Western front-interesting bits of information

Your numbers appear to be hopelessly subjective and completely meaningless.

 

Only three US destroyers were lost at Normandy, and only one was damaged by shore batteries before being destroyed by hitting a mine.;

USS Corry (DD-463) sunk by a mine off Utah Beach, Normandy, France, 6 June 1944.

USS Glennon (DD-620) sunk by a mine and gunfire from German shore batteries off Quineville, Normandy, France, 10 June 1944.

USS Meredith (DD-726) sunk by German aircraft after being damaged by a mine in the Bay of the Seine, Normandy, France, 9 June 1944.

Casualties, Navy and Coast Guard Ships, WW II

 

4th November 1940

"Unpleasant discussion at the Reich chancellery: present were Göring, V Brauchitsch,Keitel. For the first time Führer doubted Luftwaffe successes and statistics of enemy losses on the basis of British and other press reports. For the first time,too, Jodl supported Göring and said he believes that the British are putting up their last fighters flown by trainee pilots and base commanders since they have nobody else left. Führer was visibly depressed. Impression is that at the moment he does not know how it will turn out. At the most inopportune moment possible the C-in-C started talking about the postponed "Sealion", and attacked the Navy and Luftwaffe. Göring flew into a rage, nearly got personal, and accused the Army of wavering in indecision at Dunkirk. Nobody mentioned the real reason.Even Keitel had to leave the C-in-C in the lurch, since he did not understand the discussion.In the end everybody agreed to blame the Navy because they had admitted not being equipped properly to defend the landing beaches wanted by the Army. Nobody from the Navy was there."

From " At the heart of the Reich" by Major Gerhard Engel

 

Flight Lieutenant David Samuel Anthony Lord VC, DFC, Royal Air Force

Flight Lieutenant Lord was Pilot and Captain of a Dakota aircraft detailed to drop supplies to Arnhem on the afternoon of 19 September 1944. Our airborne troops had been surrounded and were being pressed into a small area defended by a large number of anti-aircraft guns. Aircrews were warned that intense opposition would be met over the dropping zone. To ensure accuracy they were ordered to fly at 900 feet when dropping their containers. While flying at 1,500 feet near Arnhem the starboard wing of Flight Lieutenant Lord’s aircraft was twice hit by anti-aircraft fire. The starboard engine was set on fire. He would have been justified in leaving the mainstream of supply aircraft and continuing at the same height or even abandoning his aircraft. On learning that his crew were uninjured and that the dropping zone would be reached in 3 minutes he said he would complete his mission, as the troops were in dire need of supplies. By now the starboard engine was burning furiously. Flight Lieutenant Lord came down to 900 feet, where he was singled out for the concentrated fire of all the anti-aircraft guns. On reaching the dropping zone he kept the aircraft on a straight and level course while supplies were dropped. He then rejoined the stream of aircraft and made a second run to drop the remaining supplies. These manoeuvres took 8 minutes in all, the aircraft being continually under heavy anti-aircraft fire. His task completed , Flight Lieutenant Lord ordered his crew to abandon the Dakota, making no attempt himself to leave the aircraft which was down to 500 feet. A few seconds later, the starboard wing collapsed and the aircraft fell in flames. There was only one survivor, who was flung out while assisting other members of the crew to put on their parachutes. By continuing his mission in a damaged and burning aircraft, descending to drop the supplies accurately, returning to the dropping zone a second time and finally remaining at the controls to give his crew a change of escape, Flight Lieutenant Lord displayed supreme valour and self sacrifice.

Victoria Cross Holders

 

About BoB

The Messerschmitt-109’s effectively range of only 125 miles meant that much of the dog-fighting took place above ‘Hellfire Corner’, the region of southern Kent around Folkestone, Dover and Lympne that is closest to France. More fighter pilots of both sides died there than over the whole of the rest of the UK during the battle.

Britain at War: The Battle of Britain - Telegraph

 

How to fight back against the Mosquitos hunting the landing Nachtjagd pilots?

