DID YOU KNOW

WING COMMANDER GUY GIBSON, VC. (1918-1944)

Hero of the Ruhr Dams raid and Victoria Cross winner. Taken off operational duties he toured the United States with Winston Churchill on a promotional visit. He finally persuaded his superiors to let him fly just one more mission and on September 19, 1944 he flew Mosquito KB-267 on a raid on the communications centre at Rheydt.
Returning home, his plane was shot down by friendly fire from a Lancaster, whose rear-gunner mistook the Mosquito for a German fighter a Junkers JU 88 and shot it down, it crashed in Holland. The bodies of Gibson and his navigator, Squadron Leader J. B. Warwick, were buried together in the Roman Catholic Cemetery at Steenbergen by the townspeople.

RIP

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TRAINING ACCIDENT

Nine miles south-west of the Australian town of Wagga Wagga in New South Wales was the location of the Royal Australian Engineer Training Centre known as Camp Kapooka. On May 21, 1945, a group of soldiers were receiving instructions on demolition work. The lecture took place in a below-ground bunker which contained a large amount of explosives which had just been delivered in time for the days training. During the lecture the Sergeant instructor, clutching a handful of detonators, walked towards the heap of explosives to demonstrate something when a massive explosion blew the bunker apart. Twenty-four soldiers died instantly and two died later in hospital from their injuries. Only one man survived the blast with severe injuries. The exact cause of this largely unknown tragedy has never been established. The funeral of those killed was the largest military funeral ever held on Australian soil. An estimated 7,000 people lined the route of the procession which included 100 trucks transporting army and air force personnel and 20 cars carrying the bereaved. The procession took forty-five minutes to pass.

GUN ACCIDENTS

Copenhagen, in German occupied Denmark, was a favourite spot for German officers on R & R. In an effort to 'get their own back' members of a Danish resistance group opened up an Arts and Craft shop specializing in scroll work. They offered to personalize the officers side weapons by fitting ivory handles to their Lugers and cover the gun with artful designs and scroll work. Some were customized as gifts for fellow officers serving on other fronts. Trade was brisk, but what was not explained was that the barrels were being modified by reducing the diameter inside and weakening the breach of the gun, which, when fired for the first time would blow up in the officers face. Of course these guns were never fired while the officer was on leave and any 'accidents' at the front were put down to 'casualties of war'. According to Harry Jensen, the only survivor of the resistance group, hundreds of these Lugers were modified this way before they closed shop and fled.

Does Kapooka still exist? It was the Infantry(?)Recruit Training Centre for Nasho's. Never went there but knew or heard about the so-said extremely harsh and brutal training regime

Further to that, a similar event occurred in '67 when a SNCO was setting up a Claymore mine for the class. No drill mines were available but you could use a live IF the command wires were twisted together - which they apparently were. It went off....... in front of the class and got the instructor

Anyone remember that incident at Kapooka - or was it Canungra during JW training. We had one here with an SASC Capt was demonstrating a bullet-trap Mecar AP grenade off the rifle. Just blew up and killed him

Never practice anything that you can only do wrong once!

Sorry Guys for the amount on this thread entry, but some of these need documenting and reading to fully understand what occurred just in WW2.
Tales of similar in wars since including Iraq and Afghanistan, I'll leave to some one else to tell, but sadly they occur and part of war in "Man's inhumanity to man".

S.O.E. (Special Operations Executive)

The S.O.E. was formed in July, 1940, on Churchill's orders to "Set Europe Ablaze." With headquarters at 64, Baker Street, London, its first recruits were originally from the armed forces but later both men and women were recruited from the civilian sector. Speaking a foreign language, especially French, was essential before being passed on to Military Intelligence for a security check. Training courses included Parachute and First Aid training at Ringwood airfield near Manchester followed by four weeks Radio and Cipher training. Physical Fitness, small arms and map reading, were conducted in the Western Highlands of Scotland where all forms of Commando and clandestine warfare were also taught. Among many of its famous secret agents were Violet Szabo and Odette Sansom. Of the 418 SOE agents sent to Europe, 118 failed to return. Only one plane, a Lysander of 161 squadron and its pilot, F/O James Bathgate of New Zealand, were lost in the French operation. In the town of Valencay, 50 kms south of Blois in central France, a memorial bearing the names of 91 men and 13 women agents of S.O.Es 'F' Section under Major Maurice Buckmaster, who from 1932 to 1936 had been General Manager of the French Ford Motor Company, are commemorated. It was inaugurated on May 6, 1991, in the presence of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. In 1946 the SOE was dissolved, its wartime role completed.

