The B-29's reversible propellers were insufficient to slow the aircraft adequately, and with both pilots standing on the brakes, Bockscar made a swerving 90-degree turn at the end of the runway to avoid running off the runway. Touching the runway hard, the heavy B-29 slewed left and towards a row of parked B-24 bombers before the pilots managed to regain control. The number two engine died from fuel starvation as Bockscar began its final approach. With only enough fuel for one landing attempt, Sweeney and Albury brought Bockscar in at 150 miles per hour (240 km/h) instead of the normal 120 miles per hour (190 km/h), firing distress flares to alert the field of the uncleared landing. Critically low on fuel, Bockscar barely made it to the runway on Okinawa's Yontan Airfield. Arriving there, Sweeney circled for 20 minutes trying to contact the control tower for landing clearance, finally concluding that his radio was faulty. "Bockscar did not have sufficient fuel to reach the emergency landing field at Iwo Jima, so Sweeney and Bock flew to Okinawa. Althouh the mission was accomplished, Sweeny made some horrific mistakes. As you know the Nagasaki strike was a cluster. History seems to forget #2 (maybe the only exception would be Buzz Aldrin). And your surviving family would receive a bill for the execution expenses.
Thousands of Germans did protest and resist in their own way, if you'll just take the time to look at the long list of people beheaded during the 3rd Reich, you might be surprised at what you could lose your head for during that time. Having a Mauser, or Lugar wouldn't make any difference. By the time the German population realized what that whatever else entailed, it was too late to them personally to do anything about it.
My impression has come to be that Germany had underwent such chaos in the late 20s and early 30s, that anyone who brought a little stability and JOBS was going to get a free hand to do whatever else they wanted. When I was in Germany in the middle 70s, I visited some of the families of these people still in Germany. Since I was born in 1947, I barely remember her.īut the congregation I attended as a kid also sponsored two German families who decided they no longer wished to remain in Germany after WW2, from these people being close I was learning about Germany's decent into the nightmare of the 3rd Reich before I was even in school. She left to go back to Germany in the early 50s. Even armed people have to sleep.īefore and during WW2 a German refugee stayed in my home, my older sister Leyetta is named after her. No matter how well armed you were, it's not going to make any difference when 2 car loads of Gestapo agents come to get you at 3am. I am anti-crime but not in any way anti-gun. I still retain a good selection of other guns including a VERY clean WWI 6.5 x 55 Mauser whose bore looks brand new. I gave the Mauser to a good friend who still hunts with it. While you may perceive it differently, I also owned an 8 mm Mauser along with many other weapons. Her husband met her while he was guarding her just after the war and confirmed some of them separately while we shot billiards. She had some very interesting stories of wartime Germany. She was the young woman who was a Luftwaffe aircraft spotter when the war ended.
I don't know where the third one was from. 2 of the 3 were from around the Austrian border. Even so, if they did not experience difference after 1941, then maybe the disarming I was told about was very localized, but the people who told me were Germans from Germany. I suppose that's not unlikey in the least given the fact that a war was on. before that time.Īdler do your relatives have any different experiences with that after 1941? If not, then my sources must have experienced other than your family did. We didn't declared war until Peral Harbor though we did supply machines, arms, food, and clothing, etc. Since I live in the U.S.A., I tend to think of WWII in terms of 1942 - 1945 since that is the extent of our active involvement.
I was not thinking in any way of pre-1942 Germany I was thinking much more along the lines of very late 1941 and onwards. You're telling me stuff I already know above.