Halifax Herald June 2016

What’s in this issue ost of us will be ready to admit that we sometimes have what n page 2 there’s an article con- Mis known as “a bad day”. Ex- taining some interesting facts cept for Moth John Verster who claims regarding World War II. I trust he’s having a “bad life”. O This past week has been a “bad week” that you will find them as interesting as I did. for me. Every month I publish two online Page 6 has a story on answers given magazines. This normally involves a fair by American university and college amount of work putting it all together. I’m students to history questions. And you also responsible for three television chan- thought our lot was not that bright. nels on YouTube. And naturally I do the Page 8 contains a few photographs Halifax Herald as well. from my misspent days as a conflict Two days before my monthly deadline journalist. my computer started acting up. I only just Lastly, on page 12, we have our regu- managed to get the magazines up before lar page of amusing photographs. This the computer died on me. month they have a bit of a Moth theme I had to get it repaired and this took a to them. full week before it was up and running. Please remember that if you have I only got it back yesterday and then had any Shellhole news or maybe an article to frantically catch up on my work. Quite you would like to include in the Hali- a few of my clients haven’t paid me yet. fax Herald, e-mail it through to matt@ So I’m so poor I can’t even afford to pay hipe.co.za and we will do our best to attention. include it in a future edition. Just to add to my woes I came down with a nasty case of flu. Still, I managed to do the Halifax Herald and get it out before my deadline (before the monthly Shellhole meeting). It’s something that I really enjoy do- ing and it’s my small contribution to our Shellhole. I trust that you find it as enjoy- able as I do.

