Military History 2008-03-04

Letters Cuban Nightmare In his accounl o\ the Bay of Pigs fiasco ["Cuban Nightmare," November] Grayston Lynch may have allowed his loathing of the Kennedy administration to cloud his judgmeni and recollection. First, there was no official recognition ol Castros "Soviet leanings" by the Eisenhower administration before he seized power New Year's Day 1959. It wasn't until Jan, 8, 1960, that the director of central intelligence ordered the clandestine service to form a special task force to overthrow Castro, according to Tim Weiners Legacy oj Ashes: The History of the CIA. Second, the Bay of Pigs became the landing site because it had an airfield nearby in which a U.S.recognized "government in exile" could be flov^m. U.S. aircraft carriers were vv'aiting over the horizon (giving rise to the mistaken belief that they would rescue the landing force if needed). Then the Cuba Task Force relied on 65-year-old maps that didn't

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show Lhe modern extent of surrounding swamps. Third, Kennedy's advisers didni reduce "the air strikes by half at "zero hour." Cuba Task Force chief Richard Bissell cut lhe D-1 air raid on Casiro's three air bases from 16 to eight B-26 light attack bombers. When the cover stor)'—thai a single defecting Cuban pilot destroyed half of Castros warplanes before flying lo a heros welcome In Florida—fell apart, Kennedy's aides decided thai any further strikes would have to be launched from the beachhead. This inadvertently cancelled a D-day strike from Nicaragua. Fourth, the mission was "doomed from the start" because it counted on sparking a popular uprising. By Nov. 15, 1960, the clandestine service had concluded that even a 1,500- to 3,000-man invasion could not succeed without direct VS. military supportWhen they briefed Presidentelect Kennedy, however, they didn't tell him that, nor that

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Eisenhower had not authorized an invasion. Finally, Lynch must know that the "ill-conceived notion of 'plausible deniabiliiy" [of American involvemeni]" is not mere face saving but fundamental to covert action itself. Otherwise, why be covert? Just send in the Marines! Ronald R. Gilliam THONOTASASSA, F U ,

Frank Dismay IRe, "Pressure/G Suit," Power Tool, December:! We [Canadians] get dismayed when others do not accurately depict our cherished icons, 1 am referring to the improper identification of "Frank" Banting, Sir Frederick Banting, co-developer of the G suit, was also the discoverer of insulin. In 1924 he was awarded the Nobel Prize, M. Dalich TORONTO, CANADA

ing series of pictures of French veterans of the Napoleonic wars in original uniform. However, on P 46, the description of the picture of Hussar Moret calls oul a shield. No cavalrjanan of a European army of this period used one. However, 1 do see a sabretache behind his left leg. There are also sabretaches behind the left leg of Quarlennaster Sergeant Delignon (P 45) and touching Lhe left leg of Hussar Fabry (P 48), These were originally used by the hussars of various European armies who had copied their uniforms from the original Hungarian light cavalry, including the tight breeches with no pockets. The sabretache served as an attache case for private possessions as well as a clipboard for sketching during reconnaissance and a briefcase. Steve Klein AKRON,

Onto

En Garde!

Lost Brigade

"The Past Recaptured" [January/February] is an outstand-

[Re.'Ghost Mountain, Papua New Guinea." by James Campbell,

Hallowed Ground, December: I Anyone reading the article would believe the U,S. Army's 32nd Infantry Division was the only force involved in the campaign and alone gave the Japanese theirfirstland defeats. This could not be further from the truth. The Japanese landed at Buna on the north coast of New Guinea on July 21, 1942. They were met by the 30th Australian Infantry Brigade Militia troops. Along with the 21st Australian Infantr}' Brigade, the 30ih fought a protracted withdrawal o\'er the Owen Stanley ranges almost to Port Moresby, the Japanese goal. The Japanese were slowed, stopped and finally withdrew back across the Owen Stanley ranges in September, pursued by the 25th Australian Infantry Brigade. On August 2 5 , the Japanese also landed at Milne Bay on the east coast of New Guinea, They v^'ere met and defeated here by September 6 by the 18th and 7ih Australian Infantry Brigades, along with 75 and 76 Squadron Royal Australian Air Force. The 32nd Di\ision was still in Australia at this time, leaving for New Guinea on September 15 and 18. The Japanese had been handed two land defeats before the 32nd left Australia, The northern beachhead batiies of Buna, Gona and Sanananda, in which the 32nd Division fought, featured significant Aus-

iralian involvemcni. RLI.SSCI/

Robert Scotl Harris

BRISBANE, AUSTRALU

Fiim Critic |Rc. "Napoleonic Action," by John Farr, December:] While [ lound hisfilmS)TIopses entertaining, I think Farr's decision to lump the entire French Revolutionary War era with that of the emperors epoch was a mistake—like asserting that the kaiser's abdication in 1918 made Hitler possible, so we must include World War 1 films with those on Nazi Germany. 1 would replace five of his films with truly Napo-

leonic fare. First, A Tale oj Two Cities gets the boot for Waterloo. Next, the Russian version of War and Peace replaces Love and Death, and the American rendition of same gets pride of place over any version of The Scarlet Pimpernel. Fourth, Master and Commander goes in favor of Captain Horatio Hornhiower. And linally, Billy Budd is dumped for Desiree. Now I'll give Farr a challenge: Suggest the 10 best films featuring Kaiser Wilhelm and the German High Command in World War I. Let's hope he keeps the Franco-Prussian War out of it. Blaine Taylor TovvsoN, MD.

John Farr responds: While I'll take your point on my perhaps shaky historical perspective, Napoleon was indeed a direct outgrowth of the French Revolution and ascended in quicker succession in its wake (several years) compared to the span between the World Wars I and U. Regardless, I'm also as interested in film quality as you are in history. J agree with you on the Russian War and Peace, and comidcred including it, hutjelt its 6'/i-hour running time would be a stretch [or most movie viewers. Your other suggest Ions are simply not great films: War and Peace with Fonda and Hepburn looks like Moscow via Rodeo Drive, and Hornblower ,^ets sunk by a

WHY 0 0 YOU LOVE OSPREY? Because I'm addicted to Call of Duty.

miscast, wooden Gregoiy Peck. As to your other challenge, I respectfuUy decline, as lam uncertain whether 10 truly great films are still available on the subject and period you reference.

Correction On P. 60 of the january/Fehruaiy feature "Sensitivity Training for Generals?" by James Lacey, the article states that Conjederaie General Albert Sidney Johnston attended William T. Sherman's funeral. In fact, it was Confederate General joe Johnston who befriended Sherman and later served as an honorary pallbearer at his funeral. The error was made during the editing process.

World War II Infantry Assault Tactics

News Navy SEAL Awarded Medal of Honor for Action in Afghanistan

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Lieutenant Michael P Murphy has been awarded the first Medal of Honor for service in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan—thefirstmember of the Navy to receive the honor since the Vietnam War. On June 28, 2005, Lieutenant Murphy was leading his four-man SEAL team on a reconnaissance mission through Taliban-held territory in the rugged Hindu Kush range when the men came under intense fire from a force of several dozen enemy fighters. Seeking cover in a ravine, the team engaged the enemy in a 45-minute firefight. With Taliban gunmen closing in and all four SEALs wounded. Murphy moved into the open to make a distress call. He was speaking v^nth an officer at Bagram Air Base when hit in the back by a round. Murphy retrieved his phone, ended the call with a respectful 'thank you," rejoined his men and resumed fire. An extraction team of eight additional SEALs and eight Army Night Stalkers was soon en route aboard an MH-47 Chinook. But as lhe helicopter entered the combat zone, a rockel-propelled grenade struck lhe ship, killing all 16 men aboard—lhe lai^est

Nazi Archive Opens Last fall the Iniernational Tracing Service Iwww.iisaaiisen ,org!, an arm of the International Red Cross, opened its vast archive of Nazi-era records to the public for the first time in its 60-year existence. Based in the German spa town of Bad Arolsen, the archive features more than 50 million pages documeniing

'.he fate of some 17.5 million victims of Nazi persecution. Digital copies of the archi\'e are also available at the U,S. Holocaust Memorial Museum |wwvv,ushmm.ori;| in Washington, D.C., and at Yad Vashem |www,yadvasheni orgl in Jerusalem.

Lieutenant Michael Murphy's four-man SEAL team heid off several dozen Taliban for two hours in the Hindu Kush range.

single loss of life for Naval Special Warfare since World War II. Back on the ground, an RPG round blasted Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Marcus Luttrell over a ridge, knocking him unconscious. He was able lo evade enemy forces and was eventually rescued. The battle had lasted two hours. Killed were Gunner's Mate 2nd Class Danny Dielz, 25; Sonar

Technician 2nd Class Maithew Axelson, 29; and Lieutenant Murphy, 29. Some ihree dozen Taliban fighters also lay dead. To honor men such as Lieutenant Michael Murphy, this month Military Hi*,tory is

launching "Valor" (P. 19), a column devoted to those who have earned their country's highest military awards in sacrifice to their fellow soldiers.

'Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die' —G.K. Chesterton

MILITARY HISTORY

DISPATCHES

Peak Honors Fallen World War Ii veteran Bruce Salisbury has won a five-year bid to have an unnamed peak in the Q)lorado Rockies named Mount KIA/MIA, in honor of U.S, soldiers who didn't make il home. Salisbury's wife, Doitic, first lloaied lhe idea during a road trip north from iheir home in Aztec, N.M. Last fall the U.S, Board on Geographic Names

|http;//geon3mes,usgs.gov| officially registered the newly named 1 L293-foot peak, in the Sawatch Range, two hours west of Colorado Springs,

Photos May Depict Lincoln at G'burg Amateur historian John Richler of Hanover. Pa., was poring over the library of Congress' lwww.loc.gov! online colleclion of prints and photographs a few years ago and downloaded iwo targe sicrcostopic

ccrcinoii) .u Soldiers" National Cemetery \n CTCttysburg, Pa. Reviewing the images recently, Richier noticed an unidentified figure on horseback, head and stovepipe hni above the crowd. The Center for Civil War Photography |www.civilwar photographyorgl believes the images show President Abraham Lincoln, arriving to deliver his famed addii^ss. Only two other images of Lincoln ai Cjt'tty5buig ait^ known to exist.

Vietnamese Troops Face Toothy Foe Soldiers were deployed to ihf central Vietnam pro\ince ol Kbanh Hoa last (all to recapture hundreds of crocodiles that escaped tbe staleowned Khanh Viet Farm after floodwaters broke a perimeter fence. The farm houses more tban !3,000 crocodiles. Troops rounded up more than 200 of tbe escapees, lassoing some and shooting others with AK-47 assault rifles.

Tick: First Bioweapon? An infectious pathogen thai public health agencies have classified a "severe public threat'' may have been wielded as a bioweapon as early as the 14th century BC. In a recent issue of ihc journal Medical Hypotheses jwww .medicalhypotheses.coml, Toronto-based molecular biologist Siro Trevisanto points to descriptions in ancient Near Eastern texts of a "plague" consistent with Francisella fularcnsis, the causative agent of tularemia, aka rabbit fever. Spread to humans primarily through contact with infected ticks, the disease can cause skin lesions, fever, pneumo-

nia and respiratory failure. Prior to 1950, tularemia killed several thousand Americans each year. Trevisanto's research suggests that around 1320 BC, Hittite warriors in Eastern Anatolia intentionally herded disease-ridden ratns and donkeys into neighboring Arzawa, which was threatening tbe Hittite Empire. One period tablet reads, THE cotJNTt?i' THAT FINDS THEM SHALL TAKE OVER THIS PESTtLENCE. W i d e s p r e a d

outbreaks did tbwart tbe Arzawan invasion, bul tularemia continued its rampage for decades, spreading throughout the Mediterranean.

'Where a goat can go, a man can go; where a man can go, he can drag a gun' —Maj. Gen. William Phillips

War Memorial Turns 25 Thousands of veterans, family members and others gathered on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., this (all to mark the 25th anniversary of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial [wvi'w.nps .gov/vive]. The Veterans Day ceremony culminated in a keynote address by Vietnam veteran and retired Army Gen. Colin Powell. "The wall came at a time vfhen we desperately needed something to help heal a nation that had been deeply wounded," Powell s;rid, describing the memorial's ability to bring vets to cathanic tears. In 1981 Maya Lin, then a 21-year-old Yale undergraduate, lumed in the winning memc^hal design—a funereal black marble slash in the eaith. Controversial at the lime, the memorial now welcomes some 3 million annual visitors.

WAR RECORD^ Julius Caesar defeats Gnaeus Pompeius at the March 17, 45 Bc:, Battle of Munda and later has him executed, only to be assassinated himself nearly a year to the day, on March 15, 44 BC. Other spring mishaps: • March 6, 1836: Hundreds of Mexican soldiers under General Santa Anna overrun the Alamo, killing all 180 Texian defenders. • March 8, 1965: The first formal U.S. combat troops—a force of 3,500 Marines—arrive in Vietnam. Tbe last U.S. troops pull out cin Apnl 30, 1975. • March 10, 241 BC: Rome defeats Carthage at the naval Battle of the Aegates Islands, ending the Eirst Punic War. • Good Eriday, March 22, 1622; Powhatan Indians attack small English settlements near Jamestown, Va., killing 347. • April 2, 1982: Argentina invades the Ealkland Islands, beginning a 72-day losing war vsith the United Kingdom. • April 12,1861: Confederate shore batteries sbell Union-held Eort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, S,C,, sparking the American Ct\11 War. The war ends on April 9, 1865, with the Confederate surrender at Appomattox Court House. Va. • April 19, 1775: British and Patriot trcxips exchange the first shots of the American Revolution at Lexington and Concord, Mass.

News Medal with Ties to Washington and Lafayette Sells for $5.3 Mil On May 13, 1783, months before the last British troops withdrew from Manhattan, Alexander Hamilton chaired the first meeting of Lhe Society of the Cincinnati [www thecincinnati.orgi, a membership association for American and French officers of the Revolution and their descendants. Its name derives from the 5th century BC Roman dictator Cincinnatus, who assumed power when Rome was threatened by invading tribes, returning to life as a farmer once the threat had subsided. Society members chose as their first president a man who embodied those selfsame ideals: George Washington. Major Pierre LEnfant, who would later plan the city of Washington, D.C., designed the society's gold medal, borrowing the central symbol of the bald eagle from the Great Seal of the United States. A medallion on the eagle's chest bears the society motto: Omnia reliquit servare rempub-

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hcam ("He relinquished everyihing to serve the Republic"). Its blue-and-white ribbon symbolizes American-French fraternity. Washington was given his medal in May 1784 to mark the society's first anniversary. Upon his deaih

in 1799, lhe medal passed to his wile, Martha, then to their adopted daughter, Nelly Enter Washington's surrogate son, the Marquis de Lafa-

Lasi fall. 250 years after Lafayette's birth, the marquis' great-great granddaughter, the Baronne Meunier du HoLissoy, consigned the medal

Maritime archaeologists using side-scan sonar to map obstacles near an oil company dock on the Delaware River have stumbled across an unusual find—a Revolution-t'ra chevald£-jrist\ an iron-tipped log once used to hkx'k dieri\'erlo inrading British warships. The log was presen'ed in mud off Fort Mifflin in Souih Philadelphia, Between 1775 and 1784, a line of chevaux-deJrise spanned lheriverlo Fort Mercer, N,J. The survey team donated the relic lo the Independence Seaport Museum iwww.phillyseaport.org].

Florida Students Learn Three Rs The Society of the Cincinnati presented this medal to its first president, George Washington. Lafayette later inherited it.

yetle. the famed Continental general and a founding Cincinnati. In 1824 Congress hosted Lafayetle on a triumphal tour of the United States, including a visit lo Washingion's Mount Vernon tomb. Sometime during this trip, Nelly presented Lafayeite with her adoptive father's Cincinnati medal. It remained in the Lafayette family for 183 years.

to Sotheby's auction house in Manhattan, On December 12, after an 11-minute bidding war, it sold for an impressive $5.3 million. The buyer? The foundation that oversees La Grange. Lafayette's historic home 40 miles east of Pans. The medal will be made available to Mount Vernon Iwwwniountvernon.orgl on temporary loan.

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'Arms are my ornaments, warfare my repose' —Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote

MILITARY HISTORY

Surveyors Recover 1770s River Defense

Thai is. Recognize, Retreat and Report—the watchword from the Corps of Engineers

after it recently unearthed live World War II munitions on the grounds of Odyssey Middle School in Orlando. Turns out the school was huill atop the bull's-eye of a 1940s-era bomb range site. The corps has pinpointed more than 2,000 buried meial objects. Cleanup eflons began this fall.

Napoleon's Fallen at Berezina Reburied Authorities in Belarus recently reburied the remains of 223 soldiers of Napoleon's Grande Aimee where they tell alon^ the banks ol the Berezina River 195 years ago. The troops were pan of a 60,000-

strong French force fleeing Moscow after the emperor's failed 1812 invasion ot Russiii. Napoleon's engineers were able to span the river witb makeshift bridges, but half ihe army still perished in the retreat. An archaeological dig last year turned up the remains on the site of a World War II battlefield. At the rcburial ceremony, reenaciors in period uniforms lired a cannon in salute to the iallen.

Hometown Memorial Honors *Red Baron' A sculptor has creeled a memorial plaque and bust nf Baron Manfred Von Richtott n at ihe World War I German aces family home in Swidnica...PL'((jnti? At the time of Richtofens death during aeiial n April :> 1,1018. ihe \

lown, then named Schweidnitz, lay within Gemiany, but [he border shifted west at the end of World War 11, Sculptor Jerzy Gaszynski hopes the memorial will heal wartmie divisions and boost tourism.

French Minister Seeks Return of Napoleon Vov^ng to "send a clear message to the English," Christian Estrosi, Erance's junior minister for overseas territories, recently visited St Michaels Abbey Iwww.famborougb abbey.org] in Hampshire witb an unusital petition—the repauiation ol Napoleon Ills remains, 120 years after his entombment in the abbey. Emperor Louis-Napoleon, nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, fled to England in 1870 after his defeat at the Battle of Sedan sparked an overthrow of the Second Empire. He remained in exile until his death on Jan. 9, 1873. His widow, Eugenie, founded the abbey in 1888 as a refuge for Benedictine monks and as a family mausoleum. Following her death in 1920, the empress was entombed alongside her husband and son. St, Michael's abbot seems unlikely to grant the minister's request, pointing out that not one French official has visited the tomb since the emperoit interment. He also questioned the timing, as Estrosi was running for mayor of Nice, at the hean of a region that became pan of France under (drumroU, please) Napoleon lU.

'No one can guarantee success in war, but only deserve it' —Winston Churchill

The 'Greater Escape' Allied escape efforts from tbe World War 11 German POW c^mp Stalag Luft III—memorialized in the 1963filmThe Great Escape—were far more extensive than pre\-iously thought. A British archaeological team from University College London Iwww.uclac.ukl and Keele University [www.keele.ac.uk] recently used ground-penetrating radar to map the site of the

camp in Zagan, Poland, turning up traces of more than 100 tunnels. Among the finds were Red Cross milk cans, which prisoners strung together to ventilate the tunnels. The team also pinpoititcd the famed tunnel used during the March 24. 1944, escape of 76 AHted airmen. All but three were recaptured; the Gestapo executed 50 of those men.

