Subject: WWII-L Digest - 10 Feb 1995 to 11 Feb 1995

From: Automatic digest processor <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 12 Feb 1995 00:00:48 -0500

There are 30 messages totalling 1100 lines in this issue.

Topics of the day:

  1. Shooting Downed Pilot (was: Law of Armed Conflict)
  2. INF: USN Chronology 02-11-95
  3. Enola Gay (2)
  4. WWII BASIC TRAINING CAMP
  5. BURNING ITCH OF NAPALM (2)
  6. The Invasion of Japan
  7. INF: 50 Years Ago - 12-FEB-1945
  8. 3rd Army Chron. M59-->M24 conv.
  9. HELP: Locating USAF personnel
 10. GEN: Berchtesgaden/Obersalzberg facilities
 11. Anvil
 12. Westerly 3 of 5: Howard part II
 13. ADMIN: USE OF FIRST NAMES IN MESSAGES
 14. 50TH: ATTACK ON SIEGFRIED LINE
 15. GEN: JOHN TOLAND GULLIBLE?
 16. Smithsonian Still Doesn't Get It
 17. OSS Addresses (2)
 18. The Invasion of the Yanks (fwd)
 19. Assoc. of Former Intell. Officers Address
 20. INF: 3rd Army Chronology - 10Feb45ers Address
 21. INF: 3rd Army Chronology - 11Feb45ers Address
 22. INF: 3rd Army Chronology - 12Feb45ers Address
 23. 3rd Army Chronologies
 24. GEN: Excerpt from _A Soldier's Story
 25. Reunion Notice
 26. THE INVASION OF JA
 27. JAPAN POSTS

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

Date:    Fri, 10 Feb 1995 21:53:24 -0800
From:    Sidney Allinson <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Shooting Downed Pilot (was: Law of Armed Conflict)

John Foster...

Marvellous story, about the boy who hid an MG, and still kept silent when
it was recovered 50 years later.

Regards -- Sidney.

--

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

Date:    Sat, 11 Feb 1995 04:00:23 PST
From:    "Keller, Theron P." <[email-masked]>
Subject: INF: USN Chronology 02-11-95

UNITED STATES NAVY CHRONOLOGY
from:
//byrd.mu.wvnet.edu/pub/history/military/wwii/naval_chronology/chr4(4,5).txt

1945
02/11 Sun. Yalta Conference attended by the President, British Prime
           Minister, and Russian Premier ends; conference has been in
           session since 4 February.
            United States naval vessel sunk:
             LST 577, damaged by submarine torpedo, east of
              Philippine Islands,
              08 d. 01'N., 130 d. 37'E.,
              sunk by United States forces.
            United States naval vessel damaged:
             Ocean tug TAKELMA (ATF-113), by collision, Philippine
              Islands area,
              10 d. 50'N., 125 d. 25'E.
            Japanese submarine sunk:
             RO-112, by submarine BATFISH (SS-310), Philippine
              Islands area,
              18 d. 53'N., 121 d. 50'E.

Information compiled by U.S. Navy Historians.  For more information,
contact the Naval Historical Center at (202) 433-3940.
Archived by: "Larry W. Jewell" <[email-masked]>
Posted by:
Theron P. Keller
Logicon, Inc.
Dahlgren, VA  22448 USA
[email-masked]

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

Date:    Sat, 11 Feb 1995 02:03:34 -0800
From:    Steve New <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Enola Gay

ntil now, I've been silent on this subject, but I finally have to
jump in.

Recently, another member of the list mistakenly attributed to me
the argument that the Japanese having sown the wind, should reap
the whirlwind.  While that does summarize my belief, I'm afraid
that I don't write so biblically.

My first area of concern is the amount of effort being expended on
that strawman argument regarding how many Americans would have
died in an invasion, and how many Americans did Truman believe
would have died in an invasion.

President Truman, as the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces in a
time of declared war, was responsible to this nation to prosecute
the war to an acceptable conclusion, in the manner that caused the
least cost to America in the lives of her young men.  This is a
long and convoluted sentence on purpose.  It would have been much
easier to say that it was Truman's responsibility to end the war,
but he couldn't do that, only the Japanese government could.

As part of this responsibility, it wasn't really that important
exactly how many Americans would have died in an invasion.  No
matter whose numbers you use, too many Americans would have died.

One thing that was not the President's responsibility was to try
to factor some kind of balance between the number of Japanese who
would die in the atomic bombings and the number of Americans who
would die in an invasion.  President Truman (representing the
American people) was not responsible for the lives of the Japanese
who died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, nor for those who died in
Tokyo, Kobe, or anywhere else.  These lives were the
responsibility of the government of Japan.

        1.  It was the Japanese government that chose to expand its
control over Asia by use of force.

        2.  It was the Japanese government that chose to eliminate
American competition in Asia by attacking the US fleet at Pearl
Harbor and invading American territories in the Philippines and the
Aleutians.

        3.  It was the Japanese government that, having been
defeated at sea, been pushed out of it's captured territories in
the south Pacific, having lost even Okinawa, and being completely
cut off from it's forces in China, Burma and Indochina, refused to
capitulate even as its cities were being bombed to rubble.  This
same government, comprised essentially of professional military
officers, was well aware that it could no longer win the war, but
wanted to continue the fight because it could still, through the
use of 2 million kamikazes, inflict considerable damage on the
enemy, regardless of the suffering inflicted on their own people.

