Member Article: Turning East: Hitler's only option
by Thomas Tripp
The invasion of the Soviet Union arguably was the most important military decision Adolf Hitler made in his life.
In just a little under four years, it destroyed the Thousand Year Reich along with tens of millions of innocent lives.
Did this fatal decision go against his belief of avoiding a two-front war or did Hitler feel he had a small window of
opportunity to win a campaign in the East, provided it was swift, while the British remained isolated on their island?
He felt this would bring about a settlement with Great Britain without the risk of a cross channel invasion. Hitler
in one of his last recorded conversations in the Reich Chancellery Bunker in April 1945, stated:
Member Article: Fury, Fumaroles and Brimstone - Interview with George Pickett
by Tony Welch
For seven months – May through November, 1945 – George E. Pickett and three fellow sailors held sway over what would soon become the world’s most iconic and instantly recognizable piece of real estate.
None of them held a trust deed to the property, and yet this foursome lorded over their patch of ground with all the authority of a cop on the beat. Trespassers and interlopers were warned away by a sign reading: “DANGER – 5,000 VOLTS! KEEP OUT.”
Member Article: The Club Runs: Allied Aircraft Resupply Operations to Malta, 1942
by Brick Billing
By early 1942 the tiny island of Malta, approximately 100 km south of Sicily, was effectively under siege. German and Italian advances in North Africa had transformed the Mediterranean an Axis-held lake, with the nearest Allied bases in Gibraltar on the eastern end and Egypt on the west. The Axis, realizing Malta’s strategic position, subjected the tiny island to daily aerial bombardments. Over the course of two years Malta became one of the most heavily bombed places on Earth as the German Luftwaffe, and the Italian Regia Aeronautica
flew over 3,000 bombing raids in an attempt to neutralize the island .[1] For as
long as Malta remained in Allied hands, British air and sea forces could mount
attacks against Axis shipping, threatening General Erwin Rommel’s supply lines
in North Africa. As early as May 1941, Rommel had warned his superiors that:
"without Malta the Axis will end by losing control of North Africa."[2] Standing
against this Axis threat were a series of fighter, bomber, and torpedo squadrons
based at Malta’s three airfields; Luqa, Hal Far, and Takali.[3]
Member Article: Son of an Artilleryman Follows In His Father’s Footsteps
by Tony Welch
“I was standing on the back porch as he drove away in his car,” says Bob Lamkin. “And that’s the last I ever saw of him. I was six years old.”
Lamkin, now 91, is referring to his father, Robert L. Lamkin, a veteran of the Spanish-American War (1898-99) and the Philippine Insurrection that closely followed. The senior Lamkin served during the latter conflict, which claimed over 4,000 American lives. And then -- a quarter-century later -- he simply disappeared.
What ties could possibly link – much less bind -- a child to a father who suddenly abandons his family?
“What I remember of my father is that he fought as an artilleryman in the U.S. Army,” Bob recalls. “My only image of him is from an old photograph. He’s in his uniform standing beside a 155 millimeter cannon.”
This single connective thread, fragile though it be, would eventually lead Lamkin to a different battlefield half a world away. In his own time and in his own way, Lamkin managed to forge a path that reunited him with the father he would never come to know.
Member Article: Colonel Patrick O'Rorke: Unsung hero of Little
Round Top
by Roger Daene
The one who writes the history is oftentimes the one who receives the glory. This
is especially true in military history. Those who survive the battle are able to
tell their story known to the public. In some cases, those who die in battle can
either be relegated to obscurity or their achievements are underrated because there
is no one to tell their story. The Lieutenant-Colonel of the 140th New York at the
Battle of Gettysburg was one whose story is relatively unknown.
The town of Gettysburg had grown in size and importance once the railroad had come
to town. Gettysburg was a crossroads town and after the war had begun, supplies
had moved through this bustling Pennsylvania town. In the waning days of June 1863
both armies began to move toward Gettysburg. The town was about to move into immortality
and hold a place forever in American history.
Member Article: Plague of the Spanish Lady
by David W. Tschanz
In August 1918 while World War I raged from Finland to Mesopotamia an epidemic began.