WAR FOR SALE Historical relics can fetch well mto the millions at auction (see story, opposite), so it's nice to know there are still relative bargains to be had from the likes of Heritage [www.ha.com] and Bonhams and Butterftelds [www.bonbams.com]. Recently sold militaria include: • Hitler's watercolors: Early Belgian landscapes by tbe World War I corporal and future Fuhrer, for $223,000. • Che Guevara's hair: A lock taken from the Marxist revolutionary's corpse in October 1967, with related items, for $119,500, • Geronimo's rifle: Apache chiefs Model 1870 Springlield riOe, surrendered on Aug. 24, 1886, to Lteutenant Charles Gatewood, for $100,000. • Wyatl Earp's shotgun: The famed Tombstone marshal's double-barreled Remington Model 1882 (post-O,K. Corral), for $65,500, • George Custer's saher: "Yellow Hair's" Mode! 1860 (pre-Uttle Bighom) U.S. cavalry saber, for $20,315. • Paneho Villa's death mask: With prominent mustache and eyebrows, purportedly made the day after the Mexican outlaw's July 20, 1923, assassination, for $17,000, • Calamity Jane's pistol: A .32-caliber Case Bros, doubleaction revolver, for $4,183. Shoot, now that's a bargain!

Paul Cartledge: East vs. West at Thermopylae

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ambridge dasskist Paul CariIcdge has spent more than thnx decades studying the civilizalion of ancient Greece, lately focusing on the unique culture of Sparta. He considers the Spartans' "last stand" al Thermopylae a pivotal clash of East vs. West, in his latest book, Ther-

mopylae: The Battle That Changed the World, Cartledge argues that this one brief battle continues to resonate in world history. Thermopylae has been thoroughly covered, so why write a book about it? I wanted to focus on one episode that brought out what was mosl distinctive about lhe ancient Spartans and mosl revealing of the Spartan tradition—Sparta's influence from antiquity to the present.

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why did Xerxes want to conquer the Greek mainland? One reason was some unfinished family business: His falher, Danus, had seni a force that suffered a major defeat by the Greeks at Marathon. |Bull having been defeated in Greece didn'i mean that Xerxes' empire completely unraveled. The heartland of the Persian Empire was A long, long way to the east, in what's now Iraq and Iran. You couldn'l have a Persian Empire without Iraq and Iran and Afghanistan, bui you couid have it without whal is now western Turkey,

Though it was a defeat, it was a heroic defeat, and it helped to bring about victory (at Plataea the following year)'

If Thermopylae was such an epic battle, why did so few Greeks participate? At that time the Greeks had to perform various religious rituals. Now you could say thai was just an excuse, [as] many Greeks Why choose a battle in which the were terrified of the Persians, They Spartans were defeated? weren't going to resist at all. The most The French essayist Montaigne said they could do was to hold them up, some defeats are more memorable than and key lo that was linkage between ihe victories because of whai ihey come to fleet and lhe army. So they sent not only mean, I look Thermopylae to mean two the 7,000 to Thennopylae bul also many things: Though ii was a defeat, il was a more thousands in ships lo Anemisium, heroic defeat, and it helped to hnng about Their fleet inflicted serious losses on victory (at Plataea, the following year). the Persian ficei, which was the crucial The larger pomi is that this deieat became prelude to the battle at Salamis. emblematic of what it is to be Spartan, Now Salamis is quite like Thermopyto be Greek and to be Westem: to die for lae in that it's a terribly narrow passage, a cause that you believe to be absolutely Xerxes would have been much better ovenidingly important. Freedom. advised not to go in. Bul partly I think

because he forced Thermopylae, he thought, "Oh, well, the Greeks are going 10 be disunited, there'll lie some ireachery, and I've got more and better ships." It's true his ships were better made, and the Phoenicians (from what is now Lebanon) were actually better sailors than the Greeks. So he could have reasonably thought, "They'll wipe out the Greeks, and then the rest of my fleet will pile in." Of course, it was a terrible miscalculation; Salamis was a major Greek victory Although greatly outnumbered at Thermopylae, the Greeks held off the Persians for three days. How? Themiop\iae wits a \-t-r)' unusual location for a battle, a narrow defile. Its about a kilometer long, running east lo wesl, and the sea is just a few meters to the north. At the \'eiy narrowest bil, where the Spartans defended, ihey found an existing wall. They refurbished it and dug in. So that nullified ihe huge numerical advantage that the Persians had. We think it was something like 150,000, 200,000 on Xerxes' side against something like 6,000 to 7.000 Greeks, of which the Spartans contributed 301—lhe king plus his 300 specially picked force. The Spartan and other Greek infantr)' equipment was infinitely superior to anything the Persians had for close, hand-to-hand combat. Also, the Greeks had complete body armor. Their helmet rendered them practically deaf but was wonderful protection. They had longer, sturdier spears and were better trained than the Persians, Finally, the Greeks fought much better: They were defending iheir country against invasion, so they probably fought with extra spirit. That's one reason the battle took as long as it did. On the other hand, il would have taken more than three days had the Greeks not been betrayed. Was the Spartan attitude toward death unusual among the Greeks? Yes, first of all, those 300 Spartans were

sent to tbeir death. The point was to die there rnemorably, as a morale booster. I believe this was a suicide squad, and I base that xdew on something Herodotus tells us: Why were these 300 men chosen? One criterion was that they all had to have a living son. Spartan men getierally married in their late 20s, so by no means would all have had a living son by tbe time they were 30. Leonidas said, "1 want people who are going to die, and their sons are going to avenge their fathers' death. They're going to

into battle suggests that they weren't all gung-ho about dyitig for Xerxes. Do you consider this battle a turning point for Western civilization? It would not have been, had the Greeks lost everything. But soon after the Battle of Thermopylae, they won a great naval victory at Salamis, and the following year the Spartans led them to victory in the decisive land battle of Plataea, So, what the Greeks understood to he democracy and freedom continued to

Paul Cartledge is a professor of ancient Greek history at the University of Camhridge.

bavc role models: their amazing fathers wbo died at Thermopylae," Was the Persians' attitude anything like that? What we know is mainly from nonPersian sources, because Persians did not produce historians—^peopile who teflected on what it was like to be Persian, If we belie\'e Herodotus, Xerxes had to have some ol his men whipped into battle. The Greeks make a big tbing of tbis, because you don't whip Iree men, only slaves. The iact tbat Xerxes had to whip troops

develop. Had Persia conquered mainland Greece, 1 don't believe you would have had Sophocles and Socrates, Was this hattle an example of what some historians later defined as "a Western way of war"? Yes. The notion is that somehow we in the West are solitary and fight hand to hand. We look the enemy in the eyes, whereas Orientals tend to fight at a distance or from horseback, so they distance themselves from the actual physicality of war. Now guns transformed the

notion of courage straightaway, so you have to look quite hard to find this Western tradition of courage persisting beyond the 17th or 18th century But there's still something to it. Are any modern nations analogous to Sparta in terms of having a standing army? Not really because citizenship and militarism—being a soldier—was a Spartan adult male's identity. There was no separation between being Spartan and being a Spartan soldier. In the 19th century, the Zulu nation in southern Africa militarized ttself to resist both the Boers and the British. They achieved amazing successes over a couple of generations, but Sparta maintained this military lifestyle for centuries. What do you mean when you say the Spartans were not exactly "friends to freedom"? Eor at least 300,400 years, the Spartans based their power and wealth on enslaving fellow Greeks. All free Greek citizens were completely comfortable with slavery But they thought, ideally, you should not enslave other Greeks. Bul that's actually what the Spartans did. Sparta here represents the liberation of many Greeks from Persia, but it also brought about the enslavement of many thousands of Greeks in Greece. Was the Greeks' attitude toward warfare similar to ours? They all, apart from the Spartans, seem to have shared the \iew that war is all hell, as Sherman put it. That goes right back to Hotner and his Iliad. He doesn't disguise the awfulncss of wounding and death. On the other hand, there is heroic glory. The Greek word for bravery or courage in battle literally means "manliness," So being a man means being a warrior and being brave. Where the Spartans were distinct is their extremistn: They took that one virtue, and made it the virtue. | ^

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Vhat We Learned... from Cynoscephalae By Richard A. Gabriel

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ynoscephalae was thefirstbattle in the campaign of Roman imperialism against Macedonia and the eastern Mediterranean, It was also the first clash of two rival military systems: the Greek spear phalanx and the Roman sword legion. For 300 years cavalry used in concert with the spear phalanx had

the hills. Livy recounts the fog was so dense that standard bearers couldn'l see lhe road before them and soldiers marching in column became disoriented and drifted off the packed trail Fearing ambush, each commander sent out cavalry patrols in force to locate the enemy Climbing opposite sides of the ridge, these advance units stumbled across one another and sent riders to inform their respective commanders. Reports Irom each side greatly exaggerated the number of enemy forces. Reinforcements soon bolstered the reconnaissance units, which were heavily engaged along lhe ridge. One of the Greek unit commanders chased the Roman cavalry from the ridge and reported to Philip that the whole Roman army was in retreat. Believing he had ' engaged the Roman main force, Philip decided to seize the ridge. He immediately led his own troops into action, ordering his other commander, Nicanor, to follow with his men as soon as possible. As Philip crested the ridge, he encounThe Greeks minted a coin depicting tered the Roman main force, already Roman commander Flamininus shortly formed lor battle, Flamininus had after his victory at Cynoscephalae. assembled his army in the valley and raced uphill to heat the Greeks to lhe dominated Western battlefields. The crest. Philip ordered his phalanx to Roman victory at Cynoscephalae marked press the attack, hoping its momentum lhe resurgence of disciplined infantry. would shatter the Roman formations. The Greek charge struck the Roman In the spring of 197 BC, a Greek army left head-on, but the legions simply under Philip V of Macedon and a Roman broke into small groups and sidestepped army commanded by Titus Quinctius the charge, absorbing its force. As the Flamininus closed on one another phalanx tried to push through, Roman in Greece. For three days the armies swordsmen fell on its flanks and slashed it probed opposite sides of a ridge called Cynoscephalae (Dogs' Heads), each un- to pieces. When Nicanor's troops crested the ridge, they ran directly into Flaminaware of the other's presence. Dawn inus' right wing, which quickly overof the third day broke with heavy rain whelmed the Greek reinforcements, followed by a thick fog that shrouded

killing everyone vidthin reach. Nicanor's phalanx broke, and his troops (led, leaving Philip exposed on the Roman left. A tribune on the right grasped the peril in which Philip had placed himself. On his own initiative, he ordered 20 maniples of infantr)' to stop pursing the fleeing Greeks and pivot to the left rear. The maniples now faced downhill at an oblique angle to the rear of Philip's engaged phalartx. A slaughter ensued. When it was over, more than half of Philips 25,000-strong army had been killed, Roman losses numbered only a few hundred. For the next 600 years Rome would dictate lhe military history of the West.

Lessons: • Don't fight lhe prior war, Greek taciical doctrines at the time were drawn from past military experience with little concern for whether they could apply to new circumstances, • Scout thine enemy. Greece fell at the hands of Rome because it failed to anticipate the Romans' new kind of formation: the sword legion. • Expect the worst. When securing an advantageous position, anticipate stiff enemy opposition. • Remember ihe "fog of war" and question initial field reports. They are often inaccurate, exaggerating boih the scope and intensity of the battle. Flamininus and Philip each forgot this and tossed aside their battle plans. • Never commit your forces piecemeal, as Philip did, absent a clear picture of the overall tactical situation. • Act decisively. Once contact has been made, escalale the tempo of violence rapidly, as the Roman right did in bringing its full force to bear against Nicanor's reinforcements. • Take the initiative. The Roman tribune who pivoted his maniples and ordered the attack on the rear of Philip's phalanx crushed the enemy in a single blow. Be aware, however, of potential career risks if things don't work out, | ^

Showdown at Chau Doc By Robert Mackey

Staff Sgt. Drew Dix, U.S. Army Medal of Honor Chau Doc Province, Republic of Vietnam

Jan. 31,1968 to Feb. 1,1968 rew Dix, the first U,S. Army Special Eorccs noncommissioned officer to receive the Medal of Honor, was sent to South Vietnam as an adviser to the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). He was assigned to one of the toughest regions of the Mekong Delta: the provincial capital of Chau Doc, on the riverfront south of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The Viet Cong's extensive use of Cambodian safe havens and the Mekong River traffic ensured the citys strategic importance. Whoever controlled Chau Doc controlled the delta, Dix led a provincial reconnaissance unit. PRUs were a CIA creation, combining elite strike capabilities with aggressive intelligence collection. Their mission was to capture VC leaders and thus cripple the insurgency Dix's PRU was on night ambush duty when tbe Tet Offensive began in late

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Frankot. Returning to the Embassy House, they again fought their way through the now alerted VC. When word reached him that eight USAID workers were also trapped, January 1968 and tbe VC launched Dix's force rescued them. When he was its assault on Chau Doc, At first thinktold the VC had isolated the pohce ing the brigbt lights and explosions headquarters, he led his troops to retake were part of the lunar new year celethe building, then ordered the police to brations, Dix knew otherwise when he begin clearing the city After identifying heard the dull thump of VC mortars the key strategtc points, Dix's force being fired within the city He realized recaptured the locations one by one. he had lo regain contact with his base The VC seemed to have no idea what ofoperatiotis at the Embassy House and was hitting them. One moment, they with the ARVN tactical operations had the city in their grasp; within hours, center in downtown Chau Doc. Dix the ARVN was aggressively counterneeded a clear line to Saigon, the large attacking, and thai damned American ammunition stockpile at the Embasand his gun jeeps were everywhere. sy House, reinforcements and a seDix's pickup army ultimately drove cure position from which to operate. the VC from Chau Doc, the battle He would need as many reaching a climax as it ARVN troops as he could surrounded the captured rally to retake the city, villa of the ARVN deputy Dix was unaware that the province commander (who 510th VC battalion had believed his entire family already taken much of the had been caught and execity and that he was sub5 cuted). Dix's men destroyed stantially outnumbered, Yel i the remnants of the 510th he never considered withi VC Battalion, capturing a drawing to spare his own I high-ranking VC official small detachment, ; in the process. And they Dix later said it was "a bit I saved the ARVN commandlike Normandy" when his " ers wife and children. After force returned to Chau Doc. Today Drew Dix heads Alaska's making contact with Saigon Accompanying his raiders homeland security task force. and ensuring that his force were four heavily armed was resupplied by paradrop, U.S, Navy patrol boats. While the patrol Dix reestablished South Vietnamese boats laid down smoke and heavy control of the city. machine gun fire, his men stormed One man, one decisive leader at a ashore and quickly established a small cmcial moment, took aggressive action beachhead in the center of the city After and defeated a vastly superior force. But securing the Embassy House and the Dix's personal courage was only part of ARVN TOC, Dix learned that an Amerithe story: His decisive leadership had also can nurse, Maggie Frankot, was missing inspired hundreds of South Vietnamese and that her quarters were occupied troops and police to retake their own city by VC, He acted decisively mounting Staff Sgt, Drew Dix was awarded the machine guns on two jeeps. Through a Medal of Honor and a direct commission hail of AK-47 and B-40 RPG fire, Dix's to 1 st lieutenant. Retiring from the Army small force fought their way to the after 20 years, he moved to Alaska, where house, killing several VC and rescuing today he leads the state's homeland a slightly wounded, but alive, nurse security task force, (©

Hana i • II Mail

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By Jon Guttman' Illustration by Ted Williams

Want flexible protection on the battlefield? YouVe got mail

ody armor has taken many forms through history. Among the most versatile is the covering ol interlinked metal rings popularly known as chain mail. The term mail (from the Middle English maille, or "metal link," itself derived from the Latin macula, or "mesh in a net") dates to the 1700s, though the use of mail dates from around 1000 BC. The earliest known European example, found in a Celtic chieftains grave in Romania, dates from aboul 400 BC. The Romans first encountered mail when they fought the Celts. As they did with other useful weapons, the legion;; soon adapted it for their own light troops as lorica hamata, distinct from the segmented plates, or loiica scgmentala. ol iheir heavy infantry. During the Middle Ages, a knighl would often sheath his entire body in mail, but in the 1300s plate armor began to supplement and later supplant it. Mail arose independently in Asia, the Japanese adopting whal they called kusari in the 14lh century, usually asfillerfor their segmented plates or as added protection under clothing. Made from formed or drawn and turned wire rings, olten riveted or welded, mail combined flexibility wiih protection ihai most weapons could noi penetrate, although a powerful enough blow could inflict bruises or break bones. Given the meliculousness involved in its hand manufacture, mail could be more expensive than plate armor, which often determined how much of it a warrior could afford. A modern variation is under development, partly as a means of electronically monitoring the wearer's physical health

flower T-34/76

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By Jon Gutiman'Illustration by Ted Williams

Short on comfort but long on all-around effectiveness

uring the Spanish Civil War, Soviet armor proved vulnerable to German 37mm antitank guns, so designer Mikhail I. Koshkin set out to make a better tank through a series of improvements to the BT-5 cruiser. Armed with a 76.2mm E-34 cannon, the resulting T-34/76 was, even by the admission of German commanders, the best allaround lank in tbe world wben it entered production in the fall of 1940. Weighing in at 30,9 tons, the improved 1942

model was powered by a V-2 12-cyHnder diesel engine driving a Christie suspension vidth five road wheels. Its wide tracks gave it unmatched speed and mobility over mud and snow, while its armor— angled at up to 30 degrees and as thick as 70mm on the turret—eflectively repelled enemy shells. Despite its sensible layout, the T-34/76 lacked key ergonomic considerations: Interior space was cramped, even for crewmen of shon stature. The commander both

worked the turret and fired the main gun. Combat conditions quickly exhausted Soviet crews, with often fatal results. When the Germans produced armor capable ofoutfigbting the T-34/76, including the Tiger and Panther, the Soviets countered by fitting the T-34 chassis with a roomier two-man turret and a highvelociiy 85mm gun. Entering ser\'ice in late 1943, the T-34/85 would help win World War 11 and remain useful well into the

By Williamson Murray

In the summer of 1940, with Nazis riding high in Europe, it took just eight weeks for Britain's new prime minister to set the Allies on the road to victory

MILITARY HISTORY

British Prime Minister Winston Cliurchill, shown here aboard HMS Prince of M''d/dsdurittg the August 1941 Atlantic Conference, spent his first weeks in office walking a strategic and diplomatic tightrope. He succeetled in uniting his country and reaching accord with the United States.

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y 1940 the high tide of German victories seemed to presage a ruthless, nightmarish Nazi hegemony over the European continent, a possibility Winston Churchill warned might sink the world "into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of pervened science." Yet by early July, the new prime minister had solved some of the most daunting problems a statesman has ever confronted: the collapse of Erance, British political opposition to a continuation of the war, relations with the United States and the technological threat represented by the Luftwaffe's blind bombing capabilities, Churchill had set Britain, and eventually the United States, on a path toward the destruction of Nazi Cermany

May 9, 1940. Late in the afterMany of Britain's elite are initially noon three of Britain's most powerful hostile to his assumption of office, inpoliticians—Prime Minister Neville cluding the king hitiiself, Halifax, most Chamberlain, Eoreign Secretary Lord ol those who had supported Chamberlain's dismal appeasement policy, Halifax and Eirst Lord of the Admiralty many of Britain's leading military figWinston Churchill—gather in a room. ures, most Cotiservative members of No stenographers are present, but parliament and others who simply Chamberlains diary and the memoirs mistrust the new PM's judgment. The of Halifax and Churchill sketch out first lime Churchill walks into the how iheir discussion likely progressed. House as prime minister, the CoriserThe meeting would determine who vative benches maintain a grim siwould Ije the next prime minister and lence, while they greet Chamberlain thus chan Bntainis perilous course over with cheers, Churchill retorts by inthe next several years and perhaps for forming the party's chief whip that a decades to come. similar demonstration in future will Chamberlain had just watched in force him to seek a popular election, hutniltation as more than 100 Conserwhich, given the Conservatives' failed vative members of parliament voted foreign policy, would result in a against his government. Clearly, he political disaster for them. could no longer serve as Britain's leader But who would succeed him? As head Eor the next two months, Churof the Cotiservative Party, Chamberlain chill would tread warily through the holds the decisive vote. In the meeting political minefields while making a he first offers the position to Halifax, series of ruthless decisions, such as dropping arch appeaser Samuel Hoare who had supported the government's from the cabinet and shipping him appeasement policy throughout the off to Spain as British ambassador. late 1930s and claims widespread Above, First Lord Churchill addresses the crew of HMS support among the Conservative Exeter in Febrtiary 1940, two months after it lost 61 men Ironically, one of Churchill's major majority, which has dominated the in action against the German cruiser Admiral Graf Spee. supporters would be Chamberlain, who came to realize Britain could House of Commons since 1935. reach no accord with Adolf Hitler, an Yet, the prime minister's offer is to the hope he can remain in office— opinion Halifax did not share^—which conditional; Chamberlain would remain that is, until the refusal of Labor Party may have played in Chamberlain's offer in government and head the House leaders later that afternoon to join a of a nominal prime ministership. of Commons, while Churchill would unity government. run the war. Halifax would lead the govAnd so Churchill becomes prime But Churchill's political difficulties ernment in the House of Lords. In effect, minister under the most inauspicious of would pale in comparison to what he citx:umstances—a fact he fully aj^preciates. he would assume a titular position. He was to confront in the strategic and As he remarked to his detective guard military realms. turns down the offer. As Halifax later after receiving his appointment from explained to Sir Alexander Cadogan, the King George VI: "God knows how great No, 2 man in the Eoreign Office: "If 1 was n May 10,1940, the day Churthe Itask] is. I hope that it is not too late, not in charge of the war, and if I didn't Ichill took office, the Germans I am very much afraid that it is. We can lead in the House lof Commons], I came west with a vengeance. only do our best." should be a cipher." Chamberlain clings Over the previous six years the West had

'God knows how great the [task] is. I hope that it is not too iate.

