HistoryExtra
type: channel
link: https://www.historyextra.com
description: Home of Britain’s bestselling history magazine and award-winning podcast
date: 2025-01-23T09:59:43.000Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
items: A hill to die on: why the Allies almost failed in the battle of Monte Cassino in WW2
items: Hell in Italy: the Allies' hardest fight of WW2?
items: D-Day quiz: how much do you know about the Normandy Landings?
items: The battle for Sicily: breaking into Fortress Europe
items: The Sherwood Rangers' road to victory
items: 8 reasons why the Luftwaffe didn’t stand a chance of beating the RAF in the Battle of Britain
items: The real history that inspired WW2 film Greyhound
items: 9 things you (probably) didn’t know about Dunkirk
items: Your guide to D-Day: what happened, how many casualties were there, and what did it accomplish?
items: In defence of Monty: James Holland on the Allied commander's D-Day decisions

A hill to die on: why the Allies almost failed in the battle of Monte Cassino in WW2
type: item
date: 2025-01-23T09:59:43.000Z
creator: James Holland
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Second World War
subject: Second World War battles
subject: Soldiers
description: In early 1944, the Allied advance in Italy was brought to a halt at a rocky outcrop called Monte Cassino. And at the heart of the bloodbath that followed, writes James Holland, was flawed leadership
encoded: For the men of the US 34th ‘Red Bulls’ Infantry Division, just getting up onto the Monte Cassino massif was an achievement. To reach this rocky outcrop, in late January 1944 those troops had crossed a two-mile-wide flooded valley, an area laced with enemy mines and overlooked by German troops in the mountains above. The weather was cold, wet and miserable, and the Americans’ route had taken them across a badly smashed causeway that offered an easy target for enemy artillery. Those troops had then traversed the bed of the Rapido river, which was impossible for tanks to cross, and clambered up into the hills and gulleys that comprise the lower reaches of the towering massif. Finally, they had slipped and scrambled their way up onto two of the ridges that cross Monte Cassino. By 6 February, the Second Battalion of the 135th Infantry, one of the three regiments of the Red Bulls, was within a stone’s throw of Point 593, the rocky outcrop at the end of one of these long ridges dubbed ‘Snakeshead Ridge’ by the Americans. The Germans launched a frenzied assault to displace them, only for the Red Bulls to counter-attack. Read more | Hell in Italy: the Allies' hardest fight of WW2? Bayonets fixed, shooting from the hip, they moved from rock to rock, picking their way through the increasingly loose and stony terrain along the narrow ridge. Bullets were zipping and pinging all around, mortars and grenades were exploding, and shrapnel and lethal shards of razor-sharp rock were fizzing through the air. “There was a lot of screaming and cursing,” recalled 23-year-old Sergeant Ralph Schaps from Minnesota. “We were not going to let the goddam krauts push us off the hill.” So close was the fighting that a rifle butt smashed into Schaps’ jaw but, somehow, he survived. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2024/12/GettyImages-1193060764-bf5e784.jpg" width="4516" height="3009" alt="The Benedictine abbey on Monte Cassino, established in the sixth century an…

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Hell in Italy: the Allies' hardest fight of WW2?
type: item
date: 2024-03-31T11:27:20.000Z
creator: James Holland
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Second World War
description: The Allied invasion of Italy in 1943 was envisaged as a swift push on Rome. Yet, as James Holland explains, by the end of the year, the campaign was stymied by German defences far from the capital
encoded: Jerry sending shells over. Deathly chatter of machine-guns. Rumbling of falling buildings.” Major Roy Durnford, padre of the Canadian Seaforth Highlanders, was writing his diary in a church in what remained of Ortona, a small town midway down Italy’s Adriatic coast. Ortona was by then a smashed wreck, as was the countryside immediately to the south. Just a few weeks earlier, this had been a lush region of vineyards and peaceful olive groves. Now it was a hell of churned-up mud, vines and tree stumps punctuated by scores of dead, bloated bodies, shattered buildings, grotesquely torn metal and blackened tank hulks. It was Christmas Day, 1943. Durnford recorded those observations more than three months after Allied forces had launched their invasion of Italy with landings in Calabria and at Salerno, on the west coast, south-east of Naples. They had confidently expected to be masters of Rome by now, and for the front line to be at least 50 miles north of the capital. Yet even adjusted ambitions had not been met. Two days later, on 27 December, the wreck of Ortona would finally be taken – still some way south of Pescara, the revised year-end target for the British Eighth Army. Meanwhile, on the west coast, the Fifth Army – a multinational force of US, British and French troops under the command of US general Mark Clark – was also struggling to make much headway. At the beginning of November, it had come up against the first of two formidable German defensive lines. The Bernhardt Line – or Winter Line, as the Americans called it – across the peninsula was strongest at one of the very few routes through the mountains. This was the Mignano Gap, through which ran a railway line and the Via Casilina – Highway 6 – from Naples to Rome. The long, low saddle of Monte Lungo sat in this gap, flanked by Monte Sammucro and Monte Camino standing sentinel like monstrous gate guardians, the former soaring well over 1,000m. Either side of these loomed a phalanx of yet more mountains – hu…

