Season 01 Episode 08, "Forget You Not"

The captain of the Akagi pays the 501st JFW a visit to express to Mio and especially Yoshika his gratitude at still having a ship to be in command of. Meanwhile, a young sailor also expresses his gratitude towards Yoshika--and possibly his attraction to her. However, the contents of the letter he presents her remain a mystery as Wing Commander Minna returns it to him along with a stern warning forbidding fraternization with the members of the 501st JFW. Later, the Witches are made to intercept a Neuroi that has appeared above the beaches of Dunkirk. The Neuroi fractures into a number of pieces, and while Barkhorn and Hartmann compete to see who can kill the most sub-Neuroi, Sakamoto identifies the core. Yoshika destroys the core, and in doing so earns her first victory. Sakamoto experiences minor technical difficulties as the Neuroi explodes. Minna, however, is not elated by the victory, and upon realizing where she is, flies down to the beach, where she finds the Volkswagen Beetle of her dearly departed friend, and mourns his loss. Later, she gives a touching rendition of Lili Marleen while Mio, Yoshika and Lynette do a fly-by for the crew of the Akagi. The Episode ends on a dark note when Minna flags Mio and confronts her about the fact that Mio no longer has functioning shields, and is thus vulnerable to the Neuroi, and the rather emotionally scarred Minna explains to Mio that she would be unable to handle her subordinate's untimely demise, should the event occur.

Historical References[]

Operation Dynamo[]

The Dunkirk evacuation, codenamed Operation Dynamo by the British, was the evacuation of Allied soldiers from the beaches and harbor of Dunkirk, France, between May 26 and June 4, 1940, when British and French troops were cut off by the German army during the Battle of Dunkirk in the Second World War. On the first day only 7000 men were evacuated, but by the ninth day, 338,226 soldiers were rescued by a hastily assembled fleet of 860 boats. Many of the troops were able to embark from the harbor's protective mole onto 42 British destroyers and other large ships, while others had to wade from the beaches towards the ships, waiting for hours to board, shoulder-deep in water. Others were ferried from the beaches to the larger ships, and thousands were carried back to England, by the famous "little ships of Dunkirk", a flotilla of around 700 merchant marine boats, fishing boats, pleasure craft and RNLI lifeboats whose civilian crews were called into service for the emergency. Operation Dynamo took its name from the dynamo room in the naval headquarters below Dover Castle. It was in this room that British Vice Admiral Bertram Ramsay planned the operation and briefed Winston Churchill as it was underway.

KDF-Wagen[]

Initially called the Porsche 60 by Ferdinand Porsche, it was officially named the Kdf-Wagen when the project was launched. The name refers to Kraft durch Freude (Strength Through Joy), the official leisure organization in the Third Reich. It was later known as the Type 1, but became more commonly known as the Beetle after WWII. Prototypes appeared from 1931 onward; the first prototypes were produced by Zündapp in Nuremberg, Germany, the Porsche Type 12. Next prototype series (Porsche Type 32) was built in 1933 by NSU, another motorcycle company. The factory had only produced a handful of cars by the time war started in 1939. Consequently, the first volume-produced versions of the car's chassis were military vehicles, the Kubelwagen Type 82 and amphibious Schwimmwagen Type 166. The car was designed to be as simple as possible mechanically, so that there was less to go wrong; the air-cooled 985 cc 25 horsepower (19kW) motors proved especially effective in actions of the German Afrika Korps in Africa's desert heat. This was due to the built-in oil-cooler, and the superior performance of the flat-4 engine configuration. The innovative suspension design used compact torsion bars instead of coil or leaf springs.

Walther PPK[]

The Walther PPK, the Polizeipistole Kriminalmodell (Police Pistol Detective Model), indicating it was more concealable than the original PP and hence better suited to plainclothes or undercover work. It is a smaller version of the PP (Polizeipistole) with a shorter grip and barrel and lesser magazine capacity. Sometimes, the name Polizeipistole Kurz (Short Police Pistol) is given, but is incorrect. The PP was released in 1929 and the PPK in 1931; both popular with European police and civilian shooters, for being reliable and concealable. During World War II they were issued to the German military and police, the Luftwaffe, and Nazi Party officials: Adolf Hitler killed himself with his PPK in the Führerbunker in Berlin. The PP and the PPK were among the world's first, successful double action semi-automatic pistols that were widely copied, but still made by Walther.

Minna singing "Lili Marleen"[]

Lili Marleen is a famous German love song which became very popular on both sides during World War II. This love song, telling the story of a young woman waiting for her lover to return from the battlefield, began as a poem written by Hans Leip during World War I. The soldier-poet's words found their way to Berlin's decadent cabaret scene in the 1930s, where they were set to music by one of Hitler's favored composers Lale Andersen. The earliest English language recording of the song was probably Anne Shelton's, but a number of cover versions followed.


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