What have you learned about WW2 recently?

Discussion in 'General' started by dbf, Oct 22, 2010.

  1. Deacs

    Deacs Well i am from Cumbria.

    I no i am new to this forum and thanks for inviting me but have just read about the lady be good and to be honest am still in shock why did it take so long to find the airmen
     
  2. dbf

    dbf Moderatrix MOD

    36 Questions About the Holocaust (19-29)

    To date, after carefully evaluating each case, Yad Vashem has recognized approximately 10,000 "Righteous Gentiles" in three different categories of recognition.

    The country with the most "Righteous Gentiles" is Poland. The country with the highest proportion (per capita) is the Netherlands.
     
  3. sapper

    sapper WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    The one thing I have learned as a Veteran, is simply this...What a load of absolute rubbish is churned out by some Authors. Some of what has been described as the true facts, are so stupid that one wonders where they get the info from. Some of it unbelievable.
    But lapped up by the folk that are genuinely interested in what occurred. Therein lies the pity, that the real story has been changed by constant references to others work, and by the addition of the need to sell, and dare I say it. With a little prejudice here and there.
    sapper
     
  4. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    Any examples Brian?
     
  5. sapper

    sapper WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    No. for when I bought them with good money and they were crap I slung them in the bin
     
  6. Dave55

    Dave55 Atlanta, USA

    That Brazilian troops were in the front line in Italy, we often forget the lesser known non-Commonwealth Allies

    They fielded some P-47s there as well.

    Brazilian Forces - Brazilian FAB

    Dave
     
  7. PsyWar.Org

    PsyWar.Org Archive monkey

    There was an interesting account of Operation Tracer by Dan Snow on the BBC One Show a couple of days ago.

    The operation intended to secrete six men in the caverns of Gibraltar following an Axis occupation to spy on their activities.

    Lee
     
  8. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    Not quite WW2:

    General Weygand and a bunch of French officers went to Poland and helped the Polish beat the Russians pre WW2 which caused the Russians to sue for peace.
     
  9. canuck

    canuck Closed Account

    In reading, With the Old Breed, by E.B. Sledge, I learned just how desperate and brutal combat could be. In one chapter Sledge describes the almost constant attempts at infiltration by the Japanese. In one instance, a Marine is attacked in his slit trench by a Japanese soldier and both lose their weapons in the struggle. The Marine eventually gains the upper hand and kills his enemy by plunging his finger deep into the man's eye socket.
    I'd never thought of someone being killed in that manner and it brought home to me what was required to stay alive and what horrific memories the veterans carried home.
     
  10. Erica

    Erica Junior Member

    I'm new to this site, but I have recently found out that the LCPT (Liverpool Corporation Passenger Transport) trained the ARP wardens in Liverpool and that 18 members of staff were killed by enemy air action and 45 were killed in action/missing.
     
  11. Golf Bravo

    Golf Bravo Member

    Just found this thread. Must echo some of the previous postings about the BEF like poor equipment and so on. But what astonished me was the absolute chaos of the retreat to Dunkirk . . . convoys coming across each other in opposite directions on narrow roads and ditching vehicles in order to pass. Left hand, right hand springs to mind.

    Also like to echo the thanks to members for their learned help offered with humour and friendliness. Thanks.

    Geoff
     
  12. Combover

    Combover Guest

    It seems that the Luftwaffe who raided Liverpool were quite keen on flying low over some of the streets and machine gunning the civilians.

    ETA: for clarification I have heard this from a number of women who lived and worked there. One of whom was my Grandmother who lost a family member to this.
     
  13. Combover

    Combover Guest

    The Polish 1st Armoured division all had one black shoulder board (the left one) as a carry over from the days they wore black leather jackets and coats in Poland before the war.

    The British Army used roughly 80 million Benzedrine Sulphate pills during the war. Benzedrine Sulphate is better known as the anphetamine 'Speed'.

    The London Irish Rifles in Italy hand made their Caubeens from captured Italian greatcoats, which is why they look...not perfect. :D
     
  14. canuck

    canuck Closed Account

    Charles Lindbergh flew over 50 combat missions in the Pacific, as a civilian!

