Unsung heroines

As someone of you might already know I am a bit of a Battle of Britain nut, so I was recently intrigued to hear that the surviving female members of the Air Transport Auxiliary are expected to be honoured with a special badge to commemorate their service.

These women may not have actively fought in the battle itself but a case could be made that without their contribution the battle would never have got off the ground. The ATA was responsible for delivering aircraft to RAF bases for their male counterparts to clear the skies of the invading Luftwaffe. It’s not as easy as it sounds. They may not have been under fire but they were expected to fly in all weather conditions from bad to downright dangerous often without any radio system and in planes they were unpractised in and as a result a number were killed in the line of duty, including the most famous member of the ATA, Amy Johnson. An incredibly experienced pilot she had been the first woman to fly solo from Britain to Australia in 1930. However, she was caught in bad weather while flying to RAF Kidlington. When the aircraft’s two tanks ran out of fuel she clambered onto the fuselage with her parachute and jumped, but tragically landed in the Thames Estuary and drowned. Nor did the ATA only serve during the Battle of Britain but throughout the course of war logging up an incredible 415,000 hours of flying, delivering more than 308,000 aircraft of 130 types. A total of 164 women flew with the ATA and today there only 15 remain. Personally I think a commemorative badge is probably the least we can do.

If you are interested in reading more about the women of the ATA then Giles Whittel has published a book entitled Spitfire Women of World War II. He highlights some of the real characters of the ATA from the South African diamond heiress to Margot Duhalde, just 19 and from Chile, who travelled all the way to England to fight the Germans. It makes for fascinating reading.

MERTs in Afghanistan

Not sure how many of our UK readers managed to catch this brilliant report on Channel 4 news a couple of months ago, so I thought I would share it with everyone. A television crew was allowed to accompany a British medical emergency response team (MERT for short) as it picked up the wounded from the battlefield.

It made for both uncomfortable and inspiring viewing. Uncomfortable of course because it showed the true horror of war and the high cost being paid by all, but also inspiring because of the efforts these teams will go to in an attempt to save a life – and not just British soldiers. Footage included the rescues of US soldiers, Afghan National Army soldiers and even their own erstwhile enemies. Flying in Chinooks low over the soaring Afghan mountains, at risk from enemy fire, these teams performed complicated medical procedures, that would usually require a hospital and a full-team of surgeons, in an attempt to save lives.

Sometimes they are successful, sometimes they are not, but day in day out in a cycle of punishing 24-hour duty rotas they report back for more. The one good thing is to see their service being given coverage on a prime-time news report so that people back home can witness first-hand the remarkable feats they achieve.

You can see the full report <a href="http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/politics/international_politics/miliband+backs+troops+in+afghanistan/1507947">here</a>

British Uniform Stamps

For all you uniform buffs who also perhaps have a secondary hobby as stamp collectors, you may be interested to know that one of Osprey’s artists, Graham Turner, has recently produced a series of stamps showing the evolution of British Army uniforms for the Royal Mail. This first set, in a planned series of three, shows a vast variety of uniforms from a Rifleman of 1813 to a Tank Commander of 1944 and an NCO from the Royal Military Police. One of the greatest challenges said Graham was “to make each soldier appear as human as possible, rather than looking like a series of dummies in uniforms”, and of course all within a minute scale! The stamps can be viewed at this link and if you would like to know more about Graham’s other projects, as well as updates on his next exhibition here is link to his website.

Hell Land (Helmand Province Exhibition)

The National Army Museum here in London recently launched a new exhibition about 3 Para’s deployment as part of 16 Air Assault to Helmand Province, or as they fondly called it “Hell Land”. The exhibit has actually been nominated for The Art Fund Prize.

If you can’t make it down to London to see this excellent exhibition then they do have an online version, which is also great and has some brilliant photos. I’m currently looking into doing a book on the Anglo-Afghan Wars of the 19th century and it does feel a bit surreal reading about the fighting around the Khbher Pass, Kandahar and Kabul – names that are all instantly recognisable because of current news reports. It will be interesting to draw parallels between today’s war and back then.

