Crazy and strange facts about World War II

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

#151

Post by Mark V » 22 Nov 2009, 21:49

amateur wrote: But the elefant killing incident has been quoted in several "totally useless facts" sites.
I am not student of this area, but it seems that elephant.se site maintains database of elephants in zoos worldwide, from past till today. Here is card of "Siam"

http://www.elephant.se/database2.php?elephant_id=1492

, the only one on Berlin Zoo that seems to have survived till post war years. Seems pretty thorough site, they list from where elephant came (Circus Krone), etc..

Here are the cards of other elephants of Berlin Zoo, that died in bombing on 22.11.1943 (Yep - date matches also - one of the heaviest attacks on Berlin ever), or its consecuences:

Wastl http://www.elephant.se/database2.php?elephant_id=1443
Aida http://www.elephant.se/database2.php?elephant_id=1200
Jenny II http://www.elephant.se/database2.php?elephant_id=1250
Indra http://www.elephant.se/database2.php?elephant_id=1189
Taku II http://www.elephant.se/database2.php?elephant_id=3788
Birma http://www.elephant.se/database2.php?elephant_id=3789
Toni III http://www.elephant.se/database2.php?elephant_id=3952
Lindi http://www.elephant.se/database2.php?elephant_id=3956


From Berlin Zoos official site:

Before the outbreak of World War II the mammal population numbered 1,196 animals of 385 species, and there were 2,519 birds of 926 species. World War II proved fatal to the zoo. The first bombs fell in 1941 ***. Further heavy bombardment came in 1943 and 1944. A large number of buildings were destroyed. Virtually the whole infrastructure was laid to waste. And solely ninety one animals survived the chaos – including two lions, two hyenas, one Asian bull elephant, one bull hippopotamus, ten hamadryas, one chimpanzee, one Oriental white stork, and one shoebill.


http://www.zoo-berlin.de/en/understand/ ... e-zoo.html


*** It seems that during 1940 the Berlin Zoo was not hit by Bomber Command, atleast they failed to accomplish anything worth mentioning.

amateur wrote: only elefant in Germany:-(
After surfing death year logs of elephant.se database, it seems that also Munchen, Vienna, Dresden, Dusseldorf, Nurnberg, and propably many other zoos, animal parks, and circuses had elephants. I looked death years only between 1942-1945, and this is long living species.

I dare to call this myth busted. Germans had enough elephants to cause small African kingdom an acricultural disaster by stomped and eaten crops :) , and atleast in Berlin Zoo, none of the elephants was killed by Bomber Command actions in 1940.


Regards

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amateur
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Re: Crazy and strange facts about World War II

#152

Post by amateur » 23 Nov 2009, 11:32

by Mark V on 22 Nov 2009 20:49
I am not student of this area...
You definitely are an expert on this area! I don't know anybody, who would know anybody, who would know anything about elephant databases. Keep doing the good work! Cheers.


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

#153

Post by Mark V » 23 Nov 2009, 21:13

amateur wrote: I don't know anybody, who would know anybody, who would know anything about elephant databases.
I just hit: elephant berlin zoo bombing to google.. :D

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

#154

Post by Graham Clayton » 10 Jan 2010, 07:10

The only recorded example of a attempted hijacking of an RAAF aircraft during World War 2 occurred on the 14th of September 1944 at Townsville in northern Queensland. A 40 Squadron Short Sunderland flying boat under the command of Lieutenant FV Mangers was held up at gunpoint by an American serviceman who did not wish to travel to New Guinea. The serviceman was eventually disarmed and arrested, and none of the crew and other passengers were injured in the incident.

Source: Steve Eather, "Flying Squadrons of the Australian Defence Force", Aerospace Publications, Weston Creek, ACT, 1995
"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

#155

Post by captjim » 10 Jan 2010, 07:47

a handful of american airmen who were shot down over borneo met up with australian special forces and together they trained a thousand of the native dayak peoples (who were also notorious headhunters) to fight the japanese. the dayaks were incredibly effective. eventually, the american airmen re-established contact with the allies, and, with the dayaks and australians, built a landing strip out of bamboo.

there's a great book about this - the airmen and the headhunters.

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

#156

Post by Graham Clayton » 19 Jan 2010, 05:53

In March 1941, the British Air Attache in Bulgaria heard of a plot to kidnap Adolf Hitler and transport him by plane to the RAF base at Lympne in Kent, and passed this information on to Sir Arthur Harris, who was working at the Air Ministry at the time, prior to taking over Bomber Command.

Harris took the plot seriously, and arranged for two platoons of troops to be posted to Lympne as guards. The 25th of March was pencilled in as the possible arrival date of Hitler's personal aircraft, a Focke-Wulf FW 200, which would approach the airfield with its wheels up.

