Showing posts with label Artillery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Artillery. Show all posts

Friday, March 15, 2024

Wednesday, March 15, 1944. The destruction of Monte Cassino.


Allied aircraft dropped 14,000 tons of bombs on Monte Cassino and fired 195,000 rounds of artillery.  British, Indian and New Zealand troops tried, and failed, to take the abbey.

The Red Army crossed the Bug.

US troops held off a Japanese assault on the American beachhead at Bougainville.

Additional cavalry landed on Manus Island in the Admiralities.

The Japanese crossed the Chindwwin River in Burma.

The U-653 was sunk in the North Atlantic by the Royal Navy.  The British submarine Stonehenge was lost in the Indian Ocean.

The State Anthem of the Soviet Union replaced The Internationale as the anthem of the USSR.

Last prior:

Tuesday, March 14, 1944. Isolating Ireland

Tuesday, February 27, 2024

Sunday, February 27, 1944. The Khaibakh Massacre

Weather prevented over 700 Chechen villagers from Khaibakh from being convoyed in the Soviet mass deportation of Chechens, meaning they could not meet the absurdly short deadline set by Lavrentiy Beria so they were shot.  The order was given by Mikhail Gvishiani, an officer in the NKVD.

Beria, a loyal Stalin henchman, was a first class weirdo who was also a mass rapist, something his position allowed him to get away with.  He fell after Stalin's death, was tried, and executed for treason.

Gvishiani survived the fall of Stalin, but probably only because his son, Dzhermen Gvishiani, was married to the daughter of Communist Party Central Committee member Alexei Kosygin.

It was the start of National Negro Press Week.


The U.S. Office of Strategic Services commenced Operation Ginny I with the objective of blowing up Italian railway tunnels in Italy to cut German lines of communication.

The OSS team landed in the wrong location and had to abandon the mission.

Hitler ordered the Panzerfeldhaubitze 18M auf Geschützwagen III/IV (Sf) Hummel, Sd.Kfz. 165, "Hummel" renamed as he did not find the name Hummel, i.e. bumblebee to be an appropriate name.

You would think that Hitler would have had other things to worry about at this point.

The Grayback was sunk off of Okinawa by aircraft.

Saturday, July 8, 2023

Magic Weapons

The United States has decided to send cluster munitions to Ukraine.

As we sent MLRS's multiple rock launchers already, I'm surprised that we hadn't also already sent these as well.  Basically, what they are, is that rather than pack a warhead or projectile with explosives (for those that are packed with something that will explode), the warhead or projectile is packed with submunitions.  I.e., bomblets. The ones we're going to send, however, are apparently in the 155 artilerly projectile form.

M77 Cluster Munitions

They are a devastating weapon to ground personnel, but they're hardly new.  The fact that they haven't been supplied already is almost inexcusable, as they're no more novel than artillery projectiles themselves, and they're not some sort of magic weapon.

They ought to supply them for the MLRS.

Which gets to the caption.

All sorts of people, but frankly people who are opposed to supporting Ukraine in the first place, are now verklempt over President Biden releasing this very routine conventional ordinance.  Oh my, they cry, now we'll go into World War Three.

That's just silly.

The Russians have to think we're complete saps in the first place for the list of things we wouldn't send.  And they have to be stunned that we haven't sent these already.  They've used them in the war in at least the missile delivery form.

Militaries, the famous phrase goes, are about killing people and breaking things. These are about killing people.   It's going to get a lot, lot harder for Russian troops on the ground to survive in a combat environment.  In order to survive the war, they should get out of Ukraine, which is the goal.

Monday, July 3, 2023

Saturday, July 3, 1943. Oak Ridge sees its first residents.

The first residents of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, a government constructed town dedicated to the Manhattan Project, arrived.

U.S. howitzer being fired during battle.

The Battle of Wickham Anchorage on Vangunu concluded in an American victory.

The island today retains a small population of subsistence farmers.

Friday, November 11, 2022

Thanks for having been in the service

The Ghosts of Prior Careers


On a Saturday, while working on my now very long term one of nearly thirty years.

I just ran this item:


It'd be very easy to take it the wrong way.

As noted in that thread, it's common now for people to tell you "thank you for your service!"  Indeed, some years ago I saw a National Guardsman coming out of the barber shop and, out on the street, a woman being arrested for something yelled it out, to his surprise.

I'm a contraran anyhow, and I always feel awkward about such thanks, but this thread is on thanks.

But in another direction.  I'm thankful that I served in the National Guard.



