WHAT YOU MUST KNOW

Espionage was a crucial factor in the advance of World War II. All of the major players – Britain, Germany, the Soviet Union and the USA – put intelligence at the heart of their military operations and had spies operating across Europe, North Africa and even South East Asia. As double agents and even triple agents proliferated, a tangled web of international espionage emerged. Perhaps the most famous of the World War 2 spy organisations, Special Operations Executive (SOE) was established early in the war out of Churchill’s ambition to ‘set Europe ablaze’. It would become known as ‘Churchill's Secret Army’ – a reference to the shadowy nature of its work. Agents of SOE were tasked with gathering intelligence, carrying out acts of sabotage, and building up and supporting local movements such as the French Resistance. They also took part in manouevres supporting specific military objectives. Operation Jedburgh saw SOE support the D-Day invasions of June 1944 by coordinating o...

Freddie Oversteegen was only 14 when she joined the Dutch resistance during World War II, and only a couple of years older when she became one of its armed assassins.  Together with her sister—and later, a young woman named Hannie Schaft—the trio lured, ambushed and killed German Nazis and their Dutch collaborators. Freddie and her sister Truus, who was two years older, grew up in the city of Haarlem with a single, working-class mother.  Their mother considered herself a communist and taught her daughters the importance of fighting injustice.  When Europe was on the brink of war in 1939, she took Jewish refugees into their homes. Through their mother’s example, Freddie and Truus “learned that if you have to help somebody, like refugees, you have to make sacrifices for yourself,” says Jeroen Pliester, chair of the National Hannie Schaft Foundation. “I think that was one of the main drivers for them, the high moral principle and preparedness of their mother to act when it r...

If it was 'impossible' for Germany to invade Britain, why is the British coastline still dotted with large concrete blocks, designed to hamper any Nazi landing attempt? Why did the British bother building and laying all these blocks? The large concrete blocks you're referring to are known as "anti-invasion defenses" or "coastal defenses," and they were constructed by the British government during World War II as part of a comprehensive strategy to prepare for a potential Nazi invasion, not because it was "impossible" for Germany to invade Britain, but because the threat was very real and needed to be addressed. At the time, after the fall of France in 1940, Britain was under significant threat of invasion by Nazi Germany. The German military, led by Adolf Hitler, had a well-documented plan known as Operation Sea Lion, which outlined their intentions to invade Britain.  While logistical challenges, including the need for naval and air superiorit...

On this day 10th July 1943:The Allies began Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily, Italy. The Allies began Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily, Italy, with an airborne assault before dawn; amphibious elements of Operation Husky landed to join the fight later in the day. Out at sea, hospital ship Tampala and LST-313 were sunk by German air attack. Picket ship USS Sentinel was sunk by a SC250 bomb delivered by a Fw 190 aircraft off Moll. Destroyer USS Maddox was also lost after being attacked by dive bombers and sunk within two minutes. The US Navy would subsequently suffer severe accusations for failing to supply adequate air cover. The invasion of Sicily, code-named Operation Husky, began before dawn on July 10, 1943, with combined air and sea landings involving 150,000 troops, 3,000 ships and 4,000 aircraft, all directed at the southern shores of the island. This massive assault was nearly cancelled the previous day when a summer storm arose and caused serious difficulties for p...

Was Hans Langsdorff a coward? No. Hans Langsdorff was one of those very rare things: a reasonably okay Nazi. Hans Langsdorff, centre, saluting. Note that the guys around him are giving the Nazi salute, but he isn’t. For those who’ve never heard of him, Hans Langsdorff was a captain in the Kriegsmarine, the navy of the Third Reich. He commanded the pocket battleship Graf Spee, and shortly before the outbreak of WW2 he was commanded to take the Graf Spee to the south Atlantic, wait there, and get ready to start sinking allied shipping. On 20 September 1939, he was given the order to go ahead and attack. For the next several weeks, the Graf Spee was extremely successful, sinking nine British merchant ships. Langsdorff did his best to observe the Hague Conventions: he tried to avoid killing people, he picked up the crews of the ships he sank and treated them well, and he earned the respect of the ships’ officers. On 13 December 1939, the Graf Spee...

