World War II in Photographs
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194 I
ABOVE
Cause. The 88 mm started life as an
anti-aircraft gun, but was adapted to
become the war's outstanding anti-tank
weapon, with an effective range against
tanks of up to 2000 metres and the ability
to penetrate over 200 mm of armour
at 500 metres. This gun is engaging
British tanks at Mers el Brega on
April 15, 1941, during Rommel's advance.
RIGHT
And effect? The heavy armour of
the British Matilda Mk II tank
made it invulnerable to many German
anti-tank guns, but not to the 88 mm.
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194 I
ABOVE
German tanks - mainly the
PzKpfw Mk II with a 20 mm
gun - on the move, June 1941
during the abortive Operation Baltleaxe.
RIGHT
Rommel (left) in characteristic
pose, accompanied by his
Chief of Staff, Fritz Bayerlein.
122
RIGHT
Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive bombers on
their way to attack British tanks at Ghobi,
November 23, 1941, during the hard
fought but ultimately successful British
offensive, codenamed Operation Crusader.
BELOW
A classic image of the desert war. A British
cruiser tank Mk VI Crusader, which
compared well with its opponents although,
with a 40 mm gun, relatively lightly-armed,
passes a burning PzKpfw Mk IV during
Operation Crusader, November 27, 1941.
123
124
THE BALKANS AND GREECE
The Italians invaded Greece in October 1940, and although the
Greeks repelled the attack, the Germans concentrated in Romania
for an assault of their own. Churchill, insistent that "the cradle of
democracy" should be defended, ordered Wavell, Commander-in-
Chief in the Middle East, to send troops from North Africa to
Greece. More than 50,000 British, Australian, New Zealand and
Polish troops were sent, gravely weakening Britain's grip on the
Western Desert at just the time that Rommel was making his presence
felt. On April 6, the Germans attacked Yugoslavia and Greece: the
Yugoslavs surrendered on April 17 and the Greeks on April 24.
British troops landing at Piraeus from HMS
Orion and HMS Ajax in February 1941.
125
LEFT
1941
RIGHT
On March 1, Bulgaria joined the Tripartite
Pact of Germany, Italy and Japan.
The caption to this German photograph
of the march through Bulgaria recalls
"the armed brotherhood of the First World
War", when Bulgaria was a German ally.
3ELOW
German tanks advancing through
Greece in April circumvent a
destroyed road by using railway tracks.
126
1941
Elements of the SS motorized infantry
division Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler
under its tough commander Josef "Sepp"
Dietrich pushing on through the tide of
Greek prisoners, May 1941. Leibstandarte
subsequently became a panzer division
with a reputation for ruthlessness.
The Germans invaded Yugoslavia on
April 6, and the Yugoslav government
surrendered eleven days later. These German
citizens of Sarajevo present the "tablet of
shame" commemorating the assassination
of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the
spark which ignited the First World War,
to the invaders. It was sent on to Berlin.
127
ABOVE
LEFT
194 I
CRETE
Hitler decreed that Crete would be taken to provide a base
for operations against British shipping. Operation Mercury was to
consist of a parachute and glider assault on Crete's three airfields -
Maleme in the west, Rethymnon in the centre and Iraklion to the
east - by General Kurt Student's XI Fliegerkorps with 7th Parachute
Division. Men of Fifth and Sixth Mountain Divisions would
then arrive by air and sea. When the landings began on
May 20, Lieutenant General Sir Bernard's Freyberg's British and
Commonwealth garrison of 31,000 men, including survivors from
Greece, fought back hard, but the defence was compromised by
failure to secure Maleme. German air supremacy also proved telling:
surviving defenders surrendered or were evacuated at the end of May.
ABOVE
Freyberg had won the Victoria Cross in the
First World War and enjoyed a reputation for
personal courage. During the battle for Crete,
however, he diverted some of his best troops
to meet a seaborne attack, probably as the
result of misreading a secret ULTRA message
(produced by British penetration of secret
German communications), thereby delaying
the crucial counterattack on Maleme airfield.
RIGHT
German Junkers Ju 52s dropping
parachutists under fire near Iraklion on May
20. 5th Airborne Division lost over 6,000
killed, wounded and missing: a shocked
Hitler forbade future airborne operations.
128
194 I
129
194 I
ABOVE
Troops from 5th Mountain Division at a
Greek airfield preparing to board Junkers
Ju 52s - the workhorse of German air
transport - to be flown in to Mâleme,
relinquished by the defenders on May 22.
130