In Memoriam, James Earl Jones.

One of the most monumental actors of the second half of the 20th Century, and one of the most memorable voices of all times, James Earl Jones died at age 93 yesterday.

A lot has been written about Jones over the past day, and so we won't go back into most of it.  Born to actor Robert Earl Jones, whom he closely resembled in appearance and voice, and Ruth, he mostly grew up outside of the presence of his father who left the family shortly after he was born.  He mostly grew up on the farm of his maternal grandparents in Michigan.  After high school he started off towards a career in medicine but realized it wasn't for him and switched to drama, graduating from the University of Michigan in 1955.  He participated in ROTC while a university student and had expected to deploy to the Korean War, but it ended shortly after he graduated.  He attended Ranger school, something very difficult to graduate from and frankly making him an unusually large graduate of a program which tends to favor smaller men.  While in the Army, he converted to Catholicism.

His first film appearance was in Dr. Strangelove in 1964.  His last was in 2021 in Coming 2 America.  He had various monumental roles in between, including famously being the voice of Darth Vader and Terrence Mann in Field of Dreams.

February 24, 1874. Honus Wagner born.

 

Baseball great Honus Wagner was born in Pennsylvania.  

A shortstop, he played professional baseball from 1897 to 1917.  Following retirement as a player, he managed the team he had played for, the Pittsburgh Pirates, for 39 years.  He passed away in 1955 at age 81.

Two of his brothers were also professional baseball players.

Last prior:

February 22, 1874. Birth of Bill Klem.

Super size it.

Lex Anteinternet: Tuesday, January 1, 1924. Receiving the New Year.:  

When I put this up on January 1, I also posted this calendar image on Reddit's 100 Years Ago sub.  Somebody came by and remarked on how tiny the glass the young woman is holding was.

And indeed it was.

Coca-Cola for years came in a 6.5 oz bottle, not 12.  It's interesting to reflect on as it really says something about proportions.

Coke's iconic bottle was a 6.5 oz bottle until 1955.  

Its competitor Pepsi started using 12 oz bottles in 1934.  In fact, that as one of its marketing devices, as it came in a 12 oz bottle, having a jingle that went

Pepsi-Cola hits the spot

Twelve full ounces, that's a lot!

Twice as much for a nickel, too

Pepsi-Cola is the drink for you.

It says something about the quality of Coke, or at least the original recipe of it, that people would in fact pay the same amount for half of what they'd get if they'd bought Pepsi instead.  It also says something about soda in general that it's so cheap to make, the added 6 oz of product really doesn't do anything to the economic bottom line.

In 1955, Coke switched to 10 oz bottles and 12 oz bottles and offered a  "Family" sized bottle of 26 oz.  The move was not without internal company controversy, however.  One company executive stated that  “bringing out another bottle was like being unfaithful to your wife.”

But that 55 10 or 12 oz bottle isn't gigantic.

When I was growing up in the 60s and 70s, when you went to a fast food restaurant and got a soda, large was a 12 oz serving with ice.  Starting in the 80s, somehow, that doubled, with stores, particularly convenience stores, advertising what was essentially double that.  

24 oz of Coke is a lot.

And it went on from there.

McDonald's, when it was first getting up and running, served Coke in 7 oz cups. After Coke switched, it started serving it in 16 oz cups.  In 1980, 7-11 introduced the "Big Gulp" which weighed in at an absurd 32 oz.  In 86, 7-11 introduced the 44 oz Super Big Gulp, and everyone went down that road thereafter.

Indeed, now, getting a small or medium soda draught is really what a person should do, and on the rare occasions when I get fast food, I try to get that.  But most people don't.  Even little kids get the 55 gallon size soda drink.

And that's really not good for you.

Monday, October 18, 1943. Jewish Romans transported to Auschwitz.

Germany transported Roman Jews to Auschwitz.   Rome had one of the oldest Jewish populations in Europe.

Japan transferred four provinces of British Malaya to its ally Thailand.

Perry Mason was broadcast on the CBS Radio Network for the first time.  It would run until December 20, 1955.

Friday, September 17, 1943. Breaking out.

The 5th Army, after having struggled to retain a beachhead at Salerno, began to advance out of it.

