Dave Clark

My father (who flew with Bomber Command during the war) often used to say that aircrew losses were one of the reasons for Britain's poor results in the more technical industries.

Vote for the green apocalypse with your zweite Stimme!

Merry Christmas from Berlin and, to emphasise what Leo wrote, stay healthy in 2021.

Several of which Baldwin sold to the Japanese for their military railway

I'm going for the Autocanon 4,7 Type T13B3 myself

Very nice picture of the last existant 12,8cm Flak 40M Zwilling (the naval version) at APG. It is on a Culemeyer R80-2 heavy duty trailer, which would be used to move the gun to its place of installation. This particular gun was installed in Bremerhaven-Eckwarderhörne. The Culemeyer trailer was developed in the early thirties by the Reichsbahn in order to transport rail wagons to locations with no rail connection. They then started transporting very large loads (such as transformers) which exceeded the minimum clearance outline (ie were too big to go through a tunnel or under a bridge!) The 12,8cm Flak 40/4 was the single barrelled version mounted on the Geschützwagen II of the Reichsbahn. In 1945 there were 212 of these still in service. SOURCE: Fröhlich, Michael. Schwere Panzer der Wehrmacht: Von der 12,8 cm Flak bis zum Jagdtiger. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart, 2015. ISBN 978-3-613-03806-6 **Pages 6-12**

Yes, it was recovered on 03.02.1943 from a Sterling which had been shot down near Rotterdam returning from a raid on Cologne. As you say it was destroyed in a raid on 01.03.1943, however a replacement was obtained from a Halifax shot down the same night. Together with German components this was mounted on the Humbolthain command bunker and tested shortly before Whitsun 1943. The art collection was in the G-Turm (the gun tower) at the Berlin Zoo - actually in the designated British Sector. That of course didn't matter to the Soviets who were scooping up "Reparations" right, left and centre!

The original versions of the 12,8cm Flak 40 series had a barrel life of 1,000 rounds. A Product Improvement programme doubled the barrel life to 2,000 rounds. Not directly, but they did construct the Maunsell AA Forts in the Thames and Mersey estuaries. Maunsell Forts - Wikipedia

Flaktürme were constructed in only 3 cities in the Reich: Berlin - to protect the governmental district. Of the 3 FTs built in Berlin, Friedrichhain was demolished by the Soviets and buried under a hill of rubble and earth; Zoo was demolished by the British and also buried under rubble and earth. In the mid fifties, due to planned U-Bahn construction, the Zoo FT was uncovered and completely removed, the rubble being ground up and used for road and rail construction. The Humboldthain FT, although only partially demolished, also (mainly) disappeared under a covering of rubble and earth. In 2003 the association "Berliner Unterwelten" received authorisation to examine the interior of the FT, subsequently gaining permission to conduct guided tours during the summer months. In winter it is the winter quarters for Berlin's population of bats! Hamburg - to protect the docks. Here there were only two FT - one on the Heiligengeistfeld (St Pauli) now known as the "Medienbunker" with various media (and other) firms, and a discotheque; the other in Wilhelmsburg now known as the "Energiebunker" with a biomass powerstation, a solar energy installation and a water storage tank. Vienna - well AH was Austrian wasn't he! The Esterhazypark FT was converted into a deepsea aquarium in 1958 while the Arenbergpark FT has been used as storage and by a theatre group. The Augarten FT remains, despite a number of proposals, unused. I suspect that Ken Estes, as a relatively recent visitor to Vienna, can tell us more! SOURCES: Foedrowitz, Michael. Die Flaktürme in Berlin, Hamburg und Wien 1940 - 1950. Podzun-Pallas-Verlag, Wölfersheim-Berstadt, 1996. ISBN 3-7909-0575-5. (Waffen-Arsenal Sonderband S-44) Foedrowitz, Michael. Flak-Türme. Published privately, Berlin, 2007 Kaule, Martin. Der historische Reiseführer: Nordseeküste 1933-1945 Mit Hamburg und Bremen. Christoph Links, Berlin 2011. ISBN 978-3-86153-633-8 **Page 67**

No, you visited the FT at Humboldthain in the former French sector. The Zoo FT was destroyed on 30.07.1948 by the British using 35 tons of explosives. Admittedly they had already had two previous attempts; on 35.07.1947 with 25 tons of explosives and again on 27.09.1947 with 21 tons of explosives! The amount of aircraft shot down by the Berlin FTs is not supported by documentary evidence but is estimated to be as follows: Humboldthain = 32 Friedrichshain = 16-20 Zoo = 13+

Fair question. FWIW I agree with Rich it was about the logistics so I don't subscribe to the ending the war by Xmas stuff you see sometimes, and I don't really think anybody that mattered thought so at the time either. However, I think a successful MG in its entirety might well have set the scene better for the resumption of operations in early 1945, possibly by removing the need to fight through the Reichswald and Westwall defences and force the Rhine; at worst it would have offered an additional line of attack that would have stretched the Germans yet further. BillB In this context, Hew Strachan has written that SOURCE: Mawdsley, Evan. Thunder in the East: The Nazi-Soviet War 1941-1945. Hodder Arnold, London, 2007. ISBN 978-0-340-61392-4 **General Editor's Preface, pages xviii - xix**

I find that highly unlikely, considering the amount of explosives they poured onto the city during their assault on Berlin.

