'Aussie Rick'’s Comments (group member since Jun 12, 2009)

'Aussie Rick'’s comments from the THE WORLD WAR TWO GROUP group.

"Fall of the Double Eagle" - Years of political infighting between Austria and Hungary due to issues with the Compromise of 1867, led to the Dual Monarchy's regular army suffering from a lack of funding and commitment:

"While Hungary played politics, the rest of Europe armed, and the Dual Monarchy's military position was eroding rapidly. Between 1907 and 1910, France conscripted 0.63 percent of its population annually, while Germany called up 0.46 percent, and Russia and Italy, the Dual Monarchy's major rivals, conscripted 0.40 and 0.41 percent each; Austria-Hungary called only 0.29 percent to the colors annually, and considering that as much as 30 percent of conscripts were dispatched to the Ersatzreserve, where they saw no active service, only one Habsburg man in eight received serious military training. Thus while the population of Austria-Hungary ballooned from forty million in 1890 to fifty-two million in 1910, the conscript levy hardly increased. The result was a force of too few active units, with low peacetime strengths, backed by a reserve that was likewise small and significantly lacking in skills and readiness."

Fall of the Double Eagle: The Battle for Galicia and the Demise of Austria-Hungary by John R. Schindler

Hi there Claudio and welcome to the group. I am sure you will get quite a few recommendations from the group :)

Here is a link to the page on our Eastern Front books:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Great post Jonny, staggering losses for the Austrians!

Great review Derek and I am glad to hear you enjoyed the book as I have a copy on order :)

Two very interesting movies Mike!

Jerome wrote: "A November release:

by Hugh Sebag-Montefiore
Description:
Battle of the Arctic is a w..."

I've got this on my wish-list!

Excellent post Jonny and great review as well!

Just before this theme month closes, I'd like to thank all those members who joined in the discussion. I appreciated the various comments and the interesting books they brought into the theme month.

"The Armoured Campaign in Normandy June - August 1944" - Summary from the author:

Victory in Normandy came to the Allies in the end through their dominance of the air and their superiority in firepower, numbers, logistics and code breaking skills. For the first six weeks of the campaign until Operation Cobra, the Allied battle plans were unsuccessful until the Allied overall superiority had severely weakened the Germans. Final success was in no small part due to the bravery and sacrifice of the men of all arms, including the tank crews in their thinly armoured Shermans and Cromwells that continually went out to do battle every day with more powerful enemy tanks and anti-tank guns. The Shermans and Cromwells were not the match of German tanks but they got the job done and the Allies won the campaign in Normandy, despite the many casualties amongst the tank crews, General Bradley commented after the war:

The Sherman with its powerful engine could always be counted on to run without a breakdown. This advantage, together with our US superiority in numbers, enabled us to surround the enemy in battle and knock out his tanks from the flanks. But this willingness to expend Shermans offered little comfort to the crews who were forced to expend themselves.

The Armoured Campaign in Normandy June - August 1944 by Stephen Napier

"The Armoured Campaign in Normandy June - August 1944" - A bit more from the assessment of Allied tank losses during the Normandy campaign:

"Just how vulnerable was the Sherman tank to German weapons? Given the developing furore over the number of Sherman tank casualties, a battlefield survey was conducted by the No.2 Operational Research Unit that examined Sherman tanks knocked out and/or destroyed in the fighting between 6 June and 10 July 1944. The hulks of forty-five Shermans were examined and forty were found to have been penetrated by 75mm or 88mm German armour-piercing shells, of which thirty-three tanks had subsequently caught fire and brewed up. This was believed to be due to fragments of metal hitting the ammunition stored in the tank, which then caused the tank to catch fire. Out of sixty-five hits by armour-piercing shells on these tanks, sixty-three penetrated the tank completely. This was evidence, if not proof, that the armoured protection of the Shermans was completely inadequate. Twenty-five tanks were knocked out by just one hit.

As in most cases the Shermans were attacking, they were often victims of concealed German anti-tank weapons, which had the benefit of first fire; this was often all that was required, as the high-velocity German tank and anti-tank guns were able to penetrate the Sherman's frontal armour with ease."

How The Sherman Compared to its Contemporaries:
https://www.theshermantank.com/sherma...

"The Armoured Campaign in Normandy June - August 1944" - An assessment of Allied tank losses for the first three months of the Normandy campaign:

"If the number of German tanks destroyed or abandoned by their own crews is excluded then the Germans lost in combat 1,256 tanks to the Allies' 2,693 tanks written off, a ratio of more than 2:1. Given the immense resources committed to tank production in the United States and number of tanks in the field, this was a ratio the Allies apparently could afford. The 2:1 average ratio of Allied to German tank losses supports the claim of journalists and regimental war diaries that two of three Shermans were lost for every German tank knocked out."

The Armoured Campaign in Normandy June - August 1944 by Stephen Napier

Ian wrote: "I am currently reading "The Lighthouse of Stalingrad" by Iain MacGregor. So far (60 some pages in) the book covers the basic failed Operation Barbarossa, campaigns in the south near Sevastopol, as ..."