YUTH, Matt Tennyson Strange WWII facts Some interesting facts about World War II ew of us do not know the details such as former French presidents, of World War II. After all it was prime ministers and even sports celeb- Fa conflict that cost the highest rities. 14 American soldiers teamed up number of lives of any war. with around 20 German Wehrmacht Yet there are some facts and figures troops to defend the castle from an on- from that war that make interesting slaught by an SS squadron. They held reading. Here are just a few of them. out until help arrived in the form of the German sailors brought a black and American 103rd Infantry Division. white patched cat on board the battle- The youngest person to serve in the ship Bismarck. His job was to catch US Military during World War II was mice. A few hours after the Bismarck Calvin Graham. He was only 12 years had been torpedoed and sunk the cat old. He lied about his age and was was found clutching driftwood. He later wounded in action and awarded was taken aboard the British destroy- the Purple Heart medal (age 14) before er HMS Cossack and given the name they discovered his real age. Sam. Later that year the HMS Cossack Total casualties for World War II HIGH PRICE TO PAY: Only 20% of the males born in the Soviet Union in 1923 sur- was also torpedoed and sunk. Once were between 50 and 70 million peo- vived the war. again the cat survived and was given ple, 80% of who came from only four the nickname Unsinkable Sam. He was countries — , China, Germany, tually escaping to Australia. with food, water, and the direction of transferred to the aircraft carrier HMS and Poland. Over 50% of the casual- American pilot Owen J. Baggett be- the nearest landmass. This ended when Ark Royal which, less than a month ties were civilians, with the majority of came legendary as the only person to a U-boat towing lifeboats and flying later, was also torpedoed and sunk. those being women and children. shoot down a Japanese aircraft with a the Red Cross flag was attacked by a Once more Sam was found clinging In 1935, British engineer Robert .45 calibre M1911 pistol. Baggett had US bomber. to a floating plank, apparently “angry Watson-Watt was working on a “death bailed out of his aircraft and was para- During WWII the Allies discovered but quite unharmed”. Sam was eventu- ray” that would destroy enemy aircraft chuting when a Japanese aircraft head- that the Germans were using the Lean- ally retired later that year to a domestic using radio waves. His “death ray” in- ed straight at him. He fired three shots ing Tower of Pisa as an observation home in Belfast, where he lived until stead evolved into radar—or “radio de- with his pistol and one of them hit the post. A U.S Army Sergeant that was dying of natural causes in 1955. tection and ranging. Japanese pilot in the head, killing him sent to the tower to confirm the pres- Two weeks after ’s sui- During World War II a Dutch mine- instantly. ence of German troops was impressed cide, Allied and Axis forces fought sweeper evaded the Japanese for eight We’ve all heard the stories about by its beauty and decided to not order together in the only record of such an days disguised as an island. The crew how ruthless German U-boats would an artillery strike on it. event happening during the six year covered the decks in cut trees and surface and machine gun survivors of During the Invasion of Normandy, war. The battle took place at Castle painted exposed surfaces to look like ships they had torpedoed. Yet until late Scottish Bagpiper, Bill Millin, con- Itter in Austria, where several high- rocks. They moved only at night and 1942, it was common for German U- trary to British Command, in the thick profile prisoners were being detained, anchored closed to shore by day, even- boats to provide torpedoed survivors of battle, marched up and down the 2 3 beach playing his Pipes. When his unit WWII, in order to explain how British Franz Von Werra, a Nazi POW who Leszczyńska delivered 3,000 ba- captured German snipers, they asked air raids were so successful in the dark was transferred to to deter his bies at the Auschwitz concentra- why Millin wasn’t shot. They said they without tipping the Germans off on the multiple escapes and recaptures, es- tion camp during the Holocaust in didn’t shoot him because he was clear- existence of radar. caped again in less than a month, trav- occupied Poland. ly insane. 25 Russian soldiers under the com- eling through the US, , , • In World War II, British soldiers In the Western desert the German mand of Yakov Pavlov defended a and to become the only got a ration of three sheets of toilet built a fake airfield near building during the Battle of Stalin- Western held POW to return to combat. paper a day. Americans troops got one of their heavily camouflaged air- grad so well that it never fell. Vasily- On 25 October 1941 Von Werra took 22. fields. This was so that the Royal Air Chuikov, general of the Soviet forces off in Bf 109F-4 on a practice flight. • Four of every five German soldiers Force would be tricked into bombing in Stalingrad, later joked that the Ger- He suffered engine failure and crashed killed in the war died on the East- it. The buildings, vehicles and aircraft mans lost more men trying to take into the sea north off Vlissingen and ern Front. at the airfield were all made of wood. “Pavlov’s house” than they did taking was killed. His body was never found. • Only one out of every four men Shortly after it was completed the RAF Paris. Japanese military leader Tojo Hide- serving on U-boats survived. attacked the airfield, dropping wooden The American pilot who dropped ki was put on trial as a war criminal • The Siege of Stalingrad resulted bombs on it. About half an hour later the first atomic bomb died aged 92 – at the end