Showing posts with label Paratroopers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Paratroopers. Show all posts

Friday, March 8, 2024

Wednesday, March 8, 1944. Battle of Imphal begins.

The Battle of Imphal began in northeast India.  British forces had plans to deal with the assault, but initially underestimated the large-scale size of the Japanese offensive.

The Japanese attacked American forces on the beachhead on Bougainville.

The Finns asked the Soviets for guarantees as part of a negotiated peace.

The 8th Air Force raided Berlin for a second day, losing about 10% of a 580 bomber force in spite of an 800 fighter escort.

The British government announced post-war plans to build 300,000 houses.

A general strike in the "Italian Social Republic" was put down by the Germans.

Pvt. Ray E. Thiel, Long Island, Calif., of 3rd Bn., Mortar Platoon, 504th Parachute Infantry, cleans 81mm mortar near Cisterna, Italy.  March 8, 1944.

Last prior:

Wednesday, December 20, 2023

Monday, December 20 1943. A chivalric act.

Luftwaffe Oberleutnant Franz Stigler, a combat veteran with 22 kills o his record, , escorted the heavily damaged Ameircan B-17 Ye Old Pub out of German airspace rather than shoot it down.

Franz Stigler.

Stigler had shot down two B-17s prior to this incident, but in lining up to shoot down the heavily damaged plane he noticed that its tail gunner took no effort to shoot at him and in flying closer he could see through holes in the fuselage that the aircrew were attempting to save the lives of wounded crewmates.  His commanding officer, Gustav Rödel, had earlier told his squadron that "If I hear of one of you shooting a man in a parachute, I'll shoot you myself!" and Stigler determined that this would have amounted to the same thing.  He motioned to the pilot, Charles Brown, to fly towards Sweden, but Brown didn't comprehend and instead kept on to the United Kingdom, and Stigler in turn escorted it out of German airspace.

Pilot Charles "Charlie" Brown.

Stigler kept the act to himself, as he would have been court martialed for it.  Brown did report the incident to his superiors, who kept it secret.  Brown's superiors had threatened his men if they landed in a neutral country.

Brown and Stigler met after the war many years later and became friends.  They both died in 2008.  Stigler, who didn't tell anyone of the incident until Brown revealed it many years later, immigrated to Canada and entered the lumber industry in Vancouver.  Brown retired from the Air Force in 1965.

The SS reported on requirements for invading Switzerland, which demonstrates how the tyrannical become delusional as their fortunes decline.

Canadian armor in Ortuna.

The Battle of Ortona commenced in Italy with the 1st Canadian Division attacking positions held by the German 1st Parachute Division.  The battle would be hard fought, and compared to Stalingrad due to the urban conditions.  Less certain is the importance of the town, which has been debated and even at the time commented upon by the Germans.

Bolivian President Enrique Peñaranda was overthrown in a military coup led by Major Gualberto Villarroel just over two weeks after the country had entered World War Two, although the coup had nothing to do with that.  Villarroel himself fall by the sword in a 1946 revolution.

The U-850 was sunk by aircraft from the U.S. escort carrier Boque.

Friday, November 10, 2023

Wednesday, November 10, 1943. Heroes and martyrs.

Catholic priests Johannes Prassek, Eduard Müller and Hermann Lange – and the Evangelical-Lutheran pastor Karl Friedrich Stellbrink were executed by Nazi Germany for treason.  Known as the Lübeck martyrs, they had not held their tongues on the Nazis, who were now becoming increasingly murderous towards internal dissent.

Soviet paratroopers dropped at Cherkasy, south of the Dniepr, and linked up with partisans, while the Red Army ferried tanks across the river.

We tend not to think much about Red Army paratroopers during the war, but in fact they made a significant number of drops.

The Red Army, supposedly a people's army, introduced two new military decorations. The Victory Order was for officers only. The Order of Glory for lower ranks.

Crash-landing of F6F-3, Number 30 of Fighting Squadron Two (VF-2), USS Enterprise, November 10, 1943.  Lt. Walter L. Chewning Jr., the catapult officer of the USS Enterprise, is seen leaping up on the burning blame to rescue the pilot, Ensign Bryon M. Johnson.  Johnson would receive hardly any injury.

Saturday, October 28, 2023

Thursday, October 28, 1943. Operation Blissful.

Operation Blissful, the Raid on Choiseul in the Solomon's, commenced.

The raid was conducted by Marine Corps paratroopers, although they landed by landing craft, and was designed to divert and confuse Japanese troops as to Bougainville.  It is not known to what extent the raid achieved that goal.

Coal miner strikes in the US increase momentum.

Churchill addressed the Commons about rebuilding its damaged structure.

The Soviets established the military award The Order of Bohdan Khmelnitsky (Орден Богдана Хмельницького), the only Soviet Award written in Ukrainian.  It was named after a Ukrainian Cossack Hetman.

Friday, September 15, 2023

Wednesday, September 15, 1943. Bazooka.

The United States Army revealed the AT M-1 rocket launcher, the bazooka, to the press.

M1 bazooka.

Like the PIAT, the new anti-tank weapon was first used in North Africa, but would come into its own in Europe.

The Red Army captured Nizhyn.

Mussolini announced he was returning to power, which in the context of his situation, meant returning to figurehead power of an Italian puppet rump state.  On the same day, the Germans announced the death penalty for Italians caught with firearms.

