Would you believe or Did you know?

[spidge]

US CHUTE'S DEADLY DELAY
The 957 men of the US 82nd Airborne Division suffered a 16% casualty rate on landing among the Normandy hedgerows. Twenty five men were killed, fourteen missing and 118 wounded. Everything depended on a quick dispersal after landing and to get to the nearest cover. The delay caused by the difficulty of getting out of their chute harness proved fatal to many.
In later drops, the buckles were dispensed with and the British quick-release mechanism was adopted.

[spidge]

GRIM REPLY
General Fritz Bayerlein, commander of the Panzer Lehr Division, when ordered by Field Marshal Von Kluge to hold the line at all costs, replied angrily "Out in front every one is holding out. Every one. My grenadiers and my engineers and my tank crews, they are all holding their ground. Not a single man is leaving his post. They are lying silent in their foxholes, for they are all DEAD."

[spidge]

JEEP
Nearly 649,000 of these vehicles were produced during WW11, 631,873 were delivered to the US Army and Air Force. Mostly used to support the Allied armed forces in war. In 1939 the US Military asked 135 companies to submit designs for an all-purpose vehicle. Only three companies responded to the request, Willys, Ford and Bantam. Willys-Overland was granted the manufacturing contract. The word 'Jeep' comes from the code letters GP the G meaning Government and the P a code letter meaning '80 inch wheelbase reconnaissance car' the name given to the Ford prototype and adopted by Willys as their trade mark. When slurred together the letters GP sounds like 'Jeep'. Peak production at the Willys-Overland plant in Toledo, Ohio, was one Jeep every 80 seconds.

[Peter Clare]

http://www.byerly.org/thollowt/nazis...llow_earth.htm



Now there's a thought!

[Peter Clare]

Spandau Prison.

When the prison was demolished in 1987, to ensure it's total erasure the site was made into a parking facility and all demolished materials from the prison were ground to powder and dispersed into the North Sea.

[Peter Clare]

21 November 1944

160 Lancasters of No 3 Group to attack the Homberg oil refinery. 3 Lancasters lost. The bombing was scattered at first but then became very concentrated, culminating, according to the Bomber Command report, in 'a vast sheet of yellow flame followed by black smoke rising to a great height'. This was a very satisfactory raid after several previous attempts by Bomber Command to destroy this oil refinery.
2 Wellingtons on RCM sorties.
21/22 November 1944

This was a night of mainly good visibility in which Bomber Command operations were directed strictly according to priorities given in recent directives.
Aschaffenburg: 274 Lancasters and 9 Mosquitos of Nos 1 and 8 Groups. 2 Lancasters lost. The object of this raid was to destroy the local railway yards and lines. The local report says that 50 bombs fell in the railway area, causing much damage to the marshalling yards and railway workshops but the: main through lines were not cut. Many other bombs fell in the centre and north of the town. About 500 houses were destroyed and 1,500 seriously damaged. Many old buildings were hit, including the local castle, the Johannisburg, which was hit by 5 high-explosive bombs and had a 4,000lb 'blockbuster' burst near by; the roof and upper storeys of the castle were burnt out.
Castrop-Rauxel: 273 aircraft - 176 Halifaxes, 79 Lancasters, 18 Mosquitos - of Nos 1, 6 and 8 Groups. 4 Halifaxes lost. The target was the oil refinery. The local report says that 216 high-explosive bombs, 78 duds and many incendiaries hit the oil plant and caused such a large fire that the fire-fighters could do little more than allow it to burn itself out. It is believe that the refinery produced no more oil after this raid. Bombs fell in many other places, including some important industrial and coal-mining premises.
Sterkrade: 270 aircraft - 232 Halifaxes, 20 Mosquitos, 18 Lancasters - of 4 and 8 Groups. 2 Halifaxes lost. The target was again the synthetic-oil refinery. Bomber Command's report says that the plant was not damaged, though some labour barracks near by were hit.
Mittelland Canal: 138 Lancasters and 6 Mosquitos of No 5 Group. 2 Lancasters lost. The canal banks were successfully breached near Gravenhorst. Later photographs showed that water drained off over a 30 mile stretch and that 59 barges were stranded on one short section alone.
Dortmund-Ems Canal: 123 Lancasters and 5 Mosquitos of No 5 Group. No aircraft lost. The canal near Ladbergen was attacked, some of the Lancasters coming down to 4,000ft to get beneath the cloud. A breach was made in the only branch of the aqueduct here which had been repaired since the last raid and the water once again drained out of the canal.
29 Mosquitos to Stuttgart, 26 to Hannover, 19 to Worms and 4 to Wesel, 38 RCM sorties, 80 Mosquito patrols, 24 Halifaxes and 18 Lancasters minelaying off Oslo, 9 aircraft on Resistance operations. 4 aircraft were lost - 2 Mosquitos and 1 Halifax of No 100 Group and 1 Lancaster from the minelaying force.
Total effort for the night: 1,345 sorties, 14 aircraft (1.0 per cent) lost.

