36. See Colonel N. Ramanichev, ‘The Development of the Theory and Practice of the Combat Use of Airlanding Forces in the Inter-War Period’, Military-Historical Journal, No. 10 (October 1982), p.72 (Russian language publication); also cited in Glantz, p.4. I am indebted to the late Professor John Erickson for providing a copy of the Ramanichev article, and to Dr James Sterrett for translating it.
37. See Glantz, pp.4-9, 32; for details of the 1936 Field Service Regulations, see Richard Simpkin, Deep Battle: The Brainchild of Marshal Tukhachevskii, especially Chapters. 12-16.
38. See Glantz, pp.17-22
39. For details of the Khalkin Gol fighting see Alvin D. Coox, Nomonnhan: Japan Against Russia, 1939, Chapter 30; and Glantz, pp.38-39
40. Komsomol: Communist Union of Youth; Osoaviakhim: Society for the promotion of Defence and the Furthering of Aviation and of the Chemical Industry of the USSR
41. See for example Hickey, p.15; and Glantz, p.13
42. See Miksche, p.17
43. See Hickey, p.15; and ‘Soviet Film of Kiev Manoeuvres’, The Army, Navy and Air Force Gazette, Vol. LXXVII (12 March 1936), p.206
44. See ‘Notes of the Week’, The United Services Review Vol. LXXVII (10 December 1936), p.1; and Major-General H. Rowan Robinson, ‘Air Infantry: How Can This Development Assist Great Britain?’, in ibid., (17 December 1936), pp.5-6
45. See Miksche, p.19
46. LOPP: League for National Air Defence
47. See George F. Cholewczynski, Poles Apart: The Polish Airborne at the Battle of Arnhem, p.47.
48. Details from interview with Lieutenant-Colonel Jan Jozef Lorys (retired) during an interview conducted at the Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum, Prince’s Gate, London, on 16 June 1998. Colonel Lorys participated in parachute training as an officer cadet in Poland before 1939, and later served with the 1st Polish Independent Parachute Brigade, including a liaison tour to observe airborne training in the United States. I an indebted to both Colonel Lorys and his wife, whose assistance proved invaluable in translating the present authors regional English accent, and also to Mr Andrzej Suchcitz, Keeper of Archives at The Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum, for both making the interview possible, and locating relevant files from his archive
49. See Cholewczynski, p.47
50. See Manfred Zeidler, Reichswehr und Rote Armee 1920-1933 (Oldenbourg: Beitrage zur Militärgeschichte, 1994), p.215; I am indebted to Professor Hew Strachan for drawing my attention to this work, and for taking the time to translate the appropriate sections.
51. See Quarrie (airborne Assault), p.29
52. For details of Student’s involvement, see Zeidler, pp.71, 107, 138-140, 161, 174, 272
53. See Callum MacDonald, The Lost Battle: Crete 1941 (London: Papermac, 1995), p.15
54. For the Commandments in full, see Hickey, pp.21-22
55. See MacDonald, p.18
56. For a brief but compelling reappraisal of this ideological element see MacDonald, pp.304-306
57. See for example James Lucas, Storming Eagles: German Airborne Forces in World War II (London: Grafton, 1990), pp.370-371
58. Lucas (Storming Eagles), pp.33-34; MacDonald, The Lost Battle, p.17; and Cajus Bekker, The Luftwaffe War Diaries (New York: MacDonald, 1966), pp.124—125
59. Glantz, pp.41-43, especially the organisation details on p.43
60. See for example Richard Wiggan, Operation Freshman: The Rjukan Heavy Water Raid 1942 (London: Kimber, 1986); and Kevin Shannon and Stephen Wright, One Night in June: The Story of Operation Tonga, the Initial Phase of the Invasion of Normandy, 1944 (Shrewsbury: Airlife, 1994)
