WW II Historical Thread, Discussion, Pics, Videos

[Miragedriver]

Panzer VI 'Tiger' II Nº233 of sPz.Abt.503 sits near St. Georges Square, Budapest, Hungary during 'Operation Panzerfaust'
15/16th of October 1944.

'Operation Panzerfaust', known as 'Unternehmen Eisenfaust' in Germany, was a military operation to keep the Kingdom of Hungary at Germany's side in the war, conducted in October 1944 by the German military (Wehrmacht). When German dictator Adolf Hitlerreceived word that Hungary's Regent, Admiral Miklós Horthy, was secretly negotiating his country's surrender to the advancing Red Army, he sent commando leader Waffen-SS Lieutenant-Colonel Otto Skorzeny to Hungary. Hitler feared that Hungary's surrender would expose his southern flank, where the Kingdom of Romania had just joined with the Soviets and cut off a million German troops still fighting the Soviet advance in the Balkan peninsula.


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[Miragedriver]

Of all the horrors of war (of which there are many) the suffering of children is the worst (at least for me).

See kindness for a child amidst to all the surrounding horror gives me hope for humanity.

US Army Private First Class Fred Linden of Detroit, Michigan, 38th Infantry Regiment, 2nd US Infantry Division, holds a young French boy following the liberation of the village of Trévières during the Battle of Normandy, France, 10th of June 1944.
(Photographer: Rodger Hamilton, Army Signal Corp)


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[Jeff Head]

Jamo...STOP with the pro Nazi stuff. I deleted your foolish post.

The US came into the war in 1942 against the Germans in North Africa. Within three years, the vaunted Nazis were defeated.

With the almost unbelievable scale of the US manufacturing, there was NO WAY they were going to win. Hundreds of bombers were bombing Fatherland Germany both night and day. The Germans could not shoot them down fast enough...they were being built faster than the Germans could destroy them despite the fact that the US was also fighting heavily in the Pacific.

Great Britain had been fighting them at that point since 1939. The Germans gave it everything they had in the Battle of Britain and could not win the air war. Once that was decided, even though Germany had most of Europe, they were going to lose.

The fact is...the Germans fought the war as they did. Yes they were very strong, yes they were very dangerous, yes they were advanced...but they also ushered in an evil into the lands they occupied that is almost unparalleled in human history.

They were a pariah...a mad dog...and they were put down accordingly.

The German people have repented of this evil almost 100%. NONE OF THEM that I know wants to ever go back there...and I have spent years in Germany and speak German fluently.

None of them that I know is proud of what they did in World War II.

They do not sit around and believe it was the good old days.

They sit around and marvel that they as a people could have been so duped by such an evil tyranny as the Nazis represented.

So...for the last time:

STOP COMING ON TO SD AND LONGING FOR, AND TALKING ABOUT HOW GREAT THE NAZIS WERE.

If you do it again, you will be permanently banned.

DO NOT RESPPOND TO THIS MODERATION

 

[Jarmo]

Oki, understanding youres.

Germans wheres stronger than Britain 1 vs 1 in homeland.
300.000 never win against 1.2 million german soldiers.
If brittish will wars self vs germans.

Plus US never win self.
Plus Moscow will be ruined by Luftwaffe.
If US never help Soviet Union by Towad Artillery.

 

[Jeff Head]

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On April 1, 1945, under heavy naval gunfire and aircraft support, U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps troops began the invasion of Okinawa, the last major amphibious assault of World War II. For Japan, the island was the barrier to a direct invasion of its homeland, while to the Allies, once the island was in their control, it would clear the path for the final invasion of Japan. When the island was finally declared secure on June 21, after 82 days of battle, the campaign ended up being the largest and one of the most costly battles in the Pacific.

The invasion and ultimate seizure of Okinawa was not an easy operation, in fact it was a significantly costly operation. From April – June 1945, U.S. Navy merchant ships went to this island in great numbers with the intent of bringing much needed supplies — bombs, gasoline, and more, to consolidate the operational needs of this outpost on the direct road to Tokyo.

The operation, under the strategic command of Adm. Raymond A. Spruance, began with 5th Fleet air strikes against Kyushu on March 18, 1945, and initial landings on Okinawa itself on Easter Sunday, April 1, 1945. An enormous assemblage of ships participated in the operation, during which 36 of them of destroyer size or smaller were lost, most to the heaviest concentration of kamikaze attacks of the war.

As April 7 rolled around, the last remnants of the Japanese Navy were met by overwhelming Navy airpower. Japanese battleship Yamato, a cruiser, and four destroyers were sunk in the one-day battle. Once U.S. Joint Forces secured Okinawa, the supply lanes of the East China Sea were blocked, isolating all southern possessions which were still in Japanese hands … the last obstacle in the path to the Japanese Home Islands was finally cleared.

USS Idaho battleship bombards Okinawa


US personnel pray onboard ship before battle



US Marines leave transport to load onto an LCVP landing craft.


USS Tennessee battleship bombards as Marines head to shore
​

This was a huge operation...and was mounted ten months after D-Day in Europe...which tells you something of the unbelievable production the US had produced by this time.

The US and allies through 250,000 people into Okinawa against about 77,000 Japenese troops and 40,000 conscripts from the island.

In addition the Naval force was comprised, in total of over 1,000 ships, including forty aircraft carriers of all types (which were carrying over 2,000 aircraft), ten battleships, twenty-five cruisers, scores of destroyers, over 60 minesweepers, many submarines, and hundreds of transports and logistical support ships. .

The Japanese attacked this force with the heaviest Kamikazi attacks of the war.

Allied troop losses were about 14,000 on land, and another 10,000 at sea.

