The Second World War resulted in the deaths of around 85 million people. Additionally, tens of millions more people were displaced. However, amid all the carnage people demonstrated remarkable courage, fortitude, compassion, mercy and sacrifice. We would like to honour and celebrate all of those people. In the War Years Blog, we examine the extraordinary experiences of individual service personnel. We also review military history books, events, and museums. And we look at the history of unique World War Two artefacts, medals, and anything else of interest.
The Lancaster Story: A New Book About a Legendary Bomber
From the moment it entered service in 1942, the Avro Lancaster heavy bomber quickly became an icon. In this blog post, we review The Lancaster Story: True Tales of Britain’s Legendary Bomber a new book by Dr. Sarah-Louise Miller.
Avro Lancaster Just Jane at East Kirkby, October 2015, Rob Reedman.
As we approach the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings, it is only correct that we remember the aerial battle for Normandy. On the morning of 6 June 1944, Avro Lancaster bombers of 617 Squadron (the Dam Busters) played a central role in Operation Taxable. Their mission was to create a diversion by simulating an invasion fleet on enemy radar screens, misleading the Germans about the actual location of the D-Day invasion. The role of the Lancaster bomber in the success of Operation Fortitude, the deception plan designed to convince the Germans the Allied invasion would land at the Pas-de-Calais, not Normandy, is just one of the missions depicted in a new book called The Lancaster Story by Sarah-Louise Miller.
On 17 April 1944 the Allied Supreme Headquarters issued a directive which stated the primary mission of Bomber Command prior to Operation Overlord, namely the destruction of the Luftwaffe’s air combat strength and the disruption of rail communications to isolate the designated invasion area in Normandy. RAF Bomber Command played a major role in the Transportation Plan, helping to significantly delay German panzer divisions from reaching the landing beaches and subsequent Allied build-up. Having established air superiority over the skies of Normandy, Bomber Command would be repeatedly called upon to support ground forces. Perhaps one of the most heartening sights for Allied troops on the ground was to see waves of British and American bombers streaming relentlessly toward their targets.
The Avro Lancaster
flew more than 150,000 operational sorties, dropped more than 600,000 tons of explosives, and took the Allied fight to Nazi Germany, cementing its place in history as an aviation icon.
From the moment it entered service in 1942, the Avro Lancaster heavy bomber quickly became an icon, and The Lancaster Story vividly recounts its extraordinary tale. The book describes the aircraft’s chronological history from its shaky start as the twin-engine Avro Manchester to the famous Operation Chastise or Dambusters Raid of May 1943. The book also focuses on the immense efforts made by thousands of men and women who joined RAF Bomber Command from across Britain and the Commonwealth during the Second World War. Lastly, the book sheds light on the enduring legacy of this beloved aircraft while briefly discussing the later controversy over the morality of the Allied bombing campaign.
Historian, author and broadcaster, Sarah-Louise Miller brings the story of the Lancaster to life through a combination of archival documents, letters and first-hand accounts from factory workers and aircrew to the civilians who lived near RAF Bomber Command airfields. Miller writes in a straightforward, conversational style and tone, neatly interweaving historical facts and statistics with very human tales of fear, courage, love, and loss that combine to make The Lancaster Story a compelling read. She examines the evolving strategy, tactics, and technical innovations of the air war. She also systematically explains the various jobs undertaken by each of the seven crew members and how quickly they formed tightknit, almost inseparable groups.
Ground crew refuelling and bombing up an Avro Lancaster of No. 75 (New Zealand) Squadron. The bomb load consists of a 4,000lb HC ‘Cookie’ and a mix of 500lb and 1,000lb bombs.
By 1945, a quarter of a million women of 48 different nationalities had served in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF). In 1943, WAAFs constituted nearly 16 percent of the RAF’s total strength. Although WAAFs did not serve as aircrew, they were exposed to many dangers working on the home front. They performed around 110 different trades including parachute packing, catering, meteorology, aircraft maintenance, transport, policing, code breaking, reconnaissance photograph analysis, intelligence operations, and air traffic control. One of the roles undertaken by WAAFs was to debrief aircrews immediately after they had returned from a mission. Initially, the RAF believed women would be unsuitable for the job of interrogating exhausted, often traumatized aircrew about their experiences. However, as Miller explains, WAAFs were found to be very effective in conducting debriefs. The women were able to use empathy, patience, and kindness to coax the airmen into talking about what they had seen and experienced. Miller’s book highlights the significant contribution that women made to the war effort, demonstrating courage and dedication in numerous essential roles within the Royal Air Force.