My second area of concern is that some people feel that we have to
justify the use of atomic weapons by calling out the atrocities
that the Japanese perpetrated on their captives, military and
civilian, and that somehow, because of these, the A bombs were
something the Japanese deserved.  Bullpucky, the bombs were an
appropriate military approach to achieve a proper goal, the
surrender of the Japanese government.  They were not, were not
intended to be, and cannot be justified as vengeance for Japanese
military atrocities.  How could we possibly justify the
vaporization of tens of thousands of Japanese civilians as
vengeance for the atrocities performed by a minority in the
Japanese military?

A third area that bothers me is the argument that the Japanese were
just about to surrender anyway, and that if we had only waited a
month or so they would have surrendered on their own and the A
bombs would not have been necessary.

        1.  I reject the argument that the Japanese were already
trying to surrender.  While it is true that some individuals within
the Japanese government were sending out signals, they didn't speak
for the government, only the Emperor could do that.  In fact,
these peace "feelers" were based on the Allies allowing Japan to
maintain it's control of China and Korea, a situation comparable
to our allowing the Germans to sign a separate peace with the west
so that they could fight the Russians.  We weren't likely to turn
on either ally.

        2.  The oft-repeated, self serving, comments of the post
war bombing effectiveness survey that the Japanese would have
surrendered by December 45 even if the A bombs hadn't been dropped
is incredibly suspect.  I can't believe that conclusion was made
based on any understanding of the Japanese leadership.  Perhaps
the German government would have folded under those circumstances,
maybe even the American government would have been forced to
capitulate under similar circumstances, but not the Japanese.
Besides, the argument that bombing alone will cause an oponant to
surrender has never been proven out, even a bombing as devastating
as that imposed on Iraq couldn't force a surrender.

With all this, the part that bothers me the most is that the
"experts" at the Smithsonian couldn't come up with a script that
objectively described the events of the war, leading up to the
bombings, in language that wasn't couched in terms of "good" and
"evil", or "right" and "wrong".  Not having seen the actual
script, I don't know what the exact failing was, but when the
argument comes down to whether the bombings averted 200,000
American casualties, or 60,000 American casualties, it can be
written as "it averted lots of American casualties"  a factual,
non-judgemental, statement or "it butchered far more helpless
civilians than an invasion would have cost" which is the kind of
judgemental language destined to enrage people.

If the curators of the Smithsonian are unable to come up with a
factual, objective, description of what actually happened, without
making judgements and laying blame, then it's time we either clear
house or shut the place down.  This is a museum, not the heart of
the American conscience.  It's not the Smithsonian's place to tell
me what I'm to believe, but to preserve the physical evidence of
American history for future generations to study.  Perhaps
preserving M*A*S*H it more it's speed.

--

Steve L. New
[email-masked]
Just an armadillo on the shoulder of the information superhighway.

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

Date:    Sat, 11 Feb 1995 06:32:54 -0600
From:    Bruno Wroblewski <[email-masked]>
Subject: WWII BASIC TRAINING CAMP

Does any one know the name of the WWII basic training camp that was
located in the vicinity of Macon, Georgia?

Thanks:- Bruno

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

Date:    Sat, 11 Feb 1995 08:09:05 -0500
From:    Ben Frank <[email-masked]>
Subject: BURNING ITCH OF NAPALM

If I recall correctly, napalm was first used in combat in the Tinian operation,
when Air Corps planes dropped containers holding the mixture. Because the mix
had not been entirely correct, the results were somewhat ineffective.
Fortunately, the right mixture was developed and napalm became an entirely
effective weapon for subsequent Pacific operations, especially beginning with
Peleliu, when flame LVTs were employed against the caves there. Both flame
tanks and portable flamethrowers were most effective at Iwo and Okinawa. Ben Frank

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

Date:    Sat, 11 Feb 1995 13:42:00 UTC
From:    "Edward S. Miller" <[email-masked]>
Subject: The Invasion of Japan

John Riegsecker wrote on Feb. 10:
  > I have just checked a book out of our library, _The Invasion of Japan
  > Alternative to the Bomb_, John Ray Skates....  I'm curious to know if
  > anybody knows anything about the book or Professor Skates, who I note is
  > a retired Colonel in the Army Reserves.

I helped critique Ray Skates's manuscript (my name's in the intro).  He was
teaching at Maxwell AFB but is now retired and affiliated with the
University of Mississippi.  Contact me privately for his address.  It's a
superb book, deeply researched (he walked the invasion beaches) even though
we disagree.  Skates believes the invasion would have proceeded absent the A-
bomb and Soviet intervention. I think not.

Ed Miller    Stamford, Conn.   [email-masked]

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

Date:    Sat, 11 Feb 1995 09:47:34 EST
From:    John Davis <[email-masked]>
Subject: INF: 50 Years Ago - 12-FEB-1945

On 12-FEB-1945, the following occurred -

World War II - The Battlefronts
-------------------------------
Western Front - In the Canadian 1st Army sector, the Canadian 3rd Division
reaches Kellen and Warbeyen and relieves the British 15th Division in the
Cleve area. The 15th Division then pushes on northeast towards Calcar,
meeting strong German resistance. The 43rd Division captures Bedburg, an
important objective before going on towards Goch. The 51st and 53rd
Divisions carry on clearing the Reichswald. In the U.S. 3rd Army sector,
the VIII and XII Corps advance in the Prum and Bollendorf sectors.

