Military History Digest #160
Contents
19th Century
1. Castle Pinckney Sold for $10! | to the Sound of the Guns by n/a
"You read that right! Ten dollars!"
2. Following Longstreet and His Wife From the Civil War to World War II by Thomas E. Ricks
" Here's a great anecdote I hadn't heard before, from a recent FPRI talk by Josiah Bunting III: …Henry Hap Arnold, the chief of the Air Corps in World War II, was decorating workers at a B-29 factory in Wichita in 1943, and the foreman introduced a woman in her 70s, saying, This is our best worker. The woman was Helen Longstreet, widow of the Civil War soldier James Longstreet. He had lived a long life and married a young woman. Indeed, I believe his widow did not pass until 1962. ..."
3. The Union Right and the Union Left at Gettysburg, July 2, 1863 by Brooks D. Simpson
"For all of the attention devoted to the events of July 3, 1863, the final day of the battle of Gettysburg, there is a case to be made that it was the results of the fighting of July 2 that proved decisive to the outcome of the clash. Most critics of James Longstreet focus on [...]..."
4. Pursuing Lee: Meade After Gettysburg by Brooks D. Simpson
"There’s been a good deal of debate over the years as to the performance of George G. Meade between July 3 and July 13, 1863. Should Meade have been more aggressive? Should he have counterattacked on July 3? Should he have attacked Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia at Williamsport? Did Meade let slip [...]..."
5. Jubal Early’s Raid by Brooks D. Simpson
"In July 1864 Jubal Early and his men approached the outskirts of Washington, DC, tested the Union defenses north and northwest of the capital, and chose to withdraw rather than to launch an assault. He he arrived a day or so earlier, perhaps he would have decided differently, but his advance on Washington was delayed [...]..."
6. Confederate 6-Pdr Field Guns by Craig Swain
"In my discussion of 6-pdr field guns, thus far I’ve focused on the Federal side with only a couple of posts citing the Confederate wartime production. Not to slight southern manufacturing, but chronologically the “story” doesn’t fit until after the … Continue reading →..."
7. American Wartime Museum Open House 2011 by Craig Swain
"An off topic post today as I plan a long weekend trip. The American Wartime Museum holds it’s annual Open House event on August 20 and 21 this year. The event features vintage military vehicles, reenactors, and other displays. The … Continue reading →..."
8. Disunion – the Underground Railroad Emerges by Donald R. Shaffer
"Adam Goodheart has been the most prolific and consistently good contributor to the Disunion blog in the New York Times. His piece yesterday in Disunion certainly is not an exception. In it, he discusses how the Lincoln administration’s contraband policy brought into public view in the North the Underground Railroad–the heretofore secret network of abolitionists and safe houses that had helped slaves to escape from bondage. Goodheart writes: Less than three months into the Civil War, it seemed that the Underground Railroad was emerging — if not into broad daylight, at least into the pale summer dusk. . . . “They say that..."
9. Why the Slaves Fled by Donald R. Shaffer
"Explaining why slaves fled their owners during the Civil War seemingly is easy. With the approach of Union forces, they saw a chance to be free and took it. However, it is also useful in comprehending the slaves’ motives to understand what they were fleeing from. Among the what became clearer to northern troops as they moved into slave territory. They began to encounter the infrastructure of coercion and punishment that underlay and propped up the peculiar institution. In the June 29, 1861 edition of Harper’s Weekly, there appeared an illustration titled, “WHIPPING-POST ON THE PREMISES OF MR. WEST..."
10. Building the "90-Day" Gunboats by gordon.b.calhoun@navy.mil (Gordon Calhoun)
"Unadilla, Winona, and Ottawa under constructionAs part of its emergency building program to put ships on the blockade, the U.S. Navy designed a shallow draft, steam-powered gunboat that could be easily assembled. Labelled the 90-day gunboats as the contract stipulated that the private shipyards had to complete the construct of the vessels in ninety days, these warships became a mainstay of blockading squadrons. While none of them were completed in the allotted time, the program still demonstrated the Union's tremendous industrial advantage over the South as the program cranked out twenty-three good warships in five months. William..."