(Because of the rivalries and jealousies between SOE, SIS and other Military Intelligence units, the operations of SOE were doomed from the start. Its record was one of the poorest of the whole war, its achievements being outweighed by its many disasters ie. the collapse of the vast Prosper and Scientist networks in France. The lives it wasted, especially in Holland, the money and time it cost makes it one of the most tragic Secret Service organisation ever mounted.) Nevertheless, General Eisenhower, said the French section of SOE had contributed significantly to shortening the war by several months.

FRIENDLY FIRE (Disaster off Norway)

Only a week after the war broke out, the British submarine Oxley was patrolling off the coast of Norway along with her sister ship HMS Triton. Somehow the Oxley had sailed into the sector patrolled by Triton. The Commander of the Triton, Lt. Cdmr. Steel, sighted an unidentified submarine on the surface and when challenged received no reply. Assuming the other submarine to be hostile, he ordered two torpedoes to be fired. The unidentified submarine disappeared, leaving three survivors swimming towards the Triton but one of the swimmers was seen to sink below the water and disappear. One can only imagine the shock the Triton's crew experienced when they pulled the Oxley's Commander, Lt. Cdmr. Bowerman and one other survivor, Able Seaman Gluckes, out of the water. They happened to be standing on the bridge when the torpedo hit. Fifty-three of Oxley's crew perished. Apparently the Oxley's signal answering apparatus had malfunctioned and failed to answer in time. Families were notified that the Oxley was accidentally rammed by the Triton and it was not until the 1950s that they were informed that the loss was due to friendly fire. Its a sad fact that the first British submarine torpedo to explode on target, sank a sister ship. The Oxley was the first submarine to be lost in the war.

FRIENDLY FIRE (Greenock, Scotland)

On April 28, 1940, the 2,400 ton French destroyer Maillé Brézé, became a victim of its own weaponry when one of its own torpedoes accidentally fired and slithered along the main deck exploding under the bridge structure and completely wrecking the forepart of the ship. The British destroyer HMS Firedrake, rushed to the scene and rescued fifteen men who had slid down the hawse pipe. Other mangled bodies were recovered but those on the mess deck were doomed as the ship slowly sank taking with her 38 of her crew still trapped below.

FRIENDLY FIRE (Pearl Harbor)

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, US army personnel started digging trenches along the beaches in anticipation of a seaborne invasion. Every fifty feet or so along the beach, a gun crew with 30 calibre machine guns took up their positions. At around 8pm on December 7th, seven planes were seen trying to land on an airstrip on Ford Island. Misjudging the length of the runway the pilots decided to go around again for a second try. As the planes came around again the gunners, thinking they were Japanese, opened fire and shot down all seven. The planes were their own aircraft from the carrier USS Enterprise out at sea.

FRIENDLY FIRE (Italy)

The first major 'Friendly Fire' incident in the European Theatre was on March 15, 1944, when 435 Allied bombers attacked the area around the town of Cassino in Italy. Bombs fell short on Allied troops and Italian civilians, killing 28 and wounding 114. At the same time, some ten miles away, in the town of Venafro, 28 Allied soldiers and civilians were killed and 179 wounded by misplaced bombs.

FRIENDLY FIRE (D Day-June 6, 1944)

At sunset on D-Day, forty DC3s from 233 Squadron RAF, crossed the English Channel carrying 116 tons of ammunition, spares and petrol for the 6th Airborne Division. As the planes passed over the warships off the mouth of the Oren river, trigger happy gunners on the ships opened fire. Two planes were forced to turn back with severe damage, one ditched in the sea and five went missing believed shot down. Fourteen others were damaged. The end result was that only twenty-five tons of supplies were recovered. In future, all operations of this nature were carried out only during daylight hours.

