Wednesday, May 15, 2024

You can have anything you want at Alice's Restaurant.

 


There ain't no such thing as free lunch.

El Paso Herald-Post, 1938.

There really isn't.

For some reason, the concept of "free" lunches and "free" breakfasts has bothered me for decades.  I don't know why, really, but it always has.1   Generally, it's because I'm well aware that "free", in this context, means the financial cost is passed on to somebody else, and nine times out of ten in my experiences the bearer of the cost does so involuntarily.  

I don't believe the common unthinking populist phrase that "taxation is theft", but in this case, the free meal is really darned close to it.  I've railed here in the past against "free and reduced costs" meals at the local schools, as they aren't free or reduced costs, it's just that property owners pay for negligent parents failing to provide for their kids.

Yes, that's harsh, and that's not what brings me back to this topic, but it's the truth.  I'm not opposed to helping the needy, but here nine times out of ten (that phrase again) some tragic "heroic" single mother is packing Young Waif to school hungry because Dudley Dowrong departed the scene after donating his genetic contribution, and now the people who are responsible are picking up the tab. That's okay on a limited basis, but as soon as those whose occupation is Buying Cotton pick up on it, they become to regard it as a right, and soon in fact it becomes one.2 3 

Which, again, isn't what brought me back here.

You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant

You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant

Walk right in it's around the back

Just a half a mile from the railroad track

You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant

Arlo Guthrie, Alice's Restaurant.

Just like the meanderings in Guthrie's classic, what I’m here to write about isn't school breakfasts, but office lunch's.

For a reason that I'll omit, I suddenly find myself in the role which made an old Denver lawyer friend of mine supremely crabby when he had it assigned to him, and now I see why.  I'm management.

In the new assignment, which snuck up on me, I was instructed I needed to cut expenses that weren't mandated or necessary.  And what I found, of course, is that mandated and necessary are in the eyes of the recipient.  Put another way, one parent's free and reduced lunch is another's absolute Constitutionally enshrined right.

The expense I rapidly cut was sending our runner to buy groceries for the break room.

Oh, I know what you are thinking, coffee, tea, and the like.4  5

No, I mean real groceries.  Soup, relish, hot peppers and hot sauce.

In the over three decades of my current employment and having worked with lots of professionals, I've noted that there's only been a small handful that actually ever ate their lunch at work.  There are a few, but it isn't many. Staff people who do, and there are a small handful that have, always packed their lunches, or went to one of the downtown shops to buy lunch and brought it back.  Professionals, I'd note, mostly left the office for lunch. Some went home to eat there, often to take care of chores while they were doing it, and some ate downtown.  A few, however, ate in the breakroom every day.

I've never done that. When I was younger, I actually walked home to where I then lived, ate a quick light lunch, and returned to work.  It helped keep me 30 lbs lighter than I now am.  Most of the time now I just don't eat lunch, so if I'm in the office, I'm working. This is against the wise council of my father, who felt that leaving the place of work every day at noon gave you a necessary break.  He ate downtown every day with a small group of his friends.

I admire that.

Anyhow, of the professionals that have eaten lunch in the office over the past three plus decades, there are only two that have acclimated to the company buying them lunch or elements of their lunch.

I don't know how this happened.

Long suffering spouse suggest that it was probably started so that there was food for people in an emergency, and I can see that.  You're trying a case, and it ran long in the morning as Dudley Dowrong was on the stand for a long time, trying to remember if he has six kids by eight women, or eight kids by six women.  So you run back to the office, and you forgot lunch, and don't have time to go buy it.  Have some soup, from the company stores.

Well, I wouldn't.  I hate soup, for which there's no excuse.

My guess is that is how it started, but it expanded somehow.  So for a long time I'll see somebody who hasn't tried a case for eons ordering soup to be picked up by the runner.  And in another, a person who brings a gigantic lunch from home everyday spices it up with relish and condiments he had us pick up, that only he uses.6

Quite frankly, this has always pissed me off.

