What have you learned about WW2 recently?

Actually, as I progress through Hastings's book on the Sword landings I see that there were fish-named strongpoints (Wiederstandnester, Stützpunkte) e.g. Cod (Stp. 20), Trout (Wn. 21), Skate (Wn. 18). Maybe a coincidence - I recall the RAF were very keen on fishy code-names for German cities, too - or perhaps this is the ultimate source of the inaccuracy. Who knows?* Anyway, that's probably enough about this stuff - but thanks for the elucidation, folks.

Cheers, Pat

*Silly question! Obviously, people on here will know - WW2Talk being the font of all knowledge. Love this place.

 

Speaking of fish names:

Category:World War II submarines of the United States - Wikipedia

 

Some of those names are endearingly unwarlike, e.g USS Gudgeon (small and obliging river fish beloved of small boys just taking up fishing) USS Hake ("and chips"), USS Flounder. In much the same way as a series of bomb-proof concrete bunkers, suurounded by wire, full of armed-to-the-teeth Germans enjoying interlocking fields of fire really don't suit "Cod" or "Skate". Or indeed the Royal Navy's Flower-class corvettes - uncomfortable, dangerous but still effective killers of submarines and submariners, adorned with charming names like HMS Buttercup, HMS Meadowsweet, HMS Perriwinkle, etc. I wonder if our opponents had less frivolous-sounding military assets... hard to reconcile die Butterblume with the National Socialist ethos, but who knows*? I'm aware of historical bigwigs (Bismark), naval bigwigs (Admiral Hipper, Admiral Scheer) and cities (Emden, Leipzig), but don't recall any flatfish or delicate flowers.

*again, obviously, any number of WW2Talk folk do. Must stop saying this.

Well, they had an auxilliary cruiser called Pinguin it seems.

 

Pat,

More on Pinguin in Post 1429 here: What is the last WW2 Film or Series you saw?

 

Stutzpunkte 20 "COD" sat slap bang in the middle of Queen Red beach, one of the landing zones on SWORD. It was a large and formidable defensive position which took around two hours to capture on D-Day, requiring elements from both the 1s1 South Lancashire & 2nd East Yorkshire regiments to subdue it . The time taken to capture "COD" was one of the main factors which contributed to the inability of 3rd (British) Infantry Division to take Caen on the day.
Wiederstandnest 21 "TROUT" in Lion Sur Mer held out for the whole of D-Day and wasn't captured until D+1.

 

The only other time I've ever head plaice used was when the U-boat commander told Walker he wanted plaice used for his fish and chips order on Dad's Army.

 

Kawasaki began building large marine diesels under license from MAN in 1911.

Here's a good looking oiler with a single 8600 HP Kawasaki diesel. Looks like something the Italians would have designed



Japanese Auxiliary Oilers

 

Bella ragazza!

 

You're not wrong.

Every see the interior shots of the Roma? Spectacular

 

Tres chic.

 

Spotted these at a gun show in Georgia today.



I also learned about the Polish Radom pistol. I had never heard of them before. This one has German acceptance markings.
The seller suggested that it might have belonged to a pilot who put his sweetheart's picture on one side and his training plane on the other.





FB Vis - Wikipedia

 

Thank you Jim! For more information, I go into silly detail in the webinar below that some of you might enjoy. Basically there is nothing in the historical record to support the Jelly story, and as I say towards the end I think it's nonsense.

The prevalence of fish names in the naval areas (and the 'beach' names do seem to have been exclusively a naval codename) and the codenames for five Sword strongpoints is interesting Pat Atkins but so far I haven't found any correlation between the two. I think it's simply that the fish names at Sword relate to the coastal strongpoints and then when the British go touring inland they switch to vehicle names (Daimler, Hillman, Morris). These will have come from II Corps intelligence and they probably had no idea about the Eastern Task Force names.

https://www.youtube.com/live/Lm-FXIRLiqo?si=NVyD6aopoCHboblX

 

Just to say I’m reading your book on Sword Beach now, Stephen, and it’s very good indeed! I wish I’d come across it before Max Hastings’s book, in fact. Very enjoyable, thorough* and interesting read so far, kudos.

Cheers, Pat

*I found the “understanding the sources” chapter very helpful, I should say.

 

That measuring morale and effectiveness with historical data is really hard. The attached just got published in the SAHR journal. Please pass it on to anyone who might get juice from it. And please kick holes.

 

That I shouldn't discuss WWII with ignorant people. I did three decades of work the war. And one of hillbilly cousins said one TV show should have been enough.

They won't find the body.

 

No jury would convict you!

 

I don't have enough knowledge to kick holes - but I wanted to say how much I enjoyed your paper. It's good to see an application of factual analysis to the treatement of such a nebulous subject. Very interesting read, thanks. I used the British government's Mass Observation diaries of 1939-40 as source material for my Master's, and although my subject was Applied Linguistics not History it made me realise how unscientific the gathering and analysis of morale information was.

 

And no sane person would blame you

 

So, mothers-in-law excluded?

 

An online article by James Holland 'How To Rearm in a Hurry: It's possible, even now, and history is there to help'.

It details the situation in the USA politically, the state of the US military, industrial mobilisation and the key people involved, yes including President Roosevelt. See: How To Rearm in a Hurry

The last passages are a contemporary comment on the UK and defence spending, so stop at the colour photo of a Normandy Beach.