Comments by "David Himmelsbach" (@davidhimmelsbach557) on "The Front" channel.

@weirdshibainu Starving the American natives worked like a charm. The Italians did it to the Arabs -- the British did it to the Boer. The US didn't bomb rice fields. The Hellcats of the Navy shut off rice imports from Korea -- by sinking the food fleet. USN shot up every Japanese fishing boat they could find. By the end, the average Japanese civilian was down below 700 calories per day. They could barely walk, forget running and hopping. Ultimately, the national suicide plan was pure bluff.
13
@brokenbridge6316 We know -- without any doubt at all -- from the key Japanese players -- that the USSR's invasion of Korea, etc. had NO effect on the acceptance of Truman's terms of any kind. EVERYTHING for Tokyo turned on the Imperial Status. It really was as simple as that. And Truman DID concede that Hirohito could stay on. THIS was the magic concession that American histories have always skipped past. THIS was why MacArthur treated Hirohito with kid gloves. The US had PLENTY of evidence that Hirohito was involved in everything up past his eyeballs. Yet, even today, the spin is still out there that he was above the fray. That idea is now known to be a fulsome lie... one totally generated in Washington D.C. to suit the Truman administration. In the Japanese war time press, the Emperor was NEVER disconnected from military, political or theological life. The idea that the Soviets were a factor was nothing but pure agit-prop spin from Moscow initiated long after WWII was over.
12
The debate is over because the Japanese insiders have told everyone that the Soviet invasion of Korea was simply not a factor back in Tokyo. For the key decision makers, the Emperor's new status was EVERYTHING. Truman indicated through channels that he'd let the Emperor live on in his palace. THAT'S what did it. This reality has been twisted and omitted in every US official telling of the decision... because Truman was reversing FDR's pledge. But, ever since the Cold War, Moscow has tried to build-up its self-importance to the Pacific War. It's a MYTH, a myth tied into the Soviet's attempt at creating Western Guilt WRT the atomic bomb... and their detonation. It was plain on its face that the US would be using atomic bombs on Mother Russia if the Bolsheviks crossed the line. The KGB was arguing that you don't need atomic weapons to win wars // win the peace. Think of it (the proposition) as military-theology: just say your prayers.
8
@silverhawkscape2677 Usually poorly reported, during the Okinawan campaign the IJA showed, time and time again, that they would shove Okinawan civilians out as bullet stoppers. This gambit was so obvious that the US Army drew the logical conclusion WRT Olympic and Coronet. The IJA did not consider Okinawans as true Japanese citizens -- even though they also deemed Okinawa a piece of Japan. Go figure. The second-class status of Okinawans still remains, BTW. They can't just pick up stakes and move to Honshu.
8
@christosvoskresye Von Braun was COMPELLED to enter the SS -- or ELSE. He never signed up/ volunteered. As an SS man -- von Braun was a total bust. At the very first opportunity, von Braun schemed -- and achieved -- the mass departure of his A-team to the USA -- as a whole unit. He then coughed up every technical detail the US Army ever wanted. This scheme even excluded the British. They had to round up their own Nazi experts so as to replicate A-4/V-2 launches. The British program paled in comparison to that of the USA and USN. For some idea of just how much von Braun & Coy gave the US -- watch Glenn Ford's 1950s film about the Loon. ( The USN's version of the V-1 adapted to U-boats -- I mean US submarines. )
7
@gueigudze1759 Truman's reversal of FDR's unconditional surrender terms did the trick. The inside players -- in the palace -- have long admitted that THIS was the decision factor that counted -- when it counted. Naturally, to sell any book, some spin must be applied. But the Imperial mind was NOT swayed by anything other than his own tush. Please review the evidence in the original video to comprehend just how irrelevant the common man was to the Imperial Throne. Note also the kid gloves used by MacArthur during the American occupation. All of this was a total flip-flop from what the Allied Powers imposed upon Nazi Germany. Truman not only reversed FDR's unconditional surrender demand (while skipping past that fact in all public utterances) -- he dumped Britain and the USSR out of any post-war influence in Japan. BOTH were surprised at their new irrelevance. But, since Europe was where their hearts were, they could accept American hyper-dominance in a theater where the USA did ALL of the heavy lifting. BTW, it was FDR that wanted, craved, Soviet help in the Pacific War. Truman wanted no help from the Soviets at all. The Soviet invasion was a side-show to what the Chinese were already doing: tying down the vast bulk of the IJA. Tokyo found that it had become impossible to bring its occupation army back home to fight off the US. BTW, American traitors had fulsomely informed Stalin about the atomic bomb. The Bolshevik invasion of Korea was super-rushed as Stalin's own dead-line (invasion) pledge was down to the wire, hence the invasion timing.