Philippines - The Japanese remaining in Manila are isolated as the 5th
Cavalry and 12th Cavalry drive west to the shores of Manila Bay,
overrunning Neilson Field. Nichols Field is largely cleared of the Japanese
by elements of the 11th Airborne Division. Units of the XI Corps advance
from Dinalupihan towards the Bataan peninsula, which they must take to give
the Americans control of Manila Bay.

Burma - The Indian 20th Division begins crossing the Irrawaddy in the
Myinmu-Allagappa sector, west of Mandalay.

The Homefront
-------------
Elliott Roosevelt Confirmed - The Senate has confirmed the promotion of
Col. Elliott Roosevelt to the rank of brigadier general by a vote of 53 to
11 and then voices blanket approval of similar advancements for 77 other
colonels.

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

Sources: "United States Army in World War II, Chronology 1941-1945" compiled
by Mary H. Williams, Office of the Chief of Military History, Department of
the Army, "2194 Days of War" by Cesare Salmaggi and Alfredo Pallavisimi,
"Facts On File Yearbook 1945, Person's Index Of World Events" edited by R.L.
Lapica.

Copyright 1995 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                           | [email-masked]
Cary, North Carolina                 | http://www.webcom.com/~jbd/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Date:    Sat, 11 Feb 1995 08:46:35 -0500
From:    James Ray Watkins <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: 3rd Army Chron. M59-->M24 conv.

Apologies if this is a little to one side of the thread, but could someone
give me some idea of how a tank crew was trained in WWII? I assume they
would start with basic training (I don't know much about that either), but
was there an additional trining period as well? I'm interested in knowing
what books, materials, were used, as well as what the pedagogical philosophy
was. How, for example, did they deal with illiteracy? Are there archives for
these materials? Any personal recollections would be welcome as well,
especially from anyone who enlisted in Mississippi or Lousiana. Thanks in
advance.

Ray Watkins
A.I., Department of Rhetoric and Composition
English, University of Texas at Austin

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

Date:    Sat, 11 Feb 1995 10:31:21 PST
From:    Jim Brady <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: HELP: Locating USAF personnel

>Back on 23 Jan Jim Brady asked how to locate USAF personnel.  It took me a
>while, but here's the info:
>
>To locate a USAF retiree:
>
[ snips]
>To locate a USAF person on ACTIVE DUTY:
>
[snips]
>Hope this hellps.
>                          Doug Donnell
     Indeed it does! Thanks, Doug.

-------------------------------------
Name: Jim Brady
E-mail: [email-masked]

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

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

Date:    Sat, 11 Feb 1995 10:46:06 PST
From:    Jim Brady <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Enola Gay

>... some people feel that we have to
>justify the use of atomic weapons by calling out the atrocities
>that the Japanese perpetrated on their captives, military and
>civilian, and that somehow, because of these, the A bombs were
>something the Japanese deserved.  Bullpucky, the bombs were an
>appropriate military approach to achieve a proper goal, the
>surrender of the Japanese government.  They were not, were not
>intended to be, and cannot be justified as vengeance for Japanese
>military atrocities.  How could we possibly justify the
>vaporization of tens of thousands of Japanese civilians as
>vengeance for the atrocities performed by a minority in the
>Japanese military?
>
 This is the most concise and complete assessment of this issue we are likely to see. I for one
suggest we quit looking and please move on to other issues!

-- Jim Brady

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

Date:    Sat, 11 Feb 1995 22:45:27 +0700
From:    "Peter E. Beal" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: GEN: Berchtesgaden/Obersalzberg facilities

And what will the German government do with it?

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

Date:    Sat, 11 Feb 1995 08:00:53 -0800
From:    Steve New <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Anvil

John Costello, in The Pacific War, tells an interesting story where
the political infighting between the Allies at the Tehran
conference set the scale for Anvil.

Churchill, going into the conference, had three objectives in
mind.  First, he wanted an American/British invasion in the
Aegean.  He didn't trust Stalin as far as he could throw him, and
he certainly didn't want Russian troops occupying the Balkan states.

Second, he wanted to delay Overlord until 1945.  He didn't want the
frontal invasion against Fortress Europe until the Germans had
been bled white through the rest of Europe.

Third, he did not want to see resources sent to Asia to support
Buccaneer, a combined land and amphibious assault proposed by
General Stilwell to push the Japanese out of Burma.  If anything
was to go on in Asia, the British wanted to free the former
colonies in Singapore and Indonesia first.

Stalin's goal was much more direct.  He simply wanted Overlord to
take place as was previously agreed, in March of '44.  He was
violently against any attack in the Aegean (you can be sure he
didn't want British and American troops in the Balkans), and to
prevent too much of a ground effort in Asia, he promised Roosevelt
that the Russians would declare war on Japan as soon as the
Germans surrendered.

