Ark Royal. British aircraft carriers. (1) Incomplete freighter hull purchased by the Admiralty (1914) for conversion as a seaplane carrier; served at Dardanelles. (2) Completed 1938, fought off Norway, her aircraft proved vital at Mers-el-Kebir and in the hunting down of Bismarck] sunk in 1941 by submarine torpedo and inadequate damage control. (3) 1955-79 core of the British postwar carrier force with sister Eagle.
Armed merchant cruiser. A passenger liner or merchant ship refitted as a naval vessel by the addition of guns and other minor modifications. They were extensively used, especially by the British, in both world wars for convoy escort and other cruiser roles. The Germans used them principally as commerce raiders.
Armentieres. French town which, after a brief German occupation, was entered by the British in October 1914. It became an important forward base and recreation centre for the BEF until evacuated during the German Lys offensive in April 1918. Armentieres was recaptured by Plumer’s Second Army on October 2 that year.
Armistice negotiations, German in Italy (October 1944-May 1945). First approaches made by SS Gen Karl Wolff, SS and Police Commander in Italy, to Allen Dulles, American Charge d’Affaires in Switzerland; negotiated secretly by Dulles and Alexander’s representatives, Generals Lemnitzer and Airey, in Berne; eventually concluded with the dispatch of a German delegation, headed by Col Viktor von Schweinitz, to Alexander’s HQ at Caserta in Italy where the instrument of surrender was signed on April 29, coming into effect on May 2 1945.
Armistice negotiations, Italian
(August 4-September 3 1943). Authorized by the Badoglio government, and carried out in secret between Italian Generals Castellano and Zanussi, and Eisenhower’s cos, Lt Gen Bedell Smith, and his Head of Intelligence, Brig Kenneth Strong, in Lisbon, Algiers and Sicily. The short unconditional surrender document was signed by Castellano at Alexander’s hq in
Sicily on September 3. It was broadcast by Eisenhower and Badoglio on the evening of September 8 as the Allied invasion fleet approached Salerno. The Italian fleet managed to sail for Malta where it surrendered to Adm Cunningham on September 11. The rest of the Italian armed forces were disarmed by the Germans. WGFJ.
Armour-piercing ammunition.
Solid shot or high explosive shells designed to penetrate armour plating.
Armoured cars. Wheeled fighting vehicles, lightly armoured for surveillance and reconnaissance. Usually armed for self-defence and the defeat of similar vehicles.
Armoured Fighting Vehicles
(AFV) see tanks.
Armoured train. Locomotives and rolling stock with ad hoc armour plating, armed with light cannon and machine guns. Now rare.
Armstrong Whitworth FK8 (Br, WWI), Two-seat reconnaissance bomber; crew 3. Prototype (FK7) flew early summer 1916; first production (FK8) delivered August 1916. In production and service until war’s end; two vcs (Lt AA McLeod; Capt FMF West, mc) won on FK8s. Total production 1,701. 160hp Beardmore engine; max. speed 98.4mph (157kph) two
0.303in machine guns, 2001b (90kg) bombs.
Army. 1) Lawfully constituted land forces. 2) A number of corps grouped under a single hq, e. g.. Eighth Army 1941-45, Second US Army.
Army Air Corps (AAC) (British Army). The aac was formed in 1957 to meet increasing demands for light aircraft support for the Army in operations worldwide, and is organized into Regiments, Squadrons and Independent Flights. Lynx helicopters armed with TOW missiles are used for both the anti-tank role and to provide battlefield support for the ground combat arms. The Aerospatiale Gazelle is used for observation and reconnaissance. There is a small fixed-wing element.
Army Group. A number of armies grouped under a single hq e. g. 21st Army Group (British), Army Group Centre (German, World War II).
