Classic Battlefield Tours

10/05/2025

My grandfather

Those of you who have been following my posts for some time will recall that I published my grandfather's letters from the WW1 trenches to his mother and also his diary entries when he was a POW in 1918.

Yesterday, I received the following email:

James,
My name is David Ulke (retired sqn ldr RAF) and I work as a volunteer with the RAF Museum Reserve Collection here near Stafford. We are in the process of condition-assessing, cleaning, and packing the 75,000+ items ready for their move to Cosford when a new-build facility becomes ready.

The reason I am getting in touch is because I did a small piece to camera the other day about one of my favourite artefacts (so far!). It is a battered old suitcase lid that once belonged to a young RFC/RAF officer who was made a POW. On release, he had all his chums sign the case as a memento.

I have just started research on those names (sadly some are illegible) and one that stood out today was this one, your Grandfather: See picture

As you can see, he gives his name, and the place/ date of capture.

So, Reginald Brie and your Grandfather were incarcerated at some point towards the end of the war together.

I’ll close for now in the hope that you find this of interest. I am looking to do more work on the names on the case and am minded that your Grandfather’s history is in the public domain, so I look forward to reading more about him.

Best wishes

David

The date is indeed the date of his capture at Givenchy on Thursday, 18th April 1918, which is on the suitcase lid.

They were together in a camp at Pillau. There are many references to Pillau in his diary, but sadly, nothing under Lt R Brie.

James Stewart-Smith
Classic Battlefield Tours

09/05/2025

World War II casualties

World War II was the deadliest military conflict in history. An estimated total of 70–85 million deaths were caused by the conflict, representing about 3% of the estimated global population of 2.3 billion in 1940. Deaths directly caused by the war (including military and civilian fatalities) are estimated at 50–56 million, with an additional estimated 19–28 million deaths from war-related disease and famine. Civilian deaths totaled 50–55 million. Military deaths from all causes totaled 21–25 million, including deaths in captivity of about 5 million prisoners of war. More than half of the total number of casualties are accounted for by the dead of the Republic of China and the Soviet Union.

Country Total deaths including civilians

Australia 40,400
Canada 43,600
China 15,000,000 to 20,000,000
Czechoslovakia 340,000 to 355,000
Finland 96,800
France 600,000
Germany 6,900,000 to 7,400,000
Greece 507,000 to 807,000
Hungary 464,000 to 864,000
India 2,200,000 to 3,087,000
Ireland 5,100
Italy 492,400 to 514,000
Japan 2,500,000 to 3,100,000
Korea 483,000 to 533,000
Netherlands 250,000
New Zealand 11,700
Philippines 557,000 to 1,411,938
Poland 5,900,000 to 6,000,000
Romania 500,000
South Africa 11,900
Soviet Union 20,000,000 to 27,000,000
United Kingdom 450,900
United States 419,400

We shall remember them

08/05/2025

Victory in Europe Day (VE Day)

Victory in Europe Day celebrates the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces on Tuesday, 8 May 1945; it marked the official surrender of all German military operations.

Russia and some former Soviet countries celebrate on 9 May, as Germany's unconditional surrender entered into force at 23:01 on 8 May Central European Summer Time; this corresponded with 00:01 on 9 May in Moscow Time.

Upon the defeat of Germany, celebrations erupted throughout the Western world, especially in the United Kingdom, North America, and the USSR. More than one million people celebrated in the streets throughout the UK to mark the end of the European part of the war. In London, crowds massed in Trafalgar Square and up the Mall to Buckingham Palace, where King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, accompanied by their daughters and Prime Minister Winston Churchill, appeared on the balcony of the palace before the cheering crowds. Churchill went from the palace to Whitehall, where he addressed another large crowd:

God bless you all. This is your victory. In our long history, we have never seen a greater day than this. Everyone, man or woman, has done their best.

Churchill asked Ernest Bevin to come forward and share the applause. Bevin said, "No, Winston, this is your day," and proceeded to conduct the people in the singing of "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow".

In the United States, the event coincided with President Harry S. Truman's 61st birthday. He dedicated the victory to the memory of his predecessor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had died of a cerebral hemorrhage less than a month earlier, on 12 April. Flags remained at half-staff for the remainder of the 30-day mourning period. Truman said of dedicating the victory to Roosevelt's memory and keeping the flags at half-staff that his only wish was "that Franklin D. Roosevelt had lived to witness this day". Later that day, Truman said that the victory made it his most enjoyable birthday.

