Subject: WWII-L Digest - 28 Feb 1995 to 1 Mar 1995

From: Automatic digest processor <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 2 Mar 1995 00:06:30 -0500

There are 33 messages totalling 1513 lines in this issue.

Topics of the day:

  1. INF: USN Chronology 03-01-95
  2. Stalag Luft III
  3. INF: 50 Years Ago - 01-MAR-1945
  4. Westerly 4 of 5, Narciso summary
  5. INF: Tokyo RAid and Chinese casualties
  6. Patton biography (5)
  7. Messages
  8. Richard I.Bong (5)
  9. TAC: Delay of Barbarossa
 10. GEN:  Liberty ships (2)
 11. GEN: Liberty ships
 12. TAC: Africa (was: What if?) (2)
 13. China/Japan part 6
 14. Richard Bong
 15. INF: 50 Years Ago - 02-MAR-1945
 16. MEDIA:Col. Bates Dies
 17. MEDIA:WWII Truck Found
 18. MEDIA:German VE Day Plans
 19. QUERY: Women's WWII Literature
 20. endlossung/Germans or Nazis? (2)
 21. [INF] USAAF 2 MAR 45
 22. PATTON BIOGRAPHY

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

Date:    Wed, 1 Mar 1995 04:00:17 PST
From:    "Keller, Theron P." <[email-masked]>
Subject: INF: USN Chronology 03-01-95

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

1945
03/01 Thu. Aircraft from fast carrier task force (Vice Adm. M.
           A. Mitscher) attack enemy ground installations,
           aircraft, and shipping in the Okinawa area, Ryukyu
           Islands.
           Army troops supported by naval gunfire and Army
           aircraft land on Lubang Island, P. I.
            United States naval vessels damaged, Iwo Jima area:
             Destroyers TERRY (DD-513) and COLHOUN (DD-801), by
              coastal defense gun,
              24 d. 47'N., 141 d. 21'E.
             Attack transport BERRIEN (APA-62), by collision,
              24 d. 46'N., 141 d. 19'E.
            Japanese naval vessels sunk:
             Torpedo boat MANAZURU, by carrier-based aircraft,
              Ryukyu Islands area,
              26 d. 17'N., 127 d. 35'E.
             Minelayer TSUBAME, by carrier-based aircraft,
              Formosa area,
              24 d. 23'N,, 124 d. 12'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:    Wed, 1 Mar 1995 07:06:26 -0500
From:    Kevin Kamphaus <[email-masked]>
Subject: Stalag Luft III

Last night on a local news broadcast they interviewed a survivor of Stalag Luft III. He lives here in Cincinnati. He mentioned that they were having the 50th anniversary reunion here in Cincinnati on May 12th. If anyone is interested I'll
see what I can do about getting more details, location etc.

Kevin Kamphaus
[email-masked]

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

Date:    Wed, 1 Mar 1995 07:22:30 EST
From:    John Davis <[email-masked]>
Subject: INF: 50 Years Ago - 01-MAR-1945

On 01-MAR-1945, the following occurred -

World War II - The Battlefronts
-------------------------------
Western Front - In the Canadian 1st Army sector, the British XXX and
Canadian II Corps' continue to advance in the Kervenheim sector and in the
Hochwald and Balberg forests. In the U.S. 9th Army sector, the 35th
Division takes Venlo, in Holland. The 84th and 102nd Divisions begin a
combined offensive towards Birgen, Dulken and Anrath. The 29th Division
takes Monchengladbach, the most important town seized by the Allies in
Germany so far. The 2nd Armoured Division advances north across the Cologne
plain, taking Kleinenbroch. In the 1st Army sector, the VII Corps continues
to push towards Cologne and the Rhine. The III Corps is also advancing
towards the Rhine. In the 3rd Army sector, the VIII Corps is advancing east
against heavy resistance. Elements of the 10th Armoured Division begin to
enter Trier. In the 7th Army sector, the three corps take up defensive
positions along the rivers Saar, Rotbach and Moder.

Philippines - In the XIV Corps area, the 5th Cavalry clears the Agriculture
Building. In the I Corps area, the 33rd Division continues to probe toward
Baguio from the south. The 25th and 32nd Divisions continue limited actions
along the Villa Verde Trail and Highway 5 towards the Cagayan Valley. In
the 8th Army area, aircraft begin preinvasion bombardment of the Zamboanga
area of Mindanao and the islands of Panay and Negros. Elements of the 21st
Infantry lands on Lubang Island. Other elements move to Verde Island from
Mindoro. Elements of the 41st Division secure Puerto Princesa Harbor on
Palawan.

Iwo Jima - The VAC attacks toward the line O-3 from positions generally
along the line O-2 in the center and on the left but far to the rear on the
right. The 3rd Marine Division is encountering well-organized Japanese
defences about 1,000 yards east of the Motoyama village. Contact between
the 3rd and 4th Marine Divisions is maintained with great difficulty.

Ryukyu Island - TF 58 bombards a number of targets in the Ryukyus chain.

The Homefront
-------------
Curfew Relaxation Refused - Mayor Fiorello La Guardia has requested that
New York city be exempt from the curfew instituted on the rest of the
country. The request is refused by War Mobilization James Byrnes, who
points out the entire country should be treated the same.

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

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, 19 Feb 1995 10:18:52 -0500
From:    Cheryl Abdullah <[email-masked]>
Subject: Westerly 4 of 5, Narciso summary

Here's number 4, the whole thing is intact (yeah).  Again I remind you
to send any corrections or queries to me privately, and again I thank
you folks in advance for your generous help in making these
summaries accurate.

Cheryl                                    [email-masked]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Narrator: Alfred Narciso, U.S. Air Force, World War II
POB:  Westerly, RI

1

HIGHLIGHTS/ANECDOTES OF THE MILITARY EXPERIENCE:  Left
Westerly on Jan. 2, 1942 to undergo indoctrination at Ft.
Devens; from there went to Jefferson Barracks in Missouri
for basic training.  Proceeded to Rantoul, IL to attend the
Aircraft Training Center School (Chanute Field).  Then sent
"in about the 8th Phase" to the Boeing Aircraft factory
school in Seattle, WA followed by the 6th Bomb Group in
Tampa, FL at McGill Field.  After training there a couple of
months as an aircraft mechanic, went to Boise, Idaho, to
Gowen Field where he trained for about three more months
before being assigned to the original cadre of the 99th Bomb
Group.  Further training for the group took place at Walla
Walla, WA and Sioux City, IA. During the winter of 1942 the
99th's flight crews went to Texas while the rest of the
group went to Watertown, SD and later to Oklahoma City Air
Depot (Sinker Field), where they processed air traffic
overseas.  He then went to Camp Kilmer to undergo basic
military training.  His group finally boarded the S.S.
Alexander out of Camp Kilmer, NY, in April 1943.

2

At Oran, North Africa, they were assigned to the 12th USAAF
under General Doolittle (right after his Tokyo mission).
>From there they rode "40 and 8 trains"--slow, hot boxcars
for "40 men and 8 horses" that went to Navarin, their first
station.  The train ride was hot and many of the men (not
Narciso) got dysentery.  "[It] went so slow we could jump
off and run back.  Every so often it would stop at a water
tower to get water for the engine and then they would sling
the boom over, and we all tried to get under the boom to
fill our canteens with water and...wash your face....Oh, it
was terrible and we had to eat C rations...three or four
days."

Alfred felt that the conditions in North Africa were
especially horrible.  There were, due to sand and wind, "dirt
devils," or little spiral tornadoes that were a big problem
because they got sand in the engines.  He got to see camels
but did not fraternize with Arab locals.

