Subject: WWII-L Digest - 28 Jan 1995 to 29 Jan 1995

From: Automatic digest processor <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 30 Jan 1995 00:03:11 -0500

There are 14 messages totalling 513 lines in this issue.

Topics of the day:

  1. German Artillery Info (2)
  2. INF: USN Chronology 01-29-95
  3. Help for aunt in Westerly RI (2)
  4. Arizona at Pearl Harbor (2)
  5. INF: 50 Years Ago - 30-JAN-1945
  6. <No subject given>
  7. Japanese Zero planes
  8. Japanese AC for 1947...
  9. BOOK:Charles Whiting
 10. WEAP: Battleships
 11. P-51s to Russia?

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

Date:    Sun, 29 Jan 1995 06:41:00 UTC
From:    John Cantley <[email-masked]>
Subject: German Artillery Info

I'm looking for production dates on the following German Heavy and
SuperHeavy Artillery.

17cm    Kanone 18               24cm    Howitzer 39
 21cm    Mrs 18                  24cm    Kanone 3
 21cm    Long Mrs
 21cm    Kanone 38

If anyone could help I'd sure appreciate it. I've got different statistics
on each but no dates of service.

John Cantley

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

Date:    Sun, 29 Jan 1995 04:00:15 PST
From:    "Keller, Theron P." <[email-masked]>
Subject: INF: USN Chronology 01-29-95

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

1945
01/29 Mon. Army forces are landed near San Antonio, northwest of
           Subic Bay, Luzon, P. I., by naval attack group (Rear Adm.
           A. D. Struble).
            United States naval vessel sunk:
             Cargo ship SERPENS (AK-97), by explosion, Guadalcanal,
              Solomon Islands.
            United States naval vessels damaged, Philippine Islands
             area:
             Transport CAVALIER (APA-37), by submarine torpedo,
              14 d. 48'N., 119 d. 18'E.
             Repair ship AMYCUS  (ARL-2), by horizontal bomber,
              16 d. 20'N., 120 d. 10'E.

Information compiled by U.S. Navy Historians.  For more information,
contact the Naval Historical Center at (202) 433-3940.
Archived by: "Larry W. Jewell" <[email-masked]>
Posted by:
Theron P. Keller
Logicon, Inc.
Dahlgren, VA  22448 USA
[email-masked]

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

Date:    Sun, 29 Jan 1995 12:19:39 -0500
From:    Cheryl Abdullah <[email-masked]>
Subject: Help for aunt in Westerly RI

Hello folks, let me introduce myself.  I am a technical writer/editor who
is currently at home on disability.  I have a great interest in history,
especially the Civil War and WWII, but I am by no means an expert nor a
professional.  I am, however, a woman with a mission:
    I have an 80-some-year-old auntie from Westerly, Rhode Island, who
served as a nurse (lt. major) during WWII (army--served under Bradley and
was approx. 13 miles from the Battle of Bulge), Korea, and Vietnam.  She has
gotten active in her local historical society and is currently trying to
put together a publication of oral histories about Westerly residents'
military experiences between 1933 and 1993 (WWII-Gulf War).
    Bless her heart, this is getting hard for her to do for several reasons:
 - she doesn't know anything about computers or even word processing; she
   seems to not be aware of publishing techniques
 - she hasn't yet found a grant for helping with this and is so far paying
   for transciptionists, tapes, mailings, etc. with her own money
 - she gets physically worn down with bronchitis, arthritis, and a few other
   itises