Basically, at that point, you are making every single person who works with and for you buy you lunch.  Yes, it's not a major cost, but over the years that means you've taken hundreds or thousands of dollars in food from your coworkers by fiat.

So, with my new found authority and mandate, I ordered it stopped.

 ...came upon a bar-room full of bad Salon pictures, in which men with hats on the backs of their heads were wolfing food from a counter. It was the institution of the "free lunch" I had struck. You paid for a drink and got as much as you wanted to eat. For something less than a rupee a day a man can feed himself sumptuously in San Francisco, even though he be a bankrupt. Remember this if ever you are stranded in these parts.

Rudyard Kiping.7

It went badly.

Interestingly, the person I thought might complain did not.  The whining from another person was incessant, however.

I'll be frank that I really don't like the passive-aggressive snide type of hostility that some people will exhibit.  I prefer that people know that I'm mad when I'm mad, and they almost certainly do.  In this instance, after days of it, I blew up in front of the front office starting off with "you're pissing me off".

I yielded, however.  People who feel they have the right to impose their lunch menu items back on everyone else now can.

If they dare.


Footnotes:

1.  Without knowing for sure, I wonder if its because people who grew up when I did always had it impressed upon them as children that providing a meal for somebody was a big deal.  If we received lunch at a friend's home, we were always asked if we had thanked the host for doing so.  We were implicitly made to understand that food costs money.  

Moreover, snacking just didn't exist where I lived as a kid.  People didn't have snacks out, ever.  One boyhood friend of mine who is still a close friend had a family that bought 16 oz glass bottles of Pepsi, and the lack of snacks situation was so strong that it always felt like a huge treat to have a bottle of Pepsi there when I was a kid.

2.  I'm not one of those who currently feel that everything is wrong with public education, and indeed public education here is good. But this is one cultural difference that may in fact make a difference.

At least with Catholic schools here, there are those who attend who because parishioners have donated the tuition to make it possible.  I don't know the lunch situation, but I'd wager this is also the case for some food served there.  That's charity, but it's voluntary.  Providing free or reduced cost food in public schools is legally enforced involuntary charity, which the recipients of, at least by way of observation, sometimes come to feel is a right. 

3.  "Buying cotton" is Southern slang for doing nothing.

4.  I almost never drink coffee at the office, and never tea, but these are office staples.  Likewise, a water cooler in a century plus old building makes sense.  And some food, like soda crackers, or something does as well. But food that's used by one person. . . 

5.  Oddly, soda isn't viewed this way.  

Years ago, we had a Pepsi supplied pop machine and, in going through a similar episode, the then managers determined to send it packing.  Restocking it with soda was costing a fortune.

That move was detested by the staff, but not by the professionals. Why?  Probably because the staff drank the soda and the professionals simply didn't.

6.  If you drown your leftovers every noon with buckets of hot sauce and jalapeños, there's something wrong with them in the first place.

7.  What Kipling failed to mention here is that the "free lunch" was packed was salty fare. Heavily salted ham, etc., was set out for the taking, but the one beer lunch accordingly became two or three.

As an aside, a depiction of this is given in Joe Kidd, in which the title character walks into a bar early in the movie and picks up ham, bread and cheese off an open plate.

Related threads:

Do these people actually have a clue how debt works?


There is such a thing as a free lunch. Was, Lex Anteinternet: Quiet Quitting? Is it real, and if so, why?




Blog Mirror: Mindsets shift on career and tech ed

 

Mindsets shift on career and tech ed

Monday, May 15, 1944. Deportation of the Hungarian Jews.

With Germany in control of the country, the SS began deporting Hungary's Jews, mostly to Auschwitz.

German lines in Italy began to collapse.

 Pilots hold a briefing on their assignments before taking to the air on their respective missions. Sessa area, Italy. 15 May, 1944.

French Vice-Admiral Edmond Derrien was sentenced to life in prison for turning over elements of the French Fleet to the Germans after the Allied landing in North Africa.

Pvt. Frank G. Schubert moves through an area with full field equipment during training in Helston, Cornwall.

