PBS Program on 8th Air Force and Air War Feb 8

A program about the air war over Europe airs February 8, 2010.

Click here for trailer and info.

Did Germany develop Stealth Technology During WWII? It Appears it Did.

A contempory model constructed from the 1944 blueprints below. Many more photos and information on the weblink below.

England's 'Daily Mail' has a very interesting report on a stealth jet developed by the Germans in World War Two. I must admit this is outside my area of knowledge. I ran the article past Maurice Rockett, who was a B-17 bombardier in the war, and he commented: "It seems it was two or three weeks ago, on TV, the stealth bomber was discussed in depth. One had to be spellbound by the accomplishment of the Germans who were so far ahead of us. Once again little we realize how close we came to be manhandled by the Germans with their weaponry. As for this writeup, there are a couple of changes to be made as far as I can remember. First of all, it is stated that the flying wing never got beyond the blue print stage. Not true, because on the TV special, they showed the plane in flight, and acknowledge the pilot by name who died in the process of test flying. On the next point I am a lettle secure, but it seems to me the body was essentally made of plywood."

For a link to the Daily Mail article, click here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1198112/Sleek-swift-deadly--Hitlers-stealth-bomber-turned-tide-Britain.html#comments

Last German World War I Veteran, Erich Kaestner, Passes Away in Cologne, Germany

Last German soldier to fight in WWI dies without fanfare
Three British WWI Vets Survive

By ALAN HALL - Daily Mail, London

Last updated at 23:20pm on 23rd January 2008


The last German veteran of the First World War has died without fanfare or recognition at his home in Hanover aged 107.



An undated photograph of Mr. Kaestner, taken some years after WWI.

Erich Kaestner's passing went unrecorded on New Year's Day and was revealed only in a remembrance notice published by his family.

The death of the infantryman who later became a judge means that there are only four Great War veterans left from the major powers of Europe - three British and one French.

Kaestner was a middle class boy who answered his country's call in July 1918.

German commanders had committed an exhausted army to one last push on the Western Front to try to break the Allied defences. Called Operation Michael and launched in April that year, it failed.

As a member of Sonderbattalion Hauck, a group of highly-trained recruits named after a prominent commander in the Imperial German Army, Kaestner served in the ranks trying to halt the Allies as they pushed the Germans back, causing great losses.

In November 1918, shortly before the Armistice and before Kaiser Wilhelm II went into exile in Holland, Kaestner was among a number of troops reviewed by him.



Surviving WW1 veterans: William Stone, 107, Harry Patch, 109, and Henry Allingham


He ended the war back in Germany and became a lawyer.

The death notice says he was a retired judge and had earned the Lower Saxony Cross of Merit for distinguished public service.

The German army's Military Research Institute was unable to shed more light on his military career.

"In Germany such an event doesn't have the same kind of significance as it does in other countries," said institute spokesman Bernhard Chiari.

"Any form of commemoration of military events is seen as problematic here.

"Our veterans only take part in public ceremonies when they are invited abroad to join commemorative events with veterans from other countries.

"World War I is seen as part of a historical line that led to World War II."

Two million Germans were killed in WW1 and Britain and her empire lost a million men


Three of the last four survivors are British - front-line soldier Harry Patch, 109, Royal Naval stoker William Stone, 107, and Royal Naval Air Service flier Henry Allingham, 111.



The fourth survivor is Frenchman Lazarre Ponticelli, 110.

Mr Patch was a 'Tommy' who fought at the bloodbath of Passchendaele - a battle that cost more than 400,000 Allied and German lives with a gain measured in yards.


The veteran, who lives in Wells in Somerset and who served with the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry, last year visited the site where his trench was located when the battle began in 1917.


Henry Allingham is Britain's last survivor of the Battle of Jutland, the sea clash between the British and German fleets that cost 7,000 sailors their lives.


He flew as a spotter for the battleships in a Sopwith plane.

Mr Stone was a stoker who was called up but was still in training when the war ended.

He served on many warships in the war, surviving sinkings and other near-misses.

While Erich Kaestner's passing went un-noticed, the death last Sunday of Louis de Cazenave, the last-but-one French survivor, made headlines around the world.

He took part in the Battle of the Somme and died aged 110 at his home in Brioude in central France.

He was fiercely anti-war, having served in the slaughter on the Chemin des Dames on the front - a place where men bleated like sheep as they filed into the trenches because they knew they were lambs being led to the slaughter.


"His death is an occasion for all of us to think of the 1.4million French who sacrificed their lives during this conflict, for the 4.5million wounded, for the 8.5million mobilised," President Nicolas Sarkozy said in a tribute.


De Cazenave is survived by Ponticelli, a French Foreign Legion veteran wounded in the Battle of the Frontiers when the Germans stormed into France in 1914.


He was discharged from the Legion and later joined the Italian Army in 1915 and was wounded again fighting the Austrians who were on Germany's side.


Hit in the head by artillery, he astonishingly survived.

My own observation: How sad that Germany does not honor its veterans. However, I certainly understand their reluctance, based on the terrible history of World War Two.

Incredible World War Two Aircraft: Fi-156 Fieseler Storch

The war had many amazing aircraft, but perhaps one that is often overlooked is Germany's Fi-156 Fieseler Storch (Stork). With a maximum speed of just over 100 mph, this plane was light and could take off and land on a dime. It was used in the daring rescue of Benito Musolini during the war, and was primarily an aerial recon aircraft.

The Storch was a fabric-covered STOL (Short Take-off and Landing) aircraft that held a crew of three. First flown in 1936, the Storch needed only 200 feet of runway to take off (that's 60 meters for you Europeans) and only 66 feet (20 meters) to land.

Variations were created for special conditions. A desert model had extra sand filters, an ambulance version could carry one stretcher, and an enlarged version could seat five.