No book, film or documentary can adequately convey what it was like to climb into a Lancaster bomber, night after night, certain in the knowledge that you might never return. Lancaster pilot Stevie Stevens wrote, ‘It was pretty obvious that we couldn’t all survive.’ Bomber Command lost 55,573 aircrews killed. Another 8,400 were wounded and nearly 10,000 taken prisoner. Miller’s book leaves the reader in no doubt that a Lancaster bomber was an extremely hostile work environment. The interior of the aircraft was functional with few concessions to the crew’s comfort. Without heated flying suits and oxygen masks, the crews would freeze or pass out from hypoxia. At any moment, an aircraft might get jumped by enemy night fighters or peppered by chunks of white-hot shrapnel from anti-aircraft gunfire known as Flak. If your aircraft was hit and you had to bail out over hostile territory, then you might be summarily executed by an angry mob of local inhabitants before the German military arrived to take you prisoner. Rightly, Miller examines the incredible mental and physical stresses endured by Lancaster aircrews. Remarkably, only 5,000-6000 airmen were hospitalised or relieved of flying duties due to combat stress and exhaustion. Nevertheless, a rather unsympathetic RAF stigmatised these men with the label ‘LMF’ which stood for Lack of Moral Fibre.
25 June 1944, RAF Lancasters of No. 50 Squadron fitted with exhaust shrouds intended to conceal exhaust flames from night fighters. Source: Wikipedia.org.
Overall, The Lancaster Story is an accessible, well researched and well written book that I would have no hesitation in recommending. However, I have been left wondering, did we really need another book on the subject? A quick search of a certain popular online retailer returned more than thirty titles on the Lancaster bomber including Lancaster: The Forging of a Very British Legend by John Nichol, The Avro Lancaster: WWII's Most Successful Heavy Bomber by Mike Lepine, and Luck of a Lancaster by Gordon Thorburn. There are two books already in print with the same title, The Lancaster Story, one by Peter March and the other by Peter Jacobs. It has been a while since I read John Nichol’s book on the Lancaster, but I seem to recall that his book does cover a lot of the same ground. I’m sure the author and publisher discussed the pros and cons of producing another title for an already crowded segment of the aviation history market, but perhaps the Lancaster’s enduring appeal along with Sarah-Louise Miller’s celebrity will make certain of book sales. I hope so.
Today, the Lancaster has something of a mixed legacy both at home and abroad. In Britain, the aircraft has become a symbol of patriotism and national sacrifice. However, the bombing campaign against Nazi Germany has also been criticised and condemned by some for the killing of around 600,000 Germans, mostly civilians.
During the 1970s, the Headmaster of my Primary School was both feared and revered by small boys like me. He was a strict disciplinarian with a booming voice and a quick temper, who wasted no time in punishing any misbehaviour. However, he had also been a navigator in a Lancaster bomber and that made him something special to us. As children of the 70s, we had all grown up on a diet of epic British war films like The Dam Busters and spent hours in our bedrooms constructing Airfix model kits of Spitfires, Hurricanes, and Avro Lancaster. We read comic books like Warlord and Battle Picture Weekly. Most stories were set during World War Two and featured characters such as D-Day Dawson, Union Jack Jackson, and Lord Peter Flint, codenamed Warlord. Perhaps unsurprisingly, ‘The War’ has held an enduring fascination for us ever since. As adults, we flock to airshows, museums, military history events and commemorations. We go on battlefield tours and buy books by military historians such as James Holland, Max Hastings, Antony Beevor, and Sarah-Louise Miller. And, occasionally, we rush outside and turn our heads skyward at the distinctive sound of approaching Merlin engines. Then we stand in our carpet slippers and gape at the sight of an Avro Lancaster as it passes overhead.
