To All,
Good Saturday Morning August 24.. I hope that you all have a great weekend. Some shopping and chores in the back yard today including the chicken cage addition. It will be sunny and clear all day.
Warm Regards,
skip
HAGD
This day in Naval and Marine Corps History (thanks to NHHC)
Here is a link to the NHHC website: https://www.history.navy.mil/. Go here to see the director's corner for all 83 H-Grams
Today in Naval and Marine Corps History
Aug. 24
1814 During the War of 1812, the British invade Md. and burn Washington, D.C. Commodore Thomas Tingey, superintendent of the Washington Navy Yard, burns the Navy Yard to prevent British access during the invasion.
1862 During the Civil War, Capt. Raphael Semmes takes command of CSS Alabama at sea off the island of Terceira, Azores, beginning his career of raiding American commerce.
1912 The collier, USS Jupiter, is launched. The vessel is the first electrically-propelled Navy ship. She is renamed USS Langley in April 1920 with the designation of aircraft carrier CV-1 and a few months later becomes the Navys first aircraft carrier in March 1922 following conversion.
1942 Task Force 61, commanded by Vice Adm. Frank J. Fletcher, engages the Japanese First Carrier Division, Third Fleet, commanded by Vice Adm. Nagumo Chuchi, during Battle of Eastern Solomons. Planes from Japanese carrier, Ryujo, bomb U.S. positions on Lunga Point but SBDs from VB-3 and TBFs from VT-8 off carrier USS Saratoga (CV 3) sink Ryujo. Additionally, USS Enterprise (CV 6) is damaged by carrier bombers from Japanese carrier, Shokaku. As a result of this battle, the Japanese recall the expedition to recapture Guadalcanal.
1943 TBF aircraft from USS Core (CVE 13) sinks the German submarine (U 185) southwest of the Azores.
1992 USS Essex (LHD 2) is commissioned without ceremony from Pascagoula, Miss., in order to take part in an emergency sortie to avoid Hurricane Andrew. After transiting through the Panama Canal, USS Essex is officially commissioned Oct. 17 at Naval Air Station, North Island, San Diego.
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
Today in World History: August 24
0079 Mount Vesuvius erupts destroying Pompeii, Stabiae, Herculaneum and other smaller settlements.
0410 German barbarians sack Rome.
1542 In South America, Gonzalo Pizarro returns to the mouth of the Amazon River after having sailed the length of the great river as far as the Andes Mountains.
1572 Some 50,000 people are put to death in the 'Massacre of St. Bartholomew' as Charles IX of France attempts to rid the country of Huguenots.
1780 King Louis XVI abolishes torture as a means to get suspects to confess.
1814 British troops under General Robert Ross capture Washington, D.C., which they set on fire in retaliation for the American burning of the parliament building in York (Toronto), the capital of Upper Canada.
1847 Charlotte Bronte, using the pseudonym Currer Bell, sends a manuscript of Jane Eyre to her publisher in London.
169 Cornelius Swarthout of Troy, New York, patents the waffle iron.
1891 Thomas Edison files a patent for the motion picture camera.
1894 Congress passes the first graduated income tax law, which is declared unconstitutional the next year.
1896 Thomas Brooks is shot and killed by an unknown assailant beginning a six year feud with the McFarland family.
1912 By an act of Congress, Alaska is given a territorial legislature of two houses.
1942 In the Battle of the Eastern Solomons, the third carrier-versus-carrier battle of the war, U.S. naval forces defeat a Japanese force attempting to screen reinforcements for the Guadalcanal fighting.
1948 Edith Mae Irby becomes the first African-American student to attend the University of Arkansas.
1954 Congress outlaws the Communist Party in the United States.
1963 US State Department cables embassy in Saigon that if South Vietnam's president Ngo Dinh Diem does not remove his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu as his political adviser the US would explore alternative leadership, setting the stage for a coup by ARVN generals.
1975 The principal leaders of Greece's 1967 coup—Georgios Papadopoulos, Stylianos Pattakos, and Nikolaos Maarezos—sentenced to death for high treason, later commuted to life in prison.
1981 Mark David Chapman sentenced to 20 years to life for murdering former Beatles band member John Lennon.
1989 Baseball commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti bans Pete Rose from baseball for gambling.
1989 Colombian drug lords declare "total and absolute war" on Colombia's government, booming the offices of two political parties and burning two politicians' homes.
1991 Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as head of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union; Ukraine declares its independence from USSR.
1992 Hurricane Andrew makes landfall in Florida. The Category 5 storm, which had already caused extensive damage in the Bahamas, caused $26.5 billion in US damages, caused 65 deaths, and felled 70,000 acres of trees in the Everglades.
1994 Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) create initial accord regarding partial self-rule for Palestinians living on the West Bank, the Agreement on Preparatory Transfer of Powers and Responsibilities.
2004 Chechnyan suicide bombers blow up two airliners near Moscow, killing 89 passengers.
2006 Pluto is downgraded to a dwarf planet when the International Astronomical Union (IAU) redefines "planet."
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
OPERATION COMMANDO HUNT Thanks to the Bear
Skip… For The List for the week beginning Monday, 19 August 2024 and ending Sunday, 25 August 2024… Bear🇺🇸⚓️🐻
OPERATION COMMANDO HUNT (1968-1972)…
From the archives of rollingthunderremembered.com post of 19 August 1969..
As more than half-a-million young Americans departed the scene of the historic 1969 Woodstock Music Festival in Bethel, N.Y. to resume their protests of the Vietnam war in their respective hometowns in America, nearly 250 caskets containing the remains of the brave young men who had perished on the battlefields of Southeast Asia during the week of Woodstock were arriving home from the war. Alas, the war had more than three years and twenty thousand American KIAs to go. Remember?