German paratroopers advanced on the Vatican at St. Peter's Square.

British paratroopers occupied Cos in the Aegean.

Former internee James Tanaka working in the New York City studio of a movie cartoon producer.



Wednesday, September 13, 2023

Thursday, September 13, 1943. Wunderwaffe

The HMHS Newfoundland, a hospital ship, was hit by a German glide bomb in the Mediterranean, while the HMS Uganda was hit by a guided German bomb.

The new German areal munition technology was taking quite a toll.

The HMS Uganda.

The Newfoundland had to be scuttled.  The Uganda was heavily damaged, but returned to service in 1944 as a Canadian ship. She'd see service again during the Korean War as the HMCS Quebec.

The US began to distribute residents of the Tule Lake Relocation Center, which was being converted to a maximum security detention center for Nisei regarded as a significant threat.

Hitler told his aid Karl Wolff that he wanted Pope Pius XII deported to Germany.  On the same day, German emissary to the Vatican Ernst von Weiszacker delivered Hitler's assurances to the Vatican that its sovereignty would be respected.

German counterattacks at Salerno came within one mile of the beaches before being stopped by naval gunfire.  Units from the 82nd Airborne were parachuted in as reinforcements.

In Greece, the Italian Acqui Division resisted German efforts to disarm it.

American actor David Bacon was murdered in Santa Monica.  Surviving a knifing long enough to attempt to drive off, he was found barely alive in his car, wearing only a swimsuit.  He left a pregnant wife. Twenty-nine years old at the time, the mystery has never been solved.

Saturday, August 19, 2023

El Alamein, (Tanks of El Alamein)

This is a 1957 Italian movie that's almost completely unknown to English speaking audiences.

It's surprisingly good.

The film surrounds the raising of, and training of, an actual well known Italian paratrooper unit, going through the early training of the film and the personalities of the soldiers followed in the film.  Some are conscripts, some are men who have been recalled from earlier service, including the first character who is introduced who is a monastic friar, and some new recruits. Their airborne training is explored and well done.  After they are fully trained as paratroopers, they are deployed to North Africa, which the actual unit really was.  It fights to its destruction at the Battle of El Alamein.

In some ways, the movie is a typical 1950s war movie, but more effort was expended on the prolonged tank battle scenes than normal.  Clearly making use of the Italian army at the time, the tanks depicted are a mix of M4 Sherman's and M47s.  Large numbers of tanks are used, and period fighter aircraft (although I could not identify them) are as well.  The movie is very well done.

In terms of historical accuracy, here too I don't know enough about Italian, or Axis units in general, at El Alamein to know how accurately this is depicted, but it does involve a real unit that was in fact basically destroyed in the battle.  Other armies, including the German and the British Army, are nearly dealt within the abstract, a fact assisted in that the British, with some exceptions, are depicted principally as armored formations so actual encounters with identifiable human beings are fairly rare.  Equipment wise, the movie seems largely accurate on the Italian side, although the number of submachineguns used by the Italian paratroops is presumed to be heavily exaggerated.

This is an almost loving portrayal of the unit that is completely apolitical, which may be one of its faults.  These men, in real life, were fighting for Mussolini, but in the movie neither Mussolini or fascism are ever mentioned.  They're basically portrayed as men doomed to a tragic fate, which in a way they were, but in wars, there is always a larger picture.

Worth seeing, and something that we rarely actually see portrayed, that being a unit history, like that given in Platoon, of an Axis unit in World War Two.

Tuesday, July 11, 2023

Sunday, July 11, 1923. Allied Success, and Disaster, in Sicily. Massacres in Poland.

Patton, in a famous pose, on the ground in Gela, Sicily on this day in 1943.

The Allies captured the Sicilian port cities of Syracuse (Siracusa), Licata, Gela, Pachino, Avola, Noto, Pozzallo, Scoglitti, Ispica and Rosolini.

US Navy gunners opened up on US transport aircraft carrying paratroopers at Gela that evening, resulting in the deaths of over 300 of them in the worst friendly fire incident in the war to date.   The Luftwaffe had earlier attempted a nighttime raid on the ships much earlier in the day, making the gunners nervous.  The disaster commenced when a single ship's gunner opened up on passing C-47s and C-53s.

The USS Boise crossing the bow of the USS LSST-325 while firing on German armored forces near Gela,  July 11, 1943.

The Navy, however, also saved the day at Gela on this day by stopping an armored counterattack with ship to shore fire.  And Patton came ashore at the same city that day.  Both events are depicted in movies, with the first in The Big Red One, and the second in Patton.

Red Cross field director James P. Show would perform acts of heroism on this day which would result in the Silver Star.  His citation would read:

The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Mr. James P. Shaw a United States Civilian, for gallantry in action while serving as Field Director, American Red Cross, attached to the *** Infantry, in action on 11 July 1943, near Licata, Sicily. On that date, an enemy dive bomber scored a direct hit on a landing craft which had almost reached its position for debarkation. Mr. Shaw, who was already ashore, immediately left his position of comparative security, waded back into the rough water and assisted many men to safety. He continued to assist until the last man had been brought to shore and the wounded cared for. All of these acts were performed at the risk of his life because of attacking enemy airplanes, the explosion of ammunition on the damaged craft, and the turbulent and treacherous water. The gallantry of Mr. Shaw on this occasion is a distinct credit to himself and the American Red Cross.

The Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), the military arm of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalist OUN-B branch, attacked 99 Polish settlements in Wołyń Province of Poland.  Attacks were carried out in what became known as the Vohynian Bloody Sunday on Kisielin, Poryck, Chrynów, Zabłoćce, and Krymn.  Attacks coincided with local attendance at Mass.

The massacre campaign was part of a OUN-B effort, which is sometimes called the Volyn (Wołyń) Tragedy, to clear Poles from the territory east of the Bug River, and dated back to the difficulties that existed in drawing a border between Poland, Ukraine and Belarus following World War One.  The OUN itself was split into OUN-B and OUN-M.  The OUN itself dated back to 1929 when it formed and absorbed other Ukrainian independence movements.  It was a right wing organization which picked up elements of fascism early on, and the Nazism later.  OUN-M was named for one of the OUN's founders, Andriy Melnyk, who declared Ukraine independent after the German invasion of the country during World War Two. OUN-B, named for Stepan Bandera, was much more radical and indeed the two organizations fought each other.  OUN-B came to dominate.

A far right organization in general, and in the case of OUN-B radically so, the organization picked up much of the extreme far right attitudes of the day, including being racist, deeply nationalist, and anti-clerical (indeed Melnyk's personal conservatism and Catholicism made Melnyk at odds with the views of his own organization).  OUN-B principally attacked Poles during the war and was allied to the Germans until the Germans began to collapse, at which time it eschewed its fascist ideology and took on a pro-democracy one.  The UPA would fight against the Soviets and Poles after the conclusion of the Second World War.

The genocidal effort against the Poles was bizarre in a way in that not only was it horrifically violent, but it ultimately served the interests of the Soviet Union in creating an ethnic line of demarcation which was west of the Bug.  While the majority of victims were Poles, some Ukrainian civilians who opposed the actions or who were not of the same brand of nationalist as the UPA.  Several hundred Jews, Russians, Czech and Georgians who were part of Polish families or who sheltered Poles were murdered.  Total Polish victim numbers are hard to determine, but they were ultimately between 50,000 to 100,000, mostly killed during July and August 1943.

Melnyk would escape to the West after the war and died in Luxembourg at age 73, in 1964.  Bandera was assassinated by the KGB in Munich in 1959.  He was 50 years old.

Sunday, July 9, 2023

Friday, July 9, 1943. Operation Husky commences.

Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily, commenced with airborne landings by British and American airborne and glider troops.  The American forces were blown strongly off course by high winds which scattered them so badly that by July 14 half of the U.S. paratroopers still had failed to reach their rallying points.  British airborne forces likewise were badly scattered.  Ironically, the very widespread landings created Axis confusion and their professionalism allowed them to mount scattered but effective attacks.

British glider borne troops of the 1st Battalion, Border Regiment, 9 July 1943, just prior to take off. Folding bicycle in the foreground.  Note the shorts these men, experienced in desert combat, are wearing, even though they are completely unsuitable for it.

With the commencement of the Invasion of Sicily, the Western Allies had returned to the continent and resumed ground offensive operations against the Axis.  The break in action between the fighting in North Africa and Sicily had been a mere matter of weeks.  During that short break in ground action, although not because of it, the Germans had launched Operation Citadel.  Already running into men and material shortages in that action, the Germans would soon have to withdraw forces from the East in order to redeploy them to counter Operation Husky.

Often sometimes missed, it should be noted that the Western Allies had committed troops with Operation Husky to the European continent, unless Sicily is not regarded as part of it due to its island status, almost a year before Operation Overlord.

A German air raid on East Grinstead killed 108 people, many of whom were children, in a movie theater.  The bombers struck at 5:17 p.m.

Congress recessed for the first time since 1939, the last time the body had allowed for vacations.

Thursday, March 30, 2023

Tuesday, March 30, 1943. The Martyrdom of Sister Maria Restituta. Patton and his B-3. UW wins the NCAA. The 505th Jumps.

Sister Maria Restituta, age 48, was beheaded under orders of Martin Bormann.  An absolute vocal critic of Hitler and Nazism, she refused to be quiet about her opinions, no matter the cost.

Sister Restituta.

Sister Restituta had been born in Austria, and was of Czech desecent.  Her full name, after becoming a nun, was Maria Restituta Kafka.  She had been born Helene Kafka and had joined the order in her 20s, having first been a nurse.  She was a member of the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity.

She was beatified in 1998.

One of the most iconic photographs of George S. Patton to be taken, was taken on this day in Tunisia.


This photo is justifiably famous, but it's sometimes a bit misinterpreted.  It really doesn't show anything that unusual for a senior officer of the period.

Patton is wearing a B-3 flight jacket, the heavy sheepskin jacket that was issued to aviators who flew at altitude until synthetics and electrically heated flight suits started to replace it mid-war.  It would not be fully replaced during the war.  Both the heavy B-3 and the light A-2 saw widespread use beyond airmen, however.

A-2s were issued as a semi dress item to airborne officers (and perhaps enlisted men, although I'm not completely certain on that), signifying that 1) they were an airborne service and 2) there were a lot of them.  A-2s made their way into the Navy in some roles as well.  They were also widely worn by officers.

