Battle for Northern Africa-interesting info

Agreed Kai...And yes the Brits were not the only ones to instigate an amritsar massacre...as I say..history repeats...I dont go with the old saying we learn from history..we quite plainly dont.

But in that case..at least the troops firing were not doing so commanded by the British and under the delusions of a British officer...

The Indian massacre was committed by own people in own country..not by foreign occupying forces.

We could look on and say...animals what do they think they are doing..but we forget we showed the way.

 

Was this somewhere before...??

http://homepages.win.co.nz/bphprint/index.html

 

Intelligence for the Tunisia Campaign.

After El Alamein the Germans considerably tightened up on their Army signals security in the Mediterranean. They may have suspected their codes had been read during the battle, but most probably thought that some key sheets had been captured, as indeed had happened months before. Yet reading the various Luftwaffe Enigma keys, the Italian naval C38m, after September 1942 the German surface naval Enigma in the area, Porpoise, and now from December 1942 onwards the U-boat Enigma, Shark, a virtually complete record is obtained of shipping making for the Tunisian ports from Sicily and Italy. By the end of January BP is providing full details of 60 % of all the cargoes, which was not as good as had been obtained during the desert war, but pretty impressive. Virtually every day of January and thereafter BP decrypted the daily unloading returns from Tunis and Bizerta from Army Enigma. And there was ample information on the enemy’s order of battle and the arrival of reinforcements, guns, tanks and ammunition. At the end of January the Intelligence estimate of the number of Axis troops in Tunisia was 75,400, the correct figure being 74,000. Enigma disclosed that the Germans were unhappy about the performance of their Tiger tank crews in Tunisia, and warned about the arrival of the first Panther tank, and that larger numbers of both were coming on Hitler’s orders. The Allies know that Rommel has sent his 21st Panzer division back from Tripoli and that he aims to occupy the Mareth line by mid-February. Despite the increased signals security, BP manages to maintain a high level of success against the Bullfinch (and a variant called Goldfinch broken in December) and Chaffinch keys used by Rommel’s Panzer Army, though this was to fall off in February. Army Y was not functioning too well at this time, though it improved as the campaign went on.



Fish and the Herring Link. From January 1943 until the end of the Tunisian campaign on 10th May, with one short interruption in April, BP is reading the new Fish link, called Herring at BP, established in December for top-level traffic between Rome and the Army in Tunisia. This was the first really valuable fruit of the work of the Testery on the Fish codes. Fish provided only about 330 decrypts per month at this time, often after a delay of three days, but their value was inestimable, partly because of the regular supply returns. Compared with Enigma, the Fish messages were long, but their real strength came from their use at the highest level by Army and above. During this period when Army Enigma was relatively difficult to break, Fish became of even-greater importance for its insight into the state of the German Army in Tunisia, and its supply position, though it rarely offered the tactically important signals that Enigma could provide.



At first the Germans used the Lorenz SZ40 but the SZ42A was introduced briefly on this link in February 1943. There would be four machines working from the same wheel patterns or teeth positions, and a book of settings unique to that two-way link. The work the Testery had to do, by hand with some assistance from the Hollerith punched card machines, was wheel breaking (finding the wheel patterns which applied to all messages); and setting (finding the wheel start positions) that had to be done for each message. At this time the Testery was working from depths (messages which employed the same wheel patterns and settings to provide enough material on which to work with statistical linguistic techniques); depths were frequent at this time, often in the form of two consecutive messages without re-setting. Much longer depths of 15,000 or more characters were required to carry out wheel breaking, whereas setting could be achieved with a depth of 3,000 characters. They are using techniques first devised by Alan Turing (Turingisimus) and Bill Tutte. The Research Section was given the task of devising statistical and mechanical methods that did not depend upon having the luck to find depths, which was just as well because the Germans made a change to the SZ42 machine in December 1943 that eliminated depths. (Thereafter the Newmanry, using the Robinson and Colossus machines, became an essential part of the work. Prof Max Newman of the Research Section had been given the task of developing such machine methods for Fish in December 1942, and his role ‘carrying out research on specially designed machines to bring to notice clues upon which a cryptographer can work’ was promulgated by the Director on 1st February 1943, and at that time seems to have been intended to apply across the whole of BP, though in the event he and his Newmanry section seems to have worked almost entirely on the Fish codes). At this time the teeth patterns on the two motor wheels, which drove the movement of the ten code wheels, change daily, at a time the operator chooses, but the teeth patterns of these code wheels only change monthly or even quarterly.

