Lesser known facts...a history

I thought this was kinda interesting:

 

Papon found guilty of war crimes, gets 10 years in prison

http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9804/02/papon.guilty/


Maurice Papon, a former official of the pro-Nazi Vichy regime who later rose to be a French Cabinet minister, was convicted Thursday of complicity in crimes against humanity during World War II and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

After the sentence was handed down, one of Papon's lawyers, Marcel Rouxel said his client will file an appeal.

The 87-year-old defendant had been accused of ordering the arrest for deportation of 1,560 Jews, including 223 children, during 1942-1944 when he was the Vichy collaborationist regime's number two official in the Bordeaux region and supervisor of its Service for Jewish Questions.

----------

By the time his Vichy activities were uncovered in 1981, Papon was a Cabinet minister, the culmination of a long and illustrious career in government. Unlike many collaborators who were tried and executed after Germany's defeat, Papon survived by joining the Resistance when it became clear Germany would fall to the Allies, and then by trumpeting his new Resistance credentials after the war's end.

His government posts brought prestige and protection. In 1987, the first attempt to bring Papon to trial fizzled when a court declared a judicial error had been made. Later, former president François Mitterand, whose own wartime activities are hazy, admitted he'd stepped in to keep the "civil peace."

Several things separate Papon's case from other war-crimes trials, most notably the wealth of documented evidence against him, from photographs to the glowing recommendations of German supervisors, one of whom wrote in 1943 that Papon "works well with the Kommandantur [commander] and is quick and reliable."

http://csmweb2.emcweb.com/durable/1997/10/17/intl/intl.3.html

----------

http://www.sunderland.ac.uk/~os0tmc/occupied/final.htm

The first deportation from France took place as early as 27 March 1942 when a convoy of 1,112 Jews left Drancy vers l'est, i.e. towards concentration camps in Poland and Germany. According to Serge Klarsfeld's research, a further 75 convoys left France between that date and the 31st July 1944. His research has uncovered the following statistics:

in 1940 there were approximately 330, 000 Jews living in France;


during the period of the Occupation 75,721 Jews were deported;


around 23,000 of those deported had French nationality - the so-called bons vieux juifs de France - the vast majority were apatrides or stateless Jews;


around 3,000 Jews died in internment camps on French soil;


another 1,000 Jews were executed or murdered in France during the Occupation;


only 2,500 Jews - 3% of those deported - returned from the concentration camps.


The total number of Jews resident in France during the Occupation who were killed as a result of Nazi policy and French collaboration is estimated at around 75,000- 80,000.


Nearly 25% of the total Jewish community in France then, died in Hitler's `final solution'.


Mitterand was unwilling to openly condemn the Vichy régime. The evasions that generations of French politicians has resorted to since 1945 came to an end in May 1995 when Jacques Chirac made a speech denouncing Vichy as a criminal régime.



---------

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/482199.stm

Papon is the highest-ranking official of the pro-Nazi Vichy government to be convicted of crimes against humanity during World War II.



Papon: Convicted of ordering the deportation of Jews
Vichy's anti-Semitic policies saw 75,000 Jews deported to death camps.

The trial opened old wounds about French collaboration with the Nazis, and his flight raised questions about the nation's determination to confront its role in the Holocaust.

In Paris, lawmakers at the National Assembly, the French parliament, broke into applause at the news that Papon had been arrested.

French President Jacques Chirac said Papon's arrest marked "the return to a respect of the law".


-------

Maurice Papon - a former French police chief imprisoned for his role in sending Jews to Nazi death camps - has been set free on health grounds

Wednesday, 18 September, 2002, 13:28 GMT 14:28 UK

 

What happened to Mussolini after liberation by Skorzeny 1943,

http://motlc.wiesenthal.com/text/x20/xr2014.html

On September 27, the Duce flew to
Gargnano, north of Salo, to establish the headquarters of his new
republic in German-occupied northern Italy.
As Hitler’s puppet, Mussolini came to be called “the prisoner of
Gargnano.” German guards tapped his phone lines and watched his every
move. “They are always there, like the spots of the leopard,” Mussolini
once said. His key appointments had to be approved by the Germans, and
each Italian official was assigned a German adviser.