of World War II. While in in more Russian deaths (military the real airfield was attacked. This time with no regrets. He said he never lost prison he attempted suicide. It took the and civilian) than the US and Brit- with real bombs. a single nights sleep. Pilot Paul Tib- Americans a great deal of time, effort ain sustained (combined) in all of Prior to the Allied invasion of Sic- bets dropped the bomb on Hiroshima and money to resuscitate him and get World War II. ily they came up with a number of de- that killed 78,000 people instantly but him back to health. After which they • Adolf Hitler’s nephew, William ception plans to convince the Germans by the end of 1945 the death total had hanged him. Hitler, served in the US Navy dur- that the landings would take place else- reached 140,000. The last from World ing World War II. where. One of these plans was named While on the subject of Hiroshima War II to be repatriated was a Hungar- • To avoid using the German sound- Operation Mincemeat. It involved re- you have to take pity on the elderly ian soldier who was taken prisoner by ing name ‘hamburger’ during leasing the body of a person dressed as Japanese man that managed to survive the Red Army in 1944, then discovered World War II, Americans used the a Royal Marine Major off the coast of the bombing of Hiroshima. He decided living in a Russian psychiatric hospital name ‘Liberty Steak.’ Spain. The body contained documents that it was pointless to stay on in the in 2000. • Most kamikaze died in vain. Only revealing that the Allies were planning ruined city and that he would go and In WWII a woman-only Soviet one in nine kamikaze pilots hit on invading Greece. The Spanish re- stay with a relative in another city. He bomber regiment were nicknamed the their targets during WWII. turned the body, and the documents, took a train and arrived in Nagasaki “Night Witches” by German soldiers. • Queen Elizabeth II served as a me- to the British Embassy. But not before shortly before it was struck by the sec- For a successful bombing run, the chanic and driver during WWII. they were copied by the Germans. The ond atomic bomb. Remarkably he sur- Witches would cut the engine of their • During World War II, German pris- Germans fell for the deception hook, vived the second explosion as well. archaic and noisy aircraft. Gliding in, oners of war in Canada were treat- line and sinker. The person that dreamt Joan Pujul Garcia was a Spaniard they would release their bombs before ed so nicely that they didn’t want up the plan was a British Naval Intelli- that worked for German intelligence as the enemy even knew they were there. to leave Canada when released af- gence officer by the name of Ian Flem- an agent. He was, however, a double And to close this article here are a ter the war ended. ing. Yes, the same man that would later agent and was actually working for the few snippets of trivia relating to World • The first bomb dropped on Berlin bring us James Bond. British. Ironically he was the only per- War II. by the Allies killed the only el- The idea that eating carrots helps son to be awarded both the • Over 100,000 Allied bomber crew- ephant in the Berlin Zoo. you see in the dark was a lie invent- from the Germans and an MBE from men were killed over Europe. ed by the British in the British. • Polish Catholic midwife Stanisława I trust you found this interesting. 4 5 “Hitler, who had become depressed Minute War. John F. Kennedy worked for some reason, crawled under Berlin. closely with the Russians to solve the Bet you never knew that Here he had his wife Evita put to Canadian Missile Crisis.” History records, recalls and retells events from the past. But some sleep, and then shot himself in the bon- Wrong on all accounts. The Crimean people have a pretty fuzzy recollection when it comes to history. ker.” War did take place during the 50s, but Hitler had become depressed. Who it was the 1850s (October 1853 – Feb- It was George Santayana that said, Germans did by-pass it by attacking what have imagined it. By April 1945 ruary 1856). “Those who do not learn from history through Belgium and going around the the war was almost over and Hitler had The Vietnam War lasted between are doomed to repeat it.” Maginot Line. The Germans used a lost. 1955 and 1975, but it was only in the I recently came across a book that tactic known as Blitzkrieg (Lightning By January 1945 Hitler had retreat- 1960s that America become heavily in- contained answers to exam questions War). ed to the Führerbunker under the Reich volved. as given by American college and uni- I also believe that the Japanese Chancellery. On the evening of April The 1967 Six-Day War between Is- versity students. Some of them make bombed Pearl Harbour, not boomed 30, 1945 Hitler committed suicide. rael and the Arab nations was named our students look like geniuses. And it. The US Navy does have a base in His wife committed suicide a few that because the war only lasted six let’s face it, that takes some doing to San Diego, Southern California. Pearl minutes before him. Her name was days - not six minutes. say the very least. Harbour, however, is 6,521 km away Eva Braun and Hitler had only married John F, Kennedy did not work close- Some of these answers defy belief, on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. her the day before. ly with the Russians. In fact he threat- but at least they must have given those And lastly, the sky was probably So Hitler actually shot himself in the ened them. The Russians had set up poor souls that had to grade the papers filled with zeros and not zebras. The bunker, and not the bonker. nuclear missile bases on the island of a bit of amusement. And I somehow Mitsubishi A6M Zero was a long- Cuba. Kennedy felt that these were a suspect that many of these students