Military History 2011-05

•_'etters Assessing the Culture of Cruelty while 1 thoroughly enjoyed Mark Felton's article ["Culture of Cruelty," January] on Japan's cruelty in World War II, Felton left the impression that an unhroken continuum of Japanese cruelty existed from the early 17th century up through World War II, Philip Towle of Cambridge University wrote an article for Military/ Affairs in 1975 wherein he asserted: "Since 1945 it has usually heen argued that the ill treatment of prisoners hy the Japanese during the Second World War was the result of their traditional attitudes. They helieved that people who surrendered in wartime were heneath contempt and treated them accordingly. However, it is not true to say that the Japanese have always acted this way. On the only other occasion when the Japanese fought a major war with a European country, in the war against Russia in 1904-05 in Manchuria, they behaved with admirable humanity and restraint towards their European prisoners. Indeed, the European observers at the front were agreed that they behaved far better than the Russians did," So, if the Japanese had traditionally treated prisoners, internees and hostages with cruelty, why did they alter their behavior for the Russo-Japanese War? Towle's observation: "Why did Japanese behavior change between 1905 and the 1930s? In 1904 they desperately needed European support (and particularly British) to prevent other countries going to Russia's help... .Once again it appears probable that Japanese behavior changed considerably during the following three decades. Such changes may have been influenced by the fact that the Japanese no

longer felt the need to satisfy Western standards and by changes in Japanese society itself. Both explanations are probably partially correct; certainly they are nearer the truth than those that suggest that the Japanese invariably treated their prisoners badly." I must reluctantly Coat my stick with Towle's thesis rather than Eelton's, but only as it relates to any absolute historical continuum of cruelty Japanese wartime cruelty is certainly worthy of exposure and condemnation and Eelton has performed this necessary historical task most admirably. Li. Col Frank X. Weiss U.S. Army (Ret.) BAYSIDE, N.Y.

1 enjoy reading Military History, even as our unit continues to make it here in the Middle East. My explosive ordnance disposal technicians all read it and find many parallels from the past to the present. However, "Culture of Cruelty" was a mismatch for the magazine. Especially for readers still serving, the lessons drawn

from it are actually quite dangerous, as it attempts to sell the idea that cruelty in war is a product of the culture, and that Japan, by reason of her history, had a special proclivity for it. Much as some people would like to continue the propaganda narratives of over half a century ago, the Japanese were not alone in this. Captain Al Johnson U.S. Army CAMP ARIFJAN KUWAIT

Thank you for publishing "The Culture of Cruelty" Humanity's ability to turn to cruelty based on the demonization of enemies is a truly frightening thing. I would have liked to have read more about General Sadao Araki. When the Japanese army returned frorn Russia after World War I, the army was severely downsized. To take care of the officers, military training was instituted in every middle school under the supervision of a serving officer. In addition, everyjapanese male was required to en-

ter the service for a period of time. The mysticism about dying for the emperor and treating other races as beasts was largely created by Araki and was constantly reinforced in school and the army for two generations, Ray Panko HONOLULU, HAWAII

In contrast to Mark Eelton's excellent article on Japanese cruelty in World War II is their treatment of at least 5,000 Jews in Shanghai, China, during the same period, 1 had an uncle and aunt who fled from Austria to Shanghai and survived, ending up very successful citizens after the war. When the German ambassador to Japan demanded the Japanese turn the Jews [in Shanghai] over to the Germans, he was refused. The Japanese may have looked on Jews there as tenacious survivors and respected that, Leon Hyman KAILUA-KONA, HAWAII

Seeley Honored I would like to thank your magazine for the article on I Victoria Cross recipient] William Seeley [ "Britain's American Hero," by Stephen Harding, March], In May 2009, with the consent of the Seeley family, three members of the Military Collectors' Club of Canada Iwww.mccofc orgl, with the assistance of the Victoria Cross and George Cross Associa-

tion, placed an overdue headstone [above] on the grave site of William Henry Harrison Seeley at Fvergreen Cemetery in Stoughton, Mass. WR. Mullen, CD GuELPH, ONTARIO

Tory Americans Thomas B. Allen's article "One Revolution, Two

Wars," in the January 2011 issue of Miíiíary History, reminds us that the American Revolution was in many regards a civil war—much the same as those fought in other countries (and in our ovm between 1861 and 1865). Loyalists/Tories, those residents of what was declared in 1776 the United States of America who fought for their sovereign king, were Americans, just as much as were the eventually victorious Patriots. Ancestors of members of both sides had lived for several generations in the territory that became the United States. The fact they were on the losing side of the conflict does not

change their status as Americans, even though they would have had it otherwise. That said, I wonder why the Loyalist/Tory casualty figures are not included with those of the Patriots when calculating American casualties of the Revolutionary War. The casualty figures for the opposing sides in the Civil War are often combined. Sept. 17, 1862, the date of the one-day Battle of Antietam, is widely reported to be the most costly single day in terms of American casualties—because the figures of dead, wounded, etc., are combinations of Confederate and Federal reports. This seems logical and appropriate.

It seems illogical and inappropriate that the same accounting method is not applied to the Revolutionary War. Doing so would help us gain a better appreciation of what the Revolutionary War was all about. Herbert N. Clark ELIOT, MAINE

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These are just a few of the questions that you will probably ask yourself if you are interested in getting your degree or simply taking a course or two. We invite you to join us for a series of virtual open houses and complimentary history program webinars to learn more about American Military University and how online education works.

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ILITARY HISTORY

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News

By Brendan Manley

DISPATCHES Funds Sought for Winters Statue

Dick Winters parachuted into Normandy on D-Day and led his company into popular memory.

DocumentaryfilmmakerTun Gray |\v\v\v. liiiigravnicdia com] is seeking funds to raise a statue in Normandy, France, honoring the late Dick Winters of Band of Brothers fame (sec obituary at left). The larger-than-life hronze by sculptor Stephen Spears [www.spcarscreative -'"•lii) aimj is scheduled ^ lor completion this I \ car. The Hang ä Tough 6-6-44 S wristhand| campaigns

Dick Winters, 92, 'Easy Company' Commander, Band of Brothers Hero Richard "Dick" Winters, the charismatic U.S. 101st Airborne Division paratroop officer immortalized in Stephen Ambrose's World War 11 best seller Band of Brothers and the acclaimed HBO miniseries, died in January after a lengthy bout with Parkinson's disease. On June 6, 1944, D-Day then-lst Lt. Winters parachuted into Nonnandy, France, with the men of Company E, 2nd Battalion, 306th Parachute Infantry Regiment. As acting company commander (anti-aircraft fire had downed his superior's plane), Winters spearheaded an assault on a battery of four German 105mm howitzers overlooking Utah Beach, landing zone of the U.S. 4th Infantry Division. With just 13 men he threaded through defensive trenches, capturing and destroying each gun in tum and overwhelming a platoon of enemy soldiers. First Army Lt. Gen. Omar Bradley presented him the Distinguished Service Cross for the action.

From Normandy, Winters led "Easy Company" through France, Belgium and the Netherlands into Germany, participating in Operation Market Garden, the Battle of the Bulge and countless smaller engagements and eventually rising to command 2nd Battalion. He weathered the full range of wartime combat experiences, from shivering in frozen, mortar-ravaged foxholes at Bastogne in 1944 to helping capture Adolf Hitler's Eagle's Nest retreat above Berchtesgaden on May 5, 1945. Three days later Winters and his men toasted V-E Day with champagne from the führefs 10,000-bottle cellar. Recalled to active duty during the Korean War, he served stateside as a training officer and later attended Ranger School at Fort Benning, Ga. He left the service for good in 1951. Interviewed by Ambrose in 1990, Winters suggested the author tell the story of D-Day through the eyes of "Easy Company"

'The company belonged to the men—the officers were merely the caretakers' —Dick Winters, in Beyond Band of Brothers

I u'vvw.hangtough6644.orgl, brainchild of 11-year-old Jordan Brown, has alone contributed more than $30,000 toward the statue.

Sotheby's Auctions Custer's'Last Flag' This winter Sotheby's | www sothcbys.conil sold a 7th Cavalry guidon recovered by a burial detail in Montana Territory within days

of the June 2T, 1S76, Battle of the Little Bighorn—Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer's inlamous "last stand." The Detroit Institute of Arts Iwww.dia.orgI bought the flag from a collector in 1895 for $54 and netted $1.9 million from the recent sale.

USPS,U.S.Mint Mark Civil War The U.S. Postal Service [www ,usps.com] and U.S. Mint [www.usmint.govl are marking the Civil War sesquicentennial with commemo-

rative stamps and coins, respectively. On April 12 USPS will kick off an annual (through 2015) series with first-class stamps depicting the 1861 clashes at Fort Sumter, S.C, and Manassas, Va. In 2011, as part of its ongoing America the Beautiful Quarters Program, the mint will release coins depicting the Gettysburg, Va., and Vicksburg, Miss., national military parks.

China to Rebuild WWII Stilwell Road Chinese and Burmese work crews will soon rebuild a 194-mile stretch of the oncevital StilweU Road that linked India and Burma during World War II. Its namesake, U.S. General Joseph StilweU, oversaw construction of the 479-mile route in 1942-45 and used it to supply Chinese nationalist forces resist-

o

ingjapanese occupation. Although expected to boost trade, some fear the new road may also facilitate Chinese intervention along the Burmese-Indian border.

MILÍTARY HrSTORY

Géraldine Doyle, 86, aka 'Rosie the Riveter' Géraldine Doyle, real-life model for the iconic wartime WE CAN DO IT! poster of "Rosie the Riveter," died last December. In 1941 Doyle (née HofO, was a 17-year-old metal factory worker in Ann Arbor, Mich., when a United Press photographer snapped a photo of her at work. Transformed into a Westinghouse motivational poster, the image would personify the World War II workforce efforts of 20 million American women. The "Rosie" moniker, inextricabl\ linked to the poster, actually made Us debut in a 1942 Kay Kyser big-band hit wi 11 u n In Redd Evans and John Jacob Loeb. Ironically, Doyle, a cellist who feared for her hands, quit her factory job after just two weeks,

'She's making history / Working for victory' —"Rosie the Riveter" (1942)

New Visitor Center for Fort McHenry This March the National Park Service will officially open a new $15 million visitor center at Baltimore's Fort McHenry National Monument | www .nps.gov/fomc], site of the famed ramparts in Francis Scott Key's "Star-Spangled Banner." On Sept. 13,1814, Key was being held aboard a Royal Navy ship in Chesapeake Bay when British ships opened fire on the fort with mortars and Congreve rockets. Defenders survived the bombardment and.

WAR RECORD With the spring thaw comes renewed effort on the battlefield, spurring heroic acts of strength, determination and innovation, as well as moments of pitiable cowardice and stirring redemption. Witness the following: • April 10,1896: In a re-creation of Athenian messenger Pheidippides' mythical 490 Bc sprint home with news of victory from Marathon (see P 60), competitors run a 26.2-mile marathon at the inaugural modern Summer Olytnpic Games, in Athens, Greece. • April 30.1863: Sixty-five besieged French legionnaires hold off some 2,000 Mexican infantry and cavalry for several hours at Camarón— a battle that would define the Foreign Legion (see P 28).

• May 12.1775: The unit that would become "by dawn's early light," defi- ï the Continental Artillery antly raised a massive Amer-1 Regitnent forms in ican flag "o'er the ramparts." I Cambridge, Mass., appointing The sight inspired Key to pen | John Callender as a captain. the poem that a century lat-1 Callender is cashiered for er became the U.S. national < cowardice at Bunker Hill anthem. 1 that June but redeems __ g himself a year later at The new ï Brooklyn Heights (see P 68). 17,200-sq-ft| center offers | • May 21.1943: The Soviet an expand- î Union establishes its Central ed reception s Women's School for Sniper area and gift shop, new exTraining, which produces hibits and a "theater immer1,061 snipers and 407 sion experience" that presents instructors within two years. the battle from Key's perspecIt alumnae teach German tive. Past visitors take heart: soldiers hard lessons about The ending still incorporates female shooters (see P 44). Old Glory itself.

Cohen, 89, Father of Neutron Bomb Physicist Samuel Cohen died last December, more than a hall-century after he invented the neutron homh. Cohen, a Manhattan Project staffer, crafted the warhead he called "ihe most sane and rnoral weapon ever devised"

in 1958. The device emits short-lived suhatotnic panicles that kill all life-forms while leaving armor and structures relatively unscathed. Nuke opponents feared it would he too effective. The United States briefly developed the weapon in the lQ80s before retiring it at the end of the Cold War.

DOD Marks U.S. Entry into Vietnam This year the Department of Defense | www.defense gov] will host events marking the 50th anniversary of Atnericas entry into the Vietnam War. Objectives are five-fold: to honor veterans and their families; to highliglit tlie armed forces' role in the conflict; to recognize *

m civilian contributions on the home front; to spotlight wartime advances in military research; and to acknowledge America's wartime allies. For event specifics visit the project Weh site [www.vielnam war50th.com].

The archives accused Thomas Lowry of changing the date on an 1864 Abraham Lincoln pardon.

National Archives Bans Historian for Life over Altered Lincoln Pardon The National Archives [www.archives.gov] has pertnanently banned a recognized Abraham Lincoln expert from its research facilities after learning he had altered an original pardon signed by the wartime president, changing the date frotrt April 14, 1864, to April 14, 1865—the day Lincoln was assassinated. Virginia historian and psychiatrist Thomas P Lowry came across the paper while siftitig through the archives in 1998 and allegedly altered the document to inflate its historical import and make a name for himself in the process. Lowry cited the falsified pardon in bis subsequent book Don't Shoot That Boy: Abraham Lincoln and Military Justice (1999). The pardon in question was for Private Patrick Murphy of Califomia, a mentally incompetent Union soldier court-martialed for desertion in 1863. Upon reviewing the trial proceedings, which described Murphy as "idiotic and insane," Lincoln forgave the condemned soldier and released him from serv-

ice—a kindness Lowry passed off as one of Lincoln's final acts. In light of the "discovery," archivists placed the docutnetit on special exhibition in the Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom at the National Archives building in Washington, D.C. The forgery might have remained unnoticed were it not for the keen eyes of archivist Trevor Plante, who reported his suspicions to the National Archives Office of Inspector General. An investigative archivist confirmed the docutnent had been altered. Ironically, the inspector general's office first asked Lowry for help in its search for the perpetrator, but the historian broke off contact after learning the nature of the itiquiry. He allegedly confessed during a follow-up interview in January but has since recanted. The archives referred the matter to the Department of Justice for prosecution, but the statute of limitations had expired. The archives was less forgiving.

'Fame comes to men in many strange ways' —Thomas P. Lowry

News Clocking Time at Armageddon A team of international scholars and archaeologists [hllp://niegiddo.tau.ac.il] hopes to create a timeline of human history based on the densely stratified ruins atop Israel's Mount Megiddo, the

biblical Armageddon, where, according to the Book of Revelation, mankind's final battle is to unfold. The 50foot manmade mount comprises the remains of 29 cities built from 3000 to 300 BC. By pinpointing layers keyed to specific historical events— disasters, conquests, etc.— researchers will have a reference with which to date other sites from antiquity.

Did Legions Father Chinese Villagers? Recent DNA testing of residents of Liqian, China, found that their genes are 56 percent Caucasian, lending credence to a theory tbat a "lost

legion" of Roman soldiers settled in Asia. Marching for General Marcus Crassus, the legionaries purportedly fled the brutal 53 BC rout at Carrhae by the Parthians— during wbich Crassus was killed—tben later served as mercenaries during China's war with the Huns.

MILITARY HISTORY

USS Revenge, Perry's First Ship, Resurfaces Following a five-year hunt off Rhode Island, a team of amateur divers has discovered the wreckage of the 14gun schooner USS Revenge, the first com mand of American naval icon OUver Hazard Perry. The team uncovered four 60-inch and two 42-inch cannon (Perry is believed to have jettisoned the other eight guns), canister shot, an anchor and other relics at the undisclosed site.

