Q-Spr15 C-1-a_W-May05 C-1 Bookstore 2/23/15 12:43 PM Page 3 Curtis 02313 www.WarfareHistoryNetwork.com VICTORY IN EUROPE Battle for BERLIN BATTLE OF THE BULGE WWII QUARTERLY Heroic Stand SPRING 2015 At Hosingen Volume 6, No. 3 Volume OPERATION VARSITY Airborne Jump Across the Rhine 83RD DIVISION BLOODY MARCH ACROSS EUROPE SPRING 2015 $9.99 Failed British Defense 55 OF SINGAPORE 7 25274 02313 4 RETAILER DISPLAY UNTIL JUNE 15 Q-GaryHendershott FP Spring2015.qxp_FP 2/20/15 12:30 PM Page 1 Q-UnivKansas FP Spring2015.qxp_FP 2/13/15 9:42 AM Page 1 Q-Spr15 TOC_WW-Mar04 Ordnance 18, 20-23 2/23/15 12:00 PM Page 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS WWII QUARTERLY Features 12 The Trampled Swastika In April 1945, as the Allies crushed Nazi Germany from all sides, the Reich that Hitler boasted would last for a thousand years was about to expire after just 12. ERIC NIDEROST 24 Tragic Surrender The day after Pearl Harbor, a large Japanese force descended on the vital British military installations at Singapore and gave Britain its most humiliating defeat. MARK SIMMONS 38 Heroic Stand at Hosingen Caught in the Battle of the Bulge onslaught, First Lieutenant Thomas Flynn and his company held out for days in a small Luxembourg town before being taken prisoner. ALICE M. FLYNN AND ALLYN VANNOY 52 How “The Few” Saved Britain It may have been the Royal Navy, rather than the Royal Air Force, that persuaded Hitler to abandon his plans to invade Britain. MARK SIMMONS 60 With the “Ragtag Circus” Across Europe From the hedgerows of France to the Hürtgen Forest to war’s end at the Departments Elbe, the U.S. 83rd Infantry Division blazed a largely unheralded trail of courage across Europe. 06 Editorial SUSAN ZIMMERMAN Remembering the end of the war in Europe. FLINT WHITLOCK 72 Silk Over Germany After Normandy, the U.S. 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment spearheaded 08 Personalities Operation Varsity, the March 1945 airborne jump across the Rhine into Three VMI graduates—Generals Marshall, Gerow, Germany. and Handy—made a powerful impression on DOMINIQUE FRANÇOIS America’s conduct of war. PHIL GIOIA 84 Kiwis Over the Pacific The Royal New Zealand Air Force played a pivotal role in the war against 3 1 023 Japan. is t r Cu www.WarfareHistoryNetwork.com VICTORY IN EUROPE ALLYN VANNOY Battle for BERLIN BATTLE OF THE BULGE Heroic Stand COVER: A German infantryman At Hosingen WWII Quarterly (ISSN 2151-3678) is published four times yearly by Sovereign Media, 6731 Whittier Avenue, Suite A-100, McLean, VA photographed somewhere on the OPERATION VARSITY 22101-4554. (703) 964-0361. WWII Quarterly, Volume 6, Number 3 © 2015 by Sovereign Media Company, Inc., all rights reserved. Eastern Front in 1943. Two years Airborne Jump Copyrights to stories and illustrations are the property of their creators. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced in whole Across the Rhine or in part without consent of the copyright owner. Subscription services, back issues, and information: (800) 219-1187 or write to WWII later the Russians were attacking 83RD DIVISION Quarterly Circulation, WWII Quarterly, P.O. Box 1644, Williamsport, PA 17703. Hardbound single copies: $19.99, plus $3 for postage. Berlin and Hitler lay dead in his BLODDY MARCH Yearly subscription in U.S.A.: $39.95; Canada and Overseas: $79.95 (U.S.). Editorial Office: Send editorial mail to WWII Quarterly, 6731 ACROSS EUROPE Whittier Avenue, Suite A-100, McLean, VA 22101-4554. WWII Quarterly welcomes editorial submissions but assumes no responsibility undergraound bunker. See story SPRING 2015 $9.99 Failed British Defense 43 for the loss or damage of unsolicited material. Material to be returned should be accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope. We page 12. Photo: © Scherl/SZ OF SINGAPORE 7 25274 02313 4 suggest that you send a self-addressed, stamped envelope for a copy of our author’s guidelines. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Photo/The Image Works RETAILER DISPLAY UNTIL JUNE 15 WWII Quarterly, P.O. Box 1644, Williamsport, PA 17703. Q-HobbyBunker FP Spring2015_v2.qxp_FP 2/18/15 1:06 PM Page 1 Q-Spr15 Editorial_WW-Mar04 Ordnance 18, 20-23 2/20/15 2:48 PM Page 6 EDITORIAL FLINT WHITLOCK Remembering the end of the war in Europe In May 1945—70 years ago—the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) sent out a terse, unemotional, 15-word communiqué: “The mis- sion of this Allied force was fulfilled at 0241 local time, May 7, 1945.” Hitler and Mussolini were dead, the Third Reich and Fascist Italy were defunct, and the war in Europe was, at long last, well and truly over. A very strange sound came over Europe: the sound of silence. It was as if someone had suddenly turned the war switch to “Off.” There was no more