Lesser known details of WW2 part three

Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler:

It is estimated that over the course of it's life over 60,000 men had served in the Leibstandarte.

http://www.vampire-bat.co.uk/panzer/Panzer_Divisions.htm

 

Leicht Kreuzer Emden

http://www.feldgrau.com/emden.html

Mar 45: Emden sailed from Konigsberg lacking much of her machinery, carrying Hindenburg's coffin, his widow and about 1,000 refugees. Arrived at Kiel.

According to Cajus Bekker they were buried in Aug 1946 to Marburg ( Elisabeth church? ) ( Marburg an der Lahn according to Wikipedia )

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

 

During opening German barrage in Belgorod sector on July 5th 1943 that marked beginning of Operation Zitadelle more shells were fired than during all of the French and Polish campaigns!

 

I must say that it seems there were some interesting feelings left after WW1 between the French and the British.

From Julian Jackson´s : The Fall of France (2003 )

" French politicians were even more ignorant of Britain than the British of them. The image of "Perfidious Albion" ran deep. When Chamberlain visited Rome in January 1939, Daladier confided his opinion to the American Ambassador, William Bullitt, who passed it on to Roosevelt:

He ( Daladier) fully expected to be betrayed by the British and added that this was the customary fate of the allies of the British. Daladier went on to say that he considered Neville Chamberlain a desiccated stick; the King a moron; and the Queen an excessively ambitious woman who would be ready to sacrifice every other country in the world in order that she might remain Queen of England.He added that he considered Eden a young idiot and di not know a single Englishman for whose intellectual equipment and character he had respect. He felt that England had become so feeble and senile."

----

The British regareded French politics as Byzantine, French politicians as frivolous, and the country as decadent.

 

Here is an interesting one.
According to 21st report to Congress on Lend-Lease Operations, USA delivered 15,417,000 pairs of army boots to Soviet Union during the war.

 

They also sent 300 M3 Lee's and i think 36 M10's

 

By 1939 the 49 year-old Colonel Charles de Gaulle had spent two years in command of the 507th Tank Regiment (RCC) and earned himself the nickname of "colonel motor".

 

Finnish women helping in the WW2

In the 1920’s there had been established a Lotta-Svärd organization which got its name from the poem titled Lotta Svärd which was written by the national poet Runeberg. The organization trained women in national defense duties. Lotta’s had to swear a Lotta-oath, so they were a half-military organization. (The organization was abolished by Soviet Union’s demand in the fall of 1944). When the war broke Lotta’s were ordered to the front for medical treatment, feeding, air control, communication, field post, collecting the K.I.A’s and many other duties. 300 Lotta’s were killed and 400 injured on the front.

http://www.wmin.ac.uk/mad/courseareas/fashion/sem_papers/liina_hamalainen.doc



Finnish Lotta Svärd awards in WW2

http://www.wehrwolf.net/finland/lottasvard.htm



Finnish Lotta´s studying

More pics:

http://www.lottamuseo.com/lottakuvia.htm

The Finnish women were not soldiers like in the Red Army ( for example )but otherwise did everything they could to help.

 

The Red Ball Express

http://www.strandlab.com/redball/

The Red Ball Express was the codename for one of World War II's most massive logisitics operations, namely a fleet of over 6,000 trucks and trailers that delivered over 412,000 tons of ammunition, food, and fuel (and then some!) to the Allied armies in the ETO between August 25 and November 16, 1944.

In a desperate effort to bridge the gap between user units at the front and mounting stockpiles back at Normandy a long distance, one-way, "loop-run" highway system — dubbed the Red Ball Express — was born.

." It began on 25 August, with 67 truck companies running along a restricted route from St. Lo to Chartres, just south of Paris; and reached a peak four days later with 132 companies (nearly 6,000 vehicles) assigned to the project. Communications Zone (COMMZ) and Advance Section (ADSEC) transportation officials were responsible for overseeing Red Ball activities, but it required the support and coordination of many branches to succeed. While the Engineers were busy maintaining roads and bridges, MPs were on hand at each of the major check points to direct traffic and record pertinent data. Colorful signs and markers along the way — not unlike the old Burma Shave signs that covered America's own countryside — kept drivers from getting lost, and at the same time publicized daily goals and achievements. Quartermasters truck drivers, materiel handlers, and petroleum specialists were ever present both along the route and at the forward-area truck-heads. Disabled vehicles moved to the side of the road, where they were either repaired on the spot by roving Ordnance units or evacuated to rear-area depots.

Round-the-clock movement of traffic required adherence to a strict set of rules. For instance, all vehicles had to travel in convoys and maintain 60-yard intervals. They were not to exceed the maximum speed of 25 mph and no passing was allowed. After dark, Red Ball drivers were permitted the luxury of using full headlights instead of "cat eyes" for safety reasons. At exactly ten minutes before the hour each vehicle stopped in place for a 10-minute break.

