Massive Retaliation. American strategic policy 1954-60, associated with the Eisenhower Administration’s “New Look” and articulated by Secretary of State John Foster Dulles. The policy emphasized the threat of retaliation “at times and places of our own choosing” to communist attack anywhere and this was generally held to mean a full-scale strategic nuclear offensive against the Soviet Union and China. Conventional and limited war forces were deemphasized but recently released documents clearly show that Dulles still saw a role for conventional resistance as a deterrent to some limited contingencies, e. g. a wholly East German attack on the Federal Republic. Nevertheless American, and after 1957 nato forces became highly dependent on nuclear weapons at all levels both for the “shield” to keep back Soviet armies on the battlefield and for the “sword” that would destroy the Soviet heartland itself. Massive Retaliation was a reflection of frustration with the Korean War and the economic problems created by the attempt at large-scale rearmament in the early 1950s. The British played a significant role in formulating the idea and were always willing to go further in emphasizing the “tripwire” nature of the strategy than the Americans. Massive Retaliation was undermined by the Soviet acquisition of missile capabilities that could strike directly at the USA. The Kennedy administration abandoned the concept in 1961, but NATO clung on until the end of 1967 when agreement was reached to replace it with Flexible Response. EJG.
Mast, Gen Charles-Emmanuel
(1889-1977). Fr. cos XIX Corps in Algiers; organized anti-Vichy factions to assist Allied landings in French North Africa, November
1942.
Mata Hari. Stage name of Marguerite Gertrud MacLeod, nee Zel-le (1876-1917), Dutchwoman who became dancer and courtesan. Recruited by German intelligence 1916; arrested by French, before she had done much; shot. MF.
Matapan, Battle of (March 28 1941). The Germans having asked the Italian Navy to strike against British troop convoys to Greece, a cruiser force covered by the battleship Vittorio Veneto and commanded by Adm lachino was sent to sweep south of Crete. British signals intelligence revealed this move and Adm Cunningham with the battleships Warspite, Valiant, Barham and the carrier Formidable moved to intercept. Adm Pridham-Wippell with four cruisers was already in the area, and he was the first to make contact. Out-ranged by the heavier guns of the Italian cruisers, as well as the battleship, he withdrew at speed. After a fruitless chase, lachino decided he was getting too close to British air bases and started for home. Formidable launched a number of air strikes, one of which obtained a torpedo hit which reduced Vittorio Veneto’s speed, while the last of the day immobilized the cruiser Pola. lachino, not realizing how close Cunningham now was, left two other cruisers in support. That night Cunningham’s light forces, which he had sent on ahead to make torpedo attacks (his battleships were old and not very fast), failed to make contact with the fleeing lachino. But thanks to radar (which the Italians did not have) he obtained total surprise with his battleships, sinking the Zara and Fiume at point-blank range. Pola was also sunk. This victory removed any danger of Italian naval interference in the
' evacuations from Greece and Crete, at the expense of one plane lost. DJL.
Matilda. British “Infantry” tank Mk II. Introduced 1939. Served in France 1940 and Libya 1940-42. See also tanks.
Mau Mau rebellion (1952-60). From around 1948, resentment among native Africans regarding the possession of prosperous farms in Kenya’s “White Highlands”, the prime agricultural area north of Nairobi, by European settlers, found expression through the “secret society” called Mau Mau. Drawing most of its members from the dominant Kikuyu tribe, Mau Mau enforced solidarity with primitive and obscene “oathing” rituals and, from strongholds in the forests of the Aberdare Mountains and Mount Kenya, launched
Kikuyu auxiliaries hunt down Mau Mau
A guerrilla campaign against the settlers and their employees.
On October 20 1952, the Governor of Kenya, Sir Evelyn Baring, declared a state of emergency. British troops strengthened the existing security forces; some 180 suspected Mau Mau leaders, including the Kikuyu leader and later Kenyan Premier and President Jomo Kenyatta (1897-1978), were arrested; a “Home Guard” was raised from loyal Kikuyu. Nevertheless, the Mau Mau campaign escalated, the most serious incidents occurring on March 26 1953, when Mau Mau gangs sacked a police post at Naivasha and massacred c80 Kikuyu at Lari.