5
@eodyn7 No, the US had planned for series production of Fat Man -- from the first. They were going to continue to drop -- one every other week -- and then ever more, ever quicker.
5
@tubthump December 7th was an attack on the US military... and pretty sneaky at that. The Japanese had pulled out all of its elite troops from Manchuko by 1945. There had been no fighting there for the longest time, and Tokyo only realized that Moscow was not quite so friendly in the daze before the Reds attacked -- too late to change deployments. Amazingly, Tokyo was actually counting on Stalin as a go-between. Heh.
4
@tubthump The Hawaiians over threw their queen because she was trying to roll back Liberalism. It was a 'bloodless' revolution because her palace guard was composed of the sons and nephews of her ali'i opponents. (!) (Ali'i = peerage = chiefs ) Then the independent state of Hawai'i sought union with the USA. There was no coercion. BTW, Britain was the other power that the ali'i considered hooking up with. (Fiji did exactly that for exactly the same reasons -- they wanted a great naval power on their side.) The Hawaiians went with the USA because of the California gold rush. It had made them a fortune -- as Hawaii supplied an astonishing amount of food to California during the 19th Century. This eclipsed whaling. In all of this, Hawaii replicated the status of both Texas and California. All three entered the union as independent nations. They weren't annexed by American conquest. The Japanese ambassador in Moscow had informed his bosses that Stalin was solidly in the United Nations camp -- and -- in so many words -- they were dreaming. Ever since Adolf died, Moscow stopped taking Japanese phone calls. It was a picture they didn't want painted. Ideologically, the USA considers all states to be integral. Because of radio -- and the immensely popular program "Hawaii Calls" the Islands had become VERY much identified as being of the USA... same as Alaska, both territories understood to be on the route to statehood. (A path so commonly followed, of course.) This status was totally different than the Philippines -- which Americans all thought belonged to the Filipinos; or Cuba -- which belonged to the Cubans. Neither land ever begged to become part of the USA. Both were cut loose as independent nations. In contrast, Manchuko was NEVER seen by the Japanese as being OF Japan. It was simply a colony to be ruthlessly exploited -- European style, if you will -- for the benefit of the Home Islands. The same attitude prevailed all across Korea, too.
4
You are in error. The US was in series production of Fat Man. The entire reason for its design was that it COULD be cranked out -- one every other week -- once the pipe line was filled. Little Boy's flaw was that Oak Ridge could NEVER crank out 'pits' at such a tempo. Fat Man was simply a MUCH cheaper atomic bomb to manufacture. While the design was a breeze -- the super-enriched uranium was brutally expensive to separate. It still is.
4
@liam6170 MOST of the scheme was BLUFF. They couldn't even begin to build out the suicide armies that their plan demanded. Left out of the video: the average Japanese citizen was getting Death Camp food rations (~700 calories) -- and could barely walk. Folks were eating pine tree roots ! The US had even shut down Japan's fishing fleet -- and those boats were tiny. Its economy had been shut down. Japan also had no answer to the Sherman tank... and its machine guns ... and its flame-throwers.
4
It was doped out// discovered by its effects// sinkings -- and then defeated by laying a mine field. The IJN HAD to supply its outposts -- and only subs could do it. Said islands were its strategic eyes -- as far as they could be -- and could not be abandoned.
