In World War Two, aces (those who shot down more than five enemy aircraft in air-to-air kills) tended to have blue or light colored eyes (over two thirds), were shorter than average and had more daughters than sons. This may mean something, but as of 1994, no one has figured out what.

"Dirty Little Secrets of WWII"

Wow, I could have been an ace. Except I was born too late. And I'm nearsighted. And I've never driven anything I haven't had to get out and push at one time or another. But I got the short, blue eyes & daughter working for me.

Explains the stinking hot air that rises from DC.

Just don't get zipped up in one by a buddy. Recall the scene from Boys in Company C when they first arrived in Nam.

During the Vietnam War, the USN reactivated the battleship New Jersey and sent her to the "gun line" off South Vietnam. During her 120 days on the line, she fired 14,891 rounds of 5-inch and 5,688 rounds of 16-inch; During her entire previous career she had previously fired a total of 7,442 16-inch.

Intresting War Fact with a Twlight thread

USS Agent was laid down on 8 April 1942 by the Tampa Shipbuilding Co., Tampa, Florida; launched on 1 November 1942; and completed 10 July 1943. She was transferred to the Soviet Navy that same day as T-112 She had originally been built as USS Agent (AM-139), an Admirable-class minesweeper, for the United States Navy during World War II, but never saw active service in the U.S. Navy. Upon completion she was transferred to the Soviet Union under Lend-Lease as T-112 and never returned to the United States. Because of the Cold War, the U.S. Navy was unaware of the ship's status and the vessel remained on the American Naval Vessel Register until she was struck on 1 January 1983. In Soviet service, the ship was renamed TB-21 on 15 October 1955; VTR-2Y on 8 March 1956; and UTS-288 on 20 April 1972. The ship was abandoned on 31 January 1991. Recovered and returned to the US sometime between 1991 and 2000, she is currently anchored with Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet, Suisun Bay California. She still sports her Soviet Colours’

Source:

http://navy.memorieshop.com/BayArea/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_minesweeper_T-112

Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/funfill...ie/8054258957/
or http://www.freewebs.com/29thfieldkit...rmycookers.htm

During the war on terror, we didn't have that. The army ran every single woman through every STD test they could think of before deploying them. Its like they're running a brothel.

Cue the Colonel Bogey March....
 

According to a summation of articles and equipment provided by the US to her allies via Lend-Lease, of all the items, of all the countries supplied, only one, single one of these was shipped to one, single nation.
The Nation? The Soviet Union.
The article? One (1) unit, each: athletic supporter.

Which leads one to believe that Hitler may have had only one, but Uncle Joe had two and they were iron!:D

One of the most expensive battles of rthe Allies cost them 5,000 tanks, 7,000 aircraft and over 200,000 tons of smilitary supplies. These were all lost in the holds of ships trying to reach the Soviet port of Murmansk in the far north of Russia. The 58 ships lost in the Arctic Convoys represent 7.2% of the ships sent to the USSR. This number is very grim, as overall merchant ship losses in the Atlantic Convoy was only 0.7%.

"Dirty Little Secrets of WWII"

You hear in a lot of histories of the effect of Stalin's pre-war purges of the Soviet military, so just how bad were the purges.

Stalin purged some 67% of the generals in the Red Army: 3 of the 5 marshals, all 11 vice commissars of war; 75 of the 80 members of the Supreme War Council, 13 of the 15 army commanders, 51 of the 85 corps commanders and 110 of the 195 division and brigade commanders. The result of this was the dismal performance of the Red Army in the opening months of World War Two. Fortunately for Russia, Stalin did not actually kill all of the purged officers, but many had ben sent to the gulags in Siberia. As a result, after the debacle of the summer of 1941, many of the survivors were relased from the gulags and back to their former commands.

"Dirty Little Secrets of WWII"

In the 1930-40s, Iceland was a dependency of Denmark, its position protected it from Nazi occupation when the Germans seized Denmark in 1940. The Icelanders invited the British and latter the Americans to help them defend themselves. Finally, in 1944, the Icelanders decided to declare their independece from Denmark. In Copenhage, King Christian X, then under house arrest for his support of resistance to the Nazi occupiers, sent a telegram of congratulations to his rebellious Iclandic subjects.

"Dirty Little Secrets of WWII"

The US Strategic Bombing Survey yeilds some really odd bites of data....

It is estimated that during World War Two, the average Berlin apartment yielded 12.7 cubic meters of rubble after being bombed.

"Dirty Little Secrets of WWII"

LONG LIVE THE BEAN COUNTERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
:D

There is a story that goes about the first female reporter to be attached to the US Army during WWII....

Ruth Baldwin Gowen (Associated Press), arrived in North Africa in 1943. She faced a considerable amount of oppositions to her presence, with her male counterparts holding that women could not make good war correspondents, this was soon laid to rest.

Shortly after Ms. Gowen arrived, she chanced to run into none other than George S. Patton, the ultimate no-nonsense soldier. After being introduced, Patton gave her the once over. Then he asked,

"What is the first law of war?"

Ms. Gowen quickly replied,

"You kill him before he kills you!"

"She stays," said a similing Patton, much to the disappointment of those who were waiting for him to send her packing with an earful of his famous profanity.


"Dirty Little Secrets of WWII"

Among the reservists activated by the British Army for the Falklands War in 1982 was a WW II mobile field bakery unit nicknamed "Lizzie," called out of honorable retirement at the Museum of Army Transport for service with the troops.

Drity Little Secrets by James F. Dunnigan and Albert A. Nofi 1990 Quill publishing, an imprint of William Morrow & Co

During the Vietnam War, the Special Forces and CIA played a variety of "games" on the North Vietnamese...wish I had thought up this one!

