AF = Midway – Even before the attack on Pearl Harbor, U.S. codebreakers had broken the Japanese code and could read Japanese military messages. It was not perfect, obviously. In 1942, the intelligence operation knew the Japanese navy was planning something big in the central Pacific, but it was unclear what their objective was. Commander Joseph Rochefort, the head of the codebreakers at Pearl Harbor, had a hunch that the target the Japanese messages called “AF” was Midway Islands. To prove it, he had the island’s defenders broadcast a message falsely notifying Pearl Harbor that they were having water treatment problems. Sure enough, soon a message was decoded referring to AF having water problems. This knowledge allowed Admiral Chester Nimitz to concentrate a fleet to ambush the Japanese in a battle that was the turning point in the Pacific. Nimitz recommended Rochefort for the Distinguished Service Medal, but his rival codebreakers in Washington blocked this recognition. It was not until nine years after his death that he was awarded the medal posthumously in 1985. Whitcomb p. 47
OPERATION FORTITUDE – The Allies were determined that the invasion of France would be a surprise. The logical place to invade would seemingly be the closest place to Great Britain. This was the port of Calais. To reinforce the logic of this, the Allies developed a deception campaign called Operation Fortitude. This involved creating a fake army in England opposite Calais. Fake radio traffic was put out 24/7 knowing the Germans would pick it up. Rubber tanks and wooden artillery pieces were placed in fields. The same was done with landing craft along the coast. Faux air fields were created with loud speakers playing air plane sounds. To top it off, the Allies made it known that Gen. George Patton was in command of the “army”. The Germans considered Patton to be the best American general and could not believe he would not be involved in the invasion. They did not know that he was currently suspended by Commanding General Eisenhower because he had slapped a couple of soldiers with battle fatigue in hospitals in Sicily during the liberation of the island. Operation Fortitude fueled Hitler’s self-fulfilling prophecy so much that even after the landings in Normandy, he still believed it was a diversion and the real invasion would be at Calais. He refused to release forces from there to help bottle up the beachhead. Whitcomb p. 70-1
PEARL HARBOR RADAR – On the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, Privates Joseph Lockard and George Elliott were operating an experimental radar station near Pearl Harbor. They were off duty at 7 A.M., but since their ride had not arrived, Elliott was still fooling around with the radar. At 7:02, a large blip appeared on the screen. The two attempted to contact the control room at the base, but there was no answer. They got in contact with the only person on duty, Lt. Kermit Tyler. When he was told about the ominous blip, he told them not to worry. A flight of B-17s were due in from California, so it must be them, although the blip was much bigger than that. Lockard and Elliott were picked up at 7:45, the first bombs fell at 7:55. Whitcomb p. 295
THE GREATEST RESCUE – When the Philippines fell to the Japanese in 1942, many American and Filipino soldiers were taken captive. Many were forced to walk to prison camps in what became known as the Bataan Death March. The treatment was brutal and it did not end with imprisonment. Life in the camps was a horror as the Japanese guards dealt inhumanely with prisoners who they felt had dishonored themselves by surrendering. Lack of food and untreated diseases caused many to die or become living skeletons. When MacArthur invaded the Philippines and began to liberate it, the Japanese began to implement plans to kill off the surviving prisoners. When Gen. Krueger learned of a camp at Cabanatuan, fear for the execution of the prisoners motivated Krueger to order the liberation of the camp. He assigned the job to the Ranger unit led by Lt. Col. Henry Mucci. Mucci’s problem was the camp was thirty miles behind the lines. On Jan. 28, 1945, Mucci and his 121 Rangers started. He linked up with 200 Filipino guerrillas led by Capt. Juan Pajota. When they encamped five miles away, scouts reported that there was extensive Japanese activity in the area and a Japanese military camp near the prison. Pajota volunteered to neutralize the camp and prevent Japanese forces from interfering with the attack on the prison. The biggest problem was the path to the camp was over a mile of open field. How to sneak up on the camp? The solution was to request a fly-over by a P-61 Black Widow night-fighter. The distinctive and scary looking plane had all the Japanese guards looking up as the Rangers crawled up to the camp. By nightfall, they and Pajota’s force were in place. On signal, the Rangers opened fire on the camp and quickly disposed of the Japanese guards. The confused prisoners were convinced they were being rescued and taken from the camp. One Ranger was killed by friendly fire and the unit’s doctor was mortally wounded by a mortar blast. One prisoner died of a heart attack. Meanwhile, Pajota ambushed the Japanese army camp and prevented them from intervening. The prisoners were transported back to American lines on ox-carts pulled by carabao. Most of them returned to America, passing under the Golden Gate bridge, greeted by cheering crowds on March 8, 1945. Plunges Again pp. 33-37
BALLOON BOMBS – In 1944, Major General Kusaba of the 9th Army Technical Research Laboratory developed a secret weapon that he thought would create panic in America. The Fu-go balloon bomb was a hot air balloon that carried four incendiary bombs and one 33-pound anti-personnel bomb. The balloons were constructed by schoolgirls. The idea was to set the balloons adrift on the eastward wind currents and they would land in forests in America and start forest fires. The trip took three to five days. From October, 1944 to April, 1945, 9,300 balloons were launched. It is estimated that about 500 made it to America. Some got as far as Michigan. A few caused minor fires, but most did not explode. The U.S. government ordered strict censorship of the weapon to demoralize the Japanese in charge of the project. This succeeded as the project was abandoned for lack of success. Unfortunately, the censorship meant the Mitchell family were not aware of the dangers of the bombs. On May 5, 1945, Reverend Archie Mitchell and his family went on a picnic to a forest in Oregon. While he parked the car, his wife and five kids went exploring and encountered a balloon. When they tampered with it, it exploded killing all of them. Plunges Again pp. 200-201
ENIGMA – The Enigma device was an encryption and decryption machine invented by a German engineer right after WWI. It could code and decode secret messages. It looked like a typewriter, but when you typed your message, each time you struck a key a system of three rotors would produce a different letter in the coded message. You needed the machine and the setting of the rotors to decode the message. It was invulnerable to traditional codebreaking. The inventor offered it to the German army, but it was lukewarm until the late 1920s when it finally realized the potential. Unfortunately for Germany, it did not prove to be unbreakable. As early as 1931, a German traitor informed the British about it. They set up a super-secret codebreaking operation at a mansion called Bletchley Park. Some of the greatest brains were assembled there. They were aided by work already done by the Poles. The Poles had invented a computer called a “bombe” because of the clicking noises it made. The accusation of an Enigma machine and code books from a captured u-boat was a big breakthrough. This allowed the Allies to steer convoys around u-boat wolfpacks. Valuable secrets about German plans were passed on to Winston Churchill in what was called Ultra. Fortunately, since the Germans thought the code was unbreakable, they never suspected their messages were being read. Ultra undoubtedly shortened the war and remained a secret long after the war. Plunges Again 455-57
JAPANESE HOLDOUT – HIroo Onoda was a soldier in the Japanese army. In February, 1945 the Americans invaded the Philippines and captured his island of Lubang. He and others refused to surrender and hid in the jungle. They refused to believe Japan had lost the war. They survived by living off the jungle and raiding villages. The villagers called them “mountain devils”. Americans tried to entice the survivors to come in by dropping leaflets, sending search parties, and even getting relatives to come to lure them out. By 1974, every one of the holdouts had surrendered except Hiroo. Finally, a college dropout named Norio Suzuki came to Lubang specifically to search for Hiroo. One day, he was drinking water from a stream when Onoda approached him. Onoda was open to the idea that the war was over, but insisted that he would only give up if his commanding officer came to assure him that his service were no longer needed. Suzuki returned to Japan and brought back the officer. Onoda was greeted by 4,000 people when he landed in Japan. He was a national hero. He sold his memoirs and bought a cattle ranch in Brazil. Uncle Lost pp. 19-20
THE JEEP – The Army was in terrible shape for vehicles as war approached. The horse was still considered an important part of their transportation plans. In 1940, the Army put out specifications for a “low-silhouette scout car”. It needed to be four-wheel drive, carry four men, and weigh less than 1,300 pounds. It sent the specs to 135 companies, but only two were interested and only American Bantam made a prototype. Unfortunately, American Bantam had only 15 employees and no assembly plant. The Army was concerned so it scheduled a field test and invited engineers from Ford and Willys-Overland. Willys-Overland won the contract, but when it could not handle the large quantities of vehicles, Ford was asked to take up the slack. At first, the vehicles were called “GPs” for “general purpose”. Other nicknames were: beetlebug, blitz buggy, Leaping Lena, beep, peep, puddle jumper. Jeep won out partly because it was the name of a Popeye character that was neither fish nor fowl and could do almost everything. So could the Jeep because if you added a machine gun, you had a combat vehicle. If you added a plow, it could clear snow. If you added stretchers, you could carry the wounded. If you added mail, you could deliver it. If you added a general, you could bring him to the front. Uncle Lost pp. 607-608
NAZI SABOTEURS – In 1942, the Germans came up with a plan to disrupt American war industries and use terrorism to hurt American morale. On June 13, four men landed on Long Island in an inflatable raft. They were spotted by a Coast Guardsman who confronted them. He saw a sub off the coast and was very suspicious. He accepted a $260 bribe to look the other way because he was unarmed. He immediately ran back to his base to report. The next day a search found a cache of explosives and German uniforms, but the four were long gone. The FBI was informed and J. Edgar Hoover began the largest manhunt in FBI history. Soon, the leader of the saboteurs contacted FBI headquarters in NYC, but they thought he was a nut case. Col. George John Dasch had lived in the U.S. for twenty years and was secretly anti-Nazi. It had always been his intention to sabotage the mission. He had convinced Ernst Burger to join him. Dasch took a train to FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. to talk to Hoover himself. He was shuffled between offices until he got frustrated and dumped a suitcase full of $84,000 (money to be used by the saboteurs) on a desk. He was interrogated for eight days and revealed the targets of the saboteurs were the NYC water system and the hydroelectric dam at Niagara Falls. He also gave up the other two men and their coin ntacts. Burger and the other two were arrested and Burger agreed to cooperate. He told the FBI about another team that landed in Florida. They were soon arrested also. No act of sabotage had been accomplished. All the saboteurs were promptly executed, but Dasch was sentenced to thirty years hard labor and Burger to life imprisonment. In 1948, President Truman pardoned the two and deported them back to Germany where they were greeted as traitors. Uncle Great Big pp. 419-423
EARLY HITLER – After dropping out of high school, Hitler moved to Vienna. He was turned down twice by the Academy of Art and then by a school of architecture. He ended up making some money by house-painting. He lived in a homeless shelter. It was there that he first discovered his public speaking ability as his diatribes entertained the other men. One day, another homeless man asked Hitler to make a little money by painting post cards that they would sell on the streets. The post cards were mostly street scenes as Hitler was better at painting buildings than people. He later moved to Munich and was living there when WWI broke out. He joined the German army. Uncle Plunges pp. 122-123
NAZI OLYMPICS – In 1931, the International Olympic Committee awarded the 1936 Olympics to Germany in unofficial recognition of Germany’s return to good graces after WWI. Little could they predict the rise of Hitler in 1933. By 1936, some nations were upset with Hitler’s policies, especially his anti-Jewish measures. There was a proposal of “The People’s Games” in Spain as an alternative, but the Spanish Civil War ended that idea. Hitler prepared for the games by cleaning out the homeless in Berlin and taking down all the anti-semitic signs. Four huge stadiums and an Olympic village were built at a enormous cost of $25 million. A record 49 nations and 4,066 athletes attended. It was showcase for Germany and it dominated. It won 41 gold medals and 101 total. The closest was the U.S. (25/66). The talk of the games, however, was an American named Jesse Owens. He was nicknamed “The Tan Cyclone”. Owens won a record four gold medals for the 100 meter dash, the 200 meter dash (in world record time), the long jump, and the 400 meter relay. He almost did not win the long jump as he defaulted on his first two jumps and had only one more try. A German jumper named Luz Long, in an act of sportsmanship, suggested Jesse start his run a few inches further back. The leap was fault-free and Owens went on to defeat Long and everyone else. Owens was not supposed to participate in the relay, but the night before his coach told the team that Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller were being replaced by Owens and Frank Metcalfe. No reason was given, but Glickman and Stoller were Jewish so everyone figured it was to avoid embarrassing Hitler. Owens did not want to do it, but had no choice. They won by fifteen yards so obviously Glickman and Stoller were deprived of gold medals.
It is a myth that Hitler refused to recognize Owens’ victories and some versions even have him leaving the stadium to avoid congratulating the black American. In truth, Hitler had congratulated several winners on the first day, but then he was told by the IOC that it was against protocol for the host leader to do that so he refrained from then on. Sadly, when he returned to his homeland, FDR did not meet Owens or even congratulate him in any way. By the way, when he was in Germany, Owens could sit anywhere he wanted on their buses. Uncle Plunges pp. 127-129
HITLER’S HENCHMEN –
Goebbels – Hitler’s Propaganda Minister, who preached about the superiority of the “master race”, was born with a clubfoot. He was once engaged to a Jew. In college, his favorite professors were Jewish. He failed at writing before he joined the Nazi party and found he had a great talent for “the big lie”.
Himmler – He got a degree in agriculture, but failed at his first job as a chicken farmer. He then was a salesman for a fertilizer company.
Eichmann – He was called “Little Jew” as boy because of his complexion. He was a laborer at his father’s mining company and then a traveling salesman for an oil company before becoming a filing clerk for the Nazi government.
Goering – He was a famous fighter ace in WWI. When the Red Baron was killed, it was Goering who took over as leader of the squadron. He joined the Nazi Party early and participated in the Beer Hall Putsch and was wounded in the groin. He got addicted to morphine because of it. Uncle Plunges pp. 471-472
LILY LITVAK – During WWII, the Soviet Union trained women as pilots. They were supposed to be treated like men, so no long hair or make-up. They defied the make-up rule. They had to overcome obstacles like older bombers that required both the pilot and co-pilot to pull back on the control stick to take-off. And once, a mouse was placed in the cockpit of a woman as a prank. The most famous of these women warriors was Lydia Litvak. She grew up loving airplanes and at age 14 joined a flying club. One year later she soloed. In the late 1930’s she was working as a flight instructor training male pilots. When Germany invaded the Soviet Union, she joined the military. She was trained by famous aviatrix Marina Raskova. At first, she and other women pilots were assigned to a defensive unit, but after showing their abilities, they were transferred to a male unit at Stalingrad. Her success there led to her becoming known as the “White Rose of Stalingrad”. She was motivated by the death of her boy-friend who was shot down by the Germans. She took revenge by shooting down twelve German planes to become an ace. Her biggest win was over a German ace. He survived and was taken captive. Upon meeting her, he refused to believe a woman had shot him down, until she described in detail their dog-fight. When wounded in the leg in one flight, she refused extended leave so she could continue to fight. She rose to the rank of flight commander. On August 1, 1943, one her fourth sortie of the day, she was surprised by two German fighters and did not return to base. For thirty six years after the war her mechanic Inna Pasportnikona hunted for the wreck. In 1979, he located her gravesite in a village. Confirmation of the remains in 1990 resulted in Mikhail Gorbachev honoring her with the Hero of the Soviet Union award.
