PzLdr History Facts

[PzLdr]

In May, 1942, Britain's war had been less than successful. She had been driven from western Europe in 1940, from southeastern Europe and the Aegean in the Spring of 1941, and the Japanese had taken Malaya, Singapore, Burma, and swept the Indian Ocean in early 1942. The only theaters the British were still active in were North Africa, where Rommel was in the process of running them out of Libya for the second time, the Atlantic, where the wolf packs were giving the royal Navy all it could handle, and the air space over western Europe. Morale was low. Very low. And Churchill needed something big. And General Arthur Harris, Chief of Bomber command gave it to him - Operation Millennium.

As with many bomber commanders, Harris was a disciple of Douhet, the Italian air prophet, who preached that wars would be won by fleets of bombers alone [Strangely, the Germans never produced a Harris. the closest they came was their first Air Chief of Staff, Walter Wever, who pushed for four engine heavy bombers up to his death, but only because of their extended range and heavier payloads. And perhaps the Germans never had a Harris because, unlike in Britain, the German Army was the Senior Service, not the stepchild the British Army was when it came to funding and power.

As much as for the public relations aspect, as the actual requirements of the operation, Harris decided on a "thousand plane raid". His first problem was that he didn't have 1,000 front line bombers. He had just north of 400. But Harris was a man not easily deterred. So he stripped his second line and even training formations of their aircraft and aircrew, to be able to field a bomber fleet just north of 1,000 planes. And then he loosed them on Cologne.

the raid was a spectacular success. Industrial and military targets were destroyed, over 400 German civilians were killed, a good portion of the city was put in ruins. And Harris won a gamble. His losses were ridiculously low, causing no significant disruption to his training cadres [Overuse of THEIR training formations, especially the Transport school instructors, had a cumulative and devastating effect on the Luftwaffe's transport and re-supply capability as the war went on].

The raid accomplished several, non-military objectives from Harris' view. First it raised morale in Britain. Second it put Bomber Command on a first name basis with Churchill, getting priority funding. And third, it served as a template for the use of massed bomber formations against large German targets [read 'cities' and 'urban areas'] for the rest of the war. the RAF gave up any thought of precision bombing for the rest of the war [except perhaps, for TIRPITZ]. And as the campaign developed, and was refined, as more heavy Lancasters came on line, so the training squadrons and second line formations were no longer needed, the results became more  horrific. They produced greater destruction, carnage and loss of life [including the highest percentage of lost lives of any British service]. What they did not produce was victory by air alone.

And as the war wore on, Harris found himself in greater and greater opposition to the other service chiefs, and his American Allies when they sought to divert his heavies to operations supporting Allied ground forces. Even Churchill began to back away from Harris. Their denoument was Dresden, a highly successful attack [including American formations] against a very questionable target. Shortly after, Bomber Command stopped the large raids started at Cologne [In reality there was little left to bomb]. But Harris' men paid another price for their success. They were the only not awarded their own campaign ribbon. And Harris, unlike Army counterparts like Slim and Montgomery, unlike Navy counterparts like Tovey, Cunningham and Fraser, unlike fellow RAF officers like Tedder, was never ennobled. And it all began in the skies over Cologne on 30 MAY 1942.

[PzLdr]

On this date, in 1962 former SS Obersturmbannfuehrer [LTC] Adolf Eichmann is hanged in Tel Aviv, Israel for crimes against humanity. Eichmann, from the SS SD, had been the head of Section 4 B 4 of the Gestapo [Jewish Affairs] during the Holocaust.

Eichmann, born in Germany, raised in Austria, had joined the SS in 1932. He was soon assigned to Heydrich's SD, where his career languished until the Anschluss of Austria.

