Thursday, February 28, 2019

●● Campaigns


40-5-25 to 40-6-4 Dunkirk Evacuation - Dynamo ..
40-8-13 Adlertag & Unternehmen Adlerangriff ..     
40-9-8 Blitz, Cromwell, Sealion Postponed 40-9-14 ..
42-8-17 USAF bombs Rouen ..

Grand Strategy ..
Kanalkampf II ..
Schlieffen Plan ..

MILDEC - Military deception

Morale, PsyOps 
Morale ..

●● Theatres ..
● Africa, Mediterranean ..
● Atlantic ..
● European theatre ..
● Nordic Front - Finland & Scandinavia ..
● Pacific theatre ..
● Russia - Eastern Front ..

Military History: Archive Footage - FoTV >> .

Agriculture | Air | Atrocities | Blitz | Campaigns | Characters | Cold War | Defence | Espionage| Government | Home Front | Industry | Infrastructure | Intelligence | Land | Locations | Logistics| Propaganda, Publications | Sea | Services | Society | Tactics | Technology | Timelines | Theatres | Volunteers | War | Weaponry | WW1 |
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40-8-13 Adlertag & Unternehmen Adlerangriff

40-8-13 Adlertag > .
Goering's False Promise: Why Operation Sea Lion Failed | War Stories > .
Battle of Britain - tb >> .

Adlertag ("Eagle Day") was the first day of Unternehmen Adlerangriff ("Operation Eagle Attack"), which was the codename of a military operation by Nazi Germany's Luftwaffe (German air force) to destroy the British Royal Air Force (RAF). By June 1940, the Allies had been defeated in Western Europe and Scandinavia. Rather than come to terms with Germany, Britain rejected all overtures for a negotiated peace.

During the Battle of Britain, Hitler gave the German armed forces (Wehrmacht) a directive (Directive No. 16) that ordered provisional preparations for invasion of Britain. This operation was codenamed Operation Sea Lion (Unternehmen Seelöwe). Before this could be carried out, air superiority or air supremacy was required. The Luftwaffe was to destroy the RAF in order to prevent it from attacking the invasion fleet or providing protection for the Royal Navy's Home Fleet which might attempt to prevent a landing by sea. On 1 August Hitler gave the Luftwaffe's commander-in-chief, Reichsmarschall (Empire Marshal) Hermann Göring and the Oberkommando der Luftwaffe (High Command of the Air Force) a directive (Directive No. 17) to launch the air assault.

The essential target was RAF Fighter Command. The service's destruction would deny the British their air superiority asset. Throughout July and early August, the Germans made preparations for Adlertag. The date of the assault was postponed several times because of bad weather. Eventually, it was carried out on 13 August 1940. The German attacks on 13 August inflicted significant damage and casualties on the ground, but, marred by poor intelligence and communication, they did not make a significant impression on Fighter Command's ability to defend British air space.

Göring had promised Hitler that Adlertag and Adlerangriff would achieve the results required within days, or at worst weeks. It had meant to be the beginning of the end of RAF Fighter Command, but Adlertag and the following operations failed to destroy the RAF, or gain the necessary local air superiority. As a result, Operation Sea Lion was postponed indefinitely.

Battle of Britain and Artie Holmes' Hurricane - HiGu > . 
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Wednesday, February 27, 2019

40-7-10 to 40-10-31 Battle of Britain

13 Hours That Saved Britain > .
Battle of Britain 3 | Their Finest Hour (WW2 Doc) - Time > . 
How RAF Prepared For Luftwaffe's Offensive | Battle Of Britain | Timeline > .
Battle of Britain and Artie Holmes' Hurricane - HiGu > . 
40-8-13 Adlertag > .
The Battle of Britain was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) defended the United Kingdom (UK) against large-scale attacks by Nazi Germany's air force, the Luftwaffe. It has been described as the first major military campaign fought entirely by air forces. The British officially recognise the battle's duration as being from 10 July until 31 October 1940, which overlaps the period of large-scale night attacks known as The Blitz, that lasted from 7 September 1940 to 11 May 1941. German historians do not accept this subdivision and regard the Luftschlacht um England, (literally "The Air Battle for England") as a single campaign lasting from July 1940 to June 1941, including the Blitz.
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40-9-8 Blitz, Cromwell, Sealion Postponed 40-9-14

Blitz, Cromwell, Delays > .Operation Sea Lion: Hitler's Daring Plan to Invade Britain... | WarsofTheWorld > .
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Bombing of Germany

"The bomber will always get through"
The bomber will always get through was a phrase used by Stanley Baldwin in 1932 (although the theory was originally developed by Italian General Giulio Douhet), in the speech "A Fear for the Future" to the British Parliament. He and others believed that, regardless of air defences, sufficient bomber aircraft would survive to destroy cities.

Failed Luftwaffe adoption of Douhet's claims > .
22-12-11 Is strategic bombing of infrastructure ever effective - Perun > .


