Letters

Citizens, Not Army, Made Hitler

Williamson Murray's article "The Making of Hitler's Army" (Nov/Dec) appears to make the Wehrmacht responsible for Adolf Hitler's rise to power. Let's get the facts straight: Hitler was Germatiy's national leader; he had the support of the German public. ,/ -.^ He was also the commander in chief of the armed
he found out the Navy did not have enough LSTs [landing ships, tank]; they had all been turned over to other countries or scrapped. The Japanese had received many [following World War II] to recover their troops from the bypassed islands. The Marines had to use what they could find on hand. The Inchon landings were made using LSTs with Japanese crews. Bernard E. Case LST972 U.S. Navy & U.S. Army (Ret.)
CADILLAC, MICH.

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I/J ' I "l'i i 1 ' ^ ' " \ ^ i ff He forces. Not only did he deliver many of the promises 1 !^ S h ^ j f | ^^ ^^^ made, he converted, via a self-created national
emergency, his reign into a totalitarian dictatorship. Whether or not General Werner von Blomberg's change of the military oath from loyalty to the Reich to that of the Fhrer made any difference is questionable. The German people had made their Fhrer the leader of the Fatherland. It made any opposition to Hitler high treason. This became a particularly wrenching dilemma for those serving officers of Prussian nobility steeped in
200 years of tradition of loyal of The Art of War. Since when is being succinct a liability? service to the Fatherland. Gerhardt B. Thamm Joseph P Mouille
FERNANDINA BEACH, I.

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No Sun-tzu?
Concerning the "Top 10 War Books of All Time" [Nov/Dec] and why Sun-tzu's Art oj War is not even mentioned... Words cannot describe my sense of astonishment. Could it be the contributors you chose were too Eurocentric? As John Keegan, one of whose works is included on your list, so aptly put it, Sun Tzu drew on "concepts recognised [sic] to be profoundly antt-C!ausewitzian by 20th century strategists." Is the book too subtle? [According to Sun-t2u:l "The victories of those that excelled in warfare were not marked by fame for wisdom or courageous achievement," Perhaps this writer is too harsh and mistakes the meaning of the word "book." [Ulyssesl Grant's monotonous tome hardly holds a candle to the mere 13 chapters

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He went by the name of "Josephine." I imagine he endured a lot of ribbing. SAN LEANDRO, CALIF. Von Luckner sailed from Germany on Dec. 21, 1916, and escaped the British blockI immensely enjoyed your ade. He sailed around Cape recent article on German com- Horn and on into the Pacific, merce raiders ["Merchants of taking prizes along the way, Menace," by Stephan Wilkin- totaling 14 ships. On Aug. 2, son, Sept/Oct]. 1 was particu- 1917, Seeadler had stopped larly interested in Count Felix in the Society Islands, when a von Luckner and Seeadler tsunami hit before the ship could clear anchoragea total ("sea eagle")Seeadler was a three-masted loss. So ended the old ship. clipper ship taken over by a For a detailed account of von British prize crew and was sail- Luckner, read Count Luckner: ing under the Union Jack as The Sea Devil (1927), by Lowell Pass ojBalmaha. The Germans Thomas with collaboration captured her in 1916 and re- from the count himself. built her for use as a comDr W Eliotl White merce raider. Two 500hp enCHARLOTTE, N.C. gines were added, along with elevators and living quarters for "guests" from the ships she Evidently the Marines ["Hit destroyed- Armament was two the Beach!" by Colonel Joseph cleverly concealed cannon, H. Alexander, Sep/Oct] weren't probably 150mm or 88mm. too prepared for the [SeptemMost of the crew spoke fluent ber 1950] Inchon landing. Norwegian. One small man When General [Douglas] Macdressed as von Luckner's wife. Arthur called for landing craft.

Valiant Women
As we honor veterans, Maj. Gen. [David T] Zabeckisanic]e "The Limping Lady Spy," Valor, Sept /Oct] on Virginia Hall was especiaHy appropriate for Military History. Zabecki may be unaware that four women were awarded the Distinguished Service Cross in Worid War I: Jane Jeffery, a nurse with the American Red Cross, as well as three members of the Army Nurse CorpsBeatrice MacDonald, He]en Grace McClellend and Isabelle Stambaugh. Thomas P. Jones VS. Army (Ret.)
INDIANAPOUS, ND.

Merchants of War

Hit the Beach!

In addition to Hall, another woman received the Distinguished Service Cross for extraordinary heroism during World War II, and like Hall she

MILITARY HISTORY

served with the Office of Strategic Services. Her name was Jeannette Guyot, and she was a lieutenant in the French army. According to her citation:
She parachuted into enemyoccupied France as a member of the Pathfinder mission, charged with finding parcKhutingJidds, reception committees, saje houses and local informants.... As the principal liaison oj (he mission, she iravded widely over Northern France ...and} undertook the most dangerous assignments, such as reporting on Gestapo

activities and verifying reports of the arrest and execution oj any agents. Charles P. McDowell
REVA, VA.

Don't Know Beans

While il may be theoretically possible to shoot beans out of a LeMat revolver ["J.Ii.B. Stuarts Buckshot Beans," by Elwood H. Smith, Sept/Oct], there are several errors that cannot be ignored. The main thmg, besides being on the wrong side of Stuart's famous plumed hat, only a pimp or a Vegas showgirl would wear a red plume. Stuart's plume was black. His holster is backward, but thank-

fully at least on tho correct side, but his sword has no scabbard! Last of all, the poor fellow holding the pot of be.ins has only one stripe on his chevron, and it is upside down Unless he is in the Marine Coips or sewed it on in the dark, this if; not indicative of any rank in the Confederate army Other than ihis, the horse is pretty good, and ihe Yankee is perfect. I like the way he is assuming the "position of the Union soldier" duiingand after most encounters ii l the western theater. Enjoyed ilie magazine. Keep up the good work! David Gass
Vu L A RICA, GA.

Correction
In his Nov/Dec article "What We Learned jrom the Battle oj Carillon," Thomas Fleming wrote that George W supported james Ahercromhies generalship. George 11 was ihe supportive monarch. The author and editors regret the error.
Send letters to Editor. Military History WeJder History Group 19300 Promenade Dr. Leesburg VA 20176

01 via e-mail to
militaryhjstory@ weiderhistoiYgroup.com Include your name, address and daytime telephone number.

PUBLISHING

www.ospreypubMshing.com

News
DISPATCHES
IWM Displays Gun That Sparked WWI
A gun and grenade used by Serbian nationalists during the June 28.1914, assassination of Austrian .'\rchduke Franz Ferdinand are at the heart of "In Memoriam: Remembering the Great War" (see P 74), at the Imperial War Museum in London [w\\^',iwm org.ukl through September 6. The weapons Len "Smithie" Smith's colorful illustrated journal depicts a Tommy's life on the Western Front.

New E-Book Showcases Battlefield Sketches by World War I Sapper

Thirty-five years after his death, a British veteran of the Western Front is finally being recognized for his skill as a soldier and as a draftsman. British sapper Len "Smithie" Smith deployed to France in 1915 with the 7th Battalion, London Regiment, and served as a frontline sniper and war artist. Armed with a rifle and art supplies. Smith repeatedly crawled into the no-man^-land between rival trenches to stalk German officers and sketch enemy positions. Rendered in colored pencil, his detailed drawings enabled superiors to better target artillery strikes and to design listening posts crafted after natural features. Smith kept an illustrated wartime journal, and his great nephew David Mason has just released an e-book of the sapper's words and images. The Pictures an Diary oj a WartimeATtist [www.greatwar anist.comi features glimpses of the front scribbled with lively journal entries "jotted down on the spot," Smith wrote, '"the spot' being oftimes sordid, noisy, teniiying, wretched and utterly uncongenial to clear thought and orderly writing." The 360-page digital copy of his clothbound diary opens on period postcards, personal photographs and amusing character sketches of Smithied fellow Tommies and officers. A subscription unlocks the heart of the book, a gallery of vibrant images from a war more often cast in somber tones. As armies jockeyed for control of Vimy Ridge in the spring of 1916, Smith was asked to render a panoramic sketch of German positioris opposite the British lines, "a far easier joh to command than to do," the artist quipped. "The Huns' shelling was almost incessant. So 1 had to scramble 'over the top,' making rough pencil notes over a period of four days." Smith later survived a bout of trench fever, as well as shrapnel wounds in a shell attack that killed 10 fellow soldiers. He died in 1974 at age 83.

are on loan from the Heeres^schichtliches Museum wwu' .hgm or.at/engl in Vienna. Police collected the items after 19-year-oId Gavrilo Princip shot the archduke and his wife, Sophie, during a visit to Sarajevo.

World's Largest Militara Show

The Ohio Valley Military Society is hosting its 17th annual Show of Shows at Louisville's Kentucky Exposition Center [www.kyf'air 5-8. Com-

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'The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants'

Thomas Jefferson
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prising more than 1,600 tables laden with U.S. and foreign military collectiblesincluding uniforms, weapons, medais and documentsthe show is the largest of its kind in the world. For additional information, call (513) 245-9540 or visit the society online [www.sosovms com |,

MILITARY HISTORY

Air & Space Expands Udvar-Hazy Center

The National Air and Space Museum |www,nasm.si.edu| is expanding its Steven F Udvar-Hazy Center near Washington Dulles Iniernational Airport. Phase Two

Influential Napoleonic Scholar Ben Weider, 85

Ben Weider. Canadian veteran of World War 11, fitness entrepreneur, founder ofthelntematiomil Napoleonic Sodet\ Iwww.napoieonu sec icty.com i and a leading Bonaparte scholar, died in his lifelong hometovm of Montreal on Oct. 17,2008. Weider is perhaps best known for his sleuthmg into the cause of the emperor's death, which he attributed to arsenic poisoning. He coauthored two books on the

WAR RECORD
This season in military history came in and went out like a Lionheart, with lots of reworks to keep things lively.

of ihe 5-year-old facility, scheduled to open by 2011, will add archives, a conservation lab and a restoration hangar, granting visitors a firsthand look at efforts to preset^-e historically significant military and civilian aircraft. The collection includes Enolci Gay, the B-29 Superfortress that dropped the atomic bomb Liale Boy over Hiroshima, Japan, on Aug. 6,1945.

subject with Swedish dentist and toxicologist Sten Forshufv-ud, in which Feb. 4.1194: Eleanor of ihe duo detailed Aquitaine ransoms Richard I findings of high from Austrian Duke Leopold V levels of the tojcic Upon returning to England, element in auLtonhean forgives brother thenticated Napo-1 John for his scheming ways. lon kiir samples. ^ OnOo. 12,2000, Feb. 15.1898: USS Maine A France awarded | blows up and sinks in Havana Harbor, precipitating the Weider the Lt^on Spanish-American War, with d'honneur for his elforts. a little help from Hearst. Weider's son Eric is president SPANISH TRii.'kCHi;m! may have and CEO of Weider History been a coal bunker explosion. Group iwww.histoiynti.fnin], publisher of Mililtiry H\sto)y and 10 other history titles. Feb. 28.1844: President John Tyler and cabmet are aboard USS Princeton when "Peacemaker," a 12-inch smoothbore muzzle-loading cannon, explodes, killing the U.S. secretaries of state and Navy and the ship's captain. March 3.1931: More than a centur)' after Francis Scott Key sees the rockets' red glare and bombs bursting o'er the ramparts of Baltimore's Fort McHenr); CLongi'ess makes his poem the national anthem. March 6.1990: SR-71 Blackbird sets transcontinental speed record: NY. lo L.A. in 1:08:17. The spy plane is on view ac Smithsonian's UdvarHazy Center (see this page). March 25.1199: Lionheart IS strolling ihe ramparts at Chaltis-Chabrol when a Erench aiTow hnds its mark. Richard dies nearly two weeks later.

'Peace is a word devoid of meaning. It is glorious peace we need' Napolon Bonaparte

DoD Extends Purple Heart to POW Dead

i he Pentagon 11\ i\ w kn. it. 11^^.

link.mil) has expanded Purple Heart eligibility to prisoners of war who died in captivity since Dec. 7, 1941. As many as 17,000 deceased

Tempelhof Field Closes

TemfKlhof Airport, main Allied supply hub during the 194&-49 Berlin Airlift, has closed for good in the wake of a failed voter referendum to keep it open. Designated an airfield in 1923, Tempelhof rose to prominence under Nazi Germany, with a 3-million-square-foot terminal, seven hangars and extensive subterranean passages. Russian troops flooded the booby-trapped sublevis after the war, before turning over the field to U.S. forces. During the Soviet blockade. Allied planes delivered 2.3 million tons of food and supplies to West Berhn on 278,228 flights. Development proposals for the vacant 900-acre site include a museum, park and/or trade center, as well as condos and perhaps even a luxury spa.

POWs could qualify for the award. Family members interested in applying should contact the relevant service branch: Army. (703) 3258700; Navy. (314) 592-1150; Air Force. (800) 616-3775; Marines, (703) 784-9340.

News
Team Searches DMZ for Korean Remains
This fall a joint AmericanSouth Korean search-andrecovery team conducted the first-ever sweep for remains of troops killed in the 2.5mile-wide demilitarized zone

The 13th century Dering Roll offers a rare look at the ties that bound medieval English barons.

British Library Acquires Oldest Extant Medieval Roll of Arms

The British Library lwww.bl.uk] has paid more than $300.000 for the 13th century Dering Roll, a painted vellum record of 324 coats of arms dating from the reign of Edward I, Longshanks. A foreign collector purchased the roll at a Sotheby's London [www.sothebys .coml auction in December 2007, but Britain's culture minister barred export of the medieval relic, allowing the library to negotiate its purchase. It's now on display at the library's Sir John Ritblat Gallery Heraldry had become a regulated discipline by the Middle Ages. The Dering Roll is the earliest extani example of a regional roll of arms, used to affirm patronage and lineage. Comprising 54 rows of six shields each, the 104-inch-long roll lists knighis who owed feudal service to Dover Castlenearly a quarter of the English baronage of the period. Above each shield is the respective knight's name in calligraphic script. Sir Edward Dering (1598-1644), a Kentish statesman and avid antiquarian, likely acquired the roll during his service as a lieutenant at Dover. The document offers particular insight into the political jockeying prevalent in medieval Britain. Atop the roll are the arms of Kent barons Richard Fitz Roy and William de Say, illegitimate sons of John I. Scholars believe Dover constable Stephen of Penchester commissioned the roll, placing his ovm coat of arms in a prominent position. In a clumsy attempt at social climbing, Dering later erased another coat of arms, replacing it with one bearing the name of a fictitious ancestor. Names were omitted or erased from five other shields.

that has divided the peninsula since the end of ihe 1950-53 Korean War. The team comprises members of ihe Hawaiibased U.S. Joini POW/MIA Accounting dmmand l\v\^-\v .jpac.pacom mill and a mirror agency within the Souih Korean Defense Ministry |www.mnd,go.kr|. More than 13,000 South Korean soldiers and about 2,000 U.S. troops were buried in the DMZ during the war.

Civil War Reenactor Shot During Fuming

A 73-year-old reenacior from New York was struck by an all-ioo-real ,44-caber musket ball during the filming of a Civil War documentary last September in rural southeastem Vii^nia, Tliomas Lord Sr.. a corporal with the

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'Yet it was there, in that steam of death, in that reek of corruption, that the brighter and freer England was born' Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
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7th New York Cavalry, was raising his arm in viciory when the projectile tore into his shoulder, sending him to a local Suffolk County hospital. Investigators suspect a careless Confederate walk-on for the shooting.