    Frankly, she's afraid that she's going to die before this gets done.
I've talked with her on the phone a few times about facilitating the
publishing end of this project, but, well, she's convinced that things
need to get done "the long way" (my words).
    I've been editing lengthy interview transcripts and sometimes I feel
lost--is it "tri-pot" or "tri-pod" (re: 88mm mortars)?  Did the 95th
infantry division really fit into *one* boxcar?  Etc., etc.  (I don't
trust the transciptionists, and I'm afraid that by the time this work is
finished the summaries of the inidividual narratives will be
full of "phone game" inaccuracies that won't be verified or corrected.)
    I plan to talk to my aunt about letting me talk with whatever locals
she's working with (I think a combination of the Westerly Historical
Society and perhaps library).  I would like her permission to contact RI
state resources, etc. as these will probably be the best sources for a
grant.
    Here's the gist of my request to this list: Have any of you undertaken
a similar local-history project with success?  Are there any suggestions
out there for making this easier?  Is there some way to ensure that these
oral histories don't suffer too much in the hands of us amateurs?!  I'd like
to gather some concrete suggestions before I next talk with my dear aunt.
    I really want to help my aunt, she is quite stressed over the slow
progress.  (She's been hacking away at this since about 1990.)
    All the oral interviews are completed and transcribed, but the
work of summarizing and publishing remains.  She's handed this out to
various people for editing the summaries, and the quality varies a *lot*.

   PS, the histories are fascinating.  I've summarized four out of six
I've been given so far.  I'm not sure of the total number of histories.
   I'm currently working on one about an Italian 5'-tall h.s. dropout
who volunteered for the OSS and jumped many times into Italy and Germany,
got the Bronze Star.  There is a large Italian population in
Westerly--another narrative told about a fellow who, while serving
with the 15th Air Force in Italy, met his father's brother and helped the
villagers get rid of German booby traps.

Thanks in advance for any help/suggestions.

Cheryl Abdullah                                [email-masked]

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

Date:    Sun, 29 Jan 1995 11:08:48 -0700
From:    Jim O'Neil <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: German Artillery Info

>I'm looking for production dates on the following German Heavy and
>SuperHeavy Artillery.

SOURCE: German Artillery of WW II; Ian Hogg; Hippocrene Books, NY, 1975
One of his better books.
I will provide what I can find on each, tho' I can't answer it all.

> 17cm    Kanone 18 - In service in'41
> 24cm    Howitzer 39 - Built for Turkey and "requisitioned" in ?'40?
> 21cm    Mrs 18 - issued in'39; Prod stopped in'42 to build more 17 Cm guns
> 24cm    Kanone 3 - issued in '38...the army was not happy w/ the weight;no
>other info available.
> 21cm    Long Mrs - a 1916 design, obsolescent in 1939 and few are believed to
>have seen any service; the 21 Cm Morser 18 was its replacement.
> 21cm    Kanone 38 - a gun version of the Morser 18; the contract called for
>15 to be provided by 1940, 8 had been supplied by 1943 [one of which went to
>Japan] and the remainder were cancelled as no longer a suitable shell caliber
>in terms of Shell-Power.
>
>If anyone could help I'd sure appreciate it. I've got different statistics
>on each but no dates of service.
>
Hope this helps some,

Jim O'Neil      They don't pay me enough to fight fair!

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

Date:    Sun, 29 Jan 1995 08:47:35 -1000
From:    John DeVirgilio <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Arizona at Pearl Harbor

On Thu, 26 Jan 1995, Aida E. Dean wrote:

> Can anyone identify the photographer who filmed the explosion of the
> forward magazine on the USS Arizona during the attack on Pearl Harbor?
> Why was he filming the Arizona at that particular moment during the
> attack?  Any information or sources would be appreciated.
>

Aida,

Your questions are very difficult to answer... I'll give you the bits and
pieces what I have collected over the years.

There were two Japanese 16mm movie cameras taking live footage during the
first wave attack of the  Pearl Harbor attack.  One camera was mounted in a
high level bomber piloted by Lt. Furakawa (or Furukawa?)and the second in a
torpedo bomber piloted by (?).  I have only seen a short clip from the torpedo
bomber film.

The U.S.S. Arizona explosion was captured on movie footage by two movie
cameras.  Both cameras were onboard the hospital ship  U.S.S. Solace
located several hundred yards north of the battleship Arizona.  One camera
was loaded with 16mm color film and the second was loaded with 35mm B&W
film.  Most people have seen the clip from this 35mm B&W film.  This
film is also the same film that the old Movie-Tone (spelling?) used.
Unfortunately, the copy sent to Fox Movie-Tone was a reverse print and
Fox mistakenly used the reverse version for millions of people to view.
This reverse printed has been a source of confusion for many people.  In
all fairness, Fox did not know the print they received from the navy was
reversed.