B-3s were issued not only to air crewmen, but to ground crews as well, as there were a lot of them.  They were a private purchase item with officers, and senior officers sometimes favored them as they were warm.  

Patton's B-3 here has had some alterations made to it, including at least one front pocket.  You can see his reading glasses held in the visible pocket.  You'll frequently see it claimed on websites that Patton had epaulets added to this coat, but that's completely incorrect, at least at the time this photograph was taken. His general's stars are visible, but they are neither pinned nor sewed on epaulets.  Indeed, the seam that's visible is simply a coat seam.  Other, sometimes later, photos do show Patton wearing a B-3 with epaulets, but that probably actually depicts a different coat, or that this one was subsequently altered as he was promoted.

Patton, perhaps with same B-3 as it has reinforced upper sleeves, but now featuring also epaulets, with the coat featuring the 1st Armored Corps patch.  The other figure is Major General Geoffrey Keyes, whose coat features II Corps insignia.  This photograph was taken in January, 1944.

The odd things about those photographs are that they show that Patton had that coat at the time that he was the commander of the 1st Armored Corps, which he had relinquished prior to March 1943 when he took over II Corps.  Patton was a bit of a stickler about uniforms being correct, but at least in that case his having had the 1st Armored Corps patch put on an expensive coat probably proved to be a mistake, as it couldn't be removed, so he therefore kept wearing it.

The stars on this one, or this coat at this time, are probably painted on.

This coat does have a reinforced upper arm, which is also an alteration, but not one that's as uncommon as might be supposed.  I've seen at least one photograph of a conventional aviator with the same alteration.  Alterations, often done at the local level, were very common.  The location of the unit patch on the reinforcement probably explains why the patch was never replaced.  Subsequent promotion probably explains why epaulets were later added.

Sailors in 1950.

Today In Wyoming's History: March 301943  Led by legendary UW basketball player Kenny Sailors, UW beat Georgetown 46 to 34 in Madison Square Gardens.  Sailors would enter the Marine Corps as an officer at the conclusion of that year.  UW would suspend basketball due to the war after that year.  Sailors eventually became a hunting guide in  Alaska, but returned to Wyoming in his old age, where he still lives, following the death of his wife.

Note: that item was originally penned, Sailors was in fact alive.  However, he subsequently passed on January 30, 2016, in Laramie, Wyoming.  Sailors remains a Wyoming basketball legend.

The 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment made a 2,000 trooper jump, the first such mass jump in US history.


The 505th had been formed in July 1942 and was originally under the command of James Gavin.  It had been assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division only a month prior to its first mass jump.

The jump took place near Camden, South Carolina.

Friday, November 25, 2022

Wednesday, November 25, 1942. Operation Mars commences

Having just concluded Operation Uranus around Stalingrad, the Red Army launched Operation Mars near the Rzhev salient outside of Moscow.


Operation Mars remains a controversial offensive, as the Soviets later claimed it was a diversion designed to tie down German forces in the north so that they could not be redeployed to the south.  This view has been taken by famed student of the Red Army, Anthony Beever.  Noted historian David Glanz, however, disagrees, and I frankly feel that Glanz has the better side of the argument.

It should be noted that the offensive was supposedly the subject of a radio false information campaign by the Soviets, something they were very good at, designed to draw attention to it prior to its commencement.  The overall problem is that, as a diversion, if it was one, it was a big one which wasn't skillfully executed, which would be odd as its success, diversion or not, should have been something sought by the Soviets.

The Soviet offensive would ultimately fail, which may provide the reason for its having been claimed as a diversion.  If it was a diversion, it was a massive one, involving over 700,000 troops.  Notably, in Mars the Red Army was encountering German troops, who fought stubbornly from its onset, rather than the forces of Germany's Eastern Front allies.  Additionally, the offensive started after Uranus had concluded, whereas if it were a diversion it would seem more likely that it would have commenced simultaneously.

As with Stalingrad, the German forces were subject to a Hitler no retreat order.  Hitler had issued a similar order the prior winter, which had proven instrumental in stabilizing the front.  The strategic situation had changed since then, however, and while it worked in this instance, it was costly.  The Germans took 40,000 casualties, small compared to the outsized 335,000 casualties the Red Army took, but the losses would not be made up by the German 9th Army by the following spring and therefore made it less effective in resumed offensive operations that year.

The Washington Post ran an article with the headline:

Two Million Jews Slain

This was the written report on the live announcement by Rabbi Stephen Wise announcement of the prior day.  It did not make the front page.

The Luftwaffe began to fly supply missions into Stalingrad.

At Meijez el Bab British forces made a disastrous attack on the town, which was defended by German paratroopers of the Luftwaffe's 5th Fallschirmjager Regiment.   The unit had been in North Africa since the summer, at which point it became part of the Afrika Korps.  It's deployment to Tunisia had been by plane, but they had not made a combat drop.

Medjez al Bab is an ancient city and was the site of a prior battle, the Battle of Bagradas River in 536 at which Eastern Roman Empire forces under Belisarius fought rebel forces under Stotzas.

British SOE operatives and Greek resistance fighters raided the Gorgopotamos viaduct in Operation Harling.