(Please note the eye-watering ongoing revamp of the RTR website by Webmaster/Author Dan Heller, who has inherited the site from originators RADM Bear Taylor, USN, Retired, and Angie Morse, "Mighty Thunder")…
To remind folks that these are from the Vietnam Air Losses site that Micro put together. You click on the url below and can read what happened each day to the aircraft and its crew. .Micro is the one also that goes into the archives and finds these inputs and sends them to me for incorporation in the List. It is a lot of work and our thanks goes out to him for his effort.
From Vietnam Air Losses site for "for 24 August
24-Aug: https://www.vietnamairlosses.com/loss.php?id=228
Vietnam Air Losses Access Chris Hobson and Dave Lovelady's work at: https://www.VietnamAirLosses.com.
This is a list of all Helicopter Pilots Who Died in the Vietnam War . Listed by last name and has other info
https://www.vhpa.org/KIA/KIAINDEX.HTM
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
THANKS TO BORIS More on the battle of Guadalcanal
Problems: Withdrawal of the Carriers (3 of 3)
In a series on carrier operations at the beginning of WWII it would be remiss not to discuss the controversial decisions made by VADM Fletcher concerning withdrawing his TF-61 carriers from the immediate vicinity of the attack after the initial landings. The basic role of the carriers in the Watchtower landings was, of course, to provide air support, in particular fighter cover.
This piece is not intended to cover the events in detail but only to provide basic context in the early evolution of carriers in warfare. It is useful to reflect on three items: 1) TF-61 was composed of three of only four US carriers in the Pacific; 2) it is well worth highlighting how much the rough parity of carrier forces of the two sides contributed to the protracted nature of the overall bloody struggle for the island; 3) This type of co-dependent warfare was new and mostly unpracticed. There were no senior officer experts.
Fletcher's Dilemma
VADM Frank Jack Fletcher was the most battle-seasoned senior officer in Operation Watchtower. The experience of combat had taught him its costs. At both Coral Sea and Midway he had had a great carrier, the Lexington and then the Yorktown, sunk from under him. At a time when the Pacific carrier fleet numbered just four, three of which were assigned to Watchtower, he was fearful of further losses.
During the day, the Enterprise, Wasp, and Saratoga operated from a position about twenty-five miles south of the eastern end of Guadalcanal. From there, naval aircraft on patrol were but a quick few minutes from the beaches. Though Japanese planes from Rabaul six hundred miles away would have little capacity to strike them even if they could find them, the danger posed by the Japanese carriers (of uncertain location, Japan, Truk, Rabul?) and submarines was considerable.
Fletcher envisioned another grim carrier battle soon. He must be ready for enemy carriers at any time, despite rosy intelligence estimates from Pearl—the most recent on the afternoon of 8 August—placing the Japanese carriers in home waters. Intelligence could be wrong, and the resulting surprise quite deadly, as the Japanese at Coral Sea and Midway could attest, not to mention Kimmel at Pearl Harbor. The tactical necessity of protecting a fixed point put heavy demands on the defensive capabilities of Fletcher's carriers. They were accustomed to strike swiftly and draw clear of retaliation. Now they were exposed not only to the threat of opposing carriers, but also subs (messages reported several en route) and the more vigorous than anticipated land-based air.
The sudden appearance of numerous medium bombers toting torpedoes, land-based air's most effective antiship weapon, provided another strong reason for concern, especially given the combat air patrol's questionable performance. Fletcher had not expected torpedo planes, certainly not ones augmented by fierce Zero escorts, could even reach him off distant Guadalcanal.
He queried Noyes whether the noon attackers "were actually carrying torpedoes," and was assured they did. Maas wrote that night, "The use by Japs of long-range torpedo planes makes our present position untenable, dangerous, and foolhardy." That was particularly true if the carriers could legitimately get clear without harming the overall mission.
From 9 to 23 August, Japan only managed, using swift destroyers and stealth, to land one thousand lightly equipped infantrymen, whom Vandegrift's dug-in marines outnumbered ten to one. A few destroyer-loads of infantry could not overrun the First Marine Division. That required artillery and other heavy weapons, plus many more men and supplies that only transports could bring. First, the Japanese must destroy or neutralize Fletcher's carriers.
A severe defeat at that juncture would have cost Guadalcanal.
Fletcher's critics
To Fletcher's legion of critics the request to withdraw defined his naval career. In 1943 Turner bitterly complained to Morison that Fletcher left him "bare-arse." In 1945 he officially characterized the action as nothing less than "desertion," undertaken for reasons "known only" to Fletcher. Vandegrift described Fletcher, "Running away twelve hours earlier than he had already threatened during our unpleasant meeting."
Official judgments were equally unsparing. On 23 August 1942 Nimitz condemned the withdrawal as "most unfortunate." In December Admiral Pye, president of the Naval War College, called the pullout "certainly regrettable," which risked "the whole operation." In 1943 Admiral Hepburn's final Savo report labeled Fletcher's action a "contributory cause of the disproportionate damage" incurred in that battle. The Cominch Secret Information Bulletin No. 2 gave short shrift to the reasons attributed to Fletcher's decision, including needless worry about "bombing and torpedo planes." The 1950 Naval War College analysis of Savo expanded on Pye's original points and concluded, "Such a precipitous departure" would "seriously jeopardize the success of the entire operation" and "prevent the inauguration of Task Two."
Many historians have accepted the official judgments without question. Morison wrote, "It must have seemed to [Turner] then, as it seems to us now, that Fletcher's reasons for withdrawal were flimsy." The carriers "could have remained in the area with no more severe consequences than sunburn." Marine Brigadier General Griffith, historian as well as participant, completely concurred. He conceded, "Fletcher did have a point. We just couldn't lose our carriers, but damn it, how the Marines suffered!" Vice Admiral Dyer did present Fletcher's side, but his sympathies lay with Turner. The situation did not justify the carrier withdrawal. That was also the carefully considered judgment of Richard Frank, who concluded Fletcher, rightly or wrongly, placed the preservation of his carriers ahead of everything else. All other accounts derive from these key analyses.
