Subject: WWII-L Digest - 1 Mar 1995 to 2 Mar 1995

From: Automatic digest processor <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 3 Mar 1995 00:06:26 -0500

There are 33 messages totalling 1420 lines in this issue.

Topics of the day:

  1. QUERY: Women's WWII Literature (2)
  2. INF: USN Chronology 03-02-95
  3. Col. Bates
  4. Patton biography (5)
  5. Richard I.Bong (3)
  6. MEDIA:WWII Truck Found
  7. ADMIN: Introduction to WWII-L
  8. endlossung/Germans or Nazis? (2)
  9. China/Japan part 7
 10. Re2: A-bomb spies
 11. Info on USN Battle Stars (2)
 12. B-29 sans defensive weapons (2)
 13. Nissen  and Quonset Huts
 14. INF: Tokyo RAid and Chinese casualties
 15. MEDIA:Col. Bates Dies
 16. The Ursel rocket launcher (not much though)
 17. Jim Irwin
 18. [INF] USAAF 3 MAR 45
 19. Bio: Richard Ira Bong (2)
 20. INFO ON USN BATTLE STA
 21. INF: 50 Years Ago - 03-MAR-1945
 22. A-bomb spies

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

Date:    Wed, 1 Mar 1995 23:55:47 -0800
From:    Sidney Allinson <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: QUERY: Women's WWII Literature

Marguerite (Margaret) Higgins comes to mind as a fine war correspondent.

--

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

Date:    Thu, 2 Mar 1995 04:00:14 PST
From:    "Keller, Theron P." <[email-masked]>
Subject: INF: USN Chronology 03-02-95

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

1945
03/02 Fri. Cruiser and destroyer task group (Rear Adm. F. E. M.
           Whiting) bombards Japanese positions on Okino Daito
           Jima, Ryukyu Islands.
           Destroyers bombard enemy on Parece Vela Reef in the
           Philippine Sea.
            United States naval vessels damaged, Iwo Jima area:
             Attack cargo ship STOKES (AKA-68), LST 224,
              LST 247, LST 634, by collision,
              24 d. 46'N., 141 d. 19'E.
             LST 642, by grounding,
              24 d. 46'N., 141 d. 19'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:    Thu, 2 Mar 1995 07:05:57 -0500
From:    Kevin Kamphaus <[email-masked]>
Subject: Col. Bates

Does anyone know the specifics about the court marshalls mentioned in the Col.
Bates obit?

Also, the Stalag Luft III survivor I mentioned yesterday was named Pollock.

Thanks,

Kevin Kamphaus
[email-masked]

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

Date:    Thu, 2 Mar 1995 07:21:05 GMT-6
From:    "Robert T. Moore" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Patton biography

Hello, Richard!

Here goes with the Patton bios I possess.

The Last Days of Patton by Ladislas Farago
George Patton-General in Spurs by Alden Hatch
War as I Knew it by General George Patton
Patton:Ordeal and Triumph by Ladislas Farago
Portrait of Patton by Harry H. Semmes
Lucky Forward by Colonel Robert S. Allen
Patton by Charles Whiting
The Patton Papers by Martin Blumensen 1885-1940
 "   "      "      "  "       "       1940-1945

 Hope this has been of help.

 Terry

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

Date:    Thu, 2 Mar 1995 08:48:30 -0500
From:    QUACK <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Patton biography

Has anybody been to the Patton Museum at Fort Knox?
A report would be appreciated.

Ron

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

Date:    Thu, 2 Mar 1995 09:08:46 GMT+6
From:    Esaul Zermeno Bautista <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Richard I.Bong

    Hello everybody !!

         I want to thank you all for  helped me

         giving me information.

         Esaul Alfredo.

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

Date:    Thu, 2 Mar 1995 22:46:31 +0700
From:    "Peter E. Beal" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: MEDIA:WWII Truck Found

On Wed, 1 Mar 1995, James E Irwin wrote:

> >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.
>
And what about the drivers/crew?

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

Date:    Thu, 2 Mar 1995 11:21:09 -0500
From:    Barone <[email-masked]>
Subject: ADMIN: Introduction to WWII-L

Revision: 1 February 1995
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Just some minor corrections and additions.  - Joe]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

        Welcome to WWII-L, a list dedicated to the discussion of the greatest
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------------------------------------------------------------------------------

        Several members of the list provide daily updates of events that
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COMBAT CHRONOLOGY OF THE US ARMY AIR FORCES is archived at two 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

50 YEARS AGO TODAY is archived at:

  1. ftp.netcom.com, in directory /pub/jbd/www

50 YEARS AGO OF NAVAL ACTIVITIES and other historical goodies:

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

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Thanks.

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

If I haven't suffciently confused you, send me e-mail and I'll finish
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[email-masked]
W: (401) 842-4054
Always wit' da negative waves, Moriarty!  Always wit' da negative waves!

