Where would YOU serve in WW2?

I should also have said many Hetzer crews instead of all.

[ 28. November 2005, 11:59 AM: Message edited by: PzJgr ]

 

Id serve in my current rank and job in the Black Watch in the 51st HD div, 154th Brigade.

 

Being a nurse I would of served in the QA's.

I very nearly joined the QA's after I left school in 1980 but the call of my local hospital and meeting my future husband won the day.

I'd of been a good war time nurse, good at holding patients hands and make a decent mug of tea, sorted! lol )

 

I'd be with the rangers. The rangers that concured pointe du hoc on d-day

 

The OSS, that would be interesting.

 

I'd be witht the Canadian Highlanders....

 

I would most likely serve as a US Marine in WW2. It was easy to fight the Japs. In Guadalcanal the Japs lost 20000 men to the US 1700. The kill ration in the pacific was roughly 1:8 to the US favor. The japs were using the WW1 weapons or even swords in most cases in my famous BANZAI CHARGES. lol stupid japs. The Japs never had any anti-tank weapons. The US forces should also thank the russians for attacking Manchuria. Because after that the Japs surrendered, not because of the A-Bombs but becase they knew they woudl lose their possesions in China to the Russians

 

I would go into the Air Force of the Airborne, and would be stationed wherever they put me.

 

Your numbers on Guadalcanal are close, 1592 US Marines and Army killed to approx 14,800 Japanese killed in action or missing with another approx 9000 dead of disease or starvation. However they do not take into account those airmen or sailors from three different air forces or navies that fought there also. Add these in and the numbers on both sides jump dramatically, 7,100 Allied and 30,343 Japanese (numbers from Richard Franks Guadalcanal pg614). Going back to an earlier post of yours regarding the Japanese navy, during this campaign counting for all naval battles, both navies lost 24 warships (Japanese 2 BB's, 1 CVL, 3 CA's, 1 CL, 11 DD's and 6 Subs to the Allies 2 CV's, 6 CA's, 2 CL's, 14 DD's). A junior infantry officer of many south Pacific campaigns wrote of the Japanese, "...most of us who have fought in the Pacific are ready to admit here and now, away from all the convincing firsthand evidence we have seen - mass starvation, untold suffering, shell shock, cannibalism, mass suicide - that for sheer, bloody, hardened steel guts, the stocky and hard muscled little Jap doughboy has it all over any of us."
Combat is not romantic, it is the ugliest side of humanity one can ever experience in their lifetime. Yet there are times when it is necessary to take up arms and kill our fellow man. But these man and now women of the armed forces who take up arms for their country should always be accorded the proper respect that is due to them, whether they be countymen, allies, or enemies.

 

That is an excellent quote Bill. I think that the Japanese were an excellent fighting force. They were well disciplined if not supplied with the most technologically advanced weapons of the period. They fought and fought and even if the ratio of casualties was not in their favor the men who lost their comrades to them surely held them in more respect then the posters that portrayed them as little near-sighted people who could not stand up to the big strong Americans.
Our fighting men won the battles, occupied the territory and gave their lives to conquer the Pacific territories. It was our logistics that really won the war. Our superiority in the air and on the ocean allowed us to put overwhelming amounts of ordinance onto the beaches and the strong points of the Japanese. Our tanks and aircraft supporting the ground troops. Don't forget the medical resources provided either. That is one of the big reasons why our men were able to succeed with so few casualties. The fighting men of the Japanese forces were well trained formidable adversaries. Thank God we could out produce them and that we won the Battle of Midway.

 

The Japanese were very formidable oponents, and deserve our repect.

 

I'd volunteer for the Ostfront. Caucausus campaign. Gebirgsjäger division.

 

If I had my choice of assignments it would be as a lowly buck-sergeant over a rifle squad in 1st Battalion, Able Co., U.S. 30th Infantry Regiment within the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division. THE most combat hardened division in the Mediterranean or European Theatres of Operation.

Yep, it'd definitely be the 3rd Inf. Division. The division with the most days in combat, CMH recipients and casualties due to being the U.S. Army's universal guinea pigs! Everything new and upcoming was practically always tried first with the 3rd Inf. Division.

Regards,
MARNE

 

Having read this Long and aged thread I'm discarding my instinctive cowardice and the temptation of flogging wristwatches to GIs at the Windmill to sign up alongside TheRedBaron in the Womens Auxillary Balloon Corps.

"It's a man's life in the Women's Auxillary Balloon Corps"

Cheers,
Adam.

 

Ordnance unit in Britain dealing with UXB's just you and the bomb.

 

Seems like there was a TV series in the 60's about UXB units in Britain either during or after the war. That maybe before your time but maybe some senior citizen may recall the name of the show and you can get on DVD.

In the late 1950's a B-47 accidently dropped a nuke off Flordia and they never found it. You could get a sponser and go to Flordia and defuse it and full fill you dreams.

 

TA152 the one your talking about was dropped off the coast of Savannah, Georgia where I live. It was lost but, they finally found it last year. Its about 12 miles off shore. The good thing is, is that they did a study of the weapon and whether or not it was a danger. They discovered that it is not any danger to the coast of Georgia or the individuals living in the area. I think there is a plan in the future to bring it up and diffuse the device, or at least they said in the news here.

Regards,
MARNE

 

since this thread was started some time ago, I've thought about my previous statements abit, with the conclusion nothing at all really sounds good except to be on the home front, although the Ta 152H-1 would of been an interesting and quite fast prop job to fly, liking to fly at nearly 500mph and hitting close to 50,000 feet upwards, exploding off the airfield almost like in a high speed chase with your head drilled back into the cockpit seat protector ..........

E ~

 

TA, Was it this? DANGER UXB

If so well in my life time.