The paramount question was whether the carriers were foremost in Fletcher's mind, or the overall operation.
Looking at the bigger picture
Fletcher was said to be the only U.S. flag officer who understood that Watchtower would provoke the Japanese to a major naval counterattack. "His major job," wrote author Richard B. Frank, "was to win the carrier fleet action that would decide the fate of the Marines." If that was the case, it would have been reckless to risk his carriers before that threat appeared. He knew he would have to win that battle without ready reinforcement to make up his losses. No new carriers were due from the shipyards until late 1943.
There is little doubt Fletcher's view of the situation off Guadalcanal took a serious accounting of the strategic significance of this scarcity of carrier power.
In January 1943 Rear Adm. George Murray independently confirmed Fletcher's assessment. According to Murray, "The carrier task force problem, so far as refueling is concerned, hinges on destroyer consumption," an "interesting sidelight [that] should be kept constantly in mind." While "in an advanced area a task force cannot afford to approximate the low limit of fuel for the simple reason that it then is virtually immobilized for offensive operations involving 48 hours of high-speed steaming."
A well-situated referee to the controversy over Fletcher's decision making was Marine colonel Melvin J. Maas. If his position on Fletcher's staff makes his sympathy for his boss unsurprising, his status as a leatherneck inclined him to balanced perspective. He believed the only way the Japanese could retake Guadalcanal was through a major amphibious counteroffensive. Maas wrote:
"Marines cannot be dislodged by bombers. Because he saw the carriers as the key to preventing an enemy landing, he favored a withdrawal of the carriers, even at the expense of his brothers.
"To be able to intercept and defeat [Japanese troop landings], our carrier task forces must be fueled and away so as not to be trapped here.… By withdrawing to Nouméa or Tongatabu, we can be in a position to intercept and pull a second Midway on their carriers. If, however, we stay on here and then, getting very low on fuel, withdraw to meet our tankers, and if they should be torpedoed, our whole fleet would be caught helpless and would be cold meat for the Japs, with a resultant loss of our fleet, 2/3 of our carriers, and we would lose Tulagi as well, with all the Marines there and perhaps all the transports.
"It is true, Marines will take a pounding until their own air gets established (about ten days or so), but they can dig in, hole up, and wait. Extra losses are a localized operation. This is balanced against a potential National tragedy. Loss of our fleet or one or more of these carriers is a real, worldwide tragedy."
Former marine staff officer and historian Herbert Christian Merillat, certainly no admirer of Fletcher, recognized in his postlanding strategy the "classic role of a 'fleet in being.'" The U.S. carriers kept "their enemy counterpart at a cautious distance from the embattled island until one side or the other should find an occasion propitious for forcing the other into a 'decisive battle.'" Although "few marines were aware of it," Merillat thought, "they had reason to be grateful to the American carriers' distant prowling." Those flattops, "so long as they lasted," provided "distant cover for the movement of supplies and reinforcements to Cactus."
Hindsight has obliterated the validity of Fletcher's prudence The critics ignore the possibility Fletcher might actually have learned something at Coral Sea and Midway, especially as he now found himself in the reverse role of his erstwhile opponents in supporting an amphibious thrust deep into enemy-controlled waters. It is worth considering that this was a new type of war for all- land, sea and air, and even to the end both combatants were equally paired. The U.S. could ill afford the loss of most or all of its carriers in Aug 1942.
Just as he thought that with the marines ashore Turner's immediate task neared its end, he understood the job of the carriers had only begun. In the short term they were the only shield against powerful naval and ground forces intent on destroying the marine lodgment. A large counter-landing would require strong carrier support to sweep away naval opposition before the actual landing force drew within range. Was this not compelling enough reason to get the carriers clear of the invasion area and prepare for action.
At that point in the Guadalcanal campaign, Fletcher's ostensible "inaction" served the Allied cause far better than the alternative.
From Boris
My take probably runs counter to many even 81 years after the fact.
Others may have acted differently than VADM Fletcher, but based on what? This stuff was brand new and intel was all over the place.
We lose 3 of 4 carriers in early August, then what? The Battle of the Easter Solomans 24-25 August was a steady state mess. No one knew where anyone was. As I said "Blindman's Bluff." We won-barely against equal Japanese CV forces- barely. And that was with Cactus AF guys now and with open ocean operating.
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
This Day in Aviation History" brought to you by the Daedalians Airpower Blog Update. To subscribe to this weekly email, go to https://daedalians.org/airpower-blog/.
Aug. 23, 1948
The XF-85 Goblin parasite fighter first flew at Muroc Field, California, now known as Edwards AFB. The Goblin was designed to be carried inside another aircraft.
Aug. 24, 1942
Flying a Grumman F4F Wildcat, U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Marion Eugene Carl, a 27-year-old fighter pilot assigned to Marine Fighter Squadron 223 (VMF-223) based at Henderson Field, Guadalcanal Island, shot down four enemy airplanes. They were a Mitsubishi A6M "Zeke" fighter, a Mitsubishi G4M1 "Betty" medium bomber and two Nakajima B5N2 "Kate" torpedo bombers. Carl had previously shot down an A6M during the Battle of Midway, less than three months earlier. He now had five aerial combat victories, making him the Marine Corps' first ace. He was awarded the Navy Cross (his second) for his actions in the Solomon Islands from Aug. 24 to Sept. 9, 1942. To learn more about Captain Carl, visit HERE.
Aug. 25, 1932
Amelia Earhart flew her Lockheed Model 5B Vega, NR7952, from Los Angeles to Newark, New Jersey, a distance of 2,447.74 miles, in 19 hours, 5 minutes, becoming the first woman to fly nonstop across the U.S. Her average speed for the flight was 128.27 miles per hour.
