Good Sunday Morning June 7, 2020
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I hope that your weekend is going well.
Regards,
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Today in Naval History
June 7
1898
During the Spanish-American War, USS Marblehead (C 11), along with auxiliary cruisers USS Yankee and USS St. Louis, engage the Spanish gunboat Sandoval and the shore batteries at Guantanamo, Cuba for 2 1/2 hours.
1917
During World War I, U.S. submarine chasers arrive at Corfu, Greece, for anti-submarine patrols.
1942
Just after dawn, USS Yorktown (CV 5) sinks after being torpedoed the previous day by Japanese submarine (I 168).
1944
The construction of artificial harbors and sheltered anchorages, also known as Mulberries, begins off the Normandy coast.
1944
USS Mingo (SS 261) torpedoes and sinks Japanese destroyer Tamanami, 150 miles west-southwest of Manila while USS Skate (SS 305) attacks a Japanese convoy in the southern Sea of Okhotsk and sinks destroyer Usugumo, 160 miles north of Etorofu, Kuril Islands. Additionally, USS Sunfish (SS 281) attacks Japanese fishing boats en route from Matsuwa to Uruppu, Kuril Islands, shelling and sinking No.105 Hokuyo Maru, No.5 Kannon Maru, Ebisu Maru, and Kinei Maru while USS Flasher (SS 249) sinks Japanese transport No.2 Koto Maru off Cape Varella, French Indochina. Lastly, USS Bonefish (SS 223) shells and sinks Japanese guardboat Ryuei Maru at the mouth of Tarakan Harbor, Borneo.
1945
During the Okinawa Campaign, while serving with the Third Marine Battalion, Twenty-Ninth Marines, Sixth Marine Division, Pvt. Robert M. McTureous's company suffers casualties after capturing a hill on Oroku Peninsula, and the wounded can't be evacuated due to heavy Japanese fire. Waging a one-man assault to redirect enemy fire away from the wounded, McTureous attacks numerous times and suffers severe wounds in the process. He crawls 200 yards back to safety before asking for aid. His actions confuse the enemy and enable his company to complete its mission. He dies on June 11 on board USS Relief. For his "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity" on this occasion, McTureous is posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.
1987 USS Antietam (CG 54) is commissioned at Baltimore, Md. The Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser is named after the 1862 Battle of Antietam in Baltimore during the Civil War. The cruisers first homeport is Long Beach, Calif.
Thanks to CHINFO
No CHINFO ON THE WEEKEND
Today in History June 7
1498 | Christopher Columbus leaves on his third voyage of exploration. | |
1546 | The Peace of Ardes ends the war between France and England. | |
1654 | Louis XIV is crowned king of France. | |
1712 | The Pennsylvania Assembly bans the importation of slaves. | |
1767 | Daniel Boone sights present-day Kentucky. | |
1775 | The United Colonies change their name to the United States. | |
1863 | Mexico City is captured by French troops. | |
1900 | The Boxer rebels cut the rail links between Peking and Tientsin in China. | |
1903 | Professor Pierre Curie reveals the discovery of Polonium. | |
1914 | The first vessel passes through the Panama Canal. | |
1932 | Over 7,000 war veterans march on Washington, D.C., demanding their bonus pay for service in World War I. | |
1942 | The Japanese invade Attu and Kiska in the Aleutian Islands. | |
1968 | In Operation Swift Saber, U.S. Marines sweep an area 10 miles northwest of Da Nang in South Vietnam. | |
1981 | Israeli F-16 fighter-bombers destroy Iraq's only nuclear reactor. | |
1994 | The Organization of African Unity formally admits South Africa as its fifty-third member. |
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Close-in fire support for the infantry at Omaha Beach was terribly lacking until...US Navy destroyers "saved the day".
As many of you know, a massive German slaughter house awaited US troops at Omaha Beach.
June 6, 1944, at H-hour 0630 real trouble started. Landing craft coxswains lost their bearings in the early morning mist, deepened by smoke and dust kicked up by the naval bombardment. Many of them missed their assigned landing sectors. Of the 64 DD tanks (amphibious) 27 made it to the Dog beaches but only five got ashore on Easy beaches; the rest foundered on the way in.
