|
Best Porn Sites | Live Sex | Register | FAQ | Members List | Calendar | Mark Forums Read |
Politics, Current Affairs, Religion Threads Post here for all Politics, Current Affairs, Religion Threads |
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
April 9th, 2017, 08:17 PM | #7861 |
Super Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: England
Posts: 26,237
Thanks: 162,389
Thanked 278,411 Times in 26,182 Posts
|
Hilfkreuzer Michel
Known as Raider H to the British Admiralty, the Hilfkreuzer (Auxilliary Cruiser) Michel was the last German surface warship ever to reach the open seas away from the European area. She made two cruises, though arguably it was one cruise because she never returned to Germany and spent time in Japan refitting between March 2 and May 1 1943, at the Mitsubishi shipyard in Kobe. Her first cruise began in March 1942. Her first captain stood down on reaching Japan at his own request; he was starting to suffer from a heart condition which ultimately killed him in 1948. His replacement perished on October 17 1943 when the Michel, only a few hours away from safe harbour in Japan, was torpedoed by the American submarine USS Tarpon. Times were different by mid 1942. The balance of force was tilting against the German side. The tactics originally employed by the likes of Captain Bernhard Rogge were being discarded and much more direct methods were being used. Michel was not a fast enough ship for the job she was expected to do: at least two knots slower than Atlantis and Pinguin had been. She also had six guns rather than eight and they were of an antiquated type with an effective range not much more than 5 miles. Her captain became disillusioned with the Captain Teach shot-across-the-bows technique which had worked pretty well for Captain Rogge. His first two victims resisted for a while, broadcasting RRRR to the world, and this was serious now, in a war where numerous raiders and blockade runners had recently been caught and sunk by British patrols in waters which were no longer as lonely as the German side would have preferred. To add insult to injury, the British Blue Funnel liner SS Menelaus was unimpressed by Michel's disguise, avoided the fall of shot from Michel, avoided the torpedoes fired by Michel's in-house E Boat, and blew Michel off. The books all said that Menelaus could only do 14 knots flat out. Michel could do 16 knots and Menelaus outran her, the only time a ship ever got away after a German surface raider opened fire on her. She even sent some uncomplimentary signals in morse to her German pursuer to express her views on having been disturbed. Captain Ruckteschell was displeased. The failure was doubly costly because he was forced to abandon his position and disappear away from the shipping lanes until the heat was off again and he had not even sunk his target. But it was his own fault for opening fire when not yet close enough. The tactical lesson he decided to learn was cruder than this: no more Mr Nice Guy. A month later he sank the Norwegian freighter Kattegat. No warning was given: he stalked her from over the horizon in daylight, closed in after nightfall and opened fire with all guns from close range and with no warning given. The Kattegat managed to signal her distress and on this occasion Captain Ruckteschell showed mercy and ceased fire. He even rescued her crew, all 60 of them, because it so happened that none of them died in the shelling. The tactic worked and compensated for Michel's lack of speed and unimpressive guns. But on a number of occasions it led to grim results when ships blew up and most or all of their crews were killed, regardless of whether or not the Germans were willing to rescue them. In fairness, Captain Ruckteschell usually tried to fish men out. The worst case was on Michel's second outing under Captain Günther Gumprich. Finding a target near Easter Island, the Germans fired one salvo and there was a massive explosion. They knew no one would have lived and sent their torpedo boat to take a look, identify the burning ship and have a quick sniff just in case there were any swimmers. No one was alive. The ship was the Texaco tanker MT India. Most of the Germans were lost when USS Tarpon sank their ship about 6 weeks after they sank the India. It was many years after the war that people interviewed the Michel surviving crew and checked Allied records and realised that her victim had been MT India, which had simply vanished off the face of the earth. Captain Ruckteschell was sentenced to ten years in prison for firing on Allied seamen after they had surrendered and firing on men in lifeboats. I am not sure just exactly how guilty he was: war is not clean or nice, and men whom he did rescue testified that he had treated them well, only handing them to the Japanese under protest after being ordered not to return to Germany. Mainly his crime was that he was a bit slow to cease fire. But I doubt if I would have acquitted him; however one of the four convictions was overturned on appeal and he got remission as well. But he died in prison, only days before he was going to be released. It could have been worse though. He could have been one of the crew of MT India.
