D DAY Through German Eyes - The Hidden Story of June 6th 1944
Posted on 05/29/2016 7:24:33 PM PDT by doug from upland
See story at link; we are celebrating freedom and honoring all those who gave their all. If you have never seen the film, you have no idea what you are missing.
I would bet that not 10% of those in high school could even place the battle as being in WWII. We have raised a nation of idiots thanks to the leftists who have destroyed our education system and any sense of patriotism.
The computer simulations of midway never have the SBD dive bombers arriving at the exact moment the the Jap CAP is down low decimating our TBF’s. It just is too much of a coincidence even for a computer simulation. It is statistically almost impossible. Also the direction that the TBM’s came from was the one sector not covered by Japanese MPA due to mechanical problems. That is the miracle of midway.
Found the footage on youtube: “Emily” Jap flying boat being shot down. Also known as the Kawanishi H2K8, similar in size to the Boeing Clipper 314. Unlike the Boeing 314, there is a surviving Kawanishi.
Maybe they wanted to add a chick flick element to a war movie. Today it might have had naked scenes and certainly some gay BS.
1930s-style weapons and tactics that worked against obsolete militaries but had no chance against a modern industrialized country
The German’s comment was, “Where are the horses?”
So much of the Wehrmacht equipment had to be horse drawn, he was amazed to see the mechanical power of the US. He just assumed our resources were they same as his country’s.
Most of the stock footage from that era is either American planes photo dubbed to have japanese markings or juxtaposed stock footage of wrong planes for the time they are portrayed.
Two case that drives me nuts are:
SBDs portrayed bombing Pearl Harbor. I believe John Ford did that in "Why We Fight" and then everybody used his footage. Now no one knows any better and they think it is authentic footage.
The second case is F6F Hellcats and SB2C Helldivers on early WWII carrier decks. Again now, few know better and they are dying fast.
Thanks for that. I just bought and downloaded to my Kindle.
I think you will really enjoy it. The attention to detail is incredible and their analysis is amazing. I guarantee you will never look at the battle the same way again.
The movie "Midway" uses a mix of stock footage and hollyweird effects. IMO it's not a good movie because of the silly morality play story line about the japanese girlfriend. Unnecessary for the plot and not likely for the period. It is simply modern morality overlaid to 1942.
Have you read An Army at Dawn? The book captures just how woefully unprepared we were for WWII. The army was still touting the benefits of soldiers on horses against machine gun nests. In 1940, our Army ranked 17th in the world in size and combat power. That placed us behind Romania. When Germany was blitzkrieging across Europe with 136 divisions, we could field only 5 divisions.
I had an uncle who fought in north Africa and was in a tank at Kasserine Pass. He would talk about how unprepared, out-gunned, and out-manned we were. And, until Patton arrived, he talked about the lack of leadership. North Africa, like Midway and Stalingrad, were turning points in the war. Fortunately, there were some who saw what was coming and were preparing us, industrially, for the challenge. Freedom's Forge is another great book about the industrialists who made it possible for us to win WWII.
This is a terrific thread. Keeping it open in a tab for the duration of the thread.
It’s airing this afternoon on AMC.
Re: “One guy did - Ensign George Gay. Quite a story. He was the first off the Hornet and watched every plane of his squadron go down.”
I didn’t know that - I appreciate your sharing that.
Well I could have heard wrong or be remembering wrong, then. I know at least some shots from “Midway” were from the real battle, anyway.
That’s true; the dependence on horses in the USSR really hurt the Axis (besides their susceptibility to cold, they had to be fed). The problem for both Germany and Japan was that they ran out of time to develop weapons; the cutting edge in 1939 was obsolete by 1943.
I have read that, aside from attacking Russia, Hitler’s biggest mistake was underestimating submarine warfare, which could have played havoc with American transport of war material and starved UK out of the war.
Attacking Russia seems like a mistake in hindsight, but people forget that Russia surrendered to Germany in 1917; it WAS possible to win. If Japan had attacked in the east in June 1941 (instead of maintaining a ceasefire with the USSR until the final months of the war), then Stalin was done. Only the transfer of troops and material from the east made the defense of Moscow possible.
Granted, Japan wouldn’t have been able to launch the attacks of December 1941, but they probably wouldn’t even have been necessary; the USSR had all the resources they could want (especially oil).
As for the subs, Hitler knew before the US was even in the war that they were Germany’s only chance; Britain alone had dealt with Germany’s surface fleet pretty handily.
It’s ironic that for all of the damage done by American & Japanese bombs in the battle, all of the ships lost were sunk by torpedoes
It’s ironic that for all of the damage done by American & Japanese bombs in the battle, all of the ships lost were sunk by torpedoes
Well I could have heard wrong or be remembering wrong, then. I know at least some shots from “Midway” were from the real battle, anyway.
To my knowledge, there are no other scenes in the movie that came from the actual battle. Color photography was in its infancy then, so most of the other real combat footage came from the latter part of the war. That’s why you see so many shots of incorrect airplanes; the planes that were filmed in color were the ones used in the latter part of the war. Midway took place near the war’s beginning, when mostly different planes were in use.
All that said, I think “Midway” is a fantastic movie, and I never get tired of it. Indeed, seeing it in a theater when I was 10 years old is what got me interested in the actual Battle of Midway — which still avidly holds my interest, 40 years later.
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