A Storch carrying German commander Gen. Erwin Rommel flies over a Panzer column

A Fieseler Storch was the last dogfight victim of the western front.

Pilot Duanes Francies and his observer, Lieutenant William Martin, of the 5th US Army Division, were flying aerial recon in their Piper Cub when they spotted a Storch circling below them. Francies and Martin fired on the Storch with ther Colt .45 pistols, and the plane spiraled to the ground!

After a short gun battle, Francies and his observer took the two Germans into custody. Lt. Martin was awarded the Air Medal for his part in the fight, but Francies would have to wait until the story was reported in Cornelius Ryan's book "The Last Battle," to finally be awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. The USAF was 22 years late. Apart from being the last Luftwaffe plane lost in the west, this Storch was also the only enemy plane downed by pistol fire during the war.

Basic facts about the Storch:

One 240-hp Argus 8-cylinder inverted V piston engine

Only weighed 2,050 pounds empty

Maximum speed 109 mph

Cruising speed 81 mph

Ceiling: 15,090 feet

Range: 239 miles

Armament: one rear-facing 7.93 mm machine gun

Number built: 2,900+

An R.A.F. Stone Gathers No Moss

I am permitting myself to meander today. My two passions are aviation history and music, and today's entry covers both.


I still own a record player (three in fact) and several hundred records that have been with me for years, including most of the Beatles records (even the 45s) and all but a few of the Rolling Stones records.


For years, I've been a big fan of the Rolling Stones. Last October, I drove 850 miles round-trip from Idaho to Montana to see them in concert (and got caffeine poisoning from the all-night, coffee-fueled drive). My only regret was that my favorite Stone had long since departed Rolling Stones, Inc. and forged out on his own with independent projects.


Bill Wyman, who laid down the meanest bass licks in the business and formed, with Charlie Watts, the greatest rhythm section in the history of rock and roll, has the distinction of being one of the last of the Sixties rock and rollers to do national service in Britain. The only American who became as famous after serving time as a draftee is Jimmie Hendrix.

Wyman was drafted into the Royal Air Force in 1955. The photo shows Wyman in the summer of 1955 in Hereford.


In the fall of 1955, Wyman signed on for an additional year, and ended up posted at an RAF base at Oldenburg, West Germany, where he worked in the motor transport section.


Wyman writes: "The camp was comprised of 3 Hawker Hunter squadrons - 23 Squadron, 26 Squadron & 33 Squadron, & included 1,000 RAF Regiment members – the whole camp comprised 4,000 military personnel. The camp was on a 4-hour (evacuate the camp) alert for most of the time I was there, being only 100 miles from the Russian border."


"The Suez Crisis occurred while I was on leave in England, and I was obliged to return to base immediately. It was here that I heard the beginnings of Rock ‘n’ Roll on AFN Radio (American Forces Network), and took up guitar playing for the first time. In 1957 I formed a skiffle group on camp. I was demobbed in January 1958."


(For more on Wyman's military history, click on this link: http://www.britisharmedforces.org/ns/ns/nat_bill_wyman.htm)



When Wyman first joined the Stones, he still had a full-time job, and he treaded a fine line on his hair length and hip-ness. Of course, once the Rolling Stones took off, he could do as he pleased. After retiring from the Stones, Wyman has written a number of books on various subjects, from the Stones to blues to archealogy. He also continues to lay down his licks in various blues bands and still makes records. One of my favorite tunes, 'Stuff', is a Bill Wyman composition.


As Tom Wolfe once wrote: "The Beatles just want to hold your hand--the Stones want to burn down your town". The Stones and the Beatles are the two greatest bands of the Sixties, and of course the Stones are still rolling, but it ain't the Stones without Bill.


Today, I salute Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones for his role in defending the free world back in the scary days of the Cold War.

German Luftwaffe B-17

Yes, it's a disconcerting sight--an American B-17 Flying Fortress painted in the livery of the Third Reich. There were several during the war, and occcasionally these captured B-17s would fly near formations. Usually they were used to train the German Luftwaffe in the flight characteristics of the enemy.

This particular B-17 went missing in action on December 12, 1942, very early in the war. Originally, this B-17F had the serial number#41-24585, and flew with the 303rd Bomb Group. The plane landed in a hay field near Melun, France, damaging the ball turret. The Germans were able to transport it to Netherlands, repair it, and fly it to Germany. The damaged ball turret was never replaced.

The plane was re-painted with German insignia and given serial number DL+XC. The underside was painted yellow. After careful examination at the Luftwaffe Test and Evaluation Center at Rechlin, the plane, newly named . "Wulfe Hound" made its maiden voyage with the Luftwaffe on March 17, 1943. It was later transferred to the Luftwaffe "Kampfgeschwader" KG200 Squadron at Rangesdforf, Germany on and took part in training and secret missions between May and June 1944.

Source, 303rd Bomb Group website. Link at http://www.303rdbg.com/pp-wulfehound.html

The Day the American Flag Flew Over Moosburg

Stalag VII was liberated on April 29, 1945. This Nazi Flag was torn down from top of city hall in Moosburg, Germany and replaced with an American Flag on that same day. It was signed by over 100 POWs and returned to the United States by the 303rd Bomb Group's Angelo P. Petix. The Petix family donated the flag to the Mighty Eighth AF Museum in Pooler, GA
If you or a family member signed this flag, please contact us. (The website has a link to super-size the flag and check the signatures on it close-up)

Message written on the captured flag by Maj. Andrew S. Low, Jr. 453rd Bomb Group.

An interesting story about the liberation of Moosburg is found here http://www.303rdbg.com/pow-moosburg-flag.html

Thanks to Marilyn Walton for this story idea.