Disembarking MP's, Slapton Sands, England. 15 May 1944.

A terrible training accident happened off of Hawaii.

On May 15, 1944, a line of LST's (amphibious ships) were headed from Mā`alaea Bay back to Pearl Harbor, filled with men and material destined for the invasion of Saipan. These particular ships had been modified to carry other landing craft, 120-foot long LCT's, on their decks. In the middle of the night the rough seas in the channel caused the large ships to roll to the point that the fastenings attaching the LCTs to the decks carried away.

LCT-984 slid from the deck and struck the water with engine room doors open and bow ramp down. The vessel quickly became waterlogged and semi-submerged. On board LST-71 men of the 8th Marine Division were sleeping on the deck and inside their LCT. When LCT-988 fell into the ocean, the next ship in the convoy, LST-29, accidentally rammed the landing craft, causing her to immediately capsize. Eldon Ballinger (Marine Corps League newsletter, n.d.) relates part of the story:

The division was assigned 22 LST's and in the well decks were Amphtracs. We pulled practice landings at Maalaea Bay on Maui and also a mock invasion of Kahoolawe Island...Around 2330 the sea began to get rough and within a two hour period the sea became very turbulent with high waves. The flat bottomed LST rocked back and forth so violently that the straps broke on the stacks of ammunition, falling on the sleeping men. Then the steel cables snapped, releasing the LCT, ripping the large skid beams loose, and the waves washed everything off the deck of the LST's starboard side. The LCT hit the water right-side up, except the ramp was down. I remember a crewman and I were trying to start the engine so that the ramp could be raised. It was then that the trailing LST hit us broadside, flipping the LCT completely upside down. The LCT sank within minutes with those that were still alive going down with the ship.

LCT-999 was also swept into the ocean, but fortunately was later recovered and towed to Pearl Harbor. In all the series of LCT accidents resulted in some 19 men dead or missing (the exact number is not clear).

The U-731 was sunk in the Atlantic by the Allies.

Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Sergius of Moscow died at age 77.


Lincoln Borglum, who finished his father's work at Mount Rushmore, stepped down as Mount Rushmore National Memorial's first superintendent.

Orson Welles went on the government payroll, at $1.00 per year, as a consultant to the government.

Last prior edition:

Thursday, May 15, 1924. "Patriotism, which is bought and paid for is not patriotism."

Calvin Coolidge vetoed the World War Adjusted Compensation Act (the Bonus Bill), noting "Patriotism, which is bought and paid for is not patriotism."

Last prior edition:

Wednesday, May 14, 1924. Pondering pacifism, charges of communism and executions.

Blog Mirror: May 15, 1874: Harvard and McGill Invent American Football

 

May 15, 1874: Harvard and McGill Invent American Football


Last prior edition:

Do these people actually have a clue how debt works?

Geez Louise:

RELEASE: BERNIE SANDERS, RO KHANNA INTRODUCE BILL TO ELIMINATE MEDICAL DEBT

May 9, 2024

Press Release

Washington, DC – Today, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt) and Congressman Ro Khanna (D-Calif) along with Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) introduced a bill to eliminate all of the $220 billion in medical debt held by millions of Americans in this country, wipe it from credit reports, and drastically limit the accrual of future medical debt.

In the United States of America, there are currently over 100 million people holding some form of health care debt, and 20 million people with unpaid medical bills of more than $250 specifically. That’s nearly four in ten American adults reporting health care debt, and one out of every 12 American adults reporting significant debt. Women, Black Americans, and those living in rural areas and the South are hit the hardest. As a result of our health care system, one in three Black Americans have past due medical bills, as well as nearly half of American women, and nearly half of adults living in the South.

Unpaid medical bills can ruin credit scores and make it challenging to get a loan, take out a mortgage, or buy a car. Nearly 75 percent of adults in the United States say they are worried about being able to afford unexpected medical bills, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Nearly one out of every four people say they have skipped medical treatment because of concerns about cost, including one in five adults with health insurance coverage.