Revenge sank on Jan. 8, 1811, after striking a reef in fog. Absolved of blame but lacking a ship. Perry made a decision t h a t ! would leave a g mark on n a - ° val history, re-1 questing com- " mand of the nascent Great Lakes Fleet. It was there on Sept. 10, 1813, that P e r r y flying his signature DON'T GIVE UP THE SHIP banner—

defeated a Royal Navy fleet at the Battle of Lake Erie.

'The American colors must not be pulled down over my head today'

—Oliver Hazard Perry

'Message in a Bottie' Speaks of Vicksburg It took more than a century, but Museum of the Confederacy I www.moc.orgl researchers have finally uncorked and decoded an encrypted message that has been sealed in a glass bottle since July 4,1863—the day Confederate forces under Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant at Vicksbutg. Miss. The six-line message, likely from Texas Division Maj. Gen. John G. Walker, expresses the sender's regrets for his inability to render aid. An officer of Walker's donated the bottle to the Richmond museum in 1896. The note is written in the Vi-^ genere cipher commonly used by Confederates during the war. g

WAR IN THE RED Museums nationwide are struggling through the ongoing economic crisis. Militarythemed collections now on "restricted rations" include: • National Infantry Museum:

The $107-million, 190,000square-foot complex [www.nationalinfantry museum.com] near Fort Benning, Ga. opened in June 2009 but still needs roughly $ 11 million to complete construction. Lagging revenues have yet to provide the needed capital. •

Ernie Pyle State Historic Site:

The Dana, Ind., boyhood home of the Pulitzerwinning World War II correspondent [www.indiana museum.org/sites/emi .html ] closed in 2010 due to state budget cuts. The nonprofit Friends of Frnie Pyle hopes to raise $1 million to reopen. • National Museum of Patriotism: This shrine to Atnerican pride and valor [ www.museumofpatriotism o I);! closed its doors in Atlanta last summer after six years of operation, morphing into a nonprofit with plans to present "virtual exhibits" online. •

Stonewall Jackson House:

Caretakers of Jackson's Lexington, Va., home/ museum [www.sioncwall jackson.org] sold it to the Virginia Military Institute |\vwvv.\'ini.edu| in December Visitation has fallen 38 percent since its 1991 peak.

Interview Gideon Rose: A Looit at How Wars End

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o underscore the importance of postwar planning, Gideon Rose has dedicated his book. How Wars End, "To the victims of bad planning. " Rose, the editor o/Foreign Affairs, studied the military conduct and diplomatic conclusions ofAmenca's wars from World War I to Iraq and noted that what happens after the shooting stops has received scant attention from historians. Smooth and effective endgames are the exception, not the rule, and Rose delivers a detailed analysis of why this pattern has persisted.

Is the problem a matter of policymakers refighting the last war or of ignoring its lessons? Policy-makers are dramatically influenced in each war by the lessons they drew from the previous war. Whether those lessons are appropriate in a new context is an open question. History can be a helpful guide to policy-making v^ihen used carefully. But history used poorly is worse than nothing at all. why has the United States often—as you observe—failed to develop an exit strategy? Because exit strategies are very difficult. Exit implies leaving, and that may not be the same thing as solving the problem. The challenge is that wars have two different elements, or aspects: They have a military aspect— fighting or coercion. And a political aspect—like the creation of a stable, durable, healthy political settlement.

4Carl von Clausewitz says that everything in war is simple, but the simplest thing is difficultf

Why do military and political leaders so often ignore the need for postwar planning? For a couple of reasons: First, people focus obsessively on the military aspects of war, the coercive aspects, and they don't think about the political, constructive, aspects. We think of war as a negative act of beating up an enemy, rather than as a constructive act. The real challenge in war is connecting the two.

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Why do national leaders fail to heed Carl von Clausevñtz's advice, quoted in your book, "thinking through clearly in advance what a particular war is supposed to achieve"? That's one of those things that is easy to say, but is hard to do. The real answer is that they haven't bothered in practice, over time, to think about these things as carefully as they should have.

MILITARY HISTORY

What kinds of exit strategies has the United States tried? Essentially, the exit strategy that the United States has found is that there is no exit strategy. We are still in Germany, for instance. I would argue that "Clear, Hold and Build" is what the U.S. has done around the world over time. Germany is nothing more than Faluja writ large: World War J is best understood as a clearing operation for Germany. We left Europe after-

ward, and the same problems recurred, then we're back in Germany clearing it again in World War II. We did the same thing in Japan, and we're still there. We did the same thing in Korea, and we're still in South Korea. When we have just exited, as in Vietnam, it's been when we have washed our hands of an area and let chaos reign. Is this difficulty in ending a war just an American problem? Or is it common to modern warfare? It's inherent in the nature of war. The dual-faced nature of war, the coercive and the constructive, is at the heart of war itself. Those two elements form what I call the Clausewitzian challenge: How do you make force serve politics? It is very, very difficult to do. Historically, other countries have done just as badly at this as the United States. Some even worse. Do the ways that a war is fought shape the peace that follows? Absolutely! Clausewitz says that the main lines of war are political and continue from the war into the postwar strategy. And a lot of times what you do during the war has a dramatic effect on the postwar environment. One way of thinking about it is, if there is any goal that you absolutely positively want to achieve, it's best to achieve it before the fighting stops. Because once the shooting stops, things freeze up, and even fluid situations can become much less so. Should preparing for a postwar peace be part of the military's mission? Can it be? Yes. War is a partnership between military and political leaderships and organizations. It can't be one or the other. This makes it inherently difficult and messy. There is a great temptation to simplify matters by creating a clear division of respon-

sibility, in which military officers and military organizations should deal with the fighting, and civilians should deal with the political matters. This is logical on its surface but in practice it's been absolutely disastrous every single time it's been tried. Because the fact is, everything is politico-military.

the Confederacy and re-establish it as part of the American polity. We needed something like unconditional surrender in that context, because it was a total war. What was wrong with the post-World War I Versailles settlement? There were two things wrong with Versailles. The first was that it was

Who, in American history, understood that idea and acted accordingly? George Marshall, obviously, is very good in this regard. And Dwight Eisenhower, who not only understood this stuff when he became president, but even beforehand. Are you referring to the end of World War II in Europe? The real problem in World War II at that point was not that the United States should have broken with the Soviets earlier, it was that they should have had a backup plan in case there was a break. We all know about the Berlin Airlift and the heroism involved, but the airlift was necessary only because those involved in postwar planning never specified how to supply isolated West Berlin should the Soviets decide to hold it hostage. Americans have often been fond of "unconditional surrender," But when ending a war, is that a useful concept? It depends. Unconditional surrender is best understood as buying a free hand for what to do after the surrender is achieved. Whether that is a useful goal depends on what is planned for the postwar era. If the goals are less than total, it's a high price to pay for something that is not necessary. If all you want to achieve is a status quo ante—if somebody invades and you want to push them back across the line—there's no need for unconditional surrender. In our Civil War the goal was to conquer

overly punitive to Germany. And the second was that it did not ultimately resolve the security dilemmas in Europe. A good settlement of a war is one that leaves all the powerful parties satisfied with the outcome, and no unsatisfied parties particularly powerful. Versailles was the opposite. Who developed the wiser settlement that occurred after World War II? It's fascinating. There was a whole set of lessons from the failures of

the World War I settlement, and plans were developed in the late 1930s and the '40s. Franklin D. Roosevelt is the key. Before America entered the war, in the spring of 1940, British and American military authorities worked out the details for a campaign in Europe—here's how we're going to go across the continent. They added Russia into the plans after the Germans attacked the Russians, During the early '40s, they put in place a whole array of policies for the postwar period. It's the Roosevelt administration, with some rejiggering under Harry S. Truman. Roosevelt and Truman, Marshall, Dean Acheson, Eisenhower—those are the key people, and they did a great job. After this book, do you have a sense of "dos and don'ts" about bow to ensure that postwar settlements match grand strategy? Yes, Clausewitz says that everything in war is simple, but the simplest thing is difficult. And that is true of grand strategy as well. What you should do with your postwar planning is easy to say and hard to execute. It's not rocket science: Follow professional best practices; have a clear vision of what you want to achieve on the ground after the war; develop a strategy for achieving that; monitor the implementation of that strategy to see that it actually works out; think through and make explicit your assumptions. And develop backup plans in case the crucial assumptions turn out not to be valid, or if things go worse than you're expecting. We shouldn't kid ourselves. War and the political aspects of war are incredibly difficult. The creation of a postwar settlement that's stable, durable and better than the status quo ante is an extraordinarily challenging task. (^

We Learned... from Mount Gilboa, 1006 BC By Richard A. Gabriel

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he Israelite victory at Michmash Pass (1010 BC) sparked a popular uprising that ejected Philistine outposts from the Israelite hill cotmtry. Sattl's control of the foothills thwarted outright frontal assaults, so Philistine comtnanders decided to make an end run around Israelite defenses.

Saul anchored his right wing on its steep north face, his line running west in a downhill semicircle. His left wing defended the western foothills, backed as tight against steep terrain as tactical wisdom permitted. The Israelites were perfectly deployed to accomplish three things: First, to absorb the Philistine main attack and gradually withdraw uphill until chariots could no longer follow, turning the battle into an infantry engagement. Second, to fight I both a tactically and strateè gically defensive battle; Saul I could never hope to overcome s Philistine numerical superiorI ity. Third, if things went badly, i to quickly break contact and I retreat over the mountain to I fight another day. The Philistine attack came against Saul's center and left, pressing the Israelites hard all along the line. The Philistines soon gained the upper hand, for the Bible tells us, "The IsraSaul chose well when he positioned his army at elites fled before them." At the center the attackers "pressed Gilboa, but he failed to note flanking Philistine hard" after Saul and "killed chariots, lost the battle and fell on his sword. his sons" (I Samuel 31: 2). On the left they simply pinned the IsAssembling near the coast at Aphek, raelites against the foothills to restrict the Philistines paralleled the Judean their range of maneuver. ridge, crossing into the Jezreel Valley through one of the Carmel passes. They Where were the Philistine chariots? encamped at Shunem, on the south Some accompanied the infantry attack, slope of Mount Moreh. but any Philistine commander worth Saul shadowed the Philistine adhis salt would have balked at the steep vance, moving his army along the Juterrain. The few engaged were a diverdean ridge to Mount Gilboa, across the sion. No more than a mile south of valley floor from Mount Moreh. The Saul's left wing, a gentle slope led to slopes of Mount Gilboa offered the the surnmit of Mount Gilboa. PhilisIsraelites clear observation, interior tine chariots swung wide, charged up lines of communication, good defenthis slope and gained the heights above sive terrain and an avenue of retreat. and behind the Israelites. From this

vantage they poured down murderous arrow fire until the Israelites broke and fled, "The fighting grew fierce around Saul, and when the archers overtook hiin, they wounded him critically Saul said to his armor-bearer, 'Draw your sword and run me through, or these uncircutncised fellows will come and run me through and abuse me.' But his armor-bearer was terrified and would not do it; so Saul took his own sword and fefl on it" (I Samuel 31:3-4). Saul's death broke the back of Israelite power in the central hills, but the Philistines made no effort to occupy the south, permitting their loyal vassal, David of Judah, to rule Hebron. David expanded his standing among his fellow Israelites until strong enough to rise against his Philistine masters —with consequences that shook the ancient world.

Lessons: • Exploit the home-field advantage. The Philistine commander knew the terrain better than Saul, to the latter's ultimate demise. • Fool 'em. The Philistine commander deceived Saul into thinking the frontal assault was the main thrtist when it was only a fixing attack, giving Philistine chariots room to maneuver. • Be aware of what's not happening. Saul knew the Philistine army was chariot heavy and had watched their units assemble in plain sight. Yet he failed to ask, "Where are the Philistine chariots?" • Follow Patton's advice: "Grab them by the nose and kick thetn in the pants!" The Philistine commander pinned Saul's left wing in place, permitting his chariots to flank the Israelites. • Always secure your avenue of retreat. Saul failed to assign even a small force to this important mission. • Follow through. The Philistines' decision to make nice with David would come back to haunt them, fflft

The Cliff-Scaling Captain By Chuck Lyons

Hiram Bearss U.S. Marine Corps Medal of Honor The Philippines November 17,1901

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iram Bearss earned his first major decoration, the Medal of Honor, in the Philippines for leading his men down booby-trapped jungle trails, across a tropical river and up sheer volcanic cliffs to overrun a Filipino facility enemy POWs had called "impregnable." It was the first of many decorations. Bearss was born in Indiana in 1875, commissioned a Marine Corps second lieutenant in 1898 and served stateside during the Spanish-Ainerican War. Protnoted to first lieutenant in May 1899, he was sent to serve under Major Littleton "Tony" Waller in the PhiUppines. There, on the island of Samar, Filipino General Vicente Lukbán had es-

tablished a resistance base atop the Sohoton Cliffs, 16 tniles north of the coastal town of Basey. Filipino prisoners warned Waller the position had been years in the making and could not be taken. Commanding practically sheer 200-foot cliffs the prisoners claimed were "impossible to climb," the position was booby-trapped, defended by bamboo cannon and honeycornbed with caves and tunnels that allowed defenders to move about undetected. The Filipino defenders had also suspended tons of rock in woven nets, ready to be loosed on anyone attempting to scale the cliffs. Nonetheless, in tnid-November 1901, Waller led an amphibious assault force of 75 men with a 3-inch field gun up the Sohoton River against the position. He assigned Bearss, by then a captain, to lead a second group of Marines toting a Colt-Browning machine gun by land from Basey, while a third group under Captain David Dixon Porter marched from Balangiga to rendezvous with Bearss. The plan was for the two land columns to attack at daybreak as Waller created a diversion. Bearss carefully led his troops from the coast along snake-infested jungle trails booby-trapped with trees rigged with poisoned spears and concealed pits embedded with poisoned stakes. Joining forces on the riverbank opposite the Filipino stronghold. Porter and Bearss' columns surprised and overran several enemy positions. Though Waller's column had yet to arrive, the captains decided to press their advantage and assault the clifftop stronghold. It was Nov. 17,1901. Sergeant John Quick provided covering fire with the machine gun as the assault force crossed the river The Marines negotiated another booby-trapped

trail to the base of the cliffs, then began scaling its face on makeshift bamboo ladders and along narrow ledges fitted with bamboo handrails. Quicks fire kept the Filipinos from loosing the rock-filled nets, but the defenders kept up a steady hail of tnusket fire, arrows and spears and fought the Marines hand to hand as they worked their way up the cliff face. Bearss led the way. "1 had blown tny mouth so long to the tnen," he later wrote, "that I wouldn't order them anywhere 1 wouldn't go —that 1 didn't have the guts to tell the fellow behind me to go first." It was over quickly. Bears and his men destroyed an enemy powder magazine, 40 small cannon and other supplies and raised the American flag to let Waller know the position had been secured. The Marines had killed 30 insurgents in the action without incurring a single casualty. Bearss continued to serve in the Philippines and later in Latin America, reaching the rank of major in 1915 and lieutenant colonel the following year At the outbreak of World War 1, he accompanied the 5th Marines to France, trained troops in trench warfare tactics and led them into combat. After the war, Bearss served briefly in Paris and then Philadelphia and at Quantico before, bedeviled by medical problems, he retired in late November 1919 at the rank of colonel. By that time he had earned 18 decorations including a Distinguished Service Cross, Navy and Anny Distingitished Service Medals, a Silver Star, the French Legion d'honneur and Croix de guerre with two palms, and the Italian Crocc di Guerra. President Franklin Roosevelt awarded Bearss his long overdue Medal of Honor in 1934, and two years later he was promoted to brigadier general. Ironically, given the extensive combat he had survived, Bearss died in an automobile accident near Columbia City, Itid., on Aug. 27,1938. He is buried in his hometown of Peru, Ind. fflö

Hand T(

By Jon Guttman

Hand Signals The vocabulary of battlefield stealth

T

he art of communication by means of hand signals is as old as, well, hands. In scouting situations or close combat, when audible communications of any son tnight alert the enemy to one's position, soldiers soon learned the value of silently passing information via hand signals. The signals shown here are specific to the U.S. Army during and just after World War II. Other countries used their own variations. As weapons and tactics advanced, the vocabulary grew, as did the signaling repertoire. For example, the average American platoon in Vietnam used many more signals than had their World War II predecessors. The universal aspect was that everyone in one's unit—regardless of rank—needed to be intimately familiar with the signals. On the front lines any failure to pass the word, quickly and accurately, could be fatal. (^

Attention

Action. Assault fire

Ready? Report when ready. I am ready. Prepare to move

Out of action

Forward: To the right (left). To the rear

Cover our advance

Illustrations are from R.O.T.C. Manual: Infantry, Vol. II, hy the Military Service Ihiblishing Co., Harrisburg, Pa., 1949.