In May 1953, Gen Sir George Erskine took command of all security forces, amounting, at maximum, to cl0,000 troops (five British and six African battalions) with air and artillery support,
21,000 police and 25,000 Kikuyu Home Guards. Mau Mau was estimated to have up to 15,000 warriors - with few conventional arms - and some 30,000 “passive” supporters. To destroy their urban support, Erskine in April 1954 launched Operation “Anvil”: the African area of Nairobi was surrounded by troops and police moved in to “screen” suspects: of c30,000 Africans questioned, cl6,500 were detained. Alleged brutality in the “concentration camps” for detainees (c50,000 in 1952-60) caused controversy.
Conventional military operations against Mau Mau’s mountain strongholds dispersed but failed to extirpate them. In 1955, Erskine’s successor, Lt Gen Gerald Lath-bury, expanded the use of “pseudogangs”: loyal Africans, including ex-Mau Mau, led by British officers and ncos, who posed as insurgents in order to locate and ambush the Mau Mau bands. These operations, with which Gen Sir Frank (then Maj) Kitson is particularly associated, were successful. Following the killing of Mau Mau’s “Field Marshal” Dedan Kimathi in October 1956, army units were withdrawn, although the emergency remained in force until January 1960.
Operations in 1952-60 cost the British and Kenyan governments an estimated ?55,000,000. Some
10,500 Mau Mau were killed; the security forces had 600 killed (including 63 Europeans) and 579 wounded; the British army lost 12 killed and 69 wounded; civilian casualties were 1,888 killed (32 Europeans) and 980 wounded (26 Europeans). RO’N.
Maunoury, Marshal Michel
(1847—1923). Fr. Commander of the newly-formed French Sixth Army in September 1914. It was Maunoury’s pressure against the exposed German right flank east of Paris, between September 5 and 7, that threw the German advance off balance and facilitated the Allied victory on the Marne.
Maurice Farman S7 Longhorn
(French, WWI). Two-seat recon-naissance/trainer. Prototype flew 1911; in French military service 1912; with rfc from August 1912. By outbreak of war was used almost exclusively as trainer, but RFC in France had a few late 1914, one or two in Mesopotamia 1915. Produced in England for rfc and RNAS, and widely used as elementary trainer. One 80hp Renault or 75hp Rolls-Royce Hawk engine; max. speed 65mph (104kph); no formal armament.
Maurice Farman Sll Shorthorn
(French, WWI). Two-seat recon-naissance/trainer. Prototype flew 1913; type into French service 1913; first delivery to rfc March 1914. Operational with rfc France until November 1915, later in Mesopotamia. Produced in Britain and Italy (as Fiat 5B) in large numbers and several variants. As trainer in rfc and raf served on well into 1918. One 80hp Renault/ lOOhp Fiat A-10 engine; max. speed 72mph (115kph); one 0.303in machine gun, or rifles/ pistols.
Max of Baden, Prince (18671929). Ger. The heir presumptive to the Grand Duchy of Baden, Prince Max, a known advocate of peace, became Imperial German Chancellor on October 3 1918. With Hindenburg and Ludendorff already favouring an armistice, it fell to Prince Max to try to negotiate an honourable peace for Germany. He resigned after announcing the abdication. PJS.
Me 323 “Gigant” see GLIDERS.
Medenine, Battle of (March 6 1943). After routing the Americans at Kasserine, Rommel rushed back southwards to check Montgomery’s advance into Tunisia. The latter, warned by Allied intelligence, immediately reinforced his advanced troops at Medenine, held by XXX Corps (Leese) with 7th Armoured and the New Zealand Divisions. Rommel tried to envelop the British position by moving through the hills on the desert flank and attacking from the west. Montgomery stood fast and allowed the Afrika Korps with 10th, 15th and 21st Panzer and 90th Light Divisions to run into his concealed tanks and antitank guns. Rommel withdrew after serious tank losses. It was his last battle in Africa. WGFJ.
Mediterranean campaigns
(1939-45). Mussolini ordered “offensive at all points” when he declared war on Britain and France on June 10 1940.
The Italians invaded the Sudan and Kenya in July, British Somaliland in August, Egypt in September and Greece in October. Their only success was in British Somaliland, which was evacuated by British troops on August 19 1940. Early in 1941, British counteroffensives led to the destruction of the Italian forces in Cyrenaica, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somaliland; and the Greeks brought the Italian invasion of their country to an ignominious halt.