In two months it covered the globe, sparing only Tristan da Cunha in the extreme
South Atlantic. No one has ever figured out how it traveled such great distances
in so short a time. Coast Guard search parties, for example, discovered Eskimo villages
in remote, seemingly inaccessible locations wiped out to the last adult and child.
Most of its victims were young men aged 18 to 45. Many of them went from perfect
health to the coldness of the grave in less than a day. It crippled troop movements,
slowed the reinforcement of Pershing, broke the already fragile German morale and
shattered the Kaiser's war effort. Only the Black Death of the 14th Century and
the Plague of Justinian of the 6th Century, would rival it in the rate it claimed
human lives. Neither would match it in its speed.
Cairo's Fortress on the Mountain
by David W. Tschanz
Cairo residents call it the Qal'at al-Jabal, the Fortress on the Mountain, or just
al-Qal'ah, the Fortress. The rest of the world simply calls it “The Citadel.” For
nearly a millennium it has stood as a silent sentinel, residence, and symbol of
power. Standing on its battlements, and looking westwards provides a view of over
4500 years of architectural marvels from the mosque of Sultan Hasan, just below
to the Pyramids of Giza across the Nile. From atop this fortress the awesome sweep
of history is a vivid reality. It is a view that must have given even the sultans
who ruled from here, cause to reflect.
Interview with a World War II Veteran
by Robert C. Daniels
In preparation for writing a book, tentatively entitled “World War II in Mid-America,”
I have conducted oral interviews on 33 people of a small mid-western American community
that had lived during and through the war. These people represent a wide and diverse
range of those living in that area at the time: male, female, military, civilian,
adult, children, farmer, factory worker, etc. These interviews were designed to
gather information on how World War II affected the interviewees’ lives. As such,
questions were asked during the interviews about their lives prior to, during, and
after the war.
Why Arnhem?
by Thomas Leckwold
Operation Market-Garden, the largest airborne operation in history, is a
well known failure because of the inability to capture a bridge over the Rhine River,
and the resulting destruction of the British 1st Airborne Division at Arnhem. Many
opinions of the Battle of Arnhem were established by Cornelius Ryan in his book
A Bridge Too Far which became an epic 1977 movie by Joseph Levine and Richard
Attenborough. These works provided readers and movie goers an understanding of the
defeat that Allies suffered. However, these works fail in answering the basic question
of how events on the Western Front influenced the decision of choosing Arnhem as
the objective for such a daring and risky operation to force a crossing of the Rhine?
Hell Ship - From the Philippines to Japan
by Robert C. Daniels
U.S. Marine Edmond Babler was forced to surrender to the Japanese Imperial Army
in April 1942 with the fall of the Island fortress of Corregidor in the Philippines.
Like many of his fellow POWs, after spending two years of hard labor under what
can only be described as horrendous and savage slave labor conditions in the Philippine
Islands of Luzon and Palawan, he was transported to the Japanese main islands in
what would be known to the prisoners as a Hell Ship. What follows comprises Chapter
7 of 1220 Days: The story of U.S. Marine Edmond Babler and his experiences in Japanese
Prisoner of War Camps during World War II, and is his personal account of
that trip using his vernacular and colloquialisms whenever possible, including the
phonetic form in which Ed originally wrote and remembered several Japanese phrases.
It is his views and memories, with no apologies made nor intended to conform to
the modern concept of political correctness. The author has sparingly inserted clarifications
and corroborating information in encapsulated brackets where deemed necessary to
give the reader a better understanding of the ‘overall picture’ of the war in relation
to what Ed was experiencing.