The Lancaster Story: True Tales of Britain’s Legendary Bomber by Sarah-Louise Miller is published by Michael O’Mara Books Ltd will be available in hardback from 23 May 2024.
HURRICANE: The poignant biography of the plane that won the war.
HURRICANE: The Plane That Won the War by Jacky Hyams tells the story of the Hawker Hurricane and the people who designed it, built it, fought in it, and maintained and repaired it. Read the full book review now.
One British aircraft of the Second World War has come to symbolize the indomitable spirit of the nation during the dark days of 1940, the Supermarine Spitfire. However, it was the Hawker Hurricane that shot down more than half of the Luftwaffe’s raiders during the Battle of Britain. In Jacky Hyams’s new book, HURRICANE: The Plane That Won the War, published by Michael O’Mara Books Limited, the bestselling author attempts to set the record straight.
HURRICANE is an account of how the aircraft was designed, built and its service history. The book is also a testament to the pilots, the Air Transport Auxiliary, the ground crews, and the many unsung heroes of the production line. The stubby Hawker Hurricane or ‘Hurri’ as it was affectionately known was the brainchild of entrepreneurial aircraft manufacturer Sir Tommy Sopwith and Chief Designer, Sir Sydney Camm. Today, Camm is largely forgotten while the name of R.J. Mitchell, the designer of the Spitfire, is familiar to many. Yet, Camm would lead the design teams of the Hawker Typhoon, Hawker Tempest, and the post-war marvel, the Hawker Siddeley Harrier ‘jump jet’.
The Hurricane was the first monoplane fighter to enter service with the RAF, although the Bristol M1 was briefly in service at the end of the First World War. Partially constructed from wood and canvas, the Hurricane was quicker and cheaper to manufacture than its more glamorous stable mate, the Spitfire. The Hurri was also a more rugged aircraft, capable of withstanding Luftwaffe punishment that the Spitfire could not. The aircraft’s simple design meant that during the critical days of the Battle of Britain, seemingly unrepairable planes were patched up and put back into service by maintenance units. By the 15th of September 1940, the Hawker Hurricane had shot down more enemy aircraft than all other types of RAF aircraft and anti-aircraft (AA) guns put together.
Using a combination of archive materials and first-hand accounts, Jacky Hyams’s book retells more than just the history of the Hawker Hurricane. It is a book about the countless human stories of quiet courage, sacrifice, hard work, and emotional strain that the factory workers, pilots, and ground crews endured throughout the Second World War. The author keeps the technical jargon and military acronyms to a minimum, and when used she provides short, concise explanations.
Over the post-war period, the Hurri has proven fertile ground for authors, historians, and aircraft enthusiasts with over a hundred books and articles published on the subject. So, it might be fair to say there isn’t too much new to say about the fighter. Nevertheless, Jacky Hyams’s book is engaging, easy to read, poignant, and informative in turn.
By the end of its operational life, the Hawker Hurricane had served in every major theatre of the Second World War and flown with numerous air forces from Australia to Yugoslavia. Around 25 different variants of the aircraft were eventually produced, from Hawker Sea Hurricane to tank-busting ground attack aircraft. Together with the countless men and women who gave themselves so tirelessly to defeat tyranny perhaps Sir Sydney Camm’s stubby little aircraft, the Hawker Hurricane, was the plane that won the war.
Two Books on the Tank War for Northwest Europe
In this double book review, we look at two very different titles that both look at the tank war in Northwest Europe from very different perspectives. Ken Tout's book A Fine Night for Tanks takes an almost forensic look at Operation Totalize. Tank Action by David Render is a very personal portrait of the Allied advance from the Normandy beaches to Germany from the viewpoint of a junior tank commander.
The last year of the war in Northwest Europe was a bloody and protracted affair, especially if you were in an M4 Sherman tank at the cutting edge of the Allied advance. A Fine Night for Tanks, The Road to Falaise, by Ken Tout (originally published in 1998) takes an almost forensic look at Operation Totalize. In stark contrast, Tank Action by David Render with Stuart Tootal, An Armoured Troop Commander’s War 1944-45, recalls the very personal war experiences of a junior British tank officer.
