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Kevin Kennelly
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Comments by "Kevin Kennelly" (@Kevin_Kennelly) on "The Drydock - Episode 102" video.
In regards to U-Boats shelling the refinery on Aruba. I suggest "The U-Boat War in the Caribbean" by Gaylord Kelshall. The oil is in Venezuela (which you can see from Aruba). The refinery is on Aruba (I stood at the gates). The Brits, being clever empire-builders, did not want the Venezuelan's having full control of 'production of oil'. So they put the refinery out of their grasp. This necessitated a fleet of tankers to schelpp the crude between the two points. Venezuela has a shallow coastline. So the tankers were 'shallow bottom', custom-made, tankers. There were 10 of them in the fleet. Now for the fun part. The U-Boats sank one of the 10. Had Doenitz appreciated the situation, he should have gone after the other 9. Their sinking would have crippled the operation and denied Britain a large percentage of their 'empire oil'. One other bit from Kelshall's book. A U-Boat attacked a freighter in the Carib. They watched as the freighter-crew abandoned ship faster than they'd ever seen happen before. So fast that they left one of their shipmates aboard the sinking freighter. So the U-Boat pulled up and took the sailor on board. The sailor was very nervous...natural for a POW, the U-Boat commander assumed. It wasn't until the freighter sank below the waves that the truth came out. The freighter was hauling ammo. And it went BOOM. It almost sank the U-Boat. No word on how the POW was treated on his trip back to Germany. These experts are from memory. I apologize for inaccuracies. The book is OK. It does shed light on a neglected theater of war. I'd give it a half-hearted recommendation.
27
In regards to 'canned food' (and with well-deserved nod to Admiral Tiberius). James Burke wrote and hosted the TV series "Connections". (and again, the following is from my memory of the first book published to accompany that series) Napoleon went into Italy for the 2nd time. Forage was bad and his armies were widely separated. And he almost got his head handed to him. So he went back to Paris and told the Institute of Science to research a solution. And thus was canned food developed. Burke further draws all the 'connections' between canning and refrigeration. That was a fun book.
15
One other (poorly remembered) detail from the book. There's a well known story of a U-Boat crew delivering a 'captured pig' (the crew named him 'Douglas') to Admiral Doenitz. Seaman Porky was taken prisoner in the Carib by U-162. No word on his ultimate fate. Or flavor.
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I love tech manuals. A typical manual on 'Bomb Diffusing' reads: "Expose the detonator assembly. Cut the blue wire." (turn to next page) "But first, disconnect the green wire."
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@thomashemenway7384 Blair's talent is in how he 'distills' both the Atlantic and Pacific campaigns into 2 volumes for each theater. Martin Middlebrook is best known for his formulaic-yet-astounding books on 'Bomber Command'. "Convoy" is his retelling of the March-1943 battle between 42 boats and two convoys. I have never read anything that conveys the PACE of such battles. Time. Tedium. Terror. Above and below. Nonstop. Middlebrook nailed it. And no pigs were harmed. I've been reading WW2 since 1975. I'd give this book, "Convoy", my highest possible recommendation.
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You are correct. See my previous post. It's always nice to meet another person who just gets exhausted having to google everything.
2
You are in for a VERY BIG surprise. Prepare to encounter the biggest 'time suck' that you've ever experienced. It will fill you Covid-lockdown time. Follow Stephanie Wilson's advise and your curiosity will be richly rewarded. Welcome to the party, pal.
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