11. Wheatfield Road by Jenny
"Road Name: Wheatfield Road Named For: N/A Location: Southern end of the battlefield. Built: 1829. Altered: 1899, 1934, 2008 (repaved and slightly widened). Designer: E.B. Cope. Description: 1.491 mile long, about 25′ wide. Bituminous treated macadam w/ telford base. Runs east-west from Taneytown Rd to Emmitsburg Rd. Many Park avenues cut across or branch off Wheatfield Road. The portion that connects the two parts of Sickles Avenue is also known as McGilvery Artillery Avenue. History: Battlefield landmark in 1863 and was used extensively by Union forces as a major access road during the three days of the battle..."
12. A Sesquicentennial Study in Contrasts by Kevin Levin
"An official count showed about 21,015 people stood in lines with waits ranging from 3 to 7 hours to see the Emancipation Proclamation, which was on display at the The [...]..."
13. The Largest Offensive Ever Mounted by a Confederate Army. . . by noreply@blogger.com (dw)
"Historian Bobby Krick addresses members of the CompuServeCivil War Forum at their 15th annual battlefield conference, April 2011Yesterday was the anniversary of the battle of Gaines's Mill, a major fight that remains obscure even to many self-proclaimed students of the American Civil War. Why Gaines's Mill, the rest of the Seven Days Battles, and the overall 1862 Peninsula Campaign remain in the backwaters of Civil War studies is a mystery to me.Fortunately for us, organizations on the front lines of the Civil War preservation movement have not given the Seven Days backwater status. Just this year, important portions of..."
14. How Did They Deal With It ?? by yelpmark@comcast.net (Seaman Rob)
"In a prior post, I have mentioned that one of the things that most intrigues me about participating in living history events is the opportunity to experience what the “old salts” did in the Civil War. That thirst for experiences stops just a bit short of the ultimate event; naval combat (although a little piece of me still wants to know what it was like). A buddy at work is a fan of the War of 1812 Navy; both he and I have read the excellent book “Six Frigates” by I. W. Toll, and we always ask ourselves, “How did..."
World War I
1. The Battle of the Somme – 95 Years On by Emma Campbell
"In the early morning of 1 July 1916, more than 100,000 British infantrymen were ordered from their trenches in the fields and woods north of the Somme River in France, to attack the opposing German line. Within 24 hours, the British army would suffer almost 60,000 casualties, a third of whom were killed, and record [...]..."
2. Rowland Feilding by George Simmers
"An extract from Rowland Feilding’s War Letters to a Wife was a good choice, I thought, for the unseen passage in the AQA AS Level ‛Literature of the First World War’ paper this year. Jonathan Walker’s preface to his excellent edition of the letters fills in the background on this very competent and thoughtful soldier. Here’s the gist. In the 1890s, Feilding had briefly been a soldier, fighting in Matabeleland, but his real profession was that of mining engineer. Before the War, however, he had a role as a captain in a territorial battalion, and in August 1914 joined their..."
3. ‘Hardly Educated at All’ by George Simmers
"In the years of writing this blog, I’ve often commented on inaccuracies and half-truths in Paul Fussell’s The Great War and Modern Memory, which is still the most influential critical book on First World War literature (as I know very well, having just marked 200 AS-level exam scripts, many of which contain a great deal of third-hand Fussell). I’ve only just spotted a remark that really gets me indignant, though. It’s at the start of the ‘Oh What a Literary War’ chapter. Proving that soldiers looked at the war through literary spectacles, he notes that even ‘Private..."
4. ‘Ypres’ by George Simmers
"The box calls it The Battle of Ypres, but the film’s original title was just Ypres. It was made in 1925, a decade after most of the events that it shows. Directed by Walter Summers, it mixes wartime newsreel with re-enactments, and among its cast were several ex-soldiers who had been part of the fighting in the salient. The film gives a clear summary of the three battles of Ypres, and is at pains to show the courage and resilience of the troops involved. Most of the film’s episodes centre on acts of extraordinary bravery, and subtitles often..."
