Crazy and strange facts about World War II

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phylo_roadking
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Re: Crazy and strange facts about World War II

#196

Post by phylo_roadking » 25 Feb 2013, 22:47

This is mentioned in Alec Brew's "The Turret Fighters" - they were aircraft reassigned to No. 2 Anti-Aircraft Cooperation Unit I.E. target tows etc. at Gosport...after being pulled from squadron service by then except for No.800 Sqn....

But only two paragraphs later Brew mentions in connection with the Roc's "later" combat history that an AACU Roc that brought down a German bomber in 1942 was very rare in still having its turret onboard! Most seem to have had them removed for towing, a bit like later BP Defiant towing conversions.
Twenty years ago we had Johnny Cash, Bob Hope and Steve Jobs. Now we have no Cash, no Hope and no Jobs....
Lord, please keep Kevin Bacon alive...

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Graham Clayton
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Re: Crazy and strange facts about World War II

#197

Post by Graham Clayton » 31 Mar 2013, 09:56

50 Curtiss SBC-4 Helldivers were flown from Buffalo, New York to Halifax, Nova Scotia in June 1940 to be loaded aboard the French aircraft carrier Bearn. Some aircraft were sent to Houlton in Maine, where they were towed on trailers across the US/Canadian border before taking off from a farmers field in New Brunswick on their way to Halifax. This was done to avoid any legal implications or consequences that may have happened if the planes flew across the border.
"Air superiority is a condition for all operations, at sea, in land, and in the air." - Air Marshal Arthur Tedder.


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Graham Clayton
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Re: Crazy and strange facts about World War II

#198

Post by Graham Clayton » 18 Apr 2013, 13:39

Due to losing their main Mediterranean bases on Sicily (Syracuse and Taormina) after the surrender of Italy in July 1943, Germany had to find other bases for the sea rescue services performed by Dornier Do-24 seaplanes.
They offered thirteen Do-24T-3's (of which one was for spare parts) for free to Spain for the use of rescuing people from the western Mediterranean, including Luftwaffe pilots and crew members. Spain readily accepted the offer and soon the first Spanish crews were trained on the German base in the French town of Berre near Marseille.
"Air superiority is a condition for all operations, at sea, in land, and in the air." - Air Marshal Arthur Tedder.

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genstab
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Re: Crazy and strange facts about World War II

#199

Post by genstab » 20 Apr 2013, 16:59

* During the German invasion of Yugoslavia, the 24th Panzer Division (in the center of the advance to Belgrade) lost only one man killed.

This one needs work. 24th Panzer Division didn't exist at that time.

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Mark V
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Re: Crazy and strange facts about World War II

#200

Post by Mark V » 21 Apr 2013, 22:57

Graham Clayton wrote: They offered thirteen Do-24T-3's (of which one was for spare parts) for free to Spain for the use of rescuing people from the western Mediterranean, including Luftwaffe pilots and crew members. Spain readily accepted the offer and soon the first Spanish crews were trained on the German base in the French town of Berre near Marseille.
Spanish kept those Dorniers in service till 1960s.

nebelwerferXXX
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10,000 soldiers

#201

Post by nebelwerferXXX » 31 Aug 2013, 14:14

'Give me 10,000 Filipino soldiers and I will conquer the world'. Gen. Douglas MacArthur

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Ironmachine
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Re: Crazy and strange facts about World War II

#202

Post by Ironmachine » 31 Aug 2013, 18:22

Mark V wrote:Spanish kept those Dorniers in service till 1960s.
The last ones were withdrawn from service in 1969.

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Graham Clayton
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Re: Crazy and strange facts about World War II

#203

Post by Graham Clayton » 15 Oct 2013, 11:42

The smallest armoured train in World War 2 was used on the 15 inch gauge Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway in Kent in England:

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http://www.narrow-gauge-pleasure.co.uk/ ... dtrain.jpg
"Air superiority is a condition for all operations, at sea, in land, and in the air." - Air Marshal Arthur Tedder.

