From: Nigel Hay - MILWEB (Nigel@milweb.net)
Date: Wed Mar 12 2003 - 04:54:28 PST
Two years ago I was assisitng some friends in the recovery from Normandy of
the remains of a couple of French made UNIC halftracks which were used on a
farm near Bayeux aftert the germans abandoned them as they retreated. The
Germans had impressed these 1939/40 models into service.
The son of the owner showed us pictures of hte Unics in use in JULY 44 onhis
farm with all the origional markings just crossed out. The gun turret was
taken off and burried under his drive. The body of one, after the last Unic
finally ground to a haltnin the 1980's , was welded up and made into a giant
water butt! What else was there ? Apart from tracks, engines and loads of
spares for the Unics all the cider bottle racks in the barns were made out
of wooden cases for the Nebelwerfer rocket launchers. They still had german
stencilling and labels.German small arms ammo boxes and jerricans.
He took as round the back of the house and you could see the bullet holes
caused my mg fire that raked the building - typically French they hadnt
repaired it. as it wasnt structural!
He showed us pics of the family on June 7th 44 who had all fled inland from
near Sword beach. The house had magnificent gates until a Sherman driver
knocked them down to save opening up his hatches and risk German fire.
What provenance those Unics have - maybe one day they will be restored and
on display.
Nige
----- Original Message -----
From: <DDoyle9570@aol.com>
To: "Military Vehicles Mailing List" <mil-veh@mil-veh.org>
Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2003 1:29 PM
Subject: Re: [MV] The French
> I do not have time at this moment to verify my dates (or even the
spelling). I am doing this from memory, and believe the thrust of this to
be accurate, even if some of the details need correction.
>
> At the close of WWI, per the Treaty of Versailles, Germany was to be
disarmed. The Washington Naval Treaty further imposed limits on capital
ship size and number for all major powers. The League of Nations was the
only global body to turn to for any type of "enforcement."
>
> Hitler rose to power, and began re-arming Germany. Sometimes in blatant
violation of the Treaty, other times clandestinely.
>
> In 1938 he annexed Austria, later that same year he negotiated (but not
with the Chechs) to Annex Sudetenland, about half of the Chech territory, on
his promise of no further annexation. About 9 months after this, after
threatening (and by the way reciprocal threats from France that were he to
do this, a World War would ensue) he invaded Poland, showcasing to the world
his Treaty-violating military. And with this little head start it took the
world's combined forces 6 years to push his forces back into "compliance"
with the Treaty of Versailles. And an occupying constabulary for years
afterward.
>
> His atrocities on the home front to certain groups of HIS people are well
documented.
>
> At the time, both Washington and London worked toward diplomatic
settlement. When bombs fell on England, their tactic changed...and when
bombs fell at Pearl ours did too. Today people in this country watch
"Schindler's List" and ask why we did nothing to help.
>
> Why is it none of these parallels are apparent to any of the talking heads
on TV, or even to politicians speachwriters.
>
> In retrospect, should Hitler been stopped in 1938? Would it have been
easier then, or in 1945? How many lives could have been spared by striking
heavily in 1938?
>
> How many people need Hussein kill before people again ask in retrospect
"why did we do nothing?" He has already once had his Sudentland (Kuwait),
and was pushed back. Now he wants to try again. How much of a head start do
we need to give this Fuhrer?
>
> MV content....at least the Germany military had some very interesting
military vehicles, some design features of which are still in use today.
>
> My .02,
> David Doyle
>
> ===Mil-Veh is a member-supported mailing list===
> To unsubscribe, send e-mail to: <mil-veh-off@mil-veh.org>
> To switch to the DIGEST mode, send e-mail to <mil-veh-digest@mil-veh.org>
> To reach a human, contact <ack@mil-veh.org>
>
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Wed Apr 23 2003 - 13:25:50 PDT