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

Date:    Thu, 2 Mar 1995 23:20:02 +0700
From:    "Peter E. Beal" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: endlossung/Germans or Nazis?

On Wed, 1 Mar 1995, Kelvin Brent Luther wrote:

> 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
>
Implicitly the question is, could you be an anti-Nazi/anti-German and
still be an antisemite?  I think the Poles managed.  In pre-WWII Poland
jewish university students were not allowed to sit (they had to stand) in
the lecture halls.  Poles did not exactly support the resistance in the
Warsaw Ghetto.

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

Date:    Thu, 2 Mar 1995 13:10:34 -0400
From:    Mike Yaklich <[email-masked]>
Subject: China/Japan part 7

        I promised I'd return to China in my next post.  I neglected to mention
that I would be travelling there by way of Indonesia and Burma.
        Just to tie up loose ends from my last post, the fall of Java was a
foregone conclusion after the destruction of the Allied naval and air forces in
the region (of 111 US aircraft rushed to Indonesia in early '42, only 23
bombers and a handfull of P-40's remained by the last week of February; British
Hurricanes based on Java suffered similar attrition).  The Japanese amphibious
landings also took the form of a pincer movement, with the main force of
Imamura's 16th Army landing on the western tip of the island near Batavia,
while a somewhat smaller force came ashore further east.  The landings were
carried out on March 1st, Batavia fell the next day, and the Dutch command on
the island surrendered a week after that (Admiral Helfrich and the senior
British and American commanders were flown out first).  Once the Japanese were
ashore there was little hope of successfully opposing them, for the Dutch
ground forces on Java were not only outnumbered and outgunned, but they could
hardly even be called Dutch.   The bulk of the rank and file was composed of
native Indonesians, and the majority of these had no love for their Dutch
colonial masters.  In fact, the Japanese were subsequently able to find some
33,000 volunteers for their own native "Java Defense Force," disposed in 66
battalions of about 500 men each to supplement the inadequate Japanese forces
in defending the large island against possible Allied invasion.  On Bali, which
I mentioned earlier as particularly friendly to the Japanese, another 1,500
volunteers took over most of the garrison duties, as there were virtually no
Japanese combat troops on that island.  The experience of the Indonesian
volunteers was not, however, a particularly happy one, as they soon came to
greatly resent the second-class treatment handed out to anyone not racially
Japanese (this on top of the already brutal Japanese military discipline).  One
unit even revolted and fought their Japanese "advisors."  In a tie-in to one of
today's hot ecological issues, small parties of Japanese also came under attack
from time to time from the Dyak tribesmen of the western Borneo rainforests,
who realized that the large-scale logging operations carried out by the
Japanese there was destroying the environment which provided their sustenance.
        The Japanese raised foreign troops to aid their occupations in a few
other places.  In Burma, the Japanese had since 1940 been providing covert aid
to the Burmese independence movement through the so-called Minaimi
Organization.  After overrunning most of the country, they tapped the services
of a leading spokesman for Burmese independence, the dimunitive,
Cambridge-educated Dr. Ba Maw.  Ba Maw had been the president of the token
parliament the British had allowed the locals, but that didn't stop the British
from arresting him after a 1940 speech they considered seditious (in that
speech Ba Maw had mentioned that the British claimed to have been fighting the
First World War to "make the world safe for democracy," and to have renounced
any territorial ambitions, but that after gaining a million and a half square
miles of new territory as a result of the war-- Ba Maw's figure-- their
attitude changed drastically).  In the second half of 1943 the Japanese finally
allowed the creation of a supposedly independent Burma headed by Ba Maw.
However, as with Manchuria and most other states of the "Greater East Asia
Co-Prosperity Sphere," the actual degree of Burmese independence was so minimal
as to be unnoticable.  Even cabinet official's of Ba Maw's government riding in
marked official cars were stopped and rudely searched by common soldiers at
Japanese Army security checkpoints in Rangoon.  Nonetheless, in 1943 a "Burma
National Army" was also formed, totalling about 55,000 men.  This force was
intended for garrison duties in the country, to free up Japanese troops for the
fighting fronts, but the humiliating treatment handed out by the Japanese to
the Burmese at all levels eventually made the armed forces a hotbed of
opposition.  In the spring of 1945, Burma National Army units under the
leadership of Aung San revolted, first in Mandalay and then throughout the
country, and fought a number of heated engagements with the now-retreating