Hitler decided that he must aid his ally in order to secure his southern flank before he attacked Russia. The German invasion of Yugoslavia and Greece in April 1941 drew British forces from Egypt in a vain attempt to help the Greeks, enabling Rommel’s Afrika Korps, which landed at Tripoli in
February 1941, to drive the British out of Cyrenaica except for Tobruk, to which Rommel laid siege. British forces were further dissipated in defeating the Rashid Ali rebellion in Iraq (April) and the Vichy French in Syria (June-July).
While Hitler was fully engaged in Russia during the summer and autumn of 1941, the British attempted to relieve Tobruk and Anally succeeded in December. Rommel withdrew to Tripolitania to await reinforcements.
Hitler’s plan for 1942 envisaged seizing the whole of the Middle East with a grandiose pincer movement, his forces in southern Russia thrusting through the Caucasus from the north, while Rommel advanced on the Suez Canal from the West. In June 1942 Rommel defeated the British at Gazala and drove them back to El Ala-mein, but Hitler’s thrust through the Caucasus failed.
By autumn 1942, America’s entry into the war had enabled the Allies to take the offensive: Rommel was defeated by Montgomery at El Alamein in October and driven back to Tunisia; the Allied landings in French North Africa, November 1942 led to the surrender of all Axis forces in Tunisia, May 1943.
Allied strategy was to attack “the soft under-belly of Europe” as a means of drawing Axis forces southwards and away from the invasion beaches of Northwest Europe. The invasions of Sicily and Italy led to the collapse of Mussolini’s Italy in September 1943, and the bitter flghting at Cassino and Anzio forced Hitler to feed the Italian front with many of his best divisions. Rome fell to Alexander’s Allied Armies in Italy on June 4 1944, two days before the Normandy landings.
Thereafter it was Alexander’s task to hold as many German divisions in Italy as possible. He hoped to break into the Po Valley and to advance on Vienna in the summer of 1944, but the Americans insisted on diverting almost one-third of his forces to the landings in Southern France. His troops were stalled for the winter in the Northern Apennines, but destroyed their opponents in the flnal battles south of the Po in May
1945. WGFJ.
Mediterranean Expeditionary Force. Formed consequent to the British decision in March 1915 to land troops on the Gallipoli Peninsula It landed in April and was finally evacuated in December. The remaining elements were amalgamated with forces in Egypt in March 1916 and renamed the Egyptian Expeditionary Force.
Mediterranean, the war in the air
Mune 1940—May 1945). Until Allied strategic bombers were established on the Foggia airfields in Italy in the autumn of 1943 and could therefore reach targets in Germany and central Europe, air operations in the Mediterranean were essentially tactical, in support of the war at sea and on land. Mediterranean air commanders on both sides did not have first call on national air resources, and could only fight for local air superiority with what was available at the time. From 1940 until the end of 1942, when the Allies landed in French North Africa, the Axis were able to reinforce more quickly across the Mediterranean than the British, who had to ship aircraft to Takoradi on the Gold Coast and fly them across Africa to Egypt, or fly them off carriers in the Western Mediterranean.
Until the beginning of 1941, neither the raf Middle East (Longmore) nor the Italian Air Force (Pricolo) had the power decisively to influence naval or land operations, with the notable exception of the Fleet Air Arm’s raid on Taranto, November 1940, which crippled half the Italian battle fleet. The situation changed radically in January 1941 when Hitler decided to intervene in the Mediterranean. Thereafter there were three major phases in the air war. The first (January 1941-October 1942) was a period of Axis air superiority. The arrival of Fliegerkorps X (Geisler) in Sicily in January 1941 jeopardized British naval operations in the central Mediterranean and brought Malta under siege. The deployment of Luftflotte 4 (Ldhr) in March 1941 with Fliegerkorps VIII, X and XI for the invasion of Greece and the capture of Crete gave the Luftwaffe domination of the Eastern Mediterranean as well. When Luftflotte 4 departed for the invasion of Russia in June 1941, Fliegerkorps
X was left to dispute the passage of British convoys through the Mediterranean from airfields in Sicily and the Greek islands, and to support Rommel's Afrika Korps in the Western Desert with a detachment under F'liegerfiihrer Afrika (Frohlich).
