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Military Heritage (ISSN 1524-8666) is published bimonthly by Sovereign Media, 6731 Whittier Ave., Suite A-100, McLean VA 22101-4554 (703) 964-0361. Periodical postage PAID at McLean, VA, and additional mailing offices. Military Heritage, Volume 16, Number 2 2014 by Sovereign MediaCompany, Inc., all rights reserved. Copyrights to stories and illustrations are the property of their creators. The contents of this publication may not bereproduced in whole or in part without consent of the copyright owner. Subscription Services, back issues, and Information: 1(800) 219-1187 or writeto Military Heritage Circulation, Military Heritage, P.O. Box 1644, Williamsport, PA 17703. Single copies: $5.99, plus $3 for postage. Yearly subscrip-tion in U.S.A.: $18.95; Canada and Overseas: $30.95 (U.S.). Editorial Office: Send editorial mail to Military Heritage, 6731 Whittier Ave., Suite A-100,McLean VA 22101-4554. Military Heritage welcomes editorial submissions but assumes no responsibility for the loss or damage of unsolicited material.Material to be returned should be accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope. We suggest that you send a self-addressed, stamped envelope for acopy of our authors guidelines. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Military Heritage, P.O. Box 1644, Williamsport, PA 17703.

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COVER: WWII era B-17 bomber Aluminum Overcast, restored and flown by the Experimental Aircraft Association, is a popular attraction at air shows across the U.S. See story page 12. Photo: Buddy Mays; www.buddymays.com

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f e a t u r e s24 UNSTOPPABLE GOD OF WAR: ALEXANDER AT ISSUSBy Charles HilbertA vast Persian host arrayed on the banks of the River Pinarus in 333 BC stood astride Alexander the Greats supply line. Anything short of a complete victory for the Macedonians meant certain annihilation.

32 SHOWDOWN IN THE ALEUTIANSBy Phil ZimmerWhen Japanese forces gained a foothold in the Aleutian Islands in June 1942, a major commitment of U.S. forces was needed to oust the invaders.

40 MANY GALLANT MEN WERE LOSTBy Kelly BellGeneral Richard Ewells troops tried repeatedly to drive resilient Yankees from the highground at Culps Hill on the Union right flank at Gettysburg, but failed each time.

48 CANNONBALLS, GRAPESHOT, AND PROFANITYBy David A. NorrisIn 1745, a rowdy army of New England militia set its sights on the French-held Louisbourg, the most forbidding stone fortress in North America.

56 VICTORY AT A DREADFUL COSTBy William E. WelshOn August 18, 1870, the Prussians fought a savage battle with the French at Gravelotte-Saint-Privat. Despite a series of blunders, the Prussians superior numbersand artillery enabled them to carry the day.

c o l u m n s6 EDITORIAL

8 SOLDIERS

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The French sought revenge after the fall of Louisbourg.

IN THE WAKE OF THE IMPRESSIVE VICTORY BY AMERICAN

colonists over the French at Louisbourg in June 1745 during King

Georges War (1744-1748), the Province of Massachusetts Bay braced

for the inevitable raids by the French and their Native American allies

on two fronts. The western front was northwest Massachusetts, and the

eastern front was the coast of present-day Maine.In a campaign lasting one and a half months,

a force composed entirely of Americancolonists had, through a combination of goodluck and strong wits, successfully besieged theGibraltar of the New World located on CapeBreton Island.

In the wake of the victory, MassachusettsGovernor William Shirley ordered the con-struction of three new forts on the western bor-der and arranged for additional troops to beassigned to garrisons at existing forts in Maine,such as Forts St. Georges and Frederick.

The Iroquois descended on English settle-ments in New York and western Massachu-setts, and the Abaneki attacked the English set-tlements on the seaweed-laced coastal watersof Maine. The Abaneki were one of the fivenations of the Wabanaki Confederacy. Theirancestral lands lay between the Merrimack andthe Penobscot Rivers, but by the 1740s theyhad been driven east of the Penobscot River.

The French and the Wabanaki nations hadforged bonds of brotherhood during the morethan half a century of wars conducted againstthe English. The English settlements werelocated on peninsulas shaped like osprey talonsalong the wide bays and estuaries of mid-coastMaine.

The French and Abaneki attacks began inJuly 1745. Armed with hatchets, bows, andmuskets, the Abanekis excelled at guerrillawarfare. Attacking in bands as small as six, andon some occasions in groups as large as 100,the warriors conducted hit-and-run attacksagainst the English. They assaulted frontier for-tifications, burned houses, ambushed farmers,and slaughtered cattle. If an English settler wasnot slain and scalped on the spot, he or she wasdragged off to the attackers village.

On the whole, the attacks against English set-tlements in Maine did not occur on the scalethey did in New York, where a French-led

attack in November 1745 against undefendedSaratoga resulted in the death of 30 settlers andthe capture of 60 others.

In Massachusetts, Shirley continued to sendcolonial troops to Maine. The additional man-power enabled the garrisons to send out regu-lar patrols designed to disrupt enemy attacks.In September 1747, a force of 60 French andAbanekis launched a major attack on FortFrederick at Pemaquid. Even though the garri-son of American colonists was only half thenumber of the attacking force, it was able torepulse the attack mainly because the fort wasmade of stone and therefore difficult to burn.

The loss of lives in the frontier war was notgreat when compared to the naval and marineactions of King Georges War. Nevertheless, thenumber of soldiers and settlers taken prisonerby both sides was substantial as shown by thenumber of prisoners exchanged. For example,French ships sailed into Boston in August 1747with 270 freed prisoners, and Massachusettsvessels arrived at Ile aux Basques in October ofthe same year to free 63 prisoners.

King Georges War was part of the longer Warof the Austrian Succession, which pitted Britainagainst France and her European allies. Follow-ing the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle on October 18,1748, an Abaneki delegation was granted safepassage to Boston where its members on June23, 1748, agreed to cease hostilities.

A key point worth noting in the aftermathof the war is that in returning Cape BretonIsland (and hence Louisbourg) to the Frenchin exchange for Madras in India, the Britishdeeply antagonized the American colonists.Indeed, the Americans were so incensed thatin the subsequent French and Indian War(1754-1763) they let the British take Louis-bourg themselves. That expedition requiredthree times the number of troops to achievethe same goal.

William E. Welsh

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Growler had departed Brisbane,Australia, on January 1, 1943, topatrol shipping lanes between Trukand Rabaul in the Bismarck Islands,off the northeastern coast of NewGuinea, an area that was bristlingwith Japanese aircraft and arma-ment. During the month of January,

Growler sank a number of Japanesecargo ships. Then, there was trouble.

On the night of February 4,Growler spotted a Japanese convoyof merchant ships with two patrolboats escorting it. Because of theweather conditions and resultingpoor visibility, Gilmore opted for a

surface attack. Growler slippedthrough the darkness to get ahead ofthe Japanese ships. As the Gato-classsubmarine was closing in, the leadJapanese ship spotted her andopened fire. Gilmore quickly tookthe boat down and rigged her for adepth charge attack.

For what seemed like hours butwas actually only about 40 minutes,depth charges shook the submarine,eventually rupturing a manhole gas-ket in the forward main ballast tank.Seawater poured into the forwardtorpedo room until a damage con-trol party was able to staunch theflow with a rubber sheet stretchedover the manhole secured with jacks.

Meanwhile, the Japanese attackhad finally ended, and Gilmore cameup to periscope depth where he sawthree of the Japanese ships pullingaway while one patrol boat remainedin the area. Growlers pumps werekeeping up with the seawater stillseeping into the forward part of theboat, and Gilmore kept Growler sub-merged and quietly slipped away.

When darkness came, Gilmoretook the vessel to the surface andmade the necessary repairs. After-ward, Growler continued its mission.

When the Japanese attacked PearlHarbor on December 7, 1941, theNavy had 55 submarines in thePacific Ocean with the speed, range,and endurance to operate as part ofthe Navys battle fleet. In addition, theNavy had 18 medium (or S-boat) sub-

ON FEBRUARY 7, 1943, WHILE ON PATROL IN THE SOUTHWEST

Pacific Ocean, U.S. Navy Commander Howard W. Gilmore, commander of

the USS Growler (SS-215), and his crew carved out a place for themselves in

Navy legend and set a standard of duty that is remembered in the submarine

service today. For his actions that day, Gilmore received the Medal of Honor.

s ol d i e r s

USS Growler Commander Howard W. Gilmoresacrificed his life to save his crew and vessel inFebruary 1943 while on patrol in the Pacific.

B y C h u c k L y o n s

s ol d i e r s

Both

:U.S

. Nav

y

U.S. Navy Commander

Howard W. Gilmore

(above), wounded during a

surface attack by the USS

Growler, made a heroic

sacrifice (right) on

February 7, 1943, by

ordering an immediate dive

even though he knew he

would be left in the water.

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September 2014 Military Heritage 9

marines, slower and of more limited range. TheNavy withdrew the S-boats from service in mid-1943 as new fleet submarines were produced.The S-boats were then relegated to training.

A short six hours after the Japanese attack,the Navy chief of staff ordered U.S. forces inthe Pacific to execute unrestricted air and sub-marine warfare against Japan. That orderauthorized all U.S. submarines in the Pacific toattack and sink without warning any warship,commercial vessel, or civilian passenger shipflying the Japanese flag.