MILITARY HISTORY

News
WWI Veteran Seeks National Memorial
Frank Buckles, 107, ihe lasi surviving American veteran of World War 1 [www .frankbuckles.orgi, is seeking Congress' help to establish a memorial on the National Mall lo his fellow doughboys. Rep. Ted Poe {R-

New Visitor Center for USS Arizona Memorial

The National Park Service and Arizona Memorial Museum Association [www.arizona memorial,org] broke ground this fall on a newvisitor center for the USS Arizona Memorial [www .nps.gov/usar) at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. At 8:06 a.m. on Dec. 7, 1941. a bomb from a Japanese Nakajima B5N struck the battleship in its forward magazine. The resulting explosion sank Arizona at her Ford Island mooring, claiming the lives of 1,177 sailors and Marines. The current visitor center, t which sits across the harbor ^ from the memorial, was built | in 1980 on reclaimed land 3 and is subsiding. S The Pearl Harbor i Memorial Fund t [www.pearlharbor | inemorial.com] I raised $54 million \ for the expanded f facility, which will i relate the story of 5 the Japanese attack ^ through state-ofthe-an multimedia displays and exhibits showcasing artifacts, historical photos, charts and maps. The center is expected to open in December 2010.

FLYING COLORS
In Sticklers, Sideburns & Biki-

nis (2008), Graeme Donald traces the military origins of everyday words and phrases, such as the term at top. which refers to the practice of flying one's naval flag in victory. Set your cap at the following: Set Your Cap At: In the Age of Sail, the "cap" was a ship's prow. An attacking captain would, therefore, "set his cap at" the enemy. Turn a BUnd Eye: In 1794 then-Captain Horatio Nelson injured his right eye at the Siege of CaM. At the 1801 Battle of Copenhagen, when signaled to withdraw. the willful admiral put a telescope to his bad eye, saying, "1 really do not see the signal." Beyond the Pale: The word "pale" denves from the Latin palus ("stake") and refers to a fortress palisade. Those beyond its perimeter were detestable. Cold Feet; Doughboys seeking to leave the Western Front might soak their feet in cold, muddy trench water to eam a ticket lo the rear, Last-Ditch Effort: As early as the 16th century, field armies would dig several lines of defensive trenches. If forced to the "last ditch," they would stand and fight to the death. Bury the Hatchet: To seal peace with an enemy Eastern U.S. Indian tribes would ceremonially bur)' a tomahawk or other weapon in the ground.

has introduced the Frank Buckles World War I Memorial Act to renovate and expand an existing memorial to D.C. veterans of the Great War. Spearheading the $ 1 million effon are the D.C. Preservation League (www -dqDreservation.orgl andWjrid War 1 Memorial Foundation

'We will gain the inevitable triumph, so help us God* Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Looking for Genghis

Researchers from the University of California, San Diego [www.ucsd.edul, have launched the Valley of the Khans Project [http://vaUeyofthekhans.org], a three-year effort to find the unmarked grave of Mongol leader Genghis Klian (c. 1162-1227). The team from the Center for Interdisciplinary Science in Art, Architecture and Archaeology |http;//cisa3.calit2.net| plans to use satellite imagery, ground-penetrating radar, magnetometry and other advanced technologies available at the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology

Tuskegee Airmen Museum Opens

This fail the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site www.nps.gov/tuail opened to the public at Alabama's Moton Field, training base for the all-black 332nd Fighter Group of the U.S. Army Air Forces. During World War II the Tuskegee Airmen flew more than 15,000 sorties on 1,500 missions over North Africa and Europe, downing 109 Luftwaffe aircraft and earning two Distinguished Unit Citations. The site centers on a visitor center/auditorium, restored hangars and historic aircraft used by the airmen.

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calil2.tiet] to pinpoint possible burial sites ^ in Mongolia's Ordos g Desert and protected | Khan Khentii region. I

MILITARY HISTORY

vvei-earnea...
from the Battle of Attu
By Stephen
Tapped lo undertake the assault was Maj. Gen. Albert E. Brov^ms 7th Infantry Division, despite the fact it had spent months training for mechanized desert warfare. Even after being chosen, the division received minimal amphihious training and was unable to coordinate its training with supporting Navy and Army Air Forces units. Logistical support also proved problematic. Troops and equipment embarking in San Francisco were packed haphaziirdiy aboard too-smail cargo vessels, and the absence of coherent load plans resulted in vital materiel being left behind. In what amounted to criminally poor judgment, planners decided troops would not need winter clothing for a mission expected to last just 36 hours; American soldiers were, therefore, sent to fight in subzero temperatures wearing thin leather boots and summerweight uniforms. Dismal weather, challenging terrain and tenacious The recapture of Attu Japanese defenders took a toll on 7th Division GIs. commenced on May 11 wiih landings at Holtz which lo advance on mainland Alaska Bay on the island's north side and at or ihe U.S. West Coasl. Tlie Japanese Massacre Bay to the south. The Amerlandings also ultimately provoked one icans didn't mount a preinvasion of the bloodiest and most challengbomhardment, yet the initial assault ing American military offensives of went uncontested by Colonel Yasuyo World War II. Yamasaki's garrison of 2.300-pU5 men. While ihe speedy recapture of Attu The initial lack of resistance was a and Kiska was of great psychological godsend, as U.S. troops ran into diffiimportance with regard to Americulty from the outset. Inaccurate maps can puhlic opinion, the United States and fotil weather played havoc with the was not able to consider reconquest oi' amphibious operations; troops landed ihe Aleutians until the spring of 1943. in the wrong places with the wrong Even then, preparations for Operation equipment; vehicles bogged down or Sandcrab were uncoordinated. Planners couldn't climb the steep terrain; and iocused on AUu, which they believed to the inadequate clothing quickly led to he less heavily defended than Kiska. frostbite and trench-foot casualties.

n June 7, U}42, Major Matsutoshi Hozumi led some 1,200 men o ihejapanese Anny Norih Seas Deiachmcni ashore on barren and perpeiually fogbound Allu, the wesii-rnmost of .-Maska's Aleutian Islands. Il was the lirst enemy force lo oecupy U.S. soil since ihe War of 1812- That unopposed landing and a similar soriie a day earlier against Kiska, 200 miles 10 ihe east, threatened the sea routes over which American aid flowed lo Russia and secured Japan bases from

Wlien the Japanese did fmally engage the advancing Americans, things went from had to worse. Combat was fierce and often hand lo hand, as defenders fought !or e\'ery inch of ground. The slow pace of the American advance prompted Baiwn's superiors to replace him on May 16 with Maj, Gen. Eugene M. Landrum. who fared only marginally better. Not until May 29 could Umdrnm order afinaloffensive against the remainingjapanesc, who pre-empted the American assault by launching tme of the firet mass banzai charges of World War II. By ihe lime fighting on Aitu ended on May 31, all but 29 of the Japanese defenders were dead. On the American side, 549 soldiers were killed, l j 48 were wounded and more than 2,000 were incapacitated by cold and disease, American casualties might well have been higher in an invasion of Kiska, but Japanese forces abandoned that island in mid-July

Lessons:
Move quickly. The 14 nuHiths that elapsed between the Japanese occupation and the American landings gave ihc defenders time to dig in, resulting in higher U.S. casuaUies. Know the terrain. Inaccurate maps and inadequate reconnaissance hampered the landings and confused the troops, who were unprepared for Attu's ru^ed landscape. Train with your friends. Scant preinvasion Joim training led to confusion on the loading piers and landing beaches. Look 10 the skicii. Better weather lorecasting would have allowed more effective Allied air and naval gunfire stipport. Use the right force. Trained for desert warfare, the U.S. 7th Infantry Division wasn't prepared for arctic combat. Logistics matter. Inadequate clothing and disorganized supply operations dcgi-aded American combat efTectiveness. Expect the worst. American units unprepared for the May 29 banzai charge suiTered needless casualties. i3b

interview
Alfred S. McLaren: Waging Cold War Beneath the Ice
Morale was also very important. On a voyage like that you do everything you can to keep people's spirits up. Frankly, really good food is a big pan o thatyou can handle Just about anything if you know you have a really good meai to look forward to. And, of course, decent berthing and overall cleanliness are also very important. What were your greatest challenges? Number one was, of course, avoiding collision with the bottom or with the sea iceparticularly the deep-draft "keels" that projected downward from above. Remember that the region was completely uncharted, with no information on depths or potential obstacles. We also had to worry about getting stuck in the ice or between the ice and the bottom. At some points we had as little as 20 feet of water beneath the keel and above the top of the sail. What did you learn from the mission? We learned that U.S, nuclear attack submarines of the Sturgeon classwith normal, well-trained crews and standard equipmentcould safely navigate beneath the heavy sea ice covering the Siberian Continental Shelf, We determined the minimum parameters of the operational envelope within which we could operate under the ice. And we further validated the submarine forces normal training and operations standardsimposed by Admiral Hyman Rickoverfor the safe and reliable operation of an American nuclear submarine's engineering plant. Which of your 20 Cold War suhtnarine missions was the most memorable? All I can tell you is that under my command, Queenfish undertook a series of extremely successful missions during the summer and fall of \'^7\. The first of those was so unusual, and so highly successful, that at its conclusion 1 was flown from Pearl Harbor to Washington

enowned for his pioneering research into the role polar rc^ons play In global climate change. Dr. Alfred 5. McLaren is also a noted undersea explorer who has dived on such historically important wrecks as Titanic and Bismarck, in his hook Unknown Waters (2008), the retired Navy submariner chronicles his 1970 command oJ the nuclear submarine U5S Queenfish heneaih ihe Arctic ice to the North Pole and Siberia. Primanly a sdenc mission, the 20-day 3,100mile journey also had a definite, if clandestine, military objective.

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Whal prompted the 1970 voyage? 1 first had the idea for the voyage when I was an instructor at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I., and I had a close relationship with Dr. Waldo Lyon, head of the Arctic Submarine Laboratory. The Siberian Continental Shelfthe Laptev, East Siberian and Chukchi seaswas a vast and completely unknown region. The voyage was primarily intended to be a mission of first-ever exploration and collection of hydrographie, ocanographie and sea-ice data. Militarily, we wanted to learn just where and how far under the areas perennial seaice cover a nuclear submarine could effectively operate. With the So\'iet Union at that time being our most probable adversary in the event of war, we had to know the area quite thoroughly white we had the advantage.

*At some points we had as little as 20 feet of water beneath the keel and above the top of the sail*

Did you anticipate the possibility of a hostile reception from the Soviets? We were going to be operating in international waters in an area six times the size of the Mediterranean Sea, and we didn't have any indication that the So\iets would be [able to detect usl. On the other hand, there is always the possibility that a "hot war" might break out, so we always went out prepared for war, including a full load of "war shots." Is that why Queenfish made the trip without identity markings? It was the Cold War, and Queenfish was a fast-attack submarine, so we didn't want anyone to be able to positively identify us. Though when we surfaced at the pole, we temporarily attached large white numbers to the sail for the photos.

What were your primary concerns as Queenfish's commander? There were three. First, the continued reliability of all Queenfish's systems, particularly those involved in safely navigating under thick sea ice. Second, that my crew and I would remain in top healthboth physical and emotional. And third, that our performance as a team, every hour and every day, would remain at the standard necessar>' to ensure we safely and successfully completed our mission. The entire crew had to work together, to practice for every imaginable contingency

MILITARY HISTORY

10 give three days of briefings 10 [he secretary oi ihe Navy, Admiral Rickover and ihe CIA. The other two missionwere equally successful: 1 subsequently received ilu Distinguished Service Medal and my officers and men iv ceived commensurate awarcl-^ and recognition. While security resiraiiiiprevenL me from providiivj any further details now m in the Future, I will say thi The American taxpayers al solutely got iheir moneys worth from the submarines built during the Cold War, which were used primaril) for reconnaissance and intelligence collection. When we were the cat and tlu' other side was the mouse, ilu mouse never knew we were there. And when we wciv ihe mouse, the cat nevi-i knew we were there. We weiv never detected, and we wci\ extremely successful.

meters beneath the sea. 1 was just awestruck at how i;ood her condition was her paint was still beautilutiy preserved, and her :eak deck was still intact. 'he looked Uke she could ust be floated to the surface ind sent ofl' to war again. My two lengthy dives 0, and examination of, liitnarck c-onvinced me [hat white the British torpedo hit on her rudder/ crew area certainly put the ship out of action, she iiltimalely went down as A result of well-planned and well-executed scuttling by her crew and not as a result of Royal Navy torpedoes and shells. We saw no holes or penetrations of I he hull an)'where near or lielow the ship's waterline.

What can tlic exploration of sunken warships teach us so many years later? Cold War submariner, polar explorer and author Dr. Alfi ed S. McLaren You can learn considerably more detail about Does the U.S. Navy remain is also a director of Sub Aviator Systems [www.subaviators.com]. the ships and the events, the dominant military force The firm designs and builds innovative, high-tech submersibles. depending on what equipbeneath the polar ice? The Cold War was never discussed and ment you're using and ht)w well you've Absoiuldy. We're sending submarines was never a factor in any way prepared in terms of research. The latter up there so often thai its really become is very important, because the more routine. All classes of our submarines What did you learn from your exployou know about the engagements and have operated in ihc polar regions; we're ration of Bismarck? the vessels involved, the more you'll very comfortable up there. That doesn't ge! out of what you observe. That it was, and still is, a truly magnifimean thai there won't be challenges, cent warship that was buill and crewed Bismaick is an excellent example of coursethe competition for terri10 very high standards. of that. There is no question she was tory and resources among circumpolar disakled by a British torpedo, but a close nations is increasing, and the steady While Titanic is an absolute messexamination of ihe ship shows that effects of global warming are decreasing there's really only one mtact section, and she was not sunk by enemy fire. So the the extent of the ice. she's covered with rusticles that are con close-up examination of a sunken vessuming her steelBismarck is markedWhai was it Uke to work with the sel allows you to learn so much more ly different. With the exception of the Russians on your dives to Titanic! about what really happened and gives superstructure and a relatively small sec li was very easy We were all recognized you information that allows you take tion of the stem, the ship lies labout 35C' undersea professionals, respected each another look at the event and may even nautical miles west of Brest, France] vir other and worked very well as a team. allow you to rewrite history. 1^ tually intact on the bottom at some 5,85C'

The 'Go for Broke' 442nd

David T. Zabecki
produce so many heroes, all serving in the same war and in the same unit? That unit, of course, was the 442nd Regimental Combat Team (RCT), the most decorated outfit in American military history. Most of iis soldiers were men with a burning drive to prove something, not to themselves, but to their country. The 442nd was a segregated unit, consisting almost entirely of Niseisecond-generation Japanese-Americans who were naturalbom American citizens. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, prejudice ran high against anyone of Japanese descent. Deeply distrusting their loyalty. President Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, authorizing military commanders to force more than 100,000 JapaneseAmericans from their homes, farms and businesses into hastily constructed detention camps, where they lived in tarpaper shacks behind barbed wire fences. AU the camps were on the mainland. Due to the high numbers of ethnic Japanese in Hawaii, mass internment was logistically impossible, but they were subjected to economic sanctions and draconian restrictions on their freedom. Under such circumstances, it is astonishing that so many young men from families like the Nakaes and Kurodas vi'ere not just willing to sei-ve in the American military, they pushed hard for the privilege. In June 1942, the War Department formed the Hawaiian Provisional Infantry Battalion and sent it to Camp McCoy, Wis., for training. Redesignated the 100th Infantry Batialion, it did so well in training that the Army approved formation of an entire regiment composed of Nisfi, drawn from the islands und the mainland. The 442nd RCT started training at Camp

Wounded Niseioi the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and lOOIh Infantry Battalion pose with Purple Heart certificates at a Palo Alto, Calit., hospital in July 1945.