One of Heydrich's remits was to force the tempo of Jewish emigration from the Reich, which now included Austria. Eichmann, sent ahead, set up a Central Office for Jewish Emigration, by having representatives from every agency necessary to process an emigration application in one building [there are claims from other SS officers that the idea was theirs]. It was a masterstroke. Emigration moved much quicker than it had, even in the Reich. And by concentrating all aspects of the process in one place, Eichmann was able to oversee the operation, 'tweak' its efficiency', and force wealthier Jews to pay extra to allow poorer Jews to pay the exorbitant fees required to emigrate.

Eichmann set up a similar office when the Germans seized Czechoslavakia in 1939, with similar results. And under Heydrich's patronage, his career took off. By 1942, Eichmann was an SS Sturmbannfuehrer [MAJ], and responsible to Heydrich for organizing, and acting as Secretary to, the Wannsee Conference  in Berlin. At that conference, organized along the lines of the Emigration office, but this time involving representatives of the appropriate Reich agencies, Heydrich unfolded the plans for the "Final Solution of the Jewish Problem", i.e, a Nazi euphemism for the Holocaust. Eichmann then distributed edited copies of the minutes to all the participants with orders that they be destroyed after being read [all were, except the copy of Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Martin Luther].

Eichmann became the 'expert' on the Jews in the Gestapo and its parent organization, the RSHA. He studied [with no great success] Hebrew, and interviewed Rabbis with an eye to advancing his career.

But that career took both a hit and a push with Heydrich's assassination in Prague later in 1942. RSHA was run for almost a year by Himmler himself, then taken over by Ernst Kaltenbrunner. Yet while Eichmann had lost his patron, the developing Holocaust allowed Eichmann to use his formidable organizational skills in facilitating the mission of the SS - to kill all the Jews in Europe. Eichmannn ran  the transports, coordinating visits by his assistants to allied and occupied countries to gain access to Jews; to SS, police and military formations, as well as foreign governments to concentrate the Jews near railheads; with the rail systems of the Reich and other countries to transport the Jews to the death camps, work camps, and other execution sites in the east; and with the receiving authorities at the other end.

Eichmann spent a lot of time between 1942 and 1945 on the road, visiting the camps, etc., but his most notorious sojourns occurred in 1944 in Hungary, when he personally supervised the shipment, to their deaths, of some 400,000 plus Hungarian Jews  to Auschwitz.

With the Reich collapsing, Eichmann made his plans. He destroyed, or had destroyed, all photos of himself [except one he missed, given to a mistress - who gave it to the Allies]. He then merged into the masses of surrendering German soldiers in a non SS uniform, and with false papers. Interned by the Americans, who were unaware of who he was, Eichmann, escaped. Eichmann hid for a period of time in Germany itself, as a farm laborer. But when the chance came, and the search for him heated up, Eichmann took the 'rat line', over the Alps to Genoa, and with the help of a Croatian priest, sailed to Argentina on a refugee passport. And there as Rudolfo Klement, he stayed.

Eichmann was eventually joined by his family. And that was a mistake. One of his sons met a girl who recognized him from Germany. When visiting the family, she recognized his father. And soon, the Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency was on his trail.

The Israelis, realizing that Argentina would most likely never extradite Eichmann, kidnapped him instead. He was flown to Israel, where his capture was announced, and a trial was set. It became world famous as the trial of "The Man in the Glass Cage" [the title of a play based on the trial]. The cage, holding Eichmann, was made of bullet proof glass for his protection, and manned by two policemen to protect him. Eichmann was provided with translation head phones, and allowed to freely consult with counsel. the trial was fair, but the result was a foregone conclusion. Refusing Eichmann's 'only following orders' defense, the Court found him guilty, and sentenced him to death by hanging.

On 31 May 1962, former SS LTC Adolf Eichmann was hanged near Tel Aviv. His body was them cremated, the ashes placed aboard an Israeli naval vessel, carried outside Israel's territorial waters, and dumped into the Mediterranean Sea.   

[PzLdr]

They were a sect of Shiite Muslims that held the Middle East and the Crusader States in fear for over two centuries. They took their name from an Arabic word for hashish, which they used in their recruitment/ brainwashing sessions. They developed political terrorism to unrivaled heights. And their actions led to the destruction of Baghdad, the Abbasid Caliphate, and almost resulted in the extinction of Muslim power in the world.

