WW2 Myths and Misconceptions

Supposedly, at some kind of dinner in 1937, Von Ribbentrop remarked to Churchill to not forget that Italy would be on Germany’s side in the next war. “That’s only fair,” replied Churchill, “we had them last time.”

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Another good misconception regarding Churchill would be that the western allies (UK and US) were buddy-buddy with the USSR and Stalin.

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I recall an anecdote from my old man that served in the RAF during WWII. Apparently, early on in either the Tunisian or Italian campaigns, a flight of US Kittyhawks spotted some Italian CR-42s. The US pilots were fresh out of flight school, and the Italians had been flying in Ethiopia, Spain, and the Mediterranean since 1940. The Americans tried to dogfight the Italian biplanes, instead of using their advantages such as engine power and speed for “shooting and scooting”. The hunters got their noses put out of joint :wink:

To quote a RAF intelligence briefing “… the manoeuvrability of the CR.42s, in particular their capacity to execute an extremely tight half roll, has caused considerable surprise to other pilots and undoubtedly saved many Italian fighters from destruction.

tl;dr It’s not what you’ve got, it’s how you use it.

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Since we’re talking about myths and misconceptions here I think it’s worth to mention the most iconic myth of this war which is Polish cavalry charging with sabres on German tanks.

This myth created by German propaganda was most likely started by the relation of Battle of Krojanty. September 1st 1939 at seven o’clock p.m. Colonel Kazimierz Mastalerz ordered the 18th Uhlan Regiment of the Pomeranian Cavalry Brigade to charge at around 800 German infantryman. The charge itself was successful and Germans were easily dispersed by Poles. Then Polish Ulhans were attaced from the flank by German armored carriers hidden in the forest. Polish cavalry quickly retreated, suffering losses.

The following day, Italian correspondents arrived at the battlefield, the Germans assured them that the Polish uhlans got killed during charge on tanks. The report follwing the German version was made by the Italian correspondent Indro Montanelli, who was not a direct witness of the alleged charges. He made up his report on the course of the incident in its entirety, which he admitted after the war on August 29, 1998 in the Italian newspaper “Corriere della Sera” in response to an inquiry by Radosław Sikorski

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Couldn’t agree more.

A lot of pilots early in the war were under the impression the “turning fights” from 1917 were still the way to go. That’s why you read reports of P-40s, F4Fs, and Hurricanes being defeated by lightweight acrobats that have lower top speed. A lot of pilots learned the hard way to use their plane’s strengths instead of trying to fight the other guy’s fight.

What unit did your old man serve with?

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He was part of the RAF liaison crew with either the 300th or 301st Squadrons, basically one of six Englishmen on a base with three thousand Poles somewhere in Lincolnshire. After that, he was sent to Bermuda to train aircrews from numerous Allied nations and forces. That’s where he met the Czechs… oh, and Australians.

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Here’s a good one from a book I’m reading at the moment.

Army Group South’s attack at Kursk was stopped when II SS Panzer Corps was attacked by somewhere around 1,000 Soviet tanks. This resulted in the largest tank battle ever, and afterwards, the Germans were so badly worn down that they called off the offensive.

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I meant to post this a while back but forgot. It’s a talk from David Glantz, who if you don’t know him is probably the leading historian on the Eastern front in WW2. He’s talking about, among other things, myths and forgotten battles on the Eastern front. If you’ve got the time, it’s a very good watch.

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Bookmarked it - hopefully I’ll get time to watch it, B2W swallowing A LOT of time right now.

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The Eastern front is a massive topic in itself but it would be awesome when you’re doing WW2 to not just do the standard Barbarossa -> Winter Offensive -> Stalingrad -> Kursk narrative. There was so much more going on.

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Hopefully including British plans to bomb the USSR oil supply prior to Germany attacking the Soviets.

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