“We must engage the enemy in battle unceasingly; we must ‘write off’ his troops; and generally we must kill Germans.” Such were the stated aims put forth by General Bernard Montgomery in the run-up to Operation Goodwood, to date the largest tank battle in the history of the British army. There can be little doubt…
On the 17th September 1944, preceding a bombing run from the Allies, the first British units landed near Arnhem. The British 1st Airborne Division, commanded by Major General Roy Urquhart landed some distance from their objective. The 2nd Parachute Battalion managed to get into the town relatively unscathed, despite delays in getting to the north…
Skorzeny was an officer of the much feared Waffen-SS, and was wounded on the Eastern Front. Whilst he was recuperating he studied unconventional methods of warfare and soon became a supporter of special forces operating behind enemy lines. He was put in charge of training such units and was placed in charge of several operations…
The Russian Snipers proved to be some of the best of the war, scoring multiple kills and having numerous sniper aces. Unusually, the Red Army fielded many female snipers and they proved their worth with many confirmed victims. Some would go on to lead entire companies of snipers, such as Nina Lobkovskaya at the Battle…
The tactics of the Austrian army was to be modified considerably to face the onslaught of the modern French army under Napoleon. In 1798 the army fought much like those in other forces at the time, in strict formation and stalwartly advancing towards the enemy. The light infantry were the exception to the rule for…
Michael Wittmann was one of Germany’s most famous ‘panzer aces’ of World War II. During his career he was credited with destroying 138 enemy tanks and 132 anti-tank guns. He fought throughout the war until his death. During the battle of France and invasion of Greece he commanded a Stug III assault gun (Sturmgeschutz III)….
Patriots had been fighting the Germans ever since the fall of France. Hundreds of small groups were constantly sabotaging rail lines, demolishing German supply depots and sending invaluable information to the Allies. A small movement at first, it grew to over 100,000 members by D-Day. In true cloak-and-dagger fashion, these brave men and women risked torture and death to get…
The 17 year old French resistance fighter known as “Nicole Minet” was a farm girl when the war broke out. A few years later in 1943 she joined the Franc Tireur Partisan Français (which translates to “free shooters”), which was named after the saboteurs who fought the Germans during the Franco-Prussian War. The resistance was…
With the gloomiest time of the year upon us I felt the need to reacquaint myself with some of my more distant relatives, as is only fitting in these darkest days, and so I chose to pay a visit to my late grandmother’s younger sister. Before you click the ‘back’ button in your browser: my grandmother’s name was…
Carentan was a small town of about 4,000 people. It also happened to be right next to the N-13 highway as well as the Cherbourg-Paris railroad, and sat in between Utah and Omaha beaches. Soon after the invasion of Normandy, this sleepy French port town would become a critical objective. The day after D-Day, Omaha and Utah beaches had…
Rich Dando