Subject: WWII-L Digest - 29 Nov 1994 to 30 Nov 1994

From: Automatic digest processor <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 1 Dec 1994 00:00:55 -0500

There are 61 messages totalling 2560 lines in this issue.

Topics of the day:

  1. Waffen SS (Ukrainian support) (2)
  2. Close Air Support in Normandy (2)
  3. Pearl Harbor Query (2)
  4. Jersey's Underground Hospital
  5. Armor warfare - books
  6. Hollywood in World War II
  7. Tim Scherrer & WW2 Off. Uniforms
  8. Scorched Earth Policy
  9. INF: 50 Years Ago - 01-DEC-1944
 10. Der Vichy Government (2)
 11. Waffen SS
 12. QUERY:HOW TO DEFIN
 13. Tuxedo Junction
 14. query:how to define W (3)
 15. WWII in the Pacific
 16. Concerning Moscow study trips
 17. Julia Child
 18. Julia Child: well, maybe not...! (9)
 19. Close Air Support planes vs. tanks (2)
 20. The Battle of the Bulge- Allied Intelligence Failures
 21. Weaps: Battleships (3)
 22. U.S.S. Suwannee (3)
 23. Fwd: Re: USS Arizona Memorial
 24. MEDIA: Comfort Women
 25. MEDIA: Great Escape (2)
 26. Re[2]: Uniforms: Pinks & Greens
 27. MEDIA: Sakai Remembers
 28. Gustav Geraet
 29. MEDIA:Tokyo Documents
 30. SILLY: Julia Child
 31. QUERY - Molotov's & Hirohito's death
 32. WEAP: Battleships
 33. 22d Inf in the Hurtgen 1 Dec 44
 34. MEDIA:Kamikazes Mourned
 35. MEDIA:Comfort Women
 36. MEDIA:Bridge on River Kwai
 37. MEDIA: Tokyo Documents
 38. [INF] USAAF 1 DEC 44
 39. Bong and McGuire
 40. INF: 50 YEARS AGO - 01
 41. MEDIA:COMFORT WOMEN

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 00:01:41 EST
From:    Henry Sirotin <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Waffen SS (Ukrainian support)

Dear Bill,

Naziism per se might not have been on the Ukrainian agenda, but its most
perverse manifestation, Jewish extermination, was certainly in synch with
Ukrainian attitudes. The violent history of those attitudes long predates
both the German invasion and the Bolshevik state, and the willing role          of Ukrainian and Latvian "volunteers" in the Holocaust is well and              thoroughly documented. I have no trouble understanding the position of          the Great Russian-subjugated people of Eastern Europe under the Soviets,        but I cannot accept that as an excuse for inflicting even greater horrors       on others, the vast majority of whom had no role in the persecution of          those now doing the persecuting.

Henry Sirotin

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 00:05:00 EST
From:    Henry Sirotin <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Close Air Support in Normandy

Rudel got 187 aircraft in a Stuka? Counting ground kills, certainly.
But if that's his air combat claim, I'm inclined to knock a zero or two
off that tank total as well. Does anyone have details on this?

Hnery Sirotin

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 00:34:16 EST
From:    Henry Sirotin <[email-masked]>
Subject: Pearl Harbor Query

The following appeared on Milhist-L:

     Thanksgiving Day I was visiting with my brother Phil in San Diego.  As
     a three-year old Navy Brat he was the recipient of a Japanese .50
     caliber machine gun bullet at Pearl Harbor.  Which, I guess,
     sensitizes him to things that happen there.

     I have noticed some traffic on this net from Hawaii.  If someone there
     has any knowledge on this subject, please either confirm or discredit
     the following:

     My brother told me that he had heard that at the USS Arizona Memorial
     there are two tapes for visitors.  An English one which, apparently,
     tells the story of the attack.  And one in Japanese which is the
     revisionist version, laying the blame on the US.

     Bill Riddle
     [email-masked]

Can anyone confirm the last paragraph? I'd find it astonishing.

Henry Sirotin

------------------------------

Date:    Tue, 29 Nov 1994 20:38:48 -1000
From:    Jim Adams <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Pearl Harbor Query

This is absolutely not true.  We have only one movie and sound track and
it is in English.  It is not revisionist.

We are in the process of having portable audio tapes in foreign
languages, but it is the same script.  these are being installed now and
will hopefully be ready by next week.

We do show a new movie, it opened about 1.5 years ago.  The previous
movie used lots of the John Ford Hollywood footage.  this one is purely
historical footage, and where it did not exisit we used paintings.  This
makes it very clear what is "real" and not.  It is based on the news
footage from the time to tell the story about Pearl Harbor and the events
leading up to the Japanese attack as it was perceived then, at the time.
This allows the visitor to put themselves into the period and try to
understand what was happening then and how people perceived the world
then, not how one might interprete it now with all the various messages.

Hope this clears up the falsehood.

REMEMBER PEARL HARBOR

****************************************************************************
Jim Adams                       [email-masked]
Cultural Resource Manager
USS Arizona Memorial, NPS       (808) 422-2771  extension 130
1 Arizona Memorial Place
Honolulu, Hawaii 96818
****************************************************************************

On Tue, 29 Nov 1994, Henry Sirotin wrote:

> The following appeared on Milhist-L:
>
>      Thanksgiving Day I was visiting with my brother Phil in San Diego.  As
>      a three-year old Navy Brat he was the recipient of a Japanese .50
>      caliber machine gun bullet at Pearl Harbor.  Which, I guess,
>      sensitizes him to things that happen there.
>
>      I have noticed some traffic on this net from Hawaii.  If someone there
>      has any knowledge on this subject, please either confirm or discredit
>      the following:
>
>      My brother told me that he had heard that at the USS Arizona Memorial
>      there are two tapes for visitors.  An English one which, apparently,
>      tells the story of the attack.  And one in Japanese which is the
>      revisionist version, laying the blame on the US.
>
>      Bill Riddle
>      [email-masked]
>
> Can anyone confirm the last paragraph? I'd find it astonishing.
>
> Henry Sirotin
>

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 01:02:03 -0500
From:    Oliver Bonham-Carter <[email-masked]>
Subject: Jersey's Underground Hospital

Between England and France, there is a little island called Jersey. This
small and peaceful island has quite a history behind it because almost every
(if not all...) conquer that ever tried to invade England left their marks
there. Some left little castle-like structures around the island to
fortify it and others (like the Germans) left bigger structures there. In
Jersey, a hospital was built into a stone mountain by prisoners of the
Germans called "The German Underground Hospital". It looks from the
outside like a giant white arch (about the size of the Arch de Triomph
(sp?) in Paris!). On the inside, it has very long halls (almost as long
as runways) with little rooms (for the German wounded) on each side. They
say that if the walls of the caves fell in while the prisoners were blasting,
they would be left in there to die or if they died on the job, their bodies
would be plastered into the walls. It was never fully completed hence,
never used.

Has anyone been to the museum there or know any other information about
it? Perhaps I'm looking in the wrong places but it seems to be a hard
topic to research. Could anyone offer any comments or information?
Thank ye, Thank ye!

[email-masked]
 "...So the bartender says "Hey, that's not a DUCK!"

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 03:17:49 -0500
From:    John Sloan <[email-masked]>
Subject: Armor warfare - books

James Na was asking about documents on the history of armored
warfare.  Among the most fundamental related to American practice
in WWII are the reports compiled by the General Board after the
war. There are 131 reports indexed for the European Theater of
Operations. Reports for the Mediterranean Theater were prepared
separately. I do not have the index for that theater.
     I should mention two other major, valuable sets of documents
for which I have the indices. One is the "List of European
Theater Combat Interviews" - There are hundreds of interviews
and the list runs over 30 pages.
The other is the "List of Miscelaneous Records of the Adjutant
General's Office Relating to WWII in the European Theater of
Operations." The list alone runs many pages and contains titles
of documents relating to all phases of operations from pre-D Day
to fighting in Germany. There are many on the Ardennes Campaign
alone.  All three of these indices refer to documents stored at
the National Archives. If someone has a special need for these
and wants assistance in obtaining them, please let me know.
     Following are the general board report number related to
armor and artillery.  I have typed numbers 48, 50, 51, 52,
59, 60, 61, and 67. Since I probably will never get around to
republishing these, as originally planned, I will be happy to
provide a Xerox for any list members wanting them for the cost
of making the copy.

best wishes

john sloan

                            THE GENERAL BOARD
                 United States Forces, European Theater
                                  INDEX
                                   to
                      REPORTS OF THE GENERAL BOARD
                    (by Number, Section, and Subject)

     The General Board was established by General Orders 128,
Headquarters, European Theater of Operations, United States Army,
dated 17 June 1945, as amended b, General Orders 182, dated 7
August 1945, and General Orders 312, dated 20 November 1945,
Headquarters, United States Forces, European Theater, to prepare
a factual analysis of the strategy, tactics, and administration
employed by the United States forces in the European Theater.

ARMORED
NUMBER  SECTION     SUBJECT                                 FILE
48      Armd      Organization, Equipment, and Tactical
                  Employment of the Armored Division.     320.2/3

49      Armd      Tactics, Employment, Technique,
                  Organization, and Equipment of
                  Mechanized Cavalry Units                320.2/6

50      Armd      Organization, Equipment, and
                  Tactical Employment of Separate
                  Tank Battalions.                       320.2/46

51      Armd      The Armored Group.                     320.2/47

52      Armd      Armored Special Equipment.             475/4

53      Armd      Tank Gunnery.                          353.4/2

ARTILLERY
NUMBER  SECTION     SUBJECT                                 FILE
58       Arty      Ammunition Supply for Field
                   Artillery Units.                         471/1

59       Arty      Organization and Equipment of
                   Field Artillery Units.                 320.2/8

60      Arty       Organization, Equipment, and
                   Tactical Employment of Tank
                   Destroyer Units.                      320.2/19

61      Arty       Field Artillery Operations.           370/1

62      Arty       The Field Artillery Observation
                   Battalion.                           320.2/45

63      Arty       Field Artillery Communications.      311/1

64      Arty       Field Artillery Gunnery.             353/1

65      Arty       The Field Artillery Group.           320.2/62

66      Arty       Organic Field Artillery
                   Air Observation.                     370/6

67      Arty       Field Artillery Materiel.            475/5

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 05:16:34 -0500
From:    Ellen Shepard <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Hollywood in World War II

The info on Julia Childs is terrific.  I shall investigate that one.  Do you
know about when you saw this program?

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 06:37:50 CST
From:    Jesse Carnes <[email-masked]>
Subject: Tim Scherrer & WW2 Off. Uniforms

Guys on the net ;

Sorry 'bout this ... forgot Tim's E-mail address.

Tim -- I was sick during the entire Thanksgiving holiday scenario.
I did not call you.
Apologies.

Jesse Carnes
[email-masked]

PS : SEE the new book :  "Silver Wings : Pinks & Greens."
Zenith Books of Osceola, WI has it ... among othber vendors, I am sure.

WOW!
Mine is to come in today.

BTW, a buddy of mine, Randy Holden, is getting Harding Field under way to
becoming a national war memorial.  Harding Field was the BIRTH place of the
91st BG of Bassingbourne, Eng ... a la Memphis Belle fame, Ole Puss, the
Connecticutt (sp.?) Yankee, and ad infinitum.
------------------
I also recently -- at our Veteran's Day gig at the USS Kidd -- ran into
Fred Martin, a 120+ mish. pilot of P40s, P47s, P51s, Liberators and even B-29s
on one occasion.
A DSC and more pilot.  Super humble.
Wish you guys could meet this chap.

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 06:52:33 GMT-6
From:    "Robert T. Moore" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Scorched Earth Policy

Hello, Eric!

> In view of Leach's arguments, this would seem like a very viable
> strategy as the Germans counted on drawing from local supplies
> to meet their logistical requirements.

    Very similar to what Napoleon had expected or wanted to do when
he invaded Russia.

   Terry

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 04:54:20 -0800
From:    John Davis <[email-masked]>
Subject: INF: 50 Years Ago - 01-DEC-1944

On 01-DEC-1944, the following occurred -

World War II - The Battlefronts
-------------------------------
Western Front - The Allied offensive continues moving forward, but at a
very slow pace. Units of the 102nd Division (US 9th Army) capture Linnich,
northeast of Aachen. The VII Corps (US 1st Army) is having great
difficulties in the Hurtgen forest area. In the US 3rd Army sector, the XX
Corps is advancing west of the Saar in preparation for crossing the river.
The 79th Division (US 7th Army) captures Schweigenhause. The 44th and 45th
Division are engaged in heavy fighting near Tieffenbach and Zinswiller.