Japanese.  The British later reformed most of these units as a "Free Burma
Army."
        As an aside, I should mention that the Japanese population at home was
totally taken in by propaganda regarding the mission and purity of intent of
the supposed Japanese anti-colonial crusade embodied in the "Greater East Asia
Co-Prosperity Sphere."  In this respect I would venture that "Suzuki-san" (the
contemporary Japanese expression equivalent to "John Doe" or "John Q. Public")
wasn't much different than his or her western counterparts, in that the
majority trusted their government to do the right thing most of the time.  One
of the winning entries in a newspaper contest to develop slogans for the
"Co-Prosperity Sphere" (quoted in a Toland footnote) was, "With firmness we
fight, with kindness we build."  I've already said enough about the true face
of Japanese "liberation" from the colonial powers that anyone who's struggled
through my posts can see the irony of that one.  The trouble is that, even
today, the propaganda about freeing Asia from white domination seems to be
continued, but that's a different thread...
        The only foreign troops that actually fought in front-line actions on
the side of the Japanese against the westerners were some of the India National
Army.  This body was formed in 1942, primarily from Indian prisoners of war.
Its military leader was Mohan Singh, a former captain in a Punjab regiment now
promoted to general by the Japanese.  The spiritual head of this army was the
Bengali leader of the Indian independence movement Subhas Chandra Bose.  Bose
did not share the philosophy of non-violent passive resistance which was the
main tactic of the larger independence movement led by Gandhi and Nehru.  BTW,
both Gandhi and Nehru were arrested by the British and interned for most of the
war, an action that set off major riots across India, which British troops had
to be called in to quell.  Bose had established a Provisional Government of
India with German support and himself as head of state, and he came to the
Pacific to lead the Indian forces there.  At any rate, by the end of summer
1942 about 40,000 of the 55,000 Indian soldiers captured (mostly in Malaya and
Singapore) had joined the INA, about half of them fairly early, indicating
perhaps a true patriotism or a keener sense of opportunism, and the other half
after experiencing a couple months of what life in a Japanese POW camp was like.
This force got its opportunity for combat in the Japanese Burma offensive of
1944.  About 7,000 men formed part of the Japanese spearhead pushing towards
Imphal.  The first troops to reach Indian soil fell to their knees and kissed
the ground, shouting "Jai Hind" (roughly, "long live India").  Bose had even
printed up new currency to be used once he set up his government on Indian
territory.  But the advance stalled, the Indians claiming that the Japanese
division which was supposed to support them had abandoned them (in support of
this theory is the fact Mutaguchi subsequently relieved the division's
commander).  Neither the Japanese nor the British apparently considered the INA
troops worth much as fighters, but it seems they at the very least knew how to
die.  Of those 7,000 men only 2,600 were still alive that summer after the
Japanese retreat.
        Hey, which brings us back to China.  There, too, the Japanese had their
puppets, and these sometimes had armed forces under their control.  However,
except for the troops of warlords in Japanese pay like Li and Sung, who were
used as cat's-paws to open the way for Japanese expansion prior to the outbreak
of open warfare in 1937, it appears few Chinese ever actually fought for Japan.
The Japanese did however set up their own Chinese government after the fall of
Nanking.  Its head was Wang Ching-wei, formerly a prominent member of the
Kuomintang, but a man who always had his own program.  In the Kuomintang's
underground days prior to World War I, Wang had gained repute in the party for
an attempt to assassinate a high government official, which failed when the
bomb he threw did not go off.  Wang was considered one of Chiang's top
lieutenants, and a potential rival for power.  He had his own quasi-independent
power base in the three Wu-han cities.  When Chiang had turned on the
Communists, Wang broke away and made an alliance with the Communists.  However,
a few weeks later he too changed his mind and expelled them from his
organization.  He tried to form his own nationalist government in the early
1930's.  Wang Ching-wei rejoined the Kuomintang in 1938, but, after lengthy
secret negotiations with the Japanese, he defected again in December of that
year.  This led to the proclamation, in 1940, of a Chinese government headed by
Wang and recognized by the Japanese as the legal government of China.  Of
course, the Japanese lost no time in opening negotiations with this government
(which in fact was so powerless that even the design of its flag was a matter
for prolonged and bitter negotiation with the Japanese) with the object of
getting Wang to recognize Japan's right to Manchuria.  Wang's death in 1943
removed this problematic and bizarre personality from the scene.

