I just wanted to say to all the D-Day Vets--I remember. Thank you for all of your sacrifices and for our freedom. I am we all, are greatly indebted for you all. This is for the Americans, British, Canadian, French, Polish, Norweigan, Irish, and all the other soldiers of the nations represented in the invasion forces, God bless you all. Seperate area for the Germans. We respected a game enemy. The average German soldier fought with much bravery and tenacity, as did the allied soldiers. I also thank the lord that none of my German vet friends were in this great fight. Karl, Gunter, Dieter, Franz-Josef, Josef, Walter, Goerg, Willi, Micki, Otto, Kurt, Wolfgang, and Remy.
Amen ! And thanks to my uncle Mel, who landed on the beaches and traveled into central Germany and got me interested in all of this........take care. E.
Dear Erich, if he still lives, please give him my best regards. Take care and see you here tomorrow..
Carl : Wish I could bud, but he died of lung cancer about 15 years ago. In sheer agaony from what I remember. 6 feet 5, a large man and the cancer crumbled him into nothing. What a stinkin waste ! I'll never forget him bringing home and stashing away a German RAD flag and finule for me, and that is what got me started on Third Reich stuff......back in the 60's. Take care, and tommorrow then....... E.
Dear Erich: Sorry about your loss. That was very neat for him to save you those things. I got my interest in ww2 from both my parents. My father because he was in the 8th Air Corps, and he used to talk about his experiances over Germany. The ones I remember the most were when he was over places like Schweinfurt, Wilhelmshaven, Bremen, and Friedrichshafen. I don't remember details and he never wrote them down. It really ticks me off that the Govt wastes all kinds of funding on crap like: Giving 2 scientists, 80 million dollars, to measure the speed flow, of catsup. This money should have gone into finding a cure for cancer or aids, or whatever Too many good people have died and are dying of cancer my father and brother were killed by it Take care and "see" you here tomorrow--Carl.
You are so right, and the vets--WW2 age are not getting the recognition that they deserve. A little scary as I think this present age is getting soft and are going to fall into the smae trap in the very near future. Carl, would love to hear anything at all you could remember about your fathers stories, i.e. bomb group, squadron and any mission recollections that you could remember. I know it's tough, when you are so busy with other things. since the WW2 air-war is my bag, I'd love to hear anything. deine freund E.
Dear Erich: I remember that when he was over Schweinfurt, that his group targeted the Ball-Bearing factory. I have no clue which unit he was in, but do remember that he was credited with shooting down two German fighters during missions over Schweinfurt. On these missions, my dad was a waist gunner, but thats all I know. On the Wilhelmshaven mission, they bombed buildings near the harbor-I guess they were factories or storage buildings. Incidentally, while Susanne and I visited there, I spotted 3-4 buildings and one farm, that you could still see damage from the bombings. I took a photo or two of a very large building that had a huge hold in the roof from a bomb. You could still see broken Oak beams, tiles broken windows etc, but no wreckage outside the building. I also took (or tried) a photo through the lense of a periscope from U 10, and from the Minesweeper. I do not know how they turned out yet because I havent had them developed yet. The camera I used has small negatives, so im not expecting any great shots--but we will see, whenever I can spare the money to get these rolls developed. I also have a shot or two through the lenses of the periscopes on U 2540 in Brememhaven, and U 10, in Wilhelmshaven. I know nothing about his missions over Bremen, except that he was there. Friedrichshafen, they targeted buildings near the water and I believe the old Zeppelin Airfield. When I was there, I saw no damage remaining from the war, but then again, I didnt go everywhere in Friedrichshafen--maybe next time. These missions my dad was on was well after his participation in delivering landlease aircraft to Russia. I think all of these missions over Germany were in late 44 or early 45. It bites that he never wrote these things down-or to my knowledge.
