Showing posts with label France. Show all posts
Showing posts with label France. Show all posts

Friday, March 15, 2024

Sunday, March 15, 1874. The Second Treaty of Saigon.

Contemporary seal of Vietnam.

The Third French Republic and the Nguyễn dynasty of Vietnam executed the Treaty of Saigon.  The treaty granted economic and territorial concessions to France. France waived a previous war indemnity award from Vietnam in the treaty from 1862 and promised military protection against China.  Vietnam was reduced to a French protectorate.

France already occupied three provinces south and east of the Mekong and had since 1867.  They became the French colony of Cochinchina.  The  Red River, Hanoi, Haiphong and Qui Nhơn were opened to international trade.  France recognized "the sovereignty of the king of Annam and his complete independence from any foreign power" (la souveraineté du roi d'Annam et son entière independence vis-à-vis de toute puissance étrangère). France understood this to mean independence from Chinese influence, although neither Vietnam nor China understood the terms in that fashion.

Last prior:

Tuesday, March 10, 1874. Clemson hand saw.

Saturday, March 9, 2024

Blog Mirror: On marriage, family, and the Irish constitutional referendum.

Ireland, somewhat like Canada some years ago, is in its bratty teenager years and as part of that it likes to go behind the bleachers, smoke cigarettes, make out, and complain about its parents.  In the case of Ireland, the parents are its former English overlords and the Catholic Church.  In the case of Canada, it's its deeply conservative English and French heritage, the latter of which is deeply Catholic and which doesn't exist without it, and the former of which was deeply Anglican.  

Hence, in the case of Ireland, this:

On marriage, family, and the Irish constitutional referendum

I have no doubt the referendum will pass, and in the case of the “life within the home" language in regard to women, it ought to, in my view.  And frankly, the DeValera constitution's lashing Ireland to the Church was a mistake in the first place, one which the Church tried to prevent.

The thing is, however, that the modern world to which the Irish now aspire is frankly bloody and barbaric.  It's made people weird, and unhappy.  The Irish constitution notwithstanding, the strong connection to the existential that the Irish had, and to a large degree still do, made Ireland one of the very few democratic nations that was able to remain grounded and not teeter between the radical left and right.  The US, which has a different heritage, was able to as well, but that's now floundering badly.  Ireland, from the outside, isn't doing well either, and is starting to have the appearance as all bratty teenagers do who try to keep that status too long, as looking worn and tired.

I hate to pick too much on Canada, which has the massive misfortune of living next to the US right now. As I said the other day on Twitter, living in Canada right now must be like living in an upstairs apartment where the downstairs neighbors are having a large drug and alcohol fueled argument at a family reunion, and their couch is on fire.  Indeed, Canada seems to have passed through its bratty stage, which arrived with Trudeau I, and which may be argued to have ended during the COVID pandemic.  Right now, rather than poking its heritage in the eye, it seems to be taking on the role of the worried 30-year-old who has been saddled with caring for its clearly senile and always somewhat combative uncle, Uncle Sam.  

Je me souviens.

Wednesday, March 6, 2024

March 6, 1974. Tout-nucléaire

French Prime Minister Pierre Messmer announced his government's decision to implement the Tout-nucléaire ("Total Nuclear") plan for all electricity in France. The goal was to accomplish this by 2000.  The goals were mostly met.

The US could easily do this, but it would require a scientifically educated public that wasn't easily swayed by raving BS, an overall problem that confronts the US on every level currently.

Last prior:

Tuesday, March 5, 1974. Portugal decides to stay.

Thursday, January 25, 2024

Friday, January 25, 1924. The First Winter Olympics.

The 1924 Winter Olympics opened in Chamonix.  It was the first winter games.


The USSR renamed Petrograd, which had been founded by Peter the Great in 1703 and named after St. Peter, Leningrad, thereby substituting the name of a name of a lawyer turned mass murder in place of that of the Christian saint and first Pope.


While Lenin's foul body remains in a specialized mausoleum for worship by the secular, the city regained its rightful name in June 1991, when it appeared that Russia might escape the treachery of its recent past.

Mexican rebels took Morelia.

Czechoslovakia and France signed a mutual defense treaty.

Friday, January 19, 2024

Saturday, January 19, 1974. The Battle of the Paracel Islands.

The People's Republic of China and the Republic of South Vietnam engaged in combat, mostly naval, but some ground, over the Paracel Islands. The events had been preceded by maneuvers and landings the prior few days after South Vietnam found the Chinese had landed on an island and had armed vessels nearby.


The following day, January 20, the Chinese would prevail.