Technically, I served in the Army and the National Guard.  Basic training and AIT were so long for cannoneers that I received an Honorable Discharge from the U.S. Army after AIT.  And FWIW I was activated for summer employment and other active service at the armory that I have more time in active service than some guys who did the short two-year Cold War enlistments do.

I've often regretted getting out.  The end of my Guard career was due to a misconception about how busy I'd be in law school.  I listed to people about law school and how hard it was.  I shouldn't have.

Anyhow, I'm glad I served in the Guard.

The National Guard/Army put me together with a lot of men, and we're talking about the basically nearly all military of that era, who came from very different backgrounds than me and who worked in lots of different occupations, many of them in manual occupations.  I learned from that a lot of them had very common interests with me.  I also learned that a lot of them were every bit as smart as I was.  

This is something I've found that a lot of people who haven't ever been in the service don't appreciate.  Blue collar workers aren't there due to intellectual deficit.  And the knowledge they possess in their fields is both vast, and interesting.  Knowing that has served me all my life.

Getting through basic training taught me that I was pretty tough.  I don't know what basic is like now, but the Army basic training at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma, of the 1980s was very close to what was depicted in Full Metal Jacket.  We were told by one of our drill sergeants early on that his job was to make basic training as rough as possible, as combat would be worse, and he wanted those who were going to fail, to fail then.  Quite a few did fail.

That's served me ever since as well.  Indeed, not so much now, but for years decades after Ft. Sill, in times of high stress, things I learned there by memory would come flooding bad to mind.  We'd been so well-trained that it was automatic.

It also made every one "man up", although by that age I was pretty much an adult already.  Since getting out of school, I've been amazed by the degree to which a lot of modern adults never actually become adults.  There's a song out there somewhere called High School Never Ends, and for an amazing number of people, it really doesn't.  Being part of an organization in which you are flatly informed that in the event of certain circumstances you are expected to perform until dead, and that death would come soon and violently, really takes the game playing out of a person in serious settings.

Related to that, I've noted it before, and will again, but the Guard also taught me a system of organization and its stayed with me ever since.  Everything I've learned about office management I learned in the Guard, including that there's different roles and classes in offices, just like in the Army, for a reason.  I've watched over the years as people who don't have that background run around talking about "teams" and "we're all in this together" only to see things fail.    I've seen people make friends in offices they shouldn't have, surrender their efficiency to inattention or whatever, and go into power pouts when things didn't go the way they personally felt they should, or just because they turned out to be serious.  I've avoided all of that, in no small part due to the Guard/Army.

And the Guard gave me a job when I was young, and really needed one.  It helped pay for my schooling and gave me a way to try to do that, for which I remain grateful.

The Guard also blessed me with at least one instance of nearly being killed and not be.  That may sound odd, but only people whom have been exposed to sudden violent death, and then escaped it, knows what that means.  People's plans are always subject to the fickle hand of fate.  One moment you are doing your job, and the next an entire battery of 8in artillery shells are coming right down on you.

And finally, it gave me an appreciation of history in a way which only somebody who has been in a military unit can.

Wednesday, November 2, 2022

Monday, November 2, 1942. Stars and Stripes reborn.

Stars and Stripes, which had its birth as an Army newspaper during World War One, was reborn.

US made 105mm Self Propelled gun in British service, November 2, 1942.

Phase Four of the Second Battle of El Alamein, Operation Supercharge, commenced.  Rommel, back in command of the Afrika Korps, cabeled Hitler, stating:

The army's strength was so exhausted after its ten days of battle that it was not now capable of offering any effective opposition to the enemy's next break-through attempt ... With our great shortage of vehicles an orderly withdrawal of the non-motorised forces appeared impossible ... In these circumstances we had to reckon, at the least, with the gradual destruction of the army.

Hitler replied:

It is with trusting confidence in your leadership and the courage of the German-Italian troops under your command that the German people and I are following the heroic struggle in Egypt. In the situation which you find yourself there can be no other thought but to stand fast, yield not a yard of ground and throw every gun and every man into the battle. Considerable air force reinforcements are being sent to C.-in-C South. The Duce and the Comando Supremo are also making the utmost efforts to send you the means to continue the fight. Your enemy, despite his superiority, must also be at the end of his strength. It would not be the first time in history that a strong will has triumphed over the bigger battalions. As to your troops, you can show them no other road than that to victory or death. Adolf Hitler.

The Australians captured Kokoda.

The BBC began French language broadcasts to Quebec.

Saturday, August 20, 2022

Thursday, August 20, 1942. Positioning moves.

The Japanese Army, believing that Henderson field is lightly defended, moves 770 troops forward within a few miles of the same, with Japanese and Marine patrols then running into each other.  The Marines deploy two battalions and 37mm anti tank rifles loaded with canister along the Tenaru River, with supporting 75mm and 105mm howitzers ranging on the east side of the river.

