Military History 2007-12

Letters Children at War? Not Surprising In "Children at War" [September], RW Singer described the military training of youngsters like the Hitler Jugend by governments. When I was stationed in the NorihWest Frontier province of Pakistan with the Pakistan army Special Service Group. I learned ihal each Pathan vouth was given a weapon by his father when he ivached the age of 12. He then became a soldier in the eyes of the tribal elders and was available to participate in the squabbles between tribes common to the area. The Pathans are also a significant part of the population of Afghanistan. Therefore, I am not surpriseci to hear of juniors attacking coalition troops in Afghanistan. Wells B. Langc LAFAYETTE, COLO.

Cocktails at 9 I can sympathize with [a mother'sl concern in your September Letters about publishing instructions on making Molotov cockiails [Hand Tool, by Jon Guttman, July/August], but I'm afraid the cat is long OUI of the bag. Ill the months after Pearl Harbor. 1—a 9-year-old Southern Californian—and my younger brother and playmates took the threat of Japaiiese invasion quite seriously (as did many adults who should have known better) and resolved to sell our lives dearly While my father was trooping through ihe Hollywood Hills with his state militia company, we amassed a couple of dozen bottles of suitable size and shape, carefully taped two (in case one failed) wooden kitchen matches to each botile, glued on a bit of sandpaper on which to strike the matches, and stuffed the necks with rag fuses. Mother drew the line at filling the bottles

ITAPY

with gasoline, so we packed them in canons, ready for filling at the first sign of "Jap" tanks clanking down Laurel Canyon Boulevard. How did we know about Molotov cocktails? Perhaps from newsreels of ihe Spanish Civil War, during which I believe they were first used, or from newspapers. I agree with the editor that the weapon is so simple, description equals instruction; all my friends not only could make them but also had thought of "improvements." Ronald A. GilUam THONOTOSASSA, F U .

ing communities. The corporal, third from the right, is Keith Herring of Carey We obtained a copy of the photo from one of his relatives sev-

Benedict Redeemed? 1 really enjoyed "Big Win at Saratoga" |by Geoffrey Norman, Octoberl. Because of his treason. Benedict Arnold has been historically maligned, and the great things he did have been mainly ignored. A great example of his tenacity was at the 1776 Battle of Valcour Bay Arnold built a small American fleet that engaged the much stronger British navy and prevented two British armies from merging. To quote naval historian Alfred Mahan, "Save for Arnolds flotilla, the British would have settled the business [won the war]."

WORLDWARl

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Photo ID It was a real surprise to turn to P 55 of your October issue l"An Army from Scratch"]. There was a full-page view of Company D, 139th Regiment Infantry, at Camp Doniphan, Fort Sill, Okla., shortly after their induction in November 1917. This company was recruited here in Caney, Kan., from men from the surround-

eral years ago for the Caney Valley Historical Society Company D saw frontline service with the 139th in the Meuse-Argonne. The campaign sustained many casualties. iSee "One Man's Ambush," by Edward G. Lengel, P52.1 Ivan Pjlaser CANEY, KAN.

The little American fleet was wiped out, but never had any force big or small lived to better purpose. U would be good to see the rest of the positive story of Benedict Arnold and what was done to him to cause his treason. Morion L Wood M/\RMUON. F L A .

Pershing's Warning In "Blackjack Pershing" [October], Ke\in Baker quotes the genera! as Follows: "What 1 dread is that Germany doesn't know that she was licked." [PershingI was lamenting the fact thai other members ot the Allied War Council had elected to sign an armistice rather than unconditional surrender. His words came true at the outset of World War I! when the Germans stated that their army had never been defeated. By the end there was no question in anybody's mind that this was no longer tt\ie. Today his words of warning prevail even more: Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq...? Ivan L Pjaiser CANEY, KAN.

The Last Word In "What We Learned from the Battle of

Trafalgar" |by James Lacey, September], Lord Nelson is purported to have asked, "Did any of our ships strike?" Assured that none had, writes Lacey, Nelson died peacefully Actually, the statement for which Nelson is remembered is, "Thank God, I have done my duty" This he repeated a number of times. Then, as reported by those at this side, his words were, "Rub, rub,,.fan, fan.. -drink, drink," as he sought what comfon he could in the hours of pain he suffered as he lay dying. He did not die peacefully. ]o Ashley

Corrections OnP41 of the November feature "The Coldest Winter," an F-80C Shooting Star was incorrectly identified as an F-86 Sabre. Other captions in the article suggest thai U.N. forces reached the Yalu River In fact, Chinese troops intervened as they approached it. On P. 17 oj the October department "What We Learned from handlwana," we incoirectly refer to the British 24th Regiment of Foot as the 2'^th Infantry. The editors regret the errors.

FRAMINGHAM. MASS.

Editor re
Many have left their mark on history. Fortunately, there's still time for you.

Send letters to Editor, Military History, Weider History Group, 741 Miller Dr. SE, Suite D-2, Leesburg, VA 2 0 1 7 5 , or via e-mail to military history@weiderhist ory group, com, Please include your name, address and daytime telephone number.

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Tomb of the Unknown Soldier Faces Repair or Replacement Signs at Arhngton National Cemetery iwww.arhngton temeteryorgl may call for SILENCE AND RESPECT,

but

lawmakers and presen-ationists have been sounding off over plans to repair or even

Korea and Vietnam. In 1963 workers found cracks running along natural veins on the tombs white marble die block, the 48-ton main body of the monument. Cosmetic repairs in 1975 failed to slem

tery that addressed the tomb's structural integrity Alarmed by a determination to either "enclose the tomb monument or replace it," the trust took its concerns to Congress, and this fall Senators Daniel Akaka and Jim Webb sponsored a bill to reconsider all restoration options. The legislation calls on the secretaries of the Anny and Veterans Affairs to submit proposals to Congress, including disposal plans should the tomb be replaced. Marble for a new monument would hkely come from the Yule Quarry in Marble, Colo., source of the existing stones. The subterranean crypt would not be disturbed. But even outright replacement may not solve tbe problem. Preservation expert Mary Oehrlein, author of the 1990 study, testified before tbe Senate Armed Services Committee in September, saying, "There is no v^'ay lo stop the deterioration of the [monument].,.unless it is placed out of the weather in a controlled environment."

Officials at Arlington National Cemetery may have to replace the 75-year-old monument, which \s crisscrossed by lateral cracks.

replace ihe Tomb ol the Unknown Soldier. Constructed in 1932. the monument sits atop a crypt containing the remains of an unidentified World War I doughboy. Flanking it are crypts dedicated to the unknowns of World War 11,

the damage, and a 1990 study determined the cracks were in fact spreading. The current debate arose when officials from the nonprofit National Trust for Historic Preservation [www .nationaltmsi.oigl read ajune 2006 report from the ceme-

'Great empires are not maintained by timidity' —Tacitus

DISPATCHES

Student Fined for Soviet Souvenirs A Riiasian court recently fined a University of Missouri at St. Louis Ph.D. candidate nearly $600 for purchasing a handful of Soviet war medals from a flea market for $66. Chilean native Roxana Conlreras was charged under a 1994 law that forbids the removal of war relics from the couniry, Conireras had been detained for two months while awaiting trial She had faced up to seven years in prison for the smuggling charge.

Hitler Is No Little Caesar A New Zealand pizza chain has scrapped a series of billboards that used Adolf Hitler as its pitchman alter complaints from Wellingtons Jewish community. Hell Pizza

HELL Deliveries [www.hell.co.nz], known for such tasteless laglines as Tutting the VICE in Service," depicted the Fuhrer with his right hand raised in a Nazi salute, holding a slice, above the legend. IT IS POSSIBLE TO MAKt: PEOPLt: BEUEVE THAT HEAVEN IS H E L L

Girl Brings Grenade to Show-and-Tell A 9-year-oid in Bethunc, France, was only following directions when her teacher recenfly asked students to bring an unusual object lo class. The World War 11

grenade ihe girl puilcd Iruni her satchel sure lit the bill. Her teacher removed the grenade (a "lucky find" of the girls brother) from ihe classroom, while the principal evacuated ihe school and called a bomh disposal unit. The grenade tumed out to be a dud—though not ai showand-tell that week.

Navy to Reconfigure 'Swastika' Buildings The Navy has decided to spend up to $600,000 t)n modilications lo a building complex at San Diego's Naval Base Coronado that looks like a swastika from ihe air. Designed in the lale 1960s as harracks, the converging L-shii|X'd buildings had gone

Researchers Find WWI Tunnels, Lost Army Archaeological teams scouring the World War I battlefields of northern France and Belgtum have made significant finds in recent months. In Fromelles, France, historians From the University of Glasgow's Center lor Baltlefield Archaeology |\vu-vv',battlcfieldarchaeology .ans.gla.ac.ukI have located the "Lost Army," ihe remains of 399 British and Australian uoops who were killed on July 19-20,1916, during a diversionary attack on heavily fortified German positions. German troops later buried the men in unmarked pits and tumed over their personal belongings to the Red Cross. After poring over , Uic luani employed a range of technologies, including ground-penetrating radar, to pinpoint the gravesite. J tist north across the border near Ypres, Belgium, researchers are surveying a network of tunnels tbat sheltered thousands of British soldiers between 1917 and the 1918 Armistice. In fact, more people lived underground here during the war than live aboveground today Water pumps kept the tunnels clear then, bui theyVe since Hooded, so the team will use rernotely operated submersibles to search for artifacts.

Mf you are going through hell...keep going' —Winston Churchill

Bombs to Delay Games? laigtly unnoticed—thai is, until Google Earth [hup //earth.google.com] posted satellite images of the complex. Bloggers picked up the story, and architectural opposition soon mounted. The Navy plans to inslall rooftop photovoltaic cells to alter the shape while improving energy consumption.

London construction crews racing to erect venues for the 2012 Olympic Games are running into an all-too-familiar hurdle: tons of unexploded World War 11 ordnance. According to ihe Imperial War Museum, the German Luftwaffe dropped more than 19,000 tons of bombs on London during ihe 1940-41 Blitz, of which an estimated 10 percent failed to detonate. That equates to more than 5,000 possible bomb sites. The finds are causing expensive delays to a project whose costs have already more than tripled to $19 billion.

WAR RECORD December is a month for giving: Napoleon gave himself a crown, colonists gave the British a tea party and Spain gave the U.S. Cuba, Guam and Puerto Rico. Other notable events during the 12th month: • Dec. 2, 1804: A year to the day alter his coronation. Napoleon claims victory over Russo-Austrian forces at the Battle of Austerliiz. • Dec. 7, 1941: The Imperial Japanese Navy attacks the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, awakening "a sleeping giant." • Dec. 16, 1907: Teddy Roosevelt's Great White Fleet weighs anchor at Hampton Roads, Va. {see P 44). • Dec. 18, 218 BC: Hannibal's Carthaginian lorces defeat Rome's legions along the river Trebbia in the first major clash of the Second Punic War. • Dec. 18.1916: The Battle of Verdun ends almost where it began, bringing to a close one of history's longest and bloodiest battles. • Dec. 22, 1944: Germans demand the surrender of surrounded U.S. troops ai Bastogne, prompting General Anthony McAuliffe's famous one-word reply: Nuts.' • Christmas Eve 1814: The United States and Britain sign ihe Treaty of Ghent, ending the War of 1812. • Christmas 1776: George Washington and his army cross the Delaware lo surprise Hessian mercenaries at Trenton.

News Lincoln's Civil War Cottage Opens as National Monument

The Sea Giveth This past hurricane season, Dean, a ferocious Category 5 storm, uncovered a trio of 18lh century cannons along Mexico's Yucatan coast. The badly corroded guns dale back 200 years to the end of Spain's colonial era in the New World, Mexico^ National Institute of Anthropology and History |wwvv,inah,g()b,mx| will retum the cannons to the sea for scuba divers to enjoy President Abraham Lincoln used the cottage in Washington, D.C., as a seasonal family retreat. Here he afso conferred with military strategists and drafted the Emancipation Proclamation.

On February 18, ihe President Lincoln and Soldiers' Home National Monument |www,linijolncouage.coml in Washington, D.C., will open to the public, offering a personal glimpse of presidential life during the nation's most turbulent years, Dunng the warm weather months of 1862-64, Abraham Lincoln, wife Mary Todd and their youngest son, Tad, moved into a cottage on the grounds of the Soldiers' Home, a veterans' retirement facility a few miles north of the White House. Here Lincoln would ruminate over General George McClellan's case of "the slows," brood over

early Union defeats and later learn of the turnaround victoiy at Gettysburg. The cottage was also where Lincoln drafted his pivotal Emancipation Proclamation, Aides continually worried about the president's safety so close to the lines of battle in Maryland, In July 1864, Rebel raiders under Lt. Gen, Juhal Early defeated a Union force at Monocacy, then threatened the outskirts of Washington. The Llncolns were forced to flee the cottage for the relative safety of the White House. That fall one of Lincolns personal guards recalled hearing a gunshot as the president galloped up to the Soldiers'

Home. Though Lincoln denied hearing the shot, the private later reported spotting a hole in the brim of his trademark stovepipe hat. Today the monument centers on the Early Gothic Revival cottage, built in 184243 for banker George Riggs. The government purchased the property in 1851 to establish the Soldiers' Home, and the cottage served as its initial quarters. James Buchanan was the first president to use the home as a retreat, as did Presidents Hayes and Arthur. The National Trust for Historic Preservation operates the site and plans to add a visitor center.

The real and lasting victories are those of peace, and not of war' —Ralph Waldo Emerson

MILITARY HISTORY

Museum Returns Sitting Bull Relics The Smilhsonians National Museum of Natural History Ivvww.mnh,si.edu! is returning to relatives a lock of hair and wool leggings taken from the body of Sioux chief Sitting Bull, who was killed by tribal police at the Standing Rock Agency on Dec, 15, 1890.

Amiy doctor Horace Deeble took the "souvenirs" from Sitting Bull's corpse prior to burial and sent them to the museum in 1896, Family representative Ernie LaPointe and his three older sisters plan to bury the items alongside their great-grandfather^ body

News Team Builds Replica of Lafayette's Hermione

CHRISTMAS GIFTS

A few years ago Stanley Weintraub wrote Silent Night, If French shipbuilders have for the colonists' cause. After reminding readers of "the their way, a replica of the frigale Great Britain declared war on remarkable 1914 Christmas ihat carried the Marquis de France in 1778, he returned to tnice." when British, Gennan, Lafayette to selfless service in serve under Louis XVI. But in French and Belgian troops ihe American Revolution will 1780, he sailed back to Amerspontaneously put down ica on the 146-foot their weapons to sing carols, frigate Hermione to serve share food and even play out his commission. soccer with each other. Military history includes Since 1997, the Hermione-La Fayette Asso- other yuletide bright spots: ciation Iwww.hermione .com/anglais! has been • Gift from the Sea: pushing to construct a In December 1864, General replica of Hermione. William Tecumseh Sherman soon take to the seas to honor Hundreds of specialized sent a telegram to President that legacy workers took just 11 months Abraham Lincoln: / beg September 6 marked the to build the original frigate. leave to present to you as 250th anniversary of the birth Remarkably, the shipbuilding a Christmas gift the City of of the marquis (aka Gilbert du lirm at work on the replica Savannah, 150 guns and Motier), who in 1777, at age numbers a mere dozen staff. plenty of ammunition; also 19, literally sneaked out of U hopes to complete Hermione about 25,000 bales of cotton. France to serve without pay as in four years and retrace the • Confederate Amnesty: a major general in the Conii- route Lafayette took to his On Christmas Day 1868, nental Army and rally support adoptive nation. President Andrew Johnson granted final unconditional amnesty to all members of The military don't start wars. the Confederacy Politicians start wars' • Victoria's Chocolate: —General William Westmoreland In 1899, British soldiers fighting the Second Boer War each received a tin of holiday chocolates from their Queen. Using a $70,000 grant from the Department of Homeland • Mary's Smokes: Security, city officials in Huntsville, Ala., are updating Cold War For Christmas 1914, plans to shelter citizens 1 7-year-old Princess Mary in the event of a nuclear sent the troops an eminently or biological terrorist more practical tin of smokes, attack. They ultimately paid for through a popular hope to boost shelter public fund-raiser. capacity to accommodate • And from Oz: In World all 300,000 citizens of War I, ihe Australian the city and sunuunding Comforts Fund outdid county. At the heart of everyone, sending its lads their plans is an abandoned mine big enough for 20,000 evacuees, smokes, gum, handkerchiefs, while others would hunker down in community centers, sausages and kangaroo-skin churches, college dorms, libraries ?.nd research halls. fleece-lined jackets.

Vikings Resurface at Merseyside Pub In 1938 a builder uneanhed the prow of a wooden ship in the baM^meni of thf Railway Inn in Merseyside. England. BUI his fori-man

ID avoid construction delays, instructed the man to rebury the artifact. Decades laier University of Nottingham professor Stephen Harding followed up on iT-imoi^s of the vessel and this summer used ground-penetrating radar to get a clear image of his quarry: a Viking transport perfectly preserved in the surrounding clay Excavation plans are in the works.

Historical Account of Pentagon Attack [he Department ol Delense has published a comprehensive account of the Sept. 11. 2001, terrorist attack on the Pentagon, Compiled from thousands of documents and

Huntsville Revamps Shelters

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HISTORY

more than 1.300 interviews, Pentagon 9/11 details the crash of Ameriran Aidines Flighi 77 and its aftcrniaih. including the heroic actions of first responders. Copies ($31) are available from the U.S. Government Printing Office at 866-512-1800 or online ibookstore.gpo.gov/coUections /pentagon911.jsp|.