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Re: Crazy and strange facts about World War II

#204

Post by Ossian » 20 Oct 2013, 17:01

Master Sergeant John C. Woods, notorious as the bungling hangman at Nuremberg, and First Lieutenant Charles C. Rexroad, somewhat less notorious as the executioner of Hideki Tojo and many other Japanese war criminals, shared the same middle name, to wit, ''Clarence''.

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Re: Crazy and strange facts about World War II

#205

Post by WEISWEILER » 11 Jan 2014, 06:30

If you read this (often hilarious) topic, you almost be sorry to have missed the war. :milwink:

The famous christmas footbal game of WW1, by the way, will be played again this year for the grand memorial.

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Graham Clayton
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Re: Crazy and strange facts about World War II

#206

Post by Graham Clayton » 02 Apr 2014, 08:09

Brewster built 771 SB2A Buccaneers in 1941, but not a single aircraft flew in combat.
"Air superiority is a condition for all operations, at sea, in land, and in the air." - Air Marshal Arthur Tedder.

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Re: Crazy and strange facts about World War II

#207

Post by AlifRafikKhan » 02 Oct 2014, 19:27

In WWII, German tank drivers in Africa used to drive tanks over camel poop for luck. Allies responded by planting land mines disguised as camel dung. Germans got wind of this and began riding over dung that was already overrun with tank tracks. In turn, Allies made mines looking like overrun dung!

Source: http://izismile.com/2014/10/02/silly_bu ... xi77FyS.99
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flakbait
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Re: Crazy and strange facts about World War II

#208

Post by flakbait » 04 Nov 2014, 08:41

AS per post #164 Part 2: "The last boarding action of the RN was..." not Aldermark. May 1941 the RN boarded U-110 and captured the sub; it sank the next day. In Aug 1941 U-570 was also boarded and captured. And in 1943 the Calcutta Light Horse Regiment with RN and Royal Marine Commando training and support boarded and sank an interred Nazi freighter in Goa (a Portuguese territory in India) that was covertly sending shipping information to waiting U boats in the Indian Ocean. In addition believe the RN boarded a sinking U boat in 1940 and managed to quickly rip free an Enigma machine and grab several code books and pass them out of the conning tower hatch; all 3 (?) volunteers whom entered the doomed sub to boldly loot her invaluable secrets were lost as she plummeted beneath the waves. Do not remember her number or their names...

Germanicus Nero
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Re: Crazy and strange facts about World War II

#209

Post by Germanicus Nero » 04 Nov 2014, 10:50

Riiiiight back on page ONE, the very first poster claims that the USAAF gunners shot down 6,098 aircraft, "One for every 12,000 rounds.

Balderdash.

Eighth Army Air force gunners were the biggest overclaimers on the face of the earth at the time. The reason for this was that they were the only Air force flying tight formations at the time with significant opposition. What would happen was that a gunner would fire, and see an aircraft get into difficulties. He would whoop and yell, hollering into the throat mike, "I got him, I got him!"
Other gunners that were also firing rounds in the general directon of the "kill" would be doing the same thing.

When everybody landed, their after action reportage would naturally include a claim for "their" kill. Trouble was, other crews would be doing the same thing as well. So, one kill was magnified into as many as five.

8th AAF statisticians at first took all this claiming at face value. Then, they began to look at their own intelligence figures for number of fighters that were actually available to fly against them. they also looked at the far more modest claims of fighter escort pilots. All these figures just didn't match. If the gunners were to be believed, they had already, by mid 1943, inflicted crippling losses on the German fighter arm. Then Schwienfurt woke everyone up. Clearly, the Luftwaffe were still around in big numbers. Someone was getting the wrong impression, or lying through their teeth.

Man, I'm suprised noone notice that before! 8O

ChristopherPerrien
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Re: Crazy and strange facts about World War II

#210

Post by ChristopherPerrien » 04 Nov 2014, 14:18

Given the size and scale and number of aircraft involved in the air-war over Europe for 3 years, 6K airplanes is not a lot of airplanes. IIRC , the 6k claimed is an already severely adjusted figure reflecting (post-war)confirmed losses , down from 20-30-40,000(I forget) claimed by gunners initially. There is your factor of 5 over claim.
http://www.au.af.mil/au/afri/aspj/airch ... murray.htm

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