Strategic Bombing on the Western Front I THE GREAT WAR Special > .
The First Bombers > .
The Most Professional Bombercrew of WWI > .
Rise of Flight - The Gotha > .
Rise of Flight - Bombers - HP O/400 > .
World War 1 Gotha Bomber Interception > .
Rise of Flight - Death by Bomb > .
How Incompetence Invented The Gunship in WW1 > .
Top 6 Innovations for Aviation in World War 1 > .
WWI The First Modern War: The Germans Bomb London | History > .
Re: WW2: The Resource War - IV: Strategic Bombing - Extra History > .
WW2: The Troubles with Bombing during World War 2  > .

World war II: The resource war - Extra History playlist >> .
MHV playlists >> .

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Monday, February 25, 2019

44-6-6 D-Day - Overlord, Neptune

D-Day innovations ..
D-Day - Overlord & Neptune > .
24-6-4 D-Day Shipping: Battle of Atlantic, Liberty Ships, LSTs - Shipping > .
Lies and Deceptions that made D-Day possible - IWM > .
D-Day - June 6, 1944 - anffyddiaeth >> .
British Army in Europe 44-45 >> .
D-Day - The German Naval Counterattack - mfp > .
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40-5-25 Dunkirk Evacuation - Dynamo 40-6-4

Dunkirk - Strategic Overview > .
Miracle Of Dunkirk: Operation That Saved Britain | War Stories > .
Dunkirk Evacuation - Megaprojects > .
Dunkirk - tb >> .
Dunkirk, Dynamo, Little Ships - anth >> . 


The Dunkirk evacuation, code-named Operation Dynamo, also known as the Miracle of Dunkirk, was the evacuation of Allied soldiers during World War II from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, in the north of France, between 26 May and 4 June 1940. The operation commenced after large numbers of Belgian, British, and French troops were cut off and surrounded by German troops during the six-week long Battle of France. In a speech to the House of Commons, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill called this "a colossal military disaster", saying "the whole root and core and brain of the British Army" had been stranded at Dunkirk and seemed about to perish or be captured. In his "we shall fight on the beaches" speech on 4 June, he hailed their rescue as a "miracle of deliverance".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunkirk_evacuation

The 'romantic' image of Dunkirk surrounds the armada of 'Little Ships' and the lifting of troops from the beaches. The reality was that the key to the evacuation was the Eastern Mole (pier) at Dunkirk harbour, the destroyers of the Royal Navy and the large troop transport ships and ferries. It is estimated that two-thirds of those rescued were evacuated by these means. Six Royal Navy destroyers were sunk in these operations and a number of the transports and ferries were also lost. Not only did the vessels have to run the gauntlet of round-the-clock air attacks during daylight hours, but inshore, they were also within the range of German artillery. Offshore, the ever-present threat of German mines and U-Boats and E-Boats of the German Kriegsmarine also made attacks on Allied shipping and sunk two British destroyers.

However, we should not underplay the role of the civilian craft involved. Time did not allow the evacuation of all of the troops via the Eastern Mole and hence, evacuation from the beaches was a necessity. With the beaches at Dunkirk shelving so gently, it was vital that small craft were available to rescue men either directly, or to ferry them to larger vessels waiting offshore. This heroic collection of small vessels, not built for war, was sourced from the rivers and coastal waters of south-east England. Among their ranks were river launches, old sailing and rowing RNLI lifeboats, yachts, pleasure steamers, fishing boats, commercial sailing barges and Thames fire boats. Many of these craft had never even been to sea before.

Some of the 'Little Ships' were formally chartered and some, where owners could not be contacted, were simply commandeered by naval crews. A number were sailed by serving Royal Navy personnel, but many others had civilian crew members or were entirely civilian crewed. Other boats with their civilian crews simply responded to the growing crisis and their contribution was never officially recorded. While tugs towed some across, many made the journey under their own steam with little protection from the marauding Luftwaffe. Unlit and unable to comprehend or respond to naval signals, they were arguably just as vulnerable to becoming victims of 'friendly fire' in the dangerous waters off the French and Belgian coastlines. Of the 700-odd officially recorded 'Little Ships', over 100 never made it home and were part of the 220 vessels lost during the evacuation. However, notwithstanding these losses, their contribution to the rescue of 338, 000 Allied servicemen from Dunkirk had been invaluable and their achievements have gone into national folklore.

