History Forum / War History / World War II / September 2004

The (disarmed) USS Utah was used as a target ship until destroyed at
Pearl harbor.
Were there other target ships used for USN dive bomber training?  -or
was it all done with towed targets?

In biographies of Harry Truman, it is said while as a Senator he
investigated the Glenn Martin company because of crashes of one
of the airplanes, IIRC the B-26.  According to the biographies,
Mr. Martin knew the problem causing the crashes, but wasn't too

Does anyone know much about the combat history of the U.S. Army's 41st
Infantry Division in the South Pacific during WW II?  I know they were
called "The Jungleers," but is there anything that uniquely defines their
history?

When Barbarossa began, Churchill immediately diverted

Hi, everyone,
As part of the research for my novel, I'm trying to learn when and how
the people back home in WW II learned of the death of a soldier in
battle.  We are now accustomed to hearing bad news almost instantly, but

"Daniel Titley" <d.titley@bigfoot.com> asked:

I read the following in Ribbontrop by Michael Bloch p378
"On 8 December, the United States Congress declared war on
Japan....Roosevelt's speech contained no reference to the possibility of
war with Germany and Italy. (The President and Cordell Hull had

I have just learned that Jean Ruth Hay, better known to millions of American
servicemen in WW2 as the "Beverly" of the AFRS program "Reveille with Beverly,"
died last Saturday.  She appeared at the dedication of the WW2 memorial in
Washington last May as a guest of the Smithsonian ...

"Farhad Sabeti" <farhadsabeti@yahoo.com> posted Sept. 17:

There's no flattering interpretation of Laval's character that I can
imagine, but I can see two distinguishable possibilities.
1.  Laval was a traitor to France who deliberately sabotaged French
interests to help Germany.

Looking for information on the use of horses in the German Army especially in
the period from 1939 to 1941.  How many horses would be attached to an infantry
division?  Where did the army obtain their horses.  When deployed were
replacements seized from the area in which the unit ...

I'm compiling a log for my dad of all his navy career. I still need a photo
of U29 from WW2. I have googled but there are only 3 photo's and only 1 is
half good. I don't suppose that you could help a little.
TIA

One of the features of US homefront life in WW II were many scrap
drives.  Citizens were strongly encouraged to give up any scrap
metals, rubber items, paper, and fats, to be recycled for the war
effort.  These drives were big events with parades and kids helping

Is anyone have detailed information on the Hauwei island assault
during "The Bismarck Archipelago Campaign"? My father was part of the
group that landed on Hauwei and encountered unexpected heavy enemy
resistance. I am looking for more detail and possibly some pictures.

I am curious how the axis powers paid for their military budgets. What was the
tax structure of Germany and Japan? Graduated income? Flat? Special taxes?
In particular, how did the Japanese Army and Navy set their budgets and acquire
funding? It is my understanding that both the ...