The problem is only getting worse. Research from Yale and Stanford revealed a recent spike in hospitals, including non-profit and public hospitals, bringing medical debt lawsuits against patients over unpaid medical bills, disproportionately impacting Black and low-income patients and patients living in rural areas. 

Canceling medical debt is a common sense position overwhelmingly supported by the American public. That support is nonpartisan with 84 percent of Republicans in favor of canceling it. In fact, when polled on which types of debt Americans would like to see forgiven, two-thirds of Americans pointed to medical debt. 

“This is the United States of America, the richest country in the history of the world.  People in our country should not be going bankrupt because they got cancer and could not afford to pay their medical bills,” Sanders said. “No one in America should face financial ruin because of the outrageous cost of an unexpected medical emergency or a hospital stay.  The time has come to cancel all medical debt and guarantee health care to all as a human right, not a privilege.”

“Our current health care system is bankrupting Americans. I’ve heard heartbreaking stories from constituents who have skipped doctor’s appointments due to cost, who have lost loved ones because they couldn’t afford their medication, and who aren’t able to buy a house or get a job because of crippling medical debt,” said Khanna. “I’m so proud to join Senator Sanders to cancel medical debt, wipe it from credit reports and reform our system going forward. This bill would transform the lives of millions of Americans and I couldn’t ask for a better partner in the fight.”

Said Merkley: “Patients should be able to get the care they need when facing illness or injury without fear of financial ruin. America’s medical debt crisis continues to harm millions, and Congress must do all it can to relieve patients of this tremendous burden. Our Medical Debt Cancellation Act sets up a grant program to cancel patient medical debt. This bill is a common-sense step forward that will help families in Oregon and across the nation.”

“No one chooses to get sick and seeking essential medical care should never keep families in poverty. Yet millions of people—disproportionately Black and/or disabled—are burdened with medical debt brought about by our broken health care system. Many families are forced to file for bankruptcy, while others struggle to access necessities like housing or transportation because of debt collections listed on their credit report. Imagine being denied housing while wrestling with a major medical issue and mounting bills. This is unconscionable. I am proud to stand with Representative Khanna and Senator Sanders in cancelling medical debt and bringing us one step closer to making health care a human right,” said Tlaib.

Organizations endorsing the bill include: TheCenter for Health and Democracy, The Center for Popular Democracy, The Center for Economic and Policy Research, Just Care USA, Public Citizen, and Social Security Works.

Specifically, the Medical Debt Cancellation Act will:

Amend the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, making it illegal to collect medical debt incurred prior to the bill’s enactment and creating a private right of action for patients. 

Amend the Fair Consumer Credit Reporting Act, effectively wiping medical debt from credit reports by preventing credit reporting agencies from reporting information related to debt that arose from medical expenses. 

Create a grant program in the Health Resources and Services Administration to eliminate medical debt, prioritizing low-resource providers and underserved populations. 

Amend the Public Health Service Act, updating billing and debt collection requirements to limit the potential for future debt to be incurred.

###

Congressman Khanna represents the 17th District of California, which covers communities in Silicon Valley. Visit his website at khanna.house.gov. Follow him on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter @RepRoKhanna.

Debt isn't "eliminated" or "cancelled".  It's shifted.

What this proposes is to shift the debt on a massive scale. That will be made up elsewhere, either passed on so that it can be absorbed, or through provider collapse.

A horrific idea.

I don't know about the rest of these folks, but Sanders many years in government really show here.  He seems to have a complete lack of understanding of how money works in the real world.

Tuesday, May 14, 2024

Blog Mirror: Panoramic Sketch of the D-Day Beaches

 

Panoramic Sketch of the D-Day Beaches

Sunday, May 14, 1944. Route to Rome.

Today in World War II History—May 14, 1944: 80 Years Ago—May 14, 1944: In Italy, US II Corps breaks German Gustav Line, opening the route to Rome.

Sarah Sundin's blog.

The Luftwaffe raided Bristol at night.

E-boats attacked Allied landing craft near the Isle of Wight.

Albanian SS rounded up 281 Kosovo Jews for deportation to concentration camps.

