A Yankee in a Spitfire

28th July 1940: An American pilot volunteers for the RAF - and describes his experiences when he starts flying ‘the world’s deadliest fighter’

To myself, who had been instructing for the last year and a half in trainers of forty horsepower that cruised at sixty miles per hour, this was such a change that there just didn’t seem to be any connection with my former flying. The first time I took a Spitfire up, I felt more like a passenger than a pilot. However, I began to get used to the speed after a few hours. I practiced acrobatics mainly at first, to get familiar with the behavior of the airplanes.

In doing this I got my initiation to a new factor, which limits a pilot’s ability to maneuver at high speeds. This factor is known as the ‘black-out’ - no connection with the black-out of cities at night.

Exhaustion takes its toll

7th August 1940: Relentless days of being on alert - and flying several sorties every day - has fatal consequences for RAF fighter pilots

I called him more urgently. ‘Red three - what the hell’s the matter. Wake up Red three! Red three! Wake up!’ He continued to roll to the left and dive. The speed was mounting to the high 400s. In a few seconds I would have to break off or hit the speed of sound, which could break up the Spitfire. Obviously Mackenzie had gone to sleep. They were all so tired it was amazing how they kept awake.

‘Shot down and in the drink’

23rd August 1940: A Hurricane pilot describes the experience of baling out of a burning plane, hoping to be rescued from the English Channel

I had various problems to deal with. First of all I had to get rid of my parachute. It was difficult because I was badly burnt. Next I had to blow up my life jacket. I got hold of the rubber tube over my left shoulder but when I blew into it, all I got was a lot of bubbles. It had burnt right through. By now my face was swelling up and my eyesight was bad because my swollen eyelids were closing up. The distant view of England, which I could see a few miles away, was blurred but I started to swim vaguely in the right direction.

Head on Attack

18th September 1940: A Hurricane fighter ‘ace’ participates in a blunt confrontation to disrupt a daylight bombing raid on London

The familiar stomach-clenching tension and surging wave of excitement. Another check around. Gun-sight on? Gun button to ‘Fire’? Plug pulled and 1,850 revs? Everyone jostling and hopping about like mad and squashing together to position themselves for a decent shot. On the right of the formation, I was acutely aware of Hurricanes massing and swaying to my left. Bursting ack-ack, larger puffs now, marching in silent strides toward us. The Heinkels growing in size like characters in a cartoon film. Any moment! Some Hun fighters wheeling away to the north, getting round behind us. Watch those blighters, for God’s sake! Everyone bunching. Careful'.

Exiting a burning Spitfire

25th October 1940: Until modifications were made to the canopy, it was often an ordeal to bale out from the early Spitfires

We peeled down in the bounce and I homed in on the leader. I was just getting in to maximum range of about 500 yards when they saw us and my target bunted down into a steep dive. Since hopefully the rest of B flight following me down had selected their victims, I stuck with my 109 and slowly got more into shooting range. We were creaming downhill and I could feel the high speed buffeting on the elevators and the ailerons stiffening up. I was considering whether to open fire or get closer in when all hell broke loose.

Spitfires are still fighting the Battle

21st November 1940: RAF fighters are still intercepting Luftwaffe intruders in the south of England

I feel excitement. The same as the hunter must feel as the field gets towards the end of the chase. Never went much on this hunting lark myself. Seems a bit one-sided to me. Chasing German aeroplanes is another thing entirely. I peer ahead through the spinning disc of the airscrew and steady myself down. If we’re sensible and do the job carefully and properly then both these Huns are cold meat. They haven’t seen us.

14th May: Elisabeth Jacoba van Van Lohuizen-van Wielink is a storekeeper in the Netherlands when she learns her country is to surrender:

This news moved me so deeply that I began to cry. We were not free anymore. That was because - Oh, we understood it all so well now - of the betrayal of our own people. We could not believe it, and yet it was so.

Everyone was glad that our soldiers would be spared death. But still, to become a part of Germany was terrible. What will the future bring? Poverty for our country. A dark time, and an uncertain future.

It was as if there was a death in the family tonight. Everyone who comes in is quiet and anxious. I cannot feel relaxed; I just keep hearing the word “betrayal.” We might not have succeeded against such a powerful enemy, but still this betrayal is so vile, it is odious.

13th June: Bessy Myers is an ambulance driver working for the British Red Cross in France:

Kruger tells Darby and me that there are enough ambulances to take the wounded to Sens, and we had better go straight to H. Q. at Saint-Valérien. Le Maire asks us to stay put; he wants us to take one grand blessé and two semi. Our wounded are put in; one of the nurses, whose name I never learn, but who is always called Mademoiselle, comes in front with us. See various ambulances and people in the dark — there is a lot of shouting to find out who's who — we are off. Darby drives, and we follow Kruger. After twenty-four hours of more or less continuous driving feel very sleepy and doze off — to be waked up by the word "Halt!" I open my eyes to find I am gazing at a German soldier.

4th October: Moira Ingram survives a string of screaming bombs

About three minutes afterwards, however, he sent another stick of bombs down, and one of them was a screaming bomb. These fell very close, in fact I closed my eyes and waited for the house to fall, but nothing happened. Mr Powell ran upstairs and shouted to me to get up and go downstairs.

There was no need for him to tell me, I was half dressed by that time, although my knees were knocking and my legs wouldn’t hold me up. When I arrived downstairs I found that beds had been made up down there and we retired in comparative safety, the Air Raid Shelter being three inches deep in water.

30th October: Frances Faviell is a nurse who finds herself leading a perilous rescue

I saw a little group of people bending over what seemed to be a hole in what had been the basement of a house but which now appeared to be filled in with debris. A car stood in the road with the notice ‘doctor’ on it. It was dark, but I could see that there were three men bending over the hole and one woman. The woman wore nurse’s uniform.

As I hurried by she turned, said something to the others, then called to me, ‘Nurse.’ I went over. The man bending over the hole straightened up, but I could not look at him because of the appalling sound coming from the hole.

6th December: Barbara Dixon is an Air Raid Warden in a shattered area of London

We always had a large number of fires in our area, and silhouetted against the red, and sometimes greenish or white, firelight, this chaotic tangle of ruins dwarfed Pompeii, with its Vesuvius, into insignifieance. Nothing was left. The heart of the largest city in the world was a wilderness. Here and there, desultory trails of smoke curled up; the pigeons had deserted it, no gulls circled over it, the only inhabitants were occasional, scurrying rats

21st December: Helen Forrester is caught out in the open during the Liverpool Blitz

On the theory that a moving object was harder to hit than a stationary one, I ran like a frightened alley cat, in the hope of avoiding an incendiary bomb or heavy piece of debris falling on me. Incendiary bombs, though quite small, were deadly if they fell on someone, and flak from our anti-aircraft guns or flying pieces of rubble and glass from bombed buildings, were more of a menace than the chance of being caught directly by an exploding bomb. Another great danger was from falling power lines, still live and spitting like angry dragons...

21st June 1940: William L. Shirer watches Hitler’s face as he humiliates the French

He glances slowly around the clearing, and now, as his eyes meet ours, you grasp the depth of his hatred. But there is triumph there too – revengeful, triumphant hate. Suddenly, as though his face were not giving quite complete expression to his feelings, he throws his whole body into harmony with his mood.