Mussolini died on a clear spring day in April 1945. Allies had moved
into the northern part of Italy during the same month. Near the town of Dongo his truck convoy
was ambushed by partisans. The Duce was dressed as a German soldier, in
a greatcoat and steel helmet, but his expensive leather boots gave him
away. The partisans took him to a farmhouse. He was then joined by his
mistress, Claretta Petacci.
The next day the communist partisan drove both Claretta Petacci and
Benito Mussolini to a nearby villa. He ordered the both of them out of car and shot them.
The morning after Mussolini and his mistress were slain, the partisans
dumped their bodies in front of a garage in Milan’s Puzzle Laureate. A
crowd gathered around; some people shouted foul language, others just
stood there and laughed. One woman fired a pistol at Mussolini five
times to “avenge her five dead sons.” Eventually, the two mutilated
bodies were strung upside down for everyone to see. For hours the crowd
laughed and spit at Mussolini’s body. On the following day he was buried
in the family tomb in Predappo.

----------

Wednesday, March 11, 1998

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/64683.stm

The Fiat Berlinetta that drove Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and his mistress to their deaths in 1945 has been sold in Switzerland for $107,000 (£65,000) after nearly half a century standing in a garage.

The partisans shot Mussolini's 16-man escort. Mussolini and Petacci were also shot dead and their mutilated bodies hung in Milan's Piazzale Loreto square, along with those of other fascist officials.

The Fiat was pushed into a lake by the resistance, who considered it a symbol of fascism. But the sleek coupe was later recovered from its watery grave and smuggled to Switzerland on a railway car under piles of hay.

----------

More spesific info on the escape attempt

http://members.aol.com/Custermen85/ILDUCE/Mussolini.htm

--------



[ 22. January 2003, 07:42 AM: Message edited by: Kai-Petri ]

 

Interesting pic of De Duce and mistress strung up like sides of Bacon.

 

I think Hitler said after hearing this that it will never happen to him...and the end was coming soon...

It says in a few places that Mussolinin´s last words were:

"Shoot me in the chest!"

 

There is also an extremely graphic picture of the couple in the book that I believe is titles "World War Two in color", although I'll check later today to see if I'm wrong. It's a shot of their "faces" after the beatings. They are basically just a mess of flesh. It's one of the grossest shots I've seen.

 

Mers-el-Kebir and 3rd July 1940

French Fleet and Royal Navy battle each other:

http://www.charles-de-gaulle.org/en/dossiers/18june/analyses/horne.htm

At Mers-el-Kebir, imperial France still held one of the great naval bases in the southern Mediterranean. Inside its secure harbour was anchored the major units of the proud navy which had survived the fall of Metropolitan France at the hands of Hitler's Panzers less than two weeks earlier.

Suddenly that afternoon British shells each weighing as much as a car screamed down on the anchored, immobile fleet of their former ally. It was the first time since Trafalgar that ships of the Royal Navy and the French Navy found themselves locked in bitter warfare.

Within ten minutes 1,200 French officers and men had been killed; the pride of the French fleet either destroyed or put out of action; the battleship Bretagne capsized with a loss of a thousand men.

In Germany, Adolf Hitler was jubilant at this rift between his two former enemies, which had brought them to the brink of declared war. In London, the leader of the Free French, General Charles de Gaulle, came within an inch of breaking off relations with Churchill. To a silent House of Commons, Winston Churchill designated this melancholy action as "a Greek Tragedy."

The key warship in Operation Catapult was the biggest afloat, the battlecruisers HMS Hood, 42,000 tons, and two battleships, Resolution and Valiant, plus some eleven destroyers and the aircraft carrier, Ark Royal--all under the command of one of the Royal Navy's toughest and most flamboyant characters, Vice-Admiral Sir James (nicknamed "Naughty James" because of his racy language) Somerville. But even Somerville was appalled at the action facing his "Force H" - expressing a reluctance which drew Churchill's lasting displeasure.