5. Bennett’s ‘the Regent’ by George Simmers
"I’ve been reading Arnold Bennett’s 1913 novel, The Regent, which I can definitely recommend as just the thing for a long bus journey. It’s fun. Like his wartime novel The Roll-Call, this is a ‛man from the North comes to London’ book, but it is very different from that rather grim story of compromise and disappointment. The hero of The Regent is no other than Henry Edward Machin, several years older than when his early adventures were described in Bennett’s comic masterpiece, The Card. He is Alderman Machin now, rich and successful and with a huge reputation in the..."
6. Barker and Borden by George Simmers
"Mary Borden, with an ambulance of wounded soldiers. See more about her at http://www.maryborden.com When I read Pat Barker’s Life Class a while back, I was sceptical about a horrific episode set in a hospital near the front line. A French soldier is brought in, in pain and raging, with horrific facial wounds resulting from attempted suicide. The characters discuss him: “What’ll happen to him?” “He’ll be shot.” Lewis gapes. “I don’t believe’ it.” “’Course he will, Suicide counts as desertion.” At the time I tried to do a bit of detective work to see if something like this..."
7. New Music for Old Films by George Simmers
"It’s a year to go to the ridiculously expensive and already very annoying London Olympics, and details are beginning to emerge of the plans for something called the Cultural Olympiad, a scheme for arty events that will be happening at the same time as the sporty ones. The latest is one that I’ve read about with mixed feelings. There is a scheme by which bright young composers have been commissioned to write new scores for the silent films of Britain’s greatest film director, Alfred Hitchcock. The good thing about this is that restored versions of the films will be issued..."
8. War for Kiddies by George Simmers
"The Booktryst blog has an interesting piece by Stephen J. Gertz, giving details of Josephine and her Dolls, a book for small children published in 1916. The post reproduces some of the charming pictures, and some of the text, which describes how little Josephine faces a problem with her dolls: I really wish that the dolls had never heard about the war. They are quite a nuisance now. What with Sunny Jim saying he wants to enlist, and Dora saying she wants to be a Red Cross Nurse, and Charlie saying he is Lord Kitchener, there is no peace. They..."
9. Charlotte Mew: 'May, 1915' by noreply@blogger.com (Tim Kendall)
"Last weekend, I attended the Decadent Poetics conference in Exeter, and gave a talk on one of my favourite poets, Charlotte Mew. Mew seems to me to be scandalously underappreciated. Hers is a narrow achievement---only one book appeared during her lifetime---but at her best she bears comparison with any of her contemporaries. I am currently writing an essay on her work for the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Victorian Poetry, and will enthusiastically accept any further invitation to proselytise on her behalf.Mew's poetry is one of the few redeeming features of Scars Upon My Heart, an anthology of 'women's..."
10. A. E. Housman: 'I Did Not Lose My Heart in Summer's Even' by noreply@blogger.com (Tim Kendall)
"Robert Frost once stated that his object in life was to unite his avocation and his vocation. Most literary scholars have entered the profession with exactly that ambition, although a small but growing number---pithily described by Harold Bloom as 'the School of Resentment'---seem not to enjoy literature very much. I have learnt most from those scholars who are also appreciators, combining the professional's depth of expertise with the passion of the hobbyist.Archie Burnett's edition of The Poems of A. E. Housman has, in all the positive senses, something of a philatelist's enthusiasm. It lists its ambitions as follows..."
World War II
1. World War II: the Invasion of Poland and the Winter War by n/a
"In August of 1939, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression treaty -- one week later, Germany invaded Poland and World War II began. The first attack of the war took place on September 1, 1939, as German aircraft attacked the Polish town of Wielun, killing nearly 1,200. Five minutes later, the German battleship Schleswig-Holstein opened fire on a transit depot at Westerplatte in the Free City of Danzig. Within days, the United Kingdom and France declared war on Germany and began mobilizing their armies and preparing their civilians. On September 17, the Soviet Union invaded Poland..."
2. World War II: Axis Invasions and the Fall of France by n/a
"In the spring of 1940, an emboldened Germany asserted itself as a modern conqueror of nations, successfully invading and occupying six countries in fewer than 100 days. In April 1940, Germany invaded Denmark, which capitulated in a mere six hours. At the same time, Nazi warships and troops were entering Norwegian waters, attacking ships and landing troops, starting a conflict that would last for two months. On May 10, more than 2 million German troops on land and in the air invaded France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands using blitzkrieg tactics. The smaller countries fell within weeks, but France held..."