He swiftly snaps his hands on his hips, arches his shoulders, plants his feet wide apart. It is a magnificent gesture of defiance, of burning contempt for this place now and all that it has stood for in the twenty-two years since it witnessed the humbling of the German Empire.

28th June 1940: Marie-Louise Dilkes watches the Germans settle into Paris

Along my path when I leave my house in the morning, I see pasted on the wall of the Boulevard des Invalides the poster of a German soldier. He is smiling and holding a child in his arms. Around him are gathered children with their mothers, looking up at the soldier with confidence. Underneath is written Population abandonée, avez confiance dans le soldat Allemand. (“Abandoned population, have confidence in the German soldier.”) Splendid propaganda! But shall it really lessen the hatred in the hearts of the French for the enemy?

7th July 1940: Virginia Cowles watches the British prepare for invasion

One night we were driving along an isolated lane when two men sprang out of the bushes, waving a lantern and shouting at us to stop. They poked their guns in the window, flashed their lights in our faces and asked us for names and destination. After a certain amount of questioning, one of them said: ‘We might as well let them go. They don’t look like parachutists.’ ‘Well,’ said the other sceptically. ‘You can’t be too careful. From what I’m told they like to come down in skirts.’ We made a hurried exit before their doubts deepened.

16th August 1940: Billy Fiske dies flying for the RAF in the Battle of Britain

It was during this dogfight that Fiske is believed to have been hit by return fire, forcing him, badly burned, to make the emergency landing back at Tangmere.

One member of 601 Squadron who had fond recollections of Fiske was Squadron Leader Hugh ‘Jack’ Riddle: ‘My memories of Billy as a pilot was that he was quite exceptional. His Flight Commander, Sir Archibald Hope, having assessed Billy’s flying ability on arrival with the squadron, said

“In all my flying experience I have never come across a pilot with such completely natural flying ability, and quick reactions. He made his aircraft become part of him.”

31st October 1940: Quentin Reynolds writes the commentary for the British Propaganda Film ‘ London Can Take It’

COMMENTATOR: Now the searchlights are poking long, white inquisitive fingers into the blackness of the night.

The camera pans up to follow the searchlight into the sky. A still shot of some clouds, and then an anti-aircraft gun fires a volley into the sky.

COMMENTATOR: These are not Hollywood sound effects. This is the music they play every night in London.

Various men attend to searchlights that are shining into the sky.

COMMENTATOR: The symphony of war.

More volleys from an anti-aircraft gun. The shot changes to the the same bus stop from earlier. There is the whistling sound then an explosion and a bright flash.

COMMENTATOR: That was a bomb.

24th December 1940: Ed Murrow again broadcasts live from London

It can’t be a merry Christmas, for those people who spend to-night and to-morrow by their firesides in their own homes realize that they have bought this Christmas with their nerves, their bodies, and their old buildings. Their nerve is unshaken; the casualties have not been large, and there are many old buildings still untouched.

Between now and next Christmas there stretch twelve months of increasing toil and sacrifice, a period when the British will live hard.

Hitler's ‘appeal to reason’

19th July 1940: After a long speech congratulating himself and his generals, the Nazis ‘hope and pray’ that a peace offer to Britain will be accepted

Hitler and Mussolini in talks

4th October 1940: Hitler keeps his plans secret and tries to dissuade Mussolini from further adventures

Hitler triumphant

8th November 1940: At his annual address to the Nazi Party faithful, Hitler has much to boast about

Hitler orders ‘Case Barbarossa’

18th December 1940: The fateful order to ‘crush Soviet Russia in a rapid campaign’ envisages an attack in May 1941, while the Luftwaffe continues to attack Britain

During the past few months, I have been able to post several excerpts from different volumes of Dilip Sarkar’s eight-volume history of the Battle of Britain. This work is the culmination of many years of research and consolidates Sarkar’s perspective on the unfolding battle across its many stages. It reflects his deep understanding of the period, drawn from so many interviews with the men who were there, alongside documentary research.

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One omission was an excerpt from Volume One - The Gathering Storm, which provides an excellent introduction to the situation that the RAF faced in the late 1930s, alongside the political and strategic context. The fate of the RAF - and the fate of Britain - rested on some very fine decisions made at a very late stage before battle commenced.

Had Britain gone to war in 1938 without the pause created by the Munich Agreement, the RAF would likely have been obliterated by a much stronger and better-equipped Luftwaffe. The war-winning Spitfire and Hurricane were only just coming into service in numbers; there were not enough pilots to fly them, and the ‘Dowding System’ to use them effectively in the defence of Britain was still in development. It was - “a very close run thing” to be ready by the summer of 1940 - and makes for a fascinating story.

As in every book in this series, there are many personal stories from the men who served. Sergeant Bill Green had been a ‘Fitter’ in the RAF before being accepted for pilot training. His experiences of being trained in radio procedure and of his first flight in a Hurricane are very revealing about how the RAF went to war:

He said, ‘With the rapid increase in numbers of aircraft, the wavelengths are completely overburdened and becoming jammed because people are using an undisciplined form of communication, everybody saying what they think they need to say, and without the person at the other end having the slightest inclination of what to expect he will say.

For instance, one person might say, “Oh, this is Fred Jones, and I’m from so-and-so, so-and-so squadron, and I’ve just been here, and I’ve just been there, and I want to come in to land”, or whatever. Now I’m going to play a record, and I want you to tell me what it is.’ So he put this record on, and it played for about a minute, and it sounded just like a chipmunk. Having stopped, he said, ‘Now, does anyone know what it says?’ And, of course, we all laughed, because there was no way. So he said, ‘I’m going to play it again.’ He duly played it again, and, of course, nobody knew what it was, although one or two had a wild guess.

He said, ‘Now I’m going to tell you what it says before I play it for the third time: “Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary, How Does Your Garden Grow?”’ Then he put the record on at the same speed, and it sounded crystal clear. And it was a wonderful demonstration of how, if the brain is, through the ears, searching for something that is being transmitted, there are a billion items that it might be, whereas if one has some idea of what it might be, then one has a lesser field to cover, and therefore the brain is more likely to interpret the message.

He then went on to say that in selling this idea to the senior echelons of the RAF, he picked up, in their presence, a telephone which had loudspeaker attachments, and a female voice said, ‘Number, please!’ And he said, ‘The gentlemen of Wembley are a motley assembly.’ She said, ‘I’m sorry, Sir, what was your number?’ He said, ‘The gentlemen of Wembley are a motley assembly.’ She said, ‘I’m very sorry, Sir, I didn’t get your Wembley number.’

He then said, ‘I am not saying a number,’ repeated it, and then got the answer that he would have got the first time, if she hadn’t been trying to identify a number from the words he was using. I thought that was an absolutely wonderful demonstration of the need for a disciplined jargon in communications.

Anyway, this was all quite cleverly done in retrospect, because at one end of the football field were three ‘Wall’s Ice Cream Stop Me and Buy One’ tricycles. Each had a TR9 radio set, identical to those used in fighter aircraft, with a helmet, earphones and plug. And at the other end of the field was a solitary bicycle, of similar type, but with no radio. The field had been marked out in white chalk, with sections like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 or whatever, and we were asked to participate in an exercise.