Some members of the 13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Handschar (1st Croatian) rebelled in Villefranche-de-Rouergue. The rebellion failed as most of its members did not join the uprising and it was subsequently put down, resulting in the deaths of 150 rebels and the capture and eventual execution of the revolt's leaders.

In Yugoslavia, A British liaison team arrived to meet with Tito.

German Army General Walther von Seydlitz-Kurzbach, a prisoner of the Soviets, and head of the Bund Deutscher Offiziere, the League of German Officers, that was formed from German officer POWsproposed a German unit within the Red Army to include over 30,000 men.  The proposal was never taken seriously, and in fact was wildly optimistic.  The Soviets mostly used the offer for propaganda purposes.

Changing sides after his capture at Stalingrad, Seydlitz-Kurzbach was nonetheless tried by the Soviets for war crimes in 1950, having already naturally been tried in abstentia by the Germans during the war.  He was sentenced to 25 years imprisonment, but in 1955 he was released to West Germany, where he was a pariah to his former colleagues.  The Bundeswehr refused to restore his rank for retirement and also refused to grant him a pension.  He died in 1976 at age 87.

Saturday, May 13, 1943. The Germans lay down their arms in North Africa (after having sustained greater losses than they did at Stalingrad), Postwar careers of the Wehrmacht, Mary Wells born.

Today In Wyoming's History: May 13: 1943  A measles epidemic was raging in the state.  As everyone in my family has the stomach flu today, I can sympathize with epidemics.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

That was, of course, in 2013, when that entry was written.  Other health problems are visiting now, ten years later, of a more serious nature.

Lieutenant General Bernard Freyberg (left), commander of the 2nd New Zealand Division, Brigadier Graham and Major General Kurt von Liebenstein at the surrender.

The German Army's 164th Infantry Division laid its weapons down and Major General Kurt Freiherr von Liebenstein surrendered the unit, becoming the last Afrika Korps unit to do so.

Of significant note, in the few days that the final Axis surrender in North Africa took place, 267,000 Afrika Korps troops became POWs.

In contrast, the Soviets took 91,000 German prisoners at Stalingrad.  In fairness, the Germans lost 500,000 men at Stalingrad.  However, in fairness again, during the entire North African campaign, the Germans and Italians suffered 620,000 casualties.  The British Commonwealth lost 220,000 men and the United States 18,500, one of whom was the brother of one of my father's good friends.

I note this as, once again, it sheds light on the Soviet propaganda of the time that they were fighting the war alone. The Soviets lost 750,000 men fighting the Germans at Stalingrad, which is a massive loss, and the battle is regarded as the largest in human history, but in terms of campaign loss, if viewed that way, the Germans and Italians loss more men fighting the British (mostly) and the Americans in North Africa.

Von Liebenstein would go on to join the Bundesherr in 1955 and retire five years later at his World War Two rank of Major General.  He died in 1975 at age 76.  His career dated back to World War One.

This raises a question I've never been able to get a good answer for.  Did the Federal Republic of Germany recognize per 1955 military service for retirement purposes for West German soldiers?  I'm thinking it must have.

The early Bundesheer was packed with former members of the Wehrmacht, and even a handful of SS officers, capped at major for career advancement, were allowed into it, after first being declined.  I don't know the percentage, but a roster of Bundesheer officers reads like a whose who of former Nazi era Heer rolls. 

Indeed, amazingly, the West German government called upon ten senior former Nazi era officers in the early 1950s, including Erich von Manstein, about how to reestablish a German army.  In 1953 Manstein addressed the Bundestag on this topic, noting that he favored a conscript army with 18 to 24 months mandatory male service, thereby looking back to the pre-1939 German system.  This system was in fact adopted.  Von Manstein himself was not allowed back into that army, but it's well known that he had a veto power over former German officers applying to join it, and that he did not want "traitors".

One American historian, a former Army officers, has called this group a "handful", but that's far from true.  There were a lot of them.  And more than a few of them had a background like von Liebenstein.  He'd started off as a junior Imperial German Army in 1916, had gone on to the Reichsheer after the German defeat, had served the Nazi's after that, and completed his career in the service of the Federal Republic of Germany.

How did he view his loyalties?