3. Precisely by Brett Holman
"I noted in a previous post that the debate about reprisal air raids during the First World War largely revolved around two questions: are reprisals moral? and are reprisals effective? The same was true in the Second World War. Taking the question of effectiveness, how this was answered by participants in the debate depended partly on assumptions about airpower. For example, what, exactly were bombers capable of doing? How did people react to bombing? Was strategic airpower better used in attacking military objectives or should it be used to strike directly at the enemy population? In turn, these assumptions would..."
4. Bomb Berlin And… by Brett Holman
"This photo appeared on the front page of the Sunday Express on 6 October 1940, a month into the Blitz. A caption explained, or rather asked: WHO PUT UP THIS POSTER? This mystery poster has appeared in the streets of London. It is about six feet high and ten or twelve feet across, and bears nothing to indicate its authorship. No one knows who is paying for it.1 In just nine words the poster presents a very simple argument in favour of the reprisal bombing of Germany: BULLIES ARE ALWAYS COWARDS BOMB BERLIN AND SAVE LONDON By bombing Berlin..."
5. Reprisals After Notice by Brett Holman
"Shortly after the Blitz began in earnest, Conservative MP Victor Cazalet wrote to the editor of The Times to urge that the RAF carry out reprisals against German cities for the 'indiscriminate bombing' of London.1 'The attack on the civil population is a military weapon', he argued. 'Can we possibly afford to give Germany a monopoly of this weapon?' Cazalet's letter ignited (or, rather, re-ignited) a debate about the efficacy and morality of reprisals. Less contoversial, however, was the way he thought reprisals should be carried out: We should, I suggest, designate some 12 German towns, and openly..."
6. Vox Pops — I by Brett Holman
"Let's tackle the question of public opinion head on. Did the British people want reprisal bombing to be carried out against the German people? How can we tell? Can we even tell? If we wanted to gauge public opinion on a particular question today, we'd carry out an opinion poll. As luck would have it, Britain's first opinion polling organisation, the British Institute of Public Opinion (BIPO, later the Gallup Organization), was set up in 1937, and during the Blitz it did carry out polling on the reprisals issue. In October 1940, BIPO polled on the question (among others): In..."
7. Vox Pops — II by Brett Holman
"After opinion polls, the rest of the evidence for public opinion on reprisals is more impressionistic. I've already noted the conclusions of those who have plumbed the Mass-Observation archives (and Tom Harrisson didn't just plumb the archives, he ran Mass-Observation during the war), and as I haven't done that myself I'll let them stand. But there are other primary sources. One is the traditional one of the newspaper letters column. These are great because they apparently give you access to the thoughts of people who are otherwise lost to history, the men and women on the Clapham omnibus..."
8. Vox Pops — Iv by Brett Holman
"Another source of information about public opinion on reprisals during the Blitz is hearsay -- what people reported that other people thought. This can give us an insight into contemporary judgements of the public mood. But, as with letters to the editor, hearsay is highly problematic too. It's only possible to get a good grasp on what other people think if you mix with them and talk to them (the 'everyone is complaining about how difficult it is to find servants this year' problem). So the insights may apply only to fairly narrow sections of the community. More dangerously, it's a..."
9. Putting It Together by Brett Holman
"Since my AAEH talk is in four days, I'd better start actually putting the pieces I've scattered over this blog together into something (ideally) coherent which can be presented in 20 minutes (with 10 for questions). So here's a stab at a plan: First thing is to explain what I'm talking about: the public debate about reprisal bombing of German cities during (and for) the Blitz, especially September and October 1940. A definition of reprisals would be useful here; here's a contemporary one from A. L. Goodhart, What Acts of War are Justifiable? (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1941), 25: The essence..."
10. Tobruk Diaries: Planes, Mosquitoes and Heat by Carlie Walker
"Bryant’s Diary: Friday 4th, Saturday 5th July 1941 Just the usual hospital routine, a pretty rapid improvement as a result. Cosgriff’s Diary: Friday 4th July 1941 Fair night – undisturbed. Missa Tempore Belli [Mass in Time of War]. After communion to the Beach but I did not see very many. Roast beef for tea tonight [...]..."
