits. The only man onboard who really had any experience was the Chief Engineer and three of the Petty officers!

German Naval intelligence picked up a sypher that there was a large convoy of Allied vessels passing to the South of Iceland and the Third Flotilla were assigned to attack them. U-570 slipped out of base on 24th August with orders to patrol the area South of Iceland before turning towards La Pallice base in France with provision for four weeks.

By the 27th August, her Captain ordered her to surface to give the crew some restbite as many were suffering from accute seasickness and a couple had become incapacitated. They were immediatly picked up on radar by an RAF Hudson of 269 sqdn flown by Sqdn ldr Thompson. Rahmlow heard the approaching bomber from the observation deck and immediatly orderred a crash dive. It was too late as four depth charges were quickly dropped and one exploded a mere ten yards from the U-boat.
The resulting explosion nearly rolled the vessel, shattered her instruments, she lost all power and sprang several leaks. The smell that was generated made the inexperienced crew think that water was getting on the batteries and filling the hull with noxious Chlorine gas. The order was given to surface and ten crew raced onto the deck, under machine gun fire, unable to man the Flak guns because of the rough seas they quickly hoisted the white flag of surrender.

The officers quickly reported what had happened to Navy command and calmly destroyed their radio equipment and code books. Donitz orderred U-82 to the area to assist but was kept at bay by Allied air patrols.

The crew were kept onboard, save for the wounded (from the first attack and the subsequent attacks mistakenly made by the Royal Navy warning shots and an aircraft of 330 sqdn) so that the Germans wouldn't sink her on purpose. She was taken to Iceland and beached.

By the 31st August Lieutenant Colvin RN and his team of engineers had restored power and bouyancy and the boat was sailed to Hvalfjorour where she spent three weeks under repair. It was discovered that the damage was not critical and that a more experienced crew would have been able to repair the damage and evade the attack - further compounded by the fact that the Hudson bomber had used all its depth charges in the attack and so would have lost the U-boat had she stayed submerged.

Along with her escorts HMS Saladin and HMS Kingston Agate sailed for Barrow-Foreness and arrived on the 3rd October 1941. There she was renamed and ceased to be U-570. She was rechristened HMS Graph.

HMS Graph went under extensive tests in Scotland to test her capabilities and also for training for boarding crews so that they could become acclimatised to finding their way around U-boats looking for enigma machines and reversing any scuttling damage.

On 25th April 1942 she sailed South to Portsmouth before departing for Sheerness. Then from there she sailed up the River Medway. Whether she sailed under the escort of a Sunderland or other aircraft for her own protection in case any errant gunner feared a U-boat was repeating Prien's attack on Scappa flow, is open to conjecture.

She finished her refit in Chatham on 14th August 1942 and is taken over by Lieutenant Marriot RN before sailing for Sheerness, Portsmouth (under escort of HMS Vesper) and on to Holy loch for training.

On 8th October 1942 she left Holy loch for her first war patrol to the bay of Biscay and on 21st she sighted the German U-boat U-333 and fired four torpedoes. Four explosions were heard and "breaking up noises"
According to the U-333's log she didn't even see Graph only a torpedo track go past her and she dived to avoid any further attack but remained unscathed.

Graph's other two patrols were fairly uneventful, though she was ordered on 29th November to intercept the Italian blockade runner Cortellazzo along with HMS Sealion and HMS Clyde and all three failed to sight her. On her final patrol she fired at a German destroyer and explosions were heard. This destroyer was part of the escort of the Cruisers Hipper and Lutzow however none of the vessels were sunk by Graph, and I've not so far been able to see if they were damaged.

After her final patrol she returned to Scotland. She sailed south once more to Chatham and arrived on 13th June 1943 before finally being handed over to Dockyard control on 21st June and used for training duties.

Sadly, with a lack of parts available (seeing as they were produced in Germany), the short life of the engines and the need to replace the batteries annually the Graph was no longer sustainable and in 1944 she was used for target practise and for tests to see what damage depth charges do, having survived all of this she was assigned for breaking up, towed by HMS Allegiance to Clyde for breaking up. The tow rope broke and the vessel beached near Coul Point. She has been partially scrapped in 1947 but parts were still visible in 1977 at low tide.

Thus ends the tale of HMS Graph/ U-570 and here brief tour up the Medway.

