What have you learned about WW2 recently?

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

  1. chipm

    chipm Well-Known Member

    Leslie Howard -
    Not something new to me i guess, but the real story of his death would be interesting.
    I suppose it is safe to say he was a "Representative" of the British Government on a "Diplomatic": mission.
    I always thought it seemed a stupid idea to fly those planes to and from Lisbon.
    The British had lost TONS of "Civilian Ships" in the North Atlantic. They bombed Millions of "Civilians" in Germany, but they want to feign outrage over the loss of a "Civilian Airplane" flying across The English Channel.
    Its not like that plane would carry tourists to Portugal/Spain in the middle of history's biggest war.
    Scratch one, talented, British actor.

     
  2. TTH

    TTH Senior Member

    I have been digging into Dieppe lately and thanks to Mark Zuehlke's book on the subject I have learned about some other plans which Combined Ops were kicking around at the same time (April-May 1942). One such, Operation IMPERATOR, deserves to be better known. This called for a division plus armor to land at Cherbourg, raid cross-country to Paris for a couple of days, light the flame of the French unknown soldier, and then retire and return to Britain through another port. Talk about "swanning!" Now, can you imagine what even an understrength panzer division resting from the Eastern Front would have done to IMPERATOR? The plan makes RUTTER-JUBILEE look like a model of sanity and precision.
     
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  3. chipm

    chipm Well-Known Member

    What "Salesman" did they employ to push that little gem of an operation.?
    Can you imagine, what a disaster.
     
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  4. Dave55

    Dave55 Atlanta, USA

     
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  5. The fact is that the FEAF stood no chance with 16 B17 model C and they were out numbered by a factor of 10.
     
  6. not even close
     
  7. chipm

    chipm Well-Known Member

    .......... and.? ;)
     
  8. the point is the German army suffered far fewer than 40,000 casualties
     
  9. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    Is this accurate ?
    Battle of France.

    Wikipedia has this note.
    Battle of France - Wikipedia
     
  10. Dave55

    Dave55 Atlanta, USA

     
  11. ltdan

    ltdan Nietenzähler

    "I can prove anything by statistics except the truth."
    George Canning

    Within the Wehrmacht, there were two reporting channels for casualties:

    The IIa reporting channel:
    The personnel department (Stabsabteilung IIa) reported the casualties daily to the higher-level unit. There they were combined into 10-day reports and then into monthly reports at the level of the entire Wehrmacht.

    The IVb reporting channel:
    In the same way, the medical officers (Staff Division IVb) reported in their specialist medical reporting channel. These reports were first made every 3 days, then every 10 days. As a rule, the medical officers' reports were significantly lower than those of the personnel officers. The Wehrmacht attributed the difference to the fact that although the doctors were well informed about the sickness rates, the units did not always report the losses to them in full. Thus, although the IVb reporting route was less reliable, the data was available more quickly than that of the IIa reporting route. For the purposes of military command, this advantage of speed outweighed the disadvantages; for military operational decisions, it was more important to receive information as quickly as possible than to have the most accurate data possible.
    At the level of the Wehrmacht units, the results of the two reporting channels were compared with each other and aggregated into monthly figures.

    The Wehrmacht leadership was also aware of this structural deficit in the reporting channels. Therefore, ón 1. October 1941, a "Statistics Section" had been set up in the Wehrmacht Losses Department of the OKW, which dealt with the improvement of the statistical system. In August 1944, this department presented an internal memorandum that highlighted the deficits of the reporting system by showing the results of the various reporting channels in some of the "campaigns" of the years 1939/1940:

    Western campaign losses
    in the monthly compilation of the WFSt 26,455 (1,253)
    from the San.Insp. 30,267 (1,558)
    so far determined number 46,059 (2,501)

    Source: Rüdiger Overmans, Menschenverluste der Wehrmacht an der „Ostfront“
    https://www.stsg.de/cms/sites/default/files/dateien/texte/Overmans.pdf
     
    Last edited: Jan 17, 2021
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  12. According to Ian Kershaw , Allied losses were 'reckoned' at 90,000 KIA , 200,000 wounded and 1 point 9 million missing or captured. German KIA were listed as under 30,000 with total casualties at less than 165,000.
     
  13. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    ATB "Blitzkreig in the west" page 607 says,
    "On June 25, the OKW listed the casualties for the campaign in the West : 27,074 killed , 111,034 wounded and 18,384 missing ..."

    Same figures as that website I linked to earlier.
     
  14. OKW perfected combined arms tactics in order to spearhead a mobile force and crush the enemy where it is not. As we all know. The Luftwaffe was a one dimensional force multiplier. That was the weakness. I do not blame French troops for losing to that imposing and modern maneuver. The Luftwaffe lost the Battle of Britain simply because it was not designed for such an experiment.
     
  15. The 8th USAAF suffered more casualties in its effort to destroy the Luftwaffe and seize air supremacy prior to a cross channel invasion than the Marines storming fortified islands in the Pacific.
     
  16. A-58

    A-58 Not so senior Member

    I just read that the reason dry cat and dog food was introduced was because of aluminum and tin shortages in WW2. Those metals were desperately needed elsewhere for the war effort, so dry food in a bag was the plan. Fido and Kitty had to do their part too! Woof woof woof.
     
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  17. Dave55

    Dave55 Atlanta, USA

    I knew Henry Ford had his own steel mills and ore carriers but just learned that International did too.

    upload_2021-2-1_18-32-1.png

    upload_2021-2-1_18-31-4.png
     
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  18. chipm

    chipm Well-Known Member

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  19. Tricky Dicky

    Tricky Dicky Don'tre member

    Duct Tape


    Take duct tape. It was the result of a suggestion from an Illinois ordnance factory worker, who had sons serving in the navy during World War Two.
    Worried about soldiers under fire fumbling with the flimsy paper tape then used to seal ammunition boxes, Vesta Stoudt had a solution - a waterproof, cloth tape. She was unable to win the support of her supervisors, but was more successful when she wrote to President Roosevelt, who instructed war producers to turn her idea into reality.

    TD
     
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  20. A-58

    A-58 Not so senior Member

    I’ve recently read (actually I just read it in The Advocate, the local paper here in Baton Rouge, specifically the Today In History section) that on this date in 1943, the federal gubment announced the wartime rationing of shoes made of leather, limiting home front consumers to three (3) pairs of shoes per person, per year. Not sure if work boots were included or could be substituted in that formula as we all know that more leather goes into a pair of boots as opposed to regular shoes. As soon as I am able to determine whether or not work boots could be factored in I will report it here without delay. Rationing of leather shoes (and possibly the aforementioned work boots) was lifted in October 1945.
     
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