good morning jessicca

  

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F A S H I O N E D     B Y     M A T H 

T H E   R O L E   O F   A   L I F E T I M E

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S O C I A L     C A U S E 

B U N K H O U S E

C A B O O S E

love

   dad

coldValentine

End of the Beginning

   

 Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Denmark, Norway,

Netherlands, Belgium, France, Greece, Crete, Russia,

North Africa - the role call of Hitler's vanquished foes 

 was a list that had an end.

 The crushing number of merchant ship sinkings

in the Atlantic by German U-boats was down.  

Better Allied sonar and radar made Nazi

submarine commander a hazardous occupation.

British breaking of Germany's Enigma code 

made finding targets for the Wolfpacks 

increasingly difficult. 

Their Happy Time was over.

 Spats on landing gear.  Quaint.

What was state of the art in 1940

looked curiously out of time by 1942.

Being successful on the battlefield 

required constant innovation by the military.

Don't let perfection be the enemy of the good.

German engineers invented the exotic when

practical solutions would better serve winning.

The Messerschmitt 262 jet fighter and the V-2

rocket were both unreliable and horribly expensive

weapons systems.  Their ultimate military value

was minimal.

 The German Wehrmacht dominated opposing armies

by coordinating a tank attack with their dive-bombers

picking off targets from above.  They combined speed

with precision bombing to break through a dated

foot soldier defense.  All military cohesion crumbled

when tanks were discovered coming up from behind.

Collecting up the enemy's bewildered troops 

was left to the German infantry.

That was last year.  

The Russians, the Brits and the Yanks, were by 1942

coming around to combined arms warfare.

In turn, German forces found themselves increasingly

on the defensive.  They had lost the initiative and now,

suddenly, they were the ones reacting to their enemy's

moves.

German troops increasingly found themselves first

boxed in, then they were ground down in a contest

comparing whose weapons were more brutal.

This battle of attrition was a losing hand for the Nazis.

 Stalingrad.  

Three hundred thousand German troops, 

their entire 6th Army eliminated.  It was like

losing your queen on your third move in chess.

Hitler had already taken control of the 

Volga River, Moscow's prime route to their 

oil fields in the south.  Stalingrad was of no 

particular military value.  Hitler's ace in the hole

was Blitzkrieg, not street fighting.

Urban warfare was real close up.

Room to Room.  A grenade's throw away.

Not tanks popping you off at a thousand meters.

Then there was the loss at Alamein.

Rommel's Afrika Korps was now running from the British.

What do you know.

Nazi karma.

 The Yanks arrived in North Africa, just to the west

of Tunis.  Hitler was chortling, Come to me Baby.

He had the impression America was inept.  A joke.

For good reason.  It was obvious to the Germans,

Brits, French and Italians alike - American soldiers

were pathetic.  They made the most basic of mistakes

in infantry tactics.  Their lack of discipline made

all their other shortcomings irrelevant.

The GIs' needed Come to Jesus moment

was first provided by Rommel, who 

got their attention.

Then Patton taught them what it means

to wear that uniform.

It starts with a kick in the butt.

*  *  *  *  *

©  Tom Taylor

 OVER   EASY

coldValentine

 

good morning jeremy

  

N  O  T  H  I  N  G     B  U  T     W  A  T  E  R

love 

   dad

coldValentine

Algiers

 

 

 The politics among French generals, their jealousies

and feuds with one another, often determined the greeting

received by the Americans.  How did you feel about Petain -

patriot or puppet?  Did being anti-Nazi make you a traitor?

At the time, only Churchill appreciated Charles de Gaulle's

leadership talents.  The Free French cause was still

only a distant rumble.

The game plan for taking Algiers was from the same

blue print used to take Oran, but hopefully without the

resulting lose of life.  A destroyer packed with 

Allied soldiers made a daring dash, under fire,

the length of the harbor, successfully capturing

their objective .  The landed infantry were soon

surrounded, surrendering only when their

ammunition had run out.

Mistakes were made up and down the line. 

No one escaped the harsh judgment of reality.

How do you feel about a game using

human lives as chess pieces?  

Can you make a decision on the basis of little

knowledge and a good deal of hunch?

Under these circumstances a desk in Washington 

is the preferred destination for most. 

The Allied goal was to take nearby Tunis, quickly

ending the war in North Africa.  Despite the sometimes

hideous cost of inexperience, the risks taken 

were worth it.  On the job training errors

produced fatalities.  Give it a curse word 

of disgust, then move on.

Success validates the cost.

The six engine Gigant provided Hitler with overnight 

delivery of combat infantry and vehicles.  It was a

short hop from Sicily to Tunis.  German troops

were already making their presence know in Tunisia

even as the Yanks were mopping up Vichy

opposition in Algiers.

 Hitler just upped the ante with these troops added

to his pile of North African poker chips.  

They were a real fun bunch.

The Yanks would soon meet up with them

just down the road at a mountain pass

named Kasserine.

*  *  *  *  * 

©  Tom Taylor

OVER   EASY

coldValentine

Happy Birthday Justin !

  

H  O  T      P  O  T  A  T  O

love

   dad 

coldValentine

good morning justin

  

 S  E  A  P  L  A  N  E

love

   dad

coldValentine

Oran

  

The Allies needed to beat Hitler to Tunis and starve

Rommel's Afrika Korps into submission.  The docks of

Oran's port would provide the supplies needed to

defeat the Germans in Tunisia.  Time was critical.

Hitler had already begun sending troops to Tunis

to counter this American thrust.

Commodore Peters was given two old American

coast guard cutters to secure Oran's docks for

the Allies.  His plan was to make a mad dash

across the length of the harbor to wrest control

of the docks from the French.  Surprise was his

only hope for success if the French turned out 

to be hostile.

A battery of large cannon defended the harbor from a cliff

nearby.  Along side this fortress was stationed a brilliant

searchlight used to illuminate their target.  It would be used

with devastating success.

There was never any hope of surprise.  

The attack from the sea on the harbor was to

come two hours after Americans began landing on the

shores bracketing Oran.  No one would be sleeping on

guard duty with all this commotion going on about them.

Hundreds of American GIs were crammed in holds

under the decks of these unarmored relics.

They prayed this wouldn't be the suicide mission

of their fears.  Turns out their fears were right.

Two-thirds of the 700 men involved in the mission

were killed or wounded.  The rest were fished from

the water and taken prisoner.  Peters ordered the 

operation to proceed despite a message from HQ

stating Oran was about to fall and his mission 

may not be necessary.  

Peters led his charge from the bridge of the Walney.

His vessel reached Pier 1, its objective, as a ghost

ship.  After machine gun fire raked its decks and

cannon shells exploded among those stuffed 

below, there just didn't appear to be any room left

for those hoping to live.  The same was true for

those souls that sank with the second lifeless cutter.  

The French had a score to settle with the Brits.

Killing Americans was unfortunate but it was

a matter of French honor.

Tomorrow, though, would be different.

*  *  *  *  * 

©  Tom Taylor

OVER   EASY 

coldValentine