Here's another thing that I learned about WW2 from the website Quora. Was there a resistance movement on the occupied Channel Islands? I figure that it would be a bit difficult pulling off acts of defiance and not getting caught since those islands were a bit on the smallish side. Still there had to be some sort of movements. How about the collaborators, were they "dealt with" like on the continent after the islands were liberated? Here's an English house on the Isle of Jersey with a swastika painted on the wall by patriots of the Bailiwick of Jersey, who marked the houses of people who collaborated with the Nazis in this way, 1944. Although during World War II, the German High General Staff failed to conquer Britain, it succeeded in occupying the Channel Islands. The British Isles were in German hands from June 30, 1940 until their liberation on May 9, 1945. The natives were forced during this time to change their watches to German time and to drive on the right side of the roads instead of the left. Those bastards!
This is from Quora too. That Quora is a pretty neat place. The question posed was what aircraft carrier logged the most takeoffs and landings during the war. What popped into my mind first would be the USS Enterprise or maybe even the USS Ranger since both were in service before the war and made it all the way through. But nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. I never even heard of this ship before. Dang! Which aircraft carrier conducted the most take offs and landings over the course of World War 2? That’s easy - USS Wolverine. Although technically, that is not the USS Wolverine yet - it’s the Seeandbee, a luxury cruise ship belonging to Cleveland and Buffalo Transit Company, carrying sight-seeing passengers across the Great Lakes. However, in 1942, it was acquired by the Navy, taken in for conversion, and emerged as this: All of the superstructure was cut off and replaced by a flight deck with a small island, producing a training carrier, which spent three years doing nothing but takeoffs and landings, day in and day out, morning to dusk. Wolverine carried out some 65,000 landings between her commissioning in August 1942 and decommissioning in November 1945, and her near-sister ship USS Sable did another 51,000. Wolverine also lost about a thousand aircraft during that period, with Sable accounting for another six hundred or so, leaving CV-6 Enterprise a distant third in this dubious category. Wolverine and Sable are notable, among other things, as the only freshwater, paddle-wheel, steam-engine (as opposed to turbine or other means of propulsion) aircraft carriers in history. Read all about it! USS Wolverine (IX-64) - Wikipedia This learning new stuff thing is fascinating! Or as the late great John Denver would say...."FAR OUT"!!!! John Denver - Wikipedia (Just in case y'all don't know who John Denver was)
It seems like half of the WWII planes in the Pensacola Naval Aviation Museum went in the drink off of these two and were later recovered and restored. https://www.navalaviationmuseum.org/
Only just read about this. Japanese aircraft surrender markings. Planes were to be painted white & have green crosses. Never knew that.
I think we had a thread about the surrender planes years ago but I can't find it now. Aviation was key to the end of World War II 75 years ago — General Aviation News
I did not know this.... RAF Aircrew operating from frontline airfields in Normandy shortly after D-Day were ordered to wear the khaki BD since it was feared the blues could be mistaken for German uniforms. Some, like James ‘Johnnie’ Johnson here (as Wing Commander of 127 Wing) complied; many didn't, since orders kept coming down well into September nagging 2 TAF pilots to get into khaki. At first glance I thought that this pic was a colorization of an original B&W pic that didn't come out as well as it should have. It does make sense though, having RAF personnel wear khaki instead of their traditional blue uniforms.
In all the theatres of WW2 there was a tropical/bush/khaki version of the RAF uniform. There were also the equivalent RAF cap colours. Now try finding a photo of RAF officers with the wierd cap colours; you can't because they all still wearing RAF Blue. It's an identity thing.
I learned (yesterday) from an article in the Baton Rouge newspaper (This day in History) that on 29 Mar 43 the rationing of meat, fats and cheese began, limiting customers to store purchases of an average of about two pounds a week for beef, pork, lamb and mutton using a coupon system. I thought that rationing of those items began earlier in 1942.