The Assassins were the creation of a Hassan al Shabba, a Shiite scholar, and a member of a schismatic sect within a sect of Shiites. Be that as it may, the dominant Muslim power then, as now, were the Sunnis. Shabba realized that he and his followers could not confront the sunnis militarily. Nor could they influence them with their religious arguments. So Shabba resorted to asymetrical warfare to accomplish his goals.

The first step the Ismailis undertook was to acquire defensible  real estate. So they captured/ bought coerced a series of fortresses, but remote fortresses, the most famous being Alamut [in time the head of the order became known as "The Old Man of Alamut"]. Step two required recruitment of assassins. But not merely killers. The Assassins were known for remaining over their victim after a successful hit, and allowing themselves to be killed.

And the way hat was accomplished involved drugging recruits, and taking them, unconscious to the roof of the fortress, where the candidate's idea of paradise [including 72 non-Virgins] awaited him. And after a night of fun and frolic, the candidate awoke back where he was before he passed out, with promises of more to come if he died for the Order.

The preferred weapon of the Assassins was a double edged, curved knife. They were trained extensively in its use, and it was both easy to conceal, and drew no attention when not concealed, in a society of knife carrying tribesman, guards, merchants, etc.

The Assassins also made great use of deep cover [both agents and assassins], and intelligence gathering. Some assassins spent months, if not longer, with their intended victim, waiting only for the order to kill.

Their record of successes was formidable. They penetrated Saladin's inner sanctum and left a knife as a  warning. They murdered both Sunni and Christian leaders in the holy Land. But then, as they say, pride goeth before a fall. And between 1255 and 1258, the Assassins fell far and hard.

For reasons not readily discernable, the Grand Master ordered a team [some say four, some say forty] of his killers to ride to Karakorum and kill Mongke Qa Quan, grandson of Genghis Khan, and Supreme Ruler of the Mongol Empire. They failed.

Mongke responded by sending his brother Hulegu south, with an army of a couple of hundred thousand troops. Hulegu took ALL the fortresses the Assassins held [his job was made easier by his capture of the then Grand Master, and the latter's cooperation, seeking to keep his life (he didn't). And then Hulegu rode south to Baghdad, seat of the Abbasid Caliphate. Hulegu took Baghdad, killed the Caliph, and rode west into Syria, the Holy Land, and eventually the area south of the Dead Sea on his way to Egypt.

Islam was spared by the death of Mongke on campaign in China. The normally extended process of picking a successor was further complicated by a civil war between Hulegu's two brothers, Qublai and Ariq Boka. Hulegu was summoned to help his brother Qublai succeed to the Suprme Khanate. So he left one tuman, under his best general, Kedboga, facing the Muslims while he rode east.

Hulegu never got back to Mongolia. The Golden horde of Russia had converted to Islam under their new Khan, Berke. He was furious that Hulegu had killed the Caliph. On a more practical level, he wanted Azerbaijan [held by Hulegu], for his horse herds. Warfare erupted between the Golden Horde and the Il-Khanate [Hulegu]. And it was while Hulegu was distracted that the Mamelukes of Egypt met, and defeated Kedboga at Ain Jalut in 1260. Mongol power turned in on itself, and Islam was spared.

And the Ismaili? The sect still exists [non-lethally] today. their 'grand master' is known as the Aga Khan. In the 20th century, one of the Aga Khasns was married to Rita Heyworth

[PzLdr]

William Quantrill, chief of the notorious 'Quantrill's Raiders', at one time 'Primus inter Pares' among the Confederate guerilla chieftains in Missouri, and architect of the raid on Lawrence, Kansas, dies of wounds received in a surprise attack by Union guerillas in Kentucky.

