Western front-interesting bits of information

-How much did Eisenhower smoke?

Four packs of Camel (non-filtered) per day.

-Who coined the term "The Longest Day" for D-Day?

Field Marshall Erwin Rommel.

-Who was the only German woman to receive the Iron Cross First Class in World War II?

Hanna Reitsch.


http://www.5ad.org/Answers1.htm

 

The first British General to land on French soil on (6th June 1944 3.30 a.m.)

Major-General Richard Nelson Gale

http://www.pegasusarchive.org/normandy/richard_gale.htm

 

From D Parker " To win the winter sky"

....replacements for the 116. Panzer Division were ordered to HITCH-HIKE from Euskirchen to Houffalize....( Jan 1945 )

Well, I guess that was the end of motorized German infantry....

 

When the drama of Dunkirk unfolded the German troops had penetrated little more than fifty miles into France (!!)

From "Invasion 1940" by Derek Robinson

 

Military command of Berlin

From Bernd Freytag von Loringhoven book "In the Bunker"

General Helmuth Reymann had initially been appointed but was not really suitable (?), so a replacement was quickly sought.

Burgdorf proposed the appointment of a lieutenant colonel of GD division. About 30-year-old, holder of KC with Oak leaves.Hitler immediately agreed. By " good fortune" he had been wounded and was no longer available.

Next Hitler and Burgdorf agreed to target the name of colonel Ernst Kaether, chief of the staff of the Army NFSO. Several hours were sufficient to evaluate his capacities and to cancel his appointment.

Now Hitler turned to General Helmuth Weidling, commander of LVI Panzer Corps.There was no news of him for three days;then on the morning of 23 April the general called to make his report.Krebs duly informed that he was condemned to death for desertion.That same afternoon, the general appeared at the bunker to protest his innocence.Impressed by him, Hitler did an about turn and decided he was needed to conduct the defence of Berlin.

 

Barrage balloons

http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/apj/apj89/hillson.html

In 1936 with war clouds darkening the horizons, the Committee of Imperial Defense authorized an initial barrage of 450 balloons for the protection of London.

With the capital securely covered, barrage balloons also flew at fleet anchorages and harbors in threatened areas. Although airfields also requested them during the early months of the war, the balloons were not available because of slow production and losses due to combat and bad weather. However, thanks to a new balloon plant, the barrage system had 2,368 balloons by the end of August 1940 and would maintain approximately 2,000 operational balloons until the end of the war.

These numbers demonstrate the extent to which the British valued their balloons. They even formed Balloon Command, an independent command under the leadership of Air Marshal Sir E. Leslie Gossage, to control the 52 operational barrage balloon squadrons stationed across Great Britain. Eventually, this command consisted of 33,000 men.

In an attempt to clear the balloons from Dover, the Germans launched a major effort in late August 1940. They destroyed 40 balloons but lost six aircraft in the process. Much to the Germans' chagrin, 34 new balloons appeared the very next day.

During the height of the blitz, 102 aircraft struck cables, resulting in 66 crashed or forced landings.

But perhaps the best example of "balloons in combat" occurred during the V-1 offensive against London in 1944. Once again, balloons were an integral part of the air defense system and, in this case, formed the third and last line of defense against this low-flying weapon. Approximately 1,750 balloons from all over Great Britain were amassed around London, forming what one British officer called "the largest balloon curtain in history."

Although guns and fighters destroyed most of the V-1 bombs (1,878 and 1,846, respectively), balloons were credited with 231 "kills."

 

I suppose here´s a list what the Germans had for artillery in the Atlantik wall:

http://perso.orange.fr/dday44/historique/atlantikwall/atlantikwall.html

MKB Bléville
1 x 38 cm M35/36 (f)
MKB Vasouy
3 x 15 cm Tbts.K.L/45
HKB Villerville
6 x 15,5 cm K420 (f)
HKB Villerville / Hennequeville
4 x 10,5 cm K331 (f)
HKB Bénerville / Mt-Canisy
6 x 15,5 cm K420 (f)
HKB Houlgate Tournebride
6 x 15,5 cm K420 (f)
HKB Riva-Bella
6 x 15,5 cm K418 (f)
HKB Ver-sur-mer / Mt Fleury
4 x 12,2 cm K390/1 (r)
MKB Longues-sur-mer
4 x 15 cm Tbts.K.C/36

HKB Pointe du Hoc
6 x 15,5 cm K418 (f)
HKB St-Martin-de-Varreville
4 x 12,2 cm K390/2 (r)
HKB Azeville
4 x 10,5 cm K331 (f)
MKB St-Marcouf
4 x 21 cm K39/41
HKB Quinéville
4 x 10,5 cm K331 (f)
HKB Crashville
4 x 10,5 cm K331 (f)
HKB Morsalines
6 x 15,5 cm K416 (f)
HKB La Pernelle I Hessen
4 x 10,5 cm K331 (f)
HKB La Pernelle II
3 x 17 cm K18
HKB Gatteville
6 x 15,5 cm K420 (f)

 

Luftwaffe facing during the battle of Bulge...

" The Allied air forces had set up a layered defence that made German attempts to reach the battlefield difficult indeed. The first line of defence came from the 8th AF which was bombing and strafing the forward Luftwaffe Air bases. Next, the Luftwaffe fighters had to negotiate the fighters of the RAF 2nd tactical Air Force and XXIX TAC whích buzzed over the Eifel region. Finally, the German pilots could expect to run into the XIX and IX TAC´s over the Bulge. And if that was not enough to make a survival minded pilot turn back, the entire gauntlet had to be run again to get back to base. There, the Allied fighters would often be waiting, alerted to the return of the German sorties by ground radar or " Y-service " radio intercepts.