442nd Regimental Combat Team U.S. Army Multiple awards Europe 1943-45 amp Darby is a tiny U.S. Army posi just outside l.ivomo on Italy's Adriatic coast, lis central square is dedicated to Private Masato "Curly" Niikac. who earned the Medal of Honor a tew miles north, near Pisa, on Aug. 19, 1944. At the dedication ceremony in 2006, I had the privilege of being ihe presiding senior U.S. Army officer. On the eve of the ceremony, 1 hosted a dinner for Nakae's daughter, Anne Nakae Kuroda, her husband, Randy, and their children, Slephanic and Kenneth. Throughout the evening my thoughts drifted 10 Curly Nakae's two grandchildren. Not only had their grandfather earned the Medal of Honor, so had their great uncle Robert Kuroda, while their other grandfather, Roland Kuroda, had earned the Distinguished Service Cross. How did one family

Shelby, Miss., while the 100th Battalion shipped out lo North Africa in September 1943. The 100th distinguished itself during the landmgs at Salerno and Anzio and on the subsequent push for Rome. Us high casiialt)' rate earned it the moniker "Purple Heart Battalion." The 442nd, along with its organic 522nd Field Anillcr\' Battaiion, landed at Anzio in May 1944. The regiments 1st Battalion remained stateside to train replacements. The 100thwhich retained its designation in recognition of exemplary servicemerged into the 442ncl as the first of three regimental infantry battalions. The combined unit then fought on in Italy and southern France. By the time the war ended, the little more than 3,000 troops comprising the 442nd/100th hati earned an astounding 9,486 Purple Hearts, one Medal of Honor, 51 Distinguished Service Crosses and 360 Silver Starsplus 28 Oak Leaf Clusters indicating a second award. The unit also earned seven Presidential Unit Citations, the highest number of any outfit in the war (the PUC is the unit-level equivalent of the DSC). Many of those who received the DSC had been nominated for the Medal of Honor, but their decorations were downgraded to the DSC for purely racist reasons. The U.S. military and Congress finally corrected that travesty in June 2000, awarding 20 of the DSC recipientsincluding Nakae, Kuroda and U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) the Medals of Honor they should have received more than 50 years earlier. No other brigade- or regimental-sized unit in the U.S. Army has approached the number of combat decorations or casualty rateof the 442nd RCT and lOOih Infantry Battalion. Their unit motio, "Go for Broke," said it all. The Nisei felt they had something to prove to their fellow citizens, and they demonstrated their patriotism titne and again. Americans may never see another outfit like it. A

By Jon Guttman* llustration by Ted WlUiams

Cheval de Frise
By land or sea, this manmade hedgehog proved a formidable obstacle
n the late 16th century, the Frisians of coastal Netherlands and Germany hickcd sufficient horses for a standing cavalr>'. They compensated for this shortfall by devising a mobile obstacle against enemy horsesa log bristling with sharpened wooden or iron stakes. The tongue-incheek French called this defense the cheval dfrise ("Frisian horse")- Easily moved to wherever needed, these obstacles rested on two sets of protigs and presented a prickly deterrent to charging horses. During the American Revolution, rebels submerged massive cifvtta dfrise to block rivers to British warships. In November 2007, divers recovered an 11-foot-long, iron-tipped, yellow pine cheval defme log from the mud of the Delaware River outside Philadelphia. Laid down in 1775 to complement the defenses at Forts Mercer and Mifflin, the system was the brainchild of Philadelphia carpenter Richard Smith, who presented his plans to the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety under Benjamin Franklin. The chevaux de frise were set in rows inside wooden boxes anchored with stones. Variations on this simple but versatile device became standard among European and American armies until the 19th-century invention of barbed wire. | ^

The submerged version of the cheval de frise served as a Rovolutionera river defense.

IS THE IDF INVINCIBLE?

Are the Israel Defense Forces really the world's best armyor have they fought nothing but bush-league opponents?

By David T. Zabecki
^ommenting on the 19th century Confederation Helvetica, Austrian statesman Klemens von Metternich reportedly observed that Switzerland does not have an armyit is an an army There is no better way to describe the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the military establishment of the state of Israel. In the 60 years since its 1948 formation, the IDF has become one of the most respected and most reviled of the world's armies. It has served Israel through seven major wars, countless actions in the occupied Palestinian territories, and several spectacular special operations against enemies in such countries as Iraq and Uganda. Along the way, the IDF has acquired an aura of invincibility, although strategic and operational missteps in recent years have tarnished that reputation. Yet, the basic assumption behind everything the iDF does is that Israel cannot afford to lose a war, because decisive military defeat would mean the destruction of Israel. As young recruits swear when they take the IDF oath of enlistment, "Masada shall not fall again!" a reference to the Jewish rebel stronghold destroyed by the Roman Legion X Fretensis in AD 73. Two overriding factors drive Israels national security strategy and the IDFs military doctrine. The first is geography: Surrounded by hostile neighbors on three sides and the sea on the fourth, Israel lacks territorial depth. At its narrowest point the country is only | nine miles wide, from its eastern border with the West Bank to the MILITARY HISTORY

military, making it quite literally a nation in arms. In its 60 years of statehood, Israel has fought seven major wars and countless actions against hostile Arah neighhors.

The IDF is the direct successor of Jewish defense organizations in Palestine that date back to the start of the 20th century

Mediterranean. It has no room to maneuver. Despite the claim it has no territorial ambitions, the need to create buffer zones has prompted Israel ai tirnes to occupy the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza, all of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, and Syria's Golan Heights. The second factor is demographics. Wtth just under 7.4 million people, Israel is vastly outnumbered by iLs neighbors. The Arab populations ol the countries that share a common border with Israel outnumber the Jews 18-to-l. When the populations of the Arabic and Islamic coumries in the outer tier are added, the ratio reaches 50-to-l. In many of the Arab-Israeli wars, countries in the outer ring, including Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, ha\'e sent forces against the JewLsh state. Israel simply lacks the numbers to survive a war of attrition. With Israel facing a strategic position similar to that of Prussia and later Germany in the 18lh and 19th centuries, tnany of the key tenets of the IDFs military doctrine are, ironically, similar to those of the old German army, including: Determine the outcome of any conflict quickly and decisively Take the fight to enemy territory rapidly Sustain very low casualties. Maintain a large standing reserve supported by eflicient mobilization and transportation systems. As wdth the Germans, these imperatives drive the IDFs predisposition for decisi\'e offensive maneuver and rapid shock action. And like the Germans, the Israelis also claim the advantage of being able to operate on interior lines. The success of their lacticsfollowing the German modeldepends heavily on highly trained, aggressive and dynamic leaders and soldiers who can adapt to rapidly changing situations and exercise initiative instinctively This close mirroring of the German army has led the IDF to comtmt some of the same warfighting mistakes, particularly stubborn overreiiance on the air power-tank combination at the expense of a more balanced combined-arms approach. The IDF consists of a well-equipped regitlar air force, a regular coastal navy and a small standing land force augmented by a well-trained reseive that incorporates a large percentage of the population. Perhaps more than any other country in the world, Israel is very much an entire nation in arms.

When the empire dissolved in the wake of World War 1, Palestine became a British mandate under the League of Nations. As Arab-Jewish tensions rose with ihe increasing influx of Jewish immigrants, Haganah ("The Defense") was formed as a local paramiiitar)' force. The British viewed the Haganah with ambivalence, first outlawing the group, but then, during the Great Arab Revolt o 1936-1939, cooperating with it closely but unofficially British Colonel (and future World War II general) Orde C. Wingate formed, trained and personally led the Haganahs Special Night Squads, Israel's flrst special operations force. Many ol the IDF's early senior leaders, including future chiefs of staff Yigael Yadin and Moshe Dayan, were Wingate proteges. Meanwhile, moreradicalelements o the Jewish community in Palestine were agitating for more aggressive action against both the British and the Arabs. As early as 1931 one group broke away from the Haganah to fomi the r^m Zvai Leumi ("National Military Organization"), or Etzel, The same year the Haganah formed its elite strike force, the Palmach, an even more radical group broke away from the Irgun to establish the Stem Ganglater called Lohanui Hcrut htmi ("Fighters for the Freedom of Israel"), or Lehi. During World War II most Jews in Palesune formed a common cause with the British to defeat the Germans. More than 30,000 Palestinian Jews served in the British Army, many in the Jev^^sh Brigade, which fought with distinction against the Germans m northern Italy Of course, their military training and experience proved Invaluable in postwar Palestine. As soon as the war ended, the Haganah started defying the British by smuggling Holocaust survivors and other Jewish refugees from Europe into Palestine, where they were put through clandestine military training programs. Meanwhile, Irgun and Lehi, which even many Jews considered little more than terrorist organizations, launched an armed rebellion against the British. Led by future Prime Minister Menachem Begin, the Irgun on July 22, 1946, planted a bomb in the basement of Jerusalem's King David Hotel, which housed British militaiy headquarters. Nitiety-one people died in the ensuing blast. Following the UN General Assembly vote in late 1947 to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab states, the British announced they would withdraw their forces. As flare-ups between Arabs and Jews broke oui Into open fighting, Israel declared its independence on May 14, 1948. Two weeks later Defense Arnny of Israel Ordinance No. 4 established the IDF and ordered the consolidation of all Jewish flghting organizations under a single command. Almost immediately, the acting head o the new government, David Ben-Gurion, appointed U.S. Army Reserve colonel and World War II \-eieran David "Mickey" Marcus as Israels first general officer since Judah Maccahaeus more than 2,100 years earlier. The IDFs first chief of staff was Yaakov Dori, a former Haganah chief of staff. Despite the fact that the IDF absorbed the general staff, the combat units and all the senior commanders of the Ha-

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he IDF did not simply spring into existence when Israel declared independence m 1948. It is the direct successor of often-clandestine Jewish selfdefense organizations in Palestine that date back to the start of the 20th century Among the earliest were BarGiora and Hashomer ("The Watchman"), formed in 1907 and 1909, respectively, to protect Jewish settlements and kibbutzim in what was then a backwater of the crumbling Ottoman Empire.

ILITARY HISTORY

Members of the Israeli |>aramilitary defense organization Haganah, above, conduct marksmanship training during the 1948 War of Independence. As Arab-Israeli tension* increased, Hagariah formed the Palrnach, an elite strike force. Members nf Palmach, left, train for urban warfare in 1948. ganah, integi'ation cif the other fighting organizations was dliftcult. Some Irgun battalions joined the IDF, while others continued fighting the Ar.ibs independently Lehi flat out refused to consolidate, disbanding iiself mslcad, after which many of its fighters joined the IDF individually. This shaky integration process reached a boiling point in June 1948, when the Irgun tried to land the illegal arms ship Altalena in Tel Aviva blatant challenge to the authority of the edgling IDH Aficr Begin refused demands to surrender the weapons to the IDF, BenGurionacting as both prime minister and delense mirtister ordered IDF shore batteries to sink Altalena. It was a crisis that brought the new state to the brink of civil war, bul ultimately it cemented the IDFs legitimacy as the country's sole militaiy force. The IDF was vastly outnumbered in its 1948 War for Independence, its weapons and equipment a hodgepodge of obsolete items Israeli agents liad scrounged Irom the junk hea]is and surplus yards of Europe after World War II. Yet despite simultaneous attacks by Egypt from the south, Syria and Lebanon from the north, and Jordan and Satidi Arabia from ihe east, ihe IDF held on all fronts and eventually pushed back. By the time of the final UN-brokered ceasefire on July 20.1949, the new Jewish state had managed lo secure ilmosl all of its original territorial objectives.

Israel's supporters cite the the Holocaust as moral justification for the Jewish Imost all Israeli citizens are required to serve in the military for state to use some period of time, and that any measure inakes the IDF experience a kind of common denominator of Israeli society It reinforces the necessary idea that every war must be won and that victory
iS the responsibility ol ever}' citizen. For most Israelis, induction into the IDF at age 18 is a major rite of passage. Men serve for three years, unmarried women for two. Most then have lengthy reserve obligations, with men required to remain in the reserves until age 51 (45 for direct combat veterans), and single women until age 24. The standard reserve obligation has been 39 days per year, though the reserve system is being revamped. Contrar)' to v^ddespread belief, IDF women have not served extensively in combat roles until rccendy Israeli women are eligible to serve in more than 80 percent of all military specialties, but assignment to combat duty remains voluntary.

Following the War of Independence, oiher Arab countries immediately occupied the Palestinian sectors of the former British mandate, Jondan kxik the West Bank and Egyjit took Gaza, and throughout the early 1950s Israel was the target of perpetual terrorist raids launched from Arabheld territories. In resfxjnse, the IDF fomied a special counterierrorist force designated Unit 101, Commanded by Major Ariel Sharon, the unit carried out retaliator)' raids into Jordanian territory Unit 101 was disbanded in late 19^5 in the face of criticism over the violence and mthlessness of its operations.

A group of IDF commanders poses for the camera in 1955 during a period of Israeli military deterrence and mass immigration. At center with eyepatch is IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Dayan. Standing to his rigfit is then-Major Ariel Sharon, future Israeli prime minister. Although Israeli law requires all citizens to serve, the minister of defense has broad discretionary powers to grant exemptions. Members o! the Haredi, the ultraorthodox Jewish community are widely exempted on the grounds of pursuing religious studiesan exemption that gives rise to a great deal of tension in the country. Longstanding policy also exempts some non-Jev^ish minority groups, significantly most of Israels 1,4 million Arab citizens. Although Arab Israelis theoretically can volunteer for the IDF; they are actively discouraged from doing so. Members of ceriain Bedouin tribes from the Negev are actively recruited and highly respected for their desert operational and tracking skills. The Druze are another minority group not exempted, and in recent years members have risen to the general officer ranks. Israel has no military academy like West Point and no reser\'e officer training program in its tmiversities. Everyone lirst enters the IDF as a conscript. Those who successfully complete initial training can apply for the extremely competitive and rigorous selection process to become officers or noncommissioned officers in either the reserves or, for the very best, the IDFs small regular force. Two overriding principles of military' leadership are inculcated in potential IDF officers and NCOs from their first day in uniform: The leader at any level, from squad to division, is simply the best and most proficient soldier

MILITARY HISTORY

Israeli M50 Super Shermar tanks, above, roll toward the Sinai during the 1967 Six-Day War. Victorious iDF troops, ieft, ceiebrate on the disputed Tempie Mount, Judaism's I oiiest and Isiam's third hoiiest site. The IDF lost 338 men between June 5 and 10, whiie Eg>pt alone iosl some 15,000. in ihai unil; and cambai is ihe ukiniaEf lesi of leaderslup. and the only way lo lead is by personal example. IDF officer training is especially rigorous, and ihe allriiion rale can run as high as 50 percent. Il lakes almost 24 nionihs to qualify as a second lirulenam. Once an officer completes all commissioning requirements, the IDF ofTers opportunities to pursue advanced civilian education at government expense, and many senior officers have received advanced degrees in ihe United States or Europe. IDF officers who retire or leave active duty for other reasons retain reserve commissions and are subject to recall during national emergencies. Although the IDF is .i single cohesive foire, it is organized administratively into ihc traditional branches of service: The army, navy and air force all have distinctive unilonns and seprale career tracks. The army is organized inm ihe standard amis and corpsinfantry, armor, artillery, signals, medical, etc. The standing ground loi ce consists of three infantry brigades, an elite paratrooper brigade, three amior brigades, three arlillery brigades and various support units. The elite Sayerei Matkal, or General Staff Reconnaissance Unit 269, is one of the vt'orlds most respected and feared special operations lorces. One of Sayeret's former commanders, Ehud Barak, later served as the IDF's chief of staff .md was Israel's prime minister from 1999 to 2001. The Israeli Air Force (lAF) is the strongest in the Middle Fast, and its pilots are justifiably considered the best trained

i :" ^

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IDF probably fielded iis first nuclear weapons by the late 1960s, and most intelligence estimates today place Israels nucleai arsenal at between 100 and 200 warheads.

S
A column of scorched Egyptian vehicles in the Mitia Pass, left, attests to the precision of Israeli air strikes during the June 1967 Six-Day War. An Israeli gun crew, top, fires on Syrian positions durii^ the October 1973 Vom Ktppur War. Ahove, tank crews stopped for prayers en route to defeating the Syrian-Egyptian surprise invasioa

ince the 1948 Wai of Independence, the IDF has demonstnited iis efectiveness in six other major wars. The 1956 Sinai Campaign started after Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal and blocked it io Israeli shipping. Under the command of Chief of Staff Moshe Dayan, the IDF sent armored columns slicing into the Sinai, quickly reaching the banks of the canal. As a colonel in command of the 890 Paratroop Brigade, Ariel Sharon Jumped into the Sinai with one of his battalifins ahead of the armored columns to seize and hold the critical Mit la Pass.