One of us would go onto the roof of a little hut with a Verey flare pistol, and three of us would be on a bicycle each at one end, and one at the other end; the rest would be either the controller or plotters in the plotting room. The exercise would begin when the participant on the roof would fire a Verey cartridge, and the controller would ‘scramble’ the three bicycles by communicating through the cyclists’ headphones. When the Verey light had been seen, the person riding the solitary tricycle at the other end had already received instructions that he was to cycle towards the opposite end of the football field, changing course now and again.

The controller would then give the leader of the three bicycles a course, to intercept the intruding ‘bomber’ tricycle, worked out from information supplied by the rooftop observer. This would then be plotted on the field, and the whole interception recorded. This was quite ingenious, because it provided participants a complete picture of how the whole radar and interception technique worked, and at the same time enabled Professor Lloyd Jones, Lloyd Williams or whatever his name might have been, to criticise the voices or diction we were using. This lasted for three days, or thereabouts.

...

[Instead of being sent to an Operational Training Unit Sergeant Bill Green was one of the many newly qualified pilots who had to be trained to fly operational aircraft when they arrived at their frontline Squadron. His experience was probably typical for the time: ]

...

And the next morning I presented myself to the training officer and told him that I’d just done the one dual circuit. He said, ‘Well, what aeroplanes did you have in 501 then, when you were a fitter?’ I said, ‘Well, we’d just got one Hurricane.’ ‘Oh,’ he said, ‘Well then, you know all about them. Look, there’s one out there on the tarmac,’ which he pointed to; ‘Go and sit in it, and when you feel happy, just take it off.’

‘Well, just a minute,’ I said, ‘What speed does it lift off at, and what is the approach speed, and what speed would I need for a loop, etc?’ So he told me these things. So I did as I was told, went and sat in it, and familiarised myself with the taps, and off I went.

And I thought, ‘Right, I’m going up high to do my first loop,’ and up I went to about 20,000ft, adding about 50 per cent to the speeds he’d given me, for safety purposes. Well, bearing in mind I’d only flown Hawker Harts and Magisters, with a top speed of about 110 mph, I dived this Hurricane down to about, 250, 280, 300 mph, pulled back on the stick as I would with a Hawker Hart, and immediately blacked out. And, when I came to, I was hanging in my straps and I looked over the side and saw sky, and realised I was upside down, so put the stick over to the normal position, and spun.

I didn’t know much about spinning, having done my spinning training in Magisters and Harts, but I had heard say that with these new-fangled Spitfires and Hurricanes, you didn’t get into a spin because, if you did, you couldn’t get out. So anyway, away I went, spinning away, doing the corrective action that I’d been taught, and, lo and behold, it worked. The aeroplane came out of the spin, but I was so relieved I forgot to centralise, and off it went again, spinning in the opposite direction!

By the time I managed to resume the normal flying position, I was down in the clag, very humid, hazy weather, with no clear and defined horizon, and all the instruments were going round in the cockpit like hummingbirds. Nobody ever told me that you had to lock the gyroscope of the artificial horizon before you spun, and as a consequence, the gyrations I had been through had toppled the gyroscope – the artificial horizon was going round and round like a washing machine!

Anyway, I felt a little bit nauseous, but managed to get back to Biggin Hill. The air was full of dogfighting activity, warnings and shouting and so on and so forth. I approached Biggin Hill, made my approach, and realised a little bit late in the game that I had overshot, by which time I was holding off well up the runway, probably halfway, so dropped down and realised that I was going to run out of runway – and hurtled towards the Hurricanes of 32 Squadron, or some of them anyway, which were scattered about the place.

Using my brakes judiciously, eventually, and somewhat miraculously, and thankfully, I came to a halt without damaging my aeroplane, any other aeroplane, or myself. I had done over 170 hours at that time, and this first Hurricane flight was on 8 August 1940, in P2549.

Anyway, having screamed to a halt, I was sat in my cockpit feeling very relieved, when Squadron Leader Worrall, the CO of 32 Squadron, hurtled out of his office, jumped up onto my wing and gave me the biggest telling off of all time, confining me to camp for two weeks and ordering me to report to his office immediately, which I did.

He there tore off a second strip, asked me what on earth I thought I was doing etc; I told him that it was my first flight, and related my lack of experience. At that he relented, and said ‘OK, in that case forget about being confined to camp, but for heaven’s sake don’t ever do such a thing again, you could have written off several aeroplanes and killed yourself, and other people, in the process.’ So, that was that.

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© Dilip Sarkar 2023, ‘Battle of Britain - The Gathering Storm’. Reproduced courtesy of Pen & Sword Publishers Ltd.

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We formed upon the start line and looked down on this silent and peaceful village. The Germans knew we were there; they were waiting for us and as soon as we started to break cover, I looked up and I could see about a foot above my head the branches of trees being shattered by intense machine-gun fire and mortaring. They obviously had the guns on fixed lines and they pinned us down before we even got off the start line. This was the first time I'd led a company attack and within minutes I'd lost about one-third of them.

He hurled handgrenade for handgrenade, bayoneted 2 fanatical Germans who rushed a doorway he was defending and fought on with the enemy's weapons when his own ammunition was expended. The savage fight raged for 4 hours, and finally, when only 3 men of the defending squad were left unwounded, the enemy surrendered.

They went to ground in a ditch by the roadside, with the Germans still firing at point-blank range. There was a hurried consultation, carried on in whispers in case the Germans would hear it, and a section was sent to work round the flank and discover the enemy strength; but before they had gone far, four more spandaus opened up and pinned them.

There were more consultations, more expeditions; and always there were more spandaus. The Germans were in the ditch in strength, and try as we might we could not get to grips with them.

For a moment I was triumphant and my eyes lingered on my prize, confirming it. There he was! ... He was there, still lying there, and it wasn’t a game any longer. He hadn’t risen to his feet, dusted himself off, and thumbed his nose at me gaily before starting to run again. He lay there, quiet now, and he hadn’t moved, and I laid my rifle on the floor of the attic - carefully, because of the plaster dust - and put my head in my hands. I wanted to be sick, but there wasn’t time to be sick.

Some of the men looked around the dead Germans on the ground around us to see if there were any valuables that might be worth picking up. As for myself, I never became hardened enough that I could loot the dead. I didn't want to have anything to do with the dead soldiers. It was hard enough to just look at these men, killed at such a young age.

‘A’ Company had advanced to within about 200 yards of our objective when our supporting tanks bogged down. Stuck in the mud. I went forward to the troop leader’s tank and pressed the button on the rear of the vehicle. This should have made it possible for voice communication between us by telephone. For some reason it was not working! The tank just sat there like an enormous iron elephant’s turd. No response from the crew inside. Their machine gunner continued to pour hot lead into the heaped-up autobahn - but not where I wanted it!

We were led across country, through gardens and over railway embankments. They were a most disorderly crowd. There were at least 100 of them, and they just straggled along. I told them they were completely surrounded and they might just as well give up. Some were muttering among themselves and appeared quite willing, but two N.C.O.s ordered them on. They told me their officers had left them the day before.