The color photographer's name is a mystery to this day, nobody has taken
the credit for this unique footage.  Unfortunately, the original color
master for this footage disappeared back in 1965.  The 35mm B&W film was
taken by an amateur movie person named Dr. Eric Hackenson, MD.   He was
an ARMY doctor assigned to the U.S.S. Solace.   This film can be found in
the National Archives.

Dr. Hackenson's B&W footage is very unique because it captured on flim a
bomb splash in the water out-board of the U.S.S. Arizona's bridge area.
This splash is a very important piece of evidence.  The bomb splash
establishes the innermost corner of the Japanese "V" five bomb impact
pattern (special technique) used by the high level bombers against
battleships.  Bomb strike information is getting off the topic of your
questions about who shot the various movie film footage.

In Dr. Hackenson's film you will notice his hand in the first several
frames.  Upon starting his camera, he hurried around to get on the
front-side of the camera and placed his hand with his index finger
extended in front of the camera lens.  This is the usual staging symbol
for a movie cameraman to signify "ROLL ONE".

Sorry, there is very little information written about this special area
of interest. :-(

Aloha,

John  F. De Virgilio

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

Date:    Sun, 29 Jan 1995 14:05:51 EST
From:    John Davis <[email-masked]>
Subject: INF: 50 Years Ago - 30-JAN-1945

On 30-JAN-1945, the following occurred -

World War II - The Battlefronts
-------------------------------
Western Front - In the U.S. 9th Army sector, the 78th Division begins to
drive southward to clear to the Roer River line along the northern edge of
the Monschau Forest. The division takes Konzen, Huppenbroich and most of
Kesternich. Elements of the 5th Armoured Division secure Eicherscheid. In
the 1st Army sector, the 9th Division takes Rohren and reaches the edge of
the Monschau Forest east of Alzen. The 99th Division advances to the
Elsenbuchel woods east of Elsenborn. The 2nd Division captures Wirtzfeld
and Krinkelt and gets elements to Rocherath. The 1st Division captures the
last 3 German held towns west of the German frontier in its zone. The 4th
Division clears Lommersweiler and Hemmeres. The 90th Division takes Auel
and Stein-Kopf.

Eastern Front - The Russians tighten the ring around Koenigsberg and take
Marienwerder in East Prussia. Red Army troops cross from Poland into
Germany at a number of points northwest of Bromber and west of Posen and
take Stolzenburg, 70 miles from Berlin.

Philippines - In the XIV Corps sector, the 37th Division overruns Ft
Stotsenburg and Sapangbato. I I Corps sector, the 6th Division reconnoiters
in force toward Talaver and Munzoz. The newly transferred XI Corps gains
all of its initial objectives. The 24th Division takes Subic and drives to
the Kalaklan River. Other elements of the division take Olongapo.

Burma - The Indian 25th Division, having withstood intense opposition
against its Kangaw bridgehead, goes on the offensive and takes the village
of Kangaw.

The Homefront
-------------
President's Birthday - President Roosevelt's 63rd birthday is celebrated in
the customary fashion by the country, with balls held to raise money for
the fight against infantile paralysis. Mrs. Roosevelt reads his radio
message in which he says "we will never tolerate a force that destroys the
life, the happiness, the free future of our children any more than we will
tolerate the continuance on earth of the brutalities of the Nazis and
Japanese war lords."

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

Sources: "United States Army in World War II, Chronology 1941-1945" compiled
by Mary H. Williams, Office of the Chief of Military History, Department of
the Army, "2194 Days of War" by Cesare Salmaggi and Alfredo Pallavisimi,
"Facts On File Yearbook 1945, Person's Index Of World Events" edited by R.L.
Lapica.