0830 USS Carmick breaks the cease-fire order that had suspended supporting naval gunfire at H-hour. (Some 1 & 1/2 to 2 hrs of withering German cliff-top defensive firing w/o much, if any, U.S return fire support at all.) 1st and 29th Division assault waves - sitting ducks.
USS Carmick action report:
..."Early in the morning a group of tanks were seen to be having difficulty making their way along the breakwater road toward Exit D-1 [the Vierville draw]. A silent coorporation was established wherein they fired at a target on the bluff above them and we then fired several salvos at the same spot. They then shifted fire further along the bluff and we used their bursts again as a point of aim."...
Captain Sanders, COMDESTRON 18 Commander was in the USS Frankfort, arriving off the beachhead just before 0900. Concerned about increasing casualties on the beach, he ordered ALL destroyers to close on the beach as far in as possible and support the assault troops.
Close-in fire support by navy destroyers speeded up much improved conditions all along the beach at Omaha by 1000.
After action report: (personal letter from Sergeant James E. Knight of the 299th Combat Engineer Battalion wrote to the crew of the USS Frankfort)..."There is no question, at least in my mind, if you had not come in as close as you did, exposing yourself to God only knows how much, that I would not have survived the night. I truly believe that in the absence of the damage you inflicted on German emplacements, the only way any GI was going to leave Omaha was in a mattress cover or as a prisoner of war."...Sergeant Barton Davis, 299th Combat Engineer Battalion wrote to say: " How well I remember your ship coming in so close. I thought then as I do now that it was one brave thing to come in so close...Your ship not only knocked out the pillbox but the mortar positions above us...I always thought how great it would be to tell the Captain of this ship how grateful I am..." ( a personal letter to Captain James Semmes, CO of the USS Frankfort).
Colonel S.B. Mason, USA, Chief of Staff of the 1st Division, wrote the following letter to Rear Admiral Hall after an inspection of the German defenses at Omaha. They should have been impregnable" "But there was one element of attack they could not parry...I am now firmly convinced that our supporting naval fire got us in; that without that gunfire we positively could not have crossed the beaches."...
Almost scraping the bottom with destroyer keels off Omaha Beach were the: USS Frankfort; USS McCook; USS Doyle; USS Thompson; USS Carmick...D-Day - June 6th, 1944.
Footnote:
In his book, "The Longest Day", Cornelius Ryan so described German defenses of Omaha. The German 352nd Division's artillery batteries were only a part of what Ryan called "the deadly guns of Omaha Beach":
There were 8 concrete bunkers with guns of 75 millimeters or larger caliber [75mm to 88mm]; 35 pillbox ea with artillery pieces of various sizes/or automatic weapons; 4 batteries of artillery [presumably Pluskat's]; 18 antitank guns [37mm to 75mm]; 6 mortar pits; approximately 40 rocket-launching sites; each with four 38-millimeter rocket tubes; and NO LESS THAN 85 strategically placed machine gun nests.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omaha_Beach
(bop at Normandy's Omaha Beach, and general area - 1963, 1985, 1997.)
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Thanks to Richard
Subject: Fw: Why Did The de Havilland Comet Keep Crashing?
Why Did The de Havilland Comet Keep Crashing?The world's first jetliner, the de Havilland Comet, was crashing, and no one knew why. By Plane &Pilot
The Mystery: What was causing the crashes of the pioneering jet the de
Havilland Comet. The Backstory: When it comes
to lists of planes, the de Havilland Comet jetliner is often
mentioned prominently. It was not only the first jet
airliner, but many regard it as one of the most beautiful
aircraft of all time. Others note that its place in history
is assured as a design with an early history of mysterious,
fatal crashes. Commissioned in the
early 1940s by the British government in its quest to find a
fast and capable mail plane, famed designer Geoffrey de
Havilland answered the call with the Comet, a jet-powered
design that would likely be the first such plane in history.
