Military History 2005-03-04

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MlLir-VRV HISTORY MARCH/APRIL 2G05

In World War I, France gave black American soldiers a chance to fight. ONE OFTHE MORE INCONGRUOUS sights to which members of my Ai'my National Guard company of the 29th Infantn Division (Light) have sometimes been privy has been that of yours truly conversing with two comrades in arms in French. Specialists Justin Cleriaer and Aboubaki>' Sy are good troops who have sened the United States longer and better than a good many who were bom there. Their respective biithplaces, however, weie Haiti and Senegal. Both men are historically backed by proud but different fighting iraditions—Senegalese are renowned for fighting alongside the Fiench. while Haitians are best remembered for tighting against them (see Military History, Febmaiy 2002). During World Ware I and II, Senegalese colonial troops acquired a fearsome reputation, although Sy claimed ihat many of the French anny's white commanders did not treat them as equals. That disillusioning revelation stands in curious contrast to the way the French generally behaved toward black American soldiers during World War I. ln the lale summer of 1917, about a quaiter-centuiy before the U.S. Amiy Air Forces experimentally trained black combat pilots at Tuskegee, Ala., Bugene Jacques Bullard, a fonner Foreign Legionnaire lrom Columbus, Ga., earned his militaiy pilot's license and joined E.scadiille N. 93. He was the first (and al the time only) black American combat pilot of the Lafayette Flying Coips (see "Personality" in Militaiy History, February 1996). ln the following year, four regiments of black infantiymen from the 93rd Division, which the American Expeditionaiy Forces were unwilling to commit lo the front, got their chance in the French army as separate entities. Three of them, the 369th, 37Ist and 372nd Infantiy regiments, were attached to divisions of the IX Corps ol the Fourth Ann\, whose commander. General Henri Gouraud, had had ample experience with French colonial units from Afiica and

gave the Americans a welcome that they could not have imagined leceiving fTom iheir white compalriols at lhe time (stoi>, P. 10). The 369th—foi-merly the 13th New York Infantiy—was attached to the French I6lst Division on April 16, 1918, and spent the next 191 days at lhe fronl, during which it earned a regimental Croix de Guerre that still appears on the unit's dress uniloi'ms. Among other distinctions, it never gave an inch of gmund— not even during the last German push across the Marne in mid-July—and its heavy casualt\ list included nol one prisoner. Its band, imder the direction of Harlem musician Lst Lt. James Reese Europe, was so popular' that it perfonned for other Allied units all along tlie front. The 371st and 372nd regiments, attached to Gouraud s 157th Division, entered combat on August 28 and gave equally valorous service at Ardeuil, Monauxelles, Trieres Fann and Monatois before they—and the 369th, which had suRer'ed 30 perxent casualties taking and holding Sechault—^were withdrawn for R'st and ri'constilution on October 6,1918. The fourth regiment, lhe 370lh, formerly the 8th Illinois Infantry, based in the Near Soudi Side of Chicago, underwent .several changes in venue Ix'fore entering combat with the 59th Division in the Oise-Aisne offensive on September 15, 1918. From then until the armistice, the 370th was variously praised for ils aggressiveness and criticized for its slowness. The regiment's inconsistent overall record undoubtedly reflected the inconsistency with which it was handled within lhe Tenth Auny In contrust, Gouraud showed consistent faith in the black r'egiments assigned lo his Fourth Ariny, and ihcy R'lumed the favor. Fur that reason, black pei^sonnel in the current U.S. militaiy have reason to resen'e a place in their tradition for the Fr'ench general \ariously known as "The Lion of Africa," "The Lion of Champagne" and "The Lion of the Ai'gonne." J.G.

LETTERS

THEOLOGICAL WAFFLER

The article "JCing Philip's Ferocious War" (in the December 2004 issue) was marred by the reference to "Roger Williams, Quaker leader of Rhode Island" on P. 56. Roger Williams bounced around quite a bit theologically. At the time he started Rhode Island and Providence plantations he was some sort of Baptist, but later in life he became a Seeker. I have never heard of his being called a Quaker Walter Aardsma Kansas City, Mo.

riage to James Scott, Duke of Monmouth. Wasn't Sarsfield a relative by marriage to James Fitzjames Stuart, Duke ofBenvick? David M. Levy Lawrenceville, Ga.

ously disappearing after 1336 BC. Ancient Egyptian family trees are most complicated, as well as inbred. Michael Rose Wallkill, N.Y.

The editor responds: Yes, in a posthumous DIFFERING CALIBERS way. Patrick's brother, William Sarsfield, In the Vito Marrano interview in the Demarried Mary Walters, the illegitimate cember 2004 issue, I was interested in his daughter of King Charles II and his mis- comment about U.S. Army .30-caliber tress, Lucy Walter, who were also the par- ammunition fitting German rifles and ents of James Scott, Duke of Monmouth. their 7.92mm rounds not fitting American On March 21, 1695, less than two years weapons. I heard this same story years ago after Patrick Sarsfield's death, his comrade-from my father, who was also in the Third Ye editors respond: Regretfully that was in-arms, James Stuart, Duke ofBenvick, Army and at the Battle of the Bulge. I guess indeed an erroneous label. Roger Williams married his widow, Honora de Burgh, who they were partially correct in that the U.S. was not himself a Quaker, though the sadly died herself in 1698. Berwick was the bullet diameter is slightly less than the colony he founded, Rhode Island, offered illegitimate son ofthe deposed King James German, but the cartridge cases are difQuakers—and all others—sanctuary. II, for whom both Berwick and Sarsfield ferent dimensions, and neither wlU chamWilliams founded the first Baptist church, had fought during the first Jacobite Rising ber in the other's rifle. Like Marrano, my father had litde interest in military matbut later distanced himself from all de- of 1689. ters then, as a 20-year-old, and details nominational labels, preferring to call himdidn't make much of an impression. self a "Seeker." In addition to serving as TUTANKHAMUN'S MUMMY Rhode Island's governor from 1654 to I was pleased to see the "Intrigue" article Jeff Riedman 1658, in 1675 Williams fought as a militia on the close of the 18th dynasty and Brookville, Ind. captain during King Philip's War. As such, Horemheb in the December 2004 issue he would see Providence burned and sub- because I am currently reading The Com- HIS PREMATURE LORDSHIP sequently rebuilt before his death in 1683. plete Tutankhamun, by Nicholas Reeves. Victorian conflicts have always fascinated I have noticed a troubling discrepancy, me, especially the Afghan War, as feathough, between Alan Freer's story and tured in the February 2005 issue. FredUNDER THE TUSCAN SON In "Perspectives" in the December 2004 the above book regarding the letter sent erick S. Roberts, however, was not "Lord issue of Military History, author William to the Hittites requesting a prince suitable Roberts" until 1892, when as commander E. Welsh states incorrectly that Emperor for marriage. The article states the letter in chief in India he received his first peerNapoleon of France was from a "petit was written by Tut's widow Ankhesen- age as Lord Roberts of Kandahar After Amun. Yet on P. 23 in The Complete Tut- being promoted to field marshal in 1895, bourgeois Corsican family." Although Napoleon was certainly Cor- ankhamun it states that most likely the he was created an earl in 1901. sican, he was actually the scion of minor letter was written by Tut's "step-mother," In addition, Roberts rose to be comTuscan nobility; Corsica had formerly Nefertiti, after the death of Akhenaten mander in chief of the British army and been a fiefdom of the Duchy of Tuscany, (aka Amenhotep IV, Tut's father). was sent to South Africa to finish the and Corsicans are ethnically and geoTut was the son of Akhenaten's second, Second Anglo-Boer War, in which his only graphically Italian. His given name was lesser wife, Kiya, who, upon taking the son was killed in action and received a actually Napoleone Buonaparte, his throne, restored the old gods of Egypt. posthumous Victoria Cross. Earl Roberts brother's was Giuseppe, he grew up Nefertiti had much to fear, especially remains the only person in British history speaking Italian and spoke French with from all the priests of Isis, Qsiris and to be awarded all three of its highest decan Italian accent (of which he was ex- Amun-Re—the entire displaced priestly orations: the Victoria Cross, the Qrder of tremely conscious) all his life. structure, which had been deprived of all Merit and Knight of the Garter. Paul Silverstone Mario T. Majors, U.S. Navy of its status and wealth by her late husNew York, N.Y. Center for Surface Combat Systems band's Aten worship. She would have Detachment Yokosuka, Japan found herself surrounded by enemies on all sides, the young Tut included. Send letters to Military History Editor, PriFAMILY TIES The Complete Tutankhamun also states media History Group, 741 Miller Drive, I have gready enjoyed your publication the likely probability that Nefertiti was Suite D-2, Leesburg, VA 20175, or e-mail to over the years. In the December 2004 "Per- identified with Akhenaten's co-ruler [email protected]. Please sonality" department, it was stated that Smenkhkare and reigned as pharoah include your name, address and daytime Patrick Sarsfield was a relative by mar- briefly in her own right before mysteri- telephone number. Letters may be edited. 8 MILITARY HISTORY MARCH/APRIL 2005

PERSONALITY One-armed Henri Gouraud, the youngest general of France, was idolized as The Lion of Africa.' Bv Jon L. Allen

IN EVERY RESPECT, THE coast-to-coast American tour was a triumph. In July and August 1923, the legendaiy one-armed French General Henri Gouraud, admired equally by lhe French poilus and American doughboys who had .served under him, was honored time and again. The highlight of the tour for General Gouraud was the July 14-15 reunion of the 42nd "Rainbow" Division in Indianapolis, Ind., to which he had been invited as an honored guest. There he woLikl join several senior American colleagues from lhe Western Fmnt in World War I, including General John J. Pei-shing, former commander of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF); Brig. Gen. Douglas MacAithiir; Colonel William J. Donovan, tjie Medal of Honor recipient who would lead the Office of Strategic Services in World War II; and Father Francis Patrick Duffy, chaplain of the 165th Infantrv Resiment, known in later

years as the "Vicar of Times Square." The esteem In which American troops held the French general was based on his careful preparation lo counter the final German offensive of 1918, and his remarkable personal leadei'ship. 'In one day, Gouraud's name became hallowed with all Yanks," historian S,L,A. Mai^hall laler WI ote, "That is one of the difficulties with armies; there are not enough Gourauds." Gouraud's 1923 tour was his first visit to the United States, but he would return twice more—for a Rainbow Di\'ision reunion in Baltimore, Md., in 1929, and again as an honored guest at the American Legions annual convention in 1930. When the official histon' of the 42nd Division was published in May 1936, Generals Gouraud and MacAiihur wei e listed as peiTnanent honorai"y co-presidents of lhe Rainbow Division Veterans Association. Henri Joseph Eugene Gouraud was bom in Paris on November 17, 1867, the

General Henri Gouraud (right) reviews his troops in Strasbourg on Novembei 22. 1918. This photograph turned up in the family effects of the author's Strasbourg-bom wife. 10 MILITAm'HISTORY MARCH/APRIL 2005

eldest of six children in a family of physiciLins, including his Hither, gmndfalher and great-gi"andfa ther. His mother, the foimer Marie Porlal, was a native of Rouen. Upon completion of his secondai^/ education at the College Stanislas, Gouraud received an appointment to the French militaiy academy at St. C\T in 1888. Following his graduation in 1900, he served for several years in the Sudan, Niger, Chad, Mauritania, Algeria and Morocco, frequently commanding colonial troops. His success in putting down native uprisings, eliminating banditiy and suppressing the slave trade led to rapiti advancement and a nickname among his troops: "The Lion of Africa." At age 32, Gouraud bcciune the youngest brigadier general in thc French amiy, and would later l^ecome its youngest general. During the unification of Morocco, he served under General Louis Huberl Lyautey, who considered Gouraud his proteg^. The future marshal's instructions lo him reflected Lyauley's skill as a colonial administrator: "Show your strength lo avoid using il. Ncvei- enter a village without reflecling that a miirkct should be opened in it next day." When World War 1 bn)ke out in August 1914, Goui'aud assumed command oi thc 10th lnfanti-y Division, but was vvoiindeti in the Ai"gonne Forest. In 1915, following his recoveiy, he was placed in commanti of the aiTny's colonial coi"jis in the Massiges sector. He would nol be there lony. When the Allies launched an offensive against the Turks alGallipoli on April 25, lhe landing force, under the overall command of General Sir Ian Hamilton, was composed of British, Australian, New Zealandcr and French units, later to be joined by Indian rvinfoaemenLs, Gouraud commanded the 70,000-inan French contingent. The French troops landed on both sides ofthe Dardanelles and, like lluAustralians and New Zealander-s at An/ac

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Cove and Suvla Bay, were subject to alniosl constant artiller\' bnmboidment Irom fomiidable Tiirkisli defenses. Gouraud never led Irom tbe tear, visiting his troops in tbe from lines every day and awaiding medals for bravery al mnonligbt ceix'monies. SL\ weeks itito tlie campaign, he was visiting a field hospital near Sed-el-Babr on June 30, when a Turkisli shell e.xploded close to him. knocking bim ovei" a wall and wounding bim for the fourtb time in his au eer. Bulb legs were shattered, and il was necessary to atnptitate bis rigbl eiim. Gout aud's leLupeiatitm was extraordinai"\, Despite tbe severity of bis wounds, in less tban six montbs he was back in action on tbe Western Front as commander ot the Fourtli Army in Ciuimpagne. He wotild lead tbat loire. witb only a bi-ief InLeniiption. from Decemlxrr 1915 tintil tbe war's end in November 1918. Wben the war was going badly for France in December 1916, a cabinet rcoi-gani^.ation resulted in tbe appointment of Lyautey as minister ol war. Gouraud was bighly leeomtnended losucceed him as resident general in Morocco, a post he neither sougbt nor desired. "I cannot qtiit my army," be told Ajistiilo Briand. president of ibe cabinet and tninister of Ibieign affaii^s. "I implot^ you to leave me tTi\ army" Political pressure, bowever, lot red bim to lill Lyatiteys old post from December 1916 Io Jtine 1917, Gouraud returned to France to teassume command of bis beloved Fourtb Army late in 1917. His leadei-ship ability attracted numerous visitoi-s; tbe govemment considered tbe Fouitb Army such a fine mode! that il invariably sent foreign dignitaiies to inspect Gouraud's command. For bis part, the Lion of Afiica, with bis reddish beard and prosthetic arm. was a formidable bost, tbough guests were always welcome at bis table in his headquaitefs al Chalons-sur-Mame. One ally on wbom Gout aud made an impression was General Persbing. As commander of the AEF. Persbing e.\pressed time and again bis unwillingness to commit American troops piecemeal to reinforce Britisb or French forces. The U.S. Congress and tbe Ametican people, be told Marsbal Feidinand Foch, would accept nothing less tban an American aiTny under American officers. Persbing did, however, make a few exceptions, mo.st notably bis assignment of lhe 42nd Division and ibree unattacbed all-black regiments to tbe Fourtb Army. He had the utrnost confidence in Gouraud. and the

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latter never disappointed liim. PeT'haps Gourauds many years in command of colonial lnK)ps had something to do wilh it, but he spenl considerable lime visiting the alJ-black 369th. 371st and 372nd Infanlfy regiments. The 369ths bandsmen, under the dir"eclion ol 1 st Lt. James Reese Europe, were the best jazz musicians in France in 1918, Gouraud doted on them and fully supported theii" activities.

of whai lay ahead. "Gouraud stood with his kepi slightly pulled down over one eye as was his custom," Colonel Henr\' J. Reilly recalled, "erect despite pain in his bad leg and his empty sleeve. He spoke clearly and slowly lo give lime for what he .said to be carefully translated inlo English. None of the Rainbow Division officei-s will ever forget the scene or what our general said." The July 19-20 coimterattack drove the Germans back ovei' the Marne. From ON MARCH 21, 1918, the Germans then on, the only significant offensives launched the first of a series of offensives would be Allied. For the role his troops intended to split the Allied armies, take played in the battle, the Lion of Africa Paris and knock France out of the war. earned a new nickname throughout the Theii' last major attempt came in mid-July. French aiTny: "The Lion of Champagne." Since Bastille Day fell on Sunday, July 14, By September, French and British diMonday would be a French holiday. To visions were making steady headway and take advantage of that, the Germans tinding increasing numbei^s of ill-lmined planned to open an aitilleiT baiTage young recniits among their prisoner. The slioitly after midnight t)n Sunday Their in- AEF numbered close to two miiiion men. lantiy would advance against the Fouith For the final phase of the Meuse-Argonne Army easl of Reims four hours later. offensive in November 1918, Pershing GouiTiud had been forewarned, Prison- could afford to add the 2nd ("Indian ei"S had revealed the planned attack two Head") and 36th {"Lone Star") divisions weeks earlier. Addilional GeiTnan prison- to Gourauds Fourth Anny in Champagne. el's taken eai'iy on Sunday knew the exact Wittiin a week ol lhe slaii of thai linal timing. Gouraud decided to prepane three push, GeiTnan diplomats were offering lo lines of deiense. The liist, lightly held, discuss an end lo the war—-not with took the initial bombardment. Then, France or Britain, but with U.S. President Frt'nch and American heavy guns opened Woodrow Wilson. By then, Turkey and fire 40 minutes before the Gennan bar- Bulgaria had surrendered, while chaos rage was scheduled to begin, concentrat- and revolution were rampant in Austriaing on the forwai^d trenches where German Hungai>. The same seemed imminent in assaLilt tixaops were massed. Germany. At 11 a.m. on November 11, In spite of heavy casualties, the surviv- 1918, an armistice went into effect, ing Germans advanced on schedule al 4 ending World War 1. a.m. Gourauds men in the forward line The liberation of lhe provinces of fired signal rockets and felj back to inter- Alsace and Loiraine, ceded to Germany mediate positions. The advancing Ger- in 1871, was an event Gouraud would remans wei"e then subjected to a deluge of member fondly in later yeai"s. His Fourth massed lulillcry fire as they crossed the 11^ Army entered Strasbourg on November miles to the iieal defensive line. By the time 20, 1918, and on the 22nd he reviewed his they reached it. Brig. Gen. MacArthur ob- soldiers before the Strasboui^ lown hall. ser\'ed, "They were exhausted, uncoordi- On the solemn occasion of t heir pmvince's nated and scattered, incapable of going return to French control, the Alsatians further." The Fourth AiTny soon lelook were delirious wilh joy. For Gouraud, what ground it had given up. The 369th however, lhe h'uits of victon- were soured infanti7 did not give an inch of ground. when he learned that same day of the By Thui"sday the only Germans in front death of his mother in Paris. He reof the Fouilh Aimy's French and Ameri- mained in Su-asboui'g as militate govercan units were either dead or prisoners. nor of Alsace until late 1919. On Friday morning, July 19, Gouraud Following the breakup ofthe Ottoman summoned his senior French and Ameri- empire, confirmed at the San Remo Concan division commander's to a 6 a.m. ference in April 1920, Britain was meeting al Cuperely, rather than publish awarded mandates in Palestine and Iraq, a vmtten message. Their grumbling at while France occupied Lebanon and being called lo such an early meeting Syria. The French govemment appointed aftei" three days of heavy fighting swiftly Gour-aud lo seive as high commissioner subsided as he plainly summarized the of those areas fmm October 1919 to 1923. previous days' events and the challenge His combination ol civil and militar'v re-

sponsibililies posed extiaordinaiT challenges, but during his fouryears in Beirut, Gouraud was able to direct considerable postwar reconstmclion. Harbors in BeiiTjt and Tiipoli were rebuilt and l^oads were constructed between major cities. Gouraud's civil administrators also gave the Lebanese a judicial system, ci\'il service and an education, public health and agricultural infrastructure that would scive them well until the counti^ attained independence on November 26. 1941. During his American visit in 1923, Gouraud received two important cables fiom Paris. Wliile he was in New Orleans. La., news of the death of Pi"esident WaiTen G. Harding resulted in the cancellation ol several events in Gourauds honor. Traveling to Washington on August 7. he placed a wreath before Harding's bier at the White House, then served as ambassador extraordinaire for the French govemment at sei"vices tor the late president. The other cable, from Assistant Minister of War Andre Maginot, reached him in Kansas City, Mo. The cable notified him that he had been appointed militai> govemor of Paris, a post that he would hold for 14 years. After retiring in 1937, the 70-year-old Gouraud lived in an apartment at 90b Rue de Varennes. close to the Invalides. From his windo\v he could see the square in which he had played as a child, as he worked on his four volumes of memoir's. Au Soudan. Mauriianie-Adrar, ZinderTchad and Au Maroc. During World War II, Gouraud slipped out of Palis on June 13, 1940. a day before Gennan troops arrived. He crossed the Spanish frontier on June 24 and spent the remainder of the conflict in Rabat, except for several months in a nursing home in Royat because of his old wounds. On June 1, 1945. he returned to his apartment in a liberated Paris, still filled with mementos and memories of his 49-year career as a soldier. On September 16, 1946, the Lion of Afl ica, attended by his sister MariaThcrcse and his favorite nephew. Major Philippe Gouraud. drew his last breath. He initially rested in a ciypt v^ith French and Ameiican dead fi'om the Champagne campaign, but on September 25.1948. he was inleixed beneath a monument at Navaiin. together with the unidentified remains of many of his troops. The inscription on the monument reads: "Here lies General Henri Gouraud among his soldiers of the Fouith Amiy he loved so much. Pray for them and for him." MH

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MARCH/APRIL 2005 MILITARY HISTORY 15

WEAPONRY Leonardo da Vinci's steam cannon foreshadowed the steam engines ofthe Industrial Revolution, BvNickD'Alto

"WHEN THE WATER HITS the healed

part of the machine," the barely legible handwriting informs us, "it will be tumed into so much steam that it will seem fantastic. This weapon has driven a cannonbaii weighing one talent [60 pounds] a distance of over 6 stadia [about two-thirds of a mile]." Beneath these scribblings in a notebook of Leonardo da Vinci's there is a sketch, apparently rendered in haste, of the Architronito, a cannon operated by the e.xpansive power of steam. The genesis of this unusual weapon and the social and political climate that fostered it reveal much about the changing naiurc of warfare during the Italian Renaissance.