A Fine Night for Tanks, The Road to Falaise
Ken Tout’s book is a detailed study of the various elements of the joint British and Canadian operation to break the German line south of Caen and ultimately help close the Falaise Gap. After a successful night attack using tanks and troops mounted in hastily converted M7 Priest self-propelled gun carriages, nicknamed Kangaroos, the operation stalled. Historically, Operational Totalize has generally been regarded as just another hammer blow against the 1st SS Panzer Corps. Preceding operations such as Epsom, Windsor and Charnwood were bloody battles of attrition costing thousands of men and hundreds of tanks on both sides. However, the difference was the Germans could ill-afford such grievous losses while the Allies had a seemingly endless supply of replacements.
The Death of Wittmann
An interesting footnote to Operation Totalize was the death of German panzer ace, Michael Wittmann. An SS-Hauptsturmführer with the 101st SS Heavy Panzer Battalion, Wittmann is credited with around 135 tank kills. Although completely unknown to Allied troops during the war, Wittmann has become legendary, especially for his encounter with the British 7th Armoured Division at the Norman town of Villers-Bocage. The circumstances of Wittmann’s death during Operation Totalize have been much debated. Ken Tout tells how Trooper Joe Ekins, 1st Northamptonshire Yeomanry, the gunner in a Sherman Firefly, caught Wittmann’s Tiger in the open and fired the fatal shot. I had the pleasure to meet Joe Ekins briefly at Tankfest a few years ago.
While being informative and easy to read, Ken Tout’s book does have a number of factual errors and typos, such as repeatedly referring to a Panther’s 88mm gun when it was armed with a 75mm.
Tank Action
Tank Action by David Render tells his very personal story of fighting across Northwest Europe from the D-Day beaches and infamous bocage countryside to Holland and finally into Germany. Render paints a vivid picture of life as a Troop Commander of an M4 Sherman tank with all its discomforts and many dangers. Render explains the many shortcomings of the standard M4 from its thin armour and high profile to its 75mm gun. The Sherman lacked the penetrating firepower of German 88mm anti-tank guns, Panzerfaust handheld anti-tank weapons and most types of panzer. However, probably the single most worrying feature of the Sherman was its terrifying propensity to burst into flames the moment it was hit. The Germans called the Sherman the “Tommy Cooker” while British tank crews renamed it the “Ronson” after a popular brand of cigarette lighter famed for its ability to light first time.
Two Weeks Life Expectancy
As well as the many deficiencies of British Army equipment, Render also describes the amazing comradeship, courage and ingenuity of officers and men fighting against a determined, well-armed enemy. As a junior officer, Render’s life expectancy was just two weeks once he went into the line. Over a year of almost constant action, Render would find that his mental and physical reserves quickly eroded. He freely admits that fear threatened to overwhelm him every time he was ordered to climb back into his Sherman and continue the advance.
War without End
The Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry had seen extensive action in North Africa (1940-1943) prior to David Render joining them. Once in Normandy, he noticed that prolonged exposure to combat had made many of the desert veterans excessively cautious and unreliable. On the job training was the order of the day. He would have to learn his craft from bitter, hard won experience as he and his crew fought across Normandy, Belgium, Holland and into Germany. By war’s end, the Sherwood Rangers would have earned 30 battle honours, 78 gallantry awards at the cost of 827 casualties killed, wounded and missing. However, for many of the veterans the war would never be over. At aged 90, and with a successful business career behind him, David Render remains haunted by the loss of many comrades, and one in particular. His great friend, Harry Heenan, killed in a freak accident just after saving David’s life during an engagement with a concealed 88mm anti-tank gun.
David Render’s book is a very personal, first-hand account of the tank war in Northwest Europe. In Render’s world, soldiers seldom knew what was happening in the next field or hedgerow. They knew nothing of the strategic decisions being made by Allied high commanders like Eisenhower, Montgomery or General Brian Horrocks. Instead, they focused on keeping their tanks ready for the next day’s action. They worried about being caught in a burning tank as it “brewed up”. They foraged for extra food to supplement their meagre rations. They struggled against fatigue, fear, and the terrible odds against any of them making it through alive. Sadly, David Render recently died aged 92.