There is, however one last footnote that, personally I find interesting so will bore you all with now. After her capture Officers was taken to Grizedale Hall, a POW camp for German U-boat officers, where they were put on trial in an Honour court by the senior Germans present, including Otto Kretschnerr the U-boat ace. They were charged with cowardice in the face of the enemy and Rahmlow (en absentia) and Berndt were found guilty of cowardice. On the 18th October 1941 Berndt escaped the camp and was supposedly making his way towards Barrow (22 miles away) to destroy U-570 to redeem himself. He was caught by the Homeguard but refused to be taken, even ignoring warning shots and was unfortunately shot dead.
The British then put Rahmlow into a camp with Airmen and Soldiers for his own protection.

Xenophobic against Germans? Me?

Yesterday i saw a Tweet that caused a mixture of offence and general humour and I thought I would share it with you and present the defence.

Firstly I should outline the cause.

In yesterday's blog post I wrote the following :-



i) The need of the Nation outweighs the need of the Locality but would be open to a case by case basis and discussion at an arranged forum with the electorate.
ii) In Wartime - I don't mean like Iraq or Afghanistan I mean if the German army are holidaying in Calais preparing to paddle over the channel sort of wartime.
iii) Serious "National Emergency"

The text in point ii) is referring to the last serious war the UK was involved in that threatened the Islands with invasion. It could indeed be read as a xenophobic comment against the Germans (as an all conquering war like nation) and the French (as the eternal victims of the German aggression) but only if you ignored what the rest of the sentence was saying and just as importantly the person saying it.

However, lets put it into some sort of context, apart from the fact I was writing about World War Two.

According to my Grandfather's research; during the Crusades a young "hedge" knight pulled a spear from himself and defended a wounded man in battle. The German warrior was knighted as Sir Samz and granted lands in Rainham, Essex, his coat of arms depicted his bravery in the form of a Black Lion pulling a blooded spear from his chest on a field of yellow.
Over the centuries the Z became an S and the family fell from glory but remained in Essex and it wasn't until the late 70's my branch left London and moved to Gillingham.

However there was always a strange attachment to the ancestral home. Going back generations, anyone who turned their hand to learning the mother tongue found they had an unnerving disposition to pick it up as if they had always spoken it. Even now I can speak and read German (though my understanding is a little shaky) with an inexplicable Bavarian/Austrian accent.

There has always been a love for Germany, her music and culture within the last few generations. My Grandfather went to Germany Pre War and fell in love with the people and Country. Then in '45 he went into Austria where he acted as a translator for interrogations, even interrogating a man with the same name as his father, Walther Sams. My father similarly went to Germany and loved it but it was my Grandfather whose stories caught my attention and wonder.

At the age of ten I began to support the German Football team and even cheered with genuine joy when Germany won the penalty shoot out over England in Euro '96 in the same way as I wept under my flag as we crashed to a 5-1 loss in qualification for Japan/South Korea in 2001 to England. I proudly wear my DFB shirt and as you can see by the picture a German flag adorns my Avatar on Twitter.

But its not all football.

I'm steeped in German Literature, Von Goethe's "Sorrows of young Werther" is my favourite novel and I also enjoy the poetry of Schiller and Goethe. I also enjoy Austro-German composers, my first love being Mozart but also martial music like Preussen Gloria and Koniggratzer and am even partial to a bit of Rammstein especially the ballad Ohne Dich. I won't bore you with my love for wurst and other foodstuffs and beer or German history, only to say that if you read my posts on the Luftwaffe in Africa you can see that they are written with genuine love for the subject and a removal of the usual "Anti Nazi/German" slant you often read in amateur history. I've borne much abuse for studying the German military and Luftwaffe in particular and branded unfairly a Nazi but I can assure you that I am no National socialist just someone with a great interest in the German Airforce and its equipment. I could not work where I work if I was a Nazi!!!

What I can say is that when I stood in the Rhineland looking up at the Statue of Germania and when I hear Deutschland Uber Alles my chest and heart swells with a national pride in the same way that I'm sure most normal Englishmen feel when they hear God Save the Queen. My love for Germany is unquestioning and xenophobic comments about the nation and people is so far from my mind that I couldn't possibly make a genuine one.

Anyone who has known me for more than a day will know this, as will readers of this blog who can see it in articles like:
German Solution to English Football or Is this form of racism allowed in National Newspapers or Over using the N word, will know that anyway.

So, I'm not quite sure which tree Councillor Osborne was barking up with that comment but... well if you've read this Tris just follow the other links and read the admiration for Germany and the scorn I pour on those who have attacked her with real Xenophobic comments and come back to me....