Do tall soldiers do well in combat? An infantry soldier's height isn't that important. Whether you are 1.70 meters (5' 7") or 1.90 (6' 3") doesn't really make a difference. When I attended the French Commando Course, everyone in my platoon of German paratroopers was at least half a head taller than our French comrades. This was a big advantage for the dozens of obstacle courses (we aced them), but for nothing else. In a combat situation, it won't matter. Height matters more in training than in combat. A US Marine on an obstacle course of the French National Commando Training Center. Photo: SNAFU). Extremely tall persons (+1.95 m or 6' 5"), however, will have problems. When you're defending from a trench, you’ll stick out. You’ll also have more problems finding a fitting uniform or covering your body with a blanket when you sleep. On the other hand, I never saw any advantages for a person that was taller than average. Tall doesn't...

On October 17th 1942, Hitler orders German troops to shoot all captured allied commandos, ‘to the last man. In his “Commando Order” of October 1942, Adolf Hitler decreed that all captured Allied commandos were to be executed. The murderous directive was extended to include SAS soldiers, Special Operations Executive (SOE) agents, paratroopers and airmen, but the precise number of those slaughtered has been unclear. Recently-unearthed papers of the SAS war crimes investigator reveal that the Commando Order led to the deaths of more than 300 secret agents and special forces soldiers. The majority were British. Among the lists of “victims” are 14 men who had been on board a glider that crashed near Egersund in Norway. It was one of two gliders carrying British Royal Engineers that did not survive a raid in November 1942 on a heavy-water facility crucial to the Nazis’ nuclear plans, with Allied fears of Hitler winning the nuclear race then at an all-time high. The file's noted that th...

On September 27, 1939, 140,000 Polish troops are taken prisoner by the German invaders as Warsaw surrenders to Hitler’s army. The Poles fought bravely, but were able to hold on for only 26 days. On the heels of its victory, the Germans began a systematic program of terror, murder, and cruelty, executing members of Poland’s middle and upper classes: Doctors, teachers, priests, landowners, and businessmen were rounded up and killed. The Nazis had given this operation the benign-sounding name “Extraordinary Pacification Action.” The Roman Catholic Church, too, was targeted, because it was a possible source of dissent and counterinsurgency. In one west Poland church diocese alone, 214 priests were shot. And hundreds of thousands more Poles were driven from their homes and relocated east, as Germans settled in the vacated areas. This was all part of a Hitler master plan. Back in August, Hitler warned his own officers that he was preparing Poland for that “which would not be to the tast...

How can you identify a special forces soldier when he's not wearing his uniforms? When I was at Basic Training, the Drill Sergeants who were the most relaxed and least intent on making a show of how tough they were to the trainees were the ones with Ranger and 82nd Combat Patches on their uniforms. (Admittedly, I graduated Basic a solid week and a half ago, so don't read this like I've done tours in Afghanistan or something.) (Also, I know that the 82nd isn't technically Special Forces, but it's still badass enough to be used for my anecdote.) Their calm demeanor didn't mean they wouldn't smoke the absolute shit out of you, if deemed necessary, because they absolutely would, and probably worse than the other Drill Sergeants, but their baseline attitude was noticably very calm and in-control. The most noticable example of this was the Battalion Commander, who would wear his green beret while checking up on training. He never mentioned his special forces...

On October 25, 1944, during the Battle of the Leyte Gulf, the Japanese deploy kamikaze (“divine wind”) bombers against American warships for the first time. It will prove costly–to both sides. This decision to employ suicide bombers against the American fleet at Leyte, an island of the Philippines, was based on the failure of conventional naval and aerial engagements to stop the American offensive. Declared Japanese naval Capt. Motoharu Okamura: “I firmly believe that the only way to swing the war in our favor is to resort to crash-dive attacks with our planes…. There will be more than enough volunteers for this chance to save our country.” The first kamikaze force was in fact composed of 24 volunteer pilots from Japan’s 201st Navy Air Group. The targets were U.S. escort carriers; one, the St. Lo, was struck by a A6M Zero fighter and sunk in less than an hour, killing 100 Americans. Japanese pilots took down 34 ships in the gulf battle. For their kamikaze raids, the Japanese employed...