When I took command of the Pacific fleeton December 31, 1941, our submarines werealready operating against the enemy, the onlyunits of the fleet that could come to grips withthe Japanese for months to come. It was to thesubmarine force that I looked to carry theload, wrote U.S. Pacific Fleet CommanderAdmiral Chester Nimitz.

The four U.S. submarines in Pearl Harbor atthe time of the Japanese attackUSS Narwhal,Dolphin, Tautog, and Cachalot, in the NavyYard for repairshad escaped the attack with-out damage. They and other U.S. submarineshad gone on patrol as early as December 11,1941, in the waters around the Philippines andIndochina.

The United States unabating submarineattacks on Japanese shipping during the nextthree years were to prove a decisive factor in thecollapse of the Japanese economy. Over thecourse of the war, U.S. submarines, though theyaccounted for only about two percent of the U.S.Navy, destroyed more than 30 percent of theJapanese Navy, including eight aircraft carriers,one battleship, and 11 cruisers. U.S. submarinesalso destroyed more than 60 percent of theJapanese merchant fleet, crippling Japans abil-ity to supply its military forces and industry.

Howard Gilmore was born in Selma,Alabama, on September 29, 1902. He joinedthe Navy on November 15, 1920, serving as asimple enlisted man. Two years later, he passedthe examination to enter the U.S. Naval Acad-emy and won an appointment. Gilmore grad-uated from the academy in June 1926, stand-ing 34 in a class of 436 men. He received acommission and was assigned to serve on thebattleship USS Mississippi and later on thedestroyer USS Perry.

In 1931, Gilmore attended the Navy subma-rine school at New London, Connecticut, andfrom 1932 until 1935 received additional train-ing at the Naval Postgraduate School and theWashington Navy Yard. He was then assignedto the newly built submarine USS Shark (SS-

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174), a Porpoise-class submarine, becoming herexecutive officer and navigator when she wascommissioned in January 1936.

While with the Shark on her shakedowncruise, Gilmore went ashore in Panama andwas attacked by a group of men who beat himand cut his throat. Luckily, he survived the nearfatal attack and was eventually able to returnto duty.

In 1941, Gilmore took command of theShark but was transferred the day after theJapanese attack on Pearl Harbor to commandof Growler, still under construction at the Elec-tric Boat Company yard in Groton, Connecti-cut. Growler was commissioned on March 20,1942. After her shakedown cruise, Growlerbegan operating out of Pearl Harbor and wasone of seven submarines assigned picket dutynorth and west of the islands as part of theHawaiian defense during the early phases of theBattle of Midway in June 1942. Then she wenton patrol.

In June 1942, on the first of her four warpatrols under Gilmores command, Growlerwas assigned to patrol around Dutch Harbor,in Alaskas Aleutian Islands, one of the fewplaces on U.S. territory to be bombed by theJapanese during the war. That attack had comethe previous May. Earlier in June, the Japanesewere also successful in seizing and occupyingthe two Aleutian islands of Attu and Kiska.

Five days into that patrol, Gilmore saw hisfirst action when three enemy destroyers weresighted lying at anchor. He fired three torpe-does, one of which hit the Japanese destroyerArare amidships. As Growler surfaced, shecould see the Arare burst into flames as herboilers exploded. Meanwhile, Gilmores secondtorpedo hit the bow of the destroyer Kasumi. Athird Japanese destroyer, the Shiranuhi, firedtwo torpedoes at Growler before she in turnwas hit in the bow by Gilmores third torpedo.The two Japanese torpedoes passed to eachside, missing Growler as Gilmore took his sub-marine down.

The destroyer Arare was sunk, and the othertwo Japanese destroyers were severely damagedbut were able to limp back to Japan for repairs.The official Navy report of the action erro-neously credits Growler with sinking two of theJapanese destroyers.

It was an auspicious beginning, and thereport of the action praises Gilmore and hiscrew. The first war patrol of the Growler wasextremely well conducted and the results weremost gratifying, states the report. The attackon three anchored destroyers merits the highestpraise. For his actions, Gilmore was awardeda Navy Cross.

On Growlers next two patrols, Gilmoreadded to his record by sinking four Japanesemerchantmen in the East China Sea andbeing awarded a Gold Star in lieu of a secondNavy Cross.

It is Growlers fourth patrol that is remem-bered today.

The Japanese had overrun Rabaul in 1942and converted it into their main base in theSouth Pacific. By 1943, there were about110,000 Japanese troops based there. Truk, asecond major Japanese base in the SouthPacific, is located in the Caroline Islands and isabout 1,800 miles northeast of Rabaul.

Growler had been in its patrol area only fivedays before sighting an enemy convoy. Maneu-vering inside the convoy escorts, Gilmore firedtwo torpedoes that hit one of the Japanese cargoships. As the stricken ship, the Chifuku Maru, apassenger and cargo ship of 6,000 tons, wassinking, Growler was spotted and forced to diveand ride out a depth charge attack.

Eight days later, she sank another 6,000-tonpassenger and cargo ship, the Miyadono Maru.Gilmore then shifted his patrol area west toattack shipping between Truk and Palau in theCaroline Islands. Growler attacked and dam-aged a freighter and again suffered through asevere depth charge attack.

On February 4, Growler suffered the rup-tured manhole cover gasket during the 40-minute depth charge attack against the four-ship Japanese convoy before slipping quietlyaway. After the repairs to damage from thatattack had been made, Growler continued herpatrol with Gilmores submarine making twomore torpedo attacks but failing to sink anyenemy shipping.

Shortly after 1 AM on February 7, Growlerwas on the surface charging her batteries whena lookout spotted a Japanese gunboat, lateridentified as the Hayasaki, and began anapproach. The Hayasaki was a 2,500-ton ship

made especially to combat submarines. At thetime, weather conditions, as well as the night-time darkness, had reduced visibility consider-ably. As Growler approached, Hayasaki spot-ted her and quickly turned, intending to ramthe American boat. Gilmore, who was on thebridge, sounded the collision alarm and sharplyordered left full rudder and all ahead flankin an attempt to avoid the impending collision.Instead, the sharp turn brought Growler into aramming course of her own, and she struck theenemy ship amidships at 11 knots, ripping openHayasakis side plating.

Hayasaki responded with murderousmachine-gun fire from several .50-caliber guns atwhat was almost point-blank range, sweepingthe submarines bridge and killing Officer of theDeck Ensign W. Williams and lookout FiremanW.F. Kelley. Two other crewmen on the bridgealso were severely wounded, one having a legblown off and the other suffering severe woundsto his arm. Gilmore was also severely woundedand was forced to clutch the bridge rail to remainupright. Growler was heeled over to 50 degreesand had bent 18 feet of her bow to the side. Herforward torpedo tubes were disabled.

Fearing his boat was about to be lost alto-gether if it did not submerge immediately,Gilmore ordered the bridge cleared. The exec-utive officer and the quartermaster descendedand pulled the two wounded men into the con-ning tower after them, but Gilmore was toobadly wounded to make his way to the hatchand back into Growler.

Still clutching the rail, he ordered, Take herdown.

Executive Officer Lt. Cmdr. Arnold Schade,who had suffered severe bruising and wasdazed after falling down the ladder into thecontrol room, waited below. Hearing the order,he hesitated briefly and then obeyed. Somesources indicate that Schade acted to close thehatch only after Gilmore had given the same

The Growler, with a 3-inch gun mounted on the forward section, gets underway on May 5, 1943.

Both:U.S. Navy



order a second time. Curiously, the officialreport of the incident, presumably written bySchade, does not mention the take her downorder at all. The report reads that after the exec-utive officer, the quartermaster, and twowounded men were inside the conning towerabout 30 seconds passed. No one elseappeared at the hatch. Sounded diving alarm,closed the hatch. Submerged.

Growler blew out its ballast tanks andslipped away from Hayasaki and below thewaves as Hayasaki continued spraying the boatwith machine-gun fire. Schade took commandof Growler, which now had water in its controlroom from leaks in the conning tower and inthe pump room, but was able to level the boatat a depth of 150 feet while crew membersstruggled to control the flooding. Three depthcharges were noted but at a considerable dis-tance from Growler.

We had bullet holes in the conning towerwhich nearly flooded us out, Schade reported.It caused us to lose all auxiliary power andstarted an electrical fire. We stayed down fortwenty minutes.

By then the crew had stabilized the situation,and Schade had recovered his full senses. Hebrought Growler to the surface again seekingto reengage the enemy, but the Hayasaki wasgone. Schade reported that she had been sunk,but the Japanese ship had been able to steamaway under her own power. A search of thearea failed to locate the bodies of Williams,Kelley, and Gilmore. Their bodies have neverbeen found.

Schade took Growler back to Brisbane withher surface speed reduced by about 30 percentand her diving control extremely difficult.The boat arrived there on February 17. Thesubmarine was immediately taken into drydock and repaired. She fought again, at firstunder the command of Schade, who was at thetime the youngest U.S. submarine commanderin the service. Growler had also been given anew nickname.

When the Australians replaced our dam-aged bow they put two little kangaroos there asa sort of figure-head, wrote Schade. It [was]our most prized distinctive marking. Themarkings led to Growler being called the Kan-garoo Express.