Squad column or platoon column

Squad diamond

As skirmishers (squad) or platoon line

o (V

Assemhie

Enemy in sight

Range or battle sight

Commence firing

Elevate depress

Down, take cover

Platoon wedge

As skirmishers: Automatic rifie team right (left). In direction of moving arm

Fire one round

Double time. Increase speed

Cease firing

Quick time. Decrease speed. Walk

Platoon vee

Fix bayonets

Mount: Load trucks: on carts

Change direction. Shift fire

Platoon echelon right (left)

Dismount: Unload trucks: off carts

D By Jon Guttman ° Illustration hy Gregory Proch

The Russian sniper rifle that made enemies see red

The sniper version of the rifle retained open sigDite for closer-range shooting.

Early sniper versions used 4x PE or PEM scopes; later rifles had smalier 3.5x PU sights. Gunsmiths reconfigured the bolt handie to make room for the scopes.

If cornered, a sniper couid fit a socket bayonet onto the barrel end.

Ammunition poucDies heid 7.62x54mm rimmed rounds.

A sniper also carried tools with which to clean and adjust the weapon. 3— A sniper carried gun oil and cleaner in a dualcompartment container.

p h e Mosin-Nagant Model 1891 boltaction rifle combined a simple deU sign by Russian Captain Setgei Mosin with a five-round internal box magazine designed by Belgians Étnile and Léon Nagant. Entering Russian service in 1892, it remained the standard long arm of the Russian infantry through the RussoJapanese War, World War I and, in its improved 1930 Soviet version. World War II. In 1932 the Red Army pulled MosinNagants from assembly lines to modify them as sniper riñes. Gunsmiths recon-

figured the bolt handle to make room for 3.5-4x telescopic sights; raised the foresight a millimeter, allowing a sniper to use open sights on targets out to 600 meters; and lightened the trigger pull to a range of 4.4 to 5.3 pounds. Snipers still complained about the weapon's excessive length and weight, as well as its poor quality wooden stocks, which often warped during weather changes. Despite its shortcotnings, the Model 1891/30 was rugged, reliable and accurate, its average minute of arc ranging from a

Mosin-Nagant Model Í 8 9 Í / 3 0 Round: 7.62x54mm Overall length: 48.5 inches Weight: 11.3 pounds Barrel length: 28.7 inches Rifling: Four lands and grooves, with a right-hand twist

1.5 to below 1 (less than an inch over 100 meters). It proved murderously successful. In fact, German snipers reportedly preferred captured Mosin-Nagants to their own Mauser Karabiner 98k rifles. Although the Soviets also adapted the semiautomatic Tokarev SVT-40 for sniper use, it proved less accurate than the proven Mosin-Nagant, which ultimately eclipsed it. Russia produced some 330,000 Model 1891/30 snipers between 1941 and 1943. These remained in Soviet use until replaced by the Dragunov SVD in 1963. (©

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Why Do Soldiers Fight?

I

t's a question as old as warfare itself, something many an ancient general must have pondered. Most of the answers are well known: For God and country. For self-preservation, fellow soldiers and family. For a powerfully felt cause and set of beliefs —whether just or not. For honor and glory, adventure and plunder. For money, freedom and status. To prove oneself, redeem oneself, advance a career. To follow orders or a charismatic leader. To cheat death, as in this explanation by a soldier fighting in the Middle Fast: "I fight because those guys down the valley are trying to kill me and my friends." Or as in the I frontline infantry of the Soviet army in World War II, whose devotion to fighting was regularly stiffened by the presence of backup NKVD units whose job it was to shoot would-be deserters and retreaters . —a cynical and pragmatic variation on the kill-or-be-killed motivation. Answers to this age-old question may be obvious in general terms, but as with nearly every human motivation, the individual variations and combinations of answers are many—and not all of them obvious. And therein lie many endlessly fascinating war stories: What combination of motives led so many young Americans to run out and sign up for service on the occasion of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor? Similarly, perhaps, what prompted so many young Russians—male and female—to sign up on those late June days in 1941 when the armies of Nazi Germany first swept across the borders in a massive surprise invasion of the Soviet Union? There was patriotic anger and outrage at the naked aggression, and surely fear that these were truly existential threats to the home country. And perhaps a host of other motives. Then, what about the mercenaries, from 18th century Hessians to 20th century French Foreign Legionnaires, who even while paid scant wages are known to have fought with vigor—even desperation and heroism? Did they sign up to fight because they were bored? Or because they had few other options in life? Or did they—like modern-day cops who prefer crimeridden precincts—appreciate the chance for actionl Or are there other, far darker personal motives? Do some warriors just like to kill people? (J)

What Ever Happened to the

FOREIGN LEGION? CONCEIVED IN FEAR AND MISTRUST, THIS FIGHTING FORCE OF UNMANAGEABLE MISFITS AND DESERTERS SURVIVED, THRIVED AND EARNED ITS COUNTRY'S GRUDGING RESPECT BY DOUGLAS PORCH

Time was, films about the French Foreign Legion were themselves legion. EC. Wren's 1924 romantic novel. Beau Geste, unleashed a sandstorm of popular legion-inspired celluloid. Filmmakers have since released at least four movies directly based on the novel, with stars ranging from Ronald Colman to Gary Cooper and Telly Savalas, while scores of other legion-related films produced in the 20th century practically constitute their own genre of outback swashbucklers. But moviegoers' ardor for films about stouthearted maverick legionnaires has faded so in recent years (the latest iter-

ILITARY HISTORY

ation was Deserter in 2002) that the most commonly asked question about the French Foreign Legion today is, "Mon Dieu, does that thing still exist?" The legion was conceived as a provisional solution to a fleeting probletn —the migration of undesirable persons into France in the wake of revolutions throughout Europe in 1830-31. In retrospect, a military remedy to illegal immigration appears both contemporary and imaginative. The July Revolution of 1830 had resuscitated the French Revolutionary concept of a citizen army and led to disbandment of the Swiss Guards and other foreign formations that had enforced Bourbon mastery of such uprisings. To address the resulting coagulation of refugees in French cities. King Louis-Philippe on March 9, 1831, signed into law an act creating a ghetto foreign force within a citizen army. Recruiters quickly enlisted the undesirable aliens and packed them off to Algiers—et adieu, la Légion]

But the corps conceived as a mere historical footnote adhered to France like a sticky, finger-clinging sweet. Alien males continued to trespass, only to be repackaged and dispatched. In 1835 Paris sent the legion to fight in Madrid's First Carlist War Few survived, but replacements were plentiful and expendable. Even French regular

soldiers questioned the value of legionnaires whose conduct hovered somewhere between sullen recalcitrance and incipient mutiny. A French general named Ulrich, who in 1861 inspected the 1er régiment étranger at Sidi bel-Abbcs, in then French Algeria, warned that if the anny failed to disband the legion by decree, it was in danger of dissolving itself from below: "Misdetneanors, serious infractions are very frequent and denote an advanced state of demoralization," he wrote. "A regiment which counts 648 deserters, in which one does not dare hand out the munitions which each soldier must carry, in which only one pair of shoes per tnan can be distributed lest they sell them, is far from being a disciplined regiment." Two years later in Mexico those very legionnaires executed the corps' signature action at Camarón de Tejeda, Veracruz. On April 30, 1863, 62 legionnaires under Captain Jean Danjou—a Crimean War veteran with a wooden prosthetic hand—defended a walled farm called Hacienda de la Trinidad against hundreds of Mexican insurgents. At the end of the day, their ammunition exhausted, the five surviving legionnaires—Lieutenant Clement Maudet, Corporal Louis Maine and Privates Catteau, Constantin and a Prussian named Wenzel—fixed bayonets.

The long-held popular view of the legion as a band of heroic, romantic and often doomed misfits— as seen in this depiction of the April 1863 Battle of Cameron—has in recent times given way to public disenchantment with the force and its purpose.

fired a valedictory voUey and plunged to their deaths in a tsunami of sombreros. But this and other stunning exhibitions of courage failed to assure organizational tenure; Paris laid plans to hand over the legion as the nucleus of Mexican Emperor Maximilians army, until a Juárista firing squad put paid to Maximilian in June 1867. After the 1871 suppression of the Paris Commune, an act of mass fratricide in which the legion played a prominent role, and well into the post-World War II years, the French Left ritually demanded the demobilization of the "whores

1

ALGERIA The legion was first blooded during the 1830 colonization of the North African nation, and Sidi bel-Abbès remained its base into the 20th century. In 1961 legion units led a revolt when Paris floated the idea of Algerian independence.

IILITARY HISTORY

Created in 1831, the legion saw its first combat during the conquest of Algeria. The North African nation was the legion's spiritual home until 1962.

of war" who had from time to time massacred freedom-loving Frenchmen. To counter its ongoing sense of impermanence, the legion concocted its own "hallowed traditions."

W

hile the Régimení de marche de la Legion étrangère (RMLF)

emerged from World War 1 as one of the most decorated units in CARLIST WAR In 1833 the French governtnent sent the legion to Spain to help Madrid resist the forces of Carlos V, pretender to the throne, who was attempting to usurp the queen regent, Maria Christina, and the infant Queen Isabella II.

the French army, RMLE commander from May 1917 Lt. Col. Paul Rollet worried that high casualties and a dearth of replacements would fold the legion on the Western Front—fortunately, the Hindenburg Line caved before the RMLE ran short of rifles. After the war. Rollet, now inspector general of the legion, fretted that the old legion had died on Vimy Ridge, in Champagne and Verdun and on the Chemin des Dames. New recruits were sober, callow versions of their prewar predecessors, known in legion etymology as "transplants" rather than "the upMEXICO The legion played a vital role in the 1862-66 French effort to subdue Mexico, in the process enjoying both signilicant victories and the heroic last stand at Cameron that would later prove central to ihe legion's mythology.

Proud legionnaires, each wearing the legion's signature white kepi, pose for an 1890s studio portrait. Much of the legion's allure stems from its elite status.

tradition would reaffirm the legion's rooted," who only dreamed of towns status in its own eyes as the only truly and women and whose parents filed professional corps in an overwhelmserial petitions for their discharge. ingly conscript army. Rollet lamented that defeated White Russians who joined the legion en Rollet chose the legion's 1931 cenmasse after November 1920 were "bad tenary celebration at Sidi bel-Abbès, soldiers, insubordinate, not good fightAlgeria—held not on its true March 9 ers, lacking esprit de corps." birthday but on April 30, the Camarón anniversary^as the venue for his rollNo battle-hardened sergeants reout of legion "tradition." Numerous mained to whip this rabble of German dignitaries observed the grand unveilschoolboys, Muscovite mobsters and ing of a retro uniform incorporating "Orientals" from Asia Minor into fightthe white kepi, blue cummerbund and ing form. When French officers who red-and-green epaulettes over khaki had spent time as prisoners in Gerclothing in place of standard-issue many were sent to the legion to acFrench army garb. Those gathered quire command time for promotion, consecrated Sidi bel-Abbès—with its they so abused German legionnaires that many opted to desert. Doubts about legion discipline, solidity and adaptability made some commanders reluctant to commit them to combat in North Africa and Syria in 1925. Rollet was distressed to the point of distraction by what he viewed as assaults on the legion by novelists, filmmakers and even in the sensationalist memoirs of alleged ex-legionnaires, tales that inevitably culminated, as in Beau Geste, in Jean Danjou's venerated wooden dramatic desertion. hand proved an integral symbol of Paul Rollet's boosterish effort to To counter France's postwar aminstill the post-World War I legion bivalence about the legion. Rollet with pride in its own storied history. reached into the past to resurrect, reaffirm, restructure and even invent symbols, practices and lore that ofcemetery, war monument and relifered visible links between the historquary containing Danjou's wooden ical and the post-1918 corps. This hand—as the legion's Lourdes, a place would, he reasoned, legitimize the of pilgrimage and renewal. The date legion in the eyes of recruits, instill became a celebration of regimental a sense of continuity with past genlegitimization, a behavioral model that erations and inculcate values and provided a link across the World War I standards of behavior by making lechasm between the old and new legionnaires custodians of supposedly gions, a grasp at perpetuity for an accihallowed practices. And, he hoped. dental, transitory unit. WORLD WAR I While the

o CM

legion performed well, the conflict virtually wiped out the cadre of prewar NCOs and midlevel officers that had formed the legion's core; as a result, it took years to shape postwar recruits into a cohesive force.

WORLDWARIlThel940 fall of France led to the legion's split into two opposing forces; one fighting for the puppet Vichy regime, the other for the Free French. At war's end thousands of former German soldiers swelled the legion's ranks.

But legion exceptionalism and tradition could not guarantee survival. During the 1954-62 Algerian War, negotiators floated the idea of partitioning Algeria between Muslims and Furopean Pieds-noirs, leaving the legion to defend the latter. That was, of course, before April 1961, when legion units spearheaded the failed putsch against French President Charles de Gaulle. The rebellion stemmed from fear that the severance of Algeria, the legion's cradle and raison d'être, from the métropole would be the corps' death warrant. The irony was that the attempted coup prompted in part by the legion's fear of extinction nearly ensured it. Despite the fact that one legion unit —the 13e Demi-brigade de la Légion étrangère (13e DBLE)—had rallied around de Gaulle in Fngland in June 1940, Sidi bel-Abbès remained stubbornly proVichy throughout the war and beyond, which hardly endeared the corps to the leader of la France libre. De Gaulle suspended legion recruitment, and it was almost adieu, la Légion for a second time, until his defense minister, former 13e DBLE member Pierre Messmer, dissuaded the French president from terminating what de Gaulle regarded as an experiment whose sell-by date was long past. In the end only one legion unit, the 1 er régiment étranger de parachutistes (1er RFP), was struck from the rolls.