Although best remembered today as the painter of such masterpieces as the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, the multitalented Florentine Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519} actually spent most of his career as a consulting militaw engineer. It was a profession in high demand among the warring city-states of late lSth-centurv Italy. During those unsettled times, the Kingdom of Naples, the Republic of Siena, the Dukedom of Milan, and Florence under the Medicis found themselves in intemiittent mutual conHict. Papa! armies threatened as well, while French, German and Spanish soldiers invaded and fought each other on Italian soil. This was the volatile world of Niccolo Machiavelli, who as Florentine minister of war counseled the princes of Italy and other European states in the delicate ail of navigating the s-vxnrling alliances and cruel politics of the age. Paradoxically, a tyrant of that day might conquer a city by foice of anns only to rule as its leading patron of ails and letters—a soit of Pax Romana with Moiui IASU and

A page from Leonardo da Vinci's notebook reveals detailed notes and diagrams for an Architronito, a deadly steam cannon named for Archimedes, around 150Q. 18 MILITARY I I I S T O m MARCH/APRIL 2005

the

catapult combined. By that same irony. the skills for casting bionzc statuary lor a public square ser\'ed equally well to forge battle cannons. Da Vinci, the intellectually versatile "Renaissance man" of lore, would eventually meld the talents ofthe artist

and the weaponeer and give rise to the period s leading technologv' specialist, the consulting military engineer. Though privately he decried war as "a bestial madness," da Vinci would play a supposing role in combat for most of his career. Men such as Leonaixlo were indispensable to Renaissance-era rulers. Like the quantum leaps brought on by movable type and transoceanic exploration. 15thcentury warfai^e was beginning (o shed its medieval trappings fora more dynamic future. As the old dependence on ballistic siege engines, such as the trebuchet and catapult, gave way to the increasing mobility and superior destRrctive power oi cannoas and moilars, ihc new technology demanded new strategies in siegecraft, defense, battlefield tactics and gener"al strategy. The change is evidenced in Leonardos now-famous notebooks. Leonarxlo's drawings testify that late 15th-centur7 battle technology still occupied a kind of transitional state, halfway between the ancient and lhe new. His ballista and catapult reach back lo Roman arxrhetypes. laid down in the military treatises of Pliny and Vitruvius. The most interesting weapons in lhe notebooks, bowever, incorportilc iiitirristic teaturcs- Astonishingly, Leonardos cannons were breechloading, apparently the finil ol their kind. His pixyectiles were aenxlynamicallv streamlined lo e.xlend their' runge, and girided to their" tin gel by a sophisticated empennage of cros.sud lail lins. His incendiary bombs wea* designa.! lo expl(xle with lethal (and essentially m(xiem) shrapnel on impact. His small anns were lii^'d by the iii'st tlintlocks ever devised. All those innovations were conceived centuries before ihey became commonplace. Equally remarkable, for the Wvi^i time Leonardo's stunning use ol perspective created lifelike r-enderings of comple.x weajxin systems, sufficiently accurate to conceptualize the devices and predict

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their perfonnance entirely on paper, a kind of 15th-cenliir\' computer-aided design. We meet soldiei^ manning a great crossbow maneuvered on six canted wheels. Its 135-foot-span bow is built up from laminated sections, flexed by an ami-lhick liowstring drawn to tbe firing detent by capstans and worm gears. ln another plan, the weight of 20 soldiei"s works an immense ti^eadwheel tbat revolves stockbows aulomatically bclore a sbaipshooter sealed within. Leonardo calculated that 30,000 pounds of thmst would prtiix'l each anow to its tai-gel. And a leviathan dredging machine evinces an audacious battle plan, divei ting tbe AJTIO River in a diabolical attempt to rob besieged Pisa of its supply line to tbc sea. Leonardo's loresigbt is nowbere more evident than in bis revision of cannon technology'. For tbe previous century, most cannons were cast lix)m cupnim (biT)n/e), bui witb ibe primilive boring methods used in the mid-15th centuiT, the hammered stone prajecliles typically fired by tbt'se pieces fitted only lo(jseK d(jwn lhe bore. gi"eatly diminishing their I'iinge and power. Workmen ollen built up !ai"gtrr lield pieces from wrought iron bai^s, welded edgewise and ihen .stayed, ban el-like, by iion boops. Whether ibe resulting bore would even appi'oacb true, given so many separate parts, seems far from certain. Leonardo's improvements to cannon design were many: breecliloading, often through a screw-lbreaded brcecbblock; improved casting techniques to achieve a tigbter-filting shot; water iackets, an astonishingly modern cooling tecbnique to allow guns to be fired more Irequently; and even tbefii^tcartridge, witb cast iron ball, powder cbarge and an ignition primer packaged in a single shell for i cipid loading. Da Vinci also designed an amazing variety ot ligbt cannons, sometimes employing multiple batrcls in revolving rapid-firing designs thai admirably presaged the cart-mounted Gatiing guns of the 19th-centui-v U.S. Amiy. ln all such plans, Leonaixio exhibits the Renaissance spirit of experiment, oflen annotating tbe results of bis experiments or tbe design of test jigs to prove a constmction principle. For example, standard ailillen' texts in Leonardo's day (and even to lhe 17th century) offered inaccurate illusti'ations of projectile flight, depicting an initial diagonal rise, tben turning shatply to complete a nearly vertical fall. B\ obser\ing a pi'opelled perlorated leatber bag spouling jets of water. Leonardo revealed tbe tixie parabolic tra-

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22 MILITAin' HISTORV MARCH/APRIL 2005

jectory of missiles, as well as the relations of force, angle and caiTy—in effect dcdticing iho fifst accurate telemctn^ Hquall\ imptTssive afe Leonardo's tnachine toois for tashioning his improved cannons, which were often highly aiitomalt'd and designed to execute multiple manufacturing sleps through intticale arrangements of dependent gears and linkages. In one scheme, a turbine similai' to a Pelton water wheel energizes a series ul helicoidal geai"s and meshing womis to draw bron/e blanks into tapering metal staves, wliich become edge-weldetl to create an elegantly strong cannon barrel of tme bore. His famous rendering of a cannon foundi-y courtyard depicts the leviathan scale of his new weaponry, inckiding a platoon of men hoisling a cannon banel the diameter ol a man to iis gun carnage on a stiff-legged den ick. The finishing touch was the master's new design for foi-tilications: not the liightowered faii"y tale castles designed to withstand catapults, hut a low, rounded citadel evolved specitically for the new age of gunpowder. A quick sketch depicts one of Lectnardo's bombards positioned at lhe patapct wall, aninng lhe earhest known proposals for mounting cannons within the castle itself. Leonardo apphed mttch of that same insight in ihc development of his steam cantion. Prtibably sketched about 1500. da Vinci's drawings indicate a nan'ow, cast-bronze gun banel. The bore is very long, probably to improve fit ing accuracy in the days belorc rifling. Modem analysis places it at about 7.25 inches in diameter. In place ofa bivech section, a coalfired brazier sunounds thai end of ilubanel to heal the bronze ilself to a verv high lemperatute. A set of injectoi"s then sprays a small quantity of water into the ban^l, just behind the shell. According to da Vinci's notes, the lesulting expansion of supei heated steam would propel the shot with teiTific force. The weapons name. Architrouilo (apparentlv a nod to Archimedes), seems to have been Leonarxio's invention as well. Da Vinci developed the weapon iti three drawings on a single notebook sheet, with two additional constiitction details provided. The first drawing tilts the device toward the viewer to tx'veal the workings of the brazier door. The center illustration delineates the operation ofa square-.section hydraulic screw press that drives the pressurized water through the injectoi's. .A detail of lhe press plunger is provided. Additionally, the cannonbaii is

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depicted in its firing position via a cutaway section of the barrel. Clearly, liic scene is preparatoi-v- to firing, as smoke and Oames are shown already rising through the bra/ier lid. Beneath Leonardo's teree explanation of the device is the final drawing, rendered onl> scheniatically. showing the completed weapon. Da Vinci evidently envisioned the Architronito as a field piece; il is mounted on a traction-wheel gun caniage, with a skid leg to stand against recoil. An additional suppoil extends from the mu/zle end as a kind of foundation block, apparently to stahili/e the nui/zle during firing. Da Vinci s notations of shot and ["ange, as well as his description of the terrific din during firing, suggest thai a pnitot^^pe of his steam cannon was actually huilt and tested in his day—a testament to the zeal with which new fornis of weaponi-y were actively pursued during this ei^a of both desperation and giowth. However, whether operation ol the Archilrouilo ever e.xtended to actual field use by the armies of Sforza, Bor^a or another of the military leaders da Vinci seized during his long career is a chapter iinfoittmately lost ID history. The source of Leonardo's inspiration for the device remains somewhat hazy. He certainly would tiave witnessed the furious boiling of water that occuiTcd while quenching gun bands duiing Ixiring. But while it is obvious that gun hairels become hot during formation and during firing, the willful heating as a means to expand a working iluid (steam) as thefiringagent represents genuine innovation; ofall the Renaissance engineers, no one except Leonardo seems to have considered it. Taken in a larger sense, this 1 .Sth-centui>' weapon i\'presenls more than simply a new way to fire a gun. In hindsight, we can see that Leonardos piston, cylinder and injector arrangement, albeit in a more destiuctive mode, foreshadowed the modern steam engine, a device ihal would energize the Industrial Revolution centuries later. More than three centuries after da Vinci's I'apid sketch. Union forces during the Amei'ican Civil War employed sleamfired light cannons of remarkably similar configuration in successful assaults against Confederate batteries. More recently, the Holman Projectors of World War II also tapped the expansive power of sleam lo fire hand grenades at aircraft, lhe suipi ising offspring of this Renaissance genius. MH

INTERVIEW

hirty-SQven Days in

A 19-year-old Marine survived the entire month-long campaign to secure the heavily defended volcanic island of Iwo Jima, BY JAMES E. PAGE 26 MILITARY HISTORY MARCH/APRIL 2005

O

His left arm paralyzed by a bullet wound, future U.S. Marine painter Charles Waterhouse, who served in the 5th Marine Division, takes cover at the base of Iwo Jima's Mount Suribachi. in Self Portrait ofthe Artist as a Young Man (Colonel Charles Waterhouse. USMC [ret.]].

n Febmaiy 19, 1945. units of the U.S. Maiine Corps landed on Iwo Jima in the Bonin Islands. With campaigns such as Guadalcanal, Bougainville. Tarawa. Saipan and Pflcliu behind them, and Japan ineirievablv on the delensive, most Marines probably went ashore thinking that it would be hard lor (heir latest target, a five-mile-long inactive volcano, to outdo those past ordeals. If so. they were wiong. Even after they raised their flag atop lhe highest point on Mount Suiibachi on Febmaiy 23—an aci thai came lo be a Marine icon—it ttK)k more than a month before the island was declared secure. It cost lhe Amenams 6,821 men killed, 19.217 wounded and 2,648 cases ol combat fatigue, as well as the loss of the escoit earner Bismarck Sea. sunk by a suicide plane on Februmy 21. or the island's 22.000 resolute Japanese defenders, onl\ 1,083 sunived as dazed, shellshocked prisonei^s. Private William Montgomery was barely 19 and seeing his first combat when he came ashore on thefii-stday of the Iwo invasion. In a Septembei" 2003 intemew with James E. Page, lie described his remarkable good fonune of suiviving the entire 37-day campaign without being wounded. Military History: How did you come to join the Maiine Corps? Montgomery: I was a Junior in high school. My father's company had recently transfeired us to Jackson. Miss. Mother was delighted because her parents and b!X)thei"s and sisiei's lived in Mississippi. 1 was hoping to become an Army Air Foi-ces pilot, but a phone call changed my plans. When 1 walked into the room, Mother was silting in a chair, ciying. 1 said. "What happened?" Dad replied: "Son. we just got a call from your Granddaddy Cooper. He said that they received a telegram saying that Collins was missing in action in the Pacific." Collins was Mothers baby brother, 3H years older than I, and the youngest in a lamily oi eight children. Collins was in college when the Japs hit Pearl Harbor, and like most boys his age, he wanted to sign up. He joined the Navy's pilot training program, but they discovered he was colorblind. Then he transfetred over to the Mai"ine Coips, where he became pait of a crew iK ing torpedo bombei-s and was sent to the South Pacilic. After his plane was shot down, neither Collins nor his civw nor the wreckage were ever found. So that did it! I wanted to join the Marines and fight the Japs—for Collins—but I felt I should finish high school. Gi"aduation was June 3, 1944. The next day I went down to the reciTjiting office in Jackson and requested that they huny up with my ordei's. They were glad to oblige, and two days later 1 was sworn in. That same day I boarded a train bound ibr Marine boot camp in San Diego, Calif. MH: You spent 180 da>s of youi' waiiime auteraboard a Ifoopship. What was that like? Montgomery: This was the first "cmise" most of us had ever had, and several days oul oi San Diego a real stomi hit, Our troopship was an old tanker confiscated fn^m Gemiany during World War I. It was unstable in the water, to put it mildly. Even many of the sailore got seasick, and nearly all of the Marines. The trcKjp compartments were large nx)nis, usually on the lower levels of the ship. They were filled with thi'ee oi' more le\'els ol sleeping racks. Metal pipes were framed so that canvas could MARCH/APRIL 2005 MILITARY HISTORY 27

lx; stiietched between them to form beds about Vh feet wide and 6ti feet long. The racks above were so close that we could hardly tum over while lying on them. Blackout drapes covered all the hatches and any other openings to the outside, lt was so hot that many of us frequently took our blanket and lain poncho and found a place to sleep topside. Perhaps we would crawl under a jeep or a truck lashed to t he deck, or we would find a spot against the bulkhead. When the vcvoon was over the Paeifie Ocean and it wasn't laining, the breeze usually was balmy and cool. MH: What of personal hygiene? Montgomery: On most troopships, only seawater was available to the Marines—except drinking water, of coui"se. Often saltwater soap bars were available, but nothing makes a lather with salt water, and the after effect is not pleasant. Washing clothes in saltwater is just about as unsatisfactory as bathing in saltwatei: Frequently we would borrow a Une somewhere, tie 1 he end around several pieces of clothing, tie the other end to the ship's railing and throw the bundle into the ocean. We had to be careful that no sewage discharges from the ship had caught in the clothes. MH: Do you have any other memories of your time at sea? Montgomery: Obviously, there was not a lot for the Marines to do on the ship—oi^anized calisthenics for 45 minutes or an houi" most days and some briefings before the Iwo Jima landing. Some of my troopships had small libraiies. Other than that.

Private William Montgomery upon completing boot camp at San Diego, Calif, in August 1944. Marine training was an ordeal, but Iwo Jima would be a greater one.

above the bottom end, where Suribachiyama, or Mount Suribachi,ri.ses5.S6 feet. The pan noith of the neck slaris rising gradually to Hill 382 (.382 feet above .sea level), then to Hill 362, where the terrain tapei^s down and drops ofi to the sea. Japs were akvass looking down on the Marines from Suiibachi and liom the northern pan of the island. The pre-inva. sion bomhardmenls did lillle I damage to ihe enemy hecause all I of Iwo was honeycombed with :- miles of connecting tunnels and I tniderground rt)onis. The Japs had \ many big guns, which they would % roll out of hiding to lire and then S l-oll back into their eaves and shelters. MH: When did you come ashore? Montgomery: Our 2nd Battalion of the 26th Marines, 5th Division, landed on D-day at aboul noon on the eastern heach. The 28th Mai^ines and most of the 27th had landed and were cutting across lhe neck In'ing to get to the other side nf the island. The 4th Division landed on the nonh half of the beach (right tlank) near the fu'st airfield. We, along with therestof the 5th Di\ision, cut across the 800-yard neck the fii"st day. The 28th Marines turned left to begin the assault on Mount Suribachi; the 26th and 27th Marines faced right to begin the long

'Lieutenant General Tadaniichi ICui'ibayashi decided to hold back n:iucH of His firepower until tHe main forces and supplies started coming ashore/ boredom. One of the fi.in experiences I had aboard a troopship assault up the rest ol the island. The Ili^it few waves of Marines happened on the way from Hawaii to Iwo Jima. We anchored took heavy casualties during the fii>it couple of houi's. However, offshore at Eniwetok Atoll, wiiiting for other ships to rendezvous Ll. Gen. Tadamichi KurihayiLshi. one of the enemy's lop generwith us. Our sliip's captain appai^ently thought that some of the als, decided to hold back much of his lirepower until the main Marines would enjoy a swim before hitting Iwo Jima, so he or- forces and supplies started coming ashore at about noon. On dered five or six small boats into the water, each with a couple most of the earlier island landings, the Japanese tactic was to oi sailors holding Tommy guns, since there were sharks in the attack with evet^lhing they had against lhe iniiial beaeh forces. area. A landing net was put over the side so the swimmers could and thus expend theii' priman lesoutrcs. On Iwo, Kuribayashi climb back aboard. 1 was one of the several dozen Marines who held back early on and made the Marines pay lhe price a lew jtimped or dived overboard. We had a gieat swim. But for some hours later—and for the following month. ol us, it was the last swim ever. MH: What was \'oui' situation after the initial landings? MH: What was your overall impression of Iwo Jima? Montgomery: The day after D-day, oui- 26th and 27th Marines Montgomery: Iwo Jima is an ugly island. It's shaped like a poi k began the push north. By D-plus-4, we were at the edge of Airchop, about five miles long, two miles wide at its widest point field No. 2, whieh was really not veiy far from Suribachi, perin the nonh, and its nanxsw neck is only 800 yai'ds wide just haps a mile. On our left, the ivst of oui battalion was spread out 2H MILITAKV HISTORY MARCH/APRIL 2005

for several hundred yards. On our right, elements of the 3rd Marine Di\'ision, which had just come ashore, were beginning to move out, and 1 could see them dropping, one after another. Aiiillerv shells, mortal's, machine gun and rifle fire were also raining down on our sector. MH: What made the fourth day so memorable? Montgomery: Three of us were lying side by side on an embankment overlooking the second aii-field. 1 noticed puffs of smoke coming out of a cave opening about 300 yards to my left. A Jap machine gun! I fired off several dips of ammunition, and since 1 had tracer shells every third round or so, 1 could see the bullets going into the cave entrance. The puffs of smoke stopped, but the Japs may ha\e seen the tracers also. The aitillen' and mortar shells raining down on us seemed even heavier than the fire we had already been going through. Sergeant Rasmussen told me, "I think my ass is full of slirapnel." He seemed to be bleeding pretty badly. He said he better get back to the aid station. I didn't think he would make it. Shells were dropping near him constantly until he was out of sight. The next time I saw him was aboard ship after leaving Iwo. A few days later, without authoriii'ation, he caught a boat back to shore and rejoined the 2nd Battalion. He was put to work somewhere else, and I didn't run acro.ss him for the rest of the operation. The other man next Members of the 5th Marine Division make the tnost of their opportunity to take a swim to me was nicked by shrapnel and left alongside their troopship off Eniwetok Atoll on Febaiary 9.1945. lor the aid station. Enemy fire was so heavy that the 3rd Division advance was bogged down, and our 26th Regiment just had to dig in been mined commercially on Iwo by Japan. Much of the island for the rest of the day Around midmoming, I happened to tum consisted of hot soil and rocks. There was virtually no foliage— around to glance back at Mount Suribachi. T had wondei ed haw at least while we were theiv. The upper half was all rocky hills. the 28th Marines were doing with their push to the top. Then caves and rocky soil and the stinking sullur fximes and mists. on the top 1 could see an American flag waving in the breeze! The lower half of the island w as all volcanic soil, harxl to dig foxWhat a great sight for all Marines and for sailoi*s aboard ships holes in because as you dig down, the sides keep caving in. In offshore! At least the Japs would stop tiring al us from the high- .some areas the hot sulfur seeping from thcgixjund would cR'atc est spot on the island. Little did we know that this carnage a heavy mass of hot steam vapor lising upwards. In the early would continue for more than another- montli. Later that day, light of day. Marines would be silhouetted crouched over, walkwhen things quieted down a bit, I went back to the "Two fln- ing or mnning through the vapor clouds like Dante visualized lelligence] Section" at battalion and was reassigned to be the the devil's imps moving (hnnigh hell. A surreal image! intelligence scout for E Company. The scout initially assigned MH: What sort of Hi epower did the Marines use on Iwo? Montgomery: All Marines canied hand weapons: the M-1 to Easy Company had been killed that day. MH: You said Iwo reminded you of Dante's hitetTio. How so? Gatand ritle, a carbine, or a 20-pound BAR with bif^XHl. Some Montgomery: In Dante Alighieii's The Divine Comedy, he had pistols. I found a new Jap pistol, bolster and ammunition writes about hell and says, "Alt hope abandon, ye who enter one day in a cave. After wearing i( lor a while, I traded it to here." This typifies the atmosphere on Iwo, iwo Jima was the another Marine for a Colt .45. The Jap pistol had a distinctive Japanese name for Sulfur Island. Before the war, sulfur had appearance—like a German Luger—and 1 didn't want to be misMARCH/APRIL 2005 MIMTARV HISTORY 29

by Navy battleships and ciiiisers ptx)vided more brilliant light and wouid stay in the air longer than those fired bv the 81s. Each battalion had ilamcthrowei*s—a hL'a\\ double tank full ot napalm sirappetl lo the back ofa Marine. Satchel charges looked like backpacks and were full of high e\p!osi\ es, used primarily to seal tip ca\e or tunnel entrances or to blast pillbo.\es or blockhouses. Bangalore torped(K"s and ba/ookas seemed to be used less frequentls, but when a small oix-ning or a Jap \ehicle needed to be de.stroved, the\ could be very eftecUve. The 105mm and l.S5mm howitzers were able to inflict heavy damage once they were able to eome ashore. I even saw a lew smaller 37mm antitank guns, although they werv supplanted by the Marine tanks with theii" 75mm guns. The biggest shells— and I think the most damaging to the enemy—were the 14- and 16-inch shells fired by the battleships offshore- Each ship usually had a "spotter" ashore in the fonvard areas calling back the map coordinates of targets. However, many of these Navy spotters didn't make il back to their ships. The big 16-incli shells also would make great foxholes in open or loose soil. The usual crater's were 10 to IS feel in diameler and about 6 feel deep; the\ am\(\ sheltei six or seven Marines teniponitily. The risk was thai w hen a Jap artillery shell happened to land in the crater, the entire group usually would be wiped out. One large "weapon" that we dreaded to see come near tis were small Uiicks with racks of tulx's holding seveitil Llozen n)ckets, because within a couple of seconds after they left, enemy shells would come crashing down righl where (he trucks had been. Probabl> the mosi Top; An aerial view of Iwo Jima-"Sulfur Island" to the Japanese, "The Hot Pork Chop" to devastating weapon during the campaign some U.S. Marines-on February 20.1945. Above: Pinned down by withering machine were poweiful tiamethrowing tanks that gun and artillery fire from Mount Stiribachi. newly landed members of the 5th Marine could cover an entii e hillside or loll right Division crawl their way up the slope from Red Beach One. up lo big pillboxes and cave entrances and douse them full of burning napalm. Finally. Navy and Marine figliter planes provided their share of taken for a Jap. Most of us in the fon\'ai-d ai~eas eiin^ed a couple pre-ianding attacks. And during llic battle asliore, they and of fragmentation gi'enades and perhaps a pho.sphoms grenade. Every Marine canied his K-bar sheath knife, to open C rations Arniy Air Forces lighters often bombed and stiafed the enemy. and lor whatever else big knives are used for—including self- However, otir fighter planes had to be careful. The island was defense. Each company had its .30-calilier machine gun units. so small and packed with so many men, the fmntUne areas usuThere were the light, air-cooled machine guns that were fired ally were indistinguishable fiom lhe air. from the prone position, or hea\y, water-cooled guns that were MH: Whal types of weapons did the Japanese use against you? fired from a sitting position. Several times I came across Montgomery: The Japs had all the traditional weapons—cheap Marines sitting behind their heaw machine guns with a finger rilles, machine guns, moilars, hand grenades, devastating on t he trigger—they were dead. Each company also had 60mtn cannon lire. Their lew laiiks were ineflective and no match for mortars. The battalion's larger 81 mm moiiars could ptovide the Marines' tanks. They even launched a lew "guided missile.s." de\ astatingfiiepower. The 8 Is also provided an extivmel\' valu- They would go wobbling overhead, sometimes landing on the able weapon—parachute flai^es during the night. Stai" shells fired island, othei"s overshooting and dropping into the sea. Except