Interview Malcolm Muir: Schooling Tomorrow's Officers

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olonel Malcolm Muir, holder of a 20th century, French Revolution and chair in military history at Virginia Napoleon, American military history, Military Institute has long been history of air power. World War I, teaching a full spectrum of courses to future World War II. officers of the U.S. military "t ^M/ and at West Point, as well as to mid-career What do you think VMI graduate officers at the Air War College at Maxwell officers really need to know? Air Force Base. A self-described miiitary As second lieutenants or ensigns, they historian "in the broadest possible sense," need to know how to do their jobs. Muir has taught about confiicts from the They need to team small-unit leadership, Persian Wars to the preshow to lead people effecent. He specializes in the tively. 1 point to some history of the U.S. Navy good books for aspiring in World War U and has young officers: Charles published several boohs MacDonald's Compaand numerous papers and ny Commander or John journal articles on naval Masters' Bugles and warfare. Muirfinrdy bea Tiger—written by lieves that military offipeople who have been cers must be conversant down that road. in the broadest lessons of military history/rom all What do you think periods and places. career officers need intellectually? What percentage of They need the bigger VMI graduates become picture. They need to active-duty military see that war is more officers? than just tactics, amUntil 1989 commissioning was mandabushes and maneuvering. In my courses, tory, so It was 100 percent. Once that I tell them the old saw: Amateurs talk requirement v^'as dropped, the rate plumtactics, experts talk logistics. One of the meted. But now, possibly in reaction to most fascinating books in the military the challenges we face in "the long war," library is Donald Engles' book Alexander the rate has been inching up. Last year the Great and the Logistics of the Macedonit edged above 50 percent. ian Army. The title doesn't reach out and grab you, but it is damn well fascinating. How important is military history in their overall preparation? You teach not only military strategy In the 1970s, just one course in military and tactics but also such policy issues history was offered at VMI. One! Now we as economics and diplomacy. Do you offer 16 courses that deal directly with believe it's important to emphasize military history, from Civil War and those subjects? Reconstruction to grand strategy in the Absolutely Combat by itself, without

The French used to say that officers are managers of violence. There has to be a mission, a reason for the fighting'

MILITARY HISTORY

looking at the overarching framework, can become almost meaningless violence. It^ like talking about ariotor a street fight. The French used to say that officers are managers of violence. There has to be a mission, a reason for the fighting. So, diplomacy, economics—it all plays in. In the fall of 1941, the Japanese army was an excellent light infantry army, and Prime Minister and army General Hideki Tojo told the emperor of Japan, "Wars can be fought and won with ease." He'd seen that the Japanese army in the field was very potent. But he's not taking into account the economic or political considerations. His view is so narrow that he's doomingjapan to defeat. So how do you give your students that hig picture? I tell the cadets, when you're thinking about a campaign in World War II—say, Midway—start with the mission. What's at issue here? Answer that before you start delving into details. Do you teach courses in ethics and integrity? No, but I have made a conscious effort to bring ethics and integrity into my courses, and I still do, because these are very important considerations—especially to people who are going to be wielding lethal weaponry. They are going to have to live with themselves and with what they do. 1 emphasize that the profession of arms is an honorable profession, that the defense of your country is an honorable profession. But there are tricky areas— it's a very difficult profession. And there are ethical considerations that are much broader than your personal considerations. In my American military history class, 1 spend a lot of time talking about Lt. William Calley As an example of how things can go wrong? Yes, I point out that Calley's actions, while reflecting the frustration that

many GIs felt in Vietnam, go beyond the pale and doubtless cost American lives. You can't waste little children and old people without making enemies. This was a war for the hearts and minds of the people, and the way to lose it is to kill innocent people. That's what Calley dtd. I also talk about unrestricted submarine warfare. While it might have given Germany a large tactical advantage in 1915 and 1917. it also brought a new powerful opponent into the war: the United States.

American military history courses. The Philippine insurrection is a good example, and the police actions in Haiti and the Matines in Nicaragua in the '20s. Some of those efforts were fairly successful. You've taught at several schools. Are there any significant differences from institution to institution in what future military officers are learning? At USMA iWest Point], there is a larger emphasis on the Napoleonic Wars. And that's because USMA came out of the

ideas, an officer's education is inherently incomplete. Which military history books would you consider essential? The one that really stands out, of course, is John Keegans The Face of Battle. For American military history, the second edition of Allan Millett and Peter Maslowski's For the Common Defense, which 1 use as a text. For World War 11, no work has equaled Gerhard Weinberg's A World at Arms. Now, Weinbergs work ts big, a thousand pages, so it can't be used as a text; its too advanced. But there's something new on every page. For the soldier m the trenches at the tactical level, E.B. Sledge's With the Old Breed is a classic, and justifiably so. Any other books you consider "must" reading for cadets? If youVe dealing with the American Civil War, it's hard to beat Jim McPherson's books. For World War II, another superb work is Rick Atkinsons An Army at Dawn. And Ronald Spector's At War at Sea, a good book that in some ways is parallel to Keegan's Face of Battle, lt examines the conditions that sailors lived in and fought in at places like Midway

At VMI, Muir teaches future officers military history tempered with ethics and integrity.

Which subjects do you prefer to teach? I love teaching World War U. It's so dramatic. I like the sea power and the air power courses. I'm a hog in paradise; 1 love what I do. What is the scope of VMT's new course on counterinsurgency and terrorism? It focuses on modem guerrilla warfare, counterinsurgency in the 19th and 20th centuries, startmg with the very origin of the term "guerrilla"—the Spanish against the French. I've always woven treatments of irregular warfare into my

Napoleonic Period. It was founded in 1802. The military lessons to be extracted from the Napoleonic Wars and the Gran^ Arnu'e against Russia are part of the common vocabulary of USMA graduates. Are the great theoreticians of warfare still taught? Cenainl)', I look al the works of [Carl von] Clausewitz, of Alfred Thayer Mahan, of Giulio Douhet, to pick the big three. And Sun-Tzu presents very valid lessons, but Claitsewitz, Mahan, Douhet are touchstones for armies, navies and air forces. Without a basic knowledge of their

Any other advice? 1 thitik it IS important for any student of the tnilitary to actually see the ground or go aboard the ships. At West Point we took cadets to Normandy Last spring here at VMI, 1 took cadets to Guam and Iwo Jima. That's an experience to treasure, because Americans are only allowed on Iwo Jima one day a year by the Japanese government; it's now a Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force installation. Americans can go to Iwo Jima as long as they are living veterans of the batde, and other Americans can accompany three veterans. There were 14 or 15 of them on this trip. We went to the top of Suribachi and had a ceremony for the VMI alumni kilted on the island, iffil

What We Learneu... from the Battle of Carrhae By Richard Tada

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arcus Lidnius Crassus arrived in Syria in the spnng oi' 54 BC with plans to invade the Parthian Hmplre, which centered on present-day Iran, Plutarch, who wrote the most detailed account of the campaign, suggests Crassus wanted to match the military exploits of Caesar and Pompey, his partners in the First Triumvirate. Crassus started slowly. During the latter half of 54 BC, he garrisoned several

In the tangle of combat at Carrhae, Parthian cavalry and archers cut down Crassus' seven Roman legions.

cities in northern Mesopotamia before wintering in Syria, He was awaiting his son Publius. who was headed east with 1,000 Gallic cavalrymen. When Crassus finally got moving the next year, subordinates urged him to advance dov^Ti the Euphrates. Instead, he marched directly into Parthia past the fortified city of Carrhae (present-day Harran in southeastern Turkey). The Roman force consisted of seven legions (roughly 35,000 infantry), accompanied by 4,000 light infantry and a similar number of cavalry, Crassus deployed the army in hollow squares.

the Parthians killed some 20,000 Romans and captured 10,000.

Lessons: The smaller Parthian force under General Surena consisted entirely of cavalry. There were 9,000 mounted archers and 1,000 cataphracts—armored men with long spears on armored horses. Battle was joined sometime in June of 53 BC, The cataphmcts initially charged, but were frustrated by the Romans' close formation and interlocked shields. Then the Parthian-mounted archers went to work. Their composite bows launched arrows with enormous force, sufficient to penetrate armor The Romans expected ihe Parthians to mn out of arrows, after which they could advance to close quarters. It didn't happen. Surena had organized a camel train to rcsupply his archers. In i Irustration, Crassus orI dered Publius to take a g detachment (including I the Gallic cavalry) and ^ charge the enemy. The Parthians feigned retreat, and Publius fell for it, pursuing enthusiastically until isolated from the main Roman body. Then the Parthians tumed, killing Publius and nearly annihilating his force. With Publius' head mounted on a spear, they rode back to renew the main assault. By nightfall, the desperate Romans resolved lo slip away The retreating force abandoned 4,000 wounded legionaries, whom the Parthians slaughtered. The Romans first fell back to Carrhae, but lacking provisions, were again forced to vidthdraw- Surena then arranged to meet Crassus, ostensibly to discuss terms. But it was a trap. In the resulting fight, Crassus was killed, his severed head sent north to Parthian King Orodes 11, who was campaigning m Armenia. In the end.

• Strike while your political objectives are attainable. In 55 BC Orodes II was facing rebellion by his brother. Mithridates 111, who had sought Roman assistance. If Crassus had moved then, he could have helped Mithridates and installed a pro-Roman king on the Parthian throne. But Crassus dawdled, and Mithridates was defeated and killed in 54 BC. • Firm up your allies. Artavasdes of Armenia offered to aid Rome if Crassus would agree to swing north and advance through his kingdom. Crassus declined. Later, during the Roman retreat, Crassus hoped to reach the Armenian highlands and the protection of his supposed ally. But by then, Orodes had invaded Armenia and secured Artavasdes' allegiance. In fact, Orodes and Artavasdes were watching a play by Euripides when Crassus' severed head arrived and was tossed onstage, • Arms work best in combination. The Parthian cataphracts and mounted archers achieved more together than either could alone, • Don't present an obvious target. The cataphracts hovered in front of the Roman line, forcing the Romans to maintain a close formation. This made them an easy target for the Parthian archers, whorodearound both flanks and subjected the Romans to a deadly fire. • Keep your forces together, Publius rushed out with his Gallic cavalry to an unsupportable position. Once cut off by the cataphracts, they were beyond help. • Numbers aren't everything. Superior weapons, superior tactics, superior logistics (that camel train), psyops (Pubbus' head on a spear) and treachery can carry the day, even against 3-to-l odds. • Watch your back. Surena won great fame for his victory over the Romans at Carrhae, But Orodes II grew to resent this and had him executed. (SBl

Voice My Confederate Bias By Marc Leepson

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am a born and bred Northerner— as in born in Newark, N,J., and reared in that most Northern of cities' suburbs. On the rare occasions that I thought about the Civil War during my formative years in the '50s and '60s, I was firm in my belief that the war was a fight over slavery, that the North won, and that nearly a hundred years after the fact, the Civil War wasn't that big of a deal for us Yankees—a word, by the way, that 1 never would have used. To me, the Yankees were the hated rivals of my beloved Brooklyn Dodgers.

understand the appeal in the image of the chivalrous Southern gentleman standing up to fight for his beliefs, it made no impression on my feelings about the war. Flash forward to this year. 1 had just finished writing Desperate Engagement, my first book on the Civil War. It's the story of the little-known but crucial July 9,1864, Battle of Monocacy and Confederate General Jubal Early's subsequent march on Washington, D.C.

^ Maybe I did make Mosby's role in the tale too big; maybe I was a tad enamored with the flashier details of the flamboyant ranger and his men'

In 1963 I headed south for college to George Washington University, in the nation's capital. My horizons broadened. For the first time, 1 studied in classrooms with black fellow students. For the first time, I had friends who were born and bred Southerners, For the first time, I saw kids from the South jump up from their seats and stand at attention when "Dixie" was played—make that from their barstools, since the sounds of "Dixie" emanated from the jukebox in our campus drinking establishment. o

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1 majored in history and learned more about the war. Nothing I learned at the time, though, swayed my Northern sympathies. I didn't buy the states' rights argument, or the claim that the Southern Cause was just. While I could

MILITARY HISTORY

1 take pride in the fact that my books are written objectively That was especially true of my previous book. Flag: An American Biography, a history

of the Stars and Stripes, The American flag can be an extremely emotional topic. My goal was to write pure history; 1 wanted the book to appeal to everyone from flag-wavers to flag-bumers. And 1 worked assiduously to keep my political feelings out of the narrative and to present clear, objective history.

That was my goal for Desperate Engagement, as well. I wanted to tell the story of this battle and its important aftermath, giving equal weight to the main players from both sides. And when I'd finished, I thought 1 had done so. That included my examinations of the cantankerous Early, the gentlemanly Robert E, Lee and the adamant Jefferson Davis on the Southern side.

and the bombastic Lew Wallace, the bumbling Henry "Old Brains" Halleck, the steadfast U,S, Grant and the stoic Abraham Lincoln on the other team. While researching the book, 1 received generous assistance from the folks at Monocacy National Battlefield, They granted me a private tour of the battlefield, and I was pennitted to photocopy anything 1 wanted from their extensive researchfiles,much of it primary source material, 1 also benefited greatly when one of the top experts on the battle kindly offered to read the manuscript before I tumed it in. E, as I'll call the person here, really liked the book. E found some small errors (OK, some weren't that small) that 1 immediately corrected. E also offered general words of advice, all of which I followed. There was one thing E said, though, that startled me: "You need to look at the manuscript carefully for signs of Confederate bias." Confederate bias? From me, the New Jersey-bom Brooklyn Dodgers fan? How could that be? One specific item E mentioned was my inclusion of an incident tangential to the battle. It involved Colonel John Singleton Mosby, the legendary Confederate raider who, as it happens, roamed the area of the Northern Virginia Piedmont where 1 live, 1 looked back on what 1 wrote. Maybe 1 did make Mosby's role in the tale too big; maybe I was a tad enamored with the flashier details of the flamboyant ranger and his men. But maybe it was more than that, I thought, as 1 reread the entire manuscript with "Confederate bias" ringing in my ears, I realized that 1 had taken a bit too much delight in describing the ineptitude of the Union high command. Not that there wasn't plenty of ineptitude to go around, staning with Halleck, who dithered while Rome burned—that is, while Washington lay startlingly underdefended vidth Early on the march just 40 miles away

Colonel John Mosby cut an impressive figure in 1865, winning hearts and minds.

Perhaps I made too much of the other sorry Union leaders who were not a part of the main story—especially General Franz "the Flying Dutchman" Sigel, who rarely met a battle from which he didn't flee, and General David "Black Dave" Hunter, who unnecessarily riled Southern pride by slashing and burning his way up the Shenandoah Valley and then retreating ingloriously when Eariy challenged him at Lynchburg, leaving the \'allcy open to Earlys Northern invasion. Maybe I got slightly carried away when I described the Southern leaders' positive traits: Lee's moral uprightness; John Brown Gordon's courage under fire at Antietam, Monocacy and elsewhere; boy general Dodson Ramseur's battlefield fearlessness and acumen; and the cavalry exploits of "Tiger" John McCausland, a guy with one really cool moustache. Maybe having lived in Virginia since 1972 (although I remain a newcomer in the eyes of native Virginians) had had an unexpected efTect, On the other hand, I still feel the same way about the Big Questions of the war, that it was, at heart, about slavery, and that the cause was not just. I may still be a Yankee, but I no longer root for the Dodgers. All my favorite teams (the Washington Nationals, Wizards and Redskins and the University of Virginia Cavaliers) are from below the Mason-Dixon Line. I know 1 have changed my feelings about the South, having lived here for the last 35 years, having many Southern-born friends and in-laws (my v^ife is a Virginia native) and having spent a good deal of time in Richmond and Charlottesville doing historical research. In the last three decades I have taken in—and like the feeling of—many aspects of Southern culture and mores. Still, it's been a surprising lesson that such experiences could result in a noticeable "Confederate bias." <2Bt

Hand Tool Yari

By Jon Guttman •Illustration hy Ted Williams

A Japanese spear requiring a deft hand

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efore the advent of the tamed katana and wahizashi, a samurai's basic sword set, the Japanese warrior's principal weapon was the _yi3ri, or spear. Developed from Chinese weapons and proliferating after the Mongol invasions of 12741281, the ^-ari was esseniially a blade up to 3 feel long with a tang usually longer than the blade, mounted on a hardwood shaft covered in lacquered bamboo strips, wrapped in metal rings or wire, and with a metal pommel, or ishizuki, on the butt end. The shaft could be oval, round or polygonal in cross section and ranged in length from 3,3 feet for a horseman to 20 feet for an ashigaru, or foot soldier. The yari blade was made of the same steel and often to the same sharpness as a sword and was kept in a sheath, or saya, when not in use. The blade could be straight, sickle-shaped or hooked Tor pulling a samurai from his horse. In cross section, it could be diamond-shaped or triangular, for piercing armor. Some blades included a curved crossplece, with points either forward or back. The katakaina had a smaller, sickle-shaped blade beside the main one, while another version sported three blades like a trident. As with all Japanese weapons, there was a technique to using the yari, called sojutsu. Arguably, the most notable film depiction of sojutsu takes place in Akira Kurosawas 1958 adventure Thf Hidden Fortress, which influenced George Lucas' Star Wars series, (S&)

Power Tool Pressure/G Suit aeronautics entered the age of jet power and space travel, niilitary aviators faced more than jusl human foes. For one, S they had to contend wilh the gravitational stresses, or g-forces, of highspeed maneuvers. They also had to cope with the lovj pressure and sparse oxygen of high altitudes—and later, the airless vacuum of space. Such problems first came lo light dunng World War 1. In 1933, British physiologist John Scott Haldane modified a deep-sea diving suit for use in high-altitude flight. The next year, Massachusetts-bom engineer Russell Colley designed a pressure suit for Wiley Post as the aviation trailblazer set out to explore the jet stream. Colley's three-layer garment comprised long underwear, a pressurized rubber bladder and an outer layer of rubberized parachute fabric. Rubber boots, pigskin gloves and an aluminum diver's helmet with removable faceplate completed the bulky ensemble, which enabled Post to reach an altitude of 47,000 feet.

Space Age aviators' supersonic survival gear

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Meanwhile, other researchers began to address disturbing incidents in which pilots blacked out during high-g turns or while coming out of dives. In 1941 a Canadian team headed by Frank Banting and Wilbur R. Franks designed a suit with water-filled bladders around a pilot's legs to restrict the sudden surge of blood to the lower extremities. Further research in the United States, Canada and Australia led to the use of pressurized air rather than water to counter the debilitating effects of gravity on the heart, lungs and circulatory system. Subsequent projects combined these early technological developments with more flexible materials, culminating in the modern G suit—or, more correctly, anti-G suit.lffil

By Jon Guttman'Illustration by Ted Williams

The helmet sealed to the suit collar and was supplied with air through a flexible tube.

