Lesser known facts...a history

Not bad....

Romanian Knights Cross Holders of WWII
by Greg Kelley from the works of Mark Axworthy

During WWII 16 or 17 members of the Royal Romanian Armed Forces (16 appear in German sources, while a 17th is cited in a Romanian one, hence the discrepency), were awarded the coveted German Knight's Cross award, more than any other non-German Axis power.

1. Maresal (Army Marshal) Ion Antonescu: 6th August 1941

As Commander in Chief of the Royal Romanian Armed Forces, Antonescu ostensibly received his Ritterkreuz in recognition for his leadership of the Romanian troops during the initial stages of the Russian campaign.

2. General de armata (General) Petre Dumitrescu: ?? 1941

Dumitrescu, perhaps Romania's most senior and able commander after Antonescu, was awarded the Ritterkreuz for leading the Romanian 3rd Army in its successful summer campaign against Soviet forces in 1941.

3. General de corp de armata (Lieutenant General) Corneliu Dragalina: ?? 1941

Dragalina commanded the 3rd Army's VI Corps, often in the vanguard of the Royal Romanian Army's advance into southern Russia during the summer of 1941. His Ritterkreuz appears to have been awarded simultaneously with Dumitrescu's.

4. General Mihai Lascar: 18th January 1942

Perhaps one of Romania's most noted Generals, Lascar won his Ritterkreuz for leading the 1st Mountain Brigade to victory during the Crimean campaign. Promoted to command a division, Lascar added Oak Leaves to his award during the Battle of Stalingrad due to a heroic, if ultimately disastrous, defense against Soviet attacks. Captured at the end of November 1942, Lascar spent three years as a POW before resurfacing in command of a Soviet-sponsored division of pro-Allied Romanians in 1945.

5. General de divizie (Major General) Gheorghe Manoiliu: ?? June 1942

Manoiliu commanded the 4th Mountain Division, which under his leadership cleared Soviet defenses at Balaclava in the Crimea, taking over ten thousand prisoners including virtually the entire Soviet 109th Rifle Division.

6. General de brigada (Brigadier General) Ion Dumitrache: 2nd November 1942

Dumitrache commanded the Romanian 2nd Mountain Division, which captured the Soviet town of Nalchik in the Caucasus, the farthest, or most southern, Axis advance on the Eastern Front; he also received a promotion to the rank of General de divizie or Major General shortly afterwards.

7. Major Gheorghe Rasconescu: ?? December 1942

Rasconescu was a battalion commander in the 15th Dorobanti [infantry] Regiment of the 6th Infantry Division. His was the only Romanian formation of Lascar's embattled group to escape Soviet encirclement during the Battle of Stalingrad. From 26th November until 3rd December 1942 Rasconescu's battalion prevented the Soviet 8th Cavalry Corps from capturing the vital German airfield at Oblivkavia, a heroic stand against overwhelming odds which earned this very junior officer a Ritterkreuz.

8. Colonel Ion Hristea: ?? December 1942

Hristea commanded the famed 2nd Calarasi Cavalry Regiment, which during the Battle of Stalingrad defended an eighty-kilometer stretch of front for the embattled Romanian 4th Army. Incredibly, Hristea held this sector against Soviet attacks for nearly a month before being forced to withdraw. Hristea himself suffering grievous maiming wounds while leading his troops against heavy Soviet armor, in one instance firing his pistol at a KV-1 tank.

9. General de divizie (Major General) Radu Korne: 18th December 1942

A cavalry commander, Korne led the independent Korne Motorised Detachment during the advance into southern Russia. His Ritterkreuz, won during the Battle of Stalingrad, may have included Oak Leaves, but this is not clear.

10. General Nicolae Tataranu: 17th December 1942

Tataranu commanded the 20th Infantry Division of that was encircled at Stalingrad in the winter of 1942, receiving the Ritterkreuz as recognition for his services there. A vocal supporter of the pro-German Iacobici (former Chief of Staff of the Royal Romanian Army and rival of Antonescu, often used by the Germans to pressure Antonescu towards a firmer Axis standpoint), Tataranu escaped capture at Stalingrad by flying out of the encircled pocket to personally complain to Antonescu of his loss of control in the face of German interference. Tataranu narrowly escaped execution on charges of deserting his command, no doubt primarily due to German intervention with a much-displeased Maresal. Tataranu's subsequent career was mixed.

