What have you learned about WW2 recently?

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

  1. canuck

    canuck Closed Account

    Kesselring's Generalfeldmarschall's baton was seized by an anonymous private serving as a scout with the US 2nd Armoured Div., the first US division to enter Berlin, in July 1945. He was ordered to search castles that had been used by high-ranking German officers, and found the baton. It remained in his possession until his death in 1977, when it passed to his widow, and then to his son, who put it up for auction by Alex Cooper auctioneers in 2010. Expected to fetch between US$10,000 and $15,000, it was sold to a private bidder for $731,600.

    Nazi baton fetches over $700,000 at auction in Towson

    baton.jpg
     
    SDP, stolpi and Dave55 like this.
  2. Simon_Fielding

    Simon_Fielding Withnail67

    Very interesting You Tube film on the Volkssturm
     
    stolpi likes this.
  3. SDP

    SDP Incurable Cometoholic

    Gosh! I wonder about its current 'value' and the 'value' of others in various collections?
     
  4. A-58

    A-58 Not so senior Member


    Yes I agree, the Japanese were always known for their accuracies reported in the war.
     
  5. Robert-w

    Robert-w Banned

    All sides tended to try and produce accurate internal reports - stupid not to - you really do need to know what your own losses are even if you don't want your own public to know.
     
    A-58 likes this.
  6. A-58

    A-58 Not so senior Member

    And I agree with you once again, but really how accurate are their internal reports expected to be? Failure or even the perception of such, ever so slight in that period of Japanese history could result in one or more persons involved (or not directly involved) being expected to do the Bushido thing to appease higher ups all the way to the emperor. That could lead to a little "creative reporting" to say the least with some. And really, with that mindset in place with those people, who in his right mind would want to report that one of the Emperor's fighter planes was shot down by an American while dangling in a parachute harness.

    Again, I do agree with your earlier assessment of the incident so please don't take it differently. And I did point out the discrepancy in the reported story by the US flyer involved and what the Japanese military reported as well. The Japanese report of no losses in that mission was also covered in the wiki story.
     
  7. A-58

    A-58 Not so senior Member

    I learned something new about WW2 again today. While reading about the order of battle for the 1st Allied Airborne Army in Operation Market Garden (I was researching stuff about the US 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions) I wondered why the Polish Airborne Brigade was officially named the “1st Independent Polish Airborne Brigade. Why not just the “Polish Airborne Brigade?” Were there two such units? And why was the “Independent” modifier attached? Further reading revealed that the Polish paras were the only unit under direct control of the Polish Government in Exile, while the rest of the Polish Army in the ETO answered to the Allied Command. The airborne brigade was raised and organized with the sole intent of being dropped in Poland to support the Polish underground army while it rose up against the occupying German Army. Kind of a stretch there. No transport aircraft in the Allied inventory could make the drop and return to bases in the UK, or even from forward bases in liberated France at the time. And the Soviets said no way Hosea when permission was asked to land behind their lines. So that left the Polish paras without a definitive mission so to speak, until Operation Market Garden came to be that is. That would be their first and last combat mission.

    And y’all know the rest of the story.
     
    Last edited: Jan 21, 2020
    canuck, Chris C, Owen and 1 other person like this.
  8. Len Trim

    Len Trim Senior Member

    Yes for the Polish people WW2 never really finished until 1989.
    Len
     
    canuck and A-58 like this.
  9. canuck

    canuck Closed Account

    A-58, Wobbler and stolpi like this.
  10. Wobbler

    Wobbler Well-Known Member

    bamboo43 likes this.
  11. Tolbooth

    Tolbooth Patron Patron

    According to Andrew Roberts biography of Churchill, Sir Percy Cleghorn Stanley Hobart, of 79 Armd Div fame, pronounced Hobart as 'Hubbard'.

    I'm more impressed with 'Cleghorn'

    220px-Percy_Hobart.jpg
     
    Chris C, Wobbler, SDP and 1 other person like this.
  12. Charley Fortnum

    Charley Fortnum Dreaming of Red Eagles

    I veered between the possible English and French pronunciations of Freddie de Guingand's name until I finally found footage of one of his contemporaries (I think Horrocks, but I forget) pronouncing it: it's de GAN-gond.

    Which the few documentaries that mention him tend to get wrong.

    Freddie de Guingand - Wikipedia
     
  13. A-58

    A-58 Not so senior Member

    I read today that on this day in 1943 that in the US, a ban on the sale of pre-sliced bread went into effect nationwide. The move was for reducing bakerys’ demand for metal parts for the war effort. I guess it all adds up.
     
    Last edited: Jan 19, 2020
    Wobbler and Tricky Dicky like this.
  14. Charley Fortnum

    Charley Fortnum Dreaming of Red Eagles

    Along the same lines, Roy Urquhart, of Arnhem fame, pronounced his name in the (now less common) Scots fashion: ERR-kuht not ERR-kart or ERK-heart.

    Don't get me started on Mount Everest.
     
    Blutto, JimHerriot and stolpi like this.
  15. AB64

    AB64 Senior Member

    I think I've only ever heard Urquhart pronounced Urr-curt by Scots (including a couple of Scottish Urquhart's themselves) - I'm trying to think how its pronounced in Local Hero
     
    JimHerriot likes this.
  16. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    Charley Fortnum and AB64 like this.
  17. A-58

    A-58 Not so senior Member

    Today I learned several new things about WW2, and I feel obligated to share them with y'all. This is pretty neat stuff, so pay attention!

    In 1942, the US 98th Field Artillery (Mule Drawn) was enroute from the US to Brisbane, Australia, but was refused entry due to Australian animal import regulations. The convoy carrying the regiment was re-directed to New Guinea where no such rules were in place. Sometime after arrival, the powers to be in the US Army planning, research & development bureaus decided that animal drawn artillery units were then considered to be obsolete in modern warfare. Duh. Anyway, in the wartime spirit to not waste any ASSets, the mules (mules = asses - HA) and the some of the artillerymen were re-redirected to the CBI and were made part of the nucleus of the 5307th Composite Unit, aka "Merrill's Marauders". Not sure what happened to the artillery pieces, since they were probably of a smaller caliber (75mm or 2.95" not in the 1942 TO&E*) due to being mule drawn but I'm sure they made good use of them. The remaining men of the 98th were told that they would undergo a new rigorous training program and then be organized into the new 6th US Ranger Battalion, the only Ranger battalion to serve in the PTO. The artillery officers were transferred to other artillery units as casualty replacements and were replaced with Ranger trained infantry officers.

    * 75mm guns were still in the TO&E for the parachute and mountain units

    Not sure about you, but I learned a lot today. My brain hurts.

    Now wasn't that fun!
     
    Last edited: Jan 31, 2020
    JimHerriot, stolpi, dbf and 1 other person like this.
  18. Dave55

    Dave55 Atlanta, USA

    Learned of ENSA

     
  19. A-58

    A-58 Not so senior Member

    I knew I read something about Japanese record keeping, but couldn't find it right away. Came across this on wiki while reading up on PT Boats.

    After the war, American military interviews with captured veterans of the Imperial Japanese Navy, supplemented by the available partial Japanese war records, were unable to verify that all the PT boat sinking claims were valid. Like many other victory claims by all parties involved (aircraft pilots, surface ships, submarines) this unclear verification was due in part to the Japanese military's policies of destroying military records.
     
  20. James S

    James S Very Senior Member

    Recently learned that the generic term "Hipper Class cruiser covers only Blucher and Hipper, and not Prinz Eugen which was actually similar but another class of heavy cruiser - this I was totally unaware of.
     
    Dave55 likes this.

Share This Page