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 — Russia, 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 Adolf Hitler’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 Canada 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, Mexico, Brazil, • In World War II, British soldiers In the Western desert the German mand of Yakov Pavlov defended a Spain and Italy to become the only got a ration of three sheets of toilet Luftwaffe 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 prisoner of war from World ing World War II.