3

At Navarin [sp.?] they linked up with their flight crews and
began working in earnest at bombing southern Italy, Sicily,
and "maybe" some of the Balkans.  The local civilians
comprised Arabs and some French.  They slept on the ground
without tents, showering from water carrier tanks that one
fellow would hand pump.  After Navarin they went to Tunis,
managing to steal tents once when the train stopped.  On the
way they came across a prison train heading west that was
loaded with German and Italian prisoners.  "I didn't know at
the time, but I think my cousin was on one of those trains
because he was in the Italian army in the North African
campaign.....Well anyway, one of our guys says to me, 'Well
we're going to Berlin,' and this German who spoke good
English says 'Ha, ha, I don't care.  I'm going to the United
States.'"

4

They stayed in Tunis for four months, "right after they
cleaned up the North African Campaign and through the
Kasserine Pass."  On the 10th of December he "hit" Foggia,
Italy, where he would be stationed until July 1945 working
as a crew chief (Technical Sergeant) in the 15th USAAF under
General Twining.  He managed a crew of four other men who
maintained an airplane.  They had nothing to do with the
armament, "All we did was take care of the running part of
the aircraft, no matter what was wrong with it--changed
engines, anything.  Changed wings that were shot up....We
[got] our percentage of losses.  We patched up more holes."

5

His group was credited with twelve campaigns, many of them
raids on Ploesti.  There was a shuttle mission to Russia in
which the bombers would bomb past "the point of no return"
and continue flying to a field in Russia.  There the planes
were serviced and reloaded with bombs they could drop on the
way back to home base.  The 8th USAAF used to fly to from
England to Foggia under the same principle, and Narciso's
group would service them for another bomb run on their
return to England.

6

The Foggia airfield was on a large farm.  "We scouted around
and there were these two families that worked there.  I got
pretty friendly with both of them." Narciso was adopted by
"the sweetest little old lady" who lived with her two sons
in San Giovanni, about 20 kilometers outside of Forge in the
Apennine Mountains.  "I was the same age as one of her sons
who was in the Italian Army and imprisoned by the Germans
when Italy capitulated."  She missed her son, a prisoner in
Croatia, and if Narciso didn't report to her every day, she
would send her 10- or 12-year-old son to check up on him.
"They invited me up to their home...I met this priest and
this monk that had the stigmata that Christ had....Father
Pio."  Narciso got to visit the local monastery and he met
Pope Pius XII during an audience in Rome.

7

Narciso had an uncle Tony living in Italy south of Rome and
north of Cassino.  He and two of his buddies were able to
meet him because he was asked to stop by Rome and pick up a
repaired vehicle while going to rest camp.  Uncle Tony lived
in the mountains by a big river, and the bridge that crossed
over to the village was destroyed by American bombs.  "All
they had was a little raft that went across the river,
pulled by a cable.  We had the jeep, and the raft was only
made for one little cart and one little wagon, and we
finally loaded the jeep onto the raft and we almost sunk
it."  The river was swollen and, when they got to the other
side they were two feet below the landing.  Locals came down
and helped pull the jeep up to the landing.  Narciso asked
if there was anybody around by his name, and sure enough
there was a man named Tony who looked just like his father.
He studied Alfred's face but shook his head "no"-apparently
he was stranded in Italy when World War I broke out, trying
to gather his family to return to America, and was worried
that Italian officials might have been playing a trick.  But
when Alfred pulled out a picture of his parents, the matter
was settled and the whole village came out with wine for the
Americans.  He stayed in his father's homestead that night.
The Germans had previously used it and booby-trapped it upon leaving.
The Americans and the local village men removed the booby-traps,
and "that was the highlight in my [W.W. II] experience."

8

He came back to the States on a ship called Argentina in
late July or early August of 1945.  It took him seven days
to get from Naples to New York.  "...[T]he first they did
was to give...each of us a full carton of milk....By the
time we go on the train [for] Camp Kilmer, it was a
disaster!"  These boys had not had milk in 27 months, so
everyone had diarrhea.  When they got to Camp
Kilmer, they  were then taken to a mess hall to feast on great big steaks
and mashed potatoes, but no one could eat because they
weren't used to fresh food.  He and another Westerly boy in
his squadron, Rudy Cugini, spent "30 glorious days in
Westerly, right here in the square on the night of V-J Day."
Other local boys Narciso met in the service were Billy LaBrecque from
Pawcatuck and, coming back, a short
man known as "Taco."   On 1 Sept. 1945 he went back to
Ft. Devens.  He was scheduled to go to North Dakota to help
train B-29 crew members going to the Pacific, but the war
ended and "that was it."

Audio tape interview:     15 October 1992
Interviewer:              Beppo Boumenot
Written History Editor:   Cheryl Abdullah

Cheryl                                    [email-masked]

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

Date:    Wed, 1 Mar 1995 08:32:19 -0500
From:    Ron Babuka <[email-masked]>
Subject: INF: Tokyo RAid and Chinese casualties

        As per a thread that floated arround a coupe of days ago - from  "I
Could Never Be So Lucky Again"  Gen James H. "Jimmy" Doolittle:

        Chaing was seething about the enemy onslaught and sent a cable to
the U.S. State Department:

                After they had been caught unaware by the falling of
American                   bombs on Tokyo, Japanese troops attacked the
coastal areas of China where many of the American flyers had landed.  These
Japanese troops slaughtered every man, woman, and child in these areas -
let me repeat - these Japanese troops slaughtered every man, woman, and
child in these areas, reproducing on a wholescale the horrors which the
world had seen at Lidice, but about which the people have been uninformed
in these instances.

        Chaing was not exagerating. General Chennault, in his memoirs,
recalled that the Japanese drove 200 miles inland from the coastal areas to
seek revenge.  Twenty thousand square miles of Chinese territory were
searched; landing fields were plowed up; hundreds of villagers who were
even remotely suspected of having aided us were murdered. He noted in his
memoirs that "one sizable city was razed for no other reason than the
sentiment displayed by its citizens in filing up Jasp bomb craters on the
nearby airfield ... A quarter million Chinese soldiers and civilians were
killed in the three-month campaign"

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ron Babuka
Cornell University
CIT - Information Resources
Ithaca, New York 14850
(607) 254-6492

Fax: 607-254-6404
http://ir-www.cit.cornell.edu/IR_staff/ron_babuka.html

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

Date:    Wed, 1 Mar 1995 08:34:50 EST
From:    Alan Wild <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Patton biography

A family biography which is mostly about George, was written by his
grandson, Robert H. Patton, and is published by Crown entitled _The Patton's_.
It starts back with George's heritage in service of the civil war. There
isn't much in there about his quest to start a war wih Russia, though.
_Patton's Third Army, A Chronology_ by Charles M. Province is a day-to-day
recount of the 3rd Army's activities with emphasis on Patton's command
influence. The author is a bit over zealous, treating the 3rd Army as almost
independently fighting it's own war against the Germans. There are
interesting notes concerning logistics and protocol, unit organization,
and interrelation. If he has time to write his paper, I would recommend
them to read.

hth,... -Al

Alan Wild, Sr. Prog/Analyst
ACC - Lippitt - URI
Kingston, RI  02881

American Legion, Post 102
I am the NRA.

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

Date:    Wed, 1 Mar 1995 08:59:00 EST
From:    mc killop <[email-masked]>
Subject: Messages

One of the problems about getting messages from this list is the
delay between the time it was transmitted and the time it was
received.  For example, I submitted my USAAF chronology for 1 Mar 45
at 2052 EST on 28 Feb (0152Z on 1 Mar); I just received it back
this morning and the transmission date/time from Buffalo was 0851 EST
(1351Z) on 1 Mar so it took 11 hours 59 minutes for this message to
be sent back to me.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
|  Jack McKillop              |  Those who have long enjoyed such |
|  Bellcore                   |  privileges as we enjoy forget in |
|  Piscataway, NJ USA         |  time that men have died to win   |
|  [email-masked]  |  them.                     FDR    |
-------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Date:    Wed, 1 Mar 1995 08:48:11 GMT+6
From:    Esaul Zermeno Bautista <[email-masked]>
Subject: Richard I.Bong

   Hello everybody !!