        That's it for today: tomorrow, back to the war in China.

        Regards

        Mike Yaklich

PS I've received a number of messages, questions and requests regarding these
posts, I saved them all and will try to respond to every one when I get the
time.  I beg your patience until I finish cranking out the last two or three
posts to finish this series.

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

Date:    Thu, 2 Mar 1995 13:13:59 -0500
From:    "John E. Kollar" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Patton biography

Terry, if you don't post the list of Patton, could you send me a copy?

John E. Kollar

[email-masked]

Thanxs.

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

Date:    Thu, 2 Mar 1995 13:23:49 -0500
From:    Henry Sirotin <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Re2: A-bomb spies

Dear Alex,

Best sellerdom doesn't mean accuracy, and I'm not surprised all the
debate on Sudaplatov is in the US. Britain's man-on-the-scene,
Klaus Fuchs, is a known quantity. Who are the scholars who have
access to the KGB archives? I know the Party archives, the Presidium
archives, and some of the military archives have been all or partly
opened, but last I heard the KGB material was still restricted on
all but a VERY selective basis. Volkogonov, for example, couldn't
get in for his books. Much of Sudaplatov is probably true, although
the Russians themselves have officially noted mistaken claims in the
book as to what responsibilities he had and when he had them. Finally,
I think it is a mistake to talk about the "KGB archives." Soviet
archives in general are circles within circles, and that title covers
a lot of ground. Volkogonov ran into this problem with Alger Hiss-
Hiss heard Volkogonov had access to the "KGB archives" and wrote
to V for an exoneration. V actually had the use of *some* files,
specifically relating to US PoW issues, and wrote that he had seen
nothing relating to Hiss, who promptly trumpeted this as a vindication.
V had no idea the contretemps he was getting into in terms of American
politics. In fact, to the best of my knowledge, NO ONE has had access
to either KGB or GRU archival material on espionage against the US.

Regards,

Henry Sirotin

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

Date:    Thu, 2 Mar 1995 13:29:07 -0500
From:    "C. MICHAEL SHORT, ASSOCIATE DEAN OF STUDENT LIFE" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Patton biography

I've been to Patton's museum a couple of times.  They have a nice display
outside of WW II armor.  Lots of WW II stuff inside including a good Patton
film.  It takes a couple of hours to go through if you hurry a bit.  If you are
lucky the armor brigades training at Fort Knox be training in their tanks and
you can watch them, too.

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

Date:    Thu, 2 Mar 1995 13:44:00 EST
From:    "Roger D. Corrie" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Info on USN Battle Stars

1. How were Battle Stars awarded?

2. Where did ships display them? Especially DD, and what did they look like?

3. Did crewmembers have/wear any decorations to represent Battle Stars?

4. On a USN DD Destroyer how were aircraft kills represented, Flag or
Aircraft Symbol?

Thanks in advance
|   CPORog(Roger D. Corrie) - Email [email-masked]  -  Phone 804-427-2200
|  |
   |
|                   19th Century Scientific American online                  |
|          http://www.history.rochester.edu/saonline/saonline.htm Phone
|  |
   |
|                       Appletons' Cyclopedia                                |
|                                 of                                         |
|                       Applied Mechanics online                             |
|          http://www.history.rochester.edu/appleton/apple.htm               |
|                                                                            |
|                             Home Page                                      |
|                   http://www.infi.net:80/~cporog/                          |
|____________________________________________________________________________|

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

Date:    Thu, 2 Mar 1995 14:01:37 -0500
From:    Ron Babuka <[email-masked]>
Subject: B-29 sans defensive weapons

A while ago there was a thread as to the switch from high altitude B-29
raids being replaced by low altitude incendiary raids.  I had posted where
I read that they also removed the gunners and defensive weapons for these
raids. I poseted this minus any sources since I couldn't remember where I
had read it - wel last night I stumbled across my source: John Costello's
"The Pacific War 1941-1945" and in it:

        "On March 9, Army Air Force crews assembled in the Quonset huts on
Tinian and Saipan for a mission briefing.  Their apprehension at being told
they would be making the first low-level attack that night on Tokyo was
replaced by shocked disbelief when they heard that the aircraft were to be
stripped of all guns except for the tail turret.  The weight saving in fuel
by not having to form joint uptight formations or climb to 30,000 enabled
each Superfortress to increase its bomb load by 65 percent, to over 7
tons."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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:    Thu, 2 Mar 1995 13:22:29 CST
From:    "SCHERRER, TIM" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: QUERY: Women's WWII Literature

Try _One Woman's Army_ (might be war rather than army) by Charity Adams
published by Texas A&M press.  Excellent book on the WAC's, blacks in
the military, as well as a great book on leadership.  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:    Thu, 2 Mar 1995 13:25:45 GMT-6
From:    "Robert T. Moore" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Richard I.Bong

Hello, Esaul!

Tell me what you need about Mr. Bong.

All the best.

Terry

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

Date:    Thu, 2 Mar 1995 15:10:45 -0500
From:    Henry Sirotin <[email-masked]>
Subject: Nissen  and Quonset Huts

To all,

Is there a difference between Nissen and Quonset Huts? Were these
British and American terms for the same thing? If not, how did
they differ?

TIA,

Henry Sirotin

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

Date:    Thu, 2 Mar 1995 14:34:48 -0500
From:    Henry Sirotin <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: endlossung/Germans or Nazis?

I think we went through this on this list two months ago (or was it
Milhist-l?)

1) While no organized Polish group took part in the Holocaust, and hundreds
of Poles risked their lives to save Jews, thousands more actively collaborated  with the Germans. The most likely reason there was no organized collaboration
was that Poland, unlike most occupied German territory, was directly ruled
by the Germans. I seriously doubt a Polish puppet government would have
behaved any differently than, say, Vichy. To cite St. Maximilian Kolbe
in this context is insulting. Kolbe was one of the most notorious
anti-Semites in prewar Poland, a journalist and politician who crusaded
on this issue. This fact would almost certainly have been known to
John Paul II when he named Kolbe, and was brought out almost immediately
thereafter, yet the process of canonization continued. Among the million,
wasn't there ONE Catholic Pole with more wholesome credentials who could
have been honored? Finally, the only pogrom in Europe *since* the Holocaust     killed 40-50 Jews in Kielce, Poland, in 1946. As I noted in an earlier post,    apparently some thought the Holocaust insufficient.

