[fso301]

Concerning that p5 article about Germans outposts being alerted by telephone. I think it worth noting the Polish prisoner who said he was forcibly conscripted into the Germany army under penalty of death.

My understanding is that this happened a lot to men in Eastern Europe. Even for those who "volunteered", for many it was a matter of volunteer and receive food rations, or face starvation.

[henkster]

There is the story in Cornelius Ryan’s “The Longest Day” about the two POWs taken on D-Day; nobody could understand them. It turned out they were Mongolian. I believe they had been press-ganged into the Red Army in the late 1930s, captured by the Germans in 1941, and then pressed into service for the Germans and sent to France.

They wound up being repatriated through the United States and across the Pacific, completing a round-the-world tour that few Mongolians have ever done.

Too bad for them they didn’t stay in America and start one of those nice Mongolian BBQ restaurants.

[colorado tanker]

The Navy officer who wrote the report on the PT-109 affair was Byron White, who became bff with Kennedy. Lucky draw - another officer might have hammered him for losing his boat.

White went back to Colorado to practice law after the War, but remained a Friend of Jack, organizing his Colorado campaign. Kennedy rewarded him with Deputy Attorney General and later Justice of the Supreme Court.