Army of Africa, the advance of
(August-October 1936), Spanish Civil War. Franco’s advance on Madrid began from Seville on August 6 after the first major airlift of troops in history (altogether,
12.000 men were ferried across the Straits of Gibraltar from Spanish Morocco in German and Italian aircraft). Under Col Yagiie, a lorryborne force of around 8,000 Foreign Legionnaires and Moroccan levies known as regulares, advanced rapidly north from Andalucia into Estremadura. After an infamous massacre following the capture of Badajoz on August 15, they swung northeast on Madrid. Their reputation and rapid flanking movements created panic amongst the ill-armed Republican militias. At the end of September, having advanced nearly 310 miles (500km) to Talavera de la Reina, Franco deflected his army from the undefended prize of Madrid, to relieve the symbolically important group of defenders in the Alcazar of Toledo. Yagiie, furious that sentiment should take priority, had to be relieved. AB.
Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). Pronounced “arvin”, ARVN, or the South Vietnamese army, had its origins in the Vietnam National Army that was created by France in 1950. Vietnamese officers transferred from the French army were sufficient to staff just three battalions, so the large majority of officers were French. Beginning with about
16.000 Vietnamese regulars drawn from French formations in 1950, the National Army grew to
205.000 men by the war’s end in 1954. The bulk of the army then regrouped in the South, and Vietnamese were thrust into command positions.
The US took over France’s assistance and advisory role in December 1954. The name became Army of the Republic of Vietnam when a republic was proclaimed in October 1955. By autumn 1959 the ARVN had 136,000 regular army soldiers organized into seven divisions, a five-battalion airborne
Group, eight independent artillery battalions and four armed cavalry squadrons, plus 97,000 regional and popular force troops making a total of 233,000. At its peak in 1972, it had 424,000 regulars organized into eleven infantry divisions, an airborne division and a marine division; plus 532,000 regional and popular forces making a total of 956,000. Main force organization, equipment, training manuals and tactical doctrine were American.
The instability of the Saigon regime invited the officer corps to intervene in politics. Officers overthrew President Ngo Dinh Diem in 1963, and all subsequent heads of state and most province chiefs came from the military. Involvement in politics hindered the arvn’s military effectiveness, however. Competition for political and administrative posts fuelled factional splits within the officer corps. Officers were often appointed to field commands on the basis of political loyalty, not military competence. Frequent rotation, inadequate training, corruption and dependence on the US undermined morale.
Moreover, foot soldiers resented service in an army that sent them far from home to fight for a regime they supported weakly or not at all. In 1964, desertions from all South Vietnamese armed forces numbered 73,000, about 15 percent of the total; in 1970, they numbered over 126,000. Efforts to curb desertions enjoyed only modest success, and desertion remained the largest cause of manpower loss. Desertion was highest, up to 36 percent a year, in frontline combat units. In these respects the ARVN compared unfavourably with the People’s Army of Vietnam (pavn). The arvn could never match the pavn’s identification with anticolonialism, revolutionary elan, and highly disciplined officer corps.
However, the arvn was not as uniformly inferior as its detractors sometimes claimed. Where capable officers had good rapport with their men, arvn units fought well. The 1st Infantry Division, the Marine Division, the Airborne Division and some Ranger battalions distinguished themselves. Officer motivation also improved as the corps became less an elitist club
And more an avenue of upward mobility for young professionals. The common belief that the arvn shirked combat is contradicted by figures showing that the arvn sufi fered heavier casualties than American forces in every year of the war. By 1975, 243,000 arvn soldiers had died in action and
507,000 had been wounded. WST.
Arnauld de la Periere, Vice Adm Lothar von (1886-1941). Ger. Most successful U-boat commander of all time: in U-35, November 1915—March 1918, he sank 189 merchant ships (446,708 tons), most with surface gunfire. He headed a “storm battalion” in the civil strife of 1919-20. He rejoined the Kriegsmarine in September 1939, holding administrative commands in occupied Europe until killed in an air crash.