Roosevelt went into the conference convinced that Overlord should
not be postponed.  He was also under heavy pressure from his own
military staff who did not want to see American forces bogged down
in mountain to mountain combat in the Balkans.  Finally, he was
all for Buccaneer, as he was trying to boost China to take more of a
great power role, and he didn't want the US forces in the Pacific
appearing to be the old European colonies back for them.

When Churchill realized that he wasn't going to shake the
Russian/American resolve to launch Overlord, and that he had no
support for an Aegean invasion, he insisted that Anvil, which was
already being planned as a small ancillary operation in support of
Overlord, be significantly beefed up to insure the success of
Overlord.  Since there weren't enough amphibious assault assets
available to support Overlord, the beefed up Anvil, and Buccaneer,
Churchill insisted that the Buccaneer assets be diverted to Anvil
and operations in Italy.

As it turned out, there was far more strength on the ground for
Anvil than actually required to get the job done.  One of the
reasons for this was the parlor games played by Winston Churchill
at the Tehran conference.

--

Steve L. New
[email-masked]
Just an armadillo on the shoulder of the information superhighway.

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

Date:    Sat, 11 Feb 1995 11:36:23 -0600
From:    Terrence Lindell <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Westerly 3 of 5: Howard part II

Cheryl,

Your note at the end of Howard part II mentions "Five brothers named
Sullivan, all serving on the same ship, were killed in Hawaii."  I'm not
sure of the name of the act, but it could well have been called by that
name.  The Sullivans, from Waterloo, Iowa, all enlisted after learning
that a friend of theirs had been killed at Pearl Harbor.  They joined
the Navy on the stipulation that they be allowed to serve on the same
ship.  They were stationed aboard the light cruiser USS JUNEAU.  Badly
damaged during the Battle of Guadalcanal in November, 1942, the JUNEAU
was retiring from the action the next day when a Japanese submarine, the
I-26, torpedoed her.  She exploded and went down in under a minute.  Fearing
additional attacks, the other US vessels cleared the area.  It is estimated
that as many of 150 of the JUNEAU's crew survivied the sinking, including
one of the Sullivans, but no rescue effort was mounted for days.  As a
result, only ten (and none of the Sullivans) survived.

Waterloo is only about 20 miles from where I live and there has been
considerable attention to the Sullivans in recent years.  A major convention
center was renamed The Five Sullivan Brothers Center.  As part of a Veteran's
Day parade and exhibit in 1993, there was a son-in-service banner with five
gold stars.

Anyone interested in reading more about the JUNEAU should look for a recent
book on the topic.  I believe the author is Dan Kurzman and the title
_Left to Die:  The Sinking of the USS Juneau_.

I know a woman who went to high school with some of the Sullivans.  Her father
and one of the brothers corresponded a bit.  He sent Matt Sullivan a
Christmas card postmarked December 10, 1942.  (By that time, Matt had been
dead nearly a month).  It was returned with a red X over the address and
a message stamped on it:  "RETURNED TO SENDER.  NAVY DEPT.  FEB 24 1943
UNCLAIMED."

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

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

Date:    Sat, 11 Feb 1995 07:57:47 +0100
From:    JOHN AUSLAND <[email-masked]>
Subject: ADMIN: USE OF FIRST NAMES IN MESSAGES

  The use of first names only in messages can be confusing.  There
are, for example, several Johns on the list.  It would, therefore, be
helpful if users would use full names when putting flags on their
messages.  Sometimes I am not sure whether messages are addressed to
me or to another John.
  Regards, John Ausland

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

Date:    Sat, 11 Feb 1995 08:22:09 +0100
From:    JOHN AUSLAND <[email-masked]>
Subject: 50TH: ATTACK ON SIEGFRIED LINE

  February 11, 1995

  There have been several mentions in the 50 years ago messages of
activities of the 4th Infantry Division.  After making the night river
crossing in Luxembourg which I described in an earlier message, the
division moved north and reentered Germany at the same point as in the
fall of 1944.  Here is an excerpt from my book LETTERS HOME, which
describes our attack on the Siegfried Line:

          The official US Army history began its description of what
          happened as follows:

          The VIII Corps's 4th Division knew the demolished pillboxes
          well; it was the same unit that had attacked the Schnee
          Eifel in September. The division would get a rare opportunity
          to refight an earlier engagement over the same ground,
          under similar conditions of enemy strength, against at least
          one of the earlier opponents. Little would be changed except
          the weather and stronger support on the division's flanks."
          (Charles B. MacDonald, The Last Offensive, page 86.)

          Although generally correct, I would add a few qualifications.
          In the first place, our forces had destroyed only part of the
          pillboxes before the German offensive. Secondly, most of the
          people who were in the 8th in September were no longer
          with us, having been killed or seriously wounded in the
          Huertgen or Luxembourg.

          After a drive over icy roads which were overcrowded with
          traffic, we found ourselves looking eastward toward the
          Schnee Eifel. We were once again on what we called the
          Skyline Drive, a scenic road which overlooked the valley
          between us and the Siegfried Line. The commander of the
          First Battalion at that time was Major Lewis W. (Bill)
          Leemey, who had been battalion Executive Officer. He was
          both energetic and imaginative and made an excellent
          battalion commander, whom the company commanders
          respected. (Letzelter had gone one day to the aid station
          with a severe headache and never returned to the battalion.)