Another popular misconception was that the troops evacuated from Dunkirk were all transported to the port of Dover. While Dover was the major centre for Royal Navy and transport ships, other coastal ports and harbours in Kent were also extensively used. Folkestone was used to berth many of the returning passenger ferries. Ramsgate was the main hub for the 'Little Ships' and estimates are that almost 43,000 troops were landed there. Margate, with its harbour and pier, received many of the passenger ships and paddle steamers and estimates are that around 38,000 servicemen were moved by special trains from Margate station. Deal and Sheerness also received much smaller numbers of troops and finally, Newhaven in East Sussex continued to be used as a base for a number of hospital ships

As far as French ships participating in Operation Dynamo were concerned, many were ordered not to England but to disembark troops further down the French coast at ports such as Le Havre and Cherbourg. Many of the French troops evacuated were rapidly transported to ports in the south-west of England. From there they were shipped to the western coast of France to carry on the fight. Given the effort which had gone into rescuing these troops, the fact that the vast bulk would be lost in the following 3-4 weeks was little short of tragic.

http://dunkirk1940.org/index.php?&p=1_187

Dynamo - Dover
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_jbtrp7Zls
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Sunday, February 24, 2019

European Theatre mapped


World War II European Theatre (1939-1945) > .

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Thursday, February 21, 2019

44-9-19 Hürtgen Forest 44-12-16

Hürtgen 1944 - America's Meat Grinder > .   
Hürtgen forest and the end of WW2 - DWdoc > . 
Battle of the Bulge 1944 - Ardennes Counteroffensive - K&G > .
Western Front 1944-45: 1/2 - Animated History > .

The Battle of Hürtgen Forest (Schlacht im Hürtgenwald) was a series of fierce battles fought from 19 September to 16 December 1944, between American and German forces on the Western Front during World War II, in the Hürtgen Forest, a 140 km2 (54 sq mi) area about 5 km (3.1 mi) east of the Belgian–German border. It was the longest battle on German ground during World War II and is the longest single battle the U.S. Army has ever fought.

The U.S. commanders' initial goal was to pin down German forces in the area to keep them from reinforcing the front lines farther north in the Battle of Aachen, where the US forces were fighting against the Siegfried Line network of fortified industrial towns and villages speckled with pillboxes, tank traps, and minefields. A secondary objective may have been to outflank the front line. The Americans' initial tactical objectives were to take Schmidt and clear Monschau. In a second phase the Allies wanted to advance to the Rur River as part of Operation Queen.

Generalfeldmarschall Walter Model intended to bring the Allied thrust to a standstill. While he interfered less in the day-to-day movements of units than at the Battle of Arnhem, he still kept himself fully informed on the situation, slowing the Allies' progress, inflicting heavy casualties, and taking full advantage of the fortifications the Germans called the Westwall, better known to the Allies as the Siegfried Line. The Hürtgen Forest cost the U.S. First Army at least 33,000 killed and wounded, including both combat and non-combat losses, with upper estimate at 55,000; German casualties were 28,000. The city of Aachen in the north eventually fell on 22 October at high cost to the U.S. Ninth Army, but they failed to cross the Rur or wrest control of its dams from the Germans. The battle was so costly that it has been described as an Allied "defeat of the first magnitude," with specific credit given to Model.

The Germans fiercely defended the area because it served as a staging area for the 1944 winter offensive Unternehmen: Wacht am Rhein (later known as the Battle of the Bulge), and because the mountains commanded access to the Rur Dam at the head of the Rur Reservoir (Rurstausee). The Allies failed to capture the area after several heavy setbacks, and the Germans successfully held the region until they launched their last-ditch offensive into the Ardennes. This was launched on 16 December and ended the Hürtgen offensive. The Battle of the Bulge gained widespread press and public attention, leaving the battle of Hürtgen Forest less well remembered.

The overall cost of the Siegfried Line Campaign in American personnel was close to 140,000.
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Monday, February 18, 2019

Kanalkampf II

From Kanalkampf to Directive 17 - August 3 1940 > .
As the Kanalkampf comes to a close, the Battle of Britain heats up. Hitler wants Britain out of the war. But before the Germans can invade Britain, it will have to deal with the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy.

Battle of Britain - tb >> .

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Sunday, February 17, 2019

Luftwaffe attacks shipping convoys, ports


Luftwaffe attacks shipping convoys, ports

Attacks on shipping convoys

With the fall of France, Hitler's forces reached the English Channel where they waited for a British surrender. When this was not forthcoming, Hitler started planning for a cross-Channel invasion. With his Chiefs of Staff agreed that air superiority over the RAF was crucial, the German air force began their offensive. They called it 'Kanalkampf', or Battle of the Channel.

From the beginning of July, the Luftwaffe probed the RAF's defences as a prelude to launching an all-out assault. On the 4th, there was a major attack on Portland and the anti-aircraft ship HMS Foylebank. Three days later, four RAF pilots were killed in battle and three more the following day.

Then, from 10 July, attacks focused on the ships bringing vital supplies to Britain. The Luftwaffe tempted RAF fighters out over the Channel to test their defences and daily dogfights took place over the water and the south coast. On 14 July, BBC reporter Charles Gardener excitedly (and, for some, inappropriately) described an attack on a convoy by Junkers Ju87s (Stukas) and Messerschmitts that was fought off by Spitfires and Hurricanes.