On this, it ought to also be noted, the post World War Two German Federal Republic's offices were simply packed with those who had served the Third Reich.  Over 70% of its judiciary in that era had.  This really began to come apart with the upheavals of 1968, which gave us the Germany, culturally, we have today.

FWIW, the post-war Austrian Army also had officers who had been in the German Heer, and before that, in the Austrian Army.

Famous Motwon singer Mary Wells was born on this day in Detroit.

Friday, November 17, 1972. The return of Juan Peron.

Juan Peron, controversial figure of Argentina, returned to that country.

Person had started off as a career officer in the Argentine military, and participated in the coup which overthrew the democratically elected government in 1943. Her served as President of Argentina from 1946 to 1955 when he himself was overthrown in a coup, but returned to the country this year, having remained a figure in politics the entire time, and would soon return to power, albeit briefly given his 1974 death.

Politically, Peron is difficult for Americans to grasp and is often poorly defined.  He held a corporatism view of economics, which is a view he shared with Italian fascists, although he cannot be regarded as a fascists himself.  He's ultimately found his own political party, which held the following corporatist's tenants:

Original Justicalist symbol.

1. A true democracy is that one in which the government does what the people want and defends only one interest: the people's.

2 Peronism is essentially of the common people. Any political elite is anti-people, and thus, not Peronist.

3 A Peronist works for the movement. Whoever, in the name of Peronism, serves an elite or a leader, is a Peronist in name only.

4 For Peronism, there is only one class of person: those who work.

5 Working is a right that creates the dignity of men; and it's a duty, because it's fair that everyone should produce as much as they consume at the very least.

6. For a good Peronist, there is nothing better than another Peronist.

7 No Peronist should feel more than what he is, nor less than what he should be. When a Peronist feels more than what he is, he begins to turn into an oligarch.

8 When it comes to political action, the scale of values of every Peronist is: Argentina first; the movement second; and thirdly, the individuals.

9. Politics are not an end, but a means for the well-being of Argentina: which means happiness for our children and greatness for our nation.

10. The two arms of Peronism are social justice and social help. With them, we can give a hug of justice and love to the people.

13. Peronism desires national unity and not struggle. It wants heroes, not martyrs.

14. Kids should be the only privileged class.

15. A government without doctrine is a body without soul. That's why Peronism has a political, economic and social doctrine: Justicialism.

16. Justicialism is a new philosophy of life: simple, practical, of the common people, and profoundly Christian and humanist.

17. As political doctrine, Justicialism balances the right of the individual and society.

18. As an economic doctrine, Justicialism proposes a social market, putting capital to the service of the economy and the well-being of the people.

19. As a social doctrine, Justicialism carries out social justice, which gives each person their rights in accordance to their social function.

20. Peronism wants an Argentina socially 'fair', economically 'free' and politically 'sovereign'.

21. We establish a centralized government, an organized State and a free people.

22. In this land, the best thing we have is our people.

The party took the term Justicalist for itself, and oddly had a female branch, as a second party, headed by Eva Peron, his second wife.

Eva and Juan Peron.

Peron was married three times, outliving his first two wives.  

Aurelia and Juan Peron.

His first wife, Aurelia, is barely recalled, no doubt because of Peron's real rise to power came after her death by uterine cancer in 1938, at which time she was 36.  

His second wife Eva was a legend and became celebrated in a musical in which she was played by Madonna.   She was an Argentine basque who was born illegitimately with he father being a wealthy rancher who maintained two families, although he later abandoned his second, illegitimate one, leaving them in poverty. She was 33 at the time of her death in 1952 of cervical cancer, by which time she had become a very public  Justicalist figure at a time in which female public political figures were quite rare.  She was regarded as being very glamorous.

His third, Isabel, outlived him and succeeded him as President.

For reasons that were hard for me to grasp at the time, the Peron's had quite a sympathetic following in the United States, and I guess they must still somewhat, or at least did at the time that Evita! was filmed.  This might in part be because Eva Peron was such an unusual figure.  I can recall my mother finding the Peron's very interesting and admiring them.

Monday, October 16, 1922. The Greek tragedy in Anatolia, Racism in Children's Books and Toys.