          Since Ralph Thomas, the battalion S-3, and I had been in
          the fortified area in September, we went over the map and
          briefed Major Leemey on the lay of the land. After thinking
          a moment, he decided that the battalion would break all the
          rules of behavior for Americans. Instead of attacking at
          dawn along a road after an artillery preparation, we would
          attack at night along a stream bed without an artillery
          preparation. He approved, however, my suggestion to fire
          light artillery at road junctions behind the German lines, in
          the hope of disrupting their telephone communications.

          The attack was far more successful than we could even
          hope. Using the oldest trick in warfare, the first troops had
          German speaking men in the lead. When challenged by a
          German sentry, they replied in German that they were a
          returning patrol. After killing the sentry, two companies
          assembled in the German lines. At dawn, they attacked
          north and south. When, at noon, Leemey asked them by
          radio for their locations, he thought they had made a
          mistake and asked them to repeat the coordinates. When
          they confirmed them, we realized they had cleared several
          miles of the fortifications. In doing this, they took 138
          prisoners and had only one casualty.

          One reason for this success was a procedure used for
          attacking pillboxes, which came from the knowledge gained
          in September. The trick was to approach the pillbox from
          the rear, where there were no embrasures for the Germans
          to fire from. Climbing to the top, soldiers would drop white
          phosphorus grenades down the air shaft. Anyone inside
          would promptly come out, with his hands up.

          Another reason for this success was that the German line
          was manned by the 326th Volksgrenadier Division, a poorly
          trained unit which had been fighting since December 16 and
          was only a skeleton. Most of those poor souls were by that
          time thoroughly tired of the war. They would fire as long as
          they felt safe but surrender promptly when they felt
          threatened.

          At one point, we occupied a farm which we had also used
          in September. At that time, we got along very well with the
          farm woman, who would bake cakes for us with flour we
          furnished. By the time we returned in February, Eisenhower
          had issued his non-fraternization policy. This meant we
          could only speak to Germans on business. Noting the
          change in behavior of the men, the woman asked me, "Why
          are your men so unfriendly, Captain? Are they angry
          because our soldiers chased them out of here in December?"

          Another scene was not so amusing. I came across a field in
          which an artillery battery had been located. The guns were
          still there, and equipment was scattered all over the place.
          Clearly, the Germans had caught our troops by surprise and
          overrun it easily. The battery was in the same position one
          of ours had occupied in September, not far from the front
          lines. Had it been further back, it might not have been
          captured.
          END EXCERPT

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

Date:    Sat, 11 Feb 1995 10:55:39 -0800
From:    Jim Curry <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: GEN: JOHN TOLAND GULLIBLE?

Hello,John!
I realized my statement about John Toland might stir up some controversy.
Nevertheless it is a conclusion reached after reading most of  Toland's
books over many years.  The most telling example I can give is _Infamy:
Pearl Harbor and Its Aftermath_,published in 1982.  In this book Toland
argues that Roosevelt  knew all about  the Pearl Harbor attack in
advance,and that the Japanese attack force was actually tracked by
radio intercepts--despite the well-known fact that Nagumo's force observed
strict radio silence throughout their voyage!  Toland based his whole  thesis
on second- hand information from one person he interviewed, despite
overwhelming evidence already available that he was being told nonsense.
Toland has a Japanese wife, and seems unusually ready to accept Japanese
testimony as to their motives for going to war with the United States.
Take a look at _The Rising Sun_, his history of the war in the Pacific.
In this book Toland on one hand includes a vivid description  of the
Bataan Death March and on the other justifies the Japanese aggression
which led to this atrocity to an extent that should outrage all those
who objected to the Smithsonian Institution's plans for the Enola Gay
exhibit. Toland does show less indulgence for the Nazis, but has been
published on at least one occasion in the journal of the Institute for
Historical Review, the notorious Holocaust-revisionist organization.
Getting back to his interviews, Toland seems more interested in lively
first-hand accounts of events than critical analysis -which leads to
good narratives, but not always good history.
 Jim Curry

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

Date:    Sat, 11 Feb 1995 14:20:13 -0500
From:    David Rising <[email-masked]>
Subject: Smithsonian Still Doesn't Get It

The following is an article that was in the Feb. 7 edition of the Boston
Globe that I thought may be of interest. It is reprinted without
permission strictly for academic discussion. All typo's are  my own. It
was originally run with the above headline.
David Rising

By Jeff Jacoby, Globe Staff

    To hear Smithsonian Institution Secretary Michael Heyman tell it, all
that really marred the exhibit scheduled for the 50th anniversary of the
Enola Gay's bombing of Hiroshima was its ambition.

   In announcing last week that the exhibit would be scrapped, Heyman
confessed to a "number of regrets" and agreed that the planned exhibit
suffered from a "fundamental flaw." But he was not referring to the acrid
anti-American
mindset that permeated the curators' script. Or for its suggestion that
the bombing of Hiroshima was motivated by racism. Or for the museum's
choice of 103 photographs to convey how people suffered in the Pacific War
- 96 of Japanese victims, seven of American.

