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The Spanish Civil War though complex in origin can be traced to the Spanish Empire’s collapse in 1931 and its monarch King Alfonso XIII abdication, which were peaceful affairs. The Spanish Civil War which would begin in 1936 however, would be a devastating and bloody preview of the type of modern warfare coming that was to be unleashed throughout Europe after the invasions of Poland September-August 1939. The intervention of military forces from Nazi Germany and Mussolini's Italy, particularly the aerial forces of the German Condor Legion, showcased the new deadly possibilities of aerial warfare on the civilian populace of, thinking regionally, a European nation. Long before the crisis of abdication, Spain had been ruled by a military dictator, the aristocratic general Miguel Primo de Rivera (d.1930) who came to power during the Rif War . Another critical event in the increased amount of anti-government resistance before the Civil War from the lef...

Allies At Dieppe, 4 Commando and the US Rangers: Operation Cauldron Written By Will Fowler. Osprey Publishing, UK, 2012. Digital Release available on Amazon, iTunes, & NOOK Books Review by: Ben Sparks,  The Commando Raid on Dieppe, France, August 19, 1942, codenamed Operation Jubilee, was one of the first major attempts undertaken by British and Allied forces before the June 6th landings of D-Day 1944, to attack the Nazi’s. The US Rangers among the other more numerous British and Commonwealth forces of 4 Commando cut their teeth in Operation Cauldron, one of the only successful actions of the bloody Raid on Dieppe. While this wasn’t the first operation of the Commandos, the bloodbath at Dieppe became a blemish on the celebrated but heavily critiqued reputation of the special forces units of Britain and the Commonwealth from 1940-1945. Fowler’s Allies at Dieppe, looks to debunk the assumption that the Dieppe Raid was a complete failure, narrating the operations of 4 Commando an...

Cross of Iron, directed by Sam Peckinpah. EMI Films, 1977. 132 minutes.   Based on The Willing Flesh by Willi Heinrich (1955). Reviewed by: Ben Sparks, Worcester State University 2012 Famed 1960’s and 1970’s director Sam Peckinpah’s, Cross of Iron, is a gritty, dark, violent, and yet highly stylized and analytical film, detailing the daily struggles and dangers faced by Wehrmacht soldiers stationed on the Eastern Front during World War II from 1943-1945. In particular the audience experiences the deeds of anti-hero Sergeant Rolf Steiner, played by James Coburn, and his ragtag platoon during their deployment in Russian at the Kuban bridgehead in 1943.  The title of the film comes from the other lead, Captain Stransky, played by Maximilian Schell who is an ambitious aristocrat of the Prussian officer corps. He sought transfer to the Eastern Front in order to win the Iron Cross. This “heroic horses ass” as he calls himself in jest, helps to carry much of the later plot of the fi...

Some collaborators of the Second World War served a strictly military purpose or role, like the conscript and volunteer legions of Denmark, Sweden, and the Belgian and Dutch who fought in the Wehrmacht or in the Waffen-SS. If an occupied or even enemy nation had manpower to offer up to the Nazis often accepted, politically and strategically speaking this was often advantageous. A variety of factors and needs must have created the desire to recruit non German regiments, cultural and ethnic divisions or hatred in actual fact was apart of this, as was a general fear of communism. Perhaps the Nazi's brand of brutality alone motivated others. For the Third Reich collaboration served an equally important propaganda role in furthering their own twisted ideologies of racial purity and the like. Of course militarily speaking they helped to fulfill a manpower shortage needed by the Nazi high command for service on the Eastern Front originally. The Waffen-SS was invaluable because it used the...