Following its stunning victory in the Six-Day War, the IDF believed another Arab attack to be almost unthinicable

and most aggressive in the world. Since first flying in combat in 1^48, lAF piiols have shot down 687 enemy aircraft in air-to-air combat, while only losing 23. This 30to-1 victory ratio is rivaled only by that of the Finnish Air Force during World War II. Thirty-nine Israeli pilots have shot down live or more enemy aircraft to achieve ace status. Although the IDF is widely assurned to have nuclear weapons, Israel has never formally admitted it. Israel's supporters cite the Jewish experience of the Holocaust as the moral justification for the Jewish state to use any measure necessary to ensure its survival, including nuclear weapons. Unsurprisingly, Israel's critics and its adversaries in the region take a different view. The

Dayan, meanwhile, spent most of the campaign either on the ground with lead elements or above the battlefield in a Douglas C-47 airborne command post. Dayan was with the 27th Armored Brigade when it entered the Sinai town ol HI Arish, just west of the Gaza strip. A. Dayan was looking out the window of a building used as an observation post, an Egyptian machine gunner opened fire on him, killing his radio operator. In a liitle more than 100 hours the IDF captured the entire Sinai as well as Gaza, but withdrew quickly under international pressure. In 1967 Eg^pt directly threatened Israeli by massing 1,000 tanks and 100,000 troops m the Sinai. With Dayan retired from the military h\ ti still very much in chaise as

Although many pundits have proclaimed that the armor of invincibiilty has been pierced, such claims have been made before

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mored division under Maj. Gen. Avraham "Bren" Adn. Together the two tank divisions cut off and trapped ihe Egyjiiian Third Army on the other side and got to within 60 miles of Gairo before a UN-brokered ceasefire went into effect. Israel's fifth major war had been a close-run affair. Although the combined Arab forces lost more than 2,500 main battle tanks (MBTs) and 850 other armored vehicles, the IDF lost almost 800 MBTs and 400 other armored vehicles. The Egyptians, ai least, had proved to the rest of the Arab world that the IDF could be fought to a standstill under the right conditions. Dayan was forced to resign as defense minister, his reputation as one of history's great captains in tatlers. In the iftemiaih, however, the IDF significantly realigned its lorce structure to put greater emphasis on a combined-arms approach. Israels sixth major war, initially called Operation Peace for Galilee, started in June 1982 when the IDF invaded southern Lebanon in retaliation for increasing Palestinian terrorist and rocket attacks being launched from Lebanese territory. As IDE ground uniis approached Beirut on June 10, the lAE launched a series of punishing air strikes against Syrian SAM sites in the strategic Beka Valley. When the Syrian Air Force tried to inter\'ene, lAE pilots shot down 22 Syrian MiGs. Tbe Lebanon War oiticially ended in May 1983, and in the process Israel did manage to eject Yasir Arafat and his Palestine Liberation Organization from Lebanon, but then the IDF became iiiircd in a long and grinding occupation of southern Lebanon th^ii lasted until 2000. ollowing its stunning victory Many observers considered the Lebanon War lo be in the Six-Day War, the IDE "Israel's Vietnam." The IDF's reputation suffered severely succumbed to a classic case of when Lebanese militia groups allied with Israel massacred "victor's disease" and drew faulty conclubetween 800 and 2,000 Palestinian civilians at ihe Sabra sions that would later haunt Israel. Replicating and Shatila refugee camps on Sept. 15 and 16, 1982, one of the German army's biggest World War 11 Sharon, then Israel's defense minister, was branded intermistakes, the IDF came to rely too hea\ily on tanks nationally as a war criminal, and (he incident led directly and fighter-bombers, de-emphasizing the value of artiller)' lo the formation of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. and conventional infantry. The IDF also grew so overconfident that it believed another Arab attack to be almost The IDE was drawn into the West Bank and Gaza lo unthinkable. The Arabs, however, had also learned some perform security and stability operations during the First hard lessons from 1967. Palestinian Intifada ("shaking off), which lasted from Egypt and SyTia launched their next attack on Oct. 6, 1987 to 1992. The Second Intifada started in late Sep1973, on Yom Kippur. the most solemn Jewish religious tember 2000 when Sharon, leader of ihe Israeli opposiholiday of the year. This time the IDE was caught almost totion and always a lightning-rod figure, visited Jerusalem's tally by surprise. Fully resupplied by the Soviets, Syria disputed Temple Mount, Judaism's holiest and Islam's launched mass tank formations across the Golan Heights, third holiest site. The ensuing al-Aqsa Intifada, as it was while Egypt staged a "bite-and-hold" crossing of the Suez known, was far more violent and bloody than the first, Ganal and then threw up an impenetrable umbrella of surand the security demands placed on the IDE and espeface-to-air missiles. Stripped of air cover, and witliout tradicially its reservists exacted a high price. The Second Intional infantry support, the IDE^ tanks fell prey to Egyptian tifada finally sputtered out by 2005, after Israel withdrew infantry armed with new Soviet antitank guided missiles. from Gaza, though to this day the IDF remains heavily In the end the IDE rallied, especially after a massive committed in the Wesi Bank. American airlift started bringing in weapons and supplies The Second Lebanon War started on July 12, 2006, on October 14. IDF tanks eventually annihilated the Syrian when Hezbollah forces crossed the border from Lebanon forces on the Golan Heights (see Militaty Histoiy., May/Iune into northern Israel and killed three IDE soldiers. Wary of 2008). In the Sinai, Sharons armored division forced a getting bogged down in another long occupation, the IDE crossing of the Suez, quickly followed by another armade the even greater mistake of trying to win the war en-

minister o defense, the lAF launched a massive preemptive strike on the moming of June 5 and virtually destroyed the Egyptian Air Force on the ground. By noon, just eight hours later, the Israelis had also eliminated the Syrian and Jordanian air forces. Once again, IDE armored columns thrust into the Sinai and to the banks of the Suez. Egypi lost some 15,000 soldiers killed, while the IDF lost 338. The Six-Day War cemented the IDF's growing reputation for im-incibility, but almost immediately the Egyptian and Israeli forces facing each other across the Suez Canal became bogged down in a protracted series of raids, counterraids, and air and artillery strikes. The ironically named War of Attrition played directl)' against Israels population weakness, but the IDE nonetheless scored a number of impressive tactical successes before the conflict ended in 1970. During Operation Rooster 53 on Dec. 26, 1969, Israeli commandos raided the Egyptian radar station at Ras-Arab on the Gulf of Suez, capturing a newly installed, state-of-the-art So\iet P-12 radar system. Swooping in on three French-built Arospatiale Super Frelon helicopters, the IDE strike force quickly overpowered the Egyptian garrison. The P-12 equipment was housed in two trailers partially dug into the ground, but the Israelis dug them out and sling-loaded them beneath two U.S.-built CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters for return to Israeli-held territory.

MILITARY HISTORY

A former U.S. Marine on<:e commented of the IDF, above, "They're ahout the sloppiest-looking soldiers I've ever seen. But they sure can fight!" In a familiar ending to rr odern day Middle East conflicts, Israeli troops withdrawing from Lebanon in 2006, left, proudly bear the Star of David.
hers of cixnlian casualties, as Hezbollah rocketii slammed into norihem Israeli cities. For ihe first time, too, Israel had inflicted more ciWlian than military deaths on ib enemy; and lor the first time the IDF failed to crush its military opponent. By simply sun-iving an IDF onslaught, Hezbollah could claim victory. lthough many pundits have proclaimed that the IDF's armor of in\ Incibilily has been pierced once and for all, such claims ha\T been niade before, especially after the Yom Kippur War The IDF did not win decisively in 2006, but Israels e>stence was never threatened. Like all annies that lose a wat, the IDF has undenaken a thorough selfexamination and undoubtedly will transform itself accordingly, much like the German army after World War I imd the American military after Vietnam, In the final analysis, Israel is a modem Western stale with Western military institutions, includmg its own modem arms industr)'. Israels Arab opponents, meanwhile, have been struggling to modernize traditional cultures rooted in the Middle Ages. As long as the IDF's raison d'tre is to prevent Masada from falling again, the IDF will remain a formidable force. ( ^ For further reading, Lkivid T. Zabech recommends: The Sword and the Olive: A Critical History of the Israeli Defense Force, by Martin Van Cre\eld, and The israeU Defense Forces: A People's Army, by Ivuis D. Williams.

tircly rom the airignoring the lessons of the last 90 years ol military history. Israel launched massive air attacks against Hezbollah positions and Lebanese infrastructure nodes in Beirut and elsewhere. Israels apparent strategy was to drive a wedge between Hezbollah and the rest of the Lebanese population, lt backfired, and by the time the IDF's leaders concluded that ground forces were needed, the necessar)' units were not in position and the IDF ran up against a determined and well-prepared resistance. By the time another UN-brokered ceasefire went into effect on August 14, ihe IDF had lost 119 soldiers killed in action, with less to show for the loss than in any other war in its history. The Second Lebanon War differed from Israel's previous wars in other ways: For the first time Israel suffered large num-

Philip of Macedn fathered a new age o

HISTORY

s
By Richard A. Gabel

Western warfare thai united Greece and enabled his son Alexander to conquer the world

The full moon cast long shadows across the 3,000 dead and wounded sprawled in grotesque piles throughout the meadow. Moans disturbed the nights stillness as the dying lingered for moments before falling into deaths painless darkness. Through the moonlight came a solitary figure, a lame, drunken old soldier stumbling over the corpses, come to inspect his work. He stopped where the center of the battle line had been and drank deepl)' from a wine jug. A smile crossed his lips. Then Philip 11 of Philip II was both a skilled military leader and a shrewd Macedn, Greece's greatpolitician whose vision of a est general, began to greater Macedonia changed Western history. He would dance upon the bodies reign as the region's first littering the battlefield national king and field its first national army. at Chaeronea.

Philip II vas many thingsfather of Alexander the Great; unifier of Greece; founder of the first terntorial state in Europe with a centralized administration; author of that nation's Jirst federal constitution; the West's first naiional king; creator of the first Western national amiy; the first great general of the Greek imperial age; strategic and tactical genius; military refonner; and dreamer of bold dreams. Philip's militaiy and political brilliance shaped both his own age and the future of Western militar)- histor)'. Had there been no Philip to assemble the resources and create the strai egic vision to bring into being the first modern, tactically sophisticated army in Western military history, Alexander's achievements would not have been possible. Born in 382 BC, Philip was the youngest of three sons of Macedonian king Amyntas II.

At 15 he was sent as a hostage to Thebes to help ameliorate the dynastic crisis then engulfing the Macedonian royal house. While in Thebes, Philip lived with Pammenes, a skilled general and friend of the great Epaminondas, the best military tactician in all Greece. Philip was an eager student of war and was panicuiarly impressed with Pelopidas, the great Theban general and commander of the Sacred Band, an elite force of some 300 handpicked hoplites. It was while watching the Theban army train that Philip learned the importance of infantry maneuver and using cavalry in concert with infantry. When Philip's brother, Perdiccas III, regained the Macedonian throne and recalled Philip from Thebes, Philip was made a provincial governor and given a free hand to raise and train troops. For the next five years he experimented with new infantry formations aiid tactical doctrines. In 359 B C Perdiccas marched against the lllyrians in another of the intemiinable border wars that plagued Macedonian kings for centuries. He left Philip behind to govern as regent. Perdiccas was killed in a defeat that also cost the lives of 4,000 Macedonian soldiers. So, at the age of 23, Philip became Icing of Macedonia and immediately moved against the five wouldbe usurpers who challenged him for the throne. Within a year three of them were dead, the others driven into exile later to be captured and kilted. Macedonian politics was not for the weak or squeamish. Philip quickly had to deal with powerful enemies. The lllyrians and Paeonians were preparing to reinvade Macedonia. The young king gathered up every available man, first attacking and defeating the Paeonians. Then, with 10,000 infantry and 600 cavalry, he turned on the lllyrians, crushing them in a pitched battle near Monastir and killing 7,000 of the enemy during a ruthless cavalry pursuit. Within a year, Philip had neutralized the enemies on Macedonia's northern and western frontiers. He then turned to the task of rebuilding the army into an instrument with which to forge an empire.

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ver the course of his campaigns, Philip designed and tested a new army radically different in structure, tactics and opera-

tional capabilities from those elsewhere m Greece. And behind the redesign ol the new army lay a clear strategic vision: Philip intended to conquer all of Greece and unite it under Macedonian suzerainty With that accomplished, he intended to use the manpower and resources of a united Greece to attack Persia. To manage this, he needed a military machine that could succeed against both Greek and Persian methods of war. To defeat the Greeks, Philip had to find a way to deal with the heavy hoplite infantry phalanx. Defeating the Persians, however, was a more complex problem and required the development of several military capabilities, all of which were new to the Macedonian army First, if his army was to deploy over great distances for long periods, Philip needed an effective logistics system. Second, an army operating far from its home base required more rapid means of reducing cities than the usual Greek method of blockade and starvation. Third, because Persian cavalry was so strong, Philip's heavy infantry had to be able to blunt the cavarys shock power. Fourth, niobility on the battlefield needed improvement, and his cavalry had to develop tactics to counter the excellent Persian light infantiy And fifth, new tactical doctrines were required if these combat arms were to be utilized in concert. Philip found solutions to all these problems. His first move was to require one in every 10 able-bodied men to serve in the army under a system of regular pay and training, which transformed the Macedonian military from a hodgepodge militia into a standing regular army. He reconstituted the Macedonian infantry into a stronger phalanx of 4,096 men, comprising four regiments of 1,024 men each. Each regiment had four 256man battalions. Unlike earlier Greek infantry formations, the new Macedonian phalanx was a self-contained fighting unit augmented by its own light infantry and cavalry units. Once deployed, these units were completely self-sustaining and could maneuver independently, permitting much greater

BATTLE OF CHAERONEA
*
In the summer of 338 BC. Philip begati probing allied defenses around the passes between Thebes atidAthetis.tryingto lure the enemy into battle. In August, Philip arranged for the capture of a bogus dispatch by the force guarding Atnphissa. The false orders within instructed Philip's army to break contact and return to Macedonia to quell a Thracian rebellion.The enemy commander took the bait and dropped his guard. Philip then launched a lightning night attack and annihilated the garrison In its tents. By dawn Philip's army was pouring throtigh the pass in force, capturing Amptiissa and Delphi and outflanking the allied defense. The allied armies abandoned the passes for a position outside Chaeronea and awaited Philip's attack. One of the tnost decisive battles in Western military history was about to be fought. The battle began in the early morning. Fear, sweat, dry throats and loose bowels afflicted soldiers of both sides. Philip signaled the Guards Brigade of infantry on his right to launch the attack, in slow, methodical step, the bristling phalanx of spears and men advanced toward the Athenian left. As the Macedonian right advanced, Philip's center and left held their positions. Within a few minutes, the advance of the Macedonian right had created an oblique deployment along the line. The advance was almost upon the Atfienian line when the Macedonian phalanx stopped dead.

Italy

Maps by e v e Walkow

MILITARY HISTORY

The Athenian commander, Stratocles. ordered his infantry to attack, but as the Athenians advanced. Philip's infantry withdrew. The hedgehog of spears kept the Athenians at bay as the Macedonians slowly backed away from the hoplites. The discipline of Philip's troops was superb as they slowly gave ground without losing formation, their right flank protected by light infantry and rough terrain. For more than 30 minutes the two phalanxes confronted each other, the Macedonians drawing the Athenians farther and farther from the center of their own line. The Macedonian withdrawal halted against a stream prophetically named Blood River.There Philip sprang his trap. The Athenians increased their pressure on the Macedonian phalanx and a fierce infantry battle ensued. The backward oblique movement of the Macedonian line had forced the Greek line to follow suit.assuming an oblique angle that spread to its right flank. It is unclear what happened next. Either the allied line stretched until it broke, leaving a gap bet\veen the Theban Sacred Band and the

Athenian center, or. as Arrian suggests, Alexand r's they coutd not move. Thi; Athenians were forced into cavalry attacked the enemy infantry line, cut throui :h it a cul-de-sac in which 1.000 were slain and another and created its own opening. If Diodorus is corr ict, 2,000 captured. Other Greek contingents suffered it marked the first time in recorded Greek history hat even heavier casualties. a cavalry attack had broken a line of hoplite infantr^ Philip then ordered his infantry to att;ck. The Macedonians advanced, driving the Ather ian left before them as Alexander's cavalry rusned through the gap and fell upon the Greek rear .md center. Caught between Philip's infantry and c avairy, the Athenian line collapsed. The rest of he Macedonian infantry then struck the allied center, pressing the terrified soldiers against each other until Alexander then wheeled his cavalry and made for the Saci ed Band. As his horsdmen approached the enemy, legend has il Ale&mder ordered a halt. For several minutes he sat upon his mount in silence, watching the Sacred Band skirmishing thfore him. Some would have it he was deciding wiethei to spare them, for the Thebans were among th greatest warriors in Greece and hisftimiercomnides.Then Alexanderraisedhis arm and sent his lingadect ashng int the Thetians. The long ^^^^ reach of flu; Macedonian cavalry sanssa did its deadly work-254 of the 300 Thebans were slain thaf day.The dead were buried on the site of their heroic stand. The/ lie th^fe still in seven orderly rows. Close by is the earthen mound beneath which rest the Macedn an dead. Nearby, the marble Lion of Chaeronea still gazes ove' that sorrowful plain.

