Is anyone interested in WWII?

[240Z freak]

In the same vein as the Twin Mustang is the He-111Z Zwilling (?) derivative. It was basically two He-111s joined at the wing and with an extra engine. It was designed to specifically tow the Messherschmidt Me-322 (?) "Gigant" glider.

 

[the_cobbinator]

MOH got me interested in WWII and I started trying to read Ambrose but that was way over my head. I sucked up as much knowledge as possible by writing reports for classes on different battles, planes, and generals.

 

[Gil]

Check out the Schedule for the History Channel and you will find more stuff on WW2 than you ever wanted to know.

 

[Frustrated Palm]

One plane I like, is the Corsair (sp).

Though its not a WWII game, does anyone own any of the Delta Force Games? I own Delta Force 2 - 5...

 

[the_cobbinator]

Originally posted by Gil
Check out the Schedule for the History Channel and you will find more stuff on WW2 than you ever wanted to know.

Only one problem with that, I don't exactly get cable.

 

[a6m5]

I was reading up on the Japanese ace pilot during the WWII, and found this rather humorous little story in a very nasty war. I didn't want to create a new thread for this, so I thought this might be a good place for it.

In the night of May 16, Nishizawa, Sakai and Ohta were listening at the lounge room to a broadcast of an Australian radio program, when Nishizawa recognized the eerie "Danse Macabre" of the French composer, pianist and organist Camille Saint-Saëns. Nishizawa, thinking about this mysterious skeleton dance, now suddenly had a crazy idea: "you know the mission tomorrow at Port Moresby? Why don't we perform a little show, a dance of death of our own? We do a few demonstration loops right over the enemy airfield, this should drive them crazy on the ground."

On May 17, Shosa (Lt. Cmdr.) Tadashi Nakajima led the Tainan Ku. on flight to Port Moresby, with Sakai and Nishizawa as his wingmen. As the Japanese formation realigned for the return flight, Sakai signaled Nakajima, that he was going after an enemy aircraft and peeled off. Minutes later, Sakai was over Port Moresby again, to keep his rendezvous with Nishizawa and Ohta. The trio now performed aerobatics, three tight loops in close formation. After that, a jubilant Nishizawa indicated that he wanted to repeat the performance. Diving to 6,000 feet, the three Zeros did three more loops, still without any AA fire from the ground. They headed then back to Lae, arriving 20 minutes later, as the rest of the kokutai.

At about 9 p.m., Lieutenant Junichi Sasai wanted them in his office, immediately. When they arrived, Sasai held up a letter. "Do you know where I got this thing?" he shouted. "No? I'll tell you, you fools; it was dropped on this base a few minutes ago, by an enemy intruder!" The letter, written in English, said: [1]

"To the Lae Commander: We were much impressed with those three pilots who visited us today, and we all liked the loops they flew over our field. It was quite an exhibition. We would appreciate it if the same pilots returned here once again, each wearing a green muffler around his neck. We're sorry we could not give them better attention on their last trip, but we will see to it that the next time they will receive an all-out welcome from us.

Nishizawa, Sakai and Ohta stood at stiff attention and tried to suppress laughing out loud, while Lieutenant Sasai dressed them down over their "idiotic behavior" and prohibited them from staging any more aerobatic shows over enemy airfields. The Tainan Kokutai's three leading aces secretly agreed, that the aerial choreography had been worth it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroyoshi_Nishizawa

If you are wondering, Nishizawa died as a passenger on a transport plane, shot down by couple of Grumman Hellcats.

 

[Wolfe]

Unbelievable. That almost sounds like something you'd find in a WWII article on Uncyclopedia, but the story is on Wikipedia, and it does have a source...

 

[a6m5]

Unbelievable. That almost sounds like something you'd find in a WWII article on Uncyclopedia, but the story is on Wikipedia, and it does have a source...

My first impression of the story was "World War II Top Gun". By the way, this Uncyclopedia is a one messed up site.

 

[Dave A]

I'm not much of a WWII buff but I did read the letters my great grandad wrote to the family while he was in the trenches. He knew was going over and wrote a letter the day before, he never expected to make it and says his goodbyes in the letter, one part reads "sometimes it's hard to be man", he never came back. There's also a statue of one of my relatives, the monument isn't an actual monument for him in particular though, but when they built it they used a photograph of him as a reference.

 

[a6m5]

Sorry to hear about your great granddad, Dave.

Both of my grandfather's have passed away, but they did survive the war. Grandfather on mom's side fought(more like just worked) for the Imperial Japanese Army, and Imperial Navy on my dad's side.

I used to think the wars were the coolest thing, when I was a kid. But when I grew up, and learned to look at things in perspective(well, most of time ), I realized that in most wars, you are just fighting for the causes of the politicians and others in power.