From 1946 through 1958. Bell X-1 test pilots, most notably Chuck Yeager, used pressure suits like the one shown here. Inflatable bladders in the abdomen and running along the limbs would counter g-forces.

In early 1948, Stalin ordered a blockade of all land routes to Berlin, spurring the greatest airborne relief operation in history By Stephan Wilkinson

o city of 2.5 million people had ever been supplied wholly by air, until the 1948-49 Berlin Airlift. Food. Clothing. Bedding. Coal. Gasoline. Medicine. Even candy and toys. Everything that had previously been carried by long, clattering freight trains, by streams of trucks on the Autobahn, by big barges on the Elbe, had to be flown into Berlin. Yet a C-47, despite its twin engines, 1,800 horsepower and substantial ground crew, was only able to carry about 3 tons—roughly the load of a single local delivery truck. The Soviet blockade of Berlin was a serious Cold War confrontation. The Soviets sought a weakened and divided postwar Germany with the Allies out of Berlin, which lay deep within the Soviet Zone. Stalin saw the Allied proposals to unite their three zones into a single state, to be reconstructed under the U.S. Marshall Plan, as a direct challenge to the Soviet Union. When the Allies established a distinct West German currency and encouraged its use in the Soviet Zone of Berlin, the Soviets struck back. On the night of March 31, 1948, the blockade began. Soviet troops stopped trains at the border, turning them back. Just one was allowed to continue, and only then under the humiliating control of a Soviet crew. The Autobahn was sealed off, as was the Elbe. After much

MILITARY HISTORY

Children watch a C-54 Skymaster take off from Berlin's Tetnpelhof Air Base in 1949. With its ability to carry 10 tons of cargo, the C-54 was the workhorse of the airlift.

haggling between the Allies and ihe Soviets, traffic resumed, but by June the Soviets completely shut off Berlin to the rest of the world. General Lucius Clay, an old-fashioned firebrand who was military governor of Germany's U.S. Zone, wanted to bugle up the cavalry—push through to Berlin with an armored column, guns blazing if necessary, and stick it to the Soviets come what may. Washington praised it as "a clear, finn and courageous decision," but seriously dumb. The airhft would prove anything but dumb.

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t began slowly, wilh what would later come to be condescendingly called "the Little Lift." In April and May 1948, thirty U.S. Air Force C-47s, some still bearing black-and-white D-Day stripes, plus two British Royal Air Force Dakotas and a little Avro Anson hauled food and supplies for the Allied garrisons—soldiers, staffers and diplomats. Nobody dreamed we'd be supplying the city itself; the Little Lift was simply a stopgap to relieve the temporarily trapped Yanks and Brits. And what about the French? They had a Berlin zone and briefly flew a few captured Junkers Ju-52s to supply their own troops, but the "Iron Annies" were so slow, they risked getting rear-ended even by lumbering C-47s. An)'way, the French ioathed the Germans almost as much as the Russians did. All they wanted was payback—reparations—for the damage they'd suffered during the war. They took no pan in the actual airlift, except for one salient act.

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In December 1948, with the airlifi well under way, there was heavy and constant traffic into Tegel, a British-controlled airport. Nearby, just inside the French Zone, were two soaring transmission towers that beamed Radio Berlin's Soviet propaganda throughout the city These towers posed a coristant threat to airplanes on approach to Tegel, and the French asked several times that they be taken down. The Russians ignored their request. So, on the morning of December 16, French sappers collapsed the towers into tv/isted piles of metal. The enraged Soviet

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Zone commandant reportedly asked General Jean Ganeval, his French counterpan, "How could you do such a thing?" "With dynamite," Ganeval replied. It was during ihe Litlle Lift that an unfortunate but precedential incident occurred: A British Vickers VC. 1 Viking transport was about to land at Gatow, the main airport in the British Zone, when a Yak 9 single-seat fighter suddenly swooped beneath the Vikmg and pulled up sharply shearing off the larger planes right wing. The Russian pilot, who had been practicing aerobatics nearby, probably intended to do a roll around the British airliner but misjudged his pull-up. The rash "Watch this!" maneuver killed the Russian, as well as two British crewmen

*The Soviets had become baffled by the ceaseless beat of Pratts, Wrights and [\/leriins. They'd been sure the airlift would collapse' and 12 passengers aboard the Viking, including two Americans. What made the crash precedential was the decisive U.S. reaction: General Glay orderedfighterescorts for future missions. The Russians ordered the cessation of night flying and specified various traffic reroutmgs and what might be termed "new rules," all of which the Americans pointedly ignored. But never again would they seriously challenge the airlift. Why? The Soviets were often outstanding pilots, and some had amassed enormous kill totals, but by wars end they were invariably notched against ponderous Lujtwaffe bombers and Stukas on the Eastern Front, often flown by lastgasp German neophytes. How the Soviets would have fared against equally battle-hardened USAF dogfighters in superior late-model Mustangs presumably

gave them pause. Furthermore, Soviet pilots followed visual flight rules and had no idea how to fly on instruments, so in lousy weather, airlift pilots could count on cloudy but Russian-free skies. Nor did it hurt that a fighter group of Lockheed P-80 straight-wing jets was put on standby in the United States. Sixty Boeing B-29s had already arrived in England, and some were reportedly flying patrols high above the airlift corridors. The Soviets may have assumed the Superfortresses were equipped with nukes, though in fact they weren't.

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y the end of May, it had become increasingly obvious Berlin would starve and mn out of coal before the Soviets budged. Glay called fellow General Curtis LeMay, who commanded the USAF in Europe, and asked him to put every cargo plane and transport pilot he had on "the Berlin run," as it was then called. This put into play some 70 operational C-47s, but there were only two C-54s— the larger four-engined Douglas Skymasters known in the civilian world as DC-4s—in all of Europe. As Berliners required a minimum of 2,000 tons of food a day, to say nothing of coal, this would mean 800 C-47 trips a day or one every minute and 48 seconds around the clock 24/7. Clearly impossible. Despite the odds, on June 26, 1948, the Berlin Airlift officially began. LeMay assumed correctly that Clay intended the operation to be a temporary measure. Indeed, Clay never even asked Washington for permission to institute the airlift. Since it didn't involve actual combat. Clay figured there was no need for authorization. Never before or since has so far-reaching and globally meaningful a military operation been initiated and directed entirely from the field. The airlift went by several names. Air Force PR termed it "Operation Vittles." The English called their end of the campaign Plainfare. Berliners called it the Lujtbrucke ("Air Bridge"), while the Soviets tenned it the Bluffhrucke, since they were sure the air bridge would soon collapse. To participating aircrews it was simply the airlift.

C-47s wait to be unloaded at Tempelhof. These smaller planes carried cargo ranging from engine crates to milk bottles, making good on Lt. Gen. LeMay's claim that "the Air Force can deliver anything."

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he Army Air Forces had atlempied one prior largescaie airlift during World War II—supplying China with 650,000 ions of war materiel via an aerial conveyor of largely Curtiss C-46 Commandos. The planes flew frotn India \ia "the Hump," as pilots called ihe Himalayas. Genera! William Tunner, who ramrodded that operation, was put in charge of ihe Berlin Airlift,

Tunnt-r was a hard-ass. He famously vowed to bust lo copilot any left-seater who missed an approach when the weaiher al Tempelhof (the main USAF terminus in Berlin) was "400 and one" or better—meaning a cloud ceiling ai teasi 400 ieei above the ground and forward \'islbllity of a mile or more. If conditions were worse, Tunner threatened lo "court-martial any pilot who did land," though the general himself was among 10 C-54 pilots lo make it into Tempelhof during a particularly foggy day, reportedly breaking oui of the fog jusi 100 feet above ground level.

the RAF smgle-piloted iheir Dakotas, Lhe right seat occupied by a radioman who also put the gear up and down. And there was one fondly remembered single-piloted C-54 mission. Colonel Jack Coulter, commander of the U,S, base at Fassberg, v^^s married to film star Constance Bennett, whom his aimien adored. Coulter and his wife were on the flight line in August 1948. when anolher pilot grounded his C-54 due to inop warning lights. Coulter boarded and decided the hell with it, there was nothing wrong with the plane, Wiih a fiighi engineer at lhe board behind him and Connie by his side to handle the landing gear, the old man near single-handedly flew 10 tons of coal to Berlin. Tempelhof had high landing minimums by today's standards, but it was a tough port in a storm—like Chicago Midway, it was right in the middle of the city and ringed by buildings. Final approach was between two long rows of seven-story apartment buildings. This was before the days of precision instru-

ment approaches. Aircraft made groundcontrolled approaches and were "talked down" in bad weather. A controller would watch separate radar screens indicating an airplanes height above the grotind and deviation from the runway centeriine, guiding the pilot through the necessary course and ahiiude corrections until he had the runway lights in sight. This look substantial controller talent and experience, A dearth of skilled controllers was a bigger initial concern for the airlift than a lack of pilots or maintenance personnel. Tempelhof was originally a huge grass field, a parade ground for cavalry horses. Relatively low-speed prewar airliners and even the Messerschmitt Bf-109s thai used it during the war had ample room lo maneuver. There were no runways; a pilot simply took off or landed directly into the wind. But this wouldn't do for C-54s, the eventual workhorses of the airlift. To accommodate the larger planes, crews laid down perforated steel planking, or Marsden matting, aiop the sod. The

Crewmen unload a Short Sunderland flying boat at its mooring on the Havelsee. The Sundertands flew in 5,000 tons of salt, which would have eaten away at an aluminum landplane.

planking was very hard on tires—like a sheet of enormous sandpaper—and constantly "worked," rippling and shifting as airplanes landed on it. During ihe few minutes between flights, ground crews often raced out onto the ninway to make quick adjustments and repairs. Perhaps the single most reported detail about the airlift is that if a pilot missed his approach in bad weather or had to go around because of traffic ahead, he didn't gel a second chance bul instead was forced to carry his cargo back to the starling point—typically Wiesbaden or Rhein-Main, tiear Frankfurl. This was certainly true during high-density traffic periods, but if there were no planes behind them, some pilots did shoot second approaches or simply refly the pattern.

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In one possibly apocryphal account, a Royal Canadian Air Force pilot flying an Avro York, a four-engined, triple-tail transport, supposedly found himself high, fast and loo close to the preceding airplane on approach to Gatow. With his landing gear still retracted, he closed the throttles, which immediately set off a

MILITARY HISTORY

piercing gear-warning hom. Helhenpul his microphone up beside the horn and transmitted the blare into the other planes cockpit. Its pilot, believing something was amiss with his own landing gear, veered off, leaving the way clear For ihe York.

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uring the summer of 1948. the British operated some oi the most impressive, albeit unusual, aircralt in the airliil; six huge Short Sunderland Hying boats that landed on the Havelsee, a large Berlin lake. The Sunderlands flew in 5,000 tons of precious salt, which would quickly have eaten away at aluminum iandplanes but didn't affect the corrosionproof flying boats. The Sunderlands, so noticeable and spectacular, did as much for Berliners' morale as they did for their food-preparation and preservation capabilities. Everybody loved the big lour-engined Shorts, which looked something like pigs with wings. One Sunderland pilot en route to the Havelsee recalls watching a Russian biplane doing aerobatics in

front of him, and when the Russian pilot suddenly noticed that approaching monstrosity, he was evidently so shocked that he cross-controlled his airplane and spun—much to the amusement of the Sundt-rland's crew, Wht-n the weather allowed, opposing pilots played games in the air corridors. The Soviets specialized in buzz jobs, aerobatics, towing targets amid the Allies' transports, bombing practice and even broadcasting false nav beacons to lure pilots off course. The Amencans responded by flying C-54s at treetop level down ihe Vnter den Linden, the broad central avenue through the Soviet Zone. Late at night, U.S. pilots would glide their Douglases quiedy dovm over the Soviet barracks, then open all four throttles to max power, shattering windows, rattling chimneys and rudely awakening ihe groggy Russians. And when they got bored, ihe Americans and Brits played tricks on each other. One pilot for the British Overseas Airways Corporation, one of several British civil operalions participating in the airlift, caught up to a homeward bound Ameri-

can C-54 and decided to have some fun. Approaching from behind in his fourengined Avro Tudor, the BOAC pilot went into a slight dive to pick up speed, then streaked past while feathering the two props visible to the C-54 piloi. Blu({bi1kh£ or not, by midwinter 194849 the Soviets had become baffled by the ceaseless beai of Pratts, Wrights and Merlins over Berlin. They'd been sure the atrlil'l would collapse, particularly with the arrival of bitter cold and snow— after all, winter had beaten Napoleon and broken the siege of Stalingrad. But this winter was the mildest Berlin had seen in 30 years, and ihc airiift now had nine airports at its disposal, after starting out with three—Tcmpelhof, Tegel and Gatow. Gatow alone had become by far the world's busiest airport, handing three times the traffic of New York's LaGuardia. the previous champ. Pilots included Americans and Englishmen, as well as Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders and South Africans. In January 1949, the Soviets themselves resorted to a bluff, announcing they would "lorce down" any airplane operating below 3,000 feet over East Germany The U.S. told the Russians to back off or suffer the .50-catiber consequences, which they quickly did. Still the planes were taking a drubbing. Mainienance of the C-54s—the C-47s had by then been retired—became an increasing problem. Douglas pilots were cleared to make three-engine lakeoffs from Tempelhof if need be to return to a maintenance base; in some cases, the copilot was able to start ihe dead engine as its prop windmilled during takeoff. Maintenance increasingly reverted to fixing whatever was absolutely required lor ilight and the hell wilh ever)'thingelse. The British had it even harder. Their Rolls-Royce Merlin and Griffon engines —four-valve, overhead-cam, liquidpooled V-12s—were fine Rolexes compared with the Americans' Timex radials, which kept spinning even after blowing a cylinder. The Brits' engines required experienced technicians, not just American kids in baseball caps. The Brits iiiso demanded perfection, while our mantra was ihc old "good enough for government work."

SAVING A CITY March 31, 1948: The Soviet blockade of Berlin begins. Railroad, waterway and road access is denied to the Western powers. Although they temporarily lift the blockade, by late June the Soviets once again have cut Berlin off from the rest of the world, leaving 2.5 million people without food, medicine and coal, No city had ever before been sustained solely by airlift. Below are highlights of the logistical miracle the Allies pulled off. capturing the attention of the world. April and May 1948: The Little Lift starts. Thirty-three Allied planes haul supplies into Western Berlin for their garrisons. June 25,1948: General Lucius Clay, military governor of the U.S. Zone, orders the launch of an airlift by British and American military and civilian aircraft. They are joined by pilots from Canada. Australia. New Zealand and South Africa. June 26,1948: The Berlin Airlift begins. Thirty-two American C-47s take off from West Germany, carrying 80 tons of cargo, including milk, flour and medicine. • USAF logistics staff calculate that at least 2.000 tons of coal and 1.439 tons of food per day will be needed. •Within four days a C-47 is landing at Tempeihof Air Base every eight minutes. •Douglas C-54s, which can carry 10 tons of cargo, replace the C-47s. They will become the workhorses of the airlift. •By mid-July air crews are flying 2.000 tons of cargo per day into Berlin. •USAF pilot Gail Halvorsen gains fame as the "Candy Bomber," rigging candy bars and bubblegum to tiny handmade parachutes and dropping them from his C-47 for the children of Berlin. •In August, Allied planes deliver 121.000 tons of cargo, meeting the people of Berlin's minimum needs for survival. •Helping out are U.S. Navy R5Ds and RAF Douglas Dakotas. Handley Page Hastings. Avro Yorks and Short Sunderlands. May 12,1949: The Soviets lift the blockade, though the airlift continues through late September. Ultimately, the Allies log 276.926 flights in 321 days, carrying more than 200.000 passengers to and from Berlin and delivering more than 2 million tons of supplies. Seventy American and British lives are lost during the operation.

Regardless of the collective maintenance woes, on April 16, 1949, General Tunner rolled out a serious PR play: "the Easter Parade"—one flight a minute around the clock for 24 hours, a total of 1,440 flights. He didn't quite make it. but the 1,398 flights that did land in Berlin that day and night stunned the Soviets. n May 12,1949, the Russians officially dropped the blockade, permitting a British train to leave Helmstedt, Germany, for Berlin. Yet the airlift wasn't over. For several months it remained the single biggest conveyor of freight into Berlin, as the Soviets contmued to make life difficult for ground transportation in every way they could. In fact, July 1949 was the airlifts smgle biggest month, with 253,090 tons flown. By then the airlift had proven the viability of safe, efficient, all-weatherflightoperations on a global scale. There was no single moment when the Berlin Airlift ended. Instead, it slowly wound down through the summer of 1949. By the end of September, the skies over Berlin were mercifully silent, but for the few scheduled airline and diplomatic flights. Politically, the most important effect of the airlift was that ii enabled West Germany to become a free, democratic state and the powerhouse of Europe's recovery, an industrial giant that helped bring about the collapse of the Berlin Wall and. ultimately, the fall of Sovietstyle communism. Militarily, its a wonder the airlift went off without a shot being fired, as for more than a year America and the Soviet Union skirled the edge of Armageddon. Most important, from the U. S. Air Force's point of view, it was the first time aviation had effectively broken a siege and forced a diplomatic solution— powers until then the pro\ince of armies and na\ics. ^ For jui'ther reading, Stephan Wilkinson recommends: The Berlin Airlift, hy Ann and John Jusa, and The Unheralded: Men and Women of the Berlin Blockade and Airlift, by Edwin Gere.

