Favorite WW2 Bomber

@ABWorsham4

Definitely a very odd battle.

Probably the Somua S35.

Near equal road speed and superior off road speed, better armour overall, and a shorter height (always important for hiding).

Also, at the time the Germans were winning, so I can call in artillery or infantry to help out if necessary, and more of those than my enemies could (at least in terms of combat effectiveness).

A lot of it is probably due to bias toward France and Germany during this time period in general though.

I’ll say before researching I overestimated the Somua S35’s “superior to most German tanks in the Battle of France” capabilities and severely underestimated the M3 Lee/Grant’s “hopelessly obsolete against the Japanese” capabilities, at least on paper.

I think I was confusing the M3 Lee/Grant with the Stuart.

IL posted this in General Discussion:  http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=39007.msg1662318#msg1662318

Roland Emmerich directing new film on the Battle of Midway.

As I recall, when the Norwegains protested to the British that Britain had violated Norwegian neutrality by entering Norwegian waters and boarding the Altmark, the British retorted that the Altmark had violated Norwegian neutrality by anchoring in Norwegian waters while retaining a cargo hold full of prisoners of war.  The British also apparently implied that the Norwegians had been either openly complicit in this action or, at the very least, negligent in not discovering the German ruse.  My understanding of international law is that belligerent ships entering neutral waters are required to release any prisoners of war they are carrying – a good example being, ironically enough, the British prisonners who were released in neutral Uruguay by Captain Langsdorff when the Graf Spee (the ship supplied by the Altmark) anchored in Montevideo harbour.  At any rate, the British position vis a vis Norway was basically, “You drop your protest and we’ll drop ours.”  Which they did.

An american in europe because i dont want to get tortured raped and killed by Japanese soldiers in POW camps

@CWO:

I have no idea if this is a joke or not, but according to this web page (which claims to be quoting a book called “Psychological Operations American Style”), during WWII the U.S. considered and even tested (in Central Park, of all places) the idea of painting large numbers of foxes with luminescent paint and unleashing them against the civilian population of Japan, in a bid to create mass superstitious terror among them.

http://theglyptodon.wordpress.com/2011/06/24/glow-in-the-dark-foxes-and-wwii-project-fantasia/

Good article. And funny. :)

Project Pigeon was another American attempt to use animals for war.

The idea was to create a large, gliding bomb. One - three lenses would be mounted on the outside of this bomb. They would be used to project an image onto a screen placed inside the gliding bomb. Pigeons–specially trained to recognize the bomb’s intended target–would peck at the screen. The screen was attached to a steering mechanism. Pecks at the center of the screen would cause the bomb to continue its current course. Off-center pecks would steer the bomb in a different direction. The project was canceled in late '44; perhaps because humans didn’t trust birds to steer large, expensive weapons.

America’s bat bomb project solved that trust problem. Instead of allowing birds or bats to steer one big bomb–as in Project Pigeon–each individual bat was attached to a small quantity of explosive. The plan was to release large numbers of bats at night over Japanese cities. The bats would fly around for a while. Then at dawn they would hide in man-made structures. The bats’ bombs were timed to go off shortly after dawn. Japanese buildings tended to be made of wood, bamboo, or other flammable materials. A homeowner would not initially realize his home had been penetrated by a bomb-laden bat; or that the bat’s bomb had started a small fire. Only after the fire had really taken hold would the homeowner become aware of the problem.

It was a promising project–at least if the goal was to burn Japan to the ground. But it was eventually abandoned, after the atomic bomb had made it redundant.

@pfc_pander:

I enjoy reading anything I can about Saipan in the Mariana Islands.  My grandfather was a BAR man apart of the marines 2nd division.  He died when I was about 10 and he never liked to talk much about it.  So anytime I can learn something about Saipan I jump at the chance.  If anyone has any recommendations for any books about the 2nd marines on Saipan I would greatly appreciate it.

This movie…

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0284200/

…includes colour footage of the Battle of Saipan (wartime Kodachrome footage, not computer-colorized black and white footage).

Didn’t the 101st and 82nd do so well on D-Day considering the bad drops they experienced?
Sterling job getting their jobs done on that first day.
A lot of men grew up that night and day and the experience they gained was so necessary in the months to come.

The Germans, what can you say? Allied air power and naval bombardments  negated any coordinated counterattack above the regimental level. They held on, but opportunities to exploit the initial weaknesses were lost as time passed.

A great day and hats off to any who were present.
I am sure nightime on the 6th brought relief to many a tired soldier.

Korea was indeed the first war to use helicopters on a significant scale.  They were most experimental in WWII.