THE CROCODILE BATTLE – In 1945, the Japanese were in full retreat in Burma. A force of about 2,000 men fled into a swamp with the British in pursuit. Unfortunately, crocodiles had taken refuge there because of the noises of battle. Only twenty Japanese survived the encounter with the crocodiles. maroon book p. 12
HAROLD FISHER’S REVENGE – Lt. Harold Fisher was the captain of a B-17 Flying Fortress. One mission, he and his squadron was sent to bomb a target in Italy. “Bonnie Sue” was badly damaged by anti-aircraft and had to drop out of formation. On the way back to base, a P-38 fighter plane came along and before Fisher could breath a sigh of relief about their protector, the American attacked them and “Bonnie Sue” crashed in the Mediterranean, killing everyone but Fisher. He was picked up by a British ship and returned to his base. Upon interrogation, he told his unbelievable story and was informed that he was not the first to tell a similar story. The interrogator informed Fisher that a P-38 had crash-landed in Italy and Mussolini himself had given the plane to an Italian ace named Guido Rossi. Rossi was using it to sneak up on American bombers and shoot them down. Fisher was incensed by this unethical conduct and vowed revenge. He convinced his superiors to give him an experimental B-17 that was loaded with extra weaponry and a hand-picked crew. He did some research and found out Rossi’s wife lived near his base. He made a trip to see her and brought an artist friend. His friend painted Gina’s face on the front of his bomber and it was named “My Gina”. For the next few weeks, Fisher flew around pretending to be a lone bomber in distress. One day, a P-38 pulled up alongside and Fisher could see the pilot looking at the picture. He radioed his thanks for the escort and Rossi (who spoke English) said he was happy to help a comrade. They made small talk until Rossi asked about this beautiful Gina painted on the bomber. Fisher responded by saying that the woman was the wife of an Italian pilot, was lonely, and they had been spending time together. And boy was she good in bed. At this point Rossi realized that Fisher was talking about his wife. He became enraged and prepared to attack the bomber. By this time Fisher and his crew were pretty sure this might be their man, so they were ready for him. The B-17, with its extra machine guns, blasted the P-38. Rossi crashed and was taken captive. Fisher was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. http://www.cracked.com/article_19633_5-most-satisfying-tales-payback.html
VODKA AT STALINGRAD – Even during the worst of the fighting, the men were still getting their daily vodka ration. One colonel figured out that when he sent in casualty figures the amount of vodka issued to his unit was reduced accordingly. He stopped sending in the numbers and started drinking the extra vodka. Finally, his superiors became suspicious and sent some officers to investigate. They discovered the truth and were about to take him out to be shot when word arrived that Stalin had named him a “Hero of the Soviet Union” for his low-casualty defense. maroon p. 17
THE SAILFISH AND THE SCULPIN – In 1939, the submarine Squalus sunk off the east coast. The sub Sculpin rushed to the scene and rescued half of the fifty-six man crew. The Squalus was salvaged and renamed the Sailfish. In 1943, the Sculpin was sunk and forty-two crew members were taken captive by the Japanese. They were placed on board the aircraft carrier Cuyo for the trip to a Japanese prison camp. On the way, the Cuyo was torpedoed by the Sailfish. Everyone on board went down with the ship. The crew of the Sailfish congratulated each other, not realizing they had killed the men from the sub that had come to rescue their sub four years earlier. maroon p. 19
THE SWASTIKA – It originated in Asia before Christ. It was first used by the Aryans of India. They used it to represent the sun’s movement. It symbolized the sun’s virtues and regenerative powers. In Sanskrit it meant “conducive to well-being”. In other cultures, it stood for prosperity and happiness. It appeared on ancient Persian carpets, Buddhas, Greek and Cretan coins and vases, and Roman catacombs. The early Christians disguised their crosses with it. In North America, Indian tribes used it to represent peace or the four directions. Hitler thought of it as only an Aryan symbol when he adopted it. maroon p. 26
ORADOUR-SUR-GLANE – On June 10, 1944, a unit from the SS Das Reich Division pulled into the French town of Oradour-sur-Glane. All of the citizens were rounded up in the town square. The Germans were determined to wreak revenge for Resistance activities, even though the town had not been involved. The men were herded into barns and sheds where they were machine gunned and then the survivors were burned to death. Only five men managed to escape. The women and children were forced into the church. A smoke bomb was detonated on the altar and the Germans opened fire and then set the building on fire. One woman, Marguerite Roufflance, climbed out a window and played dead. She was the only survivor. In all, 245 women, 207 kids, and 190 men died that day. In 1953, 21 of the soldiers who participated were put on trial, but they were given light sentences because the officers that gave the orders could not be found. Today the town is a national monument. No one lives there. maroon p. 29
BREAKING INTO AUSCHWITZ – Witold Pilecki was a Polish army captain when the Germans invaded Poland. After the fall, he formed the Secret Polish Army to continue the fight against the occupiers. One year later, he concocted a plan to infiltrate Auschwitz. He got himself arrested and was sent to the camp. He picked five men he could trust and they set up an organization that eventually included around 1,000 inmates. It was called the Union of Military Organization. It helped patients in the hospital, stole weapons, and helped with escapes. He got word out about the Nazi atrocities to the Polish government in exile in London. He tried to convince the government to get the Allies to bomb the camp, without success. He survived pneumonia in the camp. In April, 1943, he escaped and went to Warsaw. He joined the resistance and fought in the Warsaw Uprising. He was captured and put in a prisoner of war camp. After the war, he continued to work for the Polish government in exile against the new communist government in Poland. In 1948, he was executed for espionage. He is one of the great Polish heroes. maroon p. 29 and Wikipedia
CHURCHILL STORIES
– The elderly Churchill was sitting in the smoking room of the House of Commons with his fly unbuttoned. When a colleague pointed this out, Churchill responded: “Don’t worry, dead birds don’t fall out of nests.”
– In the years after the war, Churchill concentrated his political career on maintaining conservativism in Great Britain. One of his battles was against socialism. The socialists wanted the government to take over and run the major industries for the good of the public. They wanted to “nationalize” industries like the railroads. One day Churchill went to the men’s room in Parliament. There was only one other person in the room – Clement Atlee, the head of the opposition party and a socialist. Atlee was standing at the first urinal and Churchill passed by him and went to the last urinal in line. Atlee asked Churchill why he insisted on going so far away. Churchill’s response was: “I know you, every time you see something big, you want to nationalize it.”
– Churchill was a noted drinker. One evening he was at a dinner party and had been drinking a bit. He might have been loud and obnoxious. A female member of Parliament approached him and told him: “Mr. Churchill, you are drunk.” Churchill looked at her and said: “And you, madam, are ugly. But I’ll be sober in the morning.” maroon p. 32
– Churchill was at a party and got into a heated discussion with Nancy Astor, who would later become the first female member of the House of Commons. Astor was a strong supporter of women’s suffrage, which the conservative Churchill was opposed to. At one point, Astor became so frustrated with Churchill that she said: “Winston, if you were my husband, I would poison your coffee.” Churchill: “Madam, if I were your husband, I would drink it.” Little, Brown p. 122
– During WWI, Churchill made a trip to the Western Front as an observer. He was staying in a dugout when he received a message from a general who was a friend of his. The general wanted to meet him and would send a car to pick him up at a nearby crossroads. Churchill waited for over an hour and no car came. It turns out it had gotten lost and the meeting never happened. Churchill returned to the dugout in a foul mood to find that while he was gone a shell had hit the dugout, killing the man he left behind. Little, Brown p. 122
-During WWII, Churchill visited FDR several times at the White House. On one of those visits, they were discussing the future international peacekeeping organization to maintain world peace after the war. They were unsure what to call it. One night, FDR came up with the name “United Nations” and had his wheelchair wheeled down the hall to share his idea with the Prime Minister. They barged into the room to find Churchill standing butt naked. It could have been a terribly embarrassing situation, but Churchill said “The Prime Minister of England has nothing to hide from the President.” Little, Brown p. 123
“GET SOME OFFICERS KILLED” – Here is a conversation that Gen. Patton had when he visited the front in North Africa.
Patton: How were the casualties today?
Gen. Ward: Not bad.
Patton: How many officers were killed?
Ward: We were fortunate. We didn’t lose any.
Patton: Goddammit, that’s not fortunate! That’s bad for the morale of the enlisted men. I want you to get more officers killed.
Ward: You’re not serious, are you?
Patton: Yes, goddammit, I’m serious. I want you to put some officers out as observers. Keep them up front until a couple get killed. It’s good for the men’s morale. maroon p. 62
DELAYED REVENGE – In the 1930s, Kozo Nishino was commander of a Japanese tanker getting crude oil in California. On the way up the path from the beach for a formal welcoming ceremony, he fell in some cactus and oil rig workers laughed at him as the spines were pulled out of his butt. He swore revenge. On February 23, 1942 his sub shelled the same oilfields. 25 shells were fired, but little damage was done. maroon p. 62
ERNEST EVANS – Ernest Evans was the Commander of the destroyer USS Johnston. Evans was a Cherokee Indian. His ship was part of a fleet of small escort carriers protecting transport ships off the Philippines after the American invasion in 1944. What the Johnston and its fellow small vessels did not realize was that the big ships had been lured away by a Japanese deception, leaving the small American fleet to face a Japanese fleet including massive battleships. When the Japanese warships emerged on the horizon, the Johnston was the first to attack. This was basically suicidal. A torpedo fired by the tiny destroyer put a heavy cruiser out of action, but the Johnston was hit by six shells. It limped to within 6,000 yards of another cruiser to distract it from an attack on one of the carriers. The Johnston’s small caliber guns claimed numerous hits but could do little damage to the heavily armored Japanese ships. The Johnston turned to confront a light cruiser and four destroyers. It hit the Japanese dozens of times and distracted a torpedo attack on another aircraft carrier. At this point, the Japanese surrounded it and pummeled it until Evans ordered abandon ship. Only 141 of the 327 sailors survived. Evans went down with his ship. He was awarded the Medal of Honor. Because of the valiant efforts of the small fleet, the Japanese were intimidated into abandoning their pursuit of the very vulnerable transport ships and a catastrophe was averted. maroon 63
DESMOND DOSS – Desmond volunteered for the Army in WWII. However, being Seventh Day Adventist, meant that his religious beliefs made it impossible for him to kill another human being. The Army agreed to make him a medic. After winning bronze stars for bravery on Guam and the Philippines, his unit was sent to Okinawa. It was tasked with ascending a slope that rose to 400 feet. The final 40 feet was a sheer cliff face. The soldiers had to go up using a cargo net (usually used for getting into landing craft from transport ships). Doss went up too. Whenever a soldier was wounded, Doss would crawl to him, administer aid, then drag him back to the cliff and lower him by rope. He did this dozens of times. On the second day, the Japanese counterattacked and drove the Americans back to the cliff. Doss continued to rescue men who were sometimes two hundred feet in front of the American line, including four men who went down just yards from a Japanese cave. When he was hit by a grenade, he dressed his own wounds rather than risk another medic. While being carried back on a stretcher, he crawled off during a tank attack to help another wounded man. A bullet shattered his arm, but he splinted it with a rifle stock and crawled 300 yards to safety. He was lowered over the cliff and taken to the hospital where he was reunited with many of the men he had saved. Doss became the only conscientious objector to be awarded the Medal of Honor in WWII. maroon 64
AMERICA’S FIRST SHOT – On Dec. 7, 1941 just before daybreak, a minesweeper in Pearl Harbor signaled the destroyer USS Ward that it had sighted an unidentified submarine. Four hours later, lookouts on the Ward spotted the conning tower of a green, two man midget sub trailing a supply ship. Captain William Outerbridge called for battle stations and ordered “commence firing”. The sub was fifty yards away when the destroyer hit its conning tower. It spun crazily, erupted, and sank. The time was 6:45 – one hour and ten minutes before Japanese aircraft would arrive. Nobody in command felt it was necessary to alert the battleships or air fields. maroon 73 (Significa 3)
MESSAGE TO McAULIFFE – Here is the message the German commander sent to Gen. McAuliffe inside the surrounded town of Bastogne: “There is only one possibility to save the U.S. troops from total annihilation. In order to think it over, a term of two hours will be granted, beginning with the presentation of this note. If this proposal should be rejected, one German artillery corps and six heavy anti-aircraft battalions are ready to annihilate the U.S. troops in and near Bastogne. The order for firing will be given immediately after this two-hour term.” McAuliffe’s famous response was “nuts”. When asked what this meant, the German was told it meant to go to hell. maroon 73
IWO GRENADE DOG – Some Marines brought pets ashore when they landed. One brought a fox terrier. It found a hand grenade and started playing with it. He would roll it around and toss it in the air. He carried it to a fox hole causing a mad scramble. When he would drop it and someone would reach for it, he would quickly snatch it. They unsuccessfully tempted him with food and threw sticks at him. Finally, he gave it up after everyone ignored him. maroon 74
SUB APPENDECTOMY – Seaman Darrel Rector came down with a case of acute appendicitis. The problem was he was on board a submarine in the Pacific and subs did not carry doctors. Pharmacist’s Mate (the equivalent of a medic) Wheeler Lipes, Jr. had witnessed an appendectomy so he would have to do the operation. A tea strainer was used to administer ether. Bent spoons were used to keep the incision open. Torpedo alcohol was used to sterilize the instruments. The operation was done in the officer’s wardroom with officers assisting. Everything went fine and Rector was back on duty thirteen days later. This was just the first of eleven similar appendectomies on American subs during WWII. maroon 107
THE DRAFT – 18 million men were drafted or enlisted. Of these, 11.5 million (61%) were draftees. Originally all men 21-45 had to register. This was later lowered to 18. 5 million men were rejected for various reasons. Some of the reasons included: mental instability, hernia, flat feet. The two leading reasons were bad teeth and bad eyesight. (Superman failed his physical when he accidentally read the eye chart in the next room with his x-ray vision.) Some men were released because they gave the wrong answer when Army psychiatrists asked them “do you like girls?” Many were rejected due to illiteracy, but later the Army inducted these and taught them to a fourth grade level. The Army also reduced its standards to 5’ tall and 105 pounds. 43,000 were designated as conscientious objectors and about half were allowed to serve in non-combat roles. (Desmond Doss was awarded the Medal of Honor as a medic on Okinawa.) Many were allowed to serve by working in Civilian Public Service camps (similar to the CCC). 6,000 were sent to prison. Lawrence 192
G.I. GEAR – A typical G.I. might carry over 50 pounds of equipment. This included his helmet, M-1 rifle, bayonet, grenades, ammunition, entrenching tool, canteen, first aid pouch, poncho, C-rations, mess kit.
Lawrence 195
RADAR – The key to the British victory in the Battle of Britain was radar. It allowed the British to detect incoming bomber formations and intercept them. Radar relied on bouncing sound waves off metal objects. Several nations were working on the technology in the 1930’s. The leading experimenters were the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, the British Meteorological Office, and the German Kriegsmarine (Navy). Great Britain took the lead and in the late 30’s had the Chain Home system ready for home defense. It was basic, but ready to be used. The big improvement came when two British scientists invented the cavity magnetron which used higher frequencies for more accuracy. It was shipped to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for refining. Meanwhile, the Germans implemented the Freya system which was actually better than the Chain Home, but they did not substantially improve it over the course of the war. Plus the Anglo-Americans came up with countermeasures that reduced the efficiency of German radar. One tactic was for planes to drop chaffe. Chaffe was metal strips like confetti that caused the radar waves to give false readings. Amazing 38-40
OPERATION HIMMLER – Hitler was planning on invading Poland, but he wanted it to look like it was in self-defense. The SS concocted a plan called Operation Himmler to give the Nazis an excuse for the invasion. On the night of August 31, 1939 a select unit of SS soldiers “attacked” the German radio station at Gleinwitz, near the Polish border. The men were dressed in Polish uniforms. They brought 12-13 condemned prisoners dressed in Polish uniforms. Before reaching the site, the “enemy” were given lethal injections and then bullets were fired into their bodies at the site. The SS men stormed the station and shot it up. They made a broadcast in Polish encouraging Poles to attack Germans. The next day, German journalists and foreign diplomats were taken to the station to see the results of the unprovoked attack on German soil. By this time, German forces were deep inside Poland, having attacked on September 1. Amazing 110-111
THE AVERAGE G.I. – Average age was 26. Average height was 5’8’ and 144 pounds. This was one inch taller and eight pounds heavier than the average doughboy in WWI. Only 4 of 10 had graduated from high school. They averaged three more years of education than doughboys.
ARMY BOOT CAMP –
– reveille at 6 A.M.