Saturday, May 7, 2022

Thursday, May 7, 1942. Things that fly.

82nd Infantry Division standing "Retreat" following Sgt. Alvin C. York's address to the Division at Camp Claiborne, Louisiana on this day in 1942. The event was the first assembly of the Division since reactivation.
 

The 82nd had been Sgt. Alvin York's division in World War One, at which time it acquired the nickname the "All American" division, as its members were conscripts from around the United States.  It was, at that time, simply the 82nd Division.

At the time of this photograph, it was the 82nd Infantry Division, but that was about to change.  In August, it would become the 82nd Airborne Division. The change came about due to a variety of factors, including that it was once again made up of conscripts, and many Regular Army officers did not trust the airborne concept.

In the Battle of the Coral Sea the Japanese aircraft carrier Shoho was sunk.

The British took Diego Suarez in Madagascar.

Sunday, February 27, 2022

Friday, February 27, 1942. The Battle of the Java Sea, Gas Chambers at Auschwitz, The Raid on Brunvel.

February 27, 1942: Battle of Java Sea begins—Allied ships fail to prevent Japanese landing at Java, take heavy losses. Nazis order construction of gas chambers at Auschwitz. Seattle school board accepts forced resignation of Japanese-American teachers.

Sarah Sundin's blog notes a series of significant events for this day.

The big one, in the context of the fighting, was the beginning of the Battle of Java Sea, which would be an Allied defeat.  In human misery and global crime context, the beginning of the construction of the gas chambers at Auschwitz can't help but be noted.  And then there's the forced resignation of Japanese American teachers in Seattle.

A grim day all the way around.

Radar station at Brunvel, with surprisingly modern looking dish.

The British conducted Operation Biting, an airborne raid on a radar station in France.  The raid on Brunvel secured the radar array which the troops took with them when they withdrew by sea, giving the British a first-hand example of new type of German radar.  It was a completely successful raid.

Tuesday, October 19, 2021

The Forgotten Battle (De Slag Om De Schelde)

Alligator amphibious vehicle passing Terrapin amphibious vehicle on the Schledt.

This is a 2020 Dutch film which has been released with dubbed English, in place of Dutch, on Netflix.

The Battle of the Scheldt, which this film deals with, is hardly a "forgotten" battle, but it is a battle which is no doubt more remembered by the Dutch and the Canadians than it is for Americans.  A continual complaint of European audiences is that American films tend to treat World War Two as if the United States was the only Allied nation in it.  The complaint really isn't true, as there are certainly plenty of contrary examples, but this film is a little unusual for an American audience as it doesn't involve the US at all, while still dealing with a very important battle.

The Battle of the Scheldt was an October 1944 to November 1944 series of Allied campaigns that were aimed at opening up control of the Scheldt estuary so that Allied shipping could make it to Antwerp.  Antwerp had been taken intact, but because the Germans controlled the banks of the Scheldt it was of no use to the Allies, which desperately needed the port.   The task fell to the Canadian army which, in a series of attacks beginning on October 2, 1944, and running through November 8, 1944, took the banks of the Scheldt. It was a hard fought campaign.

This fictionalized portrayal of those events are centered on three principal characters.  One is a Dutch a young Dutch woman,Teuntje Visser, played by Dutch actress and model Susan Radder, who comes into the underground basically both accidentally and reluctantly, a British paratrooper, William Sinclair, played by Jamie Flatters, and a young Dutchman who is a German soldier, Marinus van Staveren, played by Gijis Blom.  The story involves three intersecting plot lines in order to construct a story that involves the climatic battle.

The story actually starts off, surprisingly for a Dutch film, with the Van Staveren character, opening up with a battle on the Russian front.  Van Staveren, who is wounded in the battle, turns out to be a willing volunteer.  While the Dutch are justifiably remember for their opposition to the Nazis, a little over 20,000 Dutch citizens did serve in the German armed forces.  Cornelius Ryan noted in his book A Bridge Too Far that the number was significant enough that parents in some regions of the country worried about what to do with photographs of their sons in uniform taken while they were in the German Army.

Van Stavern is befriended by a mentally decaying wounded SS lieutenant in the same hospital who, as his last act, gets him transferred to a desk job in the west, in what turns out to be a unit that's going to Holland, his native country. That's where he first encounters Visser, who reports with her father to a newly appointed German commander who calls them in as he's aware that Visser's brother was involved in an incident in which he threw a camera through a windshield of a German truck, resulting in a fatal accident.

That ties into an earlier scene setting up that the brother is part of the Dutch underground.  We're introduced to the Visser's there while they watch the Germans retreating in a scene that's much reminiscent of the opening scenes of A Bridge Too Far.

William Sinclair we're introduced to in the context of the topic Ryan's book addresses. He's a British glider pilot in the British airborne whose glider is damaged over the Scheldt and is cut loose to crash on a flooded island.  This occurs before the offensive on the Scheldt commences and he and the party of men he is with try to make their way towards dry land and the Allies.  Sinclair eventually makes it to the Canadian army and is in the battle with it.

The stories all, as noted, intertwine.

The film is well presented and presents good, and credible, drama.  It's realistically portrayed but avoids the post Saving Private Ryan gore that American films have tended to engage in.  None of the characters, interestingly, is without significant personal failings, thereby presenting a much less heroic and more nuanced picture of people at war than is usually the case.  A Dutch film, the central portrayed Dutch characters all have significant personal defects and are not heroic. As a movie, its a good movie.