FRIENDLY FIRE (Sicily)

On July 11, 1943, on the American held airfield at Farrell, three miles east of Gela in Sicily, preparations were under way for the reception of reinforcements from Colonel Reuben H. Tucker's 504th Parachute Regiment. As the C-47 transports approached the bridgehead and headed for the drop zone, an American machine-gun down below fired a stream of tracers upward at the C-47s. A second machine-gun opened up followed by another and still another. Directly into this storm of 'friendly fire' flew the C-47s. As plane after plane was hit, the paratroopers jumped only to be shot in mid-air or just before they landed. The trigger-happy machine-gunners, thinking they were German paratroops, kept up their deadly fire while General George Patton and General Matthew Ridgeway, the 82nd Airborne commander, awaiting to greet the paratroopers, could only look on with shocked disbelief as the tragedy unfolded before their eyes. Altogether, twenty three of the original 144 troop carrying planes were shot down and thirty-seven others badly damaged. Ninety-seven men were killed and around 400 were wounded in this, the greatest tragedy to befall the US invasion forces. A total of 2,440 US soldiers died in the battle for Sicily and are now buried in the American Cemetery on the Gulf of Salerno. The battle for Sicily (Operation Husky) involved a total of 467,000 men. The Allied forces lost 5,532 men killed and 2,869 missing. German dead amounted to 4,325 and the Italian dead, 4,278.

FRIENDLY FIRE (Aleutian Islands)

On August 15-16, 1943, a force of 35,000 American troops invaded the island of Kiska in the Aleutians. Most of these troops had not seen combat before but expected fanatical enemy resistance. Heavy fog had descended on the island and by nightfall 28 soldiers were dead and around 50 wounded, shot by their own comrades who were shooting at anything that moved in the fog. (Only four Canadians were killed and four wounded) The irony was that not a single Japanese soldier was on the island, all having been evacuated before the invasion began. Four of the American dead were killed by stepping on land mines left behind by the Japanese.

FRIENDLY FIRE (Solomon Islands)

When out on a pre-dawn patrol on April 29, 1944, off the island of New Britain in the Solomon Islands, the Patrol Boat P-347 commanded by Lt. Robert J. Williams of Little Rock, Arkansas, runs up onto a reef in Lassul Bay. Patrol Boat P-350 attempts to tow the P-347 off the reef but while doing so both boats were strafed by US Corsairs whose pilots mistook them for enemy gun boats. Soon, another Patrol Boat, P-346 appeared on the scene to assist in the tow but more planes made their appearance and began their strafing run in spite of the crew of the P-346 waving the Stars and Stripes. The Patrol Boats opened fire and shot down two of the planes. One bomb made a direct hit on the P-347 just after the crew had abandoned ship. The planes continued strafing the men in the water before heading back to base. On the boats involved in this tragic incident, fourteen men were killed, another fourteen wounded and two pilots lost.

FRIENDLY FIRE (Anzio)

On May 26, 1944, the beachhead at Anzio/Nettuno ceased to exist. It had now become a bridgehead. British and American troops had broken out and were pushing forward to cut the retreat of Kesselring's forces on Route 6, the main highway leading to Rome. A few minutes after noon on the 26th on the outskirts of Cori, a squadron of five American P-40 fighter-bombers of the 99th Fighter Group, US 12th Air Force, flew over the Anzio/Nettuno area, turned back and prepared for a strafing run. Soldiers of the US 15th Infantry froze in terror as bombs started falling in their midst. Within seconds, 120 men were either dead or wounded. The 2nd Battalion of the 15th Infantry, US 3rd Division, suffered seventy-two casualties. A number of bombs hit their jeeps which were loaded with ammunition and the exploding 37mm anti-tank shells caused additional casualties; some of the bodies were never found. This held up the advance to Giuglianello for five to six hours. A week later, headlines in the 'Stars and Stripes' proclaimed "American troops at Anzio bombed by Germans flying American planes". This incident has been covered up for over fifty years, the 12th Air Force never having admitted its error. One of the many witnesses to this tragedy was ex-Corporal Robert Steele, of Cannon Company, 15th Infantry Regiment, who now lives in Columbus, Georgia.

FRIENDLY FIRE (Italy)

On April 29, 1944, a group of American P-47 Thunderbolt fighters mistakenly strafed the airstrip at Cutella on Italy's Adriatic coast, the pilots thinking that it was a Luftwaffe airfield. The airstrip was a base for the Royal Australian Air Force 239 Wing which included 3 and 450 Squadrons. One 3 Squadron Kittyhawk fighter was destroyed and three more damaged. Human casualties were one pilot of an Air Sea Rescue Walrus float plane killed and a few other ground personnel wounded. Tragedy was to strike again next day when a pilot of one of the attacking Thunderbolts, realizing a mistake had been made, flew to the airstrip to apologize. Unfortunately he was killed when his plane crashed when taking off to return home.