After the repairs, she continued operating inthe Pacific. Growler was lost on her 11th warpatrol in November 1944. On November 8, asubmarine pack led by Growler, then under thecommand of Captain T.B. Ben Oakley, hadclosed on a Japanese convoy south of Mindoroin the Philippine Islands with Growler on theopposite side of the convoy from two other U.S.

submarines. Growler ordered the attack tobegin and then fell silent. After the attack wasunderway, the other U.S. submarines, Hake andHardhead, reported hearing what sounded likea torpedo explosion and then a series of depthcharge explosions on Growlers side of the con-voy, perhaps as many as three of the latter.

She had disappeared, and all efforts to con-tact Growler for the next three days provedfutile. She was finally listed as lost. It was pos-sible that she was hit by one of Hakes or Hard-heads torpedoes that had slipped past theJapanese ships, that she was hit by one of herown torpedoes that detonated early or thatturned on her in a circular run, or she may havebeen simply sunk by the convoys escort ves-sels. She took 85 men down with her.

By the time of her loss, Growler had receivedeight battle stars for her role in the Pacific War,had sunk 17 enemy ships and 74,900 tons ofenemy shipping, and had damaged seven addi-tional enemy ships.

Gilmore remains her most decorated crewmember. He received the Medal of Honor fordistinguished gallantry and valor above andbeyond the call of duty, according to the cita-tion. The U.S. Navy called what happened dur-ing the encounter on February 7 one of themost gallant actions in naval history and themost famous act of self-sacrifice known to theU.S. submarine service.

He was the first of six submariners to receivethe Medal of Honor during World War II andonly the second submariner in the services his-tory to be so honored. (The first submariner toreceive the Medal of Honor was torpedomanHenry Breault, who returned to a sinking sub-marine to rescue a shipmate after a peacetimeaccident in 1926.)

Gilmore additionally was honored in Sep-tember 1943 when the new submarine tender,USS Howard W. Gilmore (AS-16), waslaunched at the U.S. Navy Yard at MareIsland, California. nn

Navy personnel atop the Growler at Brisbane, Australia.The damage to a 25-foot section of the submarines bow,which occurred when it was rammed by the 900-tonJapanese cargo ship Hayasaki, can be clearly seen.



His plane was a veteran of almost 60missions and had gone through all ofthem relatively undamaged. SnakeHips and her crew were about to beput to the ultimate test.

As the 92nd Bomb Group made itsrun over the target, the flak burstsbegan to rattle Snake Hips until aloud explosion shook the aircraft.Smoke filled the cockpit, and fuelsloshed around in the bomb bay.Bosko was shocked to learn from theco-pilot that three bombs had just

rolled off the starboard wing. Therewas a gaping hole in the right side ofthe fuselage extending from thebomb bay through the radio com-partment. Also, a large section ofskin had been ripped off the top ofthe starboard wing. The ball turretgunner had been mortally wounded.

Snake Hips was dropping out offormation and losing altitude. Con-trol cables to the ailerons had beencut. Despite this, Bosko managed tofly his battered bomber back to Eng-

land and make an emergency land-ing not far from the coast. With theexception of the ball turret gunner,all the crew had survived. Boskosmachine had been ripped apart andreduced to scrap metal but had stillflown home. Few Army Air Forcespilots would have been surprised,for B-17 Flying Fortresses such asSnake Hips had been flying back totheir bases with multiple enginesinoperable or large sections of theaircraft blown away on a regularbasis after 21/2 years of combataround the world.

One of the most recognizable andiconic aircraft of World War II, theB-17 was neither the most modernnor the most produced aircraft of itsclass during the war. However, theB-17 was flown in combat fromalmost the beginning of the war toits end, often on long missions deepin the heart of enemy territory andinto the teeth of thick enemydefenses. Brought forth in a gambleto meet a 1930s bomber competi-tion, Seattle-based Boeing created aflying legend, an icon in the historyof military aviation.

Boeing had furnished the bulk ofthe U.S. Navy and the U.S. Armybiplane fighters for much of the1920s and early 1930s, and in 1930the company flew the first all-metalairliner, the twin-engined 247Dmonoplane.

In 1935, the Army Air Corps sentCircular 35-26 to various aircraft

SECOND LIEUTENANT JOHN BOSKO WAS FLYING HIS SEVENTH MISSION

on August 24, 1944. He was reasonably seasoned as far as bomber commanders

went but was unaware of his targets macabre reputation. His crew and machine

from the 327th Bomb Squadron, 92nd Bomb Group, were en route to the well-

defended Merseburg oil refineries in Germanys heartland from their base in East Anglia.

The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress flew deepinto enemy territory to carry out its strategicbombing missions during World War II.

B y J o h n E m m e r t

Keith Ferriss painting,

Fortresses Engaged, shows

two German fighters attack-

ing head-on through a

formation of B-17s of the

100th Bomb Group. The

B-17s were used in

dangerous daylight raids

on German targets from

1942 to the end of the war.

w e a p o n sw e a p o n s

M-Sep14 Weapons_Layout 1 6/26/14 3:52 PM Page 12


manufacturers outlining its requirements for apossible replacement for the Martin B-10 twin-engined bomber. The circulars requirementsleft a great deal of flexibility. The maximumspeed requirement was anywhere from 200 to250 miles per hour at an altitude of 10,000 feet,with a cruising speed of 170 to 220 miles perhour at the same altitude. Endurance could beanywhere from six to 10 hours, and a maxi-mum service altitude was loosely specifiedbetween 20,000 and 25,000 feet. The contractrequired multiple engines, most companiesassuming that this meant two engines.

The Army Air Corps had long been convertsto the doctrine of strategic bombing, the inten-tional targeting of an enemys industry to crip-ple its ability to wage war. Officially, the con-cept was adopted in 1935 as the Army AirCorps primary mission in the event of a war.Martin and Douglas both entered aircraft can-didates in the competition, but their prototypeswere more suited for tactical rather than strate-gic bombing.

Boeing chose to take the lead, both in termsof size and engineering, by building more thana mere twin-engined aircraft. Borrowing fromengineering studies done on their jumbobomber, the XB-15, Boeing created the model299. The entry from Seattle boasted four Prattand Whitney R-1690 radial engines (laterupgraded to the more powerful Wright R-1280Cyclone engine), with a wingspan of 103 feetand was just short of 68 feet long. The nosewas a combined compartment for the bom-bardier and navigator. The pilots sat in an ele-vated cockpit aft of the nose compartment,with the engines abreast. The bomb bay sepa-rated the cockpit from the radio compartment,with the aft section of the fuselage being usedto provide space for three gun blisters: one ven-tral and two side.

On its rollout at the Seattle plant at the endof July 1935, the 299 quickly received namesfrom the press, such as Aerial Battle Cruiser,but the one that stuck was Flying Fortress. Itsdelivery flight to the Army Air Forces at WrightField, Ohio, proved that the competition onlyexisted on paper. During the August 20 flight,the Flying Fortress clocked an average cruisingspeed of 230 miles per hour. The bomber alsomet the endurance requirements by making thenine-hour flight nonstop.

The planes advanced features nearly provedits undoing. On October 30, a test crewattempted to take off with the controls stillsecured, resulting in a crash that claimed thelives of the two pilots. Although the accident



was ruled as human error, it was the first of sev-eral technical challenges Boeing faced before itfinally vanquished its primary competition, theDouglas B-18.

In September 1939, Europe was engulfed inwar as Germany marched into Poland. For twoyears already, the Japanese had been on the ram-page in China, using their own bombers asweapons of terror on Chinese cities. It wouldonly be a matter of time before the United Statesjoined in the conflict, and Congress began to pre-pare, if belatedly. The B-17B, C, and D modelsintroduced from 1937 to 1940 featured minorimprovements, but they would be found want-ing as the Flying Fortress went to war.

In 1941, the British received 20 B-17Cs forevaluation and to supplement their own supplyof bombers. Royal Air Force (RAF) Bomber

Command was hoping that the bombers couldoperate from 35,000 feet, making them far lessvulnerable to German air defenses. Unfortu-nately, it was not only the plane that was limitedto 30,000 feet, but the crews as well. At loweraltitudes, the lack of armament made the aircraftvulnerable to fighters. None of the guns thatcame on the C model were fitted in pairs or inpower-driven turrets. A lack of spare parts andbattle damage often kept as many as half theforce grounded. Ultimately, the miniscule num-ber of B-17s being used by the RAF, together

with Bomber Commands chosen tactic of nightsaturation missions, rendered the FlyingFortresses ineffective as combat assets.

The shortcomings outlined by the RAF wereaddressed by Boeing and the Army Air Forceswith the B-17E, brought out inthe fall of 1941. The E modelfeatured a new rear fuselage.Now 73 feet long, the E had aredesigned vertical stabilizer, tailturret, revised waist gun mount-ings, a powered Bendix top tur-ret, and a manned electricallydriven belly turret, bringing thearmament installed on the plane to eight .50-calibermachine guns and one .30-cal-iber machine gun. More guns

would be added after American pilots cameunder fire. On December 7, 1941, a group ofeight B-17Es en route to Hawaii arrived overOahu during the middle of the surprise attackon Pearl Harbor. Low on fuel and with the arma-ment removed for the transit, the crews wereforced to dodge both Japanese Zero fighters andfriendly fire to land wherever they could.