The South Vietnamese defeat would later be regarded as a Vietnamese one in general as North Vietnam also did not welcome the Chinese incursion and would, post Vietnam War, demand that the Chinese depart, which they have not.  North Vietnam, upon taking over the entire country, praised the efforts of the South Vietnamese troops who attempted to defend the islands.


The People's Republic of China, Republic of China (Taiwan) and Vietnam, all claim the islands

The French government floated the franc, which would continue for six months, in order to maintain its value.

Monday, January 15, 2024

Tuesday January 15, 1924. New Parliament, First Radio Play, The Frac, and the German Navy takes a tour.

King George V and Queen Mary opened a new session of Parliament.

The first radio play, ever, was broadcast by the BBC. The play was entitled Danger.  The play, which as endured and been rebroadcast over the years, involves a plot featuring a young couple and an older man trapped in a pitch-black flooding mine.

The French Cabinet drafted a plan to stabilize the cascading franc.  It called for tax hikes and a reduction in the size of the civil service.


The SMS Berlin of the republican German navy, the Reichsmarine left for a two-month tour of the North Atlantic, the first German warship to do so since World War One.

Ensign of the Reichsmarine.

The current German Navy is called the Deutsch Marine.  Its ensign is as follows:


The Berlin was a prewar ship that had been retained under the Versailles Treaty.  She would not be in service much longer, being decommissioned in 1929, even though she had been modernized and recommissioned in 1922.  She became a barracks ship in Kiel that year, and survived World War Two.  in 1947 she was loaded with chemical weapons and towed out and sank thereby becoming a lasting problem to later generations.

Saturday, January 6, 2024

Sunday, January 6, 1924. Frigid weather and Rebel offensives.

A cold wave was causing grief, and rebels were trying to take the offensive in Mexico.


A story that would repeat many times in Casper was playing out, with oil companies moving their headquarters from Casper to Denver.  By 2000 it had pretty much set in that headquarters were no longer in Wyoming, with Marathon being perhaps the last major producer to relocate.  Denver remains a major oil headquarters city, but Houston has eclipsed it.  Presently, all that really remains of the major petroleum headquarters that were once in Casper are three office buildings, The Ohio Building, the Pan American Building and the Consolidated Royalty Building. 

Atatürk survived a bomb attack on his home by an uninvited visitor which did, however, injury his wife Latife Uşşaki. 

The Catholic Church in France was allowed to reoccupy former Church property under the "diocesan associations" system.

On the same day, the flood of the Seine peaked at over 7 meters.

Thursday, January 4, 2024

Friday, January 24, 1924. Claiming control of the oilfields.

 De la Huerta's confederates claimed control of Mexico's oil.



The German government issued the Emminger Reform abolishing juries in favor of a mixed system of professional and lay judges as a cost savings measure.  Lay judges were in turn abolished by the Third Reich on September 1, 1939.

The jury system is uncommon in continental Europe, in any event.  It was briefly restored in Germany between 1948 and 1950, but upon formation of the Federal Republic of Germany it was again removed save for Bavaria, which adopted the system as it existed prior to this date.

Conclusions were being drawn about French inflation.

Tuesday, December 26, 2023

Wednesday, December 26, 1923. Acknowledging disaster.

The Dixmude was lost, there was no doubt, but the French were making that known.


Totally unrelated, France ran a budget surplus of 568 million francs, determined as of this date.

Dietrich Eckart, German writer and Nazi, and a major influence on Adolf Hitler, died of a heart attack at Berchtesgaden at age 55, too early to see the horror that Nazi ideas would bring upon the world and Germany.

Thursday, December 14, 2023

Tuesday, December 14, 1943. The Death of Captain Waskow.

 

Captain Henry T. Waskow, who became the subject of Ernie Pyle's most famous column, and who was the inspiration for the protagonist in The Story of GI Joe, was killed in action in the Battle of San Pietro.

The French Committee of National Liberation granted French citizenship to Algerians classified as "Moslem elites", those being the ability to fluently read and write French.  It was expected that this would enfranchise between 20,000 to 30,000 Algerians.

This also abandoned a prior requirement that those obtaining French citizenship abandon Islam.

This would have been a huge move had it come in the 30s, but now, it would prove to be too little, too late.

The Germans raided Nantua, France, in reprisal for resistance activities.

Allied aircraft raided Luftwaffe airfields near Athens at Eleusis, Kalamaki and Tatoi, as well as the harbor facilities at Piraeus in the heaviest raid on Greece to date.

Sarah Sundin's blog, reports that:

Today in World War II History—December 14, 1943: US Army Air Force decides to stop using camouflage paint on planes, with the exception of night fighters and transports, to increase speed and range.

The reason I've always been told that this was done was to save weight.  You wouldn't think that this would make much of a difference, but if you consider the overall surface area of an airplane, it's a fair amount.  Less weight means fuel savings and increased speed.

