war

Untitled Part 2

When the Nazis marched into Vienna, Albert rushed to distribute exit visas to Jewish residents and even went head-to-head with Nazis who were forcing elderly Jewish people to do degrading things, such as washing the street. Albert managed to save hundreds of Jews as well as political dissidents during the war. He persuaded his brother to order the release of many prisoners of concentration camps, claiming they were “good Jews.” He was arrested on a number of occasions, but each time, his family connections ensured his freedom, even when a warrant for his death was issued in 1944. Albert ran a Skoda factory in Czechoslovakia, whose employees were very grateful to him for how he treated them, even allowing passive resistance among the workforce. When two Nazi officers gave him the Nazi salute while he was stationed in Bucharest, Romania, he invited them to “kiss [his] ass.” Ironically, Albert was imprisoned for two years after the war due to his association with his older brother. When he was released, he found himself unemployable. He died penniless, but he was looked after by those he had helped during the war. Only recently has he received recognition for his bravery.6Bomber Plane Captures U-BoatU570_capture On August 27, 1941, U-boat U-570, captained by Kapitanleutnant Hans-Joachim Rahmlow, surfaced off the coast of Iceland. Almost immediately, it was spotted by James Thompson, the acting leader of a British squadron based in Iceland who was on an anti-submarine patrol. Immediately, Rahmlow ordered a crash dive, but it was too late. Thompson’s Hudson bomber dropped four depth charges, one of which dealt a critical blow to U-570, knocking out the lighting system.Being inexperienced in U-boats and commanding an inexperienced crew, Rahmlow panicked and surfaced again, fearing the release of deadly chlorine gas. When a number of the crew came up on deck, Thompson attacked the U-boat with the plane’s machine guns. The crew soon realized the futility of fighting the aircraft in rough seas and surrendered. Amazed, Thompson flew in for a closer look, but no other attempt was made by the crew to defend their vessel, fearing more depth charge attacks. Thompson then radioed for more planes and to alert the Navy to collect the U-boat.In the time it took for the Royal Navy armed trawler to arrive, the U-boat crew destroyed the code books and Enigma machines on board. U-570 was then towed back to Iceland and beached to prevent it from sinking. The boat was repaired, and it was discovered that there was no evidence of chlorine gas. A more experienced crew would probably have escaped. U-570 was then placed into service with the Royal Navy as HMS Graph. The surrender of U-570 remains the only time a submarine has surrendered to an aircraft.5WesterplatteWesterplatte_kapitulacja The city of Danzig was home to a lengthy territorial dispute between the Germans and Poles who inhabited it and had been declared a free city by the League of Nations. In late August 1939, the Schleswig-Holstein, a German World War I–era battleship, had entered Danzig on a goodwill visit. At 4:45 AM on September 1, it fired its first shots against the Polish garrison, consisting of just 88 men, at the peninsula of Westerplatte. Eight minutes later, the garrison came under attack from elite German commandos and marines, but they were forced to turn back following heavy casualties.On September 3, 60 Luftwaffe dive bombers attacked the peninsula, wreaking such havoc that the German troops didn’t think anyone would still be alive, yet only five Polish defenders were killed. After subsequent attacks were repelled, resulting in heavy casualties, two fire trains were sent the next day. Both of them failed, the first one resulting in heavy casualties for the Germans. As the German Blitzkrieg pushed the valiant Polish army back everywhere else on the front, Westerplatte became a symbol of resistance. However, it wasn’t to last. Despite the Poles’ successful defense, the German army had almost reached Warsaw, and gangrene was starting to affect the wounded. On September 7, the Polish garrison surrendered. While they may have lost the battle, they won the utmost respect of the German troops, who allowed Polish commander Major Sucharski to keep his sword and supposedly saluted the Polish defenders as they marched out. The fighting killed 15–20 Polish soldiers but a staggering 200–400 Germans.4Hobart’s FunniesArmoured_Ramp_Carrier In the days leading up to D-Day, a number of problems were evident to the men planning the invasion of occupied Europe. Chief among these was the “Atlantic Wall,” a series of defenses that stretched from Norway to the Franco-Spanish border. This presented a formidable obstacle to the Allied armies, who would need to develop new specialist vehicles to combat the soft sand and other logistical difficulties. The task was assigned to Major General Sir Percy Hobart, who had been forced into retirement in 1940 while commanding the famous Desert Rats in Egypt and is often credited as the inventor of Blitzkrieg.Most of these new vehicles, which came to be known as the “funnies,” were based on the design of the Churchill tank, whose low center of gravity and roomy interior made it ideal for modification. The most famous of the Churchill modifications was the flame-throwing crocodile, the mere sight of which was often enough to compel German soldiers to surrender. Other ingenious features implemented were turrets that could be swapped out for bridges and rolling mats to allow armored vehicles to drive on beaches with soft sand without getting stuck. Variations of Sherman tanks were also used, including one that was designed to be launched from deep water and effectively “swim” in with the first