But on a lighter note it would be fun to do a book on such an archetypal Flashman period and I’ll have to dust off an old copy of that classic war film The Man who would be king. Hope that doesn’t make it onto Mike’s worst war film list!

Courage under fire: Recent British military decorations

181 members of the British Armed Forces and the Ministry of Defence have recently been honoured for courage and professionalism while on active service. There had been a lot of expectation that a Victoria Cross, Britain’s highest award for gallantry, would be awarded to some soldiers, who had participated in Herrick VI in Afghanistan but in the end a number of Military Crosses were awarded for bravery in the face of danger. These included posthumous awards to Captain David Hicks and Corporal Craig Brelsford.

Corporal Brelsford had been tasked with assisting in the evacuation of four critically injured casualties from the battlefield. According to the official citation, Cpl Brelsford placed himself between the enemy and the casualties, creating a protective screen and laying down fire. At the same time he provided inspiration and encouragement to the young soldiers under his command as they repeatedly fought off the Taleban. Although critically injured he continued to command his men, only standing down when he and his men were in the safety of a Viking vehicle. Sadly he later succumbed to his injuries. Brelsford was killed during Operation Pechtaw. There is an excellent interactive report on the firefight together with interviews from the soldiers who were there and detailed maps at the following link.

Of course, this is just highlighting one incident, and in this case British soldiers. But it is a sobering report, summing up what soldiers from several nations are experiencing on the frontline on a daily basis, for which a number of whom have recently been rewarded.

General Dan Shamron, organiser of the Entebbe Raid, dies 26 February 2008

Lt. Gen. Dan Shamron, a former Chief of Staff for the Israeli Defence Forces, died yesterday. The 13th Chief of Staff, he was a highly decorated soldier, having received a Medal of Distinguished Service for being the first paratrooper to reach the Suez Canal during the Six Day War. However, his name will live on history as the paratroop commander who planned and led the audacious Entebbe Raid in 1976, which successfully freed 103 hijacked hostages held at Entebbe Airport in Uganda. Without a doubt it was one of the most daring counter-terrorism operations ever conducted.

The incident began on 27 June 1976 when an Air France jet travelling from Tel Aviv to Paris was hijacked by four terrorists, members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Badder-Meinhof terrorist group. The plane was eventually forced to land in Entebbe, Uganda and the Israeli government determined on a military solution when it became clear that no Israeli, Jewish or aircrew hostages would be released without the demands being met. The final plan, put forward by Shamron together with the Israeli Special Forces (the Syaret Matkal), was daring and imaginative, but extremely risky.

Thirty-two Israeli Special Forces troops as well as paratroopers, were to fly the 2,500 miles to Entebbe Airport in four C130 Hercules transports, each leaving Israel in a different direction, staying below 100 feet for much of the eight and half hour flight to avoid being detected on radar. On landing, the raiders would then try to fool the terrorists into thinking that the Ugandan President Idi Amin was visiting by approaching in a black Mercedes sedan with two Land Rover escorts which Amin favoured, while the rest of the force were dressed in captured Syrian Special Forces uniforms that were similar to those worn by the PFLP terrorists. The rescue team touched down at 23:01 on 3 July. The ensuing firefight was brief and brutal, lasting just minutes. All the terrorists were killed as well as almost 50 Ugandan troops out of the 80 who were guarding the airport. Although three hostages were killed in the cross fire, the remaining 221 passengers and crew were safely evacuated. The raiders returned to Israel to a tumultuous welcome.