– breakfast
– clean barracks
– 8:00 – 5:30 training – close-order drill, military protocol. physical conditioning, war aims, rifle range, weapons maintenance, special skills (e.g. radio communications)
– dinner
– 7 – 9:45 free time in the barracks
– lights out
WAR PRODUCTION
– 5,777 merchant ships
– 1,556 naval vessels
– 299,293 planes
– 634,569 jeeps
– 88,410 tanks
– 2,383,311 trucks
– 6.5 million rifles
– 40 billion bullets
HITLER’S DEATH – The last weeks of Hitler’s life were spent underground in the Fuhrerbunker. It was an underground complex of offices and living quarters that was safe from bombings and artillery fire. On August 29, 1945, not long after his 56th birthday, he married his loyal long-time girlfriend Eva Braun. He wore a Nazi uniform and she wore a black silk taffeta dress. A civil servant conducted the ceremony after asking the mandatory question of whether they were pure Aryans. The marriage document was witnessed by Propaganda Minister Josef Goebbels and Hitler’s private secretary (and man behind the throne) Martin Bormann. Later, Hitler dictated his will to his secretary Traudl Junge. He asked his doctor for cyanide capsules. To make sure they were efficient, they were tested on Hitler’s pet German shepherd Blondi and her litter of puppies. Hitler had a last meal of spaghetti with his lady friends. He bid farewell to Goebbels, Bormann, and assorted generals. Adolf and Eva retired to his private quarters. Eva bit down on a cyanide capsule. Hitler did the same, but also shot himself in the head, just to be sure. The bodies were carried outside and doused with gasoline and set on fire. With the Soviet army approaching, no one stuck around to make sure the cremation was complete. The Soviets got the corpses and there was enough remaining to use Hitler’s teeth to confirm his identity. Goebbels and his wife decided they did not want to live in a defeated Germany with no Fuhrer. Magda poisoned their six children and then the couple took cyanide themselves. Amazing 134-137
WHO RATTED OUT ANNE FRANK? The most famous diarist from WWII lived in an annex above her father’s business for two years. She had gotten the diary just before they went into hiding. She was 13. On August 4, 1944, 4-5 Dutch collaborators led a Nazi investigator to the hideout. Anne and her sister Margot were sent to Bergen-Belsen where both died of typhus. The only member of the family that survived was their father Otto Frank. Ever since the diary was published in 1947, people have wondered who turned in the family. Investigations by the Dutch police, historians, and Nazi hunters have been unable to nail it down. Even Elie Wiesel interviewed the investigator, who told him he did not know who was to blame. An early suspect was Willem Van Maaren who worked at the warehouse next door, but no evidence supported the theory. British historian Carol Anne Lee wrote a book fingering Anton Ahlers. Ahlers was a business associate of Otto Frank who was a Dutch Nazi. He was also a petty thief who may have been attracted to the bounty for turning in Jews. Some members of his family, including his son, believe he did it. Austrian author Melissa Muller argued that a cleaning lady named Lena Hartog, who worked in the warehouse, may have been the culprit. She was afraid her husband, who had been an employee of Otto, would be deported for harboring Jews. Amazing 175-176
DORIE MILLER – Dorie (born Doris) Miller was an African-American who enlisted in the Navy in September, 1939. At the time, the Navy only allowed blacks to serve in the kitchen. He started as a mess attendant and was promoted to cook. He became the battleship West Virginia’s heavyweight boxing champ. On Dec. 7, 1941, he was gathering officers’ laundry when the attack began. He helped move the wounded captain and then helped with other wounded men. Seeing an unmanned anti-aircraft gun, he took control and took aim. Although he had never fired that kind of weapon, he managed to shoot down at least one Japanese plane before the West Virginia settled to the bottom of the harbor. He swung over by rope to the USS Tennessee. He was awarded the Navy Cross (he was the first African-American to receive the award) by Admiral Nimitz and was sent on a war bond tour in the U.S. In November, 1943, he was manning an anti-aircraft gun on the escort carrier Liscome Bay when it was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine. He went down with the ship. Amazing 301-302
HANNA REITSCH – She was the most famous female aviator in WWII. As a girl she dreamed of being a flying missionary doctor. She went to glider school and was first in her class. In 1931, she set the women’s record for sustained glider flight at 5 ½ hours. She raised it to 11.5 hours in 1933. In 1936, she set the world record for non-stop distance flight in a glider. When the war came, she became a civilian test pilot for the Luftwaffe. In 1938, she became the first person to fly a helicopter indoors. She test flew the first jet – the Me-163 Komet. She crashed in one of them and sustained such severe injuries that she was out of action for five months. She was awarded the Iron Cross First Class. In 1943, she tested the V-1 rocket. On April 25, 1945, she flew a general into Berlin in a small plane. She landed on a street. Spending several days with Hitler (who she worshipped) in the Reichsbunker, she unsuccessfully tried to convince him to escape with her. She was captured after flying out of Berlin and imprisoned for fifteen months. After that, she returned to gliders. Amazing 384-387
LEBENSBORN – In December, 1935 Heinrich Himmler started the Lebensborn program. It means “spring of life”. The idea was to increase the number of pure Aryan births. Germany needed more blonde, blue-eyed babies. Himmler expected his SS men to father at least four boys. They did not have to limit themselves to their wives. Himmler established homes throughout Europe to care for the mothers and children. They were often located in ski chalets and hotels. Any “racially pure” unwed mother could take advantage of the facility if she could prove the father to be was “racially approved”. SS members met the qualifications nicely. Thousands of children went through the program, but the war ended before they could carry the Third Reich into the future. Amazing 649-650
CHURCHILL’S MUSTACHE – Winston was once confronted by a young lady. She said “Mr. Churchill, there are two things I do not like about you – your politics and your mustache.” Churchill: “Madam, you are not likely to come into contact with either one.” Fuller 90-91
TWICE IS ENOUGH – A reporter found the following inscription in Verdun, France:
Austin White – Chicago, Ill. – 1918
Austin White – Chicago, Ill. – 1945
This is the last time I want to write my letter here.
Shenkman 239
PEARL HARBOR WARNINGS
- For years, the final exam for Japanese naval cadets included the question: “How would you attack Pearl Harbor?”
- The night before the attack, the FBI intercepted a suspicious phone call from Tokyo to the Japanese embassy in Honolulu.
- Early in the morning of the attack a minesweeper spotted a periscope in the harbor but did not report it.
- Later, the USS Ward sank a Japanese mini-sub in the harbor, but it was not considered important when reported.
- The incoming planes were picked up on an experimental radar set, but the officer who took the call blew it off.
- Army Chief of Staff George Marshall thought something might happen so he sent a telegram warning the military leaders at Pearl Harbor. However, the telegram was sent through regular Western Union communications and the delivery boy was in no big hurry to deliver it. By the time the telegram arrived, the attack had begun. Hover 158-9
SLANG:
– latrine telegram – rumor
– agony wagon – ambulance
– behavior report – reply to a love letter from home
– bottled sunshine – beer
– twist a dizzy – roll a cigarette
– completely cheesed – very bored Uncle Salutes the Armed Forces 129
CODETALKERS – The first use of Native Americans as code-talkers was in WWI. The Germans were intercepting and decoding Army messages. An officer overheard two Choctaw Indians talking in their language and had an idea. They and several other Choctaw were assigned to deliver messages in their language. Machine gun became “little gun shoots fast” and casualties became “scalps”. The experiment was successful, but the war ended several weeks later. In 1941, with U.S. entry approaching, the Army recalled the experiment and assigned 17 Comanche recruits to Fort Benning, Georgia to develop a code based on their language. Machine gun was “sewing machine” and bomber was “pregnant airplane”. Hitler was called ‘posah-tai-vo” which meant “crazy white man”. The code-talkers landed at Normandy and performed a valuable service in Europe. Meanwhile, the Marines were approached by Philip Johnston, a city engineer in Los Angeles. He had Navajo friends and he suggested putting them to use in communications. A demonstration for a general was a success and the Marines recruited Navajo Indians and sent them to Camp Pendleton for special training. They developed a dictionary of over 400 words including “birds” for planes, “buzzard” for bomber, and “eggs” for bombs. They first served on Guadalcanal. After this, they were assigned bodyguards. It is a myth that the bodyguards were told to kill their Indian to keep them from being captured and giving away the code. A total of 420 Navajo code-talkers were used in the Pacific and they contributed to the victory. They were especially valuable on the island of Iwo Jima. Recognition was slow in coming. In 2001, all the Navajo were given Congressional Gold Medals. It was not until the Code Talkers Recognition Act of 2008 that the Choctaw and Comanche were honored. Uncle Salutes the Armed Forces 150-153
THE FIVE SULLIVANS – One month after Pearl Harbor, the five Sullivan brothers enlisted in the Navy. George (28), Francis (27), Joseph (24), Madison (23), and Albert (20) insisted on being assigned to the same ship. The Navy acceded to their request and they were placed on the light cruiser USS Juneau. The Juneau served in the North Atlantic and the Caribbean before being sent to Guadalcanal for the first U.S. campaign in the Pacific. On Nov. 13, 1942, in the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, the Juneau was sunk by two Japanese torpedoes. 600 men went down with the ship, including all the brothers except George. Although badly injured, he was one of the more than one hundred men left in the water. There were not enough lifeboats for everyone and exposure and exhaustion became a problem as rescue was delayed by a foul-up in reporting the position of the sinking. The biggest problem was the sharks. In fact, George was killed when he got out of his lifeboat to wash himself in the water. Because of censorship of lost battles, Mr. and Mrs. Sullivan did not find out about the loss of all their boys until Jan. 12. They took it stoically and even participated in war bond drives. In April, 1943, Mrs. Sullivan christened the new destroyer USS Sullivan. In 1944, the movie “The Fighting Sullivans” was released to acclaim and it was nominated for an Academy Award. By the way, it is a legend that because of the Sullivans the Navy stopped stationing siblings on the same ship. There is no rule against it, although it is discouraged. Uncle Salutes the Armed Forces 224-226
THE FOUR IMMORTAL CHAPLAINS – Four men met at Chaplain’s School at Harvard University in 1942 and forged a friendship that would last until their deaths the next year. A chaplain is a priest, rabbi, minister, reverend, etc. that serves in the armed forces. They provide spiritual leadership, minister to soldiers and their families, conduct religious services, comfort the wounded, give last rites, and raise morale. Chaplains often risk their lives near or in the front lines. The four friends were: Rabbi Alexander Goode (age 31) – an athlete in high school who went on to get a degree in Oriental languages and had one child; Reverend Clark Poling (32) – his father had been a chaplain in WWI; Father John Washington (35) – he came from a middle class Irish immigrant family and had cheated on the eye exam to get into the Army; Reverend George Fox (41) – he had been a medic in WWI and reenlisted on the same day that his son enlisted in the Marines. The four were assigned to the transport ship Dorchester which was to transport over 900 soldiers and civilians. On Feb. 3, 1943, near Greenland, the ship was torpedoed by a u-boat and was sinking. Panic ensued, but the four chaplains kept their heads and calmed the passengers. They organized the distribution of life jackets and when they ran out, they gave their own to the next four in the line. The last sight of them was the four with linked arms, bracing themselves against the list of the sinking ship, singing hymns. They were awarded posthumous Purple Hearts and Distinguished Service Crosses. In 1948, Congress approved a three cent stamp honoring them. The documentary “The Four Chaplains: Sacrifice at Sea” is available on You Tube. Uncle Salutes the Armed Forces 227-229
ACE OF ACES – Richard Bong was born on a Wisconsin farm, one of nine kids. At a young age, he loved making model airplanes. As a teenager, he entered the Civilian Pilot Training Program and got his pilot’s license. In June, 1941, he enlisted in the Army Air Force and went to pilot training. His instructor, Capt. Barry Goldwater (future senator and presidential candidate), recognized that he was special. He was assigned to a P-38 Lightning squadron. The P-38 was a uniquely shaped, twin engine fighter plane. It was very sturdy and powerful with a 20 mm. cannon and four .50 caliber machine guns in its nose. He and “Marge” (named after his girlfriend and future wife) would play hell on the Japanese. His unit was sent to Australia after the war broke out. Before that happened, he was grounded for flying under the Golden Gate Bridge. In Australia, he shot down his first two Japanese planes on Dec. 27, 1942 and two weeks later, he was an ace. His comrades gave him the nickname “Bing”. His record climbed rapidly and he broke Eddie Rickenbacker’s WWI record of 26 kills. He received a message from Eddie complimenting him on his achievement. Bing described his technique as getting as close to his target as he could before opening fire (due to his poor eyesight). He was a daring adversary and shot down at least 16 planes in head-on duels. Although he was sent back to America for 3 months of rest and war bond drives, he maintained his lead. When he returned, he went back to business and reached the incredible number 40 before he was forbidden to fly anymore out of fear that this valuable propaganda hero might be killed. He was awarded the Medal of Honor by Gen. MacArthur and shipped back to America. He married Marge (in front of 1,200 guests) and was given a “safe” job of testing new aircraft. A few weeks after the wedding, he was testing a new jet fighter and it developed a malfunction that caused a crash that took his life. Uncle Salutes the Armed Forces 233-235
ERNIE PYLE – Ernie Pyle was the most famous and most beloved American war correspondent. He was already famous before the war. In 1935, he started a travel column that appeared in over 600 newspapers. He traveled the country in his car and wrote mostly about small towns and their people. In November, 1942, he went to do the same thing for the soldiers. He followed American boys from North Africa to Sicily then Italy and finally into France. He landed on the beach at Normandy just a few days after D-Day and wrote of all the debris left by war. He wrote six columns a week and none dealt with the big picture that the generals concentrated on. Instead, he concentrated on the experiences of the average soldier. The American public learned about the hardship and deprivations their boys went through. It was because of him that the “Ernie Pyle Bill” was passed to give extra pay to G.I.s who were in combat. Ernie was loved by the men he wrote about. He made a habit of including names and home towns in his columns. His writing was deeply personal and because of what he saw, he developed a clear case of post traumatic stress disorder. His most famous column was about the reaction of a unit to the death of Capt. Waskow (a man Ernie had befriended). In spite of his mental exhaustion, he insisted on moving on to the Pacific Theater when the war in Europe wound down. Tragically, he was killed by a sniper on the tiny island of Ie Shima near Okinawa. He never got to see the movie about him entitled “The Story of G.I. Joe” which was released in 1945 and is considered one of the best movies about WWII. Uncle Salutes the Armed Forces 243-245
HIGGINS BOATS – Dwight Eisenhower once said Andrew Higgins was the man most responsible for winning the war with Germany. He included Higgins’ boat as one of the four most important vehicles for the American army. (The others were the Sherman tank, the C-47 transport, and the jeep.) Higgins was a boat builder in New Orleans. He specialized in shallow draft craft that could handle the swamps and bayous of Louisiana. He sold them to trappers, oilmen, and lumbermen. The Coast Guard and Army Corps of Engineers were clients. When the war broke out, the Marines asked him to adapt his popular Eureka boat for amphibious landings. At first, the Navy insisted on developing its own boat, but when Higgins’ was proven superior, Congress forced the Navy to buy his boats. A total of 22,000 of his LCVPs were constructed in New Orleans. Officially called Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel, they became better known as “Higgins Boats”. The craft were made out of plywood and wood with steel to protect the sides. The key innovation was a ramp on the front that could easily be lowered for troops to evacuate and allowed jeeps to be carried. There were two machine guns at the rear. The boats were 36 feet long and could carry 36 personnel or a jeep and 12 soldiers. 1,200 were used for D-Day and Operation Overlord would have been impossible without them. They were used in all the important American amphibious landings in the war. Uncle Salutes the Armed Forces 309-312
SOLDIER BEAR – When Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union, Stalin freed his Polish prisoners, hoping some would join the Red Army. If not, they were free to leave through Iran. One group took this option and along the way met a little boy with a baby bear in a burlap sack. They traded for the bear and named him Wotjek (pronounced “voy-check”) which means “smiling warrior”. His main caretaker was 46 year old Peter Prendys. Peter and his mates joined the 22nd Artillery Supply Company of the Polish II Corps of the British army in North Africa. Wotjek eventually reached six feet tall and over 500 hundred pounds. He loved to copy the actions of the men. He learned to march and salute. He wrestled with the men. He rode in the passenger seat of the truck. If scolded, he would put his paws in front of his face and whimper. He loved beer and cigarettes, which he would swallow lit. When the unit went to Italy, he went too. For the first time, he was near the front lines, but instead of being afraid of the artillery fire, he would climb trees to see the battles. It was in Italy that he helped unload artillery shells from a truck during the Monte Cassino campaign. The company changed its insignia to a bear carrying an artillery shell. When the war ended, Prendys relocated to Great Britain and Wotjek lived out his life in a zoo where he was a popular attraction. Uncle Fully Loaded 571-577
CHIPS, THE WAR DOG – Chips was the first war dog sent overseas. He was with the 3rd Infantry Division which first served in Sicily in July, 1943. One day, he broke away from his handler and attacked a German pillbox. He grabbed one German and forced the other four to surrender. He was awarded a Silver Star and a Purple Heart. People’s I 697-8
BRUNO GAIDO – In 1942, the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise was cruising in the South Pacific when it was attacked by five Japanese bombers. The carrier took evasive action and all fifteen bombs missed. As the Japanese retreated, fighter planes from the carrier gave chase and damaged the last Japanese bomber (“the tail-end Charlie”). The crippled bomber turned and headed for the carrier in what looked like a kamikaze attack. Aviation Machinist’s Mate Bruno Gaido was on the deck when he saw the plane plunging toward his ship. Gaido raced across the deck and got into the back seat of a parked dive bomber and used the .30 caliber machine gun to try to nail the Japanese bomber. He poured bullets into the enemy, but it continued on. The Japanese plane hit the dive bomber, cutting off the tail of the plane just feet from where Gaido was still firing at it. The flaming bomber fell into the sea with Gaido still firing at it. He was promoted on the spot. The Carrier War by Reynolds p. 65
“SINK THE BISMARCK” song
ICE CREAM TO GO
The USS Lexington (along with its sister Saratoga) was the first modern aircraft carrier in the US Navy. It survived Pearl Harbor because it was not in Hawaii at the time. She was delivering aircraft to Midway Islands at the time. Ironically, in the years before the war, the Lexington had participated in war games that involved a carrier attack on Pearl Harbor. In May, 1942, she and the USS Yorktown were involved in the Battle of the Coral Sea. Dive bombers and torpedo bombers from the two carriers sank the Japanese carrier Shoho resulting in the famous report: “Scratch one carrier!” Unfortunately, the Japanese struck back and hit the “Lady Lex”. Damage control parties had the situation under control when explosions from aviation gasoline rocked the ship and ended any chance of saving the ship. The captain abandoned ship, but it was not done in a panic. A warrant officer broke the lock on the freezer and he and others ate all the vanilla ice cream containers before lining up their shoes on the deck along with all the other sailors as they went overboard to be picked up by a destroyer.