Tempering the jubilation somewhat, both Churchill and Truman pointed out that the war against Japan had not yet been won. In his radio broadcast at 15:00 on 8 May, Churchill told the British people, "We may allow ourselves a brief period of rejoicing (as Japan) remains unsubdued". In America, Truman broadcast at 09:00 and said it was "a victory only half won".

07/05/2025

Operation Downfall

Operation Downfall was the proposed Allied plan for the invasion of the Japanese home islands near the end of World War II. The planned operation was canceled when Japan surrendered following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Soviet declaration of war, and the invasion of Manchuria. The operation had two parts: Operation Olympic and Operation Coronet. Set to begin in November 1945, Operation Olympic was intended to capture the southern third of the southernmost main Japanese island, Kyūshū, with the recently captured island of Okinawa to be used as a staging area. In early 1946 would come Operation Coronet, the planned invasion of the Kantō Plain, near Tokyo, on the main Japanese island of Honshu. Airbases on Kyūshū captured in Operation Olympic would allow land-based air support for Operation Coronet. If Downfall had taken place, it would have been the largest amphibious operation in history, surpassing D-Day.

Japan's geography made this invasion plan obvious to the Japanese as well; they were able to accurately predict the Allied invasion plans and thus adjust their defensive plan, Operation Ketsugō, accordingly. The Japanese planned an all-out defense of Kyūshū, with little left in reserve for any subsequent defense operations. Casualty predictions varied but were extremely high, from the low hundreds of thousands to over a million on the Allied side and into the millions for the Japanese.

06/05/2025

Battle of Cantigny

At 06:45 (H Hour) on May 28, 1918, American soldiers of the 28th Infantry Regiment left their jump-off trenches following an hour-long artillery preparation. Part of the preparation was counter-battery fire directed at German artillery positions. A rolling barrage, advancing 100 meters every two minutes, was calculated to give the attacking troops time to keep up with it. The 28th Infantry Regiment (Colonel Hanson Edward Ely, commanding), plus two companies of the 18th Infantry Regiment, three machine-gun companies, and a company of engineers (3,564 men), captured Cantigny from units of the German Eighteenth Army. The village was situated on high ground surrounded by woods, making it an ideal observation post for German artillery. Because the Americans did not have sufficient aircraft, the French provided air cover, 368 heavy artillery pieces, trench mortars, tanks, and flamethrowers. The French Schneider tanks were from the French 5th Tank Battalion. Their primary purpose was to eliminate German machine gun positions. With this massive support and advancing on schedule behind the creeping artillery barrage, the 28th Infantry took the village in 30 minutes. It then continued to its final objective roughly a half kilometer beyond the village.

The first German counterattack, a small attack at 08:30 against the extreme right of the new American position, was easily repulsed, but German artillery bombarded the 28th Infantry for most of the day. At 17:10 the first large-scale counterattack took place, and a company of the 1st Battalion of the 26th Infantry Regiment, commanded by Major Theodore Roosevelt Jr. was used to reinforce a weak spot in the American line. Another German counterattack at 18:40 was also repulsed by a combination of artillery and infantry defensive fire. Both American regiments also defeated a series of counterattacks over the next two days, and the position was held. The Americans reduced the salient and expanded their front by approximately a mile. A minor success, its significance was overshadowed by the battle underway along the Aisne. The U.S. forces held their position with the loss of 1,603 casualties, including 199 killed in action; they captured 250 German prisoners. Matthew B. Juan, a Pima American Indian, was killed during this battle, the first known Arizonan to die in combat in World War I.

The American success at Cantigny assured the French that American divisions could be depended upon in the line against the German offensive to take Paris. The victory at Cantigny was followed by attacks at Château-Thierry and Belleau Wood in the first half of June.

05/05/2025

Penicillin: The War-Time Miracle Drug That Saved Millions

The discovery and mass production of penicillin during World War II stand as one of the most significant medical advancements of the 20th century. This miracle drug transformed the treatment of bacterial infections and saved countless lives on and off the battlefield.

