Subject: WWII-L Digest - 22 Aug 1994 to 23 Aug 1994

From: Automatic digest processor <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 24 Aug 1994 00:08:53 -0400

There are 11 messages totalling 301 lines in this issue.

Topics of the day:

  1. 50TH: HOW GERMANS AND JAPANESE VIEW WWII
  2. INF: USN Chronology 08-23-94
  3. Jack McKillop's enlightening columns (3)
  4. Swiss Bank Accounts
  5. Presumptuous announcement
  6. WEAP: Ramming aircraft (question) (2)
  7. INF: 50 Years Ago - 24-AUG-1944
  8. HIST: Nisei troops at Dachau

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date:    Tue, 23 Aug 1994 15:30:41 +0200
From:    JOHN AUSLAND <[email-masked]>
Subject: 50TH: HOW GERMANS AND JAPANESE VIEW WWII

  August 23, 1994

  For anyone interested in how Germans and Japanese view WWII, I recommend Ian
Buruma's THE WAGES OF GUILT (Memories of War in Germany and Japan).

  Regards, John Ausland/Oslo Norway

------------------------------

Date:    Tue, 23 Aug 1994 01:41:42 PST
From:    "Keller, Theron P." <[email-masked]>
Subject: INF: USN Chronology 08-23-94

UNITED STATES NAVY CHRONOLOGY
from:
//byrd.mu.wvnet.edu/pub/history/military/wwii/naval_chronology/chr4(4,5).txt

1944
08/23 Wed. Destroyer and smaller naval vessels bombard enemy
           installations and positions on Aguijan Island, Marianas
           Islands; bombardment is repeated daily until 26 August.
            United States naval vessel damaged:
             PT-555, by mine, Southern France area,
              43 d. l9'N., 05 d. 30'E.
            Japanese naval vessels sunk:
             Destroyer ASAKAZE, by submarine HADDO (SS-255), Philip-
              pine Islands area,
              16 d. 06'N., 119 d. 44',E.
             Minesweeper NO. 22, by submarine BATFISH (SS-310), Palau
              Islands area,
              08 d. 09'N., 134 d. 38'E.

Theron P. Keller
Logicon, Inc.
Dahlgren, VA  22448 USA
[email-masked]

------------------------------

Date:    Tue, 23 Aug 1994 07:44:35 -0400
From:    "Steven Pudlo, Dept. Computer Svcs." <[email-masked]>
Subject: Jack McKillop's enlightening columns

Sorry to be so late in posting, this is "crunch time" over here...

Last week Jack McKillop posted in one of his 50YAT columns that some
US planes were damaged "one by ramming"...

I would think (As only one who has never really flown before can!) that
it would be very difficult to ram an aircraft with another one, particularly
if the 'ramee' doesn't want to be rammed by the 'rammer'.

Does anybody have any further details? Sounds like something I saw James
Cagney do in a movie a long time ago.

Interesting posts, Jack. Please continue!
                                                                Steve

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Steven E. Pudlo  - [email-masked] |"Life may be a drag BUT
STC Programmer/Analyst - (203) 885-2343  |  it sure beats the only
Three Rivers Community-Technical College |           known alternative"
574 New London Turnpike                  |                     (S.E.P.)
Norwich, CT. U.S.A. 06360                |No one gets out of it alive..
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------

Date:    Tue, 23 Aug 1994 07:48:12 CDT
From:    Tim not Timothy Scherrer <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Swiss Bank Accounts

My roomate and I were talking about the end of the war in Europe, and
what happened to the Senior Nazi's.  We started talking about the
financial looting--and then about Swiss Bank accounts--Did senior Nazi's
hide money in Swiss Bank accounts, and if they were people like Goering,
and didn;t get free--what happened to the money--is it still sitting in
the bank accounts acruing interest?????