11. German Propaganda Posters - Military Support by Charles McCain
"Tad found a great collection of Nazi Propaganda that has been collected by a college professor in Michigan, Randall Bytwerk. I've shown plenty of WW2 propaganda posters but the majority have been from the Allied side of the war and I'm using this opportunity to showcase the types of propaganda used by the Germans and will be highlighting some of these posters over the next few months. The Nazi Party issued a variety of propaganda posters that urged support for the German military due to the certainty of their victory. Here are some of Randall's posters and comments regarding that..."
12. Don'T Shoot Me! I Have an Armband! by Charles McCain
"+This fall 1944 poster is by Mjölnir. The Volksturm was the Nazi attempt to call on the last reserves. Those too young or too old for regular military service were called into service. The caption translates as “For freedom and life.” In Friday's post, the 6th poster (also seen on the right) shows members of the Volkssturm, a word which translates as "the People's Storm." This militia was comprised of all men between sixteen and sixty who were not already in the armed forces including those with physical handicaps. This was not a volunteer militia. Joining was mandatory. Age..."
13. Bomblets: Corrections and Additions to a Previous Post by Thoughtful and Thorough Reader, Jdb by Charles McCain
"Hat tip along with my thanks to loyal reader JDB, a fellow military history enthusiast, who kindly pointed out the errors in my post of Tuesday 17 May 2011. He also provided additional information on the subject discussed. Charles McCain wrote in the post: “The flak system operated by those 900,000 people was comprised of 14,250 heavy guns, primarily the famous German "88", which fired a shell measuring 8.8 cm in circumference at its base…” JDB corrected the information as follows: No, the caliber of all guns is the diameter of their bores. The bore of the 88 was 8.8..."
14. Two Minutes to Live by Charles McCain
"+ Escorts and merchant ships at Hvalfjörður in May 1942 before the sailing of Convoy PQ-17 (which was decimated by German forces after the Admiralty on 4 July 1942 ordered the escort to 'scatter'). Behind the destroyer HMS Icarus (front left) is the Russian tanker SS Azerbaijan. + Aboard HMS Sheffield during an Arctic Convoy Escort Patrol in December 1941 during the short time each day that the sun is seen during winter. In the background are merchant ships of the convoy. + Ice forming on a 20-inch signal projector on the cruiser HMS Sheffield whilst she is..."
15. German Light Cruiser Köln by Charles McCain
"I have written about the German light cruisers previously including the Köln. The Köln was the third of the three 'K' class light cruisers built. The K class light cruisers suffered from many design problems since they were designed and built in the late 1920's and had to adhere to the strict limit's imposed on Germany by the Treaty of Versailles. As the design problems became increasingly apparent, the duties of the ships were limited to compensate and they increasingly failed to serve in the role they were intended to. The Köln patrolled the coasts of Spain and Portugal..."
16. Extra: U-Boat Commander Apologizes for Sinking Ship! by Charles McCain
"Goodnight. Sorry for sinking you” said Korvettenkapitän Karl Merten, Kommandant of U-68, after sinking the British merchant ship City of Cairo on 6 November 1942. After the ship went down he surfaced, came close abeam one of the lifeboats and made enquiry of what ship he had sunk. After being told, he gave them the best course to steer for land and apologized for sinking them. (Source: Life Line: the Merchant Navy at War 1939-1945 by Peter Elphick. Three stars) + SS City of Cairo in wartime livery. + Karl-Friedrich Merten, Wolfgang Lüth, Friedrich Guggenberger, and Werner..."
17. Extra: U-Boat Commander Apologizes for Sinking Ship! Later Attends Reunion! (You Can’t Make This Stuff Up.) by Charles McCain
"In 1984, Karl Merten was invited, and attended, a reunion of some of the survivors of the City of Cairo. (Most of those aboard the ship survived.) Seventeen survivors attended. Most had been small children when Merten torpedoed the ship. "We couldn't have been sunk by a nicer man", one of the survivors said. Merten survived the war and ended up as a shipbuilder. He held the Knight’s Cross with Oak Leaves and is the 7th highest scoring German U-Boat ace of World War Two. He died age eighty-seven in 2003. + Karl-Friedrich Merten meets some of..."