Aug. 26, 1967
Then-Maj. George E. "Bud" Day, F-100 Forward Air Controller pilot, was forced to eject from his aircraft over North Vietnam when it was hit by ground fire. His right arm was broken in 3 places, and his left knee was badly sprained. He was captured by the enemy, but escaped despite his injuries. He was shot in his left thigh and left hand when he was recaptured. As a POW, Colonel Day suffered the most brutal conditions. He was imprisoned for 2,028 days before being released March 14, 1973. On March 4, 1976, he was presented the Medal of Honor by President Gerald Ford. Colonel Day was a Daedalian Life Member. He passed away on July 27, 2013. He was posthumously advanced to the rank of brigadier general by order of the president on June 8, 2018. The former Seagull Flight in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, was renamed the George E. "Bud" Day Flight 61 on Dec. 18, 2012, in his honor.
Aug. 27, 1941
William R. Dunn, flying with Eagle Squadron 71 (RAF), shot down his fifth enemy plane to become the first American Ace in Europe. He served in Europe, Burma, and China, and ended the war with 15 aerial victories and credit for 12 destroyed on the ground. Learn more about him HERE.
Aug. 28, 1972
Capt. Steve Ritchie and Weapons System Officer Capt. Chuck DeBellevue, leading Buick flight with their F-4D Phantom II, shot down a North Vietnamese MiG 21 interceptor. This was Ritchie's 5th confirmed aerial combat victory, earning him the title of Ace. DeBellevue would later be credited with 6 kills. Flown by 5 different crews, F-4D 66-7463 shot down six enemy fighters from March 1 to Oct. 15, 1972, and is now on display at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Ritchie and DeBellevue are both Daedalian Life Members.
Aug. 29, 1944
Maj. Gen. Curtis E. LeMay became commander of the XX Bomber Command. LeMay, a hard-hitting strategist, was determined to wring out the best possible performances from his new and expensive B-29s.
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
Thanks to History Facts
Victorian England had special teacups for men with mustaches.
Mustaches were a fashionable choice during Britain's Victorian era, but life with a bushy upper lip wasn't without its challenges, especially when it came to enjoying a hot cup of tea. Englishmen often used mustache wax to style their facial hair, which melted straight off their upper lip into the warm drink. In response to this predicament, an inventor named Harvey Adams developed an ingenious workaround in the 1870s: the "mustache cup." The cup featured a traditional shape, with an added built-in ceramic ledge for men to rest their mustaches against, as well as a tiny hole for liquid to pass through. Effectively, it was an adult sippy cup. The mustache cups came in a wide variety of sizes, including larger "farmers' cups" for pints of tea and tiny porcelain cups embossed with the owner's name. These teacups were popular not just in the U.K., but also in the U.S., where they were sold at stores such as Sears and Marshall Field's.
Believe it or not, the mustache cup wasn't the only 19th-century kitchen invention inspired by facial hair. In 1868, a New York engineer named Solon Farrer created the mustache spoon, which was essentially a spoon with a lid that lifted up. In 1873, inventor Ellen B. A. Mitcheson tweaked Farrer's idea and submitted a patent of her own. Mitcheson's version added a piece of holed-out metal to the side of the spoon that rested against the lip, thus keeping the mustache from coming into direct contact while slurping down soup. The concept was largely similar in design to the mustache cup, allowing hot liquids to travel through a tiny hole in the spoon while maintaining those perfectly waxed whiskers.
By the Numbers
Year Salvador Dalí published the absurdist book Dali's Mustache
1954
Date of the first known artifact depicting a mustachioed subject
300 BCE
Age at which Victoria became queen of England
18
Bonus given to any Oakland Athletics player who grew a mustache in 1972
$300
French waiters went on strike in 1907 for the right to grow mustaches.
Facial hair was strictly regulated in France around the turn of the 20th century, as French elites attempted to co-opt the mustache as a class symbol. This meant that people who weren't members of the upper class, including waiters, domestic workers, and even priests, were forbidden from growing mustaches, which led to widespread pushback. Tensions came to a head in April 1907, when a group of French waiters participated in a strike to demand the freedom to grow facial hair, as well as benefits such as higher pay. The waiters were fed up with forced shaving, and the decision to strike left high-end Parisian restaurants losing roughly 25,000 francs per day in revenue. A bill was introduced to outlaw mustache bans across France, though it initially failed. Despite this bureaucratic shortcoming, many waiters at individual restaurants across the country successfully earned the right to wear mustaches, though their wages remained stagnant.
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
Thanks to the Smithsonian
Largest Diamond Since 1905 Unearthed by Miners in Botswana
Volcanic eruptions long ago brought the 2,492-carat diamond—the latest in a string of stunning discoveries over the last decade—to the surface
Rudy Molinek
Mass Media Fellow, AAAS
August 23, 2024 4:22 p.m.
Botswana's President Mokgweetsi Masisi holds up the newly discovered diamond, which weighs more than a pound. Monirul Bhuiyan / AFP via Getty Images
Miners in Botswana made a dazzling discovery this week, when they uncovered a 2,492-carat diamond, weighing about one pound. The last time miners unearthed a diamond this big, the Model T Ford was still three years away from rolling off the assembly line.
"This is history in the making," Naseem Lahri, Botswana managing director for Lucara Diamond Corp., the Canadian mining company that found the gem, tells Sello Motseta of the Associated Press (AP). "I am very proud. It is a product of Botswana."
The new diamond was excavated at the Karowe mine, about 300 miles north of Botswana's capital city of Gaborone. The same mine has produced four other large rough diamonds in the last decade, including the 813-carat Constellation diamond that sold for a record $63 million in 2016.
This week's find is almost the largest diamond uncovered by miners in history, second only to the 3,106-carat Cullinan diamond found in South Africa in 1905. That gem was cut into stones and put into the English Crown Jewels. An even bigger, black diamond was found in Brazil in the late 1800s, but experts think that one came from a meteorite.
