Lesser known details of WW2 part four

and

the Rudolf Hess grave at Wunsiedel Fichtelgebirge Hills



http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Congress/2106/hess/gallery.htm

 

" I also recall how superstitious we were when it came to lighting a cigarette. No one ever took a light if two others took it before. The superstition dated back to the Great War ; our fathers believed that the man who took the third light would be killed. Supposedly, it took the enemy soldier that long to line up the sights of his rifle in the dark, so that the first two to take a light would be unharmed, but the third would be shot."

From "The good soldier" by Alfred Novotny

 

Of the 350,000 trucks used by the motorized German Army as of 1942, roughly one-third were Ford-made.

http://www.redrat.net/blackhole/fordfuehrer.htm

 

According to Hans Fritzsche´s memoirs ( from the Nuremberg trials )von Ribbentrop wore a golden globe on his left sleeve when he was the foreign minister.

Also Fritzsche mentions that Von Ribbentrop demanded ( when he was the foreign minister I´d think ) Hitler to remove the parts on France from "Mein kampf" ! Hitler refused and said "What´s written will stay..."

 

In von Below´s memoirs in late July 1941 Hitler was very sick for some time and Dr Morell said to von Below that Hitler had suffered probably a minor heart attack (!).

 

Erich Kempka says in his book that while burning Hitler´s and Eva Braun´s bodies they waited that the fire had gone out and threw more gasoline over the bodies and set them on fire again several times between 2 pm and 7.30 pm...

Also he says that in his peace offer to the allied Himmler said in April 1945 that Hitler had suffered from a brain hemorrhage ( and was not conscious ) and would not live longer than 48 hrs...

 

Josef "Sepp" Wurmheller
Major

http://www.luftwaffe.cz/wurmheller.html

His most successful day came during the Allied landings at Dieppe on 19 August 1942. Despite a crash-landing, during which he broke a leg (??) and suffered concussion, Wurmheller claimed seven victories during the day. The feat earned Wurmheller a promotion to the rank of Leutnant and the award of the Eichenlaub (Nr 146), presented on 20 August 1942.

 

3/4 March 1945

The Luftwaffe mounted Operation Gisella on this night, sending approximately 200 night fighters to follow the various bomber forces to England. This move took the British defences partly by surprise and the Germans shot down 20 bombers - 8 Halifaxes of No 4 Group, 2 Lancasters of No 5 Group, 3 Halifaxes, 1 Fortress and 1 Mosquito of No 100 Group and 3 Lancasters and 2 Halifaxes from the Heavy Conversion Units which had been taking part in the diversionary sweep. 3 of the German fighters crashed, through flying too low; the German fighter which crashed near Elvington airfield was the last Luftwaffe aircraft to crash on English soil during the war.

12 March 1945

1,108 aircraft - 748 Lancasters, 292 Halifaxes, 68 Mosquitos attacked Dortmund. This was another new record to a single target, a record which would stand to the end of the war.Another record tonnage of bombs - 4,851 - was dropped through cloud on to this unfortunate city.

14/15 March 1945

The last Stirling operation of Bomber Command was flown on this night when Stirling LJ516, from No 199 Squadron at North Creake, flew a Mandrel screen operation; Squadron Leader JJM Button, the Australian pilot, and his crew landed safely.

31 March 1945

Hamburg: 469 aircraft.8 Lancasters and 3 Halifaxes were lost, a number being victims of an unexpected intervention by the Luftwaffe day-fighter force. This was Bomber Command's last double-figure aircraft loss of the war from a raid on one city.

http://www.raf.mod.uk/bombercommand/mar45.html

[ 26. July 2005, 01:06 PM: Message edited by: Kai-Petri ]

 

Bombing of Warsaw 25th Sept 1939

..on 25 September, Luftwaffe bombers under the command of Major General Wolfram von Richthofen conducted the first major city attack of World War II, dropping 500 tons of high explosive bombs and 72 tons of incendiary bombs, in coordination with heavy artillery shelling by Army units. The center of Warsaw was badly damaged. Approximately 1,150 sorties were flown by a wide variety of aircraft, including even obsolescent Junkers Ju-52/3m bombers, which dropped 13 percent of the incendiary bombs dropped on the day.

http://www.richmond.edu/~wgreen/ECDwarsaw.html

 

Bombing of Warsaw 25th Sept 1939

..on 25 September, Luftwaffe bombers under the command of Major General Wolfram von Richthofen conducted the first major city attack of World War II, dropping 500 tons of high explosive bombs and 72 tons of incendiary bombs, in coordination with heavy artillery shelling by Army units. The center of Warsaw was badly damaged. Approximately 1,150 sorties were flown by a wide variety of aircraft, including even obsolescent Junkers Ju-52/3m bombers, which dropped 13 percent of the incendiary bombs dropped on the day.

http://www.richmond.edu/~wgreen/ECDwarsaw.html

 

'German Village' at Dugway Utah

"German Village," as it is officially labeled, is the remnant of a much larger, composite German/Japanese "doomtown" . It played a crucial role in the planning of the incineration of the cities of Germany and Japan.


http://msqr.us/articles/firebomb.xml?&page=2


http://www.principality-of-sealand.de/pdf/sealandbrief0503e.pdf

Pics:

http://www.lostplaces.de/dugwaypg/

 

This memorial stone is a bad joke, isn't it?!

 

Must admit that "brave and heroic" do not fit here really....

 

The firebombing article is particularly interesting. That is a lesser known fact for sure. It is really amazing that it seems from that article that much of that complex still remains. I guess they built it one time too many.

 

I think that Hess memorial is a replacement for the original (plain) stone one, which was destroyed by Anti-Nazi League members live on a news programme about 10-15 years ago. The original one was just a sandstone block on Eaglesham muir, and lay prone.
It deserved to be replaced as a historical footnote, but it was never a totem for neo-Nazis. Having said that, this one is well over the top...........

[ 18. August 2005, 04:16 PM: Message edited by: The_Historian ]

 

On US artillery:

One of the most deadly tactics employed was the time-on-target (TOT) concentration. A TOT massed fires from several battalions onto a selected target and calculated the times of flight for the shells from each battery so that they all arrived on target at nearly the same instant (a similar tactic, called a "Stonk", had been developed independently by the Royal Artillery in North Africa).

http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/wwii/usarmy/artillery.aspx

Problems with ammunition supply did hamper efficiency at various periods. This problem reached its nadir during the fall of 1944, when the US artillery in Europe was reduced to strict rationing of ammunition. At one point, the artillery was limited to fewer than twenty 105mm rounds-per-day-per-gun. From 11 October to 7 November 1944, Third Army fired a total of 76,325 rounds of all types (an average of 2,726 per-day), which was less than the number fired on a single day during the Battle of the Bulge. Indeed, at the end of the Battle of the Bulge, ammunition reserves in the ETO were 31 percent of the War Department's planning levels (which were already conceded to be too low).

 

Excellent article. Would hate to be on the receiving end of that time on target fire. Let's be honest, any artillery fire.

 

From Skorzeny´s My Commando operations:

Guderian stated that Himmler also hoped to receive the Knight´s Cross ( for his actions as commanding Army Group Vistula...), even wanted the Knight´s Cross with Oak Leaves...

 

Roosevelt proposed the name "United Nations" for the alliance that fought Germany, Italy, and Japan, but "Allies" became the preferred term, which was used during World War I.

http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1662.html

 

Interesting. The Germans manufactured even helmets for kids in the 1930´s. In 1945 these were needed!



This one sold in net auction in Finland.

length 26,3 cms, width 21 cms.