Seventy Years On... Anzio Bridgehead

Many of the battles fought in World War Two have come under scrutiny in the years that have followed, when hindsight allows a clearer vision of the pitfalls and benefits of each decision made. Occasionally, though, an operation can be controversial even in the midst of its occurrence, between those in charge.

Operation Shingle was one of these – and how successful the operation was could be said to depend upon which Allied official you agreed with. Initially conceived by Churchill, the operation planned to land troops at Anzio, between large swathes of German forces on the Gustav line to the south and Rome, which sat to the north. The hope was that this sudden presence of Allied forces would draw troops from the Gustav line and allow for a breakthrough there. If that didn’t happen, then the Operation might be able to capture Rome – a significant coup in the battle for Italy.

Unfortunately for Churchill, whose plan relied on swift movement inland, Major General Lucas was commanding the operation, and had significantly less faith in the scheme. Though the initial landings went smoothly, with few soldiers present to oppose the Allies, Lucas did not trust Churchill’s plan and he quickly became very defensive of the ground taken. All advantage gained by the surprise of the landings was soon lost, and a long and bloody battle played out over the months that followed. After a month, Lucas was relieved of his position.

Today marks the 70^th anniversary of the eventual breakout from Anzio bridgehead. Though it’s easy to find flaws in the plans for Operation Shingle, hindsight allows for us to argue over the what-weres, and the what-could-have-beens.

It might frequently be suggested that hindsight is 20:20, but it even that isn’t entirely true. The most poignant response to the Battle of Anzio does not belong to someone who believes Lucas made the right decision, or to someone who sides with Churchill; neither to a soldier or an historian. Rather, it belongs to Roger Waters, the bassist and song-writer of Pink Floyd.

In February of 1944, Waters’ father was killed defending the bridgehead at Anzio. Years later, whilst writing the album that was to become The Wall, Waters’ penned one of Pink Floyd’s most emotive songs. ‘When The Tigers Broke Free’ is an intense three minute track that takes one side in the argument – that of a young boy struggling to come to terms with the cause his father died for.

Guided by Twitter: Sports and World War One

One of the facets of war most often ignored by history is not the way in which everyday life was affected, but rather the way it strove to continue in adverse conditions. Sport, in particular, always finds a way to push on and infiltrate even the strangest of places.

Everyone has heard the story of 1914’s Christmas football matches, but there were plenty more examples of sports playing a role in the war, both at home and on the frontlines. With the centenary of the war fast approaching, we’re looking at two Twitter accounts dedicated to remembering fallen sportsmen and those strange moments where normal life seeped in between the bullets and the bombs.

@FootballWW1 is a new Twitter account, with a website to match, that is running as part of the Imperial War Museum’s wider centenary commemorations. It already looks like an invaluable insight into the nation’s favourite sport. One of their bigger projects has been to collate various league tables for every year of the war – a fascinating way to both demonstrate how football was enjoyed in wartime, and also to remind us that once upon a time Oldham Athletic were capable of (almost) topping the league.

Amongst stories of professional footballers who lost their lives during the war, the IWM are also sharing film footage of matches, team photos from the period and information on the FA’s plans for the 100^th anniversary.

Elsewhere, @WWI_sport might be Canadian-run, but is refreshingly international in scope. Better still, it runs the gamut of sports. Everything from ice hockey to gymnastics, by way of baseball and, yes, football is covered. If you’ve ever wondered what the British Army Gymnastics Staff’s motto was then, well, we’ll be surprised. Still, @WW1_sport will tell you!

There’s further insight into how the war boosted women in sport, or Lord Kitchener’s beliefs that cricket were a medicine to be taken twice a week by troops in the summer. Nuggets like these should be treasured!

71 Years of the Dam Busters

Hollywood has a tendency towards diluting those elements of true stories that might not make for the happiest endings. Perhaps that’s why, almost sixty years after its release, ‘The Dam Busters’ remains one of cinema’s most popular tales of war. Once the action wound down, the audience found themselves exposed to a bittersweet range of emotions. A victory had been gained, yes, but a great many had lost their lives in the process.

Indeed, 71 years after Operation Chastise sent Barnes Wallis’ famed bouncing bombs skipping along the surfaces of German reservoirs, many have come to acknowledge that the mission was not quite the success it was initially believed to be.

Of the three dams attacked during the raids, two saw significant damage. Floods ripped through the Ruhr and Eder valleys, and many mines and factories were rendered useless. But much of this damage was undone by Germany’s rapid response in repairing the damage done. Many hundreds of people died in the floods that spilled through the dams, but over half of these deaths were those of prisoners of war, or Soviet women being used as forced labourers. Furthermore, 53 members of the participating aircrew died during the raid, and three more were captured.

Nevertheless, Operation Chastise represented something much more to those back home in England. This was a victory for Allied forces, and a morale boost coming at just the right time. The raid became one of the most memorable of the entire war, and gave icon status to both the Upkeep bouncing bomb and the modified Lancaster bombers that had delivered them to the bases of the German dams.

The Dambusters 617 Squadron went on to take part in some of the most decisive air raids of World War Two, including the sinking of the German battleship Tirpitz in 1944. This October, André Deutsch will mark the 70^th anniversary of this particular attack with the publication of ‘The Lancaster and the Tirpitz’, authored by Brian Milton and the late Tony Iveson, who was squadron leader during the raid itself.

You can pre-order 'The Lancaster and the Tirpitz' here.