https://historycollection.co/20-historical-events-seldom-taught-in-school/2/
BAZOOKA CHARLIE
In WWII in Europe, Major Charles Carpenter was assigned as an artillery observer. His job was to locate German forces so the American artillery could shell them. He flew a L-4H (similar to a Piper Cub) airplane over enemy lines and then reported back. He felt this was a bit boring since there was no way for him to attack the enemy when he found them because his little plane was unarmed. At least that is what the manufacturer intended. Carpenter decided to soup up his ride. He had three bazookas attached to each wing. He added “hunter” to his “observer” job description. From then on, when he spotted German vehicles he attacked them. When a reporter asked him what he was thinking, he said “attack, attack, and then attack again.” He got the nicknames “Bazooka Charlie” and the “Mad Major”. His plane became known as “Rosie the Rocketer”. By the end of the war, he had taken out six tanks and assorted other armored vehicles.
https://historycollection.co/20-historical-events-seldom-taught-in-school/3/
OPERATION FLIPPER
By 1941, it was obvious to the British in North Africa that they were confronted by a great general in Erwin Rommel. Rommel and his Afrika Korps had given the British army a lot of lumps. It currently was laying siege to the important port of Tobruk. The British had an offensive planned to relieve the Australian garrison of Tobruk and it was much more likely to succeed if the “Desert Fox” was out of the picture. Operation Flipper was designed to kill or capture their nemesis. 59 commandoes were to attack Rommel’s headquarters in Bayda, Libya. The operation did not go according to plan. The commandoes were transported to the vicinity on two submarines, but one ran aground and the other ran into rough seas. Only seven commandoes made it ashore. They linked up with some paratroopers who had been dropped in the area. Around midnight, the small force attacked the headquarters and captured it. Unfortunately, Rommel was not there. He was in Italy and not due back until the next day. The commandoes managed to kill several Germans and blow up an ammunition depot, but they had disturbed a hornet’s nest. Greatly outnumbered by the Germans, all the raiders were killed or captured except two. It took the two survivors 37 days to get back to friendly lines.
https://historycollection.co/20-historical-events-seldom-taught-in-school/3/
HITLER’S DRUG DEALER
During WWII, German soldiers were given pervitin which is a form of methamphetamine. Meanwhile, their supreme leader was a drug addict. Hitler’s personal doctor was Theodor Morell. Der Fuhrer trusted Morell more than any of his inner circle because his concoctions kept the dictator what he considered to be healthy. By 1944, Hitler was taking 120-150 pills and getting 8-10 injections per week. Morell loaded his patient up with hormones and steroids. He injected Hitler with a form of oxycodone every other day. Morell provided him with anti-gas pills that contained atropine (which causes euphoria and can lead to hallucinations and delirium) and strychnine (the main ingredient in rat poison). After the assassination attempt resulted in punctured ear drums, a doctor named Erwin Giesing would coat his nose with cocaine using cotton swabs. The two doctors became rivals. Morell also had enemies among Hitler’s lackeys, like Martin Bormann and Heinrich Himmler. Geising thought he had the proof the Morell was poisoning Hitler with his anti-gas pills, but when the pills were examined in a lab it turned out that they were not lethal. Hitler stuck with his quack doctor to the very end.
FACTS ABOUT THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE
- The idea for the offensive came from Hitler himself. His objective was to reach the port of Antwerp and split the British and American armies. His generals were against the plan because they thought it was too ambitious to succeed and would use up precious resources, but they could not talk Hitler out of it.
- The code name for the buildup of forces was Operation Watch on the Rhine and the actual attack was called Autumn Mist.
- The offensive was a surprise for several reasons. Eisenhower and his generals felt the Ardennes Forest was too dense for a German attack. The weather conditions (bitter winter) discouraged offensive actions. The front was lightly defended by mostly units that were being given a chance to recover from previous heavy fighting. Most of the American soldiers were hunkered down for the winter and were in no shape mentally for a major battle. The usually reliable Ultra code-breakers were not able to pick up any warnings of the attack because the Germans were extra careful not to communicate about the planned attack.
- The German forces at the start were about 400,000 men, 1,600 artillery pieces, and 1,200 tanks. They faced about 200,000 Americans and a few hundred tanks. However, the Allies were able to increase their forces to 700,000 men and 2,000 tanks where the Germans had limited reinforcements.
- It is the largest battle in American History in terms of the number of Americans involved.
- Operation Grief was Hitler’s imaginative plan to use commandos dressed as Americans to capture some bridges before the Americans could blow them up. He appointed his favorite commando leader Otto Skorzeny to command the unit. Skorzeny was famous for leading a glider-borne rescue of Mussolin when was being held prisoner in a mountaintop fortress in Italy. The commandos did not manage to capture any bridges, but they did create some panic behind enemy lines. When word spread of their existence, jittery American soldiers started asking questions of any soldiers they didn’t know. Not being able to answer “who won the World Series?” got you suspected to be a German in disguise.
- The most famous place in the Bulge was the town of Bastogne. It was a key position because seven roads passed through it. German forces surrounded it and outnumbered the defenders 5 to 1, but the valiant defenders never surrendered. Gen. Anthony McAuliffe famously answered a German surrender demand with the word “Nuts!”
- The crisis of the German offensive encouraged the desegregation of the Army. Previously, African-American units were given little opportunity to participate in combat. Because of the emergency, Eisenhower needed every soldier he could get his hands on. Black soldiers were rushed into combat, sometimes fighting side by side with white soldiers. The 761st Tank Battalion (the “Black Panthers”) were part of Gen. Patton’s army and helped in the rescue of Bastogne.
- The German offensive failed for several reasons. The weather eventually cleared up allowing the American superiority in air power to pummel the German forces. The Germans found it impossible to keep its forces supplied, especially fuel for its tanks. The German army used 50,000 horses to transport fuel and supplies to its troops, but that was not enough. And the stiff resistance of most American units kept the German forces from reaching their objectives.
THE BABY VET
Calvin Graham dropped out of 6th Grade in Texas at age 11. He left home because of an abusive stepfather. He was selling newspapers and delivering telegrams when he decided to enter the Navy in 1942. Although only age 12, he forged his mother’s signature and passed the physical because the military often looked the other way when it came to underage enlistees. He is considered to be the youngest to serve in WWII. He was posted to the battleship USS South Dakota. He was on board when the ship was hit by a bomb in the Battle of Santa Cruz. 50 sailors were killed. In the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal on Nov. 14, 1942, the ship was hit 42 times by naval gunfire. Graham was a loader for an anti-aircraft gun. He was wounded by shrapnel, but he helped with the other wounded, like putting on tourniquets. He received the Bronze Star and Purple Heart. When the South Dakota went to the Brooklyn Naval Yard for repairs, it was celebrated in newsreels. His mother recognized him and contacted the Navy about his age. He was arrested and put in the brig. After three months, his sister threatened to get the newspapers involved so the Navy gave him a dishonorable discharge, took his medals, and deprived him of disability benefits. He tried returning to school, but soon dropped out again. He got married, had a child, got a job working as a welder, got divorced by age 17. He then enlisted in the Marines, but he broke his back falling from a pier and was discharged. In 1978, after writing letters, Congress and Pres. Carter got him an honorable discharge for his first stint and his Bronze Star (but not the Purple Heart) and still no disability. In 1988, the movie “Too Young the Hero” brought his story to the public and that same year Pres. Reagan got him medical benefits. He didn’t get his Purple Heart until 1994, two years after his death.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_Graham
The Greatest War Stories Never Told pp. 160-161
THE FIRST HITLER ASSASSINATION
On Nov. 8, 1939, Hitler gave his annual speech commemorating the Beer Hall Putsch. About fifteen minutes after he left the building, a massive explosion destroyed the speaker’s platform and brought down part of the roof. 7 people were killed and 63 were wounded. That same day, Georg Elser was arrested trying to get into Switzerland. He had incriminating evidence on him and under torture by the Gestapo, he admitted to the attempt. Although a communist, he was not motivated to change Germany to communism. He claimed he was a supporter of workers’ rights and anti-war. He hoped that by killing Hitler and the rest of the Nazi hierarchy, the Nazi Party would be moderated. Elser, a carpenter, had planned the assassination for a year. He knew Hitler’s annual speech would be his best bet. For over a month, he arrived late for dinner at the hall and then hid when the building closed. He used his carpentry skills to hollow out a column behind the speaker’s platform. He had accumulated explosives from a previous job at an armaments factory. He set the timer for 144 hours. It was to explode at 9:20 P.M., in the middle of the speech. Unfortunately, Hitler decide to move the speech up a half hour and cut it to one hour in order to get back to Berlin early. He finished at 9:07 and exited the building by 9:12. When told about his brush with death, Hitler said “A man has to be lucky” and later he attributed that luck to divine intervention. God wanted him to complete his mission. Elser was not given a trial. It would have been inconvenient since he clearly worked alone, and yet the Nazi Party had established the narrative that British intelligence had been involved. Two British agents were kidnapped in Holland to foster this belief. The two agents ended up in the same concentration camp with Elser. Elser was kept in solitary confinement for the next four years. Surprisingly, and suspiciously, he was given preferential treatment like better food, daily shaves, and trips to the brothel. However, on April 16, 1945, he was executed, leaving us to wonder why he was not executed four years earlier. And to wonder what the world would be like if he had succeeded.
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/hitler-survives-assassination-attempt
https://www.history.com/news/6-assassination-attempts-on-adolf-hitler
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32160816
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venlo_incident
FACTS ABOUT ERWIN ROMMEL
- Erwin Rommel was born on Nov. 15, 1891. His father was the headmaster of a school. As a boy, Erwin was described as gentle and unaggressive. He was interested in math and engineering and dreamed of becoming an aeronautical engineer. He co-built a glider at age 14. He bought a motorcycle so he could take it apart and put it back together again. Unfortunately, his grades were not good enough to get into a university. His father convinced him to join the military. After being turned down by the artillery and engineers, he settled for infantry officer training in 1910. He was an outstanding student and became a lieutenant in time for WWI.
- He was wounded three time in WWI. He fought in Romania, Italy, and on the Western Front. In September, 1914, he charged three French with a bayonet and suffered a gaping wound in his thigh. He was later wounded in the shoulder and arm. He suffered from stomach problems, fevers, and exhaustion during the war.
- Rommel was ambitious for fame and glory. He first fought near Verdun. He earned the Iron Cross, first and second class. In 1917, at the Battle of Caporetto in Italy, he lad 100 men in a surprise attack that captured Mount Matajur. He and five of his men captured 1,500 of the enemy. He was awarded the Blue Max (Pour Le Merite), Germany’s highest honor.
- In 1937, his seminal work “Infantry Attacks” caught the attention of Hitler. He was appointed Army liaison to the Hitler Youth and then to head of der Fuhrer’s personal body guard. Although never officially a Nazi, he admired and praised Hitler, who presented him with an autographed copy of “Mein Kampf”. For the invasion of France, he was promoted to commander of the 7th Panzer Division. His unit moved so quickly and with surprise that it became known as the “Ghost Division”. Rommel cemented his reputation for leading from the front, often exposing himself to enemy fire. His division captured 100,000 men in its campaign, including an entire British division and the French garrison at Cherbourg.
- He earned his nickname “The Desert Fox” in North Africa. He became the most respected German general and was praised by Churchill. He treated prisoners fairly, but there have some accusations of condoning war crimes. He also earned the reputation of being one of the few German generals to stand up to Hitler. He disobeyed orders to stand firm after losing at El Alamein and thus saved his army. He rejected orders to execute commandos.
- After Tunisia fell, he was put in charge of the defense of the coastline of France. He insisted on stopping the invasion at the beaches, but was not able to convince his superior Von Rundstedt (and Hitler) to station panzer units near the beaches. He famously was visiting his wife for her birthday when D-Day occurred. He did little during the Normandy campaign because his car was strafed by a British fighter. He was hit in the arm and when the car ran off the road he suffered multiple skull fractures and wounds to his face by glass fragments.
- When he was recuperating, he was approached by the conspirators who eventually planted the bomb that almost assassinated Hitler. Rommel did not join the plot because he feared a civil war and still could not completely break with der Fuhrer. He did not turn the men in. He walked a fine line which did not save him as he was caught up in the net thrown after the bombing. Unlike the others, who were hanged with piano wire, Rommel was allowed to take his own life with cyanide. He was given a state funeral and the German public was told he succumbed to battle wounds.
- He had an illegitimate daughter from a fling named Gertrud. Although he called her niece in public, he was a loving father and wrote her numerous letters. His son Manfred was mayor of Stuttgart for 22 years and friends with Montgomery’s son.
https://www.history.com/news/8-things-you-may-not-know-about-erwin-rommel
https://www.historyhit.com/facts-about-erwin-rommel-the-desert-fox/
https://militaryhistorynow.com/2014/09/01/crazy-like-a-fox-12-remarkable-facts-about-erwin-rommel/
PAPPY BOYINGTON
Gregory Boyington was the Marine Corps “Ace of Aces” in WWII. He was born on Dec. 4, 1912. He graduated from the University of Washington where he was on the wrestling and swimming teams. Two years later he enlisted in the Marines and became a pilot. In 1941, he signed a contract to fly with the Flying Tigers in Burma. He was credited with shooting down two Japanese planes. In his autobiography he claimed six, which was normal for pilots to claim more than they were officially credited for. He didn’t get along with Claire Chennault and left the unit to return to the U.S. He rejoined the Corps and was sent to Guadalcanal where he did not add to his kill total. In Sept., 1943 he was given command of Squadron 214 which became the famous Black Sheep Squadron (originally “Boyington’s Bastards”). He was over 30 years old so his young pilots called him Pappy (a slight improvement over the earlier Gramps). Under his leadership, the unit shot down 97 planes and produced nine aces. In a stunt, the squadron promised to shoot down a Zero for every baseball cap sent by the World Series players. They got 20 caps and exceeded that total in shoot-downs. Boyington hit his stride with the Black Sheep as he shot down 14 in 32 days and ended up tying Eddie Rickenbacker’s 26. Their greatest feat occurred on Oct. 17, 1943. The squadron flew over the Kahili airfield and dared the Japanese to come up and fight. In the ensuing dogfight, twenty Zeros went down with the loss of no Americans. The incident was featured in Boyington’s posthumous Medal of Honor citation. On Jan. 3, 1944, he was shot down on the same mission where he claimed his record-tying victory. He parachuted and was picked up by a Japanese submarine and spent 19 months as a prisoner of war. He was considered dead until repatriated. While a prisoner, he met Medal of Honor recipient Richard O’Kane of the USS Tang and Olympian Louis Zamparini. Boyington’s rogue reputation made him a darling of the press during the war, but he became famous to the Baby Boomer generation when the TV series “Baa Baa Black Sheep” appeared in the 1970’s. Pappy appeared in three episodes, but described the series as “hogwash and Hollywood hokum.”
Here is his Medal of Honor citation:
For extraordinary heroism above and beyond the call of duty as Commanding Officer of Marine Fighting Squadron TWO FOURTEEN in action against enemy Japanese forces in Central Solomons Area from September 12, 1943, to January 3, 1944. Consistently outnumbered throughout successive hazardous flights over heavily defended hostile territory, Major Boyington struck at the enemy with daring and courageous persistence, leading his squadron into combat with devastating results to Japanese shipping, shore installations and aerial forces. Resolute in his efforts to inflict crippling damage on the enemy, Major BOYINGTON led a formation of twenty-four fighters over Kahili on October 17, and, persistently circling the airdrome where sixty hostile aircraft were grounded, boldly challenged the Japanese to send up planes. Under his brilliant command, our fighters shot down twenty enemy craft in the ensuing action without the loss of a single ship. A superb airman and determined fighter against overwhelming odds, Major BOYINGTON personally destroyed 26 of the many Japanese planes shot down by his squadron and by his forceful leadership developed the combat readiness in his command which was a distinctive factor in the Allied aerial achievements in this vitally strategic area.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pappy_Boyington
https://www.wearethemighty.com/mighty-history/us-hero-pappy-boyington-was-on-to-tell-the-truth/
THE LOST FLIGHT 19
The myth of the Bermuda Triangle exploded after an incident on Dec. 5, 1945. On that day, a training flight took off from the naval station at Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The 5 TBM Avengers torpedo bombers were led by Lt. Charles Taylor. He was a veteran of the war in the Pacific with 2,500 flying hours. His trainees all had at least 300 hours in the air. There were 14 men in total. The mission was a combination bombing/navigation exercise. It was supposed to last 3 hours. Ironically, the flight plan called for a triangular pattern that would take them to the island where they would drop practice bombs and then back home. The bombing part went as planned, the navigation part, not so much. After dropping their bombs, Taylor radioed that he was having compass problems. He determined that they were heading in the wrong direction. That belief and bad weather contributed to a feeling of disorientation. Taylor thought they had accidentally flown over the Florida Keys so he ordered the flight to proceed northeast. Unfortunately, they were most likely where they were supposed to be, over the Bahamas. A course change to the northeast would take them to Florida, or so Taylor thought. In fact, it was taking them far out into the Atlantic. Under the circumstances, it was standard procedure to fly west, but Taylor broke protocol. Radio transmissions indicate some of his charges may have questioned his decisions. One said: “Dammit, if we would just fly west, we would get home.” But the trainees maintained military discipline and stuck with their commander. (There is some evidence one of them broke formation.) A later transmission had Taylor preparing his men to crash land together when they ran out of gas. No one knows where this was as a five-day search by 300 ships and planes turned up nothing. Ironically, a PBM Mariner sent to search disappeared from radar soon after taking off. 13 crewmen went missing. The theory is the “flying gas tank” exploded as Mariners tended to do. A ship saw a fire ball and found an oil slick. That made 27 men claimed by the Bermuda Triangle, or so we are told by fantasizing writers and film-makers. In reality, what we have is the story of a confused flight leader and a poorly designed plane.
https://www.history.com/news/the-mysterious-disappearance-of-flight-19
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_19
FACTS ABOUT JIMMY DOOLITTLE
- James Doolittle was born on Dec. 14, 1896. He saw his first plane at age 14 and was bitten by the aviation bug. He started making homemade gliders. He left college in 1917 to enlist in the Army Signal Corps Reserve as a flying cadet. He spent WWI in America as a flying instructor.