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D-Day quiz: how much do you know about the Normandy Landings?
type: item
date: 2023-06-06T12:37:30.000Z
creator: James Holland
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Quiz
subject: Second World War
description: How much do you know about the Normandy landings? Test your knowledge of D-Day with this quiz written by military historian James Holland
encoded: View Riddle on the source website How did you score? Share your result on social media to see how your knowledge compares with other HistoryExtra readers! Learn more about D-Day Your guide to D-Day: what happened? The road to D-Day: the masterplan What happened after D-Day? D-Day: the WW2 battle through the eyes of the men who were there

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The battle for Sicily: breaking into Fortress Europe
type: item
date: 2022-01-05T16:05:12.000Z
creator: James Holland
subject: 20th Century
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Second World War
description: The invasion of Sicily in 1943 marked the Allies’ return to ‘Fortress Europe’ – and, despite hellish terrain and an obdurate enemy, ended in victory in just 38 days. So why, asks James Holland, is the operation chiefly remembered for its failings?
encoded: Listen to this article: The mountain-top town of Centuripe had proved a tough nut for the Allies to crack. The artillery had been forced to advance, completely exposed, to near the foot of the town, dodging enemy shelling and navigating the smashed road in search of somewhere to deploy that offered even a modicum of cover. Once they had finally done so, however, they were able to give the attacking infantry the support they needed, and by late on 3 August 1943 the town had fallen. The 3. Fallschirmjäger [Paratroop] Regiment then pulled back, down into the Salso Valley and up to the next town of Adrano – ready to do it all over again. Major Peter Pettit, second-in-command of the 17th Field Artillery Regiment, had the unenviable task of trying to work out how he was going to get all 24 of his 25-pounder field guns up to Centuripe, down the other side and then repeat the gruelling ordeal they had just gone through. Centuripe itself was old, smashed about and, with tiny, twisted streets, not suited to large Quad gun-tractors towing an ammunition limber and the gun itself. And these behemoths were competing with a further 80-odd guns of various sizes, as well as tanks, trucks and other vehicles, that all needed to pass through the town. Early in the morning of 4 August, Major Pettit and his opposite number in the 57th Field Artillery went down the only road leading out of Centuripe to try and work out how to achieve this logistical miracle. Winding, narrow and with numerous switchbacks, it was also in full view of the enemy, who had now dug in on the lower slopes of Mount Etna on the far side of the Salso Valley. Halfway down, a large part of the road had been destroyed, but it was too dangerous to repair in daylight; it would have to wait until dark. Recognising it was quite impossible to move until night fell, Pettit headed back up to Centuripe and then brought down reconnaissance parties to where he thought they should deploy that night. Once darkness had fallen, 6,00…