Allied paras surrender at Arnhem
Arnhem, Battle of (September, 1944). Montgomery’s proposed plan. Operation “Market Garden”, was intended to accelerate the progress of the Allied advance into Holland and Germany. He envisaged that a series of airborne assaults would seize crossings over the Maas, Waal and Lower Rhine rivers (“Market”), enabling the British Second Army to make a rapid drive into the Ruhr (“Garden”). While two American airborne divisions were to seize the southern bridges along the route, the 1st British Airborne Division was given the task of capturing the bridges over the Rhine at Arnhem. On September 17 the first of the units landed by parachute and glider but the arrival of vital equipment was delayed and the siting of dropping zones several miles from their objectives resulted in immediate complications. By the time men of 2nd Parachute
Battalion had fought their way to the river, the Germans had destroyed the railway bridge. The road bridge remained intact but although they managed to secure its northern approaches, they were unable to dislodge the Germans from its southern end. The division’s commander. Major Gen Ur-quhart, was plagued by poor wireless communications and adverse weather conditions that hampered the delivery by air of supplies and reinforcements. To make matters worse, German resistance was far greater than anticipated. The two SS Panzer divisions in the vicinity soon began to pin back the lightly armed airborne troops. Not only had the fighting in Arnhem stiffened but the main Allied advance was checked north of Nijmegen. Ill-equipped to carry out an extended defence, the British troops were soon in dire straits. On September 21 the much depleted force at the bridge finally succumbed to German counterattacks and even when the long awaited 1st Polish Parachute Brigade landed to reinforce Urquhart, most were unable to reach the north side of the river. An ever-shrinking perimeter held out to the west of Arnhem until September 25 when, short of ammunition and knowing that relieving forces were still too far away, the defenders were ordered to break out and try and reach Allied lines. Of more than 10,300 Allied forces engaged at Arnhem, only 2,827 managed to reach safety. MS.
Arnim, Col Gen Hans-Jiirgen
Von (1889-1962). Ger. Commander Fifth Panzer Army in Tunisia; promoted to command Army Group Africa in March 1943; surrendered on May 12 1943 after the fall of Tunis.
Arnold, Gen of the Air Force Henry Harley (“Hap”) (18861950). US. Commanding Gen of the USAAF throughout its participation in World War II. By the outbreak of war Arnold, who had become Chief of the Air Corps in 1938, had demonstrated an outstanding skill as a publicist for the cause of air power and had become one of the most powerful military figures in Washington. Though not of equal rank with Marshall and King, the Chiefs of the United
States Army and Navy, he nonetheless achieved an authority and influence which corresponded with theirs, and 1944, with Marshall, MacAi'thur and Eisenhower, he was promoted to the supreme rank of General of the Army. In 1948, when the air force became an independent service, he became the first General of the Air Force - a remarkable achievement for an officer who never commanded a major formation in battle.
He thus, perhaps, lacked some of the balance and realism which characterized his British opposite number. Portal, and his determination to show that American air power would be guided by independent American ideas and that its importance should be estimated on a scale comparable or, indeed, superior to military and naval power led him at times into error. His determination to develop a day bombing offensive against all the advice of his British colleagues and then to claim, in justification of the idea, that the disastrous attack on Schweinfurt of October 1943 had been a decisive success are evidences of these tendencies. Nevertheless, his radical approach combined with the process of trial and error together with an admixture of luck enabled him to formulate the strategy of victory in the air, both in Europe and the Pacific.
The enormous contribution made by the usaaf to victory over Germany and Japan brought Arnold’s ambition to obtain independent status for the service to the point of realization and, within three years it was attained. ANF.
Arras, Battle of (1917). The British attack at Arras on April 9 1917 was launched as a diversionary operation in support of Nivelle’s offensive on the Aisne, which began a week later. General Allen-by’s Third Army, at Arras, was to pierce the Hindenburg Line and the older German defences to its north, which were covered in the rear by the Drocourt-Queant switch; on Allenby’s left was the First Army, including the Canadian Corps which was to storm Vimy Ridge; and on his right was the Fifth Army, which would provide flank leverage by attacking the Hindenburg Line at Bulle-court. Haig’s ghq sacrificed surprise by opting for a five-day bombardment by nearly 3,000 guns, while only 60 tanks were available for the assault, yet the opening day of the attack was extremely successful. The Canadian Corps took most of Vimy Ridge and XVII Corps progressed 3.5 miles (5.6km) towards Fampoux - the deepest penetration on the Western Front in one day since 1914. Monchy le Preux fell to the 37th Division on April 11 but an Australian attack, with tanks, at Bullecourt was an expensive failure. Hitherto the German Sixth Army had not properly applied Ludendorff s new flexible defence doctrine, but once the Germans recovered their tactical composure the offensive deteriorated into the familiar mould of bloody attrition. However, to take pressure off the French army, fast degenerating into mutiny after Nivelle’s disastrous offensive, Haig prolonged the operations into late May, by which time British casualties were 158,660. PJS.
