I said you should take care.

A REVIEW OF MAX HASTINGS’ DAS REICH
by Richard Landwehr, transcribed by Marc Rikmenspoel
Many visitors to this page are familiar with the book Das Reich: The March of the 2nd SS Panzer Division Through France, written by Max Hastings. I too have read the book, and find it full of fiction and errors. I have had the privilege of reading a letter written in English by Fritz Langanke (or as Hastings calls him, Langangke) to Max Hastings. In it, Langanke lists 15 points where Hastings ignored or distorted the information he provided. Unfortunately, the contents of the letter must remain private for the time being, but meanwhile, this review of the book by Richard Landwehr does a good job of summing up my feelings about Mr. Hastings’ work.

And from David’s post:
Hastings says that Harris should have been sacked at the end of 1944 and Portal was weak not to have done it. I totally agree!

Je reste ma valise.

Resmoroh

During the period when RAF Stanley was being translated (by the REs) into a modern runway the ‘airfield’ was unusable for landings/take-offs by the Airbridge.
Incoming mail was air-dropped at very low level (I was there – tks chaps!)
Outgoing mail was picked up by a ‘snatch’ similar to the system outlined above. A wire(?) was strung between two poles. On each side was a pouche in which the outgoing mail was packed. The Herc (12 hrs down from ASI!!!) came in and dropped the incoming mail. It then had some sort of hook trailing out of the ramp door which picked up the wire and, lo and behold, mail from FI was on its way (12 hrs to ASI!!!) to UK.
On one occasion there was not sufficient outgoing mail to “balance” the pouches on either side of the pick-up wire. The solution was to put all the mail into one pouche and balance it by putting an equivalent weight into the other side. This other side, on this occasion, was balanced by a fairly recently dead cow’s head (the minefields were still, then, claiming victims). The ‘snatch’ was successful, but when it arrived at ASI OC Ascension complained to OC Stanley about the cow’s head. OC Stanley replied that he thought that OC Ascension should look to his own staff because “when it left here it was a whole cow”!!!!!!!!!!!!
Subsequently knighted Air Marshals may have been involved. Airbridge Pilots may have included the likes of Akister and Rowlands, etc, etc. Who can say?
Just thought you might like some light relief from the cavortings of the Burma Spitfires which (to my astonishment) made 2nd Item in the Classicfm News at 1000 today!!
HTH
Resmoroh

DCK has got it right – with the possible deletion of ‘oxy’!
Resmoroh

Oily, Hi,
My involvement came from being at the V-Bomber Station, in UK, where were based the a/c that dropped some of the bombs.
At that time the routing of the a/c out to Oz was so TOP SECRET that you could have been executed in the Tower of London for even thinking about it! We discovered which way they were going (and, remember, we had to prepare their flight forecasts!) when the Boss found out from his bank in Stamford that they’d just had a big delivery of a large amount of Canadian dollars!
The ‘perceived truth’ was that ‘the colonials’ in Oz were not up (technically and/or scientifically) to the job. It becomes obvious, after reading a large amount of the Oz papers, that ‘the Brits’ arrived in what they thought was ‘darkest Oz’! There were, clearly, some considerable frictions which the Oz papers do tend to gloss over with a ‘sang froid’ not normally associated with your average ‘okker’!
Clearly, senior politicians in UK were prepared to go to any lengths to make sure “We” had “The Bomb”!
HTH
Resmoroh

Oily,
I can understand your frustration, but I think you have been a bit harsh.
Daniel may have come across this for the first time. Many of my colleagues (some no longer with us!) were on the various tests. I have (with the expert co-operations of various Australian Depts) assembled some of the info that Daniel may be looking for.
It is clear that some aircrews were made to fly through post detonation clouds on sampling missions without adequate protective clothing.
It is clear that some Australian airframes became so heavily contaminated that they had to be buried. It is clear that the ground crews were over-exposed whilst in the process of ‘washing’ post detonation sampling a/c.
It is also clear that – AT THAT TIME – the local indigenous populations in the detonation (or fall-out) areas were not regarded as being important – i.e. they were expendable! In the same way that aircrews without proper protective clothing, or ground-crews doing the a/c washing, were considered expendable (either by ignorance (hopefully), or – worse – deliberately.).
One can make one’s own decisions. I know where my current information takes me!!
HTH
Resmoroh

The chart would seem to indicate it was not a “Station Commander’s Weather” day!! Blue Robin may have it right. Ice may have been the original cause, but the Captain seems to have been fighting his instruments/auto-pilot with disastrous results!
And – to nit-pick – cloud, and fog, should never be described as ‘heavy’. They are thick, or dense! This, in itself is a problem, in that a good-ish Cunim probably has thousands of tons of water in it!!!! Whilst it stays in the air it belongs to the Almighty. Once it hits the deck it’s the local Council’s problem! Us honest meteorologists are mere ‘middle-men’ in this process!
HTH
Resmoroh

On the other hand, “Das Boot” still makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up – regardless of how many times I’ve seen it!!
Nobody’s ever made a similar film/series about Bomber Command (similar losses!) that encapsulates the problems that young men (of either side) had to endure.
HTH
Resmoroh

The film “A Bridge Too Far” was made in 1976. The film company tried, intially, to do the parachute drop scenes ‘on the cheap’. They were going to use Belgian paratroops. These would ‘drop’ from their normal C-130s which would be out of shot, and above some Dakotas. The camera a/c would ‘shoot’ the drops from the side opposite the Dak para door, and by camera trickery and precise positioning would give the impression that the ‘Grunts’ were exitting the Dak. Shambles!
Film company rings MoD and says “Can we borrow 16 Para Bde?”!!
First trials of dropping real paras from real Daks took place at Hankley Common DZ on 24 and 25 Aug 76 using PJIs from 1PTS.
First ‘real’ drops of 16 Para Bde personnel (kitted to make it look like they were WW2 paras) took place at Everleigh DZ 25 to 27 Aug 76.
Actual filming of the drops – and the re-supply missions – for the film took place at Speulde DZ between 31 Aug and 17 Sep 76 (see Wiki for details of a/c involved).
It was good fun! The RNAF at Deelen were exemplary hosts!
HTH
Resmoroh