Quantrill, born in Ohio had, at times been a school teacher and a teamster. While employed as the latter, he fell in with southerners on a drive to Utah, and returned to the Kansas-Missouri border as a Southern sympathizer.

When war broke out, Quantrill served, initially, with the Confederate State militia, but after they were driven from the state, Quantrill joined the burgeoning 'bushwhacker' [southern guerillas, as opposed to the 'Jayhawkers, union guerillas from Kansas] movement.

Quantrill showed a real flair for guerilla warfare, and as the war progressed, he showed solid successes, rising in the ranks of Bushwhacker leaders [He was commissioned a Captain under the Partisan Ranger Act by the Confederacy].

Quantrill reached his apogee in 1863 when he led some 450 troops [300 guerillas, 150 regulars -who did NOT take part in the action], against Lawrence, Kansas, the state capitol. During a day of slaughter and flame, the rebels murdered some 160 men and boys, and razed the town. Quantrill re-crossed the border, some 50 miles distant, with the loss of only one man.

Yet by the Spring of 1864, Quantrill's world was in tatters. in the aftermath of Lawrence, and Baxter Springs, Quantrill lost his Captaincy. He also lost his status when his lieutenant, George Todd faced him down for command of his raiders, and 'Bloody Bill' Anderson, one of his subordinates, took his gang and left. Quantrill went north with some six men.

1864 was largely quiet for Quantrill. He cooperated with Anderson and Todd in the follow up ambush to the Centralia Massacre [Anderson's work], and joined in an attack on a Union blockhouse he counseled against [the guerillas lost].

By 1865, Quantrill headed east, abandoning Missouri. Both Todd and Anderson were already dead. Quantrill got as far as a barn in Kentucky where he, and his small band of followers [including Frank James] were surprised by Union guerillas. In their efforts to escape, Quantrill was severely wounded. Taken to a local hospital, Quantrill lingered until June 6th, when, having converted to Roman Catholicism, he died.

And that might have been the endof the story, but for the finding of Quantrill's skull in an Ohio college fraternity house in the early 1960s, where it was used in fraternity rituals. William Clarke Quantrill's skull was buried, with military honors, once recovered.

[PzLdr]

For the first time since the war of 1812, U.S. sovereign territory is occupied by hostile troops.

As part of the Midway operation, and as the price for their participation, Japanese  Imperial Army troops occupy the two western most Aleutian islands, Attu and Kiska. They do so for two purposes. the first, is to act as a diversion from the centerpiece of the operation, the attack on, and occupation of, the island of Midway. In that they fail, inasmuch U.S. naval codebreakers have already determined Midway is the main objective. Additionally, by the time the Army does occupy the islands, the Imperial Japanese Navy has suffered a defeat of epic proportions, losing the four active carriers of the Kido Butai [KAGA, AKAGI, SORYU AND HIRYU.  The two remaining carriers of the Pearl Harbor attack, SHOKAKU and ZUIKAKU, are in Japan.

The second reason for the occupation is to prevent U.S. air power from attacking Japan from the north; an attack that never takes place.

The U.S army, under GEN Simon Bolivar UIII [the son of the Confederate general of the same name], eventually counterattacks in 1943, but the Japanese are withdrawn by the Navy in heavy fog.

The greatest significance of the Alaska operation for the Japanese, possibly, is the diversion of two light aircraft carriers to cover the invasion. those carriers carried over 20 'Zero' fighters, which turned out to be sorely needed by the Kido Butai further south during the Battle of Midway.

Japan will 'attack the U.S again, later in the war with bomb armed hot air balloons. One will kill several civilians who discover it, downed,  in the Pacific northwest.

[PzLdr]

On this date in 1967, air and naval elements of the Israeli armed forces attack the U.S.S LIBERTY in international waters in the eastern Mediterranean Sea.