Eastern Front - The 4th Ukraine Front crosses the river Ondava near Humenne
and Trebisov, in Czechoslovakia. In Hungary, the Germans contain the
attacks of the 2nd Ukraine Front. The 3rd Ukraine Front, makes progress
north and northeast of Pecs, southwest of Budapest.

Philippines (Leyte) - Hard fighting is still occurring on Kilay Ridge and
on a line of hills southeast of Limon, west of Carigara.

Burma - The Chinese capture Chefang, on the Salween river front.

The Homefront
-------------
Kimmel and Short Escape Trial - Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson and
Secretary of the Navy James V. Forrestal announce in Washington that the
Army and Navy investigations have disclosed no evidence to justify a
court-martial of Maj. Gen. Walter C. Short and Rear Adm. Husband E. Kimmel
in connection with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. They do concede
that certain unnamed officers at Pearl Harbor and in Washington "did not
perform their duties with the necessary skill or exercise the judgement
needed."

Plane Crash - A Transcontinental & Western Air, Inc. passenger plane bound
from San Francisco to Burbank has crashed in the Van Nuys district near Los
Angeles, killing eight of the 23 persons aboard.

Circus Accepts Plan - The directors of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey
Circus, have approved a plan drawn up for the settlement of claims against
the circus resulting from the fire in Hartford, Conn. on July 6th. An
arbitration committee will determine the amount of liability in each
individual case and this will be entered automatically as the judgement of
the court.

Army & Navy
-----------
Paul Bunyan Of The Marines - The Paul Bunyan of the Marine Corps has pulled
through again: 45-year-old "Jim" Crowe has persuaded the doctors to let him
go back to war. Leading his battalion of the 8th Marines into a beachhead
landing, at Saipan last June, 6 ft., 200 lb. Lieut. Colonel Henry Pierson
Crowe came about as close to getting killed as a man can and still live.
First a Japanese bullet pierced his left lung. Then he was almost killed by
one of his own men who mistook him for the enemy. Dragged back to a shell
hole in the sand near the water, Crowe was treated by a Navy corpsman.
There a Japanese mortar shell killed the corpsman; another fragment wounded
the doctor who took the corpman's place. By that time mortar and artillery
shells were dropping on the beachhead continuously. Crowe covered his
chest wound with his poncho and his face with his helment. A shell fragment
tore throught the phoncho and pierced his chest in two more places. Five
other fragments hit him in the arm, shoulder and leg. A sliver tore off his
thumbnail. A doctor who examined him said, "Not much chance." Crowe
retruned: "First thing you do, cut off that hanging thumbnail. It's damned
annoying."

Kentucky-born Jim Crowe came up through the ranks. He was an enlisted man up
until 1934, when he became a Marine gunner (warrant officer). After Pearl
Harbor, he was commissioned a captain. During his 16 years in the ranks Jim
Crowe was famed for two things: he was one of the world's topnotch rifle
shots and for six years he was a crack player on the all-Marine football
teams. At Guadalcanal, Crowe contributed to to Marine folklore. While leading
a charge against the dug-in Japanese he yelled: "Get out of those foxholes,
men, you'll never get the Purple Heart layin there!" Crowe received the
Silver Star for his actions on Guadalcanal, the Navy Cross on Tarawa and a
Purple Heart on Tarawa. The medal he is most proud of though is his Good
Conduct medal for four enlistments. In San Diego a doctor told Crowe:
"Colonel, you owe your life to a strong constitution and good, clean living."
Jim just smiled.

=============================================================================

Sources: "2194 Days of War" by Cesare Salmaggi and Alfredo Pallavisimi, "The
World Almanac Book Of WW II" by Peter Young, "Facts On File Yearbook 1944,
Person's Index Of World Events" edited by R.L. Lapica and "Time" magazine.

Copyright 1994 by John B Davis, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Previous articles are archived at ftp.webcom.com in directory /pub/jbd/www
and can be accessed via the WWW by URL: http://www.webcom.com/~jbd/ww2.html.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
John Davis                Cary, North Carolina                 [email-masked]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 06:57:30 GMT-6
From:    "Robert T. Moore" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Der Vichy Government

Hello, Oliver!

> Does any one know what-ever happened to the old members of the French
> Vichy Government after the Gerries were given the ol' boot? Or for that
> matter, what-ever happened to the Nazi-sympathizers of the countries
> taken by the Germans (the ones that got jobs)?

    Petain was tried but died before it was completed, off the top of
my head.
    Laval the same, but was executed.

    Collaborationists, particularly women, were publicly humiliated,
i.e. head shaved, some incarcerated and tortured.

    Hope this helps.

    Terry

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 07:08:45 GMT-6
From:    "Robert T. Moore" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Waffen SS

Hello, Bill!

>      Where Ukrainians Nazi sympathizers?

    The Germans exploited the hatred between the Ukrainians and the
Communists. This is not to say that there was wholehearted
cooperation. Had Hitler adopted a more moderate policy toward the
Russians, Hitler would have had no trouble finding personnel to
staff his Eastern front armies.

    But, yes, there were many Ukrainians who actively aided the
Germans in Barbarossa. Many were used in guard detachments protecting
supply trains, translators, etc.

 Ukraine was caught between a rock
> and a hard place.  We know full well today that Stalin had long persecuted
> the Ukrainians.  The politically imposed famine of 1932-33 claimed an
> estimated 6 million lives.

    I think the figure here is more like 20,000,000. Stalin himself
admitted in a private conversation with Churchill that the the
collectivization process cost more lives and caused more disruption
that the German invasion.

    Terry

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 08:00:25 EST
From:    Ken Koester <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: QUERY:HOW TO DEFIN

On Tue, 22 Nov 1994 22:55:21 -0500 Ben Frank said:
>As to who caused the war and was WWI actually an extension of the
>Franco-Prussian war, I can well remember my European history professor, a
>native of Alsace, telling us that the underlying theme in French society
>throughout the country was one of "revanche." I have a feeling that the French
>looked for any pretext to regain their honor after 1870. This may be a
>simplistic way of looking at it, but I think it is true. Ben Frank

Certainly, the French never forgot 1871, nor the loss of A-L.  Those who
have been to Paris & visited the Place de la Concorde may have noticed the
eight statues around the periphery, each dedicated to a different French
city.  The one representing Nancy was draped in black by persons unknown
one night shortly after the F-P war & remained that way until Versailles.
But however much the loss rankled, it was not enough to generate a *world*
war*--or even *any* war at all; there were 43 years of peace intervening,
after all.  At best, 1871 just takes a place beside a host of other, more
complicated, currents in European affairs leading up to WWI.  There are
fewer such currents leading up to WWII, and even most of these seem to
have their roots--or perhaps their stocks, in some cases (-: --in WWI.

Incidentally, the, ummm, "independence" of the Alsatians is well known
in France.  A hoary joke, still current in 1973, had it that an Alsatian,
when asked road directions in French would answer in German, and if asked
in German, would answer in French!  (However, I've heard roughly the same
said about Bretons & Walloons, languages updated of course.  Perhaps this
is merely an "on-the-marches" generic joke, eh?)

ken koester
[email-masked]

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 07:37:48 CST
From:    "SCHERRER, TIM" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Tuxedo Junction

The WWII Airman's Preservation Society Christmas Party will be held on
17 December in Chicago at a 40's style club called Tuxedo Junction--has
anyone been there--what can you tell me about the place.  It is a Class
"A" affair for us--and is costing $43.50 a person so I am curious what
the place is like.

TAS

************************************************************************
*  Tim A. Scherrer          "You'll be fighting WWII for the rest of   *
*  Facilities Supervisor     your life", Ron Scherrer, 1971            *
*  WP:816-785-5253                                                     *
*  HP:816-665-6704                                                     *
*  ID# [email-masked]                             *
************************************************************************

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 04:46:00 UTC
From:    "Edward S. Miller" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: query:how to define W

  Messrs. Gustin, Koester and Turton have debated whether World War II was
an extension of WWI after an armistice, and indeed that the Franco-Prussian,
Napoleonic, and even earlier wars may also been part of one long World War.
  This concept relates only to European history.  How does World War II's
Pacific-Asiatic theater fit into the hypothesis?

Edward S. Miller  [email-masked]

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 09:54:16 -0500
From:    Michael Andrew Turton <[email-masked]>
Subject: WWII in the Pacific

        WWII in the Pacific was related to the problem of Manchuria
and the exspanionist aims of the three powers Russia, China, and Japan.
The way I see it, prior to 1644 none of those powers had control
over the whole area.  Chinese emperors had exerted nominal control over
the southern parts, but the Russians had really reached it in force and
the Japanese had withdrawn from all but a few ports in Korea.
        In the 1620s the Manchus, a non-Chinese people, rolled out
of Manchuria and in 1644 the Ming dynasty, the last Chinese dynasty
of China, fell.  From 1644 to 1911 a succession of Manchu rulers in
Chinese garb ruled China.  Slowly the Manchus were absorbed and Sinified
as a people.  Today there are no Manchus and I believe the language
is dead.
        Manchuria's rich natural and human resources began attracting
attention in the 19th century.  it is probable that Japan and Russia would
have gone to war over the area sooner but for Japan's weakness and
constant British attempts to prevent a war over China.  In 1904-5 the
two powers fought a war, essentially over access to Manchuria.
        After the 1991 revolution in China the centralized political
structure began to break down and in the twenties most of China split
into what were de facto independent states, each acknowledging lip
service to the capital.  The size of these states is phenomonal.  Feng
Yu-hsiang ruled a state larger in size and population than France.
Manuchuria became the key to ruling China and its warlord, Chang
Tso-lin (later his son) controlled an independent army and tried to
play off China, Japan and Russia.  He was doomed to fail.
        In the thirties Japan moved into Manchuria and erected a puppet
state.  Chinese claims to Manchuria (contrary to the nonsense currently
heared out of China) are weak at best and the area really belonged to
no one at the time.  As everyone is probably aware, the Japanese Army
immediately began to form the long-term program of going to war with
Russia over Manuchuria (they dismissed the Chinese).  In order to
do that, they needed the resources of the South Seas and thus, the
war America that they Navy didn't want.
        Peace in Asia was secured simply by handing Manchuria over
to one of the powers, China, whose people heavily populated the
area and restraining Japan.

        Now Russia and China since 1945, that's another story.  But
still, the main issue is Manchuria and its resources......

Mike Turton
[email-masked]

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 07:37:18 -0800
From:    Eric Fenster <[email-masked]>
Subject: Concerning Moscow study trips

This note concerns the Moscow travel course(s) for 1995 to study Russia's
political and economic conditions or the language. (The principal one is 27
May-27 June.)

1) The invitation remains open to all interested adults and I can send
details upon request.

2) From 02 December until the end of January my direct e-mail ID will be:
   [email-masked]

3) For participants who are students and who wish academic credit, Eastern
Michigan University will offer four semester units. The additional cost for
tuition will be $200. This is low in 1995 because of budget savings which
will be exceptional next year. In the case of students at many private
American universities, this would often mean that the travel course and the
transferrable credits would cost about the same as the credits alone at their
home institution.

4) I have a few people who would like an intermediate Russian language
course. If there are enough others, I could try to organize one for 27 May-04
July, but I need to hear rather quickly.

5) The question of a shorter course, 29 April-23 May including events and
contacts surrounding the 50th anniversary of the end of WW2, remains open,
but, again, expression of interest are needed soon.

Thank you,
Eric

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 08:37:46 -0800
From:    Patrick Charles <[email-masked]>
Subject: Julia Child

        I ran a NEXIS search and pulled up a ton of newspaper and magazine
articles about Julia Child during the Second World War.  In all of the items
that I looked through, and I didn't search through all of them, I didn't
see any references to her exploits as an OSS spy in the Europe.  In a
1994  interview in Restaurants & Institutions, Ms. Child stated that her
second favorite food was Northern Chinese because she was stationed there
with her husband during the Second World War.  Other articles state that
she wanted to be a spy with the OSS, but only became an OSS file clerk
stationed in Ceylon.
        I would be interested to hear what A & E has to say about this.

Patrick Charles
[email-masked]

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 08:41:46 PST
From:    Henry Herz <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Julia Child: well, maybe not...!