MASTERS of

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ntury BC bas relief depicts one of Agrippa's btreme warships at Actlum. Prior to tbat 31 BC naval engagement, Rome h

MEDITERRANEA The Romans started with no navy or naval warfare experience, but that didn't stop them

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By K\c\\ard A. Gabvid n 31 BC the last iwo great generals of the Roman civil wars faced each other at Actium off the coast of Greece in a naval battle that would settle the future of Rome. For months Mark Antony and Egyptian Queen Cleopatra had tried in vain to break Octavian's land and naval blockade of their forces in Greece. By late summer Antonys armies were low on supplies and ravaged by disease. On September 2 his lleet of more than 200 ships carrying 20,000 marines and 2,000 archers put to sea to challenge the blockade. They faced a fleet of some 400 ships carrying 16,000 marines and 3,000 archers under the command of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa. Antony's fleet comprised big quinqueremes and even larger ships of Levantine design whose decks were high off the water, \ affording his marines and archers

standing navy and would Instead muster a fleet whenever the need arose.

a significanl advanlage in close combat. Agrippa's ships were mostly liburnae—smaller, lower biremes of lll)Tian design constructed two years earlier in Naples, But they were lighter and faster than those of his opponent, Antony intended to fight a typical Roman sea battle: Close with the enemy ship, board it with marines and slaughter the enemy Agrippa, however, was the most daring and imaginative commander Rome had produced since Caesar and was therealgenius behind Octavian's military successes. He had a different plan.

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ntony's 5,000-yard line of ships was the first to attack. For four hours the fleets skirmished and maneuvered in light winds without result. Just past noon the breeze freshened, and Antony's ships increased the intervals between each ship to lengthen their line and prevent envelopment by Agrippas longer line of ships. But Agrippa had anticipated this move, and his biremes raced toward the heavier and slower quinqueremes, passing them closely to break their oars and rudders, Agrippa then brought his numerical advanlage to bear by having several biremes attack a single quinquereme. Whenever a bireme successfully rammed a quinquereme, it would disengage and maneuver away After a few hours many of Antony's large ships lay dead in the water, awaiting the final boarding attack. The altack never came. Instead, Agrippa's biremes maneuvered close to the drifting quinqueremes and with onboard hallistae, or crossbows, launched flaming pots of pitch and charcoal at the ships. Historian Dio Cassius wrote later that crews tried to quench the fiery projectiles with water, but "as their buckets were small and few and half-filled, they were not always successful. Then they smothered the tires vvith their mantles and even with corpses. They hacked off burning parts of the ships and tried to grapple hostile ships to escape into them. Many were burned alive or jumped overboard or killed each other to avoid the Itames." Thousands perished. Thanks to Agrippa, Octavian's Rome was now master of the Mediterranean, Yet there was no permanent navy. Until Actium, the empire had simply created one whenever the need arose. Octavian thus established the Roman imperial navy, which historian Chester Starr termed "the most advanced and widely based naval structure in antiquity" For the next 500 years tbe Roman Empire would control the region, depending as much on its fleets as on its legions and roads for survival.

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t the outset of the 3rd century BC, Carthage, with its lleet of 300 ships, was the preeminent naval power in the western Mediterranean, At that time, Rome had no naval force or experience in naval warfare. But wben the First Punic War broke out between the two powers in 264 BC, Rome quickly realized that victory could only be achieved at sea. The Senate ordered Cornelius Scipio, grandfather of Scipio Africanus, to construct the Rrst Roman fleet, Italy had large forests of fir from which to build boats but no ship designers, crews or captains to take them lo sea. The Romans hit upon lhe idea of cop)ing a quinquereme that had fallen into their hands. Although commonly believed to have

MILITARY HISTORY

Recovered from the ashes of Pompeii's House of the Vettii, a 1st century fresco come from the Carthaginians, it was actually a vessel from the navy of Hannibal of Rhodes, Using the captured boat as a template, the Romans constructed a fleet of 100 quinqueremes and 20 triremes in just two months. As historian Polybius described, production required 165 woodcutters, carpenters and metalworkers working full-time on each of the ships, or a labor force of 20,000 men. Manpower shortages and the cost of trained crews, more than the cost of the ships themselves, were often the most important factors in determining lhe size of a country's navy in antiquity Galley crews were nol slaves but expensive skilled freemen. So, as it constructed a fleet, Rome instead turned to its army conscripts, teaching them rudimentary rowing and maneuvers on wooden ship mock-ups onshore. This was the na\7 that put to sea to fight the largest and most experienced naval force in the western Mediterranean. Naval tactics of the day relied on skilled captains and rowers to maneuver their vessel past an opposing ship and break ils oars, leaving it crippled and Nulnerable, The attacker could then pierce the hull of the helpless boat with a metal prow ram and leave it to sink. Lacking skilled captains and trained crews, the Romans played lo their strongest military tactic: close infanlry combat, A Roman captain would use catapults to launch grappling irons al the enemy ship, holding it fast while marines boarded and engaged in close combat. To lacilitate boarding, the Romans introduced the corvus, a wooden boarding ramp 36 feet long and 4 feet wide with railings on either side and a long metal spike extending from ils bottom. Using ropes, the men would

depicts the 31 BC Battle of Actium, in which Agrippa's lighter, more maneuverable liburnae rammed Antony's larger ships, leaving them dead in the water. swing ihe ramp over the side of their ship onlo the enemy's deck. The spike would drive into the deck, holding both ships together and steadying the ramp as Roman marines poured across. The new tactics caught the Carthaginians by surprise at the Battle of Mylae in 260 BC, when the Romans boarded and tlestroyed their ships one by one. In 256 BC the Romans launched an amphibious invasion of North Africa, sending a fleet of 250 warships and 80 transports carrying 60,000 men. Two hundred Carthaginian warships met

'Agrippa was the most daring and imaginative commander Rome had produced since Caesar' the Roman fleet off Mount Economus, This time, seamanship rather than manpower decided the outcome, as Rotnan commanders acted on their own initiative to thwan multiple attacks against the troop transports. While the Romans lost 24 ships, the Carthaginians suffered 30 sunk and 50 others captured. The Roman invasion force got through and landed in North Africa, only to l^e defeated in a land battle and forced to withdraw. Roman naval losses dunng the First Punic War were extremely high, due mostly to the Roman practice of sailmg in rough weather, as the weight of the coyus and its posilton on the bow made ships especial ly unstable in rough seas- Rome lost as many

as 600 Roman warships, 1,000 transports and more than 400,000 men, a number approaching the total American dead in World War II. Probably no war in naval history has recorded as many casualties from drowning, losses represeniing some 15 percent of ihe able-bodied men of military age in Italy Polybius called it the bloodiest war in history, Despite the casualties, the Romans pressed on, replacing lost ships and training fresh crews. In 241 BC the Carthaginians sought to lift the Roman siege of Ulybaeum in Sicily by sending a naval force to break the Roman blockade. Certain of victor)', the Carthaginians sent no marines with their ships, planning to acquire them in Ulybaeum following the battle. Despite foul weather, the Roman captains put to sea to intercept the Canhaginian fleet. In a clash near the Aegates Islands oil Sicily, the Romans sank 50 ships and captured 70 of the 200 Canhaginian combatants that took part:. Its last fleet gone and lacking enough money and raw materials to build another. Caithage surrendered. Rome now commanded the western Mediterranean,

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wo decades later Rome and Carthage were again at war. Probably forfinancialreasons, Carthage had not rebuilt its combat fleet. When the Second Punic War (218-202 BC) broke out, it had no more than 50 warships to counter the Roman fleet of 220. Hannibaf was forced to take his army overiand through Spain rather than landing directly on the Italian mainland. Without a navy, Hannibal could not shift his forces from theater to theater as could the Romans, and his supply lines to Carthage were always under threat. As a result, there were no major sea engagements during

Quinquereme The quinquereme (named for the five men at each set of three oars; see inset at right) had been the basic warship of Mediterranean navies since 4th century BC, when it replaced the lighter and smaller trireme. The quinquereme was 120 feet long, 18 to 20 feet wide and 10 feet high belowdecks. with a draft of 5 feet and displacing nearly 50 tons. It had two side rudders, an attached metal ram in the prow, raised ends and a single mast with a 1,400-square-foot sail. There were 28 vertical banks of oars per side, three oars to a bank. Two men worked each of the top two oars, one man the bottom oar. for a total of 280 oarsmen. Seventyfive to 100 marines and 25 sailors and officers brought the ship's complement to around 400. Deck space of some 2,000 square feet accommodated the marines when boarding or resisting attack. Siege engines, artillery and fore and aft castles came later as the ships increased in size. Under sail with fresh winds and favorable seas, a quinquereme could make 9 knots. Powered only by oars, it could make 4 to 6 knots for about two hours before the crew was exhausted. Only three to four days' food and water could be carried aboard. Unlike transports that could sail across the open sea without stopping, warships had to put in to shore every few days to rest and replenish the crews. This made naval power dependent on a friendly shore from - — _ which to operate. The Romans would use — this to their advantage during the Second Punic War. rendering Carthage's fleet useless by denying its warships safe harbors.

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that long war. In 204 BC a Roman invasion force of 400 transports carrying 26,000 troops and 1.200 horses and protected by 40 warships crossed from Sicily and invaded North Africa, Two years later Scipio defeated Hannibal at Zama, and Carthage surrendered. Now only Antiochus III of the Seleucid Empire stood between Rome and complete dominance of the Mediterranean. Rome had ieamed that the proper role of a navy was to support ground operations and that naval combatants could not bring about a strategic decision by themselves. Thus it placed equal emphasis on its transport ships and combatants. War broke out v^dth the Seleucid Empire in the eastern Mediterranean in 192 BC. AS Antiochus tnaintained a large fleet, transporiing the Roman atmy across the Aegean from Greece was ariskyproposition. Lucius Scipio. the brother of Scipio Africanus, marched his anny overland to cross the Hellespont and take the war to the Asian mainland (present-day western Turkey). Transports ferried his troops across the strait while other naval units blockaded the Syrian fleet at Ephesus. Eor weeks both sides skirmished off the coast. In December 190 BC, as the Roman army marched down the coast to bring the fight to Antiochus, the Seleucid fleet med to break the Roman blockade. In a battle of! Myormesus, the Romans carried the day. A few weeks later

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MILITARY HISTORY

Antiochus' army was defeated at Magnesia. Rome now controlled the entire Mediterranean. Only Rhodes, a Roman ally, and Egypt, a broken reed, were left with significant naval assets. Regardless, Rome still considered itself a land power, and over the next century, wrote Chester Starr in The Influence of Sea

Transport Although there were larger vessels, the most common transport ship of this period could carry about 80 to 100 tons. These vessels were about 90 feet long. 16 feet wide and 14 feet deep from keel to deck. They were open-decked, bargelike boats in which men and animals in transit were exposed to the elements. A troop transport could accommodate 48 benches, arranged back to front like pews, and could carry about 380 men. each getting 5 inches of leg room and 2 inches of shoulder room on either side. Alternatively, a transport could carry 120,000 pounds of grain. A horse transport was configured with a stern boarding platform and a flat internal hull with 50 tie-stalls, each 9 feet long and 3 feet wide. A sling in each stall supported the horse.

Among the Romans' naval innovations was the corvus, a wooden boarding ramp shown at right. The corvus was fitted with a metal spike that would drive into the deck of an enemy ship, securing the ramp for a boarding party of marines.

Power on Ancient Hislory, "the Romans carried oui the mosl complete process of naval disarmament that the world has ever seen and let her own naval esiablishmeni rot away." That decision led to one of the worst waves of piracy in classical times. By 102 BC more than 1,000 pirate ships preyed on Mediterranean shipping, and more than 400 coastal settlements had been sacked, their populations sold at Roman slave markets. Rome finally reacted when the pirates threatened its grain imports. In 67 BC the Senate sent Pompey the Great to eradicate ihe outlaw scourge. He attacked the pirates' coastal strongholds and regained control of the seas within a year. The experience convinced Rome to rebuild Us na\y UnLi! then, Roman naval experience had been restricted to the tideless Mediterranean. It fell to Julius Caesar to fight the lirst Roman naval baule on the ocean, tn 56 BC he launched a campaign against ihe Veneti in Gaul, who lived along the Bay of Biscay and were excellent sailors. While Caesar moved his armies overland, Decimus Brutus commanded the fleet that engaged the Veneti navy The Gallic ships were superior to Roman quinqeremes in every respect. Constructed of oak, ihey were almost impervious to ramming, with flat bottoms better suiied to the coastal

shallows. They were higher at the deck line with high stems and prows from which to fight off Roman marines. The Gallic ships also flew large leather sails that withstood high winds better than canvas and enabled them to run faster before the wind, easily eluding their foes. But their great strength also revealed a weakness, as the Gallic ships had no oars and relied on the mainsail for propulsion. Supportive halyards were tethered to the deck on either side of the mast. The Roniarrs de\ised a new weapon to cripple the ship. "Sharp and pointed hooks secured to the ends of long poles," wrote Caesar of ihe device, "after the fashion of siege hooks. When these contrivances had caught the halyards supporting the yards, the Roman ship was driven away by the oars, and the halyards were cut in consequence, so the yards fell to the deck.'" Their mainsail halyards thus severed, the Gallic ships were immobilized. The Romans could now close wilh their grappling irons and deploy marines to deal with the crew.

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ctavian had formally established the Roman imperial navy following the battle of Actium, when he sent Antonys captured ships to Forum hdii (present-day Frejus on the south coast of France), establishmg

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a permanent naval base to control the northern Mediterranean. He started with two major fleel commands: Classis Praetoria MisenensLs, at Misenum on the Gulf of Naples, to protect Italy itself and its grain imports in the south; and Ciassis Praetoria Ravennatis, at Ravenna at the head of the Adriatic, to deal with trouble in Dalmatia and IIlyria. To protect Egypt, the source of Rome's grain supply, Octavian created the Clcissi.s Augusta Alexandrina, at Alexandria.

WKIil

The Roman Empire 2nd-3rd Century

M-.A

ATLANTK OCEAS

oRome

Reets of the Roman Empire 1. Praetoria Miienensis

Campaigns along the German Rhine (AD 2. Praetoria ilavennatis 3. Gcrmanica 5-16) necessitated creation of Classis Ger4. Britannica 5. Pontica manica, with heavier seagoing ships based Alcx.indri.i 6. Pannooica 7. Moesica al the river's mouth and lighter river 8. Syriaca 9. Augusia Aicxanilrina squadrons based at Altenburg near 10. Nova [.ibyca Cologne. The invasion and eventual con11. Aegeptat Aiexandrinae quest of Britain (AD 43-60) also required "^^^^^^^ strong naval logistical support. The main Roman naval base Kazan Gorge, which prompted the Romans to create two fleets: was at Gesoraicum (present-day Boulogne) and served as the Glassis Pannomca m the west and Classis Moesica in the east. headquarters for Classis Brifannica. Among the navy's signifi- Qassis Moesica provided naval and logistical support to Trajan's cant achievements during ihe conquest was its circumnavigaconquest of Dacia (AD 101-106). Under Hadrian (reign: tion of Scotland, proving that Britain was an island. AD 117-138) Classis Moesica controlled the mouth of the Danube and the area north, while Classis Pontica was responAfter the Armenian wars, Nero (reign: AD 54-68) created sible for the south and the Hellespont. Later, smaller fleets such the Classis Pontica to control the Black Sea. The empire's other as the Classi.s Nova Ubyca were created to patrol the western great water border lay along the Danube. Theriversplits at the

littoral, while a larger fleet, Classis Syriaca, supported Roman forces on ihe border with Panhia. Fleets were usually collocated with legion camps and provided logistical support to the army, transported troops and patrolled the rivers and coast v^ith complements of marines. The navy remained subordinate to the army throughout the imperial period. Naval personnel did not think of themselves as sailors but as soldiers, even choosing to memorialize themselves as legionnaires on their tombstones. Naval crews were organized into centuries just like the army, and each ship had a centurion aboard with an assistant who fulfilled the role of first sergeant. The centurion was responsible for teaching infantry tactics, training his men to repel boarders or act as an assault party Fleets were organized into squadrons of about 10 ships. Commanding officers were drawn from the equestrian class of Roman nobles, and fleel commanders carried the rank of prei'eet. The sailors were free men dawn from the lower ranks of society Few were Romans, however; most were drawn from seafaring peoples of the eastern Mediterranean or the provinces. Service was for 26 years, and citizenship was awarded on discharge. The navy's role changed over time, from active combat fleet 10 multipuq:)ose military service and finally to a smaller, mobile force. Once rival navies were no longer a concern, the river fleets (Rhine, Danube and Nile) came into being to support ground operations and secure the imperial borders. Historian Publius Tacitus recorded that as early as AD 15 Germanicus' campaign in Germany required a new type of ship to naWgate the inland waterways and canals. His ships had narrow stems

and bows, wide hulls and Qai keels to ply the shallow rivers. They could be sailed or rowed and had covers to protect men and cargo from the weather. Increased coastal andriverpatrols eventually called for a fast, light combat ship with a shallow draft. The Romans chose a modified version of Agrippa's lihuma, reduced to about 80 feet in length. Its forward-raking mast flew a single sail, while its crew of 60 manned two rows of oars. Under sail it could make close to 14 knots. Built decked or undecked, the ship could carry 30 to 50 marines, depending on the mission. The fleets became viially important to the defense and survival of the empire, as they patrolled its waterw^ays and borders, safeguarding regional trade routes. In times of crisis, the navy switched roles to transport troops and supplies, but even then its light combatants could be brought into play in direct support of ground operations. Rome ruled the seas for more than four centuries, until finally, weakened by repealed barbarian invasions from the east, it was unable to sustain the navy By 450 the Vandals had established a kingdom in North Africa and built a powerful navy Their king, Gaiseric, sent his fleets to raid the Mediterranean coasts and shipping and eventually to attack Rome itself. By the time of Gaisenc's death in 477, the Vandals had eliminated Rome as a naval power and become the new masters of the Mediterranean. 10 For further reading, Richard Gabriel recommends: Greek and Roman Naval Warfare, by William Rodgers, and The Roman Imperial Navy, by Chester Stan:

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100th ANNIVERSARY

?GREAT WHITE FLEE One century ago Teddy Roosevelt's Navy was first to show the flag and project U.S. power around the world— without firing a shot in anger he mornmg of Decetiiber 16, 1907, gunboat diplomacy But Roosevelt had reason to broke clear and cold over Hampton worry. Across the Atlantic, Germany and Great Roads, Va., a welcome change from Britain were flexing their military might with ever recent squalls. Assembled in the bay expanding navies. Of greater concern was the Pacific was the pride of the U.S. Atlantic from. Two years earlier Japan had handed Russia a Fleet—a four-mile-long double line of stunning defeat, smashing its Qeet in the Tsushima 16 battlesbips, each painted gleaming Strait. Roosevelt had helped to broker peace between white with gilt scrollwork on its prow and a full the two nations in a deal that denied Japan monetary array of signal flags running from stem to stern. indemnity The president now wondered whether Many of the fleet's 14,000 sailors soon lined the Tokyo might seek to recoup its losses by seizing the rails to salute the arrival of the presidential yacht, newly acquired Philippines. Mayflower. These men, ranging from young swabs In the end, Roosevelt's gambit proved a success. to grizzled Civil War veterans, were about to embark Aside from a few mechanical glitches and close calls on an unprecedented 14-month, 45,000-mile circumdue to coal shonages, the fleet performed well. Pointed navigation that would cany them to 20 ports of call on gunnery practice during key layovers proved tlie Navy's six continents. Roosevelt was sending a message: The battle readiness. And when Rear Adm. Charles United States had arrived as a global naval power. Sperr)^ and his officers stepped ashore in Yokohama, Newspaper editorials of the day used words like thousands of Japanese schoolchildren were there "bluff and "bombast" to decry this latest instance of to greet them. They were wa\inn^ American flags, MH.

