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

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

On Uboats read Herbert Werner "Iron Coffins", and Peter Erich Cremer's biography for starters. There is a new book on Otto Kretschmer, which I have not read yet. I am busy writing another book at present.

I interviewed General Josef Kammhuber, who was the Luftwaffe defensive genius commanding all night fighters and flak defenses. His method was ingenious, and so effective, Hitler thought of scrapping the night fighter force and building more 105mm and 88mm flak guns.

Two of my late German friends served on U-505, and Hans was on it when it was captured. Thilo was the first officer, transferred just before the last mission.

No problem, I interviewed three SS men, including the last living commander of the 5th SS Division Wiking, Muhelkamp, who was second in command under Obergruppenfuehrer Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski in the 1944 general uprising.

Rick, thanks for the response. In my book Night Fighters, I interviewed German and RAF/USA pilots, and Jimmy Doolittle's impression of the British method was worth noting. I do not blame the British for their method of response, it was total war after all, the lesson they learned on Dec. 18, 1939 near Wilhelmshaven set the standard.

What I found almost as horrific as the body counts was the post war propaganda that strategic bombing won the war, which it did not do. This was even more evident on the US side, where post war congressional budgets had to be secured for Strategic Air Command. Nothing like a nice revised histiry to escure the oney needed.

British night bombing did nothing but kill civilians and destroy homes. American strategic daylight bombing did little to halt German war production, since more tanks and planes. weapons were produced in 1944 than all the previous years combined under Albert Speer. Tactical bombing of railroads, marshalling yards and strafing roads, impeding delivery of war materiel was more effective. Only the petroleum production was halted to any degree, but then the Germans went to syntheic fuel made of ooal.

On Poland and the Holocaust, look at Mila 18 by Leon Uris, The Stroop Report, by Jurgen Stroop, just to name two.

See the History Channel episode on the Tuskegee fellows on Dogfights. You can locate it all Dogfights shows online now.

FYI, I will be writing a book on the German pilots I interviewed who shot down heavy bombers, and many of them were on thie raid.

Paul was a great guy, I knew and liked him, and I was introduced by Gen. Jimmy Doolittle to him many years ago. His grandson Paul Tibbets IV is a USAF colonel and B-2 pilot.

The two pilots who perfected and exploited the frontal attack on the B-17F were Egon Mayer and Georg-Peter Eder. Eder was my friend, and had 78 kills, and 36 were four engine bombers confirmed. Their development of the head on attack methods forced the creatio of the B-17G with the forward chin turret. They then figured out how to defeat that as well.

Interesting discussion. I first watched Das Boot in a theater with my friend U-Boat skipper Reinhard Hardegen, and having the Knight's Coss with Oak Leaves as a sub skipper, I vlaued his opinion. he then told me that he and another friend of ours Otto Kretschmer were tech advisors. No wonder it was so good. Erich Topp liked it also, we had a chat about that.

Wait until you wake up next to a werewolf. You will never drink again.

Zombies are all over, you just have to look. I know, I divorced one.

There were 103 Luftwaffe aces with 100 or more victories. The top scorers against the Western Allies were Hans-Joachim Marseille (see my new book on him), Joachim Muncheberg, Werner Schroer, Josef Priller, Gustav Rodel, Herbert Ohlefeld, Georg-Peter Eder (see also my book The Me-262 Stormbird), Walther Dahl, Egon Mayer, Kurt Buhligen, Josef Wurmheller.

All of Gerd Barkhorn's kills were all in the East, not west. Ihlefeld's first 9 kills were in Spain. My book The German Aces Speak has a complete list of every Luftwaffe pilot to score a victory, from 1-352.

I knew Bob and Linda Morgan, great people, and Bob and the other guys, especially Casimir Nastal were less than pleased with the film, I can tell you.

Rick:

Just to make a correction. When the order came down from Col. Gen. Alfred Jodl and Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel to the Italian Front commander, Field Marshal Albert Kesselring to fortify the approaches to Rome, the German placed an 88mm multipurpose gun near the ground, along with mortars, and artillery observers in the Casino bell tower. Once they did this, under the Geneva Convention of 1929 and Hague Convention of 1907, it became a legitimate target.

The book is well done, but lacks the German perspective. I interviewed over 100 Germans and 30 of those men were bonber killers, and Georg-Peter Eder had 36 B-17 and B-24 kills out of his 78 victories, with 8 bombers of his 12 kills in the Me-262 jet. My friend Walter Schuck (206 kills), scored his 4 bomber kills in one mission.

My books The German Aces Speak and The Me-262 Stormbird have some of their first person stories about this. The bomber guys were definitely in a bad position against the Luftwaffe.

Martin wrote: "Mike wrote: "Glad to see recognition but it comes too late for so many. Personally, I think taking supplies to Murmansk was one of the worst assignments of any in WWII."

I recently wrote an artcle..."

I interviewed a U-Boat skipper and one of the Luftwaffe bomber pilots, both who sank ships from PQ-17. Massive carnage.

Hitler knew how indiscriminate gas was, he did not want German soldiers becoming friendly fire casualties, if the wind shifted. He was a victim of mustard gas in WW I.