TAS

************************************************************************
*  Tim A. Scherrer          "You'll be fighting WWII for the rest of   *
*  Facilities Supervisor     your life", Ron Scherrer, 1971            *
*  WP:816-785-5253                                                     *
*  HP:816-665-6704                                                     *
*  ID# [email-masked]                             *
************************************************************************

------------------------------

Date:    Tue, 23 Aug 1994 07:16:36 PST
From:    "Keller, Theron P." <[email-masked]>
Subject: Presumptuous announcement

Probably a bit presumptuous to assume anybody missed me...  Our INCOMING mail
link has been down for several weeks, but appears to be back now.  If there
was any unanswered mail to me, try sending it again.

Boy it's nice to be back, you really miss this stuff when you can't have it!

Theron P. Keller
Logicon, Inc.
Dahlgren, VA  22448 USA
[email-masked]

------------------------------

Date:    Tue, 23 Aug 1994 12:19:14 -0500
From:    Mike Yaklich <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Jack McKillop's enlightening columns

Believe it or not, this was an approved tactic in a number of WW2 air forces.
The Soviets in the early days of their war with Germany fell back on it
because their I-16 fighters matched up so badly with the Me-109.  This was
known as "taran" tactics in Russian.  In the Red Army air force it was not even
considered as necessarily a suicide mission-- the pilot would ram and then
hopefully bail out.  The Russians almost got an "ace" out of it-- a guy named
Boris Kozban knocked down four German planes this way (the last a Ju-88 in
January 1942 on the Moscow front), another guy got three, and sixteen other
Soviet pilots were credited with doing it twice (from Steven Boyd's book
on the Red Air Force, I don't recall the exact title)...The Japanese, of
course, also tried it against B-29's attacking the home islands in the
last years of the war.  I remember in Bill Gunston's illustrated encyclopedia
of WW2 combat aircraft that in the entry for the Nakajima Ki-44 "Shoki"
("Demon") fighter it says that Ki-44's scored one of the most successful
intercepts of B-29's during the war when on one occasion they brought down
ten planes from a formation of 120, noting that two were by ramming.  I
believe the Japanese set up special units to practice this tactic.  Finally,
the Germans late in the war set up their own "Rammkommando" which was supposed
to do the same thing, using Me-109's against US 4-engined bombers.  Although
the unit was organized I believe the Germans dropped the idea before any
actual missions of this type were flown.

Regards

Mike Yaklich

------------------------------

Date:    Tue, 23 Aug 1994 13:20:55 -0400
From:    Tom Shirhall <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Jack McKillop's enlightening columns

Mike Yaklich said:

>Finally, the Germans late in the war set up their own "Rammkommando" which
>was supposed to do the same thing, using Me-109's against US 4-engined
>bombers.  Although the unit was organized I believe the Germans dropped the
>idea before any actual missions of this type were flown.

Many, many years ago, I got a tour of the Silver Hill storage facility of
the Smithsonian. One of the aircraft was a small rocket airplane, maybe ten
feet long, a wing span of twelve feet, and a solid steel nose. It had one or
two machine guns, but it was primarily a rammer. The docent said that a
small number had been deployed against bombing squadrons. I'm sure that it's
been documented.

Tom Shirhall

------------------------------

Date:    Tue, 23 Aug 1994 14:15:39 CCS
From:    Jorge Merino <[email-masked]>
Subject: WEAP: Ramming aircraft (question)

Tom Shirhall wrote:

> Many, many years ago, I got a tour of the Silver Hill storage facility of
> the Smithsonian. One of the aircraft was a small rocket airplane, maybe ten
> feet long, a wing span of twelve feet, and a solid steel nose. It had one or
> two machine guns, but it was primarily a rammer. The docent said that a
> small number had been deployed against bombing squadrons. I'm sure that it's
> been documented.

Do you remember where was this aircraft from? Was german or japanese?
Weren't the Ohka and Fi-103 R.IV also used (or planned) for these purposes
as an alternative mission? I've heard that this tactic was also used in WW1.
Hope the plane you've mentioned is documented somewhere.