About 150 yards from shore I raised my head despite the warning from someone to “keep your heads down.” I could see the craft to our right were taking a terrific licking from small-arms fire. Tracer bullets were bouncing and skipping off the ramp and sides as they zeroed in on the boat, which touched down a few minutes before we did. Had we not delayed a few minutes to pick up the survivors from the sunken craft, we might have taken the concentration of fire that boat took. Great plumes of water from enemy artillery and mortars kept sprouting close by.

[The Prime Minister's party left the train at] 7.30 am to catch the destroyer Kelvin and leave Portsmouth at 8 am. The Americans had already started in a separate party. We had a very comfortable journey over and most interesting. We continually passed convoys of landing craft, minesweepers, bits of floating breakwater (Phoenix) being towed out, parts of the floating piers (Whales) etc. And overhead, a continuous flow of planes going to and coming from France.

I found that there was an open valley between us and the Germans. If we went straight ahead, we’d have to cross that open area. I moved to the left-forward edge of a wooded area, crawled behind a stone wall and pulled a rock out of it. That way I could lie there and observe without being exposed. I was looking at the whole valley right up to the top of the hill. With my field glasses I spotted two German gun positions up on the hill. I think both of them were 88s. One of them might have been a 75mm mountain howitzer. They had quite a few of those, because we were facing part of a German mountain division.

We skirted through the city, peering cautiously around every corner or pile of rubble. Often Kalb would look around a corner then pull back quickly, telling us quietly to go the back the other way. It was like a game of cat and mouse and we were the mice. Then it happened, I suppose it was inevitable.

Kalb looked around a corner and was shot at. The bullet hit him in the right hand, but it was only a scratch. I sent off a burst from the machine gun and we bolted down another alley. Kalb was in the lead followed by Willi, Gunther, then myself. We went from the frying pan into the fire.

In the meantime however, all hell was let loose on our right and both the other troops in the squadron were reporting attacks, some of their tanks being knocked out. By this time we were still well to the north of Cauville, I wasn’t yet in sight of the village itself, and the ground was rapidly becoming impossible for tank movement. It was real ‘Bocage’ with 2-4 feet high banks topped by thick hedges, interspersed with trees.

Here again, many of the small fields contained orchards and the trees themselves were so low that often one couldn’t pass beneath them but was forced to jink one’s way through. This made it impossible for the gunner to see clearly and, as the tank commander was bobbing up and down in the turret, or trying to use the periscopes for sighting, it was all rather a nightmare.

After several minutes of this, two dark shapes suddenly flew across the road left to right about a mile ahead of me. They were just a little higher than I was. I turned right to cut them off, got right down on the grass, pushed the mixtures into auto-rich, rammed the props to high, and shoved the throttles to the wall.

My P-38 leaped ahead as though kicked by a mule. The cutoff angle was good and I could see I would be coming in behind the bogeys in short order. I still didn’t have a positive ID, but every instinct told me they had to be German. Instinct is no good when you’re coming up behind a target with a 20mm and four .50 caliber guns armed and ready to shoot.

Daylight came: it was absolutely essential for us to reorganise and contract our defence perimeter. All attacks had been repulsed but our losses during the night had been considerable. And it was still going on! Fortunately our dominating position ensured that we could not be surprised…! We fired without ceasing, the machine-guns and rifles grew red hot!

In the end the enemy pulled back but he still threatened the right. Attention! He was about to pass the first two points I had pre-ranged. I quickly gave the order to my signaller. The shells fell, the Boches were thrown back in disorder!

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2nd January 1943: In the Pacific the US Marines are taking the fight to the Japanese - but another island means another bloody struggle

You could always tell the Japanese bombers as they had a different sound to their engines and we ran over to our gun section. Everyone was in the slit trench and Navar and I couldn’t get in for lack of space. The bombs were starting to fall very close. Navar dove into a small shallow foxhole about the size of a coffin and eight or nine inches deep and I went into the one next to it. One of the bombs fell precisely on the fire control center hitting a large tree killing four of our guys and injuring two of the others.

Japanese death march begins

24th January 1944: Starving, diseased Japanese troops make a desperate retreat on New Guinea

The site was fouled by excrement left by the 1st Echelon that had camped here yesterday. Indeed, it was very difficult to find a clean place to put up a tent. However, when I observed the excrement, which consisted of green fibres and yellow viscid liquid, the soldiers appeared to be eating only grass or roots of trees of low food value.

D-Day in the Pacific

15th June 1944: The leap forward to Saipan would bring Japan within reach of the USAAF - but is a tremendous logistical challenge

With, this assault came a strange irony. On the ends of the long assault line were stationed two old battleships, the California and the Tennessee. Fire power from these battleships was directed by the landing party on various trouble spots. On this assault, each ship fired 100 shells from their 14-inch guns. During the day before the invasion and on 'D' Day, they took some non-critical hits because they were so close to enemy guns. They did not mind. Admiral Nagumo's planes had destroyed these ships at Pearl Harbor. There, the California lost 98 and the Tennessee lost 5 sailors. On these ships, both the living and ghosts of the dead had come to even an old score with the admiral hiding in his bunker.

The Marines at Peleliu

15th September 1944: A vivid description of the murderous run into the beach by Amtrac - as the US Marines begin one of their most difficult operations

“Fire at that near point,” the squad leader ordered. “Keep high.” Wingy fumbled with the belt and slide, trying to full-load. But he didn’t fire. He stood up straight and then fell over among the men. And he seemed to vanish. I don’t remember seeing Wingy again, but he must have still been in the amtrac. People and things dropped suddenly out of sight in action. Or at least the memory of them did. The squad leader and Buck began to feed and fire the machine gun.

Horror aboard USS Suwannee

26th October 1944: A graphic account of the terrible conditions aboard one of the first ships to fall victim to a Japanese-ordered Kamikaze attack

I think there were about 30 of us, including two corpsmen, two stretcher bearers, and perhaps 25 wounded resulting from the action of the day before, mostly consisting of extensive burns, blast and fragmentation injuries, traumatic amputations, compound fractures, and multiple severe lacerations. About half the wounded were able to help themselves to some extent in dragging themselves about, but the remainder required stretchers to be moved.

The Battle of Leyte Gulf

The 'Action in Surigao Strait' sees Japanese forces decimated - but is just part of the wide-ranging battle that unfolds over days

The first sighting of the Japanese force was made by the radar operator on the patrol boat PT-131 at 22.15 hours. What had been sighted was probably the cruiser Mogami and the Japanese destroyers scouting ahead of the battleships.

Alerted to the approach of the enemy, the MTBs rushed into the attack, firing thirty-four torpedoes at the Japanese ships. Darkness, rain squalls and interference from the enemy's gunfire led to inaccuracy, but seven strikes were claimed. The Japanese opened fire with all their weapons, illuminating the MTBs with searchlights and star shells, and pursuing them with their destroyers.

Facing a kamikaze attack

27th November 1944: A US sailor's account of coming under repeated Japanese Kamikaze attacks whilst off the Philippines

Planes were coming at us from all directions. Before the attack started we did not know that they were suicide planes, with no intention of returning to their base. They had one thing in mind and that was to crash into our ships, bombs and all. You have to blow them up, to damage them doesn’t mean much. Right off the bat a Jap plane made a suicide dive at the cruiser St. Louis, there was a big explosion and flames were seen shortly from the stern.