> The Julia Child details given in Current Biography are, to the best of
> my recollection, exactly the same details she gave the New York Times
> sometime in the past year. I also recall seeing her name in an OSS
> personal file compiled by organization veterans and kept at the National
> Archives, which I think listed her for China. I have no idea were A&E
> got their facts.
>
> Henry Sirotin
>
Julia was renowned for her wide range of military skills.  She had 17 combat
drops, pioneered the technique of frogmen exiting a submerged submarine via
flooded torpedo tubes, made important inputs to the design of the P-51's engine,
piloted a glider on D-Day, argued in favor of Normandy rather than Pas de Calais
for the cross-channel invasion, frequently won rounds of drinks for her platoon
by being able to assemble and fire an 81mm mortar in under 5 minutes, and
suggested the first use of chaff (foil strips) to thwart German radar (perhaps
she didn't want to waste foil left over from cooking).

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 10:50:02 -0600
From:    Drew Halevy <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Der Vichy Government

If I am not mistaken, Petian was tried after the war by the French and
sentenced to death, but due to his age and his record in world war i, he
was instead given life in prision. -Drew

Drew Philip Halevy      | I am become death
Grad Student            | The Shatterer of worlds
Department of History   | Waiting that hour
University of Arkansas  | That ripens to their doom
[email-masked]   | Trinity-July 1945

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 10:58:41 -0600
From:    Drew Halevy <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Waffen SS (Ukrainian support)

There was a piece on 60 minutes a few weeks ago about the surving
Ukranian SS men having a following in Lvov, (former Lviv and Lemberg) and
that they are the most open of the remaining SS units in Germany.-Drew

Drew Philip Halevy      | I am become death
Grad Student            | The Shatterer of worlds
Department of History   | Waiting that hour
University of Arkansas  | That ripens to their doom
[email-masked]   | Trinity-July 1945

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 11:03:24 -0600
From:    Drew Halevy <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: query:how to define W

>   This concept relates only to European history.  How does World War II's
> Pacific-Asiatic theater fit into the hypothesis?
>
> Edward S. Miller  [email-masked]

The Japanese were able to make great gains during WWI (and one could even
look at Russo-Japanese War 1905) as Japan making its claim to get into
the world power game.-Drew

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 12:48:27 -0400
From:    Mike Yaklich <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Close Air Support planes vs. tanks

        I too find "Stuka Pilot" a fascinating book and a great story but there
are portions of it one might take with a grain or two of salt-- at least the
part about the MARAT.  I asked a question to the list about the type of bomb
used in this incident and received a number of answers, including one post
(unfortunately I don't remember by whom, possibly Terry Moore as he seems to be
a great source on most things German)  that suggested Rudel quite possibly
wasn't even the pilot who hit the Soviet BB.  Also, according to Harrison
Salisbury's "The 900 Days" and a few other sources I've read the MARAT remained
in service, being put back in firing condition with its undamaged turrets
within a few days of being hit (I also wonder where the Soviet ships could have
been withdrawn to, seeing that Leningard harbor represents the "dead end" as it
were of the Gulf of Finland).  Finally, the accounts I have read suggest that
the ship's bow was blown off, almost from the bridge forward.

        Forgive the nit-picking

        Mike Yaklich

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 12:35:04 -0500
From:    David Rising <[email-masked]>
Subject: The Battle of the Bulge- Allied Intelligence Failures

Coming up on the 50th of the Battle of the Bulge, I thought you all may
be interested in a paper I wrote some time ago (my writing skills have
improved subsequently) on Allied intelligence failures. It's long, and
the conclusion seems to have been zapped into cyberspace somewhere (draw
your own I guess), but here goes:

        In late 1944, it was clear to most that the Germans were close to
being decisively defeated in the Second World War.  Although most agreed
that defeat for Germany was inevitable, Adolf Hitler believed that the war
could still be won.  Believing that a go od offense was the best defense,
Hitler drew up plans for what would be the last German offensive of the
war.  The plan, titled Wacht am Rhein called for a repeat of the German
Blitz in 1940.  The German forces were to break through the American lines
at the Ardennes, drive through Brussles and sieze Antwerp.  By doing this,
Hitler rationalized, the British and American forces would be split in
two, thrown into disarray and forced to negotiate a peace settlement.  At
one point, Hitler even envisioned a re peat of Dunkirk (where the allied
forces were forced to abandon equipment and thousands of men in order to
evacuate as much as possible from the continent in the earlier German
sweep of France.).
        The majority of the German generals believed that Hitlers' plan
was impossible to carry out with success.  Their supplies of petrol were
too low to give them the mobility that they needed for a quick drive to
Antwerp.  Further, the Ardennes was terrible terrain for tanks and other
vehicles which would slow the German progress even further.  The plan was
also based on the assumption that there would be good weather for attack,
in other words, poor enough conditions that the majority of the Allied
planes, which vastly outnumbered their German counterparts, would have to
remain on the ground.  The generals, convinced that the offensive would be
a failure, pleaded for a 'small solution' rather than Hitlers' grandiose
plan to win the war in one fell swoop.  Hitler would not listen.  On the
16th of December, 1944, the offensive at the Ardennes began.  The Germans
achieved total surprise and the advance went quickly.  Despite this, the
advance was slower than Hitler expected.  By December 25, the Germans had
r eached Ciergnon, about 13 miles from Dinant, and other forces had come
to within 4 miles of the Meuse.  This was the farthest that the exhausted
German troops reached.  By January 20, 1945, the Germans had been pushed
back to where they started, losing ab out 100,000 casualties, 800 tanks
and at least 1,000 aircraft, while succeeding only in creating a bulge in
the Allied line.  This bulge gave its name to the battle of the Ardennes,
the Battle of the Bulge.  Despite the fact that the Allies won the battle
 they, too, lost many men which could have been avoided had they not
fallen victim to a surprise attack due to a total intelligence failure.1
        That the Allied intelligence failure was total is unquestionable.
They somehow managed to allow two huge tank armies, some 600,000 men in
all, to assemble as close as two hundred yards from their own lines.2 The
Allied forces stationed at the Ardennes believed themselves to be on a
'ghost front', a part of the front used more for recreation and training
than anything else.  On December 15, the day before the German offensive
began, most of the high ranking Allied officers, and many of their
intelligenc e agents were on leave.3 The Allies were truely unprepared for
anything more than regular border attrition.  This was the surprise on
which Hitler was counting.
        In order to achieve this surprise, Hitler took many measures to
insure secrecy.  Where prisoners are usually a good source of information,
measures were taken to prevent German patrols from being captured.  First,
patrolling itself was restricted to a mi nimum.  Second, special German
security units were employed to prevent the desertion of any personel.4
Furthermore, very few people were told of the plan until just before the
offensive was to take place.  The result of this was that very few people
knew
 what was going on other than in their direct vicinity.  Thus, even if
prisoners were taken by the Allies, they would not be able to report
anything of any signifigance and, even if they were officers, would have
no battle plans on their person.
        This secrecy, on the part of the Germans continued in other
aspects of their preparation for battle too.  After the Battle of Britain,
the Allies had clear aerial surperiority.  Not only was this advantageous
during battle and for bombing raids, but it also gave them access to
almost unhibited aerial reconnaissance.  The Germans recognized this
threat and took many steps to keep their troop movements secret.
               Movement took place only at night, across roads covered
with straw, so that the vehicles would make the least possible noise.
Smokeless fuel was issued to the troops.  Each individual road had a 'road
commander' in charge of it, who gave d irections and instructions so that
there was no need for the usual jumble of military road signs, indicating
command posts, aid stations, unit shelters and the like.  Top commanders
plaued their role in the great deception, too.  Field Marshal Model was r
eported to have dressed as a colonel so that his presence would not be
remarked upon by the local people at Munstereifel.  His Fifth Army
commander, diminutive, ex-gentleman jockey General Hasso von Manteuffel,
who had ordered that the tyres should be sho t out on any vehicle moving
by daylight in his area, took himself off to a cafe next the border of
Germany and Luxembourg.  There he talked loudly about coming operations in
a far-off section of the front in the hope that some local citizen might
be wor king for the Americans and pass on the misleading information to
them.5 On top of these steps, Hitler got his bad weather and many of the
Allied reconnaissance flights had to be grounded.  The Ardennes was
thought of as an inactive part of the front, so that was one of the places
that the Allies decided was not worth photogra phing.  The German
deception was clearly working.
        One of the great advantages that the Allies had over the Axis
powers during the Second World War was that they could break almost all of
the Axis' coded communications with the Enigma machine.  Their posession
of this was termed the Ultra Secret, or, sim ply, Ultra.  Ultra was
another of the Allied failures at the Battle of the Bulge.  Since the
Allies had been able to decode most of the German communications
throughout the war, they had come to rely on this information.  This was
to prove to be a fatal m istake.  Included in Hitlers' order for secrecy
was an order that forbade any wireless communication that told anything of
the coming attack.  Thus, the Allies still intercepted the regular German
communications and believed them to be all that was bein g relayed when,
in reality, the Germans were busy arranging an offensive through couriers
and more safe communication modes.  In fact, the first message that the
allies intercepted that pertained to the December 16th offensive was Field
Marshal Gerd von R undstedt's message on the 16th itself to all of his
field commanders which read, "The hour of destiny has struck.  Mighty
offensive armies face the Allies.  Everything is at stake.  More than
mortal deeds are required as a holy duty to the Fatherland!"6
 With this message it became clear to the Allied forces that there was
about to be an offensive but, it came too late for anything to be done.
For one of the first times in the war since the Allies had obtained Ultra,
the Germans managed to communicate b attle plans without them being
intercepted.
        Also for one of the first times in the war, the Germans operated
several successful clandestine operations while the allies were unable to
operate any.  Although the allies had many spies in Berlin, they were
useless because after the attempt on his life , Hitler trusted nobody and
thus told almost no one in Berlin of his plan.  What was needed were spies
in the rank and file of the troops that were on the front.  These were
virtually impossible to come by.  All civilians were evacuated from the
battle zo ne so that anybody in civilian clothes was sure to be
questioned.  With the special German police roaming around looking for
deserters, people dressed in military garb wandering around were subject
to questioning and possible execution on the spot.  Furth er, although the
Allies had usually been able to convince the indigenous population in the
proximity to inform them with any overheard information, they were now no
longer in occupied countries but in Germany.  Regardless of how the
population felt about the war, it was hard if not impossible to convince
the people to give up information that might be detrimental to their own
relatives.7 While being on German soil was detrimental to the Allied
intelligence effort, it aided the Germans greatly.  One such
 instance was the 'Giskes' plan engineered by the German intelligence
officer, Lt. Colonel Hermann Giskes.  Colonel Giskes instructed an
engineer who was in charge in the running of a prisoner of war camp in
Eifel, not far from the Luxembourg border, to p ose as a communist
sympathiser and arrange for the escape of some of his own prisoners.
These prisoners were to be given information that would lead the Allies to
believe that the attack was to be a two pronged offensive aimed at Aachen
(which Giskes hop ed was not the truth as he was not allowed to know the
real plan).  Once the prisoners escaped, Colonel Giskes assumed that they
would report their findings to the American or British high command and
inadvertantly decieve them.  The Giskes plan worked.  Not only did the
planted information find its way to the people intended, but it
corroborated what the Allies belived to be a true possability.  This
clandestine German success helped direct the Allies attention even farther
from where it should have been .8
        Another German clandestine success occured once the battle itself
had started.  Otto Skorzeny, already famous for the daring rescue of
Mussolini and other exploits, was put in charge of another commando
mission.  He was to collect a group of volunteers w ho were familiar with
the English language and American slang into a special group.  This group
was to be equipped with American uniforms, armamants, Jeeps, halftracks
and tanks.  With this equipment and several months of training in mock
American camps, Skorzeny's group was sent behind American lines to create
general havoc by destroying lines of communications, changing roadsigns
and, eventually pave the way for the German advance.  Despite the fact
that Skorzeny believed that his group could only "...d ecieve only very
young American troops, viewed at night from very far away,"9 they met with
remarkable success.
                                ...one team found and cut the direct line
between Hodges' First Army HQ at Spa and Bradley's Eighteenth Army Group
at Namur.  Thus, for hours that were crucial, as the German armoured
troops prepared to blast a hole deep in to the heart of Hodges' First
Army, Courtney Hodges was cut off from his superior commander, who alone
could send him the assistance he would soon vitally need if he were to
stop the Germans.
        Another jeep team penetrated the biggest town to the front fo the
Sixth SS Panzer Army and reported that the Amis were fleeing; the town of
Malmedy was wide open, apart from a few engineers engaged in second-line
operations.  Somehow or other, the Americ ans picked up that same message
later and believed it.  As a resuld, Malmedy was to be bombed three times
by planes of what the bitter American troops located there would call 'the
American Luftwaffe' with several hundred Belgian and American casualties.
        One jeep team was bold enough to post itself at a vital crossroads
and act as MPs.  In the end it succeeded in directing down the wrong road
a whole American regiment hurrying to the front as reinforcements!10 Even
though their intended mission was a great success, the spinoff results
were perhaps even greater.  Once the Allies discovered that there were
Germans dressed as American soldiers operating behind American lines, a
great spy scare ensued.  Rumor sprea d that the Germans were going to
assissinate Eisenhower.  On this, General Eisenhower was made virtually a
prisoner and forbidden to go anywhere near the front.  American forces saw
Germans everywhere.  Soldiers, with rank as high as General, were detaine
d or arrested as German spies.  Roadblocks were set up everywhere, slowing
the Allied troop movements.  In all, the confusion that Skorzeny's men
created probably had more effect on the battle than their intended
mission.11

1. Cesare Salmagg and Alfredo Pallavisini, 2194 Days Of War, p. 638-641
2. Charles Whiting, Ardennes: the Secret War, p. 5

3. ibid, p.81

4. Lyman B. Kirkpatrick, Jr. Captains Without Eyes, p. 261

5. Whiting, op. cit. p.60-61

6. Whiting, op. cit. p91-92

7. Kirkpatrick, op. cit. p.264

8. Whiting, op. cit., pp.69-73

9. John S. D. Eisenhower, The Bitter Woods p.139

10. Whiting, op. cit., p.98

11. ibid, p.129

??