That's good to hear as I have an unread copy waiting to be picked up and read :)

One of the rare times the Luftwaffe managed to support their troops and still stuffed it up! Poor German infantry, they just couldn't get a break :)

"The Armoured Campaign in Normandy June - August 1944" - The cost of the Falaise Pocket to the Germans:

"Whilst the numbers of men and tanks that escaped from the pocket or were lost in fighting is matter of some post-war debate, a German Army Group D count of the survivors on 22 August was as follows:

* 12th SS Panzer - ten tanks, 300 men, no artillery
* 1st SS - no tanks, few men, no artillery
* 10th SS - no tanks, four weak bns, no artillery
* 9th SS - twenty to twenty-five tanks, 460 men, twenty guns
* 21st Panzer - ten tanks, four weak battalions, unknown artillery
* 2nd SS Panzer - fifteen tanks, 450 men, six guns
* 9th Panzer - not reported
* 2nd Panzer - no tanks, one battalion, no artillery
* 116th Panzer - twelve tanks, one battalion, two batteries

Only about seventy German tanks or assault guns were operational after the fighting in the Falaise Gap and many tanks had to be abandoned because of shortages of fuel."

The Armoured Campaign in Normandy June - August 1944 by Stephen Napier

Just arrived today; "Sword Beach". Just a little bit too late for this month's theme read.

Sword Beach by Stephen Fisher

I bet he did as well Mike!

"The Armoured Campaign in Normandy June - August 1944" - The author provided chapters on Operations Totalize and Tractable and I'm now reading the chapter covering the Falaise Gap. A major issue during this operation is the number of friendly-fire incidents between Allied fighter-bombers and Allied tanks, including this incident on the 18th of August:

"There were many Allied Thunderbolts and Typhoons in the area that day and friendly fire incidents became increasing common in the fluid battle where both German and Canadian ground forces were on the move. After the episodes during Tractable and Totalize, Canadian troops were very wary at the approach of any aircraft. The South Albertas regimental HQ had just arrived in Louvieres en Auge when it was attacked. The commanding officer, Colonel Wotherspoon, made an angry report afterwards:

One squadron of Spitfires of the RAF started to engage my headquarters shortly after and two flights had bombed and strafed the headquarters and set fire to a vehicle from another formation a few yards away. Yellow recognition smoke was thrown and vehicles with Allied recognition markings were in the open but with no effect even with the planes diving as low as 200 feet.

As bullets and cannon shells hit the tank and vehicles, the CO ordered his own Crusader AA tanks to open fire on the Spitfires but was forced to countermand this when the regimental padre, realising that something had to be done to stop the attack, grabbed a Union Jack flag normally used for burial from his vehicle and held it down on the ground in the village square as the planes lined up for another pass. The padre displayed the flag during the attack by the first plane but fortunately was not injured, and the rest of the flight passed low overhead without firing. Afterwards the padre was apparently shaking like a leaf but was recommended for the Military Cross."

The Falaise Pocket:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falaise...

Jonny wrote: "Fighter-bomber paradise Rick. Sometimes I have to wonder about so-called German tactical agility."

They managed it sometimes but not always eh!

"The Armoured Campaign in Normandy June - August 1944" - Operation Luttich - a bit more on the Typhoons at Mortain:

Later that month the British Operational Research unit examined the Mortain battlefield:

Conditions on the afternoon of the 7th August were ideal from a pilot's point of view as no opposition was encountered from enemy aircraft and nor, till late in the day was there any appreciable flak reaction. Under cover of mist and low cloud, the Germans seem to have neglected all normal precautions and, when the weather cleared, they were sighted in large numbers head to tail in narrow road and lanes. The pilots reported that they were able to go in very close to attack, rockets being fired at 1000 yards range and cannon and machine guns from even closer.

Operation Lüttich:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operati...

"The Armoured Campaign in Normandy June - August 1944" - Operation Luttich - the German counterattack at Mortain - things didn't go according to plan:

Forewarned of the Luftwaffe plans, British and American fighters intercepted the German planes near their bases or en route to the Mortain area so that not a single Luftwaffe plane reached the operational area. The only planes in the skies over Mortain were Allied, and the fine weather permitted them to go to work on the German columns. Werner Josupelt, a panzergrenadier, wrote later:

Our Panzers stood on an asphalt road. We were not moving forward. We infantrymen sat on the Panzers. Luckily there was a thick fog. I thought "They must think we're still in Russia, where you can get away with big assemblies of Panzers like this." But today, German planes were supposed to be keeping the air space above the attack sector clear.

We finally got off the Panzers which rolled into the fields and camouflaged themselves. The fog lifted. There weren't any German planes, there were only Allied planes. We all cursed Hermann's Luftwaffe. If he wasn't going to fly today, when was he going to fly?

The fighter bombers circled our tanks several times. Then one broke out of the circle, sought its target and fired. As the first rejoined the formation of 20 planes, a second pulled out and attacked. And so they continued until they had all attacked. Then they left the terrible scene. A new swarm appeared in their place and fired all their rockets. They had it well organised!

Black clouds of smoke from burning oil climbed into the sky everywhere we looked. They marked the dead Panzers. There were dozens of clouds of smoke from our area alone. Finally the Typhoons couldn't find any more Panzers so they dived down on us and chased us mercilessly. Their rockets fell with a terrible howl. One hit right next to a comrade or mine but he did not get hurt. These rockets burst into just a few big pieces of shrapnel, and a man had a chance of not being struck.

The rocket-firing Typhoons in Normandy:
https://raf.mod.uk/what-we-do/centre-...