History Forum / War History / World War II / January 2008

Immediately before Hitler attacked Russia, the Finnish had stated that
they were willing to join Germany against Soviet Union. German forces
were being moved into Finland and some joint ventures were conducted by
the German and Finnish troops. In border areas Finnish civilians ...

Why was the HMS Glorious on its way back to Britain and not with the main
British battle group? Was it running out of fuel or something?

In the morning reports for the 325th Combat Engineers, they list the
mines being removed. I've found some information on schu mines, "S"
mines, teller mines, and topf mines, but I haven't found anything
about Ramp mines. Would someone know more about Ramp mines--or

While digging through a stack of old books, I found a non-descript
college zoology book.  Inside the cover, it was inscribed:
"Best wishes from a loyal friend.
"Robert Newton Pritchard

A friend of mine who works for SDASM has a wonderfully clear PK
(propaganda) photo of a captured RAF pilot surrounded by German
soldiers.  It was issued April 12, 1943 by  "PK-Kriegsberichter
Karweiner".  Does anyone have a reference that tells the name of

The conventional wisdom - as least as I know it - is that the US
produced much of the Allied means for WWII.  This was done by a
combination of access to resources and superior production efficiency -
mass production, assembly-line techniques, etc.

I greatly enjoyed reading this book but people on this group
complained that other Ambrose books (like D-Day) were highly
inaccurate.  What do you think about this one?
I think this one is based very closely on interviews, moreso than

I have just finished the book The Long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz a
Polish cavalry Lieutenant who escaped from the Soviets Siberian Gulag
in 1941.  Prior to that during the initial German invasion of Poland
Rawicz observed a charge by Polish cavalry against a road bound German

Hello Group;
As a part of my research about hidden Nazi treasures and about hunters
who search for it I found that NARA published description of incident
when US army took away 32 boxes of documents from cache close to Czech

The Germans put the slogan "Arbeit Macht Frei" (literally "Work Makes Free")
up at the gate of Auschwitz and apparently several other concentration
camps.
1 - Whose idea was it to put up those words?

Is it true they had to kill all the animals in the London Zoo during
the bombing?  I have read intimations of this.

I've always been curious as to how effective unguided, surface to surface
rockets were
in WW2. I'm thinking here of weapons like Soviet Katuyashas, Nebelwerfers
and US Navy

In a House of Commons speech in June 1940, Winston said:  "...But if
we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including
all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a
new Dark Age, made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the

Were there areas/major towns where there was no physical German
occupation?
thx - Craig

Greeting to all,
I would like to know which battle in ww2 cause the least victims (either
civilian or military)
Jocelyn Major