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 13:08:07 EST
From:    "H. Emery Ford" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Julia Child: well, maybe not...!

On 30 Nov 94, Henry Herz writes:

>Julia was renowned for her wide range of military skills.  She had 17 combat
>drops, pioneered the technique of frogmen exiting a submerged submarine via
>flooded torpedo tubes, made important inputs to the design of the P-51's
>engine, piloted a glider on D-Day, argued in favor of Normandy rather than
>Pas de Cala is for the cross-channel invasion, frequently won rounds of
>drinks for her platoon by being able to assemble and fire an 81mm mortar
>in under 5 minutes, and suggested the first use of chaff (foil strips) to
>thwart German radar (perhaps she didn't want to waste foil left over
>from cooking).

Henry,

You are too much!  I'm dying over here.

Thanks for the laughs!

Emery

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 12:15:59 -0600
From:    "Robert J. Granvin" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Julia Child: well, maybe not...!

> > The Julia Child details given in Current Biography are, to the best of
> > my recollection, exactly the same details she gave the New York Times
> > sometime in the past year. I also recall seeing her name in an OSS
> > personal file compiled by organization veterans and kept at the National
> > Archives, which I think listed her for China. I have no idea were A&E
> > got their facts.
>
> Julia was renowned for her wide range of military skills.  She had 17 combat
> drops, pioneered the technique of frogmen exiting a submerged submarine via
> flooded torpedo tubes, made important inputs to the design of the P-51's engine,
> piloted a glider on D-Day, argued in favor of Normandy rather than Pas de Calais
> for the cross-channel invasion, frequently won rounds of drinks for her platoon
> by being able to assemble and fire an 81mm mortar in under 5 minutes, and
> suggested the first use of chaff (foil strips) to thwart German radar (perhaps
> she didn't want to waste foil left over from cooking).

I'm beginning to think the only thing that can bring Julia Child down is
Kryptonite (known as Teflon, today :-).

So which is it?  Was she really a mild-mannered Chinese office clerk by day
and a super heroine crime fighter by night, or are we talking about two
different people or what is amounting to a hoax?

D-Day glider pilot?  Military invasion advisor of the highest security
clearance?  Mechanical engineer?  How could all this stay un-hyped by her
press and book agents?

--
\\ Robert J. Granvin                                 User Services Specialist
// School of Statistics - University of Minnesota            [email-masked]

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 12:08:37 -0600
From:    Greg Kelley <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Weaps: Battleships

see below--

                              Glad To Be Of (nit-picking) Service!

                                          Greg Kelley
                                          St. Paul Public Library
                                          [email-masked]

>
> The French arrangement of two four-gun turrets forward did allow for all
> guns to train ahead.
>
> The British KGV class had two turrets forward (a deck-level quad and a
> double superfiring) and a quad aft.  The French GASCOGNE would have been
> similar to the RICHELIEU and JEAN BART, but with one quad turret forward
> and one aft.

But don't forget the CLEMANCEAU-- she was much further along in
construction (hull was launched 1944) than the GASCOGNE (which was never
laid down), and both her turrets were forward. > --

> Peter Smith -- [email-masked]
> Data General Corp., Westboro, Massachusetts  (for whom I do not speak)
>

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 12:19:03 -0600
From:    Cheryl Kaye Bryant <[email-masked]>
Subject: U.S.S. Suwannee

I need some help on where I might start to find information on the ship
my uncle served on in the Pacific.  Are there any specific books that
deal with the different ships of the second world war or perhaps one that
addresses the ships that were lost (The Suwannee went down at the battle
of Leyte).

Thanks in advance,

C.K. Bryant

*******************************************************************
"The Riskier the road, the greater the profit."    / C.K. Bryant
        The 62nd Rule of Acquisition               / W.I.U. English
*******************************************************************

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 13:52:06 -0400
From:    Mike Yaklich <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Close Air Support in Normandy

        For what its worth, I've got to agree with Henry on being skeptical of
Rudel's alledged 187 "kills" of enemy aircraft (unless he's counting those
destroyed on the ground).  In "Stuka Pilot" he mentions less than ten incidents
resulting in the shooting down of enemy planes, but mainly I just can't see
anyone in a Stuka (of whatever variant) scoring that many.  Recall how grossly
overstated bomber "kills" of enemy fighters were during the Allied air
offensive in the west.  Also most of Rudel's stories about close scrapes with
enemy fighters seem to emphasize his evasive maneuvers, not actually downing
his attacker.  Needed to get in my .02.

Mike Yaklich

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 12:57:12 -0600
From:    "Robert J. Granvin" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Julia Child: well, maybe not...!

> >Julia was renowned for her wide range of military skills.  She had 17 combat
> >drops, pioneered the technique of frogmen exiting a submerged submarine via
> >flooded torpedo tubes, made important inputs to the design of the P-51's
> >engine, piloted a glider on D-Day, argued in favor of Normandy rather than
> >Pas de Cala is for the cross-channel invasion, frequently won rounds of
> >drinks for her platoon by being able to assemble and fire an 81mm mortar
> >in under 5 minutes, and suggested the first use of chaff (foil strips) to
> >thwart German radar (perhaps she didn't want to waste foil left over
> >from cooking).
>
> Henry,
>
> You are too much!  I'm dying over here.
>
> Thanks for the laughs!

But completely missed was the little known book she wrote for the Army
"How to cater a really big party" with recipes for things like "Pate' on
a Shingle" and chapters like "Things you Never Thought you Could Do with a
Chicken and 40 Men."  There was a followup pamphlet called "Europe on
100 Rounds a Day".  My favorite pictures are the little published ones with
her at the Yalta Conference.  She's never seen in most of the pictures,
because she's usually checking the Souffle' in between advising the Allied
leaders.

Truly an inspiration.

--
\\ Robert J. Granvin                                 User Services Specialist
// School of Statistics - University of Minnesota            [email-masked]

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 14:23:50 EST
From:    Ken Koester <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Close Air Support planes vs. tanks

On Mon, 28 Nov 1994 16:20:03 CST Robert Hohlt said:
>One reason the aircraft armed with 20mm, 30mm, 37mm or 40mm cannons
>work well against armored vehicles and targets could be the type
>of round the cannon is firing.  A solid round/saboted core with a
>much higher atomic weight than that of the tank armor will punch
>holes in the tank armor, not to mention the crew.

More likely, the induced flexing in the relatively thinner topside
armor.  A rapid pounding on the shell should induce plentiful spalling
inside & an eventual punch-through--it's hard for armor to be hard and
tough at the same time.

ken koester
[email-masked]

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 14:59:54 -0500
From:    James E Irwin <[email-masked]>
Subject: Fwd: Re: USS Arizona Memorial

Maybe our list member from Pearl Harbor can help this gentleman?
This was posted to the Military History list.

Jim

Esteemed Military Historians,

I'm a Japanese translator by trade.

I'd be interested in taking a look at the Japanese version of the  Arizona
Memorial tape for visitors, and posting the results here, if someone can get
a hold of a copy or a transcript.

I remember visiting there in sixth grade & feeling overwhelmed. In a way
similar to the feeling of visiting Hiroshima, but much, much different---I'm
not sure how I would describe it.

Incidentally, what's the procedure for returning captured flags, the kind
with names of soldiers inscribed, to Japan? My cousin purchased one at
auction.

Thanks, also to everyone who provided answers on Japan's contribution to the
Gulf War. My friend was very pleased.

David Olson ([email-masked])

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 James E. Irwin (Jim)                  Internet address:
 Defense Personnel Support Center        [email-masked]
 2800 S. 20th Street                   215-737-3678
 Philadelphia PA  19101-8419           Autovon 444-3678

                     "Never in the field of human conflict
                     was so much owed by so many to so few."
                               Winston S. Churchill
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 15:03:45 -0500
From:    James E Irwin <[email-masked]>
Subject: MEDIA: Comfort Women

>From the DoD Newswire 24 November 1994

: 80 DEMAND APOLOGY FROM JAPAN

   SEOUL, South Korea  - Some 80 protesters, many of them
elderly, fought with riot police Thursday outside the Japanese
Embassy in Seoul, demanding payment and apology for Japan's wartime
crimes.
   Some 100 riot police, equipped with helmets and shields, formed a
blockade around the protesters, who pushed and hit officers with
their fists and umbrellas in the rain.
   In the second demonstration in front of the embassy in two days,
the protesters demanded that Japan compensate the survivors and the
families of those who were forced to work in Japanese labor camps or
as sex slaves during World War II.
   "Return our dignity!" they shouted while beating drums and gongs
and shaking their fists at the two-story embassy building.
   The protesters said they would stage an indefinite hunger strike
in front of the embassy unless Japan promised to compensate them by
next year, the 50th anniversary of South Korea's liberation from
Japanese colonial rule. Japan ruled Korea as a colony from 1910
until 1945.
   "Indefinite Hunger Strike at the Japanese Embassy" read a 4-meter
(13-foot)-long poster written in Japanese and Korean and hung on the
fence facing the embassy.
   But police broke up the rally after two hours, dragging about 10
protesters into nearby police buses. None of the protesters was
injured, and others left peacefully.
   In Tokyo, about 30 Japanese supporters and three Korean former
sex slaves began what they said would be a 10-day hunger strike in
front of the Parliament building.
   "Japan has never taken its war responsibility in good faith,"
said Keiko Usuki, who heads a citizens group demanding Japanese
government compensation and apologies to each Asian victim.
   "We are not sitting here to beg," said a 73-year-old Korean
woman, who identified herself as Kimiko Kaneda, the name she was
forced to use at a brothel in northern China 1938-1944.
   "We don't need charity money. All we want is compensation for
individuals, because Japan started the Pacific War," Kaneda said.
"We never chose to become comfort women" -- the name Japan's army
used for sex slaves.
   On Wednesday in Seoul, some 30 protesters had demanded that Japan
compensate and apologize for its military-run brothels, in which
historians estimate up to 200,000 women were tricked or coerced into
sexual slavery.
   Most were from Korea, but women from Taiwan, the Philippines,
China, Japan and the Netherlands also served as sex slaves.
   The protests came after Tuesday's recommendation by a human
rights group, the International Commission of Jurists, that Japan
pay at least dlrs 40,000 to each of the former sex slaves.
   Japan has said that it would create a dlrs 1 billion atonement
fund to finance regional education and cultural projects over 10
years, but has ruled out individual compensation by the government.
   After the "friendship" fund faced massive protests, it has been
discussing raising a private fund as a supplementary measure. But
that also faced criticism, the ruling parties finally began legal
study of whether Japan can or should compensate individuals
directly.
   South Korean activists have said that Japan should make
individual payments and apologize personally to the victims and
their families.