 

[Dave A]

Loads of people lost relatives in the world wars, I do have to make a correction because I missread the thread title, it was WWI he was killed in not WWII. It was when they fought in the trenches and sent troops over the top, they were pretty much just cannon fodder, well he was part of the cannon fodder, it's a sad waste of life. I never knew him obviousely (I don't posess the ability to time travel, on really I don't), but I find his letters interesting, he was killed in 1917 when my gran was 2 or 3 so she never really knew him either.

 

[a6m5]

If she was only 2, 3 when he died, then he must've been pretty young.

I knew both my grandfathers real well, but neither would talk about the war to me. I found out everything I know about what they did in WWII from my parents.

 

[Philly]

I had some family in WW2 as well. Grandfather was a paratrooper in the 82nd during the Battle of the Bulge & a member of the Roosevelt Guard. My mom's uncle was in a sub in the Pacific thw whole war. Doesn't talk about it. I think that would be interesting to learn about.

Anyway, if anybody is interested, there is a forum called WW2talk (something like that) which I check out every so often.

 

[Leonidae]

I'm interested of WWII airwar in Europe. Mostly of the Western Europe, and of course the magnificent battles on the Finnish borders where our outnumbered pilots kicked Soviet butts in their new and shiny airplanes in out-dated planes. Our airforces really used everything they could. Moranes, Fiats, even Fokkers..

 

[Speedy Samurai]

I was reading up on the Japanese ace pilot during the WWII, and found this rather humorous little story in a very nasty war. I didn't want to create a new thread for this, so I thought this might be a good place for it.


If you are wondering, Nishizawa died as a passenger on a transport plane, shot down by couple of Grumman Hellcats.

There is a book entitled 'Samurai' written about Nishizawa. Good read and I really enjoyed it. I find myself very interested in WWII history concerning the Pacific theater. My wife's family is from the tiny, tropical island of Ogasawara (Bonin islands). When her father was a boy all the inhabitants of the island were sent to tokyo and the japanese turned it into an outpost of sorts. I was there last summer and was able to walk around in the caves and look at some remaining trenches. There is even a crashed zero fighter on my in-laws' property!



I am hesitant to discuss the war with my father-in-law, for obvious reasons. Even more so with my grandmother-in-law, who is now 89, and was living in Tokyo when the allies firebombed it.

 

[a6m5]

There is a book entitled 'Samurai' written about Nishizawa. Good read and I really enjoyed it. I find myself very interested in WWII history concerning the Pacific theater. My wife's family is from the tiny, tropical island of Ogasawara (Bonin islands). When her father was a boy all the inhabitants of the island were sent to tokyo and the japanese turned it into an outpost of sorts. I was there last summer and was able to walk around in the caves and look at some remaining trenches. There is even a crashed zero fighter on my in-laws' property!



I am hesitant to discuss the war with my father-in-law, for obvious reasons. Even more so with my grandmother-in-law, who is now 89, and was living in Tokyo when the allies firebombed it.

My grandmother survived the Allied bombings as well. Her friend was killed, while lying right next to her in one of the bombings. I can't even imagine coming that close to death. What makes it scarier was that it wasn't the bomber that got her, it was the machine gun fire from one of the escort planes.

This is embarrassing. For some reason, I thought the Ogasawara Shotou was toward Okinawa and Taiwan. I just looked at the map, and had no idea that Japanese territory expanded that far south of Tokyo. It's kind of funny(not really) that they evacuated people from Ogasawara Shotou to Tokyo, when they were evacuating kids away from Tokyo, due to the heavy Allied bombing.

Very cool pics, by the way. Thanks for posting them. 👍 They are important historical pieces, as far as I'm concerned. I hope it doesn't get tossed out in the next month's "sodaigomi".

 

[3-Wheel Drive]

I've always liked WWII stuff, but it's mostly the planes. 2 of my favorite aricraft were made back then, the Spitfire and the B-17.

The B-17: It's big, it's armed to the teeth, and those 4 radial engines produce the one the greatest sounds any aircraft can make.

 

[Speedy Samurai]

Very cool pics, by the way. Thanks for posting them. 👍 They are important historical pieces, as far as I'm concerned. I hope it doesn't get tossed out in the next month's "sodaigomi".

Haha! I told my wife that it has to stay there. She is an only child and when her parents get too far along in years (which isn't so far away) she and I will have to go to Ogasawara to take over their bed and breakfast business. I told her if the plane wasn't still there I wouldn't go. (Of course, I'll go, it's a tropical paradise!)

 

[ExigeEvan]

I'm pretty interested in WW2 as well. Though I've lost alot of my passion since the RAF said I couldn't join.

I'm mainly into European theatre of war. Mainly the tanks, planes and tactics.