FRIENDLY FIRE (Normandy)

On July 24, 1944, 300 US planes dropped a total of 550 tons of bombs on the St. Lo front. It was during 'Operation Cobra' (The breakthrough from St Lo) that the most devastating incident of Friendly Fire occurred. Some of the bombs fell short upon the 30th Infantry Division (Old Hickory) killing 25 men and wounding 131. Next day, the Americans flung in 140,000 shells while 2,730 planes dropped 3,300 tons of bombs and napalm canisters into an area 7,000 long by 2,500 yards wide. The bomb loads of 35 heavy bombers and 42 medium bombers again fell upon the 30th Infantry Division. In this second disaster in two days, the bombing killed a further 111 men and wounded 490. The 30th Division alone suffered 662 casualties from friendly bombing on 25 July: 64 killed, 374 wounded, 60 missing. There was also 164 cases of combat fatigue induced by the stunning effects of the heavy bombardment. Among the casualties in this second disaster was General Lesley J. McNair, Commanding General of US Army Ground Forces. He had flown over from England as an observer to the raid taking place. He was the most senior American General to be killed in the Second World War. His grave can be found in the US Military Cemetery above Omaha Beach in Normandy. This is one of the fourteen permanent WWII military cemeteries that the USA built on foreign soil. In the 172 acre site lie the remains of four women and buried side by side are a father and son as well as thirty-three pairs of brothers. The cemetery contains a total of 9,386 graves. (It is estimated that about 15,480 Americans, fell victim to Friendly Fire in World War II)

Very interesting & tragic history.
Friendly fire is still fire.

Exercise Tiger, or Operation Tiger, was the code name for one in a series of large-scale rehearsals for the D-Day invasion of Normandy, which took place in April 1944 on Slapton Sands in Devon. Coordination and communication problems resulted in friendly fire deaths during the exercise, and an Allied convoy positioning itself for the landing was attacked by E-boats of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine, resulting in the deaths of at least 749 American servicemen. Because of the impending invasion of Normandy, the incident was under the strictest secrecy at the time and was only nominally reported afterward.

Landing operations
In late 1943, as part of the build-up to D-day, the British government set up a training ground at Slapton Sands, Devon, to be used by Force "U", the American forces tasked with landing on Utah Beach. Slapton Beach was selected for its similarity to Utah Beach: a gravel beach, followed by a strip of land and then a lake. Approximately 3,000 local residents in the area of Slapton, now South Hams District of Devon, were evacuated. Some had never left their villages before being evacuated.
Landing exercises started in December 1943. Exercise Tiger was one of the larger exercises that took place in April and May 1944. The exercise was to last from 22 April until 30 April 1944, and covered all aspects of the invasion, culminating in a beach landing at Slapton Sands. On board nine large tank landing ships (LSTs), the 30,000 troops prepared for their mock landing, which also included a live-firing exercise.
Protection for the exercise area came from the Royal Navy. Two destroyers, three Motor Torpedo Boats and two Motor Gun Boats patrolled the entrance to Lyme Bay and Motor Torpedo Boats watched the Cherbourg area where German E-boats were based.

The first phase of the exercise focused on marshalling and embarkation drills, and lasted from 22 to 25 April. On the evening of 26 April the first wave of assault troops boarded their transports and set off, the plan being to simulate the Channel crossing by taking a roundabout route through Lyme Bay, in order to arrive off Slapton at first light on 27 April.
Friendly fire incident
The first practice assault took place on the morning of 27 April and was marred by an incident involving friendly fire. H-hour was set for 07:30, and was to be include live ammunition to acclimatize the troops to the sights, sounds and even smells of a naval bombardment. During the landing itself, live rounds were to be fired over the heads of the incoming troops by forces on land, for the same reason. This followed an order made by General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander, who felt that the men must be hardened by exposure to real battle conditions. The exercise was to include naval bombardment by ships of Force U Bombardment Group fifty minutes prior to the landing.
Several of the landing ships for that morning were delayed, and the officer in charge, American Admiral Don P. Moon, decided to delay H-hour for 60 minutes, until 08:30. Some of the landing craft did not receive word of the change. Landing on the beach at their original scheduled time, the second wave came under fire, suffering an unknown number of casualties. Rumors circulated along the fleet that as many as 450 men were killed.

