Earlier this summer I was talking with a fellow veteran and the subject of “one-mile-in-five” on the Interstate highways came up. The gist is that before WWII, Germany designed its famous autobahn network with war in mind. Near WWII’s conclusion, Gen. Eisenhower was impressed with the autobahn and during his later Presidency ordered a copy of it made, the USA’s Interstate system, mostly for military reasons including for US Air Force bombers to use when their bases got taken out by Soviet ICBMs – and one mile of every five is straight and level for this reason. Like many Americans I have heard ..read more

For wwiiafterwwii readers in the USA I would like to extend wishes for a great 4th of July, our nation’s 248th year. Below are two warships obviously not of a WWII technology level but none the less veterans of WWII: USCGC Eagle and USS Constitution. This was Independence Day a few years ago, 4 July 2012. Both ships remain in active commission in 2024 however their stories of how they got to today, could not possibly be more different. (Horst Wessel (the future USCGC Eagle) at the Mürwik Naval Academy in Flensburg, Germany during 1937, two years prior to the start of WWII. Eight years later ..read more

From WWII’s end in 1945 until 1949, pro-independence Indonesians in the Dutch East Indies and the Netherlands military fought a conflict which saw a huge variety of WWII weapons, both Japanese and Allied, in further use. (A WWII Dutch M.95 rifle rechambered to .303 British by Indonesia during the 1950s.) (Kawasaki Ki-48 “Lily” bomber of the Indonesian air force during the late 1940s.) (Indonesian troops with Arisaka Type 99 rifles during 1949.) the Dutch East Indies during WWII With the Netherlands itself occupied by Germany during May 1940, the colonial administration in the Dutch East Ind ..read more

Some years ago I wrote on ARM Netzahualcoyotl, the last WWII Gearing class in service worldwide. Mexico also was the very last user of the WWII Fletcher class, however unlike Mexico’s FRAM-modernized Gearing, in 2001 ARM Cuitláhuac remained “frozen in time” to a WWII technology level. (USS John Rodgers (DD-574) during WWII.) (ARM Cuitláhuac, the former USS John Rodgers, in 2000. It was the last Fletcher still in service anywhere in the world.) the Fletcher class These were the US Navy’s workhorse of WWII. When the design was finalized in 1939 it was the largest and best-equipped destroyer i ..read more

Air America, the now-famous “front company” airline of the CIA, flew WWII aircraft alongside modern types during the Vietnam War. By now Air America has already been thoroughly written on elsewhere. Less well-known is a similar setup in the same timeframe, also using WWII aircraft: Continental Air Services Incorporated. (C-46 Commando during WWII.) (C-46 Commando of CASI at Long Tieng, Laos during 1975.) the C-46 Commando During WWII the USA’s most famous transport was the C-47 Skytrain, the military adaptation of the Douglas DC-3 which remains perhaps the best era-adjusted airliner of all t ..read more

For Stalingrad, covered in part 1, Josef Stalin had an idea (however wrong) but no ship. Meanwhile in the United States after WWII, the US Navy had an incomplete ship, USS Hawaii, but was looking for ideas on how to finish it. (USS Guam during WWII.) (photo via All Hands, the US Navy’s magazine) (End of the road for USS Hawaii on 20 June 1959 as it is towed to the scrapyard.) the Alaska class the battlecruiser in the US Navy The US Navy had interest in the then-new battlecruiser concept outlined in part 1. As part of the 1916 naval funding, six Lexington class battlecruisers were authorized ..read more

I have not done a 2-part series for a while and these are two ships I have been wanting to write about for some time. USS Hawaii and Stalingrad were two warships of roughly the same type and of similar firepower, both born (directly or indirectly) out of WWII. Both were made at different times for totally different reasons, each had a unique life and in the end, neither was finished. (How it started: artist’s rendition of the Soviet battlecruiser Stalingrad.) (How it ended: the never-finished Stalingrad for use in weapons tests.) what was a battlecruiser The “battleship era” is generally boo ..read more

The Spanish CETME is a well-known Cold War assault rifle, and the West German G3 even more so. It is less known that both trace their lineage to a WWII German assault rifle which did not see combat. (The WWII German StG-45(M) assault rifle.) (photo via Forgotten Weapons website) (Spanish soldier during the 1950s with a CETME Modelo A, the StG-45(M)’s postwar “child” firing aluminum ammunition.) (The Heckler & Koch G3, a 7.62 NATO descendant of the two above firearms. This particular one was used in a shootout with Kenyan police in February 2022.) (photo via Nation newspaper) part 1: the ..read more

Heinkel’s He-274 high-altitude reconnaissance-bomber did not serve one single day in Luftwaffe colors during WWII, however after the war it was a useful addition to the rebuilding French air force. the He-274: what it wasn’t The He-274 was not part of the “Amerikabomber” project. Contrary to how it is often presented today the Amerikabomber; a strategic bomber with round-trip range between Europe and the USA; was never a high priority in WWII Germany. Ideas had been tossed around as early as the 1930s but officially, a basic project was not even finalized until April 1942. The idea waxed and ..read more

I would like to wish a Merry Christmas to all wwiiafterwwii readers. Below is the Rocket, the newspaper of Redstone Arsenal, AL from 23 December 1952 – 7 years after WWII and 71 years ago today. Santa Claus is on a JB-2 Loon. If the Loon looks like a WWII German V-1 buzz bomb, there is a good reason, because that is what a Loon was. the V-1 Germany’s WWII buzz bomb, the V-1, was officially the Fieseler Fi-103 and also referred to as FZG 76 (anti-aircraft training device #76, a security cover). The V-1 buzz bomb was basically an unmanned airplane powered by an Argus As-014 pulsejet. It was 27 ..read more