Frohlich’s resources were modest because Africa in 1941 had little strategic importance to Hitler. Its priority increased in late 1941 with the dispatch of Luftflotte 2 (Kesselring) from Russia with Fliegerkorps II (Loerzer) during the winter lull to support Rommel's offensive towards the Suez Canal and the capture of Malta in
1942. The demands of the Russian front in the summer and autumn reduced Kesselring’s resources and enabled raf Middle East (Tedder) to maintain a tolerable air situation in the Western Desert, although not at sea where convoys had to be fought through to Malta at high cost.
In the second phase (October
1942-February 1944), the flow of American air reinforcements to the UK and Egypt, and the attrition of German air resources in Russia, turned the tide in the Allies’ favour. The Western Desert Air Force (Coningham) contributed to Montgomery’s victory at El Alamein in October 1942 both through direct air support to Eighth Army, and by the sinking of Rommel’s supply ships. The Allied landings in French North Africa further reduced the Luftwaffe’s numerical and reinforcement advantages, but Allied air superiority could never be taken for granted and still had to be fought for in all the Allies' offensive operations in the Tunisian and Sicilian campaigns, and until spring 1944, in the Italian campaign. The critical factor in the amphibious landings in Sicily, at Salerno and at Anzio was the Allies’ success in providing air cover over the beaches.
During the final phase (March
1944-May 1945), Allied air supremacy was firmly established. By the spring of 1944, the Luftwaffe had been forced onto the defensive by the Combined Bomber Offensive against Germany, to which the Mediterranean Allied Strategic Air Force (Twinning) contributed from its bases in Italy, and by preparatory air operations
For Operation “Overlord” in Northwest Europe. The tasks of the Mediterranean Allied Air Forces (Eaker) were threefold: first to convert air superiority into air supremacy: second to disrupt
Army Group C’s communications and supply; and third to support land operations, using, when conditions were favourable, massed bomber effort against fortified lines. Specific air operations of note were:
1) the bombing of the monastery of Monte Cassino and Cassino town, February and March 1944.
2) the disruption of the Italian railway system before the “Diadem” offensive (March 19-31 1944).
3) the successful destruction of all bridges over the Po river (July 12-27 1944).
4) assistance to Fifth Army in breaching the Gothic Line (September 9-11 1944).
5) assistance to Fifth Army attacking the Bologna defences (October 12 1944).
6) destruction of electric power supplies to the Brenner Pass railway (November 6 1944). WGFJ.
Mediterranean, the war at sea
(June 1939-November 1943). The British and Italian navies had a common task: ensuring the safe passage of reinforcements and supplies across the Mediterranean. Malta lay at the crossroads of their lines of communication. The island was an important strategic asset to the British as an advanced base from which light naval forces and submarines could attack Axis shipping; but it was also a liability in that it was isolated and vulnerable to air attack and invasion from Sicily. The constant need to fly in fighter reinforcements and to fight through supply convoys to the island proved a major drain.
The Italians had three major advantages: their geographic position, dominating the Central Mediterranean Basin; air superiority with air bases in Sardinia, Sicily, and, later, on the Greek islands; and faster, although less heavily armed and armoured, warships that could use their speed to escape engagement if the odds were unfavourable.
With the loss of French naval support in June 1940, the British had to reinforce Adm Cunningham’s Mediterranean Fleet, based
At Alexandria, to control the Eastern Basin and the Aegean Sea; and to assemble a new force at Gibraltar - Adm Somerville’s Force H - to control the Western Basin. The war at sea was largely shaped by the air situation and, in particular, by the priorities accorded by Hitler to Luftwaffe operations in the Mediterranean. There were five main phases.
In June-December 1940, the British won naval superiority over the Italians in several actions after destroying the French fleet on July 3. On November 11, at Taranto, the Fleet Air Arm attacked the Italian battle fleet in harbour, putting half of it out of action for many months.
The second phase (January to May 1941) saw the first intervention by the Luftwaffe. Fliegerkorps X (Gen Geisler), which specialized in anti-shipping operations, was sent from Norway to Sicily in January for operations with the Italian Navy; and in April Luft-flotte 4 (Lohr) arrived in the Balkans to support the German invasion of Yugoslavia and Greece. On January 10, the Luftwaffe dive-bombed and badly damaged the carrier Illustrious. She became the target of intense attacks in the Malta dockyard until she slipped away to Alexandria, January 23.
