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Joe2
Banned
i have heard of that. But why didnt they make tanks out of the stuff?
WW2 Myths
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Screaming Eagle
Senior Master Sergeant
Myth that I heard...maybe true, most likely not.
Germans built a fake airfield in France. Complete with wooden sheds, wooden aircraft, some fake and some real AAA. When they completed it, the British flew over and dropped a wooden bomb on it.
Also heard it with the British building the Airfield and the Germans dropping the wooden bomb.
Germans built a fake airfield in France. Complete with wooden sheds, wooden aircraft, some fake and some real AAA. When they completed it, the British flew over and dropped a wooden bomb on it.
Also heard it with the British building the Airfield and the Germans dropping the wooden bomb.
Nonskimmer
Captain
Knowing the British sense of humour, even during war, it might just be true. 
Mighta been the Germans I suppose though, if it's true at all.
Mighta been the Germans I suppose though, if it's true at all.
R-2800
Senior Airman
that's funny even if it isn't true
More myths (some have already been discussed here; some others have been debunked, but to some extent remain in public imagery):
(i) The Germans had to stop their aerial operations over England during 1940 as a consequence of unbearable losses.
(ii) Defensive armament onboard German bombers during 1940 was inadequate while that fitted to allied heavy bombers was sufficient, or at least, much more better. (British heavy bombers retained their .303 cal machine guns throughout the entire war) 8)
(iii) The G-6 version of the Bf 109 was inferior to any of their contemporay opponents.
(iv) The western allied air forces could replace their casualties with ease, while the Luftwaffe could not, so they had to sent pilots who could barely take off, navigate and land on mission, so to explain the horrific losses swalloed by the Luftwaffe during 1944/45.
(v) Newer fresher myths: the Poles moving forward filing their own claims pointing out the Luftwaffe had horrific losses during Fall Weiss (September 1939) at the hands of both their air force and AA batteries, at least high enough to put into doubt an alleged brilliant performance from German fliers during the attack against Poland. Soon you will have the yugoslavs, greeks and norweigans too claiming their forces nearly annihilated Luftwaffe units committed to the attacks against their countries.
(vi) World War Two is the sole and direct responsiblity of one individual: Adolf Hitler.
(i) The Germans had to stop their aerial operations over England during 1940 as a consequence of unbearable losses.
(ii) Defensive armament onboard German bombers during 1940 was inadequate while that fitted to allied heavy bombers was sufficient, or at least, much more better. (British heavy bombers retained their .303 cal machine guns throughout the entire war) 8)
(iii) The G-6 version of the Bf 109 was inferior to any of their contemporay opponents.
(iv) The western allied air forces could replace their casualties with ease, while the Luftwaffe could not, so they had to sent pilots who could barely take off, navigate and land on mission, so to explain the horrific losses swalloed by the Luftwaffe during 1944/45.
(v) Newer fresher myths: the Poles moving forward filing their own claims pointing out the Luftwaffe had horrific losses during Fall Weiss (September 1939) at the hands of both their air force and AA batteries, at least high enough to put into doubt an alleged brilliant performance from German fliers during the attack against Poland. Soon you will have the yugoslavs, greeks and norweigans too claiming their forces nearly annihilated Luftwaffe units committed to the attacks against their countries.
(vi) World War Two is the sole and direct responsiblity of one individual: Adolf Hitler.
Matt308
Glock Perfection
How about this one. America forced Japan into WWII by blockading Japan's ability to import oil, thus Japan was forced to take immediate retaliatory action to secure her energy needs.
A good myth is always veiled in some form of truth. No matter how slim. Otherwise the myth is not believable.
A good myth is always veiled in some form of truth. No matter how slim. Otherwise the myth is not believable.
They certainly had to stop their large scale daylight operations because of unbearable losses.
The single engined fighter force had 856 serviceable fighters and 906 fit fighter pilots at the end of June 1940. At the end of December, that had fallen to 586 serviceable fighters and 711 fit fighter pilots.
This is largely true. From Strategy For Defeat by Williamson Murray:
"The increasing attrition of pilots forced the Germans to curtail training programs to fill empty combat cockpits . As a result, new pilots with less skill than
their predecessors were lost at a faster rate. The increasing losses, in turn, forced
the training establishments to produce pilots even more rapidly. Once they had
begun this vicious cycle, the Germans found no escape . One of the surest indicators
of the declining skill of German pilots after the 1940 air battles was the rising level
of noncombat losses (see Tables LXII through LXIV) . By the first half of 1943,
they had reached the point where the fighter force suffered as many losses due to
noncombat causes as it did to the efforts of its opponents ."
