Strange WWII Facts

[zzzippper]

Originally Posted by zzzippper
That's no surprise. FDR picked Ike for the job because he was the best politician.

@@@ Check. Ike was the least egotistical.

Churchill played FDR like a violin.


@@@ You can say that again. Church was no dummy and got anything he needed or even wanted from us by playing his cards very carefully and well. He knew better than to slight the US, even if it meant letting the US feel like it won the war single-handedly and everything good that happened was our idea.

The Brits were still re-living WWI and never wanted a cross-channel invasion.

@@@ This one I don't understand. I don't see how the Brits could feel like they were fighting in Europe as in WWI after they got ejected from the continent. They had to know they had to cross the channel to get back into the war.




They didn't want a cross-channel invasion. They were afraid of getting mired down in the trenches of France and Belgium again. That is why they pushed for nibbling at the edges of the Reich: North Africa, Sicily, Italy, Southern France.

The US wanted to invade cross-channel as early as 1942, then 1943, the Brits managed to put us off until mid-1944. "Roosevelt's Centurions" by Joseph Persico is a great read about the haggling and politics behind it.

 

[11B Lifer]

Adding to mysteries

The Germans never hesitated to include other nationalities in their army.
Finns, Poles, Czechs, Serbs and others were in the German army.
My dad build houses. If he was building one in my school bus route area I would take that bus and go there after school.
I did that one day and when I walked in, he tells me there is a Russian working in the back bedroom. I was dying to meet this guy. Never met a Russian. When I get a chance to start a conversation I say something like my dad tells me you're a Russian.
He replies with a curse phrase I'm not Russian, i'm a Ukrainian. Turns out he was one of the Ukrainians who fought the Russians in the German army. Okay. Met a Ukrainian, still hadn't met a Russian.

True-( to my knowledge) the Dutch formed a 14,000 man SS division. We were stationed in the Netherlands-vestiges of this Nazi participation vanished long ago-most occupied countries helped with the Jewish genocide-
The world wars destroyed the German male population-the victors wrote the histories-when we would brief battles-our modern German Army counterparts always had a completely different viewpoint- the dead of 1945 hold many secrets.

 

[the ringo kid]

From what I've read, Wehrmacht officers held Dietrich in some disdain on the basis of his at best sketchy military skills. Apparently, Dietrich, who held a rank equivalent to an Allied general, could barely read a map.

Thats pretty much it. They considered him the "John Belushi" of Generals. More like the character he portrayed in Animal House. I cant remember the books title? but there was an excellent Bio of Sepp Dietrich written about 10-15 years ago0--which had several senior German officers interviewed for the book, and none had much in positive things to say about him--except that he did seem to have some guts when it came to confronting hitler on matters.


Update::: This book is called: Hitler's Gladiator.

http://http://img2.imagesbn.com/p/9781844860227_p0_v1_s260x420.jpg

 

[therevjay]

There were French, Belgian, Dutch, Norwegian, Danish, and other forigen National brigades in the Waffen SS. Some of them really did freely sign up to "fight the bolshovecks" . A great many however had the option of "volunteering" for the SS or a labor camp. Given that choice a German military career might look fairly good.

 

[feralmerril]

Think I read in mad magazine many years ago, The germans worst trait was "Starting wars". Their best trait was "Losing wars". I have mostly german blood.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

There were French, Belgian, Dutch, Norwegian, Danish, and other forigen National brigades in the Waffen SS. Some of them really did freely sign up to "fight the bolshovecks" . A great many however had the option of "volunteering" for the SS or a labor camp. Given that choice a German military career might look fairly good.

Heard a Bangkok guy tell his little one WWII story. The Thais allowed the Japanese use bases, ports and other facilities in Thailand. The trade-off was they were not invaded by the Japanese.
For example you've heard of bridge over River Kwai? That's a railroad in West Thailand intended to haul supplies to Burma.
This guy was 'forced' by the Japanese to go down to Singapore. When the war was over he was marooned there. The British kept trying to load him up and send him to Japan with the rest of the Japanese.
He kept telling them in very good English, that he was not Japanese and did not want to go to Japan. He was a Thai, he wanted to go to Bangkok.
There were no ships going to Bangkok. Took him almost 2 years to get back home to Bangkok.

