Eben Emael

[John Cook]

Stumbled on this today.  At just under an hour it is worth a watch.  It seems to be part of a series on similar subjects. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLXbiw3nuZQ

[hammurabi70]

Stumbled on this today.  At just under an hour it is worth a watch.  It seems to be part of a series on similar subjects. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLXbiw3nuZQ

Personally I prefer TIK:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFP4-dwTMQ0
One of my 'go-to' choices together with Mark Felton.

[Orcs]

Even Emael is well worth a visit if you are in the area. It's open for a number of weekends a year. If you cannot make these you can arrange a private visit but there is a minimum charge of about €120. Plus €20 for the guide. So you need to get a small party together.

[John Cook]

It certainly is worth a visit.  I visited it in 1990 as part of a battlefield study organised by HQ BAOR in Rheindahlen, which included the bridges attacked by the other three groups.  The fort wasn't open to the public in those days and was still essentially in the condition it was left at the end of WW2.  It hadn't been spruced up as can be seen in the video and was still a Belgian army location in those days, used in part for storage of barbed wired which, ironically, had some been placed on the surface of the fort might have prevented gliders landing.

[holdfast]

In 1989 David Chaundler, then commanding the Para Brigade in Aldershot, organised a visit to EE and I managed a seat on it (in return for walking them through the US Engrs resistance to the Peiper attack in the Ardennes the next day).
They had managed to get Witzig to come along which was spell-binding. (Witzig was re-employed when the Bundeswehr was formed in the 1950s and ended up as a Colonel).
Witzig recounted that his company stayed together and went into Russia in 1941 and came out again as a formed unit. He said that, being such a well-trained and cohesive unit, it took far fewer casualties than the average, although replacements did not fare so well.
He said that they were still holding an annual reunion, and that in 1989 there were still 40 veterans turning up!

[T13A]

Hi Holdfast

I remember working in the same 'branch' of the MOD as David Chaundler (then a Lt Col. I think) back in 1982 and being at a farewell drinks with him for someone leaving on a Friday. I think it was the following Monday that he was being parachuted into the South Atlantic to take over command of 2 Para after the battle of Goose Green.

Cheers Paul

[holdfast]

David Chaundler told me that he was a great fan of the sprawling SPI games and once spent a complete weekend with H Jones crawling over the Drang Nach Osten Game.

[pierre the shy]

Hi Holdfast

I remember working in the same 'branch' of the MOD as David Chaundler (then a Lt Col. I think) back in 1982 and being at a farewell drinks with him for someone leaving on a Friday. I think it was the following Monday that he was being parachuted into the South Atlantic to take over command of 2 Para after the battle of Goose Green.

Cheers Paul

One of my top 5 questions about the Falklands is why did they mount a special operation just to get a new CO all the way from the UK to replace Lt Col "H" Jones when the 2IC of 2 Para did such a outstanding job commanding the battalion during most of the Battle of Goose Green? wouldn't it have been lot easier just to make Major Keeble an acting Lt Col till the end of the campaign or at least until Lt Col Chaundler could have been delivered by ship?

OK Major Keeble got a DSO (and retired as a Lt Col in the end) but I'm sure he would have preferred the extra pip instead at the time?

To keep somewhat on topic I was lucky enough to get a guided tour through the old Coast Defence battery fortifications at Wrights Hill in Wellington recently thanks to John Innes of the Wrights Hill Preservation Group. It was built during WW2 but not completed until 1946. Of the three 9.2" guns only 2 were actually installed and never saw action. When the first gun were test fired the shock waves smashed many windows in the nearest street, leaving the Army with a large bill from damage claims 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrights_Hill_Fortress

     
 

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Simple answer was publicity for the RAF!

[fred.]

Simple answer was publicity for the RAF!

You feel they were feeling a bit left out with the Navy and Army being in the thick of it.

Probably a similar reason for bombing the Island's runway with a single Vulcan!

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

They completely sidelined the FAA too.