The LIBERTY, an electronic surveillance ship, openly displaying American flags and markings is first attacked by Israeli jet aircraft, using missiles and bombs. They also jam her radio signals for help [Rescue aircraft, launched from a U.S carrier when her SOS is received, are recalled by Washington before arriving on scene] Subsequently, she is attacked by Israeli torpedo boats and other naval vessels, receiving at least one torpedo hit. Crewmen in lifeboats are subjected to machine gun fire. When LIBERTY refuses to sink, despite the serious damage from the torpedo, the Israelis withdraw. LIBERTY subsequently makes it to port.

The attack costs the U.S Navy over 30 dead, and over 100 wounded. Israel, claiming the attack was an error, caused by mistaking LIBERTY for an Egyptian vessel, offers almost seven million dollars in compensation. To this day, the cause of the attack haven never been cleared up.

[PzLdr]

Cochise, chief of the Chohoken Chiricahua Apaches dies on his reservation on 8 JUN 1874. Cochise had risen to the chieftainship before the Civil War, and allied with his father-in-law, Mangas Coloradus, chief of the Chihenne or Mimbreno Chiricahua Apaches, dominated the Chiricahua bands in southeastern Arizona, western New Mexico, and northern Mexico.

Cochise fought one of the longest segments of the U.S-Apache Wars [1860-1872], fighting the U.S. Army, the Confederate Army, settlers, militias and Mexicans, after he, his brother and other notables of his band were taken under a flag of truce during the Bascomb affair. Cochise escaped, but the others did not, and were hanged by the army.

During his war. Cochise [and Mangas] fought one set piece battle [apache Pass], which they lost. But between the Army's withdrawal to fight the civil War, and Cochise's brilliance at asymetrical warfare [only Victorio was better]. the Apaches were more than holding their own when MG O.O. Howard, rode to Cochise's Stronghold with Cochise's friend, Tom Jeffords, to negotiate a peace. Cochise was allowed to pick his own reservation, and Indian agent, Jeffords [memorialized in both the movie and TV series of the same title, "Broken  Arrow"]. Cochise remained at peace until his death, probably from stomach cancer. It was the longest interregnum in the Apache Wars.

Cochise was succeeded first by his eldest son, Tazai, who didn't shortly afterwards. Tazai was succeeded by his younger brother, Naiche, who fell under the influence, for many years, of Geronimo, Naiche eventually grew into his father's mocassins, as they say, when the Apache were allowed to return from their Florida-Alabama  exile after Gerronimo's surrender in 1886.

[apples]

Wow...great info,  thank you for posting.

[PzLdr]

By early June, 1863, Robert E. Lee was putting the finishing touches on his planned, second incursion into the territory of the United States. His infantry was concentrating in the north of Virginia, in preparation for moving north into Maryland and Pennsylvania behind the Blue ridge Mountains, and his Cavalry Corps, under MG James Ewell Brown "JEB" Stuart was gathered in the vicinity of Brandy Station, from where it could screen Lee's movement from prying Union eyes, protect the right flank of Lee's army, and gather intelligence on the Army of the Potomac.

Stuart being Stuart, no encampment would be complete without spectacle. so Stuart held not one, but two grand reviews of his cavalry [the second, on June 8th, was for Lee], complete with spit, polish and simulated cavalry charges. The reviews were well attended, with both civilian and military attendees. Unfortunately for Stuart, some of those attendees, unobserved, and uninvited, were scouts for the newly constituted Cavalry Corps of the Army of the Potomac [MG Alfred Pleasanton]. And they rode back to their general [a VERY short distance, and reported on the festivities. and Pleasanton decided to conduct a review of his own.

Up until Joseph hooker's assumption of command of the Army of the Potomac after Fredericksburg, there were two things common to the Union cavalry in the East. First, they were never a unified command, being, rather, parceled out for escort, courier and picket duty, the length and breadth of the Army. Second, they were constantly, and monotonously beaten at every phase of cavalry operations by Stuart's men. To say the Rebels had a moral ascendancy over their blue coated opponent was an understatement. They had an absolute ascendancy.

