That's a good one for the MP-40 Project. Since when is Bruce Quarrie a reputable source?

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There is an ass in my avatar.

Almost a change of heart for Mr Churchill spring 1941 in the Balkans question?

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Britain Decides to Assist Greece | NZETC

Mr Eden and General Dill were on their way to Cairo. The Foreign Secretary had to gather together all the threads and propose the best solution to the problems of the Middle East. His principal task was to initiate any action he thought fit for the swift relief of Greece, with whom it was ‘our duty to fight, and, if need be, suffer.’ His second task was to make both Turkey and Yugoslavia ‘fight at the same time or do the best they can.’ And his third was to arrange for military aid to Turkey since her interests were, in the long run, ‘no less important to us than those of Greece.

The delegates arrived in Cairo on 19 February where, almost immediately, Eden received a telegram from Churchill in which there was a rather cautious note: ‘Do not consider yourselves obligated to a Greek enterprise if in your hearts you feel it will only be another Norwegian fiasco. If no good plan can be made please say so. But of course you know how valuable success would be.

The replies from Eden on 20–21 February stated that after discussions in Cairo it had been decided to offer the fullest possible support to Greece. The argument was that if Greece was not successfully supported Turkey might not fight—and that would mean that Yugoslavia might not fight.

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Clifton, afetr being captured by Folgore paratroopers on 4th sept '42, was charged by Rommel of systematic massacre of prisoners and wounded of divisions Brescia, Pavia and Trieste: the brigader answered that it was due to the presence of too many Maoris in the brigade (6th NZ). Than Clifton requested the favour of being sent POW in Germany and not in Italy where he feared a trial: the favour was not accorded. Clifton evaded first in Marsa Matruh but was recaptured; in Italy he will make 5 attempts; transferred to Germany, he is seriously wounded at his 8th attempt, and then he results at the 9th.

Oasis

Yeah, Rommel was rather a stickler when it came to proper treatment of prisoners. In one incident the Germans intercepted a British wireless order instructing commanders that prisoners were no longer to be allowed anything to eat or drink until after they had been interrogated (which might sometimes be a matter of days). Rommel interceded and sent a communique to the British arguing that not only was that a breach of the rules regarding prisoners of war, but it was the kind of senseless, petty act of cruelty that could only cause an already tragic (in his view) war to become even more bitter. The British, on reflection, agreed and withdrew the order. What I found most telling was Rommel revealing that his intelligence people had cracked the British wireless code. Churchill allowed Coventry to be leveled without evacuating the civilians in order to protect the secret that they had cracked Germany's codes, but Rommel threw away a similar secret in order to prevent mistreatment of his soldiers. (yeah, I know that the codes Churchill was protecting were far more important than the operational codes Rommel's people had cracked.)

DAK propaganda footage Tobruk 1941

YouTube - 1941 Nazi Propaganda Film - The Siege of Tobruk

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From Johannes Steinhoff´s book " Die Strasse von Messina "

If the part for the German fighter pilots was not great in early July 1943 it was not easy for the Schnellkampfgeschwader 10´s ground attack pilots with FW190A´s either. They started with 74 planes, received 81 new planes during the fighting in Sicily, and by the end of July had 15 planes left which is less than 10% of all the planes altogether.

Schnellkampfgeschwader 10

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" On 24 may Colonel Gavin, one of the regimental commanders, was called to Ridgway´s HQ to be briefed on the forthcoming assault on Sicily, Operation Husky, slated for 9 July. Characteristically , Gavin shortly arranged to recce the drop zones ( DZ´s) in person. Gavin, two battalion commanders, and two pilots from the 52nd troops carrier Wing, took a pair of the unarmed, but very fast British Mosquito aircraft over Sicily. This risky undertaking was fortunately accomplished without loss, and Gavin returned confident that the operation was feasible."

From 82nd Airborne Division by Verier

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DRK nurse Ilse Schulz wearing the Iron Cross and Afrika Korps cufftitle
flanked by two Knight's Cross holders:

Axis History Factbook: Gallery: DRK

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Rommel and his DAK were nominally answerable to the Italian C-in-C in Cyrenaica, General Gariboldi, whose staff actually gave Rommel a free hand. Back in Germany the Army Command (OKH) was still extremely nervous of Rommel and his activities. So General Halder had the idea of sending a senior staff officer, Generalmajor Alfred Gause, and a big team of staff officers to be attached to General Gariboldi and his Comando Supremo HQ. They arrrived almost without warning on 11 June 1941 to be the official liaison team between OKH and the Italian C-in-C. The Italians regarded this as an insult and an intruson, and Rommel could see it was clearly intended to clip his wings. He outsmarted OKH by putting up a much better, and ultimately very logical alternative, accepted by Army C-in-C von Brauchitsch, that the new panzergruppe Afrika be formed ( effective 31 July 1941 ) commanded by Rommel with Gause as his chief of staff and Gause´s team as the Gruppe staff.

