Saturday, June 17, 1899. It's flooding down in Texas*

 

Terrible floods occured in Texas after 8.9 inches of rain fell over 66,000 square miles. The Brazos flooded, and 284 people lost their lives.

Footnotes:

The title today is taken from Texan Stevie Ray Vaughn's blues song of that name.

Last prior edition:

Tuesday, June 13, 1899. The Battle of Zapote River

Labels: 1890s, 1899, 1920s, 1922, Army, Douglas MacArthur, Ft. D.A. Russell, Personalities, Philippine Insurrection, Philippines, U.S. Navy, Wyoming

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.

The American Songbook

Some time ago, several years ago in fact, I was in Court and the judge presiding over the case (we were in chambers) noted that his children, who were approximately the same age as mine, didn't learn the songs we all learned as kids in school.  I was quite surprised by that, but upon returning home I found that was indeed true of my own. Entire groups of songs that we learned in school were completely unknown to them.

In grade school, in the 1960 and early 1970s, we learned a range of "traditional" songs, some of which, in thinking back, weren't all that old at the time, but seemed so.  These included the Hudie Ledbetter (Leadbelly) series of songs that most people believe are age-old folk songs, some genuine old folks songs, folk songs of the 1930s and some well known U.S. military ballads.

Songs that I can recall learning this way, if not always understanding, include Down In the Valley, Jimmie Cracked Corn, Johnnie Came Marching Home, The Battle Hymn of the Republic, Little Brown Church In the Vale,  Red River Valley and This Land is Your Land, amongst others.

The lyrics of some included cultural references that were never explained to us, such as Jimmie Cracked Corn, which is sung from the prospective of a Southern slave.  By today's standards, that song would be both rather shocking, and not exactly socially tolerable.  Others were cleaned up versions of songs that had heavy situational references unknown to us.  Down In The Valley, for example, is a Leadbelly song that includes a references to being in prison, if all the lyrics are included, 

Write me a letter, send it by mail;
Send it in care of the Birmingham jail,
Birmingham jail, dear, Birmingham jail, 
Send it in care of the Birmingham jail,

At least one standard was somewhat controversial in its origin, but it seems to have gotten over it quickly, perhaps in spite of the desires of Woodie Guthrie, its author, that being This Land Is Your Land.  Guthrie, who was basically a fellow traveler prior to World War Two, meant the lyrics of the song much more literally than most seem to believe.  Of course, the last three stanzas of the song are usually omitted.

As I went walking I saw a sign there
And on the sign it said "No Trespassing."
But on the other side it didn't say nothing,
That side was made for you and me.

In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people,
By the relief office I seen my people;
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking
Is this land made for you and me?

Nobody living can ever stop me,
As I go walking that freedom highway;
Nobody living can ever make me turn back
This land was made for you and me.

One of the more unusual songs, looking back, that we learned was the Field Artillery Song.  I later had to learn it again, or sing it rather as I already knew it, at Ft. Sill.  I'd already learned it as a child in grade school.

Over hill, over dale,

We will hit the dusty trail,

And those Caissons go rolling along.

Up and down, in and out,

Counter march and left about,

And those Caissons go rolling along,

For it's high high he,

In the Field Artillery,

Shout out your "No" loud and strong,

For wher-e’er we go,

You will always know,

That those Caissons go rolling along.

I had to ask my father what a caisson was, at some point, I recalled.  It isn't something that a person encounters everyday, of course.  Similarly, we learned the lyrics of The Marine Corps Hymn.

We learned a selection of national or patriotic songs as well.  Of course The Star Spangled Banner was one. So was My Country Tis of Thee, which I learned at home was to the same tune as the British National Anthem, The Queen.  My Country Tis of Thee is much less less martial.

My country, 'tis of thee,

Sweet land of liberty,

Of thee I sing;

Land where my fathers died,

Land of the pilgrims' pride,

From ev'ry mountainside

Let freedom ring!

The "land where my fathers died" caused some distress to us, as young children, in hearing it as thankfully all of our fathers were alive.  It would be years later before I"d actually hear all of the lyrics to the origianal song, The Queen.

God save our gracious Queen!

Long live our noble Queen!

God save the Queen!

Send her victorious,

Happy and glorious,

Long to reign over us:

God save The Queen!

O Lord our God arise,

Scatter her enemies,

And make them fall:

Confound their politics,

Frustrate their knavish tricks,

On Thee our hopes we fix:

God save us all.

Thy choicest gifts in store,

On her be pleased to pour;

Long may she reign:

May she defend our laws,

And ever give us cause,

To sing with heart and voice,

God save the Queen!

One song we learned that was probably unique to us was the state song, Wyoming.

These songs tended to be taught in music class, in which a music teacher who went from school to school taught the songs and occasionally played the piano.  I can't recall her name, but I do recall that she tried to teach us something by making us memorize the words Tee Tee Te-te Tong, in much the same way the children in The Sound Of Music learn the "Doe, a deer" song.   Sometimes we gathered in school assemblies, seated by grade, and sang them along with clips from "film strips".

Now all of this seems to be a thing of the past, and there's a lot to teach so perhaps that's no surprise. But in looking back at it, it's a bit of an open question, maybe, of what occurs when a culture loses its base of common songs.  The country won't collapse, of course, but a bit of a widely shared heritage is lost in the process.