I have been fascinated by the story of this astonishing raid for years and I am pleased to say that we will be covering it when we launch our new Raid series in 2009 (more details to follow closer to the time). Shamron himself was more uncomfortable with the fame that came as a result of the raid, as he remarked in a 2006 interview “I also felt some kind of envy from the military and it was not comfortable for me. Around the world… they look at me like something from a different world, a super super-hero, something not natural. I don’t like that feeling of being an advertisement.” Though on a lighter note he did mention that he liked the Charles Bronson portrayal of himself in the movie Raid on Entebbe (1977).

Dan Shamron, heralded by Simon Peres as “one of the greatest commanders” the Israeli military had ever known, passed away on the 26 February 2008 as a result of complications from a stroke. He was seventy years old.

Getting the right cover

There was a bit of online controversy about the initial cover for Duel 10 M3 Medium Tank vs Panzer III. As many Osprey fans pointed out the artwork wasn’t quite accurate. Well actually it wasn’t accurate at all - but this is because it wasn’t the finished cover.

It’s a bit of a catch-22 really. We have to provide mock-up covers to our trade reps months, if not years, in advance of publication. At this stage we often don’t have the completed artwork ready and so we have to make do with whatever images we have available in-house. Usually the covers are only available as a relatively small image, so we always hope that people won’t pick up any of the glaring mistakes as this isn’t a true reflection of the book. However, it does also find its way onto various websites such as Amazon with the result that our actual customers, the Osprey readers, are put off when they see an innacurate cover.

As I said, a catch-22! Of course, we now have brilliant artwork for use on the cover so I hope you can all breathe a collective sigh of relief! Hopefully this shouldn’t happen too often in the future. We are making every effort to get the artwork completed far in advance and we usually have more than enough accurate images to choose from when it comes to provisional covers. It just so happened in this case that Osprey hasn’t published that many books on the North African campaign. More reason to get your hands on this latest edition!

And if you do want to keep up-to-date with the Duel series, you can do so at www.ospreyduel.com

Thoughts from the editor...

Some of you may already be aware but come January some of our books are going to look a bit different. We have completely redesigned some of our series books and I think they look fantastic but I guess I’m probably a bit biased.

The first book in the New Vanguard series to benefit from this new look is also a subject that is a little bit different for this series – armored trains. This is written by Steve Zaloga and illustrated by Tony Bryan (New Vanguard 140). This is a fantastic book looking at how trains first came to be used in war with a perfect combination of the developmental history and actual combat accounts while Tony’s illustrations are an absolute joy as always. The other book I really want to draw your attention to is Ian McCulloch’s Warrior title on the Highlander in the French-Indian War (Warrior 126). Ian is a serving soldier and the former commanding officer of the Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment Canada) as well as being of Scottish decent so he was the perfect man for the job. Ian has sourced the most incredible first-hand accounts from diary entries to letters sent home so that as the reader you get an incredible, intimate account of what it was like to be there. You can literally smell the wood-fires burning and feel the drifts of snow as well as imagine the sheer horror of fighting this war so many miles from home. Thoroughly recommended! Luckily for me I already have my copies of both books literally hot off the printing press but for everyone else they will be available from January 08 onwards.

Our Campaign and Fortress titles have also been given an overhaul, so keep an eye out for Vienna 1683 and The Berlin Wall.

Military – the new buzz word from documentaries to gyms…

At the moment military history seems to be creating a bit of a buzz particularly in the States where Ken Burns’ new documentary series on World War II has just launched. I was a huge fan of his Civil War documentary series (The Civil War) so I am literally chomping on the bit to see this one though this side of the Atlantic we will have to wait quite a while before we get to view it. However, for all of you who, like me are unwilling to wait, PBS have put together a great website with highlights from the series and video clips of interviewees which is worth a visit (The War). I found this great one describing a soldier called Joe Medicine Crow literally wrestling a German soldier to the ground (Joe Medicine Crow interview). Joe managed to survive this encounter and a number of others to live to tell the tale and I think it is so important that we are recording his and his fellow veterans thoughts while we still have the chance.

