German Units
Jabo over England II
During 1941 and 1942 only limited raids were mounted against England. Bf 109s carried out low-level cross-Channel raids on coastal targets, and small numbers of bombers were sometimes despatched to attack important specific targets. In October 1942 Fw 190 fighter-bombers, followed by a large force of night bombers, attacked Canterbury. Further minor raids were flown by the pilots of SKG…
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Allied Countermeasures against the snorkel-equipped U-boat I
The Illustrated London News, 23 December 1944. Prime Minister Winston Churchill and President Franklin D Roosevelt jointly announced to the public on 9 December that German U-boats were now equipped with a device that allowed them to remain submerged. Five days later First Lord of the Admiralty A V Alexander…
Allied Countermeasures against the snorkel-equipped U-boat II
Allied Surface Operations From the start of the war until mid-1944 BdU did not believe that U-boats could patrol effectively along an enemy’s coast. This self-imposed operational limitation was due to the belief that Allied aircraft combined with the critical limiting factor of a U-boat’s requirement that it had to…
The Great War in the East Opens, August 1914
In the west, Imperial Germany launched the still debated Schlieffen Plan invasion of Belgium, Luxembourg, and France, a blueprint for a rapid victory on which all the hopes of the German general staff rested. This encompassed a vast turning movement through Belgium that was to strike France in a “great…
Operation Penguin I
On May 18–20, 1944, there was a V-2 demonstration at Heidelager. General Metz was present, and at the conclusion, it was apparent that another few months would be necessary before V-2 operations could begin. LXV Corps drew up plans for the V-2 opening attack, which would be code-named “Operation Penguin,”…
Operation Penguin II
The thunderous impact at Chiswick was heard all across London. Homes shook, followed by some rumbling vibrations. People were puzzled; there had been no sound of a V-1 sputtering across the sky or the hum of a German bomber overhead or any air-raid sirens. Those living near the strike reported…
Operation Penguin III
On September 19, 1944, at the beginning of the Allied airborne landings, SS General Kammler ordered the evacuation of all rocket troops from The Hague and Walcheren, for fear they might be cut off. The inhabitants of Wassenaar were able return to their homes after Battalion 485 withdrew from the…