http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/dchistory.asp?pagecode=38&sectioncode=3

 

At June, 10th, 1940 (at the very beginning of war) the Regia Marina (Italian Royal Navy) was composed by

6 battleships, two of them of modern 35,000 ton.. type (Littorio type)
7 cruisers of 10,000 ton..
12 light cruisers between 5.000 and 8.000 ton..
12 flotilla leader destroyers
28 modern destroyers
19 old model destroyers
69 torpedo boats
117 submarines of varied type and tonnage

http://homepage.tinet.ie/~steven/itanav.htm

 

To remedy the absence of aircraft carriers there was a late attempt by the Regia Marina to deploy the "Aquila " (an ex-merchant liner Roma). At the end of the hostilities, this aircraft carrier was near completion in the port of Genoa . The ship was to embark approximately 51 Reggiane type RE 2001 fighters modified for takeoff and landing on a flight deck.

ex merchant Roma
reconstruction started October 1940-43 at Ansaldo, Genoa
renamed Aquila Mar./42
partially scuttled Sep./43 to prevent use by Germans
damaged by bombing Jun.16/44
damaged by mines Apr.19/45
scuttled by the Germans April, 1945
raised 1946
scrapped 1952

http://www.warships1.com/ITcvl01_Aquila_specs.htm

Pics:

http://www.warship.get.net.pl/Wlochy/Aircraft_Carriers/1940_Aquila_class/_Aquila_photos.html

 

Macchi: the fighters with the hunchback

http://64.224.13.60/arsenals/planes_it/macchi/macchi_us.htm

 

November 6th, 1942

In England, Jimmy Doolittle tries again to fly to Gibraltar in his B-17. An American legend for his pre-war aviation feats and the Tokyo raid, he now commands Eisenhower's air forces in Operation Torch. His plane flies alone to Gibraltar. As it passes the French coast, someone shouts, "Bandits at nine o'clock!" Four German fighters (probably Me 110s) attack the Flying Fortress. German bullets slam into the bomber, ripping through the co-pilot's left arm, stitching holes in the fuselage. One bullet narrowly misses Doolittle.
But the B-17 is a sturdy aircraft, and the Germans are at the edge of their range. After two or three passes and no more damage to the B-17, the Germans head home, and Doolittle calmly returns to his maps of Morocco and Algeria.

http://www.usswashington.com/dl06no42.htm

 

Any SS in Africa Corps? Well sort of any way..

Capt. Ingmar Berndt, Rommel´s aide, an SS officer assigned to North Africa.Berndt has been sent by the Propaganda Ministry to handle Rommel's public relations, making sure that the German media has plenty of flattering stories and film clips of the Desert Fox leading victorious troops from the front.

http://www.usswashington.com/dl03no42.htm

 

There were sepcial Ss security forces only. I have no pics sorry to say.

Also this has been discussed many times in the past, but there were no Waffen SS truppen in Afrika even though plenty of pics of a tropical uniform being worn.......

~E

 

Tropical uniforms were used by the Waffen SS in Greece. Could those be the pics you are referring to?