But its not just TV and books where military is the new catch phrase. The latest fitness fad currently taking the UK by storm is British Military Fitness (BMF). Created by former soldiers as an alternative to the lycra clad, swiss ball using, water fountain world of gyms; its essentially an outdoor gym in parks all around the country. Run by rather scary looking former sergeants and their brothers-in-arms, it promises to “beast” you into physical fitness just like joining the Marines but presumably without the short-back-and-sides hair cut! Coming to a park near you…

Greatest War Speeches... or not

I’m currently working on a book on the battle between Russian and Japanese battleships during the war of 1904–05 for our new Duel series. In it, the author Robert Forczyk highlights probably one of the most uninspiring pre-battle speeches ever, when the Russian commander Vitgeft told his officers, “Gentlemen, we shall meet in the next world.” Admiral Vitgeft was indeed killed during the battle but I think the men he commanded would have appreciated a bit more encouragement no matter how badly the odds were stacked against them!

Certainly Churchill, the author of perhaps some of the greatest war speeches, never white-washed the truth of the situation rather the opposite, always telling the British public the worst. One historian described it as “hurling it to them like great hunks of bleeding meat” but inspiring them nonetheless and he succeeded in sending them into battle transformed. The year of Dunkirk, he promised, would be one in which it would be “equally good to live or to die” yet if they prevailed this would be “their finest hour”.

From housewives to battlefield commanders, Churchill had the ability to transform each and every one into a potential war-winner. From Elizabeth I facing down the Armada and reminding her troops that she had heart of a king to Lincoln at Gettysburg to Colonel Tim Collins’ eve-of-battle speech in Iraq, these are the words that will resonate across the centuries. A great war speech can inspire troops to victory, prepare a population for hard times and even change the world...

The Ice Girls

Some of you might have caught a news story a couple of weeks ago telling the incredible story of Glacier Gal; nearly 65 years ago this P-38 was one of eight planes to ditch in the dangerous environs of Greenland as it attempted to make the incredible journey from the US, across the northern tips of the Atlantic, to Great Britain to reinforce the war effort there. After over fifty years trapped in the ice and numerous salvage operations, she has finally been freed, restored and flown. The plan was to complete her original mission and fly her all the way to Britain to take part in the Flying Legends Air Show at IWM Duxford.

Unfortunately, technical malfunctions meant she could never complete the journey but her story has highlighted a forgotten corner of the war. Not many people realise that the US had bases in Greenland as part of Operation Bolero - an operation designed to resupply bases in Britain with warplanes via what was fondly known as the "Great back door of Europe". Nor has the recent press coverage focused on the equally incredible stories of the rescue crews who risked their lives to save their fellow airmen when they all too frequently had to ditch on the ice. One of the most incredible rescue stories of the war is that of "My Gal Sal".

My Gal Sal was a B-17 bomber which crash-landed onto an ice cap in June of 1942. Located by a PBY plane, food and supplies were dropped to the stricken crew but the real problem was how to get them off their new icy base. With no suitable plane equipped with skiis it seemed like an impossible task. Luckily for the crew Lt Col Balchen was in charge of one of the key Greenland bases in the region. Balchen, born in Norway, was an expert Artic survivalist and had even taken part in Antartic expeditions. He instilled a confidence in his men that they could achieve the impossible, whatever the conditions. This was never more true than the rescue operation for the crew of "My Gal Sal".

Blachen himself led a ground crew rescue team on skiis across hundreds of miles while a PBY protectively circled above when possible, directing them and dropping supplies. Eventually the PBY was able to land amidst some of the melted ice, forming a temporary lake, and the entire crew was rescued over a week since first crashing. I can't even begin to imagine the relief of these airmen once they realised that they would soon be taken somewhere safe and warm! There is an excellent website which details the story of My Gal Sal in more detail, while our own Osprey title Combat Aircraft 65: PBY Units of the Atlantic War also tells this story and many more.

Calling all doccie fans...