The German War: Crimes and Persecution Complex
The German War by Nicholas Stargardt and The Bitter Taste of Victory by Lara Feigel are two WW2 history books that neatly dovetail one another. The German War examines the many, varied aspects of the German war experience from 1939 to 1945 at home and on the frontlines. The Bitter Taste of Victory begins in 1944 as Allied forces, East and West, advance into the shrinking Reich and extends to 1949.
The German War by Nicholas Stargardt and The Bitter Taste of Victory by Lara Feigel are two history books that neatly dovetail with one another. The German War examines the many, varied aspects of the German war experience from 1939 to 1945 at home and on the frontlines. The Bitter Taste of Victory begins in 1944 as Allied forces, East and West, advance into the shrinking Reich and extends to 1949. Both books focus heavily on the question of German guilt for the many crimes committed under the Nazi regime, remorse and reconstruction. Chillingly, each book comes to the same conclusion: the only thing the surviving Germans truly felt guilty about was losing the war. The only pity most Germans felt was self-pity. Her cities, centres of industry and infrastructure lay in ruins. Millions were displaced and homeless. Hunger, disease, and lack of winter fuel all contributed to the misery after the nation’s collapse. However, for the victims of the camps, the millions of slave labourers, and all those countries ravaged by the German war machine there was no thought, no compassion and no sense of national guilt or shame. On the contrary, population surveys taken 5 and 10 years after the war revealed German sentiment towards the Jews and many Nazi policies had barely changed for many.
The German War examines the many motivating factors that kept the German people fighting right until the bitter end, even when defeat was assured. It reveals how most Germans initially believed they were fighting a war of national defence against Poland, France and Great Britain. Later, the Allied air offensive convinced many Germans of their victimhood, although some saw it as a punishment for their crimes against the Jews. The book also exposes the lie that most Germans were ignorant of the many atrocities committed by the regime. In fact, right from the start of the conflict German soldiers were documenting their crimes in writing, photography and film. But perhaps one of the darkest aspects of the book is just how quickly ordinary men and women could be transformed from law-abiding citizens to brutal murderers and rapists. The transformation often took less than two months. In Russia, senior field commanders began to worry about their troop’s propensity to loot property, burn villages and slaughter the inhabitants without orders. When defeat and occupation finally came to the German nation it did nothing to change outlooks and attitudes. Even years after the war’s end, the majority of Germans believed that Nazism had essentially been a good idea, poorly executed.
Lara Feigel’s book The Bitter Taste of Victory begins in the closing months of the war, as reporters, writers, filmmakers and entertainers followed the advancing Allied armies into the heart of Nazi Germany. The book illustrates the utter destruction wrought on German cities by the Allied bombing campaign and contrasts it with the horrors of death and concentration camps such as Bergen-Belsen. Martha Gellhorn, Marlene Dietrich, Billy Wilder and George Orwell are just some of the famous names we encounter amidst the rubble and misery of Germany’s defeat. With incredible naivety, the occupying powers set about a process of denazification. Writers, artists, musicians and filmmakers were recruited to cleanse German culture of its Faustian excesses. However, German re-education, the Nuremberg Trials and occupation seem to have done nothing to change the population’s psyche. Instead, the realpolitik of the Cold War allowed former Nazis and war criminals to reinvent themselves without actually changing. Rather than accept any collective guilt, the Germans of the war period were satisfied to largely remain silent or seek refuge in empty platitudes and point the finger of blame anywhere but at themselves. There is some small irony that far-left-wing groups such as the Baader-Meinhof Gang would later regard the West German state as the continuation of fascism and imperialism by other means.
In reality, these two books arrive at the same stark conclusion, although starting from very different places. The Germans of the war years remained fixed in their beliefs that they were victims, not perpetrators. They largely believed Nazism was correct in its outlook, but poorly executed by the regime. That brutality, murder, and even genocide were justifiable in pursuit of national goals. These two books also illustrate just how quickly the most civilised and educated of people can be transformed into remorseless killers, happy to abdicate all responsibility for their crimes.