The Japanese tide in the Pacific seemedunstoppable. American planes sought desper-ately to blunt the advances. High-altitudebombing proved to be a waste of munitions. At

more than 20,000 feet, ships maneuveringabout the ocean make hits impossible. Older,less capable B-17Cs and B-17Ds were pressedinto service due to a lack of aircraft, often withdisastrous results. However, due to their size

and armament, the Japanese came to revereboth the B-17s and the men who flew them.The B-17s would range wide over the SouthPacific from bases in Northern Australia andFrench New Caledonia, both to hit fixed Japan-ese bases and to act as long-range reconnais-sance aircraft. A group of B-17s that took partin the Battle of Midway is given more creditthan was really its due out of necessity that thecarrier force be protected from enemy intelli-gence assets. B-17Es and the improved B-17Fmodel with better propellers and single-piecenose cones served well into 1943 when theywere largely phased out and replaced with Con-solidated B-24 Liberator bombers, which pos-sessed greater range and payload capacity.

It was not until August 1942 that the UnitedStates actually began to field its own combatunits and squadrons in England as part of theembryonic U.S. Eighth Air Force. When theyfirst began operations on August 17, 12 B-17Eswere dispatched to attack the railroad yardsnear Rouen, France, with an additional six air-craft ordered to probe the coast at two differ-ent spots as decoys. The mission was success-ful, but it was yet to be seen if the B-17 and the10-plus machine guns it carried were enoughto make U.S. daylight bombing practical. OnSeptember 6, German fighters shot down twoB-17s during a mission to hit an aircraft fac-tory in northern France. Worse was to come.

With units and replacement aircraft siphonedoff to support the North African campaignbegun in November 1942, the U.S. Eighth AirForce found itself unable to carry the war intoGermany until 1943, limited by a lack of planes

ABOVE: On August 17, 1943, several hundred B-17s participated in the double raid on Schweinfurt-Regensburg. Thelosses were staggering, with 60 B-17s downed or damaged beyond repair. RIGHT: A B-17 from the 379th Bomb Groupmade it home even with the cockpit shredded. The B-17s natural handling characteristics enabled pilots to fly it back tobase even with heavy damage.



and encumbered by the need to bomb U-boatbases in France. Beginning with the January 27raid on Wilhelmshaven, Germany, the EighthAir Forces B-17s began to face stiffer and stifferresistance. The missions into Germany werebeing made without fighter escort, because theEighth Air Forces Republic P-47 Thunderboltsand RAF Supermarine Spitfires simply lackedthe range to do so. Flak was becoming anincreasing nuisance, combated by flying athigher altitudes and in larger formations, butthe fighters were a greater menace. Flying a B-17 out of England became a hazardous enter-prise. A tour of duty consisted of 25 missions,a difficult quota when mission loss rates weresometimes higher than 10 percent.

The Memphis Belle was the most famous ofthose first B-17s, and its crew was one of thefirst to complete 25 missions. Assigned to the91st Bomb Group, the Memphis Belle was theprimary machine flown by Captain RobertMorgan and his crew. A Hollywood cameracrew, led by future Ben Hur director WilliamWyler, captured multiple missions on color filmto produce a 1944 feature documentary.Although Morgans crew had spent much of itstour flying on different aircraft and as parts ofdifferent crews, the mystique of the MemphisBelle, her 1943 war bond tour, and the publicrecognition she received from the film are likelywhat preserved her, even as other bombers thatcompleted much longer tours of duty were con-signed to the scrap heap.

Even though the Germans were beginning tofeel increased pressure, the Eighth Air Forceloss rate began to steepen. The Schweinfurt andRegensburg raids on August 17 pit B-17s fromtwo different divisions against a violent Ger-man reception committee. The 4th Bombard-ment Division struck the Regensburg Messer-schmitt plant just before noon after flying overmost of southern Germany through a swarmof angry fighters. As planned, the groups flewon to Africa to avoid the deadly interceptorswaiting for their return trip. The 1st Bombard-ment Division was delayed for several hours byweather, hitting Schweinfurt at roughly 3 PM.They were exposed to the full fury of the Ger-man defenses as they flew back to England. NoB-24s took part in the raid. Sixty B-17s wereshot down or damaged beyond repair, a stag-gering loss of nearly 25 percent of the totalattacking force. The introduction of the B-17Gwith a two-gun chin turret did nothing to lowerthe loss rate. Another 60 B-17s were lost on anattack by both units on Schweinfurt on Octo-ber 14, with groups of B-17s fighting their waythrough and nailing the target regardless of thelosses.

It was not until 1944, with the arrival of theNorth American P-51 Mustang, that fighterescort could be provided all the way to the tar-get and back. This close escort, coupled withthe dramatic losses the P-51s inflicted on theLuftwaffe, made it safer for bombers to crossEurope in daylight. Flak still downed bombers,and German fighters showed themselves fromtime to time to shoot down a few bombers. TheEighth Air Force flew its last mission on April25, 1945, ending the combat career of the B-17as a bomber.

Despite all that could be thrown at them,some B-17s and their crews often refused to die.It was from these battles that the B-17 wasmade the stuff of legend. A B-17F flying withthe 384th Bomb Group received heavy damageon a mission to Antwerp in the summer of1943. The cockpit and tail were shredded bycannon shells, killing the tail gunner. It took amonth to ready this plane for another mission.Patches, as the plane was called, was pepperedby flak over the target on July 30, only to getshot up by Fw-190s on the way back. More

crew members were wounded, and Patches wasforced out of formation. For more than 20 min-utes, the machine and her crew battled it outwith Fw-190s until, out of either ammunitionor fuel, the bandits turned for home. When shelanded in England, Patches ground crew is saidto have counted more than 1,000 holes.

It was said that the B-17s natural handlingcharacteristics made for a pleasant aircraft to fly.Unlike the contemporary B-24, most B-17s wereeasy to fly on trim tab, where minute adjustmentto the control system would allow the pilot to flyalmost hands free. It also meant that the machinecould still be flown in a controllable manner withmultiple engines shot out and controls damaged.On February 9, 1943, a B-17 crew operating inthe Solomon Islands got into a running gun bat-tle with multiple Zeros. The plane, badly dam-aged, began to descend toward the ocean. Threeengines were dead. The pilot was able to ditchsafely and all 10 crew members survived.

It was not uncommon for a blessed B-17 torack up impressive mission tallies. Among themwas Knock-Out Dropper, a 303rd BombGroup machine that survived 75 missions withthe Eighth Air Force before returning home tothe United States. At the end of the conflict, therecord stood with the 91st Bomb Groups Nine-O-Nine, with a staggering 140 missions to hercredit. Still more impressive, that B-17 sufferedno loss of crew members or an abort duringthat entire span.

Perhaps more than any other weapon, the B-17 will forever be remembered as helpingdestroy the military and industrial might ofNazi Germany. That achievement alone is oneof which the United States can be proud. nn

ABOVE: Knock-Out Dropper from the 303rd Bomb Group survived 75 missions over Germany before returning to theUnited States. BELOW: A B-17 formation attacks a Focke-Wulf plant at Marienburg, Germany, on October 9, 1943.



Hess had served as the deputy toAdolf Hitler and was the third mostimportant member of the Nazi Party.By the time word of his clandestinearrival in Scotland reached London,the top members of Prime MinisterWinston Churchills government, aswell as their security services, beganworking overtime to piece togetherthe reasons for his sudden appear-ance. However, the answer to thatquestion proved as elusive as theman himself.

Rudolf Hess served in the 7thBavarian Field Artillery Regiment inWorld War I and received the Iron

Cross. Later in the war, he served inthe Imperial Air Corps. After thewar, he married 27-year-old IlseProhl with whom he had one son,Wolf.

Hess later attended the Universityof Munich, where he studied bothpolitical science and history. WhenAdolf Hitler came on the scene inGermany, Hess was immediatelytaken by his charisma and believedwholeheartedly in the NationalSocialist cause. He joined the move-ment and was arrested with Hitlerand others in the infamous Beer HallPutsch in November 1923, and was

given a 71/2-year prison term. Heworked as Hitlers private secretaryand played a major role in the edit-ing of Hitlers book, Mein Kampf.After Hitler became chancellor ofGermany in 1933, he picked Hess tobe his deputy Fhrer, and they soonworked to bring Germany undertheir iron fist. However, as time wenton Hess believed he was beingassigned a secondary role in the gov-ernment and soon took a back seatto Hitlers two newest advisers:Joseph Goebbels and HermanGring, both of whom would playprominent roles in Hitlers FinalSolution.

Hess was not anti-British in hispolitical leanings and did not agreewith Hitlers decision to go to warwith that country after Germanysinvasion of Poland in September1939. He hoped that somehow theBritish would come to their sensesand make a peace deal with Ger-many before their country wasdrawn into a war. Hess began tomake covert contact with like-minded people in Britain who sharedhis political ideas, not necessarilythose in government circles.

One of these influential peoplewas Albrecht Haushofer, a Germanwho happened to be directly con-nected to anti-Hitler groups.Haushofer broke with the Nazisafter the persecution of his familybecause of his half-Jewish mother.He also had ties to a large Russian

TO THE PEOPLE OF THE SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS THE BATTLES OF

the previous year had seemed a distant concern. But the war returned in an

idiosyncratic manner when top-ranking Nazi official Rudolf Hesss plane landed

in their country on May 10, 1941. The strange event had ramifications that

would last throughout the war and would prove controversial for years to come.

The mysterious flight of Nazi officialRudolf Hess to Scotland on May 10,1941, remains shrouded in secrecy.