During this period, 30,000 tonnes of shipping was lost, although this was from a total of almost a million tonnes passing through the Channel every week. However, on 29 July, the Admiralty re-routed daylight convoys out of the Channel as it was becoming too costly to sustain.

Bombing of ports on the South coast

As well as attacking convoys, the Luftwaffe also bombed ports on the south coast and as far afield as Swansea. Dover was particularly badly hit, earning it the name 'Hell-Fire Corner'. The plan was to destroy some of the ports' defences in order to make an invasion easier.

The Luftwaffe also attacked some airfields and radar stations. Fortunately, the Germans did not fully understand the importance of radar or how it was used and never launched an attack strong enough to cripple the system completely. However, radar stations were a favoured target for the Stukas and some were very badly damaged.
But changes were afoot. On 1 August in his Directive Number 17, Hitler ordered the obliteration of all RAF flying units, ground units and supply organisations, as well as the destruction of the British aircraft industry.

So Hermann Goering, head of the Luftwaffe, added Fighter Command's airfields to his hit list. The probing was over - the 'Eagle Attack' was about to begin.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/events/germany_bombs_british_coastal_airfields .

Battle of Britain - tb >> .
Battle of Britain and Artie Holmes' Hurricane - HiGu > . 
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Saturday, February 16, 2019

Malta - Siege of Malta

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Surviving The Siege Of Malta - time > .
Malta - History, Geography, Economy and Culture - Geodiode > .
40-7-31 Operation Hurry 40-8-4 > .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Hurry .

41-1 Operation Excess - Luftwaffe attacks Malta > . 
Indomitable - WoW > .
Operation Pedestal: HMS Indomitable bombed > .
Stuka pilot interview 47: Attack on HMS Indomitable August 1942 > .

The Only Country That Has Been Awarded A George Cross > .


This Tiny Island Was Key for Allied Forces to Secure North Africa > .
SS Ohio and the Siege of Malta (Pedestal) > .

Mediterranean Theatre & Malta - 42-4-3 - WW2 > .  
Operation Pedestal: The Convoy That Saved Malta > .
Operation Pedestal: HMS Indomitable bombed > .
Malta bombing
https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-grand-opera-house-bombed-to-ruins-by-the-luftwaffe

The Battle for Malta
Caught in a struggle between Britain and Germany to control the Mediterranean, Malta became the most bombed place on Earth. Beyond unimaginable austerity, the island was close to starvation by the summer of 1942, and the magnitude of the attacks reflected the importance of its strategic position. Like ants, the Maltese were forced to move by their thousands into man made caves and tunnels carved in island’s limestone. Historian James Holland presents a fresh analysis of this vicious battle and argues that Malta’s offensive role has been underplayed.

Clash of Wings 5/13 The African Tutorial > .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGiw5Lo0hxg

playlist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtq7-dtiDy8&list=PLSawWIooz_XpVAxHUUkN42HyHUy-uYhFC .

Ġgantija & Ancient Malta ..
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Mulberry Harbours

3D - Mulberry Harbour - Arromanches, August 1944 > .
24-6-4 D-Day Shipping: Battle of Atlantic, Liberty Ships, LSTs - Shipping > .
Lies and Deceptions that made D-Day possible - IWM > .
June 6th 1944 - The Light of Dawn 1 - Doc > .
Mulberry Harbours WW2: Disaster at Dieppe led to D-Day success - IWM > .

Two years before D-Day and Operation Overlord, the Allies mounted a daring rehearsal raid on the French port of Dieppe. The attack ended in disaster, but out of its ashes came one of the greatest unsung inventions of the Second World War, one that would keep the Allies in the fight when they returned to invade Normandy: the Mulberry Harbours. 

Unable to capture a French port, the Allies decided to build their own, float them across the channel and built them on the French coast. Together, the Mulberry Harbours brought in the millions of tonnes of supplies needed to help the Allies break out of Normandy and into Germany itself.

After D-Day, the Allies needed to continually build up reinforcements of men and supplies in Normandy to sustain the invasion's momentum. Previous experience taught the Allies hard but important lessons about the need to secure harbours and ports - harbours to provide protection from bad weather and rough seas, and ports to provide a place to ferry men and cargo. The planners responsible for 'Overlord' proposed creating two artificial harbours - codenamed 'Mulberries' - by sinking outdated ships ('Corncobs') and large concrete structures ('Phoenixes'). Adding floating roadways and piers (codenamed 'Whales') would allow them to use the beachhead as an improvised port.

Discover D-Day: https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/dday/ . 
7 clever invention from D-Day: https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/7-clev... . 
Why D-Day was so important to Allied victory: https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/why-d-... . 
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Friday, February 15, 2019

Norway

What went wrong in Norway? - Some Very Norsepicious Plans - Drach > .
1940-2-17 Altmark ⤑ WW2 Battle for Norway - Animarchy > .
24-7-1 P00ti lost Ruscia's Arctic dominance to Xina & Baltic NATO forces | Forces > .

