Lesser known details of WW2 part four

Fallschirmjäger training in colour

YouTube - Fallschirmjagers in training -Nazi propaganda video color

 

Luftwaffe Skizzenbuch
by Hans Liska, 1942

Hans Liska was one of the most famous illustrators in the service of the German Armed Forces in World War II. This is an album published in 1942 with his illustrations.

virtualpilots.fi: skizzenbuch

 

And this is not for children....


From " With Geronimo across Europe " by R Edward O´Brien

using the slang term in a "cathouse":

Saying " zig zig" meant you wanted to get laid.

saying " zig zag" meant you wanted to get drunk.

 

One notable thing about the Second World War was that the jingoism which played a major part in the First World War, had very largely evaporated by the Second. An example of this (October 1914) was a headline at the time, in a local paper, entitled ‘Poet at the Front’ - the verses of a Private Ward (no relation). It read:

“Here’s to the Leamington volunteers
That go and enlist today
There’s plenty joining Kitchener’s
To help us in the fray
So buck up dear old Leamington
If you want to see the fun
For you think the war IS OVER
When it’s only just begun”

It was thought, in 1914, that the war could be over by Christmas and would be an exciting adventure, not to be missed. Sadly this proved not to be the case. In September 1939 the atmosphere was much more realistic.

BBC - WW2 People's War - Aircraftsman in RAF, 1939 to 1940

 

In 1944, the year before his death, Roosevelt's blood pressure numbers read like a recipe for disaster: March 27, 186/108; April 1, 200/108; November 18, 210/112; November 27, 260/150. And yet, during those months, he traveled to Hawaii to confer with top brass. He went to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. He traveled to Alaska and to Washington State. He met with Winston Churchill in Canada.

FDR's death shows how much we've learned about the heart - US News and World Report

 

and in the 1960's Kai, zig-zag was the fine white little roll up papers for smoking your brand of weed .....

 

Not many US senior commanders fought both in the Pacific and European theaters. Here´s two:

Major General J. Lawton Collins
Major General Charles H. Corlett

J. Lawton Collins - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Charles H. Corlett - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Fw 190 and upward cannons (?)...haven´t seen a pic of this before...quite impressive looking...

Unfortunately do not understand the language...

PALBA.CZ :: Zobrazit téma - Schräge Musik

 

Why was it hard to begin a co-operation between the US and the British in the codebreaking section:

" The British were grappling with their own reservations about the Americans: " We are entitled to recall that America sent over at the end of the last war the now notorius Colonel Yardley for purposes of cooperation. He went so far as to publish the story of his cooperation in book form." Indeed, Herbert O. Yardley- ladies´man, high roller, and head of America´s codebreaking effort during WW1- had penned a memoir in 1931, the "American Black Chamber", that became a bestseller. In it, he detailed his success against enemy codes;later, he supplied the background for a Hollywood spy film."

From "Secret in building 26" by DeBrosse and Burke

 

" To deceive the enemy air reconnaissance a fake installation , a dummy Karinhall, had been built some ten kilometers from the true Karinhall."

From the HG Panzer division by Alfred Otte

 

In march 1944, of the total German artillery figure of 17,589 guns, no less than 47% were of foreign origin and of those the largest number was French.

From " Wages of destruction "

 

" I have had enough of those demonstrations! They don´t harm the jew, but me, who am the last authority for coordinating the German economy!"

Hermann Göring November 1938 on material damage to property owned by Jews during that year ( which he considered already belonging to the Reich )

 

Kai the Fw 190 with the Jagdfaust was a preset with cell trigger as the fighter flew under a B-17 or equivalent all three guns would fire with one explosive round ( 3 ) at the same time, not SM as one would call it really. supposed one successful testing but that was it, and it was not used at night like the Schrägwaffen equipment

 

Thanx Erich!

 

" By the summer of 1941, Wehrmacht was already scraping the manpower barrel. Due to the small number of children born during WW1, Germany had no option but to send virtually all its young men into battle. Of those aged between 20 and 30, who were physically fit for service, 85% were already in the Wehrmacht in the summer of 1941 "

from " Wages of destruction "

 

An ordnance report on German military fuels and lubricating oils, from Tactical and Technical Trends, No. 30, July 29, 1943.

b. Aviation Gasolines

German aviation fuels are of particular interest. These are of two types: a blue B-4 fuel (bomber grade) of 89 to 91 octane and a green C-3 (fighter grade) of 93 to 96 octane. The B-4 grade consists of a 71.5 to 74 octane base gasoline plus 4.5 to 4.75 cc tetraethyl lead per gallon, while the C-3 grade consists of 83 octane base gasoline plus 4.26 to 4.6 cc of lead. The C-3 fuel is outstanding in that it has a particularly high rich mixture rating which is given as 110 British Engine Performance Rating compared with 100 for British Air Ministry 100 fuel. This appreciation in performance rating with rich mixture is undoubtedly due to the high aromatic content of the green fuel which is reported as 37.42 and 38.59 percent on two samples.

Lone Sentry: Summary of Captured Fuels and Lubricants (WWII Tactical and Technical Trends, No. 30, July 29, 1943)

 

From early war bombing methods for Allied pilots:

Approaching a target wreathed in cloud, there were only two possibilities: to descend to recklessly low level to seek visual identification- which cost many crews their lives - or to bomb on ETA - estimated time of arrival over the target, judged from the last pinpoint, perhaps hundreds of miles back.

This was the commonest course among mediocre crews, who had their own saying: " He who bombs on ETA lives to fly another day."

From Bomber Command by Hastings

 

April 1940 Germans sending bombers to destroy any Allied ships patrolling off the Orkney or Shetland


" Sgt Hallowes ( flying a Hurricane ) had also enjoyed success of a more tangible nature on this sortie, his Heinkel actually crash-landing neatly inside the flarebath back at Wick! Two of the gunners aboard had been killed during the action, and the survivors insisted that they had been shot up by a Spitfire.

" It was the first sign of the Luftwaffe´s " Spitfire snobbery "- there were no Spitfires for miles", commented Townsend in "Duel of Eagles."

From Scandinavian sideshow 1940-45 ( Osprey )

 

I just found this while doing some research on the Canadians at Aldershot - Why the Army Group commanded by Montgomery was called 21 Army Group:

"The arrival of the 2nd Division brought Canadian troops in Britain up to 56,000 and on Christmas Day 1940 the Canadian Corps came into being, commanded by Lt Gen. McNaughton, who had initially brought over 1st Division. In the next eighteen months three more divisions and two tank brigades arrived, a second Corps was formed and all were put under command of a newly created First Canadian Army. This was the Army which fought alongside the British 2nd Army throughout the subsequent NW Europe Campaign, the two numbers being combined in the title of 21 Army Group commanded by Field Marshal Montgomery."

 

In 1940 he single-handedly deciphered and reverse-engineered an early version of the Siemens and Halske T52 also known as the Geheimfernschreiber (one of the "Fish cyphers") used by Nazi Germany, and created a device that enabled Sweden to decipher German teleprinter traffic passing through Sweden from Norway on a cable. In this way, Swedish authorities knew about Operation Barbarossa before it occurred.

Arne Beurling - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia