CommanderChuff

04Nov1942: British forces achieve the first major Allied land victory over Germany, at El Alamein in Egypt. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/battle_el_alamein_01.shtml World War Two: The Battle of El Alamein By Professor Richard Holmes The Battle of El Alamein did much to restore British morale during World War Two, and is remembered by the Allied forces with pride. Examine why it deserves its place in history. Introduction Military history, like so much else, is prey to the dictates of fashion. There was a time when El Alamein and the desert war loomed large in British historiography. After all, it had all the classic ingredients of a good story. In the person of Montgomery, we had a charismatic British commander, matched by Rommel, one of the most striking German generals. The theatre of war was both harsh and romantic, the classic tactician's paradise and quartermaster's nightmare. A British rifleman told a chum that it was: 'A different kind of war. There were no civvies mixed up in it. It was clean. When we took prisoners we treated them fine and they treated us fine. We had a go at them, and they had a go at us. Then one of us f***ed off.' The late Ronald Lewin, both a veteran of the campaign and a distinguished military historian, acknowledged his own compassion when Axis forces eventually surrendered in North Africa in May 1943, for '...this had been a good enemy.' And, of course, there was a famous victory: El Alamein, which encouraged Winston Churchill to declare that we had neither a victory before it nor a defeat after it. 'Military history, like so much else, is prey to the dictates of fashion.' But the tide of fashion ebbed away. Books like Correlli Barnett's The Desert Generals were (generally rightly) critical of the British high command, and as more information on British ULTRA intelligence became available, so repeated failure seemed all the more remarkable. Rommel's own character and performance were critically assessed, and the once-romantic 'Desert Fox' increasingly emerged as ambitious, crabby, and tainted by his association with Hitler. And as our knowledge of the fighting on the Eastern Front grew, thanks first to the pioneering work of John Erickson and, more recently, as additional Russian archival material has become available, it became all too easy to dismiss the fighting in North Africa as a mere sideshow. I am unrepentantly revisionist as far as the desert war is concerned. Firstly, because there was nowhere else where, after the fall of France in 1940, British and Commonwealth troops could engage the Germans and Italians on land. The humbling of Mussolini was an important objective in its own right, and after the German invasion of Russia in 1941, there was a strong case, military and political, for preventing the Germans from concentrating on the Eastern Front.

1942: Montgomery's Eighth Army launches the second Battle of El Alamein against Axis forces in North Africa. From http://www.world-war-2.info/battles/bt_5.php Second Battle of El Alamein Following the First Battle of El Alamein which had stalled the Axis advance British general Bernard Montgomery took command of the Eighth Army from Claude Auchinleck in August 1942. Success in the battle turned the tide in the North African campaign. The British Plan With Operation Lightfoot, following a massive build-up of forces, Montgomery hoped to cut two corridors through the Axis minefields in the north. Armour would then pass through and defeat the German armour. diversionary attacks in the south would keep the rest of the Axis forces from moving northwards. Montgomery expected a twelve-day battle in three stages - "The break-in, the dog-fight and the final break of the enemy." The British practised a number of deceptions in the months prior to the battle to wrong-foot the Axis command not only as to the exact whereabouts of the forthcoming battle, but as to when the battle was likely to occur. This operation was codenamed "Operation Bertram". A dummy pipeline was built, stage by stage, the construction of which would lead the Axis to believe the attack would occur much later than it in fact did, and much further south. To further the illusion, dummy tanks made of plywood frames placed over jeeps were constructed and deployed in the south. In a reverse feint, the tanks for battle in the north were disguised as supply lorries by placing a removable plywood superstructure over them. The Axis were dug-in along two lines, called by the Allies the Oxalic Line and the Pierson Line. They had laid around half a million mines, mainly anti-tank. The Battle The battle opened at 2140 hours on October 23 with an sustained artillery barrage. The initial objective was the Oxalic Line with the armour intending to advance over this and on to the Pierson Line. However the minefields were not yet fully cleared when the assault began. On the first day the assault to create the northern corridor fell three miles short of the Pierson line. While further south they had made better progress but were stalled at the Miteirya Ridge. On October 24 the Axis commander General Stumme died of a heart-attack and General Ritta von Thoma took command of the Axis forces, while Rommel was ordered to return to Africa, arriving on October 25. For the Allies in the south, after another abortive assault on the Miteirya Ridge, the attack was abandoned. Montgomery switched the focus of the attack to the north. There was a successful night attack over the 25-26th. The Axis counter-attack failed. The Allies had lost 6,200 men against Axis losses of 2,500, but while Rommel had only 370 tanks fit for action Montgomery still had over 900. Montgomery felt the the offensive was losing momentum and decided to regroup. There were a number of small actions but by October 29 the Axis line was still intact. Montgomery was still confident and prepared his forces for Operation Supercharge. The endless small operations and the attrition by the Allied airforce had by then reduced Rommel's effective tank strength to only 102. The second major Allied offensive of the battle was along the coast, initially to capture the Rahman Track and then take the high ground at Tel el Aqqaqir. The attack began on November 2 1942. By the 3rd Rommel had only 35 tanks fit for action. Despite containing the British advance, the pressure on his forces made a retreat necessary. However the same day Rommel received a "Victory or Death" message from Adolf Hitler, halting the withdrawal. But the Allied pressure was too great, and the German forces had to withdraw on the night of November 3-4. By November 6 the Axis forces were in full retreat and over 30,000 soldiers had surrendered. The battle was Montgomery's greatest triumph. He took the name "Lord Montgomery of Alamein" when he was raised to the peerage. The success of his plan led Montgomery to prefer overwhelming superiority in all his subsequent battles, leading to a reputation, with some, for being overcautious. The Torch landings in Morocco later that month marked the effective end of the Axis threat in north Africa.