T

he real question, then, is not, "Where has the legion gone?" but, "How has it survived for so long?" The answer is that despite endemic desertion and indiscipline, even flirtaINDOCHINA The legion

was heavily involved in combat against the Viet Minh between 1946 and 1954. There were some notable successes, but losses were heavy, and (he legion's best efforts did not prevent ultimate defeat at Dien Bien Phu,

tions with sedition, the legion has bestowed France with incontestable benefits. The legion offers the perfect compromise between France's conceit that it is "every man's second country" and the desire of Frenchmen to maintain at arm's length those who actually turn to it for asylum. The legion amalgamates immigration responsibilities with those of a national probation department. The force historically has incorporated French delinquents—up to 40 percent—who enlist as Belgians, Swiss or Luxembourgers. French recruits are essential to legion efficiency, as they inject a francophone core into what is otherwise a linguistic babel. Frenchmen, for whom the legion offers life's last option and an avenue for rehabilitation, may also prove psychologically more malleable and reliable. Many of the foreign recruits—drawn by fantasies of "adventure, fame, romance and prestige," in the words of former Canadian legionnaire Evan McGorman —opt to desert (or, more colorfully, take "French leave") once they discover that legion life can be more like Papillon than Camarón. The challenge of commanding felonious legionnaires historically has proven attractive to dynamic officers, who contribute an essential piece of the legion's remarkable combat record. In its early days the legion was the posting of last resort for commissioned outcasts lacking connections, pursued by debt or scandal. In short, men who, like the legionnaires they led, had little left to lose. The resulting mix of last-chance officers and throwaway soldiers condemned the legion to unpopular missions in forgotten posts of empire to which politicians dared not consign their conscript constituents. The tradeoff was that officers were expected to lead from the front, always set the example and cultivate a dramatic command style, as gesture and example were the instruments of communication in the legion's multilingual muddle. Finally, the legion bolsters the selfesteem of a nation whose martial reputation has skidded since Waterloo.

While colonial wars in such places as Morocco, top, kept the legion busy for several decades, the nature of such warfare did not prepare legionnaires or

their officers for the challenges of modern, mechanized combat. While the force acquitted itself well in World War I, above, the learning curve was steep.

In fact, had General Ulrich bothered to check before he blistered the 1er étranger in 1861, he would have discovered the legion had already acquired significant battle trophies during its short 30-year existence. By Camarón the legion counted four marshals of France among its alumni. As the legion's martial reputation spiked, it became the preferred unit for many of the French army's wannabe celebrities. France didn't have an empire because it had the legion, but it tolerated, even feted, the legion because it forged an empire. But Ulrich certainly put his finger on the paradox of the legion—namely, how did such a convention of unmanageable misfits and deserters manage to sustain a legendary combat record? One answer to that question was "the myth"—the belief that the legion offered asylum to Europe's romantic outcasts. In 1857 Lieutenant CharlesJules Zédé reported for duty at Sidi belAbbès to find a command "permeated with the wreckage of [Europe's] van-

MILITARY HISTORY

Parading in Paris just months before the outbreak of World War II, these impressively bearded legion pioneers would soon know the taste of defeat.

quished parties." He claimed his company included the defrocked bishop of Florence, a descendant of an Eastern European royal family, a Hungarian general who had chosen the wrong side in 1848, "and even a Chinese, who looked strange with his pigtail hanging from beneath his kepi." The anonymat—the legion's practice of allowing recruits to enlist under assumed names—stimulated the myth. It also carried with it the obligation to invent an imaginary, upwardly mobile past. American Erwin Rosen enlisted in 1905 with a German named Müller, who gave his name as Herr von Rader and "declared that his father was the chancellor of the German Supreme Court and that he himself was by profession a juggler and lance-corporal of marine reserves. And the color sergeant put it all down in the big book

without the ghost of a smile." The anonymat became the mechanism that transformed the legion into a corps of fantasists, in which the poor baker from Berlin or the Prague pimp became "interesting" by the simple act of enlistment. The bottom line is that the myth, the battles, the exotic geography, the all-or-nothing mentality of the officers combined with uncompromising NCOs to lock in the legion's macho monopoly. That's not to say there weren't other crack units. But none consistently combined, over a century and a half, leaders fiery to the point of fanaticism and castoff soldiers with suicidal missions in places with unpronounceable names.

S

o, the answer is that the French Foreign Legion hasn't gone away. Each year thousands of young men appear at legion recruiting stations throughout France. Units now serving in Kosovo, Chad, Ivory Coast, Afghanistan, Mayotte, French

Guiana and Djibouti have participated in many post-Cold War peace enforcement missions. The problem is not that the legion has disappeared, but that other units have raised their martial profile by adopting the legion's business model, thus eroding the signature characteristics of legion exceptionalism—its reputation as a professional island in a conscript sea, and the international character of its recruitment. In regular armies, conscription is largely gone, a consequence of the downsizing of post-Cold War military forces. Today's professional volunteers meet troop demands at levels that would, and have, pushed conscripts to the point of fragging. The legion now shares its foreign postings with French regular units composed of equally capable professionals. No one doubts that the paratroopers of the 2e ré^ment étranger de parachutistes are a tough bunch of professional soldiers. But are they tougher than the troops of the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division or Britain's Parachute Regiment? The changing character of counterinsurgency—with its emphasis on special operations forces—has also largely bypassed the legion. The United States maintains a separate organization. Special Operations Command, to coordinate the multiple special ops forces of the four U.S. services. And although the legion has highly trained specialty units—the 2e REP's deep reconnaissance commandos, for example—so do other French units. Indeed, the roughly 7,600 legionnaires are divided into rather conventional light infantry, light armor and engineering regiments that are employed principally tn peace-keeping support operations, missions in which diplomatic restraint, rather than the martial aggression typically associated with the legion, is the principal attribute. Private military companies (PMCs), which have proliferated since the end of the Cold War, have also challenged the legion's "whores of war" monopoly. Firms such as Xe, Executive Outcomes and L-3 MPRl have helped create a $ 100 billion a year industry by offering

customized, off-the-shelf packages of military organizers, trainers, bodyguards and security teams for government agencies and private aid organizations. PMCs have also branched out into intelligence, cyber security and aviation-support operations. Who, in fact, needs to maintain a foreign legion when anyone with enough cash can summon an à la carte, multi-capable

American recruits. The Kremlin's efforts since 2005 to attract foreigners to enlist in Russia's military forces appear so far to have failed to produce a flood of takers. But 10 percent of Britain's forces are foreign nationals, while aliens—most seeking a fast track to citizenship—now comprise an estimated 5 percent of U.S. forces.

P

áThe problem is not that the legion has disappeared, but that other units have raised their martial profile by adopting the legion's business model V PMC with a simple phone call? Moreover, it makes less economic sense for an experienced soldier to sell his skills as an individual for a five-year enlistment when working for a PMC would earn him significantly better pay for a shorter-term contract. Reliance on professional soldiers, the manpower-intensive demands of Iraq and Afghanistan and the explosion of PMCs have not only increased competition for recruits, they've also internationalized it. The military services of many countries, including the United States, have been forced to throw open their doors to foreign nationals. For instance, the armies of Spain and the United States compete with the legion and PMCs for Latin

erhaps the greatest challenge to the French Foreign Legion's particularism comes from the French governtnent itself, which in the summer of 2010 declared that after 179 years of legion existence the anonymat—with exceptions for those whose political or personal safety might be in jeopardy—is now illegal. This should make it easier to collect child support in Belgrade or Belarus. Moreover, biometric identity chips and retinal scans have rendered the anonymat obsolete; a national passport and legion ID card must now tell the same story. That's no big deal, the legion insists, as 80 percent of legionnaires had already requested a recti/ication d'identité after a statutory incognito phase, both to reclaim their passports confiscated upon enlistment and because French bureaucrats, if presented with an assumed name, tiresomely decline to issue a work permit or process a petition for citizenship, for which legionnaires become eligible after five years' service. Nevertheless, a core element of legion psychology, detneanor and command has been structured around the myth the legion offers asylum to a collection of romantic outlaws. Bang goes Beau Geste! What ever happened to the French Foreign Legion? It has blended into the background, camouflaged by the military multitude hopping aboard its historical bandwagon. In the process, it appears Beau Geste has deserted for good this time. (J) For/ur(her reading Douglas Porch rec-

ommends his own The French Foreign Legion: A Cotnplete History of the Legendary Fighting Force (1991). To learn more about the modem-day legion visit www. legion-recrutc.com/en.

ENLIGH WARRIOR IN HIS YOUTH SIDDHARTHA GAUTAMA WAS A BRAWNY, SIX-FOOT WARRIOR PRINCE, TRAINED IN THE ART OF WAR - A N D PERHAPSTOUCHED BY TRAGEDY BY RICHARD A. GABRIEL

^JJf*-

t is a curious fact of military history that the founders of three of the worlds four major religions were soldiers. The ,^ Torah tells of Moses, the founder of Judaism, whose tribal army plundered Egypt, who outmaneuvered the pharaoh's army in a desert campaign, who created and trained the first Israelite national army at Sinai, who destroyed fortified cities in the Jordan Valley, and who left his successor, Joshua, a large, well-equipped and professionally led army with which to conquer Canaan, In a single decade, Muhammad, the founder of Islam, fought eight major battles, led 18 raids and planned 38 military Usually depicted as the epitome of calm passlvity-as in this gold statue from Sri Lanka-Buddha actually spent much of his early life preparing for the wars common among the Indo-Aryan repuhlics.

I,

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•.•• _ L , -

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operations. He was wounded twice, and tvnce had his positions overrun before rallying his troops to victory. Muhammad was also a military theorist, strategic thinker, combat commander and revolutionary. It will probably come as a surprise to many, however, that the founder of Buddhism was a soldier. Ancient accounts of Buddha's early life describe a child born to a powerful Indian king named Suddhodana. It was prophesied that the boy, Siddhartha Gautama, would become either a great king or a great teacher To prevent Gautama's becoming a teacher, Suddhodana raised his son in great luxury, shielding him from human suffering. The day came when the young prince ventured beyond the palace grounds with his charioteer, and in these travels he happened upon an old man, a sick man and a corpse. Shocked by the realization that he, too, might suffer their fate, he resolved to become an ascetic and discover how to escape the cycle of perpetual rebirth Indians considered the central affliction of humanity. At 29, Siddhartha left his wife and infant son and began a life of wandering and contemplation that lasted until his death at 80. Centuries later monks recorded his teachings, which became Buddhism's scriptures.

his family, six-year sojourn, enlightenment, attempted assassination and suspicious death. Venetian explorer Marco Polo (1254-1324) encountered the traditional tale of Buddha's life and teachings during his own travels, but written texts of the account did not reach the West until late in the 18th century. Though long accepted, the traditional account of Buddha's early hfe is largely inaccurate and fails to consider the historical and sociological circumstances of the age in which Buddha lived. Images of Buddha are often misleading as well, as by the time accounts of his teachings reached the West in the 1700s, Buddhism had spread throughout Asia, and images of him had predictably taken on the racial and ethnic characteristics of the peoples of the region. Indian portrayals often depict a dark-skinned Buddha, while those of other regions give him Asian features. In fact, Buddha was an Indo-Aryan, a Caucasian whose people had invaded and subjugated India for two millennia. Familiar Western portrayals of Buddha as doughy and overweight, an image intended to suggest his passive nature, are also misleading; the oldest texts describe him as at least six feet tall and of muscular build. One might obtain a more ethnically accurate picture of Buddha by he facts of Buddha's looking at a modern-day Aflife are recorded in the ghan; tall, muscular and whiteancient text known as skinned with dark hair and the Pali Canon, a collection of eyes—physical characteristics early scriptural works and oral typical of the Indo-Aryan wartraditions regarding the life riors from whom Siddhartha and teachings of Buddha. Pali Gautama was descended. was the official Indo-Aryan liturgical language of early Born into the warrior caste of Indo-Aryan society, Buddha learned The earliest known home Buddhism. Written in the 1st to use all the weapons common to the period. Here, dressed in of the Indo-Aryans lay in what century AD, four centuries after an orange rohe, he demonstrates his skill with how and arrows. is now Ukraine. A great migraBuddha's death, the Pali Cantion of these peoples, probably on was the first attempt to gather the existing sources and provoked by overpopulation, began around 1800 BC, first determine the true record of Buddha's life and teachsouth to Europe, then southeast into Anatolia and northings. Tradition maintains that the details of Buddha's ern Iraq, and then farther east into the mountains of Iran life in the canon are based on earlier texts, the Nikayas, and the valleys of modern-day Afghanistan and Pakistan. written by a council of Buddhist monks assembled shortly A fierce, warlike people, the Indo-Aryans introduced the after Buddha's 483 BC death to create a reliable written rechorse and chariot to warfare. Wherever they conquered, ord of his life and teachings. These early scriptural accounts their superior military technology and fighting ability alof Buddha's hfe and teaching are a mixture of historical lowed them to impose themselves as a warrior aristocracy fact and messianic fiction. Nonetheless, they all attest to upon local native peoples. From northwest India, the IndoBuddha's Indo-Aryan heritage, warrior status and miliAryans moved south along the Indus River, destroying the tary training, royal lineage, marriage, abandonment of native civilization. Over the next millennia they conquered

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Son of a warrior chieftain, young Prince Siddhartha wa$ expected to take his father's place. In addition to the use of arms, the young nobleman-here mounted on his warhorse, Kanthaka, and followed by an armed retainer-learned the art of leading men in combat.

all of India, bringing the Ganges River plain and northeast Bengal under their control only a century or so before Buddha was born. The Indo-Aryans regarded war as the most noble of callings, and all able-bodied males were trained in war from childhood. By the 7th century BC they had settled throughout India, imposing themselves upon a large population of indigenous agricultural peoples. To maintain their superior position, the Indo-Aryans forbade intermarriage with the dark-skinned native peoples and restricted their social mobility. Over time Indo-Aryan society aligned into four castes:

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Nepal and the Indian province of Bengal. The Indo-Aryan republics of Buddha's day were kingdoms (rashtra), each governed by an oligarchy of nobles led by a warrior chief. A rashtra comprised tribes, subtribes and villages. The nucleus of the tribe was the family (kula), with the oldest male as its head (kulapa). The Sakya social structure was closer to that of earlier Indo-Aryan tribes than to the more complex social organization of newly emerged Mahajanapanda states. The scriptures portray Buddha's father as a mighty king living in great luxury, but he was in fact a warrior chief, or raja, a position that in Buddha's day was hereditary.

brahmans (priests), kshatriya (war- Sometime after leaving his father's court at age 29, the Although the republics were riors), vaishya (merchants and farm- prince who would ultimately become "the enlightened small, they were not insignificant ers) and sudra (serfs), the latter com- one" abandoned his sleeping wife and baby son, above, military powers. The texts record prising pritnarily the conquered to embrace the harsh existence of a wandering ascetic. that the Sakyas comprised 160,000 indigenous population. families (the country was about By the 6th century BC the Indo-Aryan tribes had coathe size of modem-day Belgium), and that seven defensive lesced into organized states with large standing armies and walls ringed their capital at Kapilavastu on the banks of the governmental administrative systems. This was the age of Rohini River (modern-day Kohana). Within those walls the Mahajanapadas ("great realms"), 16 major states organ- was a famous school of military archery. The Sakyas had to ized as monarchies, oligarchies and republics that frecontend with the prédations of not just Kosala and Magaquently fought one another to establish regional empires. dha, each of which sought to control the Ganges River Two of these states, Kosala and Magadha, were the main plain, but other surrounding hostile republics. War was rivals in Bengal during Buddha's lifetime, and they fought an almost perpetual state. frequent wars until the Magadha empire subjugated and According to the Indo-Aryan rule of primogeniture, absorbed Kosala. The major states also fought wars vnth the Buddha, as the chief's eldest son, was expected to succeed smaller republics, which often formed aUiances to prevent his father, and like all kshatriya men, he trained from a very their absorption by the larger states. young age to be a soldier. The term kshatiiya means "noble warrior." Buddha was taught the alphabet and numbers at age 3, and by 6 he'd entered the formal educational and iddhartha Gautama, known to history as the Budmihtary training program that lasted until age 16. The curdha, or "the enlightened one," was bom in the Indoriculum included courses in logic, politics and economics. Aryan Sakya republic, amid the Himalayan foothills Kshatriya also studied the ancient Vedic religious texts but north of the Ganges near the modern-day border between