Apologies are welcome in the comment section lol ;-)

Bombing the Wrong targets Part IV: The Luftwaffe in Africa

One of Rommel's complaints was that the Luftwaffe weren't doing enough and historians are keen to point out the lack of German aircraft over the advance towards El Alamien and even over the fortified front.

So what were the Luftwaffe doing in North Africa?

In a prophetic message to the advancing British soldiers in 1941 a fighter pilot of Jagdgeschwader 53 wrote on the blackboard of their airbase:

"We Come back... Happy Christmas!"

Two months later they had riding forward with the Panzer armies. As the successes of Rommel's push became apparent aircraft were taken from Kesselring's Malta operations and his refusal to accept Herkules and his own thirst for glory meant that the Luftwaffe were dragged along with him on his ill advised thrust into Egypt.

Von Waldau FlFu Afrika

Rommel was notoriously difficult to work with and Frohlich, the Fifu Afrika took to avoiding meetings and was eventually relieved of command and Von Waldau was placed in charge. Waldau had much more of a backbone, he wasn't willing to take Rommel's outbursts and spoke plainly. Of course Rommel's style of leadership left a bewildered Waldau guessing what was going on. During Operation Crusader Waldau held his craft back unknowing what the over all situation was and where Rommel and his tanks were. The same happened as Rommel pushed forward in Operation Thesius and for the first two days the Luftwaffe was absent from the skies. On the third day, in desperation Waldau sent his Stukas up and when they found a group of tanks heading West towards the German lines they attacked. Unfortunately they were Rommel's tanks that had got turned around in the swirling desert combat - luckily no one was killed. Better communication from the field would have averted this and given Waldau's forces more potency.

There were sevre logistical demands on the small air force in North Africa as they were caught in the same supply problems that held Rommel's forces in a vice. At any one time he had no more than a months supply of petrol until November 42 when it dropped by 90%!!! On top of that the desert proved problematic to the running of aircraft with sand clogging aircraft and engines becoming warn out from over use in operations like the air bombardment on Bin Harcheim, but I will come to that in Part V.

Larger parts like wings and undercarriages could not be brought in by airlift or shipping so a lot of damaged aircraft had to be cannibalised just to keep the few in the air and without a recovery service the number of aircraft just dwindled. This was not helped further by Rommel's rapid retreat from the line at Alamien and Luftwaffe crews were forced to abandon the lame ducks and get out with what they could.

Permanent air superiority could never be obtained in the true style of Blitzkrieg. Waldau had too few aircraft. The North African Luftwaffe never really surpassed 300 machines as the Ostfront in Russia had priority for new machines especially with the massing of aircraft for the push towards the Caucuses in mid 1942. Von Waldau also had the problem that he had no medium bomber force. The Luftwaffe needed two engine-bombers for longer term aims such as knocking out enemy airfields behind the lines, harassing communications and roads to help cause confusion and chaos. The desert was not suitable for such aircraft and none could be spared from the operations over Malta or the Mediterranean so Von Waldau had to had to work with Stukas and Jabo (Fighter bombers) which suited Rommel's needs as he really only wanted a flying artillery to give his tanks more mobility and speed.
Geisler sent raids from Crete to strike the Allies behind the lines and hit the RAF depot at Alexandra but they began to suffer from enemy fighters pushing them to night attacks. They were further hampered by the Allies stripping down Spitfires to be able to reach high altitude and intercept the Junkers 86 recon aircraft thus leaving them blind of potential targets and assess damage. Frohlich had also sent a solitary bomber to strike the French held fort Lamy on Lake Chad on a round trip of 2500km but that was about it for the Medium bombers role. The consideration that a medium bomber raid on British targets in Egypt would have led to their destruction at the hands of the larger RAF force in Egypt and the greater discipline of the RAF pilots to target bombers over fighters, unlike the Jagdflieger. 


 The Fighter pilots were a breed unto themselves. Hans-Joachim Marseille, the star of Africa shot down 17 fighters on the same day and had a top score of 158 and rivalled a fellow pilot Horst Reuter's feat of shooting down 6 Hurricanes in a single day TWICE. The famous Bomber pilot Werner Baumbach claimed that fighter pilots lacked the discipline and stoic attitude of the Kampfflieger and in Africa he is proven correct as the fighter pilots became caught up in scoring as many kills as possible to try and get bigger and bigger scores but they saw more challenge in taking down fighters which although important was not what was needed as many Afrikakorps soldiers found to their discomfort as the defence lines and Rommel's devil's gardens were bombed to oblivion. These aces began to suffer losses as the RAF improved the quality of its fighters and the 109 Fs were suddenly facing Spitfire Mark Vs and P-40s instead of the rugged and dependable Hurricanes. Though despite their losses Unteroffizier Bernd Schneider shot down a Bristol Bombay transport carrying the 8th Armies new C-in-C Lt Gen W. H. E. Gott and he was killed on impact meaning that another C-in-C a little known General called Montgomery was called up.