So how does it do on history?

Well, fairly good  It is a dramatized version of history, but the battle on the Scheldt did come after Market Garden and it was a Canadian effort, as the battle portrays.  The reasons for the battle are accurately presented.  It's nicely done.  Perhaps my only real criticisms are based on things that I don't know if they're accurate or not.  One is that the British paratrooper ends up fighting with the Canadians in Canadian uniform.  I tend to think that he would have simply been evacuated upon crossing into Allied lines.  And I'm skeptical that the Germans would have assigned a Dutch private in their service to a unit serving in Holland, as it opens up the obvious loyalty problem.  Having said that, this is speculation on my part.

In terms of material details, this film also does quite well.  Uniforms and equipment are all presented accurately  The glider scenes are unique for a film as far as I'm aware of, and are really horrifying.

So, well worth watching.

Saturday, February 9, 2019

Canadian Special Operations Forces troops and American Rangers on parade. How are you going to tell them apart? Berets everywhere.

An odd thought occurred to me yesterday after posting this item, for which I've reset out the photograph below.

But Wait Once Again, the Canadian Special Operations Forces Pink & Green service uniform. Was Lex Anteinternet: But wait, Captain Crabby, maybe you've missed the ...


 Canadian soldiers of the Canadian Special Operations Forces marching past sailors and airmen of the Canadian Navy and the Royal Canadian Air Force.  This Canadian Army photo is about the only one available to illustrate the new service uniform of the unit which is distinctly different from the Canadian Army's in cut and color.  It's odd to realize the extent to which an American uniform is adopted here by a military that really doesn't like to be confused with American services as everything about the uniform except for the beret and the insignia recalls an American World War Two item. It's also interesting to note the extent to which World War Two uniform items have been either retained or brought back into use by various armies. . . indeed nearly every army that fought in World War Two.

Now that the U.S. Army, in late 2018, did what the Canadian Special Operations Force did in 2017, how are you going to tell who is who when they're in their pink & green uniform?

It won't be easy, at a distance.  And headgear has a lot to do with that.

Now, with the American uniform, troops are authorized to wear the wheelhouse cap or the garrison cap, but they're also authorized to wear the beret.

Now, as I've commented on it from time to time, I'll be frank on what everyone already knows.  I hate berets. They're just silly headgear. But I will concede that they look sharp in some military applications. And those applications, in my view, are in other armies, not the American Army.  Americans don't know how to wear berets and they look weird when they do.

But they've come into U.S. use and they don't seem to be leaving anytime soon, unfortunately.  In fact, beret coloration is expanding.

While I know that I've posted on it before, I'll briefly recap here, so that my comments above make sense.  The U.S. Army first used berets in 1956 when the Special Forces started wearing them in a green coloration that soon came to identify them. That first use was unauthorized but it soon came to be approved.

Special Forces troops in 1956 before the wearing of the beret was authorized.  These were obviously private purchase and lacked the stiffner that later U.S. berets featured.

The color was "Rifle Green" which is a color the British also had used for awhile, but not for commandos.  It was really close, however, to the British "Commando Green" which was worn by the Special Boat Service, one of several British special forces units created during World War Two, albeit one that was part of the British Marines.

The similar coloration was no doubt intentional as the British really brought their style of beret, which is generally what the U.S. and Canada both use, into military use when it adopted berets early in World War Two. The French had been wearing a differently pattern for a long time for their mountain troops, the Chasseurs Alpine, but that pattern is both huge and distinct.  By going with the British style beret and the dark green color, the Special Forces were intentionally adopting the British coloration and use.  That other British units use green berets of other shades was apparently not noticed or, because there was no intent to adopt berets for general use at the time, simply not worried about.

It's odd, however, that tan or khaki wasn't chosen, as we'll see.

Special Forces Warrant Officer in blue dress uniform wearing the Special Forces Rifle Green colored beret.  Note the crossed arrows that are the symbol of this branch.

Canada, it might be noted, also has a green beret in a dark shade, that being Canadian Forces Green.  It's issued to every soldier in the Army who doesn't wear a different shade, in keeping with the post World War Two effort of the Canadian Army to have a distinct looking uniform.  In their current dress uniform, therefore, they look just like U.S. Army members of the Special Forces back when the U.S. Army Class A uniform was the Army Green Uniform.

Oops.

Anyhow, the U.S. Army adopted the black beret for general use when berets went Army wide.  We've discussed this before but this upset Rangers who had worn it unofficially in Vietnam, as had tankers in the 1970s.  The tanker use actually also relied upon the prior British use going back to the 1920s, which was ironically copied soon thereafter by German tankers, in adopting black berets, something that probably reflected the grime present in armored vehicles.  Canadian tankers also wear black berets, leaning on the British pattern.

German Panzerjaeger in 1989 wearing a black beret of the British pattern.

Indeed, British tankers were the first to wear the type of beret that has spread to general military use.  It came about due to British tankers being exposed to French Chasseurs Alpine during World War One and deciding that their headgear would be handy for use in tanks.  The British didn't like the giant French beret however, and redesigned the modern beret based on its style but using the Basque beret size, for a new pattern.  The resulting beret is smaller and closer fitting than the American and Canadian ones.