11. Major Ioan Palaghita: 7th April 1943

Palaghita was a battalion commander in the 19th Infantry Division's 94th Infantry Regiment. His personal leadership of a local counterattack in the Kuban bridgehead saved neighboring German forces from being encircled and overrun. Palaghita was killed in action on 9th May 1943 and was posthumously promoted to locotenet colonel [lieutenant colonel]; three days later this was upgraded to full colonel.

12. General de brigada (Brigadier General) Leonardi Mociulschi: 18th December 1943

During mopping up operations of the Eltigen beachhead in the Kuban in 1943, a force of 820 Soviet troops broke out of their encirclement in the direction of Soviet-held enclave at nearby Ganikale. Overrunning German artillery batteries on Mount Mithridates, this force quickly jeopardised the entire German ring at Eltigen. Mociulschi assembled a force from elements of the 6th Mountain Division and the 9th Rosiori (cavalry) Regiment, personally leading them in a counterattack upon the Soviets, obliterating enemy forces and saving the local sector from disaster.

13. General de divizie (Major General) Corneliu Teodorini: 18th December 1943

Teodorini commanded the 6th Cavalry Division during mopping up operations of the Soviet Eltigen beachhead in the Kuban in 1943; his Division counted over 1,200 dead on the battlefield and captured some 1,570 prisoners along with a cache of equipment such as 38 tanks and 25 antitank guns, many of which were subsequently pressed into Romanian service. Teodorini went on to command the 8th Motorised Cavalry Division. Teodorini's award is cited in Romanian sources but not in German records; this is the elusive "17" possible recipient mentioned by Mark Axworthy. While Axworthy reports him winning his Ritterkreuz the same time as Mociulschi, another source suggests he had won it in September 1943, adding Oak Leaves for the Eltigen operation.

14. General de ......... (Major-General) Emanoil Ionescu 10th May 1944

Ionescu commanded the Royal Romanian Air Force's Corpul I Aerien deployed in Russia during WW2, and the largest non-German Axis air contingent to serve on the Russian front during the war.

15. Contraamiral (Rear-Admiral) Horia Marcellariu: 21st May 1944

Marcellariu commanded the units of the Royal Romanian Navy that during April and May of 1944 successfully evacuated no fewer than 57,386 Germans, 35,877 Romanians, and 25,840 Axis auxiliaries (mostly pro-German Russian personnel) for a total of 119,103.

16. General Edgar Radulescu: 3rd July 1944

As commander of the 11th Infantry Division, Radulescu received his Ritterkreuz in recognition of his division's local counterattack at Tirgu Frumos in eastern Romania, conducted in early June of 1944 against strong Soviet forces.

17. General de corp armata (Lieutenant General) Mihai Racovita: 7th July 1944

Racovita's Ritterkreuz, the last one received by a Romanian, was won due to his role as commander of the oft-luckless Romanian 4th Army (prior to this appointment he commanded the Cavalry Corps), in its final manifestation/reconstitution from March 1944 or more specifically, for 4th Army's role in the Tirgu Frumos counterattack (see under Radulescu).

 

On Sacrifice

"There is my regiment!"

SS-Brigadeführer Otto Kumm
What Otto Kumm is supposed to have said to Field Marshall Walter Model after Model inquired about reviewing Kumm's troops after a particuarly tought battle against the Soviets. Kumm was pointing a group of 35 Waffen-SS troops lined up at attention outside in the cold, the only survivors of a regiment of 4,000.

On Honor

"We owe it to the title on our sleeve"

SS-Oberstgruppenfüuhrer ('Sepp') Dietrich
Commenting on how the Waffen-SS should adhere to the rules of warfare.

On each other
"...A Sleazy Romantic"

SS-Obergruppenführer Felix Steiner
Describing his boss, Reichführer-SS Heinrich Himmler

"My most insubordinate general..."

RFSS Himmler
describing SS-Obergruppenführer Felix Steiner

"...I once spent an hour and a half trying to explain a situation to Sepp Dietrich with the aid of a map. It was quite useless. He understood nothing at all."

SS-Obergruppenführer Willi Bittrich
describing SS-Oberstgruppenfüuhrer ('Sepp') Dietrich. Although Sepp Dietrich was an excellent leader and motivator of men, his knowledge on military matters was notoriously terrible.

On Combat

"Get us tanks! Without them, this magnificient force will be ruined!"

SS-Obergruppenführer Arthur Phleps
pleading to SS-Obergruppenführer Felix Steiner during his service as a regimental commander in Steiner's panzer division Wiking

On Strategy

"It's all an enormous bluff..."