Copyright 1995 by John B Davis, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Previous articles are archived at ftp.webcom.com in directory /pub/jbd/www
and can be accessed via the WWW by URL: http://www.webcom.com/~jbd/ww2.html.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
John Davis                           | [email-masked]
Cary, North Carolina                 | http://www.webcom.com/~jbd/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Date:    Sun, 29 Jan 1995 22:41:16 +0300
From:    Ozgur Altinyay <[email-masked]>
Subject: <No subject given>

>From daemon Sun Jan 29 22:39:28 1995
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        id AA08270; Sun, 29 Jan 1995 22:39:23 +0300
Date: Sun, 29 Jan 1995 22:39:23 +0300
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Status: RO

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550 edu... User unknown

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Date: Sun, 29 Jan 1995 22:39:23 +0300
From: altinyay (Ozgur Altinyay)
Message-Id: <[email-masked]>
To: edu, [email-masked]
Subject: Late Japanese A/C

        While playing a wargame , I came across a number of japanese A/c that were featured in some of the hypothetical scenatios that covered the extension of the Pacific war till '47. The game is noted for its historical accuracy so
I beileve that these A/C were at least planned and designed but their operational use was not possible due to the end of the war. However, I would like to
know more about thse A/C. I will be pleased to know more about them., ie their
design philosophy,actual armament, operational notes if available .

They were ;
G8N1 RITA - A heavy bomber ?
J7W2 Shinden Carrier Borne fighter
J8 Kikka   ??????
A7M  Sam , follow on to Zeke ?
---  Mytrt  Dive Bomber
and also MXY7 and MXY9 anti-ship missiles.

thanx In Advance...
Ozgur Altinyay.

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

Date:    Sun, 29 Jan 1995 12:53:30 -0800
From:    Ed Kettler <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Japanese Zero planes

You wrote:

>
>Some of you on the list might find the following of interest.  Last
night on
>the local news they did a small feature on a family here in Winnipeg
who have
>begun building a Japanese Zero.  I am not talking restoration but
actual
>construction right down to the rivet.  They are using copies of
original
>blueprints and they have lots of parts from downed aircraft to use as
guides
>in the tooling process.  The father of the family said some of their
greatest
>challenges arise when attempting to figure out what a specific part's
>function may have been.  The family is not of oriental background.
They're
>just enjoying building what they think was one of the greatest fighter
>planes.  They want to build three of them and hope to have the first
one
>completed in a year.  Asking price: 2 million dollars.  OUCH! I'll
settle for
>a scale model.
>
>Bill Wsiaki
>St. Paul's College Library
>University of Manitoba
>
>
The museum at Santa Monica Airport in CA is using the same approach to
build up a Zero from scratch.  There is also a guy over at Fort Worth TX
who built 4-6 F3F biplane fighters a couple of years ago, and is now
working on a similar number of Me-262 jet fighters!

Regards,
Ed

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

Date:    Sun, 29 Jan 1995 23:32:47 +0100
From:    Emmanuel Gustin <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Japanese AC for 1947...

> G8N1 RITA - A heavy bomber ?

Nakajima G8N Renzan 'Rita'.
Flew first in 1944, four were built. Four 1480kW Nakajima NK9L Homare 24
engines, crew of 10, max. speed 592km/h, range 7500km. Aremd with six
20mm cannon, four 13mm guns, and carried up to 4000kg of bombs.

> J7W2 Shinden Carrier Borne fighter

No, J stands for land-based fighter. The Kyushu J7W Shinden. The J7W was a
small fighter of canard configuration.  It had an excellently streamlined
fuselage, small canards, swept wings, and a 2130hp engine driving a
six-bladed pusher propellor.  Potentially one of the best piston-engined
fighters ever built, the single J7W1 was flown for only 45 minutes. It was
planned to fit a jet engine later. 2130hp Mitsubishi MK9D engine, top
speed 750km/h, range 850km, armament four 30mm cannon.

> J8 Kikka   ??????

Probably not J8. The most likely designation I've heard was J9Y, but
probably there was never an official one. The Nakajima Kikka was an
imitation of the German Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter.  It was smaller,
less powerful, and less advanced.  It was primarily intended as a bomber,
but fighter versions were under development.  Only one was flown. Two
450kg Ne-20 jet engines, speed 712km/h, armed with 800kg of bombs.