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The Sherwood Rangers' road to victory
type: item
date: 2021-11-09T07:33:13.000Z
creator: James Holland
subject: 20th Century
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Second World War
description: From the Sahara to Europe’s frozen borderlands, the Sherwood Rangers were at the very heart of the fight against Nazi Germany. James Holland recounts this regiment’s extraordinary road to victory
encoded: A little after 6am on 18 November 1944, Operation Clipper – the battle to smash wide open the defences in the German border town of Geilenkirchen – erupted in a blaze of fire and fury. The plan was for four flail tanks, with their rotating chains, to clear two lanes through the minefields and for the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry – a British armoured regiment in the vanguard of the Allied assault on Germany – to follow and clear the bunkers. American infantry, only arrived in Europe in October and never before tested in combat, would then pour through and, together with the British armour, further clear the Siegfried Line, the enormous defensive network that guarded Germany’s western border. Allied artillery was already thundering, sending over a heavy barrage, while searchlights had been brought in to help light the way, a double-edged sword if ever there was one. Conditions were appalling: the freezing cold, the dark, the rain – which inevitably worked its way into the tank because the hatches were open. Periscopes were ineffective at the best of times but especially when streaked with rain, which meant Major John Semken, the squadron commander, had his head out of the turret of his Sherman tank, and so did Johnny West, his driver. The first flail tank to approach the minefield broke down in the mud before it had even started. Soon after, a second flail became bogged in the mud. This meant a path that was supposed to be four tanks wide was now two. Then a third flail became stuck and then the fourth, some 50 yards short of a railway line that lay ahead. Semken, who was leading A-Squadron, had to reverse or push on regardless through the uncleared mines. He now radioed all of A-Squadron, 19 tanks in all. They had a job to do: to get through the minefield and help the infantry. He was going to push on. If they hit a mine, then the next tank was to take over and so on, until they were across the railway and the minefield. James Holland will be talking about One Legendary…

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8 reasons why the Luftwaffe didn’t stand a chance of beating the RAF in the Battle of Britain
type: item
date: 2020-07-10T08:56:12.000Z
creator: James Holland
subject: 20th Century
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Second World War
subject: Second World War battles
description: The Battle of Britain, the aerial campaign fought between the RAF and the Luftwaffe from 10 July to 31 October 1940, was one of Britain's most important victories in the Second World War. But did the German air force have any chance of succeeding? Not at all, writes historian James Holland...
encoded: Insufficient radio communciations The Germans had far more sophisticated radar than the British but failed to use it. Radio communications once in the air were non-existent between fighters and bombers, leading to repeated confusion. There were no ground controllers as such, so that once on their way to England, the Luftwaffe were left with the pre-flight orders and nothing more. Otherwise, they were on their own. Confusion frequently ensued. Your guide to the Battle of Britain: how the RAF turned back the Luftwaffe The Battle of Britain (10 July – 31 October 1940) was the first major military campaign in history to be fought entirely in the air, described by Churchill as the RAF’s finest hour. What exactly happened, how was the battle won, and what did it mean for Hitler? Get the answers to these questions and more in our full guide to the Battle of Britain. Hitler had his own shortcomings Because of his background and lack of military command experience, Adolf Hitler’s geopolitical understanding was poor. He spent much of the summer of 1940 in a state of indecision, unsure what to do about Britain’s refusal to play ball. He mostly remained in his Bavarian retreat, and there was no joint-service planning or joined-up thinking in any way. The woman who gave birth for Hitler Intelligence was poor Luftwaffe intelligence was woeful and largely in the hands of Colonel ‘Beppo’ Schmid, who spoke no other languages, liked the bottle, and had barely been out of Germany. He was also a sycophant who told Göring what he wanted to hear rather than the reality. He massively underestimated British strength, and had no idea that the RAF was divided into three commands. Moustaches, Cossacks and an inland lighthouse: a brief history of the Royal Air Force There was an overdependence on dive-bombing The Luftwaffe high command were obsessed with dive-bombing and placed the future of bomber development with this in mind. Dive-bombing was fine when the Luftwaffe controlled air space and…