rattle of machine guns; no more pop-pop-pop of small Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel surrenders to the Rus- arms; no more whistle of falling bombs; no more visceral thud of incoming sians at Soviet Army headquarters in Berlin, May 9, 1945. During the war-crimes tribunals in Nuremberg, artillery shells; no more screams and shrieks of soldiers and civilians caught in Keitel was found guilty and hanged on October 16, war’s merciless grip. 1946, along with nine other Nazis. It was a deep and profound silence that came over Europe, punctuated only by the tolling of church bells (in those places where churches, with their bells intact, immense, staggering task, unlike anything that still stood) announcing that peace, after nearly six years of continuous blood- mankind had ever faced before, just as the war shed, had finally returned to the Continent. had been on a scale unlike any conflict the The surviving soldiers and civilians on all sides took a moment to get down on world had ever seen. Refugees would have to be their knees and offer thanks that they had been spared, and to say a prayer for resettled, millions of prisoners of war sent the 50 to 60 million people around the world who had not been so fortunate. home, the sick and wounded restored to health, In places like London, Paris, New York, and Moscow, massive celebrations took cities and infrastructure rebuilt, new forms of place to mark the end of the war. People danced in the streets, kissed strangers, government established, and the Nazi war crim- waved flags, showered flowers and tons of confetti down on ranks of marching inals hunted down and put on trial. soldiers, and, for a short while, partied like they had never partied before. I still have a dim memory, as a young boy, of Winston Churchill, Britain’s wartime leader, said, “We may allow ourselves a my mother taking me down to the local bus sta- brief period of rejoicing; but let us not forget for a moment the toil and efforts tion in Hammond, Indiana, to greet my father that lie ahead. Japan, with all her treachery and greed, remains unsubdued. The coming home from the war. I was too young to injury she has inflicted on Great Britain, the United States, and other countries, appreciate the significance of the moment. I and her detestable cruelties, call for justice and retribution. only recall my mother hugging a tall man in uni- “We must now devote all our strength and resources to the completion of our form and crying; I did not know who he was, task, both at home and abroad. Advance, Britannia! Long live the cause of free- or why she was crying. I would soon learn. dom! God save the King!” On this, the 70th anniversary of the war’s Pulitzer Prize-winning war correspondent Hal Boyle summed up America’s col- end, it is good and right for us to remember V- lective relief in a radio broadcast on May 14, 1945: “All I can remember with E Day, even if not all of us had been born at the any feeling of pride in the whole sorry business of war is the courage and forti- time. Chances are, mankind will never see its tude of the men who fought it.” like again. Then came the rebuilding process. Putting Europe back together would be an —Flint Whitlock, Editor WWII Quarterly Volume 6 • Number 3 CARL A. GNAM, JR. CONTRIBUTORS: MARK HINTZ SOVEREIGN MEDIA COMPANY, INC. Editorial Director, Founder Alice M. Flynn, Dominique Vice President & Publisher 6731 Whittier Ave., Suite A-100 François, Philip J. Gioia, Eric McLean, VA 22101-4554 FLINT WHITLOCK Niderost, Mark SImmons, Allyn TERRI COATES Editor Vannoy, Susan Zimmerman Subscription Customer Services www.WarfareHistoryNetwork.com [email protected] [email protected] SUBSCRIPTION CUSTOMER ADVERTISING OFFICE: SAMANTHA DETULLEO PUBLISHERS SERVICE SERVICE AND BUSINESS OFFICE: Art Director BEN BOYLES ASSOCIATES 2406 Reach Road Advertising Manager KEVIN M. HYMEL Circulation Fulfillment Williamsport, PA 17701 Research Director (570) 322-7848, ext. 110 (800) 219-1187 [email protected] CURTIS CIRCULATION COMPANY WORLDWIDE DISTRIBUTION PRINTED IN THE USA. SR Bulge Full Page ad-NEW PRINT_Layout 1 2/20/15 3:00 PM Page 1 From the Publishers of WWII QUARTERLY Magazine Battle of the Bulge 70TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL ISSUE By December 1944, time and resources were running out for Bulge. …and within the pages of this Special Issue, you’ll get a Adolf Hitler. The Allies had gained a solid foothold in Europe first-hand look at what they experienced. after the D-Day invasion, and his armies in the Soviet Union were being pushed back toward Germany. The BATTLE OF THE BULGE 70th Anniversary Special E-Book has expanded bonus coverage from the expert editors Hoping he could repeat history, Hitler mustered up a quarter- of WWII Quarterly Magazine.