2
@cogitatione1 In the final event, Truman DIDN'T follow his own Potsdam declaration. At Potsdam, the US was still demanding unconditional surrender. Truman flip-flopped, now allowing the Emperor to sit on his throne only in the final daze of intra-American decision making. Yet, at the time, and for years afterwards, the USA always denied that Truman had walked away from unconditional surrender -- THE key FDR plank of the war. But, the facts are plain. Truman dropped what he regarded as a totally insane, extreme position -- considering how many souls would be destroyed by sticking to it. This flip-flop is what actually terminated the Pacific War. It eclipsed the logic of the atomic bombs. I know, hard to believe... but look at the video one more time. Tokyo really was willing to destroy millions of lives so that the Emperor could carry on, and on. As regards the UK and USSR, the US was largely negotiating without negotiating. Both London and Moscow were getting into the Big Chair WRT Europe -- but were side-show players in the Pacific. No matter what was said/promised at Potsdam, the UK and USSR WERE miffed that they had absolutely no say in Tokyo. This was another insistence of Truman walking away from imputations previously proffered by FDR. Naturally, for the official record, London and Moscow bit their tongues WRT how ticked off they were. Yes, Stalin wanted even MORE (northern) Japanese territory than he already had seized -- and Truman rejected Moscow's lust. {BTW, Tokyo still wants Russia to cough up Stalin's land grabs. Japan is even willing to pay up LARGE to get those worthless islands back. Moscow covets them as their route into the deep Pacific blue.} [ This 'Truman block' super infuriated Stalin when Molotov was told in simple English to get out of (Soviet occupied) Iran OR ELSE ! The newsreels of the time record Molotov's ire -- but do NOT lay out to the American public that Truman had just threatened to use the atomic bomb on Stalin over the issue. The Cold War had to pass for this little item to creep out from hiding. You can see why Stalin wanted the Bomb in the world's worst way -- and why once he obtained it -- he launched the Korean War. It ran on his tanks, trucks, oil, planes, pilots and generals. Kim couldn't take one-step without Moscow.] Indeed, Australia had a much larger role than Britain; so too, New Zealand. That's why their dignitaries signed the actual instrument of surrender. When it counted, the ANZAC boys performed all of the heavy lifting for the British Empire... but they were independent nations when they did so.
2
@iansneddon2956 Too many historical revisions. To repeat: the Throne didn't give a hoot or holler about the average Japanese citizen or soldier. Witness the video one more time. The deal maker was keeping the Emperor in his palace -- with his authority intact. Stuff that moderns would regard as decision factors were actually entirely irrelevant to Hirohito. That everything turned on him was denied in all American propaganda -- to be sustained for DECADES after the war. That Hirohito was up past his eyeballs in war planning and war conduct is obvious to historians -- but STILL denied in American popular media accounts. Your general thesis runs away from the simplicity of the truth: at the end, it was all about the Emperor. Truman wisely decided that getting that &^%$$# was just not worth millions of lives... the liquidation of a nation and of a culture. Korea was never deemed a hunk of Japan, ever. It was a slave-colony. The IJA figured that the Bolsheviks would roll over them. The T34 was no secret, and the IJA couldn't deal with the M4 as it was. America's allies had virtually no role in the Pacific -- with the obvious exceptions of China, Australia and New Zealand. Britain's 14th Army was a complete after thought. So much so that Vera Lynn had to be sent over to cheer the frustrated boys up. The entire Burma Campaign should never have been fought. Just stopping the IJA east of India was the key. That Tokyo thought that they could advance through Burma to invade India -- how crazy is that? The rivers and mountains run the wrong way, every step of the way.
2
@akiraraiku Read the whole thread. The key player was the Emperor --- and his decision turned on his fate. And that was that. When Truman let Tokyo know that the Emperor could get off Scott-free -- Hirohito approved the deal. The Soviet land grab didn't weigh in AT ALL. [ The Hellcats of the Navy had just sunk the IJN food fleet in the Sea of Japan. Thus, Korea and Manchuko became economically irrelevant. You can read up on frequency modulated sonar, FMS, elsewhere. It made Japan's naval mines ineffective. ] Even the atomic bombs barely registered on the Imperial mind. Which you can kind of understand, as their scale of impact was very hard for anyone to grasp. ALL of the stuff that rational, modern minds think of -- just didn't mean anything to Hirohito.
2
If Downfall had occurred, Japan -- its culture -- wouldn't even exist. Look at Okinawa. It was a campaign that went on too long. The US actually had no need to 'go south' and take the tip of the island. Everything the US wanted was up north. Yet, the US DID head south. That drive was where a staggering percentage of the casualties occurred. Historians BURY that little detail. That drive cost about one life for every inch taken... and the US didn't need ANY of it.