RFSS Himmler
to Heer General Guderian, late fall 1944, on the possibility of a Soviet winter offensive. On Jan 12, 1945, the Soviet Union mounted a 3-million man offensive, smashing their way onto German soil.

On Supplies

"Don't send me any more Lithuanians ... my Russian soldiers keep shooting them"

Sturmbannführer Magill
Staff officer, SS-Regiment Dirlewanger, in correspondence to the SS main office.

 

On Robin Cross´s book on Zitadelle a couple of Hitler´s crazy ideas are brought up that I have not heard before:

-Ram Tigers for street fighting

-Elephant with a 210 mm mortar

-Gustav 800 mm cannon trasformed into an antitank weapon...

 

September 1, 1939. At 4:34 a.m., Lt. Bruno Dilley leads three Junkers Ju-87 Stuka dive bombers in an attack against the Dirschau Bridge. The German invasion of Poland, the first act of World War II, begins six minutes later.

February 21, 1940. Henry A.H. Boot and John T. Randall, working at the University of Birmingham, England, create the first practical magnetron. The magnetron, a resonant-cavity microwave generator, is vital in the development of airborne radar.

October 8, 1940. The Royal Air Force announces formation of the first Eagle Squadron, a Fighter Command unit to consist of volunteer pilots from the US.

March 22, 1941. The first black flying unit, the 99th Pursuit Squadron, is activated. As part of the 332d Pursuit Squadron, they will become known as the Tuskegee Airmen.

May 6, 1941. Company test pilot Lowery Brabham makes the first flight of the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt at Farmingdale, Long Island, N.Y. The P-47, the heaviest single-engine fighter ever built in the US, will see action in every theater in World War II as both a high-altitude escort fighter and as a low-level fighter bomber.

May 13-14, 1941. In the first mass flight of bombers over the Pacific, twenty-one B-17s fly from Hamilton Field, Calif., to Hickam Field, Hawaii, thirteen hours, ten minutes.

December 8, 1941. The day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, company test pilot Robert Stanley makes the first flight of the Bell XP-63 Kingcobra, a bigger and more powerful version of the P-39, at Buffalo, N.Y.

December 10, 1941. Five B-17s of the 93d Bomb Squadron, 19th Bomb Group, carry out the first heavy bomb mission of World War II, attacking a Japanese convoy near the Philippines and also sinking the first enemy vessel by US aerial combat bombing.

December 16, 1941. Lt. Boyd "Buzz" Wagner becomes the first American USAAF ace of World War II by shooting down his fifth Japanese plane over the Philippines.

February 22, 1942. First American air headquarters in Europe in World War II, US Army Bomber Command, is established in England, with Brig. Gen. Ira C. Eaker, commanding.

April 18, 1942. Sixteen North American B-25s, commanded by Lt. Col. James H. Doolittle, take off from USS Hornet (CV-8) and bomb Tokyo. For planning and successfully carrying out this daring raid, Lieutenant Colonel Doolittle is promoted to brigadier general (skipping the grade of colonel) and is awarded the Medal of Honor.

April 18, 1943. P-38 pilots from Henderson Field, Guadalcanal, intercept and shoot down two Mitsubishi "Betty" bombers over Bougainville. The aerial ambush kills Japanese Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto, who planned the Pearl Harbor attack.

July 2, 1943. Lt. Charles Hall shoots down a German FW-190 over Sicily, becoming the first black US flyer to down an Axis plane.

July 19, 1943. Rome is bombed for the first time. Flying from Benghazi, Libya, 158 B-17 crews and 112 B-24 crews carry out a morning raid. A second attack is staged in the afternoon.

August 1, 1943. Staging from Benghazi, 177 Ninth Air Force B-24s drop 311 tons of bombs from low level on the oil refineries at Ploesti during Operation Tidal Wave. More Air Force Medals of Honor were awarded for this mission than any other in the service's history.

September 27, 1943. P-47s with belly tanks go the whole distance with Eighth Air Force bombers for a raid on Emden, Germany.

January 11, 1944. The first US use of forward-firing rockets is made by Navy TBF-1C Avenger crews against a German submarine.

April 11, 1944. Led by Royal Air Force Wing Commander R.N. Bateson, six de Havilland Mosquitos of No. 613 Squadron bomb an art gallery at The Hague where population records are kept. These records, many of which were destroyed, were used by the Gestapo to suppress the Dutch resistance.

May 21, 1944. Operation Chattanooga Choo-Choo--systematic Allied air attacks on trains in Germany and France--begins.

June 2, 1944. The first shuttle bombing mission, using Russia as the eastern terminus, is flown. Lt. Gen. Ira C. Eaker, head of Mediterranean Allied Air Forces, flies in one of the B-17s.