Arras, Battle of (1940). On May 19 1940, during the German drive through France, reconnaissance groups of Rommel’s 7th Panzer Division - the spearhead formation on the inner flank of the German westward thrust from the Meuse - brushed against the British defences at Arras. Here, Rommel’s armoured units paused for a short time, having pushed too far ahead of their supporting infantry. At this point, Gen Lord Gort, commanding the BEF, initiated a counter-attack against the German armoured column. The attack was made on May 21 by the 4th and 7th Battalions, Royal Tank Regiment, and two infantry battalions from Maj Gen Martel’s 50th Division, with some help on their right from the French 3rd Light Mechanized Division. Of the 74 British Matilda tanks available, 58 were armed with machine guns and only 16 with 2-pounder guns. Even so, the British effort surprised the 7th Panzer Division and the SS Totenkopf Division, causing some panic in the latter. Rommel too was sufficiently shaken to overestimate the strength of the forces opposing him. The attack was eventually stopped by 88mm guns and by Stuka dive-bombers and the British were forced to withdraw that evening. The counterattack, however, exerted a considerable psychological effect upon the German High Command, convincing von Rundstedt and others of the dangers of allowing their armoured spearheads to become overextended. In this respect the Arras counterattack almost certainly influenced the crucial German “halt order” at Dunkirk three days later. PJS.
Arromanches see normandy, invasion OF (1944).
Artillery. Generic term describing all forms of indirect fire support, including mortars, guns, missiles and rockets. Greater ranges, developments in ballistics, munitions, control of indirect fire, enhanced target acquisition and improved mobility made artillery the decisive arm in both world wars and likely to retain its preeminence in the missile age.
Arz von Straussenberg Gen Artur (1857-1935). Austrian. Became Austrian Chief of Staff in February 1915; defeated in the twin battles of the Asiago and the Piave in June 1918; and forced by the collapse of his armies in the Battle of Vittorio Veneto in October 1918 to accept the Allies’ armistice terms on November 3.
Ascension Island. British dependency in South Atlantic, 3,500 miles (5,600km) north of the Falk-lands. Its anchorage and American-built airfield (“Wideawake”) were indispensable staging posts for shipping and aircraft en route to the South Atlantic during the Falklands War of 1982. The bombing of Stanley airfield by raf Vul-cans was only possible because of in-flight refuelling by Victor tankers from Wideawake Field.
ASDIC (said to stand for AntiSubmarine Detection Investigation Committee) see sonar.
A Shau, Battles of. In March 1966, the People’s Army of Vietnam (pavn) pushed small American and South Vietnamese detachments out of the A Shau Valley, located about 30 miles (50km) southwest of Hue, Vietnam, and transformed it into a major logistical terminus of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The valley thereby became an important strategic objective for both sides in the Vietnam War. It was two years, however, before US and South Vietnamese forces were able to penetrate the valley in Operation “Delaware” (April 19-May 17 1968).
The US 101st Airborne reinforced by Marine and South Vietnamese units conducted Operation “Apache Snow” in A Shau in May 1969. On the northern edge of the valley atop Hill 937, or Ap Bia Mountain, two deeply entrenched battalions of the 29th pavn Regiment withstood waves of napalm, high explosive and artillery bombardment while training automatic weapons fire on the attackers below. The Americans suffered high casualties before taking the hill at the fifth attempt, only to abandon it soon after. To American troops. Hill 937 came to be known as “Hamburger Hill”.
