Passing of Anne Alexander on 15 July 2024
Condolences to SAMHSEC stalwart Mac Alexander and his family with Anne’s passing.
August is Women’s Month
Thank you, Ladies, for your contributions and support! Without you SAMHSEC would be a drab affair, indeed.
Military History Journal June 2024
Thank you to Editor Joan Marsh and the Editorial Panel/Sub-Editors Brian Culross, Marjorie Dean and Robin Smith for another worthy edition.
BZ to SAMHSEC members Ian Copley and Andre Olivier who have articles in the Journal.
Thanks also to Steven Bowker and Peter Duffel-Canham for distributing copies to members.
SAMHSEC meeting 8 July 24
With this year being the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings, André Crozier’s presentation was on the planning of D-Day 6 June 1944.
After the surrender of France on 22 June 1940, Britain and its Commonwealth stood alone against Germany. However, as early as October 1940, Churchill established the Directorate of Combined Operations to plan operations against the German occupied coastline. Lord Louis Mountbatten was later appointed Commander from October 1941.
On 22 June 1941 Hitler invaded Russia, so Britain no longer stood alone. America entered the war after the attack on Pearl Harbour on 7 November 1941.
As the German armies advanced deeper into Russia, the Russians suffered enormous losses in men and materials and the fear arose that Russia could collapse. On 18 July 1941 Churchill received a request from Stalin to open a second front by invading France. The request was declined as being totally impossible at that stage. Churchill and the British Chiefs of Staff were extremely wary of a premature invasion of France that could only end in a “bloody repulse”.
The United States had adopted a Germany First policy and political pressure built to get on with the war against Germany by invading France. Churchill managed to persuade the Americans to rather undertake invasions of North Africa (Operation Torch), then of Sicily (Operation Husky) and then of Italy (Operation Baytown).
At the Casablanca Conference in January 1943, the decision was taken to invade France in May 1944 and a joint planning staff called COSSAC (Chief of Staff to the Supreme Allied Commander), under Major General Sir Frederick Morgan, was established. The major decision to be made was where to land. Pas de Calais, opposite Dover, was the obvious landing place, but Mountbatten was adamant that it should be in Normandy.
The staff at COSSAC became deeply divided as to where the landings should take place. To resolve the dispute Mountbatten organised a conference, codenamed Rattle, at the Combined Operations Training School at Largs in Scotland from 28 June to 2 July 1943.
Mountbatten chaired the conference and invited senior British, American and Canadian officers to attend. Mountbatten and Morgan were determined that the conference should not end before agreement had been reached on the place and method of invasion. Numerous papers were presented and, by the end of the conference, Mountbatten and Morgan had managed to get consensus that the landings should be in Normandy.
Mountbatten and his staff also introduced the idea of constructing two artificial harbours and towing them across the channel, an idea first thought to be laughable. The need for a deception plan, later to be called Operation Fortitude, was also decided.
With the landing area agreed, the detailed planning could begin. Planning intensified after General Dwight Eisenhower was appointed as the Supreme Commander for Operation Overlord on 7 December 1943.
The only main change to the COSSAC plan was at the insistence by General Bernard Montgomery, Commander of 21 Army Group, that the initial landing force be increased from 3 to 5 infantry divisions supported by 3 airborne divisions and that the landing area be extended from 50 to 80 kms. This caused the target date to be postponed from May to June 1944.
D-Day was set for Monday 5 June. However, the weather over the Channel deteriorated in the days up to 5 June, so Eisenhower had to postpone the landings. However, by a stroke of good fortune, meteorologists detected that, despite the raging storm, there would be a 36-hour break in the weather from the evening of Monday 5 June, so the landings could go ahead on the morning of Tuesday 6 June.
The bad weather over the weekend meant that the Germans did not expect a landing and General Rommel even took the weekend off to return to Germany to visit his wife.
The landings took place on Tuesday 6 June and were a success, with 156 000 troops being landed. Casualties were about 10 000, much lower than had been feared.
