History Forum / War History / World War II / January 2004

OK, I think I have most of the US navy protocols for naming warships
during WW2 down pat:
Battleships:  States
Cruisers:  Cities

does anyone here know any good books that talk about the strategies used in
the battle of midway? thanks in advance

I'm asking for information for a friend who is a military history buff.
He is trying to find a source for the German order of battle on D-day in
Northern France. If someone can point me to a resource I would appreciate
it.

   Perhaps a kind on, to be sure.  He did have the family's assistance,

I recently saw a program on John Kennedy and pt109.  Its not the
first one i've seen, but it did raise what seems a rather obvious
question that I had not thought of before and the program didn't
seem to deal with.  How exactly does a PT boat get run over by

Where did the codename "bigot" for someone cleared for information on Overlord
come from?  I've always assumed it was picked because bigots (as in biased
individuals) seldom admit the fact, so the "Are you a Bigot?" question (meaning
are you cleared for this) wouldn't accidentally ...

In November 1940 the British press referred to a Dutch pilot, Keone D.
Parmentier, whose family had been wiped out during the German invasion of
the Netherlands.  He was said to be carrying out nightly vengeance raids
against German targets in Holland.  His raids were principally ...

I'm writing a story that has a WWII component and need your help.
What would be various SS ranks in a camp like Thereseinstadt (or any
general concentration camp)?
Commandant -- rank?

Imagine my surprise when I read this little note regarding a user
review of David Kahn's book about the breaking of the cypher
codes by Nazi intelligence which were "used by Colonel Bonner Fellers
in Egypt".

Over at soc.history.what-if a poster asked about the effects of
upgrading German infantrymen with small arms from the generation of
weapons that followed wwii.  I take small arms to include ligth
infantry weapons from the pistol, sub-machine guns, rifles, hand

I hadn't realised that V2s could be detected at all.  The BBC have got quite
an interesting site where people can send in their WW2 memories.  I came
across an account by a former radar operator (at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/ww2/A1993098) of which this part.

Question for WWII buffs.
Someone I know has a Longitude and Latitude numbers found amongst his
father's WWII stuff. Any idea how he can find out the coordinates? He thinks
it is an island.

This morning's newpaper carried an obituary for a WWII USMC vet,
CWO2 Marion Keith Martin, who had been captured in the Phillipines
and spent four years in Japanese captivity.
The obituary listed his decorations.  Among the usual service

i recall hearing that churchill said something along the lines of (and
this is a paraphrase, emphasis on para) 'that if england should ever
fall as low as germany did, i would hope that a hitler would for us
what hitler did for germany'