=====

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 James E. Irwin (Jim)                  Internet address:
 Defense Personnel Support Center        [email-masked]
 2800 S. 20th Street                   215-737-3678
 Philadelphia PA  19101-8419           Autovon 444-3678

                     "Never in the field of human conflict
                     was so much owed by so many to so few."
                               Winston S. Churchill
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 15:01:58 -0500
From:    James E Irwin <[email-masked]>
Subject: MEDIA: Great Escape

>From the DoD Newswire 24 November 1994

:'GREAT ESCAPE' SURVIVORS MEET

   LONDON  -- More than 50 years after the "Great Escape" from a
Nazi prisoner-of-war camp, seven survivors met for a reunion
Wednesday, and said the escape wasn't so great.
   "It was not a great escape because 50 were killed and it gained
notoriety," said Bob Nelson, meeting with six comrades at a hotel in
Wiveliscombe, Somerset, in western England.
   The escape, from Stalag Luft 3 near Sagan in Poland in 1944, was
the basis of a 1963 movie starring Steve McQueen, Richard
Attenborough and James Garner.
   On March 24, 1944, after sunset, 80 Allied airmen crawled 350
feet through a two square-foot tunnel 30 feet under the ground. Four
were arrested at the escape exit. The tunnel was two years in the
making.
   This year's reunion was prompted by a visit to England by
Canadian survivor Tony Bethell, who met with Nelson and five other
Britons.
   Of the 76 who escaped, three made it to their homes in Norway and
Denmark. The Germans captured the 73 others, and Hitler ordered them
to be handed to the Gestapo, who killed 50.
   "Why the Gestapo spared 23 was by the grace of God," Nelson said.
Of the 26 survivors, 16 are still alive, scattered throughout the
world.

======

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 James E. Irwin (Jim)                  Internet address:
 Defense Personnel Support Center        [email-masked]
 2800 S. 20th Street                   215-737-3678
 Philadelphia PA  19101-8419           Autovon 444-3678

                     "Never in the field of human conflict
                     was so much owed by so many to so few."
                               Winston S. Churchill
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 14:04:36 -0500
From:    Oliver Bonham-Carter <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Julia Child: well, maybe not...!

Isn't there some kind of "Julia Child Fan Club" that someone could
contact and ask about her military expertise? Maybe it would be found
near the "ButterBall Turkey Hotline"! Anyone? :)

[email-masked]
 "...So the bartender says "Hey, that's not a DUCK!"

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 14:06:29 GMT-6
From:    "Robert T. Moore" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Re[2]: Uniforms: Pinks & Greens

Hello, Tim!

Thanks for writing me in such detail. I do appreciate that. My
comments on this topic were taken off the top of my head, and am
sorry for any misinformation.

You know, I really do not understand why the army really got away
from using these uniforms, as they represented some of the sharpest
appearance of any uniform in existence adopted by this country.

I have a khaki blouse, matching shirt and tie, along with all the
accoutrements. I also have the hat with braid. A beautiful
combination, if I do say so. The aforesaid combination is displayed
on a mannequin in my home, and I never grow tired of viewing it.

Anyway, thanks for the most informative post.

All the best.

Terry

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 15:05:14 -0500
From:    James E Irwin <[email-masked]>
Subject: MEDIA: Sakai Remembers

>From the DoD Newswire 25 November 1994

:JAPAN'S TOP ACE LET ONE GO

   TOKYO  -- Japan's top surviving Zero fighter ace admitted
Friday he put aside national loyalty for a moment during World War
II and waved on a plane carrying foreign women and children.
   Saburo Sakai, who shot down 64 Allied aircraft in more than 200
dogfights, says he remembers the time and place perfectly: It was
February 1942, near Java.
   "I had just downed a reconnaissance plane when I saw another
enemy craft ahead of me," Sakai recalled.
   Drawing nearer, he realized it was a transport plane, and could
see blond women and children in the windows. He said the women
appeared to be praying.
   At first, he felt it was his duty to shoot down the plane.
   "But I let it go," he confessed publicly Friday, for the first
time since the war. "I waved their pilot on."
   Sakai, 78, said he has always wondered what happened to the
plane, which he guesses was flying from embattled Java to Australia,
via the then-Portugese colony of East Timor.
   "I want desperately to meet with those people, if they are still
alive," he said.
   Sakai wrote about the incident in a book published five years
after Japan's defeat in 1945, but claimed then that he was
outmaneuvered.
   "Japan was still occupied at the time, and I was afraid of what
repercussions telling the truth would have," he said.
   Sakai asked a researcher to check into the fate of the plane
eight years ago, but has found no leads.
   "People thought of Zero pilots as devils," he said. "We were said
to shoot down anything that was in front of us, military or not. But
that's not true. We were humans, just like your pilots."
   Sakai said that he believed that Japan was fighting to "liberate
Asia from the white race," which had colonized much of the region.
   "We lost the war, but that goal was achieved," he said. "Asia is
independent now."
   Sakai, who has traveled to the United States 26 times since the
war, also said that he harbors no ill-will toward his former
enemies. His daughter is married to a captain in the U.S. Army, and
his two grandchildren are American citizens.

=======

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 James E. Irwin (Jim)                  Internet address:
 Defense Personnel Support Center        [email-masked]
 2800 S. 20th Street                   215-737-3678
 Philadelphia PA  19101-8419           Autovon 444-3678

                     "Never in the field of human conflict
                     was so much owed by so many to so few."
                               Winston S. Churchill
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 15:17:26 -0500
From:    "John E. Kollar" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Weaps: Battleships

But wasn't the Gascogne a follow-on class to the Rich/JB/Clem?

John E. Kollar

Not many Montana class BBs were completed, but I think they were better
than the Iowas at doing BB-type jobs...

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 14:30:31 GMT-6
From:    "Robert T. Moore" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Gustav Geraet

Hello, Tim!

Sorry to have taken so long to get back to you on this.

> I enjoyed your postings about the railroad gun and its performance against
> Sevastapol.  Although this may be on the fringes of the list, do you have
> any idea how it compared to the WW I Paris gun?

    I have some detailed info on the Paris Gun, perhaps more than I
had on the Gustav weapon. I would like to post this to the list, but
I don't know if Joe Barone would like that. I guess I could ask.

    The Gustav Geraet was a much more powerful weapon, if you use
weight of projectile as a measure. The Paris Gun had a longer range,
but a much smaller projectile. The Gustav Geraet fired only about 60
rounds during its entire life. The Paris Gun fired more than that.
The exact number is not accessible right now.

The Paris Gun did not really kill that many people outright; I think
30 is the most, where as the Gustav Geraet brought about the
detonation of an underground ammo dump that killed many Russians at
one blow.

Was it
manufactured by the
> same people or draw in any way on the earlier gun?

    No. Krupp built both weapons. No doubt on that.

    Let me know what you think about posting all the info I have on
the Paris Gun to this list. It was suggested I post it to the WWI
list, but I don't know.

    All the best.

    Terry

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 14:54:29 GMT-6
From:    "Robert T. Moore" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: MEDIA: Great Escape

Hello, Jim!

Thanks for a most informative post on the survivors of the "Great
Escape". One is living in Canada, and he is Mr. "Ogie" Ogilvie,
number 76, the last man to leave the tunnel, or so he wrote me.

Thanks, again.

Terry

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 14:57:09 GMT-6
From:    "Robert T. Moore" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: MEDIA:Tokyo Documents

Hello, Ron!

> and Russian manufacturers but after the posts on cryptology I've gotten an
> interest in that also.
> Could someone tell me some books to read-I know they've been on the list but
> trying towade back through the digests to find them is a bit much.
>

    Will post to you some works on cryptology.

    More later.

    Terry

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 13:07:27 PST
From:    Henry Herz <[email-masked]>
Subject: SILLY: Julia Child

From: "Robert J. Granvin" <[email-masked]>
Date:         Wed, 30 Nov 1994 12:57:12 -0600
To: Multiple recipients of list WWII-L <[email-masked]>
Subject:      Re: Julia Child: well, maybe not...!

> >Julia was renowned for her wide range of military skills.  She had 17 combat
> >drops, pioneered the technique of frogmen exiting a submerged submarine via
> >flooded torpedo tubes, made important inputs to the design of the P-51's
> >engine, piloted a glider on D-Day, argued in favor of Normandy rather than
> >Pas de Calais for the cross-channel invasion, frequently won rounds of
> >drinks for her platoon by being able to assemble and fire an 81mm mortar
> >in under 5 minutes, and suggested the first use of chaff (foil strips) to
> >thwart German radar (perhaps she didn't want to waste foil left over
> >from cooking).
>
> Henry,
>
> You are too much!  I'm dying over here.
>
> Thanks for the laughs!

But completely missed was the little known book she wrote for the Army
"How to cater a really big party" with recipes for things like "Pate' on
a Shingle" and chapters like "Things you Never Thought you Could Do with a
Chicken and 40 Men."  There was a followup pamphlet called "Europe on
100 Rounds a Day".  My favorite pictures are the little published ones with
her at the Yalta Conference.  She's never seen in most of the pictures,
because she's usually checking the Souffle' in between advising the Allied
leaders.

Truly an inspiration.

--
\\ Robert J. Granvin                                 User Services Specialist
// School of Statistics - University of Minnesota            [email-masked]

Robert-

Thanks you for elaborating on her wartime culinary experiences.  Let us not
forget her other contributions.  Child's Laredo chili inspired the German
28-20mm squeezebore anti-tank cannon.  She was the only repeat test pilot for
the Japanese flying bomb.  Her cheese fondue, dropped from B-17 bombers, helped
slow the German advance through the Ardennes.  Her meteorological forecasting
predicted Doolittle's raid would have enough of a tailwind to make the first
bombing attack on Tokyo feasible.  Filipino guerillas would overcook and sharpen
her gourmet bratwurst, using them as punji sticks in their struggle against the
Japanese occupiers.  Her amusing imitation of Goebels goosestepping often kept
the troops in stiches for hours.  And no one who served in the British Eighth
Army can forget her famous dish, Beef Chow Alamein!

-Henry

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 13:08:51 PST
From:    Henry Herz <[email-masked]>
Subject: QUERY - Molotov's & Hirohito's death

Can anyone tell me the years in which Molotov and Hirohito died?  Thanks.

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 16:18:12 -0500
From:    Mark Rothenberg <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Julia Child: well, maybe not...!

The Encyclopedia of American Intelligence and Espionage:  From the
Revolutionary War to the Present, [comp.] by G.J.A. O'Toole.  New York:  Facts
on File, 1988, contains a short entry on Julia Child, based on Who's Who in
America, 42nd ed.

It relates that she was born August 15, 1912, was a native of Pasadena, CA,
graduated from Smith College in 1934, worked with the advertising dept. of W&J
Slone in New York City, 1939-40.  From 1941-45, she was with the OSS [as we
already know] in Washington, DC, Ceylon, and China.  While with Detachment 202,
the OSS unit in [Northern] China, she served as secretary to OSS officer, Paul
Child, whom she later married.  {The rest is culinary history.]

Mark Rothenberg
Suffolk Cooperative Library System
Bellport, L.I., New York
[email-masked]

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 17:05:15 CCS
From:    Jorge Merino <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: WEAP: Battleships

> Not many Montana class BBs were completed, but I think they were better
> than the Iowas at doing BB-type jobs...

I think the total amount of Montana class BBs that were completed was
exactly = 0.

These ships were to be enlarged Iowas with 4 x 16 inch gun turrets,
2 forward and 2 backward. The total displacement was to be 65000 tons,
overall length 903 feet. Five ships were ordered:

  BB-67  Montana
  BB-68  Ohio
  BB-69  Maine
  BB-70  New Hampshire
  BB-71  Louisiana

The naval experts on the list may give more details. These ships were
discussed last week, so, you may wish to look at the previous notes
in the logfile (Try LOG9411D and LOG9411E).

Jorge Merino

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 16:27:01 -0500
From:    Mark Rothenberg <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Julia Child: well, maybe not...!

If someone can locate a unit history of O.S.S. Detachment 202, perhaps we can
learn more of the backdrop of Julia Child's nefarious secretarial or
file-clerical exploits.  John Sloan, any ideas?

Mark Rothenberg
Suffolk Cooperative Library System
Bellport, NY
[email-masked]

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 16:39:53 EST
From:    "SGM Robert S. Rush" <[email-masked]>
Subject: 22d Inf in the Hurtgen 1 Dec 44

The 22d Infantry in the Hurtgen Forest 1 December 1944

22d in the Hurtgen Forest 1 December 1944

Given the 2d Battalion's inability to move forward and tie in with the 3d
Battalion, the regiment found itself facing in two directions.  The 3d
Battalion faced north, and the 2d Battalion faced east.  A thousand yard gap
separated the two battalions.  The 1st Battalion, in reserve, faced the gap but
was some distance back in the old 3d Battalion area.  To close the void between
the two battalions, Colonel Lanham ordered the 1st Battalion to tie into the
right flank of the 3d and the 2d Battalion to advance to where Fox Company had
advanced before pulling back.

