Hi everybody. As I get older, I realize how important my dads WW2 stories have become in recent years. He was in the Battle of the Bulge in the American 3rd army, Infantry, and had moved all the way into Austria the last few months of the war. I have one of his Bronze Stars with me right now, along with it's citation "For action against the enemy on or around April 18, 1945".
I remember way back when, as a very young boy in the 60's, him telling me about the sheer terror of driving in convoy and then, without warning, those big, powerful and fast Focke Wulf 190's would scream down on them and opening up on them with four 20 mm cannons wreaking absolute havoc. The convoys would be torn to pieces and there were American soldier body parts everywhere. My father said in sheer anger, he would fire at these planes with his M1 Garand. These planes were strongly built and were designed to take lots of fire. If my own father hadn't told me about it, then I certainly would never have known, since most news tells about allied victories as if there were no other alternative. My dad was a decorated American soldier and yet, he was always a bit in awe about the German fighting machine and just how powerful, capable, and deadly it really was. In fact, his words were to the effect that the only reason America did as well as it did was because it had much more 'stuff' then Germany, but Germany had the best weapons, including many of it's soldiers.
Straight from a real American fighting man that was really there and really was in combat and really did shoot, and kill, Germans; "It was the Russians on the Eastern front that really bore the full brunt of Germany's fighting force. Anything in the west was a "mop up" (fierce as the fighting was) to basically stop Russia from overtaking all of western europe, which was what would have happened, had not the allied forces stopped the Russians at the river Elbe, near Berlin. American and Russian troops would trade weapons for Mickey Mouse watches.... and then take "pot shots" at each other across the river. Both armies knew they could annhialate the other.
I love history; the real stuff straight from real eyewitness accounts and as a result, my next build will be the much feared FW190 possibly in a strafing diorama against the American " Red Ball Express"
I'll keep you guys posted throughout and any feedback would be greatly appreciated!