At 5.15 pm on the 3rd, Somerville issued an ultimatum: if the Force HI proposals were not accepted within 15 minutes "I must sink your ships."
At 5.54 fire was opened by Hood at a close range of 17,500 yards (ten miles), followed by Valiant and Resolution. A total of 144 15" shells, each weighing three-quarters of a ton, were fired. The first salvo fell short; the second hit the breakwater, showering the French decks with lumps of concrete. The third hit the magazine of the old battleship, Bretagne, causing it to capsize with huge loss of life. The same salvo blew off the stern of the destroyer Mogador, and a vast pall of smoke rose above the harbour.
The battleship Provence got 500 hundred yards before she was hit and grounded; Dunkerque was hit and disabled. But in the smoke and confusion the modern battlecruiser Strasbourg with five attendant destroyers escaped the massacre and got away clear to France. Thus, at best "Catapult" had been a half success.
Within ten minutes it was all over, though planes from the Ark Royal were sent into to mop up the following day. Over 1,300 Frenchmen had died -more than the total of Germans the Royal Navy had killed in any action since the war began. Not a single British life was lost.

Somerville was sickened by what he described in a letter to his wife as "an absolutely bloody business ... the biggest political blunder of modern times." He was relegated from high command.



http://users.swing.be/navbat/edito/7.html

 

http://www.cpmac.com/spip/article.php3?id_article=277

On May 2nd 1944 one of the clues in the Daily Telegraph crossword was "One of the U.S." This gave the answer "UTAH". On May 12th an answer was "OMAHAH". On differents days throughout May and the beginning of June The words "OVERLORD", "MULBERRY", and "NEPTUNE" were solutions to the crosswords.
M.I.5. sent two agents to Leatherhead to see Sidney Dawe, a schoolteacher who set the crosswords. When asked how 5 vital code words had cropped up in his crosswords he cold only reply that it was a coincidence. "How can I know which words are to be used as code words" Some seeds of doubt were sown as Dawe's brother in law, whith whom he shared lodgings, was a senior admiralty official.

Mr. Dawe, a regular physics teacher, who lived in a small town in England, would also experience emotional moments just before these memorable events. For more than 20 years, this teacher had invented crossword puzzles to be printed weekly in the Daily Telegraph. However, he could not know that the High Commanding Allied Officers seriously worried because of his crosswords. Since May 2nd, Dawe had been under close investigation by the Scotland Yard counter-espionage unit. "Haut Seigneur Féodal" (Feudal Lord), "Peau Rouge sur le Missouri" (Red Skins of Missouri), "Suscite des révolutions de nursery" (Provokes revolutions in the nursery), "Il partage son royaume avec Britannia", (He shares his kingdom with Britannia) were a few definitions which put the Allies in a cold sweat. The solutions were respectively: "Overlord", coded name for the Allied Invasion Plan, "Omaha" name of one of the beaches in Normandy, "Mulberry", 2 artificial harbors that would be installed off the Landing Beaches, "Neptune", designation for the whole naval landing operation. Mr. Dawe, astonished but totally sincere, replied that this could only be extraordinary coincidences. He was no longer investigated.

http://www.myfrenchstore.com/n/0501/

V Mail”


“V Mail” appeared in England on June 15, 1942 and was put into practice in France only in February, 1945. The objective of this American postal system was to enable the millions of American soldiers in Europe to correspond with their families as quickly as possible. Sorting letters in their normal format resulted in an enormous amount of volume and delays in reception time. Therefore, a more efficient system was introduced. Soldiers were to write their letter on special forms purchased for a few cents at the post office. These letters were then transferred to Villepinte, a Parisian suburb, where they were sorted, photographed and reduced onto a 16mm film. 1,700 letters could fit in a cigarette pack. The reels would then depart for the US by plane, and arrive in the three "V" sorting centers in New York, Chicago and San Francisco. These were then developed, printed on paper only one quarter of its original size, and sent to their final destinations. This system worked in both overseas directions and rapid mail service was assured.