THE MACEDN

flexibility than had previously been possible. By the time of Philip's death, the Macedonian field army comprised 24,000 infantry and 3,400 cavalry In addition to restructuring his army Philip invented a completely new tactical infantry formation. The original Macedonian phalanx deployed in 10 files, each 10 men deep, a simple square that made it possible to train troops quickly in simple tactical formations and maneuvers. As the infantry gained experience, the phalanx deployed 16 men deeptwice the depth of the Greek hophte phalanxand was capable of a number of sophisticated battle drill and tactical formations, including the hollow wedge vo drive through Greek hopUte infantiy lines. The Macedonian infantryman carried a new weapon, the Srissa, a 13- to 21-foot-long pike made of comel wood with a blade at one end and a butt plate on the other to lend it balance. The sarissa weighed about 12 pounds and provided much greater reach than the traditional doru, a 7-foot hoplite infantry spear, permitting the phalanx to hold hoplite formations at bay and affording Macedonian infantry the advantage of always landing the first blow. The saiTSSiJ could be disassembled and earned with a strap across the soldiers back. Macedonian infantrymen wore the standard Greek hoplite helmet and leg greaves, but no body armor. Each carried an aspis, a 3-foot diameter, round, bronze-cove red wood shield, secured to the body by a shoulder strap. This freed both hands to wield the sarissa, thus enabling Macedonian infantrymen to easily pierce the armor and shields of Greek hoplites. Philip called his infantry the pezhetairoi ("foot companions"), endowing it with prestige traditionally reserved for the Companions, cavalry warriors of the Macedonian king. Philip's new infantry formations were based on radically new concepts of tactical employment. Unlike in traditional Greek armies, the Macedonian infantry was not intended to be the primary killing arm. Its purpose was to anchor the line and act as a platform for the maneuver and striking power of the heavy

cavalry. By holding the hoplite phalanx at bay with its mass and longer spears, the Macedonian phalanx immobilized the hoplite formation until cavalry could strike it in the flank or rear But the new phalanx could also be used offensively When formed as either a solid or hollow wedge, the weight and force of the phalatix could easily drive through a hoplite infantr)' line, opening a gap through which the cavalry could strike the enemy rear

Philip's logistical reforms made it possible for the first time in Greek history for an army to achieve strategic surprise
The Macedonian phalanx did not usually deploy at the leading edge of the line, but was held back obliquely The cavalry deployed in strength on the flank, connected to the infantry center by a "hinge" of heavy elite infantry called hypaspists, armed either in traditional hoplite fashion or viith the sarissa, depending upon circumstances. The new concept was to engage the enemy not at the front, but from tlie flank or at an oblique angle, forcing him to turn toward the attack. As the cavalry pressed the flank, the slower infantry, held back obliquely, advanced toward the enemy center in hedgehog fashionsharp spears bristling outward. If the enemy flank broke, the cavalry could either envelop or press the attack as the infantry closed, using the phalanx as an anvil against which to hammer the hoplites. If the enemy flank held, it stfll had to deal with the impact of the massive phalanx falling upon its front.

Phflips innovative new formations, and their new methods of tactical employment, produced tbe most powerful and tactically sophisticated infantry force ever known to Greece. The cavalry was the Macedonian army's decisive arm. Philip's cavalrymen were each equipped with a sword and a 9-foot javelin, the xyston, used to spike opponents through the face in close combat. Macedonian cavalry were also adept al employing ihe sariss. Organized into squadrons of 120, 200 or 300 horse depending upon the mission, Macedonian cavalry attacked with xyston or sarissa held overhand and resiing on the shoulder to execute a downward thrust. Once the victim was impaled, a horseman would abandon his spear and fighi on with sword. Philips cavalry typically attacked in wedge formation, ihe narrow end forward, a tactic he copied from the Thracians and Scythians. The ratio of cavalry to infantry in Philip's new army was one to six, twice that of the Persians and the largest cavalry-to-infantry force ratio of any army in antiquity Philip's cavalry was particularly deadly in the pursuit, where the sarissa's long reach gave the Macedonians a significant advantage in riding down and skewering fleeing enemy cavalry and infantry. Macedonia boasted a long tradition of cavalry warfare, and Philip's cavalry was the best. Macedonian horses were larger and stronger, descended from Persian and Scythian stock bred on tbe plains of Media and the Danube, If we are to believe Arrian, tbe Roman cavalry officer and sole contemporary source with militar)' experience, it seems likely that when attacking in wedge formation and employing the longer reach of the sarissa against infantry, Macedonian cavalry could do what no other cavalry of the day couldbreak through an infantry line, Diodorus says thai is exactly what Alexander's cavalry did al the Battle of Chaeronea.

o o

ithin four years of taking the throne, Philip had forged an army superior to any in Greece. As remarkable as this was, however, the new army was insufficient for

1 MILITARY HISTORY

creating the empire Philip had in mind. His army still lacked the logistical capability to sustain itself in the field over long distances and initially had no siege ability with which to force a strategic decision by rapidly subduing cities. Philip's solutions to these problems set the example for all future Western armies. He prohibited the traditional Greek practice of allowing each soldier to bring an attendant on military campaigns, allowing just one attendant for cver>' 10 infantr>Tnen and one for every lour cavalrymen. This transformed the attendants into a logistics corps that served the whole army He also forbade soldiers from bringing wives and other women, reducing the size of the noncombatant contingent. Philip outlawed the use of drawn carts except for those few designated as ambulances and transport for siege machinery. Horses and mules replaced oxen as pack animals. The effect on speed and mobility was remarkable, increasing the army's rate of movement to 13 miles a day, with cavalry units covering 40 miles from sunrise to sunset. Absent carts, the Macedonian soldier became a beast of burden, carrying 10 days' rations, 30 pounds of grain and another 40 pounds of equipment and weapons. This enabled Philip to reduce the number of pack animals in his army by 6.000, creating the fastest, lightest, most mobile army the West had ever seen. Taken together, these logistical reforms made it possible for the first time in Greek history for an army to achieve strategic surprise, allowing Philip to choose the battlefields on which he fought. But even a mobile army risked ntin in enemy territory if it could not quickly subdue walled garrisons and cities. Philip was the lirst Greek general to create a department of military engineering in his army and make siege operations an integral part of his tactical repertoire. It was likely Macedonian engineers who developed the prototype of the torsion catapult. Philip could now control the tempo and direction of warfare on a strategic and tactical level. These innovations spelled the end of the city-state as the dominant actor on the Greek military stage. The future

belonged to the national territorial state Philip had created in Macedonia. y 35 B C Philip was in a position to begin his wars of conquest against the Greek city-states. For the next 20 years he engaged in war, diplomacy, intrigue, treachery, bribery and assassination. He conducted 29 military operations and 11 sieges and captured 44 cities during this career, in the process losing an eye and sustaining injuries that left him lame. By 339 BC it was clear that despite his infirmities, Philip intended to master all of Greece. In September of that year he occupied Flateia, a key junction on the main road running through Thebes to Athens. Thebes, though a traditional enemy of Athens and technically Philip's ally, recognized that the only way to avoid incorporation into his Macedonian empire was to form a militar)' alliance with Athens. The Athenian army marched into Boeotia, linked up with the Theban army and took up positions in the northwest passes. Their disposition effectively blocked both of Philip's routes of advancethe first along the road from Elateia to Athens, the second across the Corinthian Gulf at Naupactus. its narrowest point. For almost nine months Philip's route south was blocked. Then then came the decisive Battle of Chaeronea (see P 40). ollowing his victory over the Greeks, in October 338 BC Philip summoned the Greek city-states to a peace conference at Corinth, presiding over what arguably would be his greatest achievementlegalizing Macedonia's hegemony over Greece. He proposed the League of Corinth, a defensive alliance in perpetuity among the Greek city-states and Macedonia. Philip was to be appointed hegemon of the league's joint military forces, whose mission was to ensure the security of Greece. Philip was also to be the strategos autokrator, or supreme commander in chief, of all Macedonian and league forces in the field. One by one the citystates ratified the agreement. Thus Philip united Greece in a single federation for the first time in its history.

In the summer of 337 c, Philip placed before the league's council his pian for war on Persia, The proposal was carried, and in the spring of 336 BC Philip sent 10,000 men across the Hellespont to establish a beachhead in Ionia and provoke secession of the Asiatic Greek states from Persian control. Philip was to follow with the main body in the falL but before he could embark, he was assassinated by Pausanias, one of his own bodyguards. hilip was the strongest of the few strong men who had appeared on the stage of Greek history since the end of the Peloponnesian War, and his death marked the passing of the classical agt- of Greek histor)- and warfare and the beginning of the imperial age. Although the latter is marked by the victories of Alexander and rule of the three empires that followed his early death, the debt owed Philip is very great indeed. It was Philip, after all. who dared to dream of a united Greece despite four centuries of failed efforis by Athens, Thebes and Sparta, To Philip belongs the title of first great general in the new age of Western warfare, an age he fathered by introducing a new instrument of war and the tactical doctrines to make it succeed. As a statesman, he had no equal in his timee\'en Alexander's achievements did not outlive his death, Philip's accomplishments survived long enough to provide Alexander the strategic foundation and means for his war of Persian conquest. As a practitioner of the political art, Philip had no equaleven Nicoll Machiavelli might have smiled at Philip's ability to gain his ends by diplomacy as well as by force. There were few minds more facile than Philip's in the art of realpolitih. In all these things, he was greater than Alexander. The son became a romantic hero, but the father was the great national king. 1^

For further reading, Richard A. Gabriel

recommends: Philip of Macedn, by N.G.L. Hammond, and the author's own Greater Than Alexander: Philip of Macedn, Greece^ Greatest General,

Collectible cigarette cards from World War I

ommies on the Western Front sought two indulgences at the end of each dismal day in the trenchesa good cuppa and a packet of Woodbines. British tobacconist WD. & H.O. Wills had launched its popular brand of cigarettes in 1888, stiffening each packet with a colorful trading card, one of a themed set of 50. Sets featured cinema stars and coats of arms, footballers and cricketers, callisthenic exercises, even ships of the White Star Line. When war broke out on the Continent, themes turned martialrecruiting posters, dreadnoughts, infantry training. Among them were two sets of Military Motors, one passed by censors, the other notthough oddly enough they're identical, and had they fallen into German hands, the "bines" would have been the real prize. Each set features both actual vehicles (British, French, Belgian, Canadian, ANZAC, Russian, Italian, even Serbian) and fanciful dream rides. We run a selection here with original captions from the flip sides, i

MILITARY HISTORY

No. 49

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Infantrymen get a close-up look at an M2A1 medium tank during a lull in the "fighting" at the Louisiana Maneuvers. One aim of the exercises was to establish whether armored units would be able to maneuver effectively in bad weather and difficult terrain.

over all Louisiana. From low, darkening clouds the drops spattered on the State's good highways, on its hundreds of marshy mud foads, on its pine forests, and on its deep Swamps/uil of quicksand. The rain fell, too, on 350,000 U.S. soldiers "I 50,000 U.S. Army vehicles as they fought
MILITARY HISTORY

THE GREATEST WAR GAMES

In 1940 and 1941, America's soldiers were sent for training to the fetid swamps of Louisiana and forged a common experience that prepared them for war
By Mark Perry

the greatest sham battle in U.S. history. The attack had come before dawn. With two fast-moving, hard-hitting armored divisions leading the way. Lieutenant General Ben Lear, commander of the Second (Red) Army, had pushed his troops across the muddy Red River, was already sending long tentacles down the highways io the south, where Lieutenant General Walter Krueger's Third (Blue) Army lay in wait. Overhead, armadas of pursuit planes fought great dogfights, while sleek A-2A attack bombers and Navy dive bombers slrafed the columns of tanks and trucks moving up to the front.

veteran soldier and commander of ihe Third U.S, Army, headquartered in Atlanta, Marshall directed Embick to find a suitable location where thousands of U.S, troops could be deployed in a series of maneuvers to test their readiness. Armed with these instructions and accompanied by his aide. Major Mark Clark, Embick traveled to central Louisiana, where the Army had trained many of its soldiers during World War I. With a tattered road map as a guide, Embick and Clark tramped through Louisiana's backcountry, noting ihe roads, trails, swamps and forests.

Thai excerpl from the Oct. 6, 1941, issue of Ufe opened a multipage feature article on the Largest mass training maneuvers undertaken by the U.S, Army to date. The mock battles of what became known as the Louisiana Maneuvers had one purpose: to prepare America's soldiers for the war that had already begun in Europe and was threatening to spread around the world. n the early spring of 1940, the U.S. military faced a seemingly insurmountable task. With Poland overrun by Geman armored columns now poised lo strike at France, and China under assault by Japan, America's commanders had to prepare the U.S. military for war. The problem was not a dearth of troopsafter Adolf Hitler's blitzkrieg rolled through Poland in September 1939, Congress had mobilized the National Guard and Reserve and approved an increase in the size of the Army It was that the existing troops were poorly trained or not trained at all. No one was more acutely aware of this than Army Chief of Staff General George C. Marshall. A student of history, Marshall was certain American boys were as courageous as any German or Japanese soldier, but they lacked sufficient training and combat experience and time was short, Marshall concluded that what America's burgeoning ranks needed was a complex training exercise, an exacting test in an environment that would closely approximate the realities of the battlefield. To help implement his idea, Marshall called on U. Gen. Stanley D. Embick, a

1930. By hnking the two tracts, the military had a ready-made training ground. But Embick determined the traming area needed to be larger still. So the Army secured Louisiana's permission to conduct maneuvers in rural areas south of ihe national forest, Embick and state officials worked quickly to iron out the details, and by early June 1940 the Army had secured the right to deploy across thousands of square miles in Grant, Natchitoches, Winn, Rapides, Vemon, Claibome and Webster parishes. Embick went even further, securing use righis to large tracts of land in East Texas that bordered the primary Louisiana deployment grounds. Like central Louisiana, East Texas was then sparsely populated, wiih a network of unfinished roads thai would challenge military topographers and unit commanders. The 3,400 square miles of combined maneuver area was also laced with riversthe Sabine and Calcasicu lo the west and the Red to the north natural barriers that would present valuable training obstacles for ihe engineer uniis obliged to bridge them. ike Marshall, Embick had closely followed the German conquest of Poland, While he believed the maneuvers would be a good opportunity lo test the Army's new halftrackmounted 75mm antitank gun, he and his planners also hoped lo answer other questions: Could mobile units adequately replace horse cavalry? Could the Army's newly formed paratrooper units actually be dropped en masse? Would armored units be able to maneuver effectively in difficult terrain and uncertain weather conditions? Would the Army's new three-regiment "iriangle divisions" maneuver more efficiently than the old four-regiment "square divisions"? Furthermore, Marshall was keen to see whether a professional officer corps of rising colonels and brigadier generals could command large units operating over vast tracls of territory, as they would be called on to do in the brewing war, Ll. Gen. Krueger later described what Marshall and America's other senior commanders were looking for in their officers