June 6, 1944. Allied pilots fly approximately 15,000 sorties on D-Day. It is an effort unprecedented in concentration and size.

June 19-20, 1944. "The Marianas Turkey Shoot": In two days of fighting, the Japanese lose 476 aircraft. American losses are 130 planes.

July 17, 1944. Napalm incendiary bombs are dropped for the first time by American P-38 pilots on a fuel depot at Coutances, near Saint LÙ, France.

August 4, 1944. The first Aphrodite mission (a radio-controlled B-17 carrying 20,000 pounds of TNT) is flown against V-2 rocket sites in the Pas de Calais section of France.

August 14, 1944. Capt. Robin Olds records his first victory while flying with the 434th Fighter Squadron in the ETO. He would go on to tally eleven more "kills" by July 4, 1945. His next aerial victory would come on January 2, 1967, making him the only American ace to record victories in nonconsecutive wars.

September 8, 1944. The German V-2, the world's first ballistic missile, is first used in combat. Two strike Paris; two more are launched against London.

October 24, 1944. Navy Capt. David McCampbell, who will go on to be the Navy's leading ace of all time, sets the US record for aerial victories in a single engagement when he shoots down nine Japanese fighters.

November 3, 1944. The Japanese start their "Fu-Go Weapon" offensive against the United States. These balloon weapons are carried across the Pacific on the jet stream and release their bomblets over the US.

March 9, 1945. In a change of tactics in order to double bomb loads, Twentieth Air Force sends more than 300 B-29s from the Marianas against Tokyo in a low-altitude, incendiary night raid, destroying about one-fourth of the city.

March 11, 1945. The greatest weight of bombs dropped in a USAAF strategic raid on a single target in Europe falls on Essen, Germany, as 1,079 bomber crews release 4,738 tons of bombs.

March 14, 1945. The first Grand Slam (22,000-pound) bomb is dropped from an Avro Lancaster flown by Royal Air Force Squadron Leader C.C. Calder. Two spans of the Bielefeld railway viaduct in Germany are destroyed.

April 9, 1945. The last B-17 rolls off the line at Boeing's Seattle, Wash., plant.

April 10, 1945. The last Luftwaffe wartime sortie over Britain is made by an Arado Ar-234B pilot on a reconnaissance mission out of Norway.

April 10, 1945. Thirty of fifty German Me-262 jet fighters are shot down by US bombers and their P-51 escorts. The German fighters shoot down ten bombers--the largest loss of the war in a single mission to jets.

April 23, 1945. Flying Consolidated PB4Y-2 Privateers, Navy crews from VPB-109 launch two Bat missiles against Japanese ships in Balikpapan Harbor, Borneo. This is the first known use of automatic homing missiles during World War II.

June 22, 1945. Okinawa is declared captured by US forces. The price paid to capture this island--16,000 men, thirty-six ships, and 800 aircraft--is a key consideration in the decision to use the atomic bombs on Japan.

August 14, 1945. Lt. Robert W. Clyde (pilot) and Lt. Bruce K. Leford (radar operator) record the last aerial victory of World War II. Flying a Northrop P-61 nicknamed Lady in the Dark, the crew gets behind a Nakajima Oscar, and, in an attempt to escape from its pursuer, the Japanese fighter crashes into the Pacific without a shot being fired.

http://www.afa.org/magazine/kittyhawk/1903-1996.html

 

Winston on the subject of Field Marshal Montgomery...

"In defeat unbeatable; in victory unbearable."
------

General Douglas MacArthur

"We are not retreating, we are advancing in another direction. "

-------

Winston again:

Churchill was sitting on the toilet when he heard a voice from outside the door ;- "Mr. Churchill. The Privy Seal wishes to see you immediately."
Back came the reply :- "Tell the Privy Seal I am sealed in the privy and can only deal with one sh*t at a time."
-------

Harold MacMillan : Winston. Lend me a penny. I want to telephone a friend.

Churchill : Here's tuppence. Ring them both.

-------

During the 'Winter War' of 1940 temperatures were very low. One Finnish soldier, after being shot in the chest six times, was able to walk out of the battle and reach the casualty clearing station, because he bled so slowly.

-------

On the 18th August, 1940 a detachment of the Home Guard, from their sandbagged emplacement on the South London outskirts, claimed the first bomber, a Dornier, to fall to the volunteer defenders. They shot it down after 180 rounds of rifle fire.

