What have you learned about WW2 recently?

Discussion in 'General' started by dbf, Oct 22, 2010.

  1. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    An old thread of mine mentions an Argentine in the Infantry.
    http://ww2talk.com/forums/topic/9186-an-argentine-in-the-somersets/
     
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  2. dbf

    dbf Moderatrix MOD

  3. Nick Pringle

    Nick Pringle Member

    I learnt recently that there was more non-German Europeans in the Waffen SS fighting the Communists on the Eastern Front than there were Germans! They were from all over the place - Spain, Norway, France, Croatia, Denmark etc etc Something like 600,000 men. The motivation was to stop Communism taking over Europe. That's something they never mention in history lessons or on TV documentaries.
     
  4. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    I learnt recently that there was more non-German Europeans in the Waffen SS fighting the Communists on the Eastern Front than there were Germans! They were from all over the place - Spain, Norway, France, Croatia, Denmark etc etc Something like 600,000 men. The motivation was to stop Communism taking over Europe. That's something they never mention in history lessons or on TV documentaries.




    There is a misconception.Before the defeat at Stalingrad and the continual retreat from Russia and the occupied eastern territories,the Third Reich were motivated by Hitler's vision of a creating a greater Germany...a Germanic Reich as far as the Urals......lebensraum step by step..... based on his ideology leading to the genocide of the Jews and the slaving of the untermenchen Poles and Slavs alike....ethnic cleansing to pursue the new empire.The invasion of Poland was Hitler's fulfillment of putting right, as he thought it, of the Versailles Treaty.and deisolate East Prussia from the rest of Germany. After Stalingrad,the Nazi propaganda machine proclaimed that the Germans were involved in the fight against Russia to protect Europe from the evil of Bolshevism.Himmler went on to claim his Waffen SS as a European Army for this purpose.

    I think by the end of the war, the Waffen SS strength had amounted to nearly one million men (970.000, I have seen referenced) and more than a third of those were killed in action.However the numbers recruited from Volkdeutsche and foreigners was said to be 300000 in early 1944 by Himmler himself with at least 10000 of them officers.Clearly by the end of 1943 there was a shortage of Waffen SS manpower and Himmler dropped his demanding medical requirements for joining candidates to bridge the shortfall followed by newcomers to military duty being posted to Waffen SS units.

    Volunteers...... the Third Reich ideology appealed to some from the occupied territories, particularly right wing associates indoctrinated with Nazi ideology.....the policy towards the Jews and answering the call for such manpower to fight Bolshevism. ...some provided the strength for a number of Waffen SS Divisions as in the case of Hungary who provided at least 4 divisions.As late as 1945,at least 14 Waffen SS Divisions were formed out of a total of 38 or so formed, in the death throes of the Third Reich.Virtually every country was represented but Spain was not. Included was the Waffen SSHandschar Division composed of Jugoslavia Muslins,raised to deal with the Yugoslavian partisans in 1943.

    Worthwhile noting that in the end,Himmler tried to negotiate peace with the Western Allies,thinking of himself as a statesman and above all thinking that the Western Allies would join the Germans in halting the Red Army from any further thrust westward.
     
  5. Ben_Mayne

    Ben_Mayne Member

    Trooper Robert Fredrick Witt of the East Riding Yeomanry died on the 07/06/1944. He had learnt of the D-Day invasion plans and knew exactly where they would be landing in France after being shown briefing maps, he recognised Caen as he had been there on holiday.

    His mother and father were from Thiepval of the Somme, Witt was going home to liberated his parents country. Sadly he died within 24 hours of returning home after landing on D-Day.
     
  6. alex aga

    alex aga New Member

    What have I learned about Second World War ?

    What people know and imagine about a reality may be more important than that reality.
    For example.
    During my education time we all reds in red USSR had been learned that white Finland had begun the war against red USSR 1939/11/30.
    We all Red Soviet folk had known it exactly.
    At current time we have known that red USSR has begun the war against white Finland.

    On other hand :
    A knowledge and imagination about a reality creates that reality.
    Because people act according to these knowledge and imagination.
    Therefore the reality is much more interested than any artificial created fantasy.
    The reality is the fantasy of all people.

    And may be about some events we will never know what really happened (the reality).
    There is only fantasy.
    For example :
    The fate of U-boat U-47 :
    http://uboat.net/boats/u47.htm
    http://uboat.net/men/prien.htm


    Best wishes from red Novosibirsk
     
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  7. Margaret Ann

    Margaret Ann Junior Member

    I only discovered recently that Audie Murphy is buried at the Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. The place is massive with dead buried since the American Civil War. When next I visit, I will be paying my respects to Mr. Murphy. For those who do not know of him, he was a war hero and a post-war actor.
     
  8. Fred Wilson

    Fred Wilson Member

  9. The Cooler King

    The Cooler King Elite Member

    His grave is the 2nd most visited after President Kennedy..........