> A7M  Sam , follow on to Zeke ?

Mitsubishi A7M Reppu 'Sam'. This is a carrier-based fighter. This
replacement for the venerable A6M was delayed by lack of interest, a
disagreement between designer and customer concerning the engine, an
earthquake, the breakdown of the Japanese industry, and the bombing of the
factories.  Ten were built. 1620kW Mitsubishi MK9A engine, 627km/h ceiling
10900m, four 20mm cannon, two 250kg bombs,

> ---  Mytrt  Dive Bomber

The Nakajima C6N Saiun 'Myrt' was in fact a high-speed carrier based
reconaissance aircraft. Its design reflected the increasing Allied air
superiority.  The C6N was an advanced design, with a small laminar
flow-wing with extensive flaps and slats.  The operational need
disappeared when the carriers were sunk, and some C6N's were converted to
night fighters.  463 built. 1460kW Nakajima Homare 21 engine, crew of 3,
610km/h, range 5310km.

The Japanses had an excellent new bomber in the Aichi B7A Ryusei 'Grace'.

> and also MXY7

The MXY7 was the Yokosuka Ohka 'Baka' rocket-powered suicide aircraft.
Kind of antiship missile yes, with a 1200kg warhead and 'human guidance
system'. They were carried to the target by very vulnerable G4M
twin-engined bombers... 852 were built, 74 were expended, probably only 4
ever hit a target.

> and MXY9 anti-ship missiles.

Unknown to me. But the Japanese were indeed working on anti-ship
missiles.

Emmanuel Gustin

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

Date:    Sun, 29 Jan 1995 18:25:13 EST
From:    Henry Sirotin <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: BOOK:Charles Whiting

Dear Greg,

Re Farago- On Patton, sure; but his earlier work is better. TENTH FLEET
is a memoir of his own experience, and if it weren't for WAR OF WITS,
who would remember Berthold Jacob (OK, trivia buffs, go for it....)

Henry Sirotin

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

Date:    Sun, 29 Jan 1995 18:35:18 EST
From:    Henry Sirotin <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: WEAP: Battleships

For Ed Kettler,

Sorry. My reference to "Ed" was for Edward Miller, who had asked what
possible enemy the last two Iowa class BBs could have been intended to
face.

Henry Sirotin

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

Date:    Sun, 29 Jan 1995 14:16:40 -1000
From:    Jim Adams <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Arizona at Pearl Harbor

Hey John D.  Thanks for the further info on the Arizona film footage.  It
filled in some holes that I was not aware of.

****************************************************************************
Jim Adams                       [email-masked]
Cultural Resource Manager
USS Arizona Memorial, NPS       (808) 422-2771  extension 130
1 Arizona Memorial Place
Honolulu, Hawaii 96818
****************************************************************************

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

Date:    Sun, 29 Jan 1995 18:18:34 -0700
From:    Jim O'Neil <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Help for aunt in Westerly RI

Cheryl,I can't offer much help [from AZ] but an 81 mm Mortar has a Bipod
[two legs that support the tube or barrel] and an Infantry Division runs
around 14,500 men plus equipment... which probably handles the boxcar
question. I can help on some of that technical stuff... the rest is beyond
me.

Jim O'Neil      They don't pay me enough to fight fair!

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

Date:    Sun, 29 Jan 1995 21:11:52 MST
From:    Eric Pass <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: P-51s to Russia?

Jack McKillop provided detailed info on my query on the 55 (oer more)
P47(D's) sent to Russia under Lend-Lease.

Thanks Jack!  My query was more , "Why was such a comparatively advanced
aircraft sent compared with the 'older-tech' P-39, P40 that were sent in
larger numbers".  I believe typical export procedure is to provide
less advanced types to allies so why were the relatively new P-47Ds sent?

Eric ([email-masked])

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

End of WWII-L Digest - 28 Jan 1995 to 29 Jan 1995
*************************************************