40-4-13 on 
Kampf um Norwegen - Feldzug 1940 > .
Norway 1940 + >> .

Nordic Front - Finland & Scandinavia .. 
Invasion of Norway & Denmark ..

 > Sweden >>
24-2-27 How Sweden Could Easily Crush a Russian Invasion - Icarus > .

WW2 - Week by Week >> .

Fallschirmjäger - Germany's Finest > .

Ray Mears - The Real Heroes of Telemark
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9pMBAGDqeF1NvdiD4FsTaayfPs7UvJ6I
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bistorta_vivipara

Bistorta vivipara is a synonym of the accepted species name Persicaria vivipara (L.) Ronse Decr. It is a perennial herbaceous flowering plant in the knotweed and buckwheat family Polygonaceae, commonly known as alpine bistort. It is common all over the high Arctic through Europe, North America, and temperate and tropical Asia. Its range stretches further south in high mountainous areas such as the Alps, Carpathians, Pyrenees, Caucasus, and the Tibetan Plateau.

The bulbils are rich in starch and are a preferred food for rock ptarmigans (Lagopus mutus) and reindeer; they are also occasionally used by Arctic people.

Alpine bistort is a perennial herb that grows to 5 to 15 cm (2 to 6 in) tall. It has a thick rhizomatous rootstock and an erect, unbranched, hairless stem. The leaves are hairless on the upper surfaces, but hairy and greyish-green below. The basal ones are longish-elliptical with long stalks and rounded bases; the upper ones are few and are linear and stalkless. The tiny flowers are white or pink in the upper part of the spike with five perianth segments, eight stamens with purple anthers and three fused carpels. The lower ones are replaced by bulbils. Flowers rarely produce viable seeds and reproduction is normally by the bulbils, which are small bulb-like structures that develop in the axils of the leaves and may develop into new plants. Very often, a small leaf develops when the bulbil is still attached to the mother plant.

https://youtu.be/IqkVvSJ7BGg?t=3m51s

The Battle for Norway 1940 color 2:56
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFQsK48uEgY


The Battles of Narvik were fought from 9 April to 8 June 1940 as a naval battle in the Ofotfjord and as a land battle in the mountains surrounding the north Norwegian city of Narvik as part of the Norwegian Campaign of the Second World War.

The two naval battles in the Ofotfjord on 10 April and 13 April were fought between the British Royal Navy and Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine, while the two-month land campaign was fought between Norwegian, French, British, and Polish troops against German mountain troops, shipwrecked Kriegsmarine sailors and German paratroopers (Fallschirmjäger) from the 7th Air Division. Although defeated at sea off Narvik, losing control of the town of Narvik and being pushed back towards the Swedish border, the Germans eventually prevailed because of the Allied evacuation from Norway in June 1940 following the Battle of France.

Narvik provided an ice-free harbour in the North Atlantic for iron ore transported by the railway from Kiruna in Sweden. Both sides in the war had an interest in securing this iron supply for themselves and denying it to the enemy, setting the stage for one of the biggest battles since the Invasion of Poland.

Prior to the German invasion, British forces had considered Narvik as a possible landing point for an expedition to help Finland in the Winter War. Such an expedition also had the potential of taking control of the Swedish mines and opening up the Baltic for the Allies. French politicians were also eager to start a second front as far away from France as possible.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battles_of_Narvik

Norway 1940: The Battle for Central Norway > .https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kcv9A2hoLM .

"Survival, Norway winter"


In 1942 two German battle-cruisers, the Scharnhorst and the Gneisenau, put into a French port for repairs and became trapped there, targets to be bombed at will by the RAF. It was only a matter of time before they would attempt an escape. Churchill ordered that the ships must not reach Germany, and that they must be destroyed. The plan to do so was called Operation Fuller. However, when the moment came to put the operation into action, the plans were locked in a safe and the only man with a key was away on holiday. What happened next was a series of one farcical mistake after another which allowed the two German ships to sail right up the English channel and home to Germany. The programme also features Operation Eagle Claw, the clandestine operation ordered by President Carter in 1980 to free the American hostages held in the Tehran embassy. The newly formed Special Operations Group, Delta Force, began planning a daring rescue. However, inter-service rivalry intervened, with tragic results when the American aircraft carrying the rescue teams crashed into each other in the Iranian desert.

We have long saluted military genius and bravery. But the other side of the coin is military incompetence – a largely preventable, tragically expensive, yet totally absorbing aspect of human behaviour.

From the Crusades to Vietnam, history is littered with examples of stupidity, obduracy, brutality and sheer breath-taking incompetence. Lack of communication, technological failure and a misplaced sense of superiority have led to the deaths of thousands of ordinary soldiers, let down by their masters and betrayed by arrogance. Using a combination of history, human interest and archive footage underpinned by powerful story-telling, Great Military Blunders charts man’s folly and cruelty in a series of stunning debacles, spanning almost a thousand years of conflict.