In late August, Eisenhower decided to forward most petroleum supplies to the First Army (Hodges) and the British 21st Army Group (Montgomery). This action was to come at the expense of Patton's Third Army to the South. On 31 August, Patton's daily allotment of gasoline dropped off sharply from 400,000 to 31,000 gallons

Finally, the Red Ball Express had an inherent problem in that it was fast approaching a point of diminishing returns. As the route got longer and longer, the Red Ball required more gasoline — ultimately as much as 300,000 gallons per day — just to keep the Red Ball vehicles themselves moving.

The map of the route:

http://www-cgsc.army.mil/carl/resources/csi/gabel3/Images/pg5.gif

An article:

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Feb2002/n02152002_200202151.html

 

Well, this and that...

Roosevelt and Churchill forged a close friendship as their countries struggled against Hitler, but their relationship did not begin well. They had first met in 1918 at a dinner in London, when Churchill was minister of munitions and Roosevelt the young assistant secretary of the navy. Churchill quickly forgot the encounter, but Roosevelt did not. Years later he recalled that Churchill “acted like a stinker” and was “one of the few men in public life who was rude to me.” As president, Roosevelt put his feelings aside in 1939, when Churchill returned to the post of first lord of the admiralty. “It is because you and I occupied similar positions in the First World War that I want you to know how glad I am that you are back in the Admiralty,” he wrote. After Churchill became prime minister in 1940, he and Roosevelt met a second time for a wartime conference aboard ship off the Newfoundland coast in August 1941. And Churchill traveled to Washington several times after the United States entered the war, even spending the Christmas holidays at the White House after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

http://americanhistory.about.com/library/prm/blsummitcasablanca.htm

At the final Casablanca press conference on January 24, Roosevelt announced that the Allies would seek the “unconditional surrender” of Germany and Japan . Churchill later claimed he was surprised by the president’s statement, as they had only briefly discussed the subject. Roosevelt himself said that the idea simply “popped into my mind” as he reflected on General Ulysses S. Grant’s strategy toward the South during the American Civil War .

Roosevelt had told the assembled sailors on the Memphis that during 10 days in Casablanca, the United States and Britain had agreed on “plans to keep the war going at full speed during the rest of 1943. We hope it will be over by then, but you can never tell. If it is not over, we will be even more ready in 1944 for the final victory.”

 

Christmas 1940

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/war/wwtwo/christmas_underfire_03.shtml

Facts for life in the UK:

This was the first real wartime Christmas.
This was also the first Christmas 'on the ration', with food rationing having been a part of everyday life for almost a year. By this time weekly rations were four ounces of bacon and/or ham, six ounces of butter and/or margerine, two ounces of tea, eight ounces of sugar, two ounces of cooking fats and meat to the value of 1/10d (9p), although in the week before Christmas, the tea ration was doubled and the sugar ration increased to twelve ounces.

There was still plenty of non-rationed food available, however - at a price. Wines and spirits were plentiful, but French goods were almost completely gone, and imported fruit was extremely expensive. For Christmas, practical gifts were in vogue - gardening tools, books, bottling jars, seeds. Some gardening magazines even recommended a bag of fertilizer as a gift, and the most popular present for Christmas 1940 was soap.

The usual seasonal football matches took place that year, although many players were in the forces, and transport problems meant long-distance fixtures were a problem. So the pre-war league was replaced by a regional structure, while scratch teams were the order of the day. Two famous football players, Tommy Lawton and Ken Shackleton, both played for two different teams on Christmas Day 1940 - Everton and Tranmere, and Bradford and Bradford City respectively. Brighton and Hove Albion, away to Norwich, could only muster five players, and their team was supplemented by Norwich reserves and supporters. Unsurprisingly Norwich won 18-0.

 

The First US Army Group was activated 1943 in London, England to prepare the plans for the invasion of the European continent.





Omar Bradley's headquarters deployed to England in October 1943, and Bradley took on the dual task of First Army commander and acting commander of the skeletal 1st U.S. Army Group (subsequently redesignated the 12th Army Group). This Army Group had been established on October 19, 1943, to plan United States participation in the forthcoming invasion. Bradley would command the American army group when it was activated. But until the landings were secure, all American ground forces in northern France would be under the temporary command of General Sir Bernard L. Montgomery. Bradley activated 12th Army Group on 01 August 1944, and assumed command of 21 divisions comprising some 903,000 men.