"By the beginning of 1942, the Germans had lost the equivalent of two entire air
forces . The result was that the Germans had to curtail their training programs to
meet the demands of the front for new pilots . By January 1942, of the pilots
available for duty in the fighter force, only 60 percent were fully operational, while
the number in the bomber force was down to 47 percent (see Table LXIX'3) . For the
remainder of the war, the percentage of fully operational fighter and bomber pilots
available, with few exceptions, remained below, and at many times substantially
below, the 70 percent level. Further exacerbating this situation was the fact that the
Germans were forced to lower their standards for a fully operational pilot as the war
continued . There was, one must note, no decisive moment in this decline in
expertise. Rather as Winston Churchill has suggested in another context, the
Luftwaffe had entered the descent from 1940 "incontinently, fecklessly. . . . It is a
fine broad stairway at the beginning but after a bit the carpet ends . A little further
on, there are only flagstones ; and a little further on, these break beneath your
feet . 1114 The graph for the number of training hours for new pilots clearly reflected
such a course (see Table LXX'5) . In the period through the late summer of 1942,
German pilots were receiving at least as many training hours as their opponents in
the RAF. By 1943, that statistic had begun a gradual shift against the Germans until
the last half of the year when Luftwaffe pilots were receiving barely one-half of the
training hours given to enemy pilots . In terms of flying training in operational
aircraft, the disparity had become even more pronounced: one-third of the RAF
total and one-fifth of the American total . But those Luftwaffe pilots who had
survived the attrition of the first air battles of the war had little difficulty defeating
new Allied pilots no matter how many training hours the latter had flown. In fact,
the ratio of kills-to-sorties climbed as those Luftwaffe pilots who survived built up
experience (see Table LXXI16). However, few German pilots survived the attrition
of the first war years, and thus the Luftwaffe became, in fact, two distinct forces: the
few great aces-the Hartmans, Galands, and Waldmans-and the great mass of
pilots who faced great difficulty in landing their aircraft, much less surviving
combat. Only 8 of Germany's 107 aces to score more than 100 victories joined their
squadrons after mid-1942"
the lancaster kicks ass
Major General
- 19,937
- Dec 20, 2003
it's more likely to be our wooden airfeild set up as a decoy in the Battle of Britain..........
It also could have been an allied airfield set up as a decoy during the build up to D-Day.
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- #33
Joe2
Banned
Why not make a pykrete tank?
trackend
Chief Master Sergeant
A wet blanket hanging on a washing line can stop a .303 round (that was told to my old man in the home guard) he asked the sarg to stand behind one and let him prove it.
Cyrano
Airman 1st Class
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Sounds bizzare. Not only do you have technical problems with getting the right image on the right cloud while somebody moving 100mph is looking in that direction. But what happens when the crew is mostly Jewish? Toss up Moses instead of Mary?
Odd.
Yeah that just does not sound possible to me. I dont know though stranger things have happened.
Emac44
Staff Sergeant
The myth that the Japanese couldn't be defeated in Jungle Warfare. Or the Afrika Corp was unbeatable in the Deserts. The Myth that all heavy guns in their emplacements defending Singapore could not fire inland. actually the guns could but its pointless firing an armour piercing shell towards a ground target. Another Myth concerning Singapore there were no intention of sending Armour to Singapore by ship to stem Japanese invasion down Malaya. The Myth that Japanese airmen were myopic. And a thread i began did the 6th Division 2nd AIF whistle and sing We are off to see the Wizard when they attacked Bardia in North Africa Campaign in 1941. but here are some factuals not myths. English and German Troops celebrated Christmas Eve and Day on the Western Front and temperorily called of hostilities to do so without orders during WW1 and soccer matches on occassions did occur. On occassions truces on the Gallipoli Battlefield occured to clear the wounded and the dead from the field. And a cricket match by Australians was played on what was called Shell Fire Green in full view of the Turks. another factual event from Gallipoli that the disembarkment of Troops from Gallipoli was a success and was better planned then the invasion and landings on 25th April 1915. Another comes from the Middle East Campaign. The Australians rather than let their Horses (Whalers) become livestock for local Arabs shot the horses instead as the Aussies had seen how the Arabs treated horses at the time and did all Arabs volunteer to fight with T E Lawerence. no they bloody didn't as the Aussies had problems with them whilst they the Aussies were fighting Turks
trackend
Chief Master Sergeant
This was not a myth but true. The US govenment namely Rooservelt recieved a letter from a guy regarding a plan to use millions of bats as tiny incendiary bombs in japan these would be dropped from a bomber and after a predetermind time (after they had be given enough time to roost in the eves of the mainly wooden buildings of Tokyo) the minature bombs they carried would burst into flame and set the buildings ablaze.
The plan was studied and got a lot nearer to actuality than many thought it would.
The plan was studied and got a lot nearer to actuality than many thought it would.
I read about that one. They actually put it together and tried it out on an airbase in the Southwest. It was a fiasco. The test run had bats heading every which way and blowing stuff up. In a way, it worked. But it was decided to wierd to bother with when the conventional stuff seemed to work.
Heard one from right after the Battle of Britain when the Germans were bombing at night. The Brits were trying to figure out a way to stop the German bombers. People were writting in all sorts of crazy ideas. One person, more than a little out there, wrote in" "Put a cat in the cockpit and shoot wherever the cat looks".
Forgot to mention they shoud put Moe, Larry and Shemp in the same plane with the cat.
