Another 250kg (550 lb) bomb was found this week during construction works in Würselen, an Aachen suburb, which was fiercely fought for in autumn of 1944.
App. 2,000 people were temporarily evacuated on thursday while the bomb was disarmed.
Some photos:
photos: Dagmar Meyer-Roeger - http://www.aachener-zeitung.de/
Some info about 30th US Infanry Division in Würselen in course of the Battle of Aachen:
http://www.oldhickory30th.com/119th%20Nov%206th%20Recon%20Co%20A%20B%20A%20Jackson.pdf
Hello to all, my dear Laconia, doesn’t have that you that wait for it, because according to the last information, it would not be less than 130 Spitfire that would sleep wrapped wisely in their case. This number lets somewhat dreamer, because when one knows the effort that it requires to restore a plane of World War II, here they are all new.
Best Regards Fred
Search for HMS Saracen to begin
A state-of-the-art French research ship will on Monday begin a search for the HMS Saracen, one of the most famous submarines of the Second World War.
By Peter Allen, Paris
3:23PM GMT 17 Feb 2013
The £8.5 million André Malraux, which only came into service last year, will set off from Marseille to try and find the wreck of the S-class submarine scuttled 70 years ago.
Terry Hodgkinson, a British author who has written extensively about HMS Saracen, said the team, from France’s underwater archaeological unit (DRASSM) “intend to locate her first by side-scan sonar, and then send down a robotic camera to both film and photograph her.”
“A copy of the resulting pictures and film will be sent to the Royal Navy Submarine Museum in Gosport for their archives. Some will also be sent to the family members of HMS Saracen’s crew,” Mr Hodgkinson added.
HMS Saracen was scuttled close to Bastia on Saturday August 14 1943 after being severely damaged by depth charges from the Italian corvettes Minerva and Euterpe.
Lt Michael Lumby, captain of the Saracen, deliberately waited a day because he did not want to sink his boat on the ‘unlucky’ Friday 13.
This meant his entire crew staying underwater until 2am on the Saturday before he ordered his chief engineer to open the vents with the submarine’s engines still running.
Earlier in the war, she had sunk the German submarine U-335 with almost all its crew on its first patrol southeast of the Faroe Islands.
Saracen then became notorious in the Mediterranean, launching regular torpedo attacks on Italian and German shipping, as well as on enemy ports.
Just before her scuttling, she landed agents from MI6 on Corsica whose aim was to spy on the Axis forces on the island.
Two Saracen crew drowned as they escaped the ship, meaning it is now an official war grave. Others were captured but then released when Italy capitulated later in the war.
Lt Lumby himself was sent to a German POW camp but after the war became commander of HMS Belfast, which is now a floating museum in London.
There are believed to be just two survivors of the 48 officers and men who served aboard Saracen, and there is a marble plaque in the citadel in Bastia with the ship’s badge honouring them.
There is also a granite monument on the beach at Cupabia, Corsica, marking the spot where the secret agents landed.
If the team DRASSM intends to spend most of this week searching for the Saracen. If it locates the wreck a bronze badge will be lowered on to her.
The back of the badge reads: “In memory of HMS Saracen and her Crew who played a vital role in the Liberation of Corsica. Sank 14th August 1943.”
& the Burma Spitfire story turns out to be B.S…
I recall reading about Tempests being tropical type-tested in Sudan, & when they were finished, several replacement Napier Sabre mills, still grease-packed in crates, were simply dumped into the Nile, & they might be worth a dredging now…it would be great to have a Napier powered Hawker Fury flying, those 24cyl mills sound so sweet…
This is a repost of a recovery from another site. Hope it wasn’t already posted here. : "StuG 40 Ausf G.
The rise of the StuG 40 Ausf G caused an increased interest in the city. Near the war machine were employees of the military enlistment office, Police, Emergency Situations Ministry, prosecutors, customs … many people do not come to the rise of Russian tanks. There was even the chief prosecutor, whom no one has ever seen in the forest is not - and here it is even the bones collected. The authorities and the police took away all the finds.
Finds:
As long as the tank is not sunk (in 1943), it someone had been: the plates were empty, empty pistol holster, no gun. Machine MP-40 is broken with water - and got frozen. All this means that the tank still for a while standing on ice.
According to the official document inside StuG 40 ausf G found the remains of four crew members. However, only three mentioned in all other messages. Their badges:
One helmet was written Braun Z. And in the documents of one of the crew members found the document issued to Z. Braun 08.03.23 name instead of the lost soldier’s books.
The bodies of three crew members were transferred to the People’s Union of Germany and buried in the cemetery in the collecting Sebezh the Pskov region. Some say that they brought the case “murder of two or more persons” in the local prosecutor’s office (police), after which they had the year before burial were there))).
The rest of the findings:
Housing StuG 40 ausf G was painted in four layers:
Tactical signs:
Other inscriptions:
According to my sources “Z. Braun” should be the German casualty Obergefreiter Siegfried Julius Braun, born March 8, 1923 at Langenhöh, killed in action January 11, 1943 200 meter south of Lipenka/Russia. Buried at Sebesh German military cemetery/Russia among the unknown for it was not sure which remains were actually these of Braun.
Here’s another recent recovery, even your kids will enjoy it. (someone was going to do this eventually,) https://youtu.be/IJz_Gm1mNW0