Whoever said a Stuka unit had "lost its mojo"? I've said a number of times that based on the evidence in late September a number of Stuka units were non-operational. Is that what you mean? I may have said they had been shot to shit; that would have been accurate. As of 30 March 1940, just before the start of the campaign in Norway and Denmark, the Stuka units T/O&E strength of crews was 420. They had 412 of which 378 were ready for action. By the end of the campaign in France on 29 June 1940, the T/O&E had risen to 456, of which they had 399, but only 299 were ready for action. A total of 106 had been lost. By 28 September 1940, T/O&E had risen again to 465, of which they had 420, but only 361 were ready for action. A further 83 crews had been lost. Note that by 28 September, the Stuka had been out of combat operations since 18 August and did not return to combat until spring 1941, but between 28 September and 2 November, they lost a further 16 crews, all to non-operational causes, i.e., in training. By 2 November, T/O&E crews remained at 465 and on hand crews remained at 420, so they received all of 16 replacement crews over the course of 35 days. As of 2 November only 328 crews were ready for action. Oh, excellent, I will await the revelation of your source with bated breath. Mine continues to be the quarterly Luftwaffe Einsatzbereitschaft der Fliegenden Verbände, as found on frames 0569 and 0570 of microfilm reel K1027M at AFHRA. ... and what do they know?...

Discussed this with BansheeOne when we met on Saturday. We're both up for this!

The bombing of Dresden is synomimous with the firestorm, thus the daylight raid after the firestorm is barely a blip on the radar. ... the daylight raids The Americans bombed Dresden on 14 and 15 Feb and again on 2 March 1945

I can't recommend this highly enough: Taylor, Frederick. Dresden: Tuesday 13 February 1945. Bloomsbury, London, 2005. ISBN 0-7475-7084-1

Such as Pforzheim, attacked on the night 23/24 Feb 1945 ie after Dresden. 367 Lancasters and 13 Mosquitoes dropped 1,825 tons of bombs in 22 minutes. It is estimated that 17,600 people were killed (third heaviest air-raid death toll in Germany) and that 83% of the built-up area was destroyed (probably the greatest proportion in one raid).

I'm fortunate enough to have both Armour 1960 and Design and Development 1968. I also have a, probably unique, German translation of Armour. It was a labour of love of a former colleague in the German Patent Office who even pitched it to Lehmanns Verlag. He always claimed they rejected him because they were hoping for a translation from von Senger!

No, it was Ruth Davidson, the former leader of the Conservatives in Scotland, who made the offer.

It is, I'll put up a picture when I find a decent hosting site - can you recommend one? Too late - I already have the book! I've had it about that long as well

A lot of standard city infrastructure was lost with the division of the city. For example, East Berlin didn't have a zoo or a botanical garden until they built their own versions, while West Berlin didn't have a large opera at first. Supposedly allied service's personnel liked to go to the Eastern one, partly because it was so well restored, but being subsidized, the tickets were dirt cheap. I did read the Anhalter Bahnhoff was demolished because it serviced western cities, of which where was obviously a distinct lack of requirement. Cant remember when it was knocked down though. In February 1945, an Allied air attack badly damaged the roof of the main hall; on 17 April a last train of refugees left the station. After the Americans had demolished the remnants of the roof (for safety reasons), local traffic was resumed in August 1945. By summer 1949 11 pairs of trains were running, increasing to 19 by 1951. In 1951 the Reichsbahn decided that all long distance trains to Berlin would terminate on East Berlin territory. So on 17 May 1952 the Reichsbahn stopped trains going into Anhalter Bahnhof and lead them instead into Ostbahnhof. The station and its tracks were maintained until November 1959 when the demolition commenced, terminating in 1962.

Happy Birthday from Berlin!

...as mud!

Thanks, Briganza, for a couple of excellent posts. To amplify a couple of your points, the NI civil rights movement was heavily influenced by students from Queen's University, the most prominent being Bernadette Devline. The "Protestant Backlash" against their activities was led by Reverend Ian Paisley and Major Ronnie Bunting. Their intervention lead to the death of the first member of the Security Forces; Constable Arbuckle of the RUC and to the introduction of the British Army on the streets of NI (to the relief of the Catholic population) The IRA were nowhere to be seen at this stage. In fact, in the Catholic enclaves, the letters "IRA" stood for "I Ran Away"!

No need to march on Berlin. Let them be. Partition Germany once again; this time horizontally. Starting the line slightly north of Dresden ( Leipzig goes to the Socialist Northern State) - Erfurt south - Kassel north - Fulda Giessen south - Marburg north - between Köln and Bonn to the border. There will have to be some sort of negotiation with Belgium and Holland for an access corridor to the North Sea. The north will be needed as tax-lands to fill the coffers and to secure access to the sea, the march on Berlin will ofcourse be for symbolic reasons. Afterwards the city will be stripped of its powers and left to rot as a bloating corpse, only attracting arthouse softies, hippies and deviants, in its new role as region center in the Brandenburg backwater. The true power will move south to Wien, the old imperial capital....... Just run it past me again why Germany united around Prussia rather than Austria the first time round!