History Forum / War History / World War II / May 2008

I watched on Australian TV a few nights ago, an excellent German drama
about the White Rose Movement.
I'm interested to find any links in English to transcripts of the
trial.

I've read the book, seen the movie, read about it in other books.
I just finished a book called "War Pilot Orange." This book is by Bob
Van Der Stok, one of the 3 escapers of the later, "Great Escape" who
made it. The book was written in 1987. Excellent accounting of wartime

       Anybody know anything about two US Army cable laying ships named
"Colonel William A Glassford" and "Basil O Lenoir". I found them in
the book "US Army Ships & Watercraft of WWII" by David H Grover.
Grover has them listed as wooden hulled ships with 3 diesels driving 3

Thanks in a large part to a book "The wages of sin by Adam Tooze" the
debate on the hunger plan has entered the English speaking world. I have
to admit I did not find his arguements convincing. It seemed to me that
if such a plan existed more information would be available about ...

I need a bit of help getting started on researching a U-boat that was
featured on a (non-fiction) TV show. The program aired a few weeks ago. I
believe it was part of a series but I don't recall the name of the series or
the program and it was on one of the Canadian cable ...

63 years ago the nazi attempt to take the world over ended in the
ashes of a destroyed Germany.

Stalin is famous for his lunatic excesses, for the mass sacrifice of
his own troops and civilians in Russia and eastern Europe. But how
does he otherwise net out as a military leader, given that decisive
agression sometimes saves lives by not letting the opposition regroup?

In both World War I and World War II, the United States placed men of
German descent in command of the fight against Germany. It was
General
John Joseph Pershing in WWI and General Dwight David Eisenhower in

Considering all the planning into the '44 uprising, the actual
opening attack was a cruel fiasco. The insurgents actually expected to
win in between *two days and a week*. The leaders thought they could
sit across the main arteries of the city and easily disarm the

Call it Francophilia, but I think the French could have made a better
showing in WW2, particularly in the air.  Here's my WI:
No loss of the D.520 prototype in 1938.  Handwave accelerated
production by 3-4 months.  The result is 500 top of the line aircraft

Some time ago there was a discussion about the
attitude and legality of shooting parachuting
enemy aircrew descending by parachute.
According to ACM H. Dowding in his despatch submitted

I just picked up the Feb 2007 "Bulge Bugle" which has a cover article on
Tank Destroyers that begins "For psychological reasons, General Marshall
decided that anti-tank units should be renamed Tank Destroyers."
German TDs were called Jagdpanzers, which I think translates to Tank

Gun calibers used during WW2 tended to be driven by existing machinery
and international law. This meant that there were a lot of calibers used
by more than one nation and in some cases the ammunition was
interchangeable, it also causes a lot of confusion. Except in the case

I've been re-reading Cormac McCarthy's Border Trilogy. In 'The Crossing' I
came across a reference to the hero drifting through northern Texas and New
Mexico in 1945 and the quote that "... there was hardly a ranchhouse in all
of that country that did not have a gold star in the ...

I was browsing through an old RNZAF (later transferred to the RAF)
pilot's log book and wondered about the grading system.
During training, pilots were routinely graded with one of 4 grades
* Below Average