Diamonds in Botswana are found in volcanic features called kimberlite pipes. These carrot-shaped structures brought rocks that formed deep within Earth's mantle up to the surface during volcanic eruptions long ago. The heat and pressure that rocks experience at profound depths, between 93 and 280 miles underground, are critical to forming diamonds.
Powerful eruptions, propelled by the expansion of volatile molecules like carbon dioxide, send magma rushing upward. The fiery material breaks off fragments of diamond-bearing rock and transfers them to the surface. Kimberlites likely develop after the breakup of supercontinents, as the Earth's mantle churns following the catastrophic rifting, according to a 2023 study.
Kimblerlite pipes are rare, and only about one percent of the deposits bear quality diamonds. At the Karowe mine, the diamonds formed deep within the mantle billions of years ago, and they erupted to the surface about 90 million years ago.
"All of the stars aligned with that volcanic eruption, and the conditions were just perfect," Paul Zimnisky, an independent analyst in the diamond industry, tells the New York Times' Lynsey Chutel.
Examining the diamond
Mokgweetsi Masisi, president of Botswana, examines the recently discovered 2,492-carat diamond. Monirul Bhuiyan / AFP via Getty Images
On Thursday, President Mokgweetsi Masisi of Botswana became one of the first people to look at the newly discovered diamond up-close. It was large enough to fill up the palm of his hand.
"It is overwhelming," he said, per the AP. "I am lucky to have seen it in my time."
Botswana is the world's second-largest producer of diamonds, responsible for about 20 percent of the global output.
Finding large diamonds has become more common in recent years as a result of technological developments. Companies use advanced X-ray devices to locate big diamonds in the ore, and refined grinding techniques help avoid breaking them into small pieces during the process of removing the gems from their host rocks.
Lucara aims to leverage these developments with a lofty goal in mind: finding the largest diamond ever.
William Lamb, the company's chief executive, tells the New York Times, "We believe that we can eclipse the Cullinan."
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
Thanks to the Smithsonian Magazine
The Liberation of Paris August 1944
During World War II, the Liberation of Paris Saved the French Capital From Destruction
Adolf Hitler wanted Paris razed. Dwight D. Eisenhower wanted his troops to stay out of the city. In August 1944, an uprising by French resistance fighters forced the Allies to intervene
The square outside Notre-Dame Cathedral, usually empty early on a Saturday morning, were filled with hundreds of policemen on August 19, 1944, all of them converging on the fortress-like Prefecture of Police headquarters. A flag unfurled atop the building: the blue, white and red French tricolor, banned by Paris' German occupiers and last flown officially four years prior. The French police, on strike against the occupation, had returned, this time in revolt. Paris' uprising against the Nazis had begun.
Across the City of Light, gunfire crackled as Frenchmen hunted and shot German soldiers. Here and there a car roared by, painted with the letters FFI, an abbreviation for the French Forces of the Interior, a coalition of resistance fighters. American and British troops, who'd invaded Normandy two months earlier, were pushing the German Army east, but they were still 150 miles away from the French capital. Parisians rose up to avenge France's 1940 defeat by the Nazis and their subsequent years of oppression, hoping to liberate the city themselves.
Soldiers from the French Second Armored Division fight the German Army in Paris on August 25, 1944
Soldiers from the French Second Armored Division fight the German Army in Paris on August 25, 1944. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
The risk was huge, the decision contentious. Some resistance leaders had feared starting a bloodbath and provoking German reprisals that might destroy the city. Their fears were justified. Just a few weeks earlier, Adolf Hitler had ordered Dietrich von Choltitz, his top general in Paris, to "stamp out" any insurrection "without pity." Since then, Choltitz had also received orders to destroy Paris' waterworks and power plants, as well as dozens of bridges over the River Seine: historic landmarks, from the centuries-old Pont Neuf to the stunning Pont Alexandre III.
As Paris' revolt grew, Hitler's orders to Choltitz escalated. On August 20, the Nazi leader demanded "the widest destruction possible" in the city. On August 23, Hitler dictated another order. "Paris must not fall into the hands of the enemy," read the führer's cable to Choltitz, "or, if it does, he must find there nothing but a field of ruins."
General Dietrich von Choltitz
General Dietrich von Choltitz Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-R63712 via Wikimedia Commons under CC-BY-SA 3.0
Why didn't the German Army destroy Paris, as Hitler wanted? The answer is surprisingly simple: Because the Paris uprising forced Supreme Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower's hand.
Eisenhower hadn't planned to liberate Paris, but rather to encircle it so he could use the Allies' limited fuel to drive Hitler's armies back to the German border. The Paris uprising made the American general "damned mad," he later told Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre, authors of the 1965 nonfiction book Is Paris Burning? It was "just the kind of a situation I didn't want, a situation that wasn't under our control, that might force us to change our plans before we were ready for it," Eisenhower said.
On August 20, Free French leader Charles de Gaulle, anxious to get to Paris and claim leadership over liberated France, arrived in Normandy and visited Eisenhower's advance headquarters, located in an apple orchard in Granville, near Mont-Saint-Michel on the Atlantic coast. The supreme commander met de Gaulle in his map tent. Tapping the charts with a pointer, he explained the United States Army's plans to surge around and past Paris.
"Why cross the Seine everywhere but Paris?" de Gaulle asked. He urged Eisenhower to reconsider. Liberating the capital was a matter of national importance to France, de Gaulle argued. He warned that the communists, a major force in the Paris resistance, might try to take over the city. Eisenhower told de Gaulle it was too early, concerned, he later recalled, that "we might get ourselves in a helluva fight there."
General Charles de Gaulle and other French officers at Montparnasse railway station on August 25, 1944
General Charles de Gaulle (standing second from left, with cigarette in mouth) and other French officers at Montparnasse railway station on August 25, 1944 Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
Meanwhile, back in Paris, the 2,000 police inside the Prefecture had used Molotov cocktails to thwart an attack by three German tanks. A fragile cease-fire, negotiated by the Swedish consul in Paris, saved the French police just as their pistol and rifle ammunition was about to run out.
