What have you learned about WW2 recently?

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

  1. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

  2. Dave55

    Dave55 Atlanta, USA

    Dodge (Chrysler) made some diesels during WWII

    When World War II started, much of Chrysler Corporation was mobilized for the war effort. There is a vague historical reference indicating the Chrysler diesels might have been considered in 1941 as a twin-bank tank power-pack. This obviously went nowhere and the more familiar and much more powerful 6046 twin-bank GM 6-71s emerged victorious as the designated diesel tank power-pack. It’s known some T126 diesels were purchased for government service and covered in a tech manual (TM 5-5406). The manual indicates some 600 power units (serial numbers IND-3-2000 to -2600) were purchased, but not how or where they were used. They were different than the civilian power units in some respects.

    1939: The First Dodge Diesel
     
  3. Charley Fortnum

    Charley Fortnum Dreaming of Red Eagles

    I learnt that Monty had tattoos.
     
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  4. Blutto

    Blutto Banned

    And not just the Edinburgh variety. Only thing I cannot find is exactly what he besmirched his skin with.
     
  5. Dave55

    Dave55 Atlanta, USA

    :)

    upload_2020-11-3_9-24-46.png
     
    Last edited: Nov 3, 2020
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  6. Charley Fortnum

    Charley Fortnum Dreaming of Red Eagles

    I've read that he had a butterfly on the inside of his right arm and a Royal Warwickshire device of some kind on the other.

    I could probably look it up, but I'm not at home with my books.

    Edit: it was an antelope on the left.
     
    Last edited: Nov 3, 2020
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  7. Charley Fortnum

    Charley Fortnum Dreaming of Red Eagles

  8. JimHerriot

    JimHerriot Ready for Anything

    A white hart (of the antelope variety Charley) and that's The Royal Warwickshire Regiment "device" (connection!).

    Kind regards, always,

    Jim.

    P.S. Your posts on this have brightened my pre-lockdown day no end!
     
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  9. Dave55

    Dave55 Atlanta, USA

    I'll second that. Yours too, Jim.
     
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  10. Chris C

    Chris C Canadian

    Drat, the thread actually just scooped me re Montgomery and tattoos.

    I think it's a fascinating detail about him. It's just about the last thing I would have expected.
     
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  11. A-58

    A-58 Not so senior Member

    I just learned that today in 1942 FDR signed a measure lowering the minimum draft age from 21 to 18. Eighteen to twenty year olds couldn’t vote yet anyway.
     
  12. A-58

    A-58 Not so senior Member

    I just learned that during WWII, the Coast Guard Beach Patrol covered more than 3,700 mile of coast and employed about 24,000 men. Patrols on horseback worked in pairs, riding about 100 feet apart, usually covering a 2-mile stretch. They were called "Sand Pounders" and were able to cover difficult terrain quickly and efficiently.

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Nov 16, 2020
  13. Dave55

    Dave55 Atlanta, USA

    On the night of June 12, 1942, the first submarine to arrive in the U.S., U-202,[7] landed at Amagansett, New York, which is about 100 miles east of New York City, on Long Island, at what today is Atlantic Avenue beach. It was carrying Dasch and three other saboteurs (Burger, Quirin, and Heinck). The team came ashore wearing German Navy uniforms so that if they were captured, they would be classified as prisoners of war rather than spies.[8][9] They also brought their explosives, primers and incendiaries, and buried them along with their uniforms, and put on civilian clothes to begin an expected two-year campaign in the sabotage of American defense-related production.[10]

    When Dasch was discovered amidst the dunes by unarmed Coast Guardsman John C. Cullen, Dasch offered Cullen a $260 bribe.[11] Cullen feigned cooperation but reported the encounter. An armed patrol returned to the site but found only the buried equipment; the Germans had taken the Long Island Rail Road from the Amagansett station into Manhattan, where they checked into a hotel. A massive manhunt was begun.

    Operation Pastorius - Wikipedia
     
    Last edited: Nov 17, 2020
  14. RRTB

    RRTB 145 Fd Regt (Berkshire Yeomanry) RA

    Just started reading "Green Beach" by James Leasor, all about Jack Nissenthall and the Commandos sent to "permanently borrow" parts of German radar. Although this type of raid had happened previously at Bruneval, Nissenthall was a Jew who agreed to go on this mission despite knowing that should it look like he was going to fall into enemy hands, the very soldiers who were sent with him to "get him there and back safely" had orders to kill him to prevent his specialist knowledge from falling into enemy hands.
     
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  15. TTH

    TTH Senior Member

    Yeah, and I bet they all said "Mother."
     
  16. idler

    idler GeneralList

    Imagine if he'd been commissioned into the 11th Hussars (Prince Albert's Own)...
     
  17. timuk

    timuk Well-Known Member

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  18. A-58

    A-58 Not so senior Member

    I just read that Capt. David M. Jones USAAF, one of the Doolittle Raiders was shot down over Bizerte, Tunisa and spent 2 1/2 years as a POW of the Germans in Stalag Luft III. There he served on the escape committee and later led the digging of the tunnel code named "Harry" used in the Great Escape until he, along with the other American POWs were transferred to another camp. Jones retired from the USAF with the rank of Major General in 1973.

    David M. Jones - Wikipedia
     
    Last edited: Nov 19, 2020
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  19. chipm

    chipm Well-Known Member

    Oh-Boy..... OK.....Ernst Udet.

    I had probably Heard/Read it before, but i did not realzie (according to Wiki) that he shot himself while talking to his girl-friend on the phone.

    While trying to attend Udet's funeral, two high-ranking Luftwaffe personnel would also die.
    Horrible run of bad luck for The Wehrmacht right near the end of 1941.

    Helmuth Wilberg dies on November 20 when his plane crashes.......and the equally unfortunate Werner Molders would die on November 22. Wiki says his plane crashed due to bad weather.

    Some trivia concerning Molders, quoted from Wiki.......
    Mölders's nickname was "Vati" (Daddy).[79] He was a devoutly religious individual.[80]

    Mölders married Luise Baldauf, née Thurner, the widow of a friend who had been killed in active service, on 13 September 1941.[82] Erich Klawitter, Mölders' childhood mentor, performed the religious ceremony in Falkenstein, Taunus. The marriage produced a posthumous daughter, Verena.[83]


    Barbarossa was not going quite as well as it might have seemed on paper.
     
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  20. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    Just seen this, not been there myself.
    Greenway Library frieze
    During the Second World War Greenway was requisitioned by the U.S. Coast Guard. One of the men stationed here, Lt Marshall Lee, left a unique memento in the Library.
     

    Attached Files:

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