   The "fundamental flaw" to which Heyman alluded was not the blinkered
revisionism crystallized in a statement that was part of the exhibit's
original text: "For most Americans, this . . . was a war of vengeance. For
most Japanese, it was a war to defend their unique culture against Western
imperialism." His "regrets" were not over the decision to portray Japan as
the chief victim in the Pacific and America as the chief aggressor.

   No - Heyman was simply sorry that the Smithsonian had tried to do too
much. "We made a basic error in attempting to couple a historical
treatment of the use of atomic weapons with the 50th anniversary
commemoration of the end of the war."

   Talk about missing the point.

   But then, missing the point - and ending up with politically correct
absurdities and diatribes - is becoming a Smithsonian specialty. Its 1991
exhibit on the American West depicted the pioneers as murderous brutes.
Its
recent television documentary on New Guinea cannibals commented admiringly
that Americans "can learn from people like this."

   The Smithsonian's newest exhibit - "Science in American Life" - manages
to cover nonscience bunkum like phrenology, the racist misuse of IQ tests,
society's failure to encourage girls to become scientists, DDT and -
naturally - mushroom clouds and radiation burns. What it omits, writes the
Washington Post's Joel Achenbach, is "the point that science and
technology meant, for millions of people, liberation from backbreaking
manual labor, from drudgery, from worrying that your child would die or be
crippled by polio."

    Both houses of Congress are planning hearings on the Smithsonian's
operations. Perhaps these will shed light on the intellectual termites
that are eating away at the institution's integrity.

   Meanwhile, Heyman's remarks sent me back to the letters I received last
summer following a column on the Enola Gay exhibit. The bombing of
Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, I'd written, had made the world a better place.
Many readers wrote with memories. A tiny sample:

   Gerard Bruggink, Skipperville, Ala. - "I was one of many POWs whose
lives were saved by the atomic blasts. I was part of a group of 400
prisoners who
had to build defensive structures on a Japanese airfield in East Thailand.
Our small camp was surrounded by antiaircraft guns. On three corners there
were also machine-gun positions pointing toward the camp. The first drop
of Allied paratroops would have sealed our fate. Fortunately for us and
millions of other people, the bombs brought the Emperor to his senses."

   George Duffy, Seabrook Beach, N.H. - "In April 1945, I was a prisoner
of the Japanese, building a railway through the jungle of central Sumatra.
In my diary of April 27, I wrote, 'Another two months and they'll not be
able to bury the dead fast enough.' On the 30th I wrote, 'Deaths in this
camp for the month totaled 106.' For the record, 692 prisoners of war died
during the construction of this 137.5-mile railway. The bombs put a halt
to the misery."

   John Hagan, Stamford, Conn. - "I can attest: I was an infantry platoon
leader (89th Div., 354th Reg., L Co.) who luckily survived combat in
Europe and who was slated to participate as part of the Japan invasion. I
thank God every day for Harry Truman and the atom bomb."

   William Arrington, Orrville, Ala. - "I was a rifleman in the 2d Marine
Division, on the east coast of Okinawa. We were sitting ducks in LSTs,
Higgins boats and amphibious tractors for days, drowning Nip Zeros and
Kamikaze pilots.  I can't say how long we were there; each day seemed like
forever. After the
second bomb was dropped, our division was sent to Kyushu to disarm the
Imperial Marines, which were headquartered there. The pumpkin dropped on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki saved hundreds of thousands of American GIs. I saw
many gun emplacements all along the coast, indicating a strong defense
against amphibious assaults on the beaches."

   Don Lindstrom, Oregon, Wis. - "In July 1945 we received notice that our
ship was to make ready for sailing to an Okinawa massing of the Pacific
fleet. I would have been directly in on the first-invasion carnage, had it
been necessary. I thank everyone from President Truman on down for the
dropping of the A-bombs. They cut short the war. My wife, four children,
and nine grandchildren would not be here today had I not survived."

   Doris Conway, Scranton, Pa. - "Yes, we did dance for joy when the bomb
was dropped, we who had a loved one returning. But it was more than that.
We understood that our way of life and liberty had been threatened. It
makes me wonder who's running the Smithsonian."

   Me too, Mrs. Conway. Me too.

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

Date:    Sat, 11 Feb 1995 14:32:57 EST
From:    Mary Hricko <[email-masked]>
Subject: OSS Addresses

Hello everyone,

        Does anyone have the address and telephone of the AFIO?
        (Association of Former Intelligence Officers)

        I am in the process of tracking down some Jedburghs and
   would like to post something in the AFIO Bulletin. Thanks.

                                                             Mary

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

Date:    Sat, 11 Feb 1995 16:01:09 -0500
From:    Cheryl Abdullah <[email-masked]>
Subject: The Invasion of the Yanks (fwd)

1.  As of Saturday afternoon, the first part of Roy Howard's WWII summary
is still floating in cyberspace.  Sorry--I beamed it to you before I sent the
second part, which the list got yesterday.

2.  To Burt Knight and anyone else interested in the one Vietnam personal
summary for Westerly that I have: I just can't put it up on WWII-L, please
send me your private e-address and ask for the Vietnam summary IF you don't
post to VW-L or MILHST-L (where I will post it).