Resistance fighters erected around 600 street barricades—made of paving stones, trees, carts and sandbags—to stall and harass German troops. They seized government buildings, including the Hôtel de Ville (the city hall), where they pulled down a bust of Philippe Pétain, the French leader who'd collaborated with the Nazis, and replaced it with a portrait of de Gaulle. Uncensored newspapers appeared, their headlines celebrating Parisians' fight: "France is resurrected!" "Paris wins its freedom." "The Allies are approaching." But the poorly armed resistance couldn't push the Germans out of their strongholds around the city. According to Julian Jackson's France: The Dark Years, 1940-1944, 901 FFI members and 582 French civilians died in the fighting.
Communist resistance leader Henri Rol-Tanguy sent an emissary, Roger Gallois, west through the war's front lines to ask the Americans to airdrop arms. But as Gallois slipped across the German lines on August 22, he decided to urge the Allies to send troops instead. The insurrectionists could not liberate the city alone, a worried Gallois told American commanders; they would be killed if Allied soldiers didn't arrive soon.
That same day, Choltitz sat in the German Army headquarters in Paris' Hotel Meurice, struggling with his conscience. Hitler's military operations chief, Alfred Jodl, had just repeated his orders to demolish Paris' industry and the Seine's bridges—orders that Choltitz had stalled rather than carry out. Choltitz had seen Hitler in person in Germany just weeks earlier, and the führer's ragged condition and spittle-flecked rants about "final victory" had convinced him of two things: first, that the Nazi chief was falling apart fast, and second, that Germany would lose the war.
Choltitz calculated that his 22,000 troops in Paris weren't enough to stop a general uprising. He knew that the German high command was planning to withdraw more forces eastward. Paris would eventually fall to the Allies. So why destroy it? "To defend Paris against an enemy, even at the cost of its destruction, was a militarily valid act," wrote Collins and Lapierre. "But wantonly [ravaging] the city for the sole satisfaction of wiping one of the wonders of Europe from the map was an act without military justification."
To defuse the situation, Choltitz turned to Swedish Consul Raoul Nordling, a neutral diplomat. He told Nordling that Hitler had ordered him to destroy large parts of the city. If he ignored the demands much longer, he feared he would be relieved of command. The German general asked Nordling to pass a message to the Allied enemy: Come to Paris quickly. Emissaries, including Nordling's own brother, headed west and crossed the front lines, with Choltitz's permission.
Also on August 22, Eisenhower changed his mind about protecting the French capital. De Gaulle's arguments had stuck with him. "It looks now as if we'd be compelled to go into Paris," Eisenhower wrote to his chief of staff that evening, scribbling on the top of a letter from de Gaulle. He ordered a Free French division toward the capital. "Information indicated that no great battle would take place," Eisenhower recalled in his 1948 memoir, Crusade in Europe.
What influenced Eisenhower's decision besides de Gaulle? Some sources, like Collins and Lapierre, credit Gallois' personal plea to U.S. commanders. Others, including Charles Williams' 1993 biography of de Gaulle, note that the U.S. Army's G-2 intelligence division had told the Allied commander that the situation in Paris was worsening and that the Germans might counterattack.
"[General Omar] Bradley and his G-2 think we can and must walk in," Eisenhower wrote to his chief of staff. And though Nordling's emissaries didn't reach the American commanders until August 23, de Gaulle biographer Don Cook later wrote that a diplomatic cable from Nordling had reached Eisenhower via London, predicting that a quick advance would lead to a German surrender.
On August 25, 1944—80 years ago this week—the Free French Second Armored Division rolled into Paris, with the American Fourth Infantry Division close behind. Rapturous crowds jammed the streets to greet the Allies, who encountered "15 solid miles of cheering, deliriously happy people waiting to shake your hand, to kiss you, to shower you with food and wine," as a U.S. Army major recalled.
French and German tanks exchanged fire on the Champs-Élysées and fought around the Jardin des Tuileries. The French troops reached the nearby Hotel Meurice, where Choltitz surrendered after a short firefight. The general spent the next several hours convincing German holdouts around the city to lay down their arms. The French division liberated the capital, losing around 100 to 150 soldiers. "Is Paris burning?" Hitler ranted inside his military headquarters. It wasn't.
