Studying Warfare
BY Herschel Smith
1 year, 7 months ago
I hope to give you a number of stories and videos I found interesting. Not all of the study of warfare is about the current state of drones in the skies.
Operation Wandering Soul – Vietnam War
Rare Photos of the Vietnam War
Saratoga – The Victory that Changed the American Revolution (although I really think the battle of Cowpens should take that honorific title)
A Stolen Plane Crash that Almost Ended WWII
Hitler’s Personal Train and its Fate
The First POW to Escape the Vietnam War
History’s Most Infamous Double Agent
The Nazi Spy Chief Who Brought Down Hitler
Inside the B-17 Flying Fortress
The Architect of the Final Solution
None of these are documentary level stuff like you would find over the Military Channel, but they’re fit for a few minutes of watching.
If you want to know the complete story underlying the Wannsee Conference and the “Final Solution,” apart from the obvious – Fuhrer Adolf Hitler himself – it must also include at least two other names than Heinrich Himmler: Reinhard Heydrich (1904-1942) and Amin al-Husseini (1897-1974). Both figures – through their influence at the conference and in other ways – had prominent roles in setting the direction of German state policy following the Wannsee Conference of January 1942. Reinhard Heydrich was one of the most-senior members of the Schutzstaffel (SS), and the protege of SS head Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler. He held the rank of SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Polizei, as well as the title of Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia (formerly of Czechoslovakia). A part of the fanatical inner-circle surrounding Hitler, Heydrich was a ‘true believer’ in national socialism who advocated not just resettlement (deportation) of the ‘enemies of the Reich’ (Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, communists, dissidents, etc.) but their liquidation – views he promoted strongly at Wannsee in early 1942. Heydrich was morally-wounded on May 27, 1942, when his chauffeured motor car was attacked by a team of SOE-trained Czech operatives, as the Reichsprotektor was driven to his office. Enraged at the assassination of one of his favorites and the likely successor to Himmler, Hitler ordered that the strictest and most-draconian of measures be used to “punish” those responsible. After a brief manhunt, the SOE team members were cornered inside the crypt of a church where they had taken refuge. SS troops lowered machine guns into the tomb and killed the entire group. The Nazi high-command, believing that the people of the villages of Lidice and Ležáky were responsible for aiding the Czechs, ordered the inhabitants shot or sent to concentration camps, and both villages to be razed. Hitler ordered a commemorative coin struck, one side of which bore a likely of Reinhard Heydrich, and the other which bore the word “Rache,” which in German means “Revenge.” Hajj Amin al-Husseini, a Palestinian by birth, was the influential Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, and perhaps the leading figure in the Pan-Arab movement of the first half of the 20th century. Husseini despised the British, whom he saw as occupiers, and the Jews – with equal ferocity. Active in the various Arab uprisings in the Middle East between the wars and into the early years of WW2, Husseini eventually grew infamous-enough that he had to go on the run to avoid arrest by the British and French, both of whom saw him as a threat to regional stability. Even when France flipped to being Vichy (occupied) France, he still had to leave North Africa/Middle East for sanctuary first in fascist Italy, and ultimately in Berlin, where he arrived in November, 1941 as an honored guest of the party. Grand Mufti al-Husseini was seen by the German state as a means of cultivating allies and influence in the Arab world, much of which was contained within the British Empire. If the millions of Muslims… Read more »
“Inside the B-17 Flying Fortress” FYI, Herschel, I am having trouble getting the link to run… is it trouble on my end or something with the link? For those with the interest, time and money, the Collings Foundation offers aviation/WW2 enthusiasts the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to go up in a resorted B-17. The Collings Foundation are a group of history buffs and aviators who barn-storm across the country doing “living history” exhibits of notable aircraft from the war. When I last attended one of their events, they had a B-17, a B-24 “Liberator” heavy bomber/patrol aircraft, and a North American P-51 Mustang piston-engine fighter modified to allow a passenger behind the pilot. All of these “exhibits” can be toured on the ground for a nominal fee, or you can – for a much stiffer fee – go for a ride in one of the aircraft. Fifteen or so years ago when I did it, it cost me $300 for a twenty minute ride in the B-17. Absolutely worth the money! United States Army Air Force doctrine in the late 1930s and into the early years of WW2 was that the B-17 “Fly Fortress” was sufficiently armed with a dozen or so .50-caliber machine guns, such that it and its squadron mates could defend themselves on missions without outside help, should enemy fighters be encountered. By flying in a tight “box” formation which provided mutually-supporting fields of fire for the guns, the thinking went that a wall of .50-caliber rounds would be enough to see off any attackers. But there was another complication: The U.S.A.A.F. intended to fly their missions over occupied Europe (and eventually Germany) during the daylight hours, not at night as the British Royal Air Force planned to do – and in fact did. And it was on that basis that the U.S.A.A.F. began raids into occupied Europe during the summer of 1942. Massed formations of B-17s flying at high altitude, during the day, accompanied by fighter escorts only as far as the limited range of those fighters permitted. Most of the time spent aloft and in harm’s way was spent without the benefit of Allied fighter protection. If you have seen the HBO miniseries “Masters of the Air,”you know what happened next: The bombers met and engaged masses of enemy fighter and fighter-bombers plus anti-aircraft fire (Flak) alone, suffering catastrophically-high losses on many raids. It was on those early missions that the B-17 proved its nearly miraculous ability to sustain heavy damage and yet remain airborne. Damage that would have downed or destroyed a lesser aircraft. That said, no aircraft in existence could stand up to the kind of punishment they were taking, not even the stalwart Flying Fortresses – and losses in machines and men were high. The men of those crews were learning as they went, and so were their senior and staff officers back in the U.K. Ultimately, fighter escorts were the answer – and soon American P-47 “Thunderbolt” single-engine fighters and twin-engine Lockheed P-38… Read more »