" At the end of April 1944, a bomber attack to Friedrichshafen revealed the German tank industry´s vulnerability. Factories in Friedrichshafen produced 40 to 50% of the drive gear assemblies for the Pz III,IV and V tanks; 40% of motors for Pz V´s and VI´s. The works, badly damaged by the attack took at least two to three months to disperse to other factories. Thus, there was a production shortfall of at least 30% for May and June 1944.

Luftwaffe 1933-45 By Williamson Murray

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Bombing of the Renault Motor Works, Paris

YouTube - Bombing of the Renault Motor Works, Paris, March 3/4 1942


Operation "Oyster"

YouTube - Operation "Oyster", attack on Philips Radio Works, Holland

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March 10, 1940

Sumner Welles makes a "peace proposal".

On this day, U.S. Undersecretary of State Sumner Welles, after a meeting with Adolf Hitler in Berlin, visits London to discuss a peacemaking proposal with Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain to prevent a widening of the European war.

Welles left Berlin and arrived in London on March 10. He briefed British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain on Hitler's intransigence, arguing that the only hope for a lasting peace was the progressive disarmament of the belligerents, primarily Germany. Chamberlain's foreign ministers were less than impressed with the suggestion, believing that even a "disarmed" Germany could still invade a smaller, weaker nation. In short, Welles' trip accomplished nothing.


This Day in History 1940: Sumner Welles makes a "peace proposal"

Welles Report, 1940: Sumner Welles was Assistant and under secretary ofstate, and ambassador to Cuba-(2 parts). - Part I Index

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Chamberlain was correct. This was similar to the pact/treaty that limited the size of the signing countries navy to be equivelent which was to Germany's favor because it allowed her navy to grow while limited the larger Royal Navy to stay the same. Here, Hitler would be asking for all parties to disarm bring them down to Hitler's armament level. It was a fruitless mission

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American by birth, TEXAN by the grace of GOD!

In late 1944 a team of American scientist, known as the "Alsos" team, was sent to western Europe to search for evidence of a German atomic bomb project. When Allied troops reached the Rhine River, the team filled several bottles with river water and sent them to Washington to be analyzed for radioactivity with the thought that there might be a German nuclear facility somewhere up stream. As a joke, they included a bottle of French wine with a note attached saying that it tasted funny and should be analyses too. Ironically, the water tested negative, but the wine had a small trace of radioactivity.

Source: Heisenberg's War

World War Trivia and Cartoons - Riebel-Roque Publishing Company

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http://www.transchool.eustis.army.mi...RESSROUTES.htm

THE OTHER EXPRESS ROUTES

White Ball Express

The first of the express lines established after Red Ball was the White Ball Express, launched 6 October 1944. The White Ball's function was to transport material from the ports of Le Havre and Rouen to depots and rail transfer points around Paris.

During the three months of its existence, trucks carried some 140,486 tons of supplies, with an average daily haul of 1,614 tons. The average length of a White Ball trip was 113 miles.

Green Diamond Express

Established 14 October 1944 to move supplies from the Normandy depots to rail loading points at Avranches and Dol-de-Bretagne. The Green Diamond lasted only three weeks, until 1 November.

Red Lion Express

Established to haul British gasoline and American supplies from Bayeux in Normandy to the 21st Army Group railhead in Brussels, Belgium. These supplies were in support of the airborne operations in Holland during Operation Market Garden. Red Lion operated for 27 days from 16 September to 12 October 1944.

XYZ Express

The last and largest of the long-haul truck lines in the ETO was the XYZ Express.

The XYZ began operations on 25 Mar 1945, seven months from the date the Red Ball was inaugurated. The four XYZ routes extended eastward into Germany from four points: Liege, Belgium; Duren, Germany; Luxembourg; and Nancy, France.

These drivers supported four American armies - the 9th, 1st, 3rd and 7th Armies, as they advanced into the Reich.

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On 31 May 1939, Ribbentrop, on behalf of Germany, signed a non-aggression pact with Denmark which provided that:

"The German Reich and the Kingdom of Denmark will under no circumstances go to war or employ force of any other kind against one another."

Joachim von Ribbentrop

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Propaganda leaflets on V1-´s

V1 Rocket Propaganda Leaflets

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The German Army Group Upper Rhine (German: Heeresgruppe Oberrhein) was a short-lived command of the German Armed Forces (Wehrmacht) during late 1944 and early 1945 on the Western Front in World War II. Army Group Upper Rhine was formed on 26 November 1944 and was inactivated on 25 January 1945. Its one commander was Heinrich Himmler.

Army Group Oberrhein (Germany - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

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That's understandable, Himmler was busy elsewhere, he took over Army Group Vistula in 28th Jan '45. To what results it's another matter, but...

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Everly Brothers - What I Have To Do Is Dream
"Never wrestle with pigs, you both end up getting dirty and the pig likes it."

Jochen Peiper saw first combat with the Leibstandarte in 1940, during the campaign for France. He took part in the assault on the Wattenberg heights on 25th May. This attack was noteworthy because it went against Hitler's famous 'halt' order for Dunkirk. British artillery was positioned on the hills, something which caused the LAH quite some irritation. Despite this order, Dietrich threw his unit at them and the positions were conquered. Peiper was awarded the Iron Cross 1st class for his actions that day.