I am very much afraid

that it is.

can only do

our hest'

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MILITARY HISTORY

lost every advantage it once held over Nazi and then in his appallingly bad French, Germany Moreover, the refusal of Allied "Oil est la masse de manoeuvre?" Gamelins governments to undenake any significant one-word reply, "Aucune!" (none), was military actions against the Reich since its an admission of strategic and operadeclaration of war on Sept. 3, 1939, had tional bankruptcy allowed Germany to htisl:}and its strengih Churchill then faced the difficult task for one great blow. That blow fell during ol bucking up a deeply discouraged Fall Gelb (Case Yellow), code name for French leadership that was certain of its the spring 1940 offensive. Though lhe pending defeat—a correct assumption Germans left less than half a dozen at least as far as metropolitan France was divisions along the border with Sovietconcerned. That growing defeatism at the occupied Poland, the Soviets would stand highest levels only deepened when Reyby and watch the Western From vanish. naud fired Gamelin, replaced him with Germany held only marginal advanGeneral Maxime Weygand and recalled tages in ground strength, but the Luftwaffe aged French Marshal Philippe Petain boasted air superiority on the Continent, from his position as French ambassador as many of the Allies' most advanced to Spain. Both soon participated in efforts aircraft were committed to the defense of to undermine lhe Reynaud government the United Kingdom. One lasting myth is and seek an armistice with the Germans. that France collapsed before the German Thus, Churchill also confronted the onslaught with little opposition. In fact, hard reality that Britain's main ally was mosl French soldiers fought tenaciously: faltering in its willingness to pursue the More than 100,000 of ihetTi would die war, while on the home front Halilax pour la patrie during the Batde of France. was insisting both within and outside Due to appallingly bad leadership at the cabinet that the mililary situation ever)-' level of the French military, however, was hopeless and Britain must cut a deal their efforts were for naught. with the Nazis before il was too iale. In March 1940, French commander in The most obvious aid lhe British could chief Maurice Gamelin, among the most provide was to send further fighter squadarro^nlly incompetent generals in French rons to reinforce a French air force that history, transferred the army's main had begun its rearmament far too late, was reserve from the Reims area, where it being badly battered by the Lujtwaffe and was ideally positioned to smash into the was losing bases in northern France to main German line of advance througli onrushing German panzer divisions. But the Ardennes, to the far west ol the every squadron Britain sent to France diAllied line, where it was to play no sigminished its ovm defenses. Air Chief Marnificant role. On May 12, three German shal Sir Hugh Dowding, the head of Royal panzer corps atrived on the banks of the Air Force (RAF) Fighter Command, veMeuse. Over the next three days, they hemently resisted sending his squadrons achieved one of history's most decisive to France. On May 20, Churchill, who tactical victories, which ultimately led to unlike U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt the Fall of France. was never to overrule his military advisChurchill's first inkling of the uners during the course of the war, bowed folding disaster came on May 15, when, to Dowding's strong protests. as he laler recalled in his memoirs, he The issue came up again in early June, received a despairing call from French when desperate French appeals for air Prime Minister Paul RejTiaud: "We have support led Churchill to re-approach the been defeated. We are beaten. We have cabinet for additional air support. The lost the battle. The road to Paris is open. most to which his colleagues would agree We are defeated-" The British immediaiely were three more squadrons of Hurridispatched to France lour more Hurncanes. Again Dowding spoke out strongly canefightersquadrons. The next day, as against the allotment, pointing out that bad news continued lo pour in, Churbetween May 8 and 18, Fighter Comchill fiew to Pans lo meel with Reynaud mand had lost 250 Hurricanes, with and Gamelin. Churchill first asked in additional heavy losses among Spitfire English, "Where is the strategic reserve?" squadrons on the Dunkirk perimeter.

Neville Chamberlain British Prime Minister Chamberlain's failed policy til'appeasement with regard Lo Hitler ultimalcly led to a vole of no coiifideiiLt' from parliameni. Churchill was his second choice as a replacement PM. i ord Hahfax The British foreign secretary echoed Chamberlain's diplomalic approach. When Churchill look the reins. Halifax even used hack channels lo gauge German interest in a peace deal. Churchill packed him off to the U.S. as British ambassador, Paul Reynaud Like Churehill, the French prime minister look a hard line approach to Hitlers aggression. But a pro appeasement lobby undermined his cabinet. He resigned raiher than sign the armistice and sat out the war as a POW General Maxime Weygand Reynaud tapped Weygand to replace incompetent I rench commander in thief Maurice Gamelin. I!ui Weygand also proved inept. Allied forces soon hogged down along the channel coast, forcing lhe Dunkirk evacuaiion. Sir Hiij^h Dowdiiiji Air Chief Marshal Dowding strongly resisled Trench appeals for further air support, arguing that continued losses would diminish Britains own air defenses. Churchill siood by Dowding hi the iaee of strong criticism. Joseph Kennedy The pro-appeasement U.S. ambassador to Britain uas vocal opponent of ( hurehills appeals for Aiiieritan military aid. After Kennedy publicly derided British motives. President Roosevelt called for his resignation.

Churchill also had to address a looming technological issue, R,V Jones, a 29-year-old Cambridge-educated physicist, had been recently appointed the Air Ministry's deputy director of intelligence research. On the basis of fairly flimsy evidence, Jones determined that the Gemians were planning to use intersecting radio beams for blind bombing at night or in periods of bad weather Virtually the entire RAE senior leadership and many of Britain's leading physicists dismissed Jones' theory as sheer nonsense, unworthy of funher investigation. Regardless, the matter went before the cabinet, and Jones was forced to defend his conclusions. No one in the room accepted his arguments—except the prime minister. Here Churchill proved his ability to divine what really mattered. Even if there were only a 5 percent chance Jones was correct, Britain could not afford to gamble. Churchill ordered the RAE to test Jones' theory Sure enough, on the second night of tests, an RAE aircraft equipped with sophisticated radio gear detected the German Knickebein (crooked leg) system. In the winter of 1940-41 the British were able to use countermeasures to distort the system, rendering ineflective most of the German night bombing raids at a time when the RAE had few other defenses.

meet up witb nonexistent French forces dri\nng north. Here, Lord Gort, commander of the BEE, took matters into his own hands, Gort was not a great general, or even necessarily a competent one, but at the right moment he made the absolutely right decision. Initially, he was willing to launch a counterattack; a British tank

tion of more than 300,000 men. To German and Erench generals, the channel was a realm where serious military operations simply did not take place. But in grand British naval tradition, the worlds oceans comprised a great highway As Churchill was to say later, wars are not won by evacuations, but Dunkirk represented a great moral victory, one that Churchill's magnificent oratory funher magnified. Meanwhile, Churchill was shuttling back and forth in a desperate attempt to keep the Erench in the war, at one point suggesting to Reynaud a union of their two nations. But Petains and Weygands infectious defeatism had spread, and no amount of Churchill's persuasive rhetoric could dissuade the French leadership from its belief ihat all was lost. The collapse of Erench defenses along the Somme in early June forecast the impending fall of metropolitan France, Churchill urged the French to fight on from their territories in North Africa and elsewhere. But to Erench leaders like Petain, there was nothing of worth ,^ outside la belle France. Moreover, ^ they were convinced Britain, too, ." would soon fall to Hitler's seemingly i invincible legions. Or as Weygand -. put it, Britain would "soon have her j neck wrung like a chicken," 7 In a meeting with the French less ay 20, the same day Churthan a week before they capitulated, chill suspended further air General Maxime Weygand, above right in 1939, came out of Churchill urged them to at least reinforcements to Erance, retirement to lead the French army but later collaborated pursue the option of guerrilla war, the prtmc minister ordered the admi- with Nazi Germany as a member of tbe Vichy government, a suggestion Weygand rejected out of ralty to begin ^thering "a large numhand even though their ancestors ber of vessels in readiness to proceed to attack near Arras had caused the Germans had pursued precisely that course ports and inlets on tbe Erencb coast," As some bad moments. But nciw, facing a against the Germans during the Francothe German drive curved toward AbbeGerman advance toward his rear and with Prussian War. Churchill underlined \n\\e and tbe English Channel, the British no significant help from the French, Britain's intention to fight on were lorced to consider how and when Gort ordered his forces to retreat to the no matter the cost. When Reynaud to save their army channel coast. It was a decision of great asked what the British would do when moral courage that made possible "the The Erench showed no interest in the might of the Wehrmacht fell miracle of Dunkirk," enabling the British preparing for any such evacuation from on them, Churchill replied furiously, army to fight another day the steadily forming pocket. In fact. "Drown as many as possible on the way General Weygand, the new commander Nevertheless, Gort's decision caused over, and then/rappfr sur la tete [strike of the Erench army, seemed bent on Churchill great difficulties with the on the headi anyone who managed creating a morass even the British could French. Weygand blamed the British for to crawl ashore." not escape. He proposed a major drive, thwarting his plans to launch a counterThat "certain eventuality," as British led by units of the British Expeditionary attack. And now Allied forces were gathchiefs of staff termed the Fait of France, Eorce, from the Allied left in Belgium to ering along the channel coast to attempt became official on June 22, when Marsha! the south, where they would supposedly the impossible—an amphibious evacuaPetain's government signed an armistice

The French were convinced Britain; too, would soon fail to Hitler, or as Weygand put it, 'have her neck wrung iike a chicken'

wiih Nazi Germany, ending the first phase of the conflict.

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s France steadily succumbed, a new threat had reared its head: Fascist Italy The worse the news was from France, the more obvious became Benito Mussolini's desire to join his fellow dictator at feasting on the spoils of victory. The French leadership pleaded with its Allies to bribe "11 Duce" to stay out of the war. No one, Churchill included, recognized the incompetence thai would undermine Italy's ability to be anything but a drain on the Germans. There had been an opportunity in late August 1939 to draw Mussolini's regime into the war. At the time, Allied ground forces in Egypt and Tunisia could have savaged Italian forces in neighboring Libya while their navies drove the Italian navy into hiding. But Allied generals, admirals and politicians had been too pusillanimous to take the plunge. Chamberlain had actually raised the possibility of a preemptive strike, but the French and British chiefs of staff had talked the prime minister out of the idea even as the Blitzkrieg enveloped Poland. On June 10, Mussolini made lhe first move, announcing from the balcony of Palazzo Venezia in central Rome to the bellowing multitudes below ihal Fascist Ilaiy was entering the war on Germany's side. Roosevelt summed up the move in a speech later that day at the University of Virginia: "The hand that held the dagger has struck into the back of its neighbor." In the week before the French quit, MLtssolini launched a series of ill-planned attacks on southern France that resulted in tens of thousands of Italian casualties. Over the coming year the Italians would suffer further disastrous defeats at the hands of small British forces. But that was in the future.

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s the situation on the Continent deteriorated, Halifax pressed Churchill to reach a deal with the Germans, The differences between the two boiled over during a May 27 cabinet meeting. The prime minister criticized Frances repeated attempts to drag Britain into negotiations with the Germans.

"Under no conditions would we contemplate any course except fighting to the finish," he insisted, Halifax suggested to colleagues that Britain should still entertain a German offer "which would save the country from avoidable disaster." He pointed to Churchill's own recent admission that peace might be possible should

autonomy This would become clear in late June after Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Rab Butler slipped a message to the Swedish ambassador to Umdon suggesting the British government was willing to deal with the Germans, should it receive any indication Hitler was willing to offer reasonable terms.

the Gemians offer terms that would not compromise Britain's independence. As Halifax recorded in his diary: / thoughl

Prime Minister Neville Ctiamberlain, left, flew to Germany in September 1938. conceding the Czech Sudetenland to Adolf Hitler in the Munich Agreement, which Hitler broke within months.

he [Churchiill talked the most [fightjul rot, aho [cabinet minister Arthur] Greenwood. And after bearing it for some time. I said exactly whai 1 thought oj them, adding that if that was their view, and ij it came to lhe point, our ways would separate.

Bul there was never any indication Germany was willing to guarantee Britain's sovereignty And, of course. Hitler never had any intention of allowing Britain

Unfortunately lor Butler and Halifax, who undoubtedly knew of the backdoor offer, the import of the message leaked out. Churchill sent a terse note to the Halifax, saying thai he found Butler's language "odd" and making clear that if push came to shove, Halifax v^ould go the way Hoare had gone. The foreign secretary quickly

replied that he had seen Butler's notes on the conversation, and it all was a terrible misunderstanding, Churchill was now in firtn control of the political landscape. His rhetoric had reached deep into the soul of the British people. Even many Tory

Here Churchill's deep sense of history and human nature came into play The prime minister recognized the Third Reich lor what it was: not only a terrible strategic danger to Britain but also a moral one. There could be no compromise. From Churchill's perspective, the strategic

Soviet Union and an ideological Marxist, to Moscow in an effort to persuade the Communists that their interests lay in opposing the Nazis. The Soviets, however, refused to see the obvious. On June 18, 1940, the day after Erance fell, Soviet Eoreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov extended lo the German government "the wannest congratulations of tbe Soviet government on the splendid successes of the German Wehrmacht." One year and four days later, on the moming of |une 22, 1941, he would bemoan the onset of the German invasion of the Soviet Union to the German ambassador: "What have we done to deserve this?" In truth he was right; the Soviet Union had done everything it could over the course of the past year to appease Nazi Geiinany including massive infusions of raw materials into the German war economy. In fact, the last Soviet goods train would cross into German territory barely two hours before the start of Operation Barbarossa. While Churchill had not managed to thwart the misalliance between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, he had correctly forecast that their maniage of convenience would not last long.

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On July 3,1940, Royal Navy warships shelled tbeir French counterparts at the Algerian port of Mers-el-Kebir. Cburcbilt was determined to keep the French fleet from Hitter's grasp. o o CM

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members of parliament, who might have supported Halifax in May when Churchill first took over, had by mid-June rallied around their prime minister. But Churchill still faced the most daunting question: How was Britain—standing alone, even if united—to v^in the war?

Bflii IT A

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interests of the United States and the Soviet Union also could not allow Germany free rein over much of Europe, The prime minister had his work cut out for him with regard to the Soviet Union, given his longstanding, open animosity toward the Bolshevik regime. But the Soviets represented no immediate threat, while the Nazis were a clear and present danger. Churchill was vidlling to suspend his views on Bolshevism. The prime minister sent Sir Stafford Cripps, the British ambassador to the

ccord with the Americans represented a more pressing need, Britain would soon exhaust its foreign currency reserves, thus losing its ability to foot the enormous production costs the war was already imposing, much less the projected vast expansion of the RAF and Royal Navy The United Stales alone possessed the financial and productive capacity to keep Britain in the war. From the moment Churchill became prime minister, he engaged the Roosevelt administration in a delicate diplomatic dance. The U,S, president was himself m a precarious political position, as he was about to announce his candidacy fcir an unprecedented third term. Moreover, many Americans believed the United States should not entangle itself in Europe's difficulties. Isolationist leaders like Charles Lindbergh vociferously denounced virtually every move the administration made to suppon the Allies. While more Americans believed tbe United States should support the British and French economically, many of them

were also opposed to any direct American intervention in the war. As the French free fall accelerated in late May 1940, Roosevelt and his chief advisers seemed to have concluded Britain would soon follow. Spurring ihis belief was Joseph Kennedy, the proappeasement American ambassador tu the Court of St, James, who insisted the British had little chance against the Nazi war machine and would quit the minute the Churchill government lolded. Roosevelt and his military advisers especially feared that the Axis might gain control of the Royal Navy and French fieet and add them to the Kiiegsmarine and Italian navy Such a iorce would threaten the U.S. Atlantic Fieet at the same time the Imperial Japanese Navy posed a significant threat in the Pacific. The United States had ramped up naval warship production in 1938, but lhe fruits of that effort wouldn't be available until 1942 at the earliest. Thus, Roosevelt's initial communications with Churchill urged the prime minister to send the Royal Navy to Canada lo work in coordination with the U.S, Navy, if and when—emphasis on when—the British position collapsed, Churchill played hardball with his American cousins. He made it clear thai as long as he vv-as prime minister, Britain would remain committed to the war against the Third Reich. But his missives also suggested that without substantial American aid, Britain might not be able to continue the struggle. Kennedy was undoubtedly reporting thai other British cabinet members desired to reach an accommodation with Nazi Germany If thej' could drive Churchill from office, Britain would no longer be bound by any promises he might make to the U.S. Churchill admitted as much in a message to the Canadian prime minister that was deliberately forwarded lo Roosevelt: Obviously, I cannot bind a juture government which, if we were deserted by the United States and beaten down here, might very easily be a kind of [Norwegian collaborator Vidkun] Quisling affair, ready to accept German overhrdship and protection. The

warning was clear: Support us or face the

possibility of a worldwide coalition of enemies with only Canada as an ally Churchill still had to persuade the Americans that Britain was in it for the long haul. His solution was as ruthless as it was strategically brilliani. In early

DAKAR-MERSEL-KEBIR The Tragedy of the French Fleet An excerpt from Churchill's address to the House of Commons on July 4, ! 940, the day after the attack on Mers-el-Kebir: We are moving through a petiod of extreme danger and of splendid hope, when every virtue of our race will be tested, and all that we have and are will befreelv staked. This is no time for doubt or weakness. It is the supreme hour to which we have been called.... tWe shall] prosecute the war with the utmost vigor by all the means that are open to us until the righteous purposes for which we entered upon have been fulfilled.

July 1940, the Royal Navy determined to disarm the French fleet. The move was executed with minirnum bloodshed in Alexandria and in British ports, but the main French fieet units in North Africa resisted the effort. On July 3, following fruitless negotiations at the Mers-el-Kebir naval base in Algeria, the Royal Navy's

Force H from Gibraltar unleashed a murderous salvo of 15-inch shells, destroying the French battleship Bretaffie and heavily damaging the battleships Dunkerque and Provence, as well as the destroyer Mo^flcfor, Nearly 1,300 French sailors died in the attack. In retrospect, the Brilish had probably overreacted, but given the exigencies of the moment, they had no choice. Admiral Dudley Pound summed up the raison d'etat of the British action to the French naval attache shortly before the action: "The one action we had in view was winning the wan... All trivialities, such as questions of friendship.. .must be swept avv'ay." In a rousing speech before the House of Commons (see excerpt at left) on July 4, the day after the attack, Churchill similarly defended the action—one that showed Britain Lould act as ruthlessly in defense of her interests as the Fascists and Nazis. The prime minister sat dovm to thunderous applause. The Conservative Party was now his. Moreover, Mers-elKebir proved Churchill's mettle to the Americans. As Roosevelt adviser Hany Hopkins later confided to Churchill's private secretary, John Colville, Mersel-Kebir had persuaded the president that Britain would "stay in the fight, alone, and if necessary for years." Teams of Amencan officers would soon hold talks with British counterparts, while the administration took its first steps toward providing Britain v^alh substantial aid. Many challenges, including the Battle of Britain, lay before Churchill and his people. Nevertheless, in his first eight weeks, the new prime minister had made a series of decisions that not only mobilized his own country to the terrible tasks that lay before it but also bolstered other democratic nations against the threat of Nazi tyranny. For that he certainly merits consideration as the 20th century's greatest leader. 1^ For further reading, Williamson Murray recon-imcnds: Winston S. Churchill: Finest Hour, 1939-1941, by Martin Gilbert, and Ten Days to Destiny, by John Costello.