- He became famous in the 1920’s as an aviation pioneer and air racer. In 1922, he was the first to fly across the continent (Florida to California). He made one stop for refueling and finished in 21 hours and 19 minutes. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. In 1925, he set a world record when he won the Schneider Cup at 232 MPH. In 1927, he became the first human to perform an outside loop. In 1931, he reduced the transcontinental record to less than 12 hours. In 1932, he set the speed record at 296 MPH.
- In the 1920’s, he got his doctorate from MIT. He was the first to get a doctorate in aeronautical engineering.
- He participated in Billy Mitchell’s bombing of German battleships to prove the effectiveness of air power.
- On Sept. 24, 1929, he greatly advanced aviation safety by making the first “blind flight”. He took off and landed without being to see outside the cockpit. He proved you could do this using only instruments.
- In 1940, with American involvement in WWII approaching, he convinced friend Hap Arnold to put him back on active duty. He was given command of the mission to bomb Tokyo using army bombers flying off an aircraft carrier. He convinced Arnold to let him lead the mission. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for what became known as the Doolittle Raid. He was given a rare two rank promotion from Lt. Col. to Brigadier General.
- He commanded the 12th Air Force in North Africa, the 15th in the Mediterranean, and then the 8th Air Force in Great Britain. He made the decision to untie the fighters from the bombers. His P-47s and P-51s were allowed to engage enemy fighters to shoot them down. This led to air superiority over the Western Front.
- After the war, he returned to Shell Oil company, but served in various capacities for the government. He supported the development of the space program and worked with Robert Goddard on rocket development.
- In 1989, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Pres. George H.W. Bush. He was the first to receive both the Medal of Honor and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He and Douglas MacArthur are the only Americans to have the Medal of Honor and a knighthood from Great Britain.
https://gazette665.com/2018/09/21/10-things-to-know-about-general-jimmy-doolittle/
https://biography.yourdictionary.com/james-harold-doolittle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Doolittle
FACTS ABOUT JOSEF STALIN
- He was born on Dec. 18, 1878. His name was Joseb Besarionis dze Jugashvili. He changed this to Josef Stalin which means “man of the steel hand”. His father was an alcoholic cobbler and his mother was a washerwoman.
- At age 7, he contracted smallpox which left him with pockmarks on his face that he was self-conscious about. At age 12, he was run over by a carriage and was left with a slightly shorter left arm. This may have saved his life as he was ineligible for military service and thus avoided likely death fighting in WWI.
- He was bullied as a child and often beaten by his father.
- His devout mother insisted he attend the seminary at age 17 to become an Eastern Orthodox priest. Instead of becoming priestly, he started reading Marx and joined a socialist group. He became an atheist and obviously was not interested in his religious studies. He was expelled after two years due to failure to show up for exams.
- After leaving the seminary, he became a revolutionary. In 1903, he chose the Bolsheviks over the more moderate Mensheviks. In the next ten years, he was arrested seven times and imprisoned or exiled. He found it easy to escape each time. He became a disciple of Lenin and rose through the Party mainly because he was underestimated by the intellectuals.
- After the revolution, he lived with Lenin and Trotsky for a while at the Kremlin. Trotsky looked down on him and referred to him as “Comrade Index Card” to mock his role as General Secretary of the Communist Party as being a glorified filing clerk.
- It is believed Lenin wanted Trotsky to succeed him. Technically, Alexei Rykov was the next leader since he was Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars. Stalin was still General Secretary, but he outmaneuvered his opposition. He had Trotsky exiled to Kazakhstan and then deported. Eleven years later, an assassin tracked Trotsky down in Mexico and put an ice pick in his head.
- During WWII, his son Yakov (by his first marriage) was captured early in the war. Stalin refused to exchange a German general for his son. He despised his son and treated him with contempt after he failed at suicide in the 1920s. Yakov died in a concentration camp in 1943.
- His second wife committed suicide after 13 years of marriage. His son became an undeserved officer in the air force, but died from alcoholism. His daughter was whiplashed between love and intimidation. She emigrated after his death and wrote about him.
- He wrote poetry under the pseudonym os Soselo. Some it was published. Whatever pieces he wanted. Here is one:
The pinkish bud has opened,
Rushing to the pale-blue violet
And, stirred by a light breeze,
The lily of the valley has bent over the grass.
- He loved American Western novels and movies. He was a John Wayne fan.
- He made the short list for the Nobel Peace Prize twice – 1945 and 1948.
- He may the greatest mass murderer in history. His collectivization efforts caused many peasant farmers (kulaks) to rebel and most were executed. The resulting famine killed millions. He executed over a million political opponents. His purge of most of the officer corps of the armed forces resulted in poor leadership at the time of the German invasion and the subsequent heavy casualties. He could be held responsible for the very high death rate of German prisoners in the war. He gave the orders to kill 22,000 Polish officers in the Katyn Forest after the Soviet Union took eastern Poland.
https://www.historyhit.com/facts-about-joseph-stalin/
https://www.warhistoryonline.com/featured/little-known-facts-about-joseph-stalin.html
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Joseph-Stalin/Lenins-successor
THE CHINESE SCHINDLER
John Rabe was born in Germany on Nov. 23, 1882. In 1908, he moved to China to work for the Seimens Company. In 1931, he was made head of the Seimens factory in Nanking. When Hitler came to power he became a member of the Nazi Party and believed Hitler was a good thing for Germany. He refused to believe negative stories about Nazi rule in Germany. He became a respected businessman in Nanking. He founded a school for Chinese students on his estate. When Japan invaded China in 1937, Rabe and other foreigners created the “Safety Zone” in preparation for Japanese occupation of Nanking. He took in over 500 refugees at his home. He put up a giant German flag to warn off Japanese aircraft. When the Japanese army entered Nanking, the soldiers launched an orgy of killing and raping that made it one of the worst atrocities in history. It is estimated over 200,000 innocent civilians were killed and the number of rapes (often culminating with death) was huge also. Rabe was elected head of the Safety Zone Commission because of his leadership qualities and the fact that he was German. The Japanese had a great deal of respect for their German allies. Rabe patrolled the streets preventing rapes by pointing to his swastika armband and proclaiming “Deutsch!” and “Hitler!” The Safety Zone was swamped by about 250,000 refugees in an area 2 ½ miles square. Rabe had gotten the Japanese to lay off the civilians, but they did not agree to allow Chinese troops to take refuge there. Rather than turn away soldiers, the commission decided to hide them. The Japanese would periodically come in to search for any soldiers. They were effective in finding them by simply looking for callouses. They were taken out and executed in the thousands. Unfortunately, rickshaw drivers, laborers, and farmers also had callouses. In spite of this, if it had not been for Rabe, the Japanese would have probably used the excuse of the illegal harboring of Chinese soldiers to shut down the zone. Their respect for his Germanness saved thousands of lives. He is appropriately known as the “Oscar Schindler of China”. In 1938, he was recalled to Germany by the Nazi government. He sent a letter to Hitler explaining the terrible behavior of their allies, but the response was he was arrested by the Gestapo and told to shut up.
https://www.facinghistory.org/nanjing-atrocities/atrocities/question-morality-john-rabe
The Greatest War Stories Never Told pp. 146-147
THE PILOT WHO SAVED BUCKINGHAM PALACE
Raymond Holmes joined the Royal Air Force in 1936. “Arty” flew in the Battle of Britain. On Sept. 15, 1940 he became a folk hero. That date is considered the high mark of the battle as the Luftwaffe made its biggest push to destroy British morale. Hitler even urged the targeting of Buckingham Palace. Holmes was scrambled to face one of several waves that came that day. He spotted three Dornier DO-17 bombers over central London. He went in on the attack, but as he closed in on one of the bombers, it used an experimental flamethrower on his Hawker Hurricane. The stream of gasoline failed to ignite, but covered his windscreen causing him to dive to avoid the Dornier. With the screen cleared, he fired at the second bomber. Before it went down, one of the crewmen bailed out. His parachute got entangled on his wing. Arty had to rock back and forth to get loose. As he regained control of his plane, Holmes spied the third bomber heading for Buckingham Palace. He made a firing pass, but ran out of ammunition and the bomber was still heading for the Palace. In desperation and determination, Holmes rammed the bomber’s tail, shearing it off and causing the bomber to crash. And him. Arty bailed out and became a celebrity. Supposedly the character Pilot Officer Archie played by Edward Fox in the movie “Battle of Britain” was based on him.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Holmes
The Greatest War Stories Never Told pp. 150-151
THE CREOLE GODDESS, ESPIONAGE AGENT
Freda Josephine Baker was born in St. Louis on June 3, 1906. At age 15 she left home to tour with an African-American vaudeville troupe. She went to France in 1926 as a 20-year old and joined the Folies Bergere. Her provocative dances fit right in to the Jazz Age vibe. She became a superstar with her “Banana Dance” in which she danced nearly nude in a costume that consisted of rhinestone covered bananas. Soon, she was the highest paid entertainer in France. She became the first black woman to appear in a major motion picture, “Siren of the Tropics”. She fell in love with France, partly because there was no segregation there. When France was invaded by Germany, she offered her services to the French Resistance and later the Free French. She allowed her chateau to be used as a hideout for the underground. She attended diplomatic parties, like at the Italian embassy. She kept her ears open for information which she would write down on her arms and legs or put in notes in her underwear, figuring no one would search Josephine Baker. She made trips to Lisbon with messages for the Free French. The messages were in invisible ink on her sheet music. When suspicions began to heat up, she escaped to London. She returned after the liberation of Paris. She sold jewelry and other valuables to provide for the poor. After the war, she was awarded the Croix de Guerre, the Rosette de la Resistance and the Chevalier de Legion d’honneur. When she died in 1975, she was given a full military funeral and became the only African-American woman to be given a 21-gun salute.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeF1JO7Ki8E
https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/josephine-baker
The Greatest War Stories Never Told pp. 152-153
BUTCH O’HARE
Edward “Butch” O’Hare was born the son of a lawyer. His father, “Artful Eddie” O’Hare, was lawyer to Al Capone. When he thought about the future he was creating for his son, he decided he had to do something to get his son out of the mob business. He contacted the IRS and offered to rat out his boss. He put the IRS in contact with Capone’s bookkeeper and the government was able to convict Scarface of tax evasion. Before the trial, Eddie informed the judge of the trial about jury tampering by Capone and a whole new jury was empaneled. Edward, Junior was given an appointment to the Naval Academy and eventually became a pilot. By then, “Artful Eddie” had been killed in a drive-by. On Feb. 20, 1942, Butch was scrambled from the deck of the USS Lexington when two waves of Japanese Betty bombers were picked up on radar. One wave of nine was intercepted by six F4F Wildcats led by the soon to be famous fighter tactics innovator Jimmy Thach. The formation was broken up. But the other formation was heading unimpeded to the carrier. Only O’Hare and his wingman were available for intercept. His wingman’s guns jammed, so it was all up to Butch. He had only about 30 seconds of ammo, but he was a crack shot. In the next few minutes, he shot down five bombers and damaged a sixth. It is estimated he needed only 60 rounds per victim. He became the Navy’s first ace and probably saved the carrier. (Later research showed he actually downed three and damaged three.) He was presented with the Medal of Honor at the White House on April 21, 1942. He returned to active duty and on Nov. 26, 1943, he was on the first nighttime attack mission in Navy history. The idea was to pair a radar-equipped Avenger torpedo bomber with two F6F Hellcats to intercept Japanese bombers at night. It was called a “Bat Team” and it was a dangerous concept, especially in the beginning. Apparently, the Avenger spotted a Betty above and behind them. The Avenger gunner opened fire and so did the Betty. It is likely O’Hare’s plane was caught in the crossfire. Most likely, his plane was hit by the Betty and went down. In 1949, Chicago’s Orchard Depot Airport was renamed O’Hare International Airport.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_O%27Hare
The Greatest War Stories Never Told pp. 154-155
HISTORY OF THE BAZOOKA
Sgt. Bob Burns was an ace Marine rifleman in WWI, but he was a better musician. He formed the Marine Corps Jazz Band. Gen. Pershing was a big fan. After the war, he became an entertainer. Known as the “Arkansas Traveler”, he toured and performed on the radio and even made movies. He invented a musical instrument by combining two pieces of gas pipe and a whiskey funnel. It was sort of like a combination of a trombone and a slide whistle. The zany instrument made Burns famous and many toy versions were sold in the late 30’s and early 40’s. In the 13th Century, the Chinese began to use rockets in battle. In the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812 (“rockets red glare”), Congreve rockets were scaring soldiers. Their use as an anti-tank weapon did not occur until WWII. In 1942, Capt. Leslie Skinner and Lt. Edward Uhl of the Army Ordnance department were experimenting with a way for infantrymen to take out tanks. They developed a shape-charged grenade that could penetrate armor, but it was too heavy to be thrown by a soldier. One day, Uhl noticed a steel tube on a scrap pile. He discovered that if you put a rocket charge on the grenade, it could be fired at a tank. It was officially called the “Launcher, Rocket, 2.36 inch, Anti-Tank, M-1”. That’s a mouth full, so it got the nickname “bazooka” because that is what Burns had called his similar looking musical instrument. Burns claimed he based the name on the old slang word term “bazoo” which meant “loudmouth”. Thus was born one of the four “tools of victory” according to Gen. Eisenhower. (The others were the jeep, the C-47, and the atomic bomb.)
https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2015/03/14/the_bazooka_a_history.html
The Greatest War Stories Never Told pp. 156-157
OPERATION UNDERWORLD
In Feb., 1942 the French ocean liner SS Normandie was being converted into the troop ship USS Lafayette in New York harbor. On Feb. 9, a fire broke out and the ship was badly damaged. Although, officially proclaimed an accident, the Office of Naval Intelligence suspected sabotage. Questioning of port employees turned up nothing as the workers were tight-lipped in dealing with the government. Salvatore “Lucky” Luciano was spending 30-50 years in prison for a conviction for compulsory prostitution. He offered to put in a good word with the workers, all of whom had their jobs through the Mafia. He also promised there would be no strikes. A deal was apparently worked out. There were no more strikes and no more acts of sabotage. When it was apparent that the Anglo-Americans would be invading Sicily in 1943, Luciano offered to parachute behind enemy lines and organize Sicilian cooperation with the invaders. This offer was turned down, but Luciano did put the invaders in contact with Sicilians who helped with Operation Husky. They provided maps, for instance. None of this was officially admitted to, but six months after the war ended, Luciano’s prison sentence was commuted and he was deported to Sicily. I’m sure he told his friends he was a real American hero.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaborations_between_the_United_States_government_and_Italian_Mafia
The Greatest War Stories Never Told pp. 158-159
DANIEL INOUYE
Daniel Inouye was born to Japanese parents in Hawaii. He was a Nisei. When Pearly Harbor was attacked, he helped with medical care. In 1943, he enlisted in the Army and was a member of the famous 442nd Regimental Combat Team. It consisted of Nisei and went on to become the most decorated unit of its size in WWII. Inouye fought in Italy and France and was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant. His life was once saved by two silver dollars that blocked a bullet meant for his heart. He had lost his lucky dollars by April 21, 1945. On that day in Italy, his platoon was attacking the town of San Terenzo. They ran into three machine gun nests. Although he was shot in the stomach, he crawled close to the first nest and destroyed it with a grenades and his submachine gun. He then took out the second machine gun before passing out from loss of blood. When he came to, he moved on the third machine gun. Pulling the pin on a grenade, he reared back to throw it when his right elbow was hit by a rifle grenade. It nearly severed his arm, which was hanging by just a tendon. The armed grenade was clinched in his right hand. He pried it loose and threw it through the slit of the nest. He was soon shot in the leg, but continued to direct his men until he was evacuated. At the hospital, his arm was amputated without anesthesia and he needed 17 blood transfusions. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. After the war he was elected as the first Japanese-American to Congress. Pres. Clinton presented him the Medal of Honor when it his DSC was upgraded. Two years after his death, he was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, making him one of the few Americans to get both the Medal of Honor and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Inouye
U-BOAT SUNK BY TOILET
The U-1206 had been outfitted with an experimental toilet which would allow the crew to use the bathroom at lower depths. When the captain tried it, he accidentally opened a valve to the outside and water came flooding in. When the water contacted the boats batteries, deadly chlorine gas was emitted. The captain was forced to come to the surface, near the coast of Scotland. Allied warships quickly spotted the submarine and opened fire. The captain was forced to scuttle the boat. This happened just weeks before Germany surrendered.