The 37mm was a very light anti tank rifle, but was used fairly extensively early in World War Two and was effective in the Pacific.  In addition to being trailed, as in the instance of the M3 guns in use here, it also equipped U.S. light tanks.

Meanwhile, 19 Grumman Wildcats and 12 Douglas Dauntless dive bombers land on the field.

In China, where most Japanese troops are in fact deployed, the Chinese Nationalist recapture Guangfeng and Shangaro.

The Twelfth Air Force of the U.S. Army Air Force was created at Bolling Field, District of Columbia.

Internees began arriving at the Heart Mountain Internment Camp.

Soviet officers listening to news of the Leningrad Front on this day in 1942.

Thursday, June 30, 2022

Friday, June 30, 1922. End of the Four Courts Seige

An explosion and fire at the Four Courts resulted in a cease fire, and then a surrender of the IRA men occupying the structure.

The United States agreed to end its occupation of the Dominican Republic, which had started in 1916.  The last U.S. troops would withdraw in 1924.

Congress passed the Lodge-Fish Resolution endorsing the Balfour Declaration.  The State Department opposed the move.


Monday, June 20, 2022

Saturday, June 20, 1942. The I26 shells Estevan Point.

The Japanese submarine I26 shelled Estevan Point on British Columbia's Vancouver Island, but did not hit it, even after firing over 25 shells.  Ironically, the effort was somewhat successful in that it was then decided to turn all of the lights off for Pacific coast lighthouses, which caused problems for coast shipping.

The I26.

The I26's raid was the first time that Canadian soil had been attacked since the last of the Fenian Raids in 1871.

The I26 was the Imperial Japanese Navy's third-highest scoring submarine.  In October 1944 it disappeared at sea, and the cause of its loss is not really known.

The Afrika Korps commenced attacking Tobruk with artillery and aircraft, resulting in the 11th Infantry Brigade retreating and opening up the lines.

Three German saboteurs were arrested in New York City, their mission having been betrayed.

Thursday, June 2, 2022

Tuesday, June 2, 1942. The BBC reports news from the Polish underground of Nazi mass extermination of Jews.

Members of the Death's Head SS, Germans who ran the death camps.
Today in World War II History—June 2, 1942: 80 Years Ago—June 2, 1942: BBC reports news from the Polish underground of Nazi mass extermination of Jews. Henry J. Kaiser proposes building auxiliary carriers; the Navy awards him a contract for the Casablanca class by the end of the month.

Sarah Sundin's blog notes that news broke in the West, and indeed the world, of one of the biggest crimes ever committed in human history, the German efforts to exterminate the Jews.

This has been controversial, in terms of "when did they know" and "what could have been done", ever since.  But in retrospect, the news actually broke relatively quickly after the effort truly became industrial.  Up until that time, the Germans had been killing Jews on a large scale, to be sure, but it had been mostly done by deployed SS field units with that specific task, which accomplished it largely via small arms fire. A lot of people were killed in that fashion, and also by Eastern European unofficially allied bands, but it had taken place in conditions which precluded the news from being much more than rumors.  SS, and Eastern European, murders of this fashion had taken place either in chaotic conditions as the Germans marched in, or in actual field conditions just behind the lines.  As a result, they took place in areas where reporting was limited to what the Germans chose to report.  As the only significant opposition force in these regions was the Red Army, which had not recaptured any of these areas by this point in the war, news getting out simply didn't.

Industrial scale murder, however, was impossible to keep a secret.  The Poles reported it first, in an underground opposition newspaper.  The BBC picked it up the next day.

On the same day the Germans deployed an 800mm (31") railroad gun at Sevastopol.  For comparison, battleships typically had 16" guns.

The insanely large gun was a devastating weapon, but the crew required to man it was also insanely large.

Size comparison to Russian OTR-21 rocket launcher, which delivers a similarly sized payload.

The gun would be part of a five-day artillery barrage of the city, which also featured large raids by the Luftwaffe.

In North Africa the Afrika Korps was threatening to have its most recent offensive halt due to logistical problems.

U.S. Naval forces in the Pacific rendezvous at Point Luck, uniting Task Force 16 and Task Force 17, which are then under the command of Admiral Fletcher. They are there in anticipation of a Japanese assault on Midway Atoll, which they know is coming due to breaking the Japanese code.

Monday, November 1, 2021

Saturday, November 1, 1941. Coast Guard Katyusha.

Adolf Hitler issued a formal statement claiming that the United States had attacked Germany, making reference to the German sinking of the USS Reuben James the day prior.


