In the 34th bound volume of After the Battle (issues 133 to
136) battlefields are explored from North Africa to the Pacific.
Our
long-standing author, Jean Paul Pallud (Battle of the Bulge, Blitzkrieg and Rückmarsch),
turns his gimlet eye on North Africa, focussing on the battle of Kasserine in
1943. The first battle against the highly competent Afrikakorps was a disaster
for the green and poorly-led Americans. Jean Paul follows the course of the
fighting in Tunisia, producing excellent comparisons in the inhospitable, barren
landscape.
The Japanese developed Rabaul on New Britain in the South
Pacific into a strategic base with naval facilities and airfields to give them
air superiority in the region. Too strong to be invaded, it was neutralised by
heavy and sustained Allied air attacks from September 1943 onwards, its garrison
left to wither away until the Japanese surrender. A major eruption of Rabaul's
active volcano in 1994 has significantly altered the landscape, yet many relics
of the campaign still remain in situ today.
Back in Europe, Editor
Karel Margry visits Germany and presents detailed accounts of two significent
events which took place there in 1945. First he covers the battle for Bremen,
the major port on the River Weser which was both a major Kriegsmarine base and
important industrial centre vital to the German war effort. It was also one of
the last cities captured by the British Army, the blow-by-blow battle being
illustrated with fascinating comparison photographs.
The second German
'capture' concerns not a city but an individual who had been a thorn in the side
of the British throughout the war: the propaganda broadcaster William Joyce,
better known to the listening public as the traitor 'Lord Haw-Haw'. The detailed
account covers his role as a leading member of Mosely's pre-war Blackshirts; his
escape to Germany just before hostilities broke out in 1939; his wartime
broadcasts from Berlin and Hamburg which caused both anxiety and loathing in
Britain; his fortuitous apprehension by two soldiers in April 1945, and
subsequent controversial execution.
Wreck investigation stories cover a
Japanese bomber in the Pacific; a tank on the Eastern Front, and a
hydraucially-operated airfield defence pillbox in England. Other features
include the making of the classic war film They Were Not Divided; a little-known
exploit of a young American who fought with the Australians; the surrender of
Nauru and Ocean Islands; an air battle in May 1940 over Holland, plus of course
a round-up of follow-ups on previous issues 'From the Editor'.
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