Vichy radio reported that French cardinals had appealed to the Roman Catholic clergy in Britain and the United States to use their influence to ensure that the French civilian population towns, works of art and churches would be spared from Allied bombing as much as possible,

2nd Lt. Trava Thomas of Okmulgee, Okla., arrives with full pack at the Brisbane, Queensland railroad station. 14 May, 1944.

The ironically named America Maru was sunk by the USS Nautilus.  Most of the occupants of the ship were Japanese civilians being evacuated from Saipan, the overwhelming majority of whom were killed in the sinking.

George Lucas was born in Modesto, California.

Last prior edition:

Friday, May 12, 1944. Heroism in Italy. End of the war in the Caucasus.


Wednesday, May 14, 1924. Pondering pacifism, charges of communism and executions.

The Methodist general conference committee meeting in Springfield, Massachusetts voted 76 to 37 to recommend to the conference that the church never again participate in the support of warfare of any kind.

The meeting was contentious in general, with charges of communism being levied against church leaders.


Former Constitutionalist general and supporter of the recent rebellion, Gen. Fortunato Maycottee was executed by firing squad at age 32.

A multiracial Legislative Council of Kenya met for the first time.

Last prior edition:

Tuesday, May 13, 1924. Conventions wrap up.

Belligerant ironies.

On the weekend shows, Republicans, who are the party with members that would abandon Ukraine to the tender mercies of the Russians, are irate that the Biden Administration is withholding some munitions from Israel, and asking Israel not to go into Rafah.

Eh?

And Trump is making it clear that he'll support Israel even more than Biden is, which makes the protests here and there over the current administration's policies even stranger.

Monday, May 13, 2024

Monday at the Bar: The Lawyer?

 


Casper newspaper ad, May 13, 1924.

Monday, May 13, 1974. 55

Congress rejected a bill by Kansas Senator Bob Dole to allow states to raise the speed limit above 55.

American and Canadian Mohawk's began the occupation of the abandoned Moss Lake Girl Scouts camp near Old Forge, New York.

Last prior edition:

Sunday, May 12, 1974. Divorce Italian Style.

Saturday, May 13, 1944. Battle of the Tennis Court ends.

The long-running Battle of the Tennis Court ended in an allied victory.

The Axis completed its withdrawal from Crimea, having evacuated over 150,000 troops, a stunning effort given the context of the battle going on there.

78,000 were killed or captured by the Soviets in this time frame.

Cpt. Richard Wakeford.

On 13th May, 1944, Captain Wakeford commanded the leading Company on the right flank of an attack on two hills near Cassino, and accompanied by his orderly and armed only with a revolver, he killed a number of the enemy and handed over 2O prisoners when the Company came forward. On the final objective a German officer and 5 other ranks were holding a house. After being twice driven back by grenades. Captain Wakeford, with a final dash, reached the window and hurled in his grenades. Those of the enemy, who were not killed or wounded, surrendered. Attacking another feature on the following day, a tank became bogged on the start line, surprise was lost and the leading infantry were caught in the enemy's fire, so that the resulting casualties endangered the whole operation. Captain Wakeford, keeping his Company under perfect control, crossed the start line and although wounded in the face and in both arms, led his men up the hill. Half way up the hill his Company came under heavy Spandau fire; in spite of his wounds, he organized and led a force to deal with this opposition so that his company could get on. By now the Company was being heavily mortared and Captain Wakeford was again wounded, in both legs, but he still went on and reaching his objective, he organized and consolidated the remainder of his Company and reported to his Commanding Officer before submitting to any personal attention. During the seven hour interval before stretcher-bearers could reach him his unwavering high spirits encouraged the wounded men around him. His selfless devotion to duty, leadership, determination, courage and disregard for his own serious, injuries were beyond all praise.

Wakeford became a solicitor (lawyer) after the war and died in 1972 at age 51.

Also in Italy, the Polish 2nd Corps unsuccessfully attacked Monte Cassino, sustaining heavy casualties in the effort.  The French Expeditionary Corps took Castelforte and Monte Mailo.