 

When Hitler marched into Paris to celebrate the victory of taking France, Parisian patriots got there first and made sure to disable the Elevators , and ...there are stories he did not climb up and that he did. Ideas on this? Did Hitler climb up to see Paris from the Eiffel tower?

http://www.epinions.com/trvl-review-398-33EED80-396FBE09-prod1





A brass statue of the Eiffel Tower, sporting a Nazi banner at the top. This German souvenir celebrated the Nazi occupation of Paris

Plus lots of other pics and stuff..

http://www.museumofworldwarii.com/TourText/Area03b_Munich.htm

[ 23. January 2003, 03:12 PM: Message edited by: Kai-Petri ]

 

DOC-The book is called "World War Two in Photographs", I own this book and the picture of Mussolini's and Petacci's corpses is sickening.
Mussolini's head is just deformed beyond belief-real chunder material.
(For everyone who doesn't use the term "chunder"-it just means hurl, barf etc etc)

 

Sorry Doc-I looked at the book you meant-" The Second World War In Colour" -NOW THAT IS GROSS!!!!

 

Checking on some more pics for Mussolini

SOME OF THE PICS ARE REALLY HORRIBLE SO DO BE CAREFUL!



Look who´s young!



The usual morning jogging! You know the US Presidents picked it up fom Mussolini...

And the Death:

 

A site with several Military songs from WW1 to WW2


http://www.oronzo.com/world_war_2_mp3.html

 

An interesting piece of knowledge from the Karelian front 1941 as Finnish troops took Wyborg (= Viipuri ).

After the Continuation War started the Finns began an attack toward the east.Wyborg was re-occupied on 28. August, 1941. This is where the Säkkijärvi polka comes into picture.

As the Finns attacked, the Russians withdrew from Wyborg, leaving behind in some buildings controlled mines, which could be detonated by radio. When the Finns discovered this, their radio intelligence determined the frequency used to detonate the mines. It was figured out that if the frequency was disturbed with some noise, the mines would not go off. So it was determined that the Säkkijärvi Polka fit the bill as a sufficiently noisy and loud musical piece ( and it had no silent parts that would allow any signals to get through to the bombs ). When it was played on the frequency, which was close to the frequency that the National Radio used, the Russians could not detonate its mines in Wyborg.

So, the polka was played uninterrupted for weeks on end on the “blow up” frequency, and was heard as wide base noise on National Radio frequencies. The goal was to play it until as the batteries on the mines would be dead. That time was found out from a surrendered Russian sergeant who had been involved in installing them. The Russians were first able to blow up a few of their radio mines in Wyborg and Jääski, but the rest, about twenty of them, never detonated, sue to playing of the Säkkijärvi Polka. Later, the mines were found and disassembled harmless.

Well, anyway, something like that.

I think you can listen to it here for a sample:

http://www.qualiton.com/jac_3.htm

Second from the top

BIS 1327 – SUOMALAINEN KANSANLAULU
Track 1: Säkkijärven polkka
click the arrow to the right of this...and it´s your own responsibility if you listen to it!!!



[ 24. January 2003, 05:19 AM: Message edited by: Kai-Petri ]

 

If I remember rightly wasnt Mussolinis mistress given the choice of freedom or to stay with him?

Must have been love....

 

I put the Skorzeny´s two most missed items that were taken from him in 1945 here:

From the book "Skorzeny-My commando operations"

"In October 1943 the Duce had gold wristwatches presented to all the paratroopers and my sixteen Waffen-SS men who had landed by glider on the Campo Imperatore. The watch faces were all engraved with the famous "M". Every officer received a gold stop watch. To me the Duce sent the wristwatch and the stop watch, together with a pocket watch whose "M" consisted of rubies and which bore the date 12.9.1943."

On the Hitler´s order for the Hungarian operation:

Hitler:"In forming your units there may be difficulties with other Wehrmacht offices:in roder to avoid this you will receive from me a written order with far-reaching authority. We´ve talked about a parachute or airborne operation. but the decision is up to you."

