History Forum / War History / World War II / December 2007

I have read that as of February 1944, Rabaul had been neutralised,
most planes destroyed and the effective remainder withdrawn so that
there were effectively only ground troups left. I wonder what life
might have been for the huge Japanese garrison. It seems they started

Dear Sir,
I am looking for the history of the 149th combat engineers, company B after D Day to the end of the war.  Can you please help?
Thanks, Nancy Ertle

I don't get why France and the UK had to have battles in North
Africa.  There was long-simmering resentment, but why couldn't they
put that aside, especially considering Germany had gobbled up much of
France itself?

After being cut off during Market-Garden, it's said that British LTC
John Frost reestablished communications via the Dutch public telephone
system.
How's that done, exactly?  Surely he didn't just find a booth and say

So, Churchill favored invading what he called the "soft underbelly of
Europe"  But what did he (and other leaders of the Allied Forces)
think would happen after complete capture of Italy??
The only way into Germany from there was the mountains of Austria,

Has anyone read "The War", the large companion piece to the seven part
series aired by Public TV earlier this year, written by Geoffrey C. Ward and
Ken Burns?
I thought it was a magnificent piece of historical work on WWII presented

Reading the "did the Italians do anything right", I heard that by
rearming with '20's era equipment right after WWI, they never had the
advantage of more modern equipment, having rearmed so quickly and
using up their resources.

So there was this effort -- successful -- to save three Polish
warships from destruction, just a few days before the German invasion,
by sailing them to Britain!
I'm just curious how come the Germans let the ships go, even though

I'm curious about the real nature of the logistical supply
systems of the various armed forces in World War II.  I'd like to
know something about their relative efficiency and especially
about their relative corruption.

The 106th Infantry Division replaced the 2nd Infantry Division in the line,
completing the "man for man and gun for gun" replcament on December 12, four
days before the Germans launched their Ardennes offensive.
106ID GC Gen. Alan Jones saw the vulnerability of the positions that ...

Could anyone post a short bio of Hitler's chief pilot?

It seems to me the P-38 dominated the Pacific theater -- the two ace of aces
in
WW2 both flew P-38's (Bong and McGuire) and according to wikipedia:
The P-38 was credited with destroying more Japanese aircraft than any other

Remember Pearl Harbor and all those who died there. Our heroic dead
must never be forgotten.
Art Kramer
344 BG 494BS

How often did the russians use artillery as close combat support / direct
fire rather then normal artillery indirect file?
I mean apart from situations when artillery location was overrun by enemy
and had to defend itself.

I was wondering if anyone had any information on the pathetically,
and, in my opinion, practically criminal incompetence of the
Department of Navy for sending submariners into harm's way with
torpedoes that had a less much than stellar track record.  While that