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

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

i have been at many reunions with German and former Soviet veterans. One of the best stories was Walter Krupinski meeting a Ukrainian pilot he had shot down in his P-39. Walter also shot down his two wingmen flying Yak-3s on a recon flight, they died. The Soviet pilot introduced Walter to his wife, son, and three grand kids. He met his wife after the war. he said that had he been flying the Yak, like the others, he and his family would not be there. The rear engine fighter absorbed the bulk of Walter's 20mm cannon, whereas the Yaks blew up.

He needs to become my new best friend

I interviewed SS Obergruppenfuehrer Karl Wolff, Himmler's left hand man as Heydrich was the right. Interesting perspectives I gathered, and from the other almost dozen SS officers I interviewed, who met or knew him, no one liked him.

In the military, packers/riggers also have to sign the data card on all parachutes.

Let me tell you all what I know from having spoken with the people who were involved. Yes, the bomb would have been dropped on Germany had the Soviets not depleted their forces so effectively. The dropping of two bombs on Japan was as much a wake up call, warning Stalin that we had that capability, as it was in getting Japan to surrender. As a result, Soviet troops abandoned Austria which they occupied. Truman, unlike the mentally feeble Roosevelt, saw the coming Soviet danger, as did Churchill. The bomb was advertising, like a "Beware of Dog" sign, as the Iron Curtain fell across eastern Europe.

I sometimes write 2 books at a time, alternating, to shift my focus, and return to the projects with a clear head

Agree and thanks

I do not even believe this argument. Both targets for the atomic bombs were military industrial targets, and the Japs were warned beforehand to surrender or they would suffer their fate. Tojo and the high command would not accept, because they would lose face. The second bomb was dropped when the Imperial Japanese High Command refused still to surrender. I would have dropped a third just for good measure. I interviewed Curtis Lemay who created the firebombing strategy, and I knew Paul Tibbets who dropped the first bomb, and also Chuck Sweeney who dropped the second. All 3 heroes in my book.

I knew the Tuskegee Airmen, as Col. Charles McGee made ma and my wife honorary "Airmen" for our work with them over the years, as did Col. Lee Archer. Great guys. The movies quite flawed historically, but then again historians like me did not work on it.

Captured Soviet weapons were re-bored for German calibers. Easier to do that than make new shells.

I knew Hans and his former superior officer on U-505, Thilo Bode who transferred off the boat to take his own command just before the last patrol where U-505 was captured. Hans and his wife Rikki were great hosts, very good people.

See my book The Star of Africa on what the fighter pilots thought of Rommel after being with him a few times. I also interviewed his son and one of his staff officers. Interesting perspectives.

Ambrose and I knew each other, and we had our personal issues, which I will remain silent on. I lost all respect for him.

if you do not play, I do World of Tanks, great online game.

I would also suggest "Conspiracy", with Kenneth Brannagh, Colin Firth, Stan Tucci, etc. My students in the Holocaust course had to watch it. I interviewed the last surviving member of the Wannsee Conference, Gen. Gerhard Klopfer.

get the book, Pack of Thieves on this subject. My wife and coauthor Anne-Marie Lewis did her masters thesis on the subject of the repatriation efforts in regard to stolen artwork.

I knew 2 of the survivors, and I interviewed Capt. Hashimoto who sank the ship. Tragic story, and he lived with that guilt, as a humanist all his life. Due to what he learned after the war, Hashimoto became a Shinto monk.

Liberation Sans wrote: "That's fantastic Colin^; I have been trying to make myself comfortable while resigning to the idea that the only hard copies of information about this subject and these people (notwithstanding powe..."

Both books were from the same collective body of research, from theses and dissertation. The end result was over 600 pages, so i created two books. both have extensive interview segments with German, Soviet and Allied persons involved, with unit locations and dispositions. Soviet partisan groups (most people never make the distinction b/w Soviet and Russian), as well as Ukrainians were not very receptive of Jews. Poles were more accepting, but most Jewish resistance groups were autonomous for safety reasons. This was especially true in the Baltic States.

I was made an honorary Doolittle Raider with my wife. I knew Doolittle, one of my first interviews, and all the other raiders for many years, and interviewed them. I was very fortunate to have been invited to the goblet ceremony in 2004. That is usually only for raiders and their families, special guests. I guess I was one.

My friend Kurt Schulze was interviewed last year by the BBC on the documentary they were doing on the Tirpitz mission. Kurt flew with another good friend, Walter Schuck and their CO Major Heinrich Ehrler in JG-5, who was court-martialed as a scapegoat by Goering.