-------

As U-559 was sinking, two British seaman, Lieutenant Tony Fasson and Able-Seaman Colin Grazier, swam from H.M.S. Petard to try and capture the Enigma machine which all U-Boats carried. They were followed by 16 year old Tommy Brown, a NAAFI boy, in a whaleboat. With Brown standing by at the top of the conning tower, Fasson and Grazier handed up the precious Enigma machine to him. There were now only seconds in which to leave the sinking submarine, but instead of coming out, Fasson and Grazier continued to pass documents, keypads and codes up to Brown. As Tommy Brown stowed everything in his whaleboat, the submarine went down taking Fasson and Grazier with it. They were awarded the George Cross posthumously.

--------

http://www.martin.thornton.btinternet.co.uk/anecdotes.htm

 

World War II in Ukraine:
Dynamo versus Germany: Soccer Match of Death

The incredible story of the Dynamo soccer club of Kiev, one of Europe's finest, is one of the legendary events of WW II. After Kiev was occupied members of the Dynamo team found work in Kiev Bakery No. 1 and started to play soccer in an empty lot. The Germans offered them the opportunity to train in the Zenith Stadium and then suggested a "friendly" game with a team picked from the German army.

The Ukrainians accepted the offer, named their team Start and posters on June 12, 1942 announced: "Football [Soccer]. Armed Forces of Germany versus Kiev city Start." The Germans, in good physical shape, scored the first goal. Then Dynamo gained its strength and scored a goal. The old talent of Dynamo started to grow and they scored a second goal to the enthusiastic cheers of the Ukrainian spectators. The Germans were furious.

At half time a German officer came from the Commandant's box to the Dynamo dressing room and ordered them "not to play so keenly" and threatened that they would be shot if they do not obey. The fans, completely unaware that the lives of Dynamo were threatened, cheered them on to a score of 4-1 when suddenly the German Commandant of Kiev, Major-General Eberhardt, and his staff left. The referee's whistle ended the game before it was finished.

The Germans then fielded a stronger team on July 17 but it lost 6-0. Two days later Dynamo had a match with the Hungarian team MSG Wal and Dynamo defeated them 5-1 and a rematch on the 26th ended with a score 3-2 for Dynamo. The German administration was outraged and decided that they had to teach the Dynamo Untermensch a lesson. The powerful and "ever victorious" German Flakelf team was invited. But this German team also lost to Dynamo and not a word about it appeared in the newspapers.

The Ukrainian team was given three days to think about their position and on August 9th there was a "friendly" rematch. In spite of the pressure Dynamo again in its fifth game defeated the German team -- for the last time. Most of the Ukrainian team members were arrested and executed in Babyn Yar, but they are not forgotten. There is a monument to them in Kiev and their heroism inspired the film Victory starring Sylvester Stallone and Pele.

http://www.infoukes.com/history/ww2/figure23.jpg

http://www.infoukes.com/history/ww2/page-14.html

 

On the topic...ish..of little known facts, what about the contribution the little nation of Fiji made in the conflict...

During World War II the Fiji Defence Force was raised under New Zealand auspices. Of the approximately 8,500 men in the FDF, over 6,000 were native Fijians, slightly more than a thousand were of mixed European-Fijian descent, and the balance were Europeans (mostly New Zealanders) serving as officers. There were, in addition, a handful of Indians, who comprised nearly half the population, but were kept out of military service by the British, for fear of offending the native Fijians, a people of Polynesian descent. The Fijians, a warrior people, were physically large, very fit men, who enjoyed soldiering, whether on parade or in combat.

In mid-1942 the bulk of the Fiji Defence Force formed a brigade group. At peak strength it consisted of three infantry battalions, three commandos, an artillery battery, an engineer company, a service company, a transport company, a signals section, and small ordnance, medical, pay, and records detachments. In addition to the units that formed the brigade group, there was a territorial battalion and two labor battalions. Of these forces, two commandos and two infantry battalions served in combat.

1st Commando: Organized in 1942, a "Special Detachment" of about 30 men served alongside U.S. Marines on Guadalcanal later that same year, and the entire commando later fought on New Georgia, where it greatly distinguished it, capturing over 80 enemy soldiers and earning a posthumous Victoria Cross as well as two Australian Military Crosses, and two American Silver Stars. Still later the commando fought on Vella Lavella.

2nd Commando: Organized in 1943, the 2nd Commando performed mopping up and security operations in the Solomon Islands in conjunction with the Solomon Islands Defence Force

1st Battalion: Organized in 1942, in early 1943 it cleared Florida Island, north of Guadalcanal, of Japanese stragglers, and went on to fight on Bougainville, where it had a rough initiation into sustained combat, but handled itself well, and on Kolombangara from mid-1943 into 1944.