The Red Army took Cherkasy.

John Harvey Kellogg, creator of cornflakes (1878) and founder of the Battle Creek Sanitarium ain Battle Creek, Michigan, died at age 91.

Friday, December 1, 2023

Wars and Rumors of War, 2023, Part XI. Our Sins coming back to haunt us edition.

You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.

 Matthew, Chapter 24.



Well, Part X wasn't up for long before the next edition was necessary.

Ugh.

If any question why we died, 

Tell them, because our fathers lied.

Kipling.

And so, the byproducts of the Great War continue to visit us, specter like.  A war in Ukraine between a Slavic chauvinist empire, and one in the Middle East, sorting out the rubble of the Mandate.

So let us begin.

October 15, 2023

Hamas v. Israel.

Hamas infiltration attempts are continuing, but have dropped off on the West Bank.

Iran is warning the war could go regional, which it will not.

An Israeli ground offensive is imminent.

The US asked American citizens in Gaza (why on earth would anyone with American citizenship stay in Gaza?) to move closer to the Egyptian Rafah border crossing, which would likely suggest the U.S. has worked out some sort of deal with Egypt regarding Americans being displaced in the Gaza Strip (why on earth would anyone with American citizenship stay in Gaza?).

A bomb threat was levied against the Louvre yesterday, which is suspected to be related to this conflict in some fashion.

Russo Ukrainian War

Russian attacks on Avdiivka are continuing, but Ukrainian lines are holding.  Apparently the offensive was anticipated.

October 16, 2023

Hamas v. Israel

From Twitter, and linked directly to what was put up there.  Weapons displayed by the IDF that were used in the recent Hamas raid.


The really surprising one here is the ancient submachine gun.  Apparently it is a Lanchester, which I've never even heard of.  It looks like a German MP28 as it is in fact a version of it.  They were actually produced, to my surprise, in large numbers during World War Two.

The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Cardinal Pizzaballa stated in an interview that he was willing to exchange himself as a hostage for the kidnapped children.

October 17, 2023

Hamas v Israel

Four Iranian nationals have been detained at the Del Rio crossing between the US and Mexico since October 1, with two Iranian nationals regarded as terrorist threats.

The Church of Saint Porphyrius, built in 1150 through 1160, a Greek Orthodox Church, is now housing Palestinian refugees of all religions.

2,000 U.S. troops are being readied to deploy to the region in support roles to Israel.

Churches of the West: A Day of Fasting and Prayer: Bishop Bigler of the Diocese of Cheyenne has declared this a voluntary fast day for Peace in the Middle East.

Prayer for Peace in the Holy Land

The Diocese of Cheyenne is asking Catholics in the Diocese to pray for Peace in the Holy Land, and has issued this prayer.

Pray for Peace in the Holy Land

Lord God, merciful and strong,

     who crush wars and cast down the proud,

     who extend mercy and tenderness to all,

we pray to you for the Holy Land, for the people of Israel and Palestine

     who are under the grip of unprecedented violence,

     for the victims, especially the children and their families.

Be pleased to grant healing for the wounded, the release of hostages,

     protection for the innocent, and eternal peace to the dead.

To all those affected by war, grant healing, consolation, and the grace to forgive.

Almighty God,

     guide the minds of world leaders to act with wisdom, prudence, and justice,

     and to promote the common good.

Lord of Justice, help us to commit ourselves to building a fraternal world

     so that these peoples and all those suffering similar conditions of

     conflict, instability, and violence may walk together as sisters and brothers.

Help us to be peacemakers by practicing justice, dialogue, and reconciliation.

O God of Peace, who are peace itself,

     grant that those in conflict may forget evil and so be healed.

Help those who have experienced violence to forgive their enemies,

     as Christ taught us and after his example on the cross.

We pray that the whole of humanity may be reconciled as one family,

     without violence, without absurd wars, and with a fraternal spirit,

      and live united in peace and concord.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ Your Son, who lives and reigns with you

in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever. Amen.

cont:

Russo Ukrainian War

Ukraine struck Russian airbases deep within Russian occupied Ukraine with ATACMS missiles acquired from the United States

October 18, 2023

Hamas v Israel.

President Biden is in Israel.

Democrat Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib's accused Israel of bombing a Christian's hospital in the Gaza stating "Israel just bombed the Baptist Hospital killing 500 Palestinians (doctors, children, patients) just like that," in a tweet.

Israel replied within an hour that Islamic Jihad was responsible for the strike with an errant missile.

China v Taiwan and everyone else

The U.S. has accused China of increasingly dangerous actions with its fighter aircraft.

Russo Ukrainian War

Ukraine made small gains around Bakhmut and Russians tiny gains around Avdiivka.