 

Mediterranean-

over 40% of total major warship losses of the Royal Navy world-wide

one battleship,
two fleet carriers,
20 cruisers and cruiser-minelayers,
67 destroyers and escort destroyers,
45 submarines,
escorts, minesweepers, landing craft, coastal forces

http://www.naval-history.net/WW2194505.htm

 

This is Hitler's June 1942 order to Rommel to execute all german political refugees who were found with the Free French forces after their surrender.

http://www.ns-archiv.de/krieg/frankreich/befehl_img.shtml

Cheers,

 

Operation Torch and U-boats:

It is astonishing that these huge convoys had escaped the submarines that were lying in wait for them; this was partly due to the chance that a group of U-boats near the Azores had been drawn off in their savage pursuit of an unrelated convoy heading towards the UK from Freetown which lost 13 ships, and partly to the improved British marine signals security. Off the landing beaches the uncertainty created by the deception campaign led to the U-boats being drawn back to form a screen deeper into the Mediterranean.

http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/dchistory.asp?pagecode=34&sectioncode=3

 

Small anecdote from North Africa:

A young German Luftwaffe Ensign requests his pay. The paymaster is about to record the transaction in the pay book.

Ensign: Take another page - here the awards must be added!
Paymaster: (is looking at the page, EK I being recorded) You really think you will receive more than the EK I?
Ensign: As a matter of course!
Paymaster: (scrolling over a view empty pages, sarcastic) Well then, I hope this will be enough for the Oak Leaves and Swords!

The Ensign was Jochen Marseille, with 158 victories the most successful pilot outside the Eastern front. If only the paymaster had foreseen the introduction of the Brilliants!

[ 06. December 2003, 10:52 AM: Message edited by: KnightMove ]

 

I just read on Marseille that despite being a show-off ( at least before Africa ) he wasn´t very keen on talking to interviewers.

On a Finnish book on WW2 pilots there was a part where he kept answering very shortly. Something like this:

The interviewer followed by Marseille´s answer:

- So you are a famous pilot
- Yes, I am.

- Is it hard to fight in Africa?
- Yes, mostly.

- Are the British good fighter pilots?
- Oh yes!

- But you have dropped many enemy planes?!
- I think so.

- The Führer awarded you the Knight´s Cross!
- Yes.

And so on....

Seems like the Propaganda office did not get much on him in the films...

 

If you have a close look, it isn't Marseille's style of answer, but rather a stupid style to ask questions by the journalist. These *were* only yes/no-questions, or facts asking for confirmation.

 

Other way to stop the supplies reaching Rommel:

A blow against Rommel In November 1942, 180kg (400lb) of plastic explosive was used by an SOE team, aided by Greek partisans, to blow up the Gorgopotamos bridge on Greece's Salonika-Athens railway. This had been carrying vital supplies for Rommel's Afrika Korps in the desert war against the British 8th Army.

http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/H/history/heads/opinion/cross.html

 

Begging your pardon, Kai, but this is incorrect. There was a 115th Panzergrenadier Regiment, but not a 115th Panzergrenadier Division. The 115th was a regiment of the 15th Panzergrenadier Division, which was the actual linear descendant of the 15th Panzer Division of the old Afrika Korps days. At least, every reference work I have says that the 15th Panzer was reformed as the 15th Panzergrenadier in Sicily with some extra units drafted in from elsewhere (for example, the 129th Panzergrenadier Regiment of the defunct 22nd Panzer Division, which was disbanded in Russia).

Yours,
Paul

 

Thanx for the info Paul!

And now:

On battle of Matapan

I myself was inclined to think that the Italians would not try anything… I bet Commander Power, the Staff Officer, Operations, the sum of ten shillings that we would see nothing of the enemy.’ Admiral Andrew Cunningham


http://www.watersideweb.co.uk/Barham/matapan.htm


It was the first fleet action of the WWII, the first since the Battle of Jutland, the first in the Mediterranean since the Battle of the Nile in 1798, and the first fought at night. It was the first time that carrier-borne aircraft played a vital and indispensable role and radar-equipped ships were used in a fleet action .

http://www.royal-navy.mod.uk/static/pages/5798.html

German dive-bombers had seriously damaged the aircraft carrier Illustrious in January and their intelligence believed that Admiral Cunningham’s Mediterranean Fleet possessed only one operational battleship. Accordingly the Italians, whose battlefleet was crippled at Taranto, calculated that a force of heavy cruisers supported by the battleship Vittorio Veneto would be sufficient to deal with light British forces around Crete.