B y P e t e r K r o s s

Deputy Fhrer Rudolf Hess

(below) speaks at a Nazi

Party rally in 1937. Hess

(below right), who served on

Hitlers cabinet and oversaw

several departments, stands

at far left beside Adolf

Hitlers Mercedes-Benz

during the 1938 Nuremburg

rally.

i n t e l l i g e n c ei n t e l l i g e n c e

Both

:Nat

iona

l Arc

hive

s

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spy network in Europe called the Red Orches-tra. Albrecht Haushofers father, Karl, had beenHesss teacher and was one of the most influ-ential German political theorists of the day.Hess told Karl Haushofer he believed that ifGermany made a deal with England an inva-sion of Britain could be avoided.

Another person whom Hess counted on inhis secret machinations was a Briton of royalupbringing named David Douglas-Hamiltonwhose royal title was the Duke of Hamilton.At the time of Hesss flight to England, theDuke of Hamilton was 37 years old, a gradu-ate of Eton and Balliol College, Oxford, and aformer boxing champion. Douglas-Hamiltonwas the first man to fly over Mount Everest anda conservative member of the British Parlia-ment. He was known for his conciliatory atti-tude toward the German government.

Haushofer told his son about his meetingwith Hess and urged him to lend his name toHesss plan. Haushofer gave Hess the names ofBritish politicians who might be able to workout a deal with like-minded Germans if Hitlerwas willing. Along with the Duke of Hamilton,Haushofer suggested Sir Samuel Hoare, theUnited Kingdoms ambassador to Spain.

Two days after Hesss flight to England, theGestapo arrested Albert Haushofer for resis-tance activities. Many high-ranking Germanmilitary and intelligence officers, includingSicherheitsdienst (secret police) Chief WalterSchellenberg, believed Hess was influenced byagents of the British Secret Service and theirGerman collaborators and that they played alarge part in his decision to fly to Scotland.

The theory that the British government, viaits intelligence services, might have lured Hessto make his flight to Scotland gained attentionfrom many conspiracy theorists after the war.That particular conjecture was presented to thepublic as early as July 1943 in an article in theAmerican Mercury magazine. The AmericanMercury was a well-established publicationthat had been founded by H.L. Mencken yearsbefore. The article, called The Inside Story ofthe Hess Flight, authored by Anonymous,was vouched for by the magazines editor andcontained information that could not have beenmade up by the writer, who seemed to have per-fect sources.

The article stirred up a hornets nest of pub-licity, coming when the outcome of the war wasstill very much in doubt. The writer said thatHess came to Scotland not only with AdolfHitlers blessing, but upon Hitlers explicitorders. Far from being a surprise, the arrival ofHess was expected by a limited number ofBritishers, the outlines of his mission wereknown in advance, and the Nazi leader actuallyhad a Royal Air Force escort in the final stageof his air journey.

The article in the American Mercury stated

Imperial War Museum

Hess stands in the cockpit of the ME-110 he flew toScotland in 1941 on his unsanctioned peace mission. Whenthe German government learned that Hess had taken offfor England, it went into overdrive to put the best spin onthe event.



that in 1941 Hitler wanted to turn his atten-tion to defeating Russia despite the nonaggres-sion pact he made with Stalin. In order for himto do that, Great Britain had to be taken out ofthe war, and a separate peace with that nationhad to be consummated. If Britain was nolonger a combatant against Germany, Hitlercould invade Russia to improve Germanyschances of winning the war. According to thestory, in January 1941, Hitler made covert con-tact with certain pro-German individuals inEngland, including the Duke of Hamilton, whobelonged to a pro-German organization calledthe Anglo-German Fellowship Association.Hitlers personal representative to Hamiltonand his allies was Hess.

Hitler, the story continues, personallyordered Hess to fly to England to make a sep-arate deal with the British government. In themonths before Hess actually arrived, the Britishdeveloped a sting operation headed by the intel-ligence services to lure Hess to England andthen renege on their deal with Hitler. TheAmerican Mercury story says that Hitlers mes-sage to Hamilton and his friends was inter-cepted by the British Secret Service and thatBritish agents handled the entire affair.

When the German government learned thatHess had taken off for England, it went intooverdrive to put the best spin on what had justtaken place. At 8 PM, a radio broadcast fromGermany gave the first official explanation ofwhy Hess had left for England. The broadcastsaid, Party member Hess had left on Saturdayon a flight from which he had not yetreturned. The government further said thatHess had suffered a mental disturbance and hadleft a letter that unfortunately ... justifies thefear that he was a victim of mental hallucina-tions. The broadcast also said that a numberof Hesss confederates had been arrested. Whydid the German government say that Hess suf-fered from a mental condition? Is it possiblethat certain members of the high commandknew in advance about Hesss flight to Englandand were trying to put the onus on Hess alone?

Interestingly, the German government putout an official announcement dismissing Hesssalleged peace mission to England just one dayafter he left Germany.

In the end, Hess bailed out of the aircraft andlanded safely on the farm owned by DavidMcLean near the town of Paisley. When Hesslanded, he told the astonished farmer that hewas a friend of Britain. McLean took the air-man to the local constabulary. While in cus-tody, the pilot identified himself as AlfredHorn and asked to see the Duke of Hamilton.

In his meetings with the Duke of Hamilton

and members of the British military, Hessinsisted that Hitler knew nothing of his trip,that he had made it on his own. He told hisastonished listeners that Hitler did not want tocontinue the war against Britain and that ifEngland made a separate peace with Germanyit would be given lenient treatment after thewar was over. Hamilton said that he could notmake any such agreements and turned Hessover to British intelligence. But did the Britishgovernment know all about this in advance?

Just days after Hesss departure, his valet,Karlheinz Pintsch, arrived at Hitlers mountainretreat at Berchtesgaden. Pintsch gave Hitlerthe letter written by Hess before his departure.According to Pintsch, Hitler commented thatHesss trip was an extremely dangerousescapade. Hitler then invited Pintsch to lunchwith him, and after the meal was over he hadhim arrested. General Karl Bodenschatz, whowas Reichsmarschal Herman Grings adjunct,said that Hitler seemed shocked after readingHesss letter. He also said he believed thatHitlers shock and surprise on hearing ofHesss flight was an example of superb acting.

Hesss secretary, Ingeborg Speer, said that herboss never told the Fhrer about his upcomingflight and that Hess did it in his fantastic lovefor the Fatherland. He wanted to make thegreatest sacrifice of which he was capable forAdolf Hitler, to leave nothing undone to bringthe German people the desired peace with Eng-land. That statement flies directly in the faceof the Atlantic Mercurys account of Hitlersknowledge about Hesss flight. Chief of StaffGeneral Franz Halder said that the Fhrer wastaken completely by surprise by Hesss flight.Walter Schellenberg, a leading figure in the Ger-man espionage establishment, said Hitler wasin such a state of shock upon hearing aboutwhat Hess had done that he could not speak.

The Hess matter immediately caught theattention of MI5 (British Intelligence) in theperson of Major T.A. Robertson, who held animportant post in the counterintelligence divi-sion. In a letter about the Hess case, Robertsonsaid he had met with Air Vice Marshall CharlesMedhurst, who filled him in on their knowl-edge of Albert Haushofer and the Duke ofHamilton. In time, Prime Minister Churchillwas given a wide-ranging briefing on Hess, andhe took an active interest in the case. Medhurstordered Robertson to make further inquiries atthe military base where Hess was staying toglean all information he could about why Hesshad landed in Scotland.

Soviet officials learned much about Hessfrom one of their most productive spies ofWorld War II. Kim Philby was then working



for British intelligence and would becomeknown as one of the Cambridge Five (Russ-ian spies who infiltrated the British governmentin World War II). Philby, according to a formerBritish diplomat named Tom Dupree, told hisSoviet controllers that Hess had sent a letter toLord Hamilton a few weeks before his flightand that it was intercepted by British intelli-gence. Philby said that Hess believed that hecould influence the anti-Churchill party in Eng-land, which really did not exist, and make acase for a separate peace with England.

Soviet leader Josef Stalin believed Hesssflight was a plan concocted by the Germansand the British intelligence services at theexpense of the Soviet Union.

Following the war, Hess was incarcerated atSpandau Prison in Berlin. On August 17, 1987,his body was found hanging in his cell, theresult of an apparent suicide. At the time of hissuicide, he was the last prisoner at Spandau,which was run jointly by the Soviet Union andthe three Western wartime Allies.

In September 2013, Hesss personal files wereput up for auction in the United States. The filesshed new light on the complicated story of whatreally motivated Hess to make his secret flightto England. The company that auctioned offthe Hess papers was Alexander Historical Auc-

tions, and it placed the value of the papers at$750,000. The papers included Hesss personalnotes, copies of letters, and transcripts of inter-views regarding his flight to England. Amongthe papers allegedly in the files was a hand-written proposal of peace terms that Hesshanded over to former British Foreign Secre-

tary Lord Simon. An Alexander Historical Auc-tions spokesman said they got copies of Hesssfile through one of their consignors inEurope. The unnamed consigner said thatdecades ago he received an anonymous phonecall from a man who knew his work. He wastold to meet this person the next day, when theHess file would be given to him for his histori-cal research.

One of the papers in the collection states:The offer by the Fhrer is genuine ... theBritish cannot continue the war without com-ing to terms with Germany. By my coming toEngland, the British government can nowdeclare that they are able to have talks ... con-vinced that the offer by the Fhrer is genuine ...the British government has no reason for fur-ther bloodshed ... the British will agree to thesuggestions made.

