History Forum / War History / World War II / May 2005

I just watched the film "Bridge on the River Kwai" which brought me to
read an article by Major Basil Peacock who survived 3 years
of captivity by the Japanese after surrendering at Singapore.  He was
among the thousands of British prisoners who was forced to work on the

Hello,looking forward to what the response on this will be.
 I want to sample opinions as to what was the real turning point in WW
II.Some people say Stalingrad,others say the very commencement of
Operation Barbarossa itself.Another view regards the entry of the US as

Whenever the topic's about the consequences of the UK falling, everyone
seems to accept that the U.S. could not have invaded Festung Europa,
but I disagree.  Why couldn't the U.S. have made an amphibious landing
far enough south on the west coast of Africa that the Germans would be

Eddie Albert, Hollywood actor died at age 99.  The San Jose Mercury
News had a condensed story on his life from the LA Times.  The Mercury
News does not mention that Mr. Albert was a WWII veteran, nor that he
had received the silver star for heroic action in the South Pacific.

Hi, I have an old photograph, that I need help with. There are 14 soldiers
and 9 of them are smoking Sherlock Holmes type pipes (large bent pipes with
lids). One subject has "KG" on his chest, and another has it on his knees. I
am far from being an expert, but I think they may be ...

I wonder what happened to the various copies of Hitler's testament. Did
any of it survive to date, and if so, who does keep it where?

"Arkadiusz Bugaj" <arcadiusb@gazeta.pl> posted May 10:

the

i was just wondering, what ever happened to those inflatable tanks and
people that the Allies made prior to D-Day to mask the real invasion?
that would be a heck of an ebay find or a lawn ornament for whoever has
it!

I showed a veteran of Omaha beach around Normandy for three days last
month. He wanted to visit Cerisy le Foret where he'd passed through. He
said he was present there when Eisenhower passed the gouverment of
France to deGaulle.

A friend just pointed out this curiosity to me....
    <http://www.chicagosite.org/uasc/tymindex.htm>
...which a few others here might find interesting to learn about.

   How far was the physical blast noticed by the Japanese?  Could the
people in Tokyo feel it?  Did it really scare the people down to their core
all thru the Japanese Islands?
   Thanks

Just reading thru the debate over Churchill and Curtain's fight over Aussie
troop deployments.
Churchill wanted the troops sent to Burma, Curtin wanted them brought home
to meet the immediate "Jap menace".

What was the Japanese anti-aircraft defense during the American raids
of 1944-45 on  mainland Japan? Did the have guns like the German 88
aided by radar control. Did they have flak towers?

I was reading a book recently about the D-Day landings.In the book
there was a letter written by Montgomery to a certain Gen. Dempsey in
which he was letting him know how the first day of the invasion had
gone.What really caught my attention was where he was telling him about