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

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

Coco Channel, who also bedded Patton. There was another woman also, who was a nanny, related to an old friend. I spoke with the SOE agent who led the mission to get his wife. They covered it up in the press to make him look good. They had to. It would have been in bad form to have the savior of the surrender look like the ass he was. He also sanctioned the rapes and murders by his French Moroccan mercenaries in Italy, which Gen. Mark Clark wanted courts-martial for. FDR and Churchill nixed that as it would have split the alliance. Bad business.

Pierre Deshayes, leader of the French Resistance after the death of Jean Moulin told me,"If we had anyone else other than DeGaulle, we would have used him. Unfortunately, all the other candidates were either POWs, dead, or Vichy."

I was his house guest. Very interesting man.

Jenn wrote: "Lee wrote: "Agree on the Pacific War Museum, I went once, about 17 years ago? They have some good outdoor tank & vehicle displays. I just missed Stephen Ambrose-- apparently he was speaking there, ..."

I was with Ambrose in 2002 when they opened the Pacific wing of the WW II museum in New Orleans. He and I, Ron Drew and other authors were doing books signings. Ambrose was a plagiarizing ass, and we did not like each other. He published good history, problem was much of the research belonged to other people. I could go on, but will leave it there.

Degrelle was highly intelligent, fervently anti-communist, and a self promoter. Despite his shortcomings, he was an excellent soldier. He put his Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves around my neck, and said "Imagine that bouncing up and down, hitting your chin when you had to leave at a fast pace." My abridged interview with him was published in Military History back in 2009. FYI, his neighbors were Sean and Margarite Connery, yes, "Bond, James Bond," and U-boat ace Otto Kretschmer, also an interview.

De Gaulle could not write anything critical of the Allies, even sinking the French fleet, due to his own questionable conduct during the war. When he fled France ahead of the German advance in panic, he took his mistress, and forgot his wife. SOE had to go get her. De Gaulle was appointed as Free French leader in exile as a puppet. Eisenhower, FDR and Churchill needed a well-known face to rally the French, in contrast to Hneri Petain and the Vichy French. I have no respect for De Gaulle for many reasons.

I interviewed a few veterans of Cherkassy, especially Leon Degrelle. Great battle, horrific.

I interviewed Col. Aaron Bank, former OSS/Jedburgh man, and the father of the Green Berets. Many of his comments are in my book German Anti-Partisan Warfare in Europe. They were very effective.

Michael wrote: "That is awesome Colin to have been able to talk to the man. Did he have the cigar in his mouth?"

No, he had to quit smoking them years ago. He was a salty dog for sure, the language was almost as impressive as Pappy Boyington's.

I interviewed Lemay, he will be one of the men featured in my next interview book, the first with Americans.

I think the Wilhelm Gustloff sinking in 1945 with over 10,000 dead has the record

Excellent

If you have the location, time and date of the shoot down, I may be able to ID any of the German pilots who claimed B-17s that day, and give you their name. The unit designation would also be good to compare the loss records.

One of my sources also knew Gene Simmons' of KISS mother, who was lucky enough to escape. The regent of Hungary, Admiral Miklos Horthy was not anti-Semitic, and he refused to comply with the Jewish Question. Hence in 1944 Sepp Dietrich and his 6th SS Panzer Army were ordered in to secure the major cities, while the Einsatzgruppen went about their business. Soros' father was, according to my sources, handling the stolen goods as a warehouse clerk, working for the SD. That gave he and his family better food, a home and a paid wage. They had to flee just one step ahead of the Soviets, as apparently they were well aware of who Soros the elder was. not all of the stolen jewelry, cash and furs were recovered, and the Soros family managed to leave better off than those they helped deport.

Similar to the mystery surrounding the Amber Room.

FYI, I learned from some old German friends, and three Holocaust survivors, that George Soros and his non observant Jewish family, while in Hungary (yes the liberal hypocrite socialist and closet capitalist) were working with the Nazis who decided to profit from the roundup of their fellow Jews/Hungarians. I wonder where their post war wealth came from?

That happened to many, including my late friend, Luftwaffe ace fighter pilot Walter Krupinski, whose family property was taken by the communists. He managed to go back in 1992, and in his old house his mother's sewing machine was still there being used.

I interviewed a few German paras. In fact my cousin, Colonel (Baron) Friedrich August von der Heydte (1st cousin to Claus von Stauffenberg) was the last commander of a German parashute regiment who jumped into the Ardennes, was wounded and captured, after a long career starting in Narvik, Holland, Crete and the Eastern Front.

See the film Europa! Europa!

My friend Harald Bauer was born in NY to an American mother, German diplomatic father. When the family returned to Germany before reassignment, the war started. Harald was a 15 year old flak gunner, who then became a 16 year old He-162 Volksjaeger jet pilot, ferrying planes to JG-1 under another old friend, Col. Herbert Ihlefeld. He was shot down by a Mustang, wounded, captured, placed in a US field hospital, and then reunited with his parents, and came back to America. He is still alive living in California.

I interviewed many Germans who knew Goebbels, and their insights were fascinating.