Interesting facts of military history

Benjamin Delahauf Foulois
(1879-1967)

http://www.hill.af.mil/museum/history/foulois.htm

Foulois became chief of the AEF Air Service when the U.S. entered World War I and led his squadrons in many aerial dogfights. After the war, he became assistant chief of the Army Air Corps in 1927 and assumed the office of Air Corps Chief in 1931 as a Major General. He led the Air Corps through the disastrous air mail experiment of 1934 and worked diligently for continual advancements in aeronautics.

He was largely responsible for the early development and adoption of the Boeing B-17 bomber (!).

 

Nice quotes:

A slipping gear could let your M203 grenade launcher fire when you least expect it. That would make you quite unpopular in what's left of your unit.
- the Army's magazine of preventive maintenance.

Any ship can be a minesweeper ... once.
- Admiral Hornblower

Combat will occur on the ground between two adjoining maps

I think we consider too much the good luck of the early bird and not enough the bad luck of the early worm.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt

If you can't remember, the Claymore is pointed towards you.

It makes no difference which side the general is on.
- unknown British Soldier

Nothing is so good for the morale of the troops as occasionally to see a dead general.
- Field Marshal Slim

The beatings will continue until morale improves.
- attributed to the Commander of the Japanese Submarine Force.

Try to look unimportant; they may be low on ammo.
- Infantry Journal

When the pin is pulled, Mr. Grenade is not our friend.
- US Marine Corps

http://www.hitechcj.com/afrl/id69.html

 

A better version of this is General Horrocks:

"The British Army always fights uphill, in the rain, at the junction of two maps."

My grandpa kept the quote on the wall of his office for 40 years.

 

When Napoleon Bonaparte was planning to invade England in 1805, Admiral St Vincent, the First Lord of the Admiralty, explained his optimism to the House of Lords. " I do not say the French cannot come ", he said briefly, " I only say they cannot come by sea ."

From Neilland´s Dieppe....

 

On December 18 1941, submarine Scirè, commanded by Junio Valerio Borghese, approached stealthily Alexandria harbour . Then were released 3 "Maiali" (hogs) or Slc (Slow Run Torpedo) driven by Durand de La Penne and his men. Durand and Bianchi's target was the Valiant.

Finally Durand de La Penne and Bianchi overcame the barriers and reached the Valiant, but at that moment their Maiale sunk to the depth of the port just under the battleship and Bianchi disappeared. Durand de La Penne managed to recuperate alone his maiale with a huge muscular effort and finally hooked it under the battleship's keel. Almost exhausted Durand de La Penne emerged from the depth, found his comrade (fainted for a failure of his scuba equipment), and tried to reach the pier but it was spotted by the sentries and captured. The commando was interrogated by the Valiant's officers but they answered only stating their rank and their number.

Admiral Cunningham ordered to jail Durand de La Penne and Bianchi into the Valiant, well below the floating line, hoping to scare the Italians and thus discovering if the battleships were in danger. Durand de La Penne told Bianchi (of course in Italian) that there was no hope for them but they could die happy because soon the mission would be accomplished (the charge would explode in 3 hours). Some time after a huge explosion was heard: Marceglia and Schergat destroyed tanker Sagona and damaged destroyer Jervis. After thrilling and long hours Durand de La Penne looked at his watch: 10 minutes to the explosion! He asked to talk to Valiant Captain Charles Morgan.
"Captain, I suggest you to evacuate your ship saving your crew's lives: Valiant is about to explode in few minutes." said Durand de La Penne.
Morgan asked where the charge was, Durand de La Penne did not answer and was taken again in his cell while the British crew was abandoning the ship. A terrific burst of might shook the Valiant but Durand de La Penne could get out .


On one day of 1945 Bianchi and Durand de La Penne received the Gold Medal for Military Valour and it was appointed to their chests by Vice-admiral Charles Morgan, chief of Mediterranean Fleet and former Valiant's captain.

http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/9226/heroes.html

 

Vicente Almandos Almonacid

Made the first of several innovations when he devised method of carrying bombs on the wings of his aircraft, rather than the fuselage.

patented his :1914 wing racks;1915 solo bomb dropping device ; 1916 auto-stabilized bomb sight.

In 1917-1918 invented 3 types of aerial bomb used by the French air service and copied by the *Germans. Wrote guide for aerial bombing.

from Jon Guttman's "France's Foreign Legion of the Air"

Vicente Almonacid - The Aerodrome Forum

Capt Vicente Almandos Almonacid (1883 - 1953) - Find A Grave Memorial

 

Did you know/remember that....