I no longer have the order that Hitler signed for me, but I remember the words more or less exactly:

" SS-sturmbannfuhrer Otto Skorzeny is carrying out a personal, highly-secret order of the utmost importance. I instruct all military and state officers to support Skorzeny in every way and comply with his wishes.Signed Adolf Hitler."

Unfortunately it was taken from me, together with the Duce´s watch, when I was taken prisoner by the Americans.

-------

" I forgot to mention the occasion on which Hitler´s letter of authority proved useful.
At the beginning of October in Vienna:
It was late and I was hungry.We went into the officer´s mess, where I ordered a few sausages. Then I noticed that I had forgotten my food coupons.
"Nothing can be done" observed the oberst "Orders are orders.You would have to be the Fuhrer himself to get something without coupons."
The good official was slowly getting on my nerves. I was hungry.Suddenly I had an inspiration: I produced the document and held it out to the Oberst, who read in astonishment. He was a man with a sensible mind:" You should have shown me this right away my dear fellow!"
He immediately gave a few instructions and they brought us two pair of sausages, which I devoured with concealed satisfaction, but also with the appropriate respect.
I never again had to use this document, for all those I had to deal with had been informed directly by the OKW."

 

Churchill's Plans For WWIII

http://members.tripod.com/~american_almanac/church.htm


Excerpts of the plan were published by the Daily Telegraph on Oct. 1, 1998.

According to the Daily Telegraph report by Ben Fenton, Churchill feared that after V.E. Day on May 8, 1945, the Russians could move westwards and threaten Britain. Churchill's view was that an assault against the Soviet Union would be the only solution, and that it would have to be mounted before the Americans withdrew the best of their forces for combat in the Pacific. Churchill ordered his staff to ``think the unthinkable,'' and draft a plan. The report which resulted, named ``Operation Unthinkable,'' was delivered to Churchill on May 22, by his Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Sir Hastings Ismay. This was five days after German Admiral Doenitz had formally surrendered. The scenario for this ``Third World War,'' which was to have started on July 1, went as follows:

"Operation Unthinkable"
``The overall political or political object is to impose upon Russia the will of the United States and British Empire....
``Even though `the will' of these two countries may be defined as no more than a square deal for Poland, that does not necessarily limit the military commitment.

``A quick success might induce the Russians to submit to our will at least for the time being; but it might not.

``That is for the Russians to decide. If they want total war, they are in a position to have it....

``To achieve the decisive defeat of Russia in a total war would require, in particular, the mobilisation of manpower to counteract their present enormous manpower resources.

``This is a very long-term project and would involve: a) the deployment in Europe of a large proportion of the vast resources of the United States. b) the re-equipment and re-organisation of German manpower and of all the Western European Allies.''


Opting for a limited war, given that total war would be unwinnable, Churchill's team, according to Fenton's account, planned ``an attack by 47 British and American divisions, 14 of which would be armored, on a two-pronged offensive, one part along the Baltic coast of Germany towards Stettin [Szczecin], the second further south towards Poznan, both cities being well inside Poland.'' Ten Polish divisions were supposed to join in, as well as 10 German divisions, rearmed ``under a reformed German High Command.''
According to an appendix to the report, entitled ``German reactions to conflict between Western Allies and Russia,'' the team considered the possibility of having up to 100,000 Germans engaged:

``War-weariness will be the predominant feature of the attitude of the German civil population. However, ingrained fear of the Bolshevik menace and of reprisals by the Russians should make the German civil population prefer Anglo-American to Russian occupation and therefore incline it to side with the Western Allies.''

The plan which emerged, according to Fenton's summary, was that, ``as infantry attacked westwards, the Royal Navy would sail along the Baltic coast, supporting the attack's left flank and harrying the Russian right almost unopposed. The RAF and USF would operate from bases in Denmark and northern Germany, outnumbered by the Russians, but with superior machinery,'' Fenton wrote.
Operation Unthinkable assessed the situation as follows: ``Superior handling and air superiority might enable us to win the battle, but there is no inherent strength in our strategic position and we should, in fact, be staking everything upon the tactical outcome of one great engagement.'' Churchill's team considered that Russian retaliation could include attempts to take over Norway, Turkey, Greece, and the oil fields in Persia and Iraq. Thus, they argued: ``If we are to embark on war with Russia, we must be prepared to be committed to a total war, which would be both long and costly.'' They added: ``Our numerical inferiority on land renders it extremely doubtful whether we could achieve a limited and quick success, even if the political appreciation considered that this would suffice to gain our political object.''