The facts surrounding the mysterious flightof Rudolf Hess to Scotland on May 10, 1941,are still shrouded in secrecy more than 70 yearsafter the fact. The last of the Hess files are stillunder lock and key in the British Archives andare not slated to be opened until 2017.

U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt mayhave summed up the Hess affair succinctly. Hesaid, I wonder what is really behind thisstory.nn

National Archives

Hess, seated second from left next to ReichsmarschalHermann Gring, is shown at the Nuremberg Trials. Hewas sentenced to life in prison in 1946.



Perhaps they even led some of us tolearn about reenacting a battle ortwo. Certainly, many militaria col-lectors include military toys in theinventory of their collections.

Many varieties of toy soldierswere available during that timeperiod, including composition sol-diers from Germany along withtheir solid lead Heyde brothers (seeMilitary Heritage, November 2013),as well as Lucotte and Mignot leadsoldiers made in France. Sold world-

wide for more than 100 years werethe highly popular, gloss-painted,hollow-cast figures from Englandaptly named for their founderWilliam Britain. The institutionalhistory of Britains Limited is similarto that of many other 19th-centurybusinesses. Common elementsinclude family ownership, new ideasfor production and marketing, wisebusiness moves, and good luck.

William Britain Sr. (1831-1907)was born in Birmingham. In the

1871 census he identifies himself asa toy maker, whereas before he waslisted as a brass finisher. By 1874, hehad moved his family to NugentHouse at 28 Lambton Road in theNorth London suburb of HornseyRise. William Britain Sr., as well ashis eldest son, William Britain Jr.(1859-1933), possessed great inge-nuity and an aptitude for designingclever mechanical toys. Among thesedevices were a sailor who tipped anddonned his cap when a coin wasplaced in a collecting plate, anequestrienne who could jump overa bar and land again upon herhorses back with the aid of inter-connecting gears, the popular Lon-don Road Roller model powered bya flywheel arrangement, and a tea-

drinking, clock-work Chinese Mandarin

patented in 1884. By the 1891 cen-sus, William Britain Sr., his wife, andtheir five sons and two daughters nolonger resided at the Lambton Roadhouse, having been successfulenough to move to newer NorthLondon residences. The house at 28Lambton Road and its entire blockbecame a toy factory that was in useuntil 1968.

MANY MILITARIA COLLECTORS CAN TRACE THE ROOTS OF

their hobby to their childhood encounters with toy soldiers. For American

kids in the 1930s and 1940s, this may have been with three-inch-tall Amer-

ican-made Manoils or Barclays from the local dime store. Along with

Marx tanks, they could do a lot of imaginary damage from trenches dug in the backyard.

Britains hollow-cast toy soldiers continue to attract collectors decades after their manufacture.

B y J o e W a l l i s

Britains Somerset Light

Infantry (top) and Royal

Horse Artillery (bottom).

The company consulted

illustrations by Richard

Simkin that appeared in the

Army and Navy Gazette to

ensure the details of British

regiments were accurate.

m ili t a r i am il i t a r i a

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However well made their clever mechanicalcontrivances were, their intricacy and cost lim-ited their sales, and this large family had toexplore means of expanding its customer base.William Britain Jr. introduced the process ofhollow casting toy lead soldiers to broaden thefirms clientele. The company issued its firstmodel of this kind, a mounted English LifeGuard, in 1893.

When the firm began manufacturing toy sol-diers, German-made flats and solid, full, orsemi-round toy soldiers dominated Englishstores. Britains was able to supplant these for-eign figures by cutting production expense,maintaining a uniformity of scale, continuallyintroducing a variety of new items comple-mentary to previous issues, devoting carefulattention to authenticity, and upholding a stan-dard of quality and excellence that was recog-nizable and reliable. As a result, Britainsbecame the most prolific and accepted toy sol-dier maker in the world. In contrast to the fig-ures produced by the Germans, Britainsmethod of hollow casting allowed enhanceddetail and more realistic anatomy. The methodnot only saved metal, but also reduced shippingcosts because the weight of the hollow-cast sol-dier was less than that of a solid figure. Theseadvantages enabled Britains to undercut theprices of its competitors imported goods.

The entire enterprise was very Victorian.From the time it was established to the 1940s,each payday involved counting out cash intoeach employees hand, and the work weekincluded a half day on Saturday. If a workerwas 15 minutes late, he was docked an hourspay; if more than 15 minutes late, he was senthome without pay. The company fired workerswho were repeatedly tardy. However, as docu-mented by an article in The North LondonPress titled Britains soldiers are ready for 1955call-up, many employees worked at Britainsfor 45 to 50 years, and a common means ofbeing hired by Britains was to have relatives

already employed there.Britains made most of its pieces in 1/32nd

scale so that a six-foot-tall man was representedby a toy figure just over two inches or 54 mmhigh. The utility of this consistent size was thatcompatible additions to a childs army, or to anadults collection, could be made readily.Britains carefully researched the correct uni-forms, drill positions, and historical back-grounds of the models to be produced. Incred-ible detail was present on the early figures; forexample, trouser stripes and medals were oftenincorporated into the mold itself. Facings,plumes, and other uniform details were almostalways represented by Britains more fully thanby other companies. Valise packs and Slade-Wallace equipment were depicted on Britainsmodels of the 1890s, and then updated over theyears with first webbing equipment and servicedress, then battledress, and finally No. 1 dressuniforms. This inventory of correctly costumedBritish regiments was definitely a factor in suc-cessfully competing with foreign-made troopsto capture the English toy market. The empha-

sis on accuracy also benefited Britains byappealing to military history enthusiasts andadult collectors. Not only were the initial fig-ures based on extensive research, but the firmcontinually tried to refine its products.

Typically, Britains came five or eight to anillustrated box; of course, there were larger,more elaborate Britains sets available, such asan 83-piece display box depicting the ceremonyof the Changing of the Guard at BuckinghamPalace. These were the toys of boys dreams,but they also embodied history. It was neces-sary for the firm to continually conceive of newposes and to represent regiments and types notpreviously offered. If they had not been able tointroduce new lines on a consistent basis overa long period of time, the public would havelost interest or turned to competitors products.

In the late 19th century and early 20th cen-tury, daily newspapers read by an increasinglywell-educated public, as well as the early news-reels shown at the new cinemas, focused atten-tion upon current events, including colonialcampaigns and clashes in foreign lands. Suchnews stories were often reflected in the firmscatalog in very short order; examples that cometo mind are toy soldiers of Kitcheners recon-quest of the Sudan, the Spanish-American War,the Second Boer War, the Russo-Japanese War,the Balkan Wars, and much later Mussolinisinvasion of Ethiopia. It was necessary forBritains to research the uniform and to decideon an appropriate pose before designing themolds. For this reason, the company main-tained a reference library of books and prints togo to for ideas when designing a new figure.

A frequent source of inspiration for Britainswas the work of Richard Simkin, a prolific mil-itary artist. Between January 7, 1888, and Sep-tember 6, 1902, he drew 178 chromolitho-graph prints depicting every regiment of theBritish Army along with Yeomanry regimentsand many colonial units. They were publishedmonthly in The Army and Navy Gazette.Britains based many early figures, such as a12th Lancer officer turned in the saddle fromSet 2169, on the Simkin print of a 5th Lancerofficer that inspired it. Similar Simkin printinspirations appeared for the Household Cav-alry, Hussar, Dragoon, and Dragoon GuardsOfficer on a Rearing Horse.

Britains clearly used Simkins prints as thebasis for the Somerset Light Infantry of Set 17,which were standing on guard or kneeling toreceive cavalry with fixed bayonets in the clas-sic British square formation. Britains rangeextended well beyond the British Empire; itsstock included dozens of foreign troops such asArgentine Military Cadets, Danish Guard Hus-

TOP: Britains range extended well beyond the BritishEmpire, and their stock included dozens of troops fromother nations, such as the Danish Gardehussars. ABOVE: Britains method of hollow casting allowed forenhanced detail as demonstrated by its U.S. Marine Corps Color Guard set.

M-Sep14 Militaria_Layout 1 6/26/14 3:44 PM Page 22


sars, Montenegrin Infantry, and Zulu Warriors.Britains soldiers carried accurately modeledrifles and served correctly modeled artillery.

The firm also enhanced the appeal of its sol-dier figures with the artwork done by Fred Whis-stock for the box lids of its sets. Battle honors forthe British regiment contained in that box wereoften included as part of a Whisstock label. Hedesigned 150 box labels between 1908 and1930. Some of his labels were used by Britainsas late as 1959 (for example, Set 163, Boy ScoutSignallers), but most were replaced by stan-dardized labels such as Armies of the World circa1933, and then Regiments of All Nations in1949. This saved the cost of designing an indi-vidual label for each set.

Following the death of William Britain Sr. in1907, the firm was transformed from a propri-etorship (William Britain and Sons) to a limitedliability corporation whose stock was controlledprimarily by members of the family. A Parisoffice was established from 1905 to 1923 (whenit was closed for failure to run properly).Exports to Europe, the British Colonies andDominions, and the United States increasedgreatly. World War I diverted most of the firmsefforts to making shrapnel, but Britains onlycompletely shut down toy production for a littleover a year from late 1917 to 1918. A few of themechanical toys that had been the initial focus ofthe firm still appeared in the 1915 Britains cata-log but ceased to be made shortly thereafter.

