Western front-interesting bits of information

04/03/1944

The USAAF launch, but then cancel the first daylight heavy bomber raid on Berlin. However 29 aircraft fail to receive the counter-order and bomb the capital.

World War 2 Timelines 1939-1945 - European Air War 1944 - Worldwar-2.net

 

On JG 54 "Grünherz" and BoB

Between 12 August and 1 December 1940 no fewer than 43 pilots had been reported killed,missing or captured- a casualty rate of close on 40%, or the equivalent of more than an entire Gruppe.Of course, some component units were hit harder than others. When the Kapitän of 3./JG 54 Oberleutnant Hans Schmoller-Haldy, left campagne for Northern Germany on 27 September, it is said that the "Staffel" had comprised just himself and his wingman, Leutnant Adolf Kinzinger!

JG 54 by John Weal

 

As the Allies advanced into Germany at the end of World War II, General Patton received a message from headquarters ordering him to by-pass the city of Triers as it would take four divisions to capture. By the time the message arrived, however, the city had already fallen. Patton promptly sent a reply: "Have taken Triers with two divisions," he explained. "Do you want me to give it back?"

Anecdotage.Com - Thousands of true funny stories about famous people. Anecdotes from Gates to Yeats

 

On 23 November 1942, for the fifth time in the space of a fortnight, elements of the "embryonic" Mighty Eighth hit St Nazaire. Solid undercast prevented all but nine B-17Fs of the 91st and 306th Bomb Groups from reaching their objective. Those that made it to the target were met by a frightening new tactic on the part of the Luftwaffe´s fighter defences-frontal attack!

The originator of the head-on assault, Hauptmann Egon Mayer led his Fw 190s through the B-17 formation, and four Flying Fortresses were claimed destroyed, including one by Meyer himself, for the loss of a single FW fighter.

From JG 2 "Richthofen" By John Weal

 

Ted Stocker,DSO,DFC

From Master Bombers by Sean Feast

...on bombing October 3, 1944 the sea wall at Westkapelle ( island of Walcheren on the Scheldt estuary ):

" We put the markers down on the sea front, and gradually the bombers knocked a hole in the sea wall and eventually the water came flooding in. The best bit was that the last wave of bombers included 617 ( Dambusters ) squadron with their special bombs called Tallboys. The Dambusters were part of 5 Group, and obviously there was quite a rivalry between them and us. The dyke was breached before they arrived so I had great fun in telling them to go home. One up for Pathfinders!"

 

"On August 7, 1945, several of the crews were engaged in operation Dodge, repatriating British troops from Italy. Each Lancaster could ferry up to 24 soldiers plus kit at a time. Nearly 100,000 troops in all were flown home between August 1945 and the beginning of 1946."

From Master Bombers by Sean Feast

 

Oops!Logistics again!

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The organization of the US logistics system did not ease matters.
Although SHAEF dealt with strategic and overall planning, logistics in
Normandy remained a national responsibility. The US Services of Supply
had been re-designated Communications Zone (COMZ) and
consolidated with the European Theatre of Operations US Army
(ETOUSA) staff in early 1944. ETOUSA officers were double-hatted as
SHAEF staff and so COMZ was effectively embedded within SHAEF
with overall responsibility for US logistics. This meant that Bradley, as the
senior US theatre commander, had no direct control over his own
logistics. This unsatisfactory situation was compounded by the split
between COMZ as the rear headquarters and a forward headquarters
known as Advanced Section (ADSEC). The split was originally designed
to allow ADSEC to cross the Channel before COMZ, but it remained in
place long afterwards, causing confusion and friction.3 Coordination
between COMZ and ADSEC, and between them and the US armies
consisted of a tortuous hierarchy of committees, boards and liaison teams,
requiring even the most mundane logistic matters to be handled through
detailed studies, reports and bureaucratic paperwork.

At the head of this logistic organization was the commander of
COMZ, Lt. General John C.H. 'Jesus Christ Himself Lee.

Instead of focusing on the increasing problems of servicing
the expanding lines of communication, Lee decided instead to decamp his
vast headquarters of 29,000 personnel from its newly built tented city in
Normandy to 300 of the best hotels in Paris, at the very height of the fuel
and transportation crisis.

http://pdfserve.informaworld.com/241774__783082827.pdf

 

Navigator and time:

" As navigators we worked to 10ths of a minute, and would keep three minutes in hand for every hour we were in the air. So, for example, if it was still two hours to the target, we would keep six minutes in hand so that we could lose/make up time as required. To lose time we would simply dogleg by flying two sides of an equilateral triangle;making up time was considerably more difficult."

Reg Cann DFC, Master Bombers by Sean Feast

 

German changes to the Enigma machines during the war meant much greater resources were required to crack them, and that was where the inventiveness of Alan Turing and the other British code-breakers was key.