The U.S. Army beret is in fact really close to the Canadian one but we never quite got the shape and size right.  Some American troops, for that reason, buy the Canadian ones aftermarket, as they look better.


U.S. Army private shortly after the black beret was first authorized.  The cut of the American beret has never been quite right.

This, therefore, meant that there was also a time when Canadian tankers in dress uniform looked identical to American regular soldiers of all branches, save the Special Forces and the Airborne, in dress uniform.

The Airborne of both nations, we'd note, was different as the United States also went with the British maroon beret for airborne, after the black beret came in, which the Canadians had been doing ever since World War Two when their troops served with the British airborne, who had adopted that color in one of the worst choices for military headgear of all time.  It was particularly bad as red stands out and the British airborne had a very strange practice of wearing their berets in combat, which was very ill conceived.  Canada doesn't have many paratroopers however so confusion would be unlikely, and the British beret looks quite a bit different when worn by a British soldier.

Brigadier General of the 82nd Airborne when the Army Combat Uniform was in use.  It's photographs like this which show why the Army had adopted the pinks and greens as use of a combat uniform for a portrait shows that your dress uniform is really disliked.

All of this really upset Rangers who had unofficially had a beret at one time only to have the color co-opted by the Army for everyone.  To rectify that situation, the Army adopted the tank beret.

Ranger Colonel in the ACU uniform with the tan beret.

And that's where we get back to our point.

The tan beret, like the green beret, went back to World War Two British commandos for inspiration, in this case the Special Air Service, the commando branch of the World War Two British Army (well. . one of them anyhow).  They use that color and have since World War Two.

So does the Canadian Special Operations Forces, for obvious reasons.  So does the Australian SAS.  So did the Rhodesian SAS.  In other words, everyone inspired by the British, have done the same.

Which means that American Rangers in the new Army Green Uniform will look just like the Canadian Special Operations Forces commandos in theirs.

Odd.

Well not quite identical.  Or maybe not.

The Army is authorizing Airborne units to wear World War Two style russet paratrooper boots with their pinks & greens. The Canadian Special Operations Forces did the same in 2017.  Will that extend to Rangers?

I don't know.  But if it does, and I think it likely, that has to be a bit aggravating to the Canadians who got there first.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Postscript

As we've discussed every other sort of beret in use by the U.S. Army we ought to mention the new Security Forces Assistance Brigade, which is a military advisory group.


They wear brown.  It's supposed to symbolize mud, i.e., "boots on the ground".

This is also the color, fwiw, worn by British cavalry units, or at least a couple of them, so there's obviously no intent to follow the British here.  However, it was also the color used by Rhodesian Selous Scouts, which is a bit awkward.

One thing we noted here is that the Canadian Special Operations Forces are not a branch of the Canadian Army, but a separate force made up of members of other branches of the Canadian Forces.  We also noted that the Canadian Forces in general have a beret and that originally the troops of the Special Operations Forces at one time wore the beret and insignia of the units they were drawn from, much like European mercenaries once did (oops).  This same practice, we'd note, is sort of done now by the U.S. Security Forces Assistance Brigade in reverse.  It includes members of the Air Force who wear that beret when serving with it.

French Chasseurs Alpine wearing their distinctive enormous blue beret.  They also have a dress white giant beret.  Blue is the same color worn by French air commandos.

Indeed, the Air Force has its own set of berets, some of which lean on the Army's colors.  Air Force pararescue men wear maroon berets, which recalls the British Airborne's use of them and which is also done by the U.S. Army's airborne.  They also use a scarlet beret for combat controllers for some reason, which is odd.  That same color is the traditional color of the British military police who have worn a scarlet cap for eons and who now wear a scarlet beret.  Canadian military police also wear a scarlet beret. In spite of that, the USAF policemen wear a dark blue beret.  Oh well. The Boy Scouts at one time also wore a scarlet beret.  Dark blue in British use is now the general issue beret, like the American black, for everybody who isn't otherwise issued one of the many colors they issue, replacing the khaki colored (OD) beret of World War Two in that use.

French Marine paratroopers (its complicated) wearing British style maroon berets.  French Legionnaires wear green berets in all uses.  French soldiers often wear remarkably inconsistent uniforms and this is an example.  The soldier on the left is carrying a French pattern bayonet and wears combat boots that are based on the old U.S. M1943 type.  The soldier on the right is carrying a bayonet of a different pattern that resembles one for a Soviet AKM.  His combat boots are also two buckle boots but are of a different pattern.

Bizarrely, USAF Special Operations Weather Technicians have their own beret, and it's pewter grey.  And Survival Operations and Escape specialist wear a sage green one.

USAF Survival and Escape specialist wearing a sage green, British style, beret.  Note how closer fitting it is compared to the typical U.S. Army beret.

And their Survival Escape and evasion specialists wear a sage green beret for some reason.

Navy Seal, Vietnam War.  The Seals have never had an official beret, but obviously at least a few of them wore them unofficially back in the day.

All of which is more than a little confusing.