Battle of Lyme Bay
Result German victory
Belligerents
United States
United Kingdom
Germany
Strength 1 corvette
8 LSTs 9 E-boats
Casualties and losses
746 killed ~200 wounded
2 LSTs sunk
2 LSTs damaged

Atlantic Campaign
On the day after the first practice assaults, early on the morning of 28 April, the exercise was blighted when Convoy T-4, consisting of eight LSTs carrying vehicles and combat engineers of the 1st Engineer Special Brigade, was attacked by nine German E-boats under the command of Korvettenkapitän Bernd Klug, in Lyme Bay.
Of the two ships assigned to protect the convoy, only one was present. HMS Azalea, a corvette was leading the LSTs in a straight line, a formation that later drew criticism since it presented an easy target to the E-boats. The second ship that was supposed to be present, HMS Scimitar, a World War I destroyer, had been in collision with an LST, suffered structural damage and left the convoy to be repaired at Plymouth.
Because the LSTs and British naval headquarters were operating on different frequencies, the American forces did not know this. HMS Saladin was dispatched as a replacement, but did not arrive in time to help protect the convoy.

The E-boats had left Cherbourg on patrol the previous evening and did not encounter the Allied patrol lines off Cherbourg or in the English Channel. They spotted the convoy and attacked.

Casualties
LST-289 was set on fire but eventually made it back to shore with the loss of 123 Navy personnel.
LST-507 was torpedoed and sunk with the loss of 202 US Army/US Navy personnel.
LST-511 was damaged by friendly fire.
LST-531 sank within six minutes of being torpedoed with the loss of 424 Army and Navy personnel.
The remaining ships and their escort fired back and the E-boats made no more attacks. In total, 749 servicemen (551 United States Army and 198 United States Navy) were killed during Exercise Tiger, whereas only 197 were killed in the actual Utah Beach landing on 6 June. Many servicemen drowned or died of hypothermia in the cold sea while waiting to be rescued. Many were not shown how to put on their lifebelt correctly, and placed it around their waist, the only available spot because of their large backpacks. In some cases this meant that when they jumped into the water the weight of their combat packs flipped them upside down, dragging their heads underwater and drowning them. Dale Rodman, who traveled on LST-507, commented "The worst memory I have is setting off in the lifeboat away from the sinking ship and watching bodies float by." The 248 bodies that were recovered were sent to Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey on 29 April 1944.

What makes the event even sadder, the whole village were moved and sworn to secrecy..........amazing story and what a terribly large amount of men to lose in one "training" accident, or what was meant to be a training exercise in readiness for DDAY.
Never been quite sure about this incident, and I 'll leave it there as a typical conspiracy merchant that I am!!!

Is anyone able to provide further details on this WW2 accident that happened somewhere within the U.K, please? Somewhere, within the U.K., during WW2 there was a huge RAF underground bomb storage/maintenance facility and somehow the whole lot went up leaving just a massive hole in the ground. If I remember correctly it was said to be the largest explosion ever in the U.K.. I believe that there were a number of theories as to the likely cause but there was a suggestion that an "Engineer" was carefully attempting to remove a stubborn fuse from a bomb within the dump using a hammer and chisel, just before the blast. The site has been left untouched since the blast as the area is considered too dangerous to access.

Here you go U.K
https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&r...6scErnup8Kb2Xg

This one is better with pics,
https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&r...r4F1nQaJ0qoNwA

And probably the biggest non-nuclear explosion before the 2 atom bombs the death and injury toll was horrendous;
https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&r...z0lqZKQoayPyDA

Oh yes Peter Kapooka is still there called 1 Recruit Training Battalion. The old Silver City is no more thank God. Bastard of a place especially in winter when I went through in 1972.

Dick

I had heard about the Halifax explosion, but never read up on it. quite frightening the number of explosions with big death tolls caused by ammunition transport.

this one is interesting too: Air raid on Bari - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thanks for finding the interesting information about the Fauld explosion, cinders. I did hear about it a long time ago but I couldn't remember many details and by the look of it it could have been an even bigger explosion if everything had gone off. This isn't the only unintended explosion which I've heard about that may have been caused by hammer and chiselling/brute force being used in an attempt to remove a stubborn fuse.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Gil Boyd

Returning home, his plane was shot down by friendly fire from a Lancaster, whose rear-gunner mistook the Mosquito for a German fighter a Junkers JU 88 and shot it down

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The other theory is he simply didn't change over fuel tanks and crashed due to engine failure at low level. Highly plausible as he had very minimal flying time in Mosquito's.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Gil Boyd

WING COMMANDER GUY GIBSON, VC. (1918-1944)

Copenhagen, in German occupied Denmark, was a favourite spot for German officers on R & R. In an effort to 'get their own back' members of a Danish resistance group opened up an Arts and Craft shop specializing in scroll work. They offered to personalize the officers side weapons by fitting ivory handles to their Lugers and cover the gun with artful designs and scroll work. Some were customized as gifts for fellow officers serving on other fronts. Trade was brisk, but what was not explained was that the barrels were being modified by reducing the diameter inside and weakening the breach of the gun, which, when fired for the first time would blow up in the officers face. Of course these guns were never fired while the officer was on leave and any 'accidents' at the front were put down to 'casualties of war'. According to Harry Jensen, the only survivor of the resistance group, hundreds of these Lugers were modified this way before they closed shop and fled.