Sarah Sundin reports: 

Today in World War II History—May 13, 1944: In drive for Rome, French troops break through Gustav Line. Premiere of Cowboy and the Senorita, starring Roy Rogers & Dale Evans in their first film together.

She also noted that Klaus Dönitz, son of the commander of the German Kriegsmarine, was killed when his torpedo boat went down off the English coast. 


The U-1224, now in Japanese service as the RO-501, was sunk in the Atlantic, making it one of two Japanese flagged submarines to be sunk in the Atlantic.

The French Resistance halted self propelled artillery production at the Lorraine-Dietrich works, Bagneres de Bigorre.

Pensive won the Preakness.

Last prior edition:

Friday, May 12, 1944. Heroism in Italy. End of the war in the Caucasus.

Tuesday, May 13, 1924. Conventions wrap up.

The 1924 Wyoming Republican and Democratic conventions ended and chose their candidates.

The GOP chose Calvin Coolidge, and the Democrats Wyoming Senator John B. Kendrick.


The Kendrick decision proved to be a non-starter.  He'd receive no support at all at that year's Democratic national convention.

Last prior edition:

Monday, May 12, 1924. Final filly wins the Preakness.

Sunday, May 12, 2024

The dog.

 


I've noted here before that I'm not really a "dog person", which is not to say that I don't like dogs.  I do.

I didn't have a dog growing up, save for an extremely brief time in which my parents for some reason adopted one from the Humane Society.  It was a Scotch Terrier mix and was fully grown, and ran away almost as soon as we got it.  I don't know what motivated them to acquire the do, I probably wanted one, and I can barely remember it, we had it so briefly.  I was very young at the time.

They probably chose the dog type as our yard was tiny.  When I was growing up, my mother wanted a bigger house for many years until she became attached to the one they'd bought in 1958, when they were first married.  The backyard really was tiny.  It wouldn't have accommodated a large dog.

We always had cats, and I love cats.  Having said that, we tended to attract dogs and cats, as some people do.

Anyhow, most people who are bird hunters have dogs, but we didn't.  By the time I was in late grade school I was a horrible asthmatic, something I don't talk about much, and I turned out to be allergic to cats and dogs, so that foreclosed getting a dog.  I was so allergic to dogs that I'd get to where I could hardly breathe if I was riding in a car with a dog, something that was still the case as late as the very early 90s.  For some reason, however, the condition abated enormously after that.  A neighbor's cat, for most of its very long cat life, basically lived at our house, which shouldn't have really been possible if I'd remained highly allergic.

About 7 or 8 years ago, my wife decided we should get a dog.  I went back for tests and found I was still allergic, and retook the battery of shots that I had taken twice previously in my life.  One day I came home to find she'd placed an order for a Double Doodle hunting dog.

I was worried, but largely kept it myself. When the little fluff ball arrived, I was really skeptical, but he started proving his worth as a hunting dog that very fall.  More than that, however, he proved himself to be a highly affectionate dedicated outdoor dog.

He hunted all this past fall with me and then a few weeks ago fell ill.  Aggressive cancer.  Now he's gone.

The past year plus has really been horrific for me in all sorts of ways.  Surgery twice, stress to the limit, being ill every day. Two family deaths back to back, and now this.  I don't know why these things happen.

I've carried on throughout it, but I can hardly write this due to the tears in my eyes for the dog.

Sunday, May 12, 1974. Divorce Italian Style.

Italians voted to retain the newly granted right to obtain a divorce, dating from 1970, in Italy's first public referendum.  The vote was 59% in favor of retention of the law.


Italian divorce or the lack of it, had actually been the theme of an Italian movie of several yeas prior, at the time that Italian movies and bombshell actresses were a big thing.  In the film, which I've never seen, apparently Ferdinando Cefalù, placed by Marcello Mastroianni, is married a 37-year-old impoverished Sicilian nobleman when he falls in love with his cousin Angela, a 16-year-old girl he sees only during the summer.

Ick.