Former Greek Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos proposed a mandatory population exchanged between Greece and Turkey to the League of Nations.  The proposal was for Orthodox Christians in side of what was to become or had become Turkish territory would come to Greece, and Muslim populations inside of Greece would go to Turkey.   The proposal would be adopted and carried out that following year, with 1,221,489 Greek and other Orthodox Christians going to Greece and about 400,000 Muslims going to Turkey.  The relocation was compulsory.

The net result would be the loss of a large Christian and Greek presence in Anatolia for the first time since the Apostolic Age, which of course Anatolia was principally Greek.  The Greek population of Istanbul was exempt from the exchange, but the Istanbul Pogrom of 1955 would cause many of them to leave.  The population today is growing, but still remains at only about 110,000.  Further repression of the Greek minority in the country would follow in 1964.

By Alexikoua - Own work, data taken from:*Kamouzis Dimitrios, The Constantinopolitan Greeks in an era of secular nationalism, mid-19th century to 1930, 2010, University of London. King's College. Department of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, p. 32.*Darja Reuschke,Monika Salzbrunn,Korinna Schönhärl, The Economies of Urban Diversity: Ruhr Area and Istanbul, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, ISBN 9781137338815, p. 117-122.*Σάββας Τσιλένης. Η μειονότητα των Ορθόδοξων Χριστιανών στις επίσημες στατιστικές της σύγχρονης Τουρκίας και στον αστικό χώρο.*Dundar Fuat, Turkiye Nufus Sayimlarinda Azinlikar. Doz, 1999, ISBN 9756876123. 9789756876121, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=33989120

It's almost impossible to imagine a nation suggesting that members of co-ethnic communities in another country be forcibly expelled into itself now, but the Greek government feared, with good reason, that Greeks in Anatolia would be exterminated there.  The forced relocation removed a Greek presence in Anatolia that went back to antiquity, as well as operating to help complete the end of an Armenian one that was, if anything, even older.

It should be noted that Turkish oppression of the Armenians in modern times went back to the closing days of the Ottoman Empire, but it had really ramped up in regard to the Greeks due to the Greco Turkish War during which the Greeks had committed atrocities of their own, and had grossly overplayed their hand in trying to seize Turkish territory. The Ottoman parliament had been willing to accept that, but the Young Turks had not.  Had the Greeks not so overreached, the following tragedy may very well not have occured.

The U.S. Bureau of Prohibition seized the Canadian schooner Emerald 8 miles off the coast of New Jersey, resulting in a British protest.

Florence Kate Upton died on this day following surgery.  The British children's book author was 49.

She was also the inventor of the "Golliwog" dolls, which are truly beyond comprehension today.

The Adventures of Two Dutch Dolls and a "Golliwogg", 1895.

The dolls were popular at the time, but are shocking today, and for good reason.  Indeed, we hesitated to post this at all, but given as this blog is supposed to be exploring an earlier time (which we're actually somewhat beyond in these 1922 posts), I've put them up.  An example of deeply ingrained racists views from the time.

Tuesday, September 22, 1942. Top elevated

The basic insignia for the rank of First Sergeant at the E-8 grade, shown with the unofficial summer colors of khaki on OD. This color scheme was common for the summertime khaki uniform, but never approved.  The proper colors were OD stripes on a black background.

Today in World War II History—September 22, 1942: Germans split Soviet 62nd Army in Stalingrad and occupy the southern half of the city. US Army raises grade of first sergeant to that of master sergeant.

From Sarah Sundin's blog

Clearly, the item about the Battle of Stalingrad is the important item, but I've linked this in here due to the item on U.S. Army ranks.  On this day in 1942 the grade of the rank of First Sergeant was made equal to that of Master Sergeant.

We've discussed enlisted Army ranks here before, indeed more than once, I think.

First Sergeant are the senior enlisted NCO's in a company, battery or troop.  It's an important rank, and it's been around for an extremely long time.  He is, literally, the "first" sergeant and for enlisted soldiers often the most senior soldier they typically engage with, commonly nicknamed "top".

When the Army was reorganized in 1920, 1st Sergeants were given the grade of E-6.  That would surprise modern soldiers, as that's the grade now held by Staff Sergeants, who at that time held the grade E-5.  E-5 today is held by the rank of Sergeant, but at that time, Sergeants were E-4s, as they still are in the Air Force.

