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).

I had an uncle who was a command pilot with the first B-58 squadron, he loved the fact that it could break Mach 2, but he always claimed that when you need to make a turn, at just about any speed, "You needed air space roughly the size of Texas!"

It was designed for the high-altitude, high-speed penetration mission, and as it was discovered how good the Soviet ADA netwrok was, SAC attempted to use it for low-level delivery, a job that its delta wings were never designed for, that's what led to their retirement.

Actually, the M-48 series has the M-60 and M-1 beat...but you are correct, I should have said of all the World War One designs, the MkVIII had the longest life span. Of course, for WWI vetrans, the French FT-17 has them all beat.

True, it is intresting to look over some of the might have beens, take for example, the M-1922 Medium Tank, this was an attempt at designing a more flexible suspension, the track was 2.5-inch steel cable that supported a variety of iron brackets...fitted to each bracket was the latest track shoe...each was carved from the finest oak!

Needless to say, track life was short and the M-1922 rests in the Ordnance Museum at Aberdeen Proving Grounds.

Time warped I think. ;)

Nah...Philadelphia Experiment II :D

The all time record for most enemy submarines sunk in the shortest period time belongs to...

The USS England (DE-635), which sank six Japanese submarines in twelve days in May-June 1944.

Folsom State Penitentiary Petition
 

The attack by Japan on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 brought an immediate unity of purpose to the US. Citizens of all political persuasions and from all parts of the country pledged their support, volunteered their service, and offered to enlist in the military. One of the most interesting examples of this is found among the FDR Library’s Presidential papers. It is a petition; congaing 39 pages and 1,746 signatures, that FDR received signed by prisoners at Folsom State Penitentiary in California.

The B-36 Peacemaker was noted for several strange conversions during its lifespan. So heavy was the aircraft that Convair tested tracked landing gear in an effort to reduce its ground pressure, before switching to multi-wheel landing gear.

Project FICON was an attempt to design a parasite fighter that could be carried into enemy airspace and then used to protect its parent ship. The McDonnell XF-85 was the first attempt at this, quickly replaced by the Repiblic F-84E Thunderstreak. FICON only involved a single fighter.

Project Tom-Tom was the fitting of a wingtip hook-up that allowed the B-36 to carry two F-84Es, later replaced by two RF-84Fs. This never worked well in testing.

Perhaps the oddest B-36 conversion happend to TailNo 15712 which was converted into the platform for the first airborne nuclear reactor. This was the platform to test if the Air Force could make the conversion into nuclear-propelled aircraft This first airborne reactor never powered the aircraft, but was used to test radiation effects on the NB-36H itself. The crew was carried in the front of the aircraft, in a shielded compartment that featured leaded glass windows, 12-inches thick. Forty-seven flights were completed between 9/17/1955 to 03/28/1957.

Source "B-36 in Action"

Hmm, a B-52 carrying a couple of armed drones.... Could work...
Oh wait, there's AA missiles now that do that job. :cool:

I don't know about "odd" but I do know horrible...

Project Pluto was the first SLAM (Supersonic Land Attack Missile) worked on by the USAF. Two things made Project Pluto frightening. The first was how effective it would have been: the missile was designed to fly in excess of Mach-3, at very low altitude, using the then new TERCOM technology for low altitude high speed navigation. Even without a payload (I'll get to that in a minute) the missile would have killed anyone in a "target" area it chose to fly over: the weapon's mass and speed and altitude would've sent out a shockwave that would have simply crushed anyone not in an armored vehicle or bunker.

Of course, that's assuming the place flown over by the missile wasn't on it's target list. Pluto was planned as a robot bomber, a drone. It could be armed with up to 10 1MT hydrogen bombs. Part of Pluto's mission plan included post-strike strikes, weeks or months after the initial wars. Pluto was capable of staying in the air that long. How, you ask? Now we get to the really horrifying part.

Just in case the notion of a Terminator (or Berserker if you will) roaming around over an already blasted earth and continuing to pound the "enemy" with one megaton nuclear bombs isn't frightening enough, what enabled Pluto to keep on keepin' on like that was it's unique propulsion system. Pluto was a ram-air turbine jet that used air moving at hypersonic speeds over its nuclear fuel elements for propulsion. Once launched, the air intake and exhaust system were open ends of a nuclear reactor. The Pluto missile was programmed, once it's payload was deployed, to slow to the point that it's fuel would become liquid. It would literally spray molten liquid plutonium across hundreds of miles as it slowed and crashed.

What kept us from deploying the ultimate doomsday weapon was three things: one, ICBMs were making great strides, in spite of successful ground tests of the engine it was kind of impossible to flight test it and, in the event of a war, the missile would have to fly over US or allied territory to get into position to open up its box of nightmares: it'd have killed us as well as the Soviets.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pluto

http://www.merkle.com/pluto/pluto.html

And don't forget the F-102 and F-106 interceptors...and their Falcon AAMs, armed with 0.25KT warheads.

And the early Nike Hercules SAMs that would carry nuclear warheads over US cities and then detonate...a defensive shield to stop them pesky bombers!

I don't know which would be worse, to be a Soviet bomber crewman...or a civilian on the ground when one of those would go off!

The yield on the AIR-2 Genie missile was such that at the altitudes it would've been deployed the absolute worse thing that would've happened would have been EMP and a slight increase in background radiation as material from the blast was wind-scattered over many hundreds of miles.

But yeah, the Nike? Holy God. And if the bomber jammed or otherwise spoofed the missile and it just went wandering? Grr. Do half the fucking work of the manned attack that way.

I had forgot about the Genie...I heard in some lunch room talk, that the F-102s were supposed to salvo their missiles at the Russian bomber formations; I don't know how true that is, but 3-4 Genie/Falcon warheads going off?!?

And don't forget about the nuclear armed torpedoes, just the right weapon for that task group or hostile port.

Both sides had way too much time on their hands designing way too many "uses" for nuclear warheads!

Nuclear torpedoes I can actually see being used in T2K. What better way for the Pact to even the odds a bit at sea?
Mind you, by the time nukes started to be used (July 97) the "last major fleet" had been destroyed... :/

There is the newer Kenttäkeitin 2000 (Fieldcooker 2000) in existance with an oven you can actually bake pizza in, but it s more delicate and requires electricity while the older models are heated with wood.

Also, while serving as a conscript, my mess kit, as it turnes out, was originally stamped in 1944. Not to mention the pistol holster I received for the Honour Guard I was a art of in the summer - it had the Third Reich eagle on the back with manufacturer, which was a German company...

Edit: one more thing remembered. The recently retired Tarkkuuskivääri m/85 (Sniper Rifle model 85) was born, when the Finnish military desperately needed a new one to replace the venerable Mosin-Nagant based rifles. A number of rifles were considered, but the one that won was a rifle, built of a custom stock, bull barrel and... A Mosin-Nagant action, some of which were stamped around the beginning of the century. But having fired that particular model quite a number of times, I can attest to its capabilities.

Something for the Holidays
 

The Eggnog Riot was a riot that took place at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York, on 24–25 December 1826. It was caused by the smuggling of whiskey, two days prior to the incident, to make eggnog for a Christmas Day party in the North Barracks of the Academy. The riot eventually involved more than one-third of the cadets by the time it ceased on Christmas morning. A subsequent investigation by Academy officials resulted in the implication of seventy cadets and the court-martialing of twenty of them and one enlisted soldier. Among the participants in the riot—though he was not court-martialed—was Jefferson Davis.