^r

30 MILrrARV HISTORY MARCH/APRIL ?005

for the rockets, the Japs were accurate with all of their weapons. Contrary to reputation, many wer'e deadly shots. Many Maiines were shot between the eyes, many in the head right thiough their helmets. One t>pe of weapon ihat kept us on edge constanllv was the land mine. Japanese antitank mines were designed to blow off the treads of tanks, and they were devastating when a man stepped on one. MH: What was day-to-day living like on the island? Montgomery: In February and March, the weather was lousy most ofthe lime—a lot of cold, dir1y rain. We had ponchos, which helped prevent too many soakings. We had been issued a wool shirt, a sweatshirt and all of us had our dungaree tops. When it was cooler, we wore our tight lield Jackets. Of course, we kept our steel lielmets on 99 percent of the time. In fact, when we occasionally took off oiu" helmets, we would feel light- Troops of the 1 st and 2nd battalions of the 26th Marine Regiment and 2nd headed. 1 may have had a pair of clean socks in Battalion, 27th Marines, advance throtigh volcanic ash and scrtibby vegetation m\ pack—1 really don't remember Bul I do le- to secure Iwo Jima's Airfield No. 2 on Febaiaiy 24. member that olher than socks, I and most of the Marines didn't change clothes or take a shower for longer' than a month. We were a scriingy bunch! In most posed to arrive quicker, although I don't think they did. aieas in the nonheni half of the isiand, we would dig into the MH: Did anything have a particularly negative effect on your rocky soil for an hour or so, and if we ever got it deep enough, mor-ale? the bottom wouid be so hot we had to fold our ponchos and Monlgomery: One of the most disturbing—and sad—things place them on the bottom. Other'wise, it was like sitting on a hot ahoui combat is seeing your fellow Marines crack up. That's plate. There were two advantages to this, however. Wlicn thc what we called combat fatigue, when a man who is contintiweather was cold, we had nice heated foxholes. Another was ouslv under intense, life-lhi-eateningpressuR'can't ixinction any that you could bui> your C ration cans in your loxhole for a few longer. Typical symptoms included uncontrollable sobbing, sometimes shaking, a glazed expression, and inability to walk minutes and bingo—hot beans! alone. Whenever we saw a man in this shape, if a medical coipsMH: What did you subsist on? M<»ntgomery: Most of us ate regulaily. Usually we had enough man wasn't near, we led him hack to the aid station. Mosi of i he water, although it was heavily chlorinated. For longer than a battle fatigue 1 saw or heaid about happened to lhe "older" men, month, we ate only C or K rations. K riuions were in a box and those in their late 20s. Perhaps the kids like me were too young usually included a small tin of eggs or potted meat, perhaps a lo know what life was all about and therefore didn't feel as much stale piece oi chocolate and a couple oi small crackers. There pressurv. I do know that typically a Marine wlio cracked up was were three C r-ation menus; beans^most peoples' favorite— not faking it. For tliose men who were aware of what was going stew and hash. Most tried to avoid the hash. Each can had a on, nothing could have been more humiliating than to be led

'We kept our steel helmets on 99 percent of tHe time

When

we occasionally took off our helmets, we would feel lightheaded/ "dog biscuit" just under the lid. These were hard and not very tasty, just like dog biscuits. MH: Did you get any mail? Montgomeiy: Mail from home began aniving after 10 days or so, and was pretty consistent for the rest of the campaign. If shells weren't dr"opping nearby while we were reading our mail, this allowed us to forget the present momentarily. Writing lettei-s was a little more difficult. On Iwo, writing on one-page Vmail forms was the only choice most of us had. The government or post office made a reduced photocopy of the letter and sent it on to the addressee after it was censored. V-mails were sup-

back to the aid stiition sobbing uncontrollably. Many had to be under psychiatric treatment for- years. MH: But most of you just kept going, right? Montgomery: It's amazing that most people can adapi lo almost any condition and circumstance. Some couldn't, but most of us did. We did otrr jobs as best we could, and a few of us even made it off the island in one piece. MH: Were most of the men believers, or did you know some atheists? Montgomery: Were there any atheists on Iwo Jima? Probably so. However, 1 believe that those Marines who had a minimal MARCH/APRIL 2005 MILITARY HISTORY 31

never hit. Why? Mot being hit made me feel guilty. There were many memoriible close calls during my tout-. One especially stands out. About halfway through the battle, f had been standing watch in lhe company command post (CPl and it was time for someone else to take o\'er-. On Iwo, whenever you were in a two-man or more foxhole, one person always stayed awake. Too manv Marines got their throats cut b\' Japs dur'ing the night. 1 climbed out ofthe CP hole and 20 t(t 30 feet away found a naniiw; shallow slit trench about 12 to 15 inches deep, dug into nearly solid rock, so 1 lay down with my rifle alongside the hole. About two leet awa> were two other- Marines in a nice, deep foxhole. I dozed oil and suddenly was awakened by tliunderous noise all over the place^rilles firing hnni all directions, explosions and mircli hollering. I tiled to r-aise up, but (he two guys ne.xt to me wer'e iiring about two inches above me. I couldn't even reach my r'ille. There were explosions all aixjund my hole. After a w hile it quieted down and I dozed off again. Just hefore sunrise, 1 woke up and sat up. The guys next to me weie astounded. They thought I was dead. Soon alter 1 had climbed into my little hole and dozed off. a dozen or .so Japs apparrntlv had drrg out ol a sealed-up cave or undei-gr'ound tunnel and made a dash for their own lines—righi llirough our area. The explosions at my hole were from the Japs thniwing grenades at the Marines r-ight tx'hind n-ie. The grenades did come pretty close—6 inches or so—but I was just far enough below the suHace not to catch any shr^ipnel. Al full da\light, we saw that sever-al live Japs wvw still in OUI" ar^ea. They were huddled in holes, and as we approached them, some would toss oul grenailes, if they had any Iclt. II they didn't, the> scooped oul rocks. Almost pathetic. But at this stage, we had no svmpathy. MH: What do > ou remember of your last da\ s on the island? Montgomery: During the last week or 10 days Ix-loiv sectning Iwo, most of the men in my oirtlit were replacements, some as r'ecentiv as lhe last week or- so. Top: A Japtinese prisoner capttued iioi:ii Hill 165 is brought in by t Several yeai^s ago, 1 learned .something for the Hrst of the 26th Marines. Above: Having survived \wo and the war. Bill Monttime by reading a book by Bill D, Ross, Iwo Jiina: gomery shows his musical side during occupation duty in Sasebo, Japan. Legacy of Vahn "By battle's end, the 2nd Battalion would sulTer the heaviest losses of any outfit in lhe Fifth Division. It had landed with 37 oflicers and 917 grounding in religious belicis implored God to pixrtect them and troops; when the !a.st shot was fired, it had lost 40 oflicei's and hopefully their lellow Marines from death or seiious injury. 1 911 enlisted men, including replacements." A Private Brown know thai alter- a lew days ot near-death experiences, 1 was at joined our- company as a replacement. Brown, a faim boy h-om peace with niysell and with Gotl. Even though 1 did not want South Carolina, was the n-rosi nervous and lerror-stricken to die, I knew that, ior me, heaven was the alternative to life on Marine I ever saw. especially when shells and bullets came close. Earth. That conlidence, 1 think, enabled us to do our jobs morv This is not to say that Brown was not cour-iigeoLis; he wa.s. And effectively. To paniphi"ase thai Wbrkl War fl expression, when he did the Job he was supposed todo. Being the old combal vetI was alone in it, ther-e were no atheists in my foxhole. eran ihat I wa.s—thr^e weeks or so and bai-ely 19—1 kind of took MH: What were some of your closest calls on Iwo? Brown under my wing. Our company was sent out on a linal Montgomery: Often when 1 was in the open and shells started patrol, to flush out any Japs hiding in caves or holes and take c]~ashing near by. I didn't have time to hit the deck. A few times, care of any dead we came acniss. Foi' Marine bodies, we were 1 was literally blasted over- by the concussion and could hear told to drag them to the edge of a dirt road so they could be shrapnel whizzing by. Other Marines with me were hit, yet I was Continued on page 74 MILITARY HISTORY MARCH/APRIL 2005

A

Finding his route through the Alps blocked by a landslide. Carthaginian General Hannibal Barca has his sappers heat a boulder with bonfires, then douse it with wine and vinegar to break it asunder, in a painting by Peter Bianchi.

POWERFUL ARMY STOOD poised to cmss the Ebro River into northern Spain, comprising soldiere h"om many peoples and cultures. Yet heterogeneous as the force was. most all of them wei'e veterans of two decades ot continuous warfare. It wa.s a cohesive aiiny built for speed and shock, and it answei^ed to one man and one will—Hannibal of Carthage. Swift light cavah>' from lhe desert plains ol Numidia screened the main body hom curious or hostile eyes. Past this barrier the army stretched for miles: massed squadrons of Iberian cavali-y and infantry; mercenary Balearic Lslandei^s, trained from childhood in the ait of the sling; archers; javelin men from the tribes of North Africa; mighty elephmils plodding tonvard like mobile watchtowei"s; veteran Libyan speamien—more llian 80.000 men all told. Hannibal Barca of Carthage had brought this anny to the banks of the Ebro in a fateful year, 218 BC. Ten years earlier, the Senate and [people of Rome had forbidden the Carthaginians to cross that river on pain of war. Now nothing could please Hannibal more. The young general wiis i"esolved not only to cross the Ebro but also to conduct an epic mairh across the Pyrenees, on through Gaul, over the Alps and into Italy to threaten Rome itself. The Romans later believed that Hannibal's father, Hamilcar Barca, iiad bequeathed this plan to invade haly to his son. That great general waged a masterlxil gueniila campaign against the legions of Rome in westem Sicily during thc fmal seven years of the First Punic War. Undefeated on land, Hamilcar had been forced by a naval defeat to suirendei" Sidly lo Rome in 241 BC. Bul the end of that war brought no respite for Carthage, whieh was soon threatened by a bloody mercenary rebellion. Hamilcar ultimately defeated thc rebels in 238, but Rome seized the oppoitunity to annex Sardinia and Corsica. That act of naked aggression, lhe Rape of Sardinia as the Carthaginians called ii, convinced Hamilcar that his home city would never know peace as long as Roman power remained unchecked. Once the n?bels wer^ crxished, Hamilau embarked on a new expedition to Iberia to carve out an empire that would replace the lost resources of Sicily and Sar'dinia. Before leaving Caithage. he br ought his 9-year-old son Hannibal to a temple to vow "never to be a friend of Rome." Hamilcar campaigned in Iberia for' nine years, until he was killed in battle in 229 BC. The Iberian command passed to his

34 MH.ITAfO'HISTORY MARCH/APRIL 2005

son-in-law, Hasdriibal the Splendid, but it was Hasdnrba! whom the Romans had forced in 228 BC to sign lhe treaty pledging never to cross the Ebro under arms. Hasdiubal continued the e.xpansion of the Barcid empire in Iberia for eight more years until he was felled by an assiissins blade in 221. The Carthaginian army then acclaimed Hannibal, although he was only 25 years old. as its new commander. So it tell to Hannibal, wilh his younger brothel's Ha.sdrtjbal and Mago, lo cany out their father's plan. Hannibal wasted no time. In two years of hard campaigning he consolidated the Carthaginian hold on southern Iberia and perfected his army. A di.spute with the city of Saguntum. allied with Rome but south of the Ebro, provided the pretext he needed to provoke a new war In 219 BC he laid siege to Saguntum, and atter eight months il fell. Rome sent ambassador's to Carthage to demand restitution and Hannibal's surrender: When the Carthaginian council refirsed. the Roman diplomats offered a cluillenge of wiu'^and the Carthaginians accepted. The Second

OVER THE

omes Gates In 218 BC, Hannihal Barca left Iberia to take the Second Punic War to Rome—leading a disparate 84,000-man army. BYDANIELA. FOURNIE

MARCH/APRIL 2005 MILITARY HISTORV 3S

4

n

Having secured the far bank of the Rhone River against hostile Celtic Volcae. the Carthaginians take extraordinary measures to raft their elephants across, in Hannibal Crossing lhe Rhone.

by Henri-Paul Motte.

Punic War. or the Hannibalie Wai; had begun. In Iberia, Hannibal sent his army into winter quarters and released his Iberian contingents for a final home leave before commencing the great march against Rome. Spies and ambassadors were sent ahead to reconnoiter the route and negotiate with tribal Ieadei"s. Gold and silver helfX'd pave the way. Key lo Hannibal's plan was an anticipated alliance with the Boii and Insubres o( the Po River valley. These Celtic tribes chaied at their recent subjugation by Rome and eagerly accepted an alliance that promised revenge and freedom. For Hannibal, tliey offered a base in Northern Italy and manpower.

9,000 horsemen. Hannibal departed New Carihage (Cartagena, Spain) in lale May. maivhing 290 miles thniugh Iriendly temtoiy to ariive at lhe Bbro by lale June. Accompanying him were Mago, his youngest brother; Maharbal. his deputy; Hasdmbal, the quartermaster general; and Hanno, son of Bomilcar. That gixiup of generals would pitwe to be one ol histoi-y's most talented and capable commarul teatns. Unlike with the Barcid invasion scheme, whieh had hatched over two generations, Rome hurriedly developed war pUins in the crisis attnnt war against Caiihage. The two c{msuls elected sions, he brought Airican conscripts to Ilxfria while for that year (who weie both chief magistrates and dispatching 13,850 Iberian foot soldiere, 1,200 hon^'- generals) would each lead an invasion. men and 870 Balearic slingers for the defense of Publius Cornelius Scipio wiis assigned two legions Africa. An additional 4,000 infantry ganisoned (of 4,000 fool and 300 horse eaeh), with 14,000 allietl Carthage, along with the home fleet of aboul 100 war- Italian inlanliy, l,600cavaliy and 60 warships lodo ships. Hannibal designated his brother Hasdnibal to baltle wilh Hannibal in Iberia. The Senate dishold Iberia in his absence and provided him with patched his colleague, Tilx'rius Sempronius lx>ngiis, the following forces: \ 1,850 Libyan spearmen, 500 to Sicily with a larger force of two legions, 16.000 Balearic slingers. 300 Ligurian infantry 1.800 Nu- allied Italian f(K)t, 1.800 cavahy and 172 wai-ships niidian light cavalry, 450 Libyan heavy cavali>, 300 to prepaiv for' invading Caiihage, in Afr ica. Two adIbenan horsemen. 21 wai elephants and 57 wai'ships. ditional legions with 10,000 allied foot soldiere and Hannibal's army in Iberia reportedly totaled 1,000 cavalry werx? sent to Cisalpine Gaul to overawe 90,000 infanlT-y and 12.000 cavalry, although those the restless Cells. figures most pn>bably included Ha.sdrubars foices By the time 1 lannibal's army crossed the Bbro, lhe as well as his own. The expeditionary force would treaty violation it repivsented was of little consestill number as many as 75.000 foot soldiers and quence, as Carthage and Rome were ali-eady at war.

36 MILOARV HISTORY MARCH/APRIL 2005

Hannibal conducted a lightning campaign to conquer northern Iberia. Hard fighting subdued four major tribes. The coastal cities were bypassed rather than besieged—Hannibal needed to cro.ss the Alps before winter. He had e.xpected to meet a Roman invasion army in northeiTi Iberia, but none appeared by late summer. Hannibal decided to press on across the Pyrenees in August, having co\'ered 180 miles since crossing the Ehro. He gairisoned the newly won region with a detachment of 11,000 troops. At the Pyrenees, he released another 11,000 Iberian troops who displayed reluctance to leave lheir homeland. Hannibal reportedly enter'ed Gaul with 50.000 foot soldiers and 9,000 horeemen. Scipio had indeed hoped to be in Iberia by the summer. In anticipation of Hannibal's anival, however, the Boii and Insubres tribes rase in revolt and ambushed the Roman garrison arm>. The Senate ordered Scipio to dispatch one of his legions, i along with 5,000 allies, lo relieve the beleagtiered for'cc. His invasion had to wait, Meanwhile, the Carthaginian advance into western Gaul had excited alann and hostility among the indigenous Celtic tribes. Hannibal an:anged a meeting with the Celtic chieftains, and after plying them with gifts, convinced them to allow his army to pass through their territory unmolested. Thereafter, the marrh fiom the Pyrenees to the Rhone River, another180 miles, proceeded smoothly Anixino at the Rhone in September. Hannibal's army numbered 38,000 infantry, 8.000 cavalry and 37 elephants. r The Carthaginian army reached a pxiint ;, on the Rhone four" day.s' march from the ^; sea. The Celtic tribe inbabiting the Rhone i Valley, the Volcae, massed on the eastern shore to resist the crossing. Hannibal ordered his men to purchase all available canoes and craft hum the Celts living on the west bank, and set about constructing even more boats. As the multitude of hostile Volcae grew on the far bank, Hannihal realized that a direct assault would likely end in disaster. Therefore, on the third night after reaching the river, he secretly dispatched a detachment of his army, under the command of Hanno, led by native guides on a 25-mile forced march upriver to a suitable crossing point. Gathering a few boats, the column rapidly crossed the river. Many of the Iberians swam across, assisted by inflating the leather bags in which they carried their gear: Hanno pitched a camp on the fai .shor'e and allowed his men a day of rest. Meanwhile. Hannibal openly prepared his amiy for an assault river crossing, fixing the attention of the Volcae Celts. On the morning of the fifth day, he observed the prearranged smoke signal he had been awaiting from Hanno and sent his men into the

water. The lai'gest boats were stationed upstream, lo brx'ak the force oi' the cuirent. The cavalry horses swam behind the boats, tixxjpei-s in the stern of each craft holding lheir reins. Infantn' crossed in canoes and other small cr'aft. Even with the iai-ge number of boats Hannibal had collected, only a fraction of his army could cross in the fii-st wave. As the armada surged toward the opposite shore, the Volcae swamied out of their camp to occupy the beach. From one bank the Carthaginian army shouted encouragement to their comrades in the water; from the other the wild Celts issued their challenge to battle. Ju.st then Hannos detachment stonned into the

rear of the Volcae host while a few of his units set frre to the Volcae camp. A lew ol' ihc Volcae rtished back to save their camp, while the remainder remained focused on repelling ihe amphibious assault. Hannibal brought hisfir-stwave aslioi^e ami launched a vigorou.s attack. The Volcae, undei' attack from two directions, broke and scattered. Hannibal quickly brought most of his arniy across the river, save for a rearguaixl and the elephants. That evening, hf)\ve\er; his .scouts brought unexpected news—a Roman anny had artived at the mouth of the Rhone. Hannibal dispatched a sqtradron ol 500 Numidian cavalxT to reconnoiter the enemy foi^ce.

Roman plans to invade Iberia whiie simultaneously securing Sicily as a base from which to attack Carthage itself were upset by Hannibal's unexpectedly swift march across the Alps and into Italy.

After detaching a legion tu .suppress the Boii and Insubies in Cisalpine Gaul, Scipio had humedly conducted another levy when he received the alaiTning news that Hannibal h^id not only crossed the Ebro but was advancing through the Pyrenees. Scipio decided to sail to the IriendK Greek city of Massilia (modem Marseille), at the mouth of ihe Rhone, which he could use as a secure base to campaign MARCH/APRIL 2005 MILITARV inSTOiO' 37

Hannibal's vanguard comes under Celtic attack in the narrow pass of the upper Durance River valley near present-day Briangon, in an illustration by Peter Connolly.