assaults, after which a large waterproof screen would come down, allowing the tank to fight as normal. Another variant was a flail for mine clearance, which proved to be a vital asset.The funnies saved many lives during attacks on British and Canadian occupied beaches. General Eisenhower even said it was “doubtful if the assault forces could have firmly established themselves without the assistance of these weapons.” Many of the technologies Hobart developed are still in use today in modern specialist armored vehicles, and many of the funnies served the British troops well into the 1950s and ’60s.3The Narrow Escape From HMS PerseusPerseusFL8606 HMS Perseus, a Royal Navy submarine, left Malta for Alexandria, Egypt on October 26, 1941. On board was 31-year-old John Capes, a stoker fleeing the besieged island. During the night of December 6, the submarine hit an Italian mine off the coast of the Greek island of Kefalonia, instantly killing most of its passengers. Luckily, Capes was drinking rum and reading letters in a converted torpedo rack at the time, which didn’t start flooding until Perseus smashed into the ocean floor. When he realized what was happening, he went searching for survivors and found three other stokers, all of whom were badly injured. Surrounded by rising water and bodies, they headed to the escape hatch, and after finishing off the rum and donning escape apparati, they made their perilous escape into the sea.When Capes surfaced, he saw that the three other submariners hadn’t made it. Despite the pain in his lungs from the escape, he swam toward the Greek island of Cephalonia. After dragging himself ashore, he fell unconscious and was found by two fishermen. For the next 18 months, he was given shelter and cared for by the locals, who hid him from the occupying Axis forces. He was then smuggled by boat to the then-neutral Turkey and eventually to Alexandria. Unsurprisingly, not many believed his incredible tale, especially since he wasn’t on the crew list for the journey. His story wasn’t proven true until the wreck of the Perseus was found in 1997, 15 years after his death. 2The St. Nazaire RaidSt. Nazaire, Zerstörer "HMS Campbeltown" Photo credit: Bundesarchiv, Bild 101II-MW-3722-03 / Kramer / CC-BY-SA The German battleship Bismarck had been sunk by the Royal Navy in 1941, but that wasn’t the end of its threat—the Bismarck had a sister ship called the Tirpitz. To neutralize the threat, the British planned a raid on the French dry dock of St. Nazaire, the only dock on the Atlantic coast which could hold the Tirpitz. Destroying the docks called for an unorthodox plan—an old US Navy destroyer, HMS Campbeltown, would have to be packed with explosives and rammed into the dock gates. Then, commandos would blow up the other buildings, including the U-boat pens.HMS Campbeltown was stripped of all nonessential equipment to save room and weight for explosives, and two of her four funnels were removed so she bore a better resemblance to a German frigate. Extra steel was plated on at the front to protect the commandos on board. On March 26, 1942, the flotilla—made up of two destroyers, 16 motor launches, and HMS Campbeltown—set off from Falmouth, Cornwall, reaching the dock on March 28. Flying the German naval ensign, HMS Campbeltown accelerated to full speed on the river leading to the docks. With the gates in sight, the Royal Navy flag was raised, and seven minutes later, the destroyer hit the gates and the commandos sprang into action.Unfortunately, the commandos on board the motor launches didn’t fare well. Of the 265 who landed, only five made it back to England. The rest were killed or captured after many of the motor launches were damaged or destroyed. At 10:35 AM on the March 29, HMS Campbeltown exploded, killing 250 Germans on board and destroying the docks, rendering them out of service for six years. Five Victoria crosses were awarded in the aftermath, and even today, it is regarded as the greatest military raid of all time. 1The Man Who Won 2 Victoria Crosses97856831 The Victoria Cross is the ultimate award for bravery in the British and Commonwealth armies. It has been awarded 1,357 times since its inception, and only three people have ever received more than one of them.Captain Charles Upham was the only man to be awarded the Victoria Cross twice in World War II. He volunteered for the New Zealand army in 1939 and was commissioned the following year. He won his first Victoria Cross in May 1941, during the German invasion of the island. He led his platoon in an attack on heavily defended positions 2.7 kilometers (1.7 mi) away. During the attack, he destroyed two machine gun nests and an anti-aircraft gun with grenades. He then helped carry a wounded man away from the fighting and rescued a surrounded New Zealand company. On May 30, he led his men on a flank to attack a group of advancing Germans, killing 22 of them with a Bren machine gun. His second Victoria Cross was awarded the next year on July 25, during the first battle of El Alamein. During the defense of the Ruweisat Ridge, he ran forward through a hail of machine gun fire to lob a grenade into a truck full of German soldiers. He then drove through the enemy lines in a Jeep mounted with a German machine gun, convincing Italian soldiers to push him out of soft sand. During a bayonet charge, he was shot in the elbow and sustained a broken arm. By now, the Germans had surrounded the New Zealanders, but Upham kept on fighting until he couldn’t walk.Upham was always quiet about his bravery, telling a reporter in September 1945, “Naturally, I feel some pride in this distinction, but hundreds of others have done more than I did.” He led a quiet life after the war, resenting publicity and dying at age 86 in November .