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

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

My late friend Col. Hajo Herrmann had just created his single seat night fighter unit, the "Wilde Sau" of JG-300 and this raid was their first major test, working with another friend, Col. Wolfgang Falck, commander of the traditional night fighters. My book Night Fighters covers this pretty well. Ironically, Peenemunde was so top secret, when Hajo was in his FW-190 A-6, he saw the bombers headed that way away from Berlin. He was ordered not to send his pilots there, as they did not have security clearance.

I knew Lt. Gen. Dietrich Peltz who was once the commander of KG-200 before becoming Inspector of Bombers in the Luftwaffe, and also my late friend Lt. Gen. Walter Krupinski worked for Gehlen after the war, interesting stuff indeed.

Yes, it had a an old label, carved in brass with the ship's name on it.

In my book, Occupation and Insurgency, I point out some of Goldhagen's waeknesses in his analysis and historical overview, but a good book nonetheless.

My book, Four War Boer has Pieter Krueler meeting Meinhertzhagen when he captured him at the Battle of Tanga in East Africa. Later they became friends after WW II.

I was at an estate sale, an old antique collector had passed away in Charleston, SC where I was living. I went there and saw the chest and information on it. I do not have the name of the man who originally owned it, but it had to have been a officer, as able seamen had little space for such a large chest. Beautifully hand made as you would expect. I keep my winter clothes folded in it. I got it for $400.00 at the auction.

My biography of Pieter Kruler has good stories about the differences b/w the Germans and British in how they used their non-white soldiers in Africa in WW I.

Do not forget the that it was broken down even farther with Himmler on top:

Waffen SS (Sepp Dietrich/Paul Hausser)
Allgemeine SS (Karl Wolff/Siegfried Westphal)
SA (Ernst Roehm-replaced by several over time, Gerhard Klopfer)
SD (Reinhard Heydrich)
Gestapo (Heinrich Muller)

I interviewed Klopfer (last living member of the Wannsee Conference), Wolff, and Westphal among others.

You are right, Agamemnon was Copenhagen I think, do not have my research in front of me.

I have not read Bach's book unfortunately, having written a dozen books and lecturing over the last decade. I should get it. See my website at www.lewisheatonbooks.com where I posted a lot of photos at the Hans-Joachim Marseille and Star of Africa pages. Marseille's sexual conquests are on there!

I toured the Victory a few times, Horatio Nelson is perhaps the most thoroughly researched person in my agenda since I was 8 years old. I actually have a sea chest from the HMS Agamemnon, which he commanded at the the Battle of the Nile, I believe.

I knew Leni Riefenstahl pretty well, and her comments regarding her "lost weekend" with Hans-Joachim Marseille were interesting. Her story about Goebbels chasing her around the large meeting table in amorous pursuit, with his clubbed foot was also a funny event. So many stories.

Leni said to me in 1985, "If I were a few years younger I would make you smile in the morning." Well, that sort of told me everything. I last saw her in 2001 I believe.

i interviewed some people who had met Il Duce, and the perspectives of him were that of a bully, not really well educated, but brutally effective as a strong man who was a complete narcissus.

Hitler, during a light moment with his inner circle, was asked by Goebbels if he had met Stalin, knowing the future what would he have done? Shoot him? Hitler said "Of course not, if I knew the future, like with Tito, I would have turned him into a National Socialist."

Given the amount of Allied blood and treasure expended to free France, and later Western Europe, you will be amazed at the lack of French graves.

Howard wrote: "Wikipedia says the 20 missions were credited but that he flew other missions in WWII after that on pathfinder missions."

Jimmy flew many "unauthorized" missions, and he had some restrictions due to his celebrity. Goering put a bounty on him along with Clark Gable.

Duxford is awesome

Hitler never met Stalin

'Aussie Rick' wrote: "The book wasn't about Johannes "Macky" Steinhoff who was burnt in a Me262 was it?

[book:The Final Hours: The Luftwaffe Plot Ag..."

Yes, you will see my blurb on the back of the book, he was a good friend of mine

Dj wrote: "The Battle For The Rhine, 1944


So in reading this book, the author levels some interesting charges against Gen. Gavin of the 82n..."

One of the great problems (and I interviewed James Gavin) was that the 82nd and 101st drops were so scattered, most the platoons formed into hasty companies were nowhere near the bridges. Many found themselves in the marshes or around hill and hedgerows, engaging German troops. Gavin's approach, given most of the bridges were not within immediate reach, was to secure the available high ground, place observers, call in air strikes and indirect gunfire, and halt German reinforcements that would have taken the remaining bridges. Given what he had to work with, as well as Gen. Maxwell Taylor (another interview), it made sense at the time.