V:

against Hannibal in Gaul. Five days at sea brought his 24,200 men and 60 ships to Massilia. There. Scipio was shocked to learn that Hannibal's army was JList a lew day s' march upriver. He had never expected the Carihaginians to march so far so quickly. Scipio sent a picked force of 300 cavalry, reinforced with Celtic mercenary horsemen, to scout out the reported enemy.

by Hannibal and Scipio collided. A fierce battle ensued, which the Romans and their Celtic allies won, killing more than 200 Numidians while Icising 160 of their own men. The Romans rode on to obsene Hannibal's camp, then hur-ried back the 50 miles to Scipio's camp lo issue a full report. Without hesitation, Scipio put his army in battle order and advanced to engage ihe Carthaginian host. Hannibal briefly considered offering battle to C. THBIR ELHPHANTS ACROSS the Rhone Scipio's aiTny, but the anival of Magilus, a chief of posed special problems for the Carthaginians. The lhe Boii. convinced him lo make all haste to cross animals refused to board boats or small rafts for the the Alps. Magilus assured Hannibal that the Boii cnjssing. Hannibal directed his pioneers to construct would rise up in fxril strength upon his anival and a number of large rafts. 25 feet square. These were would minimize his ditfrculties in crossing the Alps. lashed together in pairs, and eight paii"s were at- Hannibal arranged a mass a.ssembly of his amiy so tached to the bank, lorming a pier 50 feet wide and that Magilus and his delegation could addtess the extending 200 feet into theriver.Two additional rafts troops and encourage them with promi.ses of aid and were attached to this pier and connected w ith tow- suppori in Italy. Hannibal then started his infanti-y lines to boats. The ?"est of the elephants had reftrsed marching north while his cavalrT screened the rear. Scipio's anny an*ived at the Carthaginian crossing to venture onto boats in the l'iver, so the pier was disguised as di^v land, covered with dirt. The elephants site to lind an empt\ camp. Hannibals rear guard were led by two compliant females across the pier had departed three days earlier. Scipio was not keen and onto the raft. Then the rafts were cut free and to pursue the Carthaginians into the trackless towed across the river. The elephants panicked at wildemess. so he marched his anny back lo tiic fir"st but eventually crowded toward the center of the coast. He now had to make some harxi decisions. The raft and made the crossing safely. The proeess was Senate had ordered him to invade Iberia and repeated a number of times, and though a few of the engage Hannibal, but Hannibal was well on his way frightened elephants fell into the water, even they to Italy. Scipio reaehed a strategic decision that proved to managed to swim actoss. Meanwhile, the reconnaissance foaxes dispatched be one of the most important of the war He dis-

38 MILITARY HISTOIO' MARCH/APRIL 2005

patched the bulk of his army under the command of his older brother, Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio, to cany on with the invasion of Iberia. Publius Scipio himself ha.stened back lo Italy. He planned lo take command of lhe Roman troops already in Cisalpine Gaul. With that aiTny, he would engage Hannibal when, or if, he emerged from the mountains. MLIANWI III.I:, Hannibal piessed on toward the Alps and his < . destiny. After marching lour days, the army reached the conlluence of the Rhone and Iskaras (either the modern Isere or Aygues) rivers. This area was known as the "island," hemmed in on two sides b> r'i\ers and on the third by moirntains. There, Hannibal intenened in a local tribal succession dispute between two brothers. With Hannibal's aid the elder brother, Brancus, became chid. In gratiuide, Biancus provided the Carthaginian army with rations, cold-weather gear, guides and escorts. The next 10 days' marching was unevenlful. ll had been 160 miles fix)m the Rhone crossing to where thc Carthaginians rx'ached the Alps in mid-Oclober: They now entered the tenilon of the lleree imd I^K)Werful Allobroges Celts, who were vehemently opposed to allowing any foreign army into theii lands. The Allobroges occupied the high ground dominating the trail inlo the moirntains. Hannibal halted his amiy and sent out his scouts. They discovered that the Allobroges only manned their outposts during daylight, returning to their villages each night. After dar"k, Hannibal dispatched light infantry to occupy the key positions. At dawn, as his army iidvanced into the ra\ine, the hostile Celts, scr"ambling to get into position, were dismayed tofindCarthaginian infantr"\' already occupying the high gr-ound. The Allobr"oges hesitated, unsure of what couree to follow. Nevertheless, when they observed the long column, str-ung out and vulnerable, they couldn't r-esist launching an attack. The Carthaginian column was thrown into turmoil, with many of the beasts of burden stampeding, fiannibais light troops counter-attacked, routing the Allobroges below them, but thai only added to the confusion. Both sides suffered heavy losses as men and beasts fell from precipitous cliffs or were ir-ampled or cmshed by falling i"ocks. Hannibal's lighl infantry puT"sued lhe broken Allobroges back to their \'illages, capturing food and supplies to make good some of the losses. Hannibal rested his army for one dav and restored

order. The Carthaginians were able to march on unmolested for the next thi'ee days. Then the elders of another mountain tribe came out lo meet Hannibal v\ith gifts and promises of aid. The genertil leniained suspicious, but some of his fears were allayed when the Celts provided bim food, hostages and guides to

lead them through the next portion of the mountains. At first all seemed well, bul the treacherous guides led the Carthaginians into a steep ravine where their wanioi's waited in ambush. Hannibal, having foreseen that possibilily, had placed all his cavalt> and baggage at the head of the column, while his inlantr> brought up the rear: When the ambush was spiTjng. the cavahy and baggage column gol through with few losses. The infantiT had some har^d fighting, but it was the lerr'ain itself, and the boulders rolled down from above, that resirlted in lhe most casualties. Hannibal eventually brought his anny through the ambush.

A fanciful 19th-centui-y English lithograph emphasizes the incongruity of African elephants making their way through the fresfily fallen Alpine snow, which proved as hazardous to Hannibal's men as it was to his beasts.

This proved to be the last major' attack the Carthaginians faced, as the higher moirntains were spar-sely populated. Yet .small bands continued to beleaguer- his army with occasional raids and skirmishes. The elephants proved their worih during this leg of the mairh, as the tribal vvanioi>; leared to e\en approach the strange beasts w herever they werx- stationed along the column, From here on. however, nature itself became the enemy. Soldiei^s bom and bred in the sunny lands of Aliica and southcm Iberia suffered iionibly hom the bitteicold, short rations and thinning air—and then the snow began to fall. On thc ninth day since entering thc Alps, the army reached the summit and Hannibal set up a camp to r'est his wcai>' men for two days. Stntg^lers and pack animals continued to wander into this camp, following the columns tracks. The snow was falling heavily. MARCH/APRIL 2005 MILITAIO'HISTOm' 39

Publius Cornelius Scipio Minor defends his wounded father dirring the Battle of the Ticinus River in 218 BC. Like Hannibal, the younger Scipio wenl on to a more distinguished career than his father's. He finally defeated Hannibal atZama 16 years later.

and the aimy was in low spirits. To restore courage and ix'solve in his men, Hannibal brought them forwajxl to a point from which they could .see the lirsh green plains of the Po Valley in Italy in the distance. Thoirgh the going was now tlownhiii. it did nol become any easier for Hannibals tired, hirngn trcxjps. The slopes were actiralls' steeper on the Italian side of the pass, and fresh-fallen snow on top of compacted ice made for extremely treacherous footing. Many e.\hausled soldier's fell and slid to the side of the trail. Stjme were too tiivd to get up at once, and many were never to rise again. Adding to the difficulty, a lar^e portion of the trail had been blocked hy a landslide. Thc Carthaginian scouts could discover no detour. Hannibal was for'ced to send his sappers to work. They cut tluxjugh a gr^'at Ixmlder.fii"stheated wilh bonfires and then doused with wine and vinegar. A nan'ow trail was cleared in a day, and the hor-ses and mules were rushed across to reach fodder below the iree line before they succumbed to starvation. Two more days of labor were required to widen the path enough for the elephants, and then the vest of the infantw followed. The Car'thaginians had covered another 140 miles on this last leg of the march through the Alps, br'inging the total journey to nearly 1,000 miles. They finallv reached Italy in late October, live months after

MIt.lTARY HiSJ'OKY MARCH/APRIL 2005

departing New Cailhage and 15 days after entering the Alps. Hannibal now took stock of his army. A mere 20.000 infantn and 6,000 cavaln remained, but these wei e the hai'diest of men. veterans of brutal eonllict with man and nature. IN ROMP..Till: SI-NAII: WAS Stunned. All had expected to fight this wai- in Iberia and Alnca, but now a Carthaginian army was in Italy. Hannibal had seized the initiative, and Rome's leadership, unhinged by this boll from the blue, could only react. They canceled the invasion of Africa and or'dered Consul Sempronius to bring his army from Sicily as quickly as possible to reinforre Scipio. While Hannibal's ai'my was approaching thc Alps. Scipio had iTrshed to Cisalpine Gaul to take command of the two legions and allied troops stationed there. Scipio knew he was outnirmbered hut reasoned that Hannibal's arTn\ musl be in miserable condition alter crossing the mountains. He also knew that any hesitation to engage the Carthaginians would lead the Celtic tribes into widespread defections, so he hastened towirr d Hannibal's ivpor'tcd lo cation. Hear the Ticinus Ri\'ei; Scipio led out his 2,000 cavalr\' and 4.000 light infantry, seeking the enemy. After a brief rest, the Carthaginians had recovered enough stamina to mareli once mort;. Betore moving

Wliick Pass? EXACTLY WHICH PASS Hannibal used to cross the Alps has Iwcn a controversial qirestion for more than two millennia. The Greek historian Polybius (circa 200-118 BC) pei'sonally r'etr-aced the route a few decades after the Second Punic War. He punided a detailed account of the crossing, bul unfor-tunatelv there ar-e not enough landmai'ks referenced to fix the pass with certainty. The later Roman historian Titus Livius. or Livy, (59 BC-17 AD) wrote the only other significant survi\ing account. By his day, the question of which pass Hannibal had crossed was already a matter of lively debate. The versions of Polybius and Livy agree in gener'al. yet there are subtle variations in the details, complicating precise identification of the pass. Many factors have been analy/.ed, especially distances and ten'ain configurations. The summit must have a view of the Po Valley. The Carthaginians secure another mountain pass in tfie course or uieir Alpine trek, in ilic faking pass should issire into the ter- of Thelesia by Hannibal and His Army, by Benedict Masson. ritoiy of the Taurini tribal homelands. The pass must be of sufficient elevation to account for year-round snow. There the Mont Genevre (1,850) and the Col de la Traversette (2,914), must also be a flat, open area near the summit large enough for A recent survey of 24 modem historians yielded the following an anny of 30,000 to encamp. results: Four chose the Little Saint BerTiar'd, six selected the Amazingly, based on these same two accounts, historians and Mont Cenis, five designated the Col du Clapier and three named scholars have never" reached a consensus. Along with the schol- the Travei'sette. Napoleon Bonapaile declared the Mont Cenis ars, generals and emperor-s have advanced their own pet theo- as Hannibal's mute. Per haps only the discfwery of archeologiries. Five Alpine passes have been considered most often. From cal remains may someday settle the issue, Until then, each sucnorth to south these iuv the Little Saint Bernard (ele\'atit)n 2.188 ceeding generation of historians will be free to champion its meters), the Mount Cenis (2.083), the Col du Clapier (2,482), claim regarding the one tiue pass. D.A.E

against the Romans. Hannibal staged a display of gladiatorial combat. He brought Celtic prisoners, taken in lhe Alps, belore the amiy in chains. Hannibal asked the prisonei-s who would be willing to engage their fellow prisoners in moriiil combat, the victor winning freedom and rich prizes, the loser finding an end to slavery in death. All the prisoner-s excitedly begged for- the chance. A few pairs were chosen by lot and foughl to the death befoi'e the assembled army. Then Hannibal addressed his men, explaining that

this display was a vivid representation of their own situation. They too were offered the same choice: vietoi-y or death in battle. Or did anyone think it would be possible to retreat tlie way they had come? Conquer or die, and the prize was the wealth of Italy laid out before them. The Carthaginians clamored to be led into battle, and Hannibal obliged them. Hannibal preceded the column with his 6.000 cavalry and met Scipio's forxe at the Ticinus. The Carthaginian cavalry was not in the best condition, MARCH/APRIL 2005 MII-ITARY HISTORY

Soon after completing his crossing of the Alps. Hannibal defeats the first of many Roman amiies sent against him, in The Battle at Ticinus. by Giulio Romano. In December 218 BC. he finished a remarkable year by routing the combined forces of Consuls Scipio and Trberius Sempronius Longus at the Trebbia River

but it still proved more than a match for Scipio's conscript hoi'semen and light infantry. Thc Romans were routed, and Scipio himself was wounded and near-ly captured. Only a heroic charge led by his 17year-old son and namesake saved the wounded consul. That same youth would one day defeat Hannibal at Zama and earn the title "Alricanus." SCIPIO \MU. HACK TO m e n ground on the Trebbia River, awaiting the anival of his colleagire. Hannibal allowed Sempnmius' army to link up with Scipio's on thc Trebbia. He needed a decisive victory' quickly, as it was alr-eady December and well past the usual campaigning season. For his part. Sempranius sought a glorious victory before his year as constrl came to an end. ilannibal chose the time and the place for the coming battle. He fii-st placed his brother Mago with a detachment in ambush. His soldiers ate an early breaktast, then warmed themselves before fires and rubbed down their limbs with heiited oil. Hannibal sent out his Numidian cavalry to provoke the Romans, and Sempronius ordered his entire aiTny out of camp^without breakfast. The Numidians led them back through the freezing watei^s of the Trebbia River and onto Hannibal's cho.sen grT)und. Hannibal's army had grown to 28.000 f(X)tsoldiers and 10,000 horsemen as Celtic recruits str*eamed in. Sempronius' army comprised 36,000 infanti'v and 4,000 cavaliy The Roman legionaries, wet, eold and hungiy. launched a frontal as.sault. Hannibal's cavalry, spearheaded by elephants, quickly routed the out-

hi MILITARY HISTORY MARCH/APRIL 2005

numbered Roman hftrsemen, then Hanked the Romiui infantiy while Mago's picked force stiTrck thL-ni in the reiu: Hemmed in on all sides, the Romans lought on. Some 10,000 leglonaiies cut their way through the Carthaginian center and reached safety. Nezurly all the remaining Romans were killed or captured. Hannibal had achieved the decisive victoiy he sought on the Trebbia, the culmination of his great maixh. Over the next two years Hannibal's aiTiiy wouid blaze a histoiic path of one glorious victory after anothei' over the legions of Rome. Thr ee consuls and a master of horse were humbled and tens of thousands of Romans were slain or captui'ed at the Battles o\ UikcTrasimene, Geroniumand Hannibal's irltimate tactical masteipiece, Cannae. Although the Carthaginians would ultimately lo.se the Second Punic War, for 16 year's Hannibal's army in Italy seemed invincible. His crossing of the Alps, which so unnerved the Romans at the start of the wai; would also capture the imagination of generations to come. Hannibal had ehallenged not only Rome but nature itself, and even the Alps could not defeat his will. MH An inielligence analyst at the Defense Intelligence Agency and a U.S. Army Reserve officer, Daniel A. Fonmie has written on the Punic Wars lorpcuit Issues o/ Military History: Fur further reading, he recommend.';: The War With Hannibal, M' lit us Livy; Hannibal's March, hy Sir Gavin deBeer; and Hannibal Crosses the Alps, by John Prevas.

Th

MILITARY HISTORY MARCH/APRIL 2(10fi

War

For 10 years warlike native tribes in the northeast beset and eluded Australia's white settlers—until a final confrontation in 1884. BY GREG L BLAKE esistanee by indigenous peoples lo the unwelcome exploitation of theh- lands by Europeans was a constant feature of 19th-century life. Whether it was on the Great Plainsof the Anieriean West, the rolling veldt of southern Airica or the limitless expanse of Australia, native people struggled to preserve their ancestral lands and cultures against the remorseless advance of white settlement. The stories of the resistance offered by American Indians and by indigenous Africans have been well documented, bul less is known of the struggle against white invadere by the Aborigines of Auslralia. Beginning with the establishment of theirfirstpemianent settlement—a penal colony at Sydney cove on Januan 26, 1788— white settlci's came into constant conflict wilh Ausu^ias native inhabitants. Most clashes were caused by the settlei^s' craving for land, which increased dramatically duiing and afler the gold mshes of lhe 1850s. As a result of eonstant depredations by fixintier settlers and indigenous peoples' own lack of immunity to introduced diseases such as measles and smallpox, the aboriginal population of eastern Australia declined dramatically in the fii'st half of the 19th cenluiy By the 1860s, in addition to communities along the Swan River in western Australia, the permanent white settlement of the southeastern and eastern fringes of the continent was well established. As white settlement expanded, adventurous souls among the population looked be\ ond the frontier lo the vast open spaces of the Outback, as the largely une.xpiored hintcE'land oi lhe continent was called. Among the mf)st land huugrv of those people were lhe drovers, whose enormous herds of cattle and sheep had become a primaiy source of ineome for the Australian colonies. Driven by the need to find more and more giiizing land for their animals, the drovei-s continually pushed the frontier. The drovers were a rough. harcl-]i\ing fraternity whose attitude loward the aboriginal inhabitants had been conditioned by biUer experience and deeply entienched Victorian-era attitudes of contempt for races and cultures other ihan theii- own. It was not uncommon for frontier whites to treat the Aborigines little different than vermin, shooting ihem on sight and poi.soning their waler holes. Although some tribes did put up spirited resistance, the settlers' guns, horses

and R'lentless pressure always prevailed. Queensland occupies the entire northeasteiTi comer of the Australian continent. In the 1870s it was one of the six self-governing Australian colonies. To v\ hites. vast regions of westeni and northern Qtieensltind remained "unoccupied," and pressure Lo move into those areas was always piesent. The climate of northeni Queensland, however, was tropical and diffictilt for whiles and their animals to tolerate. The region was iilso densely forested and the home of vcn- warlike tribes, compelling the settJere and iheir herds to push westward instead of to the noith. By 1874 significant numbere of whites had reached the area where the modem towns of Cloncuny and Mount lsa stand. Thai region was the homeland ol lhe Kalkadoon, who had tx:cupied lhe craggv mountains and ranges of hills there for tens of thousands of years. The Kalkadoons were a piX)ud, warlike people who had over the millennia established a feared reputation among the neighboring tribes. Their tribal sign was lhe crane's loot, which, when cai-ved or scratched on rocks, was used both to mark their territorial boundaries and as a wamine to their enemies. Unlike

Left: A native of Queensland displays tribal decorations in 1860. Right: Sub-Inspector Frederick Charles Urquhart with members of the Queensland Native Mounted Police (QNMP). who brought a 10-year war with the Kalkadoon tnbe of that region to a climax. MARCH/APRIL 2005 MII.ITARY HISTORY

Lefl: Cattle and sheep fouling their waterholes during lhe dry season drove the Kalkadoons into an escalating war against white settlers in their territory in the early ia70s. Right: Members of the QNMP prepare for a patrol in the bush in the summer of 1863 {Illustrated London News}.

things, such as metal axes and knives, were readily accepted, but fireamis posed a problem. Although the Aborigines had made limited use of iireaiTns since Lhe earliest times of white settlement, they never did so in any great numix-is. For one thing, they considered the lireann a white man's vveapfin and pail of his magic. Another rea.son was that until the introduction of bieechloading weapons, the often unreliable single-shot muskets and shotguns of the w hites offered no real advantage that would compel the Aborigines to abandon their own perfectly lunctional weapons. The lack of easily available fireamis and the continual problem of maintaining an adequate suppl\ of ammunition were also crucial factors in keeping do\\n the number of guns in aboriginal hands.

most olher aboriginal people, the Kalkadoons acknowledged a war leader who was capable ol directing and coordinating lheir various clans in times ot emergency. In the 1870s and 1880s, that leader was known as "Mahoni." although whether that was a tille or a name was never recorded. The Kalkadoon wairiors were generally leported as tall, well-buih men averaging about 6 feet. Like other native Australians, they possessed an almost uncanny affinity with the land and environment in which they lived. The Kalkadoons thrived in regions where whiles would perish. The weapons of war used by the Kalkadoons were Li-aditional to all native Australians. The backbone of their arsenal consisted of a throwing spear that—with the assistance of a woonera, or throwing stick—could translix a man at 70 yards, and a 12-foot lighting spear thai w^is olten wielded in both hands, Other effective weapons included a fighting pole made ol fire-hardened wood shaipened at both ends, the hardwood )udhi nulla tlirowing stick, the stone a\ or club. Hint knives, shields used to pan> blows, a wooden two-handed "sword" thai was often about 6 feet long and sharpened on both edges, and a large war boomerang, which was not designed to retum and was either thrown or used as a cutting t(K)l. [ 'nlike indigenous peoples ofother continents, Australia's were culturally quite conseivative, and theirleadei^s carefully considei"ed new technologies hefore adopting them. Useful and durable ili MII.ITARY HISTORY MARCH/APRIL 2005

he Kiilkadoons had their first Heeling glimpse of white |")enple in 1861, when ihey shadowed the transcontinental exploratoi> expedition led by Robert O Hara Burke and William John Wills as it crossed theii" land. At the time, the young Kalkadoon waniors wished lo attack thc explorers, but older men. leaiful of the camels that accompanied the expedition, pei"suaded them to let the strangers pass. As it was, Burke and Wills perished in the Outback, and no more whites came the Kalkadoons' way until the early 1870s, when small numbers of prospectors searching for copper liegan lo establish ihemselve.s in the hills on the eastem edge of their country. The prospectois were happy to keep to themselves and pulter about among the hills, and ihc Kalkadoons did not bother them. The situation changed, however, when the fii'st drovers and their herds began to appear. In northern Australia there are two distinct seasons in the year. During what is called "The Wet," from December to April, rain often falls in lorrenlia! amounts. During "The Diy," Irom May to November, viriually no rain falls, and freshwater mountain springs and open-range water holes become es.sentiai to sunival—for both humans and livestock. When the drovers' caltlc and sheep used lhe watci- holes, the\ invariably muddied and soiled them, and before long tiie Kiilkadoons began killing any animals they found. The settlere' response was to shoot any Kalkadoons they found near their herds. The Kalkadoons' reaction was to ambush and kill isolated bullocks, as well as lo kill and cat growing numbers ol cattle and sheep. With the situation rapidly getting out of hand, the seltlei-s called on the authorities for assistance, and before iong the gov-

emment of Queensland had dispatched contingents of the Queensland Native Mounted Police to the disli'ict. Raised for lhe sole puipose ol combating "wild blacks," as the \\ hites called hostile aboriginal tribes, the QNMP was itself made up of natives recmitecl fiom the southern colonies of Victoria and South Wales. Owing no kinship loyalties to the northern tribes, the QNMP mcmbei"s were expeii in tracking and ambushing other Aborigines and ruthless in their treatment of an\ who fell into their hands. Each trooper was mounted and uniformed in a blue coat, white trousere, leather boots and a blue kepi that was often covered with a while havelock. The colonial authorities considered it inappropriate lo issue revolvers to natives, but each Irooper was aimed with a .577-caliber Snider-Enfield breechloading carbine. Officers and noncommissioned officere of the QNMP were always white and were often British army personnel .seconded to the colonial authorities, aimed with revolvers and a sword in addition to the carbine.

