'Aussie Rick'’s Comments (group member since Jun 12, 2009)

'Aussie Rick'’s comments from the THE WORLD WAR TWO GROUP group.

Nice review of; "Moscow: 1941: The Frozen Offensive", Marc. I will now be keen to hear your thoughts on "To Win The Winter Sky: The Air War Over The Ardennes 1944-45" as I have a copy waiting to be read in my library!

Manray9 wrote: "From Paul Casdorph's Let the Good Times Roll: Life at Home in America During World War II.

Prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. government had prepared for the eco..."

That was pretty interesting MR9. I've not heard about the issue with the sale of cars and tyres in the US during the war years.

Sounds like a book to keep an eye out for. Thanks for those details Jerome.

Manray9 wrote: "I'll join in with --

Let the Good Times Roll: Life at Home in America During World War II by..."

Sounds like a good book MR9, keep us all posted!

"Fire and Steel: The End of World War Two in the West" - The author listed off some pretty amazing statistics for Montgomery's planned operation to cross the Rhine. Here is just one small detail:

"Predesignated ground targets included German bunkers dug in on the riverbank, the 4th Canadian Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment alone firing 13,896 rounds in flat trajectory and their sister 8th Light Ack-Ack wearing out forty-three barrels in expending 2,400 rounds per gun. Equally wearing on their gun barrels, tank battalions were employed in a role for which they were never designed, loosing off intermittent salvoes reaching a rate of two and a half rounds per minute, totalling 1,600 shells per tank."

Monty Crosses the Rhine:
https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/art...

Operation Plunder: Crossing the Rhine:
https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/art...

The US Navy in Operation Plunder:
https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-b...

Unleashed wrote: "So I just started this today: At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor

Hoping to get to Part II of the book by the 7th, which is the Pearl Harbor Attack. I'm enjoying the ..."

It's a classic account, enjoy!

"Fire and Steel" - After the fiasco at Remagen, Generalfeldmarschall Gerd von Rundstedt was relieved of command by Hitler:

"There was a final audience with Hitler on 11 March whereupon he turned his back on the 'Bohemian Corporal' whom he loathed so much, and retreated to a sanatorium in Bad Tolz, south of Munich and in Sixth Army Group's area, becoming a prisoner of the 36th Texas Division on 1 May. Kesselring inherited three army groups ('H' under Blaskowitz in the north, Model's 'B' in the centre, and SS-Oberst-Gruppenfuhrer Paul Hausser's Army Group 'G' to the south), all three amounting to no more than twenty-six divisions. At the same time the number of German divisions fighting the Russians had risen to an estimated 214, though many were divisions in name only. 'Whenever two or three of you gather together in my name, you shall be called a division', observed a Wehrmacht pastor, only half joking."

Fire and Steel: The End of World War Two in the West by Peter Caddick-Adams

Gary wrote: "I have acquired a number of new WWII books in recent months, including:
Munich (Robert Harris) – a novel;
V2 (Robert Harris) – a novel;
Sicily '43: The First Assault on Fortress Europe (James Holla..."

Some great books there Gary! I hope you enjoy Robert Harris' novel V2. Keep us all posted.

Rona wrote: "
While I am far from able to claim I have heard or read about all the unusual stories from the gold mine of stories that is World War II, Diane Ackerman’s b..."

Sounds like a very interesting book. Have you seen the movie:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1730768/

The extent of the black-market operations was a surprise to me as well Mike.

"Fire and Steel" - From the chapter dealing with the bridge at Remagen on the 9 March:

" .... while around the bridgehead, seventeen anti-aircraft battalions 'four of 40mm guns and thirteen of quadruple Brownings' had deployed and were daily shooting down dozens of Luftwaffe aircraft trying to hit the bridge. On this date, the air defence around Remagen reached its peak of 672 anti-aircraft artillery pieces in sixteen gun and thirty-three automatic weapons batteries. The concentration accomplished its mission, for no German aircraft managed to hit the bridge in ten days of attacks. First Army's Anti-Aircraft Advisor, Colonel Charles G. Patterson, had 'never seen so many anti-aircraft units in one place. They were so numerous that rounds were landing on friendly troops and causing casualties.' It later emerged this was the heaviest concentration of AAA units for the US Army during World War Two."

Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen:
https://weaponsandwarfare.com/2019/03...

"Fire and Steel" - Some interesting details on the black-market in liberated Europe:

"The black market matter came to Eisenhower's attention when supplies of his favourite Johnnie Walker Black Label Scotch were diverted by thieves and in one thirty-day period only 11 million out of 77 million cigarettes reached US troops in Europe. This was at a time when 55 billion cigarettes were supplied to the US War Department in the last six months of 1944 alone. Ike, a three-packs-a-day man, ordered an immediate inquiry. What the US Army's Criminal Investigation Branch found shocked him.

Webs of highly organised American deserters, armed to the teeth, who used a vast array of stolen uniforms and weapons, forged passes and hijacked vehicles, operated in several major cities. Some had their own 'military policemen' and ambulances for transporting their booty, keeping their loot in freight cars on obscure railway sidings. Between June 1944 and April 1945, the CIB handled a total of 7,912 cases - 40 per cent involving the misappropriation of US supplies. Returning to the front Lieutenant Otts reflected on the 'soldiers in soft jobs. Almost every man in Paris was wearing combat boots, while many of our troops had spent the whole winter in muddy, frozen leggings and GI shoes because we could not get enough combat boots'."

Fire and Steel: The End of World War Two in the West by Peter Caddick-Adams

Mike wrote: "I like how Burleigh sets clear terms up front on what he intends:

A lawyer or philosopher would write a different, perhaps more prescriptive book, using the past to dictate present or future condu..."

A good start to the book Mike. It will be interesting to see how he covers aspects of WW2. I will be keen to hear your thoughts as you read through the book.

I enjoyed both your posts Jonny. It sounds like Roger Moorhouse's book is shaping up to be a very good account.

That should be a pretty interesting book Mike, keep us all posted on your progress.

I hope you enjoy it as much as we all did. Keep us posted Mike.

Jonny wrote: "Finished Konstam's outstanding Jutland 1916: Twelve Hours That Decided The Great War on Wednesday. Absolutely brilliant, Konstam can certainly write, he's even handed and cuts right..."

Great to hear you enjoyed the book as much as I did.

He was indeed MR9!

"Fire and Steel" - The author mentioned the actions of Fusilier Dennis Donnini during Operation Blackcock which led to the award of the Victoria Cross, posthumously. His citation reads:

"In North-West Europe, on 18th January 1945, a battalion of The Royal Scots Fusiliers led the assault on the German positions between the rivers Roer and Maas. When Fusilier Donnini's platoon was ordered to attack a small village, it came under intense fire from the houses and he was wounded in the head. On recovering consciousness a few minutes later he charged down the road, threw a grenade into the nearest window, and with the survivors of his platoon ran in pursuit of the Germans. The British soldiers reached the cover of a wooden barn only thirty yards from the German trenches. From this cover Fusilier Donnini first went out under intense fire to carry into safety a wounded comrade, then a second time and though again wounded, he advanced firing a machine-gun until a bullet hit a grenade that he was carrying and killed him. His great gallantry and self-sacrifice in drawing the enemy fire on himself enabled his platoon to capture the position, and his comrades to overcome opponents more than twice their number."

Fusilier Dennis Donnini:
http://www.vconline.org.uk/dennis-don...

"Fire and Steel" - De Gaulle seems a bit unreasonable (as usual):

"In his memoirs, de Gaulle ungallantry described the goodwill of Roosevelt's United States as maigre (literally 'skinny', but meaning scanty), which was far from the truth. During the war, the American arsenal supplied 1,400 tanks, scout and armoured cars, including 227 M10 tank destroyers, as well as 27,000 half-tracks and Jeeps produced by Ford and Willys-Overland at half a dozen sites across America, Dodge ambulances made by Chrysler in Michigan, and six-wheeled trucks supplied by GMC, assembled in Pontiac, Michigan and by Chevrolet at St. Louis, Missouri. Apart from consumables like rations, gasoline and medical supplies, 2,000 artillery pieces and mortars, 166,000 rifles and carbines, 30,000 machine-guns, over a million rounds of artillery and mortar ammunition, and 50 million rounds of small arms ammunition were sent to de Lattre's forces. Equally important was the formal training of eleven French divisions before the war's end."

Fire and Steel: The End of World War Two in the West by Peter Caddick-Adams