The idea was risky. Jet engines, while more reliable than
large piston radial engines, like those that powered the
rival Lockheed Constellation, were expensive, difficult to
maintain and prone to mechanical problems. Turbofans, which
are the engine of choice in jet planes today, had not yet
come into general use, and the turbojets of the day were
fuel guzzlers. Despite this, de Havilland won the
competition and began work on the Comet. In 1952, the
company delivered the first DH 106 to British Overseas
Airways Corporation (BOAC). Other customers appeared,
including British European Airways and the British
government. The
engines on the first plane were the Halford H.2 Ghost 50
turbojets; they were buried in sleek enclosures in the wing
root. If there were going to be troubles with the plane, the
new engines were thought to be the likely causes. They
weren't. The
first disaster took place in January 1954, around
two-and-a-half years after the first Comet delivery, when
the first production Comet, operated by BOAC, broke up in
mid-air over the Mediterranean Sea 20 minutes after taking
off from an airport in Italy. All 36 people aboard died in
the accident. Investigators suspected sabotage, fire,
flutter and an explosion in a fuel tank. After recovering
and examining much of the debris from the plane, the
committee heading up the inquiry declared that the plane
wasn't the problem. De
Havilland, which had voluntarily grounded the small fleet,
in March okayed the planes for flight. In April, another
Comet, this one operated by South African Airways, came
apart in midair, again over the Mediterranean. All 21 aboard
lost their lives. The
Comet was grounded, this time permanently, and its
certification was revoked. De Havilland went to work finding
the root cause, and a few months later discovered
it. The
Truth: By testing the
structure of an existing Comet in a water tank under
repeated pressurization cycles, the truth became clear when
the fuselage of the test article came apart in an explosive
decompression. This was after just over 3,000 pressurization
cycles. The cause of the two planes breaking up in
mid-flight was found. It was metal fatigue. Engineers
redesigned the structure of the plane for what became the
Comet 2, and that was the end of that issue. The company
went on to produce 114 of the aircraft, ending with the
Comet 4 model, which was last produced in
1959.Sadly, the Comet,
even after the cause of its mystery woes was diagnosed, had
a terrible safety record, with 26 hull losses during its
short operational life, resulting in more than 400
fatalities. But
its role as a pioneer helped pave the way for future
airliners, and De Havilland's engineers'
discovery of the dangers of metal fatigue from
pressurization cycles made future airliners far safer from
that danger than before. Although a few explosive
depressurizations have occurred since that time, the designs
of the planes that suffered them were quickly modified to
cut down on future risks.
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Thanks to Mike….wow
helo rescue with spinning 74 year old lady in litter
How Embarrassing! What a ride for the 74 year old...
https://www.facebook.com/ABC15/videos/448098122617310/
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Thanks to Mugs
June 6, 2019
By Chris Stirewalt
On the roster: Why they fought -
WHY THEY FOUGHT
Americans have a thing about imagining what would have happened if the Axis powers had won World War II.
"The Man in the High Castle," a popular television series about the German and Japanese occupation of the United States, based on the 1962 Philip K. Dick novel of the same name, is only the most recent installment of these alternate histories. In the 1990s, the novel "Fatherland" was a smash hit and writers ranging from Noël Coward to Gene Roddenberry have tried their hand at the genre.
The "what if" is so hard for us to resist for a many reasons. First, there has seldom been a more clearly evil enterprise than the effort by fascist powers to dominate the world. Writing about genocidal Nazis makes easy work of defining good guys and bad guys. But there's also the fact that imagining these dark alternatives reminds us of the enormity of America's achievement in the Allied victory.
And nothing has come to symbolize that achievement as the successful landing on the coast of Normandy, France, 75 years ago today. The sacrifice, endurance and valor of those men that day are understood by every American as a full expression of the best our nation has to offer.
But why were they there that day?
In his still-unsurpassed speech commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Allied victory in June of 1984, then-President Ronald Reagan, speaking to the assembled veterans put it this way: "The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead or on the next. It was the deep knowledge – and pray God we have not lost it – that there is a profound, moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest. You were here to liberate, not to conquer, and so you and those others did not doubt your cause. And you were right not to doubt."
The fight there was not to protect America's own shores but to free our fellow human beings from oppression. Yes, swiftly, thoroughly breaking the back of the Nazi Wehrmacht would help ensure America's future security. And yes, we were obligated to fight for our allies. But by the fifth year of the European war, the kind of world imagined in "The Man in the High Castle" was already pure fiction.
