What have you learned about WW2 recently?

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

  1. Ewen Scott

    Ewen Scott Well-Known Member

    Approx 5,000 P-39s in total were supplied to the USSR from 1941 to late 1944.

    At first these were aircraft bought by Britain and unwanted by the RAF. They were followed by aircraft on the British Lend Lease account and then supplied by Britain on to the USSR as Lend lease by Britain to the USSR (Many of these never physically touched U.K. soil). After that deliveries were direct to the USSR on their own Lend lease account. Over half of all P-39s to the USSR were flown on the ALSIB route from the “lower” US via Canada and Alaska to Siberia from 1942 until late 1944.

    Approx 2,400 P-63 Kingcobras were delivered by the same route from late 1943 (note the overlap with the P-39). They were not issued to operational units until May 1945 so saw no action against the Luftwaffe. They were however in time to see combat during Operation August Storm against the Japanese and scored at least one air to air victory in what was a rather one sided campaign.
     
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  2. Dave55

    Dave55 Atlanta, USA

    I've always liked this picture of Kingcobras at the Bell plant in Buffalo, NY on Lake Erie.

    upload_2020-8-16_14-30-43.png
     
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  3. Dave55

    Dave55 Atlanta, USA

    The front sight of the first M1 Garands had straight protective ears. Under certain conditions shooters sometimes mistook one of them for the front sight post. Subsequently changed to curved ears.

    upload_2020-8-30_16-37-7.png
     
  4. Dave55

    Dave55 Atlanta, USA

    The Eastern Medal was awarded to any member of the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS "in recognition of probation in the struggle against the Bolshevik enemy and the Russian winter within the period from 15 November 1941 to 15 April 1942." It was also awarded posthumously to any service member who died in the line of duty within the Soviet Union.[2] It was wryly called the Frozen Meat Medal or the "Order of the Frozen Flesh" (German: Gefrierfleischorden).[3]

    Eastern Medal - Wikipedia
     
  5. John Ulferts

    John Ulferts Member

    In the 1990s while serving as a teacher with the Department of Defense Dependent Schools in Bad Kreuznach, Germany, my wife and I spent our summer vacations camping throughout Europe with our two young toddlers. We paid homage to the sacrifices the Greatest Generation made by visiting the D-Day beaches of Normandy, the battlefields of the Ardennes Forest, Remagen Bridge, the concentration camps of Dachau, Buchenwald, and Auschwitz, and numerous memorial museums to the victims of the Nazi regime. Filled with gratitude, I began writing to WW II veterans to express my thanks, and invited them to share their stories if they wished with my students. For every letter I sent out, I received more responses than expected, as veterans shared my letters with their pals and reunion committees. Before long, I had heard from 140 veterans including 20 Medal of Honor recipients. I knew to fully keep my promise I needed to turn their stories into a book. Once we returned from Europe, I was able to meet many of the men who I had corresponded with - heroes who had become my friends. Life got in the way of writing the book, and it took me longer than I would have liked, but I did complete it in time for some of the veterans to enjoy it. My next project has been turning the book into multimedia presentations that I give absolutely free for various groups that would like me to present to them. Each presentation tells stories from the book along with original pictures of the events the veterans described accompanied by pictures of them. If interested, you can contact me and I could give the following presentations for your group - Pearl Harbor, D-Day, Minorities in WW 2, Liberators of the Holocaust, Medal of Honor Recipients, and Through Veterans Eyes - Stories from WW 2. The latter presentation highlights the whole book. I truly believe that as long as their names are spoken and their stories are told, the veterans of WW II will live on. We owe them that and much more. https://www.amazon.com/Always-Remember-World-Through-Veterans-ebook/dp/B07NP1MY4Z
     
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  6. ceolredmonger

    ceolredmonger Member

    Task Force Baum - a lifetime spent studying the Second World War and I only just learned of this SNAFU. The attempt to rescue US Officer PoWs including Patton's Son-in-Law ordered by Patton.
    I need to work out if it was a serious operation with aa sensationalist spin - or a corrupt operation dressed up as legitimate.....
     