"A Protracted War Against Heavy Odds"
The report on Operation Unthinkable, was then handed over to the Chiefs of Staff committee, which included Gen. Sir Alan Brooke, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, Admiral of the Fleet Sir David Cunningham, the First Sea Lord, and the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Charles Portal. On June 8, the senior officers replied that, considering the numerical superiority of Russian divisions (264 to 103), a different approach should be taken.

``It is clear from the relative strength of the respective land forces that we are not in a position to take the offensive with a view to achieving a rapid success.
``Since, however, Russian and allied land forces are in contact from the Baltic to the Mediterranean, we are bound to become involved in land operations. In support of our land forces we should have technically superior, but numerically inferior, tactical air forces.

``As regards Strategic Air Forces, our superiority in numbers and technique would be to some extent discounted by the absence of strategical targets compared to those which existed in Germany, and the necessity for using these strategic air forces to supplement our tactical air forces in support of land operations.

``Our views, therefore, that once hostilities began, it would be beyond our power to win a quick but limited success and we should be committed to a protracted war against heavy odds.

``These odds, moreover, would become fanciful if the Americans grew weary and indifferent and began to be drawn away by the magnet of the Pacific War.''


Churchill, having received the response of his military officers, wrote to Ismay on June 8, saying, considering American redeployments and possible Russian advances westwards, ``Pray have a study made of how then we could defend our island, assuming France and the Low Countries were powerless to resist the Russian advance to the sea.'' Churchill ended his letter, ``By retaining the codeword `Unthinkable,' the Staffs will realise this remains a precautionary study of what, I hope, is still a purely hypothetical contingency.'' The study Churchill commissioned was presented on July 22.

-----------

On 8 May, V-E Day itself, Churchill asked the Joint Planning Staff to undertake a ‘purely hypothetical’ contingency planning exercise codenamed ‘Operation Unthinkable’. The 29 page document was completed and delivered to Churchill on 22 May. Churchill was readily persuaded by his chiefs of staff that an attack on Soviet forces was out of the question. In the event of a Soviet offensive, the only hope was a fighting retreat to the Channel ports. See Daily Telegraph 1 October 1998.

http://www.antonybeevor.com/Berlin/berlinerrata2.htm

 

Without doubt, the most interesting piece of equipment in the defence of Tallinn was one of the world's first radar ships, night fighter guide ship (Nachtjagdleitschiff = NJL) Togo, which arrived at Tallinn on March 8, 1944. She was used to guide a pair of night fighters operating above the Gulf of Finland between Tallinn and Helsinki.

Togo was the second and last of the German radar ships in World War II. The first one was NJL Kreta (ex-French Ile de Beauté) which was taken over by the Kriegsmarine in January 1943, rebuilt and taken in use as a night fighter guide ship (Nachtjagdleitschiff = NJL) on August 9, 1943. NJL Kreta was equipped with two radars, one FuMG A1 Freya and one FuMG 39T Würzburg. She was lost on September 21, 1943 near Capeira, after hit by a torpedo from the British submarine Unseen.

Togo was a very unique case in German armed forces as it operated a mixed crew of both Kriegsmarine (Navy) and Luftwaffe (Air Force), as the radars were operated to Luftwaffe. In fact, there were as if two separate crews, the naval crew taking care of the ship and the guns, and the air force crew taking care of the radars and night fighter guidance.
The Luftwaffe crew of the ship was organized as a schwere Flugmelde-Leit Zug (See). One of the Luftwaffe signal units which operated it (since September 1944) was the 22. mittlere Flugmelde-Leit Kompanie of Luftnachrichten-Regiment 222 which had been formerly stationed at Fitting in Denmark, at Stellung "Fledermaus".