“She Hastens Onward Still”: The Battleship USS Oregon And its
Place in National Memory
by Dr. Christopher M. Jannings
Ship breakers claimed the vast majority of 19th Pre-dreadnought and 20th century
United States battleships like the USS Oregon upon decommission.[1] Masts,
guns, anchors, smoke stacks, and other elements of the most famous remain on public
display at historic sites, serving as substitutes for full-sized memorials that
require private donations or taxpayer dollars to maintain. The USS Oregon
was the centerpiece for the State of Oregon Marine Park from 1927 to 1942, and seemed
destined for honorable retirement until the outbreak of World War II, but was sacrificed
because of misguided patriotism in the State of Oregon and misappropriation of war
materials and building contracts, particularly involving the use of steel, within
the highest levels of government and industry.[2]
Member Article: SMS Dresden's War: The Benefits of Protracted Evasion
Over Spirit of Enterprise,1914-1915
by Dr. Christopher M. Jannings
How highly mobile German commerce raiders (light cruisers) performed at sea and
met their fate is one of the more compelling and controversial stories of World
War I. One such account is that of the SMS Dresden and how it successfully
eluded capture or sinking at the hands of a far superior British navy and their
allies in 1914-1915. This essay charts the performance of the light cruiser from
its prewar position off the eastern coast of Mexico to its scuttling in Chilean
national waters on March 15, 1915.[1] It asks: In terms of carrying out cruiser
warfare, what expectations did the German navy have for its overseas cruiser squadron
at the beginning of the war? Was SMS Dresden under capable command and prepared
to take on the role of an independent commerce raider?
Member Article: Air Reconnaissance in World War One
by Del Kostka
For most people, the great aces are the most enduring personalities of World War
I. Almost 100 years after they blazed across the skies of Europe, names like Richthofen,
Bishop, Guynemer and Rickenbacker are still memorialized as the chivalrous "knights
of the air". Yet few people today give thought or credence to the pilots and observers
of reconnaissance aircraft. Often portrayed as lumbering and defenseless victims
of air combat, aerial reconnaissance crews actually made an impact and contribution
to the war effort far greater than their glamorized brethren. The accuracy and timeliness
of the intelligence they gathered changed the nature of warfare, and the devastating
artillery barrages they orchestrated from high above the battlefield accounted for
more casualties than any other weapon system of the Great War.[1] Simply put, the
reconnaissance aircrew was the most lethal killing machine of World War One.
From Liberation to Confrontation: The U.S. Army and Czechoslovakia
1945 to 1948
by Bryan J. Dickerson
In the closing days of World War II in Europe, soldiers of the U.S. Army were welcomed
as Liberators by crowds of Czech civilians exuberant at being freed from six long
years of Nazi tyranny and occupation. Just three short years later, the relation-ship
between the U.S. Army and Czechoslovakia was dramatically different. Instead of
allies, they were now adversaries. Due to the rapidly changing political situation
in central Europe and the emergence of a Cold War between the United States and
the Soviet Union, the U.S. Army in Europe underwent a series of major changes in
mission and structure which culminated with it being forced to assume a combat posture
against the very same country and ally that it had helped liberate from the Nazi
Germany in the spring of 1945. In just three and a half years, the U.S. Army performed
the roles of a combat force / liberator, an occupation force / rebuilder, a police
or constabulary force and ultimately, a combat force again in rapid succession.
Jewish Resistance during the Holocaust: Fact or Fiction?
by Abigail Pfeiffer
For close to fifteen years after the Holocaust there was little written about the
resistance of the European Jewish population against the Nazis and their collaborators.
According to Michael Marrus in his article “Jewish Resistance to the Holocaust”
the reason for this is “…most Jews had little stomach for myth-making of any kind
about Jewish resistance in the immediate shock of the war. It was all Jews could
do in the first postwar years to absorb the reality of mass murder on an unimagined
scale…”[2] Only after the shock of the attempted liquidation of the whole population
of European Jews wore off did some solid historiography emerge about Jewish resistance.
The trial of Adolf Eichmann in Israel also prompted more historians to examine Jewish
resistance, especially outside of Israel and Yiddish speaking populations.
Member Article: Betrayed by a Mason? The Tragic Mission of Lieutenant
Thomas Boyd
by Michael Karpovage
Moments before deploying on the longest military campaign of the Revolutionary War,
Freemason Thomas Boyd was given a final ultimatum by his repeatedly spurned and
pregnant lover. In front of his superior officers she warned Boyd, a lieutenant
with Morgan’s Rifle Corps of the Continental Army, “If you go off without marrying
me, I hope and pray to the great God of heaven that you will be tortured and cut
to pieces by the savages.” An embarrassed Boyd, his pride tarnished, responded by
drawing his sword and threatening to stab her unless she removed herself.[1] She
acquiesced. Unfortunately for the young lieutenant, he should have heeded her ominous
prediction for that was exactly the fate that befell him.