Chinese Invasion of Vietnam
February 1979

China's relations with Vietnam began to deteriorate seriously in the mid-1970s. After Vietnam joined the Soviet-dominated Council for Mutual Economic Cooperation (Comecon) and signed the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation with the Soviet Union in 1978, China branded Vietnam the "Cuba of the East" and called the treaty a military alliance. Incidents along the Sino-Vietnamese border increased in frequency and violence. In December 1978 Vietnam invaded Cambodia, quickly ousted the pro-Beijing Pol Pot regime, and overran the country.

China's twenty-nine-day incursion into Vietnam in February 1979 was a response to what China considered to be a collection of provocative actions and policies on Hanoi's part. These included Vietnamese intimacy with the Soviet Union, mistreatment of ethnic Chinese living in Vietnam, hegemonistic "imperial dreams" in Southeast Asia, and spurning of Beijing's attempt to repatriate Chinese residents of Vietnam to China.

In February 1979 China attacked along virtually the entire Sino-Vietnamese border in a brief, limited campaign that involved ground forces only. The Chinese attack came at dawn on the morning of 17 February 1979, and employed infantry, armor, and artillery. Air power was not employed then or at any time during the war. Within a day, the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) had advanced some eight kilometers into Vietnam along a broad front. It then slowed and nearly stalled because of heavy Vietnamese resistance and difficulties within the Chinese supply system. On February 21, the advance resumed against Cao Bang in the far north and against the all-important regional hub of Lang Son. Chinese troops entered Cao Bang on February 27, but the city was not secured completely until March 2. Lang Son fell two days later. On March 5, the Chinese, saying Vietnam had been sufficiently chastised, announced that the campaign was over. Beijing declared its "lesson" finished and the PLA withdrawal was completed on March 16.

Hanoi's post-incursion depiction of the border war was that Beijing had sustained a military setback if not an outright defeat. Most observers doubted that China would risk another war with Vietnam in the near future. Gerald Segal, in his 1985 book Defending China, concluded that China's 1979 war against Vietnam was a complete failure: "China failed to force a Vietnamese withdrawal from [Cambodia], failed to end border clashes, failed to cast doubt on the strength of the Soviet power, failed to dispel the image of China as a paper tiger, and failed to draw the United States into an anti-Soviet coalition." Nevertheless, Bruce Elleman argued that "one of the primary diplomatic goals behind China's attack was to expose Soviet assurances of military support to Vietnam as a fraud. Seen in this light, Beijing's policy was actually a diplomatic success, since Moscow did not actively intervene, thus showing the practical limitations of the Soviet-Vietnamese military pact. ... China achieved a strategic victory by minimizing the future possibility of a two-front war against the USSR and Vietnam."

After the war both China and Vietnam reorganized their border defenses. In 1986 China deployed twenty-five to twenty-eight divisions and Vietnam thirty-two divisions along their common border.

Chinese Invasion of Vietnam

 

This conflict spread immense dismay among Leftist circles all over the world, the idea of having a Communist state attacking another one was unthinkable.

 

I personally recall this day as we expected the USSR reaction, and pretty much believed a WW3 was about to be unleashed....

 

The excellent Black adder series and "the taken land"

YouTube - blackadder taken land

 

Mikoyan/Gurevich MiG-8 Utka

The unusual swept wing concept intended for new jet planes was to be tested on a conventional propeller driven airplane first. The MiG-8 released at the end of 1945 became such a test bed.

The design proved to be successful : MiG-8 showed fine flying characteristics, excellent maneuverability and good stability. It was used as a liasion plane for several years. Three years later the results of the swept wing flight tests were embodied in the famous MiG-15 fighter.

MiG-8

 

Blackadder is priceless!

 

War Plan Red was a military document outlining a hypothetical war between the United States and the British Empire (the "Red" forces). It was developed by the United States Army during the mid 1920s, and was officially withdrawn in 1939, when it and others like it were replaced by the five "Rainbow" plans created to deal with the Axis threat.

The war was intended to be a continental war, waged primarily on North American territory between the United States and the British Empire. The assumption was that Canada would represent the ideal geographic forum through which the British could wage war against the United States.

War Plan Red - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

War Plan Red was declassified in 1974, and caused a stir in American-Canadian relations; Canada, named "Crimson" in the plans, was to have been the principal target of American forces. Additionally, the UK was "Red," India "Ruby," Australia "Scarlet," New Zealand "Garnet", and Ireland "Emerald."