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Wonder how they did that? Maybe spot welding/braizing a lump/spot in the bore you think? Or most likely adding a sleeve to the bore with smaller dia which wouldn't be as obovious, Ray

Ray,
I think it must have been the latter so it exploded in their face, bet they were chuffed with their handles though as they walked out of the shop!!!!!!!!

Talking about Mosquitos, did you know:

EDDIE CHAPMAN

A deserter from the Coldstream Guards in the 1930s he then turned to crime. A safecracker by profession and serving fourteen years in jail on Jersey in the Channel Islands, at that time under German occupation, he volunteered to spy for the Germans in England. He was trained at the Abwehr sabotage school at Nantes in France and then was parachuted into England on December 20, 1942, with a mission to blow up the De Havilland aircraft factory at Hatfield, in Hertfordshire, which was producing the new fighter-bomber, the Mosquito. After landing, he contacted British Intelligence who contrived a plan to blow up part of the factory not in use, giving the Germans the impression that the mission had succeeded. On returning to Jersey for more work, Eddie Chapman (Code Name 'Zigzag') was decorated with the German Iron Cross, the only Englishman thus awarded. After the war, Chapman was also given a British decoration plus a £6,000 payment from MI5. Later he set up a health farm and died aged 83 in 1997 leaving a wife Betty, and daughter Suzanne.

also:

S.O.E. (Special Operations Executive)

The S.O.E. was formed in July, 1940, on Churchill's orders to "Set Europe Ablaze." With headquarters at 64, Baker Street, London, its first recruits were originally from the armed forces but later both men and women were recruited from the civilian sector. Speaking a foreign language, especially French, was essential before being passed on to Military Intelligence for a security check. Training courses included Parachute and First Aid training at Ringwood airfield near Manchester followed by four weeks Radio and Cipher training. Physical Fitness, small arms and map reading, were conducted in the Western Highlands of Scotland where all forms of Commando and clandestine warfare were also taught. Among many of its famous secret agents were Violet Szabo and Odette Sansom. Of the 418 SOE agents sent to Europe, 118 failed to return. Only one plane, a Lysander of 161 squadron and its pilot, F/O James Bathgate of New Zealand, were lost in the French operation. In the town of Valencay, 50 kms south of Blois in central France, a memorial bearing the names of 91 men and 13 women agents of S.O.Es 'F' Section under Major Maurice Buckmaster, who from 1932 to 1936 had been General Manager of the French Ford Motor Company, are commemorated. It was inaugurated on May 6, 1991, in the presence of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. In 1946 the SOE was dissolved, its wartime role completed.

(Because of the rivalries and jealousies between SOE, SIS and other Military Intelligence units, the operations of SOE were doomed from the start. Its record was one of the poorest of the whole war, its achievements being outweighed by its many disasters ie. the collapse of the vast Prosper and Scientist networks in France. The lives it wasted, especially in Holland, the money and time it cost makes it one of the most tragic Secret Service organisation ever mounted.) Nevertheless, General Eisenhower, said the French section of SOE had contributed significantly to shortening the war by several months.

and finally the USA did alright out of us, we always did get stiffed when we needed something urgently...................NEVER AGAIN!!:lol:

A FAMOUS CHURCHILL SPEECH

In a memorable speech, Churchill asked America "Give us the tools and we will finish the job." But America wouldn't 'give' anything without payment. After two years of war, Roosevelt had drained Britain dry, stripping her of all her assets in the USA, including real estate and property. The British owned Viscose Company, worth £125 million was liquidated, Britain receiving only £87 million. Britain's £1,924 million investments in Canada were sold off to pay for raw materials bought in the United States. To make sure that Roosevelt got his money, he dispatched the American cruiser USS Louisville to the South African naval base of Simonstown to pick up £42 million worth of British gold, Britain's last negotiable asset, to help pay for American guns and ammunition. Not content with stripping Britain of her gold and assets, in return for 50 old World War I destroyers, (desperately needed by Britain as escort vessels) he demanded that Britain transfer all her scientific and technological secrets to the USA. Also, he demanded 99 year leases on the islands of Newfoundland, Jamaica, Trinidad and Bermuda for the setting up of American military and naval bases in case Britain should fall.