Bismarck: WW2 - ExCr >> .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYv-GC8DgMk&list=PLhyKYa0YJ_5CpF0wJeXpZAJp6A-sQ_M3A .


Wiping out Heligoland after WW2 > .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AxiatvbOek

The Battle of the Heligoland Bight was the first "named" air battle of the Second World War, which began the longest air campaign of the war, the Defence of the Reich.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Heligoland_Bight_(1939)

The island of Heligoland is a geological oddity; the presence of the main island's characteristic red sedimentary rock in the middle of the German Bight is unusual. It is the only such formation of cliffs along the continental coast of the North Sea. The formation itself, called the Bunter sandstone or Buntsandstein, is from the early Triassic geologic age. It is older than the white chalk that underlies the island Düne, the same rock that forms the white cliffs of Dover in England and cliffs of Danish and German islands in the Baltic Sea. In fact, a small chalk rock close to Heligoland, called witt Kliff (white cliff), is known to have existed within sight of the island to the west until the early 18th century, when storm floods finally eroded it to below sea level.

Heligoland's rock is significantly harder than the postglacial sediments and sands forming the islands and coastlines to the east of the island. This is why the core of the island, which a thousand years ago was still surrounded by a large, low-lying marshland and sand dunes separated from coast in the east only by narrow channels, has remained to this day, although the onset of the North Sea has long eroded away all of its surroundings. A small piece of Heligoland's sand dunes remains—the sand isle just across the harbour called Düne (Dune). A referendum in June 2011 dismissed a proposal to reconnect the main island to the Düne islet with a landfill.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heligoland

Attack on Enemy Warships at Heligoland
On 3rd December ['39], shortly before noon, 24 Wellington aircraft, engaged on a reconnaissance in force into the Heligoland Bight, located a number of enemy warships lying off Heligoland. The aircraft proceeded to attack in sections of three and dropped thirty-nine 500-lb, semi-armour-piercing bombs from heights between 7,000 to 10,000 feet. One of the larger ships appeared to be hit by three bombs, while one of the smaller was closely straddled, if not actually hit by two bombs. Cloud prevented accurate observation of other attacks. Photographs were taken, but, owing to weather conditions, only indifferent results were obtained. From the depth of water in which it appears that the ships were lying it is probable that the majority of the vessels were destroyers; but it may well be that the enemy gunnery training ship Brummer, which was towed into Emden in a damaged condition on the 4th was among those hit. Heavy and fairly accurate A.A.fire was encountered. Our aircraft observed about 20 enemy fighters which seemed reluctant to attack; seven or eight aircraft followed the returning bomber formation without attempting to close. Only in one instance does a serious attack appear to have been made by a M.E.109, which, it is thought, was shot down. Two British aircraft were hit by A.A.fire, but all returned safely to their bases.
http://ww2today.com/the-raf-attack-heligoland-the-war-in-finland

Heligoland Goes Up: Destroying Hitler's Sea Base (1947) | British Pathé
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtatVS-Tk3c

silent
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq7z-41V9p0
Deutsch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fkpQOr2Fbw
Primitive survival skills >> .
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbAkNwJLYBsqEziEOWijTRyeAnuGvmbPw . 
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Sunday, February 10, 2019

Saboteurs – Norwegian Heavy Water Sabotage



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40-9-17 Sea Lion Postponed


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Sealion

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Sealion - Hitler Unable To Invade Britain | War Stories > .
Operation Sea Lion: Hitler's Daring Plan to Invade Britain... | WarsofTheWorld > .
Goering's False Promise: Why Operation Sea Lion Failed | War Stories > .

? Sealion ?

[Life under a Nazi occupier] is, to be sure, a question that can never be definitively answered and, since Britons can never know how they would have acted under the heel of Nazi oppression, they are likely to continue speculating about it. Perhaps that is the one characteristic that truly does separate Britons from other Europeans.
https://aeon.co/essays/the-many-counterfactual-histories-of-nazi-britain .



https://history.blog.gov.uk/category/second-world-war/
 Timewatch - Operation Sealion (BBC 1998)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ux-J8B8fURk

Great Blunders of WWII: Operation Sea Lion (The Mission That Never Was) 10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ya4Xod9Qq3o

What if Operation Sea Lion actually Happened? - mapping
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWKJwi1QNw8

What if? Hitlers Britain 1of2 The Nazi Occupation of Britain
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJFmRBoG0Ms

What if? When hitler invaded Britain- Non Academic docudrama from 2004
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NnsRCt8TGM
What if? Hitlers Britain 2of2 The Secret of the British Resistance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECi-1JXq2Yc
Hitler's Britain - Alternate History
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXESMPPK7rc

What if? Alternative History - Operation Sealion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXESMPPK7rc

German battle plan - Operation Sea Lion map
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Sea_Lion#/media/File:OperationSealion.svg
Operation Sea Lion - Wikipedia

 40-8-17 Naval Blockade of British Isles ..  

