Interesting info Western Europe 1939-1942

Max von Viebahn, suffered a nervous breakdown ( fear of the second world war beginning ) during the Austrian annexation in 1938. As war approached, Jodl attempted to secure a divisional command, but in August 1939 he was brought back to the OKW by Keitel. Nevertheless, the key planning for the Polish operation fell to the Army, not the OKW.

Interesting, I never heard of the man before. Hitler really buried him away from action.

From Axis History Forum:

Max von Viebahn - Axis History Forum

When the OKW was created in 1938, the cautious Nazi-skeptic Viebahn was installed as Chef des Wehrmachtführungsamtes (allegedly at the insistence of Ludwig Beck, who needed an ally against Hitler and the war party). He was immediately thrown into the "Anschluß" crisis and, fearing the outbreak of another world war, suffered a nervous breakdown. Viebahn was fired and replaced by Jodl. Hitler never forgot that, and Viebahn's career was virtually destroyed.

 

Three French divisions held something like ten times that number of Italians on the Franco-Italian border. But when RAF Wellington bombers attempted to use an airfield near Marseilles to attack northern Italy, French fears of Italian reprisal raids were such that that they blocked the runway with trucks. If les Anglais wanted to bomb Turin they could do it from British territory and let the reciprocal bombs that would surely follow fall on them.

England´s last war against France by Colin Smith

 

Before the armistice 1940 Reynaud had promised Churchill he would send to Britain over 400 shot-down German aircrew in French prison camps, most of them put there by the RAF, according to the Air Ministry. Then suddenly Reynaud was no longer there to keep his promise and, as Churchill put it, " We had to shoot them down a second time".

PS. As far as I know the Germans got most of their air-crew prisoners back??

England´s last war against France by Colin Smith

 

The first three British casualties in the war against the Vichy French, killed in the gun fight aboard the Surcouf, lie in a small military section at Plymouth´s vast Westion Mill cemetery. Commander Sprague and lieutenant Griffiths are buried almost alongside each other. Leading seaman Albert Webb is nearby. The body of ingenieur Mecanicien Daniel, the only French death, was removed to France in 1948.

From England´s last war against France by Colin Smith

 

During the war 5,444 pilots were trained by No 6 FTS/(P) AFU at Little Rissington. Of these, 705 were awarded various gallantry awards, four received the VC.

Master bombers by Sean Feast

 

General Adolf Galland in the only 109 equipped with a cigar lighter.

 

Orders from AASF ( Advanced Air Striking Force ) in May 1940 Hq soon after German offensive had started was that the battle squadrons were to be restricted to night operations, until further notice anyway. It had been found that from 10th May to 14th May inclusive, from 130 sorties between 60-70 aircraft had been lost... or approximately 50%. There were also the damaged ones waiting repair. This, combined with the retirement behind the line of the Marne on 16th May, made them unable to operate for at least four days. It must be understood that the Battle Squadrons were day bombers, and their aircrews had no intensive flying training at night, being restricted to night take-offs and landings. The restriction probably preserved the remaining aircrew lives for a few more days.

Blitzed by Victor Bingham

 

Of the 261 Hurricanes originally committed to the battle of France only 66 were evacuated. Only 74 were lost in combat, the remainder were either destroyed on the ground during the air attacks or had to be abamdoned due to unserviceability or shortage of pilots ( The latter is amazing when one considers the request by the French to the RAF DCAS in early June ).

From Blitzed by Bingham

 

With the evacuation from Dunkirk and the necessity for inter-service co-operation, Dowding and Keith Park were to learn of the typical non-co-operative manner of the Royal Navy. On the one hand they complained of inadequate fighter defence over Boulogne, yet at the same they informed Dowding: " Our destroyers fire at any aircraft that comes within range, whether they make our recognition signals or not."

Blitzed by Bingham

 

By the end of October 1940, 186 of the new Me Bf 109 E-7s had been produced, so at the height of the fighter-bomber offensive against England, over 550 factory-built Jabos were available to the Luftwaffe; additional aircraft being field-modified as fighter-bombers at unit level. That month, with the daylight Jabo offfensive on London at its peak, a total of 2,633 Jabo sorties were launched against the capital in 140 separate attacks.

Luftwaffe fighter-bombers over Britain by Chriss Goss

 

10 February 1940

The Führer is overjoyed at Manstein´s ideas and observed: " The man is not to my liking , but he knows something about how to get things dome."

At the heart of Reich by Major Gerhard Engel- the secret diary of Hitler´s army adjutant

 

Sorry,
Double posting.