Above, VSS Kansas leads one of two eight-ship columns of Atlantic Fleet battleships out of Hampton Roads, \'a., on Dec. 16, 1907. Right, sailors aboard VSS Virginia muster/or a photograph to commenwraie the fleet visit to Auckland, New Zealand, between Aug. 9 and 15, 1908. Such images were timied into hand-tinted keepsake postcards and sold to sailors and civilians alike.

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MILITARY HISTORY

•.d in on the brink of the Atlmilic. Roose\eh itood alone on the bridge to see ojj the great battleships.

8, Nebraska Governor Georg^ d the crew of VSS Nebraska in

At a signal from the flagship Conneclicut, each battleship's batteries fired a H-gun salute, and bands struck up "The Star-Spangkd Banner.'

USS Missouri and USS Ohio visited Athem in January 1909. Above, officers relax during shore leave at the Parthenon. Dee. 13-20, 1908; The fleet anchors within the breakwater at Colombo, Ceylon, a coaling stop in the Indian Ocean.

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In August 1908, Lieutenant John Lewis ofUSS Connecticut welcomes aboard a kangaroo, a gift from the people of Sydney.

Sflilors prepare target flags for us t^~bored hard on the long p

San Francisco on Rear Adm. Charles Sperry assumes command from an ailing Rear Adm. Robley Evans, one of several senior officers who, incredibly, served in the Civil War. The Navy also replaces two battleships. After a side trip to Puget Sound, the reconfigured fleet retums to San Francisco. On July 7. fifteen battleships leave port, headed for Hawaii. Nebraska is delayed due to a smallpox outbreak among its crew.

CANADA

•HINGTOi' NORTH

i T^Puget Sound AMERICA | hf 'i UNITED \ \ STATES First Leg ends 5 / 6 / 0 8 '^oSan Francisco Third Leg starts 7 / 7 / 0 8 ^ ^ ^ v ^ L o s Angeles y. "OSan Diego

SAN FRAN'

Second Leg San Francisco to Puget Sound and back

^ORNIA

\

'ton Roads START {Rrst Leg) 1 2 / 1 6 / 0 7 \ R E T U R N (Fourth Leg) 2 / 2 2 / 0 9 \. \

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MEXICO

MagcJalena Ba?o

Honolulu p"'

The presidential yacht, iVIayflower, leads the 16 battleships of the Great White Fleet from Hampton Roads on December 16,1907. Roosevelt Is on hand again when the fleet returns 14 months later, on February 22, 1909—George Washington's birthday.

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ATLANTIC OCEAN

\

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PACIFIC OCEAN

rt of Spain, Trinidad

Equator

Equator

BRAZIL Callac

PERU

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SOUTH AMERICA /RTo de Janeiro mo'c

SOUTH AMERICA """"•"*" — -oAuckland

NEW ZEALAND

AUr Crossing the equator a third time, the fleet arrives at Auckland on August 9. The stop is marked by the shore burial of a machinist's mate aboard Missouri who was killed in an accident. Several sailors die from accidents or illnesses during the voyage.

The fleet makes its first crossing of the equator around midnight on January 5,1908. The president of Brazil is among the first foreign dignitaries to receive the fleet when It anchors off Rio de Janeiro a week later. After a stop at Punta Arenas, Chile, the fleet enters the Pacific through the Strait of Magellan. From Callao, Peru, the fleet heads north to Mexico for widely touted gunnery practice.

oTalcahuano

CHILE

.
USS Ohio, USS Rhode Island, USS Vermont and USS Vir^nia. Though an impressive sight, many of |he U.S. Atlantic Fleet—popularly dubbed the the battleships were outdated or obsolete. In fac| Great White Fleet for its freshly painted white at San Francisco, USS Nebraska and USS Wisconst hulls—comprised more than two dozen replaced Maine and Alabama, after the latter tw< vessels. The centerpiece of the fleet was its suffered breakdowns. Shadowing the battleship 16 battleships: USS Connecticut (fleet flagship), USS was a "Torpedo Flotilla" of six early destroyer Alabama, USS Georgia., USS lilinois, USS Kansas, and another half dozen auxiliary ships, including USS Kearsarge, USS Kentucky, USS Louisiana, USS supply ships and a hospital ship. The 14-monti| Maine, USS Minnesota, USS Missouii, USS New Jersey, itinerary included the following major ports: I

THE GREAT WHITE FLEET

The long anticipated visit to Japan

L _ ^ O 111 G F S

is a demonstration of mutual respect and strength. As the fleet arrives in Yokohama. 1 6 Japanese battleships escort their U.S. counterparts t o the anchorage. The emperor later grants a rare audience t o Rear Adm. Sperry and 30 of his officers. A week later, half the ships call on Prince Yu Lang in Amoy, China, before rejoining the fleet in Manila,

MARSEILLES, FRANCE

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SUEZ CANAL. TURKEY

Gibraltar ^ . Tangier

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MOROCCO ALGERIA

Canal CHINA AFRICA

EGYPT \ Amoyo- "

THF MFniTFRRANFAN

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En route t o the Suez Canal, the fleet celebrates Christmas at sea, decorating the ships with palm trees and streamers and playing holiday games. Arriving in the Mediterranean, the fieet splits into smailei parties t o maximize its diplomatic potential. Stops include Tripoli. Lebanon; Smyrna, Turkey: Athens and Salonika, Greece: Marseilles. France; and Naples. Italy. Sperry orders Illinois t o divert from Malta t o Messina t o render aid in the wake of a major earthquake. Its crew recovers the body of the American consul and his wife. The fleet finally rendezvous off Gibraltar and heads for Hampton Roads and home on February 6, 1 9 0 9 .

INDIA

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g^K^ ^/•^

PACinc OCEAN

-^ '*'

ifroMa nila. Philippines / Ceylon

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End (Thiril Leg) 11/7/08 Start (Fourth Leg) 12/1/08

1

INDIAN OCEAN

Equator

AUSTRALIA

Sydney o - ^

AU

" - - ^ • ^^ _ _

Australians greet the American sailors like conquering heroes, turning out in droves at Sydney, Melbourne and Albany. A quarter million people in Sydney wait up all night for the fleet, presenting the flagship, USS Connecticut, with a kangaroo mascot. Melbourne makes an even bigger impression, and sailors are reluctant t o leave.

• Hampton Roads, Va. (depart 12/16/07) • Port of Spain, Trinidad (12/23/07-12/29/07) • Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (1/12/08-1/22/08) • Punta Arenas, Chile (2/1/08-2/7/08) • Callao, Peru (2/20/08-2/29/08) • Magdalena Bay, Mexico (3/12/08-4/11/08) • San Francisco, Calif. (5/6/08-7/7/08) • Puget Sound, Wash, (arrive for repairs 5/23/08) • Honolulu, Hawaii (7/16/08-7/22/08) • Auckland, New Zealand (8/9/08-8/15/08)

Melbournep

Map by Steve Walkowiak

Sydney, Australia (8/20/08-8/28/08) Melbourne, Australia (8/29/08-9/5/08) Albany, Australia (9/11/08-9/18/08) Manila, Philippines (10/2/08-12/1/08) Yokohama, Japan (10/18/08-10/25/08) Amoy, China (10/29/08-11/5/08) Colombo, Ceylon (12/13/08-12/20/08) Port Said, Egypt (1/5/09-1/10/09) Gibraltar (1/31/09-2/6/09) Hampton Roads, Va. (arrive 2/22/09)

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Sailors poke their heads through holes in a target J]ag, testifying to successful gunneiy practice in March 1908.

Officials in the Philippines prepared a ceremonial arch lo welcome the fleet to Manila Bay in the fall of 1908.

aboard the flagship USS Connecticut celebrate idence Day 1908 with an old-fashioned footrace.

, lucky sailors took a train from Port. several hours southwest to the Giza Plateau, outside Cairo.

)grarnmc of lintertainment ,i^i7en in iiuuuur ol

THE AMERICAN MTTiJiSinP FLEET AT THE KABUKI-ZA On The fleet arrived in Auckland, New Zealand, on Aug. 9, 1908, after its longest sea passage—nearly 4,000 miles.

japan festooned Yokohama with Stars and Stripes of every shape and form for ihe October 1908 port call.

One Man's Ambush More than a million U.S. soldiers fought in the 1918 MeuseArgonne Offensive —the largest and costliest battle in American history. Sometimes a single soldier made the difference By Edward G. Lengel

The bloodiest battle in American hislon l^egan on Scpi. 25, \9]S. Known as iht Meuse-Argonne Ollensive. u involveil 12 U.S. and six French divisions—moiv ihan 1 million soldiers—in an assauli against the Germans' Hindenburg Lint west of Verdun. The aiiackers madi quick progress on the battle's first da\ but suffered hea\7 casualties ihereaftei as they ran into Gemian remtorcemeni> and reserves occupying strong delensivt positions. Heavy fighting continued until November 1, when the Americanos broke through the Hindenburg Lim and advanced on Sedan, but the offen sive did not end until the Amnstice on November 1 ]. By then. 26,000 Americans had been killed and anothe: 100,000 wounded. Among the battle's most dramatic episodes was the saga of the Lost Bai-

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talion. Major Chaiics Whittlesey's 1st Baltalion, pan of the 308th Regiment ol' First Army's 77th Division, was attacking through the Argonne Forest near Binarville on October 2, when Trench units on his left and an American brigade on his right met strong eiennan resistance and fell back. Whitilosey meanwhile found an apparent >;ap in the German lines and pressed his attack. At midday, discovering thai his flanks were exposed, he deployed his six companies—roughly 600 men, including elements of another baitalion of ihe 308th Regiment—in a perimeter along a heavily wooded ridge near Charlevaux Mill.

They completed the encirclement oi the Americans by daybreak on October 3. Gennan units attacked the surrounded troops wilh grenades and mortars, and by day's end the Americans had suffered 2!: percent casualties. Short of medical supplies, rations, grenades and ammunition, they were in danger of being wiped out. Word of Whittlesey's predicament reached General John Pershing's headquarters, and relief of the surrounded men became a priority If the Lost Battalion surrendered, ihe consequences to American morale could be catastrophic, Over the loUowing five days, three

As evening Icll, the Germans began working around Whiiiicsey's flanks.

past the body of a German soldier while seekJtig cover in the French village of Exermottt dtJring the 1918 Meuse-Argonne Offensive. Incoming German shells issued a warning screech.

In late October 1918, otticers ot the 3U8th Regiment ot First Army's 77th division review battle plans at their camp near Apremont in the Argonne forest.

American divisions attempted to relieve Whittlesey's beleaguered force and clear the Argonne Forest. Savage fighting meanwhile continued elsewhere, wiih the U.S. 3rd Division driving on the most important German sirongpoini in the entire Meuse-Argonne, the Heights of Romagne. Among 3rd Division's doughboys was an 18-year-old private and scoui from rural Missouri, John L. "Jack" Barkley.

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he Germans still held the crest of Hill 253, although the 7th Regiment occupied its southern slopes. The trouble was that nobody—including airplanes, for it was a rainy d a y could see into the valley behind Hill 253. What were the Germans up to? Were they reinforcing Hill 253? Were they preparing a counterattack? Jack Barkley'5 superior. Sergeant Nayhone, a native of Syria, ordered him to follow the unoccupied ridge, take a position overlooking the valley beyond Hill 253's northern slope and find out. His position would be in no-man's-land, close to the enemy lines, dangerously exposed and well beyond help should the Germans find

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^LITARY HISTORY

out he was there. To Barkley, it looked like a suicide mission. "If you want to bump me off, for God's sake do it here!" he yelled during a face-off with the sergeant in a candlelit command post jusi alter midnight on Oclober 7.

lltLUIUM

Sedan

FRANCE Charlevaux, Reims •

. Cunel

Binarvllle

•Verdun ftrwf

Xhateau-Thierry

Met;

Mihial

"We've got to have information," Nayhone replied- "You can see for yourself there's no way oul. Somebody's got to go," He reached out his hand, and Barkley, after a brief hesitation, shook it.

"I know you'll do the best you can..,. And no hard feelings!" the sergeant said. "All right," Barkley replied. "No hard feelings!... But write a nice letter home to my folks." Accompanied by two signal corps men cari'^ing a phone and laying wire, Barkley followed the ridge for two hours and settled into a deep crater. The signalei'S gave him the phone—set not to ring, but to make a slighi buzz—and irotted ofi in the dark. Hopelully any German patrols that came across the wire they had laid would not think to trace it—and hopefully it would not be cut. Barkley tested the phone, and Nayhone spoke on the oiher end. "Don't phone anything not of major importance," the sergeant said in his Middle Eastern accent. "You're loo close to them. They might hear you." Al daylight Barkley found that he had chosen his post well. He had an unobstructed view over the entire valley, from Hill 250, behind and to his right, to Hill 253, ahead and to his left. In the woods on the opposite side of the valley from Hill 253, German troops moved busily about, evidently

The offensive continued until the November U Armistice. Major Charles Whittlesey of 1st Battalion (inset) earned promotion to lieutenant colonel.

with ihe inieniion of crossing the valley in from of Barkley and launching a ctumteraltack against the 7th Regiment on the southern slopes of Hill 253Barkley reported to Nayhone and awaited the Germans' next move while contemplating tbe dead doughboys whose bodies lay in dense windrows over the hillside. In the early afternoon an enemy barrage began, landing on I till 250 and sweeping west toward the southern edge of Hill 253. Nayhone reassured Barkley over the phone, "Stay with it as long as you can," he said"Take care of yourself. If anything,,." And the line went dead.

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ith his phone line eut, there seemed nothing left for Barkley to do except return to headciuarters. Seventy-five yards away along the ridge, however, he saw an abandoned French light tank. Dozens of dead Germans scattered the ground around it. and Barkley imagined what he could tlo with a machine gun in the tank when the Germans moved into the valley. Nearby, he spotted a Maxim light machine gun and some boxes of ammunition among a cluster of dead Gertnans. Their comrades likely would have disabled the Maxmi by

removing its breechblock. But Barkley remembered what an officer had told him at intelligence school. The first chance he got, the officer had suggested, he should take the breechblock out of a captured German machine gun and carry it with bim—you never knew wben it might come in handy Barkley checked his hip pocket. The breech, which he had picked up many weeks before, was still there. Dodging from hole to hole, Barkley reached tbe machine gun without being spotted. Across the valley, he saw Germans at the edge of the woods with grenades, machine guns and other equipment. They looked ready to move. Suddenly a smoke barrage fell between him and the Germans, and tbe soldiers disappeared from view. In an instant, Barkley realized wbat be could accomplish under cover of the screen. Grabbing the gun and ammunition, he sprinted for the tank and bopped inside. The little Renault was empty, except for a bloody leather helmet on the floor. Its turret machine gun had been removed, Barkley examined his Maxim. Its breechblock, as he expected, was missing, so he snapped his spare into place, and it lU perfectly Except for a nearly

empty water jacket—the Maxim was water-cooled, to prevent overheating— the gun seemed in excellent working order. The next priority was ammunition. Barkley had picked up a few boxes, but not enough for extended firing. Fortunately, a number of dead enemy machine gunners lay nearby, surrounded by boxes of ammunition that tbe Germans had never got around to recovering, Barkley gathered up the boxes, stuffing as many inside the tank as he could and stacking the rest just outside the batch. He climbed in, emptied several boxes of ammunition and slung up the belts for easy access, witb one across his shoulder Then he rotated the turret to face the woods where be bad seen the Germaris. He avoided poking his gun out the gun port, lest they see it and discover something was amiss. The gun port was too big for the Maxim—it had been built for a larger weapon—and Barkley would have only partial protection from enemy bullets. But with the smoke screen fading, it was too late to back out now. Barkley tried not to think, "My legs felt wobbly. I hoped if there was any God, he'd give me the breaks. Then I forgot everything, for through my port I'd caught a glimpse of movement at tbe edge of

the woods." Moving in squad columns and sending up Rares, the Germans marched out of the woods and into the open, passing diagonally across Barkley's front toward Hill 253, He estimated 500 or 600 men, an entire infantry battalion. The closest were 200 yards from his tank. Turning the turret slowly to follow tbeir progress, Barkley waited until tbe end of the German formation had left the woods and tbe Iront had begun climbing Hill 253, He then took a deep breath, edged his gun out through tbe port, cbose his direction of fire, exhaled, aimed tbe gun toward tbe waist of the nearest enemy soldier and pulled tbe trigger. When tbe Maxim erupted, the Germans reeled in surprise. None of them, evidently, could tell where tbe fire was coming from. For a few moments they stood paralyzed- Tben they saw the Renault and looked for cover. But they were caught in tbe open, Barkley lired the Maxim in alternating sbort and long bursts, "Tbe German who carried that gun," he discovered, "had her beautifully adjusted. She fairly purred." He raked the infantry, and then massacred a group of officers. One of them, a "big fat fellow," fell as he waddled toward the woods; another tried to pull him in, and Barktey shot him too. The Germans bad, meanwhile, begun to return fire with rifles and machine guns. As each bullet hit the turret, Barkley thought his eardrums would explode. Several bullets got in through the gun port, some of them evidently fired by a smart enemy sniper. Miraculously, they didn't hit Barkley, and he kept firing. The gun overheated, and when it started to smoke, he emptied bis canteen into the jacket. The water boiled and evaporated immediately, almost scalding his hands, Barkley bad to slow bis rate of fire. Eventually a patrol of about 20 Germans moved toward the tank. They carried two light machine guns and a lot of grenades, Barkley killed one of the machine gunners, btit the other made it to a shell hole about 75 yards away "That fellow with the Maxim used his head. He siariedfiring araight at the barrel of my

MILITARY HISTORY

The Argonne Forest battlefield was pockmarked with craters, providing scant cover. Private John Barkley

gun. Ij he had hit it, he'd have put ihe gun out oj tommissimi, 1 whirled the lurret toward him. He was a brave man. He stood up in his shell hole and, with head and shoulders exposed, he tried lo heat me to getting a burst home. The odds were all on me. 1 swun^ the sights just below his gun and fired. I was sorry. But it had to be one

of us." With the second machine gun out of action, the rest of tbe patrol ran up and threw their grenades. The grenades bounced off harmlessly, but as the infantry moved closer, one of them eventually would find a hatch or the port. Tbey ran quickly from cover to cover, and Barkley couldn't get at them. Suddenly a shell burst among them— a German 77—and the infantry fled.

