Paratrooper.be

Number 8 has just been published, 10 years after number 1. It is still a great series, both for the fantastic drawings and the good script. Philippe Jarbinet manages to maintain the high standard he set with the previous albums. Although no longer centered around airborne soldiers in this fourth do-album, the selected subject of the crumbling Third Reich and German scientists and nazi gold make good ingredients for a fascinating story.

This album and the previous one remind me a bit of the style of François Boucq, another of my favorite comic book authors.

Let’s hope Jarbinet will continue this series for a long time to come!

I have taken some time again to list the items of my collection I am selling. Mostly US of course, and some German items still remaining.

These are some of the new items:
Tank helmet with goggles, headphones and microphone
Tanker bib trousers
Tanker jacket
Tank periscope
Tank telescope
Various tank and armor related manuals
Distinguished Service Cross box
Mine detector
And lots more…

David White kindly sent me a photo of a USALite brand TL-122-A, new in the original box. Absolutely stunning, and it gives as a good idea of the original paint finish. The box may be commercial, but the flashlight would have looked the same.

Note that the lens cover on the box is angular, whereas the actual flashlight has a round lens cover.

Read the full article about TL-122 flashlights

When on vacation at the Amalfi coast and Salerno-Napels region this summer, I visited some interesting WWII sites that I would like to share with you. I’m starting with the smallest one first: a monument to the contribution of the US Rangers during operation Avalanche – better known as the Salerno landings, executed on 9 September 1943 as part of the Allied invasion of Italy. The Italians withdrew from the war the day before the invasion, but the Allies landed in an area defended by German troops.

Things went South quickly that day when the 5th Army landed on a very broad 35-mile front, with the attacking Corps spread far apart and with a terrain highly favorable to the defender. A Ranger force under Colonel William O. Darby consisting of three US Ranger battalions and two British Commando units was tasked with holding the mountain passes leading to Naples, but no plan existed for linking the Ranger force up with X Corps’ follow-up units. Finally, although tactical surprise was unlikely, Clark ordered no naval preparatory bombardment take place, despite experience in the Pacific Theatre demonstrating it was absolutely necessary. The Rangers landed at Maiori and the Italian WWII monument on the seaside boulevard bears a plaque to their memory. Other than that, there’s nothing left to remind us of the presence of Americans in WWII.

Tage Byrnak pointed out to me in May 2024 that there is a small photo museum hidden in a room in the church S. Domenico in Maiori at the street via Roma, showing the American troops from the assault, and how their wounded were taken care of in the church of the abbey.

There are about 50 good and interesting photos that you can see there.