bushed them while they were feasting on the drovere' cattle. In the light that ensued, 12 Kalkadoons were killed imd the resi tied into the hills, piii-sued by the QNMP and settleis. The chase eventually eame to a halt at the base of one of that counti^-'s innumerable ixKky crags,ft-omatop which the Ki\lkadoons hurled insults down at their punsuei-s. The Kalkadoons had esiablished many such slrongpoinls throughout the hills, and large numbers of crags were well stocked with piled sLones and other weapons for just such an eventuality. Attempts by the QNMP and settlei"s to force the Kalkadoons down from their natural loilress proved faiitless, and even attempt to scale lhe crag \s.as met with a hail of stones, spears and boomerangs. Fmstrated and dispirited by their inability lo strike at their surviving foes, the QNMP troopers and .settlei^ ix)de away. Emboldened by his people's success, the Kalkadoon Mahoni gathered a large foice of waniors to attack a homestead at Sulieman Creek. The ensuing fight was a debacle for the Kalkadoons. who were themselves suiprised by settlei's, resulting in first major clash between the Kalkadoons and the 300 waiTioi"s and lheir dependents being killed. QNMP occuired in December 1874, after the Kalkadoons In following months, lhe Kalkadoons reverted to the tactics killed four w hite drovei-s w ho w ere sw imming in a water of ambush and suiprise, and before long they made life so mishole. Their bodies were mutilated, and it seemed that the erable for the settiei-s that many whites refused to leave their Kalkadoons had taken some of their victims' kidney fat to use homes imless they could iravel in heavily armed groups. The in ceremonies. In the subsequent pursuit, lhe QNMP and a Kalkadoons became mastei's at di.stracting their enemies and posse of settlei-s tracked the Kalkadoons responsible and am- would often stage attacks at one end of their tenitoiy vAxh the MARCH/APRIL 2005 MILITARY" HISTORY 17

object of drawing the QNMP and armed settlei^s away from their true targets. One favorite tactic was to appear before a homestead fi'om which they had tricked the men out on a wild goose chase and. keeping beyond rifle range, cook a bullock in plain view ofthe settlei's' women. So successful was the Kalkadoons' strategy that some setders began to abandon their herds and homesteads. Ultimately, however, that initial success would prove to be the Kalkadoons' undoing. For yeai"s newspapers published articles expressing grave concern about the danger the aboriginal tribes posed to the continued settlement of Queensland's northwestern frontier, and delegations of settlers began threatening to take the law into their own hands unless the Queensland government did something about the worsening situation. One of the most vocal was Alexandei- Kennedy, a Scottish immigrant who in 1877 established a homestead on Sulieman Creek he called Buckingham D(jwns, followed by another called Carlton Hills. Kennedy made a habi t of violating Kalkadoon sacred places and water souixes while calling for the natives' exteimination. Bowing to the intensifying public pressure, the government dispatched a troop of the QNMP to Cloncurry: The force's commander, Marcus de la Poer Beresford, was the son of naw commander and Consei"vative member of Parliament Charles William de Ia Poer Beresford, Marquis of Wate:*ford. and was serving w ith the QNMP to gain some experience in the colonies. On JanuaiT 24,1883, Beresford and foui- ti-oopei"S were in the McKinlay Ranges, tracking down a paity of Kalkadoons suspected of killing a white settler, when their quan^ attacked them at their camp. The well-armed QNMP men soon turned the tables and took several prisoners, who meekly submitted to being herded into a nan'ov\' gully. The police then fenced in iheii" captives, with the intention of holding them overnight and taking them to CloncuiTy the next morning. Beresford, inexperienced as he was in the ways of his enemy, had no way of knowing that hidden in the same gully in which the Kalkadoons were coaalled was a previously stored cache of weapons. That night the waniors broke out of the improvised prison and massacred all but one of the patrol, i ncluding Beresford, w hose brains were dashed out by a blow from a nulla nulla. The surviving tixx)per, wounded by a spear that passed thn^ugh his thigh, crawled and stumbled some 20 miles to an outstation where he raised the alarm. The nearest police were 250 miles away in the town of NoiTTianton, and by the time a rider reached them and they responded to lhe attack thc Kalkadoons were long gone. For 12 months after thai victorv, the Kalkadoons reigned supreme in their territory. They hunled herds and killed isolated settlers and prospectors at will. Drovers were unable to tend iheir herds, and cattle began running wild over the range. Homesteads became virluiil foiti^esses, with fuing loopholes cul into doors and heavy window shutters, from which settlers ventured forth only when absolutely necessary. The QNMP troopers in Cloncuiry, deprived of effective leadership and hobbled by having their hoi^ses ixm off by the Kalkadoons, sulked in their baiTacks in a mutinous mood.

O

nce more underpressure to take action, the Queensland authorities appointed Sub-Inspector Frederick Charles Urquhart to take command of the QNMP in Cloncurty His arrival signaled the beginning of the end for the Kalkadtron people. MILITARY HISTORY MARCH/APRIL 2005

A dour taskmaster, Urquhart wasted no time in instilling order and discipline into CloncunVs QNMP. He sent out parties of men to round up the police horees and began to mouni regular patrols through Kalkadoon country. The Kalkadoons soon became aware that a new police commander had anived, and one night one of their warriors, wearing full ceremonial paint and regalia, entered CloncunT and appeared suddenly out of the darkness before one of lhe town's Aborigines. The warrior delivered an ultimatum for Urquhart, taunting him to come into lhe hills where, in the words of the terrified gobetween, the Kalkadoons would "make all together finish same as Beresford." Frederick Urquhart was not a man to ignore such a challenge, and he responded by establishing a police outpost deep inside Kalkadoon county. Soon alter, iiis ltx)(jpers encountered a band of waniors who lied into the bush following a brief fight. Numerous similar clashes followed, but in spite of Urquhari's efforts to suppress them, the Kalkadoons continued to wage a succe.ssfu! gueniila war againsl the whites. One victim was wealthy landowner James Powell, the discovery of whose disemboweled corpse enraged the settlers. A lai^e posse of QNMP and settlei^ rode forth to seek revenge on Powell's killei^. So contemptuous of the whiles had the Kalkadoons become that they disdained taking even simple precautions—the party responsible loi' Powell's dealh had left a trail of his personal possessions scattered along behind them that made it easy for the police and setllei^ to track the peipetratoi"s and approach wiihin ritle range betore being v\'ere discovered. The fight that ensued was a chaotic affair in which Powell's business partner was almost drowned in a creek before his Kiilkadoon assailant was shot dead. Mosi ofthe Kalkadoons escaped, however, hurling insults and mocking taunts at their purSuez's before vanishing inlo the hills. In the months following Powell's death, the ONMP and settlers swept through Kalkado
T w e l v e m e n . w o m e n a n d c h i l d r e n of a n uiiideiUifled Q u e e n s l a n d t r i b e in llic itSBOs disfjlay typical w e a p o n i y , lillk: i,:h,iiuji;il iivi.:i

several thousand years but still deadly when combined with tlie Kalkadoons' clever use of the local terrain. open plain at the fool of what became known as Battle Mountain. Making sure not to go within speai' range, Urquhart .summoned the Kalkadot)ns to surrender themselves "in the Queen's name." Derisive laughter and a shower of rocks greeted his demand, and without turther delay Urquhart signaled his men to charge. The 200 horsemen spurred their mounts forward and raced to the base of the hill, where they dismounted and began to work their way slowly up the steep slopes, shooting any Kalkiidoon who showed himself. As they did so, slones, boomerangs and )mlla nullas skipped and clatteixxl off the ixxks aix)und them, and more than one ofthe settlers fell seriously wounded. Urquhart himself was kn(x:ked unconscious when he was hit in the face by a hard chunk of lennite mound thrown at him by a wanioiwho emerged from behind a rock. A QNMP Inxjper shot the wartior as he was preparing to finish off Urquhart, then canied the officer down the hill to saiety. Seeing Urquhait and the other wounded men being canied to the rear, the settlers losl heart and withdrew lo gather in a disgnintled gi"oup at a safe distance. The Kalkadoons, ecstatic at having apparently driven off the whites, began to sing and dance to celebrate their victoi"y. Down al the base of the hill, lhe seltlers stcxxl about wondering what they would do next until Urquhart regained consciousness and reassumed command. Splitting his force into two parts, he sent

one gTX>up around to assault the Kalkadimns' stmnghold fmm ihe rear. The resumption ol the attack by the whites seemed 10 surprise the Kalkadoons, who ran around in apparent confusion on the hilltop. As they did so, they presented easy targets for lhe settlers, who shot many of them.

W

hat followed was to mark the fight al Bailie Mounlain as the giratest single cUuih between aboriginal waniore and ai'med whites in the long histoiy of eonllict belween those two groups. Wilhout seeing any obvious signal to do so, Lhe K:ilkadoons suddenly fonned up in dense masses on lhe lop of their hill and descended tovv:u-d Uiiquhart and his men. When they a-ached the base of the hill, the warrioi's fonned orderly ranks, then brandisliing their long wai speare and their nid. black and ochre-.sUiped corkwood shields, they suited foi^ward. The whites had never before seen a spectacle like il—^nor had they ever befoie l?ecn pivsented with so many gotxi tiirgets at once. Each one oi the settlei's, who were usu:illy armed with a breecliloading or lever-action caibine. a shotgun and at least two revolvers, took careful aim. A iiisillade of gunfire felled scores of Kalkad(X)ns. bul still ihey came. When they could take no more, the wanioi-s reliix;d to the base of the hill. But then, instead of Continued on page 76 MARCH/APRIL 2005 MILITARY IHSTORY

Prince Ruperts Year In 1643 King Charles Is young Royalist champion, Pnncc Rupert of the F^hine, made a serious bid to take London and end the English Civil War. BYJOHNWOOLFORD

MII.1T\RY HISTORY MARCH/APRIL 2005

T

HE WINTER OF 1642-43 left both the Royalist and main army from Oxford, the Royalists would take the capital Pariiamentaiian contenders with the sobeiing real- and the war would be over. ization lhat the English Civi! War would be a long That grand strategy may also have been Ihe brainchild ofthe one. At the tirst engagement at Edgehill on October enei"getic Prince Rupert, but it had opponents among the older 23. 1642, Prince Rupert of lhe Rhine, already a veteran ot war and more cautious Cavalier generals. A similar problem woLild in Europe despite his youth, had reintroduced the massed have beset Oliver Ciomwell on the Parliamentary side had that chai-ge brandi.shing cold steel to the English cavalry, and in so amateur wairior been a less forceful character. But Cromwell doing driven the Parliamentarian horse from the field. The was also 20 years older than Rupert. Roundhead infantrymen, however, had solidly stood their Although Rupert was genei^ of the horse, nobody knew quite gix)und, saving the day by impaling the Royalist foot with their how far his authority e.\tended. In spite of his brilliance and even !6-foot-long pikes. At Brentfoixl on November 12, Prince Rupeit liis battlefield experience, Rupert was too young—23 when the had driven the Parliamentarians back to Tumham Green. Only wiiv began—^to comniiind obedience from patrician Roralists such the massed ranks of 24,000 Londonei-s drawn from the Trained as William Seymour, 1st Mar-quis of Hertlbrd, who was in his Bands had prevented him trom pushing 60s, and whose half-brothci, Robert DevereiLX, 3i-d Earl oi Essex, on to take the capital. Had he done so, it commanded Parliament's main army. The 70-year-old Patrick would have meant nothing that Parlia- Riithven, Earl of Forth, nominal commander of the Royalist-s after ment held the seaports. East Anglia and the death of Robert Bertie, 1st Earl of Lindsay, at Edgehill, was the North. To hold London was to hold actually an enthusiastic supporter of Rupert's, but Heitibixi could England. Little could King Charles I have not abide the prince's restless inventiveness. King Charles himknown when he ordered Rupert's forces self was too full of different schemes and thus too indecisive to back rather than attack the Parliamen- assert authority over his own forces, let alone the whole country. tarian reinforcements that he had forfeited his chance to win the war there and INTHH NORTH, WEALTHY William Cavendish, Marquis of Newthen. But the next year would bring him ciistle, was anoiher stately figure who declared for the king. more ripe opportunities. Fomiing his own white-coated anny, he was competent, brave The caide facts, that there was now a and slow on the battlefield. In 1643 he managed to drive Ferdireal war on and that London was prob- nando, 2nd Lord Fairiax, and his son. Sir Thomas Fairlax, out ably one-thii-d Royalist, pei^suaded John of Leeds and Bradfoixl in Yorkshire, and occupied York. He then Pym. the undisputed leader of the House moved south into Lincolnshire, where be was checked by of Commons, to agree to negotiate with Cromwell and the cavab^y ol the Eastem Counties Association. King Charles. An emissar\' Irom the king None of those events was vital—it was in the south of England airived in London in January 1643. As that the war was nearly won and lost in 1643. Parliamentai'y commissioners entered As the Januan snows melted and the king and Parliamentaiy Oxford to discuss peace on FebiuaiT 4, commissionei"s spart'od across the conference tables of Oxford, however, they were ti-eated to the sight of Rupert gained more elbow room for lhe Royalists. After taking the remnants of Cirencester s Parliamen- Cirencester he levied a tax of 4,000 pounds sterling per month tary ganison being marched through the on the local genti-y to pay for the war. That was \ itaJ to the Roystreets as prisoners. Prince Rupert had alist cause, because Pailiament, with the trade of London and captured the town two days before. the navy s support behind it, could raise loans "on the public While in London, the Royalist envoy faith," a phrase .soon to be derided by Cavaliers and Roundhad told the Venetian ambassador that heads alike. The masterly John Pym, who would have been Charles ijitended to send one aimy into prime minister if the name had been invented, boriowed the Kent while another stixick from York- Dutch word accijs, anglicized to "excise,' and levied a purchase shire southward into Essex. They would tax on most goods in areas under Parliaments control. join hands across the Thames River, Drawing on the wealth of London and the southeast was strangling London's trade and cutting off going to win the war for Parliament unless the Royalists could supplies. Then, with the arrival of their spring a sudden victojy However, it was at f^unceston in Cornwall in the winter of 1642-43 that Sir Riilph Hopton set in train the events which nearly gave the Cavaliers that sudden victon. From left. Prince Rupert. Prince Maurice Back in December I, 1641, Hopton, as a member of Parliaand James Stuart. Duke of Lennox and ment, had ciuiied the Grand Remonstiixnce, listing Pariiament's Richmond, plan the Royalist forces' grievances against the king and proliibiting him from appointnext move, in a painting by William ing minister without Parliamentary coasent, from the House Dodson (National Photographic of Commons to King Charles—who rejected it tlij-ee weeks later. Library/TTie Image Works]. Now Hopton was being charged in court at Launceston w ith MARCH/APRIL 2005 MILITAR\'HISTORV 51

Below: King Charles 1 leads his supporters in storming the Parliamentarian stronghold of Bristol on July 26. 1643, a success that helped bring the Royalists tantalizingly close to victory. Inset: At heart. Parliamentarian statesman John Pym was as opposed to compromise as the king he sought to defeat, but he died of cancer on December 8,1643.

disturbing the peace, to which he replied by showing a commission signed by lhe Marquis of Hertford, and by announcing tothejuiA' lhat he would "assist them in the defence of their liberties and against all illegal taxes and impositions." Not surprisingly he was acquitted, called out the posse comitatus and with a lew hundred men marched off to wan Cornwall, normally sympathetic lo Parliament and Puritanism, had declared lor the king. Hopton was soon joined by Sir Bevil Grenvilleand Sii- Nicholas Slanning, as well as 2,000 fighting men. On JaniiaiT 19, 1643, they oven-an a Pailiamentary force at Braddock Down, taking 1,000 muskets and four cannons. Prior to that development, the Marquis of Heitfoi-d had been forced lo abandon Somei"set by retreating across lhe Bristol Channel into South Wales. Now, however, if Hopton and Grenxille, both pn)fessiona! soldiers who had seen fighting in Europe, could bring lheir troops around the head of lhe Bristol Channel and meet Hertfoid's men .somewhere around Bristol or Bath—and if they could keep tbe command out of 52 MILFTAKV HISTORY MARCH/APRIL 2005

Herllord's crotchety hands—they could join Rupeii's cavalry and conquer the south of England right up to Suffolk and Kent. The ne.\t move by Hopton, Grenville and Slanning, however, was still dictated by lack of space—they moved against Plymouth and E\eter with foires that were loo small. The RoyaJists feared thai Parliamentan gairisons in those two places would raid Comvvall as scHjn as the fightitig Comishmen moved farther east. Alt ihniugh the war, lhat fearofPariiamentao garrisons in lhe hearl of Royalist territon was to hold back lhe Cavaliei"s almost as much as actual Roundhead victories. On April 25, 1643, Hoptons amiy, now comprising 3,000 foot and 600 horse, was ambushed above Oakhampton on the noiihem edge of Dartmoor by a ParliamentaiT force led by Sir George Chudleigh. It was a eonfused Bght in a blinding storm, and the Royalists lost almost all that tiiey had won al Braddock Down: 1.000 muskets and five ban els of gunpowder. Hopton reorganized swiftly back in Cornwall, and on his way to Devonshire he caught the new Parliamentary commander.

Henry Grey, 1st Earl of Stamford, on the liill that looks toward the sea near Slreitton on May 16. A hea\'\' chafge by the Ca\"aliers won tbe day, and the caplured Chudieigh promptly accepted a commission in the king's arm\. Hopton marched on through Taunton in Somei"set, reaching Chard in early June. Hertford had acted with unusual professionalism by marching oul of Oxford in the compan> of Ruj-ieit's less glamorous brother. Prince Maurice, in May, and they met Hopton at Chard. Here was the nucleus of a fonnidable Lirmy, since Maurice had 1,500 hoi"ses and Hopton now commanded ai least 6,000 men, including at lea.st 2,000 cavaliymen. Suddenly, Parliament was in gi'eat dangei'in southern England, Meanwhile, on April 20 Rupert had swooped down on Lichfield, north of Birmingham—already known as a center of ironware—and took it with VWIIiam Cavendish, Marquis of Newcastle, before Bolsover Castle. Leading his own the aid of mines and hajtd grenades. white-coated amiy, he enjoyed successes in Leeds and Yorkshire, but the North Having opened a channel of temtoiT proved secondary toward deciding the outcome of England's civil war. through which to communicate with the North—where the iirepressible Queen Henrietta Maria had anived from Holland with 2 million pounds in cash and loads of sup- ford and Grenvillc held a council of w^arand agi^^d lhat Hopton plies—Rupert was recalled to O.xford by a shriek from King should continue in command. On July 3, Hoplon pushed his Charles that the Earl of Essex was about to take Reading. troops across the Avon at Bradford, and after a skirmish he Rupert supervised the fortification of Wallingford and Abing- camped for the night. Waller guessed con'ectly thai Hopton ron, and then considered the problem of Bristol, which was also would make for the iidge ol Lansdown Hill noithwe,st ol Bath, and he seized it before dawn. That moniing Hopton curved being held by Parliament. around to occupy Marshfield, getting astride the main Bristol WHILE ESSEX SLEEPILY DIGESTIID his conquest of Reading— road in an attempt to draw Waller off ihe hill, fnstead. Waller and a string of small successes by Cromwell in East Anglia went filled lhe lanes and clumps of woodland on the hill's northem unnoticed—another Parliamentan genei'al, Sir Willia^m Waller, face wilh musketeers. was sen! to the west with a .scratch force. Although he had been The Royalist.s had little choice but to storm Lansdown Hill defeated by Prinee Maurice at Ripple Eield, north of Tewkes- on July 5. At fii-st their cavaliy was stopped by musket fire, then hury, on April 13, Waller subsequently had entered Hereford thrown into disorder by Waller's hoi .se. Then a peculiai- change against little resistance, and his paLrols severely battered Hert- came about, conjuivd forth by sheer courage. The Comish Inford's ix'ciiiits in South Wales. In view of those succe.sses. Par- fantnmen had stood like sentries by their pikes at the foot of liament, with desperate optimism, dubbed Waller "William the the hill until Waller's gims smote them from the hilltop. Then, Conqueror." Then, while in Gloucester, Waller heard that suddenly, thc Comishmen marched in blocks straight up the Hoplon. Hertfoid and Prince Maurice had joined hands at hill, their pikes driving in Waller's inlanUA before them. Twice Chard, and that the junction of Royalist lorces that he was sup- Wallers hoi-se, backed by cannon fire, drove the Cornish Royposed to prevent had actually taken place behind his back. alists back and twice the Comish infantmnen, shouting that Waller t(jok up an uncertain position near the Roundhead gar- they wouid "letch those cannon," re-fomied. and with Girmille rison at Bath, and the wai" patised while he e.xchanged letter's with at their head and musketeei's on their Hanks they charged again. Hopton, an old friend from the House of Commons. Hopton Upon reaching the ridge they fomied a square, "standing as proposed a meeting, but Waller declined, though he added that upon the eaves of a house," as one spectator put it, and at last God knew "with what a sad sense 1 go upon this service, and the Royalist cavaln' and musketeers cleaivd the crest. Thai night w ith what a perfect hatred I detest this war wilhout an enemv." Waller drew off to Bristol, leaving the Royalists with .500 cap"We are both upon the stage and must act those parts lhat are tured muskets and 14 bairels of gunpowder. assigned to us in this ti-agedy," Waller concluded dolefully. "Let The cost of victon, however, had included Sir Btnii Grenville, us do it in the way of honour and without personal animosi- killed al the height of that gi'eat charge. His loss deprived the Cavties." Waller would live loseetheRe.storation in 1660 (which by aliei^s of the man who might have done lor iheir infanuy what ihen he wanted), but Hopton would die in exile in 1652. Rupert had done foi" their cavalry Eiirthemiore, the Royalist After that exchange of civilities in June 1643, Hopton, Hert- force was not fit for flirther combat, whereas Bristol was able MARCH/APRIL 2005 MILrrARV HISTOKV 53

to

of May th-^^oocke^ ^tipa^^tes ypon ihcLor^d^ day &y t/ie Jtuna^man- in triepCa^ce. xo/lere tfie /T/i

at

Above: With London in Parliamentaiy hands, the public hangman bums The Booke ofSportes at St Paul's Cross on Sunday. May 10, 16^3-a Puritan gesture repeated at the Royal Exchange. Below: Sir William Waller's Parliament-coined sobriquet of "William the Conqueror" proved to be prematurely bestowed at the Battles of Lansdown Hill and Roundway Down in July 1643.