Mata Hari: Executed as a Spy on this day 15 October 1917 the Dutch exotic dancer Mata Hari was executed by the French for passing military secrets to the Germans. Extract from FirstWorldWar.com >> First World War.com - Who's Who - Mata Hari Mata Hari Mata Hari (1876-1917) was the stage name of the Dutch exotic dancer and prostitute Gertrud Margarete Zelle, who was shot by the French as a spy on 15 October 1917. Born on 7 August 1876 in Leeuwarden in the Netherlands, Mata Hari's name has since become synonymous with espionage, although it remains by no means clear that she was guilty of the spying charges for which she charged. The daughter of a well-to-do hatter, Mata Hari attended a teachers' college in Leiden before, in 1895, marrying Captain Campbell MacLeod (of Scottish antecedents but serving in the Dutch army). They lived together from 1897-1902 in Java and Sumatra. Returning to Europe together they thereafter separated, at which point Mata Hari took to dancing upon the Paris stage from 1905, initially as 'Lady MacLeod' and soon after as 'Mata Hari', the name she retained until her execution. Highly successful in Paris (among other cities), Mata Hari's attractiveness, as well as her apparent willingness to appear almost nude on the stage, made her a huge hit. She cultivated numerous lovers, including many military officers. Still unclear today are the circumstances around her alleged spying activities. It was said that while in The Hague in 1916 she was offered cash by a German consul for information obtained on her next visit to France. Indeed, Mata Hari admitted she had passed old, outdated information to a German intelligence officer when later interrogated by the French intelligence service. Mata Hari herself claimed she had been paid to act as a French spy in Belgium (then occupied by German forces), although she had neglected to inform her French spymasters of her prior arrangement with the German consul. She was, it seemed, a double agent, if a not very successful one. It appears (the details are vague) that British intelligence picked up details of Mata Hari's arrangements with the German consul and passed these to their French counterparts. She was consequently arrested by the French on 13 February 1917 in Paris. Following imprisonment she was tried by a military court on 24-25 July 1917 and sentenced to death by a firing squad. The sentence was carried out on 15 October 1917 in Vincennes near Paris. She was 41. To many she remains the unfortunate victim of a hysterical section of the French press and public determined to root out evidence of a non-existent enemy within, a scapegoat attractive as much for her curious profession as for her crimes.

Dont forget that the MN's had different cab fronts, the later types being V fronted

The Baldwin 778 4-6-0 narrow gauge is a WW1 survivor and was steamed in 2007 at the Leigthon Buzzard Railway, Northants. From the railway website >> http://www.buzzrail.co.uk/ 778 Type: 4-6-0T (side tank) Date: 1917 Builder: Baldwin Locomotive Works, Philadelphia, USA (Works No. 44656) One of 495 locomotives built by Baldwin, for the War Department Light Railways. They operated on the thousands of miles of narrow-gauge tracks that supplied the front line trenches in the First World War. It then worked in India until the 1980s, finishing at the Upper India Sugar Mills in Uttar Pradesh. The first of its type to steam in Britain since the 1940s, it entered service in 2007, following a major overhaul. The number of men who fought in the First World War, and survived, is now down to just a handful. As the last living links with that momentous era finally vanish, the restoration to working order of some of the equipment they used becomes even more important, to allow future generations to understand what went on. Central to the war in the trenches was the massive network of narrow-gauge railways, which was built to supply the front lines on both sides. Among the companies providing equipment to the War Department Light Railways were the Baldwin Locomotive Works, of Philadelphia, USA, and the Motor Rail & Tramcar Company of Bedford, England. A working First World War Baldwin steam engine was last seen in Britain in the 1940s. Now War Department Light Railways No 778 is back in working order, and was launched into public service on 19th August 2007--almost 60 years to the day since the last time an engine of this type hauled passengers in Britain. Now attention switches to WDLR No 2182, the only known survivor of the small number of Motor Rail 40hp “Simplex” petrol locomotives built with full armour plating, and in original mechanical condition. It has so far received cosmetic restoration, and an appeal to return it to full working order will be launched later in 2009.