In 1928, Alexander Fleming, a bacteriologist at St. Mary's Hospital in London, stumbled upon a mould that killed many bacteria. He identified the mould as Penicillium notatum and named the substance it produced penicillin. Although Fleming recognised its potential, he struggled with extracting and stabilising the antibiotic.

The true breakthrough came a decade later, thanks to the efforts of Australian pharmacologist Howard Florey, biochemist Ernst Boris Chain, and their team at the University of Oxford. In 1940, they successfully purified penicillin and demonstrated its effectiveness in treating bacterial infections in mice. This paved the way for human trials, which proved equally successful.

With the onset of World War II, the need for effective treatments for wounded soldiers became urgent. The British and American governments recognised the potential of penicillin to reduce the high mortality rates from infected wounds. In 1941, Florey and Chain secured funding from the U.S. and travelled to America to collaborate with pharmaceutical companies.

A key partner in this effort was the U.S. company Pfizer, which used deep-tank fermentation to mass-produce penicillin. This innovative method dramatically increased production, allowing for the widespread availability of the antibiotic.

Penicillin was first used extensively during the North Africa campaign in 1943. It proved highly effective in treating wound infections, pneumonia, and other bacterial diseases. By the time of the D-Day landings in June 1944, enough penicillin was available to treat all Allied forces.

It is estimated that penicillin reduced the mortality rate from bacterial infections among wounded soldiers by 15%. This life-saving drug also prevented amputations and sped up recovery times, allowing soldiers to return to duty more quickly.

The success of penicillin during World War II led to the antibiotic revolution, heralding an era where bacterial infections could be effectively treated. Penicillin's impact extended far beyond the war, transforming civilian medicine and developing many other antibiotics.

The mass production of penicillin during WWII not only saved millions of lives but also laid the foundation for modern pharmaceuticals. Alexander Fleming, Howard Florey, and Ernst Boris Chain were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945 for their contributions.

04/05/2025

Operation Doomsday

In Operation Doomsday, the British 1st Airborne Division acted as a police and military force during the Allied occupation of Norway in May 1945, immediately after the victory in Europe during the Second World War. The division maintained law and order until the arrival of the remainder of Force 134, the occupation force. During its time in Norway, the division was tasked with supervising the surrender of the German forces in Norway, as well as preventing the sabotage of vital military and civilian facilities.

The German Instrument of Surrender was delivered on 8 May to General Franz Böhme, the commander of all German forces stationed in Norway, and the 1st Airborne Division landed near Oslo and Stavanger between 9 and 11 May. The majority of the transport aircraft carrying the division landed safely, but three planes crashed with several fatalities. The division encountered little of the expected German resistance. Operational duties included welcoming back King Haakon VII of Norway, looking after Allied ex-prisoners of war, arresting war criminals, and supervising the clearing of minefields. The division was also able to confirm the deaths of the British airborne troops that had taken part in Operation Freshman, an unsuccessful attempt to disrupt the German atomic weapons programme in November 1942. The division returned to Britain at the end of August and disbanded two months later.

03/05/2025

SOE London Walking Tour
Guided by Paul McCure
13th May 2025

Join us for an exhilarating guided walking tour of London locations of the Special Operations Executive.

Under the expert guidance of Paul McCue, we will explore the better-known headquarters buildings as well as the anonymous, tucked-away agent briefing and holding locations.

The tour starts at 11 am outside the Kimpton Fitzroy Hotel and ends at 4 pm at Bond Street Tube.

Lunch is included at The Allsop Arms

Paul has been a military historian and author for over 35 years. He has authored five books to date, and regularly gives talks and presentations in the UK and overseas as Executive Trustee of SECRET WW2, a UK-based educational charity specialising in clandestine warfare and special forces, special operations, intelligence services, and resistance organizations in the
Second World War.

£175 per person, including lunch

To book, please follow this link:

Guided walking tour of London locations of the Special Operations Executive. Under the expert guidance of Paul McCue we will explore the better-known headquarters buildings as well as the anonymous, tucked-away agent briefing and holding locations.

02/05/2025

Surrender at Caserta

The Surrender at Caserta of 29 April 1945 was the written agreement that formalized the surrender of German and Italian Fascist forces in Italy, ending the Italian Campaign of World War II.