3rd Battalion: Organized in 1943, it served on Bougainville in 1944-1945.

About 2,500 Fijian troops saw combat in the South Pacific, of whom 29 were killed in action or died of wounds.

 

And one of those who was killed, Corporal Sefania Sukanaivalu was awarded a posthumous VC after going to the aid of two wounded comrades, and was killed whilst rescuing a third.

 

1944:

Shortly an amusing incident occurred. Churchill had enquired who wrote political summaries which arrived from the Washington Embassy. He was informed that it was Mr. Isaiah Berlin, Fellow of All Souls and Tutor of New College (who subsequently wrote Mr. Churchill in 1940). When the famous song writer Irving Berlin arrived to entertain the troops, the Prime Minister confused him with Isaiah and invited him to lunch - and conversed with him as if he had been the academic, asking such questions as "When do you think the war will end, Mr. Berlin?" Irving Berlin enjoyed the occasion and confidently forecast the reelection of President Roosevelt.

Churchill was not so pleased particularly when Berlin told him that his most important piece of work was 'I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas'. The Prime Minister was quite amused later when he learned of the mistaken identi-ty. On meeting Isaiah Berlin, Churchill said: "I fear that you have learned of the grave solecism I was so unfortunate to have perpetrated."
---------

1945:

The end of April brought the death of two of his mortal enemies, Mussolini and Hitler. Jock Colville informed Churchill that German radio had announced that Hitler had died "fighting with his last breath against Bolshevism." "Well," commented Churchill, "I must say I think he was perfectly right to die like that."

 

REAR ADMIRAL TOM MAXWELL, was the engineer officer of the submarine Trident when she pulled off one of the numerous successful ambushes of Axis ships in the Second World War, made possible by Ultra Special Intelligence. In February 1942, there were indications from radio traffic analysis and from decrypted Enigma machine signals that the German Navy was preparing to send heavy warships up to Norway. By Feb 21, it had been revealed that the pocket battleship Admiral Scheer, the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen and five destroyers were on their way to Trondheim. Four submarines were positioned to lie in wait off the approaches to Trondheim. Trident, whose station proved to be only one and a half miles off the enemy ships' mean line of advance, sighted Prinz Eugen early on the 23rd. She fired three torpedoes, one of which hit aft, damaging Prinz Eugen's rudder and blowing away some 30 ft of her stern. (Enigma later revealed the precise extent of the damage.) Prinz Eugen limped into harbour and took no further part in operations in Norway. Trident had previously sustained considerable depth-charge damage, and was only able to maintain her patrol and carry out the attack through the hard work and dedication of Maxwell (who was awarded the DSC) and of his engine room department.

http://www.rontini.com/logs.html

 

August 1943:

In a related development, RFSS Himmler informs 2nd SS CO Walter Krüger that his daughter cannot marry Oberführer Fritz Klingenberg - because SS research into Krüger's wife's family has uncovered a full-blooded Jewess from 1711...

 

Although the Soviet Union had 289 submarines in commission during World War II, they were only able to sink only 128 enemy vessels, in the process losing 110 of their number, perhaps the worst loss-to-kill ratio in the history of submarine warfare.

 

Not really ww2, but suppose is as a consequence of it...

News to me anyway..

To commemorate her namesake's dual heritage, and to further honour American-British military ties, the destroyer USS Winston S. Churchill, will always have an officer from the Royal Navy assigned to her crew, while an American officer will serve in HMS Marlborough, named for an earlier member of the Churchill family.

 

New Zealand had seized Samoa in 1914 from Germany and shipped many of the Germans to an island in the Hauraki Gulf. When World War I ended a number of the Germans who had married Samoans were able to return to Samoa and settle down again. The League of Nations awarded the mandate over Samoa to New Zealand who then made something of a botch of it with incidents including the careless introduction of Spanish influenza which killed 7,542 Samoans and the shooting of pro-self government Mau chiefs on the streets of Apia. By the 1930s much of that was behind the administrators and former circus master and Mississippi River boat gambler Arthur Braisby in his more recent capacity as Samoa Police Commissioner had something to do again.