 

[cmort666]

Thats pretty much it. They considered him the "John Belushi" of Generals. More like the character he portrayed in Animal House. I cant remember the books title? but there was an excellent Bio of Sepp Dietrich written about 10-15 years ago0--which had several senior German officers interviewed for the book, and none had much in positive things to say about him--except that he did seem to have some guts when it came to confronting hitler on matters.

If there's a German word for "goomba", it would apply to Dietrich in spades. He was basically a street thug who ended up as a general [equivalent], kind of like Sammy "the Bull" Gravano getting Patton's job, just not having the skills to actually do it.

 

[shouldazagged]

Nice image!

 

[Whitens Moss]

More trivia: Patton and Marlene Dietrich hanky-panky not long after Normandy.

 

[kaaskop49]

Marlene Dietrich, a very talented and brave woman. A German by birth who spoke English with a heavy German accent, she never hesitated to entertain our troops close to the front.

After the war, Dad ran into another Merchant Mariner, an AB, who was German. He shipped out on the North Atlantic convoy routes for years. Never considered himself a traitor to the Fatherland, he simply hated the Nazis. Remarkable.

 

[NYlakesider]

It had to be a Britt!

Lieutenant Colonel John Malcolm Thorpe Fleming "Jack" Churchill, was a British officer who fought throughout the Second World War armed with a longbow and also a Scottish sword sometimes called a Claymore.

He also carried out what was probably the last known killing with a bow arrow of a German officer in France in 1940.

Mad dogs and Englishmen!

 

[JSW]

Great info, thanks for posting!

 

[THE PILGRIM]

I met Marine raider Gordon Warner.
He carried and used the short samurai sword, the Shoto.
I will do a thread on him sometime.

 

[zzzippper]

Heard a Bangkok guy tell his little one WWII story. The Thais allowed the Japanese use bases, ports and other facilities in Thailand. The trade-off was they were not invaded by the Japanese.
For example you've heard of bridge over River Kwai? That's a railroad in West Thailand intended to haul supplies to Burma.
This guy was 'forced' by the Japanese to go down to Singapore. When the war was over he was marooned there. The British kept trying to load him up and send him to Japan with the rest of the Japanese.
He kept telling them in very good English, that he was not Japanese and did not want to go to Japan. He was a Thai, he wanted to go to Bangkok.
There were no ships going to Bangkok. Took him almost 2 years to get back home to Bangkok.

I visited the bridge, actually over a river known by a slightly different name (brain fart). I can't remember the spelling but pronouciation was Kwah. There is a small museum of artwork by a priest who witnessed the atrocities. Going through that with a bunch of giggling Japanese tourists made my stomach turn.

 

[mjr]

More trivia: Patton and Marlene Dietrich hanky-panky not long after Normandy.

Photos or it didn't happen.

 

[zzzippper]

Photos or it didn't happen.

Do you really want to see Patton naked? This smilie is used because it is green, not because it is smiling:

 

[Whitens Moss]

Photos or it didn't happen.

Attributable to Marlene herself, according to "The Guns at Last Light" by Rick Atkinson.

 

[cmort666]

Heavily populated by Germans before the war, the French Foreign Legion divided itself like an amoeba and fought in essence a civil war in North Africa between the halves. There were Germans on both sides.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

Heavily populated by Germans before the war, the French Foreign Legion divided itself like an amoeba and fought in essence a civil war in North Africa between the halves. There were Germans on both sides.

During my father-in-law's time in Africa, he visited a French foreign Legion camp out in the desert. He referred to them as free French. I believe this group was mostly supplied by the British. My understanding is they formed a desert recon force.
They also helped to locate and rescue downed US flyers . He was the first US officer to visit this camp. They dropped and barbecued a baby camel.

 

[Lancer1]

Don't know all the details but there is a plaque in Omaha (Dundee) commemorating a Japanese "balloon bomb" that apparently landed there

Omaha Was Bombed During WWII | KETV Home - KETV Home

Yes, I just read about the balloon bombs for the first time a few weeks ago. Apparently it was an experimental project. The Japanese launched quite a lot of them but only a few reached the US west coast and inland. The Govt kept the whole thing quiet while they tried to figure out where they were coming from. Our researchers finally determined where they came from by analyzing the sand in the ballast sandbags. It was unique to a certain coastal area of Japan. The Govt then located the facility near the Japanese coast and bombed it. No more balloon bombs. The article is in the most recent issue of Muse magazine.