3.  Attached is something from HUMOR-L that apparently never made it to
this list.  Enjoy!

Cheryl                                    [email-masked]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 23 Jan 1995 00:54:12 EST
From: KEITH E SULLIVAN <[email-masked]>
To: Multiple recipients of list HUMOR <[email-masked]>
Subject: The Invasion of the Yanks

This poem was given to me by a British woman I worked with during "my"
American military tour of England.  I hope you enjoy it.

THE INVASION OF THE YANKS

Dear old England's not the same.
We dreaded the invasion, still it came.
Though it's not the beastly Hun,
the goddamn Yanky Army's come.
We see them on the train and bus,
there isn't room for both of us.
We walk and let them have our seats
and then get knocked down by a jeep.
With admiration we would stare
at all the ribbons the Yanks do wear.
We think of deeds so brave and daring
that won those ribbons they are wearing.
But alas they hadn't fought the Hun,
no glorious battles have they won.
That pretty ribbon just denotes
they crossed the sea, brave men in boats.
They laugh at us for drinking tea,
but a funnier sight you'll never see
than a gum chewing Yank with a dumb looking face,
he'd raise a laugh most any place.
They moan about our luke warm beer,
say beer's like water over here.
Yet after having two or more
we find them lying on the floor.
You should see them try to dance,
they pull and hug and strut and prance.
When you're half-dead they stop and smile
and say "how you doin', honey chil'".
It's enough to make Red Indians jealous
but Yanks are so civilized, so they tell us.
They will tell you, you have teeth like pearls,
they love your hair, the way it curls,
your eyes would dim the brightened star,
you're competition for Heddy Lamar.
You are their love, their life, 'til death do part,
But if you love them, they'll break your heart.
For there they leave you, broken hearted,
the camp has moved, your love departed.
You'll wait for mail that will never come
and then you realise you were awfully dumb.
For in a different town, in a different place
with a different girl with a different face
"I love you, honey, please be mine",
the same old Yank, the same old line.

Written in 194? and recited by Barbara Telford, who lived in a sleepy
little town with a population of under 2,000 when over 6,000 Americans
arrived to wake that little town up!  _God bless America_.

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

Date:    Sat, 11 Feb 1995 13:58:30 -0800
From:    Pedro A Loureiro <[email-masked]>
Subject: Assoc. of Former Intell. Officers Address

        This is in response to your request for the address and phone
number of AFIO.  It was been several years since I last corresponded with
them, so I am not sure if it is still accurate.

        Association of Former Intelligence Officers
        McLean Office Building
        6723 Whittier Avenue
        Suite 303A
        McLean Virginia  22101
        Phone: (703) 790-0320

        Best of luck!

Pedro Loureiro

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

Date:    Sat, 11 Feb 1995 15:39:38 -0800
From:    Sidney Allinson <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: OSS Addresses

Mary...

        "The Periscope"
        Association of Former Intelligence Officers
        6723 Whittier Avenue
        Suite 303A
        McLean, VA 22101.

Regards -- Sidney.

--

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

Date:    Sat, 11 Feb 1995 18:34:53 EST
From:    Alan Wild <[email-masked]>
Subject: INF: 3rd Army Chronology - 10Feb45ers Address

February 10, 1945
D-Day +249

-A total of 3000 civilian laborers and 550 POWs were used to maintaina
 and reconstruct roads. With the Corps' vehicular movement and the thaw,
 mud became a real problem. Air drops were used to supply units not
 available to rail lines.

-III Corps, 6th Armored began relieveing 17th Airborne. III Corps was
 past from 3rd Army control to First Army. VIII Corps took over their
 zone.

-VIII Corps, 11th Armored cleared pillboxes, 90th Inf Div captures Weinsfeld,
 3 miles southeast of Prum. 4th Inf Div attacks Prum from the west.taT

-XII Corps enlarges bridgehead and clears Biesdorf.

-Heavy fighting south in Sinz in XX Corps area. 94th Inf Div repulseshalty
 counterattacks with tanks destroyers knocking out 4 enemy tanks.,
 26th Inf Div attacks at night with use of search lights, occupying. by
 several blocks of buildings in Saarlautern, Roden, and Fraulautern.

-XIX TAC flew 136 sorties claiming 37 vehicles, 131 railroad cars, 4 bridges,
 and 17 buildings in 13 towns.

-Electrical power was restored to Bouzonville, Veckring, Kedange, and 11
 other smaller towns.

***Source: _Patton's Third Army, A Chronology_ by Charles Province.

Alan Wild, Sr. Prog/Analyst
ACC - Lippitt - URI
Kingston, RI  02881

American Legion, Post 102
I am the NRA.

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

Date:    Sat, 11 Feb 1995 18:50:28 EST
From:    Alan Wild <[email-masked]>
Subject: INF: 3rd Army Chronology - 11Feb45ers Address

February 11, 1945
D-Day +250

-VIII Corps, 11th Armored attacks and captures Harspelt and Sevenig.
 90th Inf Div captures Watzerath. 4th Inf Div, 22nd Inf Regiment eneters
 western section of Prum while other 4th Inf Div units encircle it.

-XIX TAC flew 171 sorties, claiming 210 railroad cars, 21 buildings,
 and 11 locomotives.l

-Bulk gasoline arriving from ComZ increased fuel on hand to 4.5 million
 gallons.