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MILITARY HISTORY

were only required to memorize the first line of the Vedas. at age 29. Even then Buddha rode his warhorse, Kanthaka, For more than a decade the young warrior pursued a rigorand carried his broadsword, his hair still worn in the warous curriculum of studies and military training that required rior's topknot. The Samyutta scripture tells us, "For the proficiency in all the Indo-Aryan weapons of war, including kshatriya there is no other rule but to fight," and the Adi the chariot, warhorse and elephant. Parva that "among men the highest duties are those performed by the kshatriya." Even the Indo-Aryan gods were The weapons curriculum was called the dhanurveda warrior gods, like Indra, who helped the warrior in battle, (literally "bow knowledge"). Experienced warriors taught and Agni, the fire god, revered for means to destroy enemy the kshatriya. Instruction was personalized, and students strongholds. The weight of Indo-Aryan religious sanctions lived in the homes of their instructors for the duration of and social conditioning required warriors to fight. War was the course. Special tutors called sutas recited the Itihasas a fundamental function of the Indo-Aryan state, and waging ("histories")—the exploits of great warriors and battles it was the primary responsibility of the past—to students at fixed of the kshatriya. times each day. The training emphasized discipline, hardship and The code of the kshatriya reendurance; Indo-Aryans believed quired the soldier to die gloriously that luxury weakened a warrior's in battle, for only then could he martial spirit. attain release {moksha) and enter paradise (svarga), freeing him In order to be consecrated a from the cycle of rebirth and sufferknight, a kshalriya was required to ing. Cowardice was punishable by demonstrate his competence with death. Senior officers who showed weapons. One who passed this test a lack of resolve were required to participated in a formal coming-ofdress in women's clothes until the age ceremony in which he received public disgrace drove them to suithe sacred thread, which he wore cide. To live long enough to die in beneath his garments for life. Hebed was a sin. After a battle, details was also given the special uniwould gather the dead and cremate form of the kshatriya, fashioned them in a huge funeral pyre. Wives of dyed flax cloth and fastened by of the dead then climbed upon the a munja grass girdle adorned with pyre to be burnt with the corpses of bits of iron. The consecrated wartheir men. This custom (suííee) rerior was now allowed to take part mained in practice in India into the in battle and enjoy the privilege of 19th century, when the British put rendering and receiving the mili- Siddhartha's renunciation of caste, family and tribe made an end to it. tary salute. He was also allowed him an outcast, and it's possible that the radical change of to marry—although only within behavior that ultimately ted to his enlightenment and later Against this background, key elveneration resulted from post-traumatic stress disorder. his caste. ements of the commonly accepted According to the texts, Buddha narrative of Buddha's early life fall completed this ceremony at age 16. His father then aninto question. First, the story that Buddha's warrior chief nounced Buddha would become his heir apparent and, father raised his son in luxury cannot be true. After all, the as such, was required to further demonstrate his martial kshatriya regarded luxury as a sin. Had Buddha been raised prowess with the bow, sword, spear, lasso, iron dart, club, in this manner, he could neither have become a warrior, nor battle axe, thrown iron discus and trident. He would also have succeeded his father. Second, as the eldest son of an have to prove his abilities in fencing, swimming, wrestling, aristocratic kshatriya family and heir to an Indo-Aryan chief, hand-to-hand combat, horsemanship and archery from a Buddha must have been trained as a soldier, as were all Indomoving chariot. The texts say BudAryan males of his caste. Had he dha passed readily and was named failed to meet the warrior standard, heir apparent, and that the nobles he would have been relegated to a were satisfied he was capable of life of obscurity. Third, during Budleading them in war, A short time dha's life frequent wars wracked later he married his cousin, Buddha what is now northeast India, and was now a kshatriya. King Virudhaka of Kosala invaded Buddha's native Sakya republic, Ancient legal texts are clear that massacring its entire population. a warrior was forbidden to give up No known accounts record Budthe military life and take up a life of asceticism, as Buddha did some Siddhartha Gautama was born into the warrior caste near dha's activities from age 16, when time after leaving his father's court Lumbini, Nepal, on the modern-day border with Bengal. he became a warrior knight, until

he left home at 29, but it is almost certain he experienced war as a soldier in the Sakya army.

soldier salvation at all. Instead, Buddha asserted the soldier would be reborn as an animal or suffer the purgatory of yet another life, directly challenging the moral legitie are left to explain why Buddha abandoned his macy of the warrior class. Along with his signature paciwife and child and left his father's court to emfism and rejection of war, Buddha discarded the very brace the life of a wandering ascetic. The catalyst notion the warrior class possessed any moral legitimacy; may have been some sort of traumatic event, perhaps his just being a soldier violated many of the basic ethical prinwar experiences. The notion that this 29-year-old warrior ciples of Buddhism. was shocked by his first encounter with an old man, a sick Buddha's public rejection of the moral legititnacy of man and a corpse is hardly credible, though it may contain the kshatriya in turn may have prompted the attempts a kernel of truth. Accounts of Buddha's wanderings after on his life. The texts indicate that as Buddhism gained he left home suggest a solpopularity, many soldiers dier with symptoms akin to joined the movement, pospost-traumatic stress disorder ing a threat to both the light(PTSD): The former warrior ing élan of the warrior class abandoned his wife, child and and the caste system itself, extended family (disruption which Buddha also rejected. of traditional social ties) and Sometime after 491 BC, ascut off his traditional topsassins made several atknot, a distinguishing mark tempts to kill Buddha. The of his caste (alienation). He texts imply that Buddha's forsook his uniform for the (ousin and second in comsaffron robe worn by connuind, Devadatta, conspired demned criminals on their with King Ajatashatru of way to execution (identificaMagadha to carry out an astion with the damned). He sassination plot. If the popwandered in a forest, someularity of Buddhism was times with others, sometimes indeed eroding the moral alone (aimlessness). He instatus and martial spirit flicted what the texts call of the warrior caste, then "tortures" upon himself (selfAjatashatru, who came to destructive behavior), going the throne by murdering without food until he looked his father and was engaged like a skeleton; one text says in a protracted war at the he grew so thin that his stomtime, may have had reason ach touched his spine (an- Often portrayed as a short, rotund Asian, Buddha was an Indo-Aryan to neutralize Buddha. orexia). He remained silent who prohahly looked more like a modern Afghan, ahove. By preaching As it was, Buddha died for long periods, often falling pacificism and challenging the moral legitimacy of the warrior class, under circumstances that into deep trances (disorienta- Buddha made himself the target of those seeking to maintain the status remain suspicious; indeed, tion) and suffered from dis- quo. His death in 483 BC, right, may have heen the result of poisoning. murder cannot be ruled out. turbing dreams about battles in 483 BC he visited the town with demons (night terrors). Buddha was homeless during of Kushingara and took to sleeping in a grove. A metalsmith this time and slept outdoors. After six years of this penitent named Chunda came to him and offered to feed him, which existence, he encountered a young girl who brought him a was not unusual, as monks routinely received food from bowl of milk and rice. Buddha then realized his life of selfpeople who offered it to gain merit. The texts tell us Buddha inflicted suffering was not the way to achieve nirvana and ate the meal at Chunda's house, immediately fell violently relief from the birth-death-rebirth cycle. He renounced asill and died. The suddenness with which he was stricken ceticism for what he called "the middle path," left the forest suggests the possibility of poisoning. It is interesting that and began a new life as a wandering teacher. the massacre of the Sakyas (circa 490 BC) seems to have It may have been Buddha's combat experiences that led occurred about the same time as the first failed attempts him to renounce the warrior caste into which he had been to assassinate the man we might rightly call Buddha, the born. The central ethical claim of the kshatriya was that he warrior who transcended war. (Si) protected society at large, and his selfless service and glorious death in battle would ensure his entry into paradise. For further reading Richard A. Gabriel recommends The WonBuddha rejected this claim in the Samyutta when he adder That Was India, by A.L. Basham, and A Military History monished a soldier that death in battle did not bring the of Ancient India, by Maj. Gen. Gurcham Singh Sandhu.

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MILITARY HISTORY

EAGER TO PROVE THEMSELVES, WOMEN SERVED SERVED THE RED ARMY AS NURSES, MEDICS. COOKS AND CLERKS-BUTALSO AS SNIPERS, SURGEONS, PILOTS AND MACHINE GUNNERS

On June 21, 1941, the day before Nazi Germany sprang its surprise invasion of the Soviet Union, Natalia Peshkova, a 17-^year-old Muscovite, graduated from high school with hopes of becoming a journalist. She was a member of the All-Union Leninist Communist League of Youth, or Komsomol, and she immediately ran to its headquarters to volunteer for the war. Like hundreds of other Muscovite girls, she was assigned to be a medic in a newly formed BDMH.DTBETb PDflMHE nPBEflOH! militia unit (opolcheniye), where she learned basic first aid and rudimentary military skills. Just four months later her militia division first entered battle in the defense of Moscow, was encircled and got badly mauled. Peshkova and her comrades at the battalion aid station escaped the enemy cordon after days of hiding and evading the Germans. She was then assigned to the regimental aid station of a regular infantry division.

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Not content with nursing, in 1943 Peshkova sought experiences and the egalitarian rhetoric of the Soviet combat duty and secured an assignment to the 71st Tank regime, there was no consensus on the need for women Brigade of the 3rd Guards Tank Army as a Komsorg (Komto serve in the armed forces, nor was there much desomol organizer) for a tank battalion. There, her first batmand by women to do so—as is made clear by the comtle was to earn the trust and respect of the male soldiers. plete lack of female volunteers for the conflicts with Japan The Komsorg was the third highest-ranking officer in the in August 1939, Poland in September 1939 and Finland battalion and was expected to lead by examfrom November 1939. ple in battle, which she did. Peshkova was June 22,1941, changed all that. The German wounded three times—first in a bombing invasion sparked an immediate flood of both attack on her aid station, twice more in male and female volunteers. The Soviet people, ground combat by artillery and small-arms especially Russians, understood the Nazi invasion fire. Years later she recalled one particular to be an extraordinary threat to their entire encounter: "I found myself face to face with nation. Still, the Red Army initially accepted few a German, at the opposite corner of a log of the tens of thousands of women who volunhouse. 1 guess he was trembling like me. teered; most were directed to Red Cross courses I always wore trousers; perhaps he didn't recfor aspiring nurses. A month later Soviet dictator ognize that his rival was a girl. I was extremely frightJoseph Stalin ordered the creation of volunteer citizens' ened. 1 never saw a person who could kill me so near." shock battalions and communist battalions, as well as She couldn't remember the outcome. militia regiments and divisions for civil defense. For heroism in combat Peshkova was These units accepted women in all capaciawarded the Order of the Red Star, ties, from infantry to signalers, medics, cooks Natalia Peshkova was just one of some and clerks. When the state converted these 800,000 women who served in the Red Army units into regular Red Army regiments and dividuring World War II—several hundred thousand sions in 1942, women were allowed to continue of them under fire—and their experiences demolserving in their existing capacities. ish the stereotype that women are too The women who volunteered for weak physically and emotionally to military service were overwhelmingwithstand the stresses of combat. The 1941 poster, top, exhorts Soviet women. ly Russian; few women of the Soviet Communist Party propagandists PAY BACK TO THE MOTHERLAND WITH VICTORY! The Union's many ethnic, racial and nationproclaimed that under the Soviet order Gold Star Medal, above, signified that its al minorities enlisted or were later conwomen were equal to men socially and wearer had been named a Hero of the Soviet scripted. Russian female volunteers came legally, but it was not a given that wom- Union. Some 90 women were so honored. primarily from urban areas and were en could join the army wholesale in either workers or university students, peace or war. During World War I women had served in mostly between the ages of 18 and 25, mostly single and the Imperial Russian Army as both nurses and combatchildless, and typically well educated. Most belonged to ants. As many as 50,000 women served in the fledgling the Komsomol, membership in which was generally a preRed Army during the Russian Civil War. But despite those requisite for social and economic mobility.

MILITARY HISTORY

Initially, women wishing to serve in the Soviet military were steered to duty as nurses or combat medics. Among the latter was Valya Mosilkina, above, who refused to ahandon her wounded comrades though injured herself.

graph and telephone operators, as well as linemen. In March 1942 the state initiated the regular mobilization of women for service in the army. The NKO insisted on special standards for females: Women, unlike men, would be selected on the basis of education, including complete literacy in Russian, their level of "culture"—meaning / was born in 1922. am a Komsomolha [female Komsomol character, self-discipline and deportment—health, physical member] and in recent years completed the 10th grade of the Blagodatenshoi middle school. I can bandage, give first aid strength and inclination for mihtary specialties. Informal to the wounded, look after the wounded, and, if necessary, I willcriteria included being single and childless. The requirement for literacy in Russian clearly was a discriminatory go so far as to fight the fascists, with rifle in hand. act against national minorities and peasants. As a result, the demographics of conscripted females matched those Altogether, about 310,000 wotnen volunteered for and of the volunteers. were accepted into service in the Red Army either directly or through the shock and communist battahons and militia The weeding-out process for women was far more selecunits, A further 490,000 were conscripted beginning in tive than that for men. Only health and fitness standards August 1941. The People's Commissariat of Defense (NKO) applied to men, and those were rather lax. The average first ordered the Kotnsomol to deliver 30,000 women with female volunteer and conscript was, therefore, a cut above at least seven years of schooling to become nurses and the average male soldier, an important consideration when 30,000 more with at least four years of schooling to become comparing the performance of the two. medics. Also that August the Komsomol delivered 10,000 The army assigned the vast majority of female conscripts Komsomolkas to the army specifically for duty as radio, teleto the medical, signal and anti-aircraft defense services. In The majority of women volunteered to serve in support roles, but many wanted to be frontline medics. A small number actually wished to serve as combatants. Lidia Alekrinskaia, for one, wrote to her draft board:

MILITARY HISTORY*

Decorated female aviators stand before a Petlyakov Pe-2 light bomber. In World War II Soviet women flew as pilots, navigators and gunners, though most pilots had learned their skills as civilians. Dozens of female aviators were ultimately awarded the Gold Star Medal. AKG-IMAGES/RIA NOVOSTI

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those fields the percentages of women Women also served in the Soviet Navy, most these capacities, thanks to regimental are astonishing: 41 percent of doctors, often as medics but occasionally as armed commanders who acquiesced to their 43 percent of surgeons, 43 percent of combatants. Here, a female petty officer is pleas. For the duration of the war all veterinarians, 100 percent of nurses, about to join male comrades in the occupation women who took up arms to fight at and 40 percent of nurses' aides and of the once-Japanese part of Sakhalin Island. the front did so on a volunteer basis, combat medics were female. Nearly half often having to overcome male resistof all traffic controllers were female, and tens of thousands ance to their requests. When unit commanders refused their of vehicle drivers were women. Some 200,000 women moservices, women just moved on to the next regiment until bilized by the Komsomol served in the anti-aircraft forces, they found a commander who would accept them. How as ground crews, searchlight operators, observers, radio many women became trigger-pulling soldiers is unknown. operators and political officers. The Red Army assigned Nearly 2,500 were trained as snipers, and many others tens of thousands of women to communications work at became snipers vwthout formal training. The female snipers the regiment level and higher, and thousands more served were trained a platoon at a time and then sent to an infantry as administrative personnel. regiment for distribution among combat infantry battalions. The call for volunteers revealed that the pool of women n 1942 the Red Army adopted a policy allowing women anxious to shed blood in combat was rather shallow. This to fight as snipers, riflemen and machine gunners. They despite the fact that in 1942 Vsevobuch, the paratnilitary were also permitted to crew tanks, and the Red Air organization responsible for pre-conscription training, had Force organized three women's air regiments—albeit relybegun teaching thousands of young women to use mortars, ing almost entirely on women who were already pilots machine guns, submachine guns and rifles. The initial call when the war began. Some women, such as well-publicized for women attracted only 7,000 of the 9,000 necessary to machine gunner Zoia Medvedeva, were already serving in form the first brigade. When it appeared the requisite