61. Lucas, Storming Eagles, p.33; and Bekker, p.118
62. See Bekker, pp.58-59; and Edmund L. Blandford, Green Devils – Red Devils: Untold Tales of the Airborne in World War II (London: Leo Cooper, 1993), pp.34-35
63. See MacDonald, The Lost Battle, pp.29-30
64. See Blandford, pp.35-36
65. See Bruce Quarrie, German Airborne Troops 1939-45 (London: Osprey, 1983) pp.7-8; Blandford, pp.36-38; and MacDonald, The Lost Battle, p.30
66. Glider numbers and troop total cited in MacDonald, The Lost Battle, p.26, and Blandford, pp.47-48; the latter provides a group by group breakdown. Quarrie cites a figure of 438; the difference appears to arise from the latter including the glider pilots & co-pilots; see Quarrie (German Airborne Troops), p.8
67. for a detailed account see for example Bekker, pp.121-128; and Lucas, Storming Eagles, pp.36-46
68. for details of the scheme in its entirety, see Militargeschichtliches Volume II, pp.275-276; and Hickey, op cit., p.48
69. Bekker, p.132
70. See for example Bekker, pp.130-139; Lucas (Storming Eagles), pp.48-52
71. See for example MacDonald, The Lost Battle, p.34; and Blandford, pp.45-46
72. See Karl-Heinz Frieser, The Blitzkrieg Legend: The 1940 Campaign in the West (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2005), pp.122-127
73. See Major L. F. Ellis The War in France and Flanders 1939-1940 (London: HMSO, 1953) pp.244-246. 305
74. Figures calculated from statistics in Ellis (France and Flanders), pp.326-327
75. See Bekker, pp.149-150
76. See Blandford, p.46
77. MacDonald, The Lost Battle, p.37
Chapter 2
1. See Roman Jarymowycz, Tank Tactics from Normandy to Lorraine, p.201
2. Figures cited in Jarymowycz, p.198
3. Figures cited in Evan McGilvray, The Black Devils’ March: A Doomed Odyssey: The 1st Polish Armoured Division 1939-45, p.54
4. Figures from United Kingdom National Archive (UKNA) File WO 106/4348 Operational Research in North West Europe 1944 June-1945 July, Reports 17 and 79; cited in Militärgeschichliches Forschungsamt, Freiburg (Eds), Germany and the Second World War, Volume VII: The Strategic Air War in Europe and the War in the West and East Asia 1943-1944/5, p.613; the British official history quotes slightly different totals of 344, 2,447 and 252 respectively. The discrepancy may arise from differing definitions; see Major L. F Ellis, Victory in the West, Volume I: The Battle of Normandy, pp.447-448
5. Figure cited in James Lucas and James Barker, Killing Ground: Battle of the Falaise Gap, August 1944, p.160
6. Account quoted in Wilhelm Tieke, In the Firestorm of the Last Years of the War: II SS Panzerkorps with the 9. and 10. SS-Divisions ‘Hohenstaufen’ and ‘Frundsberg’; cited in Michael Reynolds, Sons of the Reich: The History of II SS Panzer Corps in Normandy, Arnhem, The Ardennes and on the Eastern Front, p.93
7. The British official history refers to the weather clearing on 25 August, but Reynolds’ more recent work drawing on German official records clearly states that inclement weather made it difficult for Allied aircraft to maintain the tempo of attack on the cross-Seine traffic. The latter also fits the chronology of 9 & 10 SS Panzer Divisions’ movements; see Ellis, Volume I: The Battle of Normandy, p.455; and Reynolds, p.92
8. See Reynolds, p.94
9. See Ellis, Victory in the West Volume I: The Battle of Normandy, pp.454-455