Alex is quite right in noting the Polish contribution to the Allied war
effort is usually understated- note especially the codebreaking work-
but this is a separate issue.

2) Italy took anti-Semitic actions only in response to real or perceived
requirements of the alliance with the Nazis. I don't think Italy had any
anti-Jewish laws until c.1938, a very sizable number if not most of the
Italian Jewish community survived the war, and Italian commanders in
Yugoslavia intervened to save Jews.

3) Finland saved its entire native Jewish population of 1700+. The only
Jews it turned over were 8 non-Finns demanded by the Gestapo on political       and criminal grounds, who were included in a larger group of about 25 of
all backgrounds. To their credit, the Finns fully investigated this act
and to this day it is considered a national scandal. Another 100 or so
non-Finnish Jews were also protected. President Mannerheim's response to
increasing German pressure to surrender the Jews was to attend services
at a leading Helsinki synagogue.

Henry Sirotin

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

Date:    Thu, 2 Mar 1995 15:18:19 -0500
From:    Henry Sirotin <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Patton biography

The decision to curtail Patton was not Truman's alone- so far as I am
aware, the entire European US Army hierarchy concurred.

Henry Sirotin

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

Date:    Thu, 2 Mar 1995 15:24:43 EST
From:    Mike Oaks <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: INF: Tokyo RAid and Chinese casualties

On Wed, 1 Mar 1995 08:32:19 -0500,
Ron Babuka  <[email-masked]> wrote:

>        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:
>
snip snip snip

Ouch, Ron, that was alot of people to die due to the Doolittle raid. I've
heard somethings in the past about japanese retribution but nothing to this
scale...again, Ouch! I'm interested in the war in China and especially
about Japanese atrocities. Could you please refer me to a few good books
dealing with these subjects??
Thanks in advance!!
            Mike Oaks

/====================================================================\
|    Michael A. Oaks                                                 |
|    Systems Analyst                  Music: A means to mark times   |
|    [email-masked]              stepping stones through |
|    Kennesaw, Georgia 30144                 your calendar of life.  |
|    Tel: (404)423-6049  Fax (404)423-6541          ~ ~ ~ ~      MAO |
|    VWAR-L #146 - - (Sgt. USAF = / AFCS / AFSS / AFDC)              |
|    Break, Break...Kadena, Kadena, Clark, Clark, Request you echo...|
|    (Some things you never forget...even after 25 years...)         |
\====================================================================/

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

Date:    Thu, 2 Mar 1995 15:27:28 -0400
From:    Mike Yaklich <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: MEDIA:Col. Bates Dies

        I just want to echo Jim Curry and say that "Hit Hard" is one heckuva
good read for those who like war memoirs, or just well-written personal
history.  Also appropriate for those who ignored Black History Month, just
completed-- this can be your make-up assignment.

        Regards

        Mike Yaklich

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

Date:    Thu, 2 Mar 1995 16:37:42 -0500
From:    Ron Babuka <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Info on USN Battle Stars

>1. How were Battle Stars awarded?

Battle stars were awarded to ships (and men) when assigned to a specific
combat operations or campaigns.  (i.e. for example my father and his ship
recieved a battle star for the bombardment at Palau along with all other
ships involved in their campaign, a battle star for the Phillipines
campaign, plus a battle star for his ships individual combat at Ormoc Bay).
Also there are silver and bronze battle stars awarded to sailors.

>2. Where did ships display them? Especially DD, and what did they look like?

My fathers destroyer (DD-692 Allen M. Sumner) did not have it's battle
stars painted on the ship during the the war

>3. Did crewmembers have/wear any decorations to represent Battle Stars?

Battle stars (bronze or silver)  are "pinned" on top of campaign ribbons.

>4. On a USN DD Destroyer how were aircraft kills represented, Flag or
>Aircraft Symbol?

On my fathers destroyers, each destroyer VERIFIED sunk had an painted
figure of a ship going under (1/2 ship at 45 degrees to surface) and each
VERIFIED aircraft sunk had an painted figure of an aircraft placed on the
bridge.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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:    Thu, 2 Mar 1995 15:42:18 GMT-6
From:    "Robert T. Moore" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: The Ursel rocket launcher (not much though)

Hello, Gudmundur!

Will see what I can find. I should have something on this.
More later.

All the best.