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ith one crisis gone, Barkley faced another. The artillery piece could blow his tank to scrap. He frantically searched for the gtm as tbe shells crept closer. Two explosions straddled bim in quick succession as he sighted the gun at the edge of the woods, 600 yards away. Before he could pull the trigger, "There was a terrific crash—on the tank, in tbe air, inside the tank. A sharp blow against my chin—a ringing in my ears—and blackness," He came to consciousness witb a strangling sensation and a weight on bis cbest, Tbe weight was a heavy box of ammunition.

which he threw off; the strangling came from smoke, intense heat and lack of air. Blood poured from Barkley's nose, and his throat was scorched and dry He craved air and water. Then he realized that no bullets were ricocheting off bis tank. He threw open tbe turret's rear hatch and pushed his head out, gasping. When he had recovered sufficiently to look around, be saw tbe Germans still climbing Hili 253, tbis time under fire from American machine guns. They showed no interest in Barkley, apparently thinking bim dead. Barktey got back in the tank, closed the door and examined his Maxim, The stock was cracked, but it otherwise looked all right. Getting his ammunition back in order, he rotated tbe turret back to where he bad seen the 77 just before he was hit. He found it, the gunners walking unconcernedly about it. Six hundred yards was a long way, but Barkley measured the range carefuliyHe fired a whole belt at tbe artillery piece, saturating it thoroughly The 77 gave him no more trouble after that, but the German infantry woke up—no doubt cursing heartily—and again peppered the Renault witb bullets. The Maxim started jamming repeatedly, Barkley cleared the jams, but the rate of fire slowed until it became single shot, like a rifle. Figuring the end bad come, he slid down into the driver's compartment and waited for a chance

[iKiovt) holed up in a derelict tank with a discarded machine gun and held off an entire German battalion. tt) bail out and run for the woods. Then he saw a can ol thin oil. Grabbing the can. Barkley climbed back onto the gun companmeni and poured the oil into ihc water jacket. It worked, just in lime For him to fend off another grenade-toiing tierinan palrol. As the patrol lied, he resumed tiring on the infantry struggling up Hill 253. rhe oi! in ihe gun jacket boiled, filling the turret with acrid black smoke. Then the gun Jammed again, and Barkley thought his part in lhe war had ended, ••/Just sat there, with my head in my hands, waiting. / lold myst'l/ / wo5 wail'm^^^Jor the gun lo cool of]. Bui it wets Ifaily (he end i wms waitingJoK I couldn't hold out much longer with a gun lhat would fire only once in a while."

Suddenly, he heard the sound of artillery shells bursting nearby. This lime they were not aimed at his tank. Instead, they exploded all along the northern slopes of Hill 253 among the C^ertiian infantry. American infantry and machine gunners joined in, and soon [he Germans could take no more. Breaking, they ran back down the hill.

ihrough [he American barrage, across the valley and into ihe woods on the other side, Barkley opened the lank door and tumbled lo the ground outside, leeling half dead and siek to his slomach. An American officer and 25 men from the 7[h Regiment walked inward him, "What the devil are you doing here?" the offieer asked, looking incredulously at Barkleys filthy uniform and bloodmatted whiskers, Barkley replied that he had been in the tank. "You eertainly look like hell," the ollicer rej^iied, and after directing the bedraggled pnvate haek to his regiment, he and his patrol moved off. As Barkley staggered back along the ridge and into the woods, he heard explosions behind him. He saw a salvo of huge. 6-inch shells exploding around the tank. The German heavy artillery had finally found his range.

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s Jaek Barkley walked away from his tank, the crisis of ihe Lost Battalion was reaching its peak. By the afternoon of Octoher 7, the

Gennans surrounding the Lost Battalion were themselves at risk of encirclement hy the U.S. relief forces. Desperate to capture Whittlesey and his men before withdrawing from [he Argonne. the Germans mounted one last attack, but the Lost Ballalions survivors managed lo ihrow them baek. By midday the attacks of the 28th and 82nd Divisions forced the Gennans to start withdrawing from the Argonne Forest, The 77th Division pursued immediately, mfiictmg considerable casualties on the Gennans and collecting many prisoners. With the Gennan lines crumbling, Brig, Gen, Evan Johnson ordered the 307th Regiments First Battalion to advance up the ravine south of Charlevaux Valley, eapuire Ridge 198 and relieve the Losi Baiialion. Whitilesey and Qiptain George MeMurlry were sitting in their foxhole a liiile after 7 p,m,, lalking in low voices, when a runner huriled in between iheni. An American officer and a few men had just appeared on the right, the runner breathlessly reporied. They wanted to see the commanding officer. Relief had arrived. The men of the Lost Battalion were too exhausted to celebrate. There were no demonstrations of joy; there was no cheering. Instead, men turned lo one another and silenily shook hands or quietly told wounded soldiers about the good news. The relieving troops distributed all the reserve rations they were carrying and slood guard while Whiiilesey's soldiers ate and went to sleep. In the morning trucks and ambulances arrived. Only 194 of the men could siill walk; 144 more had to be taken oul on stretchers. The rest of the Losl Battalions original 554 men left in coffins. Captain George McMurtry, Major Charles Whiulesey and Private jobn L, Barkley were all awarded Medals of Honor. | ^ All text excerpted from To Conquer Hell: The Meuse-Argonne, 1918, bv Edward G. Lengel. Reprinted hy arrangement with Henry Holt and Company, LLC. Copyright © 2008 hy Edward G. Lengel. All rights reserved.

WARS ON FILM

NAPOLEONIC ACTION FROM A TURBULENT ERA THAT HAS PROVEN IRRESISTIBLE TO FILMMAKERS, 10 TOP WAR MOVIES By John Farr

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t would be a relatively simple task for movie buffs to cite the best films on humanity's more recent conflicts (Vietnam, Korea, both world wars). More difficult is to name good films from the distant era of Napoleon, which too many people know only from long-ago history classes or books. Yet in the best of these films, the sheer drama of the man and the days he shaped come brillianily alive. In compiling the 10 key titles, I've avoided minisenes or films running longer than four hours. I have included films portraying the French Revolution, as by most accounts, this seismic event made the ascent of the driven though diminutive Corsican native possible. Here then, in chronological order, is my own "short list" of Napoleonic-era films. Napoleon (1927)

A Tale of Two Cities (1935)

French director Abel Gances five-hour masterpiece, restored in 1981 by film historian Kevin Brovmlov^' al Francis Ford Coppola^ Zoetaipe Studios, remains a stunning achievement, both of stor>'telling and pioneering cinematic technique. Meant to be ihe first of a six-pan series, the film ends in 1797, as the 28-year-old soldiers star is rising (he vv-ould not crovm himself emperor for another seven years). A justly famous opening snowball fight sequence takes us back to Napoleon's early days in a French military school. Though the boy is clearly branded as an outsider, pupils and teachers alike take note of the fearlessness housed in his small frame. Later, after a tinal break from his homeland of Corsica, Napoleon resolves to become truly French and advance the country's cause by arms wherever possible. This he does, fighting right beside his men, straight ihii' ^; :• :i!-^ liK-akthrough campaign for Italy

During the upheaval of the French Revolution, world-wear>' London barrister Sydney Carton (Ronald Colman) falls secretly in love with Gallic beauty Lucie Manette (Elizabeth Allan), vi'ho comes to regard him as a close confidante. When Lucie decides to marr)' Charles Darnay, nephew of a tyrannical French marquis. Canon is cmshed. But he gets a chance to prove his love when the aristocratic Darnay is arrested in Paris and sentenced to die. From the golden days of the Hollywood studio system, director Jack Conway's rich, peerless adaptation of Cliarles Dickens' famous novel succeeds on the merits of lavish production design and exquisite, tone-perfect acting from the entire cast, overseen by MGM honcho David O. Selznick. Colman's crov^ning screen performance as the cynical, boozing Carton and solid support from the likes of Basil Rathbone and Edna May Oliver make this a sumptuous gem that refuses to grow old.

ln the title role, Albert Dieudonn^ is positively mesmeric, only amplifying the impact of Gances magic camera. Watch, in particular, for Gances superimposed images and use of three cameras side by side, which in effect anticipated Cinemascope by decades. Surprisingly, the film v^'as not fully appreciated on release, so Gance was unable to get backing for his full scries, though he would return to the Napoleon theme several times, to lesser effect. (Video only, silent with French intertitles.)

MILITARY HISTORY

That Hamilton Woman (1941) Reputedly Winston Churchill's favorite tilm, producer Alexander Kordafe British production showcases the chemistry l^etween then real-life partners Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh in ponmying the scandalous romance between Admiral Horatio Nelson, one of Britain's leading

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naval heroes, and Lady Emma Hamilton. Why scandalous? Because each was married lo another—he to a wife back in Britain he barely saw, she to a much older man who was Britain's ambassador to Naples. As the Napoleonic wars heated up at sea, so did their romance, with Lad)' Hamiiton eventually living openly with Nelson. For reasons both persona! and professional. Nelson was kept iai^eiy afloat, away from his beloved. After a brief respite with Emma in 1805, he received orders to set sail for Spain and there would forever be celebrated for his heroic death while defeating Napoleons fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar. The movie is as much romance as war film but works admirably on both levels. In Britain it was considered one of the more effective World War U propaganda films, (Video only)

Damn tbe Defiant! (1962) During the Napoleonic wars. Captain Crawford (Alec Guinness) runs HMS Defiant, a tight ship. What the fairminded Crawford doesn't couni on in his latest voyage is

the new seeond-in-command, 1st Lt- Scott-Padget (Dirk Bogarde), a young martinet in the making with friends in

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MILITARY HISTORY

high places back at the admiralty The cmel Scott-Padget undermines Crawford's more humane instincts at every turn, turning a crew already disgruntled at deplorable conditions into a mutinous horde. This salty, overlooked British entry undeniably fires on al! cylinders. Lewis Gilbert (who would direct the original Alfic and three Bond entries) displays a sure hand, with first-rate actors Guinness and a deliciously hateful Bogarde crossing verbal swords with gusto. Meanwhile, gifted character actor Anthony Quayle organizes the men belowdecks. The denouement is worth waiting for, with vibrant color footage recreating these beautiful ships in full battle mode, (Released in Great Britain as HMS Dejianl; released in the U.S. as Damn the Defiant!)

Billy Budd (1962) On a Briiish warship arrayed against tlie French and helmed by Captain Edwin Fairfax Vere (Peter Ustinov), handsome, illiterate sailor Billy Budd (Terence Stamp, in his film debut) enjoys the bonhomie of his iellow seamen but unwittingly makes an enemy of sadistic master-atarms John Claggart (Robert Ryan), who considers Billy's good-nalured smile and inarticulate demeanor a form of insubordination, Claggart uses his position to turn the lide ol goodwill against Billy Set in 1797 and based on Herman Melville's novella, Ustinov's sterling big-screen version of Billy Budd features a memorably fierce turn by Ryan and an almost angelic one by Stamp as the pure, fair-haired innocent. Gorgeously shot in Spanish waters, Billy Budd is an intense.

with assorted colorful types (notably a brief hut hilarious turn by character aclor James Tolkan as a randy Napoleon), ihe film's sustained hilariiy makes this a favorite Woody Allen outing.

The Duellists (1977)

heartbreaking taie ol good and evil grappling on the high seas.

Love and Death (1975) As the Napoleonic juggernaut extends to Russia, noted intellectual and coward Boris Grushenko (Woody Allen) occupies himself with adoring the beautiful Sonja (Diane Keaton), but she only has eyes for Boris' mind, Sonja finally agrees to marry him, however, and then enlists Boris in a daring scheme to assassinate Napoleon, Of

course, all these shenanigans only confirm the utter futility of human existence—but in Woody's worldview, it's still preferable to being dead! Director/writer/star Allen hits dizzying comedic heights in this zany spoof of Russian literature. Keaton continues to build on her distinctively ditzy persona as the idealistic bui scattered Sonja, Populated

In Ridley Seott's directorial debut, based on a Joseph Conrad story, we are in the heal of the Napoleonic campaigns, following the intertwining lives of two French officers, one intent on killing the other via the "honorable" custom of dueling. The action starts when the unlucky D'Mubert (Keith Carradine) is ordered to seek out serial duelist Feraud (Harvey Keitel) and place him under house arrest for skewering the local mayor's son. While clearly a skilled and fearless soldier, the mercurial Feraud seems more than slightly unhinged. Viewing D'Hubevi's action with burning hostility, he throvre down the gauntlet, summoning him to a duel then and there. As an officer and gentleman, D'Hubert has no recourse but to accept, but the two men are so wellmatched that neither can finish the other off. The same challenge from Feraud then recurs anytime the two soldiers cross paths over the ensuing years. This ravishing, atmospheric film rises above the unusual casting of two dyedin-the-wool American actors in the central roles, buoyed by excellent support from British players Albert Finney, Edward Fox and Tom Conti. Among the two leads (despite lack ol accent), Keitel wins top laurels, as he imbues his Feraud with a inily frightening malevolence. Yet overall.

ihe real star here is Scott's sumptuous filming style, which won him the Best Firsi Work award at Cannes,

(The director would quickly move on to such mainstream fare as Alien and Bkuk Rimnci).

The Scarlet Pimpernel (1982) To London society, loppish English aristocrat Sir Percy Blakeney (Anihony Andrews) appears well acquainted with powdered wigs, poetry and not much more, even to lovely paramour Marguerite (lane Seymour). But in reality, he is the Scarlet Pimpernel, a cloak-and-dagger swashbuckler who has secretly been entering France to free nobles condemned to the chopping block in ihe wake of the Revolution, Now the French have dispatched un-

derhanded ambassador Paul Chauvelin (Ian McKellen) to ferret out ihis mischievous masked hero.

Set during Maximilien Robespierre's head-rolling Reign of Terror, this rousing remake of Harold Young's 1934 original has all the haute glamour, period Hair and zingy dialogue you would expect from an oldfashioned adventure tale. Under Clive Donner's assured direction, Andrews scores in the central role as [he dandy with two identities. Seymour's elegance plays well off his innocuous Percy, while McKellen, in a dastardly turn, makes a goading nemesis. The 1934 classic, also highly recommended, runs a half hour shorter and stars the venerable Lesile Howard, Merle Oberon and Raymond Massey (The '34 version is available only on video,)

Napoleon (2000) For a truly comprehensive view of Napoleon's rise and fall, look no further than this first-rate documentary, directed by David Grubin under the auspices of PBS and ably narrated by eminent historian and author David McCultough, This insightful feature runs four hours but can readily be viewed in two installments. Its chief virtue is a keen sense of balance, mixing historical commentary with exciting battle reenactments and blending description of the soldier/emperor's military fortunes with an involving perspective of the man himself. We learn about Bonaparte's early feelings of isolation and conflicted loyalties, his increasing sense of infallibility as his fame grew, and his unfettered passion for Josephine (he wrote to her constantly, often on the verge of battle).

It you want to brush up on your Napoleonic history and have fun doing it, don'i miss this film.

Master and Commander (2003) As the Napoleonic wars pit English againsl French at sea. Captain Jack Aubrey (Russell Crowe) commands the British frigate HMS Surprise. Aubrey's mission is to track down and sink Achcion, a much larger and better-equipped French shij5. Even a5 the vessel and crew endure the destruction of an enemy sneak attack and the ravages of inclement weather. Aubrey is unwavering in his duty.

Based on Patrick O'Brian's renowned seafaring adventure novels, Peter Weir's MastiT delivers an intimate, seemingly accurate portrayal of rugged life on the high seas, limited in creature

comforts but rich in camaraderie, Crowe makes a commanding but compassionate hero, and his friendship with ship doctor and scientist Stephen Maturin (Paul Bettany), who'd like Aubrey to slow down so he can collect samples of unknown species, provides some interesting character byplay between full-bore battle sequences. In all. Master is a flavorful, bracing adventure, suitable for tamily viewing. War and Peace, to many informed history buffs, would seem a natural for this list, lt does not appear here because the 1956 Holl)'wood version (starring Audrey Hepburn and Henry Fonda) is \'ery good in parts but fatally flawed overall, particularly in its miscasting of Fonda and a wooden Mel Ferrer (then Hepburn's husband) as Pierre Bezukhov and Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, respectively Eor Tolstoy purists, director Sergei Bondarchuk's legendary 1968 Russian version, Vbyna i mir, which garnered the Oscar lor Best Foreign Film, does fuller justice to ihe author's masterwork, but be advised—it runs seven hours! Bondarchuk portrayed the emperor's downfall just two years later in Waterloo, starring Rod Steigeras Napoleon, but that feature did not scale the heights of the director's earlier epic, which look five years and $100 million to complete, <^

Bor further Information, John Farr recommends his Weh site lwww.moviesbyjarr.com} and his hlog fhnp://johnfarr.type pad.wmj.