The NVN was very effective in uncovering Allied agents, the dark side of this was that the NVN were suspicious of everyone. Soooo, captured North Vietnamese were recruited as apies, even when it was known that few would be very successful. These agents were put through a six-week course, that included a detailed briefing on the (nonextistent) network of agents that they would be joining. The most ambitious angle on this scam was to select some of the agents to parachute into NVN. The rookie agents would be given parachute training and would be taken to an airfield at night, where he would board a large aircraft. On board were the other members of his "team", which, for security reasons, he could not be intorduced to early. Also on board were numerous supply containers to be dropped as well.

Once in the air, the new agent was told that because he had done so well n the early training, he would be given the privilige of being the first man out of the door. When the new spy jumped, he would often make his way straight to the nearest NVN authorities to report his fellow agents who had jumped right behind him.

But no one had jumped after him. As soon as our "hero" had jumped, the other agents had opened some of the containers to reveal blocks of ice that had been attached to parachutes, these would then be thrown out into the night air. Hours later, the parachutes would be found, hung up in trees. Here was clear evidence that the Americans had dropped several agents into the NVN. The NVN would then call out the troops and spend several days searching the jungle for any trace of the spies.

But this wasn't the only part of this scam. The phoney agent would have a transmitter concealed in his gear and well overhead, would be an airplane, tracking the signal. When it was determined that the agent had remained in place for seventy-two hours, then a B-52 strike would be called in to blast the headquarters where the transponder was squawking.

"Dirty Little Secrets of the Vietnam War"

And one famous officer was among them: Marshal K.K. Rokossovosky. Arrested in 1937, had his teeth knocked out-among other tortures-by Beria's thugs, condemmed to death, but released in 1940, promoted to Major-General and told "Take command of this mechanized corps, prisoner, and we'll see about your death sentence later." The suspended death sentence was not formally lifted until after Stalin's death in 1953.

The USS Kidd, DD-661 was a late model Fletcher-class destroyer commissioned on 23 April 1943. She is notable for several facts...

When she was launched, she was one of four Fletchers that were launched within 14 minutes...a still-standing record.

Her first damage was the result of a friendly fire incident on 12 Sept 1943, when she was hit by two 5-inch illuminating projectiles fired by the battleship USS North Carolina, there were no crew losses, although the captain's cabin was badly damaged.

On 11 April, 1945, she was struck by a kamizaze in her forward fireroom, killing 38 and wounding another 55.

Repaired and returned to service, the Kidd enjoyed a quiet post-war career...until 21 April, 1853, when she was rammed by the Swedish freighter Hainan, which left a V-shaped hole in the CPO's quarters, no one was killed or injured.

She was finally decommissioned into the Atlantic Reserve Fleet in 1964.

In 1982, the Kidd was transferred to the Louisiana Naval Memorial Commission and she was carefully restored to her 1945 configuration and is permanently moored in the city of Baton Rouge.

Since the Kidd is moored on the Mississippi River, she is subject to the extreme flood levels that Old Man River provides. During the summer months, she rests on a concrete cradle. Her port side is clamped to four steel collars that wrap around two 24-inch steel dolphins. THis allows the Kidd to rise and fall some 28 feet. This arrangement is unique and is featured in "Ripley's Believe It or Not."

As of 1994, the Kidd has earned the reputation of being the most authentically restored naval warship in the country.

"The Floating Drydock Warship Data, USS Kidd"

Of all of the United States' Strategic Bombers, only three have never dropped live ordnance on an enemy, they are the B-36, the B-47 and the B-58.

Perhaps the longest life of any tank has to be the US-built Mk VIII Heavy Tank which entered service in 1919 and served until 1932.

Which says a lot for how tanks were perceived back in the early days. What's worse is what replaced it, or should I say, failed to replace it....

Is that last aircraft a typo? I'm guessing it should read B-52?

No, Targan, Dragoon is correct. He is referring to the B-58 Convair Hustler.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convair_B-58_Hustler

This was the first bomber that could fly at Mach 2. It was designed as a nuclear attack bomber. Once the U.S.S.R. proved it could shoot down high flying fast aircraft, the B-58 was obsolete.

My $0.02

Mike

Ah, I misread the initial post. I thought it said "dropped live ordnance" not "never dropped live ordnance". I love the way this forum encourages me to look things up on the net though. Until today I knew nothing about the B-58.

I think you missed the word "never." I did the same thing.

Also why the XB-70 never took off. I thought that thing was awesome when I was a kid.

Yes, but the XB-70 netted us the F15, the preeminent fighter aircraft in the world today. :)

That's only 13 years. In the US alone, both the M60 and M1 series have that beat by big margins. Ditto the Chieftain and Challengers in the UK, Leo I and Leo II in Germany, etc. Even if they isolate for specific marks of those designs, the M60A1 and M1A1 have it beat.

On the other hand, technology was moving pretty damn fast back then. A tank from the 1980s still has a chance against tanks today, 25 years younger. The Mk VIII was toast if it faced virtually anything younger than it.

All too true...the replacement for the MkVIII was the M-2 and M-2A1...just think M-3 Stuart with a raised idler wheel and a well sloped front deck. The M-2A1 actually saw combat, with the Marines on the 'canal.

The M-3 Lee/Grant, was an interm design until the engineers could figure out how to mount a 75mm cannon inside a cast turret. It actually saw more service with the British/Commonwealth (the Aussies used them right up into 1945), it also held the record for the highest elevation combat action when tankers of the 3rd Carabiniers captured the 9,000 foot summit of Kennedy Peak during the operations around Tiddim, Burma (that record was broke by the M-48 during the Indio-Pakistan War when combat reached 12,000 feet).