In fact the British were in much better shape. All three battleships were intact and another carrier, Formidable, had recently arrived.

Ultra had broken Axis codes and warned when the Italian fleet sailed on 26 March.

Cunningham cleared the area of convoys and despatched Vice Admiral Pridham-Wippell’s cruiser squadron to the south of Crete. On 27 March a reconnaissance aircraft from Malta spotted three Italian cruisers and four destroyers heading for Crete. Cunningham sailed with his battlefleet that evening.

The battle commenced at 0745 on 28 March when Pridham-Wippell’s four light cruisers sighted a squadron of three Italian heavy cruisers. The Italians 203mm guns opened fire at a range at which the 152mm weapons of the British ships could not initially reply. Pridham-Wippell retired towards Cunningham’s force at the full speed in the hope of drawing the enemy into a trap, but at 0855 the Italians suddenly withdrew.

The Italian commander, Admiral Iachino, planned to annihilate the British cruisers involving a pincer movement with the battleship Vittorio Veneto. The action began well for the Italians when the Veneto’s 381mm guns opened fire at 1055 to the complete surprise of the British. Pridham Wippell’s cruisers laid a smokescreen, but were caught in the crossfire between the Veneto and the Italian cruisers.

Formidable’s Albacore torpedo-bombers attacked the Italian battleship without success, but having no air cover Iachino realised his vulnerability and ordered his forces to retire. The chase was on. In a further attack at 1510, the Veneto was hit by one torpedo and her speed was reduced. Cunningham knew he had no chance of catching the Italian battleship unless she was hit again, so he ordered at final air strike at dusk. Instead the heavy cruiser Pola was torpedoed and stopped dead in the water.

The Italian Admiral, unaware of the Cunningham’s pursuing battlefleet, now made fateful error. He ordered a squadron of cruisers and destroyers to return and protect the Pola. None of the Italian ships were equipped for night fighting. The British battlefleet detected the Italians on radar shortly after 2200. In one of the most dramatic moments in the war at sea during World War Two, the battleships Barham, Valiant and Warspite opened fire at only 3500 metres annihilating two Italian heavy cruisers in five minutes. In the melee that followed British destroyers sank two Italian destroyers and the unfortunate Pola.

Five ships were sunk and around 2,400 Italian sailors were killed, missing or captured. The British lost only three aircrew when one torpedo bomber was shot down. Cunningham lost his bet, but added another famous victory to the annals of the Royal Navy.



http://www.ahoy.tk-jk.net/macslog/BattleofMatapan.html

The German Vice Admiral E. Weichold, writing about Matapan, said:

"The unhappy result of this action, the first offensive operation which the Italian Fleet had undertaken through German pressure after nine months of war, was a shattering blow to the Italian Navy and it's prestige. If they attributed blame to the false German report of the torpedoeing of Battleships, and failure of Aircraft support, there at any rate remained an inner reaction, a more stubborn refusal to undertake offensive operations against a superior British sea power."

[ 18. December 2003, 09:45 AM: Message edited by: Kai-Petri ]

 

Italian info:

The OVRA were the secret police of Benito Mussolini under Fascism Italy. They was formed in 1927 and lead by Arturo Bocchini. The full Italian name for OVRA was 'Opera Vigilanza Repressione Antifascismo' which means the 'Organisation for Vigilance against Anti-Fascist Activities' in English. About 4000 people were arrested by the OVRA and sent to prisons on remote Mediterranean islands. The conditions in these prisons were extremely poor so many anti-Fascists simply left Italy for their own safety. The death penalty had also been restored under Mussolini for serious offences, but from 1927 to 1940, 'only' ten people were sentenced to death. As a result, the actions of the OVRA have been massively overshadowed by the actions of their contemporaries, the Gestapo and SS in Nazi Germany.

http://www.4reference.net/encyclopedias/wikipedia/OVRA.html