'It Is Sweet and Fitting to Die for One's Country' John Laurens led the attack that secured victory at Yorktown, but his prescient dream of emancipating America's slaves would elude him By Thomas Fleming

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On the nighi of October 14, 1781, Amencan lighi infantry attacked a key ! cdoLibt on the left flank of the British line outside the small Virginia tobacco port o\' Yorktown. Colonel Alexander Hamilton led the 400-man frontal assault. i3ut it wasJiis best friend, Colonel John Laurens, who struck the crucial blow. ' The South Carolina soldier led an 80-man detachment that slipped behind the redoubt in the darkness, before the frontal attack began. Then, as Hamilton and his men fought bayonet to bayonet on the parapet, Laurens and liis soldiers stormed into the redoubt and captured British commander James Campbell. The mortified major ordered his men to surrender, and Colonel John Laurens. barely resistance collapsed. 20$ at the outbreak of 1 he Americans rushed their cannons into the inthehisAmerican Revoiution, redoubt and were soon enfilading the main British quickly proved himself an able diplomat and fearless soldier. fortifications. Three days later, the enemy asked He was also an irrepressible for terms, and General George Washington chose idealist whose iiterai reading of the Deciaration of Independence Laurens to be the American representative at the moved him to seek an end to surrender negotiations. Britain's best field army slavery in tbe budding nation.

MILITARY HISTORY

Laurens achieved glory at Yorktown oniy to find himself commanding a light infantry force in his native South Carolina, tasked with running off British foraging parties from the river piantations outside Charleston. It was during one of these raids the young colonel would faii, a bullet through his heart.

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glumly capitulated just two days later, and a delighted Marquis de Lafayette wrote to friends in France, "The play, sir, is over."

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ix months prior to Yorktown, when the American cause seemed on the brinkof collapse, Washington had sent Laurens to Paris to plead for an emergency loan of 25 million \ivxcs— about $200 million modern doliare. The bilingual Laurens got almost half the money, plus ions of desperately needed uniforms and weapons from the harrieci French, who stood on the brink of national bankruptcy Young Colonel Laurens was unquestionably one of General Washington's most valued aides; in 1781 he outshone his friend and fellow aide, Hamilion. Almost theatrically handsome, the 27-year-old Laurens had a rare combination of gifts. He had repeatedly proven himself a fearless soldier, mingling selfconfidence with a passionate idealism. For him, the Revolution was a crusade to traasform the world. He wanted to see those soaring words in the Declaration of Independence about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness become a reality shared by all Americans. While Hamilton resigned from the Army to study law in Albany, Laurens rode south to fight for his most daring dream—the abolition of slavery. This ambition was doubly amazing in light of his father^ career: Henry Laurens was the largest—and richest—slave trader in South Carolina. Contrary to the Marquis de Lafayette's burbling optimism, the Revolution was by no means over in 178L The British still had 25,000 men on American soil. Wellarmed garrisons occupied New York, Savannah and Charleston and trom these enclaves launched savage attacks. Just one month after the British defeat at Yorktown, Loyalist Major William Cunningham led 300 horsemen on a rampage through the heart of South Carolina, massacring dozens of Patriots, John Laurens had an answer to these spasms of violence. He wanted South Carolina to free 3,000 slaves and enlist them in the American Army that was besieging Charleston. With this reinforcement, the Palriols would have

enough men to drive the British into the sea and work similar magic in Savannah, The example set by these black freedom fighters would, Laurens be!ie\'ed, con\'ince his fellow Southerners that slavery could and should be gradually abolished.

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n 1778, during the v^^nter at Valley Forge, the colonel had discussed this idea wilh Ceorge Washington and with his father, Henry Laurens, who was president of the Continental Congress at ihc time. Both men told the colonel they agreed with him in principle, but doubted that any Southern legislator would approve arming slaves. The fear of an insurrection and a race war haunted too many minds. In South Carolina, where black slaves outnumbered whites in many counties, this fear was especially acute.

1781. make the decision. The colonel promptly declared himself a legislarive candidate and was easily elected, Laurens introduced his proposal lor black regiments with a new clause he hoped would take opponents hy suq^rise, Rutledge was urging confiscation of the lands and slaves of hundreds of Loyalists who liiidjoined the British in the previous two years oi carnage. Why not raise the black regiments from the thousands of slaves the state was about to seize? For a while, it looked as if the young colonel was mustering strong support from South Carolinians both inside and outside the legislature. Rutledge described the debate as a "hard battle" that at times made him "very much alarmed." Perhaps the mos! pivotal speech was made by former Continental Congressman Aedanus Burke, who claimed the plan was aimed at the emancipation of all the slaves in South Carolina. Btirke predicted this would lead to the amalgamation of the two races, something South Carolinians ieared even more than a race war, Laurens' proposal was put to a vote, A pleased Governor Rutledge touted the result: "About 12 or 15 were for it & about 100 against it—1 now hope it will rest for ever & a day"

*He wanted to see those soaring words in the Declaration become a reality shared by all Americans'

John Laurens had shelved his proposal, though he disagreed with both men. His conviction deepened when the British shifted the war to the South in 1779, conquering Georgia and invading South Carolina, In 1780 they captured Charleston and the 5,000-strong Southem army A few months later they routed another foire sent to resctte the Southerners, Rebels under such guerrilla leaders as Francis "the Swamp Fox" Marion continued to resist them, igniting a savage civil war between Loyalists and Patriots, Luirens ho[->ed the bitter lessons of the liist two years would make his native state more receptive to his proposal to create a black brigade, A new Southern commander. General Nathanael Greene, had driven the British from the interior of the state, but his thousand-man force was ttxi weak to assault well-fortified Charleston. South Carolina Governor John Rutledge was lamiliar with Laurens' proposiil, I le had opposed it when Laurens pressed the issue in 1779, backed by a resolution passed by the Continental Congress, However, the governor diplomatically told Laurens he would let the next legislature, up lor election in December

In a bitter letter to General Washington, ljurens attributed his defeat to "the howlings ol a iriple-headed monster in which prejudice, avadee & pusillanimity were united," Washington tried to console his young aide with the observations of an older man who had discarded any and all illusions about human nature. In many ways, it is one of the most important letters Washington ever wrote, easting a revealing light on the later years of the American Revolution: The spirit of freedom, which at the commencement oj this contest would have gladly saciificed every thing to the attainment of its c^ject, has long since subsided, and every selfish passion his tnkai its (iace. It is not the public but

Alexander Hamilton Hamilloti worked in niticcri wiili his best (ricntl and icllow colonel l.diiuns (o dcfcai ihc British ;U Vorkiown, C oii^rcssriiiiii Itaitiilton Kucr invited l.iuircns lo )<>iii him in forging the new federal government. M.iriiiii> dc t afavcitv t.aurens and his friend tlif marquis championed ihf American cause bclorc ihc I reneh crown, securing arms, uniforms and an eveniual atliance against tlie Briiish, The inarquLs also served as a volunteer in the Anny. Francis Marion As a brigadier general in the Sonth Carolina Militia, 'the Swamp fox" waged a guerrilla war to disrupt Briiish coiniiuinications and capture supplies. 1 .mreus kd ihe l^ouih ( ,in)lina lighi infantry lorce under Greene. N,uii.m.nl i.uenc After Savannah and Charleston [ell iniii British hands, t\iiigress chose Greene, -.1 \etfran of Irenton, to lead ihe Southern army, (ireene, in turn,lapped Laurens for command of I lie light infantry and as his intelligence offieer. John Ruiledge As South Carolina governor, Rutledge thwarted Laurens" proposal to free black slaves and enlisi ihcm into service with ihe Southern army, Laurens raged against the oppositions prejudice" and pusillanimity." iliur) Laurens Thotigh he supported his son's ciuanieipation proposal in principle, ihe elder Laurens. ihird president of the ( onlinenial t ongress, knew John faced an uphill baitle againsi prevailing biases and iears of a race war.

the private interest which influences the generality of mankind, nor can the Americans any longer boast of an exception.

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aurens found General Greene equally sympathetic to his idea. He had backed Laurens with letters to Governor Rutledge, testifying to how badly he needed the black recruits in his army To console him, Greene offered Laurens command of the light infantry He would be responsible for repelling British foragers as well as more serious forays into the countryside. Hoping some local military glory would give him the prestige he needed to win suppon for his black regiments, the unhappy colonel accepted with alacrity Greene moved his army to the Ashley River lowlands outside Charleston, where drinking water was more abundant, Alas, so were mosquitoes. During the next few months as many as 200 of Greene's men died of malaria, and hundreds more were stricken. The outbreak left the Americans all but impotent when it came to stopping the British from raiding the countryside for provisions, Asstiming the rebels were no longer a threat, the British maintained a galley on the Ashley River. The ship regularly sent its crew ashore "to plunder and distress the inhabitants," Greene wrote. The sailors were also undoubtedly gathering intelligence from Loyalist spies. One dark night, Laurens ordered a captain and 14 light infantrymen to launch a surprise attack. They captured most of the 40-man crew and sank the gilley Greene was delighted with the exploit, "No enterprise this war has exceeded it," he told a iriend. But Laurens had few opportunities for similar coups. "The present is an idle, insipid time," he told Greene, The colonel had other reasons for being depressed. In the spring of 1782, he had received heartbreaking news from Europe. Bciore the Revolution, he had been studying law in London and had an affair v^ath Maitha Manning, the attractive daughter of his fathers business agent. The young woman had become pregnant, and John married her to protect her honor, A few months later, before the child was bom, Laurens sailed to America to join Washington's Army Now he learned Martha had heard

MILITARY HISTORY

about his 1781 trip to Paris and had rushed to France, hoping to see him. By the time she arrived, John was on his way back to America- The distressed young woman had fallen ill and died in Lisle, Funher darkening Laurens' mood was Greenes decision lo send the light troops to the rear to obtain forage for their horses. Some of Laurens' officers had ignored a recently passed law barring soldiers from taking food from civilians. Their actions in turn drew a public rebuke from the South Carolina government. Laurens thought the civilians were showing a

'Gist sent a horseman pounding down the road to warn Laurens, but he was too late to avert the unfolding tragedy' deplorable lack of s>nnpathy for his men, adding to an already gloomy view of his native stale's patriotism. Greene worried about the colonel's state of mind, Laurens, the general told one correspondent, acted as if the withdrawal of his troops were a punishment, "[He] wishes to fight much more than I wish he should," Greene wrote. The campaign, Laurens told a friend, "has become perfeetly insipid," The WORI apparently summed up a great deal of his life in 1782, His dream of black emancipation was receding into the mists of the impossible. The governor of New York had recently appointed his friend Hamilton to Congress. Meanwhile, Laurens was trapped in South Carolina, bickering over whether his troops were taking too much food from local farmers, Greene decided to make Laurens his intelligence officer. With about a dozen men as a guard, the colonel took a post midway between the two armies and was soon sending Greene a stream of valuable iniormation. The job was only moderately dangerous. The lines between the two armies were porous, and Laurens had so

many personal connections on both sides, information virtually fell into his lap. The colonel was soon bored with his new assignment. Congressman Hamilton wrote a letter that did little to raise Laurens' spirits. He reported the latest aimors from Paris, two or three months late, of course. The British were negotiating a peace treaty Though there were "obstacles," Hamilton was inclined lo believe the war was ending. "A new scene opens," he wrote. The next challenge was to "make independence a blessing." That would require the creation of "solid foundations" for the federal union, a task that called for leveling "mountains of prejudice" against a strong federal government, Hamilton urged Laurens to "quit your sword., ,put on the toga and come to Congress,,,, We have fought side by side lo make America free; let us hand in hand struggle to make her happy" Hamilton signed this appeal, "Yrs for ever." He had no idea it was the last letter he would write to his best friend,

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aurens soon established from his many sources ihai ihc British weir planning to evacuate Charleston, Oniy a lack of ships prevented an immediate withdrawal. This was extremely valuable infonnation. It relieved Greene of his constant fear that the enemy was planning a surprise atiack. But the war, such as it was, continued. The British still needed food and forage. OnAugust21, 1782, the king's men launched a major foraging expedition, supported by more than a dozen ships, Laurens' spies told him exactly where they were going. Greene ordered his new light infantry commander. General Mordecai Gist, to "strike at them wherever you may meet them." Laurens learned of Greene's orders and decided to join the pRispeclive fray ignoring a bout of malaria that had laid him low for several days. Five days later, Laurens joined Gist's men on ihe north side of the Combahee River south of Charleston, Some 300 British, regulars were foraging on the plantations along the river. Gist had arrived the previous day and worked out a plan of attack. He would hit the British at daybreak on August 27 and

Despite his diplomatic successes, his pivotal role at Yorktown and his ready service as a light infantry commander. Laurens is largely forgotten in the annals of the Revolution, as evinced in this 19th century painting of the Peace Ball at Fredericksburg. Laurens is at far right, his back to viewer.

drive them into their boats. As they ivtreated downriver, he hoped to Iwmbard them with a howitzer from a bluff at the river's mouth. Laurens asked to command the 50 men assigned lo defend the howitzer, which ihe British were likely lo attack by land. Gist agreed, and everyone adjourned to neai'by houses lo get some rest. Laurens led his men to the Stock family plantation, where he was the life of a party the Stocks threw for him and the captain in command of the howitzer. Laurens was in an ebullieni mood at ihe prospect of seeing action the next day He urged Mrs, Stock and her daughters to watch the show from a scaffold with a river view.

A

t dawn Gist's men surged across the Combahee to attack the Redcoats, but found nothing but stripped houses and cold campfires. A network of Lxtyalist spies had tipped olf the British, who boarded their ships not long after midnight and headed downriver toward the sea. Gist instantly realized ihe enemy probably knew about the plan to

bombard them from the bluff and would iikely send men ashore to make sure the howitzer was put out of commission. The general sent a horseman pounding down the road to warn Laurens, followed by 150 light infantrymen and dragoons. But he was much too late to avert the unfolding tragedy By the time Laurens arrived at the neck of land leading to the blulT, 150 British infantrymen were lying in wait amid underbrush along the road. They started shooting ihe moment the Americans appeared, dragging their howitzer. Laurens fell back and considered his options. He was unaware Gist was on the road with reinforcements; one suspects ihai knowledge wouldn't have made much difference to this deeply depressed idealist, who still hoped fresh military glory would help sell his proposal to arm—and free—slaves, A captain in Laurens' detachment said the colonel was "anxious to attack the enemy pre\'ious 10 ihe main body coming up." Laurens ordered a bayonet charge, putling himself at the head of his 50-man

column. The British soldiers wailed until the Americans were at point-blank range, then opened fire. There was a mighty crash, and a billow of musket smoke rose into the dawn sky When the smoke cleared. Colonel John laurens lay dead on his back, a bullet in his heart, A captain and several enlisted men lay near him, badly wounded. The rest of the Americans fled, abandoning their howitzer. Gist arrived not long after the ambush. The assault had cost him a dozen men. He decided the British position was loo strong and allowed the Redcoats to withdraw to their waiting ships wiih the captured howitzer. Glumly, the general reported to Greene that he had retreated with 19 wounded to the Stock planiation, "where the corpse of Colo Laurens shall be inter'd wilh every mark of distinction due to his rank and merit." iSil For further reading. Thomas Fleming recommends: John Laurens and the American Revolution, hy Gregory D. Massey, and An Imperfect God, by Henty Wiencck.

Reviews RECOMMENDED

War According to Those Who Lived it The War, by Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns, Knopf, New York, 2007, $50. Us lor\g been called llie Good War, And if ever a war had 10 be fought. World War II was probably it. Of course, that didn't make Lhe fighting or the dying any easier —either for the soldiers on the battlefields or for their families and friends on the home front. 1 he appeal of The War, the print cornpanion to Ken Burns' documentary, is that it avoids the big picture and sticks resolutely to the men in the foxholes and manning the aircraft carriers, stays close lo those at home organizing scrap drives and buying bonds. What we get here is a view of lhe war from the perspectives of the ones who actually fought it and those who were scared sick for them. There are stories from abroad: an account from Sascha Weinzheimer, who spent the war in Manila with her family as a prisoner of the Japanese; the exploits of Quenlin Aanenson, a young fighter pilot from the Midwest flying missions over Europe; and lhe European ground war, seen through the eyes of the 100th Infantry Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team, composed entirely of JapaneseAmericans, many of whose families had been relocated to internment camps. News of the folks at home includes the dispatches of Al Mclntosh, a newspaper editor in Luverne, Minn., who wrote about how the war impacted the Midwest. His columns chronicled everything from a soldier's losl dog lo the joy a

MILITARY HISTORY

parent felt when a postcard arrived from a son in the South Pacific, saying he was OK. Mclntosh also wrote of the sorrow that enveloped his own small town when a War Department telegram arrived. The stories are remarkable, but the photographs carry the most emolion. One piclure taken in Sicily in 1943 captures how civilians react when war pulls into their street: In the foreground, a medic administers plasma to a wounded Gl; in lhe background, four females watch from a doorstep. The eldest, a woman in her 60s, clutches her hands, while beside

her, a middle-aged woman looks on with infinite compassion, an understanding of suffering etched into her every feature, A third woman, perhaps in her early 20s, stares off bleakly pasl the camera. Beside her, though, is the focal point of the photograph: a curlyhaired little girl, 5 or 6, who peeks out through half-shut eyes, one tiny hand creeping tenuously to the neck of her dress in a gesture of horror. Although ihis most certainly was a justifiable war, it was, like all wars, iragic and merciless and gory and wasteful of the lives it ripped apart, A British veteran is quoted: "The adult world should forever hang its head in shame at the terrible, unforgivable things done to the young," —Linda Perney The 25 Essential World War ii Sites: European Theater. The Ultimate Traveler's Guide to Battlefields, Moniimfn(.s and Museums (second edition), by Chuck Thompson, Greenline Publicalions, San Francisco, 2007, $19.95.

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Expanded from its 2004 first edition. Chuck Thompsons survey covers an impressive amount of ground. Although he summarizes lhe significance of each of his chosen subjects, including the American nerve center of Washingion, D,C,, and three essential Russian centers—Moscow,

In N ^ 2 a icain ol null1317 personnel and CIA operatives was tasked wilh discovering the strength and intentions of Chinese and Soviet forces in North Korea, After more than 50 years of silence, Lt, Col- Arthur Boyd, lhe only surviving member of this mission, shares his story.

