German Panzer Mk. 2 used in the Low Countries. 20 mm gun and machine gun in rotating turret. Photograph courtesy of Wikipedia.
The 1st Loyal Lancashire existed as a regiment. They were in the BEF and they were the rearguard. All the rest is the work of the author's imagination. The use of booby traps using grenades was common. The details of the German potato masher grenade are also accurate. The Germans used the grenade as an early warning system by hanging them from fences so that an intruder would move the grenade and it would explode. The Mills bomb had first been used in the Great War. It threw shrapnel for up to one hundred yards. When thrown the thrower had to take cover too. However my Uncle Norman, who survived Dunkirk was demonstrating a grenade with an instructor kneeling next to him. It was a faulty grenade and exploded in my uncle's hand. Both he and the Sergeant survived. My uncle just lost his hand. I am guessing that my uncle's hand prevented the grenade fragmenting as much as it was intended. Rifle grenades were used from 1915 onwards and enabled a grenade to be thrown much further than by hand
During the retreat the British tank, the Matilda was superior to the German Panzers. It was slow but it was so heavily armoured that it could only be stopped by using the 88 anti aircraft guns. Had there been more of them and had they been used in greater numbers then who knows what the outcome might have been. What they did succeed in doing, however, was making the German High Command believe that we had more tanks than they actually encountered. The Germans thought that the 17 Matildas they fought were many times that number. They halted at Arras for reinforcements. That enabled the Navy to take off over 300,000 men from the beaches.
Although we view Dunkirk as a disaster now, at the time it was seen as a setback. An invasion force set off to reinforce the French a week after Dunkirk. It was recalled. Equally there were many units cut off behind enemy lines. The Highland Division was one such force. 10,000 men were captured. The fate of many of those captured in the early days of the war was to be sent to work in factories making weapons which would be used against England.
Freya, the German Radar.
Germany had radar stations and they were accurate. They also had large naval guns at Cape Gris Nez as well as railway guns. They made the Channel dangerous although they only actually sank a handful of ships during the whole of the war. They did however make Southend and Kent dangerous places to live.
Commando dagger
The first Commando raids were a shambles. Churchill himself took action and appointed Sir Roger Keyes to bring some order to what the Germans called thugs and killers. Major Foster and his troop reflect that change.
The parachute training for Commandos was taken from this link http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/72/a3530972.shtml. Thank you to Thomas Davies. The Number 2 Commandos were trained as a battalion and became the Airborne Division eventually. The SOE also trained at Ringway but they were secreted away at an Edwardian House, Bowden. As a vaguely related fact 43 out of 57 SOE agents sent to France between June 1942 and Autumn 1943 were captured, 36 were executed!
The details about the Commando equipment are also accurate. They were issued with American weapons although some did use the Lee Enfield. When large numbers attacked the Lofoten Islands they used regular army issue. The Commandos appeared in dribs and drabs but 1940 was the year when they began their training. It was Lord Lovat who gave them a home in Scotland but that was not until 1941. I wanted my hero, Tom, to begin to fight early. His adventures will continue throughout the war.
The raid on German Headquarters is based on an attempt by Number 3 Commando to kill General Erwin Rommel. In a real life version of 'The Eagle Has Landed' they almost succeeded. They went in by lorry. Commandos were used extensively in the early desert war but, sadly, many of them perished in Greece and Cyprus and Crete. Of 800 sent to Crete only 200 returned to Egypt. Churchill also compounded his mistake of supporting Greece by sending all 300 British tanks to the Western Desert and the Balkans. The map shows the area where Tom and the others fled. The Green Howards were not in that part of the desert at that time. The Germans did begin to reinforce their allies at the start of 1941.
Motor launch Courtesy of Wikipedia
Motor Gun Boat Courtesy of Wikipedia
Short Sunderland
Messerschmitt 110s over France
Aeroplane photographs courtesy of Wikipedia
Fieseler Fi 156 Storch
The St. Nazaire Raid was an incredible story of bravery and skill. The 5 Victoria Crosses which were awarded are testament to the bravery and the skill with which the ship was guided, at night, to strike its tiny target perfectly is astounding. Tom and his section are an amalgam of the actions of a larger number of Commandos. Their actions prevented the Germans from using the only Atlantic dry dock capable of repairing the Tirpitz which spent the rest of the war in a Norwegian Fjord. Had the Commandos and the Royal Navy not done what they did then the Atlantic convoys would have been at risk and the war might have ended differently. HMS Sturgeon was used to guide the flotilla of ships into the Loire estuary. The “Lancastria” was sunk during the evacuation in 1940. Over 4000 men died, and it was the greatest single loss of life in British maritime history. The wreck was left in the Loire estuary.
S class submarine HMS Sturgeon. The same class as the 'Sunfish'. Courtesy of Wikipedia.
The S Class had a crew of 39 officers and men.
The Campbelltown being converted
The Campbelltown just before she exploded.
Photographs courtesy of Wikipedia
S-160 Courtesy of Wikipedia
The E-Boats were far superior to the early MTBs and Motor Launches. It was not until the Fairmile boats were developed that the tide swung in the favour of the Royal Navy. Some MTBs were fitted with depth charges. Bill's improvisation is the sort of thing Combined Operations did. It could have ended in disaster but in this case it did not. There were stories of captured E-Boats being used by covert forces in World War II. I took the inspiration from S-160 which was used to land agents in the Low Countries and, after the war, was used against the Soviet Bloc. They were very fast, powerful and sturdy ships.
Reference Books used
The Commando Pocket Manual 1949-45- Christopher Westhorp
The Second World War Miscellany- Norman Ferguson
Army Commandos 1940-45- Mike Chappell
Military Slang- Lee Pemberton
World War II- Donald Sommerville
St Nazaire 1942-Ken Ford
Dieppe 1942- Ken Ford
The Historical Atlas of World War II-Swanston and Swanston
The Battle of Britain- Hough and Richards
The Hardest Day- Price
Griff Hosker November 2015
Other books
by
Griff Hosker
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Ancient History
The Sword of Cartimandua Series (Germania and Britannia 50A.D. – 128 A.D.)
Ulpius Felix- Roman Warrior (prequel)
Book 1 The Sword of Cartimandua
Book 2 The Horse Warriors
Book 3 Invasion Caledonia
Book 4 Roman Retreat
Book 5 Revolt of the Red Witch
Book 6 Druid’s Gold
Book 7 Trajan’s Hunters
Book 8 The Last Frontier
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Book 10 Roman Hawk
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Book 12 Roman Wall
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Book 1 Housecarl
Book 2 Outlaw
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The Wolf Warrior series (Britain in the late 6th Century)
Book 2 Saxon Revenge
Book 3 Saxon England
Book 4 Saxon Blood
Book 5 Saxon Slayer
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English Knight
Knight of the Empress
Northern Knight
Baron of the North
Earl
King Henry’s Champion
The King is Dead
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Book 2 Napoleon’s Guard
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Waterloo
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Rebel Raiders
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The Road to Gettysburg
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1914
1915 Fokker Scourge
1916 Angels over the Somme
1917 Eagles Fall
1918 We will remember them
Combined Operations series 1940-1945
Commando
Raider
Behind Enemy Lines
Dieppe
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For more information on all of the books then please visit the author’s web site at http://www.griffhosker.com where there is a link to contact him.