A KOREAN SOLDIER IN THE GERMAN ARMY AT D-DAY
Yang Kyoungjong was a Korean who had been drafted into the Japanese army in 1938. He fought in the Battle of Khalkhin Gol in Siberia in 1938. The Soviets defeated the Japanese and he was taken prisoner. He was put in a labor camp. In 1943, the Red Army was so desperate for reinforcements that Korean prisoners were sent to help defend Kharkov against the Germans. Many, including Yang, were captured by the Germans. They were put into the German army and Yang ended up in Normandy. On June 6, 1944, Yang was defending Utah Beach when he was captured by American paratroopers. He ended up living the rest of his life in America.
WWII MYTHS
Try not to pass these on to your students.
– Hitler danced a jig when France fell. False A cameraman caught Hitler stomping his foot in delight. Propagandists in Great Britain looped the film to make it appear like Hitler was dancing to make him look foolish.
– Eating carrots improves your night vision. False The British Ministry of Information started this “fact” because it wanted British civilians to grow more carrots, and other vegetables. The public was told the carrots were needed for British night fighter pilots. Also, it was hoped that children would eat carrots instead of rationed sweets. There is no scientific evidence that carrots improve night vision. But they are better for you than candy.
– Polish cavalrymen, armed with lances, charged German tanks. False The legend grew out of a real incident. Polish cavalry did attack Germans, but they were infantry and the lancers did force them to retreat. However, German tanks launched a counterattack which defeated the cavalry. Newspapermen were told that the dead bodies of cavalrymen were due to a foolish charge at tanks and the story stuck.
– FDR knew about the upcoming attack on Pearl Harbor and allowed it to happen so the U.S. would enter the war. False It is true that the U.S. had broken the Japanese diplomatic code and knew there was going to be an attack somewhere, but it is not true that FDR knew it was going to be Pearl Harbor. No American figured that. The success of the attack was due to bad luck, lack of communication between the Army and the Navy, and underestimation of the skill and daring of the Japanese.
RATIONED ITEMS
Cars and tires / gas / bikes and tires / shoes / sugar / meats / cheese / butter / coffee / cigarettes / lard / canned fish
– A Military Miscellany p. 4
“LUXURY” ITEMS UNAVAILABLE FOR LEGAL PURCHASE
hair curlers / wigs / kitchen utensils / lawn mowers / girdles and nylon stockings / cast-iron skillets / electric toasters / waffle irons / whiskey / spittoons / cameras / bird cages / sliced bread / diapers
– A Military Miscellany p. 5
MILITARY UNITS
squad – 6 to 10 men under a sergeant
platoon – several squads; around 20-25 men under a lieutenant
company – several platoons; 40-80 men under a captain
battalion – several companies under a lieutenant colonel
brigade – three battalions under a colonel
division – three brigade under a major general
corps – three divisions under a lieutenant general
army – 2-3 corps under a general
– A Military Miscellany p. 13
THE THINGS THEY CARRIED
steel helmet / M1 rifle / bayonet / canteen / pick-shovel / first aid pouch / web cartridge belt / hand grenades / gas mask / ammunition bandolier / backpack / extra clothing / poncho / mess kit / C and K rations / personal items = 60-80 lbs.
– A Military Miscellany p. 90
HIRO ONODA
Hiro Onoda entered the Japanese army at age 18. He was sent to Lubang Island in the Philippines. When the island was overrun by American forces in 1945, he and others took to the hills. They disregarded leaflets urging surrender and promising good treatment. Known as the “Mountain Devils”, they survived by raiding villages for food. Over the years, they all died from diseases and exposure, except Hiro. In 1974, a university student named Norio Suzuki spent several months searching for survivors. One day when he was drinking from a stream, he was approached by Onoda. Suzuki assured him the war was over, but Onoda insisted on orders from his commanding officer. Suzuki went back to Japan and returned with the officer who convinced Onoda to come in after 29 years in the jungle. He was 52 years old. 4,000 people greeted him at the airport and he became a national celebrity with a best-selling memoir. He retired to a ranch in Brazil and lived a peaceful life.
– A Military Miscellany p. 110-111
“THE MAGNIFICENT ELEVEN”
It’s June 6 so I wanted to do a post on D-Day. Since it is such a well-known event, I tried to think of an anecdote that was not familiar to most. Be careful what you wish for. I decided to look into the story behind Robert Capa’s famous photos from Omaha Beach – “The Magnificent Eleven”. I had one of them in my WWII power point and always told my students what a loss it was to history when most of his pictures were ruined in the developing room. Or so I thought. In the process of researching this anecdote, I have discovered I passed on false information to hundreds of students! This is particularly disturbing to me because for 39 years of teaching American History, I took pride in making American History more memorable by telling interesting stories and trivia. When I retired, I started this web site to pass those anecdotes on. There have been several times when I have posted a story that I wish I had known when I was teaching. But much worse, I have occasionally encountered evidence that a story I fondly passed on was actually not true. I apologize to my students for those. What follows is one of them.
Robert Capa is considered to be the greatest combat photographer in history. He took photos in the Spanish Civil War, the Second Sino-Japanese War, WWII, the 1948 Israeli War for Independence, and the First Indochina War. He risked his life to record history. His most famous photo was “The Falling Soldier” taken in the Spanish Civil War. “The Magnificent Eleven” were his amazing pictures from D-Day. He went ashore in one of the early waves with the 16th Infantry Regiment of the 1st Infantry Division. He took 106 photos, but when they were developed in the Life magazine lab in London a young technician overheated the negatives, destroying all but eleven. Five of those appeared in the June 19 edition of Life, making Capa famous. The story of the tragic loss of irreplaceable images from one of the most famous events in history became well-known. And was not questioned for decades. Today, we know that most likely Capa only took eleven pictures. He sent several unshot rolls to the lab and claimed that most of the negatives were ruined. And the story behind the pictures was false also. He most likely came ashore with the regiment’s command group, in the 13th wave, an hour and a half after the first invaders. The section of beach he landed on was relatively quiet and he was not under fire. (For example, one of the pictures was captioned as soldiers hiding behind a beach obstacle, but was actually a demo team cleaning up after the fight.) He stayed only fifteen minutes on the beach and then evacuated because of a panic attack or more likely to get his pictures developed quickly to beat the competition. I am not a particular fan of historical revisionism, but I do believe in setting the historical record straight when new evidence emerges. History is not written in stone. Let’s not continue to believe the myth of “The Magnificent Eleven”. Oh and by the way, “The Falling Soldier” was staged.
https://medium.com/exposure-magazine/alternate-history-robert-capa-on-d-day-2657f9af914
https://www.aarp.org/politics-society/history/info-2019/d-day-robert-capa-images.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Falling_Soldier
BOB HOPE AND THE USO
On May 6, 1941, Bob Hope performed his first USO show at March Field in California. The United Service Organization had been founded earlier that year to provide entertainment for the Armed Forces. Hope, who hoped to join the Navy after Pearl Harbor, was convinced by FDR to serve his country as an entertainer. It was a match made in Heaven. He would be the face of USO shows for the next 50 years. He headlined 57 tours. He entertained the troops in WWII, the Berlin Airlift, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Lebanon Civil War, the Iran-Iraq War, and the Persian Gulf War. His last tour was to Bahrain and Saudi Arabia for Operation Desert Shield. He was 87 years old. It was the Vietnam shows that are most remembered because they were shown on TV annually as a Christmas show from 1964-1972. The template of the shows had several features. Hope would do a monologue (twirling his golf club) that poked fun at the brass and the war situation. He always had sexy women like Connie Stevens, Ann-Margret, Joey Heatherton, and Raquel Welch. Hope would make sexist cracks that would not go over well today, but did with his audiences. Servicemen would be brought on stage to dance with the hottie. Other comedians and celebrities (his last show featured Johnny Bench) traded one-liners with Hope. Although never under fire, some of the shows were near the front lines and certainly not without some danger. But Hope and his troupes were totally committed. Once in the South Pacific in WWII, he gave a half hour show from a jeep for a platoon that had come in from the jungle too late for the show. Hope was one of the few celebrities who added Great American to their status. Congress declared him an “Honorary Veteran” in 1997. LBJ awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969. He is surely one of the most justified recipients.
Here are some of my favorites of his jokes in his shows:
“I met a GI who was going steady with his tattoo. And his buddies kept asking if she had a sister.”
“Working in a war zone is great for a comedian. You can always blame the bombs on the enemy.”
“Vietnam is a very democratic country – everyone gets to be president.”
“This is great golfing country. Even the runway has eighteen holes.”
“Contrary to what you’ve heard, I did not entertain the troops at Valley Forge.”
“The country is behind you – 50 percent.” (told in Vietnam)
“As we flew in they gave us a 21-gun salute. Three of them were ours.”
https://www.uso.org/stories/154-bob-hope-the-uso-s-one-man-morale-machine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Hope#USO_involvement
https://www.historynet.com/bob-hopes-vietnam-christmas-tours.htm
THE DEATH OF HITLER
On Jan. 16, 1945, Adolf Hitler moved for good into the Bunker under the Reich Chancellery building. 55 feet underground, the facility was totally safe from air bombardment. The eighteen rooms provided the necessary creature comforts for Hitler and his staff. The most prominent “guests” were Joseph Goebbels and his family. His last time out of the Bunker was on April 20 (his 56th birthday) when he pinned medals on some Hitler Youth. On April 29, Hitler rewarded Eva Braun’s loyalty by marrying her. Their marriage would last 40 hours. Hitler dictated his last will to his secretary Traudl Junge. In it, he passed power to Admiral Karl Donitz. He had always planned on committing suicide. No Mussolini humiliation for him. SS Doctor Werner Haase had counseled the “pistol and poison method”. The cyanide capsules were tried out on Hitler’s German shepherd Blondi. Hitler ate his last meal, spaghetti with raisin and cabbage salad, with his two secretaries and his cook. He then went into his study with his new bride, who he now called Fraulein Braun (an improvement over “Tschapperl” which meant “idiot”). She called him “the chief”. After the sound of a gunshot, aides entered the room to find the two bodies. Eva was dead from the poison. She had wanted to leave a beautiful corpse, but her face was contorted. Der Fuhrer was next to her on the sofa. He had died from poison and a gunshot wound to the head. The bodies were carried outside for cremation. With Soviet forces just blocks away, the burning was not effective and the Soviets got the remains.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Adolf_Hitler
THE BATAAN DEATH MARCH
On this day in 1942, survivors of the Bataan Death March staggered into Camp O’Donnell in the Philippines. They were the lucky few, if you considered the next few years of captivity to be lucky. The march began on April 9, after the surrender of American and Filipino soldiers in Bataan. Approximately 75,000 prisoners were marched from Mariveles to San Fernando, where they were loaded on trains to be taken to the camp. The march was 65 miles in brutal heat. It lasted 5 days of hell. The men were put in groups of 100. The brutality began immediately, although commanding general Homma had ordered that the prisoners be treated well. Unfortunately, this order went against the Japanese philosophy that to surrender was to disgrace yourself and your family. Most of the Japanese officers and guards did not think the prisoners deserved fair treatment. The abuses were widespread. Early on, in the Pantingen River Massacre, several hundred Filipinos were shot, bayonetted, and beheaded. Any captive found with Japanese money or souvenirs were summarily executed. Gold teeth were knocked out of prisoners’ mouths. The march was a continual stream of abuse. Little food or water was provided. If you tried to drink from a stream, you were killed. Exhausted marchers were bayoneted. Some were buried alive. Other prisoners did the digging and sometimes mercy-killed their mates with the shovel before the burying. The “sun treatment” was when the Japanese forced the men to sit in the hot sun without any head cover. Anyone who begged for water was killed. Passing trucks drove over men lying in the road. Troops riding in the trucks would hit the men. When they arrived at San Fernando, they were sardined into box cars like Jews going to concentration camps. Many died on the way. Dysentery was a major problem. It is estimated that by the time the survivors arrived at Camp O’Donnell, 5,000-18,000 Filipinos and 500-650 Americans had died. After the war, Gen. Homma was executed for war crimes.
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/bataan-death-march
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bataan_Death_March
https://www.britannica.com/event/Bataan-Death-March/The-march-and-imprisonment-at-Camp-ODonnell
JUDY, THE P.O.W. DOG
Judy was a pure breed pointer who was the mascot of the gunboat HMS Grasshopper. When Singapore fell to the Japanese in 1942, the little ship tried to escape to Sumatra. Unfortunately, it was sunk and the crew was left stranded on a small island. Judy found fresh water that saved the crew. Later, the men found a Chinese junk that they sailed to Sumatra. Once ashore, they were soon taken captive and put in a Japanese prison camp. Judy was adopted by Frank Williams, who shared his small ration of rice. He gave Frank the will to live in very trying circumstances and was a favorite of all the men. He warned them when poisonous snakes were near and once scared off a crocodile. He would intervene when Japanese guards were abusive. Judy would avoid retribution by escaping into the jungle. After three years, the prisoners were transferred to Singapore. On the way, the ship was sunk by a torpedo. Frank pushed Judy through a port hole, never expecting to see her again. At the new camp, Frank was reunited with his buddy. He learned that Judy had helped prisoners swim to debris after the sinking. When the war ended, Frank and Judy went to Great Britain. Judy was awarded the Dickin Medal (the Victoria Cross for animals). She and Frank would visit relatives of prisoners who had not survived, bringing comfort to them. Judy died in 1950 at age 13. Frank built her a granite and marble memorial.