Hooker started to deal with that by pulling all his cavalry regiments together into brigades and divisions under one headquarters. He then decided to have his cavalry beard the lion, as it were, partially to raise morale, partially to gather intelligence. Hooker was aware Lee was up to something, but he didn't know what it was. And he couldn't commit the Army of the Potomac one way or another until he did. So he ordered Pleasanton to reconnoiter to the west, and find out what Lee was up to. Pleasanton decided to fufill Hooker's orders, with an operation of his own - an attack on Stuart.

The plan was ambitious, perhaps too ambitious,  a pincer attack from two directions, with Stuart between the pincers. Yet it started well enough, at least from one side.

The Union cavalry caught the Confederates unaware, driving in their pickets, and then driving Stuart and his headquarters staff from Stuart's headquarters near Fleetwood Hill. But the second pincer moved too slowly, and got bogged down with a now alert Rebel cavalry. A fortuitous Confederate artillery piece caused a Union attack to falter, and rallying his men, Stuart counterattacked.

The battle, or rather battles, raged all afternoon, with sabers, charges, and countercharges. By the end of the day, Stuart held the position on Fleetwood hill, while the Union cavalry made an orderly withdrawal. Stuart may, or may not have been supported by Confederate infantry at the tail end of the battle. Pleasanton may, or may not have observed Rebel infantry marching north. Nevertheless, Brandy Station had cataclysmic results. First, Stuart's ascendancy over the union cavalry was over. For the first time, they had given as good as they got. They had withdrawn at their leisure, after fighting Stuart to a standstill all afternoon. And within a month, they would soundly defeat him at Runnel's Farm east of Gettysburg. Second, Stuart, the golden boy of the Southern press, came under withering criticism for the battle, for being unaware an enemy cavalry Corps was in his vicinity, for wasting his time on reviews, and for narrowly averting a catastrophic defeat that could have thrown Lee's plans into disarray.

And smarting from that criticism, Stuart took it upon himself, to loosely interpret lee's already loosely  structured orders to guard Lee's flank, and attempt a third ride around the Union Army, with a result that Lee went north blind as to the location of the Army of the Potomac until he blundered into it at Gettysburg. and Stuart missed the first two days of the battle, arriving only on the afternoon of July 2d, having been attacked, harried and obstructed by the newly rejuvenated cavalry of the Army of the Potomac. And while Brandy Station did nothing for Stuart's reputation, it led to the promotion of three Union cavalry captains to the rank of Brigadier General: Elon Farnsworth [killed July 3d], Wesley Merritt, and George Armstrong Custer. Custer would whip Stuart at Runnel's Farm, and within less than a year, one of his men would kill Stuart at Yellow Tavern. Custer would go on to be the youngest MG in the U.S. Army. Merritt would go to senior command at the end of the 19th century. and it all hinged on the largest cavalry battle ever fought in north America - Brandy Station.

[PzLdr]

It opens and closes the epic "World at War" series. Aerial shots of the ruined village, with Lawrence Olivier's voiceover, tell briefly of the afternoon of June 10th, 1944, when death came calling to a village in southern France, near Tulle.

In the Spring of 1944, the 2d SS Panzer division, "DAS REICH" was deployed in southern France, in the Central Massif, hunting guerillas, and rebuilding for future operations, when it received orders on 6 June, to deploy to Normandy to fight the allied invasion. the French Resistance decided to impede the Division's northward march. The SS did not take kindly to the interference.

DAS REICH became bogged down, fighting ambushes, roadblocks, and rescuing the German garrison in Tulle. The march north slowed appreciably [It would slow to a crawl when it met Allied airpower further north. And then the underground seized an SS officer, either a company, or battalion commander from DAS REICH. He was never seen again. And apparently unaware that other elements of the Division were hanging 99 Frenchmen in Tulle [including the divisional commander, Hans Lammerding], the commander of another battalion marched to the town of Ouradur sur Glane with blood on their minds.