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
This Day in U S Military History
August 24
1814 – On the 19th of August British Major – General Robert Ross had landed his troops and started marching up the Patuxent River, with Rear – Admiral George Cockburn and a naval division of light vessels in support. On the third day, Commodore Joshua Barney, U.S.N. had to destroy his own flotilla of gunboats to prevent them from being captured; he then withdrew his 400 seamen to defend the road leading from the village of Bladensburg to Washington. Brigadier – General Winder was in charge of the troops here. There were 120 dragoons and about 300 regular infantry as well as 1,500 militia. On August 24th, almost 5,000 additional American militia started to arrive on the battlefield that General Winder had selected to be on the Washington side of the village. The American defensive position looked impressive; they were formed up in two lines on the heights. The advanced U.S. forces occupied a fortified house, and Marine artillery covered the bridge that the British would have to cross. Many of the militia are poorly trained and armed and their officers are lacking leadership skills. The British open the engagement by unleashing their secret weapon, Congreve rockets. Though highly inaccurate (no American was reportedly injured by one) they caused great noise and smoke, creating panic in the militia ranks. Almost as soon as the British infantry started their assault, some militia routed off the field. However some units, like the 5th Regiment of Infantry, Maryland Militia (today the 175th Infantry) and the Hartford Dragoon's fought a delaying action long enough to cover the retreat of other troops. The British entered Washington with no further problem this evening and burned government buildings including the White House and Capital. Commodore Barney and his seamen and Marines attempted to make a real fight of it until ordered by their badly wounded commander to withdraw to avoid being captured. The U.S. cannon took its toll on the advancing British troops and cut large holes in the British lines crossing the bridge. But the British kept on advancing filling in the ranks where soldiers fell. The charging British had 64 killed and 185 wounded while the U.S. forces lost 10 men killed and 12 wounded at what became known as "The Bladenburg Races" After a few hours rest the British formed up and continued on toward Washington
1814 – British forces under General Robert Ross overwhelm American militiamen at the Battle of Bladensburg, Maryland, and march unopposed into Washington, D.C. Most congressmen and officials fled the nation's capital as soon as word came of the American defeat, but President James Madison and his wife, Dolley, escaped just before the invaders arrived. Earlier in the day, President Madison had been present at the Battle of Bladensburg and had at one point actually taken command of one of the few remaining American batteries, thus becoming the first and only president to exercise in actual battle his authority as commander in chief. The British army entered Washington in the late afternoon, and General Ross and British officers dined that night at the deserted White House. Meanwhile, the British troops, ecstatic that they had captured their enemy's capital, began setting the city aflame in revenge for the burning of Canadian government buildings by U.S. troops earlier in the war. The White House, a number of federal buildings, and several private homes were destroyed. The still uncompleted Capitol building was also set on fire, and the House of Representatives and the Library of Congress were gutted before a torrential downpour doused the flames. On August 26, General Ross, realizing his untenable hold on the capital area, ordered a withdrawal from Washington. The next day, President Madison returned to a smoking and charred Washington and vowed to rebuild the city. James Hoban, the original architect of the White House, completed reconstruction of the executive mansion in 1817
1942 – The Battle of the Eastern Solomons. US Task Force 61, commanded by Admiral Fletcher is comprised of the American aircraft carriers Saratoga, Enterprise and Wasp. The Japanese split their forces into two, Admiral Nagumo commanding the Zuikaku and Shokaku and Admiral Hara, the Ryujo. Both forces are attempting to cover the ferrying of supplies to the respective forces on Guadalcanal. American scout planes discover the Ryujo and Admiral Fletcher dispatches a strike force. When the other two Japanese carriers are sighted, he attempts to redirect the attack, but most of his planes do not receive the new orders and proceed to sink the Ryujo. Admiral Nagumo's planes find the USS Enterprise inflicting damage, however planes can still land on the carrier. Both carrier groups disengage at the end of the day without a clear result.
1942 – U.S. forces continue to deliver crushing blows to the Japanese, sinking the aircraft carrier Ryuho in the Battle of the East Solomon Islands. Key to the Americans' success in this battle was the work of coastwatchers, a group of volunteers whose job it is to report on Japanese ship and aircraft movement. The Marines had landed on Guadalcanal, on the Solomon Islands, on August 7. This was the first American offensive maneuver of the war and would deliver the first real defeat to the Japanese. On August 23, coastwatchers, comprised mostly of Australian and New Zealander volunteers, hidden throughout the Solomon and Bismarck islands and protected by anti-Japanese natives, spotted heavy Japanese reinforcements headed for Guadalcanal. The coastwatchers alerted three U.S. carriers that were within 100 miles of Guadalcanal, which then raced to the scene to intercept the Japanese. By the time the Battle of the Eastern Solomons was over, the Japanese lost a light carrier, a destroyer, and a submarine and the Ryuho. The Americans suffered damage to the USS Enterprise, the most decorated carrier of the war; the Enterprise would see action again, though, in the American landings on Okinawa in 1945. As for the coastwatchers, Vice Adm. William F. Halsey said, "The coastwatchers saved Guadalcanal, and Guadalcanal saved the Pacific."
1969 – Company A of the Third Battalion, 196th Light Infantry Brigade refuses the order of its commander, Lieutenant Eugene Schurtz, Jr., to continue an attack that had been launched to reach a downed helicopter shot down in the Que Son valley, 30 miles south of Da Nang. The unit had been in fierce combat for five days against entrenched North Vietnamese forces and had taken heavy casualties. Schurtz called his battalion commander, Lieutenant Colonel Robert C. Bacon, and informed him that his men had refused to follow his order to move out because they had "simply had enough" and that they were "broken." The unit eventually moved out when Bacon sent his executive officer and a sergeant to give Schurtz's troops "a pep talk," but when they reached the downed helicopter on August 25, they found all eight men aboard dead. Schurtz was relieved of his command and transferred to another assignment in the division. Neither he nor his men were disciplined. This case of "combat refusal," as the Army described it, was reported widely in U.S. newspapers.
Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
By virtue of an act of Congress approved 24 August 1921, the Medal of Honor, emblem of highest ideals and virtues is bestowed in the name of the Congress of the United States upon the unknown American, typifying the gallantry and intrepidity, at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty, of our beloved heroes who made the supreme sacrifice in the World War. They died in order that others might live (293.8, A.G:O.) (War Department General Orders, No. 59, 13 Dec. 1921, sec. I).
*ANDERSON, RICHARD A.
Rank and organization: Lance Corporal, U.S. Marine Corps, Company E, 3d Reconnaissance Battalion, 3d Marine Division. Place and date: Quang Tri Province, Republic of Vietnam, 24 August 1969. Entered service at: Houston, Tex. Born: 16 April 1948, Washington, D.C. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as an assistant team leader with Company E, in connection with combat operations against an armed enemy. While conducting a patrol during the early morning hours L/Cpl. Anderson's reconnaissance team came under a heavy volume of automatic weapons and machine gun fire from a numerically superior and well concealed enemy force. Although painfully wounded in both legs and knocked to the ground during the initial moments of the fierce fire fight, L/Cpl. Anderson assumed a prone position and continued to deliver intense suppressive fire in an attempt to repulse the attackers. Moments later he was wounded a second time by an enemy soldier who had approached to within 8 feet of the team's position. Undaunted, he continued to pour a relentless stream of fire at the assaulting unit, even while a companion was treating his leg wounds. Observing an enemy grenade land between himself and the other marine, L/Cpl. Anderson immediately rolled over and covered the lethal weapon with his body, absorbing the full effects of the detonation. By his indomitable courage, inspiring initiative, and selfless devotion to duty, L/Cpl. Anderson was instrumental in saving several marines from serious injury or possible death. His actions were in keeping with the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and of the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life in the service of his country.
