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

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

I wrote two books on insurgency warfare in eastern Europe, German Anti-Partisan warfare and Occupation and Insurgency, if interested.

Get anything by John Toland and Ian Kershaw

Manray9 wrote: "Here's an article from The Washington Post about the future of the A-10 Warthog.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/busines......"

My good friend, LTC Robert Schmidt was a A-10, F-4 and F-16 USAF pilot. He flew A-10 in Iraq at that time, and what he said they did to enemy armor was incredible. USMC pilot are the world's best at ground attack/support, with far less friendly fire incidents than anyone else. That is because the FAC on the ground IS A PILOT, who knows the capabilities, limitations and coordination required for a successful strike.

Das Reich is a great book, and even the Das Reich soldiers I interviewed thought well of it.

Scott wrote: "Hi All, I'm new to this group and have written two books related to WWII for an imprint of Penguin.
My new one is "A Serial Killer in Nazi Berlin: The Chilling True Story of the S-Bahn Murderer." ..."

Ironically enough, I interviewed Artur Axmann in 1984. See him at my website and his comments on Hans-Joachim Marseille in The Star of Africa. He was interesting.

If you look up The History Channel show "Dogfights", episode "Secret Weapons', I was a guest historian with Barrett Tillman, and Me-163B Komet pilot Rolf "Bubi" Glogner. The Komet also killed more men in training than died in combat in WW II, at a rate of 6 to 1 I believe.

Roger will do. I am working on the following in the future for immediate publication, in the same format as my two German Aces Speak books, once we come to terms with publishers:

1-American Pilots Speak (from interviews)
2-The SS Officers Speak
3-The U-Boat Commanders Speak
4-Giant Killers of the Luftwaffe

Libby wrote: "Colin wrote: "I interviewed Pierre Deshayes, who DeGaulle placed in charge of the entire French Resistance movement, and he was brutally honest about the truth behind the myth. He said that up unti..."

Thanks very much!

I interviewed many German paras from the war, having been a paratrooper myself, and one was my distant cousin, Oberst Baron Friedrich von der Heydte (he was also cousin to Claus von Stauffenberg), and von der Heydte received Oak Leaves to the Knight's Cross. See the photos and the men concerned at my website, www.lewisheatonbooks.com and go to Future Book Projects

Look up Organization Gehlen on that subject.

Don't feel so bad. My book, Four War Boer is out this year. I started it in 1986, and published 11 books since I started and completed the new one.

Ironically Strachwitz, who received the Diamonds, was the first and only German general during the war to launch a tank attack in conjunction with perfectly coordinated naval gunfire, using precision and timing to destroy an entire Soviet tank brigade at Murovanka, Estonia in April 1945.

Read the written account in the first person by SS Gruppenfuehrer Juergen Stroop, who commanded German forces during the 1943 Uprising. The 1944 General Uprising was even bigger.

My book Four War Boer has the descriptions of Piet Krueler, a sniper in the 2nd Boer War and also in East Africa in WW I.

The number would be more like 60,000, if you include starvation, the concentration camps, and incidental combat deaths of civilians. That is covered in my book, Four War Boer also.

Read a book, Free as a Running Fox by recon pilot Tommy Calnan.

I knew several pilots, including David McCampbell, and also spoke with Japanese pilots. The Japs found the F6F a bad dream when it was introduced, as it accounted for most of their losses.

Spion Kop is a chapter in my next book, as the man I interviewed at age 100 was the last survivor of that battle and the 2nd Boer War.

happy wrote: "How much of Isandlewana and Rourkes Drift have been perserved as battlefields?"

They are still there, with monuments. See my next book out any day, Four War Boer

I interviewed Pierre Deshayes, who DeGaulle placed in charge of the entire French Resistance movement, and he was brutally honest about the truth behind the myth. He said that up until D-Day there were less than 30,000 known active resistance members nationwide, half of whom were double agents.

After 1944 7 out of 10 Frenchmen suddenly claimed resistance membership. Also, France deported more of its Jews than any other occupied nation.

The French also supplied 2 divisions of volunteers for the Waffen SS, which fought on the Eastern Front.

They also held on to stolen artworks for decades, hiding the provenance of these items from the legitimate heirs. In addition, many Vichy collaborators became prominent members of the post war French government.

DeGaulle had no choice ut to accept these men, as they knew his secrets also, such as his complicity in war crimes in Italy, which I wrote about, and the French threw me out of the country after I gave a lecture on that subject. At least they were polite when they took me to the airport.