On February 9, Force H bombarded and badly damaged Genoa. On March 28, the two battle fleets met southwest of Crete at Mata-pan. The Italians lost three heavy cruisers and two large destroyers. There followed the British bombardment of Tripoli (April 21) to reduce supplies to Rommel, the evacuation of 50,000 men from
At action stations in the Mediterranean
Greece (April 24—May 1) at the cost of two destroyers and four transports, and the successful passage of the “Tiger” Convoy (May 2-18) with urgently needed tanks for the Western Desert. May 20-June 1 saw the defence and evacuation of Crete at the heavy price of nine warships sunk and seventeen damaged in air attacks.
During the third phase Muly to December 1941), Luftflotte 4 was withdrawn for the invasion of Russia, but German submarines entered the Mediterranean in September. An Italian human torpedo attack on September 20 in the Bay of Gibraltar, sank one merchant ship and damaged two others. On November 8, Force K destroyed the Tripoli bound “Duisburg” convoy. November 13 and 25 saw the loss of Ark Royal and Barham to U-81 and U-331. This was followed by the sinking off Cape Bon on December 12, of two Italian cruisers. The First Battle of Sirte (December 16-18) led to Force K sustaining heavy losses in a minefield off Tripoli. On December 18-19, another Italian human torpedo attack, at Alexandria, crippled the battleships Valiant and Queen Elizabeth.
The fourth phase (January to October 1942) saw the second intervention by the Luftwaffe; the withdrawal of British capital ships to meet the Japanese threat in the Indian Ocean; the British loss of forward airfields in the Western Desert from which air cover could be provided in the Eastern Basin; and Axis attempts to dominate the Central Basin to keep Rommel supplied.
Intense bombing of Malta was resumed by the Luftwaffe on March 1. The Second Battle of Sirte (March 22) followed, fought to protect the passage of the “March” convoy from Alexandria to Malta. October 11-29 saw the launching of the last Axis blitz to help protect fuel shipments to Rommel before the Battle of El Alamein. And, from June 12— December 5, five convoys fought their way through to Malta. The island was at last relieved.
For the last phase (December
1942), Montgomery’s advance to Tripoli, and the Allied landings in North Africa cleared the southern Mediterranean of Axis ports and air bases. The war at sea, thereafter, became an integral part of Allied operations aimed at Europe’s “soft underbelly”. WGFJ.
Medium Range Ballistic Missile (MRBM). A land-based ballistic missile with a range of about 600
1,500 miles (1,000-2,500km). The Soviet Union deployed large numbers of MRBMS, first SS-3s and then SS-4s covering Eurasian targets from the late 1950s to the late 1980s when the last sites were dismantled under the inf Treaty.
Megaton. An explosive yield equivalent to a million tons of tnt, normally only attainable by thermonuclear weapons. The largest operational American bomb is a 9 megaton weapon but Soviet bombs up to 25 megatons have been reported. The USSR has tested a 57 megaton device.
Megiddo, Battle of see DAMASCUS CAMPAIGN (1918).
Meiktila-Mandalay campaign
(1945) see burma campaign (i94i-
45).
Mekong river. From its source in Tibet, the Mekong river flows 2,800 miles (4,500km) through China, Burma, Laos. Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam to the South China Sea. Its delta totalling 26,000 sq miles (67,340 sq km) in area is the rice basket and population centre of southern Vietnam. During the Vietnam War, the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (arvn) IV Corps embraced the delta, as did the communists’ military regions 8 and 9. The U Minh Forest, a mangrove swamp in the southwest, had been a communist base area since the war against France.
Menendez, Brig Gen Mario
(b. l930). Argentinian. Military governor and c-in-c of Falklands from April 3 1982 until his surrender on June 14.
Menin Gate. The present Menin Gate at Ypres in Belgium was designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield and unveiled in 1927. It bears the names of 54,896 men who fell in the Ypres Salient between 1914 and August 15 1917, but who have no known grave. The Last Post is still sounded here every evening.
Menin Road. As the main axis of advance for both sides in the Ypres
World History