The 1st Battalion had a dual mission on 1 December.  First, it was to attack
southeast across the open ground and then move through the woods to outflank
the Germans holding up the 2d Battalion and the neighboring 46th Armored
Infantry Battalion.  With this first phase accomplished, the 1st Battalion
would swing to the left, attack to the northeast, and come abreast the 3d
Battalion.  Major Goforth planned an artillery and mortar preparation before
the 1st Battalion's attack, along with a feint from the 2d Battalion and decoy
smoke to the east of the battalion's sector.

The attack started late because, as the battalion reported to regiment, "we had
to brief rookie officers." Favorable winds blew some of the smoke across the
open ground so that it helped screen the 1st Battalion's movement.  The
battalion attacked with its companies deployed in column: Charlie Company
leading, then Able, and then Baker.  One platoon of tanks supported the assault
company.  Once again, the thick woods prevented the tanks from maneuvering or
taking any part in the fighting.

The flank attack evidently surprised the enemy.  Charlie Company crossed the
field unseen and overran an enemy battalion headquarters.  Following Charlie
Company, Able Company did not fare as well.  By the time the company's turn
came to cross the field, the smoke screen had dissapated. Able Company lost 65
percent of its strength crossing the field and the thirty-five remaining
soldiers dug in on the left flank of the battalion.

The 1st made its turn to the northeast early and advanced without much
opposition to the north edge of the woods, but in the process did not clear the
enemy completely from the 2d Battalion's left flank.  There, on the right flank
of the 3d Battalion, the 1st established a small semicircular perimeter facing
north, east, and south.

Despite the success of the 1st Battalion's advance, the 2d Battalion still had
to attack to reach its objective which was about 300 yards inside the woods.
The heavy casualties the 2d Battalion had suffered over the course of the
battle made it difficult to accomplish even small tasks.  The errors committed
by the replacements caused the casualty rate to keep climbing and accelerated
the deterioration of the battalion's combat power.

By 1 December there were very few experienced infantry officers left in the 2d
Battalion.  Qualified NCOs were just as scarce.  Officers from other positions
within the regiment as well as fresh replacements attempted to fill the gaps in
the rifle companies' leadership.  Newly assigned leaders, unfortunately, had
little or no time to organize their units or even to learn the situation before
they led their soldiers into the attack.

Fox Company had fifty soldiers available for the 1 December assault with most
squads consisting of three to five men.  There were two leaders in the company,
both lieutenants, one the company commander and the other a platoon leader
loaned from the battalion heavy weapons company.  There were no infantry
sergeants left.

The Company Commander, Lieutenant Wilson, gave the lieutenant all the riflemen,
and instructed him to move 100 yards to the wood line and hold.  Lieutenant
Fitzgerald stood up and shouted "come on all you riflemen, let's go." and about
thirty followed.  This poorly organized group of soldiers reached the edge of
the woods without opposition, but instead of holding there continued into the
woods, became disoriented, and turned to the south.  In a draw outside the
battalion sector, Fitzgerald halted the platoon and had the soldiers begin
entrenching.  Just as they began to dig, a small German unit counterattacked
them.  Only four of the platoon made it back to the main body of the company.

Wilson had the remainder of his company dig in where they were.  Lieutentant
Colonel Kenan reported to Lanham that he had been at the Fox Company Command
Post, and,

". . . that all that is left of company at present is 2 officers and 12
enlisted, the rest are wounded and lost . . . G Company now has 50 men on left
of F Company . . . E Company has 60 men."

The fighting strength of the 2d Battalion consisted of just 124 soldiers, 64
percent of a full strength rifle company.

The 2d Battalion commander, Lieutenant Colonel Kenan, sent Captain Faulkner's
Easy Company to hold the battalion line, established just inside the edge of
the woods, several hundred yards short of the objective.

Faulkner related:

"Late afternoon got a rush order to go to assistance of Company F who were in a
bad counterattack. Sent 1st platoon (14 men under sergeant) over the open field
alone.  Saw it pinned down under timed fire, mortar fire and MG fire from right
flank hills.  Wish we had smoke.  (9 men got through)"

"Received more news of F being attacked by Jerry and is bad.  Now dusk, moved
Company at the double long way around through woods and across open.  Flushed
some Krauts and passed them back down the company line.  Wonder where those PWs
ended up."

"Lieutenant Mason and self ended up lead scouts just to get there.  Found F,
Lieutenant Wilson and 15 men left out of 150.  Said Lieutenant Fitzgerald was
the hero of the day.  F Company moved back at midnight.  We made too much noise
cutting trees for our holes and some replacement shouted "timber".  We got a
mortar barrage for it and more casualties."

Captain Faulkner and his executive officer acted as scouts to get Easy Company
into the battle because the majority of the company was made up of
inexperienced replacements.

Lanham probably realized that his regiment was but a very thin shell of its
former self, liable to break at any moment.  Only eleven tanks and five tank
destroyers remained in the two tank and one tank destroyers company attached to
the 22d.  The regiment suffered 132 reported casualties and received 89
replacements.  Fox Company's debacle was another indication of the condition of
the regiment.  Concerned that the Germans would learn the condition of his
regiment when they interrogated the American prisoners captured on 1 December,
Lanham worried that a major counterattack would take back what his regiment had
gained with blood.

In a conversation with the commanding generals of the 4th Infantry and 5th
Armor, Lanham broached the subject of postponing the attack scheduled to
continue on 2 December. The 5th Armor commander wanted to continue because "it
will be better to attack tomorrow than to sit still and take losses."  Although
not recorded, the 4th Division commander, General Barton, apparently agreed to
attempt to get the corps commander to delay the attack.

Later that night, Lanham called Barton to see if the corps commander had made a
decision about the attack. Barton replied that he was waiting for an answer but
ordered Lanham to proceed with the plan until he learned otherwise.  The
general closed by saying, "He is sure S6 [Lanham] can do his part because he
has already done the impossible."  Later, after Lanham had told him that "in
order to do this thing tomorrow he has scraped the bottom of the barrel,"
Barton replied:

"The outstanding performance since D-Day has been by the 22d Infantry.  G6
[General Barton] said that "General Collins told him the 22d Infantry has been
fighting a wonderful fight under severe handicaps."

At 2150 hours, Lanham received the message, "The plan of attack as ordered
previously will go as ordered."

While Lanham attempted to get his higher headquarters to understand the plight
of his regiment, his subordinates tried to tell him the same.  The entry in the
staff journal prompted by Major Goforth's call telling Lanham that the 1st
Battalion was in bad shape was,

"Red [1st Bn] did a wonderful job today and he knows they are in bad shape.  S6
[Lanham] said that White [2d Bn] is worse and the people to right [46th AIB] of
them are just as bad off.  S6 said we are soldiers and  we have our orders so
we will do our best.  S6 said we have 24 to 48 hours more in front of us with
one more job to do which is almost done now."

With this message Lanham encouraged the 1st Battalion commander and explained
that all battalions were in the same plight.  He called on Major Goforth to see
the fight through to the end.

With no more riflemen available, Lanham used the soldiers from the Support,
Anti-Tank, and Regimental Headquarters Companies to establish a reserve.  At
2300 hours 1 December, he reported the following to Barton:

"CT [combat team] 22 is organizing spare parts as follows:

1. Sending as a reserve for the 2d Bn 60 men from AT [anti-tank] Company.  AT
Company being stripped down to bare necessities for firing their guns.

2. Creating a regt'l reserve from 20 men from Service Company, remains of I & R
[Intelligence and Reconnaissance] Platoon (12 men) and remainder of Security
Platoon.  Total strength estimated to be 40 to 45 men.  Regt'l Reserve will
move to vicinity Grosshau."

If the infantrymen of the regiment are its blood and they are easily replaced
with a transfusion, then the units Lanham formed his reserve from must be
considered the backbone, replaceable only with major surgery.

>From Paschendale with Treebursts

Rob Rush

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 17:04:53 -0500
From:    James E Irwin <[email-masked]>
Subject: MEDIA:Kamikazes Mourned

>From the DoD Newswire 29 November 1994

:JAPAN KAMIKAZE PILOTS MOURNED

   CHIRAN, Japan  -- A final cup of sake still warm in his
belly, Yoshio Nagai climbed into a cockpit and headed south with
just enough fuel for a one-way trip to Okinawa.
   His mission: crash his plane and its single-bomb payload into an
enemy ship.
   "I'm going to be scattered beautifully," the 20-year-old kamikaze
pilot wrote in a goodbye letter to his family, comparing his final,
explosive flight to a cascade of blossoms blown from a cherry tree.
   Nearly 50 years later, the runway where Nagai took off is covered
with gravel and lined with urns. His letter is in a glass case under
his photograph, preserved with hundreds of others at the Peace
Museum for Kamikaze Pilots.
   While much of the world remembers the thousands of kamikazes sent
against U.S. and other Allied ships in the closing months of World
War II as suicidal fanatics, many Japanese see them as innocent,
young victims of a senseless war.
   "To protect this country, 20-year-old boys threw their lives
away," said photographer Toshifumi Fukumura as a group of Japanese,
some wiping tears from their cheeks, bowed before a bronze statue of
a pilot in front of the museum.
   Named after a legendary typhoon that foiled Khublai Khan's
attempt to invade Japan in 1281, the kamikaze, or "divine wind,"
attack force was a desperate attempt to stave off an American
invasion of the Japanese home islands.
   The first "Special Attack" missions were flown in defense of
Japanese positions in the Philippines in 1944. The number of flights
increased dramatically when American forces invaded Okinawa the
following year.
   Historians put the total number of kamikaze pilots near 4,000.
The suicide planes took a heavy toll in Allied ships and lives: a
single attack by kamikazes on the aircraft carrier USS Franklin in
March 1945 killed 800 sailors.
   Nagai was one of 436 kamikaze pilots who took off from the
military base in Chiran, on the southern tip of the southernmost of
Japan's main four islands, about 630 miles southwest of Tokyo.
   Like memorials at the atomic bomb sites in Hiroshima and
Nagasaki, the central lesson of the kamikaze museum is pacifism.
Several stone tablets around the museum grounds remind visitors of
the great losses suffered in war, and a visitors' log is filled with
handwritten calls for peace.
   "We're thankful for the peace we have now, and we realize that
peace is important by coming here," said Fukumura, who takes group
photographs in front of the museum.
   Side by side with the pacifist theme, however, is a celebration
of the kamikazes' bravery and sacrifice. Visitors are greeted in the
museum lobby by a mural of a goddess rescuing the spirit of a pilot
from a burning plane.
   Uniforms, medals and rising sun flags line the walls, and at the
center of the hall is a World War II-era plane with saluting statues
around it. There are photographs of young women waving flowers at
departing planes.
   An audio tape provided to visitors tells how two Japanese pilots
brought down a big American B-29 bomber by ramming it in flight.
Televisions show footage of kamikazes in action.
   The museum also tugs hard at Japanese heart-strings, showing the
pilots as cheerful young men -- boys and mothers' sons -- who would
rather have been at home with loving families and friends instead of
training for a fiery death.
   Hundreds of goodbye letters are on display. In the lobby is a
piano that belonged to a pilot, and photographs on the walls show
smiling aviators joking with each other or petting puppies.
   Items left behind by the pilots -- goggles, books, hand-made
dolls -- fill display cases. Outside is a statue of a Japanese
mother, her hands folded and her face looking sadly toward the
pilot's statue. A plaque below her urges the world to live in peace.
The museum grew out of the maternal sentiments of Tome Torihama, a
local innkeeper who housed, fed and bathed some of the pilots in
their final months. She set up a small shrine for the kamikazes
right after the war. A larger shrine was established in 1955, and
the museum opened in 1975. About 600,000 people visit a year, and
memorial services for the pilots are held every May 3.
   The most gripping aspect of the museum are the pilots own words,
and visitors crowd the display cases to read their "final
statements."
   Perhaps aware military government officials would read the
letters, the young men were surprisingly poetic and accepting of
their fate. Many said they gladly gave their lives for their
country, though one pilot told his parents that he was on his way
"to hell."
   Nagai, who made his final flight June 8, 1945, was resigned yet
steadfast.
   "I'm glad to serve at last for the Empire," he wrote. "I'm just
doing what I have to do -- it's nothing to be especially proud
about."