***

Alan Wild, Sr. Prog/Analyst
ACC - Lippitt - URI
Kingston, RI  02881

American Legion, Post 102
I am the NRA.

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

Date:    Sat, 11 Feb 1995 18:57:07 EST
From:    Alan Wild <[email-masked]>
Subject: INF: 3rd Army Chronology - 12Feb45ers Address

February 12, 1945
D-Day + 251

-VIII Corps, 6th Cavalry fought outside of Viaden on the west side of the
 Our River. 4th Inf Div, 22nd, 8th, and 12th Inf Regiments cleared Prum.

-XII Corps, 5th Inf Div captured Ferschweiler and Ammeldingen.

-No missions flown by XIX TAC.

-Prince Felix of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg toured Clervaux and
 expressed deep appreciation for the assitance given by army detachments
 at work assisting civilians in the duchy.

***Source: _Patton's Third Army, A Chronology_ by Charles Province.
   Typos: mine.

Alan Wild, Sr. Prog/Analyst
ACC - Lippitt - URI
Kingston, RI  02881

American Legion, Post 102
I am the NRA.

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

Date:    Sat, 11 Feb 1995 19:21:17 EST
From:    Alan Wild <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: 3rd Army Chronologies

'Appologies for the typos... I'm on the learning curve with a new SLIP
application,... some mathematicians would say my curve was a flat line. ;-)

-Alan

Alan Wild, Sr. Prog/Analyst
ACC - Lippitt - URI
Kingston, RI  02881

American Legion, Post 102
I am the NRA.

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

Date:    Sat, 11 Feb 1995 19:28:28 EST
From:    Alan Wild <[email-masked]>
Subject: GEN: Excerpt from _A Soldier's Story

   "While waiting for the Roer to settle, I paced impatiently through the
corridors of the boroque palace that haoused our CP in Namur. There the
provincial govenor's ornate drawing room had been converted into an office
for me. A huge 20-foot map board was mounted on the frescoed wall between
2 clusters of smirking cherubs. A crystal chandelier hung over my desk and
a magnificent oriental carpet padded my footsteps as I paced before the map.
The city of Namur had been occuppied by ADSEC, a front-line satellite of
ComZ, before we arrived. The staff had good-naturedly yielded its priority
rights in the town to make room for EAGLE TAC.

   "EAGLE TAC!", the explaimed after we had exercised the privalges that go
with seniority and moved in. "You should change it to EAGLE TOOK!".

   Once before I had passed an evening in the ADSEC billet at the Hotel
Harscamp in Namur while motoring back to Luxembourg from First Army. I
recall the name of that hotel clearly. It was dusk and we had stopped to
inquire of a G.I. the the way to the Harscamp.

   "Whore's camp?" At first he looked puzzled but then he brightened with the
thought, "say-d'ya mean they really got one here?"

-Gen. Omar Bradley, Commander of Twelfth Army Group

(I thought Sidney might enjoy this one ;-)

-Alan

Alan Wild, Sr. Prog/Analyst
ACC - Lippitt - URI
Kingston, RI  02881

American Legion, Post 102
I am the NRA.

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

Date:    Sat, 11 Feb 1995 17:02:01 -0800
From:    Ed Kettler <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: BURNING ITCH OF NAPALM

You wrote:

>
>If I recall correctly, napalm was first used in combat in the Tinian
operation,
>when Air Corps planes dropped containers holding the mixture. Because
the mix
>had not been entirely correct, the results were somewhat ineffective.
>Fortunately, the right mixture was developed and napalm became an
entirely
>effective weapon for subsequent Pacific operations, especially
beginning with
>Peleliu, when flame LVTs were employed against the caves there. Both
flame
>tanks and portable flamethrowers were most effective at Iwo and
Okinawa. Ben Fra
>nk
Ben,

Wasn't now Senator John Glenn involved in the testing and deployment of
Napalm during WW2?

Ed Kettler

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

Date:    Sat, 11 Feb 1995 21:13:23 -0500
From:    Burt Knight <[email-masked]>
Subject: Reunion Notice

Royal Air Force Cranwell Apprentices 8M3 50 Year Reunion
Any Ex 8M3 Apprentices, contact
John Smailes,
Highland Manor
Highland Drive
Brantford, Ont, Canada  N3T 5L7

Pass this along to anyone who may be or may know an ex RAF Apprentice

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

Date:    Sat, 11 Feb 1995 23:10:41 -0500
From:    Ben Frank <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: THE INVASION OF JA

Incidentally, Henry, Alperovitz will be peddling his propaganda at the Nimitz
conference in San Antonio in mid-March. As I will be there, I will be
interested in seeing what kind of response he gets. Regards, Ben.

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

Date:    Sat, 11 Feb 1995 23:12:47 -0500
From:    Ben Frank <[email-masked]>
Subject: JAPAN POSTS

I'm interested, Mike. I have found your postings on the Japanese die-hards
fascinating and interesting, as well as revealing. It causes one to pause and
ponder what would have happened had the plotters gained the upper hand and
prevented the emperor from broadcasting his message and Japan from
surrendering. Ben Frank

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

End of WWII-L Digest - 10 Feb 1995 to 11 Feb 1995
*************************************************