Jochen Peiper: hero of the Waffen-SS

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" By the time of the Munich Crisis in 1938 a plan for emergency broadcasting had been evolved, and by the beginning of September 1939 equipment for implementing the plan was ready. Low-powered transmitters were dotted all over the country and a number of "portable" transmitters were mounted on lorries. During an air raid alert instructions would go out to the fixed transmitters - the pre-war ones that the Luftwaffe had pinpointed on their maps of Britain- either to switch off altogether or to reduce power, and broadcasting would then continue on various combinations of the new and old transmitters. Reception on the ground would hardly be affected, but aircraft "homing" would be impossible. Throughout the war this system operated effectively, and the BBC never helped the Luftwaffe home on their targets.

From The Last Ditch by David Lampe

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"The Commander-in-Chief of Fighter Command at that time was Air Chief Marshal Sir William Sholto Douglas KCB MC DFC, later to become Marshal of the RAF, Lord Douglas of Kirtleside.

The mention of Sholto Douglas reminds me that when he was appointed C-in-C, he made the extraordinary statement that in his opinion a fighter pilot over the age of 25 was senile.

That, of course, was a rather stupid statement, which I am sure he must have regretted making, especially when one remembers that Harry Broadhurst, Victor Beamish, Sailor Malan, Ronald Kellett, Douglas Bader, and so on, were all over 30 years old. Johnnie Johnson, who was to become the RAF´s top scoring fighter pilot in Europe, was himself 26 in 1941."

From Spitfire Offensive by Wing Commander RWF Sampson with Norman Franks

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I remember reading about this recently on another thread. I'd be interested to know which regiment Peiper was in. I have several sources which recount one particular day during which one regiment of the LASSH (later joined by units of a another regiment of the same division) were fighting the French reargaurd on the outskirts of Dunkirk. This took place on the eastern city limits at the Teteghem Bridge over a canal which the French (2n Batt., 137 R.I.) were ordered to hold until explosives could be found to destroy it. Twice during that day (I'll try to find the exact date), the soldiers of the LASSH attacked and were driven off with heavy casualties, with one of the defending French 75mm cannons wreaking havoc on the German vehicles on the opposite bank. Later that same day, after the 2nd German attack, the French were ordered to fix bayonets and counter attack the Germans to clear the opposite bank, which they did with severe losses on both sides.

The bridge was held (then later only partially destroyed), but not until AFTER the units of the LASSH were withdrawn and ordered elsewhere. This particular engagment has always fascinated me, as the LASSH had always thought of themselves so superior to everyone else, but at Teteghem bridge they recieved a severe lashing at the hands of the French 137 R.I. after 2 FAILED engagements. I have always wondered if Peiper had participated in that battle.

Three Battles of No 103 Squadron were, on 27th September 1939 carrying out reconnaissance of the Franco-German frontier, when three Bf109´s attacked. The first aircraft hit was K9271 flown by Flying Officer Vipa, with observer, Sergeant Vickers, who was severely injured. The pilot force landed near Rohrbach, and sergeant John Vickers was taken to hospital.He became the first British airman to be awarded a French decoration, being awarded the Medaille Militaire before he died on 7th October.

" Blitzed!" by Victor Bingham

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Reviews in History:

There was no agreement, and Lentin's final chapter ('"A Conference Now": Lloyd George, Chamberlain and Churchill, 1939-40') reviews the reactions of Lloyd George to the outbreak of war, the fall of Poland and the political situation within Britain during the 'phoney war.' It was his behaviour in this period that drove Sylvester to believe that Lloyd George was a defeatist and made him despair for his master's career and reputation. From outside the government (into which many had expected the energetic 76-year-old to be called) Lloyd George sniffed at the possibilities of a negotiated peace in the wake of Poland's collapse. He had already published an article in the Sunday Express on 24 September 1939 criticising the Polish regime and, of course, he had asked in Paris in 1919, if Britain was prepared to 'die for Danzig'? In the House of Commons after the Polish surrender of 3 October he had hinted, in a speech which conveyed an impression far beyond the words he used, at the possibility of a conference with Germany. (pp113-4) Now he toyed with the idea of a dramatic gesture calling for a peace conference but, in the end, he played to all sides in his constituency speech on 21 October. As Lentin reminds us, the myth of an absolutely determined and resolute Britain in 1939-1940 was, at least in part, just that, a myth, and there were many who believed that reason and reality called for a less heroic stance.

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While not a indepth investigation I've kept my eyes open for mention of the SS in the 1939 & 1940 campaigns. I'm starting to get the impression they were not all that skilled or led tactically. Probablly brave, fanatical, and diciplined, but not much better than anyone else at infantry tactics or skill with their weapons. There is a old story from the Polish campaign that a SS regiment was caught along the road at night without adquate guards or sentrys. A band of by passed Polish soldiers fell on the halted column after midnight and massacred the SS unit. Maybe this is a legend or myth, but it is similar to other stories in circulation, a corps commander that had a SS unit attached for the 1940 campaign summed up the unit as 'its only real skil being parade'... 'showed a decided lack of combat or tacitcal ability'...found in its first engagement that fighting Allied soldiers having nothing in common with pushing Jews off the sidewalk'...'usually failed to take thier objectives and alsways suffered excess casualties'.

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I forgot my password, can I use yours?

Destroyed French vehicles in Champlitte June 21 1940

And German graves at Chavignon August 3 1940

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On the Allied command structure 1940