The Enigma configurations changed daily - and the "key for the day" could be any one of about 364,000 million possible settings.

"Many Enigma keys were never found," Mr Carter told the BBC.

"Probably less than 25% of the naval codes were broken, but it was still a significant success.

"The easiest was the German air force - they weren't as security-minded and made blunders. They were broken daily."

Turing created the "Bombe" at Bletchley Park - a more sophisticated decoding machine than an earlier Polish machine called the "Bomba".

The Polish machine exploited a weakness in the German "indicators" - the starting positions for sending Enigma messages. But when the Germans changed the indicator system in May 1940 the Polish method became redundant.

The British "Bombes" however did work, based on "cribs" - recurring patterns in German secret messages, such as the words "special arrangements for".

The German naval codes were the hardest to crack - and that mattered hugely while U-boats were wreaking havoc, torpedoing Allied ships in the North Atlantic.

But Bletchley Park's work is reckoned to have shortened the war by as much as two years.

BBC NEWS | Europe | How Poles cracked Nazi Enigma secret

 

By the end of 1941, whereas Britain had taken delivery of 5,012 complete aircraft from the United States, Germany had received a grand total of 78 aircraft from France and the Netherlands. In 1942, with the bulk of United States output being retained for its own use and British deliveries restricted (!) to 7,775 planes, the Luftwaffe received 743 aircraft from the occupied Western territories. In total, during the entire war, the Luftwaffe, took delivery of only 2,517 aircraft from France and 947 from Holland.

From wages of destruction by Tooze

 

" A French enumeration of goods taken by the Germans between 1940 and 1944 came to no less than 154 billion Francs or 7,7 billion Reichsmarks, at official exchange rates. Of this vast sum, a third was accounted for by French military equipment. Amongst army weapons this included 314,878 rifles, 5,017 artillery pieces, 3.9 million shells and 2,170 tanks. Captured French artillery made an even more important contribution to the defence of the nazi empire. In March 1944, of the total German artillery park of 17,589 guns, no less than 47% were of foreign origin and of those the largest number was French. Another third of the German booty was accounted for by transport and communications equipment and services provided by the French railway. All in all, the French,Dutch and belgian railways "borrowed" 4,260 locomotives and 140,000 wagons."

Wages of destruction by Tooze

 

Pictures by a German pilot from Paris July 1940. A Fieseler Storch?

 

Luftwaffe Fighter-bombers over Britain by Goss:

" By the end of October 1940, over 550 factory-built Jabos ( Bf 109 E-7 ) were available to the Luftwaffe. That month, with the daylight jabo offensive on London at its peak, a total of 2,633 jabo sorties were launched against the capital in 140 separate attacks. Post-war statistics show that 60% of them reached the target, however 37% of the jabos that took-off to bomb London were forced to drop their bombs to alternate target ( either due to bad weather or interference from the defences ), while less than 3% broke off their attacks.Losses amongst the Jabo units had been minimal, 29 aircraft lost, amere 1% of the total force deployed."

 

" Among the most successful shore batteries during the Overlord invasion was the naval battery at St. Marcouf. This battery, under the command of Oberleutmant Ohmsen, was able to sink two US destroyers. The Battery also used its guns to fire on the nearby "Utah Beach" sector for days and make the landing of the troops and materials much more difficult. Despite the heaviest attacks by US troops, the battery held out for six days and was only abandoned after the destruction of all its guns. For this extraordinary achievement, the battery chief was awarded the Knight´s Cross. "

From " Guns on the Atlantic wall" by Karl-Heinz and Michael Schmeelke

 

I think Truman and the US Army Chiefs of staff were looking for a way to sack Patton anyway and this was a suitable excuse. It was clear to Patton that with Hitler gone, Russia would now be the USA's deadliest enemy. The war in Europe was over and Patton was making alot of noise of the poliically-incorrect variety, saying that the Allies should attack Russia now while we had the opportunity. Truman, and the rest of America, were very war-weary and didnt want to hear talk about more wars anytime soon.

 

Talking about the military reserves...

" The Germans started their attack on France 1940 without a single panzer formation in reserve. To achieve a massive numerical superiority at the crucial point, every single unit was committed to the fight from the first day. If the attack had failed, Germany would have had no mobile units with which to respond to a possible Allied counter-offensive. "

"The wages of destruction" by Tooze

 

I have done some interesting work concerning the German dominance of the westrn theatre. I hope the use of math is acceptable here. Math explains the entire universe.

 

Truman hated Patton. And the feeling was reciprocated on Patton's part. Patton's manifest bloodthirstiness did not jibe with Truman, who has the values of a pacific and humanitarian elite class. He wrote in his diary after a meeting with top army brass that "it is inconceivable that the nation who gave birth to great men like Eisenhower and Bradley also gave birth to men such as McArthur and Patton". The difference in philosophy, outlook and character could not be more distinct.

 

Some nice pics....