It all started with a post on Facebook from the US Naval Institute:
“During the Solomon Islands campaign, a Marine on night sentry duty heard someone approaching in the jungle and fired a few bursts from his machine gun. A voice called out: “Hold up your fire! We are Americans. I am bringing in my platoon.” The Marine responded by blasting away with his weapon, wiping out a Japanese patrol. When asked how he knew they were the enemy, he explained that they were “Just too damned grammatical to be Marines.”
Tag Archives: WWII
A Mind’s Wandering On A Sunday…
Curtis LeMay – The Question That Changed the Air War in 1943
As I have been learning more about the 8th AAF, I’ve learned more about Curtis LeMay. LeMay was known as a General who could be tactless but smart – and a problem-solver. And the main focus of this post will be a problem he solved for the 8th AAF in 1943.
But first, a little story you probably haven’t heard about LeMay a Car Club member told me years ago. The member is probably long gone, but immediately post war he was a B-29 crewman.
Filed under Air Force, Army, Army Aviation, History, USAF
Masters of the Air – 100th Bomb Group
Observations of the series and from other sources
I am 7 episodes into the series, based on the 100th Bomb Group at Thorpe Abbotts in Britain during WW II, and am thoroughly enjoying it. I became so interested in the series that I started to read a book on the last surviving member of the 100th Bomb Group, John “Lucky” Luckadoo. I was surprised to learn that the series was so accurate they brought many of the historical figures to life, with no fictional embellishment.
As an aside, the one thing even this author did that bugged me a bit was refer to what was the US Army Air Force as the “Army Air Corps”. It seems a common mistake. A minor nit perhaps, but by June 1941, the US Army decided that the mission of their Air Force had expanded such that their aviation arm was its own Air Force:
Filed under Army, Army Aviation, History
He Still Headed The Wrong Way
A German Wrong Way Corrigan?
I just finished watching a YouTube video on a comparison between the Focke-Wulf FW-190 and the P-51 Mustang.
Learned a lot of things. I knew that the Mustang really came into its own when a Rolls Royce test pilot, Ronald Harker, decided to substitute the Allison V12 for a Merlin. Didn’t realize that (A) the Merlin was still more powerful at 20,000 feet than the Allison was at sea-level, and (B) fuel consumption was significantly improved. It was a win-win, and turned the Mustang from a good fighter to an icon. Actually it was a “win-win-win” as it gave the Mustang the high altitude performance that it lacked.
A Time Portal to Germany, May 1945
I have written a bit about the 5 Hollywood directors who went to the front lines both in the Pacific and ETO for WW2.
And I reviewed the work of one of them, William Wyler, with the brilliant restoration of his unused film in making his Memphis Belle. There is more to write about these 5 fascinating directors, but suffice it to say there is a nice Netflix documentary, with commentary by 5 contemporary famous directors, on them.
That has to be a future post for me.
In the meantime on the F/B page, Hogday posted a fascinating video from George Stevens on Germany right after the war.
Filed under History
Iwo Jima 75th Anniversary
On February 19, 1945, Operation Detachment commenced and the landings on Iwo Jima began.
Seventy-five years ago, U.S. Marines came ashore on a desolate eight-square-mile volcanic island dominated by Mount Suribachi and located roughly halfway between the Marianas and Tokyo. Iwo Jima’s value lay in its airfields. B-29 Superfortresses that were damaged or low on fuel could land there, and Army Air Forces fighters based on the island could escort the bombers to their targets in Japan. Three Marine divisions—more than 70,000 men—had the task of seizing the island. But an operation that U.S. commanders forecast would take a week to complete would stretch out to five weeks, and the Marines’ determination and sacrifice on Iwo Jima would become enduring touchstones for the Corps.
Before that time, the Marines didn’t know that the Japanese would be in a labyrinth of tunnels, bunkers, and caves, prepared over many months in anticipation of their landing. They could wait out the massive bombardments of the Navy ships. One tunnel was 90′ deep.
They had seriously underestimated the Japanese defenses. The battle would last 36 bloody days. For every square mile of that island, more than 800 Marines would lose their lives.
Oskar Gröning
When I was in Germany all those years ago, I was interested in talking to Germans about the war. I met a middle-aged couple on the train who admitted that until Stalingrad, they thought Hitler was great. And, knowing the condition Germany was in after the first World War, I could understand them if not agree with them. Even in the late 30s after Krystallnacht, those Germans who could not see the evil coming chose to ignore it.
A Talk With 2 WW2 Aces
I just had one of the more pleasant and interesting afternoons that I can remember in some time. A few days ago, an ad from the Neptunus Lex Facebook page blipped by – “History Come Alive – a Talk With Bud Anderson and Dean “Diz” Laird at the California Aerospace Museum.
I had to get a ticket.
Anderson, as many know, flew with Chuck Yeager (they are friends to this day) in the famous 357th Fighter Group. He is a triple ace.
