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Old 7th May 2017, 14:43
  #10589 (permalink)  
Chugalug2
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: West Sussex
Age: 82
Posts: 4,764
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jolihokistix, thank you for translating the various Japanese language websites you link us to. Interesting that the Helen was seen by them as a Heavy Bomber, although only twin engined. Given that their war spread over the far reaches of the Pacific, it is strange that neither the Navy nor Army saw fit to equip themselves with 4 engine bombers. Even the explanation that it was designed for a war against the USSR hardly answers the question, for it was the lack of an operational long range bomber (in any numbers) that stymied the Luftwaffe in their assault on the USSR.

BTW, just as well you did translate the Japanese text. I have just added "Translator for Microsoft Edge" to my PC, and turned it loose on the same sites. It produced utter gobbledegook that makes Yoda's speech seem like the Gettysburg Address!

Geriaviator, your DM link is fascinating. The fortification of the Channel Islands, particularly Alderney, as against the woeful lack of it in most of the rest of "The Atlantic Wall", has always been a mystery. That it would thus deter British attempts to liberate them was self evident, so we didn't until after the garrisons surrendered!

The macabre explanation that it was to disrupt the invasion ports of Weymouth and Plymouth with Sarin armed V1s is persuasive but triggers yet more questions. Would those ports have been targeted in preference to say East Coast ones or Portsmouth, Dover, Folkestone, etc? Were all such South and East coast ports to be bombarded thus? It rather challenges our belief that we convinced Hitler and his High Command that the invasion was to be at the Pas de Calais rather than Normandy if they weren't.

Did we find such V1 sites as this elsewhere that had hardened storage tunnels for chemical warheads? Did we find such Sarin stocks at Alderney, if not how had the isolated Germans there disposed of them? What happens if you drop such warheads into the sea? Over to you Danny, as our resident chemical weapon expert.
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