The battles for the A Shau Valley sparked controversy, for after each operation, US and Army of the Republic of Vietnam (arvn) forces withdrew and the pavn returned. Civilian critics asked what point there was in suffering heavy losses if the enemy were not denied use of the valley. Military spokesmen answered that the strategy of attrition required disrupting the communists’ logistical effort and inflicting casualties, not occupying territory. US and arvn forces could not permanently hold many such remote mountain valleys as the A Shau, so long as vast resources were tied down in the defence of the lowlands. WST.
Asiago, Battle of (June 15—16 1918). The Austrian offensive of June 1918 was defeated by British and French divisions on the Asiago plateau. See also Italian campaign, WORLD WAR I.
Asquith, Earl of Oxford and,
(1852—1928). Br. As Liberal Prime Minister from April 1908, took Britain into World War I, forming a coalition Cabinet in May 1915, following Adm Fisher’s resignation and the Munitions Crisis, and introducing conscription in 1916. His even-handed style of government was not always compatible with the demand of modern, industrialized war, and in December 1916 he was replaced by the more dynamic Lloyd George.
Assault rifle see riklk.
Atatiirk, Gen Mustafa Kemal
(1881-1938). Turkish. Mustafa Kemal (later known as Atatiirk) saw action in Libya during the war with Italy in 1911-12 and, subsequently, in the Balkan Wars. However, it was not until the Allied attack on the Gallipoli Peninsula in April 1915 that he came to real prominence. As commander of the 19th Division, he appreciated the need to contain the enemy landings instantly and deny them the opportunity to consolidate. Although his command sustained considerable casualties, he personally drove his men forward and restricted the anzac forces to a small bridgehead. Four months later, in August, Mustafa Kemal performed a similar feat, frustrating a new Allied offensive. In spite of these victories, his abrasive personality did not win him many supporters and he was sent to lead Turkish forces against the Russians in Eastern Anatolia. He met less success in this theatre of operations but later went on to conduct a skilful campaign in Syria in the closing months of the war. Having always harboured strong political opinions, it was not surprising that Mustafa Kemal should take a hand in determining Turkey’s postwar destiny. He played a leading role in the establishment of a Turkish nationalist party and led the resistance to his country’s dismemberment by the Allies and Greek attempts at territorial aggrandisement. With the Battle of Sakarya in 1921 he halted the Greek advance and in September the following year completed his victory with the reoccupation of Smyrna (Izmir). His military triumphs certainly helped to persuade the Allied powers to recognize the new regime in Turkey and at the Treaty of Lausanne a new series of frontiers was agreed. On October 29 1923 Mustafa Kemal proclaimed a republic of which he became the first president. He led the new nation into a rapid period of modernization and westernization that was, however, achieved at the expense of his adopting a dictatorial role. MS.
Athenia. British 13,581-ton passenger liner sunk by U-boat on September 3 1939 in North Atlantic.
Atlantic, Battle of the (1939-45). The longest battle of World War 11 was that of the Atlantic seaways — principally those between North America and the British isles - which lasted from the outbreak of war in 1939 to the surrender of Germany. The chief protagonist on the Axis side was the U-boat force, although long-range bombers (mostly Focke-Wulf Condors), armed merchant raiders (mostly in more distant waters) and occasional sorties by heavy ships played their part. There was also a small contribution by a few Italian submarines.
At first the Germans were handicapped by the small numbers of U-boats available, and by being forced to exit and return by the narrow waters of the North Sea. However the blitzkrieg victories of 1940 brought bases in Norway and on the French Atlantic coast, while isolating Britain and tying down much of her destroyer force on anti-invasion duties. This produced what the U-boat commanders called their “happy time”. Using wolf-pack tactics and attacking at night on the surface, the sinkings of merchantmen escalated rapidly. In 1941, however, the increasing number of escorts available from new construction, lend-lease, or freed from antiinvasion duties, began to make a difference. So did the increasing experience of their crews, while the Canadians built up their navy almost from scratch. Radar in some escorts began to lessen the advantages of surface attack at night for the U-boats. In one week of spring 1941, Germany lost three of her greatest U-boat aces (Prien, Schepke and Kretschmer).
World History