The morning of 9 June, Major General J. Lawton Collins, the VII Corps Commander (of which the 82nd and 101st were a part for the battle), arrived in Sainte-Mère-Église, surveyed the battlefield and troops, and met Major General Matthew B. Ridgway, the 82nd Airborne Division Commander, approximately where the railroad tracks cross under the road to La Fière. Note that the field next to the location was the major medical dressing area and casualty collection point. In Collins’ words, he saw the troops were extremely tired, seriously weakened by losses, and, in his view, marginally effective as a major fighting unit. He went to Ridgway, an old friend, and said, “Matt, your troops are tired and beat up and fought themselves to a standstill. Why don’t I pass the 90^th [Infantry Division] through and have them clear the causeway and move west?”

---

In the dawn stonk the Company Sergeant Major was killed when a shell exploded near his trench and detonated his Gammon Anti­tank bombs. These bloody awful things were standard issue for us all and we hated them. They consisted of a sort of grenade or bomb, which was sticky and had a handle, resembling a large toffee apple. It was protected by a thin metal cover that was discarded when the bomb was about to be used. The bombs were highly sensitive and exploded with little encouragement. Standing orders were that these should be kept in every trench. If tanks overran us, the required procedure was to reach up and stick a bomb on the thin underside of the tank as it passed overhead.

The weather in France was excellent, with a thin overcast at 4,000 feet, and when the brilliant edge of the sun peeped up, the countryside was rosy and objects on the ground cast long, clean shadows. And it was just a moment after sunrise when we hit the jackpot: a long column of thirty or forty trucks crawling around the right-angle turn of a gravel road, quite obviously headed for the safety of a large patch of forest a mile from their present position.

One of the SAS soldiers was Vic Long, a 20-year-old from Northern Ireland, who had volun­teered for the regiment four months earlier. 'My drop into France was my first taste of action, and my first actual time was the Orleans to Pithiviers railway line,' he remembered. 'That went quite smoothly, although it was 25 miles away, and it was a five-night trip. The trouble at night was dogs, not Germans. You went through the village, and just as you got on the outskirts, you heard this yapping, and then windows opened. You remained still, the window closed, you'd go on another 100 yards, and then another dog starts yapping. But there weren't many Germans around at night.'

Good camouflage and well-concealed positions made the firing points, gun and mortar, and anti-tank positions almost impossible to see from the American side. Some dugouts were as deep as 12ft with underground passageways leading to concealed, firing positions within the hedgerows. The firing slits from these positions were covered by vines growing out of the hedgerows. Machine guns were located under hedgerows at junctions to cover all possible approaches. During the ten days preceding the battle, the Fallschirmjager managed to badly shoot up almost every American patrol sent out trying to find gaps in their positions.

The civilians in the pocket were more interested at that moment in bread - now available only on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. A limited distribution of cooking oil was available, as were tins ofcondensed milk for those with the right ration cards, plus 150 grams of ersatz coffee. All over the city, people queuing outside the thirty-seven butchers and thirty charcutiers with whom they were registered could clearly hear the artillery fire from the perimeter, and took this as a favourable sign that the Allies’ final assault was beginning, with their liberation only hours away. What point was there, they asked, in the Germans continuing to hold out in Le Havre when British spearheads had already reached Antwerp in Belgium and the Americans were approaching Reims?

4th January 1944: In Stalag Luft III RAF POWS redouble their efforts to dig a tunnel from which to mount a mass escape

The idea was that the goons would be far less suspicious of any tunnel-making activity in the harsh Polish wintertime, when the ground was frozen. Roger wanted to blitz Harry, and complete it in a couple of months, but with snow on the ground, the problem of sand dispersal was even more difficult. And with the new American compound on the west side, the only real option was to go north.

---

Murder in a US POW camp

12th March 1944: Nazi submariners kill a fellow POW who has co-operated with his captors - leading to the last mass execution in the U.S.

The investigation in that case indicated that Drechsler had been used as an informant by G-2 or ONI to assist in the interrogation and processing of prisoners at Meade or some other installation in this vicinity. After his usefulness had been exhausted Drechsler was shipped to Papago Park for imprisonment. He was a submarine man, and Papago Park detains numerous Navy prisoners. Drechsler was recognized as a traitor to Germany and was murdered. This result could or should have been foreseen, to put it mildly

US Medic taken prisoner

30th May 1944: As the US Army advances on Rome, the front lines are blurred, and one man describes the changing fortunes of war

The first thing I heard was "Hands Ho!" and this freckle-faced kid who looked to be 14 or 15 years old shoved this Burp Gun in my face and demanded "Pistola! Pistola!" I said, "no Pistola! no Pistola!" and then there were a dozen hands all over me. They took everything except some of my medical equipment and my clothes. I always carried two canteens and extra rations, cigarettes, etc. Boy, they really cleaned me out.

Surviving a Japanese atrocity

2nd July 1944: Beaten, left to drown, then sharks - the nightmare ordeal of the men from SS Jean Nicolet - a US Liberty ship torpedoed in the Indian Ocean

And all of a sudden, I heard this hissing. You know, this air hissing. And, God, it dawned on me that they were going to submerge, you know? Which they did. And I started getting to my feet, which my legs were cramped, and I was having a time to, have, get up, and this big wall of water just come and hit me, and just slap me right against the back of the conning tower — or back of the front of the gun. And I kind of got hooked underneath that gun while it was going down, you know, the force of the water and everything. And finally, I kind of rolled to the side or something and got loose of whatever it was.

Seizing a Prisoner

1st October 1944: A young officer from the 82nd Airborne single-handedly takes out a German position

I tightened my hold around his neck, dug my tommy gun deeper into his back, and in my broken German asked: “Wieviel Deutsch soldat hier?” (How many German soldiers here?) The response was, “Ich verstehe nicht. ” (I don’t understand.)

I didn’t think my German was that bad, so other more persuasive means had to be used to make him talk. This was not a time for German arrogance. In the heat of battle I was locked in mortal combat and in a struggle for my life. I would just as soon have slit his throat except for the fact that I needed information, and division wanted him for the same purpose. I knocked him to the ground and, lying next to him, began choking him. Then I repeated my question. I got the same response.

POWs endure hell on the Oryoku Maru

14th December 1944: US prisoners on a Japanese 'Hell Ship' come under attack from planes from the USS Hornet

All day, most of us knew death was very close. One man next to me was praying continuously. During the thick of the bombing, someone started the Lord's Prayer and all joined in. Somehow after that we felt a great deal better.

...

They had sent down about four 5-gallon cans which were to be used for feces and urine. During the air raids, we were not allowed to empty them so that they ran over. Feces and urine were everywhere. Most of the men were suffering from dysentery or diarrhea. It goes without saying what an awful mess we were compelled to be in. The Jap guards refused to empty these cans and would not allow us to send a detail to do the job.

We have learnt the value of food; now we also diligently scrape the bottom of the bowl after the ration and we hold it under our chins when we eat bread so as not to lose the crumbs. We, too, know that it is not the same thing to be given a ladleful of soup from the top or from the bottom of the vat, and we are already able to judge, according to the capacity of the various vats, what is the most suitable place to try and reach in the queue when we line up.