Terry
>
> Terry Moore: HELP! :) Have you anything on this stuff?
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Gudmundur J. Helgason                              e-mail: [email-masked]
> Olduslod 41                                              phone: (354)-5655270
> 220 Hafnarfjordur                                               (354)-5652270
> ICELAND                                             Maintainer of ICELAND.FAQ
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>

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

Date:    Thu, 2 Mar 1995 13:46:30 -0800
From:    Steve New <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Richard I.Bong

You wrote:

>
>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]
>
>
Bong was killed testing the prototype P-80 for lockheed.

--

Steve L. New
[email-masked]
Just an armadillo on the shoulder of the information superhighway.

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

Date:    Thu, 2 Mar 1995 19:46:00 -0500
From:    Colin Brace <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Jim Irwin

       For Jim Irwin,
                      Sorry to blast the list with this, but the messages
       sent to Jim Irwin keep getting rejected. Jim, would you please give
       your kind permission for me to forward your post on the finding of the
       British Army truck in Egypt? I would like to post it to the Britsh
       auto enthusiast list, as I think they would be interested. Thank you
       for your informative postings, and thank you, Joe Barone & all list
       members for your patientce.

       Colin Brace WA1KWA

       [email-masked]

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

Date:    Thu, 2 Mar 1995 20:20:00 EST
From:    mc killop <[email-masked]>
Subject: [INF] USAAF 3 MAR 45

COMBAT CHRONOLOGY OF THE US ARMY AIR FORCES
SATURDAY, 3 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
  P-38, Lockheed Lightning
  P-47, Republic Thunderbolt
  P-51, North American Mustang

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

CHINA-BURMA-INDIA THEATER

  CHINA THEATER (Fourteenth Air Force): 4 B-24s over the Gulf of Tonkin and
the S China Sea attack shipping targets of opportunity, claiming 1 vessel
sunk and 3 damaged. In French Indochina, 3 B-25s hit Kep, damaging several
locomotives and boxcars and hit a bridge and 12 P-51s hit targets of
opportunity between Vinh and Nam Dinh (2 direct hits are scored on the bridge
at Minh Koi) while 2 others blast a HQ building in Hanoi.

  INDIA-BURMA THEATER (Tenth Air Force): In Burma, 24 P-38s and P-47s support
forces of the Chinese 50th Division near Mansam; 16 support the British 36
Division in the Mogok area; 10 P-47s knock out the Na-lang bridge while 2
B-25s drop delay-action bombs in good pattern around the Loi-leng bridge; 10
B-25s join 80+ fighter-bombers in an attack on troops, supplies, tanks,
trucks, gun positions, and transport elephants behind enemy lines, 29 of
the fighter-bombers concentrate on the Kankang area. 643 air supply sorties
are completed.

EUROPEAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS (ETO)

  STRATEGIC OPERATIONS (Eighth Air Force): 2 missions are flown.
  Mission 861: 1,102 bombers and 743 fighters are dispatched to bomb oil
refineries, oil plant equipment works, motor transport factory, tank plant,
and rail bridge in NC and E Germany; they claim 25-2-37 Luftwaffe aircraft;
9 bombers and 8 P-51s are lost:
  1. 114 B-17s are sent to hit the oil refinery at Misburg (23); 82 hit the
secondary target, the Hanomag tank factory at Hannover; and 2 hit Lemford, a
target of opportunity; bombing is by H2X radar; 11 B-17s are damaged; 9
airmen are KIA and 5 WIA. Escorting are 44 of 46 P-51s; they claim 0-0-1
aircraft in the air; 1 P-51 is lost (pilot MIA).
  2. 222 B-17s are sent to bomb the oil plant at Ruhland (24) and bomb
visually; 166 hit the secondary target, the marshalling yard at Chemnitz
using H2X; targets of opportunity are Plauen (11) and other (16); 2 B-17s are
damaged beyond repair and 63 damaged. 193 of 214 P-51s escort claiming 3-0-0
aircraft in the air and 10-0-23 on the ground; 2 P-51s are lost (pilots MIA).
  3. 94 B-24s are dispatched to hit the Nienburg Bridge (41); 48 hit the
secondary target, the marshalling yard at Bielefeld and 1 hits a target of
opportunity; attacks are visual; 3 B-24s are damaged. The escort is 19 of 21
P-51s without loss.
  4. All 219 B-24s dispatched hit the Rothensee oil refinery at Magdeburg
visually; they claim 1-0-0 aircraft; 4 B-24s are lost and 77 damaged; 3
airmen are WIA and 39 MIA. The escort is 129 of 144 P-51s; they claim 0-0-2
aircraft in the air; 2 P-51s are lost (pilots MIA).
  5. The primary targets for 453 B-17s are the Wilke (53) and Brussing (77)
oil plants and the MIAG munitions plant (61) at Brunswick and oil refineries
at Dollbergen (37), Dedenhausen (53) and Nienhagen (56); 38 hit the
secondary, Hildesheim (38); targets of opportunity are the marshalling yard
at Bielefeld (36), Herford (23) and other (2); most attacks are visual; they
claim 1-2-4 aircraft; 5 B-17s are lost and 53 damaged; 1 airman is WIA and 41
MIA. Escorting are 169 of 180 P-51s; they claim 0-0-4 aircraft in the air and
9-0-2 on the ground; 2 P-51s are lost (pilots MIA) and 1 damaged beyond
repair.
  6. 100 of 107 P-51s fly a fighter sweep in the Leipzig-Magdeburg area; they
claim 1-0-3 aircraft in the air; 1 P-51 is lost (pilot MIA).
  7. 30 of 31 P-51s fly a scouting mission.
  Mission 862: 18 of 24 B-24s bomb the marshalling yard at Emden using PFF.