Of the 50 lend-lease destroyers supplied to Britain, seven were lost during the war. The first was taken over by a British crew on September 9, 1940. After 1943, when no longer useful, eight were sent to Russia, while the others were manned by French, Polish and Norwegian crews. These destroyers were renamed when they arrived in Britain. All were given the name of a town or city, hence the term 'Town Class' destroyer. During the course of the war, Britain had received 12 Billion, 775 million dollars worth of goods under the Lend-Lease program.

Of these 50 veteran U.S. destroyers, U.S.S. Buchanan would later become the most famous of all after being renamed HMS Cambell-Town. This was the ship which was modified to include a large mine/explosive device hidden in her hull and some changes to her armaments. The ship was then rammed into the gates of the large dry dock (*Normandie?) at St. Nazaire, France which was capable of accommodating the largest of the ships in the German Navy. There was also a Commando raid on the ancillary equipment associated with the dock and Campbell-Town's mine did explode later than planned, I believe.

*Named after the passenger liner of the same name, if I remember correctly, and of which the dock was capable of holding.

It certainly did whilst a large number of German search teams and interested officers were aboard her

There were a few V.C's handed out for that raid the motor boats (ML's) that were escorting the Cambell-Town copped a severe pasting from the shore defenses and as they were petrol fueled burned quite readily being of wooden design did not much good either with rounds passing clean through them and personnel. Along with the ramming was a raid by Commando's on the electrical installations in the area with ferocious pitched battles in the area with the German soldiers stationed there. From memory I think there was to be an air raid as well but it was called off due to cloud cover could be incorrect there.(I read the book along time ago)
A good read of the raid is a book called "The Greatest Raid of All" another great read of heroism with daring do's also along the same lines but the Brits this time used a Cruiser, Submarine and Block ships was the "Zeebrugge raid" in WWI

U K ~ a bag load of nosey civies went up as well

Surprising that the Germans never suspected that there may be any "little extras" aboard the ship in the form of explosive devices. I think that the German examination/search of the ship before the explosion was mainly a case of curiosity/interest rather than suspicion. From what I've read, pretty much anyone was allowed to have a nose round the ship from the German side.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by henry r

I had heard about the Halifax explosion, but never read up on it. quite frightening the number of explosions with big death tolls caused by ammunition transport.

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My family settled just outside the city of Halifax (Mount Uniacke NS) when they came to Canada in the late 1700's and many still remain there. Having grown-up for a time in the area, and later in Dartmouth (now part of Halifax Regional Municipality annexation) the Halifax Explosion is a well known piece of local history, taught in school and recounted as 2nd and 3rd hand memory.

Numerous books and accounts have been written as well as a "Canadian Heritage Moment" vignette that credits a telegraph operator with stopping an approaching passenger train before the explosion.

https://youtu.be/rw-FbwmzPKo

I just watched the "valour road" episode. WTF!

COOL WELCOME

When British troops occupied Iceland on May 10, 1940, to deny the use of the island to the Germans after their occupation of Denmark, and to establish bases to protect her shipping lanes, the islanders gave the 'Tommies' a cool and icy welcome. Later, Canadian troops joined the British forces and in 1942, when an American Marine force arrived, at Churchill's request, to relieve the British and Canadians, their welcome was no less frigid. Iceland had rejected the British/Canadian presence but raised no objections to the neutral Americans but everything was done to prevent them meeting the local girls. When a black sailor from one of the visiting ships was seen strolling around Reykjavik, headlines in the local newspaper screamed 'Black Icelander?'. Does this mean, the report asked, 'that one of our girls will bring forth a black Icelander, despoiling our traditions? The Americans took the hint and from then on, no black American was ever seen again on Icelandic soil during the war. At the other side of the world, Australia had a similar problem when at the end of January 1942, an American troopship arrived in Melbourne to face the ludicrous situation of its black troops being refused permission to come ashore. At this time Australia was zealously enforcing its White Australia Policy. It took another decision of the Australian War Cabinet to have this officious ban overturned. A company of these black troops were then stationed at Mount Isa and took over Hilton Hall which was owned by Mount Isa Mines. It later became the 17th Station Hospital.

