Drew, I knew that he worked every day and did not take a holiday during the whole of the wartime campaign. Never knew about the heart attacks though. Interesting fact. Tom
THE LAST EXECUTION IN THE TOWER OF LONDON This historic event occurred on August 14, 1941. German spy, Josef Jakobs, was executed while seated tied to a chair, by an eight man firing squad from the Scots Guards. The white lint target patch placed over the area of his heart bore five bullet holes from the eight shots fired. Jakobs had parachuted into Britain on January 31, 1941, and broke his leg on landing. He lay all night in a field until his cries for help were heard next morning. He is buried in an unmarked grave in St. Mary's Roman Catholic Cemetery at Kensal Green, London. (The chair on which Jacobs sat during his execution is now on display in the Royal Armouries museum in Leeds) Josef Jakobs
THE LAST EXECUTION IN THE TOWER OF LONDON (The chair on which Jacobs sat during his execution is now on display in the Royal Armouries museum in Leeds) I must go there sometime...Its only 10-15 minutes away from me
Over seventy Americans living in Great Britain, mainly London joined the British Home Guard in Sept 1940. Called the 1st American Squadron of the Home Guard, it was led by General Wade H. Heyes. Kennedy, who told Roosevelt he expected Germany to win the war, was hostile to the whole idea, fearing that they would all be shot as 'francs-tireurs' when the Germans occupied London.
Drew, I knew that he worked every day and did not take a holiday during the whole of the wartime campaign. Never knew about the heart attacks though. Interesting fact. Tom Churchill also was very sick with pneumonia on his visit North Africa. Apparently it was touch and go for a few days.
Over seventy Americans living in Great Britain, mainly London joined the British Home Guard in Sept 1940. Called the 1st American Squadron of the Home Guard, it was led by General Wade H. Heyes. Kennedy, who told Roosevelt he expected Germany to win the war, was hostile to the whole idea, fearing that they would all be shot as 'francs-tireurs' when the Germans occupied London. And ALSO known as the "Eagle Squadron", an early use of the name IIRC, for it was Wade who went on to campaign for an American-manned squadron in the RAF to be formed, the now-famous Eagle Squadron. He did have a thing about that name! It was also the best-armed and most mobile unit of the Home Guard; every member mail-ordered a Thompsom bought privately in the US, and the unit was wholly mobile in private cars! Many of the American citizens - who of course where "Over Here" as professionals in one capacity or another as opposed to returning home as the U.S. State Department recommended in September 1939 - received petrol rations for whatever they were doing, and hadn't laid up their vehicles for the duration. Many of the U.S. press correspondents who passed through London in 1940 were members of the Eagle Squadron at one time or another.
From Ultra information, the allies knew of operation "Barbarossa," Hitler's plan to invade Russia. Stalin was duly warned, but the British could not reveal the source of their information, for fear that the Germans would realize their coded messages were being read. Stalin, perhaps in the belief that England was trying to drive a wedge between Russia and Germany, ignored the warning.
The shoulder patch of the U.S. Army's 45th Infantry Division was the Swastika upto around 1940 and the they changed it to this: Which if you think about it, its still a bit German
Hitler was almost killed during WW1, but the British sniper spared his life. Ivan, do you have a source/link to confirm that?
ICEBERG CARRIER One of the most fantastic ideas to come out of WW11 was to build a super iceberg aircraft carrier. Gaining the support of Churchill and Mountbatten, British inventor, Geoffrey Pike, set out to build a prototype on Patricia Lake near Jasper in Canada, where it could be naturally frozen. The steel hull structure was filled with a compound of paper pulp and sea water which was frozen to produce a substance called 'Pykecrete' after the inventor. Pykecrete was almost as strong as concrete. The actual carrier, to be named HMS Habakkuk (after the Old Testament prophet) when built, could be up to 4,000 feet long, 600 feet wide, 130 feet high with ice walls 40 feet thick constructed from 280,000 blocks of ice and weigh anything up to one million tons. Pipes, circulating cold air from a refrigeratation plant inside the berg, would keep the ice from melting. It would be driven by 26 electric drive motors giving it a speed of around 6 knots. By 1943, technical problems meant that the vessel would not be ready until 1945 which was too late to be of any use in the Battle of the Atlantic where convoys were sailing part way to Britain without air cover. The model on Patricia Lake was eventually scuttled after the ice took almost a year to melt. A commemorative plaque was placed on the lake's shore in 1989. Sadly, the inventor Geoffrey Pyke, committed suicide in 1948 with an overdose of sleeping tablets. Habbakuk
...and was the first cousin of Magnus Pyke, the scientist and broadcaster and star of Thomas Dolby videos! During the war, Magnus Pyke worked at the ministry of Food, and was one of the scientists responsible for working out the daily recommended minimum allowances of vitamins for a healthy life...later changed into the recommended daily allowance you can see on all shop-bought vitamins and food supplements... He was ALSO the scientist who came up with the idea of using excess stocks of donated blood during the Blitz...to make Black Pudding! This one was NOT taken up...
When the Germans evacuated Zossen in April 1945 the convoys carrying the staffs out of harm's way came under attack, by Luftwaffe planes!! They shot up their own convoys!!
Ivan, do you have a source/link to confirm that? I have also read this somewhere. I'll have a shufti tomorrow to see if I can find a link. Off to beddy byes now.
Ivan, do you have a source/link to confirm that? Here it is mate. The soldier in question is Pvt Henry Tandey. Spent all morning looking for it. Wasn't easy to find mind. The Legends and Traditions of the Great War: Hitler's Encounter with Henry Tandey, VC It quotes the following: "As the ferocious battle wound down and enemy troops surrendered or retreated a wounded German soldier limped out of the maelstrom and into Private Tandey's line of fire, the battle weary man never raised his rifle and just stared at Tandey resigned to the inevitable. "I took aim but couldn't shoot a wounded man," said Tandey, "so I let him go." Hitler explained, "that man came so near to killing me that I thought I should never see Germany again, providence saved me from such devilishly accurate fire as those English boys were aiming at us" How different things may have been eh? cheers marcus
Did you know that? The highest night photograph of the war was taken on April 18, 1944, over Osnabruck. The RAF Mosquito crew used a target indicator flash and took the picture from 36, 000 feet.