  TACTICAL OPERATIONS (Ninth Air Force): In Germany, the 9th Bombardment
Division hits Wiesbaden, Giessen, Bergisch Born, and Nahbollenbach ordnance
and storage depots, rail bridges at Remagen and Simmern, a communications
center at Heimersheim, motor transport concentration at Schwelm, the
Rheinbach ammunition dump, Kirn marshalling yard and town, and several
targets of opportunity; fighters fly bomber escort, hit special targets, fly
patrols and armed reconnaissance, and support the US 9th Infantry Division,
3d Armored Division, and VII Corps astride the Erft River W of Euskirchen and
the area near Roggendorf W of the Rhine River, the XIII, XVI, and XIX Corps E
of Sevelen, NE of Krefeld, and W of the Rhine in the Dusseldorf area, and the
VIII, XII, and XX Corps in the area between the Prum and Kyll Rivers and
along the Mosel River in the Trier area.

MEDITERRANEAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS (MTO)

  STRATEGIC OPERATIONS (Fifteenth Air Force): Rapidly deteriorating weather
cancels bombing operations. In Austria, P-51s strafe rail traffic between
Leibnitz and SW of Spittal an der Drau and attack the airfield S of Graz;
P-38s fly reconnaissance and reconnaissance escort. 1 B-24, of 6 dispatched,
drops supplies in N Yugoslavia. HQ 31st Fighter Group and the 307th and 308th
Fighter Squadrons move from San Severo to Mondolfo, Italy with P-51s.

  TACTICAL OPERATIONS (Twelfth Air Force): In Italy, overcast skies and
turbulent winds hamper medium bomber missions against communications in the
Brenner area, allowing only limited success against targets; the Crema and
Fidenza Bridges in the Po Valley are damaged; XXII Tactical Air Command
fighter-bombers, destroy a sugar refinery at Verona and achieve good results
against communications and dumps in the C Po Valley and Brenner area; other
fighters and fighter-bombers support the US Fifth Army S of Bologna; A-20s
during the night of 2/3 Mar, hit roads, ammunition supplies, and vehicles at
several points in the Po Valley, particularly in the Bologna-Modena regions,
and bomb the Legnano marshalling yard.

PACIFIC OCEAN AREA (POA)

  AAFPOA (Seventh Air Force): 10 B-24s from Guam Island pound Susaki Airfield
on Chichi Jima Island in an afternoon strike, and 4 more, flying individual
strikes, hit the same target during the night of 3/4 Mar. The 467th and 468th
Fighter Squadrons, 508th Fighter Group, move from Kahuku to Mokuleai, Hawaii
with P-47s.

SOUTHWEST PACIFIC AREA [SWPA, Far East Air Force (FEAF)]: In Formosa, B-24s
pound the Tainan area and Kiirun while fighters hit numerous targets of
opportunity and fighter-bombers bomb Koshun Airfield. B-25s bomb San Roque
Airfield on Mindanao Island, Philippine Islands. B-24s and B-25s attack
Zettle Field on Jolo Island. Ternate on Samar Island and Echague on Luzon
Island and Caballo Island in Manila Bay are bombed by A-20s. B-25s, aborting
a strike against Formosa, bomb the airstrip at Basco on Batan Island,
Philippine Islands.

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              |
-------------------------------------------------------------------

03/0118Z MAR

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

Date:    Thu, 2 Mar 1995 20:19:28 EST
From:    Brian Nicklas <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Bio: Richard Ira Bong

Bong's most famous aircraft was a Lockheed P-38J-15-LO, AF serial
42-103993, nicknamed "Marge," after his girlfriend Marjorie
Vattendahl.  A 20x24 inch B&W photograph of Marge was tinted (colored)
and pasted onto the nose of the aircraft, along with 25 Japanese
flags.  The photo was Marge's graduation photo from Superior State
Teachers College.
The plane was lost in March 1944, while being flown by another
pilot (who safely bailed out).
Majorie Vattendahl and Richard Ira Bong were married on February 10, 1945
in Superior, Wisconsin.
Dick Bong was killed August 6, 1945 while flying a Lockheed P-80A-1-LO
AF serial 44-85048 on an AF acceptance flight from the Lockheed plant
in Burbank, California.
The P-80A was from the first production batch, not a prototype.
The Bong Memorial in Poplar, Wisconsin has a P-38 mounted as if in flight,
painted to depict 42-103993 "Marge."
Sources: Lockheed Aircraft since 1913 by Rene Francillion, Naval Institute
Press, Annapolis, Maryland, 1987.
Ace of Aces: The Dick Bong Story by Carl Bong and Mike O'Conner,
Champlin Museum Press, Mesa, Arizona, 1985.