The Japanese lost 77,000 Imperial troops (virtually the entire force) and close to 30,000 conscripts. Only 7,000 (mostly conscripts) surrendered.

Estimates of upwards of 100,000 Japanese civilians on Okinawa committed Hari-Kari (suicide).

The Japanese lost thousands of more personnel at Sea (including the super battleship Yamamoto whose task force of ten ships tried and failed to breakthrough to the island and itself was essentially on a suicide mission), plus hundreds and hundreds of Kamikazi pilots.

This was a monumental battle.

 

[delft]

Throughout its long career, the Panzer IV tank was to prove a remarkably versatile design. There are those historians that say, if the Germans had stuck with the Panzer IV tank and built large numbers of them, they would have done a lot better rather than messing around with the complicated and difficult to produce Tiger and Panther tanks.

Part of the Ribbentrop-Molotov agreement was that the parties would show each other fighter aircraft and tank production plants. As the first stage the Germans were shown a fighter production plant ( MiG? ) and the Russians were shown the PzKw IV plant. The Russians compared that with their own T34 and judged that they were being duped and they halted the exchanges. I read this ( where? ) half a century ago.

 

[Miragedriver]

Soviet Air Force officers, Rufina Gasheva (848 night combat missions) and Nataly Meklin (980 night combat missions) decorated as 'Heroes of the Soviet Union' for their service with the famed 'Night Witches' unit during World War II
They stand in front of their Polikarpov Po-2 biplanes.

The 'Night Witches' 588th Night Bomber Regiment flew harassment bombing and precision bombing missions against the German military from 1942 to the end of the war. At its largest size, it had 40 two-person crews. It flew over 23,000 sorties and is said to have dropped 3,000 tons of bombs. It was the most highly decorated female unit in the Soviet Air Force, each pilot having flown over 800 missions by the end of the war and twenty-three having been awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union title. Thirty of its members died in combat.


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[Miragedriver]

A Kriegsberichter (war correspondent) holding an Arriflex 35 2 1942 camera 35mm ACR 0292 and he is leaning against a knocked out Soviet BT-5 light tank. c.1940/1

Kriegsberichters were soldiers first and war correspondents second. They were expected to take part in assaults, offensive operations and fight next to their comrades as their positions were being overrun by the enemy rather than taking photographs. They gained respect very quickly as most Kriegsberichter demonstrated remarkable courage in the face of battle.
It is estimated that during the whole war the Kriegsberichters produced over 80.000 written reports and more than 2 million photographs.

The BT-5 tank entered service in 1933 and, with gradual deliveries until 1935, equipped all armoured cavalry brigades. The first active engagements came in Spain, in 1937.

During WW2, they were deployed in eastern Poland. They also soldiered during the "Winter War" in Finland, proving ill-adapted for the task with their thin armor. Losses were appalling. Finnish troops used Molotov cocktails as well and quickly found a weak point where the engine was installed, prone to catch fire and explode when hit, as shown in reports. In 1941 there were still hundreds of BT-5s in service despite the type having been replaced by the BT-7. But hundreds were lost or abandoned, worn out, during the summer offensive, liquidating what was left of the model. Only the lack of spare parts prevented the use of surviving vehicles until later in the war.


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[Miragedriver]

Me 110 flying somewhere over the Mediterranean


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[Miragedriver]

A poor quality image, but we think 'Royston' managed to capture the drama by adding some color.

Consolidated B-24 H Liberator, s/n 42-95379, 'Extra Joker' in the last photo taken of her on the 23rd of August 1944.
She belonged to the 725th Bombardment Squadron, 451st Bombardment Group. 15th US Air Force.

On that day, 'Extra Joker' took off with a flight of five other B-24s from Castellucio Airfield, Italy on a bombing mission against Markersdorf Airdrome, St. Polen, Austria. She was flying in the number two position.

According to T/Sgt. Lindley G. Miller, right waist gunner in the lead B-24, "She was hit by a FW-190 in the attack ....the main tanks burst into flame, after which the ship went into a spin to the left. After dropping approximately five thousand feet, the ship exploded". There were no parachutes seen leaving the plane as it went down near Turnitz, Austria at 11:16am.
No search for survivors could be made as the plane went down over enemy territory.

All ten crew were listed as MIA

1st Lt Kenneth A Whiting - pilot - Salt Lake City, Utah
1st Lt Alvin W Moore - copilot - McMinnville, Oregon
2nd Lt Francis J Bednarek - navigator - Ashley, Pennsylvania
2nd Lt Edward S Waneski - bombardier - Brooklyn, New York
Sgt Peter Breda - top turret gunner - Lima, Ohio
Sgt Harry V Bates - ball turret gunner - Reinholds, Pennsylvania
Sgt Joseph Garbacz - right waist gunner - Detroit, Michigan
S/Sgt Milton R Nitsch - left waist gunner - Sheboygan, Wisconsin
Sgt Elmer J Anderson - nose turret gunner - Los Angeles, California
Sgt Oscar W Bateman - tail turret gunner - Baton Rouge, Louisiana

(Photograph taken by Group photographer Sgt. Leo Stoutsenberger)
Stautsenberger had flown with the crew of the 'Extra Joker' as their cameraman, but on that fateful day they asked him to fly on another plane to take photo's of the 'Joker' in flight. Thanks to this coincidence Leo lived and made a series of shots of the loss of the aircraft. He said about this picture: "I felt guilty, helplessly snapping a picture while the men were burning inside. It happened so fast they didn't have much of a chance, I had photographed a picture of death, with the crew burning inside. It happened so quickly that they had little chance of surviving."


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