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The real history that inspired WW2 film Greyhound
type: item
date: 2020-07-08T13:30:13.000Z
creator: James Holland
subject: 20th Century
subject: Period
subject: Second World War
subject: Second World War battles
subject: TV interest
description: Set in 1942, at the height of the Battle of the Atlantic, a World War Two film starring Tom Hanks tells the story of a newly-appointed naval captain heading to the front for the first time, tasked with commanding a convoy of 37 Allied ships across the treacherous North Atlantic while being hotly pursued by wolf packs of Nazi U-boats. Historian James Holland explores the real history that inspired Greyhound – based on C S Forester’s 1955 novel The Good Shepherd – and explains why the Battle of the Atlantic was the most vital campaign of the Second World War…
encoded: The mid-Atlantic, sometime in the winter of 1942. Commander George Krause has been on the bridge of his destroyer, the USS Keeling, for nearly 24 hours, locked in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse with a wolf pack of German U-boats – exactly how many is not clear. One U-boat was destroyed in the grey afternoon of the day before, and since then, Keeling and one other of Krause’s four-ship escort team – a Polish destroyer, the Viktor – have been pursuing another enemy sub without success, despite unleashing some 50 depth charges between them. It is freezing cold, the ice covering the surfaces and rails of the destroyer’s deck. Krause, having eaten barely half a sandwich and drunk only a couple of cups of coffee in that time, is utterly exhausted, cold, hungry and thirsty, but keenly aware he must keep going until they push through this screen of U-boats and get back within the range of Allied air cover. It means another long day ahead of them and already six ships in the convoy have been hit and destroyed. The responsibilities on the shoulders of this devout 42-year-old man are immense and he repeatedly has to make heart-wrenching choices. Should he pick up men in the freezing water or plough on and potentially save more? Every decision, calculation and educated guess regarding the enemy’s next move has potentially fatal consequences, not just for his own ship but for the entire convoy it is his task to protect. To add to the weight of his responsibility, this is his first transatlantic convoy. Yet by stint of his seniority of rank and age he is the ‘Comescort’ – the overall commander of the four-ship escort of a Canadian corvette, British and Polish destroyers, and his own in the United States Navy. It is at dawn, having been up all night, that Commander Krause conjures up a picture in his mind of an ideal convoy escort force: “With eight escort vessels and four destroyers a good job could be done,” he thinks, “and air cover.” But this was still 1942 and such forces wer…

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9 things you (probably) didn’t know about Dunkirk
type: item
date: 2020-05-26T14:45:11.000Z
creator: James Holland
subject: Period
subject: Second World War
subject: Family and parenting
subject: Second World War battles
description: In 1940, as British troops retreated through France under fire from an advancing German Army, a massive evacuation was launched to bring the soldiers safely home. Between 26 May and 4 June 1940, a mammoth 338,000 troops were rescued from the beaches of Dunkirk, France, in the remarkable Operation Dynamo. Here, military historian James Holland shares some lesser-known facts about the evacuation at Dunkirk, and the fighting that led up to it...
encoded: Dunkirk: what happened? On 10 May 1940, Adolf Hitler began his long-awaited offensive in the west by invading neutral Holland and Belgium and attacking northern France. Holland capitulated after only five days of fighting, and the Belgians surrendered on 28 May. With the success of the German ‘Blitzkrieg’, the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and French troops were in danger of being cut off and destroyed. To save the BEF, an evacuation by sea was organised under the direction of Admiral Bertram Ramsay. Over nine days, between 26 May and 4 June 1940, warships of the Royal and French navies together with civilian craft successfully evacuated more than 338,000 British and Allied troops from the beaches of Dunkirk, in the remarkable Operation Dynamo. The success of the evacuation strengthened not only Britain’s defences in the face of a German invasion threat, but also Churchill’s position against those like the foreign secretary, Lord Halifax, who favoured discussing peace terms. Seventy years later, Dunkirk is still synonymous with refusing to give up in times of crisis. But did you know... Britain had the only 100 per cent mechanised army in 1940 Britain in the early years of the war has often been perceived to have been full of Blimpish commanders, out-of-date equipment and antiquated, stuck-in-the-mud tactics. In fact, the British Army’s equipment in 1940 was certainly a match for that of the Germans. The Bren light machine-gun did not have the rate of fire of the German MG34, but was solid, accurate, and more dependable than its far friskier German rival. Meanwhile, the new British uniforms were the most modern in the world at the time, and unlike anything any soldier had worn before. The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was also entirely mechanised, which was certainly not the case for the German Army. In fact, of the 135 German divisions used in the attack in the West, only 16 were mechanised; the other 119 used horses and their soldiers' own two feet. Britis…