       I'm looking information about Richard I .Bong
       specially in wich airplane he realize more scores.

       thanks in advance.

       Esaul Alfredo

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

Date:    Wed, 1 Mar 1995 09:58:53 EST
From:    Alan Wild <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Patton biography

As best I can tell, friendly contact with the Soviets proceeds as follows:

28Apr45 - A directive from the Twelfth Army group directs Patton to take
          Salzburg, and join with Russians in the Danube valley.

7-8May45 - Patrols of 3rd Army units make contact with Soviet units near
           Amstettin, this during the days which Eisenhower officially
           terminates the European war.

Source: _Patton's Third Army, A Chronology_ by Charles M. Province

hth -Alan

Alan Wild, Sr. Prog/Analyst
ACC - Lippitt - URI
Kingston, RI  02881

American Legion, Post 102
I am the NRA.

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

Date:    Wed, 1 Mar 1995 11:14:19 -0500
From:    Barone <[email-masked]>
Subject: TAC: Delay of Barbarossa

        I've read the argument a few times now that the German strike
against the Balkans (Yugoslavia, Greece) delayed Barbarossa sufficiently
to guarantee its failure.  However, I'm not convinced of its validity.
Since this is bordering on the "what if" type of debate, the question
can never truly be resolved but I would like to point out a few items
that might not make this conclusion such a certainty.

        First, by invading the Balkans, the Germans' southern flank was
secured.  Britain had been trying to get Greece into the war against
Germany and it probably would have only been a matter of time before
Germany had to deal with Greece.  The fact that Italy started things
rolling merely helped the British strategy.  If Allied aircraft were
operating out of Greece, Rumanian oilfields would have been likely
targets.  It would seem to be more practical to deal with Greece first
before taking on the USSR.  Secondly, the extra time allowed the Germans
to allocate newly formed divisions to the invasion (such as the 22nd and
23rd Panzer divisions).  Third, it allowed the Soviets time to move even
more troops toward the border, facilitating the Germans' "ease" in bagging
the massive numbers of prisoners that they did during the opening stages
of the invasion.  (I've read that Zhukov saw the German troop buildups
for what they were and wanted to launch a spoiler attack to disrupt
their plans; Stalin vetoed such a pre-emptive strike.  I'll post a
separate message if there's interest.)

        I don't think that adding one or two months to the campaigning
season would have helped the Germans achieve their goals (whatever
they happened to be for that particular day :-).  They had badly
underestimated the number of Soviet troops and armor and had not
given much consideration to the logistical aspects of moving so many
men and so much materiel deep into Russia.  The biggest problem faced
by the Germans was moving replacement vehicles and parts to the front
in the autumn.  The incompatibility of the Soviet and German rail
systems forced the Germans to unload and reload trains with what
supplies were available at the old border.  Add to this mix that
the Germans were using their civilain rail workers who were not
forbidden from taking vacation when they wanted and one can easily
see that the Germans had a serious logistics bottleneck.  If the
invasion had occurred one month earlier, this problem would have
merely become evident one month earlier as well.
--
Joe Barone
[email-masked]
Don't fool around with the women -- their husbands carry
guns!  And don't forget the penalty for looting is death!

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

Date:    Wed, 1 Mar 1995 11:42:18 -0500
From:    Pat Marsden <[email-masked]>
Subject: GEN:  Liberty ships

Hi,

This may be a dumb question, but ...

How long does it take to load and unload a Liberty ship?

Obviously this depends on cargo type and the facilities
available but I'm just looking for a rough number.
One day, a few days, a week, a month?

TIA,
patrick

--
Patrick D. Marsden            | Naval Research Laboratory    | (202)-404-8229
Computational Physics, Inc.   | Code 7641                    | Opinions are mine
Planetary Atmospheres Section | Washington, D.C.  20375      | and mine alone.
http://power.nrl.navy.mil     | [email-masked]  |    * RKBA *

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

Date:    Wed, 1 Mar 1995 12:16:24 EST
From:    Jonathan Perkins <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Richard I.Bong

Esaul Zermeno Bautista writes:
>
>        I'm looking information about Richard I .Bong
>        specially in wich airplane he realize more scores.
>

        My source indicates that Bong scored 40 victories overall, and the
only plane mentioned in most of the accounts is the P-38 Lightning.  It
appears that he flew P-38s for most, if not all, of his combat career.  As
to the specific P-38 variants he might have flown, or individual tail codes
of his aircraft, I have no information handy.  Bong's main wingman during his
career appears to have been Capt. Thomas J. Lynch, who himself scored 20
victories.  Bong was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honour for his
voluntary, repeated engagement in combat.  Toward the end of the war, I seem
to recall that he was posted back to the U.S. to prevent the Pacific's leading
ace from being shot down (a definite public relations nightmare), and to
bolster war production/war bonds back home.  Bong appears to have been a big
hit on the factory/war bond circuit, and I've seen pictures of him buzzing
various plants in his natural aluminum-finished P-38.  He was killed in
August 1945 while testing a new airplane (I don't know what type) at Muroc,
California.

Source: Thomas Parrish (ed.) _The Simon and Schuster Encyclopedia of World
        War II_.  New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978.

Hope this helps.

--
----------
Jon Perkins--Ottawa, Canada
[email-masked]

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

Date:    Wed, 1 Mar 1995 12:24:41 EST
From:    "Cassady B. Craft" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Patton biography

Of actually, _Third Army at War_ is not day to day.  It tells daily events
of interesting occasions, but if it was a "boring" day, they skipped it.
It was mostly taken from popular press accounts either during or shortly
after the war.  There are fantastic pictures of GIs and equipment at war.
The last chapter or so may interest the student, as it covers post war
Patton and his death.

You might suggest _War as I Knew It_ by Patton, and the _Patton Papers_.
These are both autobiographical, but give the flavor of the man very well.
Finally, while I have not read the recent family history by Patton's grand-
son, there is a reason for that.  The reviews that I have seen were hard on
this work.  The gist was that the grandson either had an axe to grind with
his eccentric GSP, or that he was ashamed of the family military reputation.

Of course, the movie "Patton" will give the stereotypical feel for Patton,
that of "let's fight 'em now while we got the men and equipment over here"
etc.  But it is great show.

Hope this helps,
Cassady Craft
e-mail [email-masked]
or
[email-masked]

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

Date:    Wed, 1 Mar 1995 12:10:00 CST
From:    "SCHERRER, TIM" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: GEN: Liberty ships

It would depend upon the cargo--whether bulk, or rolling stock, and also
the port facilites, cranes and the people doing it.  Also, it greatly
depends upon if it is an off-shore transfer or a ship to dock transfer.
Break bulk ships take the longest (which is what a Liberty Ship is) to
unload.  You might check with the SS Jerimiah O'Brien in San
Fransisco--the National Liberty Ship Memorial--the historian is a very
knowledgable and friendly gentleman who can probably help.  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:    Wed, 1 Mar 1995 12:12:26 -0600
From:    Jeff Dingbaum <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: GEN:  Liberty ships

> From: Pat Marsden <[email-masked]>
> Hi,
>
> This may be a dumb question, but ...
>
> How long does it take to load and unload a Liberty ship?
>
> Obviously this depends on cargo type and the facilities
> available but I'm just looking for a rough number.
> One day, a few days, a week, a month?

Wow, what timing!  I was at a birthday party this last weekend and was talking
to my wife's grandmother's brother.  He served in the navy and was assigned as
a guard, manning one of the guns on a liberty ship.  On his first trip he was
amazed that they had run a couple of train engines on deck and welded them
down to the deck plates.  He commented to one of the merchant marines that
they seemed to be pretty loaded.  The merchants reply was "just wait".

When they got to their final destination they had a floating crane come and
offload the engines, as there were no dock facilities.  He said that they were
in port for about a month, unloading supplies - about equivalent to 150 railroad
cars full.  Now, I don't know if that is true for all ships, but as you say, it
obviously depends on cargo type and dock facilities.