Survival in Auschwitz - understand the system

28th February 1944: One of the great chroniclers of the Holocaust describes the arcane rules that must be followed to have a chance of survival

Everyone who could, tried to hide somewhere - in lofts, in barns and basements. Gestapo bandits searched from house to house. With axes and crowbars they opened up floorboards, walls, searched every suspicious corner - they were looking for people hiding. Children, old and sick people, invalids were taken out of the ghetto in lorries. Bloodthirsty murderers searched house after house and gloated:

"Any kittens left here? "(Germans called children "kittens"...) Mothers who refused to let their children go were badgered with German shepherd [dogs]. To muffle the terrible screams Germans turned on very loud dance and march music and broadcasted it through the loudspeakers on the lorries.

The Kinder Aktion in the Kovno Ghetto

27th March 1944: The SS target children in a ruthless and horrific round-up 'Aktion' - the drive to kill Jews remains strong even as the Red Army approaches

As Auschwitz began ‘processing’ Jews from Hungary at an unprecedented rate in May 1944, someone decided to document the steps taken in a series of photographs. A 56-page photographic album was prepared to show how cattle trucks crammed with men, women and children arriving at Auschwitz were dealt with. The 193 surviving images in ‘The Auschwitz Album’¹ are the most graphic evidence we have of how it was possible to murder so many people so quickly.

Chosen to be Gassed

26th May 1944: The SS photograph the process of 'selection' on the 'ramp' at Auschwitz-Birkenau - just another day to murder thousands of Jews

We know about the work at the sand quarry, about those who did not fulfil the norm and were thrown into the pit from the cliff. We know about the food ration: 170 grams of bread and half a litre of slops which they called soup. We know about death from starvation, about the swollen people who were taken outside the barbed wire on wheelbarrows and shot.

Final murders at Treblinka

23rd July 1944: The last workers at the Nazi extermination centre in Poland are killed off as the Red Army approaches

For the “next room” was a series of large square concrete structures, each about one-quarter of the size of the bath-house, and, unlike it, had no windows. The naked people (men one time, women another time, children the next) were driven or forced from the bath-house into these dark concrete boxes - about five yards square - and then, with 200 or 250 people packed into each box - and it was completely dark there, except for a small skylight in the ceiling and the spyhole in the door - the process of gassing began.

'Unbelievable' horror of Majanek

11th August 1944: The BBC refuse to carry a report from their correspondent because the scale of the crimes committed by the Nazis is beyond belief

Images that last fractions of a second. Images of eternity. In the distance, a long line of little lights, and in the fog immense pylons, like skeletons. A sea of mud, a plain of mud. A freezing, dark, muddy madness. I feel as if I had entered a dimension where nothing is human, that is utterly hostile to everything human, a dimension that has absorbed even its own creators, becoming a cold machine, muddy and dark, fatal and inexorable, topped by a small flame that I see for an instant as in the distance it breaks the darkness, as if the sky were burning: I don’t yet know what it is.

Arrival in Auschwitz

28th October 1944: One more day in the holocaust - the last time that an Italian family will share time together ...

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We were manning our positions in a temperature which had dropped to 45° below zero. Some men fainted as the cold struck them, paralysed before they even had a chance to scream. Survival seemed almost impossible. Our hands and faces were coated with engine grease, and when our worn gloves were pulled over this gluey mixture, every gesture became extremely difficult.

Freezing on the Eastern Front

16th January 1944: In their third winter in Russia the Wehrmacht are still suffering many casualties from the extreme cold

At these words Hitler leaped up, threw himself across the table, screwed up the map in his left hand and screamed, ‘If only the generals could finally understand why I cling to this area so much! We urgently need Nikopol manganese! They simply don’t want to understand this. And as soon as they are a few tanks short, they go immediately to their radios and say; “Without tanks we can`t hold on. We ask for permission to retreat!"

Hitler calls for "iron will"

16th February 1944: The strategy in the East is reduced to 'steadfast resistance' - re-inforced by threats to shoot Wehrmacht leaders who do not comply

Besides that, we could not always have a normal meal - the battalion kitchen was stuck in the dirt somewhere and could not catch up with us. It was impossible to find a dry spot during breaks, we had to sit down right in the dirt and immediately fell asleep for 10 or 15 minutes. Some soldiers even fell asleep while walking from exhaustion. One should not forget that most of the soldiers were just 18 years old.

The Red Army marches west

1st March 1944: It is a threadbare Army, short of food and ammunition, that is pushing the Wehrmacht out of the Soviet Union

As soon as we meet Ivan, we charge. Machine guns to fire from the hip. We will take no notice of what happens to the left or right. We go on storming through the wood until we meet our own people. If I should drop out, Zech will take command, and if he falls, Brugmann. In that case, I shall be left lying. This applies to everyone. We can’t worry about the dead or wounded. I must tell you this quite frankly. And there is another thing: anyone who does not follow or keep up with us will be shot in accordance with military law. That is a promise. Now, let’s go.

The fight continues in Finland

2nd May 1944: A dramatic account from a German soldier thrust into close combat in the woods of Finland

As I recall, the hurricane broke at 3.05am, on the dot, just as it had in 1941. The fire was concentrated mainly on the main line of resistance. Only isolated heavy-calibre shells dropped in the village. We had long since left our quarters in houses, and were waiting in the cover trenches beside them. I had been woken by the crash of bursting shells after just an hour’s sleep. That action began for me with a thundering within my skull, weakened by schnapps and tiredness.

Operation Bagration

22nd June 1944: The Red Army begins its revenge exactly three years after Hitler had launched Operation Barbarossa

We knew for certain that there had been some Germans in a house on a slight rise about 400 metres away, perhaps closer. It was a difficult rifle shot but easily within range of their Maxim. I pointed the house out to him. He crouched behind the gun and started to fire long and, in that confined space, enormously noisy bursts. Whatever his other merits as a machine-gunner, conserving ammunition was not one of them.

Warsaw - the fight goes on

14th September 1944: Poles fighting with the Red Army get into Warsaw to join the fight - even as the remaining Soviet forces stand away

On 20th November 1944, Hitler left his ‘Wolf’s Lair’ for the last time. He had spent over 800 days directing the war from the remote Field HQ in East Prussia. This was the scene of the early exhilaration over the dramatic advances into Russia during Operation Barbarossa - through to all the subsequent reverses. When he left, the sound of Red Army guns in the distance was unmistakable.

'Hitler’s Wolfsschanze'

The Wolf’s Lair Headquarters on the Eastern Front – An Illustrated Guide

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In 1944, the Allied bombers began to overwhelm the Luftwaffe defence of Germany. Fighter escorts for the USAAF Eighth Air Force meant the unsustainable losses of late 1943 ended. During ‘Big Week’ in February, raids on aircraft production factories made a massive dent in the ability of the Luftwaffe to recover from their losses - and such losses at the hands of the escorts were mounting dramatically. Bombing raids supporting the D-Day invasion successfully disrupted the transport of munitions to the battle area. Area bombing of German troops concentrations on the ground had more mixed results.