The US completed deliveries of M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine.

October 29, 2023

Russo Ukrainian War

Ukraine raided across the Dnipro near Kherson.

Iran v. United States

October 20, 2023

Hamas v. Israel, Iran v. The West

DOD assets in the Red Sea, Iraq and Syria responded to missile and drone attacks over the past two days, as U.S. service members look to deter groups from using the Israel-Hamas war as an opportunity to launch conflict that could engulf the region, Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said today.

Department of Defense.

Effectively, Iran, often acting through its militias, is in a low grade war with the United States right now.

October 23, 2023

Hamas v. Israel, Iran v. The West

The weekend news shows were absolutely frighting on this topic, this weekend.  A bill is being introduced in Congress to authorize the use of force under the War Powers Act, for instance.

October 24, 2023

Russo Ukrainian War.

The Chinese ship Newnew Polar Bear has entered the Port of Arkhangelsk with a missing anchor. Finnish investigators suspect it lost the anchor by dragging it into the Balticconnector gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia.  It will take six months to repair.

cont:

Congo

The Allied Democratic Forces killed people in the city of Oicha in North Kivu province on Monday. The group has ties to the Islamic State.

October 26, 2023

Hamas v. Israel

Iran and its so-called “Axis of Resistance” are pursuing a coordinated strategy to (1) deter Israel from trying to destroy Hamas in the Gaza Strip, (2) prevent Israel from destroying Hamas if deterrence fails, and (3) deter the United States from providing military support to Israel’s ground operation in the Gaza Strip.

ISW.

cont:

Russo Ukrainian War

The Administration reports that Russia has executed its own soldiers for refusing to carry out orders.

Hamas v. Israel

Israel killed the deputy head of Hamas’s intelligence directorate, Shadi Barud, in a strike in the Gaza today.

Iranian backed forces have targeted US sites in Israel and Iraq.

October 27, 2023

Iran v US

The US struck two Iranian backed militia sites in Syria in an air raid earlier today.

Hamas v. Israel

Israel has raided into Gaza.

October 28, 2023

Russo Ukrainian War

Slovakia's right wing populist government is ceasing aid to Ukraine.

Ireland has called for increased European support for Ukraine.

October 29, 2023

Hamas v. Israel

The IDF has entered Gaza.

November 1, 2023

North Korea

North Korea is closing a large number of embassies, apparently due to financial concerns.

Hamas v. Israel

From Yemen's Houthi militia:

Our armed forces launched a large batch of ballistic missiles and a large number of drones at various targets of the Israeli enemy 

The Yemeni Armed Forces confirm that this operation is the third operation in support of our oppressed brothers in Palestine and confirm that we will continue to carry out more qualitative strikes with missiles and drones until the Israeli aggression stops.

Egypt’s Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly stated, in response to reports that millions of Palestinians could cross into Egypt, that Egypt was  “prepared to sacrifice millions of lives to ensure that no one encroaches upon our territory”.

November 2, 2023

Hamas v. Israel

President Biden has called for a pause in the war to aid in removing refugees.  It's unlikely to occur.

Nigeria

Thirty-seven have been killed in a Boko Haram terrorist attack.

Russo Ukrainian War

Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief General Valerii Zaluzhnyi stated in an essay in The Economist yesterday that the has taken on a positional nature.  His article is entitled. "Modern Positional Warfare and How to Win It".

It's odd for a commander to write such an op ed during a time of war, but that the war has become static is pretty obvious. This needs to be overcome if Ukraine is to achieve victory.  If it does not, Western nations will ultimately lose interest in funding the Ukrainian effort.

November 4, 2023

China v. Everyone

Japan and the Philippines are moving towards a troop cooperation agreement.

November 5, 2023

Russo Ukrainian War

According to the ISW:

Zaluzhny’s long essay, “Modern Positional Warfare and How to Win It,” outlines Zaluzhnyi’s consideration of the changes Ukraine must make to overcome the current “positional” stage of the war more clearly than the shorter op-ed and the Economist article it accompanied. Zaluzhnyi wrote that the war “is gradually moving to a positional form” and noted that Ukraine needs to gain air superiority; breach mine barriers in depth; increase the effectiveness of counter-battery; create and train the necessary reserves; and build up electronic warfare (EW) capabilities to overcome positional warfare.[2] Positional warfare refers to military operations that do not result in rapid or dramatic changes to the frontline despite both sides‘ continuing efforts to improve their positions. Zaluzhnyi notably did not say that the war was stalemated in his essay or suggest that Ukraine could not succeed. His essay focused, rather, on explaining that the current positional character of the war was a result of technological-tactical parity on the battlefield and the widespread use of mine barriers by Russian and Ukrainian troops. Zaluzhnyi considered the opportunities presented to Ukraine by Russia’s challenges, including the significant losses suffered by Russian aviation; Ukrainian use of Western missile and artillery weapons; and Russia’s failure to take advantage of its human mobilization resources due to political, organizational, and motivational issues. Zaluzhnyi argued that to avoid World War I-style “trench war” and move to maneuver warfare, Ukraine must develop new approaches including technological and other changes, some of which depend on Western support and others require adaptations within the Ukrainian military, state, and society. Zaluzhnyi concluded that positional warfare benefits Russia as it prolongs the war and could allow Russia to achieve superiority in certain areas. Zaluzhnyi argued that Ukraine or Russia could return to rapid maneuver warfare under the right circumstances, which for Ukraine must include Western-provided military resources. Zaluzhnyi’s essay was all about how to restore maneuver to a positional war, not an argument that the war has reached a stalemate.