Before today, I hadn’t heard of Dean “Diz” Laird. He too is an ace and is the only Navy WW2 ace to have served in both the ETO and the PTO.
Until today, I didn’t even know that the U.S. Navy had an aviation presence in the ETO.
Filed under Heroes Among Us
A Dinner Missed
We all write books – books of our lives. For those who believe in a Deity, perhaps our book is reviewed for us when it is time.
Virtually all of us leave this world with our books unknown by anyone else. One of the reasons I have enjoyed re-posting so much of Lex’s work, is that he left his book – or I should say, much of his book, for the world to see. He was a man I admired and respected.
Filed under History
Images of Bavaria 1973
It is hard to believe, but it has been 40 years since I was here. WW2 was over for 28 years when I was there. At the time, the Army ran about 5-6 hotels, seized from the Nazis, that were open to any serviceman.
Room rate was based on rank, and as an E4 I think I was paying about $4 per night. I was making the princely sum of $400/month. When I had some leave time available (and when my Sgt & CO said it was OK to go) – I’d hop a train for a few days.
All of these hotels are to my understanding gone now – all turned over to the Bavarian government. In the case of the General Walker at Berchtesgaden, it was razed. The bombed out garage, and the remains of Hitler’s house, are long gone.
I decided to show you the good (beautiful), bad (the Nazi Complex) and the ugly (Dachau).
What you see above was, to me, the most beautiful town in Bavaria – Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Site of the 1936 Winter Olympics, you’ll see the ice rink from that time. If you look carefully at the above picture, the sign is pointing to the “Eisstadion” – Ice Stadium.
The Good…
Here’s the hotel at Garmisch….
…The Zugspitze – a mountain peak that borders Germany and Austria – the highest mountain in Germany at 2,962 meters
Neuschwanstein – one of Bavarian Kings – “Mad Ludwig’s” castle (that Disney modeled)
The Bad…..
From the 1920s, Hitler and the Nazis liked an area right about Berchtesgaden (about a 10 minute ride up a hill) – “Obersaltzberg” – literally, “Over Salzberg” – one can see the Austrian town of Salzberg in the distance….Here is a map of the Nazi’s complex – virtually all of it destroyed in the war..
This was one of the Army’s hotels – the “General Walker” – it was taken over from the Nazis – the former Platterhof – used to house visiting SS I believe.
It was destroyed by the Bavarians when it was returned to them…They didn’t want it to become a shrine to the neo-Nazis.
While the following wasn’t a formal tour, if you asked the people at the desk nicely they would let you go downstairs into the entryway of the air raid tunnels – once lined with marble but stripped by the townspeople after the war. This complex connected all the houses of the Nazis such as Goering, Hitler, Goebbels…now just a dark passageway of concrete tunnels…
All I have on the inscription (of the original slide) was that this was a hotel Hitler used in the 1920s..
The remains of a bombed-out garage 28 years prior…This was next door to the Platterhoff
Site of the SS barracks
All that remained, in 1973, of Hitler’s House “Der Berghof” – it was bombed, then dynamited by the allies in 1945. But here it is in 1936. …
…an air raid tunnel exit…
The site of Hermann Goerings House – looking at the Rosenfeld (note the bomb crater)
I think the “Eagle’s Nest” – on the “Kehlstein” peak – – if these old brain cells are functioning, it was built for Hitler as a birthday present and visited exactly twice….memorable for me was the elevator shaft carved out of the granite for 100s of feet . You can just barely see it on the peak.
Looking in the opposite direction from the Eagles Nest on Mt Kehlstein
…”an old Hotel For Nazis” – that’s what I write 40 years ago and that’s all I can remember
…The KonigSee (literally King Lake) outside Berchtesgaden. They had these electric boats that would take you out – the boats had been around since the early 1900s – the guide would blow a horn – and you would listen to the echo back and forth among the mountains – 5-6 times. It was a memorable ride.
On another trip a Sgt Friend (Al Graffenreid?), and another friend (Steve Connell) got into the Sgt’s Ford Van (with a 351 V8) – blew down the autobahn and some hours later stopped in Munich.
Dachau – I will just present without comment except for the “bunks” you see how they were originally and as the war progressed – just to house sick, emaciated bodies. It was maybe a 20-30 minute drive outside of Munich.
…and the ugly…
…we stopped at the Olympic Stadium. I think it was less than a year since the terrorist attack and it was an eerie feeling…
If you go to Munich – it is a fun town – you have to stop at their technical museum. And what post to the Lexicans would be complete without at least a bit of aviation – the first picture is the Me163 Komet – Famed RAF test Pilot Eric Brown toured the Luftwaffe fields after the war and I was impressed by what he had to say
If Germany had an answer to the DC3, it had to be the Junkers Ju-52. Affectionately known by her pilots as “Tante Ju” (Auntie Ju (pronounced “You”) It was the familiar trimotor you have seen – here is the interior.
The Lexicans