The idea for what became the Louisiana Maneuvers originated with Army Chief of Staff General Geoi^ C. Marshall, seen here at Camp Polk, La., during the 1940 war games. Spareely populated, thick with undergrowth and uncharted swamps, and scarred by rural traces that turn to muck at the slightest hini of rain, central Louisiana was an ideal place to prepare an army, with vast tracts of land ihat could accommodate the large-scale maneuvers the Anny needed to conduct. The north-central part of the state is home to Kisatchie National Forest, a 604,000-acre virtual wilderness of pinewood hills. Just south of the national forest was Camp Evangeline, a 23,000acre tract established by the Army in

MILITARY HISTORY

Putting Practice..,
Clockwise, from left: Quartermaster troops of Lt. Gen. Walter Krueger's Third Army divide boxes of rations into unit lots. Moving toward the "front," an M3 medium tank shares a small-town street with civilian vehicles. Intent on repulsing enemy armor, crewmen of a 37mm antitank gun seem unconcerned in the face of a mock attack hy a trio of A-20 homhers. Soldiers manning an anti-aircraft gun atop the Giddens Lane Building in Shreveport, La., in September 1941 scan the skies for hostile aircraft. A relative unknown at the outset of tfie maneuvers, Lt. Col. Dwigfit Eisenhower (at right) distinguished himself as Third Army's able chief of staff.

men who possessed "broad vision, progressive ideas, a thorough grasp of the magnitude of the problems involved in handling an army, and lots of initiative and resourcefulness." While it was one thing to find the right region for the maneuvers, it was another to make certain the maneuvers were challenging and instructive. Throughout the spring of 1940, Embick and his staff worked tirelessly to devise a series of increasingly difficult tests that would prepare soldiers for the battlefield and test command arrangements from the squad level to full army level. Embick wanted to test units under as many different conditions as possible, to see whether they could communicate with each other, deploy according to schedules and, perhaps most important, cover long distances at night. The exercises were designed to be exhaustiveand exhausting: There'd be scant sleep on a real battlefield, so there would be little time for relaxation in Texas and Louisiana. Embick sought logistics assistance from senior armored and infantry corps commanders, who insisted the maneuvers be as realistic as possible. Loudspeakers would blare the recorded sounds of battle, canister smoke would shroud the battlefield, and bags of white sand would be dropped from aircraft to simulate the impact of artillery shells. U.S. Army Air Corps spotter and reconnaissance planes would gather intelligence, while transports would deliver troops to newly constructed airfields. Planners stockpiled millions of rounds of blank ammunition, and Embick established rules to govern when units would join the line of fire and what kinds of "casualties" they'd suffer. His goal was not only to determine who could "kill" whom, but also to test the time it took medical units to traa-ifer the "wounded" to rear-area combat hospitals. Finally, Embick appointed and trained hundreds of maneuver "umpires," who, armed with clipboards and armbands, would monitor and assess units and leaders according to a complex grading system. While the umpires' conclusions were important, even more important, from Embick's perspective, was feedback from individual commanders, who were

to assess their own performance and that of their troops. Embick's goal was not to determine winners and losers of the exercises, but to create an effective training regimen for the coming war. y April 1940, all was ready for the Louisiana Maneuvers. There were to be two events in the spring and autumn of 1940 and two more the following year, with the largest, most complex and most important to be held in September 1941. The 1940 maneuvers began in May with 70,000 soldiers, who trained and "fought" in four separate exercises of three days each, beginning on May 9. These first maneuvers, Embick said, were "experiments," not contests. The first was to see whether armored units could actually mobilize and travel long distances. To test this, the War Department ordered Maj. Gen. Walter C. Shorts IV Corps to move from its Fort Benning headquarters in Georgia to Louisiana550 miles in six days, the longest motor march ever undertaken by the U.S. Army Soon after arriving in Louisiana, IV Corps was thrown into a series of corps-on-corps exercises that pitted Short's armored columns (the "Blue Army") against Krueger's IX Corps (the "Red Army"). As military historian Christopher Gabel noted:
in (hcrst exercise, Red Army took the offensive, crossing the Cakasieu while Blue Afmy dejended ihc river line. In the second exercise. Blue Army altacked, enveloping both anhs of the Red force. The third maneuver again saw Blue on the attack, this time with penetrations of the Red hne at Slagle and Hornbeck. !n the fourth exercise, the provisional tank brigade and the 7th Mechanized Cavalry Brigade were combined into a provisional division totaling some 382 tanksthe first armored division in Army history. This force spearheaded a Red Army attack, which the Blue force countered with an antitank defense extending as far east as Gorum and Flatwoods.

mbick followed up, crisscrossing the "battlefield" to question commanders and soldiers on both sides and reaching some preliminary

conclusions on America's combai readiness. What he found was not encouragingthe Army evidently had a lot 10 learn about mobile warfare. Vehicle breakdowns, repair team shortages, repeated traffic jams and poorly worded orders were all common. More important, senior commanders' failure to lead from the front led to uncoordinated attacks and jumbled defenses. "Commanders and staffs mistakenly believed that they could run the war from headquarters," Gabel noted, "relying on maps and telephones, much as they had in the static warfare of 1918." In the wake of the May war games, several senior tank experts, including Colonel George S. Patton Jr., recommended the Army create separate armored divisions that could operate unencumbered by infantry or horse cavalry units. The recommendation was forwarded to Marshall, who quickly established a special armored training school at Fort Knox, Ky While Embick bemoaned the performance of the amiored units and the lack of communication between senior commanders and their frontline units, he was satisfied that young recruits were in good physical condition and would perform well in the event of war. And despite his disappointment that few senior officers manned the front with their troops, Embick was pleased to find the Army had created a dedicated officer corps comprising some of the nation's best military minds. Among those who participated in the maneuvers and went on to assume major leadership roles in World War II were Clark, Patton and Lt. Col Omar Bradley Perhaps the most outstanding young commander of the 1940 maneuvers was Colonel Joseph "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell. During a key moment in the face-off between the Blue and Red armies, Stilwell commanded a "blitzkrieg" invasion of northern Louisiana with a flying column ol tanks-just the kind of attack German General Heinz Guderian was then planning against France. Impressed, Embick and the umpires passed Stilwell's name up the chain of command. After Pearl Harbor, Marshall appointed Stilv/ell to lead Allied troops against the Japanese in Burma and China.

MILITARY HISTORY

he 1941 Louisiana Maneuvers were held over three weeks in August and three weeks in September. To coordinate them, MarshallreplacedEmbick, who was retiring, with Brig. Gen. Lesley "Whitey" McNair, commandant of the Army's Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. The self-effacing McNair, whom Marshall described as "the brains of the Army," had not only crafted the military's 13-week basic training regimen, he had reoriented and reformed Leavenworths curriculum, passing on to Marshall [he names of his best students. Like Marshall, McNair understood the challenges the U.S. faced in fighting the Germans and Japanese and was concerned about his service's poor preparation. He decided to enlarge on what Embick had started, replacing the 70,000-soldier e^cercise of 1940 with the largest peacetime exercise in Amencan history. "We didn't know how soon war would come," McNair later observed, "but we knew it was coming, and we had to get together something of an army pretty dam fast," McNair conceived a groundbreaking war game that mobilized 400,000 soldiers in two armiesthe Red, or "Koimk," representing Kansas, Oklahoma. Texas, Missouri and Kentucky; and the Blue, or "Almat," comprising Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi. Alabama and Tennessee. The armies would contend for control of the Mississippi River. As in Embick's 1940 maneuvers, umpires would grade individual leaders and units on leadership and combat skills. Senior officers were warned to ensure proper supply and preparation of their troops. Communications systems that had plagued Embick the year before were improved with upgraded equipment, including new radios for senior commanders and their subordinates. This time, McNair insisted, senior commanders were to be as close to the front as the situation demanded. In June, July and August, corps deployments tested coordination between air and ground reconnaissance units, while a second set of corps-on-corps exercises honed combat leadership skills. Marshall focused considerable time on the 1941 maneuvers, calling them

"a combat college for troop leading" and a laboratory to test the "new armored, antitank and air forces that had come of age since 1918." He personally observed many of the corps- and divisionlevel maneuvers and, in the autumn. an expanded training exercise in the hills of North and South Carolina. But the major focus was on the Red vs. Blue conflict in Louisiana and East Texas. The mock war began on September 15 -Just three months before Pearl Harbor and pitted Lt. Gen. Ben Lear's Second (Red) Army against Krueger's Third (Blue) Army. Lear's goal was to defeat the Blue Army and occupy Louisiana. A hard-bitten, gruff-talking disciplinarian. Lear was not well liked by his troops, but he had an eye for detail and was surrounded by a cadre of talented and aggressive officers, including veterans of Embick's 1940 exercises. Among them was Patton, whom Lear tasked to lead a lightning combined-arms strike against Krueger's Louisiana defenses. Krueger, an aging veteran and competitive taskmaster who too quickly bristled at unintended slights, desperately wanted to beat Lear. He gathered a staff of brainy if little-known assistants, including Lt. Col. Dwight Eisenhower as his chief of staff. Eisenhower was an old friend of Patton and, in May, began meticulously planning Louisiana's defenses against Patton's tanks. Marshall, who had doubts about Eisenhower, accepted Krueger's word that "Ike" was a bnlliam planner and tough soldier. Krueger's judgment of Eisenhower was soon proven on the Louisiana battlefield. Lear's army crossed the Red River on September 15 with Patton's tanks in the lead. Eisenhower was ready Three of Krueger's mobile corps rapidly responded to the Red Army threat and moved to pin it against the river. Patton laughed off the threat, even circulating an offer to subordinates of $50 to any man who captured "a certain SOB called Eisenhower." Unperturbed, Ike and Krueger ordered their armored units to flank Patton and prevent a breakout. Umpires deemed the maneuver successful. The first part of the war was over. The Blue Army, and Eisenhower, had won.

BLUE VS. RED MA\ THI- BrST Ti:AM W IN

Dwighl Eisenhower As 1 hird Amiy chief ofsiaff in Louisiana, t.L Col. tiiSCIlllOWLT provfd lioili hrillidnt and tapable. Rapid |iromoiu)n fiillowcd. and by 1)-Da>m 1J44, 111' was supreme Allied ( omniander in Eumpe. ' ( liirk As Lnibiik's ,iul Major Clark lielped define liif mitiu-uvcr boiinilarics. An excellent planner and lugisiician, he weni im lo ser\e as I isenluwcr's lioputv in I urope :md amiinanded [lie 5lli Army and

15th .\rmy Group. ! eslfv McNair Tapped 10 plan ihe larger 194t maneuvers. Brig. Gen. MeNair introduced umpires and improved communications. He laicr commanded all Army ground iorces. McNair as killed in July 1944 hy Friendly fire.
Walter Krueger Commander of the Blue Arm\ in 141. Ll. Gen. Krucjicr Irounccd 1 ear's Red Army, Aficr Pearl Harhor, Krueger look eommand of the Si.xth Arm) in the Faiilic. soon proving liimself an excellent eomhat leader. Omai Br-idley During the mam"uver^, Lt. Col. Bradley proved hoth an excelleni planner and perceptive observer, He laier touglit in Norib Africa, succeeded i'ailon al 11 Corps, .ind ultimately led ihi- 12th .Army Group. George Palton Colonel Rations handling of armored forces during I lie miincnvcrs helped lorgf his successful comhai lactics Paiton first gained ground in Ni>rlb Africa, then wenl on to lommand in Sicily, I ranee and Germany.

t is now well-known American military lore that in his desk drawer in Washington, Marshall kept "a little black book" (one he once waved at a reporter, just to prove it existed) in which he listed those officers he believed would lead the nation in battle against the Axis. The Ust had grown through the years, McNair was on il, as were Bradley, Stilwell, Clark and Patton. By the end of the Louisiana Maneuvers, Marshall had added Eisenhower to his list. Three months later, eight days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, he brought Ike to Washington. Within months, the newly promoted brigadier general was in London, planning the invasion of North Africa. Within two years he was supreme allied commander and Marshall's eyes and ears in Europe. Marshall was not the only one impressed by Eisenhower. The young officer also entranced journalists covering the Louisiana Maneuvers, front-pages fodder through 1941. CBS reporter Eric Sevareid eyed Krueger's staii and concluded that Eisenhower "makes more sense than any of the rest of them." Drew Pearson, perhaps the best-known reporter of his day, agreed, telling his readers that Eisenhower "conceived and directed the strategy that routed [Lear's] Second Army," and that the balding lieutenant colonel was endowed with "a steel-trap mind plus unusual physical vigor." Such reports wouldn't have swayed Marshallafter all, no one on his lisl had actually been tested in combat. Still, the Louisiana Maneuvers had reinforced the chief of staff's faith in realistic training. The Army he had built in just two whirlwind years had not been blooded, but Marshall was confident it would acquit itself well. And while he had taken note of Eisenhower's talent, he was even more buoyed by Patton's aggressive battlefield tactics. Eollowing his failed breakout from the Red River "beachhead," Patton was made a commander in Krueger's Red Army, which would take the offensive during the second set of exercises. In the latter part of September, as McNair watched in amazement, Patton led his armored corps in a massed flanking attack against the Blue Army's defense in

depth. Patton's 2nd Armored Division advanced 200 miles through northern Louisiana and East Texas in three days, enveloping Lear's Hank, It was a brilliant maneuver. Lear's army thus surrounded, McNair suspended the exercise. McNair and Krueger spent the following weeks reviewing lists of senior officers, culling those who had failed the test of the Louisiana Maneuvers. Those who survived the process were marked for combat commands. Those who did not were shunted off to other

of Patton, Clark, Bradley and Eisenhower, who replicated in Europe what they first practiced in central Louisiana. ere the Louisiana Maneuvers a success? The ever-critical McNair praised the exercises, but was quick to point out they had re\'ealed some weaknesses: "The principal weakness was deficiency in small-unit training due fundamentally to inadequate leadership." If there is one hero of the maneuvers, it is McNair, who was everywhere at once, watching and taking notes. From these notes McNair whom Marehall appointed commanding general of Army Ground Eorces shaped the most intensive and physically demanding training regimen for regular soldiers in American history Over the next four years, until he was killed while watching the soldiers he had trained advance into Normandy, McNair molded the cadre of sergeants who became the backbone of the Armythe small-unit leaders he worried about during the steamy Louisiana summer of 1941. The Louisiana Maneuvers provided vital training for the tens of thousands of American boys who would go on to fight and win on the battlefields of Europe and the Pacific. In the midst of ihat global conflict, soldiers who had battled near Shreveport, driven tanks in East Texas, own reconnaissance missions over Evangeline Parish, or simply fought off the chiggers and ticks, would acknowledge the bond forged during a make-believe war, A Walk in the Sun, one of Hollywood's most poignant accounts of World War II combat, features a memorable scene in which American soldiers slog forward under fire near Salerno to capture a farmhouse. Members of the platoon laughingly agree: Their assignment is going to be tough, but "it can't be worse than the Louisiana Maneuvers," (Sb
Forjurther reading, Mark Perry recommends: "The W'iO Maneuvers: Prelude to Mobilization," by Christopher R. Gabel; "Careers oj Ojjicers Involved in the Louisiana Maneuvers," by Rickey Robertson,

A First Army truck convoy bogs down in the backwoods west of Monroe, S.C. In late 1941, Marshall oversaw the Carolina Maneuvers. A week later, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. service or retired. Lear was charged with training the Second Army and later replaced McNair, who died in Normandy as the Army's chief trainer. But Louisiana had sealed Lear's fate: He would never obtain the combat command he desired, Krueger, thought too old to command, was sidelined as head of the Southern Defense Command, But in January 1943, General Douglas MacArthur told Marshall he wanted Krueger to head up the new Sixth U.S. Army, based in Australia. Krueger went on to become one of the toughest, if now largely forgotten, combat leaders of World War IL Of course, history records the achievements

and Eisenhower: A Soldier's Life, by

Carlo D'Este.

lUTARY HISTORY

...into Action
Clockwise, from left: Soldiers of the 113th Cavalry Demolition Section place dummy TNT charges on a bridge to be "destroyed" to slow the Red Army's advance. An M3 tank moves out of its bivouac area to join an advancing column. Colonel George S. Patton Jr. -whose aggressive battlefield tactics won Marshail's approval-briefs reporters and senior commanders on the movements of his 2nd Armored Division during the September 1941 maneuvers. Supported by machine guns. two 37mm guns of the II Corps Provisional Antitank Battalion prepare to engage advancing armor. Signal soldiers retrieve field telephone wires as their Red Army unit advances.