An interesting note.  Their ship crossed the pacific alone, in a zig zagging
pattern.  After they crossed, they linked up with some others and formed a
convoy to their final destination.

Jeff Dingbaum
[email-masked]

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

Date:    Wed, 1 Mar 1995 11:47:25 -0700
From:    Jim O'Neil <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: TAC: Africa (was: What if?)

>I had to bite on this one!

Me too, Terry,

>>         As for Rommel taking the Suez, I must ask, What would it have
>> accomplished?
>
>    I don't think there is any doubt that had the Suez been seized by
>the Germans, the British would have been finished in Africa, perhaps
>forever, even if the Allies had evicted the Germans later. I think to
>the British mind, the Suez Canal was the linchpin of any British
>hopes of eventually defeating Rommel, and had it been captured, would
>have dealt them a severe strategic blow as well as to their morale.
>
I don't think they would have been finished - a severe blow to their Morale
, YES, no doubt, but it puts Rommel in a bad spot too. The British can
supply forces in the Sinai from Aqabah [sp?] and Sharm El Sheik on the East
and still have a southern force from the Quatarra Depression to the Red
Sea... in the end, I don't see Rommel winning wuth out a major change in
German war goals. The Idea of linking up through Turkey and Syria is lovely
till you realize the distances and the *complete* lack of any modern
infrastructure to support this move through some very forbidding terrain. A
better move is through Iraq and into Persia, cutting that supply line to
Russia, Gaining some Oil *And* gaining the support of the Arabs, who were
to be part of Hitlers Aryans... This line played very well in Persia and
the British had to use a bit of blunt force to dissuade the Persians from
siding with Hitler. I had the privilege of talking with a Scottish Officer
who was there.

>    Strategically, had the Germans been able to exploit such a move,
>the possibilities would have been endless, particularly with linking
>up with von Kleist's panzers in Southern Russia. I state that the
>possibility would have existed, and I really doubt that the Germans
>would have had the military power to exploit such an intriguing
>possibility.
>
>    My thoughts anyway.

and mine, too,

Jim O'Neil   Indecision is the cornerstone of Military Flexibility

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

Date:    Wed, 1 Mar 1995 11:47:33 -0700
From:    Jim O'Neil <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Richard I.Bong

>       I'm looking information about Richard I .Bong
>       specially in wich airplane he realize more scores.
>

Esaul Alfredo,

He flew a P-38 "Lightning" for all 40 of his victories. They were all in
the South-West Pacific Area [New Guinea - New Britian area] against the
Japanese.

Jim O'Neil   Indecision is the cornerstone of Military Flexibility

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

Date:    Wed, 1 Mar 1995 14:00:41 -0400
From:    Mike Yaklich <[email-masked]>
Subject: China/Japan part 6

        Okay, okay, I promise I will get back to China eventually.  First,
though, a little more about the period of Japan's opening Pacific gambit, when
they were pushing divisions around like Go pieces on the southeast Asian
gameboard.  One other part of that shuffle I didn't mention yesterday was the
reinforcement of the Phillipines for the final assault on the Bataan defenses.
In preparation for the April attack, in addition to the extra air and artillery
resources brought to bear for this operation (planned from the top levels of
Imperial General HQ-- another case where preparation paid off-- it was to an
extent an unexpected contingency, but they had more than a month to carefully
prepare, as the forces in Bataan were essentially besieged), the Japanese
transferred from the home islands another 15,000 footsoldiers, consisting of
the entire 14th Division and a contingent from 21st Div.  BTW, these
replacements were certainly needed.  For example, the 65th Brigade had paid
heavily for its first experience of combat, losing 1,500 of its 6,500 men
during the first round of fighting on Bataan.   The enfeebled condition of the
defenders-- limited to 1,000 calories per day, and with about 80% suffering
from malaria and 75% from dysentery!!-- certainly aided the Japanese, but so
did meticulous planning and allocation of extra resources for the task.  There
were still some 27,000 US and Phillipino troops reported as fit for service
(not counting those ill enough for sick call) when the attack came.
        If you want another textbook example of how to stage an efficient
campaign, the conquest of Indonesia is a prime case in point.  A look at the
map will illustrate the consummate skill with which the Japanese forces
dissected the defenses of this oil-rich territory;
        12/16/41: amphibious landings at three places on Borneo
        12/23/41: amphibious operation against Kuching, capital of Sarawak
        1/11/42:  airborne and amphibious landings on Celebes
        1/23/42:  amphibious landings at Balikpapan, Borneo
        2/14/42:  airborne landings on Sumatra, followed by amphibious assault
        2/20/42:  airborne and amphibious landings on Timor
        Bear in mind also that each of these moves (made possible, like
MacArthur's later campaign in New Guinea, by superior air and naval power)
also advanced Japanese air bases, making it easier to establish air supremacy
in order to cover subsequent operations (early in the campaign Japanese pilots
often had to fly as many as 400 miles each way to their targets).  The naval
portion of the campaign also demonstrates the superior strategy and tactics of
the Japanese at this stage of the war, although Allied resistance in this
sphere was by no means inconsequential.  The Dutch naval commander in Indonesia
was Vice-Admiral Conrad Helfrich, who was also the Navy Minister in the Dutch
government-in-exile.  Short, fat, and balding, this officer's appearance belied
his fighting spirit and instincts.  For the Dutch had reacted aggressively to
the Japanese opening moves, sending their submarines and antique, US-bought
B-18 bombers to attack Japanese invasion shipping not just in their own waters,
but off Malaya and the Phillipines.  In the first three months of the war the
Dutch had, in fact, sunk more total tonnage of Japanese ships than all the
other Allies combined!  A most notable action was fought by two Dutch
submarines during the landings at Kuching (see above).  These boats sank a
destroyer and two transports, and torpedoed two more transports, although one
of the Dutch subs was also sunk in return.  (BTW, the troops used in these
early moves against Borneo came from the 16th Division, part of the Phillipines
invasion force, showing that the Japanese, with their prior preparation, were
able to handle the difficulties of coordinating naval and air units AND ground
troops from two different armies in this campaign).
        The Allies created for the defense of Indonesia a new, joint command,
the ABDA (American-British-Dutch-Australian).  This multinational force was to
experience many of the expected problems of communication and coordination.
Its attempted ripostes met with varied degrees of success, especially in the
naval sphere.  Four American destroyers-- old "four-stackers" from the First
World War-- in a counterattack against the shipping supporting the landings at
Balikpapan sank four Japanese transports and a small escort vessel, but this
was one of the few outright successes.  In another sortie two Allied cruisers
and a dozen destroyers were turned back by only two Japanese destroyers (who
also sank one of the Allied destroyers in the process!).  The ultimate naval
battle of the Indonesian campaign was another demonstration of the tactical
and technical superiority of the Japanese cruiser and destroyer forces at this
stage of the war.  Looking at the map, it can be seen how the above-detailed
maneuvers were intended completely to isolate and surround the main Indonesian
island of Java, which held the biggest Allied naval and air bases.  At the end
of February, information was received that the landing forces for the awaited
invasion of Java were at sea.  The Dutch commander Admiral Doorman put to sea
to intercept with a multinational naval force.
        The ABDA fleet was just that.  It included the US heavy cruiser
HOUSTON (six 8-inch guns-- it had lost its aft two-gun turret to a previous
Japanese air attack), the British heavy cruiser EXETER (a smaller ship, also
with six 8-inch guns), the Australian light cruiser PERTH (eight 6-inch guns),
and the Dutch light cruisers JAVA and DE RUYTER (150-mm [5.9-in] guns).  There
were also four American, three British, and two Dutch destroyers.  The
difficulties of controlling so many ships of different nationalities, which had
not previously maneuvered together, limited Doorman's tactics and
communications choices considerably.
        The covering force for the Japanese invasion fleet, which was to land
on the western tip of Java, near the capital Batavia (Djakarta), consisted of
16 ships under Admiral Takeo Takagi (who would, with Kido Butai still off on
its Indian Ocean raid, later command the Japanese carriers at Coral Sea).
Takagi had two large heavy cruisers (which together mounted a total of
twenty 8-inch guns) plus 14 destroyers.  The encounter between the two fleets
would thus be the biggest battle between surface vessels since Jutland in 1916,
and also the first large-scale naval action of the Imperial Japanese Navy since
Togo's victory at Tsushima in 1905.  Doorman's intent was not to engage Takagi,
but to get around him and do the greatest possible damage to the invasion
shipping.  But with the Japanese by now in full control of the air, he was
largely fighting blind, and Takagi's forces out-maneuvered him at every turn.
The "Battle of the Java Sea" took place in two parts.  In the day action,
during which Doorman narrowly avoided allowing Takagi to "cross the T" (I've
referred to this classic naval maneuver a number of times in these posts, just
in case someone on the list isn't familiar the idea is that the force "crossing
the T"--i.e., forming the top of the letter-- can bring its entire broadside to
bear, while the opponent approaching in a column can only use the forward
guns.) the Allies lost one Dutch (to "Long Lance" torpedoes) and one British
destroyer, while the British EXETER took an armor-piercing shell in the boiler
room and was forced out of the fight.  In return, Allied fire knocked out one
Japanese destroyer.  Doorman, after the action was broken off, made another
attempt to get around the Japanese covering forces after dark.  This effort had
to be made with reduced forces, since the EXETER returned to base, escorted by
one Dutch destroyer, and the four American destroyers also returned home after
expending all their torpedoes in the day action.  Before the second fight
another British destroyer was lost, apparently to a drifting Dutch mine.  The
night action, however, went entirely in favor of the Japanese, due to their
excellent training in nocturnal combat, and the qualities of the "Long Lance"
torpedo.  Takagi's ships got in the first blows, as torpedoes struck and sank
both the Dutch cruisers at a range of over four and a half miles, killing
Doorman in the process.  The remainder of the ABDA force then ran for home.
The Japanese landings on Java began March 1st.  The two relatively unscathed
Allied cruisers, the US HOUSTON and the Australian PERTH, tried to break out of
the Japanese encirclement together, but in narrow seas ran straight into the
main Japanese invasion force-- 56 transports covered by four heavy and three
light cruisers, ten destroyers, and the light carrier RYUJO (NOTE: it was
standard Japanese tactical doctrine early in the war to employ their light
carriers to provide on-the-spot air support for amphibious operations, much as
the US Navy later came to use their "jeep carriers," and most large-scale
landings in the first six months or so had a single light carrier as part of
their covering force).  In this one-sided battle there could be only one
result.  The Allied ships went down fighting, in true samurai tradition, more
than half of the nearly 1,700 men aboard being killed.  The exceptional range
of the Japanese "Long Lance" torpedoes worked against them here, as a number of
them which missed the Allied cruisers ran on and sank four transports of the
Japanese invasion force, including the one carrying General Imamura and the
16th Army staff (the Japanese commander thus made a rather undignified landing
clinging to a piece of debris).  An attempt by the damaged British cruiser
EXETER to escape, accompanied by two British destroyers, was also foiled, and
all three ships were sunk, with the RYUJO's dive bombers doing most of the
damage.  The four old US destroyers managed to elude the Japanese and get away
to Australia.
        One more piece of naval stuff before returning (I hope) to the main
topic.  I've referred a few times to the biggest weakness of the Japanese Navy
being its woefully inadequate protection of merchant shipping, on which the
Japanese war plan largely depended.  A couple numbers in support of this.  Even
in the first year of the war, US subs alone, despite serious technical problems
with their torpedoes and a somewhat overcautious attitude on the part of some
skippers (pre-war exercizes having encouraged an exaggerated respect for enemy
patrol planes), managed to sink 139 Japanese cargo vessels and transports,
amounting to over half a million tons of shipping.  Another number: even by
March 1943 the two special fleets created by the Japanese for convoy escort
duties had the combined resources of 16 destroyers, five coast defense
frigates, and five small torpedo boats.  The Japanese attempted to remedy the
heavy losses by switching to a large convoy system (thus again husbanding
scarce resources), usually more than 20 cargo vessels per convoy, but after a
short period of reduced losses the US underwater fleets responded by initiating
"wolf-pack" tactics of multiple submarines operating together, and were soon
taking an atrocious toll of Japanese shipping once again.