During wartime the Coast Guard has traditionally serves as an auxiliary of the Navy, while during peace time it used to be part of the Department of the Treasury.  Post 9/11 it's been part of the Department of Homeland Safety.

The Coast Guard was transferred from the Treasury Department into the Department of the Navy for the ongoing emergency, recognizing that the US was very near being in a state of war.

Selective Service issued a list of key occupations which were to receive conscription deferments.  The last two items are noted here:

Today in World War II History—November 1, 1941

The first mass use of Soviet multiple rocket launchers occurred.  The production effort, which had actually commenced prior to the war, was so secret that the Soviets didn't even inform the soldiers assigned to them what their official designation, the BM13, was until after the war. As they were marked with the letter "K" soldiers nicknamed them Katyusha after the popular wartime Russian song, although Stalin Organs was also a popular name for them.

The weapon was groundbreaking.  Inaccurate, it went for volume of fire and was deployed in mass batteries.  It was copied by other combatants once it became known, being a simple weapon to make, and its the origin of multiple rocket launching batteries that have replaced heavy artillery in some armies, including the United States Army.

The song was written just before the war, in 1938, and has gone on to remain a hugely popular Russian tune.  About a girl on the Steppes, it is in the same category as Lili Marlene in that it was copied by other parties in the war, including those fighting the Red Army, with new lyrics being written in some instances.  A search for it on YouTube will bring up a zillion Russian versions, many with dancing Russian women dressed in wartime uniforms.  It's remained popular with Russian expatriot populations, and is popular in Israel as a folk tune.   The crowed singing the farewell tune in The Deer Hunter, in the wedding scene, is singing it, most likely spontaneously as it the extras in that scene are actually parishioners of an actual American Russian Orthodox Church.

The Slovakian government issued orders requiring Jews to ride in separate train cars and to wear to mark their mail with the Star of David.

Rainbow Bridge over Niagara Falls, another Depression Era project, was opened to traffic.

These servicemen and clergymen attended a service at St. Andrew's Church.  I'm not sure where, but probably in Wales or Scotland.

Sunday, September 26, 2021

Friday September 26, 1941. The Establishment of the Military Police Corps.

Today is the founding day of the Military Police Corps, something I only know about due to the blog post found here:

Today in World War II History—September 26, 1941

There were predecessors, it should be noted, but the official establishment dates to this date.

Sarah Sundin, on her blog, also had this excellent poster, which I can't resist also posting.


The poster, I'd note, has a good representation of 155 "Long Tom" M1 howitzers, a classic American gun that was a recent introduction into the American artillery stable.  It was the predecessor of other related long range large artillery, and an 8in variant also existed, a depiction of which also exists in this poster to its far right.  The U.S. had the best artillery of any army in the Second World War.  Indeed, this poster fairly accurately depicts the technology used by the US in the war, albeit in a very dramatic fashion.

The Germans took Kiev.  It was a major German victory, and it would soon result in the expansion of the German's murder of the Jews.

For a really interesting look at the German Army of 1941 and how it walked into Russia, see the following item, if you can, or at least look at the photo.

The exhausting march East

It's often not appreciated the degree to which the German Army was a shoe leather army.  Of course, at this point in the war, the Red Army was as well.

German propaganda during the Second World War was so good at depicting their forces as highly mechanized that it not only created that myth at the time, the myth has endured.  In reality, German infantry walked in, and German artillery was largely towed in by horse, just as the French forces had been in 1812 in their invasion of Russia.  Indeed, while the Germans certainly had motorized support, even much of their logistical support was horse drawn.

In 1941, this was also true of the Red Army, and indeed for Soviet infantry it would remain largely true throughout the war.  The Soviets, however, had a massive industrial based created by Stalin's forced industrialization of the country, and additionally it had the huge industrial base of the United States and the British Commonwealth behind it.  Soviet mechanization would advance during the war, German mechanization would retreat.

Thursday, June 24, 2021

June 24, 1921. 11th Field Artillery Brigade, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, Cigar Makers, and Mondell visiting Harding.


11th Field Artillery Brigade, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.  June 24, 1921.

The text on the photo reads:

"Just before passing in review before the Department Commander in this closely massed formation on June 24, 1921. (About 400 vehicles). No motor failed and formation remained intact, a record that will rarely be equalled and never surpassed. Tiemann N. Horn, Colonel 13th Field Artillery commanding. To General John J. Pershing, with the compliments of the brigade. R. L. Dancy, Army & Navy Photographer.".