The Nazis' always-fantastical dream of "the Thousand Year Reich" with Berlin as the new Rome at the hub of a vast empire spanning the globe was effectively ended on Jan. 31, 1943 when Field Marshal Friedrich von Paulus surrendered to the Soviets at Stalingrad. The utter destruction of the German Sixth Army and the resulting rout of Nazi forces on the Eastern Front had already sealed the fate of the Nazi's perverse fantasies of world conquest. By the time of the Battle of Kursk in July of 1943, it was clear that Germany could no longer contain the Soviet counteroffensive. The march to the Brandenburg Gate had begun.
By the time Allied forces made landfall at Normandy, Soviet forces had been besieging Berlin for more than six months.
Now, the Soviets would have had a harder time if the German high command didn't have to maintain the Atlantic Wall against U.S. and British invasion. But by that point, the Allies had already defeated fascist Italy and liberated Rome from German occupation.
The fall of the Nazi regime was already certain, but what we did not know was how or when.
Certainly the non-fanatics in the German high command were preparing for the moment, imagining an armistice something like the one that had ended the previous world war. How might they maintain some territorial autonomy? Could war crime charges be avoided? Could they find a way to surrender to the civilized forces of the West rather than the brutalizing Soviets?
Indeed, the discussion of Allied leaders had shifted away from winning the war to winning the peace by the time of the meeting of the Western powers at Casablanca in January of 1943. It would not be enough to defeat the Axis powers, but to establish a new order for Europe that would both prevent a third such conflict but also prevent the Soviets from replacing one occupation with another.
The alternate future we might consider if D-Day had never happened isn't one of swastikas around the Washington Monument, but of Soviet oppression spanning three continents.
The Army Rangers who scaled the cliffs at Pointe du Hoc under withering fire were there to liberate, yes. But also to conquer. Not in the traditional sense of occupation and subjugation, but in the sense of conquering the ancient notion that any man or nation has the right to rule another.
They climbed carrying the American creed on their hearts: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
The victory they won that day and those in the weeks that followed in their race to Berlin carried that creed forward as their standard just as surely as Roman legions had held high the golden eagle of their empire in conquering the same lands two thousand years before. They had come to subjugate, we had come to defeat the very idea of subjugation.
The Soviets may have struck the most devastating blow in defeating the Nazi regime, but the forces of the Atlantic alliance won the peace in the months after D-Day. In liberated Europe, German prison camps would not be replaced with Soviet ones and one form of tyranny would not be exchanged for another. A new order, built on the American model, would end the centuries of war and strife on the western side of the continent.
There have been manifold practical benefits for America from the sacrifices made on that day and in those moths. We are no doubt richer, safer and freer than if we had not breached the Atlantic Wall.
But those brave men also set a new moral standard for the world. Our victory in the Cold War and the 74 years of relative peace and expanding prosperity for the world can trace their roots to the men who knew "profound, moral difference" between the American way and the way the world had always been before.
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Subject: Fwd: The Douglas DC-3 and C-47
The Douglas DC-3 and C-47 Skytrains, commonly referred to as Dakotas, ferried thousands of Allied troops into Nazi-occupied Europe on D-Day.
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These are always fun
Thanks to Rob …and Dr. Rich
Some old, some new … all interesting!!
FOR THOSE WHO LOVE THE PHILOSOPHY OF AMBIGUITY
1. DON'T SWEAT THE PETTY THINGS AND DON'T PET THE SWEATY THINGS.
2. ONE TEQUILA, TWO TEQUILA, THREE TEQUILA, FLOOR.....
3. ATHEISM IS A NON-PROPHET ORGANIZATION.
4. IF MAN EVOLVED FROM MONKEYS AND APES, WHY DO WE STILL HAVE MONKEYS AND APES?
5. THE MAIN REASON SANTA IS SO JOLLY IS BECAUSE HE KNOWS WHERE ALL THE BAD GIRLS LIVE.
6. I WENT TO A BOOKSTORE AND ASKED THE SALESWOMAN, 'WHERE'S THE SELF-HELP SECTION?' SHE SAID IF SHE TOLD ME, IT WOULD DEFEAT THE PURPOSE.