November 6, 2023

Hamas v. Israel War 

Secretary of State Anthony Blinken engaged in a round of regional shuttle diplomacy yesterday.

The IDF has split the Gaza Strip in two.

November 7, 2023

Sudan

Jihadi militias have murdered over 800 Massalit tribe members in Darfur, Sudan over the past few days.  Like their oppressors, the Massalit are Muslims, but they are generally somewhat relaxed in their observance and retain some pre conversion practices in spite of having long been Muslims.  Over recent decades they have become more orthodox in their observance.

I frankly don't know what this conflict is about.

November 8, 2023

Hamas v. Israel War

U.S. Rep Rashida Tlaib was censured for her "river to the sea" comment.  Tlaib is of Palestinian extraction and has a vocal critic of Israel.

U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman claimed n a television interview that Palestinian protests in the US were due to Palestinian infiltration of the U.S. government.

Russo Ukrainian War

Ukrainian's seem to have crossed the Dnipro in some force and to have ferried armored vehicles across the river.

November 9, 2023

Myanmar

Myanmar has lost control of much of its border with China due to attacks by three ethnic rebel armies in Shan State.

Iran v the West

The U.S. has attacked an Iranian backed militia's weapon storage facility in Syria via the air.

November 10, 2023

Hamas v. Israel

Israel agreed to pause its offensive actions periodically for humanitarian reasons but not to provide for a ceasefire or ceasefires.

Headline in the British newspaper The Telegraph:

‘Queers for Palestine’ must have a death wish

Truly.

The Palestinian Authority, the West Bank and Gaza, have one of the world's worst records for intolerance of this topic in the world.  Homosexual Palestinians fairly frequently flee to Israel.

Russo Ukrainian War

Russian forces have nearly encircled Avdiivka.

November 12, 2023

Hamas v. Israel

Israel has rejected calls for a cease fire and has indicated that it will retain security control of Gaza fater the war.

Russo Ukrainian War

Russian offensive activities in recent days have been resulting in huge casualties to their army.

November 16, 2023

Iran v. the West

The U.S. navy shot down a drone launched from Yemen aimed at a ship yesterday.

November 18, 2023

Russo Ukrainian War

Ukrainian forces have established bridgeheads on the east bank of the Dnipro and are pushing Russian forces back beyond artillery range of the west bank.

November 20, 2023

Hamas v. Israel

Houthi rebels have taken a cargo ship in a helicopter raid on the same.  They have asserted this is legitimate as the ship had Israeli connections.

November 22, 2023

Hamas v. Israel

Israel has agreed to a four-day cease fire for humanitarian reasons.  Hostages are to be released during that time period.

Iranian backed militias launched missiles at a US base in Iraq, causing the US to retaliate with an airstrike.

November 23, 2023

India v. Sikh separatists.

The US has announced that it foiled a plot on the life of a Sikh seperatist living in the US.  A successful attempt on the life of a Sikh figure in Canada has lead to tension between those two countries.  India denies being involved.

November 25, 2023

Hamas v. Israel

A prisoner exchange (Palestinian prisoners for Israeli and multinational hostages) took place yesterday as scheduled.  Twenty four hostages were releaed, including 13 Israelis, 10 Thai citizens, and one Filipino citizen.

December 1, 2023

Hamas v. Israel

Fighting has resumed.

Last Prior Edition:

Wars and Rumors of War, 2023, Part X, Declarations

Related threads:

The Palestinian Problem and its Wilsonian Solution.

Hamas v. Israel. Some observations, and How did we get here?







Tuesday, November 21, 2023

Sunday, November 21, 1943. Tarawa D+1.

D+1 of the Invasion of Tarawa.  Additional Marines were landed, as is typical for such operations.  Troops were also landed on Bairki.