        Regards

        Mike Yaklich

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

Date:    Wed, 1 Mar 1995 14:33:07 GMT-6
From:    "Robert T. Moore" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Patton biography

Hello, Richard!

I have a listing of Patton bios that I can post to you, if someone
hasn't already done so.

More later.

Terry

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

Date:    Wed, 1 Mar 1995 14:44:29 GMT-6
From:    "Robert T. Moore" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: TAC: Africa (was: What if?)

Hello, William!

I think that is an accurate assessment.

All the best,

Terry

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

Date:    Wed, 1 Mar 1995 16:56:04 -0400
From:    Mike Yaklich <[email-masked]>
Subject: Richard Bong

        Bong did fly a P-38 for all 40 of his victories.  He did two tours of
duty, the first over New Guinea beginning in the fall of 1942, the second over
the Phillipines (including a few raids over Balikpapan, Borneo).  I've read
that Bong's career owed a lot to George Kenney, later commander of the 5th Air
Force which fought in New Guinea and the Phillipines and made many of
MacArthur's victories possible (IMHO).  Before being shipped overseas, Bong was
in hot water for his habit of unauthorized stunt flying (including buzzing the
streets of San Francisco and flying a loop around the Golden Gate bridge!).
Supposedly Kenney liked his spirit, and, being about to ship out himself for
the south Pacific, managed to get Bong posted to his command.  During his first
tour of duty Bong often flew with Thomas Lynch, who rolled up 20 "kills' in the
course of the war, as his wingman (I mentioned this in one of my many Japan
posts).  Two incidents that stick in my mind regarding Bong's combat career
(sorry, I'm away from sources so may not have exact dates, etc).  The first
occurred over the north coast of New Guinea in the spring of 1943.  Bong was
boring in on a Japanese plane and lining up his sights, when he did what all
good pilots do, and glanced at his wingman to be sure he was in position.
Instead he saw, alongside and just behind him, the big red rising sun emblem
(US pilots called them "meatballs") of a Zero.  Bong snapped into a "split-S"
(a quick half-roll into a curving inverted dive, that traced a curve like the
top half of the letter-- when you came out you would also be going in the
opposite direction from where you started).  He continued diving, finally
pulling out to glance behind, only to find the Japanese fighter still there,
hanging on his tail just out of firing range.  So Bong split-s'd and dove
again, this time (with the P-38's superior diving ability) leaving his opponent
a good half-mile behind.  He whipped into a tight turn to lose his pursuer and
started to regain the altitude he had lost when he found himself confronted by
eight more Zeros, in line ahead, above him and headed right toward his P-38 in
perfect attack position.  Bong knew that only the unexpected would save him, so
he headed right at the enemy formation at full throttle.  This confused the
Japanese, particularly when Bong's first burst caused the lead Zero to go up in
a spectacular explosion.  As the following Zeros scrambled to avoid the debris
of their leader's disintegrating aircraft, Bong sped through their formation,
flaming two more Zeros.  Then, as the tail Zero passed over him, he pulled up
his P-38's nose and snapped off a short burst.  This plane Bong observed to
wobble and head off in another direction, but he didn't stay around to see if
he could record a fourth "kill."  Figuring his luck was used up, Bong got out
of there as fast as his Lightning would carry him.
        The other incident took place during Bong's second tour, in the
Phillipines.  He and his wingman were on a patrol-bombing mission, each with a
500-lb bomb under the plane.  Two Japanese single-engined bombers passed
underneath them, heading in the other direction.  Bong jettisoned his bomb and
went into a split-S, to bring himself out on the enemy's tail.  Bong and his
wingman pulled out just in time to see the 500-lb bomb Bong had dropped neatly
slice one of the two Japanese planes in half.  He then coolly lined up the
second aircraft, blissfully unaware of its companion's fate, and shot it down
as well.
        BTW, between his two tours of duty Bong took a gunnery course back in
the States.  He afterwards said that he learned so much about deflection
shooting in this course, that had he taken it prior to his first tour, he would
have had at least twenty MORE "kills."  Bong was killed in August 1945 when the
P-80 (later F-80) jet fighter he was flying crashed in California.