Planning for Invasion

For a 12-month period after May 1940 the threat of invasion exercised those in power. Their discussions emphasised the need for decisive leadership and clear instruction. However they also showed just how difficult these were to achieve when facing a threat which had previously been inconceivable.

The threat of invasion had been discussed in government since October 1939. It was not until spring 1940, however, that it was treated as a serious possibility. The disastrous Norwegian campaign of April 1940 focused attention. And the Nazis’ rapid advance into Western Europe after 10 May pushed the matter to the very top of the government’s agenda. It was for this reason that the ‘Invasion of Great Britain’ was discussed on 19 occasions during the first three weeks of Winston Churchill’s premiership.

The withdrawal from Dunkirk served to underline the perilous situation that Britain faced. Although the evacuation of troops was a success, large amounts of equipment had been lost and military leaders feared that Hitler would seek to exploit the confusion caused. Plans were hastily drawn up to meet the imminent threat of invasion. A Home Defence Executive was established, men were encouraged to join the recently-formed Local Defence Volunteers (better-known as the Home Guard), road signs were removed, and large parts of the South East were designated as Defence Areas.

One of the greatest difficulties facing the government was the need to explain the situation to the public. This was the responsibility of the Ministry of Information’s ‘Emergency Planning Committee’. Formed on 22 May 1940, five days before the first troops left northern France, it called for swift action to counter public apprehension. The War Cabinet agreed, and invited the Ministry to prepare a publicity campaign. It was asked to include a series of instructions explaining the steps that should be taken in the event of an invasion.

The Ministry of Information did not attempt to do this alone. Instead it worked with the Home Defence Executive of the War Office and the Home Office-led Ministry of Home Security in an effort to ensure a consistent message across government. The main outcome of their discussions was a leaflet with the unimaginative title ‘If the Germans Invade Great Britain’. It included a mixture of practical instructions and generic advice. It was stressed, for instance, that ‘In the event of an invasion … you must remain where you are. The order is “STAY PUT”’. This was the first of seven ‘rules’ which also included warnings against rumour, the need to keep watch, and advice for constructing road blocks.

The collaboration between the Home Security, Home Defence and the Ministry of Information was not without its difficulties. The civil authorities’ main aim was to stop ‘responsible people’ from ‘running away’ unnecessarily and were unwilling to countenance any form of civilian resistance. The military wanted to ensure that Defence Areas were kept clear for troops and privately hoped ‘inessential’ civilians would be evacuated. The Ministry of Information, by contrast, wanted to ‘rouse the public’ by including an instruction for anyone behind enemy lines to: ‘Do everything in your power to render [the German troops’] position difficult. Be clever. Be brave’. Such were the differences in approach that the original draft was deemed ‘entirely unsuitable for publication’ by its primary author!

These differences spilled over into the War Cabinet. Ministers were well-aware that their French counterparts had been unable to stop a flood of refugees from leaving Paris, and that this had made it more difficult for French forces to operate during the battle of France. Yet it was feared that the appearance of support for active resistance would encourage reprisals and could not be justified under international law. Thus while it was thought that advice about road blocks and the defence of factories could be retained in a shortened form, the instruction to ‘harass the enemy’ was deemed ‘unsuitable for incorporation in a document of this character’. It was replaced with the less evocative clause: ‘Think before you act. But think always of your country before you think of yourself’.

The revised text bore the hallmarks of compromise. Its tone oscillated between confident assertions that any invading force would be ‘driven out’ and dire warnings that ‘If you run away … you will be machine gunned from the air’. Many questions also remained unanswered. How, for example, did you make a car ‘useless to anyone except yourself’ when removing the ignition key was not enough? What did it mean for ‘Managers and workmen [to] organise some system by which a sudden attack can be resisted’? And when would ‘more detailed instructions’ arrive? None of these questions were answered before the leaflet was released under the title If the Invader Comeson 18 June 1940. Fifteen million copies of the leaflet – one for every household – were distributed during the next three days. This effort was supported by a publicity campaign. Poster-sized versions of the leaflet were sent to local authorities, Winston Churchill was persuaded to broadcast a version of his ‘Finest Hour’ speech on the BBC, the Minister of Information gave a press conference on the theme of ‘Fortress Britain’, and General Sir Hugh Elles (Commander in Chief of Civil Defence) broadcast a plea to ‘get the pamphlet into your system’. The press also got involved. For instance, the Daily Express urged readers to ‘Do what you are told’, while the Daily Mirrortook the uncompromising line that anyone found ‘refugee-ing about the roads … deserves to be shot’. Most other newspapers reprinted the seven rules in full.

