Tuesday

                       Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“I have tried to know absolutely nothing about a great many things, and I have succeeded fairly well.”

                                              Robert Benchley

June 6, 1944 is the day that the Allies landed on the Normandy beaches of western France. This day was forever known as D-Day. The Allies put 156,000 troops, 18,000 paratroopers and enormous amounts of rolling stock such as tanks, jeeps, 4 bi’s, 6 bi’s, self propelled 105’s, self propelled 155’s, hundreds of APC’s and ammunition, not to mention food, water and medical supplies to sustain this enormous army and fuel for the rolling stock. They actually did not put much of the fuel on the ground, they ran fuel lines carrying gasoline and diesel fuel from England to Normandy in pipes that had been secretly laid on the bottom of the English Channel. After this the fuel was canned put aboard trucks and sent to follow the advance to keep everything moving, not to mention fuel for the thousands of aircraft and various boats.

Back in 2004 a good friend of mine from Charlotte and I decided we needed a vacation and began a scan of the web. We found that Holland America had a cruise that began in England (Dover) and made stops at Plymouth (a NATO exercise was in progress there), then to Guernsey Island (the only English property that was occupied by the Germans), then a three day stop at Cherbourg, France. From there they bused us to Omaha Beach for the 60^th anniversary ceremony of the D-Day invasion. The French Marines were there thick as fleas as was helicopter gunships constantly on patrol. It would have been a great time for a terrorist attack. President Bush was there along with Condoleeza Rice, President of France Chirac, Colin Powell and many other celebrities including my traveling companion and me. After several speeches, a 21 gun salute by 105 howitzers, a parade of American, French, English and Canadian warships just off shore, Taps was played. There was not a dry eye for miles, mine included.

From there the ship went to Le Havre, Zebrugge, Amsterdam, back to Dover then to Heathrow and home.

We were in London for three days and made several interesting side trips especially to the British Museum. What a great town but the food sucked…to bland for my tastes. But all of that is worthy of another lesson.

This Date in History June 6

1944 On this date one of the most important events in recorded history occurs. After waiting aboard ship for 48 hours, the Allied (primarily the United States, Canada and Great Britain) troops are landed on the continent of Europe on the beaches of Normandy in western France to destroy the German military machine that had overrun Europe. The Allies paid a price for gaining a foot hold to the tune of 10,000 casualties. In this one day the Allies had about 156,000 combat troops that they put ashore, 13,000 paratroopers, 5,000 ships and 10,000 aircraft of all kinds were involved in this endeavor. The 10,000 casualties was redeemed a few days later when the Allies pivoted east and trapped thousands of German soldiers in a very small perimeter near the town of Falaise, France. The Allies poured in all the gunfire they could find hoping to eliminate as many German soldiers as they could. They did not get them all but General Eisenhower visited the site late and said that one could walk for hundreds of yards on the bodies of German soldiers and not touch the ground.

My uncle Vincent was part of this great invasion. He was an officer in the 2^nd Rangers that climbed the cliffs at Pont du Hoc with the mission to eliminate any shore artillery batteries that would be firing down the beach. He made it through the war including the Battle of the Bulge and Huertgen Forest. He was captured and tortured twice. On the last occasion his unit sent a group behind enemy lines and rescued him. He came out with the rank of captain and a Silver Star but it affected him badly. He came back a different man. He was just downright mean and would not even talk a little bit about what he had seen and done. I guess I would have been the same way. He did tell us that on one occasion he was out in the open and a German artillery barrage began and he jumped into a foxhole and right behind him came a German soldier. They fought hand to hand for several minutes before Uncle Vincent pulled out his “boot knife” and stabbed the German in the throat killing him. War is hell.

1918 Earlier in WWI, the German Army had driven through the Allied forces and was within 45 miles of Paris. The American army and Marines had joined the war by this time and were under the command of General John J. “Blackjack” Pershing. Four German divisions had dug in a place named Belleau Wood on the Paris-Metz road. General Pershing tasked Marine General James Harbord with clearing Belleau Wood of Germans. On this date the US Marines launched their attack. By the end of the day the marines had suffered 1,000 casualties. For the next three weeks the Marines launched one attack after another to no avail. The German commander General Erich Ludendorff was just as determined to keep possession of the Wood in spite of the Marines bringing up US army artillery. Ludendorff brought up reinforcements and counter-attacked with swarms of machine guns, artillery and poison gas. The US Marines would not be denied and finally cleared out the Germans. The price for this victory was 10,000 dead, wounded or missing. It was during this battle that US Marine Sgt. Daniel Daly ordered his platoon to “fix bayonets” and then ordered a bayonet charge when he stood up and screamed the immortal phrase “Come on you sons-of-bitches, do you want to live forever?” Daly was a two time Medal of Honor winner and was recognized by the Commandant of Marine Corp as “the fightingest Marine I ever saw.” In 1917 Congress passed a law that there could only be one Medal of Honor per person.

1997 On this date the Lacey Township High School held their prom at the Aberdeen Township banquet hall. During the dance, 18 year old Marie Drexler chose to go into the bath room and deliver a full term baby, strangle it, wrap in a black plastic garbage bag and put it into a trash can. A clean-up crew was called in to clean up the large amount of blood on the floor and it was then that they discovered the trash bag. An autopsy proved that the baby was born alive and then strangled. Finding who the culprit was proved to be easy and Marie was taken into custody and charged with murder but that was plea bargained down to aggravated manslaughter. At her sentencing hearing a tearful Marie described her remorse and was sentenced to 15 years with the possibility of parole after 3 years. Marie served 32 months and was released. What burden to carry for the rest of her life.

1865 Earlier a man named William Quantrill had organized a Confederate guerrilla group to harass US troops operating mostly in Kansas and Missouri. Included in his small army were Frank and Jesse James. “Quantrill’s Raiders” proved to be a sore thorn in the side of the US army for the entire Civil War. It was well known that the town of Lawrence, Kansas was used as a marshaling point for US Cavalry. One night Quantrill led his men into Lawrence, they shot and killed every man they saw and burned town to the ground. After Lee surrendered in April of 1865, the Civil War was essentially over but not to Quantrill’s Raiders. They continued raids until this date when Quantrill was tracked down to Kentucky and killed by a unit of US Cavalry. Since Quantrill and his raiders operated as guerrillas, they were not eligible for the blanket amnesty offered by the US. Because of this many of his troops turned to a life of crime.

              Thanks for listening   I can hardly wait until tomorrow