If) make ycxid thc Roundheads' Io.sses, On July 7, Waller marched out of the cily and sought new battle with Hopton, who, having been wounded by an exptuding ammunition wagon at Lansdown, had retreated toward Devizes to ponder his next mo\'e. On Julv 9, Piince Maurice exchanged sword .swipes with Wallers cavalry while lhe bulk of the Royaiist^i remained in Devizes. Waller amassed his guns on Roundway Down just to the north. Hopton, though wrapped in bandages, dominated the council of war and insistetl that he would hold De\ i/.es wliile Prince Mauiice, Heilford and Robert Dormer, 1st Earl of Carnarvon, ix)de to O.Ktbrd for help. They left Devizes that night with Hoptons cavalR, as if retreating Lo Salisbun, then made a sudden sweive and taced to Oxford. They anived on thc afternoon of July 11 to find lhat Rupert was off escorting the queen througli the dangerous Midlands. With unusuii! efliciencv, Han^ Wilmot and Sir John Byron (an ancestor of the 19th-centut>' poet) got 1,800 soldiers ready to leave for Devizes that same niglii. Manlice n>de with them, but the elderly Marquis of 1 leiiford wa.s not equal to another night in the saddle. Al 3 p.m. on July 13. Maunce, Wilmot and Byron were in sight of Roundway Down. By then Waller had penetrated Devizes' outer defenses, bul Hopton gained a lew houi"s—while his men slept^by offeiing to negotiate with his old friend. Waller had agreed, confident that Essex could deal with any Royalist cavaln that mighl come from Oxford—until suddenl\' they were ihore, forcing liim lo turn, leaving a small rear guard to watch Devizes. MlLITAin'HtSTORY

MARCH/APRIL 2005

Wiimot charged on Roundway Down that afternoon, followed by Byron—there was no need to do so more than once, as the ferocious Comish infanti"y immediately sallied out of Devizes. Waller's troops, though still outnumbeiing the Royalisis, bolted from the field, leaving all tlieir cannons anti 1,400 pi isoners. It was the most complete Royalist victory of the war. While "William the Conqueror" made his way to London to complain that lhe Earl oi Essex had ahaiidoiied him. Prince Rupeit—hii\ing escoiled tiie queen safelv inlo Oxtord—made for Bnsiol. Aniving on July 23, he found the port invested by Hoptons Western Army, of which he took command. On the 26th Rupert launched two colos.sal assaults from noilh and south, and in spile of hcav\' losses to the Comish infanliT he was master of England's second city by nighllall. This sudden, rapid succession of Royalist triumphs sel Parliament back on ils heels. Charles came to Bristol. Ptwle, Dorchester and Weymotith sunendered, and wilh Bristol's shipping in his hands il .seemed as though the king had won the war. Peace talks at Oxford earlier in the year had broken down in spite of the offer by some Parliamentarians that if thc king would compromise, they would undemiine and ultimately out\'ole Pym. Tolerance towaixl Puritans, for exampie, could be exchanged for allowing bishops to keep iheii' fxjsition in the Chuich of England. Moderate members of the king's paily, such as Edward Hyde, ui^ed Charles to clincli the deal, but llie king refused. Oueen Henrietta Maiia, who had made a dangerous and successful joumc\ back to England acrt)ss the North Sea hxim the Netherlands, sent hei- husband

urging him not to make peace with Parliamentan- traitors. Charles regarded his sovereignty as sacrosanct. He saw no dishonor, no inconsistency in stringing Parliament along, while at the same lime he negotiated w ith lhe Scots to bring an army of ProLostanl Covenantei's to his aid, and with ttie hish to support Mm witb a Catholic anny. His more sober advisere, such as Hyde and Lucius Cary, Viscount Falkland, knew of his negotiations with Parliament, wilh which they Jigreed wholeheartedly, and of his talks with the Scots, with which they agit'ed moR' cautiously. They knew very little of his negotiations with the Irish, with which they would have llatly disagired. Because of his lack of consistent policy, King Charles could not make peace. Because of his faith in imminent victory, he was happy to make war for the rest of lhe year. In London Pym ct^eated a Parliamentarv war cabinet, the Council of War; but was at his wits' end to counter the dcniiinds, fanned by Waller, lor Es.sex's it'signation. Cmmwell urged Parliament to raise anoiher 7,000 horse. Negotiations foi" a Scottish alliance gol under way. Thc war was about to swell until il engiilfcd ail of Britain, for Charles was busy instructing his viceroy in h^eland, James Butler, Earl of Onnonde, to seek a tiiice with the Irish Confedei-acy and to send all the troops thus freed to England. Meanwhile, after afierceargument the Royalist commanders decided, against Rupert's adviee, to seize Gloucester. Po.ssessing it would enable them to protect the suirounding countiy against raids by such Parliamentarian gairisons as still existed in the west, and with their home ground seeurc, the Comish infantn' would be more likely lo take the London road in stride. COLONEL EDWARD MASSEY, the defiant Puritan govemoi" of Gloucester, was the same age as Rupert and had held a commission in the king's amiy in 1640. In 1642 he had laken Parliament's side out ol fear of the increasing influence oi Catholics in the king's senice. When Charles anived betbie Giouceslci" on August to, he lound young Massey in a heroic mood, which did much to iniluence Parliament to take steps to support him. Essex threw olf his lethargy, re\^iewed the Trained Bands on Hounslow Heath, and with some 15,000 of them marched lor the Cotswolds, winding through the hills to Gloucester. Meanvv hile, Massey held his ganison together, oi^anizing women ciuning pails ol water to douse fires caused by Royalist gienades, and ui^ing the men to pack earth against the wails lo sti engthen ihem against cannon (ire. Ruperts suggestion that Royali.sts stoi-m the city was overruled, so he mined beneath the walls. On August 24, h-om a beacon on a hill to the north, Miissey leamed thai help was coming. That nighl, heavy rain flooded lhe mines and collapsed some of Rupert's galleries. On September 5, Esse.x reached Prestbuiy Hill outside Cheltenham, from which he could seethe spire of Gloucester Cathedral. When hefii'eda citnnon and heard an answering shot like Top: A banner of the Parliamentary army depicting King an echo, he knew he had ariived in time. The ne.xt moiTiing his Charles' supporters, both Church of England and Catholic, as troops marched thtxjugh the drizzle past abandoned Royalist a multiheaded apocalyptic monster. Above: Wounded in a tR'nches into Gloucester. skinnish with Prince Rupert's cavalry, John Hanipden is helped Most histtidans regard the relief of Gloucester as the turning off Chalgrove Field on June 18,1643. He died six days later. point of the English Civil War, but the Royalists were to have one more chance olvvinning it in that same month, September 1643. The campaign had turned, as it had after Edgehill almost bring it victory. In August it had sent Sir Henry Vane to Edina year earlier, into a race for London. burgh by sea to negotiate an alliance with the Scots. Parliament If Essex retiimcd to London befoie the kings forces, Parlia- and the Scots proceeded to double-cross each other with amiment would be safe for another year, and another year might able cynicism. The Scots feared that Charles might try to again MARCH/APRIt. 2005 Mn-ITARY HISTORY 55

extra ammunition and powder to come from Oxford. Again, as at Gloucester, he was oveniiled. On the morning of September 20, Colonel John Hampden's regiment of Essex's army occupied Bigg's Hill just south of Nevvbuiy Having secured their flank, the Roundheads pushed their infanti-y between the town and Wash Common. Details of the ensuing battle are still obscLire, but in 1643 the area was a maze of muddy lanes, thick hedges and vegetable gardens. The country was no more fitted for cavalry than Normandy's bocage country was suitable for tanks three centuries latei: Rupen's Cavalien> were unable to break in upon the Parliamentai'y infantry, furiously though they tried. One who tried perhaps too hard was Loi d Falkland, the philosophical moderate who apparently sought to compensate for his image as a man of peace by behaving fearlessly on the battlefield—until he was killed leading a vain ca\'Liliy charge at a hedge lined with Roundhead infantry. The Royalist artillery was short of powder, as Rupert had warned, and was not able to shoot a passage for the horsemen. Royalist losses were heavy, and although the Parliamentarians were incapable of taking Newbui^ at the end of the day, they at least had held their ground. After the exhausted combatants of both sides had slept through the night, at dawn on the 21st Essex listetied for cannon fiix* and heard An engraving by John Lightbody of the Battle of Newbury on September 20. 1643, none—the Royalist guns were silent. in which Rupert made his last bid to destroy the Parliamentary army under Robert Unimaginative but calm, Essex knew Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex, and open the road to London. what to do. He an^anged his infantry along the roads south of NewbuiT and surrounded them with his cavalry. He force episcopacy upon them, as he had done in 1640-42, and then led his tattered-looking aimy eastward, pausing to evacuthey also hoped that their aid to Parliament would enable them ate the Reading gairison along the way. Parliament, relieved to to foixe Pi'esbvlei'ianism on England. Vane agreed lhat religion have its soidiei-s home, i^lie\'ed that Gloucester was safe and rein England should be I'eformed, but oniy "according to the word lieved that the wa?" had not been losi, lined the streets of London ot God." whatever lhat might mean. with cheering crowds as Essex and his men marched in wearMeanwhile, on September 15 Essex left Tewkesbury, as if ing laurels on their hats. making for Worcester. At dusk, however, his men turned south One of the most moderate Parliamentarians, Bulstrode and marched through thc night to scatter the Royalist ganison Whitelocke, \dewed the Battle of Newbury with mixed feelings at Cirencester. Wilh astounding energy he made for the Biistol- at best. "All were Englishmen," he lamented, "and pity it was London road at Cricklade, then headed for the Thames Valley. that such courage should be spent in blood of each other." Rupert rushed around looking for King Charles and Lord Whitelocke was one ofa group thai included Hyde and Lord Forth. He found them, according to legend, busy over a game Falkland before the war. They were what would now he called of caixls somewhere in the Cotswolds. He luged them to bring constitutional monarchists, wanting the king to be bound by along the infantry while he suirled after Essex with his cavalry. Parliament on the thorny question of taxation, while retaining Through the night of September 18, he raced south through dti- the powers of initiating or rejecting legislation in general. ving rain to Newbui^. getting into the town iwo houi's before Charles never understood what they were talking aboul. alEssex arrived the next morning. Charles came up wilh the in- though his great personal charm kept men like Hyde and Falkfanti^ and some of Prince Maurices cavali'y, but Rupert aigued land on his side. Pym, the sti-ongman of Parliament, was not against attacking Essex the next day Better, he said, to wait for Continued on page 80 56 MtLITAin-HISTORY MARCH/APRIt 2005

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Airborne Rescue awn bnike above the trackless African rain foit-sl, heralding a new day for thf inhabilants or Stanleyville in lhe former Belgian Congo, as five Lockheed C-130 Hercules transport planes of lhe U.S. Air Foire appeared on the horizon. The four-engine Uirlxtptx^ps dnapped aii'speed over the city's outskirts, overflying Sabena Aii-port al 700 feet—combat parachute jump altitude. As the lead aiipliuie appixxiched Sabena's main lunway its navigator, Firsl Ueulenant John Coble, yelled "Green light!" inlo the intercom. His co-pilot. Captain Robert KJLchen, reached down for the control panel near bis right armrest and switebed the paratrooper jump warning lights from "standby" i-ed [o "go" green, ll was exactly 0600 houi's on November 24,1964, and Operation Dragon Rouge (Red Dmgon) was imderway. The Congo, past and piesent, is a dark, foreboding place wbere witcbci-ait, cannibalism and ntual muixier are siili practiced. Jcsepb Conrad described it in bis novella Heart ol Darkness as "traveling back to tbe earliest beginnings of lhe world, when vegetation rioted on the earth and the big trees were kings. An empty .stream, a gi'eal silence, an impenetrable fonsst." A tui mer Belgian eolony, the Republic of lhe Congo had been troubled witbin a week ofachieving independence on June 30, 1960. On July 5. the aiTny mutinied and Katanga province seceded, precipitating a civil war in which the United Nations tried to intervene wilh a peacekeeping force. On September 5, lhe Congo's tirst prime minister, socialist-leaning Patrice Lumumba, was dismissed from office by President Joseph KasavTibu. and nine days latei" tbe army chief of staff. Colonel Josepb Desire Mobutu, .seized power, though he relinquished it after reaching an agreement with Kasavubu. In November, as Lumumba tried to travel from Leopoidville, where be had U.N. protection, to Stanlewille, he was arrested by Kasaviibus forces. On Januarv' 17, 1961, Lumumba was handed over to Katangese secessionists and murdered. Later, in 1975, John Stockwell, former chief of the Central Intelligence Agency's Angola Task Force, leamed that tbe CIA and Mobutu wei'e involved in Lumumba's death. For \ears thereafter, civil war ravaged tbe Congo. The Katangese secessionists, led by Moise Tshombe, received professional help when Major Michael "Mad Mike" Hoare, a British army Cbindit veteran of World War II, joined the cause with a band of some 300 white meix'cnaries. Aside from two oiders—to shave and refrain Irom drinking alcohol—Hoare claimed he "cared not a wbit" about what bis men did. As the U.N. withdrew its troops from the Congo in lhe MILITARY HISTORV

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Mission to Stanleyville When Congolese Simba rebels threatened mass slaughter in Stanleyville, the solution involved American planes, Belgian paratroopers and mercenaries. BY ROB KROTT

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Hostages rescued from captivity under Congolese Simba rebels in Stanleyville by Belgian paracommandos disembark from the U.S. Air Fon^e Lockheed C-130s that transported their rescuers into Leopoldville on December 4. 1964 CNational Archives^. MARCH/APRIL 2005 MILITARY'HISTORY 59

During a visit to confer with U.S. and World Bank officials in Washington, D.C, Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba Is welcomed at National Airport by U.S. Secretary of State Christian A. Herter on July 28. 1960.

r oi 1964, a new giieirilla force, calling itself the Popular Araiy of Liberation but more widely known as the Simbas (Swahili for "lions"), aro.se in the northem provinces. It was led mainly by tomier Lumumba olficials, such as fonner Minister of the lnteiior Christuphe Gbenye; fonner Kindu district commissioner Emile Soumialot; and Nicholas Olenga, a lomier postal clei^k and laboi"er for the Kindu railioad office. Allhough the groups leadership was Mai^xist. most Simbas had tittle or no gi'iisp of Emopean ideology. Witch doctors put the Simba recruits through an elaborate ceremony to confer powerful dawa (medicine) on (hem that would ostensibly make them impciAious to bullets. Thev were told they only had to wave palm fronds, chant "mai, mai" ("water, water") and look straight ahead during battle. If a Simba was killed, it was because he failed lo follow the witch doctor's instiiictions. Some Simbas were clad in bits and pieces of militaiy uniforms or tattered shorts, but many wore animal skins. The Simbas sported an equally bew ildcring array of headgear, including caps oftheir opponents, the Annee Nationale Congolese (ANC), cowboy hats and steel helmets left behind by the U.N, troops. Some wore lampshades or women's hats, and a lew wore silk panties, liberated hom a lady's boudoir, over their trousei"s. The Simbas' appearance may have been both comical and frightening, but their behavior only inspired alarm. They had quickly routed thc ANC, which was little more than a unifoiTned rabhie whose troops also believed in sorcery. Convinced that it is the noise of the weapon that kills, many ANC troops fired their rifles with their eyes closed. That undoubtedly reinforced the Simha belief in dawa. 1 he Simlxis sumn overran the northem region, terrorizing and slaughtering thousands of Congolese as well as dozens of white missionaries and expatriates. By July 1964, the governments po.sition had become so desperate that President K.asa\aibu appointed fonner Katangese secessionist leader Tshombe as his prime minister. With Tshombe came "Mad Mike" Hoare and his mercenary 5 Commando, also known as the "Wild Geese." MIl.rTARY HISTORY

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In August 1964, the Simbas, led by Olenga—who appeared diesscd in the uniform of a Belgian lieutenant general, complete with dress sword—moved on Stanleyville (now Kisangani), the Congos third-largest city. Despite the airlift of ANC "paiacommandos" to bolster its defenses, the city fell on August 5. The Simbas pushed on to the north and penetrated as far west as Lisala on the Congo River. On September 4, Gbenye arrived at Stanleyville and on the ne.xt day was proclaimed premier of the Republique Populaire du Congo. A widely bandied-about remark on Gbenye was. "They made him president because the fwople felt if they couldn't have someone that evei^body tmsted they'd settle for someone whom everybody distrusted." There were approximately 1,600 foreigners from more than 20 nations in Stanley\ille at that time. Most were European, hut about 30 were Americans, including U.S. Consul Miciiael Hoyt and four other members of the U.S. Consulate. Despite ollei"s of evacuation by both the Belgian and American consulates, the majority, especially the Belgians, stayed in the city. It was a decision that many would soon regret. Hoyt and the othei- American diplomats were thrown into thc Central Prison, while other whites were held communally in hotels. The Simbas began making anti-American statements on Radio Stanleyville and threatened executions if the United States did not withdraw all support—much of it only the product of the Simbas' imagination—from the Congo.

T

he Simbas initially treated their white hostages well. Then they began suffering setbacks at the hands of more competent opponents hired by the Congolese government— Katangese gendaimes and "Mad Mike" Hoare's Wild Geese. As fortune began turning agauist tliem, tlie Simbas in Stanleyville began addressing the whites as niateka—Swahili foi" "butter," but also connoting "meat." The Simbas blamed all their setbacks on American troops and airplanes, and consequently Soumialot—now the Simbas' minister of defense—issued a warning that the American captives were subject to execution. He also said he could not guarantee the safety of any U.N. officials. When confronted by Red Cross delegates, Gbenye and Soumialot said they had never heard of the Red Cross. When told about the Geneva Convention—particularly the ban on hostage taking—they replied they had not heard ab(jut that, either. In any case, they added, they did not consider- themselves bound by the Geneva rules, which had been "written by whites." At that time four of Gbenye's children were safely at schoolin Geneva. In a picturesque park behind Stanleyville's post office stood the Patrice Lumumba monument. On tbe morning of August

16, while General Olenga was in Bukavu, one of his deputies ordered about a dozen Congolese prisoners to the monument and staged executions for the benefit of a gathered mob, with guns, spears or machetes. Ritualistic cannibalism—the eating of the heart or liver to acquire the powei' or virtues of the victim—^was an old custom. One of those killed, Stanleyville politician Sylvdre Bondeweke, had power, so the mob cut his liver from his hody whiie he still breathed, sliced it to bits and devoured them. Now they had Bondeweke's power. Over the nextfivedays about 120 Congolese were slaughtered at the monument, seemingly as a bizaire offering to Lumumba. Throughout the Simba occupation, as many as 2,000 people wei e thiTfwn off Ihe Tshopo River bridge to the crocodiles below. Al Kindu at least 800 were killed, many of them burned alive, at the Lumumba monument there. In Paulis 2,000 to 4,000 were slaiighiured. Any "intellectual"—a member of the old establishment—was singled out If not for the viciousness of the nipes, murders, mutilations and looting that subsequently took piace, the ignorance of the Simhas (especially the jeunesse, young Simbtis no more than 12 or 13 years old) might have been comical, In one Stanleyville home, a group of Simbas that came across a gi"and piano was convinced that it was a radio tnmsmitter The Simbas were even woi-iied that thc Americans wcjuld bring a submarine up the Congo River—past the Stanleyville falls. One European in Paulis wore a hearing aid that the Simbas believed was a radio transniittei'iLsed to call in American bombers, so they executed him. A Belgian in B(X"nde often tapped liis gold tootli neiTousIy The Simbas, figuring • he must be .sending radio messages, killed him as well. Throughout the Simba-held Congo, women, among them nuns and even young girls, were gang-raped before being killed. Something clearly had to be done or the 1,600 white hostages in Stanleyville would likely suffer a similai' fate. Tshomhc asked the United States for help, and President Lvndon B. Johnson responded by dispatching Joint Task Force Leo, part of U.S. Strike Command (STRICOM) OPLAN 515 generated during Muleles rebellion. Several months later Genei-al Paul D. Adams of STRICOM dusted off the plan and revised it, adding a platoon of airbcmie infantiy The STRICOM task force—three Tactical Air Command C-130s and a C-130 "talking bird" communications aircraft from the 464th Troop Carrier Wing at Pope Air Force Base, N.C—^was accompanied by a platoon of 82nd Aii'borne Division paratroopers. The total strength of JTF Leo numbered about 28 officers and 98 men. A message intercepted on October 7 fix^m Olenga in Kindu to Gbenye in Stanleyville said; "I give you oEficial order. If [North Atlantic Treaty Organization] aircraft bomb and kill Congolese civilian population, please kill one foreigner for each Congolese in your region.... If no bombing, please treat foreignei"s as hon-

ored guests in accordance with BantLi custom. Give them food and drink." Both Belgium and the United States began planning for militai"y intei-vention. Special Forces A-Teams were readied for a possible rescue mission, dubbed Operation Golden Hawk. The mission plans called for a HALO {high altitude long operation) parachute Jump below Stanleyville to infiltrate upriver by rubber boat. Operation Flag Pole, a plan to rescue the consulate staff in Stanlevville with an ad hoc force of U.S. Marine embassy guards and fonner militai^' types in Leopoldville, was called off. As the situation worsened William Biiibeck, a representative ofthe Congo Working Group, met Etienne Davignon, the Chef de Cabinet for Belgian Foreign Minister Paul Henri Spaak, at a reception on November 8 and was told, "If you get us the aircraft we can do it with a battalion." It .sounded like a good idea. Secretary of State Dean Rusk and National Security Adviser McGeorge Bundy presented Spaak's offer to Pi-esident Johnson,

Belgian paracommandos display a Chinese-made heavy machine gun captured from the Popular Amiy of Liberationmore widely known as "Simbas," or lions-on November 28.

and Lt. Gen. David Burchinal, director ofthe Joint Staff, called the U.S. European Command Headquarters (USEUCOM) in Paris the veiT next day (Armistice Day in France), orderiiig tliree planners to Bnissels. Brigadier General Russell Dougherty, USEUCOM deputy operations officer, was called away fi-om the annual Marine Coips Ball to leave for Brussels. He was joined there by Lt. Col. J.L. Gray (U.S. Aii Force Headquartei-s, Eujx^pe) and an airborne operations expert. Captain B.F. Brasheai^s. With them was Colonel J.E. Dunn, caiTying verbal instructions fiom the Joint Chiefs of Staff: "Keep it small; don't let it tum into a John Wayne operation; no pearl-handled pistols or wagons so loaded the mules can't pull them." The planners worked throughout November 12 and 13. The plan, USEUCOM OPLAN 319/64 (Dragon Rouge), was a mere 22 pages long. It would be a three-phase operation, with 12 C-130E aireraft traveling to Kleine Brogel, Belgium, to load 545 MARCH/APRIL 2005 MIHTARY' HISTORY 61