Reporter Robert Sherrod, embedded with the Marines, reported in his notes:

0530: The coral flats in front of us present a sad sight at low tide. A half dozen Marines lie exposed, now that the water has receded. They are hunched over, rifles in hand, just as they fell. They are already one-quarter covered by sand that the high tide left. Further out on the flats and to the left I can see at least fifty other bodies. I had thought yesterday, however, that low tide would reveal many more than that. The smell of death, that sweetly sick odor of decaying human flesh, is already oppressive.

Now that it is light, the wounded go walking by, on the beach. Some are supported by corpsmen; others, like this one coming now, walk alone, limping badly, their faces contorted with pain. Some have bloodless faces, some bloody faces, others only pieces of faces. Two corpsmen pass, carrying a Marine on a stretcher who is lying face down. He has a great hole in his side, another smaller hole in his shoulder. This scene, set against the background of the dead on the coral flats, is horrible. It is war. I wish it could be seen by the silken-voiced, radio-announcing pollyannas back home who, by their very inflections, nightly lull the people into a false sense of all-is-well.

0600: One of the fresh battalions is coming in. Its Higgins boats are being hit before they pass the old hulk of a freighter seven hundred yards from shore. One boat blows up, then another. The survivors start swimming for shore, but machine-gun bullets dot the water all around them. Back of us the Marines have started an offensive to clean out the jap machine guns which are now firing at our men in the water.They evidently do not have much success, because there is no diminution of the fire that rips into the two dozen or more Higgins boats.

The ratatatatatat of the machine guns increases, and the high pi-i-ing of the jap sniper bullet sings overhead incessantly. The Japs still have some mortars, too, and at least one 40 or 77-mm. gun. Our destroyers begin booming their five-inch shells on the Jap positions near the end of the airfield back of us.

Some of the fresh troops get within two hundred yards of shore, while others from later waves are unloading further out. One man falls, writhing in the water. He is the first man I have seen actually hit, though many thousands of bullets cut into the water. Now some reach the shore, maybe only a dozen at first. They are calm, even disdainful of death. Having come this far, slowly, through the water, they show no disposition to hurry. They collect in pairs and walk up the beach, with snipers still shooting at them.

Now one of our mortars discovers one of the machine guns that has been shooting at the Marines. It is not back of us, but is a couple of hundred yards west, out in one of the wooden privies the dysentery-fearing japs built out over the water. The mortar gets the range, smashes the privy, and there is no more firing from there.

But the machine guns continue to tear into the oncoming Marines. Within five minutes I see six men killed. But the others keep coming. One rifleman walks slowly ashore, his left arm a bloody mess from the shoulder down. The casualties become heavier. Within a few minutes more I can count at last a hundred Marines lying on the flats.

0730: The Marines continue unloading from the Higgins boats, but fewer of them are making the shore now. Many lie down-behind the pyramidal concrete barriers the Japs had erected to stop tanks. Others make it as far as the disabled tanks and amphtracks, then lie behind them to size up the chances of making the last hundred yards to shore. There are at least two hundred bodies which do not move at all on the dry flats, or in the shallow water partially covering them. This is worse, far worse than it was yesterday...

From Liveblogging World War Two. 

Among the casualties that day which Sherrod wrote about was 1st. Lt William D. Hawkins:

Hawkins had told me aboard the ship that he would put his platoon of men up against any company of soldiers on earth and guarantee to win. He was slightly wounded by shrapnel as he came ashore in the first wave, but the furthest thing from his mind was to be evacuated. He led his platoon into the forest of coconut palms. During a day and a half he personally cleaned out six Jap machine gun nests, sometimes standing on top of a track and firing point blank at four or five men who fired back at him from behind blockhouses. Lieutenant Hawkins was wounded a second time, but he still refused to retire. To say that his conduct was worthy of the highest traditions of the Marine Corps is like saying the Empire State Building is moderately high.

Hawkins would die that day.

FIRST LIEUTENANT WILLIAM D. HAWKINS

UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS RESERVE

for service as set forth in the following

CITATION:

For valorous and gallant conduct above and beyond the call of duty as Commanding Officer of a Scout Sniper Platoon attached to the Second Marines, Second Marine Division, in action against Japanese-held Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands, November 20 and 21, 1943. The first to disembark from the jeep lighter, First lieutenant Hawkins unhesitatingly moved forward under heavy enemy fire at the end of the Betio pier, neutralizing emplacements in coverage of troops assaulting the main breach positions. Fearlessly leading his men on to join the forces fighting desperately to gain a beachhead, he repeatedly risked his life throughout the day and night to direct and lead attacks on pill boxes and installations with grenades and demolition. At dawn on the following day, First Lieutenant Hawkins returned to the dangerous mission of clearing the limited beachhead of Japanese resistance, personally initiating an assault on a hostile fortified by five enemy machine guns and, crawling forward in the face of withering fire, boldly fired point-blank into the loopholes and completed the destruction with grenades. Refusing to withdraw after being seriously wounded in the chest during this skirmish, First Lieutenant Hawkins steadfastly carried the fight to the enemy, destroying three more pill boxes before he was caught in a burst of Japanese shell fire and mortally wounded. His relentless fighting spirit in the face of formidable opposition and his exceptionally daring tactics were an inspiration to his comrades during the most crucial phase of the battle and reflect the highest credit upon the United States Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.