7. WHAT IF THERE WERE NO HYPOTHETICAL QUESTIONS?
8. IF A DEAF PERSON SWEARS, DOES HIS MOTHER WASH HIS HANDS WITH SOAP?
9. IF SOMEONE WITH MULTIPLE PERSONALITIES THREATENS TO KILL HIMSELF, IS IT CONSIDERED A HOSTAGE SITUATION?
10. IS THERE ANOTHER WORD FOR SYNONYM?
11. WHERE DO FOREST RANGERS GO TO 'GET AWAY FROM IT ALL?'
12. WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU SEE AN ENDANGERED ANIMAL EATING AN ENDANGERED PLANT?
13. IF A PARSLEY FARMER IS SUED, CAN THEY GARNISH HIS WAGES?
14. WOULD A FLY WITHOUT WINGS BE CALLED A WALK?
15 WHY DO THEY LOCK GAS STATION BATHROOMS? ARE THEY AFRAID SOMEONE WILL CLEAN THEM?
16. IF A TURTLE DOESN'T HAVE A SHELL, IS HE HOMELESS OR NAKED?
17. CAN VEGETARIANS EAT ANIMAL CRACKERS?
18. IF THE POLICE ARREST A MIME, DO THEY TELL HIM HE HAS THE RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENT?
19. WHY DO THEY PUT BRAILLE ON THE DRIVE-THROUGH BANK MACHINES?
20. HOW DO THEY GET DEER TO CROSS THE ROAD ONLY AT THOSE YELLOW ROAD SIGNS?
21. WHAT WAS THE BEST THING BEFORE SLICED BREAD?
22. ONE NICE THING ABOUT EGOTISTS: THEY DON'T TALK ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE.
23. DOES THE LITTLE MERMAID WEAR AN ALGEBRA?
24. HOW IS IT POSSIBLE TO HAVE A CIVIL WAR?
25. IF ONE SYNCHRONIZED SWIMMER DROWNS, DO THE REST DROWN TOO?
26. IF YOU ATE BOTH PASTA AND ANTIPASTO, WOULD YOU STILL BE HUNGRY?
27. IF YOU TRY TO FAIL, AND SUCCEED, WHICH HAVE YOU DONE?
28. WHOSE CRUEL IDEA WAS IT FOR THE WORD 'LISP' TO HAVE AN 'S' IN IT?
29. WHY ARE HEMORRHOIDS CALLED 'HEMORRHOIDS' INSTEAD OF 'ASSTEROIDS'?
30.. WHY IS IT CALLED TOURIST SEASON IF WE CAN'T SHOOT AT THEM?
31. WHY IS THERE AN EXPIRATION DATE ON SOUR CREAM?
32. IF YOU SPIN AN ORIENTAL MAN IN A CIRCLE THREE TIMES DOES HE BECOME DISORIENTED?
33. CAN AN ATHEIST GET INSURANCE AGAINST ACTS OF GOD?
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Thanks to NHHC
US Ship Force Levels
1886-present
This tabulation was compiled from such sources as the Navy Directory (issued at varying intervals to 1941); the Annual Reports of the Secretary of the Navy (issued annually to 1931); Comptroller of the Navy (NAVCOMPT) compilations; Department of the Navy (DON) 5-Year Program, Ships & Aircraft Supplemental Data Tables (SASDT); and records and compilations of the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations (OP-802K, now N804J1D) Ship Management Information System (now Ship Management System), refined and edited with the assistance of the annual Naval Vessel Register.
For consistent historical comparison, Naval Reserve Force (NRF) and Naval Fleet Auxiliary Force (NFAF) ships, and Military Sealift Command (MSC) fleet support ships, are included in current and recent active totals. Figures, and conclusions drawn from them, would, otherwise, be historically inconsistent, and comparisons would be skewed.
From 1963 through 1974, former guided-missile frigates (DLG/DLGN) are counted under the categories (cruisers, destroyers) to which they were assigned on 30 June 1975: DLG 6 class Became DDG 37 class; DLG 16 class became CG 16 class; DLG 26 class became CG 26 class; DLGN 25, 35, 36 classes became CGN 25, 35, 36 classes.
Surface warfare ship totals do not include submarines, mine warfare, patrol or auxiliaries.
TABLES:
1886-1891 | 1892-1897 | 1898-1903 | 1904-1909 | 1910-1916 | 1917-1923 |
1924-1930 | 1931-1937 | 1938-1944 | 1945-1951 | 1951-1957 | 1958-1964 |
1965-1971 | 1972-1978 | 1979-1985 | 1986-1992 | 1993-1999 | 2000-present
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China - Food for Thought!
thanks to Hal - and Dutch R.