On 15.1.1934, Mr. Alfred Matthes, a German planter (with a Tongan wife) in Western Samoa, was authorized to establish a branch of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP or "Nazi Party") there by NSDAP District Leader E.W. Bohle. "Matthes made himself the first [Nazi Party] leader in Samoa and at once began to receive literature and printed propaganda from the Auslands Abteilung [Foreign Branch] of the Nazi Party in Hamburg. This literature, etc., was freely distributed among the Germans in Western Samoa." (Burke 1945c: 114) In December Matthes started to publish a circular, the "Samoan Nazi".

The Samoan Nazi Party had to compromise on racial purity; one committee member was married to a Jewish woman and two others were married to Samoans. Braisby, who seemed to know everything, reported to Wellington that the Samoan Nazi's were bothered by the Arian standards required by Berlin. "To overcome this difficulty various debates have taken place among the Samoan Nazi's, and reference made to various anthropology authorities with the object of proving that Polynesian natives are not what is considered as coloured Negroid," Braisby reported to Wellington. "They appear to be having some difficulty in this direction, but the issue is so important to them that their hard work, talk and beer enter into their efforts. They persevere. The subject of this extraordinary discussion is watched with humorous interest by the German Concordia group, who, for the moment, may be considered to be the non-Nazi group." (Letter of Braisby to New Zealand governor Alfred Turnbull, dated 12.12.1934) The Samoan Nazi's presented their evidence to Berlin but there is no record of a reply. By 1936 Wellington was getting a bit more concerned about the Samoan Nazi and acting Samoa Administrator Alfred Turnbull was told to keep a closer watch on them as "there is perhaps some danger of their being inflamed by the somewhat ruthless actions in Germany of Hitler."

On January 20, 1937, Alfred Matthes and Gerhard Stoeicht returned to Apia from the Nazi Party's World Congress in Hamburg, Germany. (Burke 1945c: 116)

In the spring of 1937 the German consul in Wellington visited the Concordia Gruppe in Apia. He reported to Berlin that the club on Beach Road "now bears a definitely National-Socialist imprint. There are pictures of our Führer in every room and in front of the ministry flies our national flag" (report to ministry of foreign affairs, dated 30.5.1937). He also wrote that New Zealand had become indifferent over Samoa and Berlin could be expected to get their former colonial place in the sun back without "over much persuasion". However, the problem was that in Samoa now there were "all degrees of miscegenation" among the island's German population which "expressed the whole tragedy of the German cause in Samoa".

Matthes kept the movement going and Braisby in July 1938 reported on a meeting, which 10 Samoans were a letter from Adolf Hitler was read out. Matthes said the Führer had promised the German people the return of their former colonies by Christmas. "What happened in the Rhine Valley is going to happen also to Samoa and New Guinea," Matthes said, "and at a not far distant date, according to the letter I have received from Hitler." During the Munich crisis in 1938 the Samoan Nazi became active again and apparently planned to seize some key government institutions. Briasby sent his police into the countryside to practice on the Lewis guns -- the same guns used on Samoans in 1929. Matthes went broke and Berlin dissolved the Samoan Nazi in April 1939. According to the Reichshauptstadt, Matthes and his party were a disgrace. The German Consul in Wellington asked New Zealand to help Matthes return to Germany. It is not clear if Matthes ever reached Germany.

1939, when the war started, the New Zealand authorities quickly bundled up the German population and dispatched them to Somes Island in Wellington Harbour. A document that was found in Germany after the war proved that twelve Western Samoans had an official NSDAP membership card. Ten of them emigrated to New Zealand after the war.

Information found in "Mau. Samoa's struggle against New Zealand oppression" by Michael J. Fields (1984) and in "Eenzaam" by Boudewijn Büch (1992).

 

Swiftly convincing himself that the priority of "Germany First" agreed by Roosevelt and Churchill at Argentia, Newfoundland, in August 1941 was correct, Eisenhower framed proposals for a 1943 invasion (Operation "Roundup") and another (Operation "Sledgehammer") for 1942 in the event of a Russian collapse or a sudden weakening of Germany's position. Both plans were presented to the British in London in April 1942, and Roundup was adopted.

http://users.pandora.be/dave.depickere/Text/D-DayText/roundup.html

 

Accident Prone Ace.


Nils Edward "Nipa" Katajainen was born in
Helsinki on 31 May 1919. He was interested in aviation since young age. He became a promising glider pilot before the war broke out in 1939. He was drafted and trained into NCO fighter pilot in 1940. As junior Sgt. he was transferred to HLeLv 24 for Brewster training in early 1941. Due to fuel shortage, howvever, his first flight was delayed until June 1941. Katajainen proved to be a good pilot and he was assigned to the 3. Flight to fly as wingman to Sgt. Lauri Nissinen .