A tragedy occurred soon after when 73 black soldiers died after drinking a home brew they had made in empty drums that had preciously contained cyanide which was used in the mines. After the capitulation of Italy, the Pope, Pius 12th, asked that black US soldiers were not to guard the Vatican. In France, Allied commanders decided before D-day that only white French troops could take part in the liberation of Paris. Most French units at that time were two thirds or more North Africans. General Philippe Lederc's armoured division was chosen to be the first to enter the French capitol. It is a sad fact that black soldiers were said to be fighting two wars, one against Nazi Germany and the other war against racist commanders.

I have heard it stated that, generally speaking, black American soldiers taken prisoner of war by Germany during WW2 were treated pretty much exactly the same as their white colleagues by their German captors. How much truth there is in this I don't know; but if it is true that the black American serviceman in WW2 got treated better by his enemy after being taken prisoner than his own white colleagues it is shocking.

From Wikipedia:

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...lodes_at-1.jpg


Mount Hood explodes: the smoke trails are
left by fragments ejected by the explosion.
Click for larger pic

USS Mount Hood (AE-11) was the lead ship of her class of ammunition ships for the United States Navy in World War II. She was the first ship named after Mount Hood, a volcano in the Cascade Range in Oregon. On 10 November 1944, shortly after 18 men had departed for shore leave, the rest of the crew were killed when the ship exploded in Seeadler Harbor at Manus Island. The ship was obliterated while also sinking or severely damaging 22 smaller craft nearby.

At 08:30, 10 November 1944, a party consisting of communications officer, Lt. Lester H. Wallace, and 13 men left the ship and headed for shore. At 08:55, while walking on the beach, they saw a flash from the harbor, followed by two quick explosions. Scrambling into their boat, they headed back to the ship, only to turn around again shortly thereafter as "There was nothing but debris all around..."

Mount Hood, anchored in about 35 feet (11 m) of water, had exploded with an estimated 3,800 tons of ordnance material on board. The initial explosion caused flame and smoke to shoot up from amidships to more than masthead height. Within seconds, the bulk of her cargo detonated with a more intense explosion. Mushrooming smoke rose to 7,000 feet (2,100 m), obscuring the ship and the surrounding area for a radius of approximately 500 yards (500 m). Mount Hood's former position was revealed by a trench in the ocean floor 1,000 feet (300 m) long, 200 feet (60 m) wide, and 30 to 40 feet (9 to 12 m) deep. The largest remaining piece of the hull was found in the trench and measured no bigger than 16 by 10 feet (5 by 3 m). No other remains of Mount Hood were found except fragments of metal which had struck other ships in the harbor and a few tattered pages of a signal notebook found floating in the water several hundred yards away. No human remains were recovered of the 350 men aboard Mount Hood or small boats loading alongside at the time of the explosion. The only other survivors from the Mount Hood crew were a junior officer and five enlisted men who had left the ship a short time before the explosion. Two of the crew were being transferred to the base brig for trial by court martial; and the remainder of the party were picking up mail at the base post office. Charges against the prisoners were dropped following the explosion.
The concussion and metal fragments hurled from the ship also caused casualties and damage to ships and small craft within 2,000 yards (1,800 m). The repair ship Mindanao, which was broadside-on to the blast, was the most seriously damaged. All personnel topside on Mindanao were killed outright, and dozens of men were killed or wounded below decks as numerous heavy fragments from Mount Hood penetrated the side plating. Eighty-two of Mindanao's crew died. The damage to other vessels required more than 100,000 man-hours to repair, while 22 small boats and landing craft were sunk, destroyed, or damaged beyond repair; 371 sailors were injured from all ships in the harbor.
A board convened to examine evidence relating to the disaster was unable to ascertain the exact cause. After only a little over four months' service, Mount Hood was struck from the Naval Register on 11 December 1944.

Bob

There is, as one would suspect, a book about the St. Nazaire raid: "The Greatest Raid of All", by C. E. Lucas Phillips, who also penned "Cockleshell Heroes.

Oddly enough I just watched a docco on the same subject last night. It can be found here:

Jeremy Clarkson: War Stories: THE GREATEST RAID OF ALL - YouTube

Narrated by none other than Jeremy "Top Gear" Clarkson.

I read of the St. Nazaire raid when I was a wee lad and was tremendously inspired by it. Ever since I've read every book on the subject that came to hand and watched every documentary I heard of. That was a great documentary. Not full of sadness and irony but instead upholding the real accomplishment the raid represented.

Bob

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bruce_in_Oz

"Cockleshell Heroes.

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Another favorite of mine. I remember watching it from when I was very young and still try to catch it now. Much easier with the advent of the Digital Video Recorder.