Friday, May 29, 2015

Movies In History: Band of Brothers

Band of Brothers

Before reading this entry, a person probably ought to read the entry for Saving Private Ryan.  This film isn't revolutionary in being highly materially accurate, as it followed in the wake of Saving Private Ryan which was revolutionary in those regards. Still, this movie not only met the standard (which isn't surprising given the involvement of the same people) but it mastered them. This includes odd material details, such as German horse usage, which is typically omitted from World War Two movies.

The film is of course based on the work of straight history by Ambrose, and it covers it very well, even including some things that were omitted in the book.  It undoubtedly stands as the most accurate single work on World War Two in Europe by leagues, and is a monument to both the American Army of World War Two and to this genera of film.  If a person was to see only one movie about the war in Europe (which would be a mistake), and if you wanted that movie to depict an American topic, this would be it.  And if a person is doing a study of films on the war that portray it accurately, this is a must see.

Postcript

I just noted in my review of Battleground that I was going to review this, and going back and looking at my earlier entries on "Movies In History", I saw that I already had.

I"m actually  suprised to see how short this entry was, as this is such a major cinematic work. but the summation is a good one. This film surpasses any other in historical accuracy and accuracy of material details.  It's excellent.

Indeed, in thinking about it, it occurs its so excellent that it might slightly skew the field in some ways. Taking one single company of the 101st Airborne, the movie might properly be viewed in context as representative of about any American infantry company of the war.  I think it is generally viewed that way, but the fact that the film portrays paratroopers of the 101st Airborne, and is a true story, has caused a degree of over focus on this particular company in this particular division.  The title said it well, Band of Brothers, but it's important to note that the same could be said of about any single ground combat unit of the US Army during the war, and the fact that this story is focused on this particular unit doesn't mean that this particular unit was truly unique.  As the only film following an American Army infantry unit from training all the way through past the German surrender, the film is not only excellent, but probably best regarded as representative of the entire class of American soldier during the war.

Again, excellent by any measure.


Movies In History: Battleground

This movie was filmed in 1949 and released in 1950, making it one of the immediate post World War Two films.  It not only is a good one, it's one of the very best films about World War Two ever made.

The film follows a fictional squad in the 101st Airborne during the Battle of the Bulge.  Character development is excellent.  Minor details about the squad are highly accurate, which is perhaps because the film's director was a veteran of the battle (but not of the 101st).  Very unusual for its time, the characters are in fact somewhat cynical and display some probably typical emotions for any unit, even the 101st, including some degree of cowardliness in one character, and war weariness in many. 

Also unusual for a film of this era, material details are highly accurate. This is surprisingly uncommon for a film of the period, but this film gets them right.  Uniforms and equipment are not only correct, they're correct for an airborne unit of this period.

One of the best World War Two films made, this film stands with later small unit films like Saving Private Ryan or Platoon.  It's one of the few films of this era that doesn't suffer from the Saving Private Ryan effect, however, in that its material details are correct.  Well worth seeing.

The film featured a cast, it might be noted, that was excellent, but not featuring any of the huge stars of the era.  It made a star out of one of the characters, Denise Darcel, for her supporting role, but other actors in the film, like John Hodiak and Van Johnson were known, but not big names like John Wayne or Errol Flynn, for that era.  In some ways, that actually makes the film better, as there are no big names that dominate the ensemble cast.

Postscript

Because this blog has a history focus, and because the purpose of even mentioning movies here is to analyze them from an historical point of view it occurred to me that I missed something in this review that's actually quite significant.  Indeed it occured to me as I'm adding a selection of films here that are well known, but also all ran over the recent Memorial Day holiday.  One of those films was Band of  Brothers.

Now, I'll get around to  Band of Brothers, but one thing that a person might note is that Band of Brothers is a story about a unit within the same division, the Easy Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne.  So it'd be easy to think that as both movies concern the 101st Airborne, both movies are about paratroopers. They aren't.

Battleground's fictional soldiers are part of the 327th Glider Infantry.

The airborne units of the US Army (and the British Army) during World War Two included parachute infantry and glider infantry.  In the case of the glider infantry, their make up was considerably different, which is easily forgotten.  Because almost all attention to airborne units has focused on paratroopers, and in fact it did at the time, it's easy to forget that glider infantry was a huge airborne element.

Paratroopers were all volunteers in that role. Glider infantrymen, however, were not.  Gilder infantrymen were simply regular infantrymen that had been assigned to those units and then trained as glider infantry.  Unlike paratroopers, therefore, the volunteer element was missing.  Indeed, until the end of the war, the extra pay that paratroopers drew was not drawn by glider infantrymen.  Their role was ever bit as dangerous, and indeed it might have been even more dangerous as glider landings in combat were notoriously dangerous and lethal.  As Ambrose recounts in the book,. Band of Brothers, one paratrooper who rode with the glidermen in one operation was horrified by the experience.

An interesting thing, however, is that their effectiveness is revealing about some things.  While paratroopers were regarded as elite as they were all volunteer, and indeed some joined the paratroopers in order to avoid being in units made up mostly of draftees, glider infantry proved to be ever bit as combat effective. So, while they were often conscripts and had no role in their assignment to airborne units, every positive thing you can say about paratroopers you can also say about glider infantry.

Anyhow, as this movie is about men in the 101st Airborne, it'd be easily to believe that it's a movie about elite all volunteer paratroopers.  It isn't.  It's a movie about regular soldiers assigned to the glider infantry, the only movie about them specifically of which I'm aware.