"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few..."

[Denis]

Perhaps an interesting footnote to all of this, I'm currently reading a book titled "Oil and War" which is basically about oil's part in WWII on both sides, so far a very interesting read.

That does sound interesting, especially the Allies continued bombing of the Ploesti (spelling) oilfields.

One common misconception of WWII is the belief that German tanks and armored vehicles ran on diesel fuel. In actual fact, most of the diesel fuel was reserved for U-boat use. Once I read that I was suddenly appalled trying to imagine the fuel mileage of a Tiger tank running on gasoline!

[TBird1958]

Without going into specifics (since I'm at work  )  the huge misconception about the German Army is that it was "motorized" when in fact it was largly horse-drawn.

[eb2]

Oil and War, indeed!  Hence the ill-timed swing south to Kiev!  Moscow was effectively abandoned, and the propaganda impact of the German army taking the Kremlin was avoided thankfully.

Goering was a supremely confident and feisty character once he was locked up in Spandau and kicked his dope habit.  He got very lucid, and figured out he better off himself.

There was a bit I read ages back about how RAF veterans had almost no hypertension and were in great health long after the war.  Steely sons of guns. 

[Denis]

When I was in high school I wrote Albert Speer and got his autograph. Under Speer munitions production increased drastically, even with all the bombings. They problem was they couldn't get half that stuff to the front because the Allies were bombing the hell out of the railways.

[TBird1958]

Really!?

That's quite something, Speer's story was also a very good read. 

[exiledarchangel]

even a small place like Crete cost us our paratrooper force for the rest of the war.

You know, those mad cretes down there still have some Lugers hidden in their houses, just in case someone wants to invade them again...

[Big_Stu]

If this
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00ttjz0/First_Light/

is half as good as the book it'll be amazing. I only read it last month & it's the next best thing to sitting in a two-seater Spit during a battle. True story based on the pilots autobiog; he was a "veteran" at 20! 

[Highlander]

Ken, on 15 September 1990, 168 aircraft in seven formations celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain.

Missed this posting (and with it being BoB day today) - They probably couldn't muster that many aircraft now...

The RAF is quite literally fighting for survival with the formation of a "Combined Forces"; there is also talk of the French and British Navies sharing aircraft carriers - apparently they only go to see every other year...

There are imminent and stringent cuts due to be anounced for our Armed Forces this week...

For the 70th Anniversary - todays big event was unveiling a statue to the Kiwi that looked after the RAF protecting London...