Member Article: Smoke without fire: A re-examination of the Angel of
Mons
by Steve MacGregor
During World War One there was a widespread belief in Britain that some form of
supernatural intervention saved allied troops during the retreat from Mons. Since
the war this event, generally known as the “Angel of Mons” has been variously used
as evidence of supernatural intervention in combat, an example of a collective hallucination
or as an urban myth unwittingly originated by a piece of fiction. The most prosaic
explanation is that the Angel was no more than a misinterpretation of odd cloud
formations seen by weary troops. The only thing that most theories agree on is that
something strange happened during the retreat from Mons in August 1914 and that
this was witnessed by British (and possibly German) troops.
Member Article: Who Killed the Red Baron?
by Steven Wilson
In the skies above Vauz sur Somme, France, April 21, 1918, the highest-scoring ace
of World War I was shot down by enemy fire and died. Almost immediately, his legend
was born. Manfred von Richthofen, forever known in history as "The Red Baron," was
credited with 80 air-to-air victories in World War I. He was chasing victory number
81 at the time of his death. He was 25. At the time of his shoot down, Canadian
Capt. Roy Brown of the Royal Air Force's 209th squadron was credited with firing
the fatal shots that killed the famous aviator. However, recent evidence has surfaced
that indicates the old history books may, in fact, be wrong.
Member Article: Armenian Warriors, Japanese Samurai
by Dr. Armen Ayvazyan
Armenian historiography contains considerable information about ancient and medieval
Armenian military ideology. In the works of fifth century historians Pavstos Buzand
and Movses Khorenatzi, the commands and legacy of the Armenian sparapets
(commanders in chief) to their successors articulate in detail the obligations and
responsibilities of Armenian warriors. Their norms of conduct share striking similarities
with the system of values of the Japanese samurai codified during the 16th to 18th
centuries, as well as with later medieval West European chivalry of the eight to
14th centuries. “Fight and offer your life for the Armenian World just as your brave
forefathers did, consciously sacrificing their lives for this Homeland…”
Member Article: Benedict Arnold in Canada
by Roger Daene
The summer of 1775 began with the Americans laying siege to Boston. The Battle of
Bunker Hill was a British victory, but the severe losses prevented them from being
able to lift the siege. To the north, in the Hudson River Valley, a combined force
under Captain Benedict Arnold and Colonel Ethan Allen of Vermont, had surprised
the British garrison at Fort Ticonderoga. Following the capture of Ticonderoga,
Arnold led a bold attack on the British fleet on Lake Champlain. He either captured
or destroyed all the British ships there. He was soon to prove that these two earlier
successes were just portents of future events.
Member Article: Len Hornbeck Interview, WWII Veteran "D-Day Gate
Crasher"
Interview by Tony Welch
Barely recognizable in the false dawn of D-Day, a German grenade skitters across
the roadway. Walking directly into its oncoming path is an American paratrooper.
At age 23, Leonard Hornbeck's reflexes have never been sharper. Instinctively, he
jumps straight up just as the “potato masher” disappears beneath his combat boots.
In that frozen moment of time the grenade explodes between Leonard's legs, propelling
him skyward. If the German soldat who tossed the grenade tried to duplicate
his feat – performed in the dark – he would have gone through a case of explosives
without coming close.
Member Article: Interviewing The Interviewer. "Vets Tell All --
He Listens."
Interview by Avery Chalmers
You've been doing World War Two oral histories now -- how many years?"
“Well…in a serious way, since around 1973. I was the first one in my family to serve
in the military since the Civil War – a span of ninety years. Back in the mid-fifties
I worked in the same Eighth Naval District headquarters office as Howard Gilmore’s
widow. Her husband skippered the submarine Growler and was the first sub
sailor to be awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously. Mrs. Gilmore held an administrative
job with the Navy – guaranteed employment for life. She told me this story and I’m
sure that’s when I first got hooked. She began by saying she was personally responsible
for having sent hundreds of mules to a watery grave. Mules? Mules in the Navy? Well…I
was all ears. It turns out these mules were rounded up during the war from sharecropper
farms throughout the southern states. Mrs. Gilmore was the project manager and co-ordinated
various civilian contractors whose job it was to purchase, assemble and arrange
the mules’ transportation to various war zones in the Pacific where they’d serve
as infantry pack animals.
