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

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

When I consider the accuracy and value of a military film, I like to take into consideration the thoughts of any who were there or at least some part of the event, and were still alive to be interviewed and who participated as consultants. Jim Gavin, John Frost, Wilhelm Bittrich, Matthew Ridgeway and others were rather pleased with the accuracy. I think that the reason the film was so accurate is of course because so many living participants gave their first person accounts and the director was reverent enough to know that he could not get that one wrong.

Some of the people I interviewed met Skorzeny, and a few knew him fairly well. They had interesting stories about him.

I published a few of the interviews in Military History and World War II magazines years ago, and used many of the excerpts in German Anti-Partisan Warfare in Europe 1939-1945 which really pissed off a lor of entrenched mindsets and challenged many conventional wisdoms. Unfortunately Schiffer Publishing edited 200 pages out of the book, and ran with the printing early to get it out while I was still doing the index. I had no say so whatsoever, hence never using them again for my later books.

Downfall 100% as accurate as can be, I interviewed the last 7 living members of the bunker.

We Were Soldiers, I knew LtGen Hal Moore, the bayneet charge was not very accurate and not that dramatic and only ensured that the secure area LZ X-ray would not be overrun by a few suicidal NVA until the casualties could be evacuated. I also know Joe Galloway, good man, hence my knowledge.

Das Boot also stands alone, as I knew many U-boat men very well, including some top commanders. I first watched it with Otto Kretschmer, and he was very impressed as he and another mutual friend Erich Topp along with Reinhard Hardegen were consultants. Topp and Hardegen were also pleased with the end result. They really liked the reality of weeks of mindless boredom. Topp told me, "I felt like I was back in the boat, mentally doing mathematical and reading exercises to keep from becoming a vegetable."

There good films out there, for entertainment, and a few are worthy of historical inclusion, such as A Bridge Too Far in my opinion.

Yugoslavia was definitely the most enigmatic, confusing and contentious region of WW II that also had the greatest long term ramifications. My interviews with many participants in that war from all sides only added to the confusion.

I always gauge books on Hitler based upon two primary things: 1-What I learned from interviewing over 100 people who knew or worked for Hitler, and 2-Books written by the men who knew Hitler, such as field and staff officers. I have my opinions formulated on decades of personal contact with these people, and the known historical legacy.

Jonny wrote: "Manray9 wrote: "'Aussie Rick' wrote: "I also don't mind the movie "Enemy at the Gate", its a decent war movie, you just don't expect total historical accuracy in the story."

It's important to reme..."

Jonny, I understand your position, and the film was a good one for public consumption. It just gets distressing when we historians spend weeks sometimes ensuring the accuracy of data, events and other stuff, and the directors just do whatever. One of the worst films for accuracy that I was involved with was Red Tails. Great film, do not get me wrong, but they could have at least used the real names for the guys and depicted some of the scenes more accurately. I had a chat about that with a few of the pilots themselves, being an honorary Tuskegee guy. They were disappointed as well, but glad the public was able to at least be made more aware of their great contribution to history and civil rights.

"Enemy at the Gates" took poetic license into the realm of the ridiculous.

I agree in total

Jonny wrote: "4triplezed wrote: "The Strachan book covers just the war and a 4 page into to the assassination of Franz Ferdinand hardly answered some questions I had, say the 1st and 2nd Balkan Wars for example...."

When I taught a semester at the University of Glasgow I worked under Hew Strachan, very interesting man.

Sweetwilliam wrote: "Will do Rick. I believe the book Death Traps was written by an officer in charge of a unit that repaired and field serviced tanks and got them back in the fight. It supposedly contains an anecdote ..."

Regarding that event in question, I believe that you are correct in the source for the scene. I cannot not be certain. My only role as a consultant was to verify the methods of tank action as depicted and laid out in the script. The problem with the scene with the Tiger was that they operated in platoons of 3-4, with a squad of 10-15 panzergrenadiers as ground support. Finding a lone Tiger w/o any support would have been a stroke of extraordinary luck.

The M4A Sherman in question was actually from, I think, the 3rd Armored Division and was engaged by troops from a combination of the 12th Waffen SS Panzer Division "Hitlerjugend and remnants from a company from 2nd Waffen SS Panzer Division "Das Reich" thrown together.

My late friend USAF fighter ace Francis Gabreski worked with 303, as he spoke Polish

There were quite a few border crossings like that, and one of the best was when RAF Bomber Command destroyed a Swiss village during a stream attack, an accident to be sure, but just shows had tough night bombing was.

Marc wrote: "Here's an amusing little bit from

[book:Blitzkrieg: Myth, Reality, and Hitler's Lightning War: France 1940|2..."

I interviewed a couple of the German officers involved in Eban Emael. Very interesting guys.

All of the senior generals and officers I interviewed who knew Mac said he was basically more important to the war as propaganda than a great military mind.

I helped Bruce with this book, see my comments on the back of the book

Manray9 wrote: "'Aussie Rick' wrote: "Manray9 wrote: "Another good point made by Paul Ham in Kokoda was on the superiority of weapons of the Aussies. The Japanese had no individual automatic weapon..."

I fired the Thompson .45 submachine gun, it is a very powerful weapon (I carry a .45 cal. pistol now as my sidearm), and the Thompson is very effective at close quarters combat. The knockdown power is great as expected, but more than a three second burst is stupid, as the weapon likes to arc up and over due to the massive gas expulsion and the extractor pulling hard for ejector port on the right, so aim low to center mass and mean into it.

That is true, in fact one battalion commander of the Prinz Eugen Division once said to "let those two groups fight, we can set back and watch." Churchill and SOE spearheaded by Fitzroy maclean supported Tito, while the OSS with the assistance of Marine Corps officer and OSS operator, the actor Sterling Haydon were air dropping suppiles and parachuting advisors into Chetnik territory for a while.

The concept was to bring the two together against the Germans, focus on the great enemy, and then hammer out a political resolution. Yeah right! I interviewed some former Tito and Mihailovic supporters, and a few Germans collectively, including Milovan Djilas, Milorad Krstovic, Herman Boschet, and a few others. The only thing that came close was the Greek Civil War after WW II.

The Chetniks (Partisnas) and Tito's Communists (Commuist guerrillas) both fought the Germans, but a couple of German commanders made agreements that both the Chetniks and the Germans should attack the Communists, then they would resume fighting each other. Yugoslavia was a strange war.

Stackpole Military is part of Stackpole Publishing Group