From Hajo Herrmann´s " Eagle´s wings ":


" The Luftlotte had decided on a bold measure: all airfields, far and wide, around the scene of the battle were to be lit up towards the end of the attack both perimeter and runway lights. In addition, green Very lights would be fired. Should the target be Berlin, therefore, the entire North German plain would be lit up as far as individual night fighters could follow the bombers. Then the Mosquitos´efforts would dissipate, leaving them to clutch at straws, and many an airfield commander would find himself suddenly promoted from the back of beyond up to the front. Even if, without him having accepted a single,brave night fighter, a heavy bomb landed on his airfield, he was under orders to hold out, to keep the lights on fully. Blacking-out was forbidden, that had to be understood by all and sundry. Orders were orders. Even more was asked of the "commanders" of the dummy airfields: it was their task to attract the enemy and shut the door in the faces of our own fighters, switching off the lights so that they didn´t come to grief in a swamp or a gravel-pit."

 

Aces of the Luftwaffe - Rudolf Pflanz

Pflanz achieved marked success against RAF Spitfire fighters during 1941 and 1942. On 23 July 1941, Pflanz shot down five Spitfires and a RAF Hurricane fighter.

Rudolf Pflanz was credited with 52 victories. All his victories were recorded over the Western Front and included 45 Spitfires.

 

On nachtjagd by Hajo Herrmann:

" Following our first operation over Cologne/Muelheim I foresaw that the enemy attacks would be carried out in cloudy weather, particularly if our success should increase. We planned that in overcast conditions all the searchlights available would shine vertically so that the haze would scatter their light and that we should also burn magnesium flares on the ground so that the upper surface of the cloud would resemble a dull grey, milky lake, against which the bombers would stand out. We code-named this procedure "Leichentuch"-"Shroud".

If the layer of cloud was so thick that the lights could not penetrate it to the upper surface, a gruppe of Ju 88´s was at readiness to transform the cloud into a "Leichentuch" by dropping flares from above it, thus creating a background against which the fighters could see their targets. "

 

He wouldn't have been able to destroy Paris if he wanted to. He had hardly any troops, and Paris were boiling for a full uprising.

 

Borgward BI´s ( early R-C vehicle ) carried out extensive clearances in the remaining minefields in front of the maginot line after the war ended in 1940 in France, in the course of which the majority of all BI´s were expended.

From "German remote-control tank units 1940-43" by Markus Jaugitz

 

Bomber command and Overlord:

The decision makers at 21st Army Group were now convinced that heavy bombers could be used consistently in close support of the army. Harris was not particularly happy with this conclusion. He noted it had taken a 1,000 tons of bombs to get the army forward one mile. "At this rate it will take 600,000 tons to get them to Berlin."

 

Propaganda poster dropped during city bombings...

 

General Hans Cramer (13 July 1896 – 28 October 1968)

From 16 May 1943 February 1944 he was held in the special prison for captured German generals and staff officers at Trent Park. Because of his severe asthma he was released in May 1944 and returned to Germany.

During his repatriation journey, he was allowed to see the real 21st Army Group preparing for the invasion of Europe, but was told he was in Kent. This was part of the broader Allied deception campaign, Operation Fortitude, prior to D-Day.

Hans Cramer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Operation Red Stockings

Operation Red Stockings

As the Allied forces fought their way towards the German heartland in 1945 there was an urgent need for intelligence information from inside the Reich. Resistance groups in the occupied territories were supplying valuable information to the Allied planning staffs, but installing agents into the hostile German environment was going to be very difficult. Both the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) and the American Office of Strategic Services (OSS) had been training agents for this purpose - mostly Germans with a proven hatred of the Nazi regime, and preparations now had to be made for their delivery.

The operation was given top security rating and the code name "Red Stocking" to cover the agent delivery and radio surveillance. The crew of the A-26 ( or Mosquito ) was to consist of a pilot, general navigator, a "pilotage" navigator and turret gunner. The pilotage navigator was to direct the pilot from the transparent nose position having made a prolonged study of the route.

The only space left for the agent was in the bomb bay! A small compartment was made in the forward section of the bay with a plywood floor, this was hinged on one side and secured on the other by two cable operated catches connected to the navigator's position in the nose. Designed to take two agents the compartment rarely took more than one and did nothing for the peace of mind of the already apprehensive agent.