Since the invention of the long rifle, snipers have made a tactical difference By Geqffrey Norman |n March 2002, during early combat operations in Afghanistan, a Canadian sniper shot and killed an al Qaeda fighter at the remarkable range of 2,430 meters. The shot has been widely celebrated as a record, beating the old one of 2,250 meters, set in Vietnam by U.S. Marine Gunnery Sgt. Carlos Hathcock. For security reasons, the name of the Canadian soldier was not revealed at the time. Hathcock, on the other hand, became well known, indeed famous, as one of the best ever at his craft, a blend of solitude, skill, guile and infinite patience. Hathcock's feats included stalking a North Vietnamese general for four days, moving by inches across an openfield,at one point remaining motionless to keep from being bitten by a bamboo viper. On another occasion, he engaged an enemy sniper in an extended cat-and-mouse duel, firing only when he saw the glint of reflected light that gave away his target's position. The round went through the enemy soldier's scope and into his eye. Hathcock later concluded they must have been simultaneously aiming at one another—staring down each other's barrel—and he simply fired first.

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Hathcock wore a single white feather in his camouflage boonie hat. The North Vietnamese offered a bounty of $30,000 to anyone who killed the man they knew as "White Feather." Some of Hathcock's fellow Marines took to wearing white feathers by way of protecting him and as an homage. The bounty went unclaimed.

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Hathcock was wounded, however, when a vehicle he was riding struck a mine. Before jumping to safety, he pulled several fellow Marines clear, suffering severe bums in the process. He relumed home a legend, subject of nonfiction books and a series of novels by Stephen Hunter in which he was immortalized as "Bob the Nailer." Hathcock died in 1999 of multiple sclerosis.

Marine Corps Gunnery Sgt. Carlos Hatbcock recorded 93 confirmed kills during service in Vietnam. The North Vietnamese put a bounty on bis life, identifying Hathcock by a white feather he wore in his boonie bat. Following the war, he estabtisbed tbe sniper training school at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va.

Hathcock was undeniably one of history's finest snipers- But his tame is utiusual, even problematic. Not, certainly, because it was undeserved. His bravery and skill were irrefutable. But attitudes have changed. The sniper has not always been a hero. Certainly not to those he stalked and not necessarily to those he fought beside. Feared by one; shunned by the other. Too good, perhaps, at his job not to take satisfaction from it, though Haihcock himself once said, "1 like hunting, and I like shooting, Bul I never did like killing anybody"

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he earliest American snipers were hunters first, then soldiers. They hailed from the frontier, where long-range shooting was a survival skill. Military muskets of the time were smoothbores, accurate out lo 50 yards or so—adequate for massed volley fire. But in the American wilderness, where one had to fight Indians and live off wild game, a weapon needed to be lethal at tiiuch greater ranges. So gunsmiths made long rifles with grooved barrels that gave spin to a ball, making it possible to fire accurately out to 200 yards and beyond. Thus, weapons like the Pennsylvania long rifle changed war and gave rise to a new kind of warrior, the sharpshooter, who could engage his enemy from a concealed position far beyond the range of the massed, disciplined troops moving toward him in line, intending to finish him with bayonets. The British considered this form of warfare uncivilized or, at least, unsporling, particularly since Patriot sharpshooters often targeted officers. Like Hathcock, snipers in those days could be selective about their victims. The range might be great, but the intent was up close and personal. At a critical moment during the Oct. 7, 1777, Batde of Bemis Heights, part of the Saratoga campaign, an American sharpshooter shot British Brig, Gen. Simon Fraser out of the saddle as he was rallying his troops. This single shot turned the tide of the battle and inevitably took on mythic proportions. The soldier who reportedly fired the shot was Tim Murphy, one of Colonel Daniel Morgan's Virginia sharpshooters—rough customers who dressed in skins and moved through the woods like smoke. The range of his shot was said to be anywhere from 300 to 500 yards- Later research cast doubt on whether the shooter was Murphy and whether the range was much more than 200 feet. Regardless, Fraser was mortally wounded, the Americans won the day, and a single shot by an expert marksman may have been the deciding factor. The single long-range shot became the sine qua non of this new soldiering

MILITARY HISTORY

specialty—some would say calling— of military sniping. And as warfare became increasingly a tiiatter of massed men and massed firepower, its aura grew. An individual could now strike the decisive blow in battle. But that individual had to be able to shoot,

A 'During the Oct. 7 1777 Battle of Bemis iHeights, an American sharpshooter shot British Brig. Gen. Simon Fraser out of the saddle. The soldier who reportedly fired the shot was Tim Murphy, one of Colonel Daniel Morgan's Virginia sharpshooters. The range of his shot was said to be anywhere from 3 0 0 to 5 0 0 yards. The Americans won the day, and a single shot by an expert marksman may have been the deciding factor'

mericans, of course, have long been avid shooters. During the Civil War both the North and South employed sharpshooters. On many occasions, one man was able to neutralize an enemy artillery piece with aimed rifle fire, shooting from a concealed position until he had killed or scattered its crew Of the war's many recorded longrange kills, perhaps the most famous occurred durtng the May 1864 Battle of Spotsylvania, when Union Maj. Gen, John Sedgwick reproached his men for taking cover when fired at by Confederates half a mile distant. What he didn't know is that the Rebels were using state-of-the-art Whitworth lifles moutited viath a military innovation— telescopic sights, Sedgwick insisted to his men, "They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance." Moments later a bullet struck him just below the left eye. His death was, in the words of historian Shelby Foote, "a knee-buckling shock to the men of his corps." For a while the Union advance halted. Then Sedgwick's enraged men directed shells and grapeshot at the position where they thought the Confederate sharpshooter lay concealed, shredding the trees in their fury—a common reaction to sniping. During the Revolution, when a sharpshooter's position was overrun, he was often not taken prisoner. And this was in a time of relatively "civalized" warfare, when prisoners were released on their word not to fight again and a general might accept his opposites surrender in the moming and entertain him at dinner that night. But snipers were, in a word, different. Men on bolh sides of the line feared and hated them. This was even true during the Civil War, when brother literally fought brother. One Union officer at Gettysburg remarked on the relief

History of the U.S. Sniper Rifle Revolutionary War The .50-caliber Pennsylvania long rifle was a decisive weapon during the Revolution. American gunsmiths turned them out as early as the 1740s.

Civil War The .451-caliber Whitworth was a top pick of both Northern and Southern troops. The rifle scope came into widespread use during the Civil War.

World War i

The .30-caliber 1903 Springfield bolt-action rifle was in use through World War II. The sniper version came fitted with a telescopic sight.

WoridWar The .30-caliber Ml Garand self-loading rifle was fitted with an eight-round magazine and a side-mounted scope. The first model was developed in 1932.

The .30-caliber Remington 700 was introduced in 1962. The Army and Marines designated versions as their standard sniper rifle.

Modern

The .50-caliber M407 Barrett is the current weapon of choice among Army and Marine Corps snipers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

of Confederate sharpshooters captured at Devil's Den who believed they would be hung as snipers until they realized they were in the hands of Union men who did the same job. How to account for such extreme emotions directed toward the sniper— someone to be killed if captured when he is the enemy and looked on with suspicion when one of your own? After all, artillery killed many more

So the frustration and the rage would tnount as the unseen enemy struck again. And again. Expenly, methodically, invisibly. Taking out your comrade. Your general. Next time, maybe you. On top of all the other horrors you had to deal with, there was this: one man in hiding, coldly picking of!" your friends. He was the embodiment of all your dreads. You couldn't kill the war, but if youcouldjust get your hands on him...

Combatants had more or less mastered this new kind of warfare by the time Americans arrived on the field. Sniping, by then, had become an established tactic, and marksmen on all sides were constantly scanning for targets. The scoped rifle had also come into its own. Though a few Marines were tratned to use it, would-be American snipers were largely obliged to attend training camps run by the British army

A modern-day Marine Corps sniper takes aim In Fallujab, Iraq. His M16A2 is an updated version of the M16 used in Vietnam, fitted witb a 40mm M203 grenade launcher to engage heavier targets. The rifle accepts 5.56mm cartridges, allowing for interchangeable use among NATO troops.

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men, with far more gory results. And massed ranks of soldiers, lined up shoulder-to-shoulder behind stone walls, impersonally mowed down men by the thousands. It was not, it seems, the killing itself so much as the calculated intent behind it that was so distressing. The near leisurely care a sniper took, aiming at his oblivious target from a range that made him virtually invulnerable. His victim would never know what hit him, and his friends wouldn't know where the shot came from and couldn't retaliate. .

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he sniper was an inevitable part of World War I, the most impersonal war yet. Tens of thousands ol tiien iaced each other from trenches across a few yards of scorched earth, while snipers in reinforced positions made short work of anyone who carelessly showed his head above the sandbagged parapets. It was a war of machine guns, high explosives, gas— weapons that killed by the bushel in combat that was industrial in scope. But the sniper, like the fighter pilot passing far above, rernained a solitary warrior, an artisan in a mass production world.

which found thern eager, willing and quick to learn. Not being versed in state-of-the-art sniping tactics did not mean, however, that the Americans didn't know how to hunt and shoot. The American frontier may have vanished since the days of the Revolution, but men still honed their traditional frontier skills. These were, and remain, the fundamental elements of the sniper's art. The most celebrated American hero of World War I was a Tennessee mountain boy and conscientious objector named Alvin York, who gained fame for his

marksmanship. (Gary Cooper played him in the 1941 film Sergeant York.) York didn'i require a newfangled telescopic sight to get his work done. He'd shot all his life over iron sights, bagging game and winning shooting contests back home. They would suffice for killing Germans. On Oct. 8,1918, York took out an enemy machine gun nest from 300 yards, killing 25 men and capturing 132 others. Good shooting. But not as good as that of another country' boy named Herman Davis. On Oct. 10, 1918, two days after York's action, Davis was serving near Verdun when he and his fellow infantrymen obseived Germans emplacing a machine gun. Why, Davis asked, didn't somebody shoot them? Too far away, came the answer. "Why, that's just good shooting distance," Davas is said to have answered. The range was about 1,000 yards. Davis killed four Germans and scattered the rest. He used a standard-issue 1903 Springfield with open sights. Davis was also a master of that other prime sniper virtue—stealth. He once crawled alone to a position within 50 yards of men working a machine gun and speaking a language he had never heard. Figuring they must be Germans, he killed four of them. The rest retreated to cover. Davis hailed from Big Lake, Ark. Carlos Hathcock was bom in Little Rock and grew up poor, living with his grandmother in rural Arkansas, hunting to help put food on the table. Each brought the tools of the trade when he took up sniping. ~\

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ith fewer expert marksmen and woodsmen to draw on for service in World War II, Korea, Vietnam and the conflicts that followed, the U.S. military began training snipers. Today, in courses that run from six to 10 weeks, snipers are laughl not merely to shoot but also the other elements of the sniper's art: navigation by map and GPS, concealment and camoullage, surveillance and reconnaissance. The act of shooting, some snipers say, is only 10 percent of the whole package. The number has a certain resonance. In World War 1!,

American soldiers called their snipers "10-cent killers," since that was, they reckoned, the price of a single round. The cost to outfit a sniper today is much higher. As with everything in war—and civilian life, for ihat matter—technology seems to have transcended all other elements in the mix- No more iron sights. No more standard-issue rifles, jury-rigged for sniper work. No more personal arms like the Winchester Model 70 that Marine Lieutenant John George carried with him when he landed on Guadalcanal in 1943. George, incidentally, learned on his own something that had been taught to snipers in previous wars—"aim for the teeth." That way, if you are a little off in your elevation, you'll still make a killing shot.

Technology seems to have transcended all other elements. No more iron sights. No more standard-issue rifles, jury-rigged for sniper work. Today's weapons are vastly more sophisticated and powerful. The .50-caliber is now standard in a weapon designed specifically for military snipers. This weapon is also capable of disabling enemy vehicles, once again stretching battlefield tactics'

In Vietnam, Hathcock—who normally used a modified Remington bolt-action hunting rifle—once rigged a, 50-caliber Browning M2 machine gun with a telescopic sight. The weapon was accurate to 2,500 yards. Today's weapons are vastly more sophisticated and powerful. The .50caliber is now standard in a weapon designed specifically for shoulder fire by military snipers. Rob Furlong, the Canadian Forces corporal whose long shot now holds the record, used a .50cahber sniper rifle. This weapon is also capable of disabling enemy vehicles and crew-served weapons. Thus, the sniper has become a kind of artilleryman as well as a ri.fleman, once again stretching battlefield tactics. But the core of the thing hasn't changed. The sniper's work is simultaneously personal and detached. He kills from long range but selects his targets and sees each person he kills, though the target almost never sees him. He is a hardwired hunter, descended from the first snipers, men who came out of the woods wearing buckskins, carrying Pennsylvania long rifles and looking to kill Redcoats. An American tradition. (S&l For further reading, Geoffrey Norman recommends: Carlos Hathcock: White Feather, by Roy Chandler, and Out of Nowhere: A History of the Military Sniper, by Martin Pegler

The Dreyfus Nightmare How the trials of Alfred Dreyfus split an army—and then a nation By Douglas Porch

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he nightmare of Captain Alfred Dreyfus began at 8 a.m. on October 15, 1894, when the 35-year-old artillery officer arrived at the French War Ministry on Paris' rue SaintDominique, as ordered, dressed in civilian clothes. There he met Major Mercier du Paty de Clam of the Statistical Section, a five-man counterintelligence division of the War Ministry that specialized in frontier surveillance and theft of classified documents. Du Paty de Clam placed his hand on Dreyfus' shoulder and announced his arrest for the crime of high treason. Dreyfus' arrest initiated a scandal that polarized French politics, damaged French civilmilitary relations on the eve of World War I and highlighted the insecure position of Jews in French society. Dreylus had been a casualty of the cold war between France and Germany in the decades following the 1870-71 Franco-Prussian War, a conflict fought by secret agents, code breakers and letter openers m the cabinet noir of the post office. In the 1880s, the French general staff had been re-formed along Prussian-German lines, to include a Deuxieme Bureau that contained a counterintelligence Section de statistiques et de reconAbove, tbe telegram at the heart of the whole shameful affair. naissances militanes. They had their work cut Opposite, Dreyfus' mug shots betray little of tbe officer's likely bewilderment at bis arrest for bigh treason. Wben tbe out for them—the Prefecture of Police estimated thai veracity of the accusations hegan to unravel, noted French 165 German agents were active in Paris alone. When jingoautbor Emile Zola penned "J'Accuse.J" an incendiary article directed at the bigb command, for tbe journal L 'Aurore. istic Brig. Gen. Georges Boulanger (whose nickname was ''General Revanche,'^ or Revenge) took over the War Ministry in 1886, he forced a law through parliament that imposed harsh penalties for espionage and treason, and he stepped up spying efforts in Berlin and Alsace-Lorraine. The Statistical Section threw itself into the task of protecting French security, promptly drawing up a list of around 100,000 people, selected on the basis

MILITARY HISTORY

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of national origin or left-wing political views, who were to be clapped into preventive detention—without right of appeal—in the event of war. It also set out to unmask German agents, with apparent success: An atrhi\Tst in the technical division ot the French artillery, as well as four other military and civilian employees of the War Ministry, were arrested for espionage between 1888 and 1890, "Traitors seem to abound in the French army," the Paris correspondent of London's Daily Telegraph had reported in October 1888, "Treason seemed to permeate the very air one breathed," wrote historian Jean-Denis Bredin. The Statistical Section toiled in an atmosphere of nationalistic righteousness, deeply suspiciotts of foreigners and of Frenchmen who diti notfita national profile, especially bilingual Alsatians like Dreyfus, Dreyfus had been nabbed on the basis of documents supplied by one of the Statistical Sections agents, a Madame Bastian. The wife of a soldier of the Republican Guard, Madame Bastian was "a vulgar, stuptd, completely illiterate woman about 40 years in age,' according to her boss. She was bired as a cleaning woman in the office of the German military attache. Max von Schwartzkoppen. Her task was to retrieve the contents of the attache's wastepaper baskets, into which he regularly discarded compromising documents, and hand them over to Major Hubert-Josepb Henry at their weekly rendezvous in the church of Saini-Frangois-Xavier. AtTtong the treasures in Madame Bastian's cache was an April 1894 letter between Schwartzkoppen and the Italian military attache, Alessandro Panizzardi, that read, "Attached are 12 master plans of Nice which that rabble D. gave me in the hope of restoring relations."' Two suspects named Dacher and Dubois were cleared of suspicion before the Statistical Section came up witb Dreyfus.