Employees of 7-20-4, R. G. Sullivan, Cigar Factory, Manchester, N.H., no. 192, 100 [percent] Members of Cigar Makers, International Union, June 24, '21

On the same day, the employees of a cigar factory in Manchester, New Hampshire, were photographed.


As was President Harding with Wyoming's Congressman, Frank Wheeler Mondell.  Apparently that inspired President Harding to don an exceedingly large cowboy hat.

Mondell was originally from St. Louis, Missouri and had become a rancher and farmer in Wyoming, as well as a businessman involved in railroad construction.  He'd was Newcastle's mayor from 1888 to 1895 and served in Congress from 1895 to 1896 and then again from 1899 to 1923.  He was the House majority leader in the 66th and 67th Congresses.

Sunday, February 23, 2020

February 23, 1920. The death of Maj. Gen. LeRoy Springs Lyon.


You've likely never heard of  him, and for that matter, I hadn't either.

Rather, I'm posting this item on Gen. Springs as he's interesting example of a World War One vintage U.S. senior officer whose military career was cut short by his premature death at age 53.

He entered the Army upon his graduation from West Point in 1891 and was commissioned as a 2nd Lt. in the cavalry, and assiged to the 7th Cavalry.  He was a scout, early on.

In 1898 he made the unusual choice to switch branches, something rarely done in the U.S. Army at the time, and went to Coastal Artillery School.  After graduating from the school, he was assigned as an aid to Gen. Royal T. Frank, and continued on in that role during the Spanish American War.  Following the war, he was transferred to the 2nd Artillery Regiment, in effect yet another branch switch from Coastal Artillery to Field Artillery, and commanded it in the field in Cuba from 1899 to 1900.  He later served in the Philippine Insurrection and in the Canal Zone before retunring ot the U.S in 1915, where he commanded Camp Bowie.  During the Great War he was in command of the 31st Division at first and then the 90th Division.

Like most brevetted generals, following the war the Major General returned to his permanent rank of Colonel and was assigned to command the Field Artillery Basic School which was located, at that time, in Camp Taylor, Kentucky.

His wife Harriet, whom he married in 1903, was ten years his junior and outlived him by forty-one years.

Wednesday, July 3, 2019

July 3, 1919. But wait, what about Battery F? Battery F, 148th FA, returns home and Bisbee Riots.

One of the purposes of this blog is to correct errors and misconceptions, and we find that here we're victim of one.

Indeed, careful observers here will note that we've reported the 148th as basically mustering out twice. . . once in New York, and once at Ft. D. A. Russell outside of Cheyenne.  We think we figured out the origin of that confusion, however.  The Camp Mills event was the one that released the unit from the Army's rolls, and the Cheyenne one was the one in which the artillerymen were discharged.

That latter date was taken from a source we were relying on, but contained an error.

Battery F of the 148th wasn't home until this day.


For some reason Battery F had been delayed in returning home and just made it on July 3, something I hadn't run across before.  And upon arriving the men of Battery F were the subject of a big July 3 celebration welcoming their return to the state in Cheyenne.


Company F was entirely from the northern part of the state.  So not only were they the seeming last of the National Guardsmen to return home, they had further to go to get all the way home as well.

While celebrations were going on in Wyoming, riots were going on in Bisbee Arizona.

The riot started off as a confrontation between a while military policeman of the U.S. Army and black cavalrymen of the 10th Cavalry.  The town already had a marked racially tense atmosphere in which strong racial prejudices against Hispanics and Asians were highly exhibited.  In spite of this, black cavalrymen from the 10th Cavalry from nearby Ft. Huachuca did frequent the town. 

As with many towns near Army posts, the town had military policemen in it on frequent occasion and it was just such a confrontation that escalated into a riot.  What exactly occurred is not clear, but the main participants in the event seem to have been white policemen and black cavalrymen.

While there were serious injuries they did not prevent the 10th Cavalry from participating in the Independence Day march the following day.

Wednesday, June 26, 2019

1st Battalion, 148th Field Artillery, mustered out of service and discharged at Ft. D. A. Russell.

Wyoming and Colorado National Guardsmen of the 1st Battalion, 148th Field Artillery, those being the Wyoming and Colorado Guardsmen assigned to the 148th, were mustered out of service and discharged on this date in 1919.  The were civilians once again.

Monday, June 24, 2019

June 24, 1919. Marching towards Versailles, on the border, and home.


Wyomingites received the official news on this day that the Germans were going to sign the Versailles treaty.

Clearly, a lot of them were not happy about it and there was some resistance to it still in some quarters.

They also learned that things were still tense on the country's border with Mexico.


Fitting for the day, they also learned that the last of Wyoming's National Guardsmen, those in the 148th Field Artillery, would be arriving back in the state that night.