The truth is stranger than fiction: WW2 facts that you would call BS if seen on a movie...

[The Basket]

You are correct to question my comment as it is incorrect.

A casual observer may get the wrong impression.

 

[Acheron]

The movie version of this would have an old, exhausted ghost-of-Napoleon YELLING at Hitler in the latter's grand planning meetings for EVERY mistake being made, pointing at Hitler's maps and ToE and declaring the shortages and obvious fool notions.

And Hitler looks confused at Napoleon's ghost because he doesn't speak French?

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

Battle off Samar. If it wasn't true it would be a bad TV movie.

Man, everyone's taking my choices, first Nicholas Alkemade, then Samar. Thankfully y'all saved me Operation Tidal Wave, the 1943 low-level air raid on Ploesti. That would make one hell of a movie, I think.

 

[buffnut453]

I'd still like to see something, even a documentary, about the Siege of Habbaniyah in May 1941 when No.4 Flying Training School flying a mixed back of Audaxes, Hart Trainers, Oxfords and other sundry types, beat off a surrounding force of Iraqi soldiers.

The Wiki page offers a good general overview: Anglo-Iraqi War - Wikipedia

I'd also strongly recommend "Hidden Victory" by Tony Dudgeon, a first-hand account by one of the Oxford pilots who participated in operations.

 

[pinehilljoe]

The pilots of two carrier air groups and one squadron of TBFs could turn the tide of a war (Midway)

 

[fastmongrel]

The pilots of two carrier air groups and one squadron of TBFs could turn the tide of a war (Midway)

I think turn the tide of a campaign yes but not the war. I think any battle outside the Battle of Stalingrad would struggle to claim it turned the tide of a war.

Midway is the biggest "how did they do that" battle though. Every time I read about Midway I am amazed that the Japanese didn't win.

 

[pbehn]

I think turn the tide of a campaign yes but not the war. I think any battle outside the Battle of Stalingrad would struggle to claim it turned the tide of a war.

Even Stalingrad marked the fact that the tide had turned, it was at almost the same time as Alamein etc.

 

[buffnut453]

I'd refer to Midway as a turning point in that it marked the turn...but the battle itself didn't turn the tide. For example, the Japanese were still on the offensive after Midway, as evidenced by the landings at Buna and Gona, and the resultant fighting along the Kokoda Track.

 

[pinehilljoe]

I think turn the tide of a campaign yes but not the war. I think any battle outside the Battle of Stalingrad would struggle to claim it turned the tide of a war.

Midway is the biggest "how did they do that" battle though. Every time I read about Midway I am amazed that the Japanese didn't win.

This has been discussed in many threads, but simply put after Midway, the Japanese had no strategic victories in the Pacific. There were tactical wins, but no strategic.

I would consider November 1942 as a global Waterloo for the Axis, with Torch, El Alamein, Stalingrad, and Guadalcanal, the axis would never again have a strategic victory and only a few limited tactical wins.

 

[SaparotRob]

Wasn't there a Commonwealth pilot, who after being captured the Germans, invited himself to mess with one of the other Axis groups there? Then he offered to help in interrogating the British prisoners. He brought them in through one door and sent them out another. The Axis officers thought he was "eliminating" them.

 

[Acheron]

Side note, I once read that on the Eastern Front, the Battle of the Moscow was the strategic turning point, Stalingrad the psychological and Kursk the tactical.

 

[yulzari]

Wasn't there a Commonwealth pilot, who after being captured the Germans, invited himself to mess with one of the other Axis groups there? Then he offered to help in interrogating the British prisoners. He brought them in through one door and sent them out another. The Axis officers thought he was "eliminating" them.

A Royal Marine who passed himself off as an Hungarian due to his uncommon uniform.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

I'd refer to Midway as a turning point in that it marked the turn...but the battle itself didn't turn the tide. For example, the Japanese were still on the offensive after Midway, as evidenced by the landings at Buna and Gona, and the resultant fighting along the Kokoda Track.

I think the biggest thing Midway changed was the timeline for final victory. That victory was itself, I believe, inevitable.

The other thing it changed was that it gave the Allies a chance to take the initiative in the Solomons, insofar as KdB would obviously be hard-put to contest it in strength. The Allies promptly seized the opportunity, launching their offensive two months later.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

Side note, I once read that on the Eastern Front, the Battle of the Moscow was the strategic turning point, Stalingrad the psychological and Kursk the tactical.

I believe the German defeat in front of Moscow doomed them to defeat in the East, but it was Stalingrad that put the stake into their heart. I see Kursk as a form of denialism on their part.

After Moscow, they could only mount a major offensive with one of the three eastern army groups, and Stalingrad put paid to that one. By Kursk, they were scraping bottom of barrel to equip the assault.

 

[GrauGeist]

The tragedy of Stalingrad, is that it was a political objective, not strategic.

The Germans could have easily swept around it and pushed onward, but good ol' Adolph simply had to sack Uncle Joe's namesake and ended up sending an entire army into a meat grinder.

Brilliant...

 

[rochie]

Douglas Bader escaping from a prisoner of war camp by exercising in foggy conditions walking up and down in front of his guard, walking a little further away each time and then simply walking off into the fog !

 

[MIflyer]

The RAF needed accurate watches, available from Switzerland, but which was cut off.

So the Germans bought watches in Switzerland, brought them to Spain, and sold them to the Brits through an intermediary.

 

[fastmongrel]

The tragedy of Stalingrad, is that it was a political objective, not strategic.

The Germans could have easily swept around it and pushed onward, but good ol' Adolph simply had to sack Uncle Joe's namesake and ended up sending an entire army into a meat grinder.

Brilliant...

I think the bad Charlie Chaplin impersonator gets the blame wrongly for the 6th Army's defeat at Stalingrad. Researchers have combed through all the available contemporaneous records and before mid September hitler mentions Stalingrad precisely never. hitler was obsessed with the Caspian oilfields so obsessed he took operational control of the southern attack of Fall Blau.

It was the OKH (lit, upper command of the army) and it's chief of staff Halder then after he was sacked on 24th September 1942 Zeitzler that were responsible for the defeat.

Much as I hate to give Adenoid Hinkel any praise he was right about the oil.

 

[fastmongrel]

The RAF needed accurate watches, available from Switzerland, but which was cut off.

So the Germans bought watches in Switzerland, brought them to Spain, and sold them to the Brits through an intermediary.

Switzerland was allowed to trade with other neutral nations. Hundreds of thousands of watches were exported to Portugal apparently enough for every citizen of Lisbon to wear a watch on both wrists. Most of the watches went by land through Vichy France but a good proportion went by air.