A Welcome Message From Piers Murray Hill

Welcome to the new André Deutsch military history website. I’m the Editorial Director of the Carlton Publishing Group, of which André Deutsch is an important part. With my personal passion being military history, I’ll be blogging my take on upcoming anniversaries, and sharing information I pick up from books, the media, experts, and from historic battlefields. We’ll also have many other posts from the André Deutsch team, all sharing their enthusiasm for military history with you.

My interest in military history was triggered at the age of eight, when I first saw the Fox film adaptation of Cornelius Ryan’s The Longest Day. I saw it probably half a dozen times in 1962, and over the years perhaps the same number of times again. We will soon have the pleasure of posting the first video from my recent meeting with Doug McCabe who, as curator of the Cornelius Ryan Collection, was integral to the putting together of André Deutsch’s recent Collector’s Edition of Ryan’s original Longest Day book.

I’ve read numerous books about the Allied invasion of Europe in 1944, from Ryan’s (the daddy of them all) to Antony Beevor’s recent bestseller, but I only visited Normandy for the first time in 2000. I’ve been back many times since, and am looking forward to being there again from June 5^th to 8^th this year to join in and blog about the commemorations of the 70^th anniversary.

If you too are fascinated by the story of D-Day, then I strongly recommend you visit the invasion area. There is so much to see, and being there will definitely bring the epic events of 1944 to life for you.

For those visiting the Normandy coast to explore the D-Day invasion area for the first time, these, in my opinion, are the best things to see and do, moving from east (British/Canadians) to west (Americans) across the invasion area. If you're coming via Cherbourg, you'll probably want to do this in reverse order, from west to east. I've labelled some 'Essential Viewing' to help prioritise if you’re short of time.

There’s a good overview of the invasion area on Google Maps. Most, but not all, of the sites below show up on here.

1. Merville Battery & Museum (Merville-Franceville)

A complex of big-gun batteries that could have threatened the British amphibious assault on Sword Beach. The battery was successfully assaulted during the night by a severely depleted brigade of British 6th Airborne Division (150 of the original 750 carried out the attack at night). An amazing story, and plenty to see.

2. Pegasus Bridge & Museum & Cafe Gondrée (Bénouville) - Essential Viewing

Site of one of the most daring raids of the invasion (as seen in The Longest Day). A company of the Ox & Bucks Light Infantry landed in six gliders to capture two essential bridges that protected the whole eastern flank of the invasion. Just across the road from the excellent museum concrete monuments show exactly how close the gliders landed to the canal bridge. You can still have a coffee/beer in the Café Gondrée, the first building liberated by the Allies on 6th June. Last time I visited, the proprietress, Arlette Gondrée, was still alive; she was a child at the café when the Ox & Bucks arrived & captured the bridge.

3. Ouistreham Grand Bunker (Ouistreham, Sword Beach)

Interesting multistorey German strongpoint housing a good little museum. Surrounded on D-Day, the defenders inside the tower held out for a few days after the invasion.

4. 'Hillman' Battery (Coleville-Montgomery)

One of the biggest German strongpoints encountered by Allied forces coming inland off the beaches. I believe it was one of the main reasons why the British didn't manage to reach Caen on the first day, as originally planned. It took much longer than expected to neutralize and having a wide field of fire wrought havoc on troops moving south towards the city.

5. Arromanches D-Day Museum (Gold Beach) - Essential Viewing

You can still see the remnants of the massive Mulberry Harbour that was constructed with the help of sunken blockships and used to supply the Allies during the Battle of Normandy. Another superb museum.

6. Longues sur Mer Battery

One of the only Atlantic Wall batteries to have kept its big guns. Impressive hardware to look at. You won’t need long at Longues.

7. Bayeux Battle of Normandy Museum & British War Cemetery (opposite museum)

If you've had enough of museums, just go to the cemetery. Beautiful & moving.

8. Omaha Beach - Essential Viewing

US Cemetery: 

A truly enormous US war cemetery (where modern-day scenes from Saving Private Ryan were filmed). Monumental. Epic.

Museum:

Beautifully designed modern museum/visitor centre with a scenic infinity pool.

9. Pointe du Hoc - Essential Viewing

The one field of battle where you can still see the shell holes. Like a grassed-over moonscape. Site of the heroic storming of the cliff-top batteries by US Rangers seen in The Longest Day. Just climbing the cliffs in peacetime would be scary enough.

10. Utah Beach Museum

Good museum near the safest beach to land on on D-Day.

11. Ste-Mère-Eglise Airborne Museum - Essential Viewing

Excellent museum right across from the church where the US 82nd Airborne Division paratrooper Pvt John Steele hung from the spire in The Longest Day (and a dummy still does).

Recommended places to see and stay in Bayeux

This pretty medieval city is at the centre of the invasion area, but escaped ruin because the Germans left it without a fight on D+1. There's the excellent Bayeux Tapestry Museum, and the cathedral, which dominates the surrounding country landscape, is breathtaking.

Hotel d'Argouges: evocative old chateau in town. Very central, with car parking.

Chateau de Bellefontaine: another old chateau but with some modern apartments as well as period rooms. Beautiful park location only 5-10 minutes walk from the town centre, just the other side of the ring road.

If you've only got a couple of days, I'd say you could visit Pegasus Bridge, Arromanches & Bayeux on one day, and Omaha Beach, Pointe du Hoc and Ste-Mère-Eglise on the other. If you've got three or more days, I would recommend visiting all of the above.

Bon vacances!

Piers Murray Hill

The Longest Day: The D-Day 70th Anniversary Collector's Edition can be bought here.