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number of volunteers was not forthcoming, the Komsomale sniper. Each day she lay an arm's length from her mol, which handled recruitment for the Women's Volunteer partner, Olga, not moving, not making a sound, body parts Rifle Brigade, resorted to institutional pressure to enroll going numb, looking for targets. "I would say: 'Olia, mine,'" enlistees. Recruitment followed the usual pattern of attractKotliarova recalled. "She would already know—she wouldn't ing young, urban and educated Russians. More than 1,000 kill that one. After the shot I would only help her observe, women already serving at the front in male units transferred 1 would say, for example, 'There, behind that house, beinto the brigade, but they and many others were bitterly dishind that bush,' and she would already know where to look. appointed by the army's failure to post the unit to the front We took turns shooting." line. Once they understood the brigade was slated for only guard duties, some of them deserted to the front to rejoin espite two decades of socialist-feminist rhetoric, combat units. The female soldiers were also disappointed Soviet male soldiers frequently resisted the presence that most of their officers were men, and that most weren't of female soldiers in or near combat. Some comeven competent leaders. manders adamantly refused to accept women into their When the brigade completed its training in Janunits. When the "idiots" at his division personnel uary 1944, the NKO transferred it to the NKVD office sent one engineer battalion commander (People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs). two female platoon leaders-—^whose job was The NKVD then assigned the brigade to to clear minefields—the officer justified his perform rear-area security duties, primarrejection of the women by saying his serily to safeguard the lines of communicageants could do that just as well, adding: tion. The brigade performed such duties "I considered it unnecessary for women to through July 1944, and then the army go to the front line. There were enough disbanded it without explanation. The of us men for that. And I also knew their short life of the brigade and the decipresence would cause no end of trouble sion to scrap plans for other such units with my men, who had their hands full indicate some level of conflict in the as it was. It would've been necessary 'I considered it government over the role of female to dig a separate dugout for them, and ground formations. Apparently, neither besides, for them to be giving orders unnecessary for ideology nor need was pressing enough would have involved a lot of problems, women to go to to overcome male reluctance to the forbecause they were girls." the front iine. mation and deployment of all-female Nonetheless, several hundred thouground combat units, despite the obsand women did serve in the forward There were vious willingness of some women to combat zone in a wide variety of capacenough of us serve as combatants. ities, and tens of thousands died there. Soviet historiography gave only two men for that. reasons for women's service: patriotism he Red Army never forced womAnd I knew their and vengeance—motivations assigned en into combat, and those who presence wouid to volunteers and draftees alike, Vera served as snipers, infantry, tankDanilovtseva said that when the war ers or artillery gunners sought out such cause no end began, "I, of course, immediately imagassignments on their own initiative. of troubie' ined myself Joan of Arc, My only desire They had to obtain the permission of was to go to the front with a rifie in my the respective regimental commander, hands, even though 1 had never hurt a which could take much persistence fly until then." Women often invoked the image of Joan of and argument. Others had already earned the respect of Arc, with its connotations of ordinary people defending the their fellow soldiers and officers as frontline medics and nation. One popularized example of the vengeance motif were then allowed to take up combatant duties. As a result, was that of M. V Oktiabr'skaia, who sought to join the army it was the exceptional female volunteers who engaged in to avenge the death of her husband, an army commissar. killing the enemy. In contrast, most men on the firing line The army initially denied her request, so she raised money were conscripts with no choice of assignment. Available and paid for the manufacture of a tank, which, crewed by evidence suggests women performed their combat tasks women, she was then allowed to command in battle until exceptionally well. While their reaction to killing and her 1944 death in action. the stress of combat was similar to that of men, they persisted out of a sense of duty, hate, patriotism, vengeance The ideology of the Russian Revolution, with its promor comradeship. ised equality for women, evidently played a significant Sniper Antonina Kotliarova, for example, recalled that role in the psyche of the volunteers and the willingness the killing was "horrible." Yet, her performance on a twoof draftees to report for conscription. Elena K. Stempwoman sniper team was indistinguishable from that of a kovskaia, a radio operator in a rifie battalion in early 1942,

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expressed her feelings about serving in the army in a letter to her boyfriend:

told one war correspondent. "We have fed soldiers, given them water, bandaged them under fire. We turned out to be rnore resilient than the soldiers. We even used to urge them on." Yet, she confessed, "Sometimes, trembling at night, we My darling, 1 have found my place in life, a place which allows me to defend our beloved motherland. I am lucky as never, ever before. would think. Oh, if I were at homerightnow." Not all female soldiers were likely as tough, courageous Like Stempkovskaia, many women found military service and resilient as Nikova, but the historical record is dea liberating experience and an expression of female equalvoid of any negatives regarding women in the service. That ity, Maria Kaliberda expressed the feelings of many women there were no discipline problems with women is simply when she wrote: unrealistic, but determining the extent of misbehavior will have to wait for greater archival access. It is known that female miscreants, unlike male miscreants, were not senWe wanted to be equal—we didn't want the men saying, 'Oh, those women!' about us. And we tried harder than the men. tenced to terms in penal companies but subject only to demotion in rank and time in prison. Apartfrom everything else we had to prove that we were as good as them. For a long time we had to put up More indicative of the performance of female with a very patronizing, superior attitude. soldiers, perhaps, is the fact that nearly 90 women were awarded the Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union, their nation's Some women enlisted or reported for highest medal for valor. More than half conscription to be with friends and family received the medal posthumously. More or to conform to societal and peer pressure. than 30 were pilots or aircrew, many The need for acceptance also played a of whom flew hundreds of combat misrole: In late summer 1941 Maria I. Mosions, including double ace Lieutenrozova traveled to Moscow to enlist beant Lydia Litvyak. Sixteen were medics cause, in her words, "Everybody was who died rescuing men in combat. fighting, and we did not want to be left Three were machine gunners. Two out." Soviet propaganda stressed that were tankers. Snipers included Major everyone had a responsibility to conLyudmila Pavlichenko, credited with tribute to victory, and this also affected 309 kills, and the team of Privates young women's decision making. "I Mariya Polivanova and Natalya Kovknew 1 was needed at the front," Zoia shova, jointly credited with more than Khlopotina recalled thinking. "I knew 300 kills. that even my modest investment would count in the great common undertaking The International Committee of the of the defeat of the enemy," Red Cross awarded another 15 Soviet Other women joined because their women the Florence Nightingale Medal fathers or husbands had been arrested for rendering medical aid under fire. during Stalin's prewar purges, and they wanted to clear their families' names by a ther than combat, the most difshow of loyalty to the regime. Many more ficult aspect of military service reported for duty simply because the state for Soviet women was their incalled them, and they were unwilling to teraction with male soldiers. Despite the accept the consequences of draft evasion. claim women were equal to men, most Once in the military, female soldiers apparently were able Soviet men looked down on women, preferred they keep to to cope with the physical and emotional demands of war— their traditional, subordinate roles and resisted serving although evidence on this subject is lacking. Red Army Serunder them. Women received a mixed reception at all levels, geant Sergei Abaulin remembered: "Throughout the many and the most controversial aspects of woinen's wartime servcombat operations, it was necessary for us to complete ice related to their roles as commanders (particularly of many 50- to 60-kilometer foot marches in a 24-hour period men) and in trigger-pulling assignments. and then join battle from the march. Even the infantrymen Women in all areas of Soviet military service faced were exhausted to the limit. However, for us artillerymen another major challenge—sexual harassment. Over the it was necessary to roll, carry and drag our not-so-light course of the war the People's Commissariat of Defense guns by hand too, but nobody grumbled or whined. Among never established guidelines for fraternization between us soldiers were many women, who also courageously male and female soldiers, between male and female offitranscended all the adversity." cers, or between male and female officers and enlisted "We have gone into the attack with our platoon and personnel. Romantic relationships frequently developed crawled side by side vdth them," combat medic Lelia Nikova despite unofficial admonishment, which sometimes de-

'More telling, perhaps, is the fact that nearly 90 women were awarded the Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union, their nation's highest medal for valor'

MILITARY HII

O

graded individual and even unit per- Even in post-Soviet Russia the puhlic lionizes oritism if they thought the couple was formance. Anecdotes abound about veterans of what it calls the Great Patriotic in love, but intense resentment would officers neglecting their duties because War. Above, a decorated female veteran joins spring up between a PPZh and the other they were either arguing over women two similarly bedecked male comrades at women of a unit if the relationship were or fraternizing with women. Where a commemorative gathering in Kaliningrad. seen as self-serving. women served together in groups or as Women's participation in the Red units and had a feminist consciousness, their interactions Army on such a large scale did not represent a dramatic with male soldiers tended to be healthier However, in situreordering of gender roles in Soviet society—which suggests ations where women served in small numbers or as isolated the experience of these women at war may also apply to individuals, there tended to be widespread sexual exploitaother types of societies. Lessons learned about Soviet women tion of them by their superiors. in World War II—lessons being relearned in today's armies The most common form of sexual harassment was for —include that highly motivated and carefully selected women commanders—both single and married—to take a "marching make good soldiers; that only a minority of women who desire field wife," usually referred to by the Russian acronym PPZh. to become soldiers actually want to engage in armed combat; Sometimes these relationships were consensual, but often but that women can and will fight and kill. there was obvious coercion. It was the rare officer with The World War 11 use of women by the Soviet Red Army authority over women who did not have a PPZh. Most offiappears to have been successful, thanks to such common cers considered it their right to have a PPZh, with the higher factors as intense patriotism, a rigorous selection process, rank getting first choice. Enlisted men resented officers for carefully managed demographics and use of women in pursuing such relationships, especially those commanders combat on a volunteer basis. Likewise, the most serious who ordered their men to stay away from women. obstacle to the success of women's service was, and remains, On the other hand, women could manipulate officers' that of traditional male attitudes, (ffi) desire for sex and companionship to improve their circumstances. A PPZh certainly received preferred treatment, inFor further reading Roger Reese recommends his own Why cluding lighter and safer duties, better food and quarters, Stalin's Soldiers Fought: The Red Army's Military Effecand rides in vehicles with their "husbands" when other tiveness in World War II, as well as War's Unwomanly Face, women had to walk. Other women could tolerate this favby Svetlana A. Aiefesievich.

IN 1938 THE BRITISH HOME OFFICE TEAMED UP WITH A POPU CIGARETTE MANUFACTURER TO READY CIVILIANS FOR WAR FROM THE SKY

..e bomber will always get through." So warned multi-term British Prime Minister and MP Stanley Baldwin in a 1932 speech to Parliament titled "A Fear for the Future." What Baldwin feared was modem mechanized warfare, particularly bombing. "It is well," he said, "for the man in the street to realize that there is no power on earth that can protect him." Baldwin preaching to the choir. Britons had already experienced the horrors of bombing in World War 1, when German zeppelins and Gotha bombers carried out 103 raids on British cities and coastal towns, killing 1,413 people and injuring twice that numWILl_?;'5

A ,"J T I - A I R C f Í A I T S L A W C H L I G H T

power proponents urged their respective nations to e x p a n d ^1 • 1 . ^ 1 ^ n ^ » -^ ^,^ti^-

their b o m b e r ileets m antici-

C I G A R E T T E S

"i commend a study of these cards to your attention," wrote British Home Secretary Sir Samuel Hoare in his foreword to the ARP/Wills collector's album. While most cards outlined civilian

..

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precautions, a few touted defense preparations, such as this anti-aircraft searchlight detachment.

pation of the next great clash. The rise of Adolf Hitler and his Luftwaffe brought new urgency to British air-defense efforts. In 1938 the Air Raid Precautions (ARP) office issued a series of pamphlets to civilians with suggestions on how to protect their homes and themselves against the expected raids. ARP also teamed with tobacco company WD. & H.O. Wills to issue the set of cigarette cards on these pages. The set may have saved lives—provided the cigarettes didn't claim them first. ® ILITARY HISTORY

A cellar or basement is best of all, reads the back of this card titled CHOOSING YOUR REFUGE ROOM. "In a small house where there is no cellar or basement, the ground floor will be safest. Top floors are always to be avoided on account of the risk from incendiary bombs."

WILLS'«

CHOOSING

The latest in wartime window treatments. "Walls of sandbags are the best protection for window openings of refuge rooms on the ground floor. Such a wall will keep out splinters from high-explosive bombs and protect the glass from being shattered."

"A carpet or blanket should be fixed over the door. This should be kept wet and at least 12 inches allowed to trail on the ground. [This] reduces the risk when the door is opened. The keyhole and all cracks must be stopped up."

Far right: "Ordinary glass may be shattered by the blast effects of high-explosive bombs. The left-hand panes are of strengthened glass, and the right-hand of celluloid reinforced by mesh wire netting, although both may be penetrated by steel splinters."

. ^^ u r< REFUGE ROOM

WILLS'S

PROTECTING

CIGARETTES

CIGARETTES

YOUR WINDOV/S— A SANDBAG

WILLS'* CIGARETTES

WILLS«

CIGARETTES

PROTECTION AGAINST BLAST

"Having chosen your refuge room and rendered it gas-proof, furnish it with the following: Table and chairs, tinned food, plates, cups, knives, forks. Books, writing materials, cards, etc., to pass the time." Ah, but where is the box of Wills cigs?

WILLS'« CIGARETTES

YUIJK

"Your refuge room should also contain a washstand and basin, towels, soap. Plenty of water in jugs for drinking, washing, firefighting. Chamber pots, toilet paper, disinfectant. A simple hand pump for firefighting. A box of sand with a shovel."

WILLS'»

EQUIPPING

"A gas-proof shelter, ventilated by air drawn in through a filter driven by electric power. If this should fail, air can be drawn hy manual labor, on the same principle as in a sewing machine or a bicycle." Pedal faster, love, we're getting woozy.

Far right: "The 2-pound magnesium bomb does not explode, its only object being to start a fire. It will probably penetrate no further than an upper floor, setting light to anything within a few feet. Vast numbers can be carried by a single aeroplane."

MILITARY HISTORY

WILLS»

CIGARETTES

A VENTILATED GAS-'

HLhUOt

ROOM — A

CIGARETTES

YOUR REFUGE

ROOM—B

WILLS«

CIGARETTES

Right: "The picture shows the right way to take off a civilian respirator, hy slipping the harness forward from the hack. The wrong way is hy taking hold of the box containing the filter and pulling the facepiece off the chin, cracking the window."

uce serious blistering. Prudent persons, if forced to go out of doors during raids, should provide themselves with ruhher or oilskin coats and hats and rubber boots." Thankfully, the Luftwaffe didn't drop gas on Britain.

WILLS» CIGARETTES

THE

C I V I L I A •. : r,-ATOR H O W TO ne,M OVE I T

CLOTHING

WILLS"« CIGARETTES

ONTROL OF INCENDIARY BOMB. "In this picture the girl has taken sand from the container and is pouring it onto the homh with a long-handled scoop. Sand does not extinguish the magnesium bomb, but it controls it and reduces the heat."

CONTROL OF I N C E N D I A R Y

BOMB

WILLS'« CIGARETTES

e burning bomb is here being transferred from the scoop into the Redhill container, made strong enough to hold a burning magnesium bomb indefinitely and so that the heat will not injure the person by whom it is carried."

EXTINCTION

OF I N C E N D I A R Y

B O M fa

"The stirrup hand pump, with a short length of hose, is a most useful and inexpensive appliance for dealing with fires in their early stages and is useful for other purposes, such as watering the garden." A victory garden, we presume.

Far right: "The Home Office is issuing to local authorities light trailer fire-pumps, here shown taking a supply of water from a garden pond, to which it has been carried by hand. The pump is capable of delivering two streams of water."

WILLS»

JP

HAND

PUMP

WlLLS'S

using a nana pump, IT IS necessary to have a ready supply of water. In the illustration a small canvas dam is being kept full by a chain of buckets. Water is being taken from the canvas dam and a line of hose led into a huilding on fire."