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reyfus' closed December courtmartial served up an array of hearsay evidence and unsubstantiated mmors that characterized him as a

gambler and womanizer who frequently traveled to Alsace. His handwriting reportedly matched that of a letter liberated by Bastian from Schwartzkoppens trash, which promised to deliver several reports on the reorganization and technical advances of the French artiller>', as well as a missive about Madagascar, which France would conquer in 1895, Not so, insisted a handwriting expert hired by Dreyfus' civilian defense attorney, Edgar Demange. Dreyfus explained that his trips to Alsace were to visit relatives and check on his family's property, which included textile mills.

could prove it. Among the damning pieces of evidence given to the court in secret—a violation of judicial protocol—was a telegram sent by Panizzardi to Rome on November 1, when news broke of Dreyfus' arrest. The Bureau du chiffre, the code-breaktng service of French intelligence, had intercepted and deciphered the message. The final line read, "If Captain Dreyfus has not had relations with you, it would be wise to have the ambassador deny it officially to avoid press comment," Unfonunately the code breakers, initially baffled, had added the phrase, "our emissary

'Dreyfus' retrial was little more

Above, 39-year-old Dreyfus appeared haggard and confused during bis 1899 retrial in Rennes, a consequence of spending tbe previous 52 months in solitary confinement. Opposite, guards at Rennes add to tbe captain's public humiliation, turning their backs as be passes.

has been warned,'" Four days later the correct translation was brought to the Statistical Section with the last phrase taken out. It made no difference, as du Paty de Glam had manufactured a completely bogus version of the telegram:

After two days of testimony in a dreary courtroom in an old convent beside ihe Cherche-Midi prison, Demange concluded confidently that the Statistical Section had no case against bis client. He was correct, but that failed to save Dreyfus, The coun-manial preferred to accept the assurances of Henry, who swore on a crucifix that Dreyfus was a traitor and that French intelligence

Captain Dreyfus arrested. Vie Minister of War has proofs of his relations with Cktmany Parties informed in the greatest secrecy. My emissary is warned. "This telegram," du Paty de Clam proclaimed, "is, for me, the pivot of the affair," It was enough to convince the court. On the night of December 22, as the accused stood stiff and emotionless

in the candlelit courtroom, Dreyfus was sentenced to military degradation and deportation. He was then ordered to pay the costs of his own court-martial.

ularly in the armed camp Europe had become since 1871. The interests of the republic and the army must come first.

however, traced their doubts about his guilt to Dreyfus' shouts of innocence as he was paraded around the courtyard. The treason charge made no sense to Dreyfus himself. Sure, the purloined letter uring this period, humiliations, had been about the artiller}', his combat his gross miscarriage of justice like executions, were performed arm. But the spy also promised a repon on occurred at an imponant intersecin public. Those who gathered Madagascar, about which Dreyfus knew tion of French, Jewish and Euroon Jan. 5, 1895, in the courtyard of pean history and was to have momentous Paris' Ecole Militaiic under a gray winter nothing. And, as he told the court, he had no motive lor betraying his country. His repercussions. By opting to put Dreyfus sky to witness Dreyfus' official disgrace saddest childhood memory was the Pruson trial, the army had placed itself in the saw a slight, pale man whose glasses and sian march into his native Mulhouse in midst of political and cultural clash in a pencil mustache gave him the appear1870. His Francophile family had elected Republic founded an the pnnciples of the ance of a midlevei functionary rather in 1872 to emigrate to France rather than Revolution: love of justice vs. the religion than an officer. But Austro-Hungarian remain German subjects in Alsace. of patriotism. Dreyfusards, those con- journalist Theodor Herzl noted that the The Dreyfus family, indeed all French Jews, owed much to France and the enlightened principles of the Revolution era. The French Revolution had liberated his grandfather Abraham Israel Dreyfuss, who pushed a peddler's cart through the villages along the Rhine, from the ghetto to which hitherto all Jews were confined. This emancipation had allowed Alfred's father, Raphael, to enter the mainstream of French commerce, progressing from textile salesman to mill owner, Raphael placed his two youngest sons, Mathieu and Alfred, in French schools. V^'hile Mathieu gradu> ated into the family btisiness, Alfred i passed the exhausting examinations p for the £cole Poly technique, was 1 commissioned into the artillery and — . I in 1890 married Lucie Hadamard, the 19-year-old daughter of one ol Paris' leading diamond merchants. vinced of his innocence, insisted thai a capiain maintained a ihousand-yard The following year he joined the coveted state prepared to sacrifice lhe principles stare as a stern General Paul Darras, on general staff corps, a sure ticket to senior of justice on the altar of national security horseback, held a sword over Dreyfus' command. In Alfred's mind, patriotism compromised its moral mandate and jeophead and pronounced him "no longer based on gratitude lo France for liberaardized its legitimacy, ihe veiy bedrock worthy of beanng arms.. .in the name of tion and opportunity, wealth and brilof whal today is called national security. the people of France," the cue for a huge liant career prospects combined to erase Those convinced of Dreyfus' guilt, sergeant major of the Republican Guard any motive for treason. Why, he had the anti'Dreyfusards, argued that raison to rip decorations, epaulettes and even asked the coun-martial, would he betray d'etat far superseded in importance the the trouser stripes from Dreyfus' unithe country he loved for money he did fate of one man. The army was a symbol form, before breaking the captain's not need to jeopardize a career that was of national unity, the very expression of sword over his knee. Right-wing all but assured? the naiion. To question the mission ofthe polemicist Maunce Bants declared the intelligence services, and thus challenge ritual, carried out amid drumrolls and the integrity of lhe army, was not just anti-Semitic taunts from the crowd, he consequences of Dreyfits' condisloyal but perilous, as it threatened to more satisfying than watching the blade viction might never have been undermine the very institution upon of the guillotine pop a head into a realized were it not for Mathieu which France's survival depended, particbasket. More thoughtful observers. Dreyfus' dogged campaign lo clear his

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brother's name by enlisting politicians like Georges Clemenceau and writers of the stature of Bernard Lazare and Emile Zola to expose the frame-up and make it a matter of public debate. Had his Vienna newspaper assigned Theodor Herzl another story, what event as dramatically poignant as Dreyfus' disgrace might have genninated his idea of Zionism? The fact that suspicion fell upon Dreyfits at all combined bad luck, bad faith, unbelievably sloppy detective work and a clutch of antiSemitic officers in the Statistical Section. Had the court-martial judges tossed out the case, there would have been no affaire. By 1898 when Zola finally threw down the gautitlet in an incendiar)' atticle entitled "f'Accuse....'" in which he blamed the high command and the Statistical Section for railroading Dreyius, the right in France had been working for at least a decade to leverage "integral nationalism"—characterized by aggressive tnilitarism, radical right-wing ideology and anti-Semitism—to mobilize public sentiment against the rising tide of socialism. Mass circulation dailies like la Croix and books and pamphlets published by La Bonne Presse preached that Protestants, Freemasons and Jews were the historic enemies of France, a Wew given a dubious intellecttial respectability by a new generation of gifted righi-wingnatiortalist

Every Jewish service included the "Prayer for France." The Jewish mission was to embellish French culture. But the very things that, in his own mind, placed Dreyfus above suspicion, made him untrustworthy in the mtnds of those who regarded such assimilation as a threat to the nation and who believed that Jews were a stateless, cosmopolitan clan whose loyalties were for hire and who, in fact, were an alien race (an idea that gained new adherents in an era of vulgarized science). The arrival of a wave of 120,000 Jewish refugees fleeing Russian pogroms that began in 1881 gave anti-Semitism a boost throughout Central and Western Furope, Rabid Jew baiter Edouard Drumont, whose newspaper La Libre Parole broke the story in November 1894 thai a Jew had been arrested lor treason and that "all the Jews" were behind him, insisted that France had a "Jewish problem."

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he Dreyfus case might have dropped into oblivion had it not been for three factors; First, Drumont's newspaper continued to harp on Dreyfus' crime and spread rumors of his escape attempts from Devil's Island. Second, Mathieu Dreyfus kept working to revoke his brother's conviction. He commissioned Jewish pamphleteer Bernard

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polemicists led by Barres and Charles Maurras. Al3ove all, they lionized the army as the sword of revenge and contrasted the nobility of a life of soldierly sacrifice with the venality and corruption that characterized political life in the Third Republic, That such malevolence would be directed at a people who numbered barely 86,000 in a population of 40 million was so absurd to most Jews that they chose to dismiss the anti-Semites as deranged fantasists bypassed by political and social progress. French Jews considered themselves model citizens—successful, prominent, patriotic—as did German and Austro-Hungarian Jews. They were also disctieet, conforming their habits and mores to those of their nation. Reform synagogues adopted such Christian practices as vestments for the rabbi, flowers on coffins, organs, hymns and sermons.

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Esterhazy The handwriting matched, as did the motive. Esterhazy was a gambler, perpetually in debt, reduced to scams, deceptions and pimping to make ends meet. He was also an intelligent, welt-connected, decorated veteran of tbe Franco-Paissian War and the 1881 French invasion ol Tunisia, with a volatile, unpredictable temper. Even his superiors feared him, which would make it difficult to lay a glove on him, Maihieu had his traitor. What he did not know at the time was that the Statisttcal Section and senior politicians had suspected for months that they had convicted an innocent man—the third factor that kept the case alive. When Major Georges Picquart, a witness to the t894 court-martial, took command of the Statistical Section the followitigjuly, he set out to determine whether Dreyfus, by tben on Devil's Island, had other contacts or accomplices. He discovered that Esterhazy was in contact with the German attache and that his handwriting matched that of the letien U was not a message Picquart's superiors cared to hear; they worried that Mathieu's tireless investigation might eventually implicate them and the war rninister. General Auguste Mercier, in a wrongful conviction. So, in December 1896, they sent then-Lt. Col. Picquart to the Tunisian

has been debated'

Lazar to write Laffaire Dreyfus; une etreurdesert, assigning him the bogus mission judiciaire. Published in Brussels in Novem- of surveying North African fortifications. ber 1897, Lazar's tract argued that the Believing that his life was in peril, handwriting on the letter was a red herring Picquan staned to talk. Returning to Paris and thai Dreyfus' conviction had been in June 1897, he confided his suspicions based upon the Statistical Section's illegal of Esterhazy's guilt to a friend close to evidentiary maneuvers. Lazar became an senate Vice President Auguste Scheurerardent convert to Dreyfus' cause and Kestner. On July t3, 1897, following a rallied prominent Jews to his defense, meeting with Picquan's contact, Scheurerincluding lawyer Joseph Reinach and Kestner concluded: 1) Dreylus was innowriters Marcel Proust and Anatole France, cent; 2) Esterhazy was guilty; 3) the War But what Mathieu really needed was the Ministry knew this but was working to name of the actual traitor. keep Dreyfus on Devil's Island; and 4) that Chance provided that in November he had no proof of any of this, so for the 1897, when a banker named de Castro moment he must keep silent. invited Mathieu to his club on the Boulevard Montmartre. On the table of a private room, de Castro placed a facsimile of tbe letter, published on November 10 by Lt' Matin. Beside it he placed letters from one of his clients. Major Ferdinand Walsin

On Nov t5, t897, Mathieu Dreyfus denounced Esterhazy to the war minister. It did him no good, Esterhazy had been tipped off by du Paty de Clam and Henry, who coached him on how he should behave. That something was brewing

LA LIBRE PAROLE Edouard Drumont broke the Dreyfus story in his newspaper, La Libre Parole, which depicted the editor suspending Dreyfus like a specimen.

The case made headlines throughout France and was the subject of rampant gossip. It even inspired the popular board game shown here.

Before it was over, Dreyfus would be pilloried as a monster, such as the razor-clawed, snake-headed frd/if/'e depicted in this period Parisian lithograph.

Major Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy, lampooned in 1899 as a hyena feasting on Dreyfus' bones, first fell under suspicion in 1897. He sought exile in England.

became apparent when, on October 31, Le Matin wrote thai Scheurer-Kestner considered Dreyfus innocent, Esterhazy's January 1898 couri-martial, ironically in the same room in which Dreyfus had been convicted, was a whitewash. Handwriting experts produced by the army swore Esterhazy could not have written the letter. Mathieu was humiliated and Picquan threatened for having leaked secret information. Outside, an agitated mob chanied: "Death to the Jews! Long live the army!" After two days' testimony, the court sprung Esterhazy and declared that Dreyfus

had been "justly convicted," The crowd on Jan. 13, 1898, took the affair from the screamed, "Vive Varmeel" and burst into courtroom lo the street. Couched as an a spirited rendition of "La Marseillaise." open letter to French President Felix Faure, Fsterhazy's acquittal proved a Pyrrhic the article accused by name the high \ictory for the anti-Dreyfusards.. as more command and members of Drej'fus' courtpeople questioned the evidence and martial of orchestrating his wrongful conthe affair built up steam. This was blood viction. Three hundred thousand copies in the water for out-of-office politicians flew off the newsstands in a matter of hours. like Georges Glemenceau, who smelled a That day. Socialist leader Jean Jaures, potential scandal that might loosen the grip heretofore disdainful of what he had ofthe center-right over the Republic and characterized as a "bourgeois quarrel," rose swing the political dynamic. Clemenceau's in parliament to say that the Republic was decision to publish Zola's 'JAcmse....'" on in danger of falling under the spell of the from page of his newspaper UAurore generals. Even moderate politicians were

questioning the government's handling of the affair. People began to take sides—justice and ihe Jews vs, security and the army Anti-Semitic demonstrations thai had been largely contained in French towns exploded in Algiers, where four days of riotmg destroyed the Jewish quarter. Zola bad gotten the trial he sought, and it gave the Dreyjusards a 15-day forum lo rally their base, to point out the flimsiness of the case against Dreyfus and to present Picc(uart, former head of the Statistical Section, as a star witness. (Zola himself was later convicted of criminal libel and fled the country rather than serve the year in prison imposed by the court,) In July 1898, Picquart was arrested for communicating secret information. However, duringa reviewofdocuments in the Dreyfus dossier, the letter to Italian attache Panizzardi that referred explicitly to Dreyfus was determined to be a forgery Evidence pointed to Henry, who had clearly produced it to bolster the solidity of the original accusation. This news was a blow for the anti-Drfv/usards. The chief of the general staff resigned, and Esterhazy fled to England, A day alter being placed under arrest, Henry slil his ovm ihroat in jail. The affair appeared at an end. Yet War Minister Godefroy Cavaignac insisted the turn of events did nothing to alter the fact of Dreyfus' guilt. His successor, Emile Zurlinden, also t)elieved Dreyfus guilty

tsland, he appeared confused and bewildered by events swirling around him. The court-martial, which opened at 6:30 a.m. on August 7, was little more than a replay of the 1894 trial. Spectators heard the same acte d'accusation, as there had been no new official investigation of the original evidence. The same witnesses offered the same circumstantial and hearsay evidence long since discredited. As the defense had no access to the documents that allegedly proved Dreyfus" gttiit, it was reduced to denials, the discrediting of witnesses and pleas of reasonable doubt. This was a weak strategy in a coun-martial dominated by Mercier, chief of the general staff at the time of Dreyfus^ 1894 conviction, "In this affair, there is certainly someone who is guilty, and that someone is either him [Dreyfus] or me," Mercier told the court. "As it is not me, then it is Dreyfus." He seated himself next to the prosecuting officer. Major LouisNorbert Caniere, and proceeded to ctossexamine witnesses. No officer of the coun had the rank, or the courage, to call him out of order, especially after a parade of senior generals took the stand to state categorically that Esterhazy, despite his own confession, was not the gttilty party On September 9, by a vote of 5-to-2, the court-martial found Dreyfus guilty, albeit with "extenuating circumstances," and sentenced him to 10 years in prison.

a blanket amnesty that covered infractions linked to the affair. Dreyfus was granted an exception to pursue his case for exoneration. When War Minister Louis Andre assumed office in 1902, follov/ing elections that threw power to the Radicals and their Socialist allies, he set out to restore the army's reputation by proving Dreyfus' guilt beyond doubt. Instead, he found that the case against Dreyfus was a miasma of biased testimony and false documents and tbat e\idence favorable to Dreyfus had been withheld. He forwarded his conclusions to the justice minister in October 1903, prompting Dreyfus' request for a vacation of the Rennes conviction. Subsequent investigattons by the Suriti led to the arrest of a primary witness agairtst Dreyftis, as well as three officers of the Statistical Section, On July 12, t906, the United Appeals Court repealed the Rennes verdict by a unanimous vote and finally declared Dreyfus innocent. On July 22,1906, in ihe courtyard of the Frole Militaire. where Dreyfus had been disgraced nearly a dozen years earlier, be was reinstated into the army, promoted to lieutenant colonel and decorated with the Legion d'honneur while his wife, Lucie, watched from a window above. Dreyfus continued to live quietly, a hero unequal to the prominence of his cause. He survived an assassination attempt in 1908 (the accused assailant

'The United Appeais Court f inaily declared Nevertheless, in May 1899, following an exhaustive investigation, the Court of Criminal Appeals announced that Esterhazy was the auihor of the letter (a fact Esterhazy himsell conlessed to an English reporter), revoked Dreyfus' 1894 conviction and ordered a new court-martial.

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n July t, 1899, Alfred Dreyfus arrived off the French coast on a warship and was taken to Rennes, the capital of Brittany, where the retrial was to be held- The small provincial town was soon besieged with soldiers, participants and spectators. Those who saw Dreyfus found it hard to believe he was only 39. He was pale, wracked with malaria. After 52 months of solitary confinement on a tropical

MILITARY HISTORY

Many in Mathieti Dreyfus' camp wanted to appeal, but Dreyftis' health was precarious. Anyway, War Minister Gaston Alexandre Auguste de Galliffet convinced French Prestdent Emtle Loubet that a new trial would deliver the same ruling. Ten days later, Loubet remitted Dreyfus' sentence. It was the only possible solution. But no one was satisfied: To the anti-Dreyfusards, a traitor had been released and the army and its generals impugned. Dreyfits' decision to accept the pardon split the Dreyfusards, to whom the captain seemed ungrateful, eager only to resume a normal life. "We were prepared to die for Dreyfus," recalled poet Charles Peguy, "but Dreyfus wasn't." In December 1900, the government, eager to put the affair behind it, issued

was acquitted) and later served as a lieutenant colonel ol anillery in World War 1, Dreyfus died in the summer of 1935, five years after his brother Mathieu,

T

he Dreyfus affair impacted French politics, intelligence and civilmilitary relations, as well as the fate of Jews in Europe and beyond. It pushed politics in France to the left, as the Socialists, whose rhetorical loyalty had heretofore been to class rather than nation, rallied to the Republic and made common cause with the Radicals. By forming the core of the Dreyfusards, intellectuals had asserted their role as the moral conscience in public life, to keep the state honest and ensure that individual rights were not

nullified by arguments of raXson d'etat. But intellectuals had also given a new, strident voice to the right, emphasizing religion and defending Mauiras' assertion that "a true nationalist puts his country above everything," The Statistical Section's attempts to deceive not only the courts but also the

poor civil-intelligence relations would make it difficult for France to discern its greatest national security threat in lhe early 20th century—Germany The army, expanded and pampered in the early decades of lhe Third Republic, had acquired a corporatist spirit (particularly within the general staff) that ran

Le Petit Journal SUPPLEMENT

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On Jan. 5,1895, the public gathered in the courtyard of Paris' Ecole Militaire to witness Dreyfus' public humiliation. The ceremony ended with the breaking of Dreyfus' sword, left. Below, on July 22,1906, Dreyfus' wife, Lucie, kisses her husband after he is reinstated into the army in that same courtyard.

Finally, the role of anti-Semitism in the Dreyfus affair has been a subject of debate among scholars. Some argue that antiSemitism was a consequence of the aftair rather than its cause. But most agree that Dreyfiis became a prime suspect precisely because, as a Jew and an Alsatian, he was accorded an ambiguous status in France that mirrored the uncertain position of assimilated Jews in continental Europe. To Theodor Herzl, Dreyfus' disgrace had cast doubl on the "emancipatory contract" forged between the Revolution and French Jews in December 1789, whereby Jews were admitted to society in relum for accepting the values and culture of lhe host nation. In other words, Judaism was to exist only as a religion, not as a nation. Herzl concluded that the fate of Jews in any country hinged on the values and intentions of those in

Dreyfus innocent' government were to have baleful consequences for French civil-intelligence relations. The intelligence community had provoked lhe mosl significant poiilicai scandal in modem French history. And for what? There was no smoking gun. The section was dissolved, its officers scattered or retired and its counterespionage functions delegated to the SUrete Gin^ral of the Interior Ministry. When Dreyfusards exposed the Statistical Section as no more than "a common fake factory," in the words of Hannah Arendt, ready to commit perjury in support of its own twisted notions of patriotic mission or to funher their own interests, intelligence would become an object of controversy within the state. The role of intelligence is to "reduce uncertainty" but

counter to the principle of democratic civilian control, France had been militarized, and the army had become a cult. There were discipline problems, even mutinies, in the ranks. As pay stagnated and the quality of military life declined, morale bottomed out and many officers resigned, while applications to Saint-Cyr declined in number and quality. Many argued that ihe poor French adaptation to challenges posed by World War I had their roots in Dreyjusard retribution and fears of a politically powerful military

charge—and that could change quickly Jews could only be secure in a truly Jewish nation stale. Thus, it may be said that Zionism itself was bom in the courtyard of the Ecole Militaire on a bitterly cold January moming in 1895. 1^ For further reading, Douglas Porch recommends: France and the Dreyfus Affair, by Douglas Johnson; The Affair: The Case of Alfred Dreylus, by jean-Denis Bredin; and

A People Apart: A Political History of the Jews in Europe, by David Vitat

ou In 1187 Saladin's Muslim armies drove the Latin Crusaders from the Middle East By James Lacey

^' n July 4, 1187, the Crusader army in the Latin East, led by Guy of Lusignan, king of Jerusalem, ceased ^ to exist. Saladin's Muslim armies slaughtered them in ^ the brutal Battle of Hattin, fought near the presentday city of Tiberias, Israel. The bloody collapse of the Second Crusade, with the failure to take Damascus, had already forecast that the Crusaders would not expand their holdings in the Middle East. Their cmshing defeat at Hattin ensured they would not even hold on to what they'd won in the Eirst Crusade. Within months of the battle, the Muslims, under their brilliant leader, Saladin, had retaken almost every Crusader city and stronghold, including Jerusalem. The strategic position of the Crusader states, including Edessa, Tripoli and Jerusalem, had always been precarious. Continually involved in expensive wars, they never became self-sustaining, depending instead on a constant flow of funds from Byzantium and the West. By 1187 this flow had slowed to a trickle, as European kings increasingly centralized their power and retained their revenues for domestic use. Byzantine support, which waxed and waned according to political circumstances, had also reached a low point.

something of a h demon in a 16th Italian painting, was~^ ^ determined to rid the Middle East of Christian — usaders. He st st at Hattin in

The Crusaders kept a minimal number of men in their strongholds and shadowed the larger Muslim armies, avoiding the kind of major battle that could lead to annihilation'

Lacktng sufficient cash. Crusader leaders were unable to hire enough mercenaries to follow up on battlefield victories for strategic effect. Furthermore, despite periodic spastns of crusading zeal, barely enough fighting men were arriving from the West to make up for Crusader losses. By the middle of the 12th century many knights found it easier to join the Reconquista in Spain or slaughter Slavs in the Teutonic Drang nach Osten than to make the long, perilous journey to the Latin East.