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

Date:    Thu, 2 Mar 1995 20:48:00 EST
From:    mc killop <[email-masked]>
Subject: B-29 sans defensive weapons

 >A while ago there was a thread as to the switch from high altitude B-29
 >raids being replaced by low altitude incendiary raids.  I had posted where
 >I read that they also removed the gunners and defensive weapons for these
 >raids. I poseted this minus any sources since I couldn't remember where I
 >had read it - wel last night I stumbled across my source: John Costello's
 >"The Pacific War 1941-1945" and in it:

SNIP   SNIP   SNIP

You have to look at each firebomb raid individually becase the
requirements changed with each.  For the Tokyo raid on the night of
9/10 Mar, Major General Curtis Emerson LeMay, Commanding General
XXI Bomber Command, had originally suggested that all guns be
removed from some of the B-29s and using the, along with regularly
armed B-29s, exclusively in night incendiary raids.  The average
load of ammunition in the B-29 was 8,000 roads which weighed 3,200
pounds (1,452 kg).  Only the tail guns were manned.

On the night of 11/12 Mar, the B-29s hit Nagoya; each B-29 carried
200 rounds of 50 caliber (12.7 mm) ammunition for the tail guns.
On the night of 13/14 Mar, 274 B-29s hit Osaka.  The low wing was
given 50 caliber ammunition for the lower forward and aft turrets
in addition to the tail guns.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
|  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:    Thu, 2 Mar 1995 21:02:01 -0500
From:    Ben Frank <[email-masked]>
Subject: INFO ON USN BATTLE STA

Battle stars were worn on theater ribbons, such as the Asiatic-Pacific theater,
for instance. A battle star represented a battle in which the individual or
ship participated, but the Navy Board of Awards established which action
warranted a battle star. Large campaign ribbons were generally painted on the
bridges or the sides of the bridges of combat vessels and each time a battle
star was awarded for an action, it was painted in. An individual could wear a
theater ribbon if he served in the theater, but was only entitled to have
battle stars if he participated in cmapaigns for which battle stars were
designated. Thus, someone who served his whole time in the war at Pearl Harbor
and never went into combat, would wear the Asiatic-Pacific theater ribbon
bereft of stars. Ben Frank

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

Date:    Thu, 2 Mar 1995 21:13:28 EST
From:    John Davis <[email-masked]>
Subject: INF: 50 Years Ago - 03-MAR-1945

On 03-MAR-1945, the following occurred -

World War II - The Battlefronts
-------------------------------
Western Front - In the Canadian 1st Army sector, contact is made between the
British XXX Corps and the American XVI Corps at Walbeck, southwest of
Gelderen. In the U.S. 9th Army sector, the offensive of the 35th Division is
slowed because of heavy resistance from German parachutists. The XII Corps is
also facing heavy German resistance. In spite of this the 84th Division still
captures Rath and advances on towards Homberg. In the 1st Army sector, the
VII Corps is advancing rapidly towards the Rhine, taking Glessen and
Dansweiller. The 1st Division and 9th Armoured Division reach the Erflt. The
2nd Division crosses the Rur at Heimbach and continues pushing south towards
Gemund. In the 3rd Army sector, the 4th and 87th Divisions are pinned down
near Ormont and Reuth. The 11th Armoured Division cross the Prum and attacks
towards the Kyll, taking Fleringen. The 5th Division secures a small
bridgehead on the east of the Kyll.

Philippines - In the XIV Corps area, the 37th Division overcomes final
resistance within Manila. Elements of the 11th Airborne Division conclude
operations to clear Manila Bay with the reduction of resistance in the
Ternate area.

Iwo Jima - The VAC makes slow progress toward the O-3 Line against
increased resistance.

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

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:    Thu, 2 Mar 1995 21:22:52 EST
From:    Paul <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: A-bomb spies

I thought Klaus Fuchs was the one responsible for passing the bomb secrets--
Seems discovery or Arts and Entertainment's series Spies (I forget which)
did an episode on this.... I do also recall that there was some suspicion
cast on Oppy during the Mccarthy witch hunts but can't remember that source
either.

                                            Paul Gregor

                                             Kent State

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

Date:    Thu, 2 Mar 1995 21:28:24 EST
From:    Paul <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Bio: Richard Ira Bong

I think General Yeager makes comment on Bongs death in his book,
   briefly.

                                   Paul Gregor
                                    Kent State

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

End of WWII-L Digest - 1 Mar 1995 to 2 Mar 1995
***********************************************