There was a TV programme recently about a chap who made a Scorpian tank float. He built a home made DD frame and screen based on the Sherman design. It worked, the tank floated but unfortunately the hull wasnt as waterproof as it should have been. The test was curtailed by water ingress into the engine bay. But the screen inflated, deflated and was waterproof.

Ahem, I really do not work for a major international IT company, but cant get this file to load. The pistons on the 14 cylinder engine are huge, the connecting rods being 1 meter in diameter alone, will try again to get the relevant picture uploaded ,..

This is a future restoration project which we should start planning for, any offers of help gratefully received ...

Thank you for your help on this, the reg number on the m/cycle is JME886, but will forward your replies to the author.

Good Morning Everyone, It is Ashes and F1 day today but from the Southern Way magazine is a request to identify the motorcycle in the photo. The author has already determined that the army unit is the 4th Queens Own Hussars, and the location is known to be Hedge Corner on the A32 Alton to Fareham on the Meon Vally line. Please let me know what you knowledgeable chaps think, thanks.

As a interested party in this epic and a non vehicle owner I am fascinated by the progress of this restoration. The detail of the vehicle is interesting for the technology that the makers had available and the solutions which were employed to overcome practical problems. Please do continue with recording the historical record of this excellent project which is a credit to you and the team, and an inspiration for the rest of us. David (modeler of Montgomery's British Army in Overlord)

In the Normandy coast episode Dick mentioned that the issue on that beach was the presence of peat just below the sandy top layer. We probably all know about the problem of blue clay which was overcome by using Bobbin AVRE's, rolling out a canvas carpet, but I have not seen any reference to peat patches in the books which I have read. In those books I have come across the Roly Poly AVRE which appears to have used small diameter trees linked with wire to form a log carpet. Would this be used to provide the runway over the peat?

Bang Bang

picture perfect

jeep dressed overall, note baseball bat strapped to wire cutter, and rear carrier for odds and sods.

too clean

Dressed to work

more vehicles

The Preserved steam railways have regular 1940's events and until recently had mock battles. These seem to have ceased and the focus is now on dioramas.

Hallo Steve, I live in near to Warwick, and mainly attend 1940 events on preserved railway, will be posting some photos of the IOW event from last weekend which had some interesting and effective dioramas. The railjeep was indeed in Bristol docks and I have the photo of it on my wall. I was thinking about getting one for the Severn Valley Railway but rather think that the manager might get a bit stuffy as it isnt steam.

Your layout and the trains look great, is it a loft layout? The small scales are great for putting a lot of hardware in the space but you would be hard pressed to do my latest project, a jeep on rails in 7mm scale. Wouldn't you?

Just to advise that I have made contact with the owners of the Private Ryan landing craft with a view to having it at the event, and if I get a favourable reply will forward it on. Although I have booked a berth at Weymouth for a sailing yatch it is not the type of ship to embark vehicles or troops, but if there is anything that I can to do in helping in organising then will be pleased to contribute. My professional life is a business project manager and am a qualified maritime skipper.

Greetings One and All, The epic tale of the WW1 lorry restoration has brought me to this website and already I have found out something interesting for my model of the Overlord invasion army. All of my models need waterproofing stripes on the mudguards! The story of the model is in the attachments, and some photos which I hope you will find interesting. I am amazed by the number of full scale vehicles that some of the forum members have, and the perfection of the restorations are a credit to you all. I have to limit myself to dressing up as a RN Commander and building models in 7mm scale (O gauge). But at least I can have lots and lots of variety in my toys. Thanks for reading this and hope to be able to contribute to the forum at some point, hopefully with use useful stuff.

Interesting detail, but was this marking system only for softskin? The armoured vehicles was similarly waterproofed in stages.