Jorge Merino

------------------------------

Date:    Tue, 23 Aug 1994 11:47:41 -0700
From:    John Davis <[email-masked]>
Subject: INF: 50 Years Ago - 24-AUG-1944

On 24-AUG-1944, the following occurred -

World War II - The Battlefronts
-------------------------------
Northern France - In Paris, the Germans return to the attack and desperate
fighting rages. The French 2nd Armoured Division nears the southwestern
suburbs of Paris, running into heavy opposition. The US 4th Division prepares
to attack Paris from the south. The US 3rd Army established two bridgeheads
over the Seine at Melun and Montereau. Units of the XII Corps advance east
towards Troyes, St Florentin and Courtenay.

Southern France - Parachutists from the US 1st Airborne Task Force enter
Cannes without opposition and head towards Antibes. The US 3rd Division
reaches the Rhone at Arles. The battle in Toulon continues.

Eastern Front - The German South Ukraine Army Group withdraws over the Danube
in Rumania, hotly pursued by the 2nd and 3rd Ukraine Fronts. The Russians
overrun the Rumanian 3rd Army, many of whose units lay down their arms. The
Russians occupy Kishinev.

Burma/China - The Japanese send reinforcements to Lunk-lin on the Salween
front.

Indian Ocean - Admiral Moody leads the carriers Victorious and Indomitable in
an attack on Padang in the southwest of Sumatra.

Naval Dispatches
----------------
Submarine HARDER (SS-257) sunk by depth charges, off west coast of Luzon, P.I.

Foreign Affairs
---------------
Balkan Developments - The new Rumanian government of Marshal Constantin
Senatescu appears in firm control except in a few areas where there are
still concentrations of German troops.

The Homefront
-------------
Mold Checks Tuberculosis Germ - Science magazine reports that a mold of the
penicillin group, discovered in an ice box at the Univ. of Buffalo School of
Medicine, inhibits growth of tuberculosis germs. The mold was found accidently
growing luxuriantly on a tuberculosis culture.

=============================================================================

Sources: "2194 Days of War" by Cesare Salmaggi and Alfredo Pallavisimi, "The
World Almanac Book Of WW II" by Peter Young, "United States Naval Chronology,
World War II" by Naval Historical Division - United States Navy, "Facts On
File Yearbook 1944, Person's Index Of World Events" edited by R.L. Lapica.

----------
John Davis  [email-masked]
Cary, N.C.
----------

------------------------------

Date:    Tue, 23 Aug 1994 14:59:17 -0400
From:    Tom Shirhall <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: WEAP: Ramming aircraft (question)

Jeorge Merino asked:

>Do you remember where was this aircraft from? Was german or japanese?
>Weren't the Ohka and Fi-103 R.IV also used (or planned) for these purposes
>as an alternative mission? I've heard that this tactic was also used in WW1.
>Hope the plane you've mentioned is documented somewhere.

I'm certain it was German, because it was one of the two most interesting
aircraft in the hanger (other than the Enola Gay). The other was the only
remaining Japanese prototype jet aircraft, which has been returned to the
Japanese, I believe. The jet hung from the ceiling, the ramjet sat on the
floor.

The German ramjet was launched vertically to an altitude above the bombers,
glided/fell through the formation banging off a wing and getting off a shot
or two on the way down. When it reached some altitude, a parachute deployed,
and the aircraft landed. I don't think it was too popular with pilots. Talk
about a kick in the ass on takeoff!

Tom Shirhall

------------------------------

Date:    Tue, 23 Aug 1994 14:14:45 GMT-6
From:    "Robert T. Moore" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: HIST: Nisei troops at Dachau

Hello, Warren!

That account is fascinating. Please keep us all informed of the
progress of this research. Most interesting.

Terry

men's recollections of Dachau are recounted
> along with several critical research issues that must be addressed before a
> definitive history of this little-known unit can be written."
>
>
> -- Warren Thompson
> LEBANON VALLEY COLLEGE
> Annville PA 17003
>
> [email-masked]
>

------------------------------

End of WWII-L Digest - 22 Aug 1994 to 23 Aug 1994
*************************************************