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By the time Saladin invaded the Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1187, this manpower deficit presented Crusader leaders with a stark choice: They could either place an army in the field or man their strongholds, but they could not do both. If the knights remained behind their walls until the Muslim army faded away at the end of the campaign season, they would likely see theirfieldswrecked, further reducing iheir resources for the following year However, if the leaders fielded a large army and lost, their weakened strongholds would surely fall in rapid succession. They could lose everything. Typically, the Crusaders kept a minimal nurnber of men in ibeir

strongholds and shadowed the larger Muslim armies, avoiding the kind of major battle that could lead to annihilation. When circumstances compelled them to fight, their ferocity often brought the Crusaders victory—but not always. Heavy losses since the end of the Second Crusade in 1149 had greatly reduced their options. These strategic challenges were magnified by other setbacks in the 20 years leading up to the Battle of Hattin. First, the great Saracen leader Nur ad-Din had stripped away the County of Edessa from the Crusaders and then taken Damascus, which had often supported the Crusader cause against its fellow Muslims. Moreover, Nur ad-Din had continually mauled the Army of Antioch, which had never fully recovered from the annihilation of the kingdom's northern forces on the Field of Biood in 1119. A final major blow came when Amalric, soon after his 1162 coronation in Jerusalem, reversed two generations of Crusader strategic policy, which had called for the army of Jerusalem to march north whenever Arttioch was threatened. Instead, he turned his attention to the south and led three invasions of Egypt.

Recent historians have argued that given the situation and resources available, Amalric made an appropriate decision. Conquering Egypt would secure his southern flank and put almost unlimtted financial resources at his disposal. As the ruling Fatimid Caliphate was weak and fractured at the time, Egypt musl have seemed like easy pickings. However, Amalric's invasion to the south allowed Nur ad-Din to secure his position in Syria and gave him an excuse lo send his own forces into Egypt, first under his Kurdish general Shirkuh and later under Shirkuh's nephew. Saladin, Despite initial payments of tribute by the Fatimid caliph, Amalric never realized his anticipated financial windfall. Instead, his three invasions bankrupted the Kingdom of Jerusalem and cost it dearly in trreplaceable knights. Even worse was the damage done to the Crusaders' overall strategic position: After Nur ad-Dins death in 1174, Saladin declared himself sultan of Egypt and marched on Damascus, Although it took htm more than a decade to secure all of Nur ad-Din's holdings, Saladin was able lo unify a massive area with

substantial war resources and completely encircle the Crusader states. he Kingdom of lerusalem was thrown into political turmoil following the death of King Amalnc in 1174. The thiune passed lirsi to his teenage son, Baldwin IV, a leper, and then lo Baldwin's 7-year-old nephew, Baldwin V, Baldwin IV's infirmity and the youth of boih kings led to more than a dozen years of political strife, as various factions contended for the position of regent. When Baldwin V died in 1186 at age 8, these factions coalesced around two main rivals for the throne: Guy of Lusignan, who was married to Sibylla (sister of Baldwin IV and mother of Baldwin V), and Ra^miond 111 of Tripoli, Amalricls first cousin, Sibylla had the support of both Knighls Templar Grand Master Gerard ol Ridefort, who hated Raymond because of an earlier perceived slight to his honor, and Raynald of Ghatillon, one of Jemsalem's most powerful nobles. Ray-

nald saw Guy as weak, vain and indecisive and thus much easier to manipulate than Raymond, However, most of the nobles would support Sibylla only if she put aside her marriage to Guy They despised him because several years before, as regent under Baldwin IV, Guy had refused battle with Saladin in almost the same location and circumstances he would later face at Hattin. Although Saladin's army had subsequently broken up without consequences lor the Crusaders, Guy's contemporaries considered him a coward and were wary of his deliciencies as a military leader. After consenting to divorce Guy on the condition she could choose her new husband, Sibylla double-crossed thf stunned nobles at her coronation, calling Guy forward to rule the Kingdom of Jerusalem. An enraged Raymond then attempted a coup. When it failed, he returned to his ov^ai dominion in Tripoli and made a separate peace with Saladin—-a move that would have repercussions for the kingdom. Earlier, while serving as regent, [Raymond had negotiated a truce between the Crusaders and the Muslims (one of many such tmces during the Crusades),

which unintentionally gave Saladin time to consolidate his control of Syria— and unfortunately lulled the Crusaders into feeling so secure ihat they devoted their time to internal squabbles. With that truce due to end in April 1187, Guy sent two of his most trusted advisers. Templar Grand Master Gerard arid Hospitaller Grand Master Roger des Moulins, to Tripoli to try to bring Raymond back into the Christian fold. But in a demonstration of just how wide the rifl had grown between the Crusader factions, Raymond—perhaps hoping to enlist Saladin's help in overthrovi'ing Guy— allowed al-Afdal, Saladin's eldest son, to lead a 7,000-man Muslim army intent on pillaging Guys lands through his territory in Galilee. It was an act of outrighl treachery. When Gerard learned of the presence of al-Afdal's army, he assembled some 150 knights and rashly attacked the Muslims at the Springs of Cresson, near Nazareth. The knights charged to their doom against al-Afdal's considerably larger force. Only three knights, including a wounded Gerard, survived. The heads of most other knights ended up atop the Muslims' spears. As with most medieval bailies.

BATTLE OF HATTIN, JULY 4 , 1 1 8 7

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he icad-up to the 1187 Battle of Hattin is a tangle of alliances and betrayals, power struggles and religiotis fervor. Us origins date from 1174 with the death of Nur ad-Din in Damascus and King Almaric in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Saladin marched on Damascus, worked to unify the Muslim territories that bordered the Crusader states and bided his time. Meanwhile, the Kingdom of Jentsalcm passed first into the hands of Almarie's leprous teetiage son, Baldwin IV, then to Baldwins 7-year-old nephew, Baldwin V. When the child king died in 1186, the throne fell lo Guy of Lusignan, who had married into the royal line. His rival, Raymond 111 of Tripoli, first attempted a eoup, then allowed Saladin's son to lead a Muslim army across his territory to sack Guy's lands. Raymond later sought a political truce with Guy, hut by then the Muslim armies had gathered to threaten the kingdom. Saladin drew ihe Crusaders out of Sephoria by laying siege lo Tiberias, then home to Raymond's wife. Under a rain of Muslim arrows, the knights inarched past a water source at Turan and made camp on the dry plain near Maskana. They awoke to a choking hrushfire. The Horns of Hattin loomed ahead.

GUY OF LUSIGNAN

Guy rose to the throne of Jerusalem in 1186 based on his wife's biood ties to the two previous kings. Many Crusaders considered him a coward, however, as he had shown hesitancy in battie against Saladin at the earlier Siege of Kerak. Ironically, it was his rash decision to engage Saladin on the open, arid plains overlooking Tiberias that led to doom at Hattin.

WATER

Water Source MARCH TO TIBERIAS On July 3, Guy led a column of Crusaders from Sephoria in relief of Tiberias, on the shores of the eponymous lake. Incredibly, the column marched straight past a spring at Turan, the main source on the direct route to Tiberias. From that moment their fate was sealed.

As had been the case over centuries of desert warfare, water would be a key tactical consideration at Hattin. Guy Ignored Raymond's advice to hole up at Sephoria until the Muslim irregulars dispersed at the onset of the dry season. Instead, he marched the heavily armored Crusaders across a treeless plain under direct sun past a primary water source. Fatal moves.

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Guy anchored the center of the column, with Raymond in the vanguard and Balian of Ibelin and the Templars in the rear. Both Raymond and Balian later managed to escape the Muslim encirclement, leaving Guy and his embattled infantry to face a storm of arrows and overwhelming odds.

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DISTANCES: Turan to Horns tH Hattin: 5 mlles/S km

MILITARY HISTORY

Maps by Steve Walkowiak

MUSLIM ARMIES Under the banner oi jihad, Saladin rallied 30,000 Muslims for his assault on the Latin states. Initially failing to lure the Crusaders away from their water source at Sephoria, Saladin laid siege to Tiberias. As the Crusader relief force approached from the west, the Muslims met them on the plains above Lake Tiherias. MiRflDiM Surrounded and cut off from O N I M R I N water, the Crusaders fell prey to Saladin's relentless archers.

Water Source

O HATTIN

laymond IN of Tripoli

THE HORNS OF HATTiN

By the time the Crusaders reached a jagged volcanic formation known as the Horns of Hattin, they had been marching for two days in brutal heat with scant water, continually harassed by hordes of Muslim archers. Seeking refuge from the arrow storm amid Iron Age ruins, the surviving knii^hts rallied around Guy's royal red tent. They made two valiant attempts to break through their attackers and seize Saladin himself, but the Muslims drove them back upon the horns. The exhausted Crusaders soon collapsed. Saladin imprisoned Guy but had Raynald and many of the captured knights beheaded.

SALADIN'S EMPIRE, 1187 After Saracen leader Nur ad-Din's death in 1174, Saladin declared himself sultan of Egypt and spent the next decad hemming in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. When a truce the Crusaders lapsed in 11S7, Saladin struck. He followe up on his decisive win at Hattin with victories at Acre, Nablus, Jaffa, Toron, Sidon, Beirut and Ascalon. Jerusalem itself fell on October 2, prompting Western calls for a Third Crusade. In 1189 forces under Richard the Lionheart,^ Philip Augustus and Frederick Barbarossa marched on tbe Holy Land. The Crusaders retook Acre hut failed to recapture Jerusalem. Satadin died under a truce in 1193.

Inexplicably, the Crusader host marched past Turan without stopping to water either horses or men. In a letter written after the battle, Saladin described this oversight as 'contrary to their best interest'

it can be assumed the Crusader force also lost a few hundred infantrymen, who were not socially important enough to merit mention in the chronicles. More significant, the kingdom had lost some 10 percent of its knights in a minor engagement. They would be sorely missed at Hattin, After the slaughter at Cresson, even Raymond's strongest supporters denounced his traitorous actions and forced him to seek peace with the king, Guy, knowing that Saladin's army was already forming for a renewed assault on the kingdom, could not afford to let this internecine quarrel continue and welcomed Raymond with open arms. Their political truce would enable the Crusaders to present a united front against the coming Muslim invasion, but ii was an uneasy peace, hile the Crusaders worked out their differences, Saladin assembled an army of at least 30,000 men for an assault on the Latin states. He used RayMil

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nald's 1186 attack on a caravan traveling between Damascus and Cairo as a pretext for not renewing the truce with the Crusaders, Although others, such as Nur ad-Din, had iried to raise Muhammad's idea oi jihad (Arabic for "struggle"), the notion of a holy war against the Crusaders had never taken root in the greater Muslim world, Saladin's army was the first that considered its cause a holy war, and the Crusaders themselves—Raynald in particular—were responsible for provoking this new mindset. During an earlier round of hostilities in 1182, Raynald had led an expedition down the Red Sea coast with the announced objective of sacking Medina and Mecca. Although Muslim forces thwarted this assault, Raynald's actions enraged the Muslim world and rallted them to raise the banner o{ jihadSaladin was so angered by the threat to tbe holy cities that he vowed to kill Raynald with his own hands. Guy realized the upcoming battle with Saladin would decide the fate of the Latin states, so he mustered the full strength of the kingdom. Castles and cities were stripped of all but skeleton troops as the army assembled at

Sephoria, By the end of June, Guy had amassed approximately 1,200 knights and 18,000 to 20,000 other troops of widely varying quality. Moreover, he had ordered the True Cross—reportedly fashioned from remnants of the cross on which Jesus was crucified—be brought along to inspire the Crusaders. Toward the end of June, Saladin tried to lure the Crusaders away from their water supply at Sephoria, southeast of Acre, and into an open batde wiih his superior forces. Failing to do tbis, he launched an assault on the city of Tiberias, where Raymond's wife, Eschiva, and sons had taken shelter. Unsure how to proceed, Guy called for a meeting with his leading nobles on July 2. Despite his family's plight, Raymond strongly advocated that Tiberias be abandoned and that Guy simply bide his time until the Muslim army of irregulars dispersed at the onset of tbe dry season, Guy agreed, although his use of the same tactic at the same location four years earlier had resulted in his being branded a coward by the other knights and hounded from the regency Later that night, however, Raynald and Gerard reminded Guy of Rayinond's

recent treachery and pointed out that aggressive action had served the Crusaders well in the past. During their conversation a message arrived from Raymond's wife, urgently requesting rescue. Although Raymond still advocated leaving Tiberias to its fate, the rest of the knights took up a call to go forth and "save the Lady of Tiberias." That apparently strengthened Guy's resolve, and he immediately issued marching orders. uy organized his column into three groups: The king himself would command the center, with Raymond in the van and Baliun of Ibelin and the Templars in the rear. On July 3, the Crusaders set out from Sephoria toward a small spring at Turan, about a third of the distance to Tiberias, Saladin immediately broke off the siege and led his forces to confront the advancing Crusaders. Inexplicably, the Crusader host marched past Turan without stopping to water either horses or men, although there was no other

waler source on their direct route across the treeless hills and plains to Tiberias, on the shore of Lake Tiberias (now known as the Sea of Galilee). In a letter written after the battle, Saladin dispassionately described this oversight as "contrary to their best interest." From the moment of that decision, the Crusader army was doomed. Scorched by the brutal sun, the armored Crusaders inched toward Tiberias, Saladin's skirmishers massed in from of and on the flanks of Guy's army, and Crusader casualties began to mount. The Muslim horse archers kept up a continual harassing fire while looking for any weaknesses that would allow their heavy cavalry to split the Crusader column. In keeping with tactical tradition, Saladin directed his main force against the Crusaders' rear. He also sent the wings of his army around the Crusader column to occupy Turan and set themselves astride the Crusaders' escape route. By 9 a.m., with ihe temperature rising, the Crusaders were surrounded and effectively cut off from any water. For long hours, Guy pushed his compact formations up toward Maskana, on the hills overlooking Lake Tiberias, but

incessant Muslim attacks began to string out the column. In the early afternoon, messengers from Balian and the Templars told the Idng therearguard was in danger of being overwhelmed. Again uncertain of what to do, Guy sent a message forward to Raymond, seeking advice. Back came counsel that he should halt the column and pitch tents in order to mass his forces for a big push toward Tiberias in the morning. After ignoring Raymond's earlier sensible advice to stay at Sephoria and await Muslim developments, Guy then accepted Raymond's spectacularly bad advice to halt and make camp on the waterless plain near the village of Maskana. On the westem end of a plateau overlooking Tiberias and the freshwater take, the exhausted and thirsty Crusaders drew together and made camp for the night. Morale was low, and many of the infantry had already deserted or ceased fighting, while all around them swarmed exultant Muslims. Under cover of darkness, Saladin had his camel caravans bring up plentiful water and tens of thousands of arrows for the next moming's battle. He also had his men stack brush upwind of the Crusader camp.

In the moming they lit this great mass of tinder, enshrouding the demoralized Crusaders in choking clouds of smoke. At dawTi, from behind the blinding haze, the Muslims closed in on the Crusaders, liring arrows by the thousands as they advanced. According to a Muslim chronicler:

arrows like thick swarms of locusts, killing many oJ the Frankish horses. The Franks, surrounding themselves with their infantry, tried to fight their way to Tiberias in the hope of reaching water, but Saladin realized their objective and forestalled them by planting himself and his army in the way.

had turned the tide of many a desperate battle. However, this time Saladin was prepared, his men well drilled to cope with such an attack. As Raymond's mailed fist of armored knights ihundered forward, the Muslim line opened and let it pass straight through. What happened after that is cbuded by many conQicting accounts: The force was either swarmed upon as it paused to regroup or Raymond, seeing that all was lost, simply led them away to safety Regardless, Raymond and his sons escaped the Muslim encirclement, and for many this was proof of his treachery. The fact that he died within months of the battle was seen as evidence of God's justice.

Once more at a loss, Guy sought advice from Raynald and Gerard, who both advocated a breakout attempt by the mounted knights—apparently intending to leave the surviving infantry to its fate, Guy ordered his brother, Aimery, constable of the kingdom, to assemble enough knights for a concerted charge, lo be led by Raymond. As the Muslims pressed forward, Guy ordered the charge. Over the preceding century, the furor of a Frankish charge

uy's position was now even more desperate. Under a storm of arrows and incessant attacks his army managed to inch tts way toward the ragged rim of an extinct volcano known as the Homs of Hattin. There the knights sheltered amid Iron Age walled ruins, erected the royal red tent and, presumably, placed the

The Muslim archers sent up clouds of

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True Cross within it. But they remained surrounded, without food or water, and were apparently too exhausted to break through Saladin's army. As a Muslim chronicler relates: No matter how hard they fought, they were repulsed; no matter how often they rallied, each time they were encircled. Not even an ant crawled out from among them, nor could they defend themselves against the onslaught. They retreated to Mount HaKin to escape the storm of destruction; but on Hattin itself they found themselves encompassed by fatal thunderbolts. Arrowheads transfixed them; the peaks laid them low; bows pinned them down; fate tore at them; calamity chewed them up; and disaster tainted them.

Balian managed to lead one desperate charge clear of the encirclement. But the rest of the army was trapped. Despite iheir dismal predicament, the Crusaders maintained discipline and continued fighting. At some point Guy spotted Saladin on the battlefield and gathered a force of mounted knights to assault his position and try to turn the Crusaders' fortunes by killing tbe

The Muslims swept over the hill, collapsed the tent, captured the True Cross and began rounding up prisoners, most of whom lay about on the ground, too exhausted to resist further*

Muslim leader. Twice they charged. Both attacks failed, although for the Muslims they came perilously close to success. Muslim chronicler Ibn al-Athir recorded an eyewitness account from Saladin's son, al-Afdal:

about on the ground, too exhausted to resist further. mmediately after the battle, Saladin had Guy and Raynald brought

•i> h i m . H e ofThe Frankish king had retreated to the hill !• led G u y s o m e with his band, and from there he led a water, which the furious charge against the Muslims jacing bcaicii King umiiK greedily When Guy hini, forcing them back upon mv father I saw that he was alarmed and distraught,offered the cup lo Raynald, the latter and that he tugged at his beard as he wentrefused. Saladin angrily exclaimed, forward crying, "Away with the devils'." "Drink, for you will never drink again." The Muslims turned to counterattack and Raynald calmly answered that if il drove the Franks back up the hill.... But pleased God, he would never drink they returned to the charge with undimin-anything offered by Saladin, He then ished ardor and again drove the Muslims told Saladin that if the battle had gone back upon myjather. His response was thethe other way, he would have beheaded the sultan. Enraged, Saladin called same as before, and the Muslims again Raynald a pig, ran him through with counterattacked.... I cried, "We have beaten them!" Myjather turned to me and said: a sword and had him beheaded. The "Be quiet. We will not have beaten them head was later sent to Damascus and dragged through the streets. until that tent falls."