In this new arrangement Panzergruppe Afrika would have under command the original DAK ( 5th Light and 15th Panzer ), strengthened by a new German infantry division and the Italian Savona infantry division. The Italian forces would form XXI Italian Corps ( with Trente, Brescia,Pavia and Bologna divisions ) and XX Mobile Corps ( with the Ariete Armoured Division and Trieste Motorized Division ). General Gariboldi was replaced by General Bastico, who commanded the Italian forces and on paper was still the C-in-C.

Effectively what this achieved was to give Rommel his head- the opposite to the original OKH intention. In the process it tidied up the problem of assorted Italian units which had previously only had a vague chain of command. Generalmajor Ludwig Crüwell then came out from Germany to replace Rommel as DAK commander.

From" 21st panzer division " by Chris Ellis

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Amazon.co.uk: Mutiny at Salerno: An Injustice Exposed: Ludovic Kennedy,Saul David: Books

In late September 1943, nearly 200 veterans of Montgomery's Eighth Army were arrested for refusing orders to join units of the US Fifth Army at the Salerno beachhead in southern Italy. Within six weeks, all but one had been found guilty of mutiny, their sentences ranging from five years' penal servitude to death. Fifty years on, Saul David became the first military historian to gain access to the court martial papers - normally restricted for 75 years. In addition to crucial defence documents and the testimony of eye-witnesses, these papers enabled David to expose: How poorly equipped Eighth Army veterans, some still recovering from wounds and illness, were needlessly sent as reinforcements to Salerno when Fifth Army men were available. How transit camp authorities deliberately deceived the reinforcements as to their destination. How the defence team at their trial was forced, by lack of time, lack of witnesses and the hostility of the court, to offer a case based on no evidence and doomed to fail. How, after the humane intervention of the Adjutant-General and the suspension of sentences, insensitive staff officers and victimisation in their new units caused many mutineers to desert. How, as a result of their convictions, the former war heroes were stripped of their campaign and gallantry medals and branded as cowards; Concluding that the men were victims of a terrible injustice, Mutiny at Salerno provides a compelling case for a Royal Pardon.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwa...utiny_01.shtml

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Rommel´s own mobility in his Storch caused problems for his staff. On 7th April 1941 it became clear from intelligence reports to Rommel´s chief of staff and operations officer at the tactical HQ in Agedabia that the ad hoc and disorganised assembly of British forces at Mechili offered no threat to the advance and could be bypassed for the more important objective of Tobruk. But they could not pass this appreciation on to their chief who was flying there, here and everywhere in his Storch, completely out of touch with Tactical HQ. So they sent Rommel´s ADC, LT H W Schmidt in another Storch either to track down Rommel or, failing that, to reach Generalmajor Streich and pass the order straight to him. However, Schmidt himself got lost and did not arrive at Streich´s divisional HQ until the early morning of 8 April, by which time the attack on Mechili was already under way. Commentators on the desert war have speculated that, had Rommel not lost touch with his tactical HQ and received the staff´s advice, the outcome of the Cyrenaica campaign might have been even more successful, culminating in the speedy capture of Tobruk , which in the event ( 1941 ) did not happen.

21st Panzer division by Chris Ellis

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April 10, 2006

According to reports carried in the Israeli press over the weekend, a new study by two German historians has revealed that in 1942 the Nazis created a special SS force - one of its mobile death squads known as "Einsatzgruppe" - tasked to do to the Jews in British-mandated Palestine what was being done to them in Poland and other parts of Europe.

Called the "Einsatzgruppe Egypt," this Jew-killing force was formed shortly after "Palestinian" leader Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem, personally visited Hitler in Berlin and offered the services of his people to the cause of the Third Reich.

According to a report in Ynetnews Saturday, "the director of the Nazi research centre in Ludwigsburg, Klaus-Michael Mallman, and Berlin historian Martin Cueppers say an Einsatzgruppe was all set to go to Palestine and begin killing the roughly half-a-million Jews that had fled Europe to escape Nazi death camps like Auschwitz and Birkenau."

This special death squad led by Obersturmbannfuehrer Walther Rauff was attached to Rommel's Africa Korps and was waiting in Athens for the British to be driven from the Levant.

Nazis, Arabs planned Final Solution for pre-state Israel

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"The war which the great democracies are preparing is a war of exhaustion. One must therefore start with the worst assumption which contains 100 per cent. probability. The Axis will get nothing more from the rest of the world. This assumption is hard, but the strategic positions reached by the Axis diminish considerably, the vicissitude and the danger of a war of exhaustion. For this purpose one must take the whole Danube and Balkan area immediately after the very first hours of the war. One cannot be satisfied with declarations of neutrality, but must occupy the territories and use them for the procurement of the necessary food and industrial war supplies."

Mussolini May 30th 1939

Trials of German Major War Criminals: Volume 10

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