The guards were kept at Lympne until mid-May, when it became obvious that the whole plot had no substance.

Source: James Hayward, "Myths & Legends of the Second World War" (History Press, Great Britain, 2009)
"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

#157

Post by Mark V » 03 Feb 2010, 23:18

Target of Operation Barbarossa was Astrakhan-Arkhangelsk line across USSR.

Germans never accomplished that. Not in northern Arkhangelsk side, or in the south.

But in south they came pretty close. In September 1942 16th Motorized Infantry Divisions ** advanced recce patrol (armoured cars, motorcycles, and trucks) in Kalmyk Steppe near Caspian Sea had attacked an Soviet POL train in remote railway station, when the phone rang in station building. Germans ofcourse dutifully answered to the phone.

It was from Astrakhan marshalling yard. Germans tried to convince the official send more trains, the line is clear..


** 16th Motorized guarded in late summer early autumn -42 the vast gap between fronts in Terek in Caucasus, and Stalingrad area. It was open and remote steppe in triangle between Stalingard-Terek-Caspian Sea. Across the area near Caspian Sea ran very important railway line from Baku to Astrakhan. Oil to propel/lubricate Soviet war machine. Arms/troops, and other supplies down to Caucasus front, and Lend-Lease supplies to north from Iran. Ofcourse ships/barges in Caspian Sea carried even more between south and north Caspian area. These were only pinpricks, no more. Soviets at all times had this railway line at their disposal. Couple German patrols could not change that.

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

#158

Post by Graham Clayton » 02 Apr 2010, 13:07

The only British Commonwealth troops to be executed for mutiny during World War II were members of the Ceylon Garrison Artillery Regiment, who mutinied on Cocos Island on the 8th of May 1942:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocos_Islands_Mutiny
"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

#159

Post by Carl Schwamberger » 03 Apr 2010, 08:26

An old US Army Air Corps story tells of a 1938 exercise where bombers from a base in Illinois were to make a practice attack on Wright-Patterson air base in Ohio. The pursuit planes at Wright-Patterson were to practise intercepts of the bombers. On the morning of the exercise the heavy overcast above Ohio caused the local commander or the pursuit group to delay take off of patrols. "I'm not sending them up in this soup." Unfortunatly the advance of the weather front from west to east was not considered. The bombers had taken off on schedule into light overcast and found their way to the target. Thundering out of the low cloud cover the bombers made practice runs on the undefended' airfield and parked pursuit planes. The embarassed defending commander was a sucessfull Air Corps officer with a solid reputation and his career was little affected.

Roll ahead to 8 December 1941. The commander of the US Army Air Forces in the Phillipines was alerted to the Pearl Harbor attack around 03:00 PI time. He issued a alert order for his command and by dawn fighter patrols were ready and taking off. The bombers were also fueld and manned for a preemptive strike on the Japanese airbases on Formosa. Unfortuantly the necessary order authorizing the attack did not arrive from MacAurthurs HQ. Then a approaching flight of Japanese aircraft was spotted on radar & the bombers launched & sent to a safe holding pattern south of Manilia while the fighter squadrons frantically buzzed about chasing a small Japanese air raid on a auxillary airfield in northern Luzon. late in the morning the radar had nothing on the screens, the bombers and fighters were low on fuel, and the orders to attack Formosa was expected at any moment. The fighter landed at their satilite fields and the bombers were directed to the main field, where the bombs were being prepared. The air crews dispersed looking for lunch. Then the main Japanese attack bored in. Commncations between the radar & the airfields failed and the bulk of the aircraft were caught on the ground.

Two years later the USAAF caught on to the idea of attacking the Rumanian oil refineries. A hotshot Colonel arrived from the US for appoinment to the 9th AF operations staff, with a idea for striking at the refineries with a single massed strike from extreme low altitude. The 9th AF commander was ethusiastic and backed Col. Smart overriding criticism and opposition to the attack plan. On 1 August 1943 the infamous Ploesti bomber raid was launched, with 496 aircrew killed or made prisoner out of 1,764 sent, or 28% lost.

Thirteen months later the 1st Allied Airbourne Army flew against the bridges in Holland in advance of the British 2d Army. As we all know the operation went badly & the planning of the airbourne side had its share of criticism. The commander of the 1st Allied Airbourne Army had stoutly defended each part of the operations plan during workup and made several critical decisions for how the attack was to be made.

What tied all these events together was the commander in each was Lewis Brereton US Army. Brereton had a career long reputation as a demanding commander, exacting trainer, brilliant organizer, reliable problem solver. He had been in Army aviation since 1916 & risen rapidly in the Great War, then post war entrusted with considerable responsibility. But, he seems to have more than bit unlucky at several major decisions points along the way.