18. Life Line: the Merchant Navy at War 1939-1945 by Charles McCain
"Life Line: the Merchant Navy at War 1939-1945 by Peter Elphick. This is not a history of the British merchant navy in World War Two but a collection of well researched anecdotes. As such, it does not provide a sweeping view of the war but instead provides a series of personal stories which make this book special. I rate it three stars. Some outtakes: ...seaman of the Jewish faith, from Britain itself or from other countries, who were considered to be under special risk if captured by the Germans...were given the option of sailing under names other than..."
19. Incompetence, Stupidity, and Cowardice: the Royal House of Savoy and the Governance of Italy, 1861-1946 by Charles McCain
"On the first day Rome was bombed, Victor Emmanuel III watched the American bombers with his binoculars while standing on a portico of the Villa Savoia. He was greatly puzzled that not one Italian fighter plane took to the air to attack the American planes. An hour or so after the bombing, he and his retinue..."
20. Barbarossa Began Seventy Years Ago a Few Days Ago, When I Was Babysitting: Some Thoughts on Tanks, Planes, and Horses by elunderik@netscape.net (lawnmower boy)
"And just in case you haven't heard them lately.)The usual scoring for Barbarossa sets The Internationale (or whatever) against Die Wachte am Rhein. I mean, if Tchaikovsky is going to do it, why not us hacks? The thing is that Adam Tooze has occasioned me to wonder whether the implicit "titanic struggle of nations" theme is appropriate. His recent monograph on the German war economy has very convincingly reinterpreted Barbarossa as something closer to an attempted mugging with menaces, and the only suitable scoring of the German national anthem that is really appropriate and on Youtube is this one.We..."
21. World War II: the Battle of Britain by n/a
"In the summer and autumn of 1940, Germany's Luftwaffe conducted thousands of bombing runs, attacking military and civilian targets across the United Kingdom. Hitler's forces, in an attempt to achieve air superiority, were preparing for an invasion of Britain code-named "Operation Sea Lion." At first, they targeted only military and industrial targets. But after the Royal Air Force hit Berlin with retaliatory strikes in September, the Germans began bombing British civilian centers. Some 23,000 British civilians were killed in the months between July and December 1940. Thousands of pilots and air crews engaged in battle in the skies above..."
Cold War
1. President Harry S Truman Authorizes Support for the Republic of Korea by NHHC
"In the early morning of 25 June 1950 local time, North Korean forces attacked across the 38th Parallel. Equipped with Soviet-made tanks, supported by massed artillery fire, the communist offensive quickly drove south through Koesong and toward Uijongbu north of Seoul. Other attacks pressed against the mainly South Korean defenders all across the frontier to [...] ..."
2. Profiles 49-54 - the Defenders of the Plain by wily1@mac.com (JSM)
"In the business world, second, third, fourth...generation leadership is weighty stuff. There's a cynical axiom that runs its way around cocktail talk that goes something like, Well you know, Grampa built it...Everyone in earshot knows what's being said. Grampa built it, Dad drove it but the kids wrecked it." Then, the listeners nod their head in silent understanding and take another sip of anesthetic. Gulp. There is indeed a penalty to leadership. It's the Followership. Many businesses, organizations - even families - don't survive the inevitable transitions. The culture doesn't take root, the wisdom doesn't nourish and the vision withers..."
3. Profile 49 - "01010" as Flown by the Sdang by wily1@mac.com (JSM)
"NOTE: I'm taking a short break from WW2 planes to focus on a special Commission to do the aircraft of the South Dakota Air National Guard. I hope you enjoy this diversion.Aside from being a rather ugly airplane, the F-94C "Starfire" represents - at least to me - the raging optimism that pervaded the 1950s. The idea behind the F-94C was that radar would guide the jet behind the marauding Commie bombers and fire off a batch (24 or 48) of smallish* missiles into the attacking bomber stream. These are unguided missiles, by the way. Spray, and pray. Like a..."