        Regards

        Mike Yaklich

PS:  Since the air force came up, I should take time to mention that one of the
"six reasons the Zero had a reputation" posts needs updating.  A post from
David Murnain sent me scurrying for sources, and I found he was correct.  On
May 2, 1943, 27 Zeros escorted 18 Japanese bombers on a raid over Darwin,
Australia.  They were intercepted by 33 Australian Spitfires, including one
flown by "Killer" Caldwell, Australia's top ace with at least 28.5 victories
(I've read higher scores attributed to him).  I mentioned that five Zeros were
lost (I've since seen the number put at six), and that eight Spitfires were
shot down.  Seven more Spitfires made forced landings, and I attributed these
to battle damage, however, David's post made me aware that it was lack of fuel
or engine problems which caused the crash-landings.  So, not such a stunning
demonstration of what the Zero could do, but not bad either, in that a slightly
outnumbered force tied to escorting bombers still shot down more enemy fighters
than they themselves lost.  Also, one of the sources I read on this made it
unclear whether the six planes claimed by the Australians referred to six Zeros
or just six planes total (in which case the ratio would be even more favorable
to the Zeros).

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

Date:    Wed, 1 Mar 1995 17:43:53 EST
From:    John Davis <[email-masked]>
Subject: INF: 50 Years Ago - 02-MAR-1945

On 02-MAR-1945, the following occurred -

World War II - The Battlefronts
-------------------------------
Western Front - In the Canadian 1st Army sector, the 53rd Division takes
Weeze and advances south toward Geldern. In the U.S. 9th Army sector, the
35th Division moves into Germay and reaches Sevele. The 84th Division
crosses the Niers Canal near Suchteln and Odt. The 102nd Division and 5th
Armoured Division reach Krefeld and Ficheln. The 83rd Division completes
the capture of Neuss and reaches the Rhine opposite Dusseldorf. In the 1st
Army sector, the 99th Division crosses the Erflt. The 3rd Armoured Division
and 104th Division defend the bridgeheads east of the Erflt. The III Corps
continues to push towards the Rhine. In the 3rd Army sector, the 4th and
87th Division meet heavy resistance near Ormont and east of Prum. During
the night, the XII Corps begins an offensive towards the river Kyll. The
5th Division attempts to establish a bridgehead across the Kyll between
Erdorf and Philippsheim.

Philippines - I Corps is ordered to press the attack northward as XIV Corps
is winding up the battle for Manila. Elements of the 25th Division take
Puncan. Rock Force finishes clearing Corregidor, to which General
MacArthur pays a return visit. Japanese losses on Corregidor total 4,500
dead and 20 captured. American casualties number about 1,000 killed,
wounded, injured and missing. In the 8th Army area, elements of the
Americal Division drive to the outskirts of Mauo on Samar.

Iwo Jima - The VAC is now in control of about two thirds of Iwo Jima. The
corps attacks in greater strength in order to exploit gains in the center.
The 3rd Marine Division gains control of Airfield 3, which the Japanese
continue to rake with fire. The 4th Marine Division, its combat efficiency
greatly reduced by casualties and fatigue, continues to clear rough terrain
abounding in pillboxes, caves and underground passages on the right of the
corps. On the left flank, elements of the 5th Marine Division make slow
progress in the attack on the Nishi rige.  Unloading begins on the western
beaches. Airfield 1 is ready for use by transports.

Burma - The Indian 20th Division and British 2nd Division link their
bridgeheads west of Mandalay.

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

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:    Wed, 1 Mar 1995 13:51:37 -0500
From:    James E Irwin <[email-masked]>
Subject: MEDIA:Col. Bates Dies

>From the DoD Newswire 27 February 1995

=====

:WW II COLONEL BATES DIES AT 86

   DUNEDIN, Fla. -- Paul L. Bates, the white colonel who refused
to court martial Jackie Robinson and the commander of the first black
tank battalion to go into battle in World War II, has died at 86.
   He died of cancer at home on Tuesday, daughter-in-law Dorothy
Bates said.
   The 761st Tank Battalion entered combat in November 1944 as part
of Gen. George Patton's Third Army and fought for 183 consecutive
days without relief, veteran David Williams wrote in his memoirs,
"Hit Hard."
   The unit captured, destroyed or liberated more than 30 major
towns, 34 tanks and four airfields.

====

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 James E. Irwin (Jim)                  Internet address:
 Defense Personnel Support Center        [email-masked]
 2800 S. 20th Street                   215-737-3678
 Philadelphia PA  19101-8419           Autovon 444-3678

                     "Never in the field of human conflict
                     was so much owed by so many to so few."
                               Winston S. Churchill
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Date:    Wed, 1 Mar 1995 13:42:32 -0500
From:    James E Irwin <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Richard I.Bong

In reply to the mail from <[email-masked]>...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>   Hello everybody !!
>
>
>       I'm looking information about Richard I .Bong
>       specially in wich airplane he realize more scores.
>
>
>       thanks in advance.
>
>
>       Esaul Alfredo
>
Esaul,

Dick Bong flew the P-38 Lightning in the Pacific.  He recorded
40 enemy aircraft downed. He was sent home and was killed test
flying an early jet aircraft.

Hope this helps.

Jim

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 James E. Irwin (Jim)                  Internet address:
 Defense Personnel Support Center        [email-masked]
 2800 S. 20th Street                   215-737-3678
 Philadelphia PA  19101-8419           Autovon 444-3678

                     "Never in the field of human conflict
                     was so much owed by so many to so few."
                               Winston S. Churchill
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Date:    Wed, 1 Mar 1995 13:56:58 -0500
From:    James E Irwin <[email-masked]>
Subject: MEDIA:WWII Truck Found

>From the DoD Newswire 27 February 1995

=====

:EGYPTIAN ARMY FINDS WORLD WAR TWO TRUCK IN DESERT

    CAIRO, Feb 26 - The Egyptian army has recovered a World
War Two supply truck lost in the Western Desert more than 50 years
ago, Al-Hayat newspaper reported on Sunday.
     The vehicle, which had belonged to the British-led Allies, was
more than 2,000 km (1,300 miles) from the town of Al-Alamein where the
Allies fought a major tank battle with German forces in 1942.
     The truck was loaded with gas containers, milk produced in 1941,
bullets, oil and other supplies, and was spotted by an Egyptian
military aircraft on a routine patrol, officials told the newspaper.
     Egyptian army mechanics said the vehicle was in good condition
and they had been able to fix its engine and tyres.