58

MILITARY HISTOR

LIGHT TRAILER FiRF HUMP IN ACTION

CIGARETTES

A CHAIN OF CUCKETS

WILLS»

. or laying long lines of delivery hose, such as may be necessary at large fires, this special motor appliance is used. The lengths of hose are joined together and packed so that they pay out in one or more continuous lines as the [truck] is driven."

CrGARETTFS

CIGARETTES

\

Air raid wardens are volunteers specially trained to advise fellow citizens and to act as reporting agents of bomb damage. The picture shows wardens handing reports to a volunteer despatch rider. All wear steel helmets and civilian duty respirators."

CIGARETTES

' ° WARDENS AND CIVILIAN VOLUNTEER DESPATCH.

All the elements of air defense are represented in the control room, including the commanders of the antiaircraft artillery, the searchlights, the balloon barrage and fighter squadrons. Raids are plotted on the map table."

WILLSS_CIGARETTES

PRESENTATION

"The 3-inch gun is mounted on a mobile platform. It can throw a 16-pound shell to 20,000 feet in 23 seconds and can fire 20 rounds in a minute. It is towed by a tractor and has a road speed of 20 mph." After all, it's an ack-ack not a roadster.

Far right: "Aircraft are in echelon leff, the ieader nearest, with flight commander's markings on the tail. All pilots keep their eyes 'skinned' and search the sky above and below for the enemy. At night they watch for the telltale concentration of searchlight beams."

OF A I R

DEFENCE

CONTROL

ROO.M

WILLS » C I G A W E T T t «

T Attack on the Run PERSIA'S MIGHTY ARMY PROVED NO MATCH FOR THE FIRED-UP ATHENIAN VETERANS IN THEIR EPIC CLOSE-QUARTERS 490 BC BATTLE BYJIMLACEY The Greeks mustered before dawn. As usual the men ate no breakfast. Instead, they turned quietly to the task of donning their armor. Then, after hefting heavy shields onto their shoulders, they made their way through gaps in the defensive barrier. The full moon had passed, but enough light remained to enable each man to find his place in formation. Only the sounds of thousands of shuffling feet and the periodic clang of striking shields broke the silence. All along the line.

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veterans whispered encouragement to younger men, urging them to keep close and shelter themselves as much as possible behind their neighbor's shield. Here and there someone would void himself uncontrollably. Men would chuckle about that later, but for the moment little was said. Fear was natural. It was forgiven, as long as the man stayed in line. Dawn broke. The order came—advance. In the center was the Leontis tribe, commanded by Themistocles, and the Antiochis tribe, led by Aristides. The men despised one another, but today their tribes stood side by side, tasked with the day's most difficult and dangerous mission. Any chance the Athenians had for victory rested on the valor

of these generals and their men. On the far right, its flank to the ocean, stood the Aiantis tribe. Leading it was Thrasylaos, accompanied by his son Stesilaos. Stesilaos would not survive the day, dying within arm's reach of his father. Also standing in the Aiantis ranks was Greece's greatest dramatist, Aeschylus. Today he would fight bravely but also witness the savage death of his brother Cynegeirus. The advancing Greeks were in clear view of the Persians, as had been the case for several days. Today, though, the Greeks were silent. Absent was the taunting of previous days. Did Datis, admiral of the Persian fleet, preoccupied with loading his ships, note the silence? Perhaps not. The night loading had not gone well. How could it, as his men TEXT EXCERPTED FROM THE FIRST CLASH: THE MIRACULOUS GREEK VICTORY AT MARATHON AND ITS IMPACT ON WESTERN CIVILIZATION, BY JIM LACEY. BANTAM,

MILITARY HISTORY

NEW YORK. 2011, $26. COPYRIGHT © 2011 BY JIM LACEY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

had never tried it before? The Persians had broken down most of their camp but had yet to load the collected booty. They had managed to put most of their ships into the water but had not finished loading their horses. Datis must have seen that the Athenian lines were tighter, more disciplined. But if he or any of the other Persians noticed any difference, it did not cause them to change their routine. As they had done every morning since landing at Marathon, they formed to face the Greeks. There seemed no reason for haste. After all, they still had three times the Athenian numbers. Even the Greeks were not crazy enough to attack against such odds.

but none doubted they would make short work of the charging hoplites. The Persian spearmen were in line now, waiting patiently for the release of the hail of arrows that would darken the sky and decimate their foe. That done, the infantry would advance to slaughter the shattered remnant. But a different kind of war was charging down on them now. And it was arriving at almost incomprehensible speed, for at 200 yards the Athenian trot became a sprint. The Athenian hoplites' kind of war would not be decided by a hail of arrows. A collision of wooden shields and deadly iron-tipped spears wielded by heavily annored warriors would settle matters. This was a

'Men screamed, fought and died. But soon enough the hoplites had passed through the infantry and gotten among the unprotected archers. Then the real killing began'

I

n unison the Greeks began to sing the holy paean. When the song ended, the hoplites stepped off. For the first few steps they walked, but then the pace picked up, first to a fast walk and then to a trot. The hoplites crushed together, shoulder to shoulder, shield to shield. Fear melted away now the army was advancing. Men who had soiled themselves drew strength from the surging men around them. Six hundred yards from enemy lines the mass of men began to scream their fierce and nerve-shattering battle cry: "Alleeee!" The Persians could not believe what they were seeing. The Athenians had neither cavalry nor archers. This attack was madness. But the Athenians were coming on, and they were coming fast. Hastily, the Persian commanders aligned their troops. Men holding wicker shields went to the front, while thousands of archers arrayed themselves in the rear. Despite the speed of the Athenian attack, the Persians showed no panic. They were professionals, victors of dozens of bloody battles. The force coming at them was a novel sight.

MILITARY HISTORY

terrifying confrontation of screaming, half-crazed men who stabbed, gouged and kicked at their opponents until one side broke. Then the real slaughter would begin, as men rushed forward in murderous pursuit of the fleeing foe. The Persian archers finally let fly —but to no effect. Never having seen such a rapid advance, many archers mistimed their shots, Masses of arrows missed their mark entirely. Of those that did strike the Athenians, most bounced off shields and heavy armor. The archers hastily reloaded, as the shield bearers and protecting infantry, seeing that 10,000 killers were almost upon them, inched backward. In an instant the Greeks smashed into the lightly protected Persians and convulsed their line. Trampling the Persians' wicker shields, the hoplites destroyed the first rank of enemy infantry. Few of their spears shattered on impact (unusual for a hoplite batde), as the Persians lacked sufficient armor Men screamed, fought and died. But soon enough the hoplites had passed through the infantry and gotten among the unprotected archers. Then the real killing began.

T

he Greek flanks, where Callimachus had massed his hoplites eight deep, made rapid progress, while the Persian flanks, facing the men of Aiantis on the Athenian right and the Plataeans on the left, quickly lost their cohesion. In places unprotected Persian archers drew their short swords and daggers and tried to make a stand. But they made little impression on the Greek line of locked shields. The phalanx rolled over its opposition, killing as it came. The front line of Greeks, intent on killing or maiming those Persians still standing, stepped over the enemy wounded, leaving them to the stabbing swartn of light troops in their wake. Overwhelmed by the horror of hoplite warfare, the Persian flanks soon broke and ran for the safety of the ships. In ancient battles this was the time when the losing side incurred most of its casualties. Panicked men on the run are incapable of any defense. In turn, their pursuers, propelled by an instinctual bloodlust, would almost always break formation as they rushed to cut down the fleeing enemy from behind. And for about 100 yards this was just what the Athenians did. But then they did the impossible. At least it would have been impossible, had the Athenian anny been the tnass of unprofessional rustics that tradition posits, Callimachus, seeing the Persian left routed, ordered the bugle blown, immediately halting the Greek right flank. For a moment the killing stopped, as the Athenian ranks swung inward 90 degrees. Behind them swept the light troops, armed similarly to the Persians but with the inestimable advantage of pursuing rather than fleeing in panic. These light troops would not be decisive, but they would maintain pressure and protect the Athenian flank while Callimachus closed the jaws of his trap. Another bugler sounded on the left flank, and here too Greeks and Plataeans quickly re-formed their ranks and turned toward the center of the battlefield. We mustn't pass over these actions too lightly. What the Athenian army accomplished could only be done by a professional force as part of a preset plan. Moreover, such a maneuver

required iron combat discipline found only in veteran units. While the Athenian flanks carried all before them, things had not gone well in the center. Here, the hoplites were arrayed only four deep, and the men of the Leontis and Aniiocbis tribes lacked the numbers and sheer mass to overwhelm their opponents. They were also facing ilie heavily armored and disciplined core of the enemy army, the Persians and Saka. The first impact had sent the Persians teeling, but alter that numbers told. After an exhausting charge, there was a limit to how long the front-rank Athenians could fight. To keep the pressure on, the Greeks did what they could to move fresher hoplites forward, but the press of the Persian counterattack made that difficult. Thankfully, Callimachus did not expect them to advance but simply to hold. tJnfortunatcly, even that was proving difficult.

D

espite the exhortations of the intrepid Aristides and Themistocles, the Athenians were near-

As depicted in this erroneous 17th century copper engraving (horses were not present at Marathon, for one), the Greeks snatched what seemed inevitahle victory from the Persians by trapping tbe distracted foe within the closing jaws of the pivoting Athenian flanks. ing exhaustion and could no longer resist the weight of Persian numbers. But the Greek veterans did not break. They fell back with deliberate slowness, killing their enemies even in retreat. As the Greeks bowed back, they entered the woods near their camp. The broken terrain caused the phalanx to lose its cohesion. Gaps opened between the shields, and hoplites began to fall. The men of Antiochus suffered heavily, and Aristides must have known his men were close to breaking. In another moment the Athenians would be swept aside, and the Persians would win the day. Then, salvation. Having reset their lines, the Athenian flanks stepped off again, aiming at the now-exposed flanks of the Persian center. It is likely the Persians and

Saka, locked in mortal combat with the hoplites to their front and sensing imminent victory, had overlooked the looming threat. Twin killing machines now steamroUed down on them, crushing the victory they had glimpsed only a moment before. Any Persians who could, ran. Many, however, were trapped and died where they stood. Datis could see what was happening to his center and must have cursed the fact he lacked enough organized troops to launch a counterattack. But it was all he could do to collect stragglers to resist the Athenian light troops. Datis also knew that when the Athenian troops finished massacring the Persians and Saka, they would come at him again. Behind him thousands ol panicked men were wading into the water, looking for any ship that could take them aboard. Datis needed to buy these men time. If he could get enough of them away, there might still be a chance for victory. The Greek phalanx came on again. By now dust obscured the shine of the Athenian shields, and drying blood

BATTLE OF MARATHON, 490 BC arathon ended the first phase of the Greco-Persian Wars and was the culmination of a decades-long Athenian-Persian power struggle. The Greek city-states remained fractious cousins when Persia directed its expansionist gaze west in the mid-6th century BC. Persia quickly conquered Ionia, on the Aegean coast of modern-day Turkey. But in 499 BC, with Athenian hacking, the lonians rebelled against their Persian satraps. Persian King Darius crushed the Ionian Revolt in 493 BC and resolved to punish Athens for its role in the insurrection. In 490 BC he put his nephew Artaphernes at the head of a massive Persian army and sent it south into the Aegean ahoard a 600-ship fleet. In late summer admiral Datis heached the Persian triremes at Marathon, a day's march from Athens. An Athenian-Plataean army was waiting.

M

'ersian opposites, g them fleeing for Ips, closely pursued ek light troops.

speed of the . surprised the Persian archers c range, the Greek y was upon them.

) 4. But the Persian center overwhelmed the weaker Athenian r, pressing it back

Greek Camp

The 10,000-man Greek army led up four deep at center Id eight deep on Its flanr ~~ infronting it was a Persi my times It«

{STANCES; rslan Cai

MILITARY HISTORY

MARATHON MAN

In the wake of its stunning victory, the Greek army likely would have sent a messenger the 25 miles southwest to Athens with the news. Whether that fleetfooted herald was the Athenian distance runner Pheidippides remains in dispute (see sidebar, P. 67)—though it isn't a question of his ability, in his landmark Histories, written a half-century after the battle, the Greek historian Herodotus records an even ionger run Pheidippides made in the days leading up to Marathon, when officials in Athens sent him to Sparta with an appeal for reinforcements. Pheidippides reportedly completed that 153-mile run across rocky terrain in two days—a time bettered by competitors In a modern-day Spartathlon |www.spartathlon.gr], albeit in high-tech sneakers along a route lined with water stations.

MARATHON

Start Battle ol Marathon '.uathon Bay

ATTICA (GREECE)

DETAIL AREA

Rouie of modern "Athens Classic " marathon race ATHENS

Imite» ri
IS IS

Saronic Gulf

Persian Camp

the Persian army broke ana ran for Its ships, the Greek phalanx close on its heels. Herodotus recorded more than 6,000 Persian dead on the Marathon plain, while the Greeks lost perhaps 200' men. Still, most of the Persiai y sailed away, posing reat to Athens Itself. \

Greek Camp

,.;_- center made a Ithdrawai into the woods behind them, iuring the Persians | ever deeper into a box. Then ._^ 5 wamp came the decisive moment, the Athenian center re-formed and the Greek fianks sprang the trap, smashing into the Persians with locked shields, heavy a

dulled the gleam of their spear points. As for the men holding those spears, they were dirty, drenched in sweat and splattered with blood. But they knew they had won and were advancing with fresh determination. To Datis' men the sight must have been horrifying. But they knew there was nowhere to go, and through personal example, Datis held them to their duty. This time the Greeks came on with deliberate slowness. Spared the crashing shock of a phalanx impacting at a run, the Persian line did not immediately break. The battle near the ships became desperate as men grappled

ILITARY HISTORY

Tradition holds that word of the Greek victory at Marathon was carried to Athens by the longdistance runner Pheidippides (see sidebar, opposite), who fell dead after delivering the news. But the legend-which gave rise to the modern marathon race-may be apocryphal.

at close quarters. Callimachus fell, mortally wounded, and Aeschylus saw his brother's hand chopped off as he grabbed hold of a Persian ship. After a long, hard fight the Persians gave way, and the Athenians swept across the narrow beach. But Datis' line had held long enough for most of his ships and surviving soldiers to escape. In the end

the Athenians were able to capture only seven vessels. The surviving Persians moved out to sea.

A

s the Persian fleet sailed into the Aegean, the Athenian hoplites rested while the light troops hunted and killed Persian stragglers, particularly those hiding in the Great Marsh. When the Athenian generals took stock, they found that 192 Athenian hoplites lay dead. Most of these casualties had been from the tribes of the Antiochis, which had been hard-pressed in the center, and the Aiantis, which had suffered serious

dippides and has him exclaim, "Joy! We win!" before dropping dead. As both writers were further removed With the victory won, the Greeks dispatched a messenger, from the Battle of Marathon than current readers are Pheidippides, to Athens. According to the traditional from the Spanish Armada, some historians have cast story, he ran the distance in full armor, shouted, "Hail! doubt as to whether the run ever took place. It is inWe are victorious!" and promptly fell over dead. This is conceivable, though, that after winning such a glorithe legend on which today's marathon races are based. ous victory, the Athenian hoplites would have jailed However, Herodotus makes no mention of a messen- to relay the news home. Someone was sent with the mesger being sent from the battlefield. Plutarch is the first sage from Marathon. Just who made the run remains to mention a runner, some 600 years after the battle. anyone's guess. Plieidippicics had had time to recover Almost a century passes before a second mention, this from an earlier run to Sparta and back, and it is possitime by Lucian. Plutarch says the runner's name was ble he was given the honor of reporting the great victory either Thersippus or Eudes, while Lucian credits Phei- to awaiting Athenians.