Characteristic to Katajainen's career was the frequency of accidents and damages. In July 1941, before the war broke out, he lost the other undercarriage leg of his BW at takeoff. He successfully landed on one wheel and wingtip, and the mechanics repaired the plane in base in one week.

On a reconnaisance flight in October 1941 the enemy AA damaged again the engine of the Brewster so badly that the engine initially stopped in mid-air. By applying pressure in the fuel system with the manual pump and by using the priming pump Katajainen managed to restart the engine. He also was able to maintain enough power to enable the BW limp to base at Mantsi at treetops. During the long slow return flight he developed an aversion for the smell of pine resin: he had been flying so low that the smell of the forest filled the cockpit.

When based at Solomanni, in early 1942 Katajainen took his BW to a test flight after repair. The engine failed at takeoff. "Nipa" turned back, although he did not have enough speed. The BW nosed over at the bumpy landing and the propeller was damaged.

Since 27 February 1944 he was in Messerschmitt training. After briefing he took off for his first flight, but at the final of the take-off the fighter engine began to smoke: it was in fire. He was ordered over the radio to make a belly-landing. This he managed to do, and the Me survived. It was found that the engine had been damaged earlier and it happened to fail just when Katajainen was flying.

One week later he had the second try. At takeoff a gust of wind spread a blinding screen of snow on the Me just at takeoff. Katajainen could not see how he drifted a little to the left, and the left wing was caught in the snow bank on the side of the runway. Katajainen had to take off at too low speed. The Me stalled and crashed. The plane was a total loss, but it did not catch fire. Katajainen suffered a concussion of the brain and was grounded for several months.

He was sent to assist Finnish escort fighters defending Finnish bombers attacking enemy ships near Viipuri. Katajainen shot down one Yak-9, but then a 40mm shell fired from a ship exploded in the right wing. There was a jagged hole that a man could put his head through. The Me was badly damaged in other parts, too. The engine began to smoke and fuel fumes penetrated in the cockpit, making the pilot groggy. He took course to Lappeenranta. Katajainen was half unconscious as he approached the base. He belly landed at a speed of 500 kmh. At the first impact the Me made a 200 m bounce, then another impact, then a 100m bounce. At the third impact the plane cartwheeled, the wings were ripped off first, then the engine. As the wreck of the fighter stopped, ground crews went to see what was left of the pilot. "Nipa" was found alive but unconscious amid the wreckage. He briefly returned to consciousness as he was given first aid and Col.Ltn. Magnusson granted him a decoration. He was flown to a hospital in Mikkeli where he met his friend Hans Wind .

After the war with Soviet Union was over Katajainen was demobilised on 10 November 1944 with the rank of Sr.Sgt.Maj. His total score was 35 1/2 victories during 196 missions. In December of 1944 he was granted the Mannerheim Cross.


http://www.elknet.pl/acestory/kata/kata.htm

 

During "Operation Cobra" on July 25th the USAAF dropped 4,000 tons of bombs on the Panzer Lehr division and it was during this raid that American troops were bombed by there own planes. Among those killed was Leutnant-General Leslie McNair who was commander of the American ground forces. He was buried in great secrecy.

In July 1944, the 30th Infantry Division spearheading the "Operation Cobra" breakthrough, endured the heaviest bombing by "friendly aircraft" of the entire war, when approximately 88 men were killed and over 500 seriously wounded over a two-day period. Lt. Gen. Leslie McNair, Commanding General Army Ground Forces, was visiting and observing this attack in the area of the Second Battalion, 120th Infantry, when he was instantly killed. Nonetheless, the 30th Infantry made a spectacular attack, and opened the way for Patton's newly arrived Third Army to drive into Brittany and onward to Brest.

During combat, the Division became know as the Workhorse of the Western Front. It was also known as "Roosevelt's SS Troops," so named by German high command because of the consistent vigor and pressure the Division brought to bear on Hitler's elite 1st SS Division. The 1st SS was the main force of resistance just before the breakthrough at St. Lo, and again at Mortain, which the 30th literally tore to shreds, thus allowing Gen. George Patton's armored forces to race forward through France, thereby shortening the war by many months.

 

I was reading of this incident this morning and it was in fact 111 men who were killed and 500 wounded.

 

111 men killed by own bombers...
I bet there was some "heavy" talks between some commanders! If I remember right the US military called some units of the US bombers " Luftwaffe " as well in the Battle of Bulge with all the
" friendly plane bombing". I wonder if someone remembers those accidents?

 

Hey kai,

Off Topic, but...did you move?