No sooner had these words escaped Saladin's lips then the Muslims swept over the hill, collapsed the tent, captured the True Cross and began rounding up prisoners, most of whom lay

Saladin also had the captured Templar and Hospitaller knights beheaded after they refused to conven to Islam. Thousands of others were sold into slavery, aside from those nobles worth ransoming. Guy was heid prisoner in Damascus.

Saladin released him the following year, and in 1189 Guy laid siege to Acre, sparking the Third Crusade. After the battle, Saladin wasted no time in exploiting his victory. Within two weeks he had captured nearly all of the Cmsader ports. Only Tyre resisted, due to the timely arrival of Conrad of Montferrat. Most ofthe castles and cities in the interior also fell, with the exception of the great fortresses at Kerak, BeMor, Sphet and Bclfort. In September, Saladin encircled and laid siege to Jerusalem. The city commanded by Baiian of Ibelin since his successful breakout from Hattin, surrendered on October 2. The Kingdom of Jerusalem had largely ceased to exist, and tales of the defeat struck the Westem world like a thunderbolt, galvanizing it for yet another great cmsade. In 1189 Richard the Lionhean, Philip Augustus and Frederick Barbarossa began moving toward the East, vowing to recapture Jerusalem. 4^ Forjurther reading, James Lacey recommends: God's War: A New History of the Crusades, by Christopher Tyer-man, and Arab Historians of the Crusades, by Francesco Gabrieli.

THE CAT

IN THE

HELMET

Before dreaming up the Grinch and the Lorax, humorist Dr. Seuss skewered isolationists, Nazis and appeasers in the midst of World War II

is style is instantly recognizable—duck-billed whatsits roost' in rubber)' trees while impossible coniraptions spin hither and thither for no practical purpose. Its the subject matter that's unfamiliar. Swastika-branded serpents stand in for star-bellied Sneetches. And Hitler, not the Grinch, glowers down from above. '• In the spring of 1941, adman and aspiring author-illustrator Theodore Seuss Geisel took a job as editorial cartoonist for the dail\' New York newspaper PM. Over the next two years he would produce more than 400 cartoons, turning his pen on such looming wanime "isms" as fascism, isolationism and defeatism. There were no sacred cows—or other creatures—in Geisel's cartoons.' American hero and outspoken isolationist Gharles Lindbergh had his tum in the hot seat with the likes of Hitler and Mussolini. On Dec. 8, 1941, the day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Geisel depicted an isolationist ostrich being blown beak o\ er tail feathers by the exploding word WAR beneath the tagline, "He never knew what hit him." GeiseVs penultimate canoon for PM, dated Jan. 5,1943, shows a grizzled "veteran'' beneath a 1973 wall calendar, holding forth to a precocious grandson about his wartime experiences. "Did I run?" he posits. '1 did not! Unyielding, I sat in this chair and groused about the annoying shortages of fuel oil." A soon-to-be-familiar cat grimaces up from the floor. That month Dr. Seuss accepted a commission in the U.S. Army He spcntj the duration of the war making propaganda films with Frank Capra. <^

MILITARY

'Remember. . . One More Lollypop, and Then You All Go Home!*

Communique: "The annihilation is proceeding according lo schedule."

A Aug. 13,1941: An oblivious appeaser offers lollipops to Nazi serpents. Dr. Seuss was responding to calls from Lindbergh and others to refrain from intervention in "Europe's war." a popular stance in the U.S. at the time. •4 Aug. 6,1941: Seuss had to walk a fine line between PAfs leftist leanings and his own skepticism about communism and the Soviet Union.There is no question about the fact of Hitler's folly here, though.

E

May 22,1941: Seuss depicts the U.S. as a top-hatted eagle high in its nest, blithely ignoring the wanton

"Ho hum! When he's finished pecking down that last tree he'll quite likely be tired."

destruction around it. He was often less charitable, typically deriding American isolationists as ostriches. July 7,1942: Once the U.S. entered the war, Seuss urged perseverance, bammering the point home wiih a distinctly Seussian chariot, driver and winged borse.

•

Jan.5,1942:Less than a month after Pearl Harbor, Seuss started work on a series of "War Monument" cartoons to counter homegrown defeatism and boost morale. His satirical statues took on isolationists, appeasers, pacifists and careless gossips alike. Here, John F. Hindsight sits back knowingly in his rocking cbair, one eye fixed firmly on the past in bis U-turn telescope.

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•

Sept. 30.1942: Seuss literally hits the nail on the head with this broadside at placid conceit. Note Uncle Sam's star-spangled cuffs behind the hands driving the nail.

What do YOU expect to be working at after the war?

Oct. 1.1941: Seuss takes off the kid gloves with a biting isolationist version of a classic fairy tale. It would be a full year before the true extent of the ongoing Nazi genocide came to light.

T March 19,1942: Seuss' typically oartoonish Hitter takes on a truly menacing air in the absence of his oft-lampooned mustache. Ultimately, Seuss himself left civilian life to enlist. His postwar work would earn him worldwide fame.

But those were Foreign Childrpii and it really didn't matter."

bones...

CAN WE THE ANCIENT TEXTS? Sources for all Greek and Roman military history amount to a handful of translated ancient texts. How accurate are they? By Richard A. Gabriel

V

This statue of a dying Greek warrior (c. 500 BC) adorns the Temple of Aphaia on the Saronic Gulf island of Aegina. Such drama was al;so characteristic of ancient military texts. Today's historians are left to discern fact from fiction.

S

ome were found lying alive with their thighs and hams cut, laying bare their necks and throats, bid them drain the blood that remained in them. Some were found with their heads plunged into the earth...having suffocated themselves by overwhelming their faces with the earth which they threw over them. A living Numidian, with lacerated nose and ears, stretched beneath a lifeless Roman who lay upon him... for when the Roman's hands were powerless to grasp his weapon, turning from rage to madness, he had died in the act of tearing his antagonist with his teeth. Prelty vivid stuff—bui ihere is no way to tell if it is true. This description of the 216 BC Battle of Cannae was written 200 years after the actual events for which no eyewitness accounts exist, and ihe hislorian, Titus Livius, or Livy, had no military experience. What often passes as ancient history turns out to be dramatic representations of what the writers thought may have occurred- And yet one cannot examine the wars and battles of antiquity without reference to these accounts. The mcxlem historian studying Greek and Roman military histor)' is a prisoner of the ancient texts. The single biggest obstacle to our understanding of ancient mihtary history is the scarcity of reliable evidence. The Greeks' invention of history as a search for a rational explanation and understanding of events, expressed in written prose or oral recitation, created a means by which ancient historians could record events in a manner still comprehensible in the modern age. Three centuries later the Greeks passed on their invention to the Romans. The consequence was an archive of written texts on which the modern study of Greek and Roman miUtary history is based. Unfortunately, some of the infor-

mation contained in those texts is unreliable, biased, incomplete or even false. The modem reader is right to suspect that there is something different about

Above, a 16tb century French sbield features renditions of 390 BC Roman warfare drawn from 1st century AO historical descriptions.

history as written by ancient historians: Greek and Roman historians were often less concerned with a factual accounting of events than with wilting something that taught moral lessons or guided the ioehavior of powerful political classes or individ-

uals. This didactic approach to history often focused on the deeds of great men. Moreover, ancient historians expected their work to be recited more than read, and their concern for rhetoric led to the incorporation of great, but fictitious, speeches attributed to famous generals and kings. If the bare lacis were insufficient lor an ellective presentation, then the known facts could be adorned, modified or variously combined in the interest ol heightened drama. Names, numbers, exact dates, chronology and geographic details of battles were frequently inaccurate, invented or sometimes omitted. These military' "histories" were often written long after the events they describe; only a few address events contemporar)' with their authors. Ancient writers usually did not check the validity of their sources—^a mosti)' impossible task in any case, as few usable archives existed and would probably have required lengthy and dangerous journeys to get to them. Some ancient historians simply repeated accounts from earlier sources, telling ihem in a different, often more dramatic fashion. Thus, Livy (59 BC-AD 17) relies primarily on Polybius' (c. 200-118 BC) account of the Second Punic War for his military narrative, while Dio Cassius Sallust c. 8 6 - 3 5 BC

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A detail of Greek hoplite warfare from a c. 600 6C terra-cotta vase. The "definitive" accounts of such battles relied largely on secondhand sources, as contemporary archives were scarce and records often vanished. Many historians pieced together their narratives years after the actual events.

tc. AD 150-235), wriiing more than a cenlur)' later, relies on U\ys accounl for lhe same war. Often, sources available lo the writer in his time cannot be referenced because they have since been losi. For example, the works of two of Polybius' most valuable sources, Sosylus and Silenus, Greek "war correspondents" who iraveted with Hannibal, are lost lo us. The sources Herodotus (c. 484-425 BC) used for the Greco-Persian Wars are little

more than monument inscriptions and a collection of oral tales. There are exceptions: Campaigns oj Alexander, by Arrian (c. AD 87-145), is a trustworthy account of Alexander the Greats life based on earlier eyewitness accounts by Nearchus, Ptolemy and Aristobulus, all soldiers who participated in Alexanders campaigns. Today, military histonans are also the prisoners of the surviving translations, most of which contain errors introduced

when they were translated from Greek to Latin or simply copied by medieval monks, who often lacked language skills and knowledge of the military subjects. The most common errors involved numbers. The monks had limited knowledge of ancient numerical systems and regularly mistranslated or transposed numerical values, sometimes substituting completely new numbers of their own. Ancieni historians had a tendency to exaggerate the

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Ancient Historians & the Wars Tliey Covered

number of enemy combatants and casualties in the first place, and that was compi^unded by the monks' errors, funher distorting the facts. Rates of march, distances, weights, numbers of animals, the widths of rivers and streams, and terrain heights are usually expressed numerically, so such distortions affect the information most important to today's military historian.

legions and may have participated in Trajan's campaign against the Parthians. His treatment of Alexander's campaigns is based on eyewitness accounts and is the most reliable source for Macedonian tactics and military organization.

W

riters of ancient texts dealing with military history can be divided into three categories: (1) those with no military experience who wrote years after the events; (2) (hose with some military experience who wrole years after the events; and (3) those with military experience who participated in the evenls about which they wrote. Herodotus, Appian (c, AD 95-165). Livy and Dio Gassius all fall into the first category. Appian's Roman History covered all the wars fought by the Romans from their early history through Trajan's campaigns. Polybius' works and Livys War With Hannibal are the basic source materials for the Punic Wars. Dio Gissius' work is extensive but flawed in its reliance on uncriticized sources and its dependence on Livy as a major source. Herodotus' account of the Greco-Persian Wars is more dramatic novel than military history, its technical details of things military often suspect. These sources are more valuable for general themes than for exact details and must be treated with caution.

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Polybius, Tacitus (c. AD 56-117) and Arrian fall into the second category Polybius' Histories is the best account of military events, details and tactics pertaining to the Second Punic War and Scipio Africanus'role. Cavalry commander of the Achaean League, Polybius fought in the Achaean War and commanded Greek troops before being taken as a hostage to Rome, where Scipio's family befriended him. He had access to all of Scipios papers, interviewed major commanders of the Second Punic War and visited some of the battlefields about which he wrote. Thus, his account of Roman warfare is written with an accomplished military eye and is generally accurate. Arrian also served as a cavalry officer, seeing action in Dacia. Later, as governor of Cappadocia, he commanded two

MILITARY

Writers of ancient texts dealing with military history fall into three categories: 1. Those with no military experience who wrote years after the events 2. Those with some military experience who wrote years after the events 3. Those with military experience who participated in the events about which they wrote Tacitus was a legion commander but apparently did not see combat. His greatest work is the Annals, which provides the only extant descriptions of Roman legionary warfare and equipment of the 1st century.

Firsthand military experience, alas, is no guarantee of historical accuracy, and even experienced soldier-hislorians cannot always be trusted to put aside their own biases. Sallust (c. 86-35 BC), for example, was an experienced soldier who saw combat in the civil war in lUyricum and Gampania and later in North Africa. Yet jugurthine War, his account of the Roman conflict agaiast Jugurtha the Numidian, is generally untrustworthy as to numbers, dates, distances and size of forces. Jose|:)hus (c. AD 37-100), another combat veteran who commanded troops both for and against Rome, is a good source for the details of Roman equipment and amis but is otherwise untrustworthy. His primary work, The Jewish War, an account of the great uprising against Rome, may have been commissioned by the Romans. Among those soldier-historians who wrote contemporary accounts of battles in which they fought, Thucydides (c. 460-395 BC), Caesar (100-44 BC), Xenophon (c. 431-352 BC.) and Aeneas Tacticus (4th century BC) are especially valuable. Thucydides wrote the definitive account of the Peloponnesian Wars. He fought on land and at sea in that war, witnessing 5th century Greek phalanx warfare and trireme naval tactics. He probably participated in or saw every major engagement of the war. Thucydides' command of tactical and strategic realities of that period is unrivaled. hi his Commentaries, Gaesar offers firsthand narratives of dozens of legion battles and sieges, including the siege of Alesia in Gaul and the battle at Georgovia, making him the best source for Roman military capabilities in the 1st century BC. Xenophon was an Athenian mercenary captain who s^X"nt most of his life in military seivice. He served all over the eastern Mediterranean in the pay of several Greek slates and even fought in the Persian army Xenophon pariicipated in or witnessed dozens of Greek vs. Greek and Greek vs. Persian battles and is the best source for 4th century BC Greek land warfare. His best work is Anabasis, an account of his ser\ace to Persian King Gyrus, the defeat at Cunaxa and his command of the Greek troops in retreat for more than a thousand miles across Asia Minor. A cavalryman, he wrote a short work on cavalry command

This 1st century BC mosaic depicts the 333 BC Battle of Issus hetween Alexander the Great, at left on horseback, and Persian King Darius III, at right in a chariot. Alexander's campaigns are among the best recorded in ancient history, drawn from accounts of soldiers who participated in the fighting. appended to a treatise on horsemanship, the earliest extant work of its kind. Aeneas Tacticus was one ofthe earliest Greek writers on tnilitary matters. He wrote several didactic works on warfare, but the only one known to exist is Flow to .Survive Under Siege, a detailed manual on defending a fortified city. A Greek mercenary captain ofthe Peloponnese, Aeneas served in the Aegean and Asia Minor and participated in several battles, including the 362 BC Battle of Mantinea. His work is especially valuable for its plethora of historical illustrations of Greek warfare.

A

lthough the shortcoming? of these ancient texts were well known, for many years there was little else on which historians could draw. The study of

ancient military history was left largely to classicists, who could read the texts in the original Latin and Greek. But while classicists' forte is language, few are trained military historians. They have long perceived military history as a minor field, thus paying it scant attention. A European university education of the 19th century consisted largely of a classical education in which the original tejfls were read. Many university graduates of the aristocratic classes became highranking military officers, who did pore over the accounts of ancient warfare for modem lessons. Soldier-historians sucb as Basil Uddell-Han, J.FiC. Fuller, Hans Delbruck and Georg Veith revised accounts of the ancient battles based on their own experiences with military training and war.

Two developments in the late 19th century led to a more empirical study of ancient military history. First, the 19th century was an age of invention and discovery in which the scientific impulse required carefully measured confirmation of all propositions before they could be accepted as fact. For the first time, militaiy historians were able to apply new findings from psychiatry, medicine, nutrition, human endurance studies, cartography, metallurgy, engineering and other fields to the study of ancient warfare. Second, the 19ch century saw the emergence of modem war on an unprecedented scale. Large standing and reserve armies required the precise management of men and materiel This gaveriseto tabular organization and implementation.

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Kromayer and Veith In the early 20th century, German historian Johannes Kromayer and Austrian archivist Georg Veith traveled the ancient world with military cartographers in tow to produce the first precise, ; full-color topographic maps of Greek and Roman battlefields. These charts from their battle atlas track troop movements at F^ Lake Trasimene, atrave; Cynoscephalae, right; and Magnesia.

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including calculations of how much food and water each soldier required; how quickly a brigade could march under different conditions; how many mules and wagons were needed to transpon men and supplies over a given distance and how long they could be sustained in the field; as well as what kinds of wounds could result from different types of attacks and how many of the wounded would die from hostile fire, accidents or disease. Military science replaced what had once been the "art of war." The new approach was funher spurred by the reserve mobilization system used by European armies of the day. While standing armies were relatively small, reserve units were enormous, comprising almost every male adult between the ages of 18 and 45. Between the Grimean War and World War 1, many of these reservists saw combat or at least underwent military training. The reservists included professors and university students who teamed the new science of war and its attendant tables, schedules and measurements, then retumed to the universities, creating an impetus for more empirical analysis of the ancient warfare texts. By the beginning of the 20th century the new approach was gaining credibility and professors who were not classicists but ancient military historians began securing positions at European universities, only to have the disruption and carnage of World War I decimate the ranks of the new scholarship and bring it to a halt. After the war, surviving professors who still had posts to fill and classes to teach tried to reestablish the new discipline. They produced a number of groundbreaking empirical works, like Johannes Kromayer and Georg Veith's Battle Atlas oj Ancient Mihiaty History and Hans Delbrucks four-volume History ojthe Art oj War. The postwar political turmoil and the catastrophe of World War II in Europe again eclipsed the study of ancient militar}' history The subject had never been popular in the United States, and the study of ancient military history remains today a comparatively minor discipline. The last two decades have seen the emergence of an empirical approach to ancient military history in the United States and Europe, prompted by an elec-

tronic revolution that has brought the contents of the worlds libraries and the work of distant scholars to the historians desktop. This same revolution has increased communication among scholars. There are also the beginnings of financial support for such research: Oxford University, for example, sponsored the re-creation of a 4th century trireme to test its operational characteristics. New research has added to the tools the ancient historian can now apply to the texts. J.E Lazenby's and J.K. Andersons work on Greek warfare, Victor Davis Hanson's study ofthe Battle of Gannae, and Philip Sabin's research on the battles of the Punic Wars have added to our under-

'With the republication of Kromayer and Veith's atlas, historians wiii be able to travel back in time and examine the battlegrounds of antiquity' standing of the mechanics of close combat and the respective roles played by fear, exhaustion and "battle pulses." Markus Junkelmann's real-life experiments measuring the carrying loads, speed and endurance of actual soldiers have raised new questions about these factors in ancient warfare- Donald Engels" excellent study on the logistics of Macedonian armies has been supplemented by Jonathan Roths analysis of the logistics of Roman armies from 264 BC to AD 235. (Karen Metz's and my efforts at "experimental archaeology" have provided insights into the killing and wounding power of ancient weapons.) In short, todays ancient historians now have at their disposal a new set of tools with which to analyze the ancient battle accounts, thus revising and enriching our understanding of what war was like in those times.

O

ne of the most important factors in our understanding of ancient warfare, the terrain on which the battles were fought, has remained mostly beyond our ken. Urbanization, industrialization and two world wars have altered the landscape of the ancient battlefields beyond recognition. (At this writing, the battlefield of Chaeronea in Greece is under development as a shopping mall.) This was not the case before and just after World War 1. Then, Johannes Kromayer, chair of the Department of Ancient Military History at Leipzig University and Georg Veith, director of the War Office archives in Vienna, located and mapped the major battlefields of antiquity Employing militar}' cartographic teams, they spent a decade visiting these battlefields and overseeing the production of color topographic maps for each site. After consulting the most famous European military historians of the day, Kromayer and Veith superimposed illustrations of troop dispositions and maneuvers on each map. Their Battle Atlas oj Ancient Military History comprised 168 color contour maps of all major Greek and Roman battlefields from the Greco-Persian Wars (499-448 BC) through Octavian's campaign in Illyria (35-34 Bc).