range fighter aircraft used by Japan. “Unfortunately, the Second World direct threat to America and he told would have been doomed to repeat his- War was not concluded until 1957.” the Russians to take them down and tory the next year. Take a look at some “Hilter’s attack on Russia was se- It actually ended with the surrender remove the missiles back to Russia. of the answers given. cretly called ‘Operation Barbarella’. of Japan on September 2, 1945. Otherwise he would consider military The German invaders were popular action. “The Germans took the by-pass for a while in Russia, but their habit of “War screeched to an end when a The US Navy and Coast Guard set around France’s Marginal Line. This slaughtering innocent civilians tended nukuleer explosion was dropped on up a blockade around Cuba. It was was known at the ‘Blintz Krieg’. The to give them an image problem. The Heroshima.” perhaps the closest that the world ever French huddle up and threw sneers Russians defended Stalingrad feercely First of all, you can’t drop an explo- came to a nuclear war. Eventually the at the Germans. Japan boomed Pearl as the city was named after Lenin.” sion. You can, however, drop a bomb Russians backed down. This incident Harbour, the main U.S. base in South- The German invasion of Russia was that will cause an explosion. became known as the ‘Cuban Missile ern California. American sailors code-named . This is what happened on August 6, Crisis’. watched in shock as the sky filled with Naturally when you go around slaugh- 1945 when the Americans dropped an Japanese zebras.” tering innocent civilians it is going to atomic bomb on the Japanese city of So there you have it. History rewrit- There you have it; World War II give you an image problem. Hiroshima. The bomb caused an atom- ten by some of the greatest college and summed up in a few sentences. But, if Stalingrad was, of course, named af- ic explosion, not a nuclear one. university minds the has I may, I would like to point out a few ter Joseph Stalin himself. You’ll prob- to offer. minor errors. ably find that Leningrad was named The Modern Era God bless America. The French defensive line was after Lenin. “Wars fought in the 1950’s include known as the Maginot Line. The the Crimean War, Vietnam, and the Six- 6 7 Through the lens Mama mia! This young lass was part While being a conflict journalist did have its dangers, it also had its of an Italian mechanised company. This perks says Matt Tennyson. photo, to the best of my memory, was taken in Bosnia. s many of you know, or may not Someone once told me how lucky I know, I spend 25 years of my was to travel all over the world and see Alife as a conflict journalist. This so many different places. During my 25 meant that I travelled from war to war years I was shot twice, stabbed once, writing articles, taking photographs and burnt with napalm and at one stage had shooting video. so much shrapnel in my body I would One of the major advantages of the job set off the metal detectors at the airport. I was that there was always a conflict go- have been locked up in 26 countries, de- ing on somewhere. In fact since World ported from 17 and am still a prohibited War Two ended on September 2, 1945 immigrant in three. Remind me again there has never been a single 24 hour pe- how lucky I was. riod where there wasn’t a conflict going Still, the job did have its perks at She was a captain in the Belgian Army on somewhere in the world. times. I once spent three weeks doing a and worked as a reporter and photogra- story on women in the IDF (Israeli De- pher for their official magazine. How fence Force). The guys in Israel have to come none of my colleagues looked like do three years national service while the this? women have to do 18 months. During the time I spent doing conflict journalism I met quite a few soldiers of the fairer sex. Most of them I met while they were on active duty and many of them were in combat units. Many of them should have been grac- ing the front of magazine covers or stroll- A member of the French Air Force ing down the fashion ramps, not wearing carries out maintenance work. She was uniforms and carrying weapons. Still, I a qualified aircraft mechanic. If I was wasn’t complaining. It did give the op- a French pilot I would be deliberately portunity to take some photographs that breaking my plane just so she could re- were different to the ones I normally pair it. shot. Here are just a few of them I met dur- ing my travels.

8 9 No, this is not a model. She’s an actual She was a member of a peacekeeping rescue diver with the US Navy. Tell me force from Noway. I didn’t even realise Servaas, did we have any divers in our that Norway had an army. navy that looked anything like this?

English Rose. A member of an infan- Pride of Portugal. If they all looked try unit. Many women did service in the like this I would have been willing to Gulf during Operation Desert Storm and join the Portuguese Army. Operation Iraqi Freedom.

During my time serving with the SADF I knew saw a tiffiie that looked anything remotely like this. French flair. While she may have been as tough as nails, I never saw any nails that looked this good.

10 11 By the left, quick laugh

TAXI: “Uncle Pat are you sure this is the right bus to get us back to the shellhole” asks Moth Colin Calmeyer.

BAD SERVICE: According to Moth Brian Porter he wasn’t very impressed with the snacks served at the shellhole he visited.

ROOM FOR ONE: I think Moth John Verster is trying to indicate that there is room for one more on the Namacurra patrol boat.

ME, TOO OLD: Moth Pat Tate reacts with horror when he is told that he is being kicked out of boy band One Direction because they feel he no longer qualifies as a teen heart throb.

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