The third limb was the Stukageschwadern who worked so hard to help Rommel advance. They were expertly handled by Waldau who, with Kesselring's intervention, managed to tame Rommel into letting him know what was going on in advance rather which paid massive dividends in the taking of Torbruk which earned Waldau the Knights Cross and Rommel his baton. However the bombs were near useless in the desert. Unless there was a direct hit on a tank or building they were next to useless. Half of all bomb damage and casualties are caused by flying shrapnel and glass but in the desert the explosions only throw up sand which doesn't do any damage when it hits other vehicles or even soldiers.


Waldau's 300 aircraft were beset by enemy bombing attacks, SAS strikes, bad weather that turned the dust strips into swamps, supply issues that plagued the whole African adventure, huge lines of communication and with the massive advances by Rommel a head on the lines that would outrace all the important logistical sections like Fuel, signals, repair miles in the rear with no time to catch up. The situation was so dire that a glider formation was brought in to fly these necessary logistical organisations up to the front without wasting fuel.


Kesselring promised Rommel an airlift of supplies and the Feldmarschall provided. It took a bit of time as the Luftwaffe didn't have the number of transports available in the Mediterranean theatre and they had to be disengaged from the Eastern front which obviously takes time. Oberst Robert Starke with some six Gruppen of aircraft and gliders from LLG 1 were the first to arrive and begin operations. The airlift flew a total of 4425 sorties across Mittlemeer from Greece and Crete to Bengazhi flying in pulks of 25. There were extreme shortages of crews due to sickness and aircraft even though Starke took ambulances and signal aircraft and even a modified refrigeration plane to plug the gaps. These shortages meant that crews would often have to fly the trip twice a day!

The trip was perilous for the formations of Junkers 52 transports and their Messerschmitt 110 escorts. Not only were their take off times similarly heralded with an Ultra message, which of course were duly read by the RAF, they also could only fly on good weather. On the 12th May 1942 15 Ju52s were intercepted by Kittyhawks and Beaufighters, by the end of the battle 8 transports were lost and a further one damaged - 175 soldiers went down with them but only 39 were rescued.
That day one of those true acts of heroism that War brings out occurred when father of six Hauptman Kroseberg of the Search and rescue flew over the survivors and dropped his own life jacket to the men in the sea - only to go MIA before he could return.

However the crews managed to deliver 28,200 men and 4400 tonnes of supplies as well as taking back the wounded, which numbered over 10,000 for June 42, mail, Von Waldau's burnt out aero engines so that they could be repaired and retuned later. In the early stages of Thesius they carried 1000 men, 25 tonnes of material and 300 tonnes of aviation fuel- Daily!

The air fleet transferred to Brindisi in Italy at the end of a railway hub operating to Torbruk but the number of aircraft dropped to 161 aircraft by August, 50% were operational. Allied fighters were increasing in number and pressurising the transports and their escorting ME 110s from 7 and 9/ ZG 26 and 70 52s were lost in a six week period! These craft would be vitally missed that winter with the airlift to Stalingrad! Further aircraft were drafted in including Wiking flying boats and Messerschmitt gigant 323 and 321 transports and even the transport schools were mobilised to assist coming up to half the Luftwaffe's transport fleet even Bomber groups were conscripted. The sad fact was as Rommel fell back the Crete based aircaft under Wild's Lufttransportfuhrer I could no longer reach the German front lines and after Torbruk fell only the line from Italy to Bengazi remained and that was under constant pressure from a resurgent Malta. Even sadder still, and infuriating for Kesselring, Rommel blew up all the ammunition and fuel he had demanded that Kesselring's men had fought so hard to get to him as he withdrew from El Alamein.

By November '42 they had flown the Herculean feat of flying 42,000 men, 15,000 tonnes of supplies pulled 9000 wounded and sick out of the front.


It can not be said that the airmen and machines of FlFu Afrika and of Luftflotte 2 operating in the Mediterranean had not tried their utmost or not fought valiantly. Ultimately they were undone by overall strategy and logistics though.