  7. morrisc8

    morrisc8 Under the Bed

  8. Dave55

    Dave55 Atlanta, USA

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  9. bamboo43

    bamboo43 Very Senior Member

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  10. A-58

    A-58 Not so senior Member

    Today I learned that when General Douglas MacArthur returned to Corregidor in 1945, he and his inner circle (his staff, aka "The Bataan Gang") arrived in four torpedo boats. If y'all remember, Mac and his court were evacuated under orders from FDR himself to "relocate" his headquarters to Australia in order to coordinate the push through the Southwest Pacific Theater while en-route to liberate the Philippines. When ordered out, initially the plan was to skedaddle out on a submarine. Of course Mac would not hear of it and directed Lt. John Bulkely and his pirates of Torpedo Squadron 3 to take his people to Mindanao where B-17s were waiting to fly them to Darwin.

    Now I knew that Mac splashed ashore at Leyte from a landing craft in his big "I have returned" moment. In fact that scene was filmed several times before the "right look" was finally approved by Mac. What I did not know was that Mac and his court landed in Corregidor in torpedo boats, four torpedo boats. I always figured that he splashed ashore as he did in Leyte from a landing craft. Now I know that and you know that, and really I feel much better now knowing that we are all in the know now.

    Isn't learning fun?
     
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  11. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    I learnt how to do up a Soviet meshok.


     
  12. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

    I thought he was stuffing a haggis


     
  13. TTH

    TTH Senior Member

    Yes, that was quite a scandal, David Saul wrote a book about it. It was an ugly story which reflected badly on the army's administration and man-management.
     
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  14. bamboo43

    bamboo43 Very Senior Member

    In his book Alan Whicker suggests this was a combination of being promised a rest after the North African campaign and units being broken up or separated.
     
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  15. brithm

    brithm Senior Member

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  16. TTH

    TTH Senior Member

    I can't recall whether any 'rest' was actually promised, but both 50th and 51st divisions were due to return to the UK for NEPTUNE, and the men from those divisions in Africa expected that they were being sent back to their old units.
     
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  17. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    I think the answer lies in the aftermath of the Spanish civil war when those who were active in the war opposing Franco's new regime fled the country on Franco's victory.The majority went over the Pyrenees into France.

    When France fell quite a large number joined the French Resistance,their legacy can be found on the various memorials in France after falling in the clandestine war against the invader. Those captured ended in KLs such as Mauthausen and others as listed in the link.

    A number of Spanish deaths in the Resistance were not registered by name but on some of these memorials are listed as "Inconnu"..."unknown"

    Here is a comprehensive list of those deported from France to the German and Austrian KLs.
    as the link below.

    Deportees did not survive long in Mauthausen and a look at the register shows that many died in the last couple of months before the collapse of the Third Reich during what was a killing spree by the SS.

    MémorialGenWeb index.php
     
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  18. TTH

    TTH Senior Member

    Read Arthur Koestler's The Scum of the Earth. In the crypto-Vichy last days of the 3rd Republic Koestler and other anti-Fascist refugees were imprisoned in French camps alongside many Spanish Republicans. Koestler eventually got out, but many later fell into German hands.
     
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  19. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    There is a very good account of the anti Franco International Brigade in the Spanish civil war and with its outcome into World War 2 after the defeat of the Spanish Republicans.The account is in a new publication released with a review in the Guardian.Would appear to be an interesting publication to read on the progress of the Third Reich's involvement to establish Franco as Spain's dictator.

    A number of French individuals are featured who later were very active in the French Resistance...history records elsewhere of their involvement in the attempt to take von Choltitz's surrender of Paris before Leclerc entered Paris on 25 August 1944. CDG was must emphatic that the surrender must be taken by Leclerc rather than resisters of another political dimension.

    On Franco's victory,the International Bridge dispersed but many continued the fight against fascism in their own occupied countries.Included in the Brigade were Germans who in turn were active in the opposition to the Third Reich.

    The contested legacy of the anti-fascist International Brigades
     
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  20. Dave55

    Dave55 Atlanta, USA

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