Re: The Macintosh is a girl's computer!

In message <1hw5hky.1iad84c168qvqeN@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
nospam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (J. J. Lodder) wrote:

Graeme Wall <Graeme@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

In message <1hw57xr.6d2yjv1gubksjN@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
nospam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (J. J. Lodder) wrote:

Rowland McDonnell <real-address-in-sig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

J. J. Lodder <nospam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

sigvaldi <sigvald@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

J. J. Lodder wrote:
[snip]

German planes near Iceland were very rare indeed.

German aircraft flew over Reykjavik and other places in the west
of Iceland on numerous occasions, often bombing and strafing,
German planes near the east of Iceland were almost a daily
occurrence.

(Wow! Almost a plane a day!)

Iceland does not have a large population - the entire country has a
population only marginally more than the London borough[1] I grew up
in (London's population dwarfs Iceland's), and I doubt it was much
different back in the WWII years. If that `almost one warplane a
day' is also `often bombing and strafing', it's a big deal to
Iceland.

How do you 'often bomb and strafe' with one plane?

Very easily if there is no air opposition.

After the first (few) runs you'll be out of ammo.

A bigger aircraft can carry a lot more ammo


Remember the Luftwaffe was set up as a tactical force to support the
army, after dropping the bomb load they would return and shoot up the
survivors.

That is standard tactics, for fighter-bombers.
However, the FW 200 can hardly be descibed as one.

You are ignoring the way the Luftwaffe was structured, it was always designed
as an army support arm rather than a strike force in its own right. The
FW200 was the only 4 engined aircraft in normal service that the Luftwaffe
had and they still tended to regard it as a larger Heinkel rather than a
strategic bomber on the lines of the Lancaster.


Didn't find anything at first sight.
Quite likely it happened though.
Hitler seems to have been furious
about the British occupation of Iceland,
and even ordered plans made for a counter-invasion.

The Germans had outline plans for invading Iceland before the British
arrived. It was one of the factors for the Allied occupation.

Standard blahblah of any occupier, always.
We were forced to, cause otherwise the other...
Churchill's policy was invade first, talk later.
(overruling the foreighn office)

May be standard but happened to be true.


Not different at all in principle
from that of Hitler with respect to Holland.

Only to those with their eyes firmly shut, and there were many of those
around.

Only difference was that Iceland agreed to being occupied,
after the fact.
Hitler otoh lost the battle at The Hague,
and failed to capture the Dutch government to make it agree,
else he might conceivably have been as justified in occupying,
after the fact.




German naval strategy at one time envisaged using Iceland as a base for
surface raiders. Though how they were going to resupply was never clear.

Indeed.
Just plans for every occasion that general staffs like to make.
Not a chance of course of actually doing it.

Again, not a risk the British could take.


Whatever military operations must have been aimed
at the Brits there, not at the Icelanders.

Not just the British there was a major US base there as well, Meeks
Field.

That was later in the war, after 1941.
The Brits moved out then, on more urgent tasks.

No, they were still there through to 1946. The US used Iceland as a transit
base on the way to Britain, the British units based there were operational
Coastal Command squadrons.


As I said elsewhere, after 1941 the Condor
was used for recon only to conserve numbers.

But not a situation that could be relied on by the Allies to continue.

The allies (staff, not aircrews or sailors in the convoys)
would have loved to see more fighting Condors around Iceland.
After all, this was a gross national product war.
Germany wasting resources on getting expensive
and hard to replace Condors shot down over the North Atlantic
would have eaten up industrial capacity better used for other things.

Too bad for your father, but if it meant getting a Condor shot down
for on average one cheaper allied plane lost
that would have suited them fine.


That's fantasy. Kondors were about the same cost as a Lancaster and no harder
to replace. You obviously no little about the wartime German economy. Where
the Germans were wasting money was on the V projects and the Holocaust. On a
purely economic basis the latter was a stupid waste of money and resources.

--
Graeme Wall

My genealogy website:
<http://www.greywall.demon.co.uk/genealogy/index.html>
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: The Macintosh is a girls computer!
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  • Re: Erhard Milch
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  • Re: The Macintosh is a girls computer!
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