 

USS Barb weathervane

Presented to Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz by his former aide, Rear Admiral Eugene B. Fluckey, USN, circa the later 1950s or early 1960s. Fluckey had commanded the submarine during World War II.
The weathervane features submariners' "dolphins" at its top, with the five stars of a Fleet Admiral immediately below, and a model of USS Barb (SS-220) as she appeared following her 1954 conversion to "GUPPY" configuration. It was erected in Nimitz' garden at 728 Santa Barbara Road, Berkeley, California

USN Ships--USS Barb (SS-220)

 

LOOKIE here......Even Goring wanted to be a Texan!



His admission was denied due to fears he would eat up all the BBQ in the State.

 

GRRREEEOOOOOWWWW. How did this get here. No intentional hijacking of your Thread. Sorry Kai.

 

Drama in the North Sea (1916)

LUSITANIA's nemesis stranded in heavy fog off Jutland's West Coast

A gray deck-gun at the Strandings Museum in Thorsminde bears silent witness to how close events of the First World War came to Denmark.

The U20 had been aiding another U-boat in a heavy fog when it ran aground off Vrist on the Danish west coast. Many tries to free the U20 failed and the boat sent a distress signal to the German navy's headquarters.Kapitänleutnant zur See Schweiger and his boat's reputation spurred the German Secretary of the Navy to launch a large rescue operation.

A rescue ship and two battleships were sent to rescue and protect the U-boat and its crew despite the violation of Danish neutrality.

English forces had been monitoring the German radio-frequence and were following the German rescue action.

A British submarine was immediately ordered to the area of the stranding.
On the same day it was dispatched, the British submarine succeeded in
torpedoing the German battleship KRONPRINZ WILHELM, while it was protecting the U20.
The torpedoed battleship was forced to leave the area immediately to seek repairs.

The commander of the U20 realized the chances of rescuing the boat were small. To prevent its falling into enemy hands he made the decision to destroy it.


After the rescue of the crew one of the U-boat’s torpedoes was set to explode inside the U20.

The following explosion was so powerful, that wreckage landed up to a mile away from the beach. Many of the Danes, who had watched the drama from the beach, were nearly blown over by the unexpected and powerful detonation. Others sought cover in the tall beach grass.

The U20 had carried out its last mission.



In 1925, the Secretary of the Navy decided to remove the wreck of the U20 for reasons of navigation safety. With the help of 1,322 lbs. of explosives, the historical wreck was removed form surface of the sea.

In 1916, the wreck of the U-boat was nearly on the beach. Today, due mostly to the receding coastline it is over 300 yards from land.

However, at the Stranding Museum in Thorsminde, an 88mm deck-gun and many other effects from U20 witness a time when "The War to End All Wars" came dramatically close to our door.

 

I was reading about Kaiser Wilhelm II of WWI fame and found his full title was:


His Imperial and Royal Majesty William the Second, by the Grace of God, German Emperor and King of Prussia, Margrave of Brandenburg, Burgrave of Nuremberg, Count of Hohenzollern, Duke of Silesia and of the County of Glatz, Grand Duke of the Lower Rhine and of Posen, Duke in Saxony, of Angria, of Westphalia, of Pomerania and of Lunenburg, Duke of Schleswig, of Holstein and of Crossen, Duke of Magdeburg, of Bremen, of Guelderland and of Jülich, Cleves and Berg, Duke of the Wends and the Kashubians, of Lauenburg and of Mecklenburg, Landgrave of Hesse and in Thuringia, Margrave of Upper and Lower Lusatia, Prince of Orange, of Rugen, of East Friesland, of Paderborn and of Pyrmont, Prince of Halberstadt, of Münster, of Minden, of Osnabrück, of Hildesheim, of Verden, of Kammin, of Fulda, of Nassau and of Moers, Princely Count of Henneberg, Count of the Mark, of Ravensberg, of Hohenstein, of Tecklenburg and of Lingen, Count of Mansfeld, of Sigmaringen and of Veringen, Lord of Frankfurt.

Try putting all that on a business card !!!

 

Philippines in the 1930´s

Among MacArthur's assistants as Military Adviser to the Commonwealth of the Philippines was Dwight D. Eisenhower. (Some years later, Eisenhower was asked if he knew MacArthur. He replied, "Know him? I studied dramatics under him for seven years!" MacArthur retorted that Eisenhower was the "Best clerk he ever had".)


Douglas MacArthur - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

West Point

The Class the Stars Fell On

Of the 164 graduates of the Class of 1915, 59 achieved the rank of brigadier general or higher, the most ever in a class.

United States Military Academy at West Point