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Your guide to D-Day: what happened, how many casualties were there, and what did it accomplish?
type: item
date: 2019-06-05T15:00:49.000Z
creator: James Holland
subject: 20th Century
subject: Period
subject: Second World War
subject: Family and parenting
subject: HistoryExtra Academy
subject: HistoryExtra Academy D-Day and the Normandy Campaign course
subject: Second World War battles
description: It was the largest seaborne invasion in history, marking the beginning of the campaign to liberate north-west Europe from German occupation. But how much do you know about D-Day? And what does D-Day stand for? Here, historian James Holland brings you the facts…
encoded: What does D-Day stand for? Literally, the ‘D’ stands for day, as in the day of the invasion. The earliest known reference goes back to 1917, but early in the Second World War it was called ‘Dog-Day’ after the phonetic alphabet of the day. It was used during Operation WATCHTOWER, the US invasion of Guadalcanal in the South Pacific, for example. Later, it became simply known as ‘D-Day’ and was used for all major amphibious operations including north-west Africa, Sicily and southern Italy. The term ‘H-Hour’ was also used – the time of the landings – which was 6.30am on the two western beaches (Utah and Omaha); an hour later at 7.30am a little further to the east for the British landings; and 7.45am for the Canadians at Juno. This was because the Allies wanted to land when the tide was out in order to both avoid the beach obstacles (the Germans assumed any invasion would be at high tide so the Allies had less beach to cross and so had placed them closer to the high tide line) and because they needed the beach at low tide to allow successive waves of troops and vehicles the space and time to unload. D-Day: a resounding success for the Allies What happened on D-Day? The invasion was codenamed Operation OVERLORD and took place on Tuesday 6 June, having been delayed by 24 hours because of poor weather. American, British and Canadian troops were to be landed on five different beaches across the Normandy coastline: the Americans at Utah at the base of the Cotentin Peninsular and at Omaha at the western end of the northern Normandy coast; the British were to land at Gold Beach, east of Omaha; then the Canadians at Juno; and the British again at Sword, the easternmost invasion beach. Allied airborne troops would be dropped by parachute or glider and secure the flanks ­– the Americans in the west and the British and Canadians in the east. Read more | From the USA's 'good war' to Britain's 'great hurrah': how is D-Day remembered around the world? <img src="https://images.immediat…

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In defence of Monty: James Holland on the Allied commander's D-Day decisions
type: item
date: 2019-05-29T06:22:21.000Z
creator: James Holland
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Second World War
subject: HistoryExtra Academy
subject: HistoryExtra Academy D-Day and the Normandy Campaign course
description: For 50 years, historians have lined up to attack the architect of D-Day. But, writes James Holland, their criticisms are misguided
encoded: On Friday 30 June 1944, American general Omar Bradley visited Bernard Montgomery’s Tactical HQ, near the village of Blay, a few miles west of Bayeux. He found the architect of the Allied assault on Normandy in a particularly spikey mood. “I say,” he remarked to Bradley, looking at Chet Hansen, who had been recently promoted, “now do you have a major for an ADC [aide-de-camp]? Simply a dog’s body, you know, a whipping boy. I would not have an ADC who is more than a captain.” What on earth compelled him to say such a thing? It was insulting to Bradley (commander of the US First Army), insulting to Hansen, whom Monty had seen many times before, and spectacularly rude and unnecessary. “Messenger boys, simply messenger boys,” added Montgomery. He then launched into a withering critique of the superbly designed American M1 steel helmet. It is hard not to cringe recounting this outburst. Montgomery and Bradley needed to work hand in hand, side by side, with unity of purpose, mutual respect and fellowship. How much harder it was when a small Englishman in corduroys and a sweater was sitting there being so appallingly discourteous. Your guide to D-Day: what happened, how many casualties were there, and what did it accomplish? The Allies’ big idea: the largest air battle of the Second World War A monstrous ego History has not been kind to Montgomery, particularly not over the last 50 years, as one historian after another has lined up to crucify both his character and his military reputation. To a certain extent, he brought it upon himself through his monstrous ego, the crass way in which he spoke to his peers and superiors, and the very large chip that remained planted on his shoulder. Montgomery never exuded the easy charm of many of his contemporaries. He also had a social inferiority complex, which he masked with haughtiness and arrogance – an arrogance that was supported by a growing self-belief. Discipline, clear thinking, preparation and sound, solid training were his w…

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