As the year progressed, ‘round-the-clock’ bombing became a reality. RAF Bomber Command hit targets at night, and the USAAF revisited some during the day. Even if they weren’t hitting the same target, the Germans were kept constantly on the alert. German industry was being progressively smashed - and civilian casualties grew. The German civil defence organisations were also being overwhelmed - to the point where they were often unable to produce meaningful casualty figures.

A selection of some of the personal stories from the bomber war during 1944:

The 392nd Bomb Group destroy Gotha

24th February 1944: A dramatic eyewitness account of one of the longest air battles of the war - as the 8th Air Force raid deep into Germany

While the camera was recording the impact of the bombs, Lieutenant McGregor took over and swung the formation to the outbound heading and the rally point. In spite of the new accurate flak from the 88 and 110 millimeter anti-aircraft artillery, the second and third squadron bombardiers, Lt. Ziccarrilli and Lt. Jackson, steered their squadrons to the precise bomb delivery points, too. Of thirty-two B-24s that took off that morning, twenty-nine delivered 348 500-pound bomb' precisely on the Gotha factory as briefed. Outstanding!

A burning plane and no parachute

25th March 1944: The extraordinary story of the rear gunner who survived an 18,000 foot fall from a burning Lancaster bomber

As I turned back I noticed that my leather trousers and jacket had caught fire. The turret was like an inferno, and getting worse all the time. My face was tingling, and I could almost feel my flesh shrivelling in that unbearable heat.

Desperately, seeking to escape from the heat, I rotated the turret to port, elbowed the sliding doors open, and back-flipped out into space, 18,000 feet deep. As I left the Lancaster I half sensed, half saw, a great explosion from her, then I was falling through the cold night air.

"Seven seconds from Eternity"

29th April 1944: A vivid account of being the last man out of a burning B-17 en route to Berlin

I had just started firing at another fighter, when our plane was rocked again and I was thrown against the side of the ship. As I stood up, I realized that I was no longer getting any oxygen and then I saw the flames behind my chair and the plane's skin began dripping molten aluminum. It was surreal to watch the aluminum skin, the metal that appeared to surround us so protectively, suddenly drip, drip, drip like soldering lead. My plane was melting before my eyes. Obviously, our oxygen lines were burning because the fire was so intense. I tried to use the intercom but it was dead. I never heard an order to bail out.

USAAF go back to Berlin

8th May 1944: A detailed account of the in-air decision-making by one of the lead pilots taking the third wave of B-24s to the German capital

The Ground Sector Control by reports from the monitor plane, plus information gained from the German radar, would get a complete picture of the condition, heading, speed, and altitude of our bomber formations. The Germans knew constantly which formations within the larger formation were the most vulnerable to attack because of poor flying, lack of friendly fighter cover, or whatever. They kept their own fighters alerted and were able to hit any part of our attacking force according to precise plan in a matter of seconds after the order was given.

The Kassel Raid Disaster

27th September 1944: Only four planes out of thirty-five B-24s from the 445th BG survive the round trip from their USAAF base in England

While we were just getting back together after the fourth turn, someone in our plane called out, "There’s a dogfight!" And all the time I’m thinking, "Oh boy, are we gonna catch it from headquarters when we get home," because we dropped the bombs uselessly.

Then our radio operator, Joe Gilfoil – who was mortally wounded that day – said, "There’s a fire in the bomb bay!"

"Black Monday" in Gelsenkirchen

6th November 1944: German civilians are burnt alive as Allied bombing intensifies the attack on the Nazi war machine

The only orientation offered were some stripes on the walls, which were painted with fluorescent paint. The bombs were fitted with rattling and whistling air screws to increase the horror effect among the civilian population. By the perfidious acoustics of the descending carpet bombing we sensed in advance, when and with what weight, a bomb would hit our neighbourhood, and we ducked instinctively and crouched on the floor. Continually we pressed our fingers in our ears and opened our mouths, so that the tremendous air pressure did not tear the lungs and eardrums. The basement swayed and shook.

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25th November 1944: The worst V2 attack of the war kills 168 when it hits a store crowded with Saturday shoppers

27th November 1944: A US sailor's account of coming under repeated Japanese Kamikaze attacks whilst off the Philippines

Welcome to the Eastern Front

24th March 1943: A seasoned veteran watches as fresh new troops encounter the reality of life on the front

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6th June 1943: Hitler delays launching his 1943 campaign while he awaits new tanks and tank destroyers

8th July 1943: A Wehrmacht Panzer commander describes the tactics used to close with the Red Army tanks in a long day of fighting

22nd July 1943: After Hitler calls off 'Operation Citadel' the Russians begin to reveal the massive strength they now have, especially in artillery

19th September 1943: As the Red Army recovers territory in the Ukraine they find a people traumatised by the German occupation

11th October 1943: A graphic and honest account from a German soldier of how the fighting on the Eastern Front has become a series of desperate retreats

6th December 1943: Despite all the reverses and retreats since Kursk the Germans can still mount a three Panzer Division counter-attack

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Official recognition by the international community of what was to become known as the Holocaust came at the end of 1942. However, the Allies were incapable of offering the Jews across Europe any significant material assistance.

In Warsaw the largest Jewish community in the world faced extermination. They had been walled into a tiny enclave since 1940. As the Nazis sealed them off from the outside world, the Jews dug tunnels to try to bring in supplies. The Germans took potshots at children trying to smuggle food in.

Then, a small, poorly armed resistance movement mounted an uprising. It was a suicidal gesture against the might of the German military machine. Yet it was an important symbolic gesture of defiance against those who persecuted and oppressed them. As the Germans systematically blew up and destroyed the ghetto around them, the women and children who were not part of the resistance movement suffered.

25th April 1943: An iconic image illustrates the terror that the Jews face in the Warsaw ghetto as the uprising continues

30th June 1943: Galicia, Poland - "Judenfrei" - An SS report describes how they have hunted down and murdered over 400,000 people in the past two years

2nd August 1943: Treblinka revolt - The slave workers in the death camp stage a desperate, suicidal attempt to escape before they are themselves murdered

Selected to Work - in Auschwitz

14th September 1943: Concentration camp prisoners are 'selected' by Josef Mengele - and a route to survival opens up

7th October 1943: As the Red Army reoccupies the Ukraine the enormity of Nazi crimes against the Jewish people is difficult to comprehend

The millions who were destined for the gas chambers remain largely anonymous. It is easier to relate to the few cases where an individual escaped the maws of the Nazi death machine. Yet even this tiny fraction of ‘survivors’ were to suffer lifelong trauma…

A catastrophe of the scale of Stalingrad would have been enough to finish off most governments. But the Nazi regime had a terrible grip on power. For ordinary Germans, 1943 was a year of coming to terms with a new harsh reality.

10th February 1943: After the disaster at Stalingrad, ordinary Germans become more sceptical of Nazi propaganda

Any kind of dissent in Germany was extremely dangerous; open opposition to the Nazis was inevitably fatal.

22nd February 1943: Youngest member of the tiny 'White Rose Resistance Movement' is one of six executed for distributing anti-Nazi leaflets

The RAF, and increasingly the USAAF, were beginning to bomb German cities with a greater intensity than anything ever seen before. Even early in the year this was having an impact on troops on leave.