__________________
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. |
The Following 21 Users Say Thank You to scoundrel For This Useful Post: |
April 29th, 2017, 04:13 PM | #7862 |
Super Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: England
Posts: 26,237
Thanks: 162,389
Thanked 278,411 Times in 26,182 Posts
|
29 April 1945
On April 29th 1945, the war was coming close to the very end.
__________________
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. |
The Following 23 Users Say Thank You to scoundrel For This Useful Post: |
April 30th, 2017, 12:12 AM | #7863 | |
Veteran Member
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Here and there
Posts: 4,029
Thanks: 102,514
Thanked 93,973 Times in 4,024 Posts
|
Quote:
Peniakoff's unit, 'No. 1 Demolition Squadron, PPA' (The abbreviation 'PPA' in the unit title, incidentally, stands simply for 'Popski's Private Army') was formed in late 1942, and initially comprised no more than 25 men, recruited as volunteers from other units, and even at it's peak when serving in Italy, had an official strength of only 80, although in practice this was expanded to around 100 in the field. It was equipped with Jeeps, heavily armed with .303 and .50 machine guns, also had DUKWs and small landing craft, and was generally organised as three fighting patrols, each of 6 Jeeps, and a Tactical HQ Patrol of 4 Jeeps. After operating in North Africa and Italy, it was disbanded in Sept. 1945, by which time PPA members had accumulated between them a DSO, a DCM ,6 Military Crosses, 10 Military Medals, and 14 Mentions in Dispatches. Peniakoff was a Belgian of Russian descent, who had studied at Cambridge, although he failed to complete his degree, subsequently qualifying as an electrical engineer in Switzerland. He may (records seem to be vague on this) have briefly served in the French Army during WW1, but in the 1920's moved to Egypt to manage a sugar mill. Whilst in Egypt, he spent his leisure time sailing on the Nile, learning to fly, learning to speak Arabic (he was already fluent in several languages) and exploring the desert- he became a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in 1937. Although in his 40's at the outbreak of war, he volunteered for the Army, having been turned down by both the Royal Navy and RAF. Commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant, and posted to 3rd Battalion Libyan Arab Force, a unit of Senussi Arab troops under British command, originally intended to conduct a guerilla campaign against the Italians, he was frustrated to find himself initially tied down to garrison and policing duties. Promoted to Major by 1942, he set up a small 'Libyan Arab Force Commando' unit, and spent several months attached to the LRDG, gathering intelligence behind enemy lines, an activity better-suited to his talents and temperament. Returning from this mission, he was surprised to discover that his unit had been disbanded, and the army appeared to have forgotten about him- to the point that he hadn't been paid for months! With the support of Lt-Col John 'Shan' Hackett (later General Sir John Hackett) at GHQ Cairo, a new unit which became 'Popski's Private Army' was formed- the name apparently the result of Hackett's exasperation at Peniakoff's failure to suggest a more official title At the time of the little adventure in Venice in the last weeks of the war, 'Popski' had only recently returned to command the PPA, after recovering from wounds including the loss of his left hand. He ended the war as a Lieutentant-Colonel, and subsequently wrote a best-selling memoir of his activities during the war Lt-Col. Vladimir Peniakoff, DSO MC died of a brain tumour in London in May 1951, aged 54. http://www.popski.org/home Last edited by Historian; April 30th, 2017 at 12:21 AM.. |
|
The Following 21 Users Say Thank You to Historian For This Useful Post: |
April 30th, 2017, 07:08 AM | #7864 |
Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Halfwitistan
Posts: 5,715
Thanks: 113,487
Thanked 59,962 Times in 5,707 Posts
|
The Regular Army officers thought Popski and his men Cowboys, and Popski played to the gallery. Apparently the 8th Army used either bugle calls or a burst of bren fire as a reveille call. Popski used a small charge of PE to wake his men.
|
The Following 20 Users Say Thank You to haroldeye For This Useful Post: |
May 1st, 2017, 02:51 AM | #7865 |
Veteran Member
Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: NZ
Posts: 4,035
Thanks: 70,712
Thanked 40,937 Times in 4,026 Posts
|
Personally I favour bagpipes for reveille-the human being is yet to be born who can sleep through bagpipes being played right outside their tent....[and yes this WAS the standard method of reveille for the NZ Scottish Regiment during regimental annual camps-marching up and down the tentlines playing the pipes at 'oh dark hundred'-the specific piper responsible-who mysteriously somehow escaped being murdered by his comrades.....is still active on ceremonial occasions 35+ years later....]