I.--'

El

PLOTTE
a Bavarian baron slipped across the Atlantic to supplant George Washington. Johann de Kalb would instead become a stalwart American ally

By Thomas Fleming

When Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, arrived in South Carolina in June 1777, he intended to aid the faltering American Revolution in any way he could. The 19-year-old aristocrat and soldier was unaware, however, that his travehng companions included one whose secret mission was to depose George Washington as commander in chief of the Continental Army That man was Baron Johann de Kalh, and his evolution from European intriguer to American military hero is one of the great stories of the Revolution. Though a close friend and adviser to the idealistic Lafayette, de Kalh was no starry-eyed postadolescent. He was a 55-year-old professional soldier, a title to which few in the French army had better claim. De Kalh was born in 1721 to peasant parents in the Bavarian principality of Ansbach-Beyreuth. By the age of 22 the husky 6-footer with the searching broMTi eyes, ample forehead and chiseled nose had someKalb commissioned how obtained the noble "de" before his last name. While De Charles Willson Peale for most historians think he simply invented it, he may have this 1780 portrait, right. summer Washington acquired it from a ruler of one of the many tiny principalities That ordered the major general and duchies into which Bavaria was divided in those days. to march to the relief of beleagured southern Whatever its origin, the title could only have helped him the Continental Army. It would as he set out on his military career. be de Kalb's final mission.

MILITARY HISTORY

In letters
de Kalb described Washington as 'the weakest generar he had ever seen, a man %ho repeatedly succumbed o bad advice from Congress or aides and subordinate generals

o o

ec

As a young man he served as a lieutenant in the Lwendahl the duke expressed some sympathy with the Americans in Regiment, among the best German units in the service of their revolt, and an inspired Lafayette concluded his personal Erance. De Kalb's baptism by fire came in the War of the involvement in the revolution might aid the colonists' effort. Austrian Succession, a dynastic brawl that began in 1740 and Resolved to stir up as much trouble as possible for the pitted France, Spain and Prussia against Austria and Britain. British, and believing Washington incapable of leading Much of the fighting took place in present-day Belgium and his troops to victory, de Broglie decided de Kalb should also Holland. By the time the carnage subsided in 1748, de Kalb was Journey to the colonies. His mission would be to rescue the a captain and adjutant of his regimentthe "officer of detail" faltering revolution by persuading the rebels to replace Washwho ran things in peacetime. ington with de Broglie as commander of the Continental Army If de Kalb succeeded. America would become a decisive In 1756 war again exploded between Erance and Britain. weapon in France's global power stRigglc with England. Over the next seven tumultuous years, de Kalb rose to lieutenant colonel and assistant quartermaster general of the Army of the To the Europeans the scheme was neither far-fetched nor Upper Rhinepositions that introduced him to many powerful venal. Foreign soldiers were common in Eumpean anniesLI faci Erench businessmen and politicians and won him the friendship of which de Kalb himsell was a prime example. Moreover, as a of Charles-Franois de Broglie, the most influFreemason, de Broglie was truly sympathetic to ential general in the French army A former field the American cause. So was de Kalb; in late 1775 commander and onetime head of King Louis XVs he wrote to a German friend in Philadelphia that private diplomatic service, de Broglie helped de he was tieady to "devote the rest of my days in the Kalb acquire the Order of Military Merit, adding service of your liberiy and to the utmost of my the title "baron" to the younger man's noble "de." ability employ my 32 years experience acquired in the military art for your advantage." In 1764 Baron de Kalb retired from the army and married Anna Elizabeth Emilie van Robis, heiress to a fortune made by Dutch cloth makers Ihe plan hatched, de Kalb took leave from who had immigrated to France. De Kalb bought the French army and signed a contract a handsome chateau near Paris and for several w\h Silas Deane of Connecticut, whom years was a seemingly contented civilian. But the the Americans had sent to France to buy humiliating peace the victorious British had imweapons and supplies. The baron was assured posed on France at the close of the Seven Years' a commission as a major general in the ContiDe Kalb said War left de Broglie and many other professional nental Army, and de Kalb also secured commisWashington soldiers hungry for revenge. Especially galling was sions for 15 other lower-ranking officers he and the way Britain had stripped France of most of de Broglie had chosen to facilitate the takeover. was'tiie only her overseas empire in North America and India. Paris swirled with rumors of others who proper person' In 1768 de Broglie persuaded Etienne Franois, sought to help the sinking revolt, notably to command the French chief minister, to send de Kalb to young Lafayette, France's richest nobleman. the Army.'He America to assess a brewing revolution that De Kalb encouraged him, and soon Lifayctte. might detach the colonies from Britain; among does more too, secured a major generalship from the his many talents, de Kalb spoke fluent English. ebullient Deanea gesture that would have every day In four months of travel along Americas Eastern been unthinkable had de Kalb not pledged than could Seaboard, he learned enough to advise de Broglie to mentor the young marquis. The baron be expected* that French intervention would be unwise at the remained confident his professional experience moment. The colonists were indeed riled over _ _ _ _ _ _ ^ ^ , ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ would give him the weight he needed to British attempts at taxation, but most remained persuade the colonists to send for de Broglie. too hostile to Catholic France and too enamored of their After several irritating delays, Lafayette bought a ship English heritage to consider a French alliance. and sailed for America with de Kalb and entourage. Arriving in the summer of 1777, the French volunteers hanks mostly to British arrogance and stupidity, got a frosty reception from Washington and the Continental the American Revolution erupted much sooner than Congress. The American commander in chief had rescued de Kalb predicted. But it was a chaotic affair, and the revolutionary cause with last-ditch victories in Trenton after some rebel gains in 1775, the British dispatched a and Princeton thai winter, and rebels' confidence in him huge fleet and army that in 1776 wreaked havoc on General had soared. Moreover, Deane had heedlessly handed oui Washington and his untrained battalions. commissions to far too many Europeans, all of who expected In August 1775, de Broglie, perhaps anticipating the a general's or colonel's rank and privileges. American olTiccrs, difficulties colonists would face in trying to throw oU toughened by two years of war, were loath to take orders the British yoke unassisted, had arranged a meeting in from newcomers. Lafayette sized up the situation and volunErance between Lafayette and William, Duke of Gloucester, teered to serve without pay He would be happy, he said, younger brother of King George IIL During that meeting to accept a place on Washington's staff as "a pupil."

ILITARY HISTORY

Washington and Lafayette review the troops in December 1777 at Valley F o r ^ a place de Kalb decried is "one of the poorest districts in Pennsylvania."

De Kalb, with his three decades of military experience, would not even consider following Lafayette's example. He was about to return to France when Congress relented and again offered him a major generalship. Lafayette, who had become deeply impressed with de Kalb on their voyage to America, may have interceded with Washington on his mentors belialf. y the time de Kalb joined the Continental Army, Washington had lost Philadelphia and was wintering his discouraged troops at a dreary spot called Valley Forge. He gave de Kalb command of a division spearheaded by brigadier generals Ebenezer Learned and John Patterson, but even this gesture of confidence failed to change the baron's poor opinion of the American commander. In a letter to France, de Kalb condemned Valley Forge as a "wooded wilderness, certainly one of the poorest districts in Pennsylvania; the soil thin, uncultivated and almost uninhabited, without forage and without provisions!" Worse, as far as de Kalb was concerned, "We are to lie in shanties, generals and privates." He grimly concluded, "The idea of wintering in this desert can only have been put in the head of the commanding genera! by an interested speculator or a disaffected man." In other letters de Kalb described Washington as "the weakest general" he had ever seen, a man who repeatedly succumbed to bad advice from Congress or aides and subordinate generals. De Kalb and his colleagues were developing

an equally low opinion of ihe whtUe American Revolution, Shortly before the Army marched to Valley Forge, gifted engineer Brig. Gen. Louis Duportail wrote to the French minister of vrar: "Such are the people that they move without spring or energy.,,and without a passion for the cause in which they are engaged, and in which they follow only as the hand which puts them in motion directs. There is a hundred times mort enthusiasm for this revolution in any one coffeehouse at Paris than in the 13 [)rovinces united." Lafayette was e()ually shocked by the widespread lack of enthusiasm for the revolution, "When I was in Europe," the marquis told Washington in labored, recently acquired English, "I though! here almost every man was a lover of liberty and rather die free than live [al slave. "You can conceive my ;isionishn\ent," Lafayette continued, upon discovering that many Americans professed loyalty to George 111 as often as devotion to the newborn reptibhc. Having arrived under the false impression that "all good Americans were uniied together," Lafayette instead discovered "dissensions in Coni;ress (and| parties who hate one another as much as the enemy itself." Proof of this grim fict was a growing contingent in Congress that wanted to replace Washington with Maj. Gen. Horatio Gates, who had won a crucial victory at Saratoga while Washington was losing the struggle for Philadelphia. Brig. Gen. Thomas Conway, an Irish-bom French officer hired by Deane,

De Kalb, prostrate at center with aide Charles du Buisson, was mortally wounded in battle at Camden, S.C., on Aug. 16,1780. He died three days later. eagerlyjoined this intrigue, badmouthing Washington in taverns and in the halls of Congress. But the levelheaded de Kaib declined lo participate, despite the opportunity to advance de Broglie as a far better candidate for supreme command. n truth, de Kalb's opinion of Washington and the revolution he was leading had already begun to change. The Bavarian also realized the blue-blooded and imperious de Broglie would never be able to cope with the mlange of hostile congressmen, incompetent quartermaslers and commissaries, and Army intriguers whipped up by the ambitious Gates and the loose-lipped Conway As a professional soldier, de Kalb was a lifelong student of leadership. He was also a realist. He regarded Washington as a fellow realista leader who didn't sit around wailing about his troops' failures and weaknesses, but rather coped with them. The tall Virginian dazzled Congress with a masterful report on the Army's problems and won the authority to choose his own quartermaster and commissary generals, who soon had the soldiers eating well. WHicn officers by the dozen began resigning their commissions rather than endure the privations of Valley Forge, Washington demanded and got from the reluctant Congress a promise of half pay for life for the men. Given the divided Congress and lackluster public support, de Kalb realized that without Washington the revolution would probably collapse. He wrote to de Broglie, telling him that it simply was not "practicable" to replace Washington with a foreign commander. He also wTote to Henry Laurens of South Carolina, the president of Congress and a swing figure in the "Get Washington!" game. De Kalb told Laurens the Virginian was "the only proper person" to command the Army, saying, "He does more every day than could be expected from any general in the world, under the circumstances," When Gates and fellow conspirators offered Ltfayette command of a winter invasion of Canada, the marquis insisted on de Kalb as his second; the plotters had wanted Conway. Arriving in Albany Lafayette and de Kalb found no preparations for a serious campaign. De Kalb ad\ased Lafayette to abandon the enterprise. The marquis did so and skewered the inept Gates and fellow conspirators in a series of savage letters to Laurens.

he purgatory of Valley Forge ended with the electrifying news that France had signed a treaty of alliance wuh the United States. The panicky British retreated from Philadelphia to New York and launched a terror campaign against American civilians, burning seaports in Connecticut and Massachusetts and ravaging inland towns, lt was then that de Kalb, disgusted by these tactics, became a wholehearted supporter of the Arnerican cause. But circumstances conspired to keep him out of the lew battles fought in 1778 and 1779. In a letter to his wife, de Kalb complained he had yet to hear a shot fired in "this frustrating war." In 1778 the British, discouraged by their failures in the North, shifted the war to the South. They swiftly conquered Georgia and besieged the southern Continental Army in Charleston. In a gesture of continued confidence in de Kalb, Washington gave the baron command of two veteran brigadesabout 1,200 men from Delaware and Maryland

QC

MILITARY HISTORY

lowered, screaming insults and curses. The American militiaand ordered him lo march lo Charleston's relief. Maj. Gen. men broke without firing a shot, abandoning guns, packs Benjamin Lincoln's garrison surrendered to the British while and self-resj>ect. Gates, shouting ihai he would rally them, de Kalb and his men were en route, however, and American rode off in their wake and didn'l look back for 60 miles. Thai resistance in South Carolina evaporated. act of cowardice leli de Kalb and his veterans to cope with an Congress then unilaterally chose Gates to remedy the inllamed, rampaginj; British infantry almost twice their number. siiuaiion, and Washington ordered de Kalb to place himself De Kalb called for the reserve, the lsi Maryland Regiment, under ihc intriguer's command. Gates, confident he could whose general had ed the field with Gates. Assuming replicate his Saratoga triumph, rushed south in July 1780 command, one of ihe unit's colonels tried to bring the regiand called out 1,800 untrained militia, mostly from North ment into line beside de Kalb's men. But the British had Carolina, gi\ing him ahout 3,200 rank and file. He christened swarmed around ihe Continentals' right flank, opening a this shaky collection of veterans and amateurs "the Grand 600"fooi gap. The astute Comwallis ordered them to change Army." The British field commander. Lord Charles Comwallis, front and aiiack the new arrivals. In a half-hour of fierce marched to meet Gates' challenge with about 2,250 men, fighting, the British routed the Mar\'landers, all seasoned regulars. Cornwallis' goal was to defend the major British supply base at Camden, S.C. Thai left de Kalb and his 600 Maryland and Delaware men to fend off the entire In the Continental Army, everything was enemy force. At first the Americans didn't going wrong. De Kalbs men were starving, as the just hold their own, they prevailed, in one rudimentary governments of North Carolina and bayonet charge capturing 50 prisoners. Then the Virginia had done nothing to supply them. ReBritish attacked on all sides. Bullets smashed gardless, Gates astonished ever)'one by ordering into de Kalb's horse, sending it crashing to the the Army to march immediately, telling the troops swampy earth. Undeterred, he drew his sword they would soon he well fed. Gates was relying and personally led another ba)onet attack. on vviitten assurance from guerrilla leader Thomas U was brutal hand-to-hand combat. At one Sumter, who insisted only about 700 British troops point, a British saber slashed open de Kalb's stood between the Grand Army and Camden. head. A nearby officer bandaged ihe wound De Kalb and several brigadier generals and begged him to leave the field. De Kalb advised Gates either to retreat or circle west refused and called for another counterattack. through Salisbury to obtain food and rum. Gates Amid the His men broke through the oncoming British, ignored them and led the Army on a more melee, the swung around and smashed into them from direct route through desolate pine barrens and huge, roaring ihe lear. Amid the melee, the huge, roaring swamps, where the men gol sick eating unripe de K,Ub was an obvious target. Enemy bayonets peaches and corn. After 120 exhausting miles, de Kalb was found their mark, and bullets thudded home Gates capped his ineptitude by ordering a nighi an obvious till he was bleeding from 11 wounds. march to launch a surprise attack on the British target. Enemy Then came a ferocious British ca\'alry charge campthe worst imaginable tactic for mostly bayonets found that broke the surviving American veleraiis and amateur soldiers barely able to form a column. their mark, sent [hem lleeing into the swamps. The monally Adding to the American disarray was another woui ided de Kalb toppled lo the .ground. His aide. Gates brainstorm: Having no rum, he gave his and bullets Challes. Chevalier du Buisson, threw himself men a gill of molasses at dinner. Mixed with thudded home across the baron's body, shouting de Kalb's name mush and dumplings, this dessert had a cata,_^^__^^^ and rank as the British infantry rushed to sink strophic effect on the men's intestines. The night their bayonets into him one last lime. march was repeaiedly disrupted as dozens of Cornwallis and his staff were riding across the chaotic men rushed to the nearby woods to relieve themselves. battlefield and intervened. The British commander ordered Meanwhile, Comwallis had decided to attack the Americans. de Kalb carried to his tent. The baron lived another three days, n August 16, the two armies collided in the predavm conscious until the end. He ordered du Buisson to relay darkness about five miles from Camden. After a his ihanks and praise to the officers and men ofthe Delaware brief skirmish, they withdrew to wail for sunrise. and Maryland regiments who had lought so well beside him. Washington had already recognized the militia's inability to De Kalb also told one sympathetic British officer that he faced withstand a British frontal assault. Ignoring those hard lessons. death consoled b\ the thought that he gave his life "as a Gales formed a line of battle, the amateurs comprising his left soldier fighLing for the nghts of man." The ultimate professional wing and center. De Kalb and his veterans were on the right, soldier would die an American patriot. f0 with one Maryland regiment in reserve. Swamps protected For uriher reading;,, Thomas Fleming recommends: General the flanks of both armies. de Kalb: Lafayette's Mentor, by A.E. Zucker, and The Life of John After a brief artillery barrage and a single volley, ihe Kalb, by Friedrich Kapp. well-fed, well-liquored British infantry charged, bayonets