The Red Stocking missions were mainly successful. Agents transmitted vital information needed by the Allied Military Intelligence.

 

The statue of Mangin was destroyed in 1940 after the armistice. During his tour of Paris, Adolf Hitler visited Napoleon's tomb and the statue, being a reminder of Mangin's machinations in the Rhineland, was one of two he ordered dynamited. (The other was of Edith Cavell.)

Charles Marie Emmanuel Mangin (6 July 1866, Sarrebourg, Moselle – 12 May 1925, Paris) was a French general during World War I.


Charles Mangin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Once the French liaison officers heard of the possibility that the Allied would be ready to abandon Strasbourg late Dec 1944-early Jan 1945:

" General Touzet visited Devers with a letter from de Gaulle. The French government demanded that Strasbourg remained in Allied hands. The French Army planned to turn the city into another Stalingrad before letting the Germans have it.

The political firestorm brewing over Strasbourg came to a head on January 3 during a special meeting in Paris of Eisenhower, de Gaulle, and Juin, along with their staffs. Winston Churchill attended as a mediator. De Gaulle described the decision as a potential "national diaster". Eisenhower insisted his orders would stand, and unfairly blamed the situation on the failure of the 1ére Armée to clear out the Colmar pocket. Infuriated by Eisenhower´s charges, de Gaulle threatened to withdraw French forces from SHAEF command and Juin hinted that France might deny the Allies the use of French railroad network. Eisenhower finally appreciated the depth of the French concern over Strasbourg and backed down, earning Churchill´s praise for defusing the escalating acrimony."

From "Operation Nordwind" by Steven Zaloga

 

Some 3,000 French people died on D-day - about the same number as allied deaths on the same day - amid the storm of bombs and shells that accompanied the assault. In all, nearly 20,000 civilians perished during the campaign. Great areas of the region were laid waste by the allies: nearly 800 civilians died in the beautiful cathedral town of Lisieux alone.

Liberation: The Bitter Road to Freedom, Europe 1944-1945 by William Hitchcock - Times Online

 

Some pics from a German album

 

More from the album...

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ushant_(1944)

The Battle of Ushant, also known as the Battle of Brittany, occurred on the early morning of 9 June 1944 and was an engagement between a Kriegsmarine destroyer flotilla, and an Allied destroyer flotilla off the coast of Brittany.

On 6 June 1944, the day of the first landings in Normandy, the remnants of the German 8th destroyer flotilla, consisting of the Type 36A Z24 and Z32, and the ZH1, were ordered by Vizeadmiral Theodor Krancke to sail from the Gironde to Brest.The German ships made port at Brest where Z24 and Z32 had their anti-aircraft armament increased. They then put to sea again on 8 June in company with T24, the sole survivor of the 4th torpedo boat flotilla, bound for Cherbourg under the command of Theodor von Bechtolsheim, where they would reinforce German positions.

The Allied forces remained aware of the German intentions through Ultra intercepts, and detailed the
10th destroyer flotilla to intercept the German ships as they sailed up the English Channel.

The British flotilla were moving westward down the Channel when the German ships were detected by radar just after 1 am on 9 June.The two flotillas clashed intermittently thereafter, exchanging gunfire and salvoes of torpedoes. Tartar was struck several times, but was able to put out fires and restore her speed. The ZH1 was then engaged by both Tartar and Ashanti, with Ashanti launching two torpedoes at point-blank range. One struck ZH1, blowing off her bows. With the ship crippled, her captain, Klaus Barckow gave the order to abandon ship, then scuttled her with depth charges.

Haida and Huron had meanwhile been pursuing the Z24 and T24 until the German ships ran into a British minefield. The Canadians attempted to detour around it, but eventually lost the Germans. Z24 and T24 regrouped, with the intention of returning to engage the British, but finding they were not being followed, they left the area.

Haida and Huron returned to the scene and came across von Bechtolsheim's Z32, which had received a heavy pounding and lost contact with the rest of the Germans. There was some confusion over establishing each other's identity, but when the Canadians discovered she was a German ship they opened fire. Von Bechtolsheim fled at high speed, but Z32 having sustained heavy damage, was driven ashore on Ile de Batz and wrecked.