A second factory on Sutherland Road inWalthamstow in East London was built in thelate 1920s, and a 1929 article titled A Recordof Achievement in the Toy Trader magazinereported that more than 20 million models ayear were being produced by a trained staff of450 persons. In July 1941, the British govern-ment ordered the company to suspend the pro-duction of toys and concentrate solely on mak-

ing munitions parts, such as grenade pins. The company distributed its first postwar

catalog in December 1945. Limited numbers ofsets that had all been available prewar weresold on an export basis as Great Britain des-perately needed foreign exchange to pay itsdebts and to import food.

Rationing ended as the economy improvedby the early 1950s. Queen Elizabeth IIs coro-nation in 1953 was the occasion for newBritains sets in No. 1 dress uniform. While pro-duction increased and uniforms were modern-ized, the colors and types of many historicaluniforms were maintained; modern artilleryand vehicles such as a magnificent model of aCenturion tank were added to the horse-drawnvehicles that continued unchanged in the cata-log. The rising cost of lead and the old-fash-ioned, piecework labor (e.g., hand painting andcasting) required to produce the traditional leadfigures prompted the firm to turn to plasticinstead of lead and to again restrict the sale oflead soldiers to export markets.

The final year for the traditional lead soldierswas 1966, when only 95 sets were listed in thecatalog. In 1968 the firm moved the lastremaining operations out of Lambton Roadafter 94 years connected with that location. Inthe 1970s and later, Britains restarted produc-tion of less detailed lead soldiers without thetraditional hand painting and casting that hadbeen the hallmark of its earlier years. The firmwas sold to a mining conglomerate in 1984 (91years after making its first toy soldier). It hasbeen sold and resold since, and Britains aremanufactured in China today.

Britains models manifest military history andan attention to detail and accuracy that con-tinue to attract collectors decades after theirmanufacture. These same traits will also appealto many collectors of militaria. nn

A Gordon Highland Officer (left) and a 12th Lancer Officer.

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THOSE RARE QUALITIES that set the extraordinary militarycommanders apart from the average ones were present inAlexander the Great, wrote the Greek historian Arrian, whodrew on the account of Alexanders general, Ptolemy.

Alexander was most masterly in marshalling an army and inarming and equipping it; and in uplifting his soldiers spirits andfilling them with good hopes, and brushing away anything fear-ful in dangers by his own want of fear, noted Arrian. And allthat had to be done in uncertainty he did with the utmost dar-ing; he was most skilled in swift anticipation and gripping of hisenemy before anyone had time to fear the event.

Alexander III became King of Macedon at the age of 20 in336 BC upon the assassination of his father, Philip II. In the springof 334, having spent the last two years settling things in Mace-donia and Greece, Alexander set out for the Hellespont to fulfillhis fathers plan to bring war to the Persians. The undertakingwas made possible by the standing army Alexander had inher-ited from Philip.

The young Macedonian king made sure to include troops fromthe Greek city-states in his campaign against the sprawling Per-sian Empire. The patriotic fervor of the Greeks would go a longway toward sustaining them in battles far from their homeland.

Alexanders infantry consisted of 9,000 Pezhetairoi, or FootCompanions, divided into six taxeis of 1,500 men each. Theywere armed with the small, round shield and sarisa, a pike 12to14 feet long, and were supported by 3,000 hypaspists, mostlikely armed as hoplites and divided into three chiliarchies of1,000 men each.

The Greek states of the League of Corinth sent 7,000 hoplites.They were accompanied by 5,000 mercenaries, probably armedas hoplites; 7,000 light-armed Odrysians, Triballians, and Illyr-ians; 1,000 Agrianian javelin men; and 1,000 Macedonian andCretan archers for a total of approximately 32,000 men.

Alexanders cavalry included 1,800 Hetairoi or Companions, aRoyal ile, or squadron, of 300, and seven other ilai of 200 or so.They were armed with the traditional cavalry lance, the xyston.The longest cavalry lance was 11.5 feet, and the shortest about 8.5

feet. As a secondary weapon, the horsemen of Alexanders time, both Persian and Greek, favoredthe kopis, a curved sword, sharpened on the concave edge of the blade, a deadly, cleaver-like cut-ting weapon.

Thessaly had always been known for its formidable mounted warriors, and Alexander, whoseown mount, Bucephalus, came from Thessaly, employed 1,800 Thessalians in eight ilai, proba-bly corresponding to the Hetairoi with respect to organization and arms. From the allied Greekstates came 600 heavy cavalry. Diodorus adds 900 Thracian and Paeonian prodromoi, or scouts,used as light cavalry. In all, Alexander led some 5,100 horsemen to Asia.

While Parmenion ferried the army across the Hellespont from Sestos to Abydos in 160 League

UNSTOPPABLE GOD OF WAR

ALEXANDER AT

Greeks and Persians arelocked in mounted hand-to-hand combat in 16th-centuryartist Jan Brueghel theElders painting of the Battleof Issus. Although unrealisticto a certain degree becausethe participants are shownin medieval armor ratherthan period dress, the rendering nevertheless captures the fury and chaos of ancient warfare.

triremes, Alexander took a ship and his lifelongcompanion, Hephaestion, to Troy, where theyvisited the graves of various heroes.

Alexander met the army at Arisbe, marchedeast to defeat the Persians in bloody hand-to-hand combat at the Granicus River, then turnedsouth and followed the coastline, taking thecoastal cities by force or accepting their sur-render. The captured cities furnished his army

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September 2014 Military Heritage 25Muse du Louvre

A vast Persian host arrayed on the banks of the River Pinarus in 333 BC stood astride Alexander the Greats supply line. Anything short of a complete victory for the Macedonians meant certain annihilation.

BY CHARLES HILBERT

an intricate knot, the legend being that whoever could loosen the knot would become the rulerof Asia. Alexander looked at the knot for a minute or two, and then brutally hacked it to piecesin a show of controlled savagery calculated to impress his onlookers that he had indeed fulfilledthe legend, that he was indeed the man for the job of ruling Asia, and that anyone who thoughtotherwise would end up like the knot.

Alexander left Gordion in late July, having waited until the harvest so that the cities along theirroute, having surrendered or been taken by units sent ahead, would be able to provide them withsupply depots. Sometime in August, Alexander reached the Cilician Gates, a pass over the Tau-rus Mountains into Cilicia. His advance was so rapid and unexpected that upon learning of his

with the necessary supplies and denied the Per-sian fleet a place to land and resupply. Alexan-der spent the winter of 334 subjugating the var-ious cities of Lycia and Phamphylia and thenturned northeast toward Gordion, which hereached in March 333.

The Macedonian king wanted to visit thetemple of Jove and see the famous chariot ofGordion. The yoke of this vehicle was tied with

ISSUS



proximity, the Persian forces, which in fact held a strong position guarding the gates, retreated,as Curtius says, not brave enough to endure the sight of the enemy. Alexanders reputation hadpreceded him.

Alexander entered Tarsus in the first week of September 333, and immediately after bathing inthe River Cydnus, fell deathly ill, probably a victim of malaria. Around the same time, Darius IIImarched out of Babylon leading his army in person, his Greek mercenary commander Memnonhaving died of an illness. While the Persian king headed west to confront the man who had alreadydetached a good part of his empire, Alexander spent the next two months recovering. By the thirdweek of October, after a march of 577 miles, Darius had reached Sochoi on the east side of theAmanus Mountains. A week later Alexander was out of bed and sending Parmenion, with theallied infantry, Greek mercenaries, Thracians, and Thessalian cavalry, to take the town of Issusand continue south along the coast to secure the Beilan Pass, which led into Syria.

Alexander spent the first week of November pacifying western Cilicia. He then returned to Soliand held musical and athletic competitions. His delay was intentional. With winter coming on, Dar-ius could not remain at Sochoi because his army would soon run out of supplies, and resupply wasdifficult in a region far from the coast with no navigable rivers. He would have to move soon.Alexander knew that Darius had four choices: to attempt the Beilan Pass, which debouches ontothe coastal plain 35 miles or so south of Issus where Parmenion was waiting in ambush; hold thepass in the face of Alexanders advance; withdraw eastward; or await the Macedonians in the plainsof Syria as long as their supplies held out. Darius, however, was aware of Parmenion and was notabout to attempt the Beilan Pass, nor was he about to march back the way he had just come. Alexan-der advanced to Mallus. He left there on the first day of the second week of November, headingtoward Issus, which he reached two days later. There he established a field hospital for the sick andwounded. This seems to indicate that the last thing he expected from Darius was an offensive move-ment westward. Darius decided to do the last thing his opponent expected.

The ancient accounts suggest that while Alexander took the coast road south, Darius, per-suaded by his courtiers that the Macedonians delayed in Cilicia only out of fear of the Persianking and his huge army, left Sochoi and marched north by an inland route through passes in theAmanus Mountains, both armies passing each other in a single night. It is most probable thatAlexander did not expect Darius to leave Sochoi in the plains of Syria, a location much more suitedto the Persian way of warfare, which relied heavily on cavalry, and was unaware of Dariuss

northward movement. Surely the Persian king,already hesitating to attempt the Beilan Pass inthe face of Parmenions force, would not haveblindly crossed the passes above Issus withoutcertain knowledge of Alexanders whereabouts.

Upon learning of Alexanders position at Issus,Darius left Sochoi heading northwest, intendingto come upon the Macedonian rear. He sent hiswar chest to Damascus with what the Romanhistorian Curtius calls a modest guard. Allancient accounts of the Persian army, whichnumbered as many as 600,000 men, are greatlyexaggerated, and this mention of a modestguard is our first indication that the army ofDarius was probably not much bigger than theMacedonian force. If Darius had had the hugearmy attributed to him by the ancients, he mighthave sent his valuables to Damascus with morethan a modest guard. As it was, he did nothave the numbers to spare.