So he starts to plot to kill his wife, and it goes on from there.

I don't think I'll bother to catch it.

Mastroianni is an interesting character, as his own marriage failed due to his infidelities, but he and his wife remained married throughout his life.  Asked once about it, he was horrified when it was suggested he should divorce, noting that he was Catholic and Catholics do not divorce.

Daniela Rocca, who played the devoted wife in the film, actually was rendered mentally unstable during it, and attempted to commit suicide. Stefania Sandrelli, who played the 16-year-old love interest, and ultimately unfaithful second wife, was actually only 14 years old when she played the part.

Leyla Qasim, became the first woman to be executed by Saddam Hussein's regime.  She was one of five Kurds charged with attempting to hijack and airplane and plotting to kill the Iraqi leader.

Last prior edition:

Thursday, May 9, 1974. Probable cause.

Friday, May 12, 1944. Heroism in Italy. End of the war in the Caucasus.

The two-year-long Battle of the Caucasus ended in a Soviet victory.  

What's partially amazing about this is that the Soviets and Axis forces were fighting a war that was effectively far behind the real front lines by this point.  The Axis forces should have withdrawn from this region months prior to this.


The war in Italy at this point was remarkably multinational, with the US 5th Army including a wide variety of western units, including units of the Indian Army. Sepoy Kamal Ram won the Victoria Cross in Italy for single handely wiping out a German machinegun post, causing a second one to surrender a,d n assisting a feelow soldier in the destruction of a third.

His citation.

In Italy, on 12 May 1944, after crossing the River Gari overnight, the Company advance was held up by heavy machine-gun fire from four posts on the front and flanks. As the capture of the position was essential to secure the bridgehead, the Company Commander called for a volunteer to get round the rear of the right post and silence it. Volunteering at once and crawling forward through the wire to a flank, Sepoy Kamal Ram attacked the post single handed and shot the first machine-gunner; a second German tried to seize his weapon but Sepoy Kamal Ram killed him with the bayonet, and then shot a German officer who, appearing from the trench with his pistol, was about to fire. Sepoy Kamal Ram, still alone, at once went on to attack the second machine-gun post which was continuing to hold up the advance, and after shooting one machine-gunner, he threw a grenade and the remaining enemy surrendered. Seeing a Havildar making a reconnaissance for an attack on the third post, Sepoy Kamal Ram joined him, and, having first covered his companion, went in and completed the destruction of this post. By his courage, initiative and disregard for personal risk, Sepoy Kamal Ram enabled his Company to charge and secure the ground vital to the establishment of the bridgehead and the completion of work on two bridges. When a platoon, pushed further forward to widen the position, was fired on from a house, Sepoy Kamal Ram, dashing towards the house, shot one German in a slit trench and captured two more. His sustained and outstanding bravery unquestionably saved a difficult situation at a critical period of the battle and enabled his Battalion to attain the essential part of their objective.

He was 19 years old at the time, and would remain in the Indian Army after the war, retiring in 1972.  He died in 1987 at the age of 57. 

The 5th Army made progress against the Gustav Line.  The French Expeditionary Corps captured Monte Faito. The British 13th Corps crossed the Rapido opposite of Cassino.

Frederick Schiller Faust, better known by his pen name Max Brand, was killed by artillery while working as a writer attached to U.S. infantry, a request he'd made some weeks earlier.  He was 51 years old.

The United States Army Air Force hit synthetic oil plants at Leuna-Merseburg, Bohlen, Zeitz, Lutzkendorf and Brux.

ME 410 photographed from a B-17 over Brux.

A20 hit by flak over France.  Pilot 1st Lt Robert E. Stockwell and gunner S/Sgt Hollis A. Foster were killed. Bombardier Lt. Albert Jedinak and gunner S/Sgt. Egon W. Rust bailed out and were captured.

The State Department was busy trying to find a way to save Rome from destruction.

German U-boat commander Oskar Kusch was executed for holding views critical of Adolf Hitler.

Last prior edition:

Thursday, May 11, 1944. Operation Diadem.