After The Battle #132 – King Hakon Returns

Jean Paul Pallud tells the story of the Norwegian King who withdrew to Great Britain on June 7, 1940 following the German invasion of his country, and takes us through to his return on June 7, 1945. .. five years to the day of his departure. United States Patton’s Desert Training Center – In March 1942 the US Army established the Desert Training Center (DTC) to prepare its troops for desert warfare against the German Afrikorps in North Africa. General George S. Patton was instrumental in the creation of the DTC and here it is expertly described by Francis Blake, Dwain Oliver and Lieutenant Colonel John Shaw Lynch. It Happened Here Villers – Bocage Revisited – In 1999 we published Villers – Bocage Through the Lens of the German War Photographer, Daniel Taylor’s detailed account of the battle in this Normandy village on June 13, 1944, in which an armouRed column of the British 7th ArmouRed Division suffeRed a shattering defeat against German panzers. In the years since then, Daniel has not only gained contact with new veterans of the battle and uncoveRed much additional information but also found new photographs pertaining to this battle. Italy Tucker’s Panthers – Jeffrey Plowman and Perry Rowe tell how on April 15, 1945, the 2nd New Zealand Division launched an attack from its bridgehead across the Sillaro river near Sesto Imolese in northern Italy. In the course of that attack, Lance – Corporal John Tucker of the 27th Battalion knocked out two German Panther tanks but was cut down by Spandau fire while attacking a third – a courageous act that was witnessed with awe by his comrades and earned him a posthumous Mention in Despatches. Wreck Discovery The Search for Charybdis and Limbourne – On the night of October 22/23, 1943, a Royal Navy flotilla of one light cruiser and six destroyers chasing a German blockade – running merchant ship in the Channel under Operation ‘Tunnel’ was met by the German merchantman’s escorting force of five E – Boats. In the ensuing encounter two of the British ships – the cruiser Charybdis and the destroyer Limbourne – were hit by torpedoes. Charybdis sank with the loss of over 500 of its crew and Limbourne was damaged in such a way that she had to be scuttled. for 50 years the two ships lay on the seabed unexploRed, their exact location unknown. Then, in 1992 the wreck of Charybdis was found by a team of French deep – sea explorers by means of a remote – control diving vehicle. Later French divers exploRed the ship. However, the whereabouts of the Limbourne remained unknown. In 2001 a British diving team led by Keith Morris took up the challenge. After a first expedition to explore and survey the wreck of Charybdis in June 2001, they returned in June 2002 to search for Limbourne. On June 3 the team located a wreck which they thought could be the lost destroyer. Two days later one of the team’s divers, Leigh Bishop, our author, discoveRed a part of the ship that positively identified the wreck. After 60 years, Limbourne had been found.

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