Here is an interesting tidbit about the Third Reich which I doubt you will ever see Hollywood make a movie or mini-series about,






It is estimated that about 30,000 blacks lived in Germany from 1933-1945 and while they were ostracized and didn't have the same rights as white Germans, they were not shipped off to the concentration camps like other groups that were considered "enemies of the state".

The Russian dogs were not first in space

In Operation Market Garden the armoured division set out from the town next to where I live, Leopoldsburg, there is a monument to the operation there. The terrain featured in the film A Bridge Too Far is reasonably correct, it is flat-ish heather and peat with plantations of fir trees for the coal mines in the area, most of the older roads here have trees along them, Oak mainly, they were planted to cover the movement of troops and equipment in the area.
Historically (1800s) our township donated a large chunk of it's area to the military for garrisons and training areas, part of that area became the town of Leopolsburg. We have artillery and tank training ranges along with small arms ranges and a couple of ranges for aircraft to fire ordnance on. We drive through the local army base a lot as we have to go through it to get to Leopoldsburg

One thing I don't understand about Market Garden is why didn't XXX Corps keep advancing after the British 1st Airborne division in Arnhem was wiped out?

Three left behind and no attempted rescue mission.

This is still in service !! Amazing !!

4800 JU52 made and only 5 left stiil flyable

Here is another tidbit of WW 2 history that many don't know about,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salon_Kitty


According to multiple witnesses, the Waffen SS general Sepp Dietrich was a frequent customer of the high-end brothel and on one occasion he had an orgy with about 15-20 of the prostitutes there.

Some were not loyal happy go lucky Nazis

Stuff like this happens when you are desperate for manpower to fight a war in which the tide has turned against you and where you are fighting the majority of the world. The Waffen SS greatly relaxed its standards for recruitment starting in 1943 and the overall quality and loyalty of the late war divisions was nowhere near the same as those divisions that were created earlier in the war or had mostly German personnel.

There was 23 Waffen SS units formed from recruits from other countries.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waffen-SS_foreign_volunteers_and_conscripts

Among those, the 5th SS "Wiking" armored division had by far the most impressive combat record. In fact, many historians agree that it had a more impressive combat record than some of the German-only Waffen SS divisions.

According to that Mark Felton video, the members of that SS unit were Muslims.

Pure Aryan race!

As we've seen so often from human history, adherence to political orthodoxy often takes a backseat to the pressing pragmatic needs of the moment.

Alien infiltrators attempt to influence humans using the secret word trunalimunumaprzure!

Supposedly, just hearing the word makes certain human sub species believe almost anything.

BTW, I started this thread about a historical report indicating how disadvantaged the allied tankers were against competent Germans in Panthers. I certainly was not advocating or cheer leading the panzertruppen.

Just lamenting how out gunned our guys were. I am still flabbergasted as to why it took the US so long to adopt a bigger gun, ala the Firefly...seriously.

So let's make a Tank Destroyer with light armor and no overhead arnor from artillery...seriously???

Same guns would have fit on a up armored, up powered Sherman.

It was the doctrine at the time Nixer. Tanks for infantry support and other FV for taking on enemy tanks. Half-tracks are an example of other FV.

Wiki has a good write up on the Sherman, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M4_Sherman

Agreed on the doctrine, luckily common sense broke out and the M4A's with the 76mm started appearing right after D-Day.

The tank destroyer doctrine might have been more successful if there had been more opportunity to use them defensively, as whatever their shortcomings, they still had some advantages over the towed AT guns that everyone else was using.

Also, the M26 Pershing was originally intended to be produced on a 1:5 basis to the Sherman, but of course numerous delays meant that hardly more of them were produced before the war ended than the Tigers, and only a handful actually saw action.

Learn new thing again