– thanks to Greg Duval
https://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/english-pointer.html
https://military.wikia.org/wiki/Judy_(dog)
UNSINKABLE SAM
Cats do not really have nine lives, but there once was a cat that had four. Oscar was a black and white feline who patriotically went to war for Germany in WWI. She was on board the mighty battleship Bismarck when it was sunk by the Royal Navy on May 18, 1941. Although only 118 of the 2,200 crew members survived, a cat was found floating on a board. The cat was picked up by the destroyer HMS Cossack and named Oscar. She traitorously switched sides and went on convoy duty with her new British friends. After several months escorting merchant ships in the Mediterranean and North Atlantic, the Cossack was torpedoed by a u-boat with the loss of 139 men. The next day, while under tow, the ship sank, but Oscar was picked up off a piece of plank. She was renamed Unsinkable Sam and adopted by the aircraft carrier Ark Royal. In November, 1941 the ship was torpedoed and sank, but once again the plucky cat was found clinging to debris. At this point, it was decided the cat had had enough (and quite possibly was the opposite of a good luck charm). He was promoted to landlubber at Gibraltar. After the war, Unsinkable Sam was retired to the “Home for Soldiers” in Great Britain, where he passed away in 1955.
https://www.zmescience.com/other/feature-post/unsinkable-sam-cat-wwii/
https://allthatsinteresting.com/unsinkable-sam
ESCAPE FROM AUSCHWITZ
After three days without food or water (or bathroom facilities), the two men emerged from the wood pile and began their journey to freedom. Rudolf Vrba (19 years old) and Alfred Wetzler (26 years old) were inmates in Auschwitz. Both men were obsessed with bringing the true story of the Holocaust to the outside world. They had compiled a wealth of information about what took place in the camp. They had contact with Sonderkommandos who described the extermination process. They memorized statistics about arrivals by train, specifically about the influx of Hungarian Jews. They found about the wood pile scheme from other Jews. Four had used it to escape, although they were subsequently recaptured. The pile was outside the perimeter, but you had to survive the three days of intense searching by the SS. Russian tobacco soaked in gasoline, spread around the hideout, kept the dogs from sniffing them out. The guards did not discover the pile, so on April 7, 1944, it was their turn. After three days, the dogs were called off, so to speak. The duo headed for the hills, planning on crossing the mountains to their homeland of Slovakia. Chased by troops and dogs, they threw off the scent via an ice-cold stream. They were aided by Polish peasants along the way. One of whom acted as a guide after their ravenous eating of food proved to him that the two were not Gestapo agents trying to entrap him. Once safely in their homeland, they produced their detailed report which was smuggled to Switzerland where it was sent on to British intelligence and the media. Publicizing of the deportation of Hungarian Jews was credited with halting the deportations, saving about 200,000 lives. Unfortunately, the recommendation that camps like Auschwitz be bombed was turned down.
https://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/vrbas-and-wetzlers-escape/31/
https://www.martingilbert.com/blog/rudolf-vrba-and-alfred-wetzlers-escape-from-auschwitz-april-1944/
AGENT S.23
Odette Sansom was born in France in 1912. She married an Englishman, moved to Great Britain, and had three kids. When WWII broke out, she answered an ad from the Royal Navy requesting photos of the French coastline. Sansom patriotically sent her collection of pictures of the Calais area, but she accidentally sent them to the War Office. Officials from the Special Operations Executive (Britain’s spy organization) were impressed with the photos and Sansom’s background. She was recruited. She was trained in self-defense, Morse code, and how to handle interrogation if captured. She was sent to France in 1942 as Agent S.23 with the code name Lise. She was part of a three-person cell and worked as a courier carrying messages that set up sabotage and ambushes by the French resistance. Her team leader was Patrick Churchill. Unfortunately, they were betrayed by a resistance member and taken into custody by the Gestapo. Sansom saved Churchill’s life by claiming she was the leader. Under torture (ex. all her toenails were pulled out), she refused to reveal the names of other members of the underground. She was sent to Ravensbruck concentration camp where she spent several months in a small cell without a light. Eventually, she was able to convince the commandant that Churchill was a relative of the Prime Minister and they were married. The commandant kept her alive as a bargaining chip. In 1945, the camp was liberated and Sansom had not become one of the 42% of SOE agents that did not survive their espionage activities. She was given numerous medals. She was the first woman to receive the George Cross and was awarded the French Legion d’honneur.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odette_Hallowes
“FIGHTING GIRLFRIEND”
Maria Oktyabrskaya was one of ten children to a poor family. She married an officer in the Red Army in 1925. She joined the Military Wives Council and was trained to fire weapons and drive. When Germany invaded Russia, her husband was killed in fighting near Kiev in 1941. She did not get word until two years later. The news inflamed her for revenge. She sold all her possessions and raised additional money by selling her embroidery in order to donate money to buy the army a tank. She then wrote a letter to Stalin requesting that she be allowed to take the tank into combat to kill “fascist dogs”. Stalin’s advisers saw the propaganda value of it and she was accepted for military training. After 5 months (a much longer period than for the usual cannon fodder of the tank corps), she was designated a tank driver/mechanic (possibly the first female to play this role in history). She was assigned to a tank that was nicknamed “Fighting Girlfriend”. At age 38 (her crew called her “Mom”), she got her first taste of battle in October, 1943. Her tank was engaged with eliminating machine gun nests and artillery pieces when it was damaged. She helped repair it under heavy fire and was subsequently promoted to sergeant. One month later, the tank’s track was damaged by an anti-tank gun and once again she repaired it during the battle. Her luck ran out in January, 1944. Once again, she got out of the tank to make repairs. She was hit in the head by shell fragments and although given the best of care in hospitals, the condition worsened until she died two months later. She was posthumously awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariya_Oktyabrskaya
https://rtd.rt.com/stories/soviet-tank-driving-widow-avenged-husband-wwii/
JIMMY STEWART GOES TO WAR
On March 22, 1941, James Stewart became the first Hollywood star to join the Armed Forces when he was inducted as a private in the Army Air Force. Stewart’s grandfathers had fought in the Civil War and his father had served in the Spanish-American War and WWI. He was already a certified pilot, but his path into the Army had been bumpy. Having won the Academy Award for Best Actor for “The Philadelphia Story” in 1940, he was one of the biggest stars and box office gold for MGM. Obviously, the studio did not want him to enlist. He reluctantly agreed, but when a draft notice arrived, he was thrilled. But then he was declared ineligible because of his low weight. Stewart suspected that the studio had pulled strings to keep him out. Determined, he found a doctor that would confirm that he was physically fit despite the weight. The Army agreed and he was allowed to enlist. Studio head Louis Mayer saw that he was assigned to making Army films (like Ronald Reagan would end up doing), but Stewart got his commanding officer to change his orders. Stewart became a trainer for pilots of bombers and when his unit went to Great Britain, he insisted on going. By then, he was the commanding officer of the 445th Bombing Squadron in the 8th Air Force. He usually flew as a co-pilot so he could concentrate on leading the mission. His insistence on tight formation flying resulted in lower losses than most squadrons, but he still lost men and it was very stressful. Stewart began to show signs of PTSD, so he was transferred to operations officer in another unit. He still flew the occasional mission. Eventually, the Army realized that Jimmy Stewart bailing out over Germany and being used by Hitler for propaganda purposes was not a look it wanted. Ironically, Stewart had refused to participate in photo ops for the Army. He did not take advantage of his celebrity status. By the time the Army shut him down, he ended up with 20 missions and a Distinguished Flying Cross. He had gone from private to full colonel in just four years, a very rare feat. When the war ended, he returned to Hollywood to make “It’s a Wonderful Life” in 1946. George Bailey’s anguish was something he could relate to.
“Mission: Jimmy Stewart and the Fight for Europe” by Robert Matzen
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Stewart
OPERATION MINCEMEAT
In 1943, the British and Americans were planning the invasion of Sicily. British intelligence came up with a plan to trick the Germans into thinking the invasion was actually going to be Greece and Sardinia. The plan originated with the “Trout memo” from 1939. The memo, apparently with a lot of input from Lt. Commander Ian Fleming of future James Bond fame, proposed planting a corpse with false secret information to cause the Germans to do something the British wanted them to do. The idea was dropped in the laps of Ewan Montagu and Charles Cholmondeley. They got a coroner to be on the lookout for a corpse that fit the bill. He ran across a homeless man who had died from ingesting rat poison. The man had no known relatives. (In 1996, an amateur historian determined the man was Glyndwr Michael.) Charles Fraser-Smith (the possible inspiration for Q in the James Bond novels) created a special case to preserve the body. Montagu and Cholmondeley created a backstory for a Capt. William Martin of the Royal Marines. They then came up with “pocket litter” to fool the Germans into believing he was a real person. This included a photo of his fiancé, two love letters, a receipt for a diamond ring, and a St. Christopher medallion. His briefcase carried two letters between generals discussing the invasions of Greece and Sardinia. Churchill and Eisenhower gave the green light and one of Britain’s top race car drivers rushed the body to a submarine. The body was dropped off the Spanish coast. Fisherman found it and it was turned over to Spanish authorities. An autopsy confirmed the cause of death as drowning from a plane crash. The British put pressure on the Spanish to return the body and the briefcase as part of the subterfuge. The German Abwehr (military intelligence) put pressure on neutral, but German-friendly, Spain to open the letters and photocopy them. The briefcase was returned to Great Britain supposedly unopened, but forensic evidence and Ultra intercepts confirmed the Germans had been given the planted information. We now know that it had the intended effect as Hitler rushed reinforcements to Greece. Sicily was taken fairly easily.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mincemeat
https://www.history.com/news/what-was-operation-mincemeat
EMILIENNE MOREAU-EVARD
Emilienne Moreau was only 16 when the Germans invaded France at the start of WWI. One year later, she was operating a school in the basement of her home in an occupied town. When the British attacked the town, Emilienne ran to the liberators to tell them where the German positions were. The Brits were able to go around a strong fortification and thus she saved numerous lives. During the fighting for the town, she allowed her home to be used as a medical station and helped nurse the wounded. When a British soldier was pinned down in the street, she helped rescue him. Armed with a pistol and some grenades, she killed several German soldiers in the incident. Later, she shot two Germans through a door. She was awarded the Croix de Guerre by French Gen. Foch and received several other medals. She became a national hero and was called the “Lady of Loos”. Between the world wars, she married and became a teacher, but when France was conquered by the Nazis, she joined the French Resistance. She was lucky and escaped raids by the Gestapo that netted many of her friends. Eventually, she was able to escape the womanhunt and get out of the country. After the war, she became a prominent politician in the French Socialist Party.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89milienne_Moreau-Evrard
http://what-when-how.com/women-and-war/moreau-evrard-emilienne-resistance-french/
THE FU-GO BALLOON ATTACKS
Ever since the destruction of Mongol invading fleets by cyclones, the Japanese had believed in “divine winds”. The 9th Army’s Number Nine Research Laboratory was Japan’s lab for designing and inventing unconventional weapons. This included biological weapons. The scientists came up with the idea of using the jet stream to create terror in America. Part of the motivation came from the Doolittle Raid. Hydrogen balloons would carry explosive bombs and incendiaries across the Pacific to the U.S. Hirohito nixed the idea of biological weapons. The incendiaries would cause forest fires. The balloons were constructed partly by teenage schoolgirls. The first were released on November 3, 1944. A total of 9,300 were launched, but only about 300 were observed or found in America. This was close to the 10% rate the Noborito laboratory predicted. It was the first transcontinental weapon in history and the longest-range attack in history up until then. The distance was only topped in 1982 by British Vulcan bomber missions in the Falklands War. Despite the scope of the project, the results were piddling. A few fires were started. The all-black 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion (the “Triple Nickles”) helped fight the fires. On May 5, 1945 pastor Archie Mitchell and his pregnant wife brought five Sunday school kids on a picnic in a forest in Oregon. As Archie unloaded the car, the rest went exploring and found one of the bombs. Apparently, one of the kids kicked it and it exploded. The explosion was massive and blew the six back, killing all of them. These were the only deaths in mainland America during the war.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fu-Go_balloon_bomb
https://www.history.com/news/attack-of-japans-killer-wwii-balloons-70-years-ago
OPERATION GREIF
Otto Skorzeny had a scar on his cheek from dueling while in college. He had participated in 15 duels. In 1931, he became a Nazi. After the conquest of Poland, he enlisted as a 31-year-old private in Hitler’s bodyguard. He rose to be a Lt. Col. in the SS and Hitler’s favorite commando. He was the leader of the rescue mission that freed the ousted Benito Mussolini after he was imprisoned in a ski resort on a plateau. Skorzeny and his men landed in gliders. Later, he abducted the son of the Hungarian leader when he was thinking of signing an armistice with the Soviets. So, when Hitler had the idea of using commandos as part of his Ardennes Offensive (what became known as the Battle of the Bulge), he called upon Skorzeny. Der Fuhrer wanted Skorzeny to train a special brigade of Germans disguised as Americans to go behind enemy lines to seize bridges on the Meuse River. It was called “Operation Greif” (named after the mythical griffin). He was given only six weeks for training. Skorzeny managed to find only ten Germans who spoke “American”. Another 400 or so spoke English to varying degrees. None good enough to pass inspection. The men were sent to “American school” to polish their acts. They learned how to swear, chew gum, and be lazy. They watched American movies. As far as the others, who spoke no English, Skorzeny told them that if they were questioned they should say “sorry” and run off as though they had diarrhea. Needless to say, Skorzeny was not confident. Plus, he was given little of the equipment he had asked for. The unit had only one operational Sherman tank. Panther tanks had to be altered to look like American tanks, but they were not convincing. They did have 30 jeeps and 15 trucks painted American and they did have American uniforms.
When the offensive opened, a special squad of the most American of the men went ahead to try to reach the bridges and do some sabotaging. They got nowhere near their objectives, but did cause some confusion. They turned around road signs and in one instance misled an entire regiment. Most were soon captured and word spread that German spies were mingling with Americans. One of the captured men made up a story about going after Eisenhower and this amped up the paranoia a great deal. American soldiers were counseled to quiz suspicious soldiers to determine if they were legit. Popular questions had to do with sports (ex. who won the World Series?), state capitals, and celebrities. Omar Bradley was temporarily held after he correctly identified the capital of Illinois as Springfield. His quizzer insisted it was Chicago. Other than the confusion, the unit was a flop. Most of the men ended up being captured and several were executed for violating the Hague Convention of 1907. You are forbidden to fight wearing the opponent’s uniform. However, after the war, Skorzeny was acquitted in a war crimes trial because it was determined that you had to actually fight in the uniform, not just do deception and sabotage. He escaped from detention and went on to become a commando adviser to several governments.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Greif
https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/2016/01/19/operation-greif-and-otto-scarface-skorzeny/
THE BATTLE OF LOS ANGELES
“The Battle of Los Angeles” (also called the “Los Angeles Air Raid”) occurred in the early morning hours of Feb. 24, 1942. Just two months after Pearl Harbor, people living on the west coast were still paranoid about a Japanese attack. And with small cause because the day before a Japanese sub had bombed California. The I-17, commanded by Kozo Nishino, had fired at an oil facility near Santa Barbara. A derrick and a pump house were destroyed causing only $500 property damage. There were no casualties. California was now on high alert. Around 2 A.M. on Feb. 24, radar picked up an unidentified object. Air raid sirens wailed and soon after an anti-aircraft gun opened fire. Soon, every anti-aircraft gun was spraying the sky over the city with fire. Searchlights were ablaze. Many claimed to have sighted aircraft over the city, although no bombs were dropped. The panic lasted over an hour. Three people died in car accidents and two died of heart attacks. No Japanese were hurt. However, twenty Japanese-Americans were subsequently arrested for signaling the
Japanese planes. Although Secretary of War Henry Stimson backed the sensationalism of the newspapers by claiming that at least 15 planes had buzzed the city, the government quickly reported officially that there had been no attack. This was deemed a cover-up by many. Some insisted there was a secret Japanese base in Mexico. Others that Japanese subs carrying planes were plying the coast. There were those who claimed the attack was staged to get California war plants to move to the interior. After all, was it really a coincidence that Hollywood was right there and capable of putting on a show? Sadly, an investigation in 1949 zeroed in on a runaway meteorological balloon that was picked up by radar. Boring! Since then, ufologists have concentrated on a photo of searchlights supposedly tracking a UFO to propose that the incident involved aliens. And, of course, some eyewitnesses claimed to have seen unidentified objects that night. Now I want you to imagine what our current 24/7 news would do with this today.
https://www.history.com/news/world-war-iis-bizarre-battle-of-los-angeles
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Los_Angeles
THE TUSKEGEE AIRMEN
In 1939, the Civilian Pilot Training Program began accepting African-Americans. Two years later, this led to the creation of an all-black fighter squadron. The 99th Pursuit Squadron was created on March 22, 1941 at Chanute Field in Illinois, but soon moved to Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. The famous all-black college that had been started by Booker T. Washington had an airfield and facilities for the training. The facilities were segregated.
The program had started due to pressure from the NAACP and black newspapers like the Chicago Defender and the Pittsburgh Courier. They also went to bat for it when there was pressure to shut it down because blacks would never make good pilots. The turning point came when Eleanor Roosevelt visited in April, 1941 and allowed chief flying instructor Charles “Chief” Anderson (the “Father of Black Aviation”) to take her up for a 40-minute flight. It was covered by the press and reduced the criticism of the “Tuskegee Experiment”.
In April, 1943 the 99th was deployed to North Africa under the command of Gen. Benjamin Davis, Jr. He was the son of the first black general and had been the first black to graduate from West Point since Reconstruction. They were flying P-40’s. They painted their tails red and this led to their nickname “Red Tails”. (The name “Tuskegee Airmen” was coined by author Charles E. Francis in a book in 1955.) Their first mission was on June 2. They participated in the strafing of the island of Pantelleria.
After North Africa, the unit moved to Sicily and then Italy, where it was joined by the 332nd Fighter Group. The black pilots got a big upgrade to the P-51 Mustang. Their main job was escorting bombers. The most famous mission was an escort mission to the Daimler-Benz tank factory in Berlin. It was the longest mission they ever made (over 1,600 miles). Over Berlin it faced German jet fighters. Charles Brantley, Earl Lane, and Roscoe Brown each shot down a jet. The unit was awarded its third Distinguished Unit Citation.
The Red Tails flew a total of 312 missions (179 were escort missions). The pilots made over 15,000 sorties. According to legend, they never lost a bomber they escorted, but actually they lost bombers on 7 of their missions, a total of 27. That was well below the losses of the all-white squadrons. They had a reputation for staying with the bombers more than the white pilots did.