This is from my Aussie friend Peter......I will share with my reply.....Hal
Peter, while all this is likely true, China also has some problems. One, when they built the Three Gorges Dam they built a target. Nuke that dam and water 500 feet deep and 500 miles long will flood China. Second, they have a large Indian Army on one side, and Three, Russia is not really a friend. Russia fears China and remember back in the 'sixties they sent their submarine K-129 on a rogue mission to nuke Pearl Harbor and make us think a Chinese Golf diesel-electric submarine did it. They hoped we would retaliate and nuke China. Failed as you recall, which was the work of the Glo-Mar Explorer to recover it, Operation Azorian. China has a growing middle class who want the good life and the good things....cars, for one thing. They cordoned off lots of the South China Sea because they have a billion mouths to feed. They aren't cattle ranchers. So all in not well for them...
PS: China has some oil, but it is the largest importer of oil. That is why they are in Venezuela and Nigeria. They even have to buy from Azerbaijan. Another reason they cannot afford to go to war with anyone.
Hal
On June 9, 2019 at 5:05 PM Peter Odonnell wrote:
These facts are so interesting it makes one realize where the power is on earth. Interesting is that their only interest in climate change is selling windmills and solar while they produce all these things with cheap electricity by way of COAL supplied by you know who. This doesn't make sense to many of us why we price our goods out of existence with high electricity. Keep smiling !
China has 19% of the world's population, but consumes ...
53% of the world's cement
48% of the world's iron ore
47% of the world's coal
... and the majority of just about every other major commodity.
In 2010, China produced 11 times more steel than the United States.
New World Record:
China made and sold 18 million vehicles in 2010.
There are more pigs in China than in the next 43 pork producing nations combined
China currently has the world's fastest train and the world's largest high-speed rail network. China is currently the number one producer in the world of wind and solar power but don't use it themselves.
While they manufacture 80% of the world's solar panels, they install less than 5% and build a new coal fired power station every week.
In one year they turn on more new coal powered electricity than Australia's total output.
China currently controls more than 90% of the total global supply of rare earth elements.
In the past 15 years, China has moved from 14th place to 2nd place in the world in published scientific research articles.
China now possesses the fastest supercomputer on the entire globe.
At the end of March 2011 China accumulated US $3.04 trillion in foreign currency reserves - the largest stockpile on the entire globe.
Chinese people consume 50,000 cigarettes every second.
They are already the largest carbon dioxide emitter and their output will rise 70% by 2020.
And we think we're saving the planet?
It will not make one iota of difference what we do in Australia, Canada, the United States or anywhere else in the world; for that matter, all the politicians are doing is increasing our cost of living and making our manufacturers uncompetitive in the world market, with the carbon tax, when countries like China are growing and consuming at these extraordinary rates. And we are paying carbon tax to save the World!
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Thanks to Mud, Ted and others
HOW THE D-DAY INVASION WOULD BE REPORTED BY CNN
NORMANDY, FRANCE (June 6, 1944) Three hundred French civilians were killed and thousands more were wounded today in the first hours of America's invasion of continental Europe. Casualties were heaviest among women and children. Most of the French casualties were the result of artillery fire from American ships attempting to knock out German fortifications prior to the landing of hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops. Reports from a makeshift hospital in the French town of St. Mere Eglise said the carnage was far worse than the French had anticipated, and that reaction against the American invasion was running high. "We are dying for no reason, "said a Frenchman speaking on condition of anonymity. "Americans can't even shoot straight. I never thought I'd say this, but life was better under Adolph Hitler."
The invasion also caused severe environmental damage. American troops, tanks, trucks and machinery destroyed miles of pristine shoreline and thousands of acres of ecologically sensitive wetlands. It was believed that the habitat of the spineless French crab was completely wiped out, thus threatening the species with extinction. A representative of Greenpeace said his organization, which had tried to stall the invasion for over a year, was appalled at the destruction, but not surprised. "This is just another example of how the military destroys the environment without a second thought," said Christine Moanmore. "And it's all about corporate greed."
Contacted at his Manhattan condo, a member of the French government-in-exile who abandoned Paris when Hitler invaded, said the invasion was based solely on American financial interests. "Everyone knows that President Roosevelt has ties to 'big beer'," said Pierre Le Wimp. "Once the German beer industry is conquered, Roosevelt's beer cronies will control the world market and make a fortune."
