Congratulations to Mr. Prewitt. It should be noted, however, that France’s highest order of merit is called the Legion of Honour (Légion d’honneur), not the Legion of Armour, and also that France doesn’t actually have knighthoods in the same sense as Britain does. “Chevalier” (knight) is indeed one of the Legion of Honour’s five levels, and the name is a holdover from the days when France still had an aristocracy, but the French nobility system went out the window with the French Revolution. I once saw a series of amusing cartoons depicting what life in France would be like today if the Bourbon monarchy hadn’t fallen, and one of them showed an irate air traveler standing at the ticket counter of “Royal Air France” and telling the ticket agent “But I’m a baron and I have a confirmed reservation!” The agent replies, “I’m sorry, sir, but the Duke of So-and-so has precedence over you, so we gave him your seat.” In fairness, the same sort of thing actually happens in real-life republican France. A few years ago, there was scandal involving one of the major D-Day anniversaries (I think it was the 50th one), when the French government contacted various hotels in Normany and appropriated some of their existing reservations so that various French officials could have rooms for the event. Some of those rooms, however, had been reserved by foreign veterans of the D-Day invasion. When the story broke on the front page of French newspapers (under such headlines as “Our Liberators Insulted!”), public opinion was outraged and the French government beat a hasty retreat. The prevailing editorial opinion over this affair was: Do this to our own citizens if you want, but don’t do this to the heroes who ended the occupation of France.
Interesting WWII facts
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The Me-264 could reach New York City.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messerschmitt_Me_264
The Me-264 had a range of 9,500 miles.
I used google earth to map the distance from the following:
Quimper, France: 3,376 miles
Brest, France: 3,350 milesI don’t know if they could carry a payload and make it that far or not.
I also don’t know if the two above cities in France even have an air field. I figure that was minor they are easy enough to build. I just picked those places b/c they seem to be larger cities that were “close.”
LT
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well considering the fact that only 1 prototype ever made it into the air it’s kind of a moot point. That prototype was destroyed in 1944 on the ground just like the first two(before they flew).
So technicaly they didn’t have a bomber that could reach NY… :wink:
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Well, yes they were destroyed. I wonder if they could have made a trans-Atlantic with or without a payload.
LT
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CINCUS Commander in Chief, United States (obsolete form for Commander in Chief United States Naval Forces)
LT
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@LT04:
I read D-Day but it felt like I was drinking off of a fire hose with all that information thrown at me. But I was 15 the first time I read it so I should read it again.
LT
I know what you mean. Too many POVs going back and forth, and lots of stuff in between. Still a good read for all the WTF? moments.
Talking about the Me-264 is bringing back memories playing Secret Weapons Over Normandy. :)
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Looks like someone’s been hanging around the making history site :-D
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakajima_G10N
this is kinda crazy… Japan really had some plans as well.
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If i remember correctly they were also experimenting with bubonic plague as a biological weapon and nearly made an attack on san fransisco with it but disagreement from the navy prevented it.
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Yea and those stupid ballons… at least this bomber looks like something decent It looks like a B-52
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How many engins does the Nakajima G10N have? In some pictures I see 4 and others I see 6. Are they diffrent variations?
LT
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The G8N was a four engine bomber, it was actualy built, though I don’t think it made it to production.
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I enjoyed the post.
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If i remember correctly they were also experimenting with bubonic plague as a biological weapon and nearly made an attack on san fransisco with it but disagreement from the navy prevented it.
They did some experimenting alright. The sick pecker heads had a facility in Manchuria where they infected people then cut them open to see how the illness effected living tissue. No anesthesia just your numbers up and you get filleted alive. The victims were refered to as “logs” because their dead bodies would be stacked like firewood before incineration. Too bad the political climate after the war kept this kind of information out of the limelight.
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If i remember correctly they were also experimenting with bubonic plague as a biological weapon and nearly made an attack on san fransisco with it but disagreement from the navy prevented it.
They did some experimenting alright. The sick pecker heads had a facility in Manchuria where they infected people then cut them open to see how the illness effected living tissue. No anesthesia just your numbers up and you get filleted alive. The victims were refered to as “logs” because their dead bodies would be stacked like firewood before incineration. Too bad the political climate after the war kept this kind of information out of the limelight.
Unit 731 is the most notorious. Why we held war crime trials for the Nazis but granted immunity to the Unit 731 crew for their research, I’ll never know…
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Anybody here watch “Seoul 1945” its a great show on Korean television ( has subtitles) about Korea before and during world war two… excellent acting and a few episodes where they use hundreds of Japanese soldiers attacking or being attacked. I never miss an episode and the theme music is incredible.
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hmm… I’ll have to look into that.
LT
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9aeg09vDZQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riCTb8TsAUQ&feature=related
remember its not a war show, but a show on the history of Korea under Japanese occupation and liberation told thru the story of class struggle and lots of suffering and strife. Alot of love stories play a large role as well.
its on Korean Broadcasting system KBS television at 12AM-1245AM weeknights
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Unit 731. Thanks Jermofoot. I had forgotten the unit and I can’t remember the OIC’s name but I did watch a History Channel show about these guys. The Allies feared the possible destablization of Japan if war crimes trials were pursued in earnest. Some people like to say the Emperor was ignorant about most of the atrociteis commited by his troops. Allied leadership didn’t fall for that and knew a full set of war crimes trials would have to include the Emperor.
We needed a stable Japan as a hedge against the expansionist plans of the commies. In retrospect it payed off. Take Korea and Viet Nam as two examples. Our bases in Japan were hugely important in both cases. Without our troops in Japan Korea would have been entirely overrun and a lot more people would have died liberating the South. Too bad we had to betray our values to help ensure our success.
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last one is the funniest imo.
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