2
@Yamato-tp2kf 1959 is the date. Hawaii went into the Union -- the same way that Texas and California did... as territories/nations. Texas and California threw off Mexico. Hawaii had a revolution -- that had no small number of native Americans involved, to boot. The US fought Spain primarily to eject it from Cuba. Guam, and all the rest, were collateral de-colonizations forced upon Spain. The original intent was to just get rid of Spain. This is why it didn't take forever for the US to make Cuba independent. The Philippines went down the same path -- a generation later. The independence of the Philippines directly triggered the independence of India, Pakistan and Bangledesh. With in weeks of 7-4-1946 the Indians hit the streets. The Philippines -- and Cuba -- were NEVER expected to become part of the USA, by anybody. Hawaii, California and Texas WERE expected to join the Union, by THEMSELVES. Statehood for Hawaii and Alaska was held up for YEARS -- because -- politically -- they skewed super strongly Democrat and Republican. So, they were only -- finally -- accepted by Congress as a pair. Yup. That was the deal. They STILL vote Democrat and Republican. They are -- de facto -- one-party states... city states, in fact. Virtually all of their votes are in Honolulu or Anchorage, respectively. And both are massively subsidized by the US Federal budget -- and tourism.
2
The most effective tank is one that can be MASS PRODUCED. For WWII was a war of SCALE, of massive armies. The M-4 has to get top marks. It was the ONLY tank to see service planet-wide. It was the main tank for America, Britain, Canada -- when it became available. It had the BEST crew survival rate -- because it soon provided an escape hatch for every crewman. Tanks usually don't die in the blink of an eye. They get penetrated -- and then burn up. That's why you see so many photos of burnt out tanks. Being blown apart happens, but no-where nearly as often as being lit-up. The German heavies were DOGS. Their break-down rates were as bad as the T-34. Using forced/slave labor for their assembly was a world-class error. All recovered and re-built German heavies show production sabotage. They were literally built to fail. In WWII, Diesel engines were too expensive for machines that had such short lives. That's why the US, which could 've cranked out Diesel driven tanks, stayed with gasoline engines. The only Diesel M-4s built all went to the USSR. Their fuel distribution system demanded middle distillate. ( Diesel fuel is MUCH cheaper to distill back at the refinery -- and Stalin was generations behind the West in oil refining. ) Even the T-34/85 had the same crippled hull design as the T-34c. It was sloped -- and TOO WEAK. The real killers of the panzer force were Soviet anti-tank guns and self-propelled tank killers -- such as the SU-85 and SU-100. Both had massive armor at the front and rifles that could really penetrate. The Krauts also used interleaved road-wheels. This was an epic error. Mines mean wheel replacement -- right on the spot. Absolutely no nation has attempted interleaved road wheels since WWII -- because they're a fiasco in the field.
2
@colinmcdonald2499 You're right and wrong. The VAST BULK of US and British aid to Stalin went by way of Abadan, Iran, and up its rail system to the Caspian Sea. There the stuff was loaded onto Soviet boats and barges for the long river run up the Volga. The rail-head in northern Iran is STILL THERE. You can view it on YT as one fellow has uploaded a tourist train trip across Iran that features the critical points of WWII freight traffic. The number of rails at the Caspian terminus is shocking. Abadan was owned by British Petroleum -- and was already a world-scale refinery. ( By 1979 it was state owned and titanic in size. ) It was this refinery that was pumping astonishing amounts of aviation grade gasoline up into the USSR. Riding the Volga, this fuel could reach all the way to Moscow. ( Stalin had added a canal so that this was possible -- long before the war. ) The truly scary thing about the Stalingrad fighting was that this oil route was shut down for months. Stalin almost ran out of gas. It was customary for oil shipments to halt with Volga's ice. But the Krauts had shut down the flow one-hundred days too soon. Yikes!
2
Stalin let Zhukov live because Zhukov was just about the most hated officer in the Soviet Army. He was also SHORT. Stalin whacked the tall out of hand. Zhukov made it to the Politburo when Ike, his pal, was president. Once it was obvious that Ike was headed out of office -- his 'pals' kicked him out. Zhukov was a stone-cold killer -- not a bit different than Beria -- who -- the story goes -- Zhukov shot -- personally. 'Public Zhukov' was Stalin's media creation -- rather like Rommel being pumped up by Adolf -- in both cases -- excessively. Modern Russians need to stop worshiping Zhukov.
2
It was Canada and America did the trick -- not Britain. Britain could only pull this trick off with general officers. It was the letters back home from Canada and America that truly demoralized front-line German troops. It all turned on FOOD.