Who Ran the Original Marathon?

losses near the ships. Still, it had been a great victory, for more than 6,000 Persian dead Uttered the battlefield. As a messenger (see sidebar, above) winged his way to Athens, exultant hoplites looked out to sea in horror. The F'ersian ships were heading south. Athens was undefended, and the Persians would be landing on the beaches of Phaleron, just mik\s from the city, before sunset. For a few moments the hoplites stared uncomprehendingly, wondering if the battle had been for nothing. Soon, though, a new leader, possibly Miltiades, took the place of the dead Callimachus and began issuing orders. All along the beach exhausted hoplites steeled themselves for one more great effort. They hefted spears, shouldered shields and re-formed their regiments. The bloodied Antiochis regiment was left to secure the battlefield and the rich booty in the Persian camp. The other nine tribal regiments set off on a race against time. It was almost 26 miles to Athens, and the Persians had a head start. When Datis eventually arrived off the coast of Phaleron, he saw that through an almost superhuman ellort the Athenian hoplites had beaten him there. Along the ridge overlooking the beach stood thousands of Greek warriors, ready to contest the Persian landing. After suffering huge losses, and with his force still disorganized, Datis had had enough. The Persian ships turned back out to sea. Athens had won.

T

he next morning 2,000 Spartans arrived. They had missed the fighting but still wanted to see the battlefield, likely to confirm the victory was as great as the Athenians claimed. Later in the day, having toured Marathon, they praised the victors and marched for home. With Gallimachus dead, Miltiades was the hero of the hour. Making good use of his political ascendancy, he demanded the Athenian assembly give him troops and control of Athens' 70-ship fleet for a puni-

The Parians refused to pay, so Miltiades laid siege to the city. He had driven it to the point of capitulation when a forest fire started on the far side of the island. The Parians had sent for Persian assistance and mistakenly interpreted the distant glow as a signal help was on the way. Buoyed by the anticipated reinforcement, the Parians hroke off surrender negotiations. Miltiades, suffering from a wound or severely broken leg, could not maintain the siege any longer and sailed for home.

'As the messenger winged his way to Athens, exultant hoplites looked out to sea in horror. The Persian ships were heading south. Athens was undefended' tive expedition into the Aegean. Setting out almost immediately after Marathon, in fall 490 BC, he began a circuit of Aegean islands that had supported Persia. Most submitted on his approach, but several had to be laken by assault. All were ordered to pay an indemnity to Athens, to offset the cost of the war. Not until he approached Paros, in the spring or summer of 489 BC, did he run into serious opposition. Paros had sent a trireme to assist the Persians at Marathon, so Miltiades set a particularly high indemnity for them—100 talents.

He had been away too long, and upon his arrival he found his political enemies aligned against him. His failure al Paros had given them an opening. Miltiades had promised success and treasure. Instead, he had handed Athens a humiliating failure and drained the treasury. Once again Miltiades found himself on trial for his life. Owing to his continued popularity wiih the mob, he managed to avoid execution but was fined a ruinous 50 talents. Not that it mattered to Miltiades. The wound he had suffered on Paros had gangrened, and he died soon after the trial ended. (¡5l

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William Shakespeare depicted "Sir John Fastolfe" at the 1429 Battle of Palay as a coward and a liar, in dtamalic opposilioti to the nobler Sir John Talbot. Earl of Shrewsbury. The "Falstaff character also appears in Henry IV, as a fat drunkard and ruffian, and again, even tiiore farcically, iti The Merry Wives of Windsor. But tbe real-life inspiration for those cbaracters. Sir Jobn Fastolf (circa 1380-1459), was neither fictional nor farcical. In The Real Fahtajf, Stepben Cooper explores tbe man bebind tbe miscbaracterization. Fastolf was born in Caister Hall, Norfolk, and began bis military career alongside Henry Bolingbroke, tbe future King Henry IV, Failing to join Bolingbroke on a crusade against Litbuania witb tbe Teutonic Knights, he did join the future king on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Fastolf first experienced combat in Ireland under Bolingbroke's son Thomas of Lancaster, Duke of Clarence, but his moment of martial glory came in the much-disputed French provinces of Normandy, Maine and Aquitaine, Though described by one of his servants as a man "for the most part without pity or mercy," Fastolf was known to be a man of letters; he helped found a university in Caen in 1431. He was also

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Washington: A Life, by Ron Chernow, Penguin Press, New York, 2010, $40 Once a dedicated biographer of money men, Ron Chernow now sees himself as a modem Pygmalion: Like the hero of Greek myth, the author has set out to transform a marble image—the statuesque figure of George Washington—into a flesh-andblood human being. The figure Chernow presents is awesome, yes, but also a man who loved, flirted, penny-pinched, punished and toiled with the evils of slavery. Yet the author never wholly besmirches the valiant image of Washington that has radiated across the centuries. In fact, as he stresses throughout, Washington radiated glory and was always courageous in battle. Bullets seemed miraculously to fly by him when under fire. This trait first revealed itself in the French and Indian War, when the young Washington led green troops into the bush for a series of short and bloody encounters. "He had a natural toughness and never seemed to gag at bloodshed," writes Chernow, recounting the battle of Fort Necessity in what is now Pennsylvania. "A born soldier, he was curiously at home with bullets whizzing about him."

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Europa Universalis III: Divine Wind, by Paradox Interactive, 2010, $19.99 (PC/Windows)

Divine Wind, the fourth expansion pack for the popular grand strategy game Europa Vniversalis III, is set in the Far East. You enter this world in 1399 as either a Japanese daimyo jockeying for power over the shogunate or as a Chinese faction seeking to keep the Mandate of Heaven, slowly growing from a minor settlement into a world power. The game incorporates historical events at relevant dales and/or when players meet certain distorical criteria. The good news is that the underlying game structure remains deep and complex, and Divine Wind adds enhanced diplomacy and more realistic trade options. The so-so news is that these new features add little to the mix, and development of one's empire requires the patience of Confucius. Divine Wind also requires you to own a copy of the original Europa Universalis UI and

an installed version of the Heir to the Throne expansion pack to play.

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MILITARY HISTORY

Yet Chemow also makes his hero curiously human in battle. Washington could be distracted by such trivialities as the condescension of British officers early in his career or by his renovatiotis at Mount Vernon during the Revolutionary War, He could forgive loyal underlings who underperformed and was often too tolerant of rival officers who plotted against him. He could weep for fallen comrades and unleash a hell-born fury at cowardly soldiers, as he did at Kips Bay in Manhattan in 1776. As a strategist Washington was masterful at Princeton, but Chemow also points out that Washington almost blew the entire revolution by his oversights at Brooklyn Heights just a few months earlier. Chemow respectfully relates Washington's well-deserved reputation for evenhanded dignity as presidciu. Bill again we see his human side as he rages against the perceived betrayals of Thotnas Jefferson and James Madison and wrestles with the evils of slavery even as his own slave workforce balloons. We see his practised restraint as the party system developed and ihe young republic wrestled with ta.xation, relations with European states, slavery and banking. We also see the private Washington, a man with no children of his own who enjoyed paternal relationships with a host of surrogates, in both his wife's offspring and younger soldiers. And among close friends he could count his wife, Martha, for the author concludes theirs was a marriage of fondness rather than passion. In Washington, Chernow has done as good a job as he did with his magnificent 2004 biography Hamilton, even if he didn't quite end up with as good a book. The new book is a welcome addition to the canon of the first president.

MARKETPLACE cleverly and brazenly employing a diplomatic ruse: the Schutzpass, a safe-passage document emblazoned with Sweden's Tre Kronor ("three crowns") emblem, which sufficiently impressed Nazi and Hungarian authorities. Kershaw acThe Envoy: The Epic Rescue knowledges, albeit briefly, the contribuof the Last jews of Europe in tions of others in the Swedish mission, the Desperate Closing Months including Charles Lutz, whose contriof World War ¡I, by Alex Kershaw, butions are said to have equaled those Da Capo Press, 2010, $26 of his fellow diplomat. But it was WallenIn the summer of 1944 Swedish busi- berg, Kershaw writes, "who had placed nessman Raoul Wallenberg accepted his himself in the most danger, directly in country's request to travel to Budapest the firing line, in the crosshairs of the and lead a U.S.-supported diplomatic SS and Arrow Cross." mission to rescue Hungary's Jews from Kershaw recounts the tale in brisk and Nazi genocide. He arrived to find a som- riveting fashion, drawing from surviber, swastika-swathed city. Outside the vor interviews as well as the extensive Swedish Embassy stood a long line of historical record—the footnotes run 44 Jews marked with Nazi-imposed yellow pages. One can sense the doom on BuStars of David, all seeking Swedish pass- dapest's increasingly mean streets after ports and the immunity from persecution the October 1944 putsch that handed such documents promised. the Arrow Cross the political reins. "The These Jews, and hundreds oí thousands pogroms began that very evening," Kermore, faced almost certain death. Adolf shaw writes. "Hundreds were pulled from Eichmann, architect of Adolf Hitler's their homes or off the streets and slaugh"Final Solution" to thejewish "problem " tered in plain sight....Forced laborers in Nazi-conquered Europe, had been di- were marched to bridges across the Danrected to personally oversee the extermi- ube, shot, and their bodies dumped into nation of every Jew the river." in Hungary and had Three-quarters of the way through taken up residence in the book, however, Wallenberg disapBudapest to do so— pears into the fold of the occupying even as the war's tide Soviets (his fate remains largely a matwas turning and Rus- ter of conjecture), and the pace of the sian forces were ap- narrative becomes erratic—slowing proaching the occu- to recount the postwar lives of Jewish pied nation from the survivors; accelerating with the tense Eastern Front. and ultimately successful Israeli hunt In / ill' Lnvoy, Alex Kershaw recounts for Eichmann. Eichmann's cold-blooded implementation It may have been an impossible task— of the plan that sent nearly a half-million given the murky nature of Wallenberg's Hungarian Jews to their deaths at Ausch- fate—to weave these somewhat disparate witz over a mere six-week period that postwar threads into a more cohesive summer. He also relates Wallenberg's denouement. That said, Kershaw's pace courage as he stood up to both Eichmann through most of the book makes The and the bloodthirsty, ultranationalist Envoy a compelling read. His depictions Hungarian Arrow Cross militias. of Wallenberg's confrontations with FichIn the end Wallenberg helped save mann and the other monsters he faced untold thousands of lives (estimates vary are vividly drawn. —William H. McMichael Irotn 20,000 to as many as 100,000) by but Hamilton was something special, a rollicking tale about a heroic and spectacularly flawed man. —Peter Moreira

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Hallowed Ground Morristown, New Jersey By Jeff Denman

lthough the 1777-78 winter encampment at Valley Forge, Pa., is firmly fixed in Americans' collective memory, the situation at Morristown two years later was far bleaker. The Army's inexperience with winter encampments, hut construction and sanitation certainly resulted in a higher death toll at Valley Forge (1,859 men vs. 86 at Morristown), the nadir of winter soldiering for many But extreme cold, snow and a dire lack of provisions at Morristown brought many Patriot troops to the limits of human endurance. General George Washington was deliberate in his selection of history that the Hudson River froze so solidly that sleighs Morristown as a site for his winter headquarters. With the Brit- could be driven between Paulus Hook Qersey City) and New ish occupying Manhattan, the American commander needed an York." Most officers at Morristown lodged in private homes, but encampment safe from enemy probes but within striking dis- the enlisted men had to endure canvas tents until they could tance of the city, 15 miles to build log huts. Straw bedthe east. Between the opposding provided little insuing forces stood the Watchlation from the snow. Only ung Mountains, a 40-mile a lucky few had blankets. chain of ridges with easiDesperation soon gripfxxl ly defensible passes, while the camp. Shoeless soldiers west of the Watchungs was wandered the countryside, a network of roads that confeet covered in rags, leaving nected New Fngland and bloody trails in the snow as the Mid-Atlantic, providing they searched for food and avenues for men and masupplies. At first citizens teriel in what had become were glad enough to help, a protracted fight. but plundering increased, The winter of 1779-80 with men, writes Cunningwas the coldest on record in ham, "making their visits the 18th century. "Twentyin the dark of night to eseight separate snowstorms [hit] Mor- Patriot soldiers at Morristown endured one cort a few hens or a lonely cow back ristown from November 1779 to April of the coldest winters on record in the 18th to camp." Quartermaster General Na1780," writes author John T. Cun- century, living in canvas tents and sleeping thanael Greene correctly predicted of ningham. "[It] was the only time in on straw bedding until they could build huts. the dearth of provisions, "Surrounding

ÎTARY HI«

inhabitants will experience the first melancholy effects of such a raging evil." Private Joseph Plumb Martin of Gonnecticut lamented: " I do solemnly declare that I did not put a single morsel of victuals into my mouth for four days and as many nights, except a litde black birch bark which 1 gnawed off a stick ol wood.... 1 saw several men roast their old shoes and eat them, [and] some of the officers killed and ate a favorite little dog that belonged to one of them." Washington, the ever-vigilant commander in chief, foresaw the pending tlisaster. "Our magazines are absolutely empty everywhere, and our commissaries entirely destitute of money or credit to replenish them... .Unless some extraordinary and immediate exertions are made by the states from which we draw our supplies, there is every appearance that the Army will infallibly disband in a fortnight." The snowdrifts continued to mount, making resupply ever more perilous. Army surgeon Dr. James Thacher recalled a particularly bad stonn on Jan. 3, 1780: "No man could endure its vio-

Replica log huts, above, at Morristown National Historic Park give visitors a sense of the crude accommodations the enlisted men built and inhabited.

lence many minutes vvdthout danger of his life... .The snow is now from 4 to 6 feet deep, which so obstructs the roads as to prevent our receiving a supply of provisions. Eor the last 10 days we have received but 2 pounds of meat a man, and we are frequently for six or eight days entirely destitute of meat, and then as long without bread. The consequence is, the soldiers are so enfeebled from hunger and cold as to be almost unable to perform their military duty or labor in constructing their huts." What was it that held men together through such hard times? Perhaps Martin summed it up test: "1 know how 1 felt at the time, and 1 know how 1 feel at the recollection of it; but there was no remedy. We must go through it, and we did go through it." Thacher had a similar observation: "It may seem extraordinary that those who have experienced such accumulated distress and privations

should voluntarily engage in the same service... .There is to be found, however, in the bosom of our soldiers the purest principles of patriotism—they glory in the noble cause of their country." Today Morristown National Historical Park Iwww.nps.gov/morrl recalls that harsh winter of revolution. Morristown proper holds the Washington Headquarters unit, where rangers lead tours of the 1774 Eord Mansion. Adjacent is the park museum, presenting exhibits and a film. Several miles south of town off Western Avenue is the Jockey Hollow unit, which holds the park visitor center and replica soldiers' huts at the Pennsylvania brigade encampment site. The Patriots' Path hiking trail meanders south to the New Jersey Brigade encampment site, where stone hearths are all that remain of the original wooden huts. The image of starving, half-naked, shoeless soldiers clinging to life in these crude huts during one of the coldest winters on record, yet still moving on to fight another day underscores their almost unimaginable depth of commitment to the Patriot cause, ffi

Weapons we're glad

Marine Artillery Sweden, 9 3 5 . The Herringpult of Hrothgar the Hapless drove off the even more hapless invading Danes during the malodorous War of the Herrings. Shown at top is the mobile Fjord Model-T. The Swedes also developed a model that launched little meatballs, but that had the opposite effect of feeding their enemies' appetites for conquest.

ILITARY HISTORY

ouilt

By Rick Meyerowitz Denmark, 1941. it was an incident that proved to the peace-loving Germans that something was truly rotten in Denmark: A cruise ship, Bismarck, paying a friendly social call on the warlike Scandinavian nation, was the victim of an unprovoked attack by Danes using whale guns, above. Bismarck's crew, all fanatical vegetarians personally chosen by Adolf Hitler, were incensed. The arrival on their ship of any type of meat was considered an act of war! (Jl