They surrounded the town, allowing people to enter, but not leave. They then put all the women and children in the Church, and took all the men and teen aged boys to various sites [usually] barns] where they machine gunned them, then set their bodies on fire. the church was dynamited, and anyone trying to escape was gunned down. then the town was largely razed. when they left that afternoon, the men of DAS REICH had killed over 600 people, and destroyed their town.

Reaction from the German High command was fast and furious. Rommel, and the General Commanding the area of the massacre demanded a court martial. The regimental commander of the DER FUEHRER opened an investigation and prepared charges. But the officer who commanded the massacre was killed in Normandy, along with many of the perpetrators, and the matter dropped.

During a war crimes trial in 1951, around twenty of the former SS men on trial were revealed to be Alsatians, and all but one claimed they were forced into both the Waffen SS and the massacre. The French Legislature pardoned them.

As for Ouradur sur Glane, Charles DeGaulle ordered that it not be rebuilt, but kept as a war memorial. A new Ouradur was built to the original's northwest, as was a museum. The ruins of Ouradur stand to this day.

[PzLdr]

Born in Iowa as Marion Morrison, he becomes one of the biggest movie stars of all time as John Wayne [The nickname 'Duke' goes back to his childhood, when his Airdale was known as 'Big duke', and he was known as 'Little duke'].

Wayne and his family moved to California when he was a child. A high school football star, he went to college on a scholarship, which he lost due to a leg injury. From there he graduated to moving props at a movie studio [with fellow classmates Ward Bond and Bob Steele], and eventually to acting, where Raoul Walsh named him John Wayne for his first starring role. The movie bombed.

Wayne labored through the '30s making two reelers, mostly westerns, but he did learn his craft. Wayne's breakout success came in 1959, in john ford's "STAGECOACH". And from there, Wayne went on to work with ford on some of the latter's most famous efforts, including the so-called Cavalry Trilogy [FORT APACHE, RIO GRANDE, AND SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON], THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE and THE QUIET MAN. Wayne also formed his own production company, starring in HONDO, THE ALAMO, McLINTOCK and THE GREEN BERETS. In his last film, THE SHOOTIST, Wayne portrayed an aging gunfighter, dying of cancer [art imitating life]. He won an Oscar for his portrayal of Rooster Cogburn in TRUE GRIT.

Wayne was offered, in the '50s, the leading role in a new TV western, GUNSMOKE. He turned it down, recommending James Arness for the role of Matt Dillon instead.

John Wayne became a cultural icon during his lifetime. He is still missed today. At least by me.

[PzLdr]

JEB Stuart is in the ground. Wade Hampton is now in command of the cavalry of the Army of Northern Virginia [and unlike Stuart, he will reach the rank of LTG]. And Phil Sheridan has decided to raid the RR depot at Trevilian Station, and do massive damage to Confederate logistics and railroad infrastructure.

Hampton learns of the Union cavalry movement early, but not early enough to stop the Union troopers from reaching Trevilian Station first. And leading the Union 3d Cavalry Division is one of Sheridan's favorite generals, George Armstrong Custer.

Custer sets about his mission quickly, destroying some 5 miles of track, burning some buildings and supplies. But Rebel cavalry not only appears to his front, but also behind him, and Custer, who has gotten far ahead of the rest of Sheridan's force [sound familiar?] finds himself surrounded.

Forming his men into a triangular formation, Custer fights off repeated enemy  attacks, until Sheridan appears, at which point Custer leads a breakout charge, and rejoins Sheridan, who withdraws. Union losses are some 25% lower than the Confederates, and neither side loses more than 750 casualties. However, Hampton's quick response, severely limits the damage the blue horsemen inflict, and Trevilian Station is running at full capacity within weeks. And, just perhaps, George Armstrong Custer got a hazy glimpse of his future.