======

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 James E. Irwin (Jim)                  Internet address:
 Defense Personnel Support Center        [email-masked]
 2800 S. 20th Street                   215-737-3678
 Philadelphia PA  19101-8419           Autovon 444-3678

                     "Never in the field of human conflict
                     was so much owed by so many to so few."
                               Winston S. Churchill
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 17:12:36 -0500
From:    James E Irwin <[email-masked]>
Subject: MEDIA:Comfort Women

>From the DoD Newswire 30 November 1994

:COMFORT WOMEN STILL SCARRED

   GENEVA  -- Confined to tiny cubicles, fed scraps, forbidden
to talk to others, repeatedly raped, often beaten and left untreated
for rampant venereal disease, tens of thousands of women spent World
War II as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers.
   Their wartime ordeal was ignored for nearly 50 years, in part
because the women, many of whom were teen-agers in the 1940s, were
ashamed to speak out. Often feeling they were somehow to blame for
being "comfort women," they were ostracized by family and friends
and afraid to marry.
   Now in their 60s and 70s, the women are telling their stories.
They have little to lose. Many live on the margins of society, ill
and with no families to support them.
   Their stories were told in a report issued last week by the
International Commission of Jurists, a U.N. human-rights group based
in Geneva. More than 40 victims and three former soldiers talked to
the two legal experts who compiled the report.
   Among those who talked was Gertrude Balisalisa of the
Philippines, whose life was destroyed by her sexual servitude.
   The horror began when she was grabbed by soldiers who threatened
to kill her two babies. "The choice was either to do it or to die,"
she recalled.
   She was taken to an army barracks where for the next 14 months
she was raped daily, by the barracks commander and his friends, she
said.
   She was also beaten and kicked and suffered "severe constant
pain" from the unrelenting sex, but never received medical
treatment.
   "Many times I would hear other women in that comfort station
screaming and crying out in pain. But I was never allowed to go and
see or talk to any of them. I wanted to scream myself several times
but I refrained for fear that they would inflict more harm and
injury on me," she said.
   "I wanted to live at any cost so as to see my two little
daughters."
   After the war, her husband called her a "left-over." Then, "one
day when I had gone out marketing, I returned to find the house
empty."
   Her husband sent the children to live elsewhere. "I have not seen
them since the day my husband sent them away," she said.
   Now Ms. Balisalisa, who once studied to be a lawyer, barely
supports herself by tutoring schoolchildren, and lacks money for
medical treatment.
   "I had locked the secret away in the bottom of my heart," she
said, but decided to speak out after seeing on television another
woman tell of her suffering.
   That decision cost her income because parents of some of her
pupils refused to let them continue with her.
   All she wants, she says, is some help from the Japanese
government. "I have lived a life of utter misery and suffering due
to no fault of my own."
   The Japanese government has refused to pay Mrs. Balisalisa or any
other woman individual compensation. It was only last year that
Japan admitted responsibility for the network of brothels.
   As many as 200,000 women from Korea, China, Taiwan, Malaysia, the
Philippines, Indonesia and the Netherlands were enslaved by the
Japanese military.
   The idea of "comfort stations" was part of Japanese society.
During the 1930s, licensed prostitution thrived, creating "an
atmosphere in which men saw it as their right to have women to
gratify their sexual pleasure," the jurists said.
   The impetus for the brothels probably came from the international
outcry following the 1937 "Rape of Nanking," in which Japanese
soldiers ransacked the Chinese city and committed widespread rape.
The military view was that "soldiers were entitled to rape women as
part of their payment for being soldiers," the report noted.
   But "conscious of its image" and anxious to avoid revenge
killings, the Japanese Imperial Army created brothels in China to
avoid further mass rapes, according to military documents.
   One soldier, Kouki Nagatomi, confirmed the account. In 1938, he
said, he followed orders to establish a brothel in China, with
Chinese women. Nagatomi and other soldiers said they spoke out
because the Japanese government falsely claimed it had not been
involved.
   In the aftermath of the war, the Allies failed to prosecute those
responsible, the jurists said.
   The Allies had "extensive documentary and other evidence
immediately after the war about the comfort stations, the manner in
which the women were recruited, and the vicious nature of the
control the Japanese military had over the women," the experts'
report said.
   Yet none of these crimes were tried, except for those committed
against 35 Dutch women who had been exploited in Indonesia. Several
Japanese military officials were convicted in that case.
   "Sadly, the local Indonesian women, who had been similarly
victimized, were ignored," the report commented. This was also the
case for the many women of other nationalities who were coerced into
prostitution.
   "Human rights violations on such a gigantic scale were simply
ignored by all those who could have done something," the report
concluded.

=======

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 James E. Irwin (Jim)                  Internet address:
 Defense Personnel Support Center        [email-masked]
 2800 S. 20th Street                   215-737-3678
 Philadelphia PA  19101-8419           Autovon 444-3678

                     "Never in the field of human conflict
                     was so much owed by so many to so few."
                               Winston S. Churchill
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 17:08:00 -0500
From:    James E Irwin <[email-masked]>
Subject: MEDIA:Bridge on River Kwai

>From the DoD Newswire 30 November 1994

:JAPANESE VISIT WWII SITE

   KANCHANABURI, Thailand  -- Japanese veterans of World War II
wept tears of shame Tuesday upon learning how 116,000 people died at
the hands of their Imperial Army while building the "death railway."
They walked the span crossing the River Kwai -- a small portion of
the 258 miles of track that Japanese troops forced more than 260,000
Allied prisoners and Asian slave laborers to cut through thick,
malarial jungles.
   And they paid respects at cemeteries where 16,000 Allied
prisoners are buried alongside more than 100,000 Asian laborers. The
victims died of disease, malnutrition, execution and torture during
the 1942-43 construction of the railroad, a strategic link between
Thailand and Burma.
   "What we did, the Japanese should not have done," said Yoshio
Fukuzawa, 74, weeping before hundreds of headstones. "I had no idea
what happened here."
   Fukuzawa, who served in a transportation unit in China during the
war, learned about his army's atrocities in this western Thai
province during the "Cycle for Peace." Two dozen Japanese veterans
from a variety of professions are riding their bicycles on a tour of
atonement.
   They were met at one cemetery by a former British prisoner of
war, Trevor Dakin, 74, who moved to Kanchanaburi eight years ago.
   Dakin, a naturalized Canadian who lived in Ontario, broke down
after telling the Japanese of his 3 1/2 years of abuse under their
army. All around him were the graves of Americans, Australians,
Britons, Dutch and New Zealanders, some of them marked simply: "A
Soldier of the 1939-1945 War. Known unto God."
   He recalled walking the same stretch of land to bury the dead
decades ago.
   "I can't keep doing this. It's killing me," he said through
tears.
   Japan has yet to offer a proper apology for the suffering and
provide compensation to the victims and their families, he said.
   "Now is the time to make this moral reparation," Dakin told the
Japanese. "And until you do ... we will never forget, and we will
never forgive."
   Tears welled up in the eyes of some of the Japanese, several of
whom grabbed his hand to apologize.
   "I feel responsible for him and all the POWs who died and were
victimized," said Yoshiyuki Onogi, a 54-year-old oil company
employee from Tokyo. Onogi agreed that Japan's reparations had been
insufficient.
   Yuko Ikebuchi, an elementary school teacher in Okayama, said
Japanese students still were not taught the truth about their army
during World War II.
   "I want to tell the students what Japan did during wartime, which
is not written in the textbooks," Ikebuchi said. "For a long time,
the Japanese government has hidden the truth."
   The group's leader, Takashi Nagase, 76, was an interpreter for
Japanese forces along the railroad during the war. He has visited
Thailand more than 60 times, organizing reunions, charity projects
and building a peace temple by the bridge made famous in a book and
movie, "The Bridge On the River Kwai."
   "I have been called a traitor," Nagase said. "But I don't care. I
must be honest to my conscience."

=====

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 James E. Irwin (Jim)                  Internet address:
 Defense Personnel Support Center        [email-masked]
 2800 S. 20th Street                   215-737-3678
 Philadelphia PA  19101-8419           Autovon 444-3678

                     "Never in the field of human conflict
                     was so much owed by so many to so few."
                               Winston S. Churchill
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 17:41:40 EST
From:    Brian Nicklas <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Julia Child: well, maybe not...!

There was, I'm told, an excellent Monty Python Documentary on the
life and times of Julia Child shown on PBS here in the US.
The one point raised was that she felt that doing here patriotic
duty wasn't something she wanted publicity flacks promoting.
This government service was not to be stopped at the end of WWII.
She is unknown as the inventor of "Tang" and helped Amana/Raytheon
install "RADARanges" in the Apollo Lunar Modules so that hot
meals (& cheese fondues) could be prepared on the moon.
This is purported to stem from her radar work in WWII.
(Look closely at her on TV, she still wears her "Silver Snoopy"
award from this work!)
The radar work included showing Henry Tizard how to prepare lamb
while simultaneously detecting Heinkel night raiders over England.

(Great fun guys, a nice break!)

------------------------------

Date:    Thu, 1 Dec 1994 00:01:58 +0100
From:    Emmanuel Gustin <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: query:how to define W

On Wed, 30 Nov 1994, Edward S. Miller wrote:

>   Messrs. Gustin, Koester and Turton have debated whether World War II was
> an extension of WWI after an armistice, and indeed that the Franco-Prussian,
> Napoleonic, and even earlier wars may also been part of one long World War.
>   This concept relates only to European history.  How does World War II's
> Pacific-Asiatic theater fit into the hypothesis?

The cause of WWII in the Pacific was Japan's attempt to build a large
imperium or 'Asiatic co-prosperity sphere', or whatever they called it.
While it was not the primary battlefield, the real concern was about
China: the war was triggered when the US tried to stop Japan's conquest of
the mainland, and declared an embargo an Japan.

This easily extends to WWI: Japan fought on the other side, but it also
used the opportunity to grab the German possesions on the Asian mainland.
It can also be extended to the Japanese-Russian war that was fought before
WWI; in this case Japan tried to take Russian bases in Manchuria. In
Europe the common theme is the growth of German power; in Asia it is the
crumbling of Chinese power. This could include the multi-national
expedition against the 'Boxer rebellion', or the Chinese-British Opium
War.

Of course the string of attacks on China extends to the Mongol invasion
and even further in the past.

Emmanuel Gustin

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 18:10:11 EST
From:    "Carl Wernke - [email-masked]" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: MEDIA: Tokyo Documents

 To: Multiple recipients of the list WWII-L([email-masked])

 Robert T. Moore wrote at Wed, 30 Nov 1994 14:57:09 GMT-6
 > Will post to you some works on cryptology

 Terry,

 Please include me in your works on cryptology. Also, any Tokyo documents
 would be appreciated.

 Continue your excellent scholarly input to the list.

 Carl Wernke               Tidewater Community College

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 19:39:00 EST
From:    mc killop <[email-masked]>
Subject: [INF] USAAF 1 DEC 44

COMBAT CHRONOLOGY OF THE US ARMY AIR FORCES
FRIDAY, 1 DECEMBER 1944
FTP SITES
  1. ftp.rutgers.edu in directory pub/wwii/usaf
  2. byrd.mu.wvnet.edu (129.71.32.152) in pub/history/military/airforce/
     wwii_chronology

AIRCRAFT MENTIONED IN THIS REPORT:
  A-20, Douglas Havoc
  B-17, Boeing Flying Fortress
  B-24, Consolidated Liberator
  B-25, North American Mitchell
  B-26, Martin Marauder
  C-46, Curtiss Commando
  C-47, Douglas Skytrain
  UC-64, Noorduyn Norseman
  F-6, North American Mustang
  F-7, Consolidated Liberator
  L-5, Stinson Sentinel
  P-47, Republic Thunderbolt
  P-51, North American Mustang
  P-61, Northrop Black Widow

NOTE: A number in parenthesis after a target name indicates the number of
bombers attacking.

CHINA-BURMA-INDIA THEATER

  CHINA THEATER (Fourteenth Air Force): 6 B-24s attack targets of opportunity
in the S China Sea. 8 B-25s destroy 3 storage buildings and damage 6 others
at Wanling, Burma; 9 fighter-bombers pound troop positions in the area and
destroy or damage several trucks. Several other fighter-bombers hit trucks,
locomotives, and villages in the Chefang, China area; between Lashio and
Hsenwi, Burma; and from Linfen to Taiyuan, and at Kunlong, China.