5th June 1943: A U-boat officer hoping to see his girlfriend must face the grim reality of Berlin - the bomber war is already causing devastation

But worse was to come.

28th July 1943: A series of raids, regarded by some as 'Germany's Hiroshima' create hellish conditions and widespread casualties

4th August 1943: As the sequence of bombing raids on Hamburg ends the traumatised survivors seek refuge around Germany

The second half of 1943 was a difficult time to be flying with the 8th Air Force based in Britain. They were pushing to hit important strategic targets in Germany and beyond - but they suffered heavy casualties in doing so. Gradually things began to improve …

1st August 1943: USAAF B-24s fly into an array of defences and fighter aircraft to attack the critical Romanian oil refinery

17th August 1943: One in six of the B-17s bombing a German ball bearing plant are shot down, as the 8th Air Force tries new tactics

27th September 1943: The P-47 Thunderbolt makes its appearance alongside the B-17 bombers of the 8th Air Force in Europe, along with the P-51 Lightnings

13th November 1943: Extending the range of the escort fighters is crucial to protecting the heavy bombers of the 8th Air Force

See Also:

27th January 1943: "Germany, for the first time, was bombed with U.S. bombs, from U.S. airplanes, with U.S. crews"

16th November 1943: A long-distance USAAF raid finally finishes off the critical 'heavy water' plant in Norway

8th December 1943: The trials of a new USAAF Bomber Group in England

9th December 1943: Low on fuel after crossing the Atlantic the crew then encounter zero visibility - and B-17G Flying Fortress 42-31420 fails to arrive

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When Hitler launched Fall Blau in the summer of 1942, he had said that “the war is lost” if they did not seize the Soviet oilfields. At the beginning of 1943, as the death agony of the 6th Army at Stalingrad unfolded and the Wehrmacht pulled back from its limited success in the Caucasus, he must have known - deep down - that the game was up.

He could not possibly admit this to anyone, perhaps not even to himself. Instead, there were increasingly desperate attempts to claim that the war could still be won.

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He delayed his 1943 offensive at Kursk, arguing that the new Tiger Panzers would force a breakthrough. When they did not, he called off the offensive.

According to his closest aides, he then lost interest in the Eastern Front. The fantasies that various ‘vengeance weapons’ could win the war became the excuse for continuing the fight.

By November 1943 he was reduced to calling on Nazi party loyalists for the “fanatical faith that there can be nothing other than our victory.”

The strain of maintaining the illusion of confidence in final victory began to tell on him personally.

The cocktail of drugs that Dr Morrell gave him probably made things worse - and there was little solace to be found in the arms of Eva Braun.

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11th March 1943: Promoted in his first week in command of US II Corps, Patton is candid on the state of the Army that he takes over and his views on Fredendall

29th March 1943: Patton's troops advance at El Guettar - A graphic eye witness account of US heavy artillery preparing the ground for a tank attack

2nd April 1943: The American soldier on the front line- Reflections on the attitude of front line troops from a journalist turned soldier

11th July 1943: George S. Patton "earns his pay"- The General commanding US forces in Sicily arrives on the beachhead soon after the first landings

23rd July 1943: The congested battlefield of Sicily causes tension between Patton and Montgomery - but Patton charges off to take Palermo

10th August 1943: In the second of two controversial incidents General Patton accuses another sick soldier of cowardice

22nd August 1943: Patton congratulates his troops for their success in Sicily in his inimitable robust style

Rear Admiral Callaghan with ingenious tactical skill and superb coordination of the units under his command, led his forces into battle against tremendous odds, thereby contributing decisively to the rout of a powerful invasion fleet and to the consequent frustration of a formidable Japanese offensive.

23rd November 1942: Navajo code talkers join the Marines - As the struggle for Guadalcanal continues US forces are helped by Native Americans within their ranks

One of the characteristics of the Navajo language was its oral tradition. The men were accustomed to remembering quite long and detailed instructions rather than writing them down. This was to be an important aspect of the Navajo Code talkers’ work in addition to the fact that their communications were impenetrable to the Japanese.

30th November 1942: The Battle of Tassafaronga - Another Naval clash off Guadalcanal - disaster for the US Navy as they fail to hit Japanese ships and are surprised by the response

Pitching a US force of five cruisers and six destroyers against eight Japanese destroyers should have given the US Navy a considerable advantage.

But in this action, when the Japanese realised they were under attack, they were able to swiftly respond. Their Long Lance torpedoes were very effective and did terrible damage to the US ships. They had an extremely long effective range - which surprised the US ships who had assumed they were safe from torpedo attack.

4th December 1942: Guadalcanal - 'Carlson's Raiders' return - The 2nd Marine Raider Battalion returns from the legendary 'Long Patrol' - one of the first US "Special Forces' operation

He produced a highly motivated, high-morale unit of men with this approach. The 2nd Marine Raider Battalion was undoubtedly also influenced by his charismatic leadership. Other Marine units looked on and began to regard the “Gung-Ho” method as a term for an overzealous enthusiasm for combat. Later another officer would acknowledge that Carlson “may be Red, but he isn’t yellow” - he led from the front and shared the dangers and privations of his men.

14th December 1942: Guadalcanal Marines receive their orders - The First Marine Division get news that they are moving out - to prepare for another attack

Runner had malaria, Brick barely stirred from the pit except at night, Hoosier and Oakstump were subject to long periods of de­pression, Red had long since left us, I had dysentery, Chckler was irritable—all of us were emaciated and weakened beyond measure.

5th January 1943: USAAF General dies defying orders - General Kenneth Walker awarded posthumous Medal of Honor for leading daylight attack on one of the most heavily defended targets in the Pacific

On January 5th of 1943, I was on one of what most of us thought was a suicide mission ... The Japanese were getting ready to mount a large expeditionary force to relieve their garrisons on New Guinea, and Brigadier General Walker, who was the commanding general of the V Bomber Command there, was flying in the lead ship, and I was flying on his wing.

22nd January 1943: Duelling a sniper on Guadalcanal - A young US Army officer describes jungle warfare during the final battles to clear out the Japanese from the island

While I was down on the ground, wincing and holding my ear, a group of Japs blundered into our left flank and more firing began. I had a rough idea of where the Japanese who shot at me was lurking, and as soon as my ear stopped killing me I started looking for him with the thought of shooting him in the belly so that he would die slowly.

25th January 1943: Joe Foss's last flight over Guadalcanal - The last day for 'Foss's Flying Circus' - the record breaking 'ace of aces', soon to be awarded the Medal of Honor

His remarkable flying skill, inspiring leadership, and indomitable fighting spirit were distinctive factors in the defense of strategic American positions on Guadalcanal.

9th February 1943: Japanese withdraw from Guadalcanal

The destroyers were all gone. They’d had to leave in a hurry as it got light, because they were worried about getting attacked and sunk by our airplanes. As we got there, we saw many Japanese in the water. The destroyers just left them behind, left them floating there in the water.

I picked up thirteen of them and sat them up on the bow of my boat, and we took them back to Tulagi. I thought it was sensible, that maybe we’d be successful in getting information from them, but the Marines were mad as hell when I got them there.