10. Figures cited in Major-General G. L. Verney DSO MVO The Guards Armoured Division: A Short History, p.67
11. ENSA: Entertainments National Service Association. Set up in 1939, ENSA was intended to provide entertainment for British Armed Services personnel under the auspices of the Navy, Army and Air Force Institute, better known as the NAAFI. While ENSA employed stars like Gracie Fields and George Formby, the scale of its task also obliged it to use less accomplished acts, leading to a popular reworking of the acronym to ‘Every Night Something Awful’; despite this, ENSA played a key and widely acknowledged role in maintaining the morale of British personnel across the North-West European campaign
12. See WO 171/376 Guards Armoured Division War Diary, entries for 16, 20 & 23/08/1944
13. See B. D. Wilson, The Ever Open Eye, pp.57-58
14. See Verney, p.69
15. See Robert Boscawen, Armoured Guardsman: A War Diary June 1944-April 1945, entries fo
r 12-28 August 1944, pp.93-101
16. WO 171/376 Guards Armoured Division War Diary, entry for 27/08/1944
17. See Ellis, Victory in the West Volume I: The Battle of Normandy, pp.465-467
18. Reynolds, p.95
19. See Patrick Delaforce, The Black Bull: From Normandy to the Baltic with the 11th Armoured Division. P.114
20. See ibid., p.120
21. See WO 171/376 Guards Armoured Division War Diary; Guards Armoured Division Intelligence Summary No. 58, 23:00 Hours, 06/09/1944, Appendix A, ‘General Eberbach, Second Army Intelligence Summary No. 89’
22. See Reynolds, p.95; Ellis, Victory in the West Volume I: The Battle of Normandy, p.470; and Delaforce, pp.118-120
23. See Verney, p.78
24. See Reynolds, p.96
25. See WO 171/1256 2 Irish Guards (Armoured Battalion) War Diary Jan.-Dec., entry for 01/09/1944
26. See Reynolds, pp.96-97
27. See Martin Blumenson, Breakout and Pursuit, p.681
28. See Robert J. Kershaw, It Never Snows in September, pp.11-17
29. See Tieke, p.218; cited in Reynolds, p.97
30. See Kershaw, pp.19-20; and Blumenson, pp.682-683
31. See Reynolds, pp.97-98
32. See WO 171/376 Guards Armoured Division War Diary, entry for 27/08/1944; and Wilson, p.59
33. WO 171/376 Guards Armoured Division War Diary, entry for 31/08/1944
34. For an eyewitness account see Boscawen, pp.109-110
35. See WO 171/1256 2nd (Armoured) Battalion Irish Guards War Diary, entry for 01/09/1944; and Verney, pp.78-79. Lieutenant Swann is interred in Lille South Cemetery, Plot 5, Row A, Grave 5
36. See Verney, p.83
37. See ibid., p.82; and Wilson, pp.68-72
38. See WO 171/376 Guards Armoured Division War Diary, entry for 04/09/1944
39. See Boscawen, p.117
40. According to the Guards Armoured Division War Diary, fuel stocks were as follows: 1 September = 80 miles, 2 September = 140 miles, 3 September = 110 miles, 4 & 5 September = no figs available, 6 September = 150 miles; see WO 171/376 Guards Armoured Division War Diary, Summary of Events for September 1944, entries for 02 & 06/09/1944
41. See Verney, pp.73-74
42. See WO 171/1256 2 Irish Guards (Armoured Battalion) War Diary, entry for 04/09/1944
43. See Verney, p.89
44. 30 Corps was assigned two lines of advance, via Eindhoven‒Grave‒Nijmegen‒Arnhem and Tilburg‒Zaltbommel‒Renkum; see Ellis, Victory in the West Volume II: The Defeat of Germany, p.7
45. See Verney, p.90
46. See Kershaw, pp.21-22
47. See Verney, p.53
48. See WO 171/376 Guards Armoured Division War Diary, Appendix KKK, Narrative 1 – 30 September 1944, entry for 07/09/1944; and Ellis, Victory in the West Volume II: The Defeat of Germany, footnote 2, p.12
