Iron Cross - Issue 22

FIRST TO FALL  
The first enemy aircraft to fall on British soil during the Second World War, a Heinkel 111 brought down over Scotland in October 1939, carried with it a secret hidden in plain sight as Andy Saunders explains.
ANTHRAPOID
The only government sponsored assassination of a leading Nazi official, Reinhard Heydrich, was carried out successfully albeit that a terrible price was paid by the assassins and innocent civilians alike.
ENIGMA AND ITS VARIATIONS
The astonishing story of Germany’s famous cypher encryption machine, Enigma, is outlined by Georg Wiessala with a focus on the all-but-forgotten inventor of the equipment, Arthur Scherbius. 
OF FRIEND AND FOE
Regular contributor Chris Goss charts the story of war graves from both wars in the tiny village of Vladslo, Belgium, contrasting the differences as to how the resting places of German and Allied servicemen have been treated.
TWO-SEATER ACES
The late Norman Franks, a leading historian of First World War aviation, examines the stories of some of Imperial Germany’s largely ignored two-seater aces, some of whom later went on to serve Hitler’s Third Reich.

EVOLUTION OF THE 1939 IRON CROSS
The Iron Cross of 1939 was a decoration that had a complex, complicated, and surprising evolution from its original inception through to the end of hostilities as Dietrich Maerz, our subject specialist, explains.
FLUGZEUGTRÄGER GRAF ZEPPELIN
The story of Germany’s only aircraft carrier of the Second World War, Graf Zeppelin, is one of failure to get the vessel into service, the huge vessel becoming a ‘white elephant’ – albeit a target for the RAF’s famous Dambuster squadron!
FIRST BLITZ
The Blitz on Britain is generally thought of in terms of the attacks of 1940 – 1941, but a deadly Blitz had been launched on the country by Germany during the First World War by Zeppelins, aircraft, and through naval bombardment.
TANK’S TEUTONIC TRAINER
The focus of popular interest in the Luftwaffe’s aircraft tends to focus on the combat types such as its fighters, bombers, and dive bombers. Barry Wheeler bucks that trend by telling the intriguing tale of the Focke-Wulf 44 Stieglitz trainer.
ONE-SIDED BATTLE
Just one single and very lucky shot fired from a civilian ship, the SS Umgeni, brought down a Focke-Wulf.Condor over the Atlantic in what Chris Goss describes as the first notable casualty suffered by the Luftwaffe’s Condor fleet.

GOLIATH

If ever a piece of Second World War German military equipment was mis-named, then it was the tiny Sd.Kfz.303 ‘Goliath’, a tracked device intended for remote battlefield demolition and clearance. Craig Moore outlines the story of this unusual vehicle which looked for all the    world like a child’s remote-controlled tank. When examples of this strange device were captured by the Allies   they were immediately subjected to extensive testing and evaluation. In this revealing feature, the author looks at this innovative contraption through the eyes of those who evaluated it in captivity.

EQUIPMENT IN COLOUR
In this issue, our regular Equipment in Colour feature by Richard J Molloy, showcases the Zundapp K 800 W motorcycle which was used extensively by the Wehrmacht throughout the Second World War, this image being taken in France during the early war years.
FOLLOW-UP
In our occasional series, the editor discovers an unusual – and probably unique – piece of surviving Luftwaffe history in the form of a tail-mounted grenade launcher as fitted to some examples of the Heinkel 111 bomber.
REVIEWS
Our regular look at military history titles and publications covers a superb new book on the war maps of Operation Barbarossa and the truly lovely new calendar produced for 2025 by the Great War Aviation Society.
NEXT ISSUE
We reveal some of the unique and exciting content which we have got lined up for our readers in the next issue of Iron Cross magazine.

COMPETITION
Your chance to win one of five copies of a new book by the editor of Iron Cross magazine which takes a rather different look at the Messerschmitt Bf 109 E during the Battle of Britain.
NOTES FROM THE ARMOURY
During the First World War, air combat was initially fought out using rifles and pistols before fixed guns and interrupter gear were developed. We look at one of Germany’s hand-held weapons for air-to-air fighting.
PHOTOS FROM THE FRONT
An unusual and extremely historic photograph which depicts the surrender of German forces in Norway in 1945 to a civilian member of the Norwegian resistance movement.
WAR POSTER
This German propaganda poster from 1917, ‘England’ Distress’, shows a map of the British Isles with the surrounding sea areas littered with symbols showing sinking ships. The poster purports to show the scale of success of Germany’s U-boat war.