/S/ FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT

Hawkins was an engineer who had a very rough start in his short life, being severely injured as a baby and his father having died when he was eight.  He nonetheless graduated from high school at age 16, and as noted had gone on to university.

Commentator Drew Pearson broke the story on his radio show of Gen. Dwight Eisenhower reprimanding George S. Patton for a slapping incident, which within Army circles was now old news.

 Wharf on Butaritari Island, Makin, November 21, 1943.

U.S. infantry advanced on Butaritari on Makin.

The following is undoubtedly copyrighted, but I'm posting it here in the fair comment category to show how "rah rah" and frankly stupid American superhero cartoons of this era could be and often were. This was a Superman strip from this date:

In the context of what was going on that day, that was unbelievably dumb.

U.S. Navy air installation on Funafuti (Tuvalu) commenced operations.

Prime Minister Churchill to President Roosevelt 1

secret

[ Cairo ] 21 November 1943.2

Former Naval Person to President Roosevelt personal and most secret. No. 506.

1. My arrival in Egypt is bound to be known as I shall pass through to see Catroux and others: moreover British Parliament meets on 23rd and my absence must be explained. Unless I hear from you to the contrary I shall allow it to be stated on 22nd that I am in Cairo.

2. This publicity will be unsupported cover for your movement which I think should not be announced for a few days.

3. You will be receiving a telegram about military precautions, which are excellent.

From Sarah Sundin's blog:

Today in World War II History—November 21, 1943: German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel is placed in command of Atlantic Wall defenses in France to defend against an Allied invasion.

Saturday, October 14, 2023

Sunday October 14, 1923. Yankees beat the Giants, blast at Wrigley Field, More French Babies.

The Yankees took game 5 of the 1923 World Series, 8 to 1.

Polo Grounds, Yankee's Stadium in the background.

A bomb exploded outside of Wrigley Field, injuring none but causing $5,000 in damage.  It was attributed to union agitators who were upset with Kenesaw Mountain Landis.

No arrests were made.

French President Alexandre Millerand lobbied for an increased French birth rate to hedge against Germany.  French birth rates had decreased since the war.

Sunday, August 27, 2023

Friday, August 27, 1943. Wunderwaffe, French arrests, the 43d Infantry at Arundel, Red Army at Kotleva and Sevsk, USS Eldridge doesn't disappear.

A German Henschel Hs 293 struck and sank the HMS Egret in the first successful anti shipping guided missile strike in history.


German Wunderwaffe were beginning to come online.

Former French President Albert Lebrun was arrested by the Gestapo, as was André François-Poncet, the former French ambassador to Germany.  Lebrun would survive the war, albeit in ill health, and breifly maintain to DeGaulle that he remained head of state, which DeGaulle ignored and which was legally incorrect in any event.  François-Poncet would as well, and would repreise his pre-war role as ambassador to West Germany.

Insignia of the island hopping 43d Infantry Division. The 43d was a unit made up of mobilized National  Guardsmen from New England.  It was inactivated as a unit in 1963.

Elements of the US 43d Infantry Division landed on the Nauro Peninsula on Arundel in the Solomon's without opposition.


Unless you are exceptionally well versed on the war in the Pacific, you probably are unaware of this action, but it fit into many such forgotten landings by the Army and the Marine Corps during the war.


The Red Army retook Kotleva and Sevsk.

Following up on the US and British example, the Soviet Union and China gave limited recognition to the French Committee of National Liberation.

The USS Eldridge was commissioned. The Eldridge is famous for being part of a 1950s vintage hoax, in which merchant seaman Carl Meredith Allen fairly successfully convinced people that the ship had been made to disappear as part of a dangerous naval experiment during World War Two. There are people who still believe the hoax.

Thursday, August 17, 2023

Friday, August 17, 1923. Diplomatic moves.

French Prime Minister Raymond Poincaré announced he was willing to reduce the amount of reparations owed by Germany in a reply to an aggressive note by British Foreign Secretary Lord Curzon.

The Washington Naval Treaty was ratified by the U.S., U.K., France Italy and Japan.

Treaty delegates.

The Home Bank of Canada closed, wiping out the savings of thousands of Canadians.


