I know that Grandsons Dominic and Mitchell are affectionados of equipment used in any war effort. It brings back memories because my parents had several books during the 1940's that pictured the aircraft of that era. I would always page though the books looking for the fastest aircraft. Remember, there were no jet aircraft during World War II. Most aircraft went slightly over 200 mph with a few fighters as high as 325 mph. Then later in the war, the P-47 Thunderbolt (single engine) came along with a maximum speed of 432 mph at 25,000 feet of altitude. Eventually it was surpassed by the P-51 Mustang (single engine) which peaked out at 437 mph also at 25,000 ft. The P-51 was always my favorite.
The B-17 was called the "flying fortress" and led most of the bombing raids on Germany from England. It was a workhorse of an aircraft. It could carry a big bomb load and had gunnery "bubbles" all over the fuselage. It was also slow and somewhat of a "coffin" because it was an easy target for enemy fighter planes and anti-aircraft fire.
The B-29 came along late in the War and dropped the atomic bombs on Japan. The B-29 was famous for it's range, high altitude capability and payload.
I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the Jeep. It became famous in 1940 as a light, all-wheel drive, off-road vehicle. Over 600,000 Jeeps were produced for both Europe and South Pacific fighting. It was produced by Willys-Overland and later Willys Ford. The later models ended up being pretty reliable. The Jeep name still lives today.
All the equipment used in World War II is too exhaustive to list but below are names that I remember.
Panzer Tanks (German).
Messerschmidt fighter planes (German).
Jap Zeros (Japanese fighters).
English Spitfires (English fighters).
U-Boats (German Subs).
Luger (famous German hand gun).
Bazookas (anti-tank rifles).
M-1 rifles.
PT Boats (fast US "torpedo boats" capable of going fast and dropping torpedos).
Douglas C-47 Skytrain twin engine cargo/troop planes.
I was always intrigued by the story of the battleship USS Indianapolis that was sunk by a submarine on July 30,1945 in the South Pacific. It had 1199 navy personnel on board when it was hit by the torpedos, 900 men made it into the water. The ship was unable to get a message off indicating they were sinking. It took 3 days for help to arrive. 317 men survived. The rest were all eaten by sharks over the 72 hours in the water. The story is told in the movie "Jaws".
Also, Adoph Hitler was developing the atom bomb during War II. He apparently was 6-9 months away from having the final weapon. Thank goodness he never got the "bomb" or we'd all be speaking German.
So you see, there are lots of memories and lots of "things" that are buried in my memory. Our country turned out war machinery faster than at anytime in history. It was key to winning the War.
If there is an interest in more detail about different facets of War, you'll have to let me know. If you have comments, please make them!
Love,
Dad