Organising the conference at Largs was regarded as Mountbatten’s’ crowning achievement before he was appointed as Supreme Commander, Southeast Asia. On 12 June 1944, after they had visited the landings, Churchill, Smuts and Generals Marshall, Brooke and Arnold and Admiral King sent a message to Lord Mountbatten congratulating him and his staff at Combined Operations on their contribution in the planning of D-Day.
André’s presentation is in the Video Library of the Society's website
SAMHSEC RPC 29 July 2024
In session 1, Arnold van Dyk discussed the Bittereinder Boer forces who remained in the field until the end of the Anglo-Boer War.
Arnold’s presentation was based on a letter to W.T. Stead by Jan Smuts on 4 January 1902 (See Selections from the Smuts Papers edited by Hancock and van der Poel) while in the field with his commando at Vanrhynsdorp. Smuts explained that the justification to still be in the field held by most of the Boers was a spirit similar to that of the early Christian martyrs. They heard reports of defeat and rapine, of the suffering of their wives and children in the concentration camps, with resignation which arose from acceptance that such was God’s will.
The SAMHS Zoom Library contains the recording of Arnold’s presentation.
In session 2, Peter Duffel-Canham discussed the book “Double Cross: The True Story of the D Day Spies” by Ben MacIntyre. This book gives a different aspect to the story of D-Day and is an appropriate addition to the presentation by Andre Crozier on Planning for D-Day. André touched on the deception plans to make the Germans think that the landing would be in the Pas de Calais area. Fictitious US and British armies were established with inflatable tanks, imitation landing craft in rivers and radio traffic with false messages. An important aspect was to keep the Germans convinced that the Pas de Calais was the real target even after the Cherbourg landings, so that they would keep troops in that area.
The author gives detailed biographies of the double agents and their backgrounds. The book takes concentrated reading, as one has to follow the different code names, case officers, payments and decorations awarded from both sides to the same person. It appears that the Abwehr office in Lisbon and bankers in both Portugal and Spain were key for both sides.
It is interesting that double agents who featured in later Cold War activities were active during the war. Anthony Blunt, one of the Cambridge double agents, was passing secrets to the Soviets when they were German allies and when they were on the Allied side.
The whole operation could have been jeopardised on a number of occasions. A lady who nursed a grudge because she had been forced to leave her dog in France when she was extracted to Britain, did not disclose that she had a code to insert in a message that would indicate to the Germans that the message was being sent under duress. A double agent in the Abwehr Lisbon office was compromised when that organisation was disbanded. He was driven across the Portuguese and Spanish borders and handed over to the Gestapo in France, but did not give anything away, even under torture.
The operation was a success as German troops stationed in the Pas de Calais area were not immediately moved to Normandy.
The book concludes with a chapter on the lives the agents after the war.
SAMHSEC meeting 12 August 2024 Barbara Anne Kinghorn is to tell us about Jeanne D’Arc: the French girl soldier of the Hundred Years’ War.
SAMHSEC RPC 26 August 2024
SAMHSEC Requests the Pleasure of your Company to talk about military history on 26 August 2024.
RPC meetings are opportunities for you to share your knowledge of a military history subject or book with fellow military historians. Presentations should last approximately 15 minutes to allow time for sharing the pleasure of one another’s company. You can do any number of RPC presentations per year. Please contact André at andrecrozier@gmail.com if you want to share your knowledge.
SAMHSEC 4TH Quarter 2024 field trip
Planning is underway for our field trip to the lower Fish River area in the 4th quarter of this year. Please contact me if you want to join the field trip WhatsApp group.
Springs Mine and Military Museum
Because vandalisation of our military heritage is all too common, I was pleased to
hear about the Springs Mine and Military Museum through a Gunners Association link:
https://www.gunners.org.za/the-springs-mine-and-military-museum-gunrestoration-report/
Background on the museum is available on
https://www.citizen.co.za/springs-advertiser/newsheadlines/2023/03/07/preserving-history/
I was previously unaware of the museum. If you have visited it, please share your experience with fellow members.
SAMHSEC