Tag Archives: FIDM

WWII

The Prison Door

A Prison Door From Nuremberg

The Blame

The cause for a war is something that usually can not be attributed to one man. When it comes to WWII it would be easy to say that Adolf Hitler took civilization to the brink of destruction. It was his voice that rose above the crowd and took him to power. His desire to punish the enemies of his country. His personality that convinced millions to follow him on the path to war. It was he who decided that anyone that was not part of the “Aryan” race were to be considered subhuman and disposable.

One man alone however can not shoulder the entire blame. While many Germans followed because they didn’t have much choice, many more followed because they agreed with the vision of what Germany should be according to Hitler. When the war ended Hitler was not there to take responsibility for his actions, but many of those who served him were.

The Trial

After the war many of these men, civilian and military, were taken into Allied custody. They would stand trial, though many probably did not deserve it. The German town of Nuremburg would become the place for these trials and there the story of the war gained a new dimension. Some simply said they were following orders and were not responsible for the atrocities. Some argued that they were right for what they did. In total 185 Germans stood trial for their actions during the war. Twelve were sentenced to death. Eight life sentences and seventy-seven prison lengths of various terms.

The Prison Door

While they awaited trial the men remained in the jail located at the Palace of Justice. The door in the photo above is from that prison. The men spent their days in a small cell, fed through a slot in the door and taken back and forth to the proceedings under armed guard. While in their cells each door had a soldier assigned to it. Their job was not to prevent escape, but not in they way you may think.

Rather than being worried that the prisoners would break out and make a run for it, they feared that if left alone the prisoners would take their own life. Like Hitler did. Doing this would mean they would avoid responsibility for the crimes they committed. Even so, six men escaped justice via suicide, including Hermann Göring. The prison door above is a reminder that while one man can not start a war. It stands also as a reminder that sometimes there is justice.

Word and Phrases, WWII

Kilroy Was Here

Kilroy was here

Kilroy Was Here

 

The doodle and phrase seems to be everywhere that US Soldiers have visited throughout the years.  It is really cool to think that something like this went viral before the term going viral even came to be. So who is Kilroy and where does he come from? Now that is an interesting story.

Mr. Chad

The origin of the doodle part, the bald man, big nose, hands looking over a wall, most likely originated in Britain in the early days of WWII. That character, named Mr. Chad, was a response to the rations during the war. His image would appear on walls with a phrase such as “Wot? No tea?” Or whatever was in short supply at the time.  US servicemen stationed in Britain took note of Mr. Chad and took him onto the continent during the invasion of France.

Kilroy

The name Kilroy is a little tougher to nail down. For the most part it is thought that Kilroy wasn’t a real person, just a neat name to go with the image. There is however at least one possibility that makes sense. In 1946 a radio contest tried to find out where the name came and phrase came from. One of the contestants was James J. Kilroy, a steel worker from Massachusetts. During the war his primary job was inspecting tanks and ship hulls.

As Kilroy explained to the ATA:

I started my new job with enthusiasm, carefully surveying every inner bottom and tank before issuing a contract. I was thoroughly upset to find that practically every test leader [the head of a work crew] I met wanted me to go down and look over his job with him, and, when I explained to him that I had already checked the job and could not spare the time to crawl through one of those tanks again, he would accuse me of not having looked the job over.

I was getting sick of being accused of not looking the jobs over and one day as I came through the manhole of a tank I had just surveyed, I angrily marked with yellow crayon on the tank top, where the tester could see it, ‘Kilroy was here.’

The following day, a test gang leader approached me with a grin on his face and said, ‘I see you looked my job over.’ I nodded in agreement.

Kilroy figured that other workers may have seen his mark and took the expression with them when the went in the military. He was able to provide witness and collaboration for the events and won the contest.

Uncle Joe?

That seems like a good enough answer to me.  The best Kilroy story though by far is from the Potsdam Conference in 1945. Churchill, Truman and Stalin were meeting to make their plans for the post war world. During a break Stalin reportedly went into one of the restrooms. When finished he came out asking one of his aids who Kilroy was. Not even Uncle Joe could avoid a visit by Kilroy!

 

WWI

The Granatenwerfer or Grenade Thrower

Granatenwerfer Grenade Thrower

Granatenwerfer

War seems to bring out some of the strangest inventions known to man. In this case the Granatenwerfer which translates to “grenade thrower.” The device was developed for the Austro-Hungarian military by a priest and was used by the German army during WWI.  It could throw a grenade further than a person, but did not have the range that mortars would have. It served as a middle ground solution that was a product of its time.

Specifications

The Granatenwerfer itself weighed about 31lbs and came with a solid base plate that weighed in at 48lbs. Those weights meant that it could be easily carried by one or two people and assembled in place. It was capable of throwing a 14oz grenade to a maximum of 330 yards. With practice it could fire 4 to 5 projectiles a minute!

The grenade itself was designed to slip onto the launch tube and contained a “blank” rifle cartridge ( a normal round with the bullet removed) which it used as the propellant. A pull of a lanyard fired the unit. When the projectile exploded it could spread shrapnel over about a 30 meter radius. It could be fired effectively directly at a target, or indirectly (lobbed into trenches and such).

The Pigeon

To the French, the Granatenwerfer round made a very distinctive warbling sound when the round was in the air. Because of this the French referred to the grenades as pigeons. That distinctive sound came into play for the Germans later in the war.  Due to the short-range of the weapons it was hard to use them during full on assaults. By the time the grenades launched, the advancing Germans would have caught up to them. This put them in danger of getting into the blast range.

Knowing the enemy would likely go to ground when they fired with their distinctive sound, they would remove the explosives from the grenades. This gave them the advantage of advancing without worry of their own bombs, but also knowing the enemy would have their head down!