Administration supporters said America's aggressive actions were based in part on the assertions of controversial scientist Albert Einstein, who sent a letter to Roosevelt speculating that the Germans were developing a secret weapon -- a so-called "atomic bomb." Such a weapon could produce casualties on a scale never seen before, and cause environmental damage that could last for thousands of years. Hitler has denied having such a weapon and international inspectors were unable to locate such weapons even after spending two long weekends in Germany. Shortly after the invasion began, reports surfaced that German prisoners had been abused by American soldiers. Mistreatment of Jews by Germans at their so-called "concentration camps" has been rumored, but so far this remains unproven.
Several thousand Americans died during the first hours of the invasion, and French officials are concerned that the uncollected corpses will pose a public-health risk. "The Americans should have planned for this in advance," they said. "It's their mess, and we don't intend to help clean it up."
The invasion is blamed on Roosevelt's hawkish military advisers and the influence of British Prime Minister Churchill, who have repeated ignored calls for a negotiated settlement to end the war and who have reportedly rejected peace overtures from Germany through several neutral parties. Instead, the Roosevelt administration and its allies have chosen to insist on maintaining their extreme policy of demanding unconditional surrender.
There have been notable voices of opposition from sports figures and celebrities decrying the horrific violence and saying that this is
not who we are.
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Thanks to Mugs
"the toughest man on the longest day."
Matt Williams to The M-1 Garand Enthusiasts Group
Something you don't often hear about D-day.
Brigadier General, Theodore Roosevelt Jr. the son of President "Teddy" Roosevelt, was the oldest man to hit the beach on the D-day invasion. He was also the highest ranking person to directly participate in the beach landing invasion. He was supposed to be with the other command staff in England. Gen. Roosevelt knew the importance of the mission, he knew much of the invasion force were new, untried soldiers who had never seen combat. His requests to join his men were repeatedly denied, but he persisted, even when his superiors told him he faced near certain death.
He was granted permission after explaining how his presence would inspire confidence in the invasion plan. The Commander of the Allied Forces, General Eisenhower wrote Roosevelt's eulogy before the invasion.
On the morning of the attack, as he requested, Gen. Roosevelt was in one of the lead landing craft. He led his men across the beach to a rally point under heavy fire. Being pinned down, it appeared they were going to be wiped out. Roosevelt took charge and led a move over the sea wall.
At that time, he realized other troops were trapped back on the beach, and cut off. He returned to the beach and led these men to join the attacking force. He repeated this action several times, under heavy fire.
For these actions, he received the Congressional Medal of Honor. The official citation is below:
"For gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty on 6 June 1944, in France. After 2 verbal requests to accompany the leading assault elements in the Normandy invasion had been denied, Brig. Gen. Roosevelt's written request for this mission was approved and he landed with the first wave of the forces assaulting the enemy-held beaches. He repeatedly led groups from the beach, over the seawall and established them inland. His valor, courage, and presence in the very front of the attack and his complete unconcern at being under heavy fire inspired the troops to heights of enthusiasm and self-sacrifice. Although the enemy had the beach under constant direct fire, Brig. Gen. Roosevelt moved from one locality to another, rallying men around him, directed and personally led them against the enemy. Under his seasoned, precise, calm, and unfaltering leadership, assault troops reduced beach strong points and rapidly moved inland with minimum casualties. He thus contributed substantially to the successful establishment of the beachhead in France."
What the citation does not say, is that Gen. Roosevelt was a combat veteran of WWI, where he was disabled by being shot through the knee. He required a cane to walk due to his injury. Gen. Roosevelt was 56 years old at the time of the invasion. He literally stormed the beach at Normandy with a cane in one hand and a pistol in the other!
When the beach was secured, later that day, command staff began to arrive. They were met on the beach by Gen. Roosevelt who gave a full report on the invasion operation.
Six days later, Roosevelt died of a heart attack. He is buried in France. He has been called "the toughest man on the longest day."
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Thanks to Dr. Rich
D-Day + 75
http://warbirdsnews.com/airshow-news/d-day-plus-75-the-june-5th-parachute-drop-over-france.html
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