Today we're showing three pieces of artwork from our March 2025 series books! Let us know in the comments which books you'd like to see featured in our April 2025 Artwork Reveal!

 

Operation Steinbock 1944: The Luftwaffe's disastrous last Blitz over England

By Chris Goss

Illustrated by Adam Tooby

 

The ‘Exbury Junkers’, 0745hrs, Tuesday 18 April 1944

It was normal during Steinbock for German bombers to move to various bases away from their main operating base in preparation for attacks the same night. This is what is believed to have happened in the early hours of 18 April 1944, but with deadly consequences for a German crew.

Ju 188E-1 pathfinder of 2./KG 66 flown by Uffz Johann Czipin was apparently relocating from its base at Montdidier – there was no attack the previous night and the attack that night would be London, so where it was going cannot be said with any certainty, but it was believed to be Soesterberg in Holland. As a result, in addition to a crew of five, it was also carrying two groundcrew. However, instead of heading east towards Holland, at 0745hrs it was reported at 4,000ft off the Isle of Wight headed west.

Attracted by gunfire aimed at a twin-engined aircraft, four Typhoons of 266 Sqn based at RAF Tangmere near Chichester, led by Flt Lt Arthur Sanders and which were returning from an exercise, went to investigate. Sanders wrote of what happened next: ‘I turned inside it to investigate it and confirmed it was a Ju 188. I experienced slight return fire from the e/a. Closing in, I opened fire at about 200yds with slight deflection from port side and saw strikes on cockpit and the port wing root followed by flames and smoke from this area. As I flew over e/a, I noticed pieces falling from it and next saw it burned on the ground with a large column of smoke rising from it.’

The kill was shared with Sanders’ No. 2 Flt Sgt Don Dodd, and the German bomber crashed in flames at a shallow angle at Exbury House near Beaulieu in Hampshire, killing all on board. The 266 Sqn Operations Record book noted: ‘On investigating the crash, it was found the aircraft carried a crew of seven and must have been lost in bad weather. Flt Lt Sanders and Flt Sgt Dodd thus destroyed the first Hun on English soil for 266.’

The Air Intelligence report further tried to explain what had happened: ‘It was deemed remarkable that a crew of seven was carried. It is probable that the aircraft was flying a reciprocal course as two crew were groundcrew and therefore the machine was hopelessly lost due to thick ground mist.’

Rumours have abounded since the war that the crew were deserting but it now seems it was simply a compass error compounded by poor weather conditions that contributed to this aircraft and its crew’s demise.

Artwork requested by Daniel Figueroa Giraldez.

 

B-29 Superfortress vs Japanese Nightfighter: Japan 1944–45

By Mark Lardas

Illustrated by Jim Laurier and Gareth Hector

B‑29 42‑65281 MISS AMERICA ’62 of the 24th BS/8th BG was fleetingly targeted by an AI radar equipped J1N1‑S over Tokyo on May 24–25, 1945 during the very last nocturnal fire-bombing mission to target Tokyo. The nightfighter had been spotted by an alert gunner just prior to the patient Gekko pilot opening fire. The bomber, which had presented itself as a tempting target when flying straight and level, abruptly turned and sped up. Knowing his J1N1‑S could not keep up with an alerted bomber, the IJNAF pilot hurriedly took his shot. The 20mm rounds fired from the obliquely mounted Type 99 cannon arced skyward, missing the fuselage. A few shells struck the port wing outboard of the No. 1 engine, but these were not enough to inflict fatal damage to the Superfortress. MISS AMERICA ’62 made it home to Tinian, and eventually completed more than 50 missions by war’s end. Serving as a weather reconnaissance aircraft, target tug and, finally, a range target, the veteran bomber somehow avoided destruction and has been an exhibit in the Travis Air Force Base Museum in California since the late 1980s.

 

Soviet Motor Torpedo Boats of World War II

By Przemyslaw Budzbon

Illustrated by Waldemar Góralski and Piotr Forkasiewicz

 

10 SEPTEMBER 1943, OFF NOVOROSSIYSK, BLACK SEA

The only case of a mass attack of Soviet MTBs in World War II took place in the Black Sea, but rather than Italian battleships (as in the war plans), shore defences were targeted.

Starting from March 1943, armies of the Soviet South Caucasian Front pushed the German Heeresgruppe A back from the foothills of the Caucasus, leaving only the small Kuban bridgehead in Axis hands – today, the access road there leads to the Kerch Strait Bridge. On 10 September 1943, a major Soviet offensive began against the bridgehead, part of this operation being a combined attack by the Soviet 18th Army on Novorossiysk and the landing in 130 small craft of troops of the 255th Naval Infantry Brigade in the harbour of Novorossiysk, situated inside Tsemes Bay. Planning the operation, Soviet officers came up with the fancy notion that to maintain the element of surprise for the naval assault until the last moment, torpedoes could be used instead of a traditional artillery bombardment by cruisers or destroyers. The idea of the CO of the 2nd MTB Brigade, Kapitan 2 ranga (Commander) Viktor Protsenko, was inspired by the explosions of inaccurate German torpedoes that devastated the pier at Tuapse in the eastern Black Sea. To destroy German strongpoints on the moles and along the shore, it was planned to launch 50 torpedoes.

Out of the 32 operational boats from both the 1st and 2nd MTB Brigades, 26 were designated for the operation, divided into three groups: one to enter the harbour, the second to remain outside to attack the western and eastern moles and the third to attack strongpoints along the western shore. The arrival of the assault forces was drowned out by the noise of 150 Soviet aircraft attacking the town, along with the fire of 800 guns and 200 ‘Stalin’s organs’ by the 18th Army. The shore attack groups (Kapitan (Lieutenant Commander) 3 ranga G. D’iachenko) started at 2.44am (Moscow time), while the harbour group (Kapitan-lejtenant (Captain Lieutenant) A. Affikanov) entered the port 12 minutes later after blowing up the booms. During the action, a total of 45 torpedoes were launched – 19 in the port and 26 outside. However, ten of the latter failed to explode.

The effect was devastating, but not for the German strongpoints. The quays and piers were destroyed, to the extent that they obstructed Soviet assault troops from reaching the shore. The boats containing the assault parties were not able to reach the piers, being obstructed by piles of stones and concrete blocks, so had to find other places to disembark their troops. All the while, they were exposed to the fire of intact German strongpoints, which escalated their losses. The landings were a failure and were repeated the next night, with further heavy losses.

The following boats survived: of the first (harbour) group, Torpednyj kater No 71, No 72 and No 73; of the second group, No 52, No 62, No 73, No 91 and No 102 at the western pier, and No 12, No 33, No 43, No 93 and No 102 at the eastern pier; and of the third group (western shore), No 22, No 42 and No 112. The losses included Torpednyj kater No 21, No 55, No 71, No 91, No 93, No 112, No 124 and No 125, while the fate of two boats remains unidentified. Eight boats were heavily damaged, so both MTB brigades remained with only 14 operational boats.