World War 2 Trivia

Drawing a blank for a question. Someone else take stab at it.

OK Aaron if you don't mind, had this one ready from before: When and where did a Fallschirmjaeger company use a streetcar in combat?

In Denmark I think, near a bridge.

Yup, I seem to remember the same thing. Hold on.....

found it!! From my own records.......


Not all of the Dutch bridges fell by soldiers falling from the sky. At 0700 hours, twelve He 59 floatplanes fly down the New Maas River and land near the Willems Bridge and release one hundred and twenty infantry and engineers. Quickly establishing positions on both sides of the Willems and a smaller bridge nearby, the soldiers are for the most part ignored by the Dutch. Soon, however, a nearby Dutch garrison arrives and the Germans are trapped and outnumbered on both sides of the river. But then a tram arrives, ringing its bells and delivering fifty heavily armed Fallschirmjäger under the command of Oblt. Horst Kerfin who immediately split into two groups -one rushing to the north bank and the other taking up positions on the south bank. There the Germans fight the Dutch until finally relieved by an infantry force sent from the paratroopers at Waalhaven airfield.

Dang it, close but no cigar!

Thats not it?

I was talking about my guess of Denmark. On to you mon ami.

Dang, you guys is GOOD! Thought that one would stump you for a while anyway, Terry, methinks you have it...Talley Ho

I do believe that is me, kind sir!

Ok, someone explain to me what was the last Royal Naval action involving a cutlass? Who, what, why and where?

Commodore James Norrington, fighting pirate Jack Sparrow with a cutlass, somewhere round Tortugal, 2003...

smartazz.......................

Njaco said:

smartazz.......................

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What, is that wrong??

Cutlass's were most commonly used by boarding parties so it was probably last used when boarding a German vessel which would most likely mean either a u-boat or merchant ship.
If the same question was being asked about the US Navy I would have answered with the Vought Cutlass.

When the HMS Jupiter captured the German weather ship Lauenburg in 1941, the boarding party was armed with axes and cutlass.
Just ??

I don't know where .

Unable to find anything about cutlasses but if Tyro is right about the Lauenburg then it was several British ships. The British light cruiser HMS Nigeria and the British destroyers HMS Bedouin, HMS Tartar and HMS Jupiter (Lt.Cdr. N.V.J.P. Thew, RN), in thick fog, intercept the German weather ship Lauenburg north-east of Jan Mayen Island. The German ship was detected due to HF/DF. My source says nothing about a boarding but states that her crew abandoned ship after they were fired upon. The action was notable because valuable codebooks and the Enigma machine were found aboard the German weather ship.

mikewint said:

The German ship was detected due to HF/DF.

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Maybe so, but one of the crew of Nigeria didn't think so. This is what Alfred Longbottom of Halifax in West Yorkshire (the original Halifax) remembered.

"The Navy were trying to locate a German Station providing weather and movement of shipping news to their own ships and submarines. I was on HMS Nigeria (a colony cruiser), and before getting under weigh we had a good idea of the general area in which the Weather Ship would be found but, immediately before the incident, it is most likely we simply 'came across' her. We were not at Action Stations, always triggered off by radar contact and often the result of locating floating debris, empty lifeboats and even whales! I was on deck as HMS Nigeria sailed into proximity to a large iceberg when I first saw an orange glow in the 'iceberg', followed by splashes of water in the sea near the stern of Nigeria. Almost with disbelief, I realised the iceberg had opened fire on us with enormously heavy guns, the splashes so clearly disturbing a perfectly calm sea - like a sheet of glass. At this point I could not see a ship. It was covered from stem to stern in white canvas. Together with our two destroyer escort we had located the German Weather Ship Lauenberg and it was June 1941. Scuttling charges sent the Lauenberg to the bottom. I well recall seeing two lifeboats packed with her crew being rowed away from their ship to the destroyer HMS Bedouin and internment."

Alfred recalled this in 2004 not long before his death.

An eyewitness account from Tartar supports the contention that the Lauenberg was first sighted by one of her look outs "behind that iceberg" rather than being tracked electronically .

Lauenberg didn't have 'enormously heavy guns', maybe he observed the 'fall of shot' from Tartar which had opened fire on the German vessel immediately in order to panic the crew into abandoning her, a ruse that obviously worked. Tom Kelly, Chief Gunner's Mate on Tartar claimed he had been told to open fire immediately but not to hit the Lauenberg, something he replied would be easy. That doesn't give one much confidence in RN gunnery

White canvass? There's none visible in any of the photographs. Memory is a fickle thing.

Other accounts say that Lauenberg was sunk by gunfire rather than scuttling charges, but here I suspect Alfred maybe correct. It would have been far more reliable and economical and a demolition team may well have formed part of what was a substantial boarding party.

Much is made of the capture of the enigma machine but it was actually three pieces of paper, two headed 'Steckerverbindungen' (plug connections) and one which was a list of the 'Innere Finstellung' (inner settings) which comprised the most vital intelligence gathered. These three pieces of paper were what allowed the code breakers at Bletchley Park into the German naval codes for July 1941.

There is at least one photograph of the boarding party setting off for the Lauenberg . There are plenty of 'tin hats' in evidence but though I can't see any cutlass or axes it wouldn't surprise me if both had been available on Tartar and that both were carried.

Cheers

Steve

You guys are on the right track but its not the "Lauenberg" affair.

Njaco said:

I do believe that is me, kind sir!

Ok, someone explain to me what was the last Royal Naval action involving a cutlass? Who, what, why and where?

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The crew of HMS Cossack on boarding the Altmark off Norway in 1940 (though I've read that this might just be a claim made in the papers at the time and that cutlass's were not actually used, though they did use pick-axe handles, and rifles with sword bayonets)

stona said:

There is at least one photograph of the boarding party setting off for the Lauenberg . There are plenty of 'tin hats' in evidence but though I can't see any cutlass or axes it wouldn't surprise me if both had been available on Tartar and that both were carried.

Cheers

Steve

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Cutlasses had been withdrawn from RN service for boarding parties before the war, but a couple were normally carried on board ship for ceremonial purposes, so there is a slight possibility if the officer in charge of the boarding party fancied going into action with one.