    Check this threat out :D

    http://ww2talk.com/forums/topic/57909-arlington-national-cemetery/?hl=arlington
     
  10. A-58

    A-58 Not so senior Member

    I've read recently that the Japanese Type 97 hand grenade originally had a 7 second fuse. Not a good idea. It didn't take long for the recipients of the grenade to figure out that they had time to scoop it up and lob it right back to it's original owner. Obviously the inventor of the device never had to use it in an "uncontrolled" environment. Later the fuse was modified to a manageable 4-5 second timeframe, but overall the grenade was not very reliable or comparable to the hand grenades of the other warring nations in the PTO. Good thing!
     
  11. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    I remember well the aptitude tests to ascertain the anticipated trade group of non aircrew and the aptitude tests at Hornchurch for aircrew.
    Reading up about aptitude testing, mostly from interest in how the demand for Mechanists was filled.

    Lots of information on the US side of things

    Little on the British.
    This interesting snip from Pathé http://www.britishpathe.com/video/raf-aptitude-tests/query/ENTRY+INTO

    My submission from Fred's post

    At Hornchurch,as said in the clip,one of the main tests was to keep the spot within the boundary of the scope which was about 12 inches or more in diameter.At the same time any alarms received had to be accepted by the candidate while still controlling and maintaining the spot in the middle of the scope using the control stick........later to most on squadrons as the yoke.

    The other aptitude test as I recollect was the audio test where the candidate had to listen a morse code transmission and write down the configuration of dashes and dots as received.

    As I see it,candidates had no appreciation of what the aircrew aptitude tests consisted of, unlike the present day where candidates appear to be well acquainted with the selection process.

    From my recollection the initial aptitude tests which determined the future service employment included the square pegs/ round holes test which together with a maths test was to determine if a candidate who had volunteered for aircrew duties qualified to be assessed for aircrew selection and went on to Hornchurch. Hornchurch was only used for aircrew selection during the postwar period.

    As regards the initial aptitude tests,from my industrial experience,I would say that the assessment was possibly a forerunner of psychometric testing...now a favoured tool for candidate assessment and selection by HR types.
     
  12. Ramiles

    Ramiles Researching 9th Lancers, 24th L and SRY

    (Though there is probably already a thread on this somewhere ;-)

    Re. http://www.1914-1918.net/renumbering20.htm

    Renumbering of the army in 1920
    (To quote: Most men serving in the army got new numbers in 1920 and a great deal can be determined about their service from these numbers. This page should help you understand what it all means.)

    Something that helps with identifying what British Service Numbers mean.

    Very useful to me now anyhow!
     
  13. Fred Wilson

    Fred Wilson Member

  14. KJ Jr.

    KJ Jr. Member

    Recently learned that Albert Speer, in his chronicle of his exploits written by friend Rudolph Wolters, mistakenly left three pages of jotted notes (written by Speer) within the document. That stamped the seal on his knowledge of Jewish deportation in Berlin and the use of their apartments for bombed out German civilians.
     
  15. ceolredmonger

    ceolredmonger Member

    Just back from Kew with the usual mix of elation and frustration. My 'Oh!' moment this time was in a rather dry 1943 weapon 'wants' list for D Day - full of Beehives, Goats and Ploughs ......

    6 Helicopters

    Apparently someone in the British supply chain had been told that they may be available from the USA in time.....
     
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  16. Thundergrunt

    Thundergrunt Active Member

    That the Battle of the Hochwald was the Most costliest battle of WWII for the commonwealth. Such a devastating Battle similar to the Huertgen Forrest, but rarely talked about.
     
  17. Fred Wilson

    Fred Wilson Member

    :salut:

    Where were you reading? A good reference would be appreciated. It is an operation I know little or nothing about!

    From: http://www.theotaku.com/worlds/someguy_pro/view/259608/battle_for_the_hochwald_gap_%28february_26_-_march_10%29/
    Over the course of 18 days, Allied units would suffer 8000 killed or wounded, the loss of hundreds of tanks, and all for only 25 kilometers of progress.
    40,000 German soldiers were killed or wounded during the Battle for the Rhine, and their armoured divisions were down to skin and bones.
    The Canadians were not without their losses either: over the course of just 30 days in the Rhineland, Canadian troops suffered 5,300 killed or wounded;
    ____________

    That got me to look up: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_battles_by_casualties
    Which lists Operation Barbarossa 1,400,000 – 5,000,000 on both sides.
    and Siege of Leningrad 1,117,000 – 4,500,000
     
  18. Mark99

    Mark99 Junior Member

    Discovered recently that two of my relatives are buried in the same cemetery. Served with different units, but died six days apart. Doubt if they knew each other were fighting on the same battlefront.
     
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  19. Ron Goldstein

    Ron Goldstein WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    Deactivated 1 and Fred Wilson like this.
  20. Richard G

    Richard G Junior Member

    Here is a link to a detailed account of the Hochwald action https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/UN/Canada/CA/Victory/Victory-19.html
    Worthy of it's own thread, Canadians really did cop the rough end of the pineapple there.
     
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