Well if Mike is a bit nutty about old buildings I am definitely a bit of a history documentaries obsessive. But that’s not to say that I spend my life in a darkened room watching History Channel re-runs. I am quite picky about what I do and don’t watch. The other night I managed to catch one of the episodes of the new series 20th Century Battlefields on the BBC looking at the Battle of Midway. It will be screened in the US later on in the year so look out for it if you are the other side of the Atlantic. In the meantime you can check out this link http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/programmes/twentiethcenturybattlefields/. It is a bit “popcorn history” designed to keep you entertained and is a bit of an excuse for Dan Snow (the younger of the well-known British presenting duo) to fly around in helicopters and trek around the jungle in camo without any real danger. Bit of a dream job really… It's probably not for you if you really know your stuff but it's fun and will probably keep the young ’uns enthralled if you are trying to trick them into catching up a bit on their history. It is also bit slicker than their last series Battlefield Britain which got a lot of viewers but controversially used the technique of interviewing “survivors” from the various battles such as Culloden etc. Don’t get me wrong, I love the re-enacting scene but I’m just not convinced that it works when it comes to documentaries. Feel free to hit me with some blog comments to try to convince me otherwise! I suppose I am just a bit of a traditionalist. In my eyes, nothing in recent years has even come close to matching the standards set by World at War and Ken Burns’ American Civil War film for PBS. It seems that truly great documentary series like that only come round every couple of decades. What is even more brilliant about Burns’ work was that it didn’t use any gimmicks, computer tricks, fake interviews etc to get the story across. It simply used the letters and diary entries of soldiers who were actually there accompanied by music from the period to paint a haunting portrait of the most important period in American history. If you are one of the few people out there who has never seen any of the 11 hours of footage, go on and treat yourself to that DVD set. The good news is that Burns is planning another epic series, this time on World War II, called The War, which will screen on 23 September 2007 (Stateside only I’m afraid to say). Mark it in your diaries now!

Who wins in the battles of the machines?

Some of you may have heard about our new series Duel, which is coming in September. It looks at the machines of war pitted against each other; in particular the classic confrontations like the Spitfire vs the Bf 109. Each book looks at the design and development of the particular weapons, the crews that operated them and how they performed in real combat situations.

Today I’ve been looking at the proofs for one of the new titles, Panther vs T-34, which will cover their epic battles in the Ukraine in 1943. I’ve just finished reading some fantastic yet terrifying first-hand accounts of action which I thought I would share with you all. Here is Oberleutenant Gabriel from Panther 801 describing being hit during Operation Zitadelle:
I tore off the smoldering headset and microphone with my severely burnt hands, which already had the fingernails popped off. By then the gunner was pushing out from below, but I had to push his head so as to get out of the turret myself. This all happened very fast . . . After me, the gunner was still able to rescue himself. He had suffered burns, mainly on his face.
Of course it was no easier for the Russian crews. One lucky survivor, Lieutenant Vasiliy Bryukhov, later described the confusion of being caught up in a tank duel:
I’d get a target in the gun sight – a short stop, one shot, another one. I’d traverse the gun from left to right and shout: “Armor-piercing! Fragmentation!” The engine would be roaring so one couldn’t hear the explosions outside, and when I opened fire myself I didn’t hear anything that was happening outside the tank. Only when the tank was hit by an armor-piercing round . . . would I realize that there were also some guys firing at me.

These accounts really brought home to me the true horrors of tank warfare. The series also includes some great new kinds of Osprey artwork, so that you can really put yourself in the shoes of the combatants. We’ve got “through the gunsight views” for the tanks and amazing cockpit illustrations for the aviation duels (see below). Have a look at the Duel website if you're interested in seeing more.

Also, as commissioning editor for this series, I am always thinking about ideas for new titles so I thought I would ask you. What do you think are the classic machine-on-machine confrontations, of any war? Let me know and who knows, we may even do a book on it!