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Volgograd tSialingrad) and Kursk— Thompsons staled concern is primarily ihe traveler, not the historian. Both are well served by the variety of chosen sites within each of the principal geographic locations. For those whose interest strays farther afield, Chapter 25 is devoted to •'Auxiliary Sites," such diverse but no less noteworthy poinls of interest as Amstercliims Anne Fnink House; Finland's modest monuments lo iis two wars with ihe Soviet Union; the North African settings of Erwin iiommels desert L'ampaigns; Malta's museums; and War•^Liws memorials to us battles, two uprisings and notorious LOiKcntralion camps. Wiihin the 25 categories are 500 points of interest, making this a useful, compact guide to any veteran or scholar wishing to revisil the conflicts hallowed ground anywhere in the Western Hemisphere. —Jon Guttman

Ike: An American Hero, hy Michael Korda, llaqicrCoUins, New York, 2007, S34.95. In 1Q45 Dwight Fisenhower was the man of the hour, and in 1952 Americans liked Ike well enough to put him in the White 1 iouse for eight years. But by the end of his administration, overshadowed hy the (charismatic Jack and Jackie, he was widely seen as an old duffer who paid more attention to his golf swing than he did to running the countr)'. Since his death, ike has fared better. Tliis adulatory' new biography is just the latest in a long line. Unlorlunately most o( ihe book is devoted to ihe general's exploits during WWII and sheds little new iighi. Fven more unlonunatcly, Korda all but ignores Eisenhower's postwar years. I le was, after all, the firsl chief of staff of the modern American army and first

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Reviews NATO commander, not to mention the president who disentangled us from Korea, avoided the pitfalls of Vietnam and presided over the first stirrings of the civil rights movement and, with the advent of Sputnik, the beginnings of the space race. Only a small portion of the book "ZI/In/Ill/I /fi'i covers Eisenhowers presidency. Sherman Adams and his vicuna coat rate little more than a sentence; Little Rock, lour pages. Korda touches briefly on the topics of whether Ike had an affair with aide Kay Summersby and whether Mamie drank. The other great gossip item is Eisenhower's relationship with Nixon. There are the fa-

IKE

rniliar accounts, such as the stoiy behind the Checkers speech, in which Eisenhower advised Nixon to make his case via a televised appeal then took his time deciding whether to keep him on the ticket. And his remark when asked about Nixon's contributions: "Give me a week, and maybe I'll think of one." Then there's ihe cryptic note about Nixon's complaint of never being invited to a private dinner—a subject, Korda says daintily, "ahout which Mrs. Nixon was said to express, to the very end of her life, what was, for her, a veiy rare degree of personal resentment." We are taken through Ike's boyhood in Abilene, his coming of age at West Point and his postings, ranging from a disappointing stint training troops during World War 1 to his postwar years in Paris. Along the way, Korda develops an irritating tic of speculating on his protagonists' reactions:

"Ike must have felt a certain gravitational pull toward Miss Doud.... It cannot have been an easy time for Mamie." Maybe it was and maybe il wasn't. What is sure is that Korda has no way of knowing. Korda also forgels ihat readers understand this is hisiory and that the characters couldn't possihly know the results of their aclions. Sentences like "Because we know the outcome, the victory of Franklin Delano Roosevelt ot course looks inevitable" and "Of course we know now how formidable the Japanese were" may rankle. Overall, the book serves its purpose for those who don't know much about Eisenhower, silhouetting the man against the background of his times. While one might disagree with Korda's conclusion that "no American president had exercised power more surely or more deftly, or under greater pressure of time and events," it is

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ceriain that as president, Eisenhower threaded his way through a minefield of problems both domestic and foreign, respecting the Constitution, keeping the peace and warning of the encroiiching power of big business in ihe guise ol the miliiary-industrial complex, —Linda Perney Bayonets for Hire: Mercenaries at War., 1550-1789, by William Urban, Greenhill Books, London, 2007, $39.95. "No one Ukes mercenaries. Yet everyone has used them," Thus the preface sets the lone for this study Known for his works on the Teutonic Order and the medieval Baltic crusades. Urban distinguishes the later-model mercenaries by their professionalism. The Middle Ages ended. Urban declares, when professionals took over everywhere—above all in war. On the one hand, the modern nationalistic state did not exist. On the other, the growth of contractual relationships bad eroded feudal ties. There was no reason for an ambitious man with a marketable skill not lo seek tbe most favorable terms for using it. Urban defines "mercenaries" broadly, including soldiers ol fortune as well as religious and political exiles: lhe French Huguenots and the Wild Geese of Ireland, They comprise bodies of men recruited by particular officers for specific service and, eventually, enlire armies leased by iheir rulers lo foreign slates for cash subsidies. The author almost categorizes as mercenaries those subjects of a state who join its army from ambition, hunger or desire lor adventure. The book is as much a study of early modem European warfare as a story of the men who fought it. Particularly useful is its survey of events in Eastern and Southern Europe, As go-anywhere, do-anything

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fighters with state-ol-the-art skills, mercenaries were especially welcome in the polyglot armies that rolled baek the Ottoman Empire from the gates of Vienna in 1683 and repeatedly changed balance of power east of the Oder River. Western Europe, however, was the classic venue ol the mercenaries, and their heyday was the Thirty Years' War, Urban vividly describes the havoc ihat armies for hire wrought on siiil-fragile economic, social and political structures. By wars end in 1648, arguably the safest and mosl stable lile lor ordinary men—and often women as well—was in the ranks of a mercenary regiment or among its irain of followers. The glamour once attached to military service had been replaced by a dctcrminaiion, shared by mlers and their subjects, that never again could war be allowed to bttrst its bonds. Never again

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OnoOer 2007

15. Extent and Natuie ot Circulation, i . Totai Number at Copies Average No. Copies Eacii issue Dunng

PrBceding \2 Mnnths 107.858 No CopiBs ot Singie Issue Pubiistied Nearesi to Filing Date 104,844. b. Paid Circuiation i l l Mailed OuBide-County Paid Subscriptions Stated on PS Form 3541

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Copies Each issue Dunng Preceding 12 Months 60,559. No. Copies ot Single issue Pubiistied Nearesno Filing OalE 5S,90B. ( ? | Mailed

In-County Paid SubscnpliansSlaled on PS F u i m a M i . Average No. CooiesEacti Issue During Preceding 12 Monihs 0 No. Copies ot Single Issue Pubiistied Nearest to Fiiing Oate C. (3) Pahj Distribution Outside ths Maiis induding Sales Through Dealers and Carriers. Street Vendors. CounLei Saies, and Other Paid Distnbutian Outside IJSPS. Average No. Copies Eacti Issue During Preceding 12 Monttis 1E.396. Mo Copies ol Smgle Issue Putilisiiad Nearest to Rling Date 16.050. M l Paid Circuiation by Dttier Classes Mailet) Through the USPS. Bueragfl No C^iies Each Issue Dunng Preceding 13 Months 0. No. Copies ot Single Issue Pubiistied Nearest to Fiiing Date 0. c. Totai Paid Distnbotion Average No Copies EacMssue During Preisding i3Months76.955. No. Copies ot Single issue PuOli^edNearesMoFitinB Date 75.9Sfl 1 Free or Nominal Rate Distributwn n i Free or Nominal nate Oulside County Copies included on PS Form 3541 Aveiage No Copies Each issue Dunng Preceding 12 Months 71 Mo. Copies ot Singie Issue Published Nearest to Filing Date 0 It) Free or Nomtnai Ffale In-Counly Copies Inciudatt on PS Form 3541 Aveiage No. Copies Each Issue Dunng Preceding 12 Montlis 0 No

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Copies ot Sinsie Issue Pubiahefl Nearest lo Filing Date 0 |3) Free or Nominal Hals Copies Mailed at Other Classes Through the USPS Average No Copies Each issue Dunng Preceding i 2 M o n M s O . No Copies ol Single issue Pubiished Nearesi lo Filing DjIeD

(4) Free or Nominai Rale Dislritujtion Outside itie Maii Average No. Copies Each Issue

Dunng Preceding i 2 M o n t t i s 5 4 D No Copies of Single issue Published Nearest to Filing Dale 700 e.Tolal Free or Nominal Rate Distribution. Average No. Copies Each issue Dunng PrsMding 12 Months B11 Nti. Cc^ies of Singie issue Pubiished Nearest to Fiiing O ^ E 700 t. Totai Distribulion. Average No Copies Each issue Dunng Preceflmo 12 Months 77,566. Nu Copies Ot Single Issue Published Nearest lo Filing Date 75.65S g. Copies iioi Disiribuied. Average No. Copies Each Issue During Preceding 12 Months 30.292 No Copies otSingle Issue published Nearesi to Fiiing Date 28.186 single Issue PuDiished Nearest to Fiimg Data 104.844

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h, Totai Average No. Copies Each Issue During Pieceiling 12 Months 107,858 No.Copi«sol

I. Pensni Paid Average No Copies Each issue Dunng Preceding 12 Months 99.2%. No. Copies ol Single Issue

Published Nearest io Rling Oate 9 9 1 % . 16. Puhtication ol Stalenieni ol Ownership- Wiii be printed in itie December 07 issue ol ttiiS pubiicalion 17, i certify Ihat aii iniormation tumished on this torm is true and complete

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MILITARY HISTORY

menis since World War II. In the Golan, the fighting made up for ils narrower scope wilh intensity as two Israeli armored brigades made one of history's epic stands LO hold off a Syrian onslaught bolstered by contingents from other Arab nations. Thirty-five years after the conflict, Brilish armored warfare expert Simon Dunstan presents a concise and comprehensive summary. As with other such compendia from Osprey, the formal requires—and gels—as balanced a picture as possible of the leaders, strategies, preparations, operations and outcomes of ihis brief yet complex war. In ihe end, Israeli courage, ingenuity and command flexibility reversed the situations on both fronts. In contrast to 1967, the cost of that tacVK tical victory in lives and the monetary equivalent of Israels annual gross naTHE H I B I S R I E l l tional product was WAR OF l m staggering. On the other side, Arab soldiers—especially Egyptian infantrymen using Sovietdeveloped, rocket-propelled grenades and antitank missiles, regained their self-respect. In the longer run, on March 26, 1979, Egypt was able to secure a separate peace with Israel that culminated in withdrawal of Israeli troops h'om the Sinai Peninsula three years later. Syria maintains an uneasy cease-fire, while the Golan Heights remain in Israeli hands. Eclipsing the overt military' events of 1973 is the messier war of terror and counterterror between the Israelis and Palestinians ihat has since come to the fore. A concluding chapter describes the sights if one chooses to \isit the battlefields today, with the disclaimer that access to the Golan Heights remains limited and hazardous along a border marked by a cease-fire but in an extant state of war— and slill riddled with landmines. —Jon Guttman

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"Out of the Mails" Now through Jan. 31, 2008 National Postal Museum Washington, D.C. This small exhibit illustrates lhe ways Revoluiion-era Americans corresponded via secondary means. In 1773 Parliamentary poslal surveyor Hugh Finlay discovered ihat most letters in British Nonh America were carried by Iriends or private couriers or were illegally franked. Intended strictly for official correspondence, lhe franking (free postage) privilege dated back lo the 17th century. Us abusers mcluded President George Washington and Benjamin [•ranklin. founder of lhe U,S, Postal Service, underscoring thai even the Founders operated out of the mails. Fearing interception. Patriots and Loyalists alike employed their own postal sen.'ices where possible, bm other means when necessary, A letter postmarked "Providence," the only known example > of a Loyalist post'^ mark, illustrates ihc circuitous routes employed in unsettled times. Us author, Henry Lloyd, who lived near Boston, mailed the letter to Messrs, Delancey and Wati o^ New York through friends in Providence. R.I. In it, he noied that their tetter to him arrived unopened. The exhibit displays three artifacts from Valley Forge, a .69-caliber musket ball, a lead pencil and a stone inkwell, which demonstrate how Continental soldiers improvised writing materials by melting musket balls to fashion crude pencils. The soldiers could then use an officer's frank to correspond for free. For more infoniiation, visit lhe Museum Web site Iwww.postal museum.si,edu/outof[hemails/index,himll, —Joseph Robert White

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Hallowed Ground Ghost Mountain, Papua New Guinea By James Campbell

T

he New Guinea jungle was a boiler room. A slanting sun sifted through the dense canopy. Ahead, our native guide, Berua, and his tattooed wife, Bima, led the way, walking along a cliff that fell thousands of feet into a murky valley. Behind me a line of muscled young men sang call-andresponse folk songs in haunting four-part harmony Nursing a fascination with New Guinea since my first

trip in 1989,1 was back on the island for a fifth time. Accompanied by a small expedition team and film crew, 1 was trying to repeat a little-known World War II march, a tragic episode in the batde for the Southwest Pacific. In October 1942, General Douglas MacArthur ordered 1,200 untrained, poorly equipped American troops from the 32nd Infantry Division to cross New Guinea's Papuan Peninsula. Historians consider the march one of the cruelest in modem military history In 1942, New Guinea was terra incognita. Its interior was rugged and unmapped, its vast swamps and grasslands a breeding ground for disease, its climate pernicious.

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No one had hiked the route since the soldiers cut their way across the peninsula more than 60 years ago, and I was advised not to attempt it. The terrain was still too rough, the rivers too fast, J• ui a n d t h e trtbeS u n p r e d i c t a b l e .

MILITARY HISTORY

'" ^^*^ '* *****'* *^^ ^^"*' Infantry Division five weeks of hard climbing to reach the north coast at sanananda. They faced a brutal firefight.

A week and a half after setting ofl' from the south coast, we approached the spine of the Owen Stanley divide, the midpoint in our crossing. The faint hunting trail rose precipitously. We climbed through deep, leech-infested mud, grabbing al roots and vines. Squawking indignantly, giant hornbills fled their treetop sanctuaries with a whoosh of their great wings. As we crested a peak, the clouds cleared, and I gol my first glimpse of the island's tortured topography. Errant 9,000-foot ridgclines ran in almost every direction. Ahead of us lay a summit the soldiers came lo know as Ghost Mountain. As we entered the realm of the cloud forest, where everything seemed suspended in perpetual twilighi, il began to rain, an iey onslaught thai lell the porters agitated. Ghost Mountain, they believed, was haunted by masalai, evil spirits that swirled back and forth across ihe misty, trackless ravines. Here in the cloud forest the American march almost collapsed. "You can hardly realize how wild and ghostlike this mountain countiy is," wrote 1st Sgl. Paul LuLjens In his diary. "Almost perpetual rain and steam.... We have been traveling over an almost impassable trail. Our strength is gone. Most of us have dysentery Boys are falling out and dropping back with fever.... We seem 10 climb straight up lor hours, then down again, God, will it never end?"

Japanese machine-gunners drove back the 32nd Division time and again. The soldiers took refuge in hip-deep swamps, clinging to the weblike roots of mangrove trees, always on the lookout for enemy snipers, giant long-haired rats and crocodiles. Captain Alfred Medendorp agonized. His men were out there "between the lines where they could nol be gotten," wounded soldiers crying out for help atid dead bodies bioated by the heat. At night a breeze came in off the Solomon Sea, cooling the jungle; a mixed blessing, it also carried the slench of rotting corpses. After eight weeks of fighting, the 32nd Infantry Division finally managed to dislodge the Japanese from the coast in late January 1943. lt was a costly victory PeTx:entage-wise, fatalities approached ihe worst battles of the Civil War. MacArthur resolved never again to force "a head-on collision of the bloody, grinding type. "No more Bunas," he pledged.

After five weeks on the trail, the exhausted soldiers limped out of the mountains and arrived at the north foasi battlefields of Buna and Sanananda- The peninsula's north coast was a maze of stinking, tea-black swamps, B-loot kunai and elephant grass and viciously spiked nipa and sago palms. Today the beaches at Sanananda and Buna are backed by villages of woven bamboo Military histonan Eric Bergerud called it huts. Scant evidence remains of the battles waged here more than 60 years ago. "some of the harshest terrain ever faced by land armies in the history of the war." The combined victory at Buna and Sanananda was psychologSaddled with dysentery, malaria, jungle rot and trench foot, ihe soldiers were, in Bcrgeruds words, "battered, filthy, longhaired, gaunt, festering wretches." Yet they went directly into baiile, slashing and lunging with their bayonets. The Japanese positions were nearly impregnable. Bunker and trench systems protected ail of the inland approaches to Buna and Sanananda. The camouflaged bunkers were reinforced with cocontit logs, I-beams, sheet iron and steel oil drums filled with s;ind. They opened directly onto fire trenches or were connected to them by crawl tunnels. Mortars, artillery and air bombardment proved ineOective, so Atiierican soldiers were forced to msh in and tiy to push grenades through firing slits, a feat ihat look a lifetime of good luck. According to Major Herbert Smith. "Many more failed than succeeded."

ically and strategically momentous. Together with the fall of Guadalcanal, il destroyed the myth of Japanese invincibilily Aiid it broke Japans hold on New Guinea, ensuring the security of the Australian continent and the American supply line to it. Today Buna and Sanananda are quiet villages where people still practice subsistence lishingand farming. The fierce battles fought there are forgotten now. But these were the starting points, the first land victories of the South PaciHc campaign that would propel MacArlhurs army north to the Philippines. It was, in fact, the 32nd Division to which General Yamashita surrendered near Kiangan on September 2, 1945. "It was entirely fitting," a general wrote, "that the 32nd Division should receive the vanquished enemy Al Buna, they had won the battle that started the infantry on the jungle road to Tokyo." 1^

Weapons we're glad they never built Ducks as Cover By Elwood H. Smith

D

uring World War II, lhe Briiish used large, lelhered ban'age balloons lo defend London againsi German bombers. Henry "Mad Dog" Purcell, the mayor of Leichmore Healh and a Home Guard volunteer, found a unique aliernalive to the costly air balloons:

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Large, domestic ducks pumped full of hydrogen gas were trained to hover above the small village from dawn till dusk. "Them ducks were gutsy buggers," the mayor admitted shortly after the war, "bul I never liked 'em much. Blokes took me and Spud, here, for a latrine." ffl)