10/24/42, 10/25/42 & 10/26/42 Report of WW1 Ace Captain Eddie Rickenbacker missing over the Pacific. He spent 24 days with the crew of the B17 after they had to ditch because of a out of adjusted celestial instrument that put them hundreds of miles from their destination.
10/30/42,11/2/42,11/4/42,11/5/42 & 11/6/42 Interesting reports on the "African war" and the official introduction of the British Mosquito. I also thought the report of Flying Fortresses sinking Japanese ships was maybe not truly an accurate report. When I first saw the report I have been trying to find historical information to match. I know that the fortresses had the Norden bombsight and early versions had some serious aiming/calculation issues. I also thought I read somewhere that early versions were rejected by the RAF. Whatever is the truth, I still find these small articles jammed full of information and seem to learn something new each time I post something.
Some of the others may be able to verify or contradict, but I don't think there was ever a verified account of a B-17 sinking an enemy warship in open waters in the Pacific. I was looking at the listing of ships lost by the belligerents in one of the later posts above. Creative, weren't they?
Indeed successful bombing in any open waters by conventional bombing (not dive, not torpedo, not skip bombing etc) of major warships by anyone is relatively low and successes were often greatly exaggerated. So for example off the coast of Calabria from. the 9th July 1940 the Italian airforce (RA) was able to spend four days bombing the RN Mediterranean fleet which had minimal air cover. The RA had no torpedo or dive capacity at the time so that all attacks were made by bombing from a horizontal position. The RA claimed to have put 50% of the British fleet out of action when in fact they hit one cruiser which was able to continue firing.
Thanks for putting in all the effort to post these pages. They are great. I think about the person who carefully cut these articles out each day. Maybe saying them for a family member overseas. Can you tell if they are all from the same newspaper?
I believe they are all from the N.Y. Times. I just got back Two earlier books that were kept before the United States entered the war. I had lent the books out to a local grammar school that were using them to actually teach history. Not sure if it was someone who saw that there was something important that was about to happen or did it as a hobby. I am amazed that each time I post something I feel like I learn something new. It does not span the entire war so I always wondered if the person was actually drafted/volunteered.
11/20/42,11/22/42, 11/23/42,11/24/42 & 11/25/42 I found the articles regarding the Russian offensive pretty interesting. I am almost finished reading "A Knife"s Edge The Ukraine, November 1942-March1943" by Prit Buttar. Interesting to read an historical account years later and what was being reported at the time.
12/18/42,12/19/42,12/20/42, 12/21/42 & 12/22/42 Interesting to me are the articles of the Russian forces beginning the push against Stalingrad and their offensive against the Germans
A belated Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year to everyone. 12/24/42,12/26/42/12/47/42,12/28/42 & 12/29/42 I thought the snippets on 12/28 and 12/30 were extremely interesting. If I remember correctly Hitler always looked at the Caucasus at extremely important for its natural resources. Then on 12/30 you read how 22 German Divisions are surrounded West of Stalingrad. Personally I never really studied or read much about this part of WW2. It really has caught my attention and shown entire different type of warfare and struggles on both sides.
2/1/43,2/2/43,2/3/43,2/5/43 It has been extremely fascinating tracking the German/Russian map reporting. I have been tracking the battles on a map and knowing what we know now you see the end developing. There is also a small map reporting the total surrendering of the Japanese from Guadalcanal. Again looking back a huge starting point for Americas' attack on Japan. I hope all still are enjoying these small bits of American historical reporting and sorry for the order of the calendar dates