" To win the winter sky " by Danny Parker

 

From Hitler´s Commander by S. Newton

" In the Hürtgen forest the 47th Volksgrenadier Division also served notice that not all of Germany´s "instant divisions", thrown together in a few weeks´time, were pushovers. Soldiers in the U.S. 1st Infantry Division would later accord the 47th honors as " the most suicidal stubborn unit " this division has encountered.

 

To cool the more powerful engine the Char B1 bis had the air intake on the left side enlarged. It is often claimed this formed a weak spot in the armour, based on a single incident on 16 May near Stonne where two German 37 mm PAK claimed to have knocked out three Char B1's by firing at the intakes at close range. Theoretically the air intake, which was a half foot thick assemblage through which horizontal slits first angled upward and then downward between 28 mm thick armour plates, should not be more vulnerable than the normal 55 mm side plates.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Char_B1

 

Don Blakeslee

Most fighter pilots played to the crowd, crushing their hats in the "50 mission look," putting their girl's name on the nose of their plane beneath their scores. Blakeslee did none of this. His hat was "G.I.," and so were his airplanes, none of which ever wore a personal name or carried a "victory" cross under the cockpit. His official score is 15, but those who flew with him think it should be doubled.

In recent years, many aviation artists have done paintings of a particular ace's "finest moment," usually something having to do with air combat. The only painting Don Blakeslee has ever officially approved is one that shows him standing in front of his P-51 pointing to his watch as he speaks to a Russian officer. The moment commemorates June 21, 1944, the day Don Blakeslee led the Fourth Fighter Group from Debden, England, to Poltava, Ukraine, flying across Germany and Eastern Europe by dead-reckoning, using only his watch and a map on his knee, to land at exactly his ETA.

http://www.acepilots.com/usaaf_blakeslee.html

 

Amazon Defence Corps

In 1940, the threat of Nazi invasion prompted women to take up arms - and stockpile poison for themselves and their children.

Defending their realm | The Guardian | Guardian Unlimited

One strategy that a few plumped for was to set up Women's Home Defence groups. These were uniformed, private armies whose members trained in unarmed combat and learned how to fire a tommy gun, while using opera glasses to scan the skies for German paratroopers. Technically, these groups were illegal but there seems to have been no attempt to disband them. One of the earliest, established in London that summer, was called the Amazon Defence Corps. Its members included Marjorie Foster who a decade earlier had become the first woman to win the coveted King's prize for shooting.

And while, for some women, the focus was on defending the country at large, for others there were more selfish motives at work. Lady Helena Gleichen, a grand-niece of Queen Victoria, set up her own private army to protect her stately home near Much Marcle in Herefordshire. Gleichen, who was in her late 60s in 1940, liked to walk around her estate wearing a pork pie hat and riding habit, puffing on a cigarette, with a dog snapping at her heels. She had seen fighting at close quarters when she worked for the Red Cross in Italy and France during the first world war.

Gleichen's army of 80 of her staff and tenants wore neatly trimmed calico armbands with the words, "Much Marcle Watcher" written in ink. In the evenings she lectured them on military tactics and tried to pass on some of her own skill at shooting - she had once stopped a charging bull with one carefully placed bullet. She demanded that the Shropshire Light Infantry give her 80 rifles with ammunition, adding, "I could do with some machine guns, too, if you have any to spare." When her request was denied she resorted to her own collection of antique weapons.

 

The most costly Fallschirmjäger operation in the Norwegian campaign involved the 1st Company under the command of Oberleutnant Herbert Schmidt, which was dropped 144km (90 miles) north of Oslo. The men landed among strong Norwegian defensive positions and took heavy casualties, including Schmidt himself. Surrounded and fighting in appalling weather conditions, the Fallschirmjäger were forced to surrender after four days when their ammunition ran out.

Fallschirmjäger: The West 1939-40

 

P47 combat footage in colour

YouTube - P47 Thunderbolt Combat Footage

YouTube - P-47 Takes Out Tiger Tank

 

Adolf "Addi" Glunz
Oberleutnant

Aces of the Luftwaffe - Adolf Glunz

“Addi” Glunz flew a total of 574 missions, including 238 with enemy contact, in achieving 71 victories. His total includes 19 four-engined bombers.

Although continuously in action until 1945, “Addi” Glunz was never shot down or wounded in aerial combat. He was, however, wounded once on the ground when he was showered with glass from a window during an RAF bombing raid on Abbeville in April 1942.

----------

What a lucky guy in the air....

 

Dr Franz Alfred Six- the man who was supposed to be the head of gestapo in Britain...

Franz Six - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

I wonder how the British would have behaved had Germany invaded an won. Was there any acts sabotage in the channel islands that the Germans occupied?

 

T-124

British naval form that civilians were required to sign in order to participate with their boats in the evacuation of Dunkirk. It officially made them volunteers of the Royal Navy for one month.

 

This is fiction, but the book by Len Deighton "SS-GB" exactly on this subject is very interesting. Thoroughly depressing, but interesting.

 

That was from the book " The last ditch " by David Lampe as well where I found it the first time around...