Although its staff was largely transferred to the Twelfth Army Group in July 1944, the First US Army Group continued to exist on paper as a deception device until its inactivation on 18 October 1944. To mislead the Germans into believing that the Pas de Calais, rather than Normandy, would be the site of the invasion, Eisenhower's staff created a mythical 1st Army Group, with an order of battle larger than that of Montgomery's 21st Army Group.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/agency/army/fusag.htm

 

The Nero decree by Hitler March 1945:

http://www.adolfhitler.ws/lib/proc/nerodecree.html

High Command of the Armed Forces
(Operations Staff)
March 19, 1945.


Subject: Demolitions on Reich territory

The struggle for the existence of our people compels us, even within the territory of the Reich, to exploit every means of weakening the fighting strength of our enemy, and impeding his further advance. Every opportunity must be taken of inflicting, directly or indirectly, the utmost lasting damage on the striking power of the enemy. It is a mistake to think that transport and communication facilities, industrial establishments and supply depots, which have not been destroyed, or have only been temporarily put out of action, can be used again for our own ends when the lost territory has been recovered. The enemy will leave us nothing but scorched earth when he withdraws, without paying the slightest regard to the population. I therefore order:

1. All military transport, and communication, facilities, industrial establishments and supply depots, as well as anything else of value within Reich territory, which could in any way be used by the enemy immediately or within the foreseeable future for the prosecution of the war, will be destroyed.

2. The following are responsible for carrying out these demolitions:

The military commanders, for all military establishments, including the transport and communications network; the Gauleiters and Reich Commissioners for Defense, for all industrial establishments and supply depots, and anything else of value. The troops are to give to Gauleiters and Reich Commissioners for Defense such help as they require to carry out their tasks.

3. This order will be made known to all officers commanding troops as quickly as possible. Directives to the contrary are invalid.

signed:
Adolf Hitler

 

Step by step firing Procedure for A4/V2 :

http://www.v2rocket.com/start/deployment/procedure.html

 

USS ENGLAND (DE-635) was launched 26 September 1943 by Bethlehem Steel Co., San Francisco, Calif.; sponsored by Mrs. H. B. England, mother of Ensign England, and commissioned 10 December 1943, Commander W. B. Pendleton in command. ENGLAND arrived at Espiritu Santo 12 March 1944 from San Francisco, Pearl Harbor, Funafuti, and Guadalcanal. She took up escort duty between Espiritu Santo and Guadalcanal, occasionally sailing to Noumea, and once to the Marshalls.





On 18 May 1944, with two other destroyers, ENGLAND cleared Port Purvis on a hunt for Japanese submarines during a passage to Bougainville. During the next 8 days, she was to set an impressive record in antisubmarine warfare, never matched in World War II by any other American ship, as she hunted down and sank I-16 on 19 May, RO-106 on 22 May, RO-104 on 23 May, RO-116 on 24 May, and RO-108 on 26 May. In three of these cases, the other destroyers were in on the beginning of the actions, but the kill in every case was ENGLAND's alone. Quickly replenishing depth charges at Manus, ENGLAND was back in action on 31 May to join with four other ships in sinking RO-105. This superlative performance won for ENGLAND a Presidential Unit Citation, and the assurance from the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral E. J. King, "There'll always be an ENGLAND in the United States Navy." His pledge was fulfilled 6 October 1960, when DLG-22 was assigned the name ENGLAND

 

Due to German occupation/dominance, (the rest of) Austria, Czechoslovakia and Hungary introduced right-hand drive - before they were driving on the left side. They all retained it after the war.

This was not the case for the Channel Islands, which returned to left-hand drive when recaptured.

A great link (German) on the history of left- and right-hand drive: http://members.a1.net/wabweb/history/linksrechts.htm

 

On Dunkirk:

It was originally hoped that up to 45,000 men might be rescued. The actual total came to 338,226 men.

Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister, addressed the House of Commons and reminded the gathered Members of Parliament that, "We must be very careful not to assign to this deliverance the attributes of a victory. Wars are not won by evacuations."

Left behind on the beaches of Dunkirk were some 2,472 guns, 84,427 vehicles of all kinds and 657,000 tons of ammunition.

http://www.rania.co.uk/dunkirk/html/history.htm

 

Charles Cooper went on to stake a second claim to fame. The first commissioned rear-gunner in the RAF during the Second World War, he was nick-named "Tail End Charlie" by his crew and that name rapidly became adopted for all rear-gunners in the RAF. Sadly, Charles was blinded by a German bomb which fell outside his billet in 1941.

http://www.jeffreymaynard.com/harrow_county/tailendCharlie.htm

http://www.europeanaf.org/raflang.htm

 

Charles Cooper went on to stake a second claim to fame. The first commissioned rear-gunner in the RAF during the Second World War, he was nick-named "Tail End Charlie" by his crew and that name rapidly became adopted for all rear-gunners in the RAF. Sadly, Charles was blinded by a German bomb which fell outside his billet in 1941.

http://www.jeffreymaynard.com/harrow_county/tailendCharlie.htm