Since March 1945, SS Obergruppenführer Karl Wolff, the commander of the German occupying forces in Italy, had begun negotiations for the local surrender of Axis forces in Italy. The Allies sent different negotiators, notably OSS agent Allen Dulles to negotiate the surrender in Switzerland. Wolff believed that a separate peace agreement might break the alliance of United States, United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union, as the Allies agreed that they would accept only unconditional surrender during the Casablanca Conference. Hearing of the negotiations, the Soviet Union also wanted to send a Soviet representative to be part of the negotiations, but the other Allies refused.

Owing in part to Allied air attacks, the German forces in Italy had received no supplies from Germany since the first week of April. Since Allied aircraft had destroyed all bridges across the Po River, the Germans abandoned their heavy weapons and motor vehicles south of it during the Allied spring offensive. What was left of the German infantry, along with the RSI forces, was mostly wiped out during the fighting. The remaining troops had retreated across the Po using improvised transports and were reorganized by blocking detachments to man the front line and fight on, but without arms, their situation was hopeless.

On 26 April, Wolff convinced Marshal Rodolfo Graziani, the Minister of Defence of the Italian Social Republic and Commander-in-Chief of the Army Group Liguria, to sign a surrender document of the German and RSI forces under his command equivalent to the German surrender document. Graziani signed the surrender document and gave it to Wolff. On 29 April, Graziani handed himself on General Crittenberger's US IV Corps.

German Commander-in-Chief of Army Group C Heinrich von Vietinghoff had noted on 28 April that fighting would cease within one or two days, regardless of negotiations, the German troops having neither arms nor ammunition left. Further destruction was thus unlikely, Army Group C having decided already on 11 April not to carry out Hitler's scorched earth policy.

The surrender ceremony was held at Caserta.

At 1400, Lt. Col. Schweinitz signed the surrender document on behalf of General Vietinghoff, then Major Wenner signed on behalf of SS Obergruppenführer Wolff and Marshal Graziani. For the Allies, Lt. Gen. Morgan signed on behalf of Field Marshal Alexander. On 1 May, Graziani ordered the Army Group Liguria to surrender, while all German and RSI forces in Italy surrendered a day later.

British Field Marshal Harold Alexander in statement said that the Surrender of Caserta shortened the war in Europe by six to eight weeks and saved Northern Italy from more destruction along with tens of thousands of lives.

01/05/2025

Battle of Elephant Point

The Battle of Elephant Point was an airborne operation at the mouth of the Rangoon River conducted by a composite Gurkha airborne battalion that took place on 1 May 1945. In March 1945, plans were made for an assault on Rangoon, the capital of Burma, as a stepping-stone on the way to recapturing Malaya and Singapore. Initial plans for the assault on the city had called for a purely land-based approach by the British Fourteenth Army, but concerns about heavy Japanese resistance led to this being modified with the addition of a joint amphibious-airborne assault. This assault, led by the 26th Indian Division, would sail up the Rangoon River, but before it could do so, the river would have to be cleared of Japanese and British mines. To achieve this, coastal defences along the river would have to be neutralized, including a battery at Elephant Point.

This task was given to the 44th Indian Airborne Division. However, as the division was in the middle of a reorganisation, a composite battalion was formed from two Gurkha parachute battalions. The battalion assembled and trained throughout April and was then dropped near Elephant Point early in the morning of 1 May. As it advanced towards the battery, one of the battalion's companies was attacked by American bombers, causing a number of casualties. Despite this friendly fire incident and torrential rain, the battalion successfully assaulted Elephant Point, neutralising the battery there after a fierce firefight. The battalion held the area around Elephant Point until 2 May, when the 26th Indian Division conducted its amphibious assault, Operation Dracula, up the river and secured Rangoon.

Operation Dracula was a complete success. As Japanese forces had vacated Rangoon several days before the amphibious landing, the 36th Indian Infantry Brigade was able to occupy the city without encountering any Japanese opposition. On 3 May, the composite battalion moved to Sadainghmut, and two days later, leaving one company behind, it was transferred to Rangoon, where it conducted anti-looting operations and also searched for Japanese stragglers remaining in the city. It left the city on 16 May and travelled to India by ship, where it rejoined the 44th Indian Airborne Division. The Battle of Elephant Point had been the division's first major airborne operation. The 2nd Air Commando Group's C-47s, which had transported the parachute battalion, returned to Kalaikunda and then moved to Comilla. The 317th Tactical Control Squadron spent the next two weeks supplying XV Corps, who were engaged with Japanese forces northeast of Rangoon and returned to Kalaikunda on 19 May. The group's fighter squadrons provided air cover for Rangoon until 9 May, when they too returned to their home station.