1
Jolly Joker!
1
On impulse, I'd go with the RN late-war subs.
1
@cogitatione1 Replace "Allies" with Truman. He was the sole decision maker. There was no committee decision -- no consultation with Atlee or Stalin.
1
@cogitatione1 Truman's reversal was performed at the last hour... that is... in August.
1
@cogitatione1 Winston was NEVER a fan of unconditional surrender. By his own words, he dang near swallowed his cigar when FDR popped off at Casablanca. FDR's statement was THE benchmark in extremist wartime 'diplomacy.' IIRC, he never staffed it out, either. One is reminded of when FDR changed the gold value of the US dollar from $20.67 per ounce to $35.00 per ounce -- entirely without running it by ANYBODY. That one decision sucked all of the gold out of Britain, France -- Europe generally. It's why, by 1937, the US had about 75% of all of the world's (central banker) gold -- and Paris and London were in dire straights -- as under the gold standard their money supplies were massively contracting. After the gold arrived in the US, it sat sterile. Historians have never faulted FDR for the epic gaff of the 20th Century that set Paris and London up for early war failure.
1
@Renzo Alarcón Moscow has totally re-written Dresden. It was the SOVIETS that kept screaming at the RAF and USAAF to bomb Dresden. Why? It had become THE key rail hub that was sending the 6SS Panzer Army off to the east -- to Hungary. And a side note: IG Farben was manufacturing Zyklon B at their Dresden plant. This tidbit had just been discovered by Churchill & Coy. (Hamburg had been the original source. Both cities got the Sodom treatment. Some coincidence.) It took years after the war before the KGB realized that they ought to really build up the Dresden story. The spin was designed to make NATO feel guilty about using atomic deterrence. Until "Slaughterhouse Five" (1969) Dresden just never had resonance. Most folks didn't even know it had been bombed. It, Dresden, was in East Germany. It had no tourists. (It had been a tourist mecca before WWII.) Dresden, like Aachen, was almost entirely devoid of military production. Kurt never knew that the Soviets had been screaming at London to stop the SS panzers from rolling east, nor that the death camp pills were sourced from Dresden. Most folks still don't know any of this.
1
@TheRealXDeadmeatX Manchuko was a slave colony. This has escaped the minds of Putinistas. To the Emperor, all such lands were EXPENDABLE. The ONLY thing that the Emperor was truly worried about -- was his own tush. Once Truman signaled that the Emperor could sit on -- on his throne -- BAM -- the war was over. Even the atomic bombs were (amazingly) not that decisive. { To any ordinary soul, they would've been. } To show how NOT decisive the twin cities were, the IJN and IJA didn't lack for suicides in the top ranks -- after they were 'nuked.' Yeah, those boys just couldn't BELIEVE that the war was over. This dedication to a totally losing cause is something just not seen in Western culture.
1
B Whit The US joined the Battle of the Atlantic BEFORE Pearl Harbor. The heart of US logistics was its mass production of Liberty ships and Victory ships. The latter were bigger, faster, more expensive and turbine powered. Liberty ships were produced in staggering quantities. The US -- essentially -- ran out of names for them. (!) No-one had ever run into that before.
1
B Whit No, no, no. It was struggling because of its dufus commander: Clark. BTW, the march up the boot was a strategic gaff of the first magnitude. ALL of our strategic goals were met by taking the southern boot up to Naples. Going further North was folly. The fight was with Hitler -- not Italian art and heritage. Strategically, the USAAF wanted the bases around Foggia. NATO is still using them. They are a dream location for training pilots -- just like the Southwest desert of the USA. It was from Foggia that the 15th USAAF bombed Ploesti -- hundreds of times. By the end, Ploesti looked like the Moon. Just holding the boot would force Hitler to maintain forces there. Italy is, and remains, a rotten place to fight.
1
@mikethespike7579 The German program had absolutely NO impact on the US. The Krauts didn't have ANYTHING worthwhile going on. The US did not source a single micro-gram of anything fissile from Nazi Germany.