Member Article: The 308th Infantry during the Argonne Offensive October
1918
by Kevin Mulberger
During the American involvement in World War I, there were various battles that
caught the American public's attention, but none were like the one like the story
of the "Lost Battalion". This battalion consisted of about five hundred men of the
308th Infantry of the 77th Division along with attachments from other units. The
commander of the 1st Battalion 308th Infantry Regiment was Maj. Charles Whittlesey,
a former New York City lawyer. The 308th also consisted of attachments from the
306th Machine Gun Battalion and K Company from the 307th Infantry for their mission.
This mission was to capture the Charlevaux Ravine in the Argonne Forest during the
Meuse-Argonne offensive in October 1918. The offensive through the Argonne Forest
would be a tough battle for the Americans since the Germans had dug themselves in
over the last four years. Also the rough terrain would add to the difficulty in
any attack in the Argonne. In theory, if the AEF broke through here, they could
punch a hole all the way past the main lateral rail line the German Army needed
to keep the front supplied. A major break through here would then be catastrophic
for the Germans.[1]
Member Article: Battle for the Seaports
by Ruud Bruyns
On January 30 1945 there was a remarkable movie premiere in the French seaport of
La Rochelle. The latest German war movie ‘Kolberg’ was displayed for the first time
to an audience which consisted of more than 20.000 soldiers, who were besieged by
Allied forces since August 1944. This movie, which was shot in full color, was meant
to boost morale among the German garrison by setting the siege of Kolberg by the
French in 1806 as an example. This was necessary because the Germans were trapped
there for almost half year, as were ten of thousands other German soldiers in the
ports of France, Belgium and Holland during the autumn of 1944. How was it possible
that approximately 200.000 German soldiers were locked up in these ports while the
German homeland was bound to be attacked by the Allies? Was it coincidence, or was
there a plan behind this set-up?
Member Article: Officers and Gentlemen: Gentlemanly Mystique and
Military Effectiveness in the Nineteen-Century British Army
by James A. Shaw
Britain and her army together acted as major forces driving the history of the nineteenth
century. The century opened to a Europe consumed in a massive war against Revolutionary,
and later Imperial, France, and it closed with the last days of the Victorian era
and a British Empire that spanned the entire globe. The enormous economic power
of British commerce and industry made the nation a force to be reckoned with in
the marketplace, and the peerless Royal Navy ensured Britannia control of whatever
seas she wished to sail, but the acquisition and defense of Britain’s extensive
land possessions fell to the antiquated, even reactionary, British army.
Member Article: A Turn Too Far: Reconstructing the End of the Battle
of the Java Sea
by Del C. Kostka
Attu rises like a jagged stone from the churning waters of the North Pacific. Barren,
wind-swept, and shrouded in perpetual fog, the island has little relevance to a
world that is barely aware of its existence. Yet in 1943, this obscure wilderness
was the scene of an epic battle between resilient Japanese occupiers and an American
invasion force who were equally determined to possess the island. It was a battle
fought as much against the elements as with an enemy, and where a small and ill-equipped
band of US Army combat engineers found themselves squarely in the path of one of
the largest Japanese Banzai attacks of World War Two.[1]
Member Article: A Turn Too Far: Reconstructing the End of the Battle
of the Java Sea
by Jeffrey R. Cox
The Java Sea campaign has gotten little in the way of analysis in the English-speaking
press, and what coverage it has gotten has largely focused on the role of the crews
of individual ships such as the US cruiser Houston, the Australian cruiser
Perth and the British cruiser Exeter, particularly in their futile
efforts to escape the Java Sea, James Hornfischer’s excellent book Ship of Ghosts
being a case in point. This relative silence is understandable for several reasons.
First of all, we lost. Unless the defeat can be used to bash the United States like
Vietnam is, defeats tend to get less play in the media. Furthermore, the territory
being defended was a Dutch colony, which, since the Dutch mainland was under Nazi
occupation, was effectively serving as their homeland, and thus meant much more
to the Dutch than the Anglos, who found the campaign small in comparison to their
overall war effort in the Pacific.