Mitteland Canal Breached

---

Put this in the wrong place, should have gone in Remembering History by Day WW2

[Peter Clare]

The battle of the St. Lawrence


http://uboat.net/articles/?article=29

[spidge]

Japanese troops surround the headquarters of Brigader J. K. Lawson at Wong Nei Chong Gap on Hong Kong Island - Lawson killed in attempted breakout (first Canadian General killed in WWII) - Sergeant Major John Robert Osborn of The Winnepeg Grenadiers dies during attempt to recapture Mount Butler (Osborn falls on a grenade to save others in the company - posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross)

Brigadier J.K. Lawson, was killed fighting with a pistol in each hand when his headquarters was overrun on December 19.

[Peter Clare]

GUN ACCIDENTS
Copenhagen, in German occupied Denmark, was a favourite spot for German officers on R & R. In an effort to 'get their own back' members of a Danish resistance group opened up an Arts and Craft shop specializing in scroll work. They offered to personalize the officers side weapons by fitting ivory handles to their Lugers and cover the gun with artful designs and scroll work. Some were customized as gifts for fellow officers serving on other fronts. Trade was brisk, but what was not explained was that the barrels were being modified by reducing the diameter inside and weakening the breach of the gun, which, when fired for the first time would blow up in the officers face. Of course these guns were never fired while the officer was on leave and any 'accidents' at the front were put down to 'casualties of war'. According to Harry Jensen, the only survivor of the resistance group, hundreds of these Lugers were modified this way before they closed shop and fled.

[spidge]

Autumn 1941, 10000 French join the "Forces Françaises Libres". This fighting force was not only built of French men, but aslo, men from Senegal, Chad, Cameroon, Algeria, Marocoo and Tunisia.


The "FFL", where placed under the orders of General Leclerc and his 2nd Armed Division 2eme Division Blindées.

Free French Army

An article of Wikipédia, the free encyclopaedia.

To go to: navigation, To seek
The armed forces rejoined in free France were called free French Forces (FFL).
Their emblem was the cross of Lorraine. One distinguishes inside the FFL, the French air Forces free (FAFL) and the free French naval Forces (FNFL), the terrestrial Forces of Free France not having other name only FFL. The badge of these forces terrestrial is a red sword between two blue wings and a laurel wreath with in top the Free France inscription. Even after war, the general of Gaulle always carried this badge when it was in uniform.
One their principal military successes was the battle of Bir Hakeim, of May 26 until June 11 1942, in Libya, where the 1st free French Brigade, under the command of the Kœnig general, stopped during 14 days the rush of Afrika Korps towards Suez, thus giving time to the 8th British army in rout to gather on the strengthened line of El Alamein, and definitively to stop the advance of Rommel there towards the Channel.
A less known combat is the war led in Syria and to Lebanon against the forces of Vichy, in June and July 1941.
The least known combat is the catch of the branch of the National Service of the Statistics of Algiers on December 5 1942, which allowed several thousands of French and other nationals to mobilize itself, thanks to the computer files prepared by Rene Carmille. See Mode of Vichy in released Africa (1942-1943)
These forces consisted of volunteers coming from all horizons and refusing the armistice signed by the Vichy government. The following anecdote, told by Pierre Clostermann (in a life not like the others, éd. Flammarion (2005)) give an idea of the state of mind of the time: a Commander who reproached a comrade of Clostermann for having yellow socks and a yellow sweater under his uniform, the aforementioned comrade answered: My Commander, I am civil who voluntarily come to make the war that the soldiers do not want to make!
The FFL ceased existing on August 1, 1943 following their fusion with the Army of Africa ordered by Henri Giraud.