@captainwalker month before the war ended.
Picture shown: Colourised photo of a Bren gunner from the 2nd Battalion, Leicestershire Regiment at Tobruk.
April 21, 1945 Battle of Berlin
Soviet infantry reached Berlin. Adolf Hitler ordered an all-out counterattack against the Soviets at Berlin under the command of SS General Felix Steiner.
This counterattack was never to be attempted.
@captainwalker wish I knew what that open topped tank was. Would have sworn it was German, had it not had that Russian in it. Is probably artillery.
@Wittmann
It’s an Su-76m
@Mr-Kell thank you. That is an old one then. I do remember now. My eyes and memory aren’t what they used to be . (I don’t play WW2 computer gamea any more, either.)
Blimey! They were still making them in 45! I really thought it was early war only.
@Wittmann
Yeah they made them for a while.
I think they used them for everything except AAA as well.
@Mr-Kell I remember finding them easy kills in my WW2 computer games. The open top meaning they had a very low defence score.
75 years ago today was VE-Day
@CWO-Marc The publicity of the Channel Dash and the embarrassment of the R.N caused the English Channel to become off limits to German Commerce Raiders.The raider Togo was mauled attempting to run the Channel.
May 23, 1941. Operation Rheinübung
At 0722 hours, German battleship Bismarck and cruiser Prinz Eugen are spotted by British cruisers HMS Suffolk and HMS Norfolk in the Denmark Strait. After HMS Norfolk is almost hit by shellfire from Bismarck, both cruisers retire to a safe distance. They shadow the German warships using radar while battleship HMS Prince of Wales and battlecruiser HMS Hood close in from 300 miles to the South.
Photo: HMS Hood steaming toward the Denmark Strait, on or about 23 May 1941.
A and B turrets, HMS Hood 1940
HMS Hood’s forward 15" turrets, with a 4" gun’s crew under training in the foreground.
HMS Hood was the pride of the Royal Navy, she was a massively armed battlecruiser with what was thought to be armour equal to her armaments. To all intents, HMS Hood was considered to be one of the most powerful battlecruisers afloat in World War Two.
HMS Hood was 44,600 tons, had a crew of 1,419 and was faster than the Bismarck with a maximum speed of 32 knots. The Hood had been launched in 1918 and was armed with 8 x 15 inch guns, 12 x 5.5 inch guns, 8 x 4 inch AA guns, 24 x 2 pound guns and 4 x 21 inch torpedoes.
However, the Hood suffered from one major flaw – she did not have the same amount of armour as the Bismarck. The fact that the Hood was faster than the Bismarck by 3 knots was as a result of her lack of sufficient armour for a naval battle fought in World War Two. What had been considered sufficient armour in 1918 when Hood was built, was to prove a fatal flaw in 1941.
On May 24th, 1941, the Royal Navy tailed the Bismarck and Prinz Eugen when they attempted to break out into the Atlantic. If both of these ships had got into the Atlantic, they could have created havoc amongst the Atlantic convoys that were vital to Britain. The Hood relied on information sent back to it by the cruisers Norfolk and Suffolk. The Bismarck and Prinz Eugen had night time and sea fog on their side and for a while both cruisers lost both German ships.
However, by 02.47 on May 24th, the Suffolk had regained contact with the Bismarck. The information sent back by the Suffolk led the Hood to believe that she would be just 20 miles from the Bismarck at 05.30 on May 24th. At 05.35, the lookout from the Hood made out the Prinz Eugen and the Bismarck at a distance of 17 miles.
Admiral Holland, on the Hood ordered the battlecruiser to turn to the German ships and at 05.45 they were only 22,000 metres apart. At 05.52, the ‘Hood’ opened fire and shortly afterwards was joined by the ‘Prince of Wales’. At 05.54, both the Prinz Eugen and the Bismarck fired their guns primarily against the ‘Hood’.
The Prinz Eugen hit the Hood and set alight some anti-aircraft shells kept on deck. The fire this caused was not particularly dangerous for the ‘Hood’ even though it produced a great deal of smoke. At 06.00 a salvo from the Bismarck hit the Hood. The Bismarck had fired from 17,000 metres and the elevation of her guns meant that the shells that hit the ‘Hood’ had a high trajectory and a steep angle of descent. The Hood had minimal horizontal armour and one of the shells from the Bismarck penetrated the Hood’s deck and exploded in one of her magazines. A massive explosion tore the ‘Hood’ in half. Those who saw the explosion said that the bows of the ‘Hood’ were raised out of the sea before they sank. The ship sank extremely quickly – within two minutes – and 1,416 men out of a total crew of 1,419 died. (historylearningsite)
@captainwalker Thanks. A story, I am sure, many of us grew up learning and fascinating us.
@captainwalker Thanks for posting. It’s my father’s favorite chapter of WW2.
23.30hrs 5th June 1944
The Final Embarkation: Four ‘stick’ commanders of 22nd Independent Parachute Company, British 6th Airborne Division, synchronising their watches in front of an Armstrong Whitworth Albemarle of 295 Squadron, No 38 Group, Royal Air Force, at about 23.30 on the 5th of June, just prior to take off from RAF Harwell, Oxfordshire.
This pathfinder unit parachuted into Normandy in advance of the rest of the division in order to mark out the landing zones, and these officers, (left to right, - Lieutenants, Bobby de Lautour, Don Wells, John Vischer and Bob Midwood), were among the first Allied troops to land in France.
The stick parachuted onto the DZ shortly after midnight, and came under heavy fire almost immediately on landing.
They were tasked with ‘marking’ the drop zone for the 1st Canadian and 9th Parachute Battalions at DZ “V”, but all the radar and visual beacons were either lost or damaged. Nevertheless, they were successfully able to join up with Lieutenant-Colonel Terence Otway’s 9th Battalion, prior to the assault on the Merville Battery.
Bob Midwood sustained injuries while jumping onto the DZ but continued to take part in operations including commanding a patrol to protect a REME recovery section working on an LZ and marking drop zones for supply drops.
He was evacuated to 86 General Hospital on 19 June to have his injuries treated.
Bob Midwood returned to active service and was wounded for a second time, in January 1945, during the Ardennes campaign.
Acting Captain de Lautour died on 20 June 1944 aged 27 years old, from wounds sustained earlier in the Normandy conflict. He was awarded a posthumous Mention in Despatches on 22 March 1945, for actions in Normandy. He is now buried at Ranville War Cemetery, Normandy.
Colour: Colourisedpieceofjake
(Source - © IWM H 39070)
Thank You for this. Very Powerful
76 years ago today, the weather was terrible around the English Channel. Maybe it was all for the best though. The Providence of God was very evident through all the planning and events leading up to D-Day, as well as the day of and the aftermath.
A shell fired by a 88 mm gun explodes on Utah Beach during the landing on June 6, 1944. The target 50-mile stretch of the Normandy coast was divided into five sectors: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword Beach. Up to 9,000 Germans and some 6,000 Allied forces died during the fighting.
@captainwalker said in On this day during W.W. 2:
A shell fired by a 88 mm gun explodes on Utah Beach during the landing on June 6, 1944. The target 50-mile stretch of the Normandy coast was divided into five sectors: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword Beach. Up to 9,000 Germans and some 6,000 Allied forces died during the fighting.
D-Day !!! Remembering all that perished and survived on this day !!!