Friday, August 4, 2023

Ruger AC-556. The rifle we wish we all had!


I've written a little about the AC-556, but it's hard to find information on Ruger's early competitor to the M16.

The AC-556 is a selective fire variant of the Ruger Mini 14.  Occasionally you'll see one in the US at a gunshow, one that was sold early on to a police force when police forces didn't want to look like the 82nd Airborne Division. The Mini 14 was regarded as looking less military, or perhaps less hostile, so some police forces favored it.  As I've noted here once before, the Wind River Reservation game warden carried, at one time, a Mini 30, the 7.62x39 variant of the Mini 14.

The selective fire variant is, of course, different in that its an assault rifle and was originally conceived of as a competitor to the M16.  

That it did receive military and paramilitary use if known, but murky.  The Marine Corps, which didn't like the M16, considered adopting them early on but Ruger couldn't supply the anticipated needs for the Corps so they went on to partially redesign it, leading to the later variants of the M16. The Corps, of course, no longer uses the M16/M4 at all, although the rifle it does use is closely related to it, omitting its gas system.

Some AC-556s were used by Royal Ulster Constabulary in Northern Ireland, which of course is policing use.  French police still use a selective fire variant of the Mini 14, produced in France, some paramilitary units in the Philippines used them.  The British Bermuda Regiment seems to have used them, although some claim they actually used the Mini 14.

Now it turns out that the United Arab Emirates army used them.

This is typical for the AC-556.  You don't tend to find any large military using them, but they were used.  But details are nearly impossible to come by.

Sunday, July 30, 2023

Friday, July 30, 1943. Stolen secrets and the Atomic Bomb.

France renounced its Chinese concessions in Shanghai.  It had held them since 1849.

Igor Kurchalov, Soviet physicist, informed Molotov that stolen secrets from the US had much advanced the Soviet nuclear weapons program.

The Luftwaffe carried out the first flight of the Arado Ar 234, the first jet engined bomber.  Only small numbers would be produced, and reconnaissance proved to be its primary role.

Marie-Louise Giraud, age 38, became the last person woman executed by the guillotine.  Her sentence was carried out by the German occupation government and was for performing abortions.

Sunday, July 16, 2023

Friday, July 16, 1943. Morire per Mussolini e Hitler, o vivere per l'Italia e per la civiltà.

Italy's Fascist Grand Council, concerned by the arrival of Allied troops on Italian soil, convened for the first time since 1939.  On the same day, Allied aircraft dropped leaflets over the Italian mainland that read "Morire per Mussolini e Hitler, o vivere per l'Italia e per la civiltà" (Die for Mussolini and Hitler, or live for Italy and for civilization).  

Radio broadcast a joint message to the Italian people from Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt.

Italy, as a fascist state, was coming undone.

The British Air Ministry approved the use of "Window", aluminum strips, as a radar countermeasure.

Effect of Window on radar signature.

The Germans ordered the deportation of 13,000 Jews living in Paris to the Drancy detention center, a way stop for them on the way to Auschwitz.

Yitzhak Wittenberg, a Jewish Lithuanian resistance leader, surrendered to the Gestapo in Vilnius in exchange for an agreement that the Vilnius ghetto would not be liquidated.  He did shortly there after in an undetermined fashion.

The ghetto was liquidated by the Germans in September 1943.

In an event which tends to be misreported, Père Marie-Benoît (Padre Maria Benedetto), a Capuchin Franciscan friar who successfully rescued 4,000 Jews during the war, met with Pope Pius XII in an effort to advance his plan to try to transfer approximately 30,000 French Jews to North Africa, in order to remove them from danger.  The Italian portion of the plan ultimately fell apart when the Germans occupied northern Italy following the collapse of Mussolini's government, but the Spanish portion, which did result in the rescue of 2,600 French Jews on the somewhat ironic pretext that they were Jews of Spanish ancestry, which is the cover that Franco's government operated under. 

He died in 1990 at age 95.

The Battle of Mount Tambu began on New Guinea between the Imperial Japanese Army and American and Australian forces.


The Batman character appeared in film for the first time, this being in a fifteen-minute serial episode before major features.  In the original series, he was called "The Batman", with the first episode being "The Electrical Brain".

Friday, July 14, 2023

Saturday, July 14, 1923. Harding in Anchorage.

President Harding visited Anchorage, where he and Mrs. Harding painted their names on a section house.

Direct link to something else, apparently, going on in Anchorage on the same day.

The Ku Klux Klan holds its first "Konvention" in Washington state.


Once again, it's really hard to imagine this occurring today.

The French celebrated Bastille Day, even though there's next to nothing to actually celebrate about it, or the French Revolution in general.

Oh well, it's a party, there was music, and the girls were there.