Left: A rescued woman leads two little girls-one of whom wears a blood-stained dress-to the temiinal at Leopoldville following their evacuation from Stanleyville (AP/Wide World Photos). Right: The body of missionary Dr. Paul Carlson rests beside other hostages mowed down by the Simbas on November 24.

paratroopers of the Regiment du Para-Commando, eight aTmored jeeps and 12 AS-24 motorized tricycles, and then f1\ 4,134 nautical miles to Ascension Island, stopping to refuel en route at Moron de la FiT)nteiii, Spain. Phase 11 was a 2,405mile flight to tliL'ii- staging area at Kamina Air Base in S Katanga. Phase 111 would be the 550-niile ilight to Stanlevville J (escorted by Douglas B-26 bombers flown by CIA-hired S Cuban-exile pilots), culminating in the parachute assault. The paiachute assault was also broken down into three phases; (1)fiveC-130s would drop 320 Belgians from the paracommando regiment (lsl Battalion and Regimental Headquarters) onto the golf coui'se just northeast ofthe Stanley\'iile aiiport; (2) following the assault force hy a hall hour, Iwo more C-130s kjaded with the tumored jeeps would land at Stanlevville's airport; (3) thirty minutes later, the remaining five C-130s carmng supplies and one company of Belgian paratroopers from the 2nd Battalion would land oi' drop their men and supplies as needed. It was a simple plan. Colonel Burgess Gradwell, commander of Detachment One of the 322nd at Evreux, France, would have overall command of the Dragon Rouge airlift. The aircralt were assembled at Evreiu-Fauville Air Force Base, and at 1740 Gi-eenwich Mean Time on November 17 the 14 C-130s departed for Kleine Brogel. FKing in the first aircraft were Colonel Gradwell;

Captain Donald R. Strobaugh, the 5th Aerial Port Squadron (APORON) combat control team commander; and Sei-geant Robfil J. Dias. a 5th APORON radio specialist. When they reached Kleine Brogel, the Belgian paras were loaded aboard. Their commander, Colonel Charles Laurent, 51, had led the paratroops who seized Leopoldvilles aiiport from rebellious ANC tiTDops in 1960, and had jumped into Stanleyville Aiiport on a training exercise 10 yeai-s earlier. Laurent's sei'geant major had also jumped into Stanleyville. While the .sergeant major had logged more than 3,000 jumps and Laurent more than 300, this was not (me ofthe 18- to 20year-old troopci-s in Laurent's regiment. The paratixjopere of the 1st Battalion had the most time in sei^vice: 10 months. They were better off than the 3rd Battalion, whose conscripts had just completed their second monlh of service. The 2nd Battalion conscripts had just 5'A months in the anny. Laurent's force would consist of the entire 1st Battalion, a company from the 2nd and a detachment from the 3rd. The 1st Battalion had been foiTned in England during World War 11 as part of the Special Air Service (SAS) and had lought in Noimandy, the Ardennes, the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark. The battalion retained the SAS motto "Who Dares Wins," as well as the Pegasus emblem and red bemt of the British airborne. The Belgian pai"as also used English jump commands. The C-]30s departed at 2240 en route to their refueling stop at Moron Aii" Base beiore continuing on to Ascension. When the C- 130s landed to reHiel. an American majoi" left one of the aiixralt to supervise therefuelingand to ensure thai lhe planes remained closed to observation. But someone opened a door for fresh air, and one of the gi ound crew looked inside, then asked the major: "Sir, who are those guys in red hats?" The majoi" closed thc dmir, saving, "There's nobody in there wearing itd hats.' Laurent's men would jump wearing their berets, counting on the psychological effect Lea Paras would have on the Simbas to give his green troops more protection than steel helmets. Arriving at 1310 on November 18, the paratroopers and the C-130 crews waited on Ascension for three days. During that time, Captain Strobaugh taught 21 Belgian jumpmasters proper A mercenary from Major "Mad Mike" Hoare's 5 Commando deals out rough summary justice to a captured Simba as Hoare's professionals move through Stanleyville on November 25. MARCH/APRIL 2005 MILIT'VRY HISTORY 63

Soldiers of the Arm^e Nationale Congolese-]usX as prone to murder and rape as the rebels-guard Simba prisoners in Stanleyville Airport

C-BO parachute di^op procedures. Sergeant Dias taught the radiomen how to use the PRC-41 and PRC-47 radios, used for giound-to-air communications. Because of a shortage of Belgian jumpmastei"s. Captain Strobaugh would sei've in that role for Chalk-9. but he was under stiict orders not lo jump himself. "1 jumpmastered the load, but couldn't jump," he said afterward. "You can imagine my frustration." On November 20, thc unit commandei"s were briefed on the assault plan. Strobaugh ivlayed the details to Washington, and at 1800 the men were alerted. Just half an hour later, the "Go" order was given. At 1935 the iiret aircraft lifted off, and nine houi's later they landed at Kamina airfield. There, the commander oi' JTF Leo and now the ovei-all commander of Operation Di-agon Rouge, Colonel Clayton Isaacson, briefed the force. The paratroopers waited at Kamina while Belgian and U.S. diplomats continued negotiating for the hostages' release. eanwhile Lima One. a column of trucks and amiored cars canning ANC troops and Hoare's 5 Commando, under the ovei^all command of 48-year-oId Belgian army Commandant (major) Alben Liegeois, had been lighting its way from Kongolo through 470 miles of jungle toward Stanleyville. The 100 or .so English-speaking •'men::s" and 150 Katangese soldiei"s of Lima One rescued many Europeans, discovered the mutilated bodies of othei"s, and killed thousands of Simbas. At Kindti, Lima One was i^einloired by iuiother gi^oup of mercenaries, bringing their strength to 120 white soldiers, and was joined by another motorized column, Lima Two, consisting of 50 Fivnch-speaking white mercenaries and 300 ANC troops led by ConiuHuidaut Robert Lamouline. Like Liegeois, Lamouline was on loan from the Belgian ai^my. Both units were under the overall command of Colonel Frederic Van de Waele, 52, a former Force Publique officer with moix* than 25 years of Congo semce. It was hoped that this force could link up with Laurent's pai as. Van de Waele had alread>' con\'inced Laurent to delav the parachute assault for a day so that his force could strike on the same day. Some Ameiican Embassy officials disagreed. It wotild be politically safer lor Laurent to rescue the hostages on Monday November 23. a day before thc mercenaries anived. Othere agreed with Van de Waele. As it was, the assault was delaved a dav because of negotiations with the Simbas.

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MILITARY HISTORY MARCH/APRIL 2005

At 0130 local time on the 24th, just three hours after receiving the code word "Punch" from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the commander of JTF Leo took off to rendezvous with support aircralt over Basoko. The weather was good as the fii'st five C- 130s, designated Chalk-1 thrxjugh Cha!k-5, lifted off hxiEii Kamina at 0300. At 0600 Colonel Laurent letl lhe jump and was followed by the remaining 63 paratroopei"s in his aircraft while the other four C-130s disgorged their payloads of 64 paratnx)pers each over the Stanlev\iile golf course. Thc paras seized the airport against light resistance. Two of three vehicles attempting to flee the airfield were destroyed and the third was captured. Most of the Simbas fled into the bush. The Douglas B-26s Hying support circled above, hungrily looked for targets, but found none. So far the mission was a success, and three paratroopei^s injured in the drop were its only casualties. Accoi"ding to Strobaugh: "w ithin 30 minutes after drop, the troops had secured the airiield, Then minutes later they transmitted the clearance to land the assault aircraft. This is nothing short of miraculous considering that in the space oi 40 minutes the Belgians not only fought and captured lhe airfield, set up a perimeter defense and mai^shaied an attack loire lor the city of Stanlev\'ilJe, but also removed approximately 300 full 55-gallon drums and 11 vehicles without wheels off of the iTinway. where the rebels had placed them to prevent aircraft fi"om using the field." With the runways clear of obstructions and the aiiport perimeter secured, the other seven C- 130s were ordered to land, Clialk6 and Chalk-7 with their amiored jeeps were to be lollowed bv Chalk-8 and Chalk-9 caii-\ing the company Irom the 2nd Battalion; Chtilk-!O canning three-man motori/x;d tricycles; Chalk11, which carried ammunition, food and medical supplies; and Chalk-12. the hospital plane. While Chalk-7, canning four of the armored jeeps, landed at 0645, Chalk-6 with the other lour jeeps was delayed an hour. Shortly after takeoff, a panel on the righl vAng had popped open, exposing a life nill that inflated and then wrapped around the tail controls. The pilot. Captain (later Maj. Gen.) Richard V. Secord, saved the aircraft and was subsequently awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. The telephone in the control tower used as Colonel Laurent's command post rang at 0635, and someone in Stanleyville informed the paratixiopei^ that the hostages weie in Victoria Residence Hotel. Laurent sent his men in. Riding nn two amiored jeeps, membei"s of the 11 th Pam-Commando Company entered the outskirts of Stanleyville at 0740. meeting with light resistance. They were several blocks from the Victoria Residence at 0750 when they heard shooting from the hotel. About 300 people, including 17 Americans, were being held in the Victoria Residence. When the Simbas heard the approaching C-l30s, they ordered all the hostages outside. About 50 managed to hide in closets and under beds. Of the 250 or so hostages lined up in three columns outside the Victoria, Continued on page SI

R EV I E Salamis was a triumph, but the Peloponnesian and civil wars were Greek tragedies. By Thomas Zacharis

THE HISTORICAUy HEAVY 2004 Olympics fTle NJivut ShC'tuntcr Thiii Saved in Atliens. afilmloosely based on Homer's Greece—and Wriicrn CIvtttiiiiiun Iliad and one oi" two movies about Alexunder lhe GnL'at seem lo have signaled a fevival oi interest in Greek histoiy Two THE RATTl.n OF recent books look at a couple of occasions when Greece was democracy's ideoloizi ciii focal point. In The Battle ol Salamis: The Naval Encounter Thai Siwed Greece—and Western Civilization (Simon ancl Schuster, Inc., New York, 2004, $25), Bany S. Strauss, B & M K T S T B A O S S pi-ofessor of history and classics at Cornell Univei-sity, presents an excellent, literate relelling of the famous clash of Greek and Persian fleets in 480 BC. He German occupation forces in Gt^ece, also puls things in per-spective by sum- commanding a notorious Volunteer Genmarizing significant events before and darmerie in westem Macedonia, for alter the battle—the origin and the results which—contrary to the caption—he was of tfic Greco-Persian wars. Centixil to his tried and executed by firing squad in narrative is his portrait ot Themistocles, 1947. a great Athenian politician, master sti-atGerolymatos, author of The Balkan egist and lhe savior of Greece—^and, the Wars, tries to be objective on a subject authtjr convincingly ai"gues, Europe and that still stii-s bilter emotions, but as we the luiuiv Uniled States of America as say in my native Greece, "Whether you well. The book Is highly recommended to see a glass of wine as half empty or half all readers interested in discovering the full depends on where you stand," and significance of Salamis and understand- the authors anti-Communist leanings ing who Themistocles was—and why show. In addition to describing ihe bitter some Greeks feel it would be appropriate civil wai; the author proves that the govfor every major city in Europe and the ernment's ultimate defeat of the Greek United States to display statues of him. Communist movement became lhe Leaping fonvard more than two mil- United Stales' model for later involvelennia, Andiv Gerolymatos' new book Red ment in olher countries' stniggles, most Acropolis, Black Terror: The Greek Civil notably Vietnam. In lhe Greek case, howWar and the Origins ol Soviet-American ever, the Soviet Unions mission lo the Rivalry, 1943-1949 (Perseus Bwks Group. country in 1944 remained completely 2004, $27.50) surmnarizes more recent neutral vis-a-vis the eonllict between the Greek histoi>; from 1923 (with references Ellinikos Laikos Apeleftherotikos Slratos to defming political incidents before that (National People's Liberation From) and date) to the present time. The author re- the British army, while, ironically, the searched a great number of sources, al- American OSS (Office of Strategic Serthough he didn'l avoid mistakes, such as vices) mission secretly helped the ELAS. his (or the book editor's) caption for the Red Acropolis, Black Terror effectively photograph of Colonel Geor-ge Poulos senses as a short primer on a complex, and liis men on P. 109. Poulos was one of bmtal civil conflict. It is especially useful the few LollabofiUoi's to actively assist the for making American readers awai"e thai

SALAMIS

' n i s T o m ' MARCH/APRIL 2005

some aspects of 20thcentur\' Greek histoiT have been as imporiant lo world events as its ancient histoiy TIte Pehpotme.sian War, by Donald Kagan, Penguin B(K)ks, New York, 2003, $15. The security ol the two classic Greek city-states. Athens and Sparta, depended on alliances and understandings with other regional power's. In retrospect, lhe jealousies and political passions stined up by this complicated system of political and mililar\ relationships give.s the war between Athens and Sparta a sense of Inevitability. Donald Kagan, in his exhaustive study of the great classic Greek civil war, does a brilliant job in explaining just how those webs of power and intlucnce unraveled. The Greek conflict with Persia left Athens as the preeminent regional naval power. Athenian iriremes, which had destroyed the Persian fleet, guarded an empire based on trade, political and militan intimidation—and genuine denKKracy. Oligarchs, lhe gi'eat families and the rich, found their power challenged by Alhenian-style democmcy. The gi"eat cities of the Athenian empire saw friclion between demcK-i-als and oligarchs. In some places the dominance of democracy was artificial: Athenians riiled with heavy-handed, even bmtal foixe as well as with reiison. Kitgan describes how the arrogant Athenians, in cramming democracy down the ihroats ol lheir client states, unintentionally cast themselves in the role of overlords. Small wonder that the Spailan battle ciy in ihis decades-long war would be "Freedom for the Greeks!"

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Neither side saw how it could lose. Spaila's fearsome waniore could march 10 Athens without getting their feet wet. Pericles and the Athenians, however, believed that their navy, ensuring that money and ftxxi llowed from their empire into the city, would keep it invincible. Athens did not foresee that the Spartans would repeatedly destroy the countryside around the city. The two greal cities turned to the indirect approach, trying to destroy each other hy eliminating their allies and sources of supply. Only after 27 years of pitiless conilict did the Spartans finally prevail—ironically, by naval victories off Syi"acuse and in lhe Dardanelles. In explaining and analyiiing lhe anatomy and relevance of the many ironies, tragedies and bmtalities of this incredibly complex war. Kagans The Peloponnesian War is indispensable. Brian Murphy

Tolkien lovei-s interested in delving deeper into Middle-eai"th's formative ixjots will find Tolkien and the Great War a vital source. Students of Woi-td War I literatui-e will find Gai'th challenging them to recon.sider the industi> ihal has spiling up around such influential books as The Great War and Modem Memory, which dismi.sses the war as stupid and senseless while proclaiming its literature mcxleiTiist. Reading Tolkien and lhe Greal War, one is forced to admit that romantic epics did not forever die in that horlific conilict. O'Brien Browne

50 Battles lltat Changed the World, by William Wcir, The Career Press, Franklin Lakes, NJ., 2004, $17.99. Books ihal pLiqioit lo list llie most important, decisive or tactically exemplary battles are by nature subjective, as are thc ways hisloi-y buffs regard them. Those Tolkien and the Great War: The who hate them consider them a waste of Tltreshold of Middk-ettrth, by John time; (hose who love them seem to thorGarth, Houghton Mifllin, New York, oughly enjoy arguing about lhe merits 2003, $26. and flaws of each .selection. 50 Battles Perhaps no single conflict has pixjduced That Changed lhe World, by Military Hissuch an illuslrious airay of writei-s as tory contributor William Weir, is clearly World War I, from which names like aimed at the latter audience. Siegfiied Sassoon and Wilfa-d Owen ha\'e Some ol the author's choices—and his become etched into posterity's percep- reasons for listing them—seem obvious, tions of what constitutes war literature. such as Marathon, where "the sumval of Ironically, the most widely read author to democracy" was at stake in 490 BC. emerge from the cataclysm is almost Othei"s, tike t!ie Portuguese victoi-y over never associated with it: J.R.R. Tolkien, the Turks and Egyptians at Diu in 1509, author' of The Hobbit and Vie Lord of the will come as a suiprise even to most MiliRings trilogy. John Garlh, a journalist and taiy Histoiy readers, though the author Tolkien expert, .spentfiveyeai-s l'e.search- explains that at stake was "trade wilh the ing the author's experiences in the coui-se Far East and India, and the rise or fall of of \^^^ting Iblkien and the Great War. Christianity or Dar es Islam." Others Like many, Tolkien was a reluctant sol- appear for unexpected reasons, such as dier, completing his studies at Oxford Cannae, Hannibal Barca's tactical masbefore enlisting in 1915. Posted to the teipiece over the Romans in 216 BC, 11 th Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliei^s, as a which Weir nevertheless counts as a designaling officer, 2nd Lt. Tolkien fought in cisive strategic Carthaginian defeat. He the 1916 Battle ofthe Somme as well as argues that it demonstrated Rome would the Schwaben Redoubt. After four never suiTender, ix'gai dless of how many months, Tolkien succumbed to "trench armies it sacrificed on the road to viclever" and was sent back to Britain, ton—ihus discouraging other Italian where he spent the rest of the war in and provinces from allying with Hannibal. out of hospitals. I take Issue with some of Weir's selecAlthough Garth does a good job de- tions, but thai prabably just means that scribing the war and the movements of the author achieved his aim for his parthe 11 th Battalion, his explanation of the ticular audience. If one is the sort to Battle of the Somme's larger strategic debate such things, 50 Battles That objectives is insufficient, nor does he ad- Changed the World will provide ample equately elucidate Tolkien's duties as a sig- stuff to chew over. naling officer in timely fashion. FurtherJon Guttman more, the authors learned analyses of Tolkien's poetry and invented languages For additional reviews, go to are dense and onlv for the aficionado. www. hi stoi-ybookworl d .com.

INTRIGUE One servant of Confederate President Jefferson Davis was a mole in the Richmond White House. By Ron Edwai'ds

WHEN T>1E END CAME FOR the Confed-

erate States of America on April 9, 1865, President Jefferson Davis did not know that hiii fall from grace was due in some part to a member of his own household. During the preceding two yeare, a black sen'anl named Mai"\ Bowser had kept her eyes and eai^s open while she did her daily chores in the president's home. Man Elizabelh Bowser occupied a special niche witliin one ol the most unhkely yet successful spy agencies in history, h began in the early days ofthe Civil War, when Elizabeth Van Lew organized an elaborate espionage netw(« k and carelully selected individuals to become agents. Bom in New York City in 1818 to a wealthy family of the Vii-ginia aristocracy. Van Lew had been educated in Philadelphia and [hen relumed to her lamily's mansion in Richmond, Va. A devoted abolitionist, she had freed all the black slaves on her plantation prior to 1861, but most of them loyally remained on the estate as hired workers. When the fii'st shots rang out at Fort Sumter, Van Lew was not ix'licent in expressing her pro-Union and antislaveiy views. Yet as a respected lady from a prominent family, she remained fiee from airest and confinement. Convinced ihal she had lost her senses, newspaper dismissed her as "Crazy Bet." Van Lew, however, had decided to keep ofliciiils in Washington inibmied of events in the South. Although she had no background in undercover procedures, she managed to provide excellent training for her agents, none of whom was ever caught. She created many smokescreens to divert suspicious minds from her espionage activities. Another technique Van Lew's spies used, one still employed today, involved the use of enciphered messages tom in seveixU places, each delivered by a different agent. This protected the infonnation, since all pieces MU.irAItt UlS'rORY MARCH/APRIL 2005

For years, college-educated Mary Elizabeth Bowser played the role of a house slave to penetrate the Confederate White House in Richmond, Va., as a Union spy.

were needed to understand the message. Van Lew initially delivered her dispatches directly to President Abraham Lincoln. Later she sent them to Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's intelligence officer, Brig. Gen. George H. Sharpe. Realizing how critical the time factor was for reporting Confederate troop movements, Van Lew usedfivecourier relay poi nts between her Richmond home and the Union Arniy's positions. If Van Lew's activities were a case of iiiding in plain sight, her agents supplied their own measure of irany. Among them was Martin M. Lipscomb, who ran for mayor of Richmond while spying for her, and was nearly elected. Pei^haps the most influential spy in her organization, however, was Mary Bowser. BORN A SLAVE AND RAISED on the

John Van Lew plantation outside Richmond, she was among those freed by Elizabeth upon her fathers death in 1851, Mary traveled north and was educated in

Philadelphia, but her heart was anchored in the South. She therefoi*e returned to Richmond, where she married anoiher former slave. Wilson Bowser. When the wai' began, Mai-y leamed of Van Lew's spy ring and quickly volunteered. She anticipated becoming a coinier at one of the safe houses, but was astonished when she received her assignment. Upon Van Lew's recommendation. Mary had been ac. opted as a nanny and waitress in tbe home of President Davis. Nobody suspected Mary as she cared lor the children and served meals to prominent guests in the large piesidential dining room. She pretended to be a dull, ignorant domestic, oblivious to the world around her—while furtively eavesdropping on convei-sations. reading d Bowser after the Ci\'il War, when sheilietl or where she is buried. All the official dixtiments andrecoi-dsElizabeth Van Lew had were destiwed to pr(Jtect her agents 1 iDm postwar reprisals. Bowser left behind a personal diaiy that might have provided the basis for a thrilling lx)ok or film, had a relative nol discarded it in 1952. What is known is that Man Bowser succeeded in a dangerous game for two years, becoming one of the most pixxiuctive secret agents of the Civil War. Her achievements were finally honored 130 yeai"s after the conilict ended, when slic was inducted into the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame on June 29, 1995. MH

PERSPECTIVES Harold Godwinson's campaign against the Welsh established his warrior reputation. By Tony Oliver

