Iron Cross - Issue 11

WHAT'S IN THIS ISSUE?

MADE IN GERMANY – FINISHED IN ENGLAND
German fighters brought down over England during 1940 went on a touring exhibition around the country to raise money for charity and to collect funds for regional Spitfire Fund efforts. Andy Saunders tells the story.

ICH HATTE EINEN KAMERADEN
As Editor’s Choice for this issue, one of our previous contributors, Dr Sarah Ashbridge, examines in detail the German burial cultures of First World War and how Germany significantly influenced the established international conventions for the burial and recording of war dead, including those of the enemy. Burial rituals, grave marking, identification, commemoration, and the enduring legacy of war cemeteries all come under the spotlight in this ground-breaking feature.

SECOND WORLD WAR BURIALS
As a follow-on from Dr Sarah Ashbridge’s feature, Andy Saunders looks at the burial of German Second World War battlefield casualties. 

HITLERS VIKINGS
A look at the story of the Scandinavian volunteers who served with the Waffen-SS from the Eastern Front to the defence of Berlin in 1945 is brought to Iron Cross magazine by Jon Trigg.

THE HAPLESS L 20
The extraordinary tale of the disaster-beset last raid of Zeppelin L 20 on Britain in the First World War which ended with the airship being wrecked on the Norwegian coast and having to be destroyed by a hastily assembled ‘firing squad’. The intriguing story is told by Ian Castle.

THE AIR TRANSPORT CONUNDRUM
The Luftwaffe suffered severe difficulties in meeting the Wehrmacht’s airlift requirements during the Second World War and Dr Graham Goodlad describes the less than successful German efforts to overcome those problems and deficiencies.

A PERFECT ‘RHUBARB DAY’
When a Luftwaffe general set out on a routine internal flight in Occupied France during 1941, he was destined to fall prey to prowling RAF fighters flown by Polish pilots who shot his Junkers 52 down as Chris Goss explains. By sheer happenstance, the general had been a senior officer involved in the invasion of Poland in 1939.

FEMALE EAGLES
The forgotten story of how 300,000 German women served in a support capacity for the Luftwaffe throughout the Second World War. At least 20,000 of them would later die in Soviet captivity as Victoria Taylor explains.

TORPEDO CRISIS
During the early part of the Second World War, the Kriegsmarine was beset with problems bedevilling its torpedo arsenal with many of the devices failing to explode. Chris Sams explains how that it was in fact a pre-war technical issue that had not been adequately addressed.

A ‘CLEAN LUFTWAFFE’?
Sometimes presented as being simply ‘Knights of the Air’, and otherwise untainted by the Nazi ideology they served, Victoria Taylor delves deeper into the reality of the stain on the Luftwaffe’s history during the Second World War

THE KNIEWERK RAID
How the story behind a truly puzzling mystery photograph of German soldiers published in a previous issue of Iron Cross magazine was unlocked in detail by First World War researcher and author Jonathan Porter.

UNIFORMS AND EQUIPMENT
We explain the bizarre and unlikely story behind how a full Luftwaffe dress uniform, complete with dagger, floated to earth on a coat hanger over Britain during an air battle in 1940.

NOTES FROM THE ARMOURY: LUFTWAFFE BOMBS
Throughout the Second World War, the Luftwaffe deployed a wide range of air dropped weapons against its enemies and across all theatres and fronts. Explosives expert Mark Khan throw a spotlight on some of the bombs and missiles employed.

CONFLICT ARCHAEOLOGY
An interview with The Romanian Military Archaeology Team reveals a variety of German battlefield discoveries across Romania and how the team strives to record, preserve, and present its many German military finds from both the First and Second World War.

PHOTOS FROM THE FRONT
Our offering in this issue of Iron Cross magazine from our colourisation artist, Richard J Molloy, is an unusual view of a German armoured car, the E-4/V Panzerkraftwagen, on the Eastern Front during the First World War.

WAR POSTER
Our featured war poster for this issue is a classic and seasonal ‘Christmas in the Field’ poster exhorting the German public to donate generously for their soldiers at the front.