49. See Verney, pp.90-95; and Ellis, Victory in the West Volume II: The Defeat of Germany, p.12
50. Tank loss figures cited in WO 171/376 Guards Armoured Division War Diary, Appendix KKK, ‘Narrative 1 – 30 September 1944’, entry for 07/09/1944
51. See Boscawen, p.120
52. See Verney, p.93
53. For full details of Sergeant Major Cowley’s award citation see WO 373/51 Combatant Gallantry Awards, 01/03/1945 (part)
54. ee Verney, pp.93-94; and WO 171/376 Guards Armoured Division War Diary, Appendix KKK, ‘Narrative 1 – 30 September 1944’, entry for 9/09/1944
55. See Boscawen, p.119
56. See Verney, pp.91-94
57. for details of the kit bag and the Eureka/Rebecca equipment See Lieutenant-Colonel T.B.H. Otway DSO, Airborne Forces, Appendix ‘D’, pp.405-406, and Appendix ‘E’, pp.410-411
58. See WO 171/594, 4th Parachute Brigade War Diary, entries for 08–0 9/04/1944, and end of month notes April 1944, ‘Exercise DOROTHY – Brigade Parachute Exercise with USAAF Aircraft’
59. See Clay Blair, Ridgway’s Paratroopers, p.74
60. See James M. Gavin, On to Berlin, pp.82-83
61. See Blair, pp.34-35, 215-216
62. See Major-General R. E. Urquhart, CB, DSO, Arnhem, p.15
63. See for example William F. Buckingham, Paras: The Birth of British Airborne Forces, pp.191-192
64. for a detailed account of the thinking behind the establishment of the 1st Allied Airborne Army, see Otway, pp.201-206
65. See Lewis H. Brereton, The Brereton Diaries, pp.308-309; cited in Blair, p.299
66. See Blair, p.299
67. For the US perspective on the dispute, see Blair, pp.320-321; for the British, see Geoffrey Powell, The Devil’s Birthday, p.39
68. For details, see Blair, pp.298-299
69. See Otway, pp.211-213
70. Withdrawal dates and casualty figures cited in Blair, pp.295-296; and Leonard Rapport & Arthur Norwood Jr., Rendezvous with Destiny, p.249
71. Sometimes rendered TRANSFIGURE
72. See WO 171/1248, 21st Independent Parachute Company War Diary, entries for 04, 06 & 10/08/1944; and WO 171/1236, 1st Parachute Battalion War Diary, entry for 10/08/1944
73. See WO 171/1236 1st Parachute Battalion War Diary, entry for 12/08/1944; and WO 171/1237 2nd Parachute Battalion War Diary, notes on sea-tail detachment in August 1944 section
74. See diary entries entitled ‘Sergeant Kosimaki’s Summer’, in Rapport & Northwood, p.258
75. See Otway, p.211
76. See ibid., p.210
77. See WO 171/1236 1st Parachute Battalion War Diary, entries for 22, 24 & 26/08/1944
78. See WO 171/1236 1st Parachute Battalion War Diary, WO 171/1237 2nd Parachute Battalion War Diary and WO 171/1248 21st Independent Parachute Company War Diary, entries for August 1944
79. See diary entries entitled ‘Sergeant Kosimaki’s Summer’, in Rapport & Northwood, p.259
80. See Blair, pp.318-319
81. See Omar N. Bradley, A Soldier’s Story (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1951), pp.401-403; cited in Blair, p.319
82. See WO 171/1248 21st Independent Parachute Company War Diary, entry for 29/08/1944
83. See WO 171/1236 1st Parachute Battalion War Diary, WO 171/1237 2nd Parachute Battalion War Diary, entries for 29/08/1944 & 31/08/1944 respectively; and diary entries entitled ‘Sergeant Kosimaki’s Summer’, in Rapport & Northwood, p.259
84. See Powell, p.39
85. See Blair, p.320
86. See Stanislaw Sosabowski, Freely I Served, p.140; WO 171/592, 1st Parachute Brigade War Diary, entry for 05/09/1944; and WO 171/1247, 156 Parachute Battalion War Diary, entry for 07/09/1944