On the fourth day of the second week ofNovember, Alexander reached the mile-highpass of the Pillars of Jonah, while at the sametime the Persians began crossing the AmanicGates. The next day Alexander reached Myr-iandrus, where it rained all night, and the Per-sians entered Issus, where Alexander had lefthis sick and wounded. According to Curtius,All whom by the instigation of the furious Per-sian nobles with barbarous cruelty having theirhands cut off and [their wounds] cauterized, he[Darius] ordered to be led around, so that theyshould see his troops, and with all having beenseen fully, to report to their own king what they

At the Battle of Granicus in 334 BC, Alexander defeated the forces of the Persian satraps of Asia Minor. Afterward,Alexander captured the coastal cities, which supplied his army while denying the Persian fleet a place to land and resupply.

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from the sea till to the foothills of the mountain [about 2,800 yards]. Through this extends theaforementioned river at an angle.

From the mouth of the Pinarus upstream for about 500 meters the river bed is bordered by lowbanks ranging from 1 to 2 meters in height, according to a 20th-century geological survey. Forthe next 1,000 meters the river is only five to 15 meters wide with steep banks. Farther inland,the banks are extremely steep, but about 2,740 meters from the mouth of the river is a narrowford. Cavalry could have crossed the Pinarus near its mouth. Where the banks were steep, infantrycould have crossed but not cavalry. Where the banks were extremely steep, neither cavalry norinfantry could have crossed, except at the ford.

By midnight, Alexander had reached the Pillars of Jonah, six miles north of Myriandrus. Hehalted there while the advance guard of cavalry and archers went on to secure the northern end,eight miles south of the Pinarus. Darius had probably spent the day forming his camp, much likethe camp of Cyrus the Great as described in Xenophons Cyropadeia: All the officers had ban-ners over their tents, [the aides] were acquainted with the location of the various officers and werefamiliar with the banner of each one ... he dug a trench 60 feet wide and 10 deep and encircled

the camp with the baggage-wagons of his trainlike a wall.

At dawn on the seventh day of the third weekof November, 333 BC, the first units of Alexan-ders army came down the road leading out ofthe northern end of the pass. As the Pillars ofJonah Pass is almost a mile high and in places sonarrow that only four infantrymen or twohorsemen can march abreast, the process ofnegotiating the entire army through these nar-rows must have taken half a day, while Alexan-ders advance scouts ranged far ahead. It was, atfirst, necessary to march in column for hours.As the northern end of the pass finally fell awaybehind them and the ground widened, Alexan-der slowly brought his column into line, one tax-eis after another, between the mountain to hisright and sea to his left. This must have necessi-tated many halts and dressing of lines, occupy-ing much of the day. While the Macedoniansmarched in column, their cavalry followed theinfantry. According to Callisthenes eyewitnessaccount, As soon as Alexander came into theopen fields he set [the army] in order, orderingall of the phalanx to form line, and to make thedepth of the phalanx 32 [men], after this in turnto 16, and last, being near the enemy, to 8. Itappears that he thinned and lengthened his lineof battle, as Plutarch says, to prohibit the Per-sians from executing an envelopment.

Arrian furnishes more detail: As into the openspace they advanced, he now drew up the army for battle, those first

on the right wing toward the mountain, the agema of the foot. Thiswas the Royal Agema of the hypaspists, 1,000 strong, posted on the extreme

right, the position of honor. To their left were the rest of the hypaspists, a force of 2,000 led byNikanor, son of Parmenion. Thus followed, toward the sea, the taxeis of the Pezhetairoi, eachbristling with 1,500 sarisai, first that of Koinos, then those of Perdikkos, Amytas, Ptolemy, Melea-ger, and, on the extreme left, Craterus, in command of the infantry of the left, the position he hadoccupied at the River Granicus and would once again hold at Gaugamela. Parmenion was in over-all command of the left wing and had been ordered to keep his flank against the sea so that the Per-sians could not get around it. It is clear that Alexander was very concerned that Darius wouldattempt a double envelopment, and he took every measure to prevent this.

When Alexanders approach was reported to Darius by some of the locals, he sent some of hiscavalry and light-armed troops south of the Pinarus to screen the deployment of his infantry pha-

had seen. The next day these pitiable survivorsof the Macedonian field hospital arrived inAlexanders camp at Myriandrus, and Dariusmarched south.

Darius had cut Alexanders line of commu-nication; the Macedonians could not retreat.Since the Persian fleet still dominated the east-ern Mediterranean, they could not resupply.Darius had but to hold the line of the Pinarusto ensure victory; he did not have to win thecoming battle. He just had to make sure that hedid not lose. For the Macedonians and theirallies it was a matter of victory or death.

Alexander, finding it hard to believe that Dar-ius was now astride his communications withhis whole army, for it might have been just araid or diversion, sent off some of his Hetairoiin a small ship to reconnoiter the gulf of Issus.It must have taken a few hours for them to sailnorth and then back to Myriandrus, for whenthey returned and reported the presence of thePersians, Alexander called his officers togetherfor a pep talk. Alexander reminded the Mace-donians how the Persians on multiple occasionshad undertaken to conquer their lands, destroytheir cities, and violate sacred laws and rightsof men and gods, reported Curtius. This time,the tables were turned on the Persians, and theMacedonians should exchange their infertilemountain lands for the rich fields and pasturesof the Persians.

It must have been late in the day by then, soAlexander ordered the men to have dinnerwhile he sent ahead some cavalry and archersto secure the southern end of the Pillars ofJonah. When it was dark, he followed withmost of the army. It is probable that he left inMyriandrus, to guard the Beilan Pass, the alliedGreeks, who are not mentioned in the sourcesregarding the actual battle, and some cavalryjust in case Darius had left a corps behind toattack Alexanders rear. The fact that Dariusdid not is a further indication of the small sizeof the Persian army.

At this point, Alexander was probably leadingnorth about 25,000 infantry: 12,000 in the pha-lanx, 5,000 heavy-armed mercenaries, 7,000light-armed infantry, and 5,000 cavalry. Dariusprobably did outnumber Alexander in cavalryand light troops, but the armies were roughlyequal in professional heavy infantry, or whatArrian calls hoplites. Both sides were headed fora fateful rendezvous at the River Pinarus; Dar-ius got there first, probably around the time theMacedonians were eating dinner.

The Pinarus is the modern Payas River inTurkey, and Callisthenes describes its course asit bisects the battlefield: There is at this placean interval not more than four and ten stadia

TOP: Macedonian General Ptolemy (left) and Alexander IIIof Macedon. BELOW: In a war council, Alexander told hisgenerals that they would soon possess the fertile lands ofthe Persians.

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lanx along the banks of the river. It seems that Darius planned to cover the first500 yards or so from the river mouth inland with these troops once he had positioned hisinfantry. Arrian reports: First of the hoplites the Greeks, the mercenaries, he drew up ...opposite the phalanx of the Macedonians.

Perhaps Darius could see the Macedonians off in the distance, and, surveying theground south of the Pinarus, drew up his mercenaries in the only place where theMacedonians would be able to attack in a phalanx formation across the dry, rockybed of the river. Darius might have had about 15,000 Greek mercenaries. Toaugment this force he added perhaps another 15,000 Persian Kardakes, youngnobles, who, according to Arrian, were probably armed as Greek hoplites, butlacking their traditions, training, and discipline. They were stationed on eitherside of the Greek mercenaries, and a similar formation would be adoptedonce again at Gaugamela. Arrian says: The ground received in that place somany men, they drew up in order of battle in a double phalanx. Because of thenarrowness of the battlefield, both units of the Persian phalanx must have been 16 ranks deep,twice as deep as Alexanders eight ranks and so equal to Arrians double phalanx.

To their left, stretching toward the mountains, Curtius tells us, Aristomedes, the Thessalian,had 20,000 barbarian foot. Arrian mentions 20,000 men to the left of the Persian phalanx. Poly-bius calls them peltasts [light-infantry] ... bordering on the mountains. Dariuss soldiers cov-ered the north bank of the Pinarus from sea to mountain; however, most of these were lightinfantry and archers, and of his hoplites only the Greek mercenaries were the equals of the Mace-donians. Darius took up his own position, conspicuous in his high, ornate chariot, behind theGreek mercenaries, surrounded by his bodyguard of 3,000 noble Persian knights. To threatenAlexanders right he moved some peltasts, probably across the ford, 3,000 yards from the sea ontothe high ground south of the Pinarus.

With his infantry in place, Darius recalled the cavalry and light troops that he had sent acrossthe river to screen his dispositions. He seems to have divided his cavalry equally on both wings

but then realized that the rising ground to hisleft was unsuitable for heavy cavalry. As Cur-tius tells us, The horses and horsemen of thePersians were equally heavy, covered as far astheir knees with rows of plates. They werearmed with two short spears and a sword. Dar-ius then sent most of his cavalry over to hisright under the command of Nabarzanes, prob-ably leaving only some light horse somewherenear the narrow ford. Along any part of thenorthern bank that looked a little too accessi-ble he fixed pointed stakes.

Alexander moved his line forward slowlyand methodically, screened by his advancedguard of light cavalry, bowmen, and sli

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