The atlas was published between 1922 and 1928 as several individual folios. Due to the expense and time required to publish the work, only a small number of complete sets found their way into the hands of scholars or libraries. The devastation of World War 11 destroyed many of these copies, and in 2008 only 28 complete copies remained, most secured in rare book rooms and not permitted to circulate. This year the Ganadian Defence Academy in Kingston, Ontario, will repubiish one of the last complete atlases remaining in private hands and make it available to scholarly and military libraries in Canada and Europe. With the republication of Kromayer and Veith's work, military historians will be able to travel back in time and examine the blood-soaked ground of antiquity!^ Forjurther reading, Richard Gabriel recommends: The Ancient Historians, by Michael Crant, and The Roman Historians, by Ronald Mellor.

RECOMMENDED

A Battle Worth Revisiting The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944, by Rick Atkinson, Holl, 2007, $35.

Although never a soldier himself. Rick Atkinson has spent a considerable portion of his life around the American military. Bom in Munich, GerDo we really need another many, the son of a U.S. Army book about the World War officer, Atkinson grew up on II campaigns in Sicily and military posts worldvvide. From Italy? !n this case, the 2004 lo 2005 he held the Genanswer is an emphatic yes. eral Omar N. Bradley Chair of Strategic Leadership at the U.S. If you've never read an Army War College. He underaccount of these campaigns, stands soldiers and the world this is the one you should they live in, thus his writing is read. And no matter how replete with empathy not only matiy books you have read, read this one anyway. for the common soldiers but You'll be amazed by its freshness. also for their commanders The Day of Battle is the second volume of Atkinson's all the way up the chain. He Liberation Trilogy The first, An Army at Dawn: The War dissects, analyzes and critiques in North Africa, 1942-1943 (2002), won the Pulitzer the battlefield decisions, but Prize. Once again, Atkinson provides us with a historical objectively, without moralizing tour de force as he dexterously zooms in to the level of or preaching. Rick Atkinson is the individual American GIs, British Tommies and one of the most respected German Landsers fighting along the line of contact and members of the civilian press then pans slowly back out, up to the highest operational corps among todays soldiers. Atkinson put an impressi\'e and strategic levels of the senior commanders and their amount of research into this political masters in Washing- trable fog of war. Atkinson's book, including numerous ton and London and Berlin. harrowing account of the disas- trips to battlefields. As he The result is a rich tapestry, trous attempt to cross the Rapi- so aptly notes. "The ground a complex yet clear and intelli- do River by the 36th Infantry speaks even when eyewitnesses gible picture of one of the most Division is unparalleled. no longer can," Tbe chapter muddled and controversial One of Atkinsons strongest notes and biography total 169 campaigns ofWorld War II. gifts is the authenticity of his pages. The sources run from Through the skillful use of voice. A military historian or books to contemporary newshis own narrative, interspersed professional soldier can read paper and periodical accounts; with the voices of those who his narrative without having to papers, letters, personal narlived through the cataclysmic to stumble over terms and con- ratives and diaries; and to interevents, Atkinson conveys the cepts that are not presented views he personally conducted agonies and hardships endured quite correctly At the same with participants ol the actions. by the soldiers during the time he avoids jargon and He made 29 visits, averaging endless series of almost suici- [echnobabble. His stor>' can be two to three days each, to the dal frontal assaults and, at the read, understood and appreci- Military History Institute at same lime, the flawed and gut- ated by laymen and military Carlisle, Pa., which he accuwrenching decisions forced on insiders alike—which is no rately describes as "among the their generals by the impene- mean feat of writing. nations finest archival reposito-

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American Military Technology: The Life Story of a Techno/tJgy, by Barton C. Hacker

Barton C. Hacker, curator of military history at the National Museum of American Histor); examines the progression through time of military technology and its effect on the U.S. armed forces, highlighting developments that have moved America into the military position it nov*' occupies in the world.

ACES FALLING

Aces Falling: War Above the Trenches. 1918, by Peter Hart

Peter Han shows how air power progressed in Aces Failing, a view of World War I aerial combat. An oral historian at the Imperial War Museum, Hart uses the voices of those who flew to describe what really took place in the skies over the Western Front.

ries and lhe mother lode of Army history." The last section of the book contains seven pages of acknowledgments to a large and impressive number of historians, journalists, current military leaders and institutions that helped him in his research or in some way contributed to his understanding of the complex issues ofthe campaign. (Truth in lending disclosure: I am listed, although al the ver)' most I gave him one or two insights into the way the German army operated in World War II.) 1 met Rick Atkinson in November 2006, when the commander ofthe U.S. Army in Europe. General David D. McKiernan, invited him to participate in a battlefield staff ride to Anzlo, Cassino, the Rapido Ri\-er and the Liri Valle\', The stallride,a high-level training exercise for the arm)^ senior generals in Europe, was coordinated by Maj. Gen. Bill Stofft and Brig, Gen. Hal Nelson, two former chiefs of military history and Col. Scott Wheeler, another distinguished army historian. The purpose ofthe exercise was to use the lessons of the Italian campaign as a laboratory in which to evaluate the current American experience v^th coalition warfare since 2003. For three days we stood on the baulefields that had soaked up so much blood 60 years ago and tried to put ourselves inside the heads of our predecessors at the general officer levels of command. These were some high-level and extremely complex discussions. Throughout, Rick Atkinson took furious notes, posed questions and made contribu-

tions as an authoritative and fully accepted peer. There can be no better testimony to the level of his credibility with todays professional soldiers. During one of our evening synthesis sessions, he held us spellbound with a summary of his key conclusions from the book, which was then almost a year away from publication. If there is anything at all to criticize in this book, it is the point made by Brig. Gen. John S. Brown in his review for Army magazine. The Day oj Baitk essentially ends with the liberation of Rome, ^ M B M I The war in Italy, of course, slogged on for another year. But at 588 pages, this was probably a good stopping point. The third volume of the Liberation Trilogy will cover the Normandy invasion and the war in northwest Europe- Once that project is complete, I can only echo General Brown's hope that Atkinson will someday find the time to refocus on Italy and bring his marvelous narrative powers to bear on the fighting in the Apennines and the Po Valley This is another story of the American soldier that deserves Rick Atkinson to retell. —David T Zabecki Liberation or Catastrophe? Rejlections on the Histojy ojthe 20th Century, by Michael Howard, Continuum, New York, 2007, $37.71. Michael Howard writes about what history suggests with

regard to the present and the future—perhaps a reflection of time spent in combat in Italy against the Germans, where he earned a Military Gross. In the 1950s Howard headed the Department of War Studies at King's Gollege, London. He later cofounded the International institute for Strategic Studies. This collection of Howard's lectures, delivered between 1992 and 2003, will probably be his last book. In it he examines the larger framework of the 20th century, the German wars, the Cold War, Europe after the Cold War, and the War on Terrorism, Howard's wry sense of humor is apparent in his essay on the Cold War, as he recalls an incident m Italy: The first snapshot is oj a young ojjicer. ..injanuary J945, lecturing his platoon with a large map oj Europe provided weekly by the injormation service to show the progress in the war The map showed deadlock on our own jront and in France, but huge arrows indicated the continuing advances oj the Red Army.... We all cheered when we saw those arrows. First, they meant that there would be lessjightingjor us to do, with a consequently increased prospect oj our personal survival; a prospect that at times had seemed unpleasantly remote. Secondly, it meant that the Russians would take a larger slice of Germany ojj our hands.

In the introduction Howard

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Von Steuben's Continentals: The First American Army This 60minute DVD is a full-color, live-action, authentic record of the American Soldier and his fight for liberty. The film studies the evolution of the American "rabble" from defeats on Lone Island in 1776 to triumph with the bayonet ai Stony Point, NY three years later. The filnanalyzes the uniforms, drill, camp life, food v^eapons and equipment. Includes bonus materials, historian/director commentary and photo gallery. ITEM:MVSC $19.95

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This DVD celebrate the 225th anniversar re-enactmen of America momentou 1781 Revolu tionary Wa victory a Yorktown Virginia, Th f o u r da commemo rative even Vi^as held October 19-22, 2006, with many o the events staged on the original field. For th first time in 225 years, and within days of th actual anniversary of the formal British sur render, nearly 2,000 re-enactors met on th original, hallowed "Surrender Field" to com memorate the British defeat to the allie American and French forces led by Gener; George Washington. Never since 1781 ha this event been re-staged so authentically. DVD. Viewing time: 120 minutes. $24.95

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calls the past century "a record of vast, of terrifying mistakes, which I hope we know better than to repeat. We have to use the knowledge that we have to deal with the problems which that knowledge has itself created, accepting that every solution will only create further problems. We must steer between the Scylla and Charybdis that caused so many catastrophes during the past century—hubris and despair," Not al! of his comments regarding the aftenrtath of 9/11 will be music to American ears, particularly where he criticizes the Bush adminisiration for categorizing its elforts against Osama bin Laden as a war: /( is quilt.' astonishing how little we [understand] the huge crisis that has faced that vast and populous section of the world stretching from (he Maghreb through the Middle East and central Asia into South and Southeast Asia and beyond to the Philippines: overpopulated, underdeveloped, being dragged headlong by the West into the postmodern world before they have come to terms with modernity. This is |a| confrontation between a theistic, land-based and traditional culture, in places little different from the Europe of the Middle Ages, and the secular material values of the Eiilightenment.

—Williamson Murray Retribution: The Battle for Japan, 1944-45, by Max Hastings, Knopf, New York, 2008, $35. Max Hastings was a premier 20th century war correspondent. As a military historian he adds to those writing skills and nose for a story a penetrating grasp of the essential. Three years ago Hastings published his account of the last year of World War II in Europe, He has matched that volume with a history of the last year of the war against Japan. Part of his story is well known. By Januar)' 1945 the American military' had shattered the power of Imperial Japan. Yet the Japanese had not the slightest intention of surrendering. Nor did they display any sympathy for the horrors being

From the Earth to the Moon Astronaut NeJI Armstrons climbed down Eagle's ladder and stepped onto the surface of the Moon on July 20, 1969. Model Includes: • One snap together plastic mcdel • 2-sided, fuli-color, illustrated educational information sheet • 11 collectible trading cards of famous astronauts, scientists, equipment and events.

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visited on the civilian population of the Home Islands by B-29 incendiary raids. Instead, the Japanese generals and admirals assumed Americans could not accept the casualties an invasion of the Home Islands would entail. Correctly assuming the Americans would land on Kyushu, they deployed vast numbers of troops to that southem island. In late May 1945 barely 100,000 soldiers were stationed on Kyushu; by late July there were nearly half a million. Only the dropping of lhe atomic bombs and consequent threat of absolute destruction ended Japanese militarists' pretensions thai they could preserve their honor by refusing to accept the inevitable defeat, Hastings combines research and tnultinational inter\-iews with the work of American military' historians like Richard FrLink and Edward Drea, He then adds a dimension on which few historians of the Pacific Theater, v/ith their American biases, have focused. In addition to the great island-hopping drives of Nimitz and MacArthur, there were other cmcial struggles. Field Marshal 1st Viscount Slim's 14th Army waged a fierce battle against the Japanese in Burma. The Australians grappled wiih Japanese garrisons in the Dutch East Indies tmodem-day Indonesia), while the Japanese conducted their own version of the Eastern Front in China, murdering and abusing the populations of the territories they occupied. A continuation ofthe Pacific War would have meant milliotis ol additional casualties—not just American and Japanese bul Chinese, Bumtese, Malay Indonesian and others. The fate of Allied POWs would also have beenfixed:death by starvation, execution and bmtalily Hastings has done a great service with his reminder that the War in the Pacific was not just an American affair with American lives on the line, —Williamson Murray

Broad in scope while sharp in focus, this iconoclastic hocik is sure to stimulate passionate debate among specialists and non-specialists alike." - Professor Rafe BLiufarb,

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Freedom Trail, opened in June 2007. The museum's lowerfloorhighlights the history of Charlestown and the design, construction and dedication of the monument Itself. The upper floor commemorates the battle and its participants, including then newly appointed Maj. Gen. Joseph Warren and celebrated black soldiers like Salem Poor and Jude Hall. Large panels showcase maps, descriptions and depictions of the battle, while a cyclorama of the third British assault, reproduced from a 19th century painting, circles the room overhead. Among the artifacts on exhibit are swords, cannonballs, muskets and a British drum recovered from the site. Other hi^ilights include a detailed diorama of the battle, complete with voice-over narration, sound effects and flashing lights, and accounts of the fighting excerpted from letters and journals. —Susan E. Martin

uround Bastogne, Belgium By John C. McManus

T

he Belgian market town of Bastogne sits astride seven roads in the midst of the Ardennes Forest. The Ardennes comprises thick stands of fir and pine trees, gorges, brambled hills and rolling plateaus. Roads are at a premium here, vital links to the tiny farm towns that dot the rough countryside. With 14,000 residents, Bastogne is the largest town in the Belgian Ardennes and the heart of the region. Its geographic importance guaranteed Bastogne a central role in one of history's greatest battles. In December 1944, Nazi Germany was on the verge of defeat. In the east, the Soviet armies had pushed to the very borders of Germany itself. On the western front, an Allied coalition led by the United States had liberated France and most of Belgium, Luxembourg and Holland a n d h a d even o v e r r u n parts r

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Bastogne took a pounding during the December 1944 German offensive (aka "the bulge"), but the Americans hung tough and pushed them back.

ot western Germany With defeat staring him in the face, Hitler decided to gamble on a last big offensive to turn the tables on his enemies. Under strict secrecy, he amassed an army of about 250,000 soldiers, including his best remaining armored and mechanized infantry divisions, for a major attack. The MILITARY

German goal was to slash through the thinly held American lines in the Ardennes, cross the Meuse River, capture the supply port of Antwerp, cut the Allied armies in two and then negotiate a favorable peace. For the Germans, any chance of success depended upon speed. On December 16, undercover of adverse winter weather that negated Allied air superiority, ihe Germans launched their surprise attack. The Germans had to capture Bastogne to control those seven \'ital roads so they could use the town as a transit point, communications center and supply depot for their northward thrust to ihe Meuse. Their plan was to take Bastogne by the second day of the offensive. But even though the Germans tore a gaping hole in tlic American front line, small groups of American soldiers fought so tenaciously in dozens of places around the Ardennes that the Gemian timetable was overturned. The Americans made use of [he defensible ten-ain and narrow roads to bottleneck the German armored columns. By December 19, Hitler's soldiers had gotten within a couple miles of Bastogne but could not lake the tovm. Three days into the bitterfighting,Supreme Allied Commander Dwi^t D. Eisenhower was rushing reinforcements to counter the German offensive. The Americans set up a desperate defense along ihe three roads that led into Bastogne from the east. There, in the small suburbs of Noville, Longvilly, NefTe, Mont, MarWe and

Anthony McAuliffe, uttered his famous refusal: "Nuts!" So the Gemiatis continued to besiege Bastogne, shelling it mercilessly and launching attacks until 4th Armored Division tanks under General George Patton fought their way through to relieve the Bastogne garrison on December 26. To a great extent, the defeat of the German offensive—what later came to be known as the Battle of the Bulge—began with that stand at Bastogne.

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oday, the town is completely rebuilt. Yet reminders of the desperate 1944 batLle are ever)'where. At the center of Bastogne is McAuliffe Square, a place that during the battle was under coastant shellfire and choked w1ih the wreckage of burning vehicles. Now it teems with traffic, sidewalk cafes, shops and apartment buildings. In the middle of the square, a battered Sherman tank stands sentry outside the visitor's center. Across the square, several roads converge al a busy intersection, v^th signposts pointing the way to Wiltz, Clervaux, Arlon and other towns that figured prominently in the fighting. Several blocks south of McAuiiffe Square, the venerable Catholic church remains the most prominent building in town. Within its courtyard and walls, American doctors and medics worked frantically during the battle to save the lives of many hundreds of wounded soldiers. On the northeastern outskirts of lown, the Bastogne Historical Center and Museum rests atop a prominent ridge that in 1944 was defended by American artillerymen. Jtist outside the museum is the Mardasson, a four-story memorial commemorating the sacnfices of American soldiers at Bastogne. A climb to the top of the monument affords a panoramic view of the surrounding terrain.

The heaviestfightingraged in the suburbs. One can drive, or even hike, from one battie site to another: the Catholic grotto west of Longvilly, where an annored task force under Lt. Col. Henry Cherry fought to extinction against powerful German attacks; the villages of Neffe and Mont, where combat engineers and paratroopers battled the Panzer Ichr division; Noville, where another task force under 26-year-old Major William Desobry stalemated ihe better part of the 2nd Panzer ^)i\^sion for two days; the pillbox at the southern edge of Bastogne, where 4th Annored tanks first A Sherman tank marks central Bastogne's McAuliffe Square, named for the made contact with the surrounded U.S. garrison; defiant U.S. general who penned the famed "Nuts!" reply to the Germans. the Bois Jacques woods sout:h of Foy, where the 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment (including Easy Company of Band of Brothers fame), fought the Magaret, soldiers from various unils, including Combat ComGermans, the snow and the cold from the dubious shelter of mand Reserve of the 9th Armored Division, Combat Command crude foxholes, many of which still remain. B of the 10th Armored Division, the 28th Infantry Division and the newly arrived 101 st Airborne Division, made an epic stand in worsening weather against a numerically superior German attacking force. The Germans surrounded them and demanded surrender. In response, tbe American commander. General

Some of the suburbs ihal ring Bastogne feature historical markers that explain each village's role in ihe battle. Bul the sight of bullet- and shrapnel-scarred churches and stone bams tells the story of the bulge like nothing else can. ^

War Tete-^-Tete Whoever said the uniform makes the man clearly never got conked on ihe bean. Identify the follov/ing helmets:

B.

Soldier to Statesman

The Ides of March

Officer to officeholder is a career path well traveled. Match each commander to his later political role:

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A. Gen. Napoleon Bonaparte

1. Which Egyptian monarch vied for alliance with hoth Gaius Julius Caesar and Marc Antony? A. Cleopatra VTI B. Seii II C. Ptolemy XII D. Ramses III

B. General-in-Chief Cao Cao C. Gen. Titus Flavius Vespasianus D. 2nd Lt. Winston Churchill

E.

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E. Gen. Lucius Cornelius Sulla F. Lt. Gen. Oliver Cromwell G. Col. Jefferson Davis H. Gen. Charles de Gaulle L Maj. Gen. Andrew Jackson J. Gen. George Marshall

1. Dictator of Rome 2. Lord Protector of the Commonwealth 3. U.S. Secretary of State 4. President of France 5. President of the United States , 6. Fmperor of France 7. Emperor of Rome _ 8 . King of Wei 9. U.S. Secretary of War 10. Prime Minister of Britain

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We recognize that lean and hungry look in your eyes. Time to review the events that transformed Rome into an empire.

2. What was the final battle Caesar won against the late Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus' followers before returning to Rome—and assassination? A. Pharsalus B. Ruspina C. Thapsus D. Munda 3. At which battle were Mare Antony and Gaius Julius Caesar Oetavianus on the same side? A. Alesia B. Pharsalus C. Philippi D. Actium

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6. Kahuto 1. g 8. Brodie 9. Morion

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4. In which climactic sea hattie were Antony and Octavian on opposite sides? A. Alesia B. Pharsalus C. Philippi D. Actium

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Weapons we're glad they never built Capo Ferro's Comic Commandos By Elwood H. Smith

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idolfo Capo Feiro, Italy's foremost fencing master, boasted a wit even sharper than his rapier. Although opponents pored over his manual. The Art and Use oj Fencing (circa 1610), Capo Ferro blindsided them with his virtuosic humor, leaving them in stitches—literally. The Militare ltaliano, sensing a unique opportunity.

hired Capo Ferro to create a special unit. Capo Ferro's Comic Commandos, to rid the Sicilian coastline of Barbary pirates. On its final mission, the unit encountered a barbarous Corsair on a beach near Palermo and unleashed a barrage of surefire jokes at the puzzled Algerian. Alas, Capo Ferro's unit was wiped out due to its atrocious Arabic, | ^