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Re: Crazy and strange facts about World War II

#160

Post by Sewer King » 20 Apr 2010, 05:35

Heavy cruiser Mogami was the highest-scoring Japanese warship -- against other Japanese ships. I suspect this unfortunate distinction was also the highest naval friendly-fire score anywhere in the war.

She torpedoed and sank friendly minesweeper W-2 and four IJA transport ships on the night of 1 Mar 42, in the Battle of Sunda Strait.
  • If these were not friendly kills it would have been an incredible score, because these five sinkings were done with just six torpedoes, and at night.

    The powerful blast of a Type 93 "Long Lance" on a small minesweeper is especially painful to imagine.

    Destroyer Fubuki was first thought to have done it, but the times logged for launching her torpedoes did not tally. Also, she was armed with older Type 90 "fish," which had warheads less than 400kg. When one of the transports was salvaged, it was found that only a warhead greater than 400kg could have done it -- and Type 93s with that explosive power were only carried by Mogami and sister Mikuma at that time.
Mogami was a hard-luck ship at several times in her service. Jettison of these same powerful torpedoes helped avoid her loss to bomb damage a few months later at Midway, while Mikuma's inability to do the same doomed her.

I have not heard what the friendly-fire casualties were at Sunda Strait. The Imperial Japanese Navy rightly took pride in its nighttime combat skills, but these were hard-won in peacetime with many casualties even then.

-- Alan

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Re: Crazy and strange facts about World War II

#161

Post by Kingfish » 20 Apr 2010, 12:42

On June 11th, 1943 reinforced elements of the British 1st Infantry Division landed at Pantelleria, a small island located between Tunisia and Sicily. Once a formidable fortress with a garrison of over 12,000, the little island had been reduced to rubble from a month-long air campaign where over 7,000 tons of bombs were dropped. The first British troops ashore were met with white flags by the demoralized defenders.

There was only one casualty on the allied side - a Corporal Sanderson of the 2nd Sherwood Foresters, who was hit by a mule and died.

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Re: Crazy and strange facts about World War II

#162

Post by aipaul » 20 Apr 2010, 19:34

http://www.bigislandchronicle.com/?p=13338#more-13338

In October 1939 Hilo harbor customs inspector Henry Wilson was told by Japan Navy training ship sailor to bow to armed sentry at foot of Japan ship gangway, to which the belligerent sailor also shouted, ”This is Japanese ship!” Wilson then called for the sailor’s officer, who promptly came & accepted Wilson’s letter of welcome to the port of Hilo. After this incident, a notice in Japanese and English was posted at the gangway saying “Bow to the sentry.”

FDR’s Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau, whose banyan tree was planted on Hilo’s Banyan Drive in 1937, was alerted to this insane act of jingoism by Imperial Japan, which then got published in auspicious Life Magazine with its feature story on Wilson’s humiliation by Imperial Japan along with a full-page picture of the Japan sentry. After this international incident, federal regulations were tightened up to avert belligerent conditions demanded by Imperial Japan. Emil Osorio himself was sent to collect our County water bill to the Japan Navy ship because Emil’s boss Jonah Burch was refused entry by not bowing to the Japan sentry. Emil is Haw’n separatist Jon Osorio’s grandpa. Japan consular head Kudo then apologized for the bowing incident. Punch line is that customs chief Wilson served w/the Marines WWII & was captured as POW on Wake Island at the start of WWII. He then was sent to Japan POW camp, where the Japan Army officer accused Wilson of starting WWII because of the Hilo bowing incident, which will end w/Wilson’s head getting chopped off. Never mind that Japan attacked Pearl Harbor! Wilson told his Japan captor that he wasn’t the customs inspector, which averted his decapitation, inasmuch his name Henry Wilson is so common in the U.S. — Curt

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

#163

Post by Graham Clayton » 29 Apr 2010, 12:18

In March 1944 the prototype Savoia-Marchetti SM 92 heavy fighter was mistaken for a P-38 Lightning and attacked by a Macchi C.205. The aircraft survived by performing evasive manoeuvres, but it was so badly damaged that it was grounded for months. The SM.92 was destroyed by Allied bombing later in 1944.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savoia-Mar ... prototypes
"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

#164

Post by Panzermahn » 04 May 2010, 07:02

1. Lieutenant Jack Churchill is the only British officer to bring a broadsword into a battle leading his Commando troops. He is also known to have cut down a German soldier with his broadsword, the only such incident in WW2

2. The last boarding party action in the history of the Royal Navy in wartime was the boarding of Altmark where it was anchored in a Norwegian fjord in 1940. Six German sailors were KIA as a result of some hand-to-hand fighting by the RN sailors and the German crewmen

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Re: Crazy and strange facts about World War II

#165

Post by Panzermahn » 04 May 2010, 15:33

Japanese officers who were KIA in battle were promoted posthumously to the next rank

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