They were credited with over 100 enemy planes destroyed or damaged and over 200 planes destroyed on the ground. Over 1,000 rail cars and other vehicles were destroyed. And in a remarkable incident, one of the pilots disabled a warship. 84 Red Tails died during the war and 32 were taken captive. Over 150 Distinguished Flying Crosses were earned. In 2007, Pres. George W. Bush awarded the survivors the Congressional Gold Medal.
https://www.history.com/news/the-tuskegee-airmen-5-fascinating-facts
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/643566/tuskegee-airmen-facts
https://worldwarwings.com/5-fascinating-facts-about-the-tuskegee-airmen/
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/tuskegee-airmen
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuskegee_Airmen
THE HITLER ASSASSINATION
Yesterday, we learned about a world leader who had a very unlucky day which led to a world war. Today, we will learn about a world leader who had a very lucky day which meant a world war continued. By 1944, the war was going poorly for Germany, but most Germans still supported the war effort. Not all. There was a conspiracy of military officers and politicians who plotted to oust Adolf Hitler and negotiate a settlement to the war. The plot was called Operation Valkyrie. They decided to assassinate Hitler using a bomb. This was not the first attempt on Hitler’s life, but it would come closest to success. A decorated, wounded war veteran named Col. Claus von Stauffenberg volunteered to carry out the hit. He was on the periphery of power and attended some meetings. On July 20, he was an attendee at a meeting in a building at Hitler’s “Wolf’s Lair” headquarters in Prussia. Lucky break #1 – the meeting was moved from an underground bunker because it was too hot. If the bomb have gone off there, everyone would have been killed. Lucky break #2 – Von Stauffenberg was interrupted when he was arming the two bombs and was only able to arm one. The Count entered the room and placed the briefcase concealing the bomb on the floor next to Hitler, who was leaning over a table covered with a map of the Eastern Front. He was probably telling his idiot generals how he would win the war. Stauffenberg excused himself because he was not a suicide bomber, unfortunately. Lucky break #3 – Col. Heinz Brandt, upon moving in closer to Hitler, bumped into the briefcase and shoved it behind a leg of the table. The table was a thick oak one and the legs were massive, so when the bomb exploded, Hitler was shielded from most of the blast. He survived with minor wounds. Four men were killed (including Brandt) and 20 were wounded. Stauffenberg saw the explosion blow up the building and assumed he was successful. He hastened back to Berlin to initiate the takeover of the government. Early in that process, word began to spread that der Fuhrer was still alive. Stauffenberg was arrested and was lucky to be put in front of a firing squad that very day. Lucky because what was done to most of the other conspirators was not a quick death. There was a lot of torture. Some were hung using piano wire and it was taped for Hitler to watch. Hitler would have his revenge. 7,000 Germans were arrested (most being innocent, of course) and 5,000 were executed or committed suicide. The war went on another 8 months with thousands of deaths. All because Hitler was a lucky bastard on July, 1944.
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/assassination-plot-against-hitler-fails
https://time.com/5629999/operation-valkyrie-july-plot/
SINKING OF THE INDIANAPOLIS
The crew of the heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis would have been proud that they had contributed to the ending of WWII and the saving of many American and Japanese lives, but what they had done was top secret. Instead, they became part of the worst single ship disaster in the history of the U.S. Navy. On July 26, 1945, the Indianapolis delivered the components of the atomic bomb that was to be dropped on a Japanese city. That city ended up being Hiroshima. After accomplishing its mission without any drama, the ship was ordered to Guam and then the Philippines. Halfway to the Philippines, without an escort, the ship was torpedoed by the Japanese submarine I-58, commanded by Mochitsura Hashimoto. Hashimoto did not stalk the ship, it simply sailed in his path. The two torpedoes caused the ship to sink in twelve minutes, taking 300 sailors with it. Capt. Charles McVay and over 900 men ended up in the water with few life boats or life vests. They would struggle for survival for 4 days before being discovered by a PV-1 Ventura that was on routine anti-submarine patrol. Rescue efforts saved 316 of the 1,195-man crew. The rest died from drowning, dehydration, injuries, or most famously, from sharks. Sharks came from miles around and hundreds attacked the survivors. It is estimated that as many as 150 of the dead were shark victims. This was the worst mass shark attack in history. Why did it take four days to even start looking for them? The authorities in the Philippines just assumed the ship had arrived. The one man in charge of keeping track of the ship failed to investigate why the ship had not arrived. McVay was court-martialed for not zig-zagging to avoid submarines. Hashimoto testified that it would not have made a difference, but McVay was made a scapegoat. He was the only captain court-martialed for losing his ship in WWII. In 1968, he committed suicide, partly because some of the parents of the victims hounded him with blame for the loss of loved ones. In 1996, sixth grader Hunter Scott researched the sinking and this led to an inquiry by Congress which exonerated McVay.
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/uss-indianapolis-bombed
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Indianapolis_(CA-35)#Secret_mission
FACTS ABOUT THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN
- The Battle of Britain was the first major military campaign fought entirely by air forces.
- The battle actually got its name before it even began. On June 18, 1940 Winston Churchill made a speech that included the lines: “The Battle of France is over. I expect the Battle of Britain is about to begin.”
- Hitler did not expect Great Britain to put up a fight. He admired the British and wanted to negotiate with them. When England refused even to talk, he planned Operation Sea Lion, which was to be the amphibious invasion of the island. But before the barges could be sailed across the English Channel, the Royal Navy had to be eliminated as a factor. Since the German navy could not do this, the Royal Air Force had to be destroyed so the Luftwaffe controlled the skies over the Channel and thus would keep the Royal Navy out.
- The British won because of technology. Radio Direction Finding (Radar) had been developed in the 1930s. It gave warning of approaching German bombers. The British also used a system of observers. The WAAF (Women’s Air Auxiliary Force) provided radar operators and plotters.
- The Luftwaffe was considerably larger with 1.028 fighters, 998 bombers, and 261 dive bombers (Stukas). The Royal Air Force had about 900 fighters and 560 bombers. The main German fighter, the Me-109, was probably the best fighter in the world, but the German bombers were weak. Germany never developed a competent heavy bomber. Their fighters were at a disadvantage because they had little fuel for dogfighting after flying to England. Also, if shot down, their best bet was being captured.
- The continuous attacks put a lot of pressure on the pilots of the RAF (and those of the Luftwaffe). By the end of August, new pilots had as little as 2 weeks of training. Previous to this, pilots were given 6 months of training.
- Around 550 of the 2,900 British fighter pilots were foreigners. Many came from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. Others were escapees from Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Belgium. The most famous squadron was the Polish 303 Squadron. It accounted for 126 planes shot down. A Czech named Josef Frantisek shot down 17 which was the record for the battle. 9 Americans served. One was Billy Fiske who had won a gold medal in bobsledding in the Winter Olympics.
- Sgt. Ray Holmes became a national hero when he rammed a German bomber that was headed to bomb Buckingham Palace. He sheared off the tail of the bomber. This caused his own plane to crash, but he survived.
- Although the Spitfire became legendary in the battle, more Hurricanes were flown and they brought down more German planes.
- The battle went through phases. 1. Nuisance bombing raids to get England to negotiate. 2. Attacks on coastal shipping. 3. Targetting British radar stations. 4. Bombing British air fields. 5. Bombing of British cities. 6. The Blitz – nightly terror bombings of cities like London.
- The phases marked several big mistakes by Hitler and Goering (the head of the Luftwaffe). They gave up on attacking the radar stations too soon. They also gave up on attacking the air fields too soon, not realizing the RAF was on the ropes. This happened because some German bombers accidentally dropped some bombs on London. When Churchill retaliated with a raid on Berlin, Hitler got upset and ordered the destruction of London. The Blitz began on Sept. 7 and did not end until May, 1941. 40,000 civilians were killed.
- In the Battle of Britain, the British lost 1.542 pilots and 1,744 planes. The Germans had 2,585 men killed and 925 captured. They had 1,977 air craft shot down.
https://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-should-know-about-the-battle-of-britain
https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/8-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-battle-of-britain
https://www.historyhit.com/facts-about-the-battle-of-britain/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Britain
THE BATTLE OF GRAVENEY MARSH
The last “battle” involving a foreign force to be fought on British soil was fought on Sept. 27, 1940. No one had fired a shot in an armed struggle in over 200 years in Great Britain. It is known as the Battle of Graveney Marsh. A German bomber piloted by Fritz Ruhlandt lost an engine to anti-aircraft fire over London. It lost its other engine to British fighters. This forced Ruhland to crash land in Graveney Marsh. Members of the 1st Battalion, London Irish Rifles under Capt. John Cantopher were rushed to the site. They found the Germans trying to destroy classified equipment. A gun battle ensued, with Runlandt being wounded in the foot. This ended with a bayonet charge. The four Germans were captured. They were taken to a nearby inn and given some beer before being hauled to a prisoner of war camp. Some British kids were eyewitnesses to the “battle”. The Ju-88 was a new model and it was a lucky intelligence coup for the Brits.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Graveney_Marsh
http://www.donhollway.com/graveneymarsh/
OPERATION EICHE
On July 19, 1943 Rome was bombed with significant damage. This was the last straw for Mussolini’s reign. A week later, the Grand Council took a vote of no confidence and the next day Il Duce was summoned to the palace. He was surprisingly shocked to learn that he was out of power. Emperor Victor Emmanuel II appointed Marshal Pietro Badoglio to replace him. Mussolini was arrested by the Carabanieri (Italian military police). They ended up putting him in the Hotel Campo which was a ski resort on a mountain plateau. 200 guards were assigned to guard one old, broken ex-dictator in an impregnable prison with no access other than a cable car. This did not dissuade Adolf Hitler. He insisted his partner be rescued and assigned the job to his personal commando expert, Otto Skorzeny. When Mussolini’s location was discovered, aerial photos showed a flat area near the resort. Skorzeny decided gliders could land on the patch of land. On Sept. 12, ten gliders landed despite the fact that the landing zone turned out to be a slope that was steep and rocky. There were some injuries, but it was a successful ingress. The commandos crashed through the front gates, but no shots were fired. Skorzeny had brought along an Italian general who ordered the guards to stand down. They did. Skorzeny burst into Mussolini’s room. “Duce, the Fuhrer sent me!” “I knew my friend Adolf wouldn’t desert me.” Three days later, Il Duce and der Fuhrer were reunited. Hitler set up Mussolini as a puppet ruler in northern Italy.
https://www.history.co.uk/article/operation-eiche-the-rescue-of-benito-mussolini
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gran_Sasso_raid
BILL MAULDIN
The most famous cartoonist of WWII was Bill Mauldin. He was born on October 29, 1921. He enlisted in the National Guard and three days later his division was federalized. The 45th Infantry Division served in Sicily and Italy. He was a cartoonist in the press corps. Later he was transferred to the ”Stars and Stripes” army newspaper. His cartoons sometimes lampooned military discipline and the idea of following orders without thinking. Patton called him an “unpatriotic anarchist”. He developed the famous characters Willie and Joe. At age 23, he won his first Pulitzer Prize for a cartoon showing exhausted American soldiers escorting prisoners, but with the caption parroting a typical press release: “Fresh, spirited American troops, flushed with victory, are bringing in thousands of hungry, ragged, battle-weary prisoners”. Mauldin was wounded by mortar shrapnel while visiting front line soldiers. After the war, he became a political cartoonist. He was a civil libertarian and many of his cartoons evidenced that. In 1959, he won his second Pulitzer Prize for a cartoon about the recent Nobel Prize for Literature winner Boris Pasternak. The cartoon shows Pasternak in a gulag with the caption: “I won the Nobel Prize for literature. What was your crime?” Probably his most famous political cartoon was after the Kennedy assassination. The cartoon shows a grieving Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial. Mauldin had a very short movie career. He starred with Audie Murphy in “The Red Badge of Courage” in 1951.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Mauldin
HIDEKI TOJO – WAR CRIMINAL
After the Japanese surrender, Gen. MacArthur ordered the arrest of numerous Japanese generals and politicians for war crimes. When G.I.s surrounded his house, Hideki Tojo shot himself in the chest. But he missed his heart. When the soldiers, with reporters, broke into the house, Tojo was lying on the floor. A photographer put the gun back in his hand for a more dramatic picture. “I am sorry it is taking me so long to die.” But he didn’t die. American doctors kept him alive for his trial. He was taken with the others to Sugamo Prison. (There he was given a new pair of dentures with “Remember Pearl Harbor” inscribed in Morse code.) The trials began in April, 1946. Tojo and others were accused of waging wars of aggression, war in violation of international law, unprovoked war, and inhumane treatment of prisoners. Tojo accepted responsibility. He and six others were sentenced to death on November 12, 1948. They were hanged on December 23. He certainly deserved it, but you have to wonder why Ishii Shiro, the head of the bacterial and chemical warfare unit, was not even arrested. He and his subordinates conducted experiments like injecting American prisoners with bubonic plague. He “cooperated” with Americans like Werner Braun and Nazi rocket scientists cooperated.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hideki_Tojo#Arrest,_trial,_and_execution
https://www.historytoday.com/archive/tojo-hideki-executed
PEARL HARBOR FACTS
- The Japanese got the idea for the attack from a book by Hector Bywater, a British naval authority. “1931: The Great Pacific War” describes a surprise attack on the Pacific Fleet, followed by attacks on Guam and the Philippines. Another inspiration was the British attack on the Italian fleet at anchor at Taranto.
- America actually fired the first shot. Part of the Japanese attack was five midget submarines were to sneak into the harbor. The periscope of one was spotted by a minesweeper and the destroyer USS Ward opened fire and sank the sub. This was at 6:37, more than one hour before the air attack. Unfortunately, no alert was sounded. Four of the five midget subs were lost. Kazuo Sakamaki attempted to blow up his disabled sub. When he swam underneath to see why the explosive did not go off, he passed out. His body washed ashore and he was taken captive. He was the first Japanese prisoner of war held by the U.S.
- Besides the midget sub sunk in the harbor, another warning came via radar. A new experimental set was being tried out and it picked up the Japanese planes coming in. When it was reported to headquarters, the officer assumed they had picked up incoming B-17s arriving from the U.S. and did not sound the alert.
- There were two waves of attackers. The first arrived at 7:55 and the second at 8:50. The planes came from six aircraft carriers stationed 230 miles to the north. There were three types of planes – dive bombers, torpedo planes, and fighters.
- The first attack was led by Mitsuo Fuchida. He radioed “Tora! Tora! Tora!” (“Tiger! Tiger! Tiger!”) to Admiral Nagumo to indicate surprise had been attained.
- The Japanese destroyed 188 planes on the ground and damaged another 159. This was made easy because the planes had been lined up on the airfields to discourage sabotage. Also, anti-aircraft guns had been locked up for the same reason.
- The battleships were also lined up like sitting ducks on “Battleship Row”. All eight were sunk or severely damaged. The worst sinking was the USS Arizona. A bomb landed in its ammunition locker and blew the ship up. 1,177 sailors were killed, almost half of the total dead. This included 23 sets of brothers. The highest ranked death was Rear Admiral Isaac Kidd of the Arizona. The Oklahoma turned upside down, trapping many sailors. Some were rescued by cutting through the hull, but many were doomed.
- All the other battleships were repaired and returned to action. These were the Maryland, Nevada, Tennessee, California, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. The Arizona still rests at the bottom of the harbor. Even today, oil seeps to the surface.
- 2,403 Americans were killed. 68 were civilians. 1,178 were wounded, which is remarkable because in battles usually the number of wounded outnumber the number of dead. The Japanese lost 65 as 29 planes were shot down.
- Seven of the Japanese planes were shot down by George Welch and Kenneth Taylor (the inspirations for Rafe and Danny in the movie “Pearl Harbor”). They received the Distinguished Service Cross. Welch was denied the Medal of Honor because he took off without permission!
- It could, and should, have been much worse. The Japanese did not target the oil tanks, the repair yards, and the submarine base. And luckily, the aircraft carriers were not in the harbor at the time. The cautious Admiral Nagumo decided not to launch a third attack that might have hit those targets and extended America’s comeback.
https://www.pearlharbortours.com/blog/facts-about-pearl-harbor/
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/588543/pearl-harbor-facts
https://pearlharborwarbirds.com/interesting-pearl-harbor-facts/
https://www.govx.com/blog/253/10-facts-about-the-attack-on-pearl-harbor-you-may-not-know
https://facts.net/history/historical-events/pearl-harbor-facts/
HEDDY LEMARR – BEAUTIFUL INVENTOR
Hedy Lemarr was born on Nov. 9, 1914 in Austria to Jewish parents. She went on to become “the most beautiful woman in the world.” At age 5, she took apart a music box and reassembled it. Her love of inventing was born. But she became more famous as an actress than as an inventor. Her first major film was “Ecstasy” which became notorious for its nudity. It was banned in America and Germany. Her most famous film was Cecil B. DeMille’s “Samson and Delilah”. Her first, of six, husbands was a wealthy Austrian arms manufacturer. Her home was visited by numerous Nazi and fascist officials, including Benito Mussolini. However, she was anti-Nazi and before the war she attempted to help the Allies by inventing (with her partner composer George Antheil) a device to block enemy ships from jamming torpedo guidance systems. It relied on “frequency hopping”. The U.S. Navy was not receptive at the time, but eventually put the invention into effect. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, the technology was used to make sonic buoys that could discover Soviet submarines. Frequency hopping was later used in the development of Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and GPS. In 2014, she was elected to the National Inventors’ Hall of Fame.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedy_Lamarr