Cracking Hitler's Atlantic Wall: The 1st Assault Brigade Royal
Engineers on D-Day
 When the British and Canadians landed in Normandy on
D-Day, June 6, 1944, they were accompanied by specialized armored vehicles that
had the job of removing German obstacles and mines from the invasion beaches. Developed
by the Royal Engineers and known as Hobart’s Funnies, these unique tanks featured
ingenious innovations--ranging from a giant 290-millimeter mortar to carpet-laying
and bridge-laying devices--to support their mission on D-Day and after. Covering
both the technical development of these engineer vehicles and their combat deployment,
military historian Richard C. Anderson Jr. gives a minute-by-minute account of D-Day’s
early hours on Sword, Juno, and Gold Beaches--the critical moments when the success
of the invasion hinged on whether the assault engineers could clear a path through
a minefield or breach the seawall under withering fire from entrenched German positions.
Landing craft sank, vehicles bogged down, but the men and their vehicles blasted
their way forward and contributed to Allied victory. Anderson also describes D-Day
as it unfolded on Omaha and Utah Beaches, where U.S. troops, despite being offered
the special vehicles, stormed ashore without them.
Member Article: How Arnhem was Lost around Eindhoven
by Landon McDuff
The Texas Army National Guard has a proud history that has not only influenced but,
has come to define its military culture. It is the purpose of this essay to discuss
some of those defining and controversial moments and remember the heroes that made
them so. Texas has traditionally been committed to the defense of its nation and
usually contributes more troops to the U.S. military than any other state.[i] The
Texas Army National Guard traces their beginnings to the fight for Texas’ independence
from Mexico. The spirit of the defenders of the Alamo, and the victorious men that
carried the day on the grounds of San Jacinto, is alive and well in the hearts of
every Texas National Guard soldier and airman. The TXARNG is a state military force
in local operation but trains and fights alongside the federal Army, daubed “Big
Army”. They call themselves “citizen soldiers” because although they have the same
training as “Big Army”, they only serve one weekend out of the month, unless called
into active duty.[1]
Member Article: How Arnhem was Lost around Eindhoven
by Ruud Bruyns
A lot of explanations have been written about the failure of Operation Market Garden,
better known as the Battle of Arnhem after the ultimate goal of the operation. In
the mainly English speaking literature there has been very few references to Dutch
sources, while there have been many detailed publications about Market Garden. The
most notable are ‘Een andere kijk op de slag om Arnhem’ (Another Perspective
on the Battle of Arnhem, 2009) by Peter Berends, and ‘Einddoel Maas’ (End
Goal Meuse, 1984) and ‘Brabant bevrijd’ (Brabant liberated, 1993) by Jack
Didden en Maarten Swarts. The latter argue that Market Garden was lost in Brabant.
I want underline their thesis and want to add some new perspectives to this in this
article.
Member Article: The War between Norway and Sweden 1808
by Kai Isaksen
The war and battles described in this article are on a very small scale compared
to the major battles that raged in Europe around the same time. In general the battles
included from a few hundred up to 2-3000 men, and generally lasted a few hours.
The area of operations was also relatively limited, stretching from the southern
border between Norway and Sweden and north to the border town of Kongsvinger, a
distance of some 150 km, in the counties of Hedmark (northern part of the battlefield)
and Østfold (southern part).
Member Article: Byzantine Military Pragmatism vs. Imperial Prejudice:
Possible Reasons for Omitting the Armenians from the List of Hostiles in Maurice’s
Strategikon
by Dr. Armen Ayvazyan
The problem of the various images of the Armenians in Byzantium has already become
the subject of numerous, if sketchy, historical investigations and remarks.[1] As
a rule, students of this subject have focused on the images of those Armenians who
resided beyond Armenia proper in the Byzantine capital and peripheral provinces
as either newly-arrived immigrants or old-established inhabitants. Consequently,
the shaping of the images of the Armenians in Byzantine Empire was appropriately
sought and analyzed in such spheres as ecclesiastical differences between Armenian
and Greek Churches, the ethnic peculiarities of everyday life as well as the rivalry
in the imperial court between the Armenians and Greeks, the two major ethnic components
of Byzantine elite. In contrast, this essay aims to analyze the Byzantines’ image
of the Armenians of Armenia, that is, those who continued to live in and exercise
military and political authority over their homeland. Accordingly, this study focuses
on the geopolitical determinant in the construction of Armenian images in the imperial
strata of Byzantine society.
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