What have you learned about WW2 recently?

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

  1. A-58

    A-58 Not so senior Member

    I figure that it was harder on the city folks than it was for the people on the farms. Both sides of my family were poor and worked farms, so the Great Depression and the rationing of WW2 didn't affect their day to day lives very much.
     
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  2. Tricky Dicky

    Tricky Dicky Don'tre member

    Oh no - how would anyone deal with port on ration :omg::mad::)

    TD
     
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  3. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    That none of the AVREs landing on D-Day had sights fitted for their petard mortars.
    Only available in August.
    Many had also only had their armament fitted the day before departure.

    And... that 2pdr mounts used for petards were found to be insufficient/dangerous.
    Only 6pdr vehicles were later accepted for conversion
     
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  4. A-58

    A-58 Not so senior Member

    Well, I suppose they would suffer through with it, especially if it was of the sweet variety which was popular at dinner. Americans on the home front understood that they had to do their part you know. Not sure if the dry or white version would have been as popular being rationed as such. I mean two pounds of wine per week, that's about one bottle or so per person. Dang, war sure is hell.
     
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  5. canuck

    canuck Closed Account

    My father grew up in a small, rural village and his mother would hand him a few precious .22 cal cartridges when the meat larder needed replenishment during the war. He was 10 years old in 1940 and recalled that inaccurate shooting wasn't tolerated.
     
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  6. A-58

    A-58 Not so senior Member

    Yeah rationing of foodstuffs and quality items made much better shots out of those looking to put more meat on the table. Didn't waste worms and crickets fishing either.
     
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  7. canuck

    canuck Closed Account

    I suspect that deer poaching happened more frequently too.
     
  8. A-58

    A-58 Not so senior Member

    Didn't think about that, no doubt it did now that you mention it. Wonder if that fell under the "black market" banner?
     
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  9. Chris C

    Chris C Canadian

    Was that here in Ontario, or in the UK?
     
  10. canuck

    canuck Closed Account

    Ontario, the village of Mactier. Even now it only has a population of 2,499.
     
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  11. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    In Britain during the war rabbits were not on the meat ration so killing rabbits for the table by any means was the practice.

    I remember at harvest time we kids used to watch the cereal harvests being cut with the horse drawn reaper,cutting the field in a rectangular fashion.The critical time was as the rectangle got smaller,the rabbits and hares would make a bolt for it only to be cut down by those with shotguns.I remember the rabbit meals quiet well as my grandfather used to snare them and we would be presented with the odd rabbit.

    My wife remembered those days from being a child during the war and never liked rabbit so much so on an overnight stop in France at a nice B&B in the Marne,I told her that the main course was rabbit and bacon...lapin au lardon.....I'll give it a miss she declared.

    There's abundant evidence that the French reared rabbits for the pot from the empty rabbit hutches seen in the gardens of some villages....rabbits seen as a meat source and not as a pet.
     
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  12. Tricky Dicky

    Tricky Dicky Don'tre member

    Our neighbours still to this day breed their own chickens, pigs, goats and rabbits for the table, its the French way but it is diminishing as the older generation passon and the young generations buy just about everything from supermarkets, having said that you can buy rabbit in the supermarket - its quite nice although the chops are a little small

    TD
     
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  13. dbf

    dbf Moderatrix MOD

    Relatives in the German countryside were keeping rabbits for the pot in large bank of hutches right up until the '80s. During one visit I was asked which one I wanted. I thought I was being allowed to bring it home. I suppose I did, in a way...
    During the war they had pigs, hens and geese and like many others they grew their own vegetables on a double sized plot, some of which they managed to send to relatives living in towns. After the war they'd fatten up just one pig each year which was then brought to the butchers to be made into various sausages and meat cuts. We'd still get tinned sausage meat from them up until the 2000s.

    During the war my grandparents also kept rabbits, they lived in a large city. They got so attached to the animals that when it came time to dispatch them, they'd swap with a neighbour whose family felt the same way about theirs.
     
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  14. Chris C

    Chris C Canadian

    According to wikipedia, German POWs in the UK were given marmite as a nutritional supplement.
     
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  15. A-58

    A-58 Not so senior Member

    I've read that it's an "aquired taste" and that you either love it or loathe it, there's no in between about it. But POWs can't be choosy, especially when it's chock full of vitamins.

    Really, I've always wondered why they kept any POWs in the UK at all. Rationing was really tough there, and there was plenty of room and rations in Canada and the US, even Mexico for that matter.
     
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  16. hucks216

    hucks216 Member

    Currently reading A Life in Secrets by Sarah Helm and I didn't know that the Germans were operating a successful double cross system against F-Section SOE. I have never read much on SOE in general but I knew about the Englandspiel in The Netherlands having read a book about it but wasn't aware that the Germans also succeeded against those in the UK running the agents in France and just like the Englandspiel the complacency and incompetence of those in charge of F-Section perpetuated the problem.
     
  17. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    There's more to this....keep reading and researching......it relates to the penetration by the Germans of the Prosper network and its subsequent collapse.

    Start off with All the King's Men by Robert Marshall,a concise insight to this deeply interestingly account of reported MI6 treachery.The account revolves around the character Henri Dericourt who was accused of being a double agent.

    There was also a Timewatch documentary,produced by the same Robert Marshall and shown in May 1986 which covered the story.....a story disputed by Jean Overton Fuller, a SOE historian and author of publications on SOE.
     
  18. hucks216

    hucks216 Member

    Thank you for the pointers, I was wondering where to turn to for literature on the matter. The book I mentioned does skim over the Dericourt & Bodington (think that's his name, I'm at work now so don't have the book to hand to double check) matter as well as Buckmaster's actions or non-actions when it was possible that cells had been penetrated.

    Edit: I have just ordered All The Kings Men, thanks for the pointer.
     
  19. Tricky Dicky

    Tricky Dicky Don'tre member

    D-Day 'clickers' sought for anniversary

    Birmingham manufacturer ACME Whistles made 7,000 devices in just six months for the soldiers but said "very few" originals have been seen since.

    Fearing the clickers would be captured and replicated, they were only ever used for 24 hours before they were banned completely.

    TD
     
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  20. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    This is a comprehensive account of the collapse of the Prosper reseau and the Dericourt affair.

    The British Prosper Spy Network: Destroyed to Protect D-Day?
     
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