Worthy under-reported WW2 achievements

[j-c-c-62]

As a HS taught pencil draftsman, who has used AutoCAD now for over 30+ years, these guys were amazing and have received hardly any much deserved recognition.
I'll have to add another item to visit on my bucket list.
A worthy read on Thanksgiving weekend:

MSN

 

[3sloppydogs]

It has always amazed me how they drew plans for warships such as battleships or Essex carriers and it came together and worked without computers and such

 

[Don Frelier]

In Mopar terms consider the body and suspension changes in the coronet between 64,65 & 66.
And throw in the 66 Charger.
Check out a parts manual.
All hand drawn and manually sorted.
Pretty remarkable.

 

[ckessel]

When I went to the SEMA show, I went to the Atomic Museum in Vegas. It's all about the bomb program. It boggles the mind when you remember all of the work/design/brainiac stuff was by actual humans figuring stuff out and no computers involved.

 

[kiwigtx]

It amazed me how POW's in Germany could make fake uniforms, passports, documents, and still fool the Nazi's.

I really don't understand how these guys were so resourceful under trying circumstances.....lucky for us that they were.

 

[j-c-c-62]

I think their own mental health was somewhat protected by never giving up in their efforts to escape and fool the enemy.
It had to be a rather bleak existence to say the least.
However, the Pacific POWS had it much worse in many ways sadly.

 

[kiwigtx]

However, the Pacific POWS had it much worse in many ways sadly.

Yes indeed. Those dirty Jap's were downright cruel to the point of treating the POW's like animals.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki were solid retribution IMHO.

 

[Geoff 2]

The most outstanding WW2 feat that got little recognition was the raid on the Vermork [ Norway ] heavy water plant. The Nazis were going to use this for their A bomb. It had to be destroyed. First attempt by British commandos failed; they were caught & executed. The plant was on the side of a mountain with a deep ravine below it, in the middle of nowhere....& heavily guarded. Bombing was not an option because of civilian casulaties. In the end, a handful of Norwegian patriotss skied 60 km in freezing February weather doging German patrols. They had to attach plastic explosives to numerous water containers & time the fuzes to allow them to escape. The operation was a success, nobody died; some of the Norwegians stayed in Norway, the others skied across country to neutral Sweden.

 

[j-c-c-62]

It was outstanding indeed, but in hindsight, the Germans were not seemingly that vested/committed in nuke weaponry other than for show it seems (maybe some German scientists had a conscience?). They also were not that far along relative to the US in their research enough that we most definitely would have had (and did) a bomb before they did. Of course, at the time, that was not a known given.

 

[Geoff 2]

Another outstanding action was when American fighter pilots shot down the bomber that Admiral Yamamoto was in in April 1943. The flying distance was so great they had to use drop tanks to get to where they believed Yamamoto would be. No radar guidance in those days, quite primitive by today's standards; once in the area where Y was going to be, they only had a few minutes of fuel over the target area. Quite a feat!

 

[Triplegreen500]

they only had a few minutes of fuel over the target area.

...and they KNEW it ahead of time, and they had the stones to do it anyway.

 

[j-c-c-62]

Being we were able to read/intercept their secret encrypted communications, that the Japanese arrogantly thought was unbreakable, was the real key in targeting Yamamoto as to time and location for the very low certainty attack.

There is a lesson there, IMO.