Would you believe or Did you know?

[spidge]

W.A.S.P. (WOMEN'S AIRFORCE SERVICE PILOT)
Originally named 'Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron', an organization responsible for ferrying planes from the factories to airfields across the USA and Canada. Disbanded on December 20, 1944, after having delivered 12,650 planes of 77 different types. Of the 1,074 women who graduated, thirty eight lost their lives during the war. This was equal to one fatality in every 16,000 hours of flying. Eleven were killed while training. The first casualty was pilot Cornelia Fort, killed on March 21, 1943, in a mid-air collision near Abilene, Texas, while ferrying a Vultee BT-13 trainer.
These brave women, who gave their lives for their country, were deemed ineligible for burial with military honours. They were given a second class funeral without the American flag.

[Cpl Rootes]

Thanks for enlightening me spidge.

May we remember them now and always

Worthwhile reading up on the Air Transport Auxiliary, the British version which had male and female pilots. And these people were in the front line.

Brave people indeed.

[morse1001]

It was amazing the effort put in by those civilian pilots in order to keep the military supplied with aircraft. I have one of the sets of pilots notes produced to help them.

[spidge]

W.A.A.F. (WOMEN'S AUXILIARY AIR FORCE)
The women's branch of the Royal Air Force was formed on June 28, 1939. Their tasks were: general duties, office clerks, operation room plotters, radar operators, telephonists etc. To the control room they became known as 'Boarding School Girls' while many pilots referred to them as the 'Beauty Chorus'. In September of that year it comprised 230 officers and 7,460 airwomen. By 1945 its ranks numbered around 170,000.
During the war 187 WAAFs were killed and 4 listed as missing.

[spidge]

KIDNAP PLANS
Believing that the Duke of Windsor was pro-German, Hitler sent his SS Intelligence Chief, Walter Schellenberg, to Spain where the Duke was on holiday. His mission, to lure the Duke back to Germany with a promise of 50 million Swiss francs. If this failed, he was to be kidnapped. Schellenberg, thinking that the whole operation was too difficult, hesitated. In the meantime, Britain got wind of the plot and on August 1, 1940 had the Duke and his wife moved, on board the SS Excalibur, to a more secure haven in the Bahamas, where he spent the rest of the war as Governor.

[spidge]

THE MOTHERHOOD CROSS
This award was presented each year on the 12th of August (the birthday of Hitler's mother) to all German mothers of large families.

• The Motherhood Cross of Iron was given to mothers with four children
• the Silver Cross to mothers of six
• the Gold Cross to a mother of eight
• the Cross in Gold and Diamonds for ten, plus Hitler always acted as honorary godfather.

This was a continuation of the practice initiated by President Hindenburg. Hitler Youth organizations were expected to salute mothers wearing the Cross. By 1939 around three million German mothers had been so decorated by what the ordinary man in the street called the 'Order of the Rabbit' (Kaninchenorden)

[spidge]

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]

H.R.H. THE DUKE OF KENT
Gave up his rank of honorary Air Vice Marshal to accept a post as Group Captain in the RAF Welfare Branch. His last assignment was a tour of RAF bases in Iceland. On August 24, 1942, the Duke and his party took off from Alness near Invergordon in Scotland for the 900 mile flight to Iceland. AS the plane flew up the east coast of northern Scotland it flew into a heavy mist and crashed into a hillside near Berriedale. Of the fifteen passengers and crew, only one survived, the tail gunner. (The Duke of Kent is buried in the Royal Burial Ground at Frogmore in Berkshire)

SIR ARTHUR CONINGHAM
Former Commander-in-Chief of the RAFs 2nd Tactical Air Force in Europe. His plane, a Tudor IV named 'Star Tiger' flying from the Azores to Bermuda, disappeared completely in the so-called Bermuda Triangle on January 29, 1948. No trace of the plane has ever been found.


MAJOR-GENERAL ORDE WINGATE
Commander of the 'Chindits' a unit comprising the 77th Indian Brigade and trained to operate behind enemy lines in the Burmese jungles. After a conference in Imphal with Air Marshal Sir John Baldwin, commander of the 3rd Tactical Air Force, he was returning to his H/Q when his plane, an American Mitchell B-25H bomber, with an American crew of five, crashed into the slopes of the Silchar Plain in Assam, north-east India, (now Bangladesh) on March 24, 1944, killing Wingate and all eight others on board. When found, the nine bodies were unidentifiable and were buried in Burma. After the war the remains were disinterred and reburied in a common grave in the Arlington National Cemetery in Washington USA on November 10, 1950.

[Kyt]

The German Soldier's Ten Commandments

[ Printed in Every German Soldier's Paybook ]

• While fighting for victory the German soldier will observe the rules of chivalrous warfare. Cruelties and senseless destruction are below his standard.
• Combatants will be in uniform or will wear specially introduced and clearly distinguishable badges. Fighting in plain clothes or without such badges is prohibited.
• No enemy who has surrendered will be killed, including partisans and spies. They will be duly punished by courts.
• P.O.W. will not be ill-treated or insulted. While arms, maps, and records are to be taken away from them, their personal belongings will not be touched.
  
• Dum-Dum bullets are prohibited; also no other bullets may be transformed into Dum-Dum.
• Red Cross Institutions are sacrosanct. Injured enemies are to be treated in a humane way. Medical personnel and army chaplains may not be hindered in the execution of their medical, or clerical activities.
• The civilian population is sacrosanct. No looting nor wanton destruction is permitted to the soldier. Landmarks of historical value or buildings serving religious purposes, art, science, or charity are to be especially respected. Deliveries in kind made, as well as services rendered by the population, may only be claimed if ordered by superiors and only against compensation.
• Neutral territory will never be entered nor passed over by planes, nor shot at; it will not be the object of warlike activities of any kind.
• If a German soldier is made a prisoner of war he will tell his name and rank if he is asked for it. Under no circumstances will he reveal to which unit he belongs, nor will he give any information about German military, political, and economic conditions. Neither promises nor threats may induce him to do so.
• Offenses against the a/m matters of duty will be punished. Enemy offenses against the principles under 1 to 8 are to be reported. Reprisals are only permissible on order of higher commands.

http://ddickerson.igc.org/german-soldier-rules.html