|
The Following 19 Users Say Thank You to Dr Pepper For This Useful Post: |
May 1st, 2017, 07:03 AM | #7866 |
Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Halfwitistan
Posts: 5,715
Thanks: 113,487
Thanked 59,962 Times in 5,707 Posts
|
George MacDonald Fraser recounted, in one of his McAuslan stories, the tale about the how after one Mess night the CO arranged for the Pipes and Drums to sneak next to the subalterns billet and crash into 'Are y' awake Johnnie Cope'. His description of the subbies screaming into existence is hilarious.
|
The Following 22 Users Say Thank You to haroldeye For This Useful Post: |
May 4th, 2017, 02:00 AM | #7867 |
Vintage Member
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: in the woods
Posts: 2,341
Thanks: 26,316
Thanked 44,977 Times in 2,333 Posts
|
|
The Following 23 Users Say Thank You to onehourplus For This Useful Post: |
May 8th, 2017, 09:29 PM | #7868 |
Super Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: England
Posts: 26,237
Thanks: 162,389
Thanked 278,411 Times in 26,182 Posts
|
On 8 May 1945 at 23.01 Central European Time, all forces in Europe under German command were supposed to cease operations. The surrender had been signed by General Jodl on the authority of Admiral Doenitz the previous day.
For a variety of reasons, hostilities did not end as abruptly as the ceasefire agreement said that they should. In particular, a lot of German forces and local collaborators were most unwilling to surrender to Russian forces, let alone local partisans. Presumably they were still hoping to maintain lines of communication between their central nervous systems and blood circulatory systems and their reproductive organs.
__________________
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. |
The Following 24 Users Say Thank You to scoundrel For This Useful Post: |
May 8th, 2017, 10:21 PM | #7869 |
Super Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: England
Posts: 26,237
Thanks: 162,389
Thanked 278,411 Times in 26,182 Posts
|
The P40 was unsuccessful in the North West European theatre as a day fighter; but in the ground attack role it did pretty well. It was a very effective multi-role combat aircraft in North Africa, the Pacific and Far East in 1941-42; one of the very few Allied aircraft in the first eighteen months after Pearl Harbour which the Japanese felt obliged to handle with caution. It was a very robust aeroplane both in difficult terraine and in straight combat, and its typical configuration of six point five machine guns was formidable. In combat in Burma, China, the Pacific and North Africa it was rarely required to fly at high altitudes and below 15,000 feet the lack of a supercharger on the Allison engine was not a serious handicap.
__________________
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. |
The Following 27 Users Say Thank You to scoundrel For This Useful Post: |
May 9th, 2017, 10:10 PM | #7870 |
Super Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: England
Posts: 26,237
Thanks: 162,389
Thanked 278,411 Times in 26,182 Posts
|
Russian forces entered Austria on 30th March 1945 after crushing the Spring Awakening offensive by Army Group Centre and turning their southern flank deep into what is now the Czech Republic, exposing the road west across the Austrian frontier. The Americans and French entered Salzburgerland and Tyrol on 30th April from Bavaria, the same day that Hitler took his own life.
British Commonwealth forces only entered Austria on 7th May; tanks rolled across the Plocken Pass. By 10am on 8th May, British Eighth Army had occupied the Carinthian province capital of Klagenfurt unopposed. It was high time: German forces had ceased to exist and all sorts of people were turning up: Hungarian troops of the St Lazlo Division; the Cossacks; Croatian and Slovenian collaborationist forces and the Yugoslav partisans in hot pursuit. The Yugoslav partisans had already declared Carinthia to be part of Yugoslavia when British forces arrived, but the British forces had tanks, artillery and aeroplanes and had absolutely no problem about shooting first and pissing on the dead bodies afterwards if they caught bandits red handed doing bandit stuff. So the partisans sulked and went home without waiting to be told. The Austrian civilians were extremely relieved when the British Army showed up because the alternative was the Russians; however, such was the chaos of the times, Russian occupation would have been preferable to the depredations of the lawless mob or of the Yugoslav partisans bent on looting, rape and revenge. The arrival of soldiers under discipline meant that someone was in charge again, and Lord of the Flies Time was over.
__________________
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. |
The Following 23 Users Say Thank You to scoundrel For This Useful Post: |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|