Feldgrau.net

It was a written piece by an ex-colleague appealing for clemency in 1950 when Dietrich was in prison: Other demands for clemency came in the form of affidavits sworn by men who had known Dietrich well and could testify to his character. In tne source notes it is given as being: Affadavit, Heidelburg...

Good points Sid, I agree about verification. The quoted passage was taken by Messenger from a sworn affadavit made in 1949 when Dietrich was being persecuted by the US over the Malmedy massacre, so I tend to think the story would have been checked by the legal folk involved, Messenger does not menti...

Thanks for that info Sid, clears up a few things.

Right, I've typed up the passage from Messenger's book about the Jews in Italy that Dietrich saved, its from pages 194 and 195. Rudolf Lehmann recalled an incident in Italy in October 1943 when he was the Chief of Staff of the Leibstandarte . An officer of the Division, Obersturmbannfuhrer (although...

I think the bombard used 3 inch mortar bombs, not sure but It would be reasonable to assume so as the amunition was available and in 1940 the last thing they wanted was to have to manufacture new munitions of a different type.

It is from Hitler's Gladiator by Charles Messenger, a biography of Dietrich. I shall type up the exact passage if you like. There are other incidents mentioned too, such as Dietrich getting the wife of one of his men in the Liebstandarte out of a concentration camp etc. Sepp was a simple character i...

Not heard of that one either, but given the way the Nazi state functioned, its perfectly possible. The Night of the Long Knives pre-empted a lot of internal power struggles like this. Himmler did a lot of scheming and preferred to be sly and use techniques like blackmail, Goering would have been qui...

Hmm, I might write a history of Armstron-Vickers as I live in Barrow, the home of Vickers, their archives will be here and I'm sure they will let me have access, they have placed huge amounts of photos and info in the hands of the Dock Museum. Maybe you'd be interested in co-writing? There is so muc...

Sure, they could have sold some of them off, but I know they cut up a lot, seen lots of pictures of turrents and barrels being gas axed, think it was mostly the 12 inch guned ships like Agincourt, Iron Duke etc. One thing I've always wondered is why the Brits never adapted naval guns to tank and spg...

No, never been to Ireland. All the coastal batteries here (Walney Island, Workington, Whitehaven, Maryport etc.) Are long gone. The only problem with older weapons like the RN 4 inch is lesser accuracy than contemporary pieces and shorter range, but neother are much of an issue in such coastal empla...

Its not bad, not as in depth as I might like, but worth a read.

I'm pretty sure they were gone before the Ardennes offensive, I've read a lot on that battle and never heard mention of them, thats why I think they would have left by then. After Falaise, there was nothing to stop them going wherever they wanted in France as all the Germans were running for the Rhi...

No, the Norwegian coastal artillery was quite formidable, but there was a fort somewhere with guns from the 1880s, Krupp ones I think. Can't remember the name of the place now. In a battle between ships and land based artillery, the land based stuff usually wins, remember the Brits firing Milans at ...

Dietrich and Rommel had a good relationship, they had respect for each other as Dietrich was a soldier's soldier, like Rommel, Dietrich discussed the Fuhrer's madness in Normandy and Dietrich and Rommel agreed the war should be ended, Dietrich would certainly have supported the plot to kill Hitler i...

I have a book called Hitler's Generals that is edited by Corelli Barnett, it's not the same book, but it has a chapter on Fritsch and it makes no mention of this story. To me it sounds like pure fiction, if it had happened, von Rundstedt , Fritsch and all those "Potsdam staff officers" wou...