Colin’s
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(group member since Dec 16, 2012)
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Otto was a good friend for many years. I have fond memories of being his house guest in Malaga. Good man.

I knew Dick for many years as did my wife. We are both honorary raiders, along with being honored with that distinction by several veterans' groups. Anne was their photographer. We actually met at the 50th Anniversary in 2002.

When Curtis Lemay developed the box formation, it drastically reduced the chances of friendly fire from one heavy bomber to another. Each box was given a specific sector to cover using the clock system, but accidents did happen. More often than not bombers shot up friendly escort fighters.

US and British soldiers were also given amphetamines, especially aircrews if they wanted. Eisenhower ordered 1,000,000 pills for the North Africa campaign.

This was how the British learned of the Holocaust from German lips, Generals von Thoma and Cruewell were roomed together. They openly discussed the murders in the USSR, displaying their disgust at the practice, and also talkign about what they both knew about the various plots to kill Hitler from within.

Thanks. I had some limited contact with Bowden in the late 90's when he was writing the weekly report for the Philadelphia Inquirer on Mogadishu. That 24 week article would become Black Hawk Down, and I knew a few of the men killed.

Johannes Steinhoff's comments on the P-38, "pray for the turning dogfight, you will always win in the 109, but do not try to out climb or out dive it. You will not survive."

I have not read Hue yet, does he mention Myron Harrington. Myron is a great friend, Navy Cross at Hue.

Many of the people I interviewed about that event all had their theories. Adolf Galland's account (see my book, The German Aces Speak) is almost comical in his response to Goering's phone call, demanding that Galland's pilots find and shoot him down.

Excellent

I met Col. John Frost and exchanged letters with Willhem Bittrich. Interesting people.

I interviewed many P-38 pilots, all loved it. I also interviewed many Germans who called it the easiest fighter to shoot down. Steinhoff was a big bagger of P-38's.
Jerome wrote: "An October release:
by Serhii Plokhy
D..."I knew Gen. James H. Doolittle who authorized the first shuttle mission, and Col. Don Blakeslee who led the first P-51 escort into the USSR. My next book has both of their interviews covering this subject. Great reading later when published.

I met Hashimoto, and he regretted the event. I also met one of the survivors, but did not get an interview.

I knew Hajo very well, and there is no hero worship. I just acknowledged a brave man, and many of them on both sides. He and Galland had a major dispute over the Sonderkommando. Galland considered it insane, and he told Hajo and Goering so.
This caused a rift as they had been friends since their Spanish Civil War service. Herbert Ihlefeld and Hannes Trautloft also openly voiced their dissent. Ihlefeld, when he became Kommodore of JG-1 with the He-163 Volksjaeger refused to follow Goering's order to use the 15-17 year old ferry pilots in combat. One of these young pilots was my late friend Harald Bauer. Galland and Ihlefeld tried to save these young lives, along with many other senior leaders.
Your insinuation that I hero worshipped Hajo is disingenuous.
True, Hajo was a firm and committed anti-Communist nationalist, and that only became more harsh after his decade in the gulags. As far as hero worship goes, there is only one man that I worship in history without reservation, and that is Horatio Nelson.

Maybe they put planes on the cover because German bombers sank more ships from certain convoys, such as PQ-17 than U-Boats did. Hajo Herrmann had a total of 70,000 tons of shipping as an anti shipping bomber pilot, and added 9 air victories as a night fighter pilot.

Should be a good book. I was there eight years earlier, and some of the guys I served with went back in 1993. I lost some friends in that one. Eversmann brings something many military writers do not have: personal experience and credibility.

The Soviets did corner the Japanese in northern China and Korea. In fact I interviewed a former Soviet soldier who was shipped east after the the German surrender. They were actively engaged, and told they would take Japan. On a side note, I also interviewed many men (mostly former Axis soldiers) who mentioned that there were a few Japanese soldiers in the gulags with them.

I interviewed Westmoreland when we both lived in Charleston, SC before he went into the care facility. Interesting guy, and he did have opinions.

I agree toall of your ppints, but Saddam removed the WMD's to Syria in case the UN decided to roll in and enforce the no fly zones. If they found those weapons, he could have been arrested and charged for that and many other violations.
Rumor had it he sold them to Syria, but as far as I know that has not been proven. But the transfers did take place. Two of my friends confirmed after spending rotation duty on the Syrian/Iraqi border as LP/OP team members covering the main highway while in the SAS. They were mapping, monitoring and recording truck traffic. What was in the trucks was anyone's guess.
What is known is that until Blix was kicked out, there was no traffic, then suddenly 24/7 for months. Who knows? What we do know is that Syria did not have chemical weapons until the late 1990's, and used them in the last few years.