After its arrival on March 8, 1944, NJL Togo was to sail to her position in the Gulf of Finland, NW from Prangli (approx. 59°45' N 24°45' E) every evening from where it guided two night fighters which were based at the Tallinn-Ülemiste (Germ. Reval-Ülemiste) airfield (Valtonen 1997, pp. 288–289).

The types involved were probably earlier Junkers Ju 88C's and not the later specialized, radar-equipped night fighters (Ju 88G which entered series production only in April 1944, i.e. could not be used a month before). The Ju 88C was a heavy fighter (Zerstörer). The unit that they belonged to was 4./I./NJG 100 (code W7+(white)M) which is reported to have been based at Ülemiste a week before the March Raid, on Feb 29, 1944 (Anttonen 1978). Typically, a pair of night fighters was in the air for two hours, after which it was replaced by another pair, and so on through the night (Valtonen 1997, pp. 288–289).

One of the explanations why the approach of the bombers remained unnoticed on the evening of the big raid on Tallinn may be that NJL Togo was not on her station when the bombers arrived at Tallinn. This theory could explain why the bombers were not noticed as the radars were simply not yet turned on. On the other hand, the timing of the March Raid was rather similar to the three to Helsinki less than a month before, in February 1944.

One of the reasons why NJL Togo was sent to these waters had been the first raid to Helsinki on February 6/7, 1944. So an early starting time for the raid should have not been the reason of the unpreparedness. (Another reason was, as stated above, the relative safety of the Baltic beyond the reach of the RAF.

In the beginning of the raid, NJL Togo was not yet on her position at sea, but rather close to the Tallinn port (the one which is now called the Old Port). Most of Tallinn was within the range of her flak guns (which was 17.5 km for the 105-mm guns, 4.8 km for the 20-mm guns and 6.5 km for the 37-mm guns (Delve 1992, p. 32)). During the first raid of the night, NJL Togo moved to her position at sea (ca. 30 km from Tallinn). During the second raid of the same night, NJL Togo was already on her assigned position, and the bombers which approached over the sea, were in the range of her guns, but the ship did not open fire, in order to remain undetected.

It seems very likely that NJL Togo was not in the harbour at the beginning of the (first) raid but at some distance away (maybe in the Gulf of Tallinn just a couple of kilometres away) – first, this would have enabled better sighting and firing environment (fewer obstructions); and secondly, people who have remembered the flak guns remaining silent in the beginning of the raid would have probably still remembered some flak continuing – from the ship.

http://www.hut.fi/~andres/m44/m44togox.htm

 

Kai :

Stevin O. and I have had numerous mails about this ship. Started with the web-site you have given back in July of 2002, and the contact with Andres Valdre, from here Stevin ordered two books Nachtjagdleitschiff Togo written by the II. W.O Kurt Petsch for both himself and I. Stevin has been in contact on a basis with Kurt's son and another kamerade of the ship too.

another site added to your excellent article is the ship after the war:

www.iespanna.es/navymar/TopekaSuiza.htm

the Togo was also responsible along with the mobil trains of NJG 100 to intercept RAF as well as Soviet troop/agent a/c and bombers making low raids on German occupied sites and sites. Since Russian a/c did not use typical airborne radar, the Togo was a God-send in some respects making the otherwise almost blind Junkers and Bf 110G's effective in countering the low level strikes.

The Togo was also involved in the last battles sitting in the Danzig Bay/Baltic. From it's favourable advantage point it was able to relay the prescence of forward, attacking soviet bombers and ground attack a/c to German units. The Togo was located east of Pillau in the Frisches Hapf just next to Camstigall in map quadrant RC.

In it's last days as with many other Schiffe, it was a transport of wounded and surviving soldiers and civilians. 2000 wounded and 14 fighter pilots of JG 51 part of I. and II./NJG 100 and 1. and 2/ Abteilung flugmelderegiment 61 as examples.

some of this information from Kurt Petsch's book all in the old schrift. 1988 ISBN # 3-927292-00-1 Prussian Militär Verlag, Reutlingen

E

 

Wow! Thanx for the info, Erich!