[PzLdr]

He succeeded to the throne of Macedonia when his father, Philip II was assassinated by one of his bodyguards. Her was barely out of his teens when he did so. He inherited not only the kingdom, but the best, most innovative army in Europe, as well as leadership of the Delian League, a league of Greek city states led by Macedonia, as a result of conquest. He had served as commander of his father's heavy cavalry during the war with Greece, had been tutored by Aristotle as a youth, and destroyed the Persian Empire. He has come down to us in history as Alexander the Great.

Alexander put into motion the invasion of Persia envisaged, and begun by his father [Philip had already deployed some 10,000 troops to Asia Minor]. Leading a confederation of Greek City State armies, with a core of Macedonian pikemen and cavalry, Alexander crossed the Hellespont and began a drive into the western Achmaed Empire, turning to the coast and the ports thereon after an initial victory at Arbela, taking Tyre, and Egypt, where he commissioned the city of Alexandria.

He then turned inland, defeated a huge Persian Army at Gualgama, and sacked and burned the Persian capitol, in response to Xerxes' sack of Athens some 70 years before. The Persian king, Darius, having been slain by his own men, Alexander joined Persia to his own Empire, which moved continually to the East, eventually winding up in India.

It was at this point that Alexander's army mutinied, and forced him to turn back west. It was after marching back to Babylon that Alexander sickened [poisoned?] and died.

Alexander's Empire did not long survive his passing. his generals carved it up, since Alexander had made no clear  order of succession. Alexander's body itself wound up in Egypt, captured by one of his generals, Ptolemy, who founded a dynasty that existed until the death of Cleopatra. Asia minor fell to Seleucus, another general. Only Macedonia remained 'in the family', ruled by the regent Alexander left in charge, and eventually, Alexander's family.

So what di Alexander give us? Supposedly, he Hellenized the East. But if he did so, it didn't stick. The army he wielded was not his creation, but his father's. The tactics and strategy he brought to a high order were also created by his father, the unsung genius of the dynasty. And except for Ptolemaic Egypt, most of the successor states carved out of Alexander's Empire would be gone within a century, conquered by the Parthians and the Romans.

Because aside from declaring Carthage an enemy [and doing nothing about it], Alexander largely ignored the West. Especially an up and coming town on the Tiber. And in its time, Rome would take on the Macedonian phalanx, created by Phillip, and still in use, and destroy it at Cynochepalus [one of Alexander's successors had allied with Hannibal and Carthage - to his, and Macedonia's detriment]. And by the time of Augustus Caesar, Rome would rule all of Alexander's possession on the Mediteranean littoral. But Alexander did leave us a lovely legend.

[PzLdr]

Germany launches its "Vengeance Weapon 1", a pilotless jet propelled rocket, against the city of London. The V1, also known as "the doodlebug" and "the buzzbomb" is a ramp launched weapon. Deployment was delayed by teething troubles, that resulted in a customized, PILOTED V1 being flight tested by Hannah Reisch, one of Germany's most famous women pilots. Reisch's test flights reveal problems with the gyroscope, which are quickly fixed.

The V1, the world's first cruise missile, has some initial success, but proves fairly easy for the RAF to defeat. The V1's slow speed makes it easy meat for AAA guns, and RAF pilots learn to tip them in flight by flipping them with their wings. And after Overlord, Allied ground and air forces make  greater efforts to destroy their launch ramps.

The V1 is soon joined by the world's first ballistic missile, the V2, which is a whole 'nother kettle of fish. Capable of launching from a tractor-trailer set up, the V2 is invulnerable to existing defensive technologies. It will be fired on London, and Antwerp, but not, surprisingly, on the allied embarkation ports for D-Day.

The V1 and V2 join Germany's other technologies that the Germans invent, or perfect first, and are still in use [much refined] today. They include: the jet fighter plane, the jet bomber, the assault rifle, the wire guided missile, the cruise missile, the ballistic missile, the multi-purpose rapid fire machine gun, the first double action semi-automatic military pistol, the coal scuttle helmet, the basic design requirements for the modern main battle tank [the Panther and Tiger tanks].

[apples]

Wow....more history I knew nothing about. Thank you  PzLdr!