30/04/2025

The End: Germany, 1944-45
by Ian Kershaw

In almost every major war there comes a point where defeat looms for one side and its rulers cut a deal with the victors, if only in an attempt to save their own skins. In Hitler's Germany, nothing of this kind happened: in the end, the regime had to be stamped out town by town with an almost unprecedented level of brutality.

Just what made Germany keep on fighting?

Why did its rulers not cut a deal to save their own skins?

And why did ordinary people continue to obey the Fuhrer's suicidal orders, with countless Germans executing their own countrymen for desertion or defeatism?

For the first quarter of the book I thought Kershaw was going to come to the same continuous conclusion that the failure of the Stauffenberg plot and the Allies' decision to implement 'Unconditional Surrender' was the reason why the regime became so ultra radical for the final year of the war, but by the 'guts' of the book I realised that Kershaw was delving into far more greater depth than I first thought as the analysis flowed with the narrative. Indeed, the sheer size and reach of the regime, through German society and its Armed forces was quite amazing, but the way senior and more worryingly low level people reacted in the last year to assert the regime's dominance (thus protracting the war) is just bewildering and one of the many reasons why this period of History is so facinating.

Named Book of the Year by the Sunday Times, TLS, Spectator, Sunday Telegraph, Daily Mail and Scotland on Sunday, Ian Kershaw's The End is a searing account of the final months of N**i Germany, laying bare the fear and fanaticism that drove a nation to destruction.

29/04/2025

Black May (1943)

Black May refers to a period (May 1943) in the Battle of the Atlantic campaign during World War II, when the German U-boat arm suffered high casualties with fewer Allied ships sunk; it is considered a turning point in the Battle of the Atlantic.

The U-boat offensive peaked in March 1943 with a series of major convoy battles. Allied losses for March totalled 120 ships, of which 82 were lost in the Atlantic. The German U-boat arm lost 12 U-boats during this time. Post-war, the official Royal Navy history, by Capt. Stephen Roskill concluded, "The Germans never came so near to disrupting communications between the New World and the Old as in the first twenty days of March 1943."

Some respite for the Royal Navy came in April, as many of the U-boats involved in March had withdrawn for replenishing; nevertheless, the boats still operational in the month remained active. A particular shock at the end of April was the attack by U-515 on convoy Convoy TS 37, which saw the loss of four tankers in three minutes, and another three over the next six hours. Allied losses in April were 64 ships; 39 were lost in the Atlantic. The U-boat losses were 15 boats from all causes. In the following month, the strategic and tactical advantages swung to the Allies, where it remained for the rest of the campaign.

Black May
In May 1943, U-boat strength reached its peak, with 240 operational U-boats of which 118 were at sea, yet the sinking of Allied ships continued to decline. May 1943 also had the greatest losses suffered by U-boats up to that time, with 41 being destroyed, 25 per cent of the operational U-boats. The month opened with the battle for Convoy ONS 5, which was costly for both sides: 13 merchant ships and six U-boats. The tactical improvements of the escorts began to take effect; the next three convoys that were attacked resulted in just seven ships sunk and an equal number of U-boats. Finally, five U-boats were sunk attacking convoy SC 130, with Admiral Karl Dönitz's son Peter among those lost aboard U-954, while no convoy ships were lost.

Total Allied losses in May were 58 ships, of which 34 were lost in the Atlantic. On 24 May 1943, Admiral Dönitz, shocked at the defeat suffered by the U-boats, ordered a temporary halt to the U-boat campaign; most were withdrawn from operational service. During May, there had been a drop in Allied losses, coupled with a tremendous rise in U-boat losses; 18 boats were lost in convoy battles in the Atlantic in the month, 14 were lost to air patrols; six of these in the Bay of Biscay. With losses in other theatres, accidents, or other causes, the total loss to the U-boat arm in May was 43 boats.

Black May signalled a decline from which the U-boat arm never recovered; despite various efforts over the next two years, the U-boats were never able to re-establish the threat to Allied shipping they had previously posed.