Master Sergeants, that title indicating a senior status to that sometimes indicated for master tradesmen, were E-7s. Today, that grade is held by the rank of Sergeant First Class.  That rank didn't exist in 1920.

On this day in 1942 the Army adopted a new enlisted structure, changing some of the enlisted ranks.  Technician grades, which we've earlier discussed, were adopted, foreshadowing the later introduction of Specialists.  Enlisted ranks remained the same up through Staff Sergeant.  First Sergeants were moved from E-6 to E-7, making them the equivalent of Master Sergeants, and an additional rocker was added to their insignia to indicate their equivalency.  In the E-6 position the rank of Technical Sergeant, which had already coexisted with First Sergeant, remained.

This basic structure remained until 1948 when technicians were eliminated, but new rank insignia were introduced for non combatant NCO's, only barely distinguishable from those of combatants.  Technical Sergeant, at that time, was renamed to Sergeant First Class.  Moreover, the rank of "Recruit" was introduced for what had been "buck privates", and introduced at the E-1 level, making there three grades of privates.  The rank of Staff Sergeant was eliminated, and buck Sergeants took their insignia.

Specialists were added in 1955.

n 1959 a jump in grades happened in enlisted ranks overall. Staff Sergeants were reintroduced as E-6s, acquiring their prior insignia, and Sergeants became E-5s and reacquired their three chevron and no rocker insignia., Sergeants First Class took the E-7 grade and First Sergeants (and Master Sergeants) E-8s.  The rank of "Recruit" was renamed Private E-1.  Privates at the E-3 level worse the single chevron, as they had since 1948.  This is basically the structure we've had since then, except that PFC's obtain a rocker in 1968, and Private E-2 reclaimed the single stripe insignia that they hadn't had since 1948.  
The upper Specialists insignia over E-4 have also largely disappeared.

As this recitation also notes, the Technician grades were introduced during the same year as Top got a promotion and pay raise. They'd existed since January.

In a manner that only made sense to the Army, two stripe technicians were introduced at the grade of E-3, but with the title of Technician 5th grade.  If that doesn't quite made sense, its because the "E" structure that I've been using here wasn't introduced until 1949.  Prior to that, while the E grades noted here offer equivalency, so that it's easy to tell the actual changes over time, pay grades went by a simple number.  Pay grade 7 was the lowest, and it was the one that applied to buck privates, or what we'd later refer to, most of the time, to Private E-1s. Pay grade 1 was the highest, which was equivalent to the post 1949 E-7.

That right there helps explain some of this evolution, by the way.  There was nothing higher than pay grade 1, in enlisted ranks, and that was equivalent to E-7.  Now, the highest enlisted grade normally encountered is E-8, which Master Sergeants and First Sergeants occupy, as of 1959.  In that same year, 1959, the rank of Sergeant Major was introduced at E-9, as was Specialist E-9.  E-9 remains the highest enlisted grade today, although there are several different types of Sergeant Majors that occupy it, some being exceedingly rare.

Anyhow, back to technicians.  Introduced in January, right after the war started, their existence reflected the much more technical Army of 1940 as compared to earlier.  The creation of the rank was an attempt to create a rank and pay scheme for men who were not combatants.  Something had to be done, but the experiment wasn't really successful, leading to the change to combatant and non-combatant ratings in 1948, and ultimately to the not hugely successful creation of specialists ranks in 1959.  On that latter creation, the number of specialist ranks was already being reduced by 1967 and was further cut back in 1978. When I joined the National Guard in 1981, there were still Specialist E-6s, but in 1985 that was changed so that only Specialist E-4 remained.  At the same time, however, the increasingly professional nature of the Army after the elimination of the draft meant that the number of men occupying lower enlisted ranks increased, and therefore the Army reduced the number of Corporal E-4s in favor of Specialist E-4s, the distinction being that Corporals are NCOs and Specialists are not.

Prior Related Threads:

Timeline of U.S. Army Enlisted Ranks, 1920 to Present

The Infantry Company over a Century. Part 1. The Old Army becomes the Great War Army.

Pinks and Greens