4. Profile 50 - "11419" as Flown by the Sdang by wily1@mac.com (JSM)
"NOTE: I'm taking a short break from WW2 planes to focus on a special Commission to do the aircraft of the South Dakota Air National Guard. I hope you enjoy this diversion.As a little kid, I have a distinct memory of the F-89 Scorpion. I remember being utterly disappointed by it. Page flip, P-80 Shooting Star. Cool name, cool looking plane. Page flip, F-84 Thunderjet. Cool name, sorta cool looking airplane but with bombs. Cool! Page flip, F-86 Sabre. Holy of Holy - the crown jewel of all-things-jet fighter. I WANT ONE!!Then the page..."
5. Profile 51 - "61114" as Flown by the Sdang by wily1@mac.com (JSM)
"NOTE: I'm taking a short break from WW2 planes to focus on a special Commission to do the aircraft of the South Dakota Air National Guard. I hope you enjoy this diversion.At the risk of being smashed under the weight of my own irony, the internet is a middling place for research. The cut-and-paste tendencies of fact-gathering can quickly distort reality. The study of history, especially military history, is no exception. Try this sometime - pour a tall glass of your favorite libation and Google Hitler's Spacecraft. But be careful - you'll never get that time back...But, when..."
Misc/Thematic
1. In the Service of Clio: Blog Lxxxv (85): a Session for All Conferences by n/a
"..."
2. Ephemera and Desiderata by David Betz
"Over on Carl Prine’s Line of Departure (the new hotness of the blogosphere) a couple of weeks ago he had an essay ‘Framed and Shot in Afghanistan‘ comparing the rather insipid work of a contemporary photographer in Afghanistan with the extraordinarily eye-catching and evocative work of the 19th century photographer John Burke who accompanied the Peshawar Valley Field Force, one of three British Anglo-Indian army columns deployed in the Second Afghan War (1878-80), despite being rejected for the role of official photographer. Go browse these amazing photos for a while and read Carl’s essay too. It made..."
3. “A Hell of a War” Lieutenant Douglas E. Fairbanks, Jr. by NHHC
"The actor Lt. Douglas E. Fairbanks, Jr., served on board “The Witch,” heavy cruiser Wichita (CA 45), during the terrifying battle of convoy PQ-17 in WWII. Born to his famous father in New York City in 1909, Fairbanks had also pursued the acting profession; however, he heeded his nation’s call, commissioned, and joined Wichita during [...] ..."
4. Carrier Aircraft Enter Korean War, 3 July 1950 by NHHC
"Carrier aircraft launched the first strikes of the Korean War on 3 July 1950. Valley Forge (CV 45), with Carrier Air Group 5 embarked—the only operational U.S. carrier in the Western Pacific when the Korean War began—and the British carrier Triumph (R 16), operating in the Yellow Sea with Firefly FR.1s and Seafire FR.47s, launched [...] ..."
5. Delaware Makes First Quasi-War Capture, 7 July 1798 by NHHC
"During the Quasi-War with France, the former merchant ship Delaware cruised to protect American merchant shipping from French privateers. She guarded convoys during their approach to Philadelphia and New York, patrolled the West Indies, and escorted convoys into Havana. On 7 July 1798 Delaware, under the command of Captain Stephen S. Decatur, Sr., captured the [...] ..."
6. Operation Husky and the First Use of Landing Craft, 10 July 1943 by NHHC
"On the morning of 10 July 1943, American and British troops stormed ashore on the beaches of Sicily in the initial stages of Operation Husky, the first major amphibious operation to employ landing ships and craft. Army troops were landed in LCVPs (landing craft, vehicle, personnel), while their heavy equipment, including jeeps and tanks, were [...] ..."
7. USS Scorpion Project: Phase II Begins! by Underwater Archaeology
"After months of careful planning and preparation, the NHHC Underwater Archaeology Branch (UAB), in conjunction with Maryland Historical Trust (MHT) and the Maryland State Highway Administration (MSHA), initiated the second phase of the archaeological investigation of what is believed to be the wreck of USS Scorpion. Captained by US Navy hero Joshua Barney, Scorpion served [...] ..."