  INDIA-BURMA THEATER (Tenth Air Force): In Burma, 30+ P-47s continue support
of ground forces in the Bhamo area; town areas, troops, warehouses, and
supply dumps at Myitson, Mingon, Alezeik, Lenaung, and Old Lashioare are
pounded by 30+ P-47s; 17 more hit bridges in N Burma and 8 strafe the Hsenwi
landing ground. 290 transport sorties are flown to forward areas. In India, a
detachment of the 6th Fighter Squadron (Commando), 1st Air Commando Group,
begins operating from Fenny with P-47s (squadron is based at Asansol); the
14th and 15th Combat Cargo Squadrons, 4th Combat Cargo Group, arrive at
Sylhet from the US with C-46s; during Dec 44, the detachment of the 1st
Combat Cargo Squadron, 1st Combat Cargo Group, operating from Hathazari with
C-47s, returns to base at Tulihal, the 427th Night Fighter Squadron, AAF,
India-Burma Theater, moves from Pandaveswar to Myitkyina, Burma with P-61s,
and the 436th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), 7th Bombardment Group (Heavy),
based at Madhaiganj, India with B-24s sends a detachment to Luliang, China to
ferry gasoline to Suichwan, China.

EUROPEAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS (ETO)

  STRATEGIC OPERATIONS (Eighth Air Force): Mission 733: 7 B-17s and 7 B-24s
drop leaflet in the Netherlands, France and Germany during the night.

  TACTICAL OPERATIONS (Ninth Air Force): In Germany, 134 B-26s and A-20s
strike defended areas at Fraulautern, Ensdorf, and Saarlautern; fighters fly
sweeps, armed reconnaissance, and bombing missions over W Germany and support
US VII Corps elements at Inden and the Hurtgen Forest and the 8th Infantry
Division of the V Corps at Tiefenbach Creek and Brandenberger Forest. In
France, HQ 354th Fighter Group and the 355th Fighter Squadron move from
Orconte to Meurthe-et-Moselle and Rosieres-en-Haye respectively with P-47s
(the 355th is operating from St Dizier); the 15th Tactical Reconnaissance
Squadron, 10th Photographic Group (Reconnaissance), moves from St Dizier to
Giraumont with F-6s; the 72d Liaison Squadron, Ninth AF, moves from Epinal to
Buhl with L-5s.

MEDITERRANEAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS (MTO)

  STRATEGIC OPERATIONS (Fifteenth Air Force): During Dec 44, HQ 305th
Bombardment Wing (Heavy) moves from Bari to Torremaggiore, Italy.

  TACTICAL OPERATIONS (Twelfth Air Force): In Italy, B-25s attack 4 railroad
bridges in the W Po Valley, damaging the bridges at Voghera and Torre
Beretti; the XXII Tactical Air Command hits motor transport and train cars at
several points in N Italy and hits rail lines over a widespread area N of the
Apennines Mountains, including the Brenner Pass where lines are cut at 3
points; the 524th Fighter Squadron, 27th Fighter Group, moves from Tarquinia
to Pontedera with P-47s.

PACIFIC OCEAN AREA (POA)

  AAFPOA (Seventh Air Force): 26 Guam Island, Mariana Island-based B-24s
pound the airfield on Iwo Jima Island, Volcano Islands. During the night of
1/2 Dec, a B-24 bombs Iwo Jima during a snooper mission.

SOUTHWEST PACIFIC AREA [SWPA, Far East Air Force (FEAF)]: Major FEAF strikes
in the Philippine Islands include B-24 raids on Bacolod and Fabrica Airfields
on Negros Island, and a B-25 attack, with P-47 support, on Lahug Airfield on
Cebu Island; and B-25s attack Cagayan Airfield on Mindanao Island. B-25s and
fighter-bombers also hit several airfields and numerous targets of
opportunity on Halmahera Island, Moluccas Islands, during a series of raids.
Other FEAF aircraft maintain armed reconnaissance and sweeps over a wide area
of the Netherland East Indies and Philippine Islands. HQ 3d Air Commando
Group, the 3d Fighter Squadron (Commando) and the 157th, 159th and 160th
Liaison Squadrons (Commando), arrive on Leyte Island from the US with P-51s
and UC-64s and L-5s (first mission is 8 Jan and 7 Feb 45); a detachment of
the 4th Photographic Charting Squadron, 311th Photographic Wing (attached to
Thirteenth AF), begins operating from Morotai Island, Moluccas Islands, with
F-7s (squadron is based at Hollandia, New Guinea); the 342d Fighter Squadron,
348th Fighter Group, moves from Noemfoor Island, New Guinea to Tacloban,
Leyte Island with P-47s; the 408th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), 22d
Bombardment Group (Heavy), moves from Leyte Island to Angaur Island, Palau
Islands, Caroline Islands with B-24s.

SOURCES:
AIR FORCE COMBAT UNITS OF WORLD WAR II, Office of Air Force History,
  Headquarters USAF, 1961, ISBN 0-912799-02-1
COMBAT SQUADRONS OF THE AIR FORCE, WORLD WAR II, Office of Air Force
  History, Headquarters USAF 1982
THE ARMY AIR FORCES IN WORLD WAR II: COMBAT CHRONOLOGY, 1941-1945 by the
  Office of Air Force History, Headquarters USAF, 1973
THE MIGHTY EIGHTH WAR DIARY by Roger A. Freeman, ISBN 1-85409-071-2

Jack McKillop
USAF (Airways and Air Communications Service)
1955-59

-------------------------------------------------------------------
|  Jack McKillop         |  Those who have long enjoyed such      |
|  Bellcore              |  privileges as we enjoy forget in      |
|  Piscataway, NJ USA    |  time that men have died to win them.  |
|  [email-masked]  |                       FDR              |
-------------------------------------------------------------------

01/0039Z DEC

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 18:38:55 -0600
From:    Terrence Lindell <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: U.S.S. Suwannee

Z

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 18:42:54 -0600
From:    Terrence Lindell <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: U.S.S. Suwannee

The _Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships_, a seven volume
work published by the Naval History Division, Department of the Navy,
provides brief histories of US ships.  The history for the Suwannee
should be in Volume 6.

Terry Lindell
Department of History
Wartburg College
Waverly, IA  50677
[email-masked]

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 19:49:00 EST
From:    mc killop <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Weaps: Battleships

John Kollar writes:

 >But wasn't the Gascogne a follow-on class to the Rich/JB/Clem?
 >
 >John E. Kollar
 >
 >Not many Montana class BBs were completed, but I think they were better
 >than the Iowas at doing BB-type jobs...

John,
None of the Montana Class were even laid down.  The USN realized
the value of avaition over battleships and cancelled the Montana's
before their keels were laid down and ordered six Midway Class
aircraft carriers instead.  Three of the Midway's were
commissioned.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
|  Jack McKillop              |  Those who have long enjoyed such |
|  Bellcore                   |  privileges as we enjoy forget in |
|  Piscataway, NJ USA         |  time that men have died to win   |
|  [email-masked]  |  them.                     FDR    |
-------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 20:09:00 EST
From:    mc killop <[email-masked]>
Subject: Bong and McGuire

>From the US Air Force News Service

To honor and remember
by Technical Sergeant David P. Masko
Editor, AFNS Features
     LACKLAND AFB, Texas -- It seems only fitting that Lackland AFB
-- the US Air Force Gateway -- should have so many vintage aircraft
and artifacts to honor and celebrate US Air Force heritage.  It's
also interesting to note that many of the young officers and enlisted
who train here are about the same age as their predecessors who
fought and died in World War II.
     Two airmen who seem to stand out from that war -- and the ones
basic trainees hear a lot about, especially when studying the air war
in the Pacific -- are Majors Richard Bong and Thomas McGuire Jr.  With
40 victories, Bong is considered to be the greatest American ace of
all wars, and McGuire's 38 make him second only to Bong.
     Unfortunately, both Bong and McGuire, at the age of 24, died just
before the final victory to which they had contributed so much.  Both
pilots flew P-38 fighters.
     The highlight of Bong's career came after the liberation of the
Philippine Islands when General Douglas MacArthur personally presented
him with the Medal of Honor and called him "the greatest fighter ace of
all Americans."  Prior to receiving the medal, Bong received every
decoration the United States could give a combat pilot.  Bong lost
his life on 6 Aug 45, during a test flight of a P-80 jet.
     At about the same time Bong was being honored by MacArthur,
America's second-ranking ace had volunteered to lead a squadron of 15
planes on a special mission over the Philippine Islands.  It was
Christmas Day, 1944.
     As McGuire's formation crossed Luzon Island, it was jumped by 20
Japanese fighters.  McGuire shot down three Japanese planes in the
battle which ensued.
     According to US Air Force records, this was not the end to
McGuire's holiday mission.  On the following day he volunteered to
lead a squadron to Clark Field on Luzon.  Over the target area, one of
the bombers he was escorting was hit by flak.  As the bomber left the
formation it was attacked by Japanese fighters.  McGuire entered the
fight.  According to a report of the attack, he "intentionally
exposed himself to attack" to enable the crippled bomber to escape.
     McGuire then shot down one enemy aircraft and went after the
other three.  He destroyed two of the three before rejoining the
formation.  On the way out of the target area, McGuire shot down
another Japanese aircraft -- his fourth of the day -- bringing his
total to 38.
     Just two weeks later, on 7 Jan 45, McGuire tried to rescue a
fellow pilot during a fire fight with a Japanese Zero and lost his
life.
     At the end of 1994, and beginning of 1995, the US Air Force
celebrates the 50th anniversary of these two great aces.  The US Air
Force and the other services also continue their tribute to all the
men and women who gave so much to win victory over Japan and Germany.
     Looking back at this period in American history, there is one
day that has special significance.  7 Dec 41, was called a day that
will "live in infamy."  On that day, America's battle in the Pacific
began and "Remember Pearl Harbor" became the rallying cry for a
generation.
     Also in December is the 50th anniversary of the Battle of the
Bulge.  When it began on 17 Dec 44, the Battle of the Bulge -- in the
Ardennes Forest of Belgium -- became the largest battle the United
States ever fought.  More than 600,000 American service members took
part in the effort to drive back the Nazis, and more than 20,000
Americans died, while another 20,000 were captured and 40,000 were
wounded.
     In the Pacific 50 years ago, the US Army Air Forces were making
the Japanese "pay a hundred fold in death and destruction," said
Colonel B.B. Cain in a US Army Air Forces publication from 1944.
     "Today one embodiment of that pledge is the mighty Far East Air
Forces, comprising the U.S. Fifth and Thirteenth Air Forces in the
Southwest Pacific, under the command of Lieutenant General George C.
Kenney," Cain wrote.
     At the end of 1944, just nine months shy of VJ Day, Cain said
Japan still had a large concentration of air power, good
communications and "a battlefield in his favor."
     However, Cain said, "he (Japan) had the defensive attitude of a
beaten man.  Disorganized and demoralized, he is being allowed not
time to dress his wounds and regain his balance.
     "A short time ago, this statement was heard over the Japanese
Domei radio: 'Frankly, the war situation in the Pacific is not
favorable to the Japanese.'
     "Frankly, we agree."

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 20:54:14 EST
From:    Henry Sirotin <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Julia Child: well, maybe not...!

Actually, Julia Child does not exist. The name was taken by a notorious spy
who has tried to pass herself off as Julia's child from Lillian Hellman's
notoriously lying memoir PENTIMENTO. The spy's real name is Kim Il-sung.

Henry Sirotin

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 21:18:46 -0500
From:    Ben Frank <[email-masked]>
Subject: INF: 50 YEARS AGO - 01

John, thanks for that bit on Henry Pierson "Jim" Crowe, one of the Marine
Corps' all-time greats. He was a role model for several generations of Marines.
It was my privilege to interview him for the Marine Corps Oral History Program
at his home in Portsmouth. He settled there after retirement and was long-time
chief of police in Portsmouth, where he ran the department like it was the
Marine Corps, and attracted some good former and retired Marines to its ranks.
Jim, which he insisted I call him after just five minutes with him, was a
gentleman to the core, and a loving husband and father. He was married rather
late in his life, after WWII, to a beautiful and lovely lady, whom,
incidentally, I never met but only have seen her pictures. Jim's oral history
is filled with the excitement of the Corps after WWI and the '20s and '30s.
Crowe was not only an outstanding shooter, but was a star Marine Corps football
player on the big Marine teams of the '30s. All of this is in his oral history.
I could go on, but suffice it to say that meeting and interviewing Jim was one
of the high points in my Marine Corps career. There aren't and never have been
many like him. Ben Frank

------------------------------

Date:    Wed, 30 Nov 1994 22:05:58 -0500
From:    Ben Frank <[email-masked]>
Subject: MEDIA:COMFORT WOMEN

It seems to me that the curator of the Enola Gay exhibit should add a panel
re/comfort women, or are they too PC for that? Ben Frank

------------------------------

End of WWII-L Digest - 29 Nov 1994 to 30 Nov 1994
*************************************************