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for August 24, FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY
24 August
1918: Maj William R. Ream became the first flight surgeon to die in an aircraft accident at Chanute Field. (24)
1935: Brig Gen Frank M. Andrews set three world seaplane speed and payload records from Langley Field to Floyd Bennett Field and back in a Martin B-12A bomber with pontoon floats. (24)
1938: The Navy flew the radio-controlled JH-1, the first powered drone target in the U.S., to test the USS Ranger's anti-aircraft batteries. (21)
1940: Boeing received a contract for three B-29 prototypes. (12)
1951: KOREAN WAR. Through 25 August, B-26's claimed over 800 trucks destroyed in the new campaign of night anti-truck operations. (28) General Hoyt S. Vandenberg, CSAF, disclosed the development of atomic tactical weapons for use against armies in the field. (24)
1959: The USAF launched an Atlas-C over a 5,000-mile course. Later, the USAF recovered a data capsule containing movies taken from 700 miles up that showed one-sixth of the earth's surface. (16) (24)
1961: At Edwards AFB, Jacqueline Cochran flew a Northrop T-38 Talon to a world speed record for women, 842.6 miles per hour. (24)
1962: Donald L. Piccard set a FAI record for subclass A-2 balloons (250-400 cubic meters). At Sioux City, Iowa, he flew a Sioux City Sue Raven Industries balloon to 17,747 feet. (9)
1965: A 341 SMW crew from Malmstrom AFB, Mont., launched the 100th Minuteman I test missile from Vandenberg AFB. (8: Aug 90)
1974: Alexander P. de Seversky, airpower advocate and an inventive genius whose life and career followed the evolution of aviation, died in New York at 80. He developed the P-35, the Army Air Corps' first single seat, all-metal pursuit aircraft with retractable landing gear and a closed cockpit. He also developed inflight-refueling techniques.
1978: The 81 TFW, 92 TFS, at RAF Bentwaters/Woodbridge received the first three A-10s destined for USAFE. (4)
1979: Full-scale development of the Global Positioning System authorized. (12)
1989: The Voyager 2 Space Probe completed its tour of the solar system by flying within 3,000 miles of Neptune. (20)
1994: HURRICANE JOHN. Through 25 August, as a hurricane approached AMC aircraft evacuated 1,107 military and civilian personnel from Johnston Island, located 740 miles southwest of Honolulu. Six C-141s, 2 DC-8 charters, and 1 C-130 brought everyone to Hickam AFB. Although most evacuees returned to Johnston on commercial flights in early September, an AMC C-141 and a few C-130s returned some residents in late August. (16) (18)
2001: At Grand Forks AFB, contractors imploded Minuteman III missile silo H-22 near Petersburg, N.D. It was the last silo of 450 ICBM silos to be destroyed under the START I agreement. Contractors imploded 14 silos in 1999, 86 in 2000, and 49 in 2001. (21) An EC-18B Advanced Range Instrumentation Aircraft (ARIA) made its final AFFTC flight, ending that mission at Edwards AFB. For 30 years, the aircraft recorded and relayed telemetry information from ICBMs and manned spacecraft, both U.S. and foreign. The USAF intended to use the two EC-18Bs in the JSTARS program. (3)
nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn
On July 26, 1948, President Harry S. Truman signed this executive order banning segregation in the Armed Force and ordering full integration of all branches.
Executive Order 9981 stated that "there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed forces without regard to race, color, religion, or national origin." During August, AFHF will celebrate the lives and careers of many notable people of color in aviation history.
The exceptional career of Col Charles McGee
Charles McGee was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on December 7, 1919. His grandfather was formerly enslaved, and his father served as an Army chaplain in World War I and during the Battle of the Bulge in the Second World War. As a child, McGee was a member of the Boy Scouts of America and earned the Eagle Scout award on August 9, 1940.
Enlisting in the US Army on October 26, 1942, in time he became part of the Tuskegee Airmen, having already earned his pilot's wings and graduated from Class 43-F on June 30, 1943. By February 1944, McGee was stationed in Italy with the 302nd Fighter Squadron of the 332d Fighter Group, flying his first mission on Valentine's Day. McGee flew the Bell P-39Q Airacobra, the Republic P-47D Thunderbolt, and the North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft, escorting Consolidated B-24 Liberator and Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers over Germany, Austria, and the Balkans.
On August 23, 1944, while escorting B-17s over Czechoslovakia, McGee engaged a formation of Luftwaffe fighters and shot down a Focke-Wulf Fw 190.
When the Korean War broke out, he flew P-51 Mustangs again in the 67th Fighter Bomber Squadron, completing 100 missions, and was promoted to major. During the Vietnam War, as a lieutenant colonel, McGee flew 172 combat missions in a McDonnell RF-4 photo-reconnaissance aircraft. During his Southeast Asia combat tour, McGee served as the Squadron Commander of the 16th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron (TRS), of the 460th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing, which was based at Tan Son Nhut Air Base, in South Vietnam. The 16th TRS flew the RF-4C Phantom II.
McGee retired at the rank of colonel, on January 31, 1973. In a 30-year active service career, McGee achieved a three-war fighter mission total of 409 combat missions, one of the highest by any Air Force fighter pilot. He ended his military career with 6,308 flying hours.
For detailed biography, see link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_McGee_(pilot)
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "SkipsList" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to skipslist+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/skipslist/CACTjsm1EnywrRTdtWzMtiKUwcGZcjveyJnPUR78EACR9tDHShw%40mail.gmail.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.