    After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Lindbergh sought to be recommissioned in the United States Army Air Corps. The Secretary of War, Henry L. Stimson, declined the request on instructions from the White House.
    Unable to take on an active military role, Lindbergh approached a number of aviation companies, offering his services as a consultant. As a technical adviser with Ford in 1942, he was heavily involved in troubleshooting early problems encountered at the Willow Run B-24 Liberator bomber production line. As B-24 production smoothed out, he joined United Aircraft in 1943 as an engineering consultant, devoting most of his time to its Chance-Vought Division. The following year, he persuaded United Aircraft to designate him a technical representative in the Pacific War to study aircraft performances under combat conditions. He showed Marine F4U Corsair pilots how to take off with twice the bomb load that the fighter-bomber was rated for and on May 21, 1944, he flew his first combat mission: a strafing run with VMF-222 near the Japanese garrison of Rabaul, in the AustralianTerritory of New Guinea. He was also flying with VMF 216 (first squadron there) during this period from the Marine Air Base at Torokina, Bougainville Australian Solomon Islands. Several Marine squadrons were flying bomber escorts to destroy the Japanese stronghold of Rabaul. His first flight was escorted by Lt. Robert E. (Lefty) McDonough. It was understood that Lefty refused to fly with him again, as he did not want to be known as "the guy who killed Lindbergh." Lindbergh was willing to engage the enemy, which the Marine pilots were told to avoid.
    In his six months in the Pacific in 1944, Lindbergh took part in fighter bomber raids on Japanese positions, flying about 50 combat missions (again as a civilian). His innovations in the use of P-38 Lightning fighters impressed a supportive Gen. Douglas MacArthur. Lindbergh introduced engine-leaning techniques to P-38 pilots, greatly improving fuel usage at cruise speeds, enabling the long-range fighter aircraft to fly longer range missions. The U.S. Marine and Army Air Force pilots who served with Lindbergh praised his courage and defended his patriotism.On July 28, 1944, during a P-38 bomber escort mission with the 433rd Fighter Squadron, 475th Fighter Group, Fifth Air Force, in the Ceram area, Lindbergh shot down a Sonia observation plane piloted by Captain Saburo Shimada, Commanding Officer of the 73rd Independent Chutai.
     
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  15. mimike

    mimike Junior Member

    I recently learned that the Chinese Air Force flew missions over Japan long before LTC Doolittle made his famous raid. Granted they dropped leaflets instead of bombs, but so did the RAF make leaflet raids prior to actually bombing German cities.
     
  16. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    Flicking through pages of 'Victory At Mortain' is a photo of mortarmen from 2/39th Inf Regt with AAA-O painted on helmets.
    Haven't got to that bit of the book yet so Googled AAA-O & found this answer to what AAA-O means.
    AAA-O. What does this slogan mean and who devised it? Hint: WW2. Best answer w/ good detail get's the 10 spot. - Yahoo! Answers

    AAA-O: Slogan devised by Colonel Harry A. (Paddy) Flint for the 39th Regiment of the 9th Infantry Division in Sicily in 1943.
    It stood for: "Anything, Anytime, Anywhere -- Bar Nothing."
    Flint was rated as one of the best American commanders in World War II. He was killed at Normandy by a sniper.



    More on him here.
    Harry A. "Paddy" Flint - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
     
  17. Ray Hanson

    Ray Hanson Member

    Although like another poster my interest is mainly 'family history' In the few days I've been on this forum I have learned so much and also begun to understand at least a little of things I already new without understanding.I have learned:

    1. How enormous were the casualties in my dad's battalion in Normandy.

    2. That he was bombed and straffed not once but many times - we had air supremacy didn't we!!!!!

    3. I have, for the first time, been emotionaly shaken, when reading a post about dad's Company at the Chateau De La Londe.

    4. Begun to understand a little of why one of my school teachers in the 1950s was the way he was - not right in the head to a class of young teens (burning tank in the Western dessert)

    and on a lighter note

    5. It is almost impossible to destroy British BD. They are remarkably well made garments and have some fabulous qualities which make the US uniforms appear inferior in comparison.

    Sometimes they needed help. Dad ripped his BD trousers somewhere between Sword Beach and Hermanville. One story he did tell was of the young Frenchwoman who repaired them for him with the immortal words Oh la la! even this story I suspect (and hope) he censored as not suitable for a family audience!

    Thanks to everyone for their help.
     
  18. canuck

    canuck Closed Account

    Among the 2,049 headstones, there are nine pairs of brothers buried at Beny sur Mer cemetery.

    Some families gave more than their share for our freedom!
     
  19. sapper

    sapper WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    Ray Hanson.
    My best mate, the late Richard Harris saw action at the Chateau. We also had a team of Sappers in there with the infantry. We lost 2 men and never found a trace of them afterwards.

    I have uploaded some Chateau de la londe descriptions. If you cannot find them give a call and I will reload them. By the way it was described in the English press at the time as "The bloodiest square mile in Normandy"
    Sapper
     
  20. airborne medic

    airborne medic Very Senior Member

    I just caught a few minutes of the Antiques Roadshow last night and there was evidence that British officer PoWs were ordering via the Red Cross Rolex watches from Switzerland and Rolex were delivering them......
     

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