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

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

Required reading in the Marines.

Happy, I agree with your assessment.

Peter, excellent intro and great background, welcome aboard.

Hammelburg castle and town were turned into the NATO urban warfare training area, I went through the course in 1984.

I knew Pierre Deshayes (look him up), and he was at least very honest about the failure of the resistance overall until the Brits and US took firm control over their ass backward political infighting and fratricide.

I knew Aaron bank also (look him up), and he said that of the 50 or more self identified resistance groups, ONLY the Communist Maquisard were effective. The rest were a bunch of unemployed idiots who would fight each other, sell out his fellow countryman or an Allied airman in hillbilly's heartbeat for a hot meal of a few RM. Pierre said the same thing, and he saw the fraudulent Allied propping of DeGaulle to give France something resembling a hero.

Just watched a pod cast lecture on French Resistance, and the guy was pretty good, if animated. I love the fake history the French always pushed, rewriting their history, underplaying the Allied effort in France, ignoring the collaboration, inflating their resistance abilities, and hiding the egotistical power plays, lying about their successes and solidarity, and promoting Charlles de Fraud as the great liberator. Amazing indeed.

Juneau was a tragic and avoidable event.

I knew quite a few of the AVG guys (Flying Tigers), and they were all a wild bunch of guys even at their advanced ages. They were fun to hang out with, but guys like Rossi and Tex Hill really stayed away from Boyington.

Hitler had many reasons for invading Norway and Denmark, which were his first such actions on the Western Front. Strategically it made perfect sense.

'Aussie Rick' wrote: "Slight typo in your message 491 Colin, well I hope its a typo and should read counts :)"

Thanks, took corrective action!

I was privileged to assist Max Hastings with his new book on Vietnam. I had a great time (and a funny story about) with John Keegan at Oxford when I was doing the research in school. Both are top men in my opinion.

Jonny wrote: "I've quickly revisited Hinchcliffe Colin; from his read it seems fortuitous that the RAF raid on ZG1 at Aalborg was fortuitous in occurring shortly before Bomber Command started raiding the Ruhr. H..."

I speak German rather well, but most of the guys spoke English, better than I did German, I never had a major issue with translations.

Jonny wrote: "I've quickly revisited Hinchcliffe Colin; from his read it seems fortuitous that the RAF raid on ZG1 at Aalborg was fortuitous in occurring shortly before Bomber Command started raiding the Ruhr. H..."

Hinchliffe is correct on all counts. The biggest supporters of Falck's idea were Galland, Ernst Udet and Kammhuber, the latter I also interviewed in 1984. Goering was receptive to a point, he wanted a cost analysis as he knew Hitler would want all the facts and figures.

Falck had no idea, but within a week he threw a budget together per night fighter, and by using existing Me-110's converted, this saved on resources and costs. Later he brought in the Ju-88 which was already in production and an outstanding night fighter with longer range.

The impetus for creating the Luftwaffe fighter force was Wolfgang Falck's base at Deelan, Holland being bombed at night. He just wanted to hit back, and then thought about it, wrote a proposal and sent it into Berlin.

Regarding bombing cities, Hitler was still under the delusion that Churchill would, if given breathing space, eventually drop out of the war due to bombing and the U-boat blockade, allowing him to pursue his greatest objective, invading the USSR.

The other European nations really had nothing to offer except bases, and they were just stepping stones for creating a greater Reich buffer zone.

My interviews with Hajo Herrmann, Ernst Kammhuber and others proved interesting. Hitler did not want to bomb historic and cultural areas, just military and war making locations. He was still hoping the UK would sue for a negotiated peace, and if not join him in the war later against communism, then abstain from being a participant.

Hitler was not fool enough to believe that the USA would not at some time enter the war to aid Britain, hence part of his decision to not go in "total war" mode in 1940. The one bombing that really changed the British mood to start hitting German civilian centers was the East India Docks mission in London, when German bombers accidentally hit the housing district, killing civilians.

Hajo was the culprit leading the flight of bombers, they dropped on his signal. The next day he was called into a very senior meeting to explain his actions, as to why he violated the directive to NOT hit civilian areas, and his explanation prevented a possible court martial.

The result was a new man named Arthur Harris taking over Bomber Command, and a young pilot named Wolfgang Falck creating the Luftwaffe Night Fighters in response, and the rest is History.

Marc wrote: "So, two of the books I ordered from eBay were waiting for me today when I returned to work:

[book:Hell's..."

Speaking of Cherkassy/Korsun, my interview with Leon Degrelle (among others) was very interesting regarding that long battle.

The actor who played Wirtz did a great job, and Rene (who is in an insurance commercial on TV these days) who played the Union POW lawyer was wonderful as well, great cast. Really enjoyed being in it.

happy wrote: "Where did they film it? I'll have to look it up :)"

They filmed it in several locations, one of which was here in Wilmington, NC. I was just out of the military and in college, and during the summer I found work at the studio. Frankenheimer saw me and selected me to be an extra, so I went to wardrobe and makeup.

That was the first of two famines Stalin imposed upon the Ukraine, and these events were the great catalysts for the rise of Stepan Bandera and the anti-Communist movement. Hitler jumped on this, and Himmler allowed the creation of two Ukrainian Waffen SS regiments and a third division, along with two Free Russian SS divisions who were primarily from Belorus and Bessarabia. Remember Lt Gen Andrei Vlasov and his ROA. I wrote about this in a couple of my books.

happy wrote: "I visited Andersonville about 25 yrs ago (it can't have been that long ago :)). There really wasn't much there. A small visitors center, a National Cemetery where many of the dead are buried, a sma..."

in the mid 1990's film director John Frankenheimer did the film Andersonville, and he personally chose me to be in that TV miniseries, good work, had a lot of fun.