In 1055 Edward TFT the Confes.sor, king of England, banished Earl Aellgai" for titason. The exiled earl headed for Ireland, \\ heif he ixviiiitcd 18 shiploads oi Viking mercenaries and allied himscll with Giiiffydd ap Llewelyn. In retum for Aelfgar's help in killing his rival GnilTydd ap Rliydderh, king of South Wales, Gruffvdd ap Llewelyn agreed to assist Aclfgar in a vengeful attack upon England. Now king of all Wales, Gruflydd ap Llewelyn and his new allies turned upon Heiefordshiie. They ra\'aged the border as they made their way through the Wye Valley and then on to the city of Hereford iLself. Guarding Hereford from within his fortress was Earl Ralph, Nomian-born nephew to King Edward. Leaving thc relative safety of Hereford at the head of his newly trained cavaliT, Ralph confidently gave the order to charge as thc enemy came into view. The Saxons, however, were not used to newfangled NoiTnan mounted tactics, and neither were theii'small hill ponies, which look Harold Godwinson, Earl of Wessex. returns lo England after visiting William lhe Bastard, Duke one look at the fearsome Welsh and of Normandy, in this segment from the Bayeux Tapestry. Viking host and promptly bolted in the opposite direction. IN lUH-CENTURY ENGLAND, bolder Wales at that time was divided into secGiiifTydd and Aelfgar entered Hereford wai'faie with the Welsh to the west was tions called principalities, each of which unopposed. Their troops murdered all an evenday occun'cnce. During those was ruled by its own king. Often-bloody who had not managed to escape, and Unbulent and often violent years, two rivalries between the kingdoms helped to raped the women. Seven priests made a men rose to pov^er. One was thc Sa.\on keep Wales al a disadvanlage against its brave stand outside ihe minister's door, Earl of Wesse\, Harold Godwinson, who neighbor, England. Giijffydd ap Llewelyn but they too were butchered. The castle would one day be king of England; the would change all that in 1039 when he was destroyed, and Earl Ralph later came other was a Welsh king named Gfuffydd became king of Gwynedd and Powys in to be known as "Ralph the Timid." ap Llewelyn, who would uiiite bis coun- NOI th Wales. King Edward, v\intering in Gloucester ti'v as never before. Both men would His first real ekish with England came when he received the news ol Hereford, become entangled in a bitter stiuggle in the first year of his reign, when he de- now sent Harold Godwinson as supreme over lhe disputed land between the two feated the powei-ful Sa\on Earl Leofric of commander ol lhe English aiTny to tame countries known as the Welsli Marches. Mercia at Wclshpool. Thc Abingdon the troublesome Welsh. This was Harttld's Harold had inhcriied the earldom of Chronicle records that "tiie Welsh killed fii'st major campaign, and he pixjceeded Wessex in 1053, after the death of his Eadwine, brother of Earl Leofrie, and with caution. By the time he arrived in fathei; Earl Godwin. He was also the Thiii-kil and Aelfgeat, and vei\ many other Hereford, GiTiffydds army had melted right-luuid man ot Edward the Confessor, good men with ihem." GiTiflydd con- back ovei" the boi'der. the saintly king of England, and as such tinued his attack, defeating the English Hai'old set about repairing the city s dewielded enoiTnous power. infanti\ in 1049 and again in 1052. Continued on page 78 12 Mil,rTARl'HISTORY MARCH/APRIL 2005

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INTERVIEW

rounds in his direction as he pulled away. Tf I had shot him down, I really wouid have been embairassed! Continued from page 32 MH: Some veterans claim to have fell guilty about surviving. Did you? taken bv truck to the 5th Division ceme- Montgomery: In one sense, it was exhilten. When we came across Jap bodies, arating ne\er to get hit v\ hen most of the we were to "bui-y" them. That meant kick- men around me were being wounded ojing dirt and rocks over them, During the killed. On the other hand, it did—and patrol, 1 said: "Well, Brown, it looks like does—make me feel guilty. Was I not you made it through. We may be leaving doing my job properly? Was 1 jusl lucky? this rock tomoiTow." He said, "Yeah, Whatever the reiison, 1 was happy to walk Monty, I guess I did make it." A little off the island after 37 days. And I was sad while later, I heard a coupie of shots that I was leaving so many of my COITInearby. A Jap sniper! I went over to thai rades behind. area and saw that two men were dead. I MH: What did yoti do after Iwo Jima? didn't recognize the fii"st, but the other Montgomery: We learned later that our was Ptivate Brown. He didn't make it 5th Marine Division had been scheduled after all. to join the assault on Okinawa after wrapMH: Did you ever come under fire from ping up iwo Jima in three or four days' fighting. However, Iwo Jima was not seyour own side? Montgomery: I'm confident ihat many cured in three or four days, and until we Marines were hit by tiiendly lire—most could replace losses and retrain otir from short rounds from our own artillery combat units, we were not in shape to and naval guns. There were several in- launch any more combat operations. In stances where i inadvertently was the Hawaii, we quickly replenished our ranks target ot our own troops. One day I hap- for the invasion of Japan. By eaily August pened to be on top of a small clili. Below we were in pretty good shape and ready and off to my right were three or four for the biggest operation in Marine Coips Marines resting on some boulders. I hisloiT. Then on August 6, the woi'd i ix:klooked down to the bottom ol the clift eted around camp that our b()nibei"s had and saw some movement at the entrance dropped a new superbomb on Hiroto an underground tunnel. They were shima. Three days later we heaiti that anJaps, I dropped a hand grenade down oiher city. Nagasaki, was destroyed by into lhe tunnel entrance. 1 pulled out an- anoiher supct bomb. Foi- those who beother grenade and was getting ready to lieve that our devastation oi Hiroshima toss it when I looked over to myrightand and Nagasaki with atom bombs was insaw one of the Marines pointing his rille humane and unnecessaiy I say "Baloney!" up at me. He missed. I hit the deck, took There was no real evidence that Japan an old rag out of my pocket and waved it would have capilulated prior to ourschedfrantically over my head. He .sheepishly uled in\asion. Alter landing in Japan, I sat back down. I forgot about the Japs in saw firsthand that the Japanese were the liole and made my way down off ihc read> for our attack. Iliank God for cliff. One near miss that is somewhat hu- President Haii'y Tinman's gut.sy decision morous (I guess) occtuTed around the to drop the atom bombs! middle of March. Fonvard troops were MH: What happened after Japan's unsupposed to spread red cloth panels out conditional .sunender on August 14? on the gi"ound to enable fighter pilots to Montgomery: Aftei Japan's sunender; we spot a point beyond which they could boat ded oui" invasion ships and stomied liomb and strafe the Japs. After a couple ashore at Sasebo, a major Japanese naval of weeks, we became a little less than con- base on the southern mainland island oi scientious aboul keeping the panels laid Kyushu. located right next to the city ol out. I was in a foxhole one afternoon Nagasaki, which was still smoldering when 1 noticed a North American P-51 fnim the effects of the second atom bomb. Mustang diving toward the enemy area Then, after nine months of sometimes inin front of me. Aboul 100 feet above the teresting but usually boring occupation ground, he pulled up after releasing a duty in several different locations on bomb, lt hit right next to my hole! Fortti- Kyushu, Japan, I sailed home. MH nately, it did noi explode until it ricocheted into lhe enemy lines. 1 was some- James E. Page writes from Lady Lake.. Fla. what shocked and ven' indignant, so I For fufllier reading, try Iwo Jima: Legacy swung my rifle up and fired a couple of of Valor, bv Bill D. Ross.

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KALKADOONS Continued from page 49 dispei'sing and seeking escape, tlit'v lormed their ranits and attacked again. Some managed to reach the whites' firing litie and stiuck at their enemies wilh their primitive weaix)ns, but such tactics could not withstand the stoim of" guntire. Eventually all but a few Kalkadoons lay dead ;ind dying on the dusty plain, In one day. Urquhart and his men had ended the war. Typical of the colonial authorities' attitude toward Ahotigines, Queensland kept no accurate tecord ol the number of Kidkadoons "dispet sed" that day. Natives wer e never letenvd toivs being killed, nor was any distinction made ix'tween wairioi-sand theii dependents in regard to how many were disix'rsecl, but a figure of somewhere between 600 and 1,000 has been generally agreed upon. What is ceilain is that for yeai^ after the finalfight,tbe gullies, di> creek beds and rocky outcrops around Battle Mountain were thickly laced with human bones. Urquhart chased after those few Kalkiidoons who escaped into the hills, hut il \\ as clearly a futile effort. He soon called off the pui"suit and returned lo the balilclield lo find native wild dogs caik'tl dingoes ravaging the coip.ses. Whatever possessed the Kalkadoons to attack their enemies as they did will never be known. It seems likely that the natives' belief, ase.xpressed in oneoi I heir songs. lhat their numbers would overcome the whites' "magic" combined with the desiix\o escape into the open bush fioni what had beeome a hilltop trap may have inllucnccd them. Following the fight at Battle Mountain the Kalkadoons never again thieatened white settlement, and increasing numlxris of whites began to move into what had been Kalkadoon countiy The last lullblofxJed Kiilkadoon. TlibbieTeirier. died in ('V >ncun\ Hospital in 19.^0, but oven befoiv ihal the histoi\ oftheir heroic ivsistance liad heen all but foi;gotten. Perhaps this articlc will go a little way towaid ivcording the close of an indigenous Liillure lhat reigned for at least 60.000 yeai-s. MH For further reading, Australia-based author Greg L Bloke reconnnends: The Kalkadoons: A Study of an Alxiriginal Tribe on I be Queensland Frontier, hy R.EM. Armslrnug; and Six Australian Battlefields, /7\' A. Grassbv and M. Hill.

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bring Gruffydd to heel once and for all come spring, Harold spent the winter thinking about v^'here he had gone wrong. Continued from page 72 He was a man who leamed irom his mistakes, and slowly but surely he fomiulated fense.s and then, as winler was drawing a plan with which he could finally defeat near, he camped on the Welsh side of the his cunning enemy. border before opening negotiations with On May 26, 1063, Harold's brother Gti-iffydd at Billingsley. There, terms were Earl Tostig led a mounted lorce across reached to satisfy all concerned. Aelfgar tbe Pennines and into Wales, while was restored to his earldom of East Harold sailed his fleet along the Welsh Anglia, while Gaiffydd was conceded ter- coast. Harold was accompanied by his ritory on the border. In return. Gmffvdd dreaded housecarls. agi'eed to accept Edwaixls overlordship. Often used as a shock force, these wellThroLigh such concessions, Haix)ld had trained wanioi^s were the coiie of the Saxon successfully split Gmffvdd and Aelfgar's anny. Their weapon of choice was the alliance. Once that was accomplished, two-handed Danish ax, with which they Harold brought his own chaplain, the were known to fell a man and his horse wan'ior monk Leofgar, and made him with one blow. Normally the housecarls spiritual and military leader of Hereford. wore chain mail armor and conical helHarold returned to England believing mets in the Noiman fashion, and cairied that hencefoiih GuifiSdd would be too kite-shaped shields. For this campaign, weak to pose a threat. He was wrong. however, Harold had his men replace In 1056 Leofgar led a raid into Wales. theii" hean mail wilh leather jerkins lo On June 16, Gruffydd confronted him at improve their mobility. He also taughi Glasbuiy-on-Wye, with disastrous results them to fight with the javelin like their for Leofgar, wlio was killed along with a Welsh counterparts. large part of his force. Harold led his Living off the land like medieval comamiy in Ihiitless pui^suit of Gixiffydd, an mandos, these .swift-moving housecarls embaiTasing campaign of mishaps that destroyed ail opposition they encounended ignobly, as Harold was forced to tered. Harold stmck at the granai-y in concede terms to his Welsh rival. North Wales, the center of Gniffydd's Gruffydd was now recognized as King of power. He laid waste to the whole area all Wales by England, on condition that and ravaged along the coast, taking he accept Edward as his overlord. hostages as he went. Harold's and Tostig's two Saxon forces then strtick deep inlo THERE WAS A BRIEF interlude of peace the Welsh interior, destroying tnany \ ilLiinil 1058, when Earl Aelfgar once again lages and settlements. The Saxons were allied himself with Gnaff>'dd. When now as mobile as the Welsh and won a Edward found out about the alliance, he series of skirmishes as they hunted exiled Aelfgar, who tied to Wales to join Gmfiydd from place to place. Gmfiydd. Magnus, the son of the king of By the end of July, Gruffydd was lleeNoi-way, aided Giuffydd and Aelfgar by ing into the mountains of Snowdonia. raiding the north of England while The monks of Worcester wrote "on the 5 Gruffydd raided over the westem border. August 1063 King Gmffydd v\as killed by The campaign ended successfully for all his own men because he persisted in tin ee of Harold's enemies: Aelfgar was re- stmggling against Earl Harold." Harold stored to his earldom, Gruffydd received sent Gruffydds head and the figurehead more teniton, and Magnus returned to of his ship to King Edward as giisly proof NoiAvay vv itli considerable booty: that the Welsh threat had finally passed. In 1062 Earl Aelfgar died while Gerald of Wales, writing roughly 150 Gmfiydd was still busy raiding England. years after the event, described stone Just alter Chnstmas, HaRild left Glouces- markers thai had been erected all ovei' ter wilh a cava]i>' force, hoping to catch Wales with the inscription Hie Fiiit Victor lhe Welsh king off guard at his winter Haroldus (Here Harold Was Victor). quatlei"s at Rhuddlan. Word had reached Harold married Gniffydd's widow, Giiiffydd fn)m a spy that Harold was on Ealdgth, granddaughter of the famous his way, however, and he managed to Lady Godiva. Two centuries would pass escape just in time, leaving a fiTistrated before the Anglo-Nomians achieved any Harold lo venl his rage by burning comparable success campaigning in Gmlfydd's palace and fleet. Wales. They did so by using the Retuming to England but vowing to that Hai^old had leamed so well. MH

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prepared to accept any settlement with Charles that was not dictated at tlif drumhead. Pym was an.\ious lo win ihf war al all costs, which is w hy he had sent Vane to Edinbui^h. The moderates' influence was largely weakened by several deaths in 1643. John Hampden, Pym's righl-hand man, had been mortally wounded al Chalgrove on June 18, duiing a raid by Rupen's cavah-y out of Oxford, and had died at lhe nearby Greyhound Inn six days later. John Pym himself died of cancer on December 8, leaving the House of Commons increasingly in the posses.sion of rising slai^s such as Oliver Cromwell. Falklands death at Newbui> leit the Royalist council table in less moderate hands. THE NEXT YiiAR, Ki44. was to see mrjst of the mnning being made by new men, such as Cmmwell and ihf Scois. The idea of a Bible-reading amiy was catching on with the Parliament men, and that was to open up a reser\oir of recmits from the Puritan towns of the Noilh and east ihai would be denied lo the Royalisis. In 1643 the Royalists in the Noith had overrun most of Yorkshire, but ran out oi" steam as their forces under the Marquis of Newcastle marched south into Lincolnshire. Cromwell and the levies of thc Eastern Counties Association had held his home teiriton' of Huntingdon and Cambridge, and London had never been in any danger from that direction. Most of the action in 1643 had taken place in the South and west, and llie desperately close shave Parliameni had in that year enabled thc Roundheads to breathe relatively easy again. In 1644 they would tiT to reconquer" the North from Cromwell's bases. By so doing, they were lo denude the Soulh of troops and give Prince Rupert one last chance to wrest the war fi'om them, It was a chance httook by a brilliant maneuver that in July brought him to a village named Lftni; Marston on Marston Moor just outside York. Upon his arrival, Rupert eagerly asked a Roundhead prisoner, "Is Ciomwell there?" He was. MH For further reading, South African contributor Jnhti Woolford .utggests This War Without an Enemy, by Riclmrd Ollaid.

DRAGON ROUGE Continued from page 64 about 100 were women and children. Only a dozen Simbas guarded them. While five or six had automaticrifles,the othei"s canned spears and machetes. The Simba commander. Colonel Joseph Opepe, a former Force Publique and ANC officer, ordered them marched to the airport. Neai" the Congo Palace Hotel, just two blocks from the Victoria, Opepe heard shooting and oixlered the hostages to sit down. A group of Simbas nished up and infonned Opepe that Belgian paraLioops had landed at the aiiport. When heav>' gunfire was heard nearby, the Simbas began killing their captives. For nearly five minutes the Simhas shot at hostages, many of whom managed to flee. Some were chased down and stabbed or hacked to death. United States Consul Michael Hoyt and Vice-Consul DavidGrinwis escaped, but Dr. Paul Cailson was killed. Phyllis Rine, a 25-year-old missionary' from Ohio, was fatally wounded. Taken under fire by the approaching Belgians, the Simbas fled. When the paras arrived, they found two little girls, five women, and 15 men dead or dying and 40 Belgians wounded; five would later die of their wounds. While the priest with the 11 th Para-Commando Company administered last rites, the survivoi-s, including Ho> t and four consulate staff, were escoited to the aiifield. Laurent's men continued clearing Stanle>'vi]le, engaging the Simbas in sporadic firefights and rescuing more hostages, The paras suffered their first combat casualty at about 0900 when one man was wounded. A second para was wounded at 0930, and at 1000 a third was hit. Thefii-stplane, loaded with 120 evacuees, lifted off for Leopoidxille at 0945, and al 1100 the lour lead vehicles with mercenaries from Van de Waele's column entered Stanleyville. Hoare's Wild Geese continued clearing Stanleyville while Laurent's pat:as concentrated on evacuating the civilians and securing the aiipon. Thei e had been alxuit 150 rebels west of Runway 28 and another 180 in foxholes in the tree line parallel to the ninway. Later that aftemoon, 150 Simbas attacked the airpoit. The Belgians repulsed five assaults that night. Sporadic smallamis fire fi'om the perimeter forced Strobaugh and his combat control team

to orbit aircraft and change runway direction. Several C-130s boasted bullet holes aftenvard, and in the morning a Belgian aiiTnan was killed by sniper fire. Van de Waele's force was having problems crossing the Congo River outside the city. Hoai^ and his mercs made the cixjssing on the 26th and fpt. Olenga, too, escaped into exile in the Sudan. Anny chief of staff Mobutu rose to the rank of major general and commander in chief of the ANC. Then, on November 25. 1965, he led a coup d'etat that overthrew K£\saviibu and Tshombe. Promising elections that never did take place, Mobutu— who renamed his country Zaire and himself Mobutu Sese Seko Koko Ngbendii Wa Za Banga ("He who by his gi^eatness is invincible")—held power until 1997, when he was overthrown by Laurent Kabila, a former Simba, and subsequently died in e.\ile of cancer. MH Rob Krott authored the chapter on Dragon Rouge in Great Raids in History. For additional reading, he recommends 111 Days in StanleyviUe, by David Reed.

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MARCH/APRIL 2005 MILITARY HISTORV 81

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He died a hero in the Civil War but his name would live on into World War II. By C Brian Kelly

WHEN U.S. NAVY COMMANDER James Harmon Ward was buried, his hometown Hartford (Conn.) Courant said the city streets werefilledwith a "saddened concourse of people." The city's Common Council complained to heaven itself with a resolution saying, "We deeply deplore the Divine dispensation which has bereaved our National Union of one of its most efficient defenders." James Harmon Ward...let's see now, where have we heard the name before? The Ward part, at least? It's both a fact and a statistic that Commander Ward briefly came to public attention during the American Civil War as the first Union naval officer killed in action in that conflict. But that was in June 1861, early in the war. He was in the news only briefly, his outstanding career and life story soon forgotten as the deluge of more than 600,000 additional war dead traumatized the divided nation. StOl, his name clung on...and on. One such commemoration is the restored Fort Ward at Alexandria, Va. Preserved as an example of the Civil War defenses the Union threw up in a ring around Washington, D.C, the Fort Ward Museum and Historic Site today is open to the public on a daily basis. The name not only recalls Ward's Civil War service but also recognizes his role in the 1840s in the formation of the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md. Weird was one of its first seven faculty members and its first executive officer (a post later called commandant of midshipmen). Both a scholar in hisfieldand a veteran sailor. Ward wrote books on naval gunnery, naval tactics and the future of steam propulsion. However, he also went to sea, first as a midshipman assigned to the imposing frigate Constitution for four years, followed by a year's scientific study ashore and then another 15 years of steady sea duty. 82 MILITARY HISTORY MARCH/APRIL 2005

More than 2,400 American military personnel died in the bombing and strafing raid by Japanese carrier-based aircraft. Seven of eight battleships in port were destroyed or significantly damaged. Scores more naval vessels, along with U.S. Army and Marine Corps airplanes, barracks and other facilities, fell victim to the same assault. And yet, as close examination of those events later revealed, it actually had been an American ship that struck the first blow of the Pacific War with Japan—a mere destroyer that came across a Japanese midget submarine attempting to slip into Pearl Harbor just hours before the aircraft attack. The destroyer was USS Ward, commanded by William W. Outerbridge, who had responded to the early dawn sighting in his pajamas. His Ward engaged and sank the midget sub, then fired off a radio report to the 14th Naval District Headquarters in Hawaii, but the warning went unheeded until it was too late. As the war progressed, Ward, commissioned in 1918 for duty in World War I, was converted into a fast transport and served valiantly and well in the Pacific. . .until, three years later, another December 7 rolled around. That was the very day a Japanese suicide plane caught Ward in Ormoc Bay during the invasion of Leyte in the Philippines, crashing into its hull amidships. As uncontrollable fires erupted aboard the vessel, the crew was ordered to abandon ship. After every crew member was safe, the nearby destroyer O'Brien opened fire with "REMEMBER PEARL HARBORI" Sixty- its guns to sink the burning huUc of James plus years ago that w£is the battle cry, the Harmon Ward's World War n namesake. informal yet national slogan during the And, irony of ironies, it was William Outearly days of World War n. The reference, erbridge, now a lieutenant commander, of course, was to the empire of Japan's who was in charge of O'Brien, instead of early-morning sneak attack on the U.S. Ward, on this December 7. naval base at Hawaii's Pearl Harbor on One of several reasons why the name December 7,1941. Ward may ring bells.. .naval bells. MH

His Naval Academy stint—as both executive officer and president of the school's Academic Board—ended with a resumption of sea duty during the Mexican War in the late 1840s as captain of the frigate USS Cumberland, which served as Commodore Matthew C. Perry's flagship. Next, while commanding the sloop Jamestown off Africa, Ward wrote his Manual of Naval Tactics, which would soon become a textbook at the academy. With the advent of the Civil War, there was no doubting the 54-year-old officers loyal choice of the Union. Indeed, he reportedly would have led an expedition dispatched to the relief of isolated Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, S.C, but his superiors decided it would be a futile effort. Instead, Commander Ward took command of the Potomac Flotilla, an assemblage of gunboats and schooners operating on the Potomac River. Led by Ward aboard his flagship Thomas Freebom, the flotilla shelled Confederate batteries at Acquia Creek in May and June, then attempted a landing at Mathias Point on June 27. It was here that Ward was mortally wounded, struck by a Confederate sharpshooter's musket ball while aiming Freebom's bow gun. Thus, it was only natural that a grateful nation named a small fort near the Potomac for the Navy's early Civil War hero, but wait! The name Ward was destined to live on in yet another venue, to recall another war—indeed, to ring in another devastating (albeit victorious) war for the United States.