Colin’s Comments (group member since Dec 16, 2012)

Colin’s comments from the THE WORLD WAR TWO GROUP group.

Some may find my book, Occupation and Insurgency: A Selective Examination of The Hague and Geneva Conventions on the Eastern Front, 1939-1945 of interest. Has interviews also.

So do I

Heard some good stories about Aussies in Vietnam.

Laffey is moored next to the USS Yorktown at Patriots Point in Mt. Pleasant, SC, near Charelston. I have been on and given lectures there a few times. Laffey was definitely a lucky ship.

Another child survivor I new was Zev Kedem. The film was not only good, it was highly historically accurate, which is rare in films. I knew two officers who knew Amon Goeth, and they said he was insane.

I have three ex-wives, never underestimate women, I always say.

I knew Heinz Knoke, his opinion of Goering was shared by the over nearly 100 Luftwaffe pilots and other Germans I interviewed. In my book, The Star of Africa, I recount how Marseille remarked about Goering's nail polish, in front of Goering, Hitler, Baur and others. What a character.

Actually, the August 1942 Schweinfurt Raid "Black Thursday" was the most costly in terms of men and machines, on both sides.

My ex-wife's grandmother was a code breaker in the Navy during WW II, still going strong at 96 this February.

Dennis was a great historian. He wrote a foreword/blurb for a couple of my books. He will be missed.

Germany only produced about 24,000 fighter pilots during the war, and 2400 survived. The USA was turning out over 5000 fighter pilots a month. German pilots never flew set combat missions before rotation, like 25 missions for bombers (later 50), and 100 missions for fighter pilots. Germans racked up 10X the numbers of missions.

I knew some of the generals who knew Marshall, they admired him immensely.

My old interview (abbreviated) was in an old issue of WW II magazine, if memory serves.

Samurai is good, but Saburo had a few issues with it.

My thesis and resulting book, Occupation and Insurgency deals with this very fact. The interviews conducted with all participants showed just how seriously the threat was taken. This was the rationale for the Nacht und Nebel (Night and Fog) order issued by Jodl to German forces on the Eastern Front.

I knew Otto, good man. In interviewing the great U-boat commanders, I found them very intelligent, humble, and seemingly distressed at the war in general. Erich Topp especially.

Ordinary Men is great on the subject of the origins of the Holocaust. I made it required reading at the university for my students.

The documentary is titled, The Magnificent Bastards of Dai Do, and it may also still be on Youtube.com

I read it, accurate portrayal, I discussed the book with some of the 2nd SS Panzer Division soldiers I interviewed back in the day.

My niece lives in Sydney and gives me updates.