The public’s reaction was more complicated. Anecdotal reports from the Ministry of Information’s Home Intelligence division suggested that the leaflet was generally well received. Despite being deemed a ‘little too wordy’ in Tunbridge Wells, it was described as ‘clearly written [and] easily understood’ in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and thought to be ‘a good idea’ by many in London. But an opinion poll undertaken using a representative sample found ‘evidence of the fact that the leaflet has not been taken seriously’. It estimated that 60% of the public had read the leaflet but that 20 %t had ‘not bothered’ as they saw ‘the threat of invasion as a joke’. A non-official report by Mass Observation was even more critical. It thought that the tone was ‘out of touch with common sense’ and treated the public as ‘blithering idiots’.

This mixed response did not come as a complete surprise. It had been recognised before publication that the instruction to ‘Stay Put’ was liable to be misunderstood, and it was less than a week before the Ministry of Information pushed for ‘more categorical orders, reasons and instructions’. Military sources conceded that many questions had been left unanswered and that the British public wanted to be told what was occurring. It was agreed that a second leaflet was needed to clarify that people should ‘[Stay put] unless given orders to the contrary’.

Officials within the Ministry of Information sought to use this opportunity to stress the publicity value of resistance. They argued that any order would fail unless it gave civilians ‘some prospect of being able to defend themselves’. However neither the Ministry of Home Security nor the Home Defence Executive were willing to amend their stances. The result was that all three departments again pursued their own approach, providing alternative drafts of a leaflet called Stay Where You Are for the War Cabinet. The former diplomat Harold Nicholson, who wrote one version, complained that it was ‘absurd to expect people to stay in their homes without telling them what to do’. His senior colleagues in the Ministry of Information eventually decided that their only option was to surrender responsibility for the leaflet to the Home Office.

Fifteen million copies of Stay Where You Are were distributed at the very end of July 1940 at a cost of £13,433. The focus remained on the need to ‘Stay Put’ but the tone was more active than before. So it was stressed that the public should ‘not attempt to join in the fight’ but noted that: ‘You have the right of every man and woman to do what you can to protect yourself, your family, and your home’. Such instructions was soon criticised for being ‘so indefinite as to be of little value’.

‘Beating the Invader’

Britain was not invaded in the summer of 1940. However this did not signal an end of the debate over how best to communicate the threat. Indeed the subject came back onto agenda in January 1941 as part of a thorough review of the government’s civil defence arrangements. The Ministry of Information were again asked to produce a leaflet which would ‘interpret and amplify’ If the Invader Comes and Stay Where You Are. The result was 15 short paragraphs that offered practical advice in a question-and-answer format. Car-owners were for the first time told to put their vehicles out of action by ‘Remov[ing the] distributer head and leads and empty[ing] the tank’.

The final leaflet was distributed in late April 1940 with the optimistic title Beating the Invader. Given what had come before, it is fitting that the delay was due to Winston Churchill’s dislike of the term ‘Stay Put’ and a disagreement with the War Office. It is similarly fitting that the leaflet was almost abandoned when concurrent attempts to ‘rouse the public’ through new posters and press advertisements was deemed to have failed. All of those involved believed that the government needed to show decisive leadership and offer clear instructions. Yet the experience of invasion publicity in the Second World War shows just how difficult it was to achieve these ends when facing a threat that many had hoped to avoid.

Further Reading

You can find out more about the history of the Ministry of Information at http://www.moidigital.ac.uk

Operation Sea Lion - Unternehmen Seelöwe

Operation Sea Lion, also written as Operation Sealion (German: Unternehmen Seelöwe), was Nazi Germany's code name for the plan for an invasion of the United Kingdom during the Battle of Britain in the Second World War. Following the Fall of France, Adolf Hitler, the German Führer and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, hoped the British government would seek a peace agreement and he reluctantly considered invasion only as a last resort if all other options failed. As a precondition, he specified the achievement of both air and naval superiority over the English Channel and the proposed landing sites, but the German forces did not achieve this at any point during the war and both the German High Command and Hitler himself had serious doubts about the prospects for success. A large number of barges were gathered together on the Channel coast, but, with air losses increasing, Hitler postponed Sea Lion indefinitely on 17 September 1940 and it was never put into action."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Sea_Lion
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Sea_Lion#/media/File:OperationSealion.svg
German battle plan - map
https://plus.google.com/103755316640704343614/posts/W8rwrdNYq81

What if Germany Had Invaded Britain?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFpd8_-nkH8

Timewatch - Operation Sealion (BBC 1998)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ux-J8B8fURk


https://www.warhistoryonline.com/world-war-ii/new-zealand-sniper-clive_hulme.html

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/world-war-two/world-war-two-in-western-europe/operation-sealion/

http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/operation-sea-lion-hitlers-cancelled-invasion-britain-20294

MHV playlists
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK09g6gYGMvU-0x1VCF1hgA/playlists



Invasion Publicity during the Second World War .




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sī vīs pācem, parā bellum

igitur quī dēsīderat pācem praeparet bellum    therefore, he who desires peace, let him prepare for war sī vīs pācem, parā bellum if you wan...

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