87. See WO 171/1244, 11th Parachute Battalion War Diary, entry for 01/09/1944
88. See WO 171/1238, 3rd Parachute Battalion War Diary, entries for 04 & 06/09/1944
89. See WO 171/1236, 1st Parachute Battalion War Diary, entry for 07/09/1944.
90. See WO 171/1237 2nd Parachute Battalion War Diary, ‘Order for Operation Comet (Copy No. 18)’ dated 07/09/1944
91. Hackett’s comments are cited in Peter Harclerode, Arnhem: A Tragedy of Errors, p.54
92. See Urquhart, p.17; and Martin Middlebrook, Arnhem 1944, p.8
Chapter 3
1. See WO 219/2506, SHAEF Planning paper ‘Post-Neptune Courses of Action After Capture of Lodgement Area’; cited in Carlo D’Este, Decision In Normandy, p.464
2. For details see for example Gordon A. Harrison, Cross Channel Attack, pp.78, 188, 438, 441
3. See Major L. F Ellis, Victory in the West, Volume I: The Battle of Normandy, pp.291-292
4. Id., Victory in the West, Volume II: The Defeat of Germany, pp.14-15
5. Figures cited in Martin Blumenson, Breakout and Pursuit, p.691
6. See Powell, The Devil’s Birthday, p.24
7. See for example Ellis, Victory in the West, Volume II: The Defeat of Germany, pp.24-25
8. See George S. Patton, War as I Knew It, p.125; cited in Carlo d’Este, Decision in Normandy, p.468
9. See Blumenson, p.696
&n
bsp; 10. See ibid., pp.669-670
11. For a detailed account of the fight for Fort Driant, see Hugh M. Cole, The Lorraine Campaign, pp.264-275
12. See Blumenson, p.670
13. See Ellis, Victory in the West, Volume II: The Defeat of Germany, p.25
14. For Tedders’s attendance see ibid., p.21
15. For establishment of SHAEF Forward HQ to Portsmouth from the main SHAEF HQ at Bushey Park near Hampton Court Palace in London in May 1944 see Ellis, Victory in the West, Volume I: The Battle of Normandy, pp.37, 139; for relocation of SHAEF Forward HQ to Granville see Stephen E. Ambrose, Citizen Soldiers, p.92
16. For the Leigh-Mallory telephone calls see D’Este, p.466; for the delay in despatching signals see Powell, p.24
17. See D’Este, p.466
18. Quote from Chester Wilmot, The Struggle for Europe, p.489; cited in Powell, p.24
19. Quoted from Bernard Law Montgomery, Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, The Memoirs of Field Marshal the Viscount Montgomery of Alamein K.G., p.293; cited in Powell, p.26
20. Quotes from Tedder’s communication to Portal cited in Ellis, Victory in the West, Volume II: The Defeat of Germany, pp.21-22
21. See extracts from telegrams from Montgomery to Eisenhower dated 11 September 1944 and from Eisenhower to Montgomery dated 13 September 1944 cited in ibid., pp.22-23
22. For a detailed discussion of events in this period, see D’Este, pp.467-475
23. See Ellis, Victory in the West, Volume II: The Defeat of Germany, p.22
24. See extract from undated telegram from Montgomery to the Vice Chief of Imperial General Staff reproduced in Ellis, Victory in the West, Volume II: The Defeat of Germany, pp.23-24
25. For details of Montgomery’s M525 Directive to 2nd Army see A. D. Harvey, Arnhem, p.26
26. See Powell, p.26
27. See ibid., p.25
28. See for example the television documentary Great Battles of World War II: Arnhem, broadcast on UK Channel 5 on 23/08/2001
29. See for example Powell, p.25
30. See Christopher Hibbert, Arnhem, p.50
31. for a detailed account of this from the Dutch perspective, see Cornelius Ryan, A Bridge Too Far, pp.23-35
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