1
@jamesricker3997 WRT nerve agents -- the first was discovered circa 1936 in Nazi Germany. The chemists collectively agreed to NOT TELL ADOLF. Yes, the Nazis never had a nerve agent program -- even though its chemists kept finding additional nerve agents. The news leaked out only after the war was over. Adolf wouldn't even tolerate WWI style poison gases. He'd dang near died from said poisons during WWI. The French and the Germans HATE poison warfare, fanatically so. Britain and America hate it, too. All four were hurt, badly, this way during WWI. Poison gases work AGAINST aggressor powers. Even the Soviets figured this out. You can't charge into the enemy if your own boys are cooking inside chemical warfare suits. As for the thought of nerve agents and V-2s -- forget it. Adolf was never told about them. And he wouldn't even consider conventional toxic agents. Figure it out: the USAAF and RAF were bombing Nazi Germany night and day. So who would win a strategic poison war?
1
@combatsiege3171 You'd be stunned. The US had NO IDEA of the significance of radio-active poisoning. Yup. Hiroshima was a complete stunner for the experts. For DECADES after the bomb, the medical record was classified. Believe me, in 1945, ALL planning was based on the totally erroneous idea that atomic bombs were just scaled up TNT. Indeed, that's why atomic metrics, to this day, are based on energy equivalence to so many tons of TNT.
1
You danced close, but missed it. The mining campaign didn't cause starvation -- as the food at issue was coming from Korea. What it did do was totally screw up Japan's war industries. They all depended upon small coastal ships to bring materials to their docks -- even if the factories at issue were on the same island. That's how cheap shipping is, and how lousy Japanese roads were. (And railroads, too.) When the Japanese built up their industries (1870-1940) they largely shunned railroads. (They did have plenty of short lines, though.) The rights of way required were already long in use, and politics meant that even the Emperor was loathe to touch land use issues. BTW, Japanese railroads are STILL an economic mess. They require epic government subsidies -- as far as the calendar projects. You left out THE single most epic, over-looked battle: tel el issa. There the British 8th Army discovered that the Krauts had been using network analysis to hugely decipher British transmissions -- even without fully breaking British cyphers. This and other discoveries led directly to the Soviet super success of Uranus. The first step of Uranus was the capture -- in a white-out -- of the German Enigma stationed (against Adolf's explicit orders) up with the Hungarian Army. This machine, and its paperwork, and its crew, then spoofed 6th Army into one bad decision after another, leading it to become surrounded. Stavka used this Enigma to impersonate Adolf, himself. (!!!) Since the transmissions were mere cyphers, no-one could spot the deception -- until way too late. Even years afterwards, Kraut war bios (largely) suppressed this fiasco. ( But see: Panzer Battles ) Even the Soviets suppressed their success. Likewise, the British never let on that the battle of tel el issa was THE turning point in North Africa. Rommel lost his B'dienst team there -- and never recovered his 'magic.' Well, no wonder! Signals analysis is what had made him the Desert Fox. Cute. Even now the British do their best to get tel el issa expunged from the Internet. Instead, another, successive battle keeps popping up via search engines. It's the wrong one, of course.
1
@masr8875 The rail gauge switch is a nothing-burger. The Krauts only needed to shift one rail -- inwards -- and re-nail it. A simple gauge stick -- think 2x4 -- was sufficient to establish the new gauge -- common labor could do the job. In 1873, the ENTIRE US southern rail grid was re-gauged -- this way -- in 72-hours. Admittedly, materials were pre-staged, the boys trained. The Krauts found it easy-peasy to re-gauge the rails. The KILLER was the Soviet destruction of: Water towers; Sleepers/Ties; Bridges -- think of the thousands of dinky ones -- these proved to be a nightmare. In the USSR, water towers were located much further apart than Europe. The Krauts found that they had to tow an extra water tank -- all too often. (These had to come out of their ears.) Even back in the 1860s it was discovered that it's easy-peasy to destroy sleepers -- with a railroad plough/plow. Adolf never laid in enough sleepers for Barbarossa. He ended up stealing ties from all over conquered Europe -- second hand sleepers. About HALF of all railroad ties were pulled up from France and Belgium -- to send into the USSR... rails, too. This just went on and on. After the war, this destruction was deemed a blessing -- by the envious British. (!) But, that's another story. The bridges that killed the Krauts: the tiny ones that you never notice... the ones over trivial creeks. The Krauts had conquered at least 10,000 of these puppies... all of which the Soviets had blown up. Adolf needed wood for them too. His boys were running all over Europe cutting down trees to replace the stuff lost.
1