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

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

not familiar, I was in the 2/502 and TDY to 3/502, back from Sinai, reassigned to 2 bn after air assault school, then deployed to Somalia. All of my friends in 3 Bn (some I previously served in Germany with) died at Gander on Dec. 11, 1985 coming back.

In the East Africa campaign in WW I Lt. Gen. Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck had observation balloons and a zeppelin, used to resupply.

Manray9 wrote: "Kate wrote: "Manray9 wrote: "Kate wrote: "Howard wrote: "In his book, Supplying War, Van Crevald uses the German advances in Russia as part of his study. The bottom line was that to support forces,..."

You want to read two of my books, "German Anti-Partisan Warfare in Europe, 1939-1945" and "Occupation and Insurgency". In grad school I created the legal distinctions b/w terrorists, partisans, guerrillas and freedom fighters. Also, during the Civil War, regarding irregular warfare, refer to "The Ranger Partisan Law", and look at the actions of John Mosby and William C. Quantrill

I was in the 101st in 1985-86 fyi

and compassionate like Heydrich

Most of the pilots I know use 105 octane aviation fuel in their classic birds, especially those with old rebuilt engines. The Rolls-Merlins and Pratt & Whitneys are great on anything above 94 octane, and superior at 105.

I had comments from Wilhelm Bittrich and John Frost, both agreed on the reasons for the failure from their viewpoints

I knew and interviewed Pamela Churchill (Harriman), interesting lady.

Marc wrote: "Finished this one off last night:

[book:Zemke's Wolfpack: A Photographic Odyssey..."

I interviewed all of the living 56th FG pilots, Zemke, Gabreski, Johnson, et al. Great guys, and the next aviation book based on first person interviews (like our German Aces Speak series) will have Robert Johnson and Francis Gabreski in their own interview chapters, along with Robin Olds, James Doolittle and Curtis Lemay.

'Aussie Rick' wrote: "This new book arrived in the mail today, looks like a pretty detailed military history of the German Army during WW2:

[boo..."

Ben is an old friend, and his books are very solid.

I flew on Fifi also, and a dozen other warbirds, but luckily, being a journalist on assignment, and having pilot friends, I never paid a dime.

7.62mm (.308 173 grain) is a great sniping round, which I used as a sniper, but the .300 Win Mag is better knock down and range round. I used the 7mm Magnum also, good round, better than the boat tail cartridge in my opinion for low tumble and flat trajectory.

I have flown on many of the classic war birds; the B-25, B-17, B-29, B-26, C-47 (jumped out of one), AT-6, P-51, and others. The Lancaster is my next objective.

We went to 9mm NATO due to the European coalition and the wide and exclusive use of the parabellum round, as most nations did not produce .45 rounds. I have had both calibers in my personal collection, and my oldest son Max a former Marine carries the Sig 9mm. He likes the round capacity. I never needed 14 + 1 with a .45.

I have a sig .45 and previously a Colt .45 ACP, and much prefer the sig. On active duty I had the gov't colt, then we went to 9mm, preferred the .45. One round from that sucker was all you needed vs 3-4 from a 9mm ball.

Sad part of Bridge Over the River Kwai was it's lack of historical reality. Unbroken was much better.

We had the .45 ACP until the 9mm Para came out. I saw a man hit with a .45 in the chest, and the first thing to hit the ground was is head in a backward flip, dead before he hit the ground.

During my interviews with German tank and TD crews, they had to develop tactics on the fly, and some were innovative. The T-34 was the reason for Ferdinand Porsche developing the Tiger I, and later Henschel working on the Panther Medium tank.

My oldest son and I were both Marines, and I had the good fortune after taping my History Channel show to spend a 6 hour flight from LAX to ATL with R. Lee Ermey (he gave me one of his Glock coins), and we had a blast.

I had the good fortune of interviewing most of the surviving great U-Boat commanders, as well as Baron Burkhard von Mullenheim-Rechberg of the Bismarck.