=====

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 James E. Irwin (Jim)                  Internet address:
 Defense Personnel Support Center        [email-masked]
 2800 S. 20th Street                   215-737-3678
 Philadelphia PA  19101-8419           Autovon 444-3678

                     "Never in the field of human conflict
                     was so much owed by so many to so few."
                               Winston S. Churchill
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Date:    Wed, 1 Mar 1995 14:37:16 -0500
From:    James E Irwin <[email-masked]>
Subject: MEDIA:German VE Day Plans

>From the DoD Newswire 1 March 1995
====

:GERMANY TO MARK END OF WORLD WAR TWO WITH CEREMONY

    BONN, Feb 28 - Germany said on Tuesday it would
commemorate the 50th anniversary of the end of World War Two on May 8
with a state ceremony in a Berlin concert hall attended by President
Roman Herzog and Chancellor Helmut Kohl.
     Herzog's office said the president had asked the government to
organise the ceremony in Berlin's Schauspielhaus. The presidents of
parliament and the constitutional court, Rita Suessmuth and Jutta
Limbach, will also take part.
     Kohl is also expected to participate in anniversary celebrations
in London and Paris with leaders of the allied powers.
     No details of the Berlin ceremony were immediately available, but
government officials said earlier this month Germany and its main
World War Two foes intended the events to stress their hopes for
peace.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 James E. Irwin (Jim)                  Internet address:
 Defense Personnel Support Center        [email-masked]
 2800 S. 20th Street                   215-737-3678
 Philadelphia PA  19101-8419           Autovon 444-3678

                     "Never in the field of human conflict
                     was so much owed by so many to so few."
                               Winston S. Churchill
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Date:    Wed, 1 Mar 1995 18:50:11 EST
From:    Mary Hricko <[email-masked]>
Subject: QUERY: Women's WWII Literature

Hello everyone!
   I have been asked to compile a bibliography on women's war literature
(poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and essays etc.) and would appreciate your
input and suggestions.

   I am specifically interested in American writers. The information may
include diaries, letters or any other material related to WWII.

   Finally, I am also interested in obtaining a list of women war
correspondents. Any suggestions would be most appreciated.

   Rather than cluttering up everyone's boxes with your responses, please
email me directly at:
                      [email-masked]

After I compile a completed list, I will post it for those who may wish
to copy it. Thanks again.                  Mary

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

Date:    Wed, 1 Mar 1995 20:06:05 EST
From:    "SGM Robert S. Rush" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: endlossung/Germans or Nazis?

Let's see, Nazi army, Democrat's army, German army, US Army.  The
last two seem more appropriate.

My two cents
Rob

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

Date:    Wed, 1 Mar 1995 19:38:27 -0600
From:    Kelvin Brent Luther <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: endlossung/Germans or Nazis?

On Tue, 28 Feb 1995, Alex Bielakowski wrote:

> On Tue, 28 Feb 1995, William Lippert wrote:
>
>    I don't think that the camps were German because they were administered
> by many other Europeans.  Nazi is probably a more accurate description.
> If you want to tie Nazism with Germanism that's acceptable, but to stretch
> the camps to sole Germanship ownership, administration, and responsibility
> ignores what many other Europeans (Austrians, Poles, Estonians, etc.) did
> to contribute to the Holocaust.
>
> At the risk of starting a flame-war, I have to take exception with the
> mention of the Poles as having played a part in the Holocaust.  Over
> one million Polish Catholics were killed by the Germans during WWII, not
> to mention the undetermined number that were murdered by the Soviets.
> Auschwitz and other concentration camps had there share of Polish
> Catholics as well as Polish Jews (Dr. Jozef Garlinski, a former prisoner
> at Auschwitz,has written an excellent book on the subject _FIGHTING
> AUSCHWITZ_).  The Poles were the only ethnic group in Europe not to
> supply the Germans with soldiers (that excludes those Poles who were
> forced into the German Army, because they did so unwillingly and never
> served in "Polish" units).  Finally, need I remind anyone of the actions
> surrounding the death of St. Maximilian Kolbe at Auschwitz.
>      I do not, for a minute, deny that some individual Poles may have
> participated in the Holocaust.  It seems ironic to me, however, that one
> often hears more about Polish "anti-semitism", than the anti-Semitic
> policies of the collaborationist Vichy government, or Mussolini's Italy,
> or Franco's Spain, or the Croats, Lithunians, Ukrainians, or Russians.
> My point is that almost every ethnic group in Europe has been accused of
> anti-Semitism, but the Poles were the only ethnic group not to willingly
> participate in the Holocaust by collaborating with the Germans or by
> willingly contributing to the German war effort.
>      While the French were collaborating with the Germans, the Poles
> represented the fourth largest Allied army in Western Europe (after the
> U.S., U.K., and Canadians).  Likwise, the Polish Home Army was at least
> three times larger than the French Maquis, but most of the space in the
> history books devoted to resistence has been given to the French.  Ok,
> I'm sure that those are enough examples to get me in quite a bit of
> trouble.  Just my two cents!
>
> Alex Bielakowski
>
        I don't any major disagreements with what you said, but I do feel
that the Poles along with the Ukrainians were some of the most
anti-semitic people in Europe.  Much of this stems from their long period
of being ruled by the Austrians and the Hungarians.  In the Austrian
Empire the Germans and then Hungarians were obviously the most favored
groups.  The Poles and Ukrainians were at the bottom and the Jews were
the middle men taking care of most of the busines end, collecting rent
etc.  There was and still is a huge resentment of the Jews based on
this.  Today there are a miniscule amount of Jews in Poland yet whenever
there is mention of something bad economically someone will blame them.
        Finally, the only country not to contribute to the holocaust was
Bulgaria.  They refused to export their Jewish population to Poland, and
were the only European country in the German domain to see a war time
increase in their Jewish population.  It was possible for people to
resist collaborating with the holocaust and your right, France deserves
to be exposed for their unparalleled amount of collaboration.
                        Kelvin Luther

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

Date:    Wed, 1 Mar 1995 20:55:00 EST
From:    mc killop <[email-masked]>
Subject: [INF] USAAF 2 MAR 45

COMBAT CHRONOLOGY OF THE US ARMY AIR FORCES
FRIDAY, 2 MARCH 1945
FTP SITES
  1. ftp.rutgers.edu in directory pub/wwii/usaf
  2. byrd.mu.wvnet.edu (129.71.32.152) in pub/history/military/airforce/
     wwii_chronology

AIRCRAFT MENTIONED IN THIS REPORT:
  A-20, Douglas Havoc
  B-17, Boeing Flying Fortress
  B-24, Consolidated Liberator
  B-25, North American Mitchell
  B-29, Boeing Superfortress
  F-5, Lockheed Lightning
  P-38, Lockheed Lightning
  P-47, Republic Thunderbolt
  P-51, North American Mustang
  Spitfire, Vickers Supermarine

NOTE: A number in parenthesis after a target name indicates the number of
bombers attacking.

CHINA-BURMA-INDIA THEATER

  CHINA THEATER (Fourteenth Air Force): 3 B-24s on sweeps over the Gulf of
Tonkin and the S China Sea claim 2 vessels sunk and 3 damaged.

  HQ AAF (Twentieth Air Force): Mission 41: In the Malayan States, 50 of 64
B-29s dispatched bomb the shop and warehouse area at the naval base in
Singapore; 5 others hit alternates on Bukum Island and at Arang Hill, and at
Khao Huakhang, Thailand; they claim 0-1-4 Japanese aircraft; 2 B-29s are
lost.

  INDIA-BURMA THEATER (Tenth Air Force): In Burma, 20+ P-47s fly close
support strikes in the Mogok area; 2 B-25s damage ferry slips at Li-lu while
10 others hit bridges at Tonglau, Na-lang, Mong Pawn, and Namsang; 90+
fighter-bombers attack gun positions, troops, supply areas, and highway
targets of opportunity in the general battle areas and behind enemy lines.
Transports complete 564 sorties to forward areas.

EUROPEAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS (ETO)

  STRATEGIC OPERATIONS (Eighth Air Force): 2 missions are flown.
  Mission 859: 1,232 bombers and 774 fighters are dispatched to hit
synthetic oil plants and a tank factory in Germany; most attacks are made
using H2X radar; they claim 110.5-9-60 Luftwaffe aircraft; 14 bombers and 13
P-51s are lost:
  1. 450 B-17s are sent to hit an oil plant at Bohlen (60), oil refinery at
Rositz (36) and gun batteries at Bohlen (36); 255 hit the secondary target,
Chemnitz; targets of opportunity are Penig (12), Saalfeld (13), Jocketa (12),
Cologne (1) and other (12); some attacks are made visually; they claim 2-0-1
aircraft; 3 B-17s are lost, 1 damaged beyond repair and 52 damaged; 1 airman
is KIA, 4 WIA and 29 MIA. Escorting are 254 of 272 P-51s; they claim 7.5-1-4
aircraft in the air and 0-0-6 on the ground without loss.
  2. 321 B-24s are dispatched to hit the Rothensee oil plant (38) and Buckau
tank factory (257) at Magdeburg; 4 others hit a target of opportunity; some
attacks are made visually; 3 B-24s are lost and 61 damaged; 1 airman is KIA
and 28 MIA. The escort is 187 P-47s and P-51s; they claim 5-2-0 aircraft in
the air; 2 P-51s are damaged beyond repair.
  3. 455 B-17s are sent to hit the oil plant at Ruhland (24); 406 hit the
secondary, Dresden; 1 other hits a target of opportunity; they claim 6-3-10
aircraft; 8 B-17s are lost and 53 damaged; 1 airman is KIA, 2 WIA and 72 MIA.
225 of 249 P-51s escort; they claim 54-3-16 aircraft in the air and 36-0-23
on the ground; 13 P-51s are lost (pilots MIA).
  4. 6 B-24s fly a screening mission.
  5. 25 of 28 P-51s fly a scouting mission without loss.
  6. 22 of 23 P-51s escort 14 F-5s and 4 Spitfires on photo reconnaissance
missions over Germany without loss.
  Mission 860: 11 of 12 B-24s drop leaflets in the Netherlands and Germany
without loss and 4 B-24s fly CARPETBAGGER missions.

  TACTICAL OPERATIONS (Ninth Air Force): In Germany, the 9th Bombardment
Division hits 5 bridges, 2 communications centers, 3 ordnance and motor
transport depots, several city areas, and 6 targets of opportunity; the
objectives are to hinder movement of enemy troops trying to help the German
army caught in front of the US Third Army, to obstruct movement in general,
and to damage enemy repair and refitting capabilities; 1,700+ fighters escort
the bombers, hit special targets, fly armed reconnaissance and patrols, and
support the US 3d Armored Division at expanding the bridgehead on the Erft
River, the XVI and XIX Corps in the Sevelen, Monchen-Gladbach, and the Neuss
area, and the VIII, XII, and XX Corps E of the Prum River, astride the Kyll
River, and in the Trier-Saarburg area.

MEDITERRANEAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS (MTO)

  STRATEGIC OPERATIONS (Fifteenth Air Force): In Austria, 470 B-24s and
B-17s, with fighters flying escort, bomb marshalling yards at Linz, Sankt
Polten, Amstetten, Graz, and Knittelfeld, and Brescia, Italy; 31 P-51s on a
strafing mission attack rail and river communications from Linz to
Regensburg, Germany, while 18 others fly top cover; F-5s fly reconnaissance
missions. During the night of 1/2 Mar, B-24s drop supplies in N Italy and C
Yugoslavia.

  TACTICAL OPERATIONS (Twelfth Air Force): In Italy, weather again grounds
the medium bombers; fighter-bombers and fighters hit communications,
ammunition and stores dumps, 2 sugar refineries, guns, vehicles, and
buildings S of Bologna and in the Po Valley, and the airfield at Aviano and
Lonate Pozzolo.

PACIFIC OCEAN AREA (POA)

  AAFPOA
    Seventh Air Force: 7 Guam Island-based B-24s make a daylight raid on the
airfield on Chichi Jima Island and 5 more bomb the same airfield and the town
of Okimura on Haha Jima Island during the night of 2/3 Mar.
    VII Fighter Command: The 78th Fighter Squadron, 15th Fighter Group,
arrives on Iwo Jima Island from Hawaii with P-51s (first mission is 10 Mar).

SOUTHWEST PACIFIC AREA [SWPA, Far East Air Force (FEAF)]: On Formosa, B-24s,
B-25s, A-20s, and fighter-bombers hit Matsuyama, Toyohara, Kagi, and Kato
Airfields. In Borneo, other B-24s pound Sepinggang and Manggar Airfields and
the waterfront area of Sandakan. The 394th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), 5th
Bombardment Group (Heavy), moves from Morotai Island to Samar Island,
Philippine Islands with B-24s. The detachment of the 432d Fighter Squadron,
475th Fighter Group, operating from San Jose, Mindoro Island with P-38s,
returns to base at Clark Field, Luzon Island.

SOURCES:
AIR FORCE COMBAT UNITS OF WORLD WAR II, Office of Air Force History,
  Headquarters USAF, 1961, ISBN 0-912799-02-1
COMBAT SQUADRONS OF THE AIR FORCE, WORLD WAR II, Office of Air Force
  History, Headquarters USAF 1982
THE ARMY AIR FORCES IN WORLD WAR II: COMBAT CHRONOLOGY, 1941-1945 by the
  Office of Air Force History, Headquarters USAF, 1973
THE MIGHTY EIGHTH WAR DIARY by Roger A. Freeman, ISBN 1-85409-071-2

Jack McKillop
USAF (Airways and Air Communications Service)
1955-59

-------------------------------------------------------------------
|  Jack McKillop         |  Those who have long enjoyed such      |
|  Bellcore              |  privileges as we enjoy forget in      |
|  Piscataway, NJ USA    |  time that men have died to win them.  |
|  [email-masked]  |                       FDR              |
-------------------------------------------------------------------

02/0154Z MAR

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

Date:    Wed, 1 Mar 1995 21:52:45 -0500
From:    Scott C Stathis <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Richard I.Bong

>
> Esaul Zermeno Bautista writes:
> >
> >        I'm looking information about Richard I .Bong
> >        specially in wich airplane he realize more scores.
> >
>
>
>         My source indicates that Bong scored 40 victories overall, and the
> only plane mentioned in most of the accounts is the P-38 Lightning.  It
> appears that he flew P-38s for most, if not all, of his combat career.  As
> to the specific P-38 variants he might have flown, or individual tail codes
> of his aircraft, I have no information handy.  Bong's main wingman during his
> career appears to have been Capt. Thomas J. Lynch, who himself scored 20
> victories.  Bong was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honour for his
> voluntary, repeated engagement in combat.  Toward the end of the war, I seem
> to recall that he was posted back to the U.S. to prevent the Pacific's leading
> ace from being shot down (a definite public relations nightmare), and to
> bolster war production/war bonds back home.  Bong appears to have been a big
> hit on the factory/war bond circuit, and I've seen pictures of him buzzing
> various plants in his natural aluminum-finished P-38.  He was killed in
> August 1945 while testing a new airplane (I don't know what type) at Muroc,
 California.

He was testing one of the new P-80's when it crashed killing him. Also the
P-38's he flew during the war where named Marge after his finace back home
and some sported a lookness of her on the left side of the nose.

Scott Stathis
[email-masked]

>
> Source: Thomas Parrish (ed.) _The Simon and Schuster Encyclopedia of World
>         War II_.  New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978.
>
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> --
> ----------
> Jon Perkins--Ottawa, Canada
> [email-masked]
>

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

Date:    Wed, 1 Mar 1995 19:13:13 -0800
From:    Jim Curry <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Patton biography

My pick for the best Patton biography is Martin Blumenson's _Patton: The
Man Behind the Legend_ (Morrow,1985).  Blumenson also edited the
indispensable _Patton Papers_(2 volumes, Houghton Mifflin,1972-74).
Since Patton didn't live to write his memoirs, these allow the reader to
see the war through Patton's eyes--and reveal a person much more complex
and enigmatic than the public image.  Ladislas Farago's _Patton_ (the
basis of the famous movie) is less reliable factually.

Jim Curry
[email-masked]

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

Date:    Wed, 1 Mar 1995 22:51:46 -0500
From:    Ben Frank <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: PATTON BIOGRAPHY

In addition to this biography, I recommend Martin Blumenson's two volumes of
the Patton diaries. Ben Frank

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

End of WWII-L Digest - 28 Feb 1995 to 1 Mar 1995
************************************************