History Forum / War History / World War II / September 2005

A friend of mine is reading Balkowski's new book on Utah Beach and has come
across something that surprised him. Balkowski claims that US parachute
infantry battalions only contained three companies each with no heavy
weapons company. The rationale he gives is that it was found to ...

This is from Guy Sajer's The Forgotten Soldier.  He is describing the
formation of an "assault group" near Belgorod in the summer of 1943.  I
am presuming the spandaus is a large machine gun.  Can anyone direct me
to a photo of this weapon?

 Okay, not trying to stir anything up, I have a good grasp of the reasons
behind the failure of this operation. But I have several questions that
perhaps some of you can answer.
 First, the daylight drops were meant to reduce the scatter that occurred

Notwithstanding the widespread (and not unjustified) dismissal of features
presented on the History Channel, I happened to see part of one on Rommel.
In this presentation, the producers did things like have German language
newsreels with subtitles and to dig up living Afrika ...

What do you think about the Patton's drive to Palermo during the
battle of Sicily?
What did it accomplish aside from capturing a lot of Sicilian real
estate? Did it have any effect on the German right flank or was it

A wide remit...
I'm getting a bit tired of anecdotal history books.  You know what I mean.
Stephen Ambrose style 'I was there'.
I'm looking for a book that analyses a battle, any battle, purely from the

Rather surprisingly, I cannot find a comprehensive website for TO&E
of US forces in WWII.  I'm particularly interested in battalion and
regiment strength levels, but the more data the better!
What would be the definitive source for this (not necessarily

Would like to know what authority and on the basis of what experience or
forward projection determined in 1940-41 how airborne assaults for the rest
of the war were going to be carried out so as to not require the number of
airborne divisions the U. S. eventually fielded.

Somebody I know quite confidently asserted that the U.S
supplied Germany a great deal of arms and equipment from
the beginning of WWII until Germany declared war on the
U.S.

What was the official pretext given by the US government for declaring war
on Germany?  (To my knowledge, Germany had not attacked the US.)  Was war
declared on Germany simply because it was an ally of Japan?  Or was some
other reason given?

What is Goebbels contribution to the Nazi war effort?
No doubt he was helpful in the early struggles of the Nazi party to
come to power. But his wartime articles/speeches in newspapers and
"Hitler birthday speeches" etc etc seem jaded and repetetive. Although

which army in WW2 was most efficient in terms of kill/death ratio?
I mean mainly between armies of quality (finnish, german, US, British)
and not just how many troops were slaugtered in lower quality armies
(such as Soviet or Chinese)

How much coverage did the German press give to the war in the Pacific?
Where there any German reporters in Japan?

Based on current ratings for hurricanes, how intense was the typhoon of
Dec 1944 that TF 38 was involved in?  Three destroyers were lost.  Was
it a 3, 4, or 5?  What was the top wind velocity reported?

Hi folks, I was wondering if some of you could help me out
in finding some decent, truthful books.
First, I'd like a book that gives the Russian point of view from say,
Stalingrad, to the fall of Berlin.