il

lillU,i

For Whom the Ambulance Rolls

Remembrances of an American volunteer ambulance driver 70 years after the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) drew to a bloody close
By fames Neugass
n ] 93 7 fames Neugass, a promising 32-year-old poet and novelist I think I remember that Wild Bill Cody, stepping carefully who had been praised in The New York Times and The Nation, between stretchers, one eye closed by a shrapnel fragment, joined thousands of other young Americans who said, "This is worse than Bruere." Brete was traveled to Spain to help that nation's duly elected worse than anything else. 1 asked him where the Republican government confront a fascist rebellion. lines were. "Listen," he answered, waving toward Neugass served as an ambulance driver dumg the erudal the overhanging moums, "don't a.sk me where ihe battles for the city ofTemel, and his nuanced and deeply frontis,just listen to it!" lyrical memoir, War Is Beautiful, qffers a rare frontline ...Two operating tables were going full blast. glimpse into one of history's most tragic military conicts. A door would open, with a vision of silent figures

o o

ce

dressed in white, and naked bare skin and the bandaged slumps of arms and legs, rags floating in slop jars of Between the writing of vhc reddish liquid. Stretchers last line and this one I have went up and down the seen many dead men.... slairs, even while pickaxes We passed the rock pile were chipping at the plaster once called the village of walls to make turning easier. Perales and crept over the ice of the Teruel road. Why was it thai nothing was being done lo ease the Don't know when it was that 1 had begun to hear occasional low whinipcrs that came from the figures The Sounds, but when my engine died out in front under the blankets? of the surgical hospital which the division had set .. .Outside the doorway was a man on a stretcher, up in a town called Cuevas Labradas C'Cavetown"). covered only wilh a sheet- I could see thai he was very distinct ripplets of impolite machine-gun naked. 1 ran back into ihe hospital and in a very conversations came to us from somewhere up in agitated voice demanded blankets. the mountains that shadow the road. "That guy out there is dead," someone impatiently "See," said Queen Annie, so called because American Medical answered me. "There isn't enough room in here, so she knows she is our most important nurse, "See, Bureau, which provided we lay ihem in the courtyard. Pull the sheet off of now we're at the front,'^ with a contented, nervous medical and surgical him and bring it to me. We're running out of linens. little giggle.... care for U.S. volunteers, And while you're at it, take him into the woodshed. Behind the blanketed windows of the villa in Republican soldiers That's what we're using until we can dig a trench." which we were simultaneously setting up surgical and Spanish civilians. I stripped the sheet from the body The face was equipment and operating were the smell of the dirtier than the skin. American?...French?...or ether, the rush of many feet, soft groans coming from stretchEnglish? The clay complexion of death is international. 1 took him ers and blood on the floor, the stretchers, the stair, the aprons to the shed where men lay like cordwood. What can you do? of the surgeons, and the blankets. Go out and make more dead. I have reached the end of the road. The need for sleep had dulled the edge of my memory. Perhaps I am a pacifist. I know: 1 ought to be able to recall what 1 have seen and done. Phrases smooth as oil should roll off the end of my pencil, SomeNights thing big and something terribly human. Pity and terror, mercy and pain, all between drawn lips. I am very tired, and there is The men 1 carry, mostly Americans, are very quiet. They talk with much to do. Sleep has become more important than food. the gravity of people sitting in the waiting room of a railway

Jan. 6,193S. Cuevas Labradas

FOLLOWING TEXT EXCERPTED FROM WAflS BEAUTIFUL ANAMtRICAN AMBULANCE DRIW.R IN THE Sf^MSH CIVIL V^AR. av JAMES NEUGASS, THE NEW PRESS, NEW fORK, 2008. 526.95. COPVRIGHT 2008 E ABRAHAM LINCOLN BRIGADE ARCHIVES INC ALL lGHTS RESERVED.

JLITARY HISTORY

WHI(! Neugass and his fellow drivers didn't engage in direct coiibat, their vehicles were fter the tai^ets of fascist fire. This ambulance was hit while transporting wounded near Teruel.

Station, about to set oui on a long journey of what happened during the day; hownear the shells came, who was killed and who was wounded, and who had narrow escapes. No anger toward the enemy is apparent. The voices rise oniy when they touch, again aiid again, on the troubles of our riflemen and machine gunners to find targets. You can't shoot at shells and Uin!<s and planes. Where are our ariillery and our planer? They are coming soon. Our thinly strting battenes will soon be reinforced, and many hundreds of pianes are being unloaded in Barcelona, Soon they will be with us. We must hold the lines and wait. Not one step back, E\'acuate the trenches when They get the range, then

edge of the pitcher freezes the blood on the floor of my car into a kind of r:ispbeny sherbet. I'll ha\'e to chip it out with an end wi-ench when I have time. Nobody minds blood, but ice is treacherous. Everyone is very young and so interested in the brand-new-for-us science of fighting war in the modem way that our personal problems and political convictions are all lorgoiien. VVben 1 mention that I just came over from the States, the wounded ask for news. Who won the elections in New York? And what is the si^iiicance of the victory? How is the CIO doing (a very good part of the brigade volunteers still wear their union buttons); what are the chances for trade-union

Neugass often had to drive through rubble-strewn streets, dodging snipers as he went. am back into them with grenades and dynamite bombs when the tanks attack. A good day: two-thotisand shells, God knows how much other stulf, and only four dead and eighteen wounded in the company. Reserves are in training at Tarazona and will soon fill up the gaps. I drive as carefully as if 1 were canying wet trinitrotoluene. 1 cannot very well crash my car when it is full of wounded. If I think I hear a plane, 1 hold hard on the wheel, say nothing and keep my eyes on the road. Whenever the temperature of my engine runs up slightly above normal, I immediately stop and fill my radiator. The waler that keeps sloshing over the unity? When will Joe Louis fight Schmeling? What has Roosevelt said about the armsl embargo? Does the 15th get much publicity m the home newspapers?

January 14. Tortajada

You cannot see planes through the roof of the car, and engine noises are too loud for them to be heard through the windows. Keep eyes on the road looking for men. When }^ou can't see anyone, either planes are overhead or all human beings are in ditches, culverts, bomb holes or the open fields, or up the cliff. TeruelPerales highway is so full of road gangs

and light wounded and men waiting for a lift on a camion, or thinly strung out companies waiting for oiders to go up to the ridge, that you can be very sure, if no one is in sight, that the avions are on you. More and more and more of them, Fl>'ing fields at Berlin and Rome must be empty as a baseball park at night. Entered Cuevas cutoff with heart in my throat because town had obviously just been bombed. More houses had gone, their \nsccra splayed into tho street. Had the hospital been hit; and iht' major? Four dead cavalrymen fully dressed and unspotted h)' blood lay on stretchers in the hospital court)'ard. Saxton, blond tall young English doctor, knelt beside one of them. He had rolled a sleeve up past the elbow of a gray arm. "What do you think you're doing, Saxion?" I asked, suddenly remembering tliat he was our blood-transfusion cxperl He did not answer. Angry I leaned over the doctor's shoulder. The single vampire tooth of a big glass syringe was slowly drawing the blood out of the vein iriside of the dead cavalryman's forearm. The vessel filled and Saxton stood up. "New Soviet technique," he said, holding the syringe between his,squinting eye and the late winter sun. Purple lights shadowed the glistening bar of ruby "Seldom we get the chance. Most ol them are pretty well empty when they go out. Those four over there were in one of those clay dugouts in the wall of the mam street. No timbers on the roof. Direct hit. Asphyodated, all of them. Their comrades dug them out belore they were cold and brought them up here. Thought we could help. Their bad luck'"Saxton pointed to the four gray young faces with clay-stuffed mouths"was our good luck. We're running short on donors, and the transfusion truck is too busy" "Wait, you mean . . . that you're going to ..." "Well, first ril have to type and then test it.. .why not?...have to huriy"

Next Morning. January 15,1 Think

Since fora reason I did not yet understand 1 had not been sent oui to pick up a load,

I helped inthe cave.,..My job was lo cul fT clothing. This nuisl be done because ot the danger of infection and because we must find out very quickly all the places where a man has been hit. Very few of the wounded 1 saw last night or al any other time were hit in only one place. Modern shrapnel breaks inio fine metal spray that spreads as efficiently as water over an expensively groomed lawn back in ihe Slates. The modem machine gun fires so fast that it seldom hits a man in a single place. You cannot pull off a mans clothing because this motion, however careiul and slight, would grind the broken ends of his hones into his muscle.,, .After the clothing comes off, the evacuation doctor makes an inspection. Fresh gauze and adhesive arc apjilied. The case gets his anti-tetanus and gas gangrene. He is given stimulants or sedatives, a card with his name, rank, bngadc and a description of injuries and medication, and ihen waits on a stretcher under as many blankets as we can give him unlil an ambulance pulls out for the rear.

A Republican soldier races across an open pia^ a during the battle for the city of Teruel.
10 curse yourself for ever havitig come to Spain. You think that you will desert the first minute you get a chance and not mind if you land over the French border unconscious and naked, just so long as you can get away from War, Once the firing lets up and you are able to get a little sleep or coffee, you think that you won't desert, bul that you will somehow find a soft job at the rear. But a few houri later, especially if you have gone back frotn ihe front, you have forgotten even shame and hope like hell to get back into the lighting, fast. Life, much less war, would not be possible if it were noi for this wonderful and terrible resilience which lies in us and is our greatest treasure. telephones. This weapon is ver)' deadly. Our hatred of it is almost as strong as our desire for mortars of our own. . ..There is no quiet so intense and so alive as that of battlefields at night. Dark figures move along the roads and (ields, voices speak and fade fast. Sounds of truck and tank engines are heard. A single rifleman gets nervous. He is answered by an M-gunner who is interested but does not wish to waste many rounds. A member of a bombing pariy then heaves a grenade at a shadow. Both sides now open up v^ith eveiything they have. After a few minuies...the possession of the night air reveris to the sharpshooter and his telescope sight. ,.. This is being written on my favorite deskMajor B.'s operaiing table. Operating roon"is art- the cleanest, driest, warmest, best lit. aliogeiher most pleasant places 1 have found in Spainbut not the most fragrant.

Same Day. 10 p.m. Kitchen of Cuevas Hospital

If all of the drivers and inintr)'men, nurses and doctors who appear in this account seem without individuality, that is because all but the strongest personalities have become submerged in the common ut;geticy of our purpose in Spain. 1 have htmdreds of friends, but I know lew (if their names and nothing of their backgn)unds, lives and mental habits. No one talks alxiul his lomier life or his hojies for the future. Almost withoiu exception uli ol us wanl to return to our countries, unnuililalctl if possible, but to our native lands. I had a notion, before I left, thai 1 would make my future in the country for which 1 now fighl, i!" you can call driving an atnbulance fighting. Btu some day I ho|>e to go home. Wfe ar^ in Spain strictly on business. The ival fighi is at home.

January 25. Valdecebro

w h a t has surprised me about ihe war in Spain and ihe Battle of Temel is that the war ceases every nighi. Artillery observers cannot see through the darkness, nor can a\aators... .M-gunners, unable to see their front sights at night, use tracers. All but snipers and trench mortars are silent. The mortar loves darkness. Their missiles fly half a mile into the air and drop into trenches not more than 300 or 400 yards distant. Observers sent out into shell holes report accxiracy v^nth field

January 17. Tortajada

When you get "on the griddle," as the men say, pinned Hat to the earth or inside it for hours while They let you have e\'er}'thing They've got, you begin

January 25. Alcorisa, and i Hope This Town Will Not Be Assassinated
The first load arrived soon after dark. Usual hour for their arrival,.. One of ihe wounded was a head ciise. He came in gray, cold, nose \isibly stopped

by blood, bloodstained bandage behind ear. Amis floj^i^ed d:iwn from stretcher as we unloaded him. Pulse hard to find. We put him in kitchen, head nearfire,lower end of stretcher pmpped by water jug, and threw so much wood on the chimneyless flames that the lieutenant had to hold handkerchief over his nose while using stethoscope. Robust, healthy young guy Looked like a bom wisecracker. When he pushed on his chest, the lips bubbled. Didn't warm up in half an hour, so we took papers oui of pocket, carried him ouiside, opened up two feet of earth with shovel and pickax, one of us holding candle and the others standing about, miserably cold. Nothing fancy No songs or speeches. Not a single word. We were cold hungry and tired- We hurried.

January 29? My birthday? Valverde

The new, dark and well-cemenled interior of the sheepfold in which I have for the

the two small blanket-stuffed openings in the hea\y stone walls. Two more frontline [ambulance drivers] have been killed, 1 hear. One, speared to the road by the planes, burned to death. The other tried to rub noses with a truck at night. Headlights were off. I'm jusi about coming back to earth after a 48-hour stay in fever-hell. Dreamed that 1 was back in the States, trying to decide to leave my job and come to Spain. Jack now drives my car. She couldn't be in better hands and feet, but this is the first time that my sweetheart has gone out unthout me, and I'm lonesome for her... .The fighting has let up a greal deal in the past two days. The war can't go on without me. The wards are full of dirt fever and pneumonia, with suspicions of typhoid. The men have been sleeping on ihe ground for the past 29 days. The temperature didn't rise above zero, Fahrenheit, during the first week.

February 1. Valverde
I feel entirely cured this morning. Did the whole thing myself, unassisted by so much as 20 grains of aspirin. Drugs have been running shon and must be saved for the wounded. I am now sitting up in bed. Wait for B. to tell me that I can get upThe ward is a rough place. Enough blankets, nurses, urinals, attention and beans. Diets out of the question. The wards of every frontline hospital are intended only to rest postoperative cases until they can be moved. Men don't eat for quite some time after they come out of ihe ether. Reason wh)' this ward is so congested is that one building of the Mora railhead hospital was bombed, along with a hospital train. The last load we sent out was returned to us. Throughout the entire system for the handling of the wounded and the sick there mns ihe following main purpose: lo get the disabled to the main base hospitals far back of the lines as quickly as possible. It is only in pemiancnt estaiilishmcnts that real treatment is given. Between the trenches and the base hospitals much surgery bul litiie medicine is practiced. Many lives depend on our doctors ability to diagnose correctly.. .The caliber of the doctors of the 35lh Di\'ision is high. The lower levels of the staff are not quite so unifomily good, ll was vcrj' hard to judge human lilxr in the States, or in Albacete, War, especially at the front, is an extreme test oi character. Peculiar things ha\'e happened. A^in and again, personnel and the training of personnel of every type, fit to undenake constantly greater md greater responsibilities, are decisive conditions necessary for the conduct of the war.

February 2. Valverde
Stories still come in aboul snipers in Teruel. They hide all day in the intricate and half-ruined tunnels, take to v^dndows and rooftops al night, li is five weeks since Teruel has been completely ours! A sniper got Fred Mowbray of New Orleans in ihe base of the spine. The major operated. Paralyzed from the waist down, urine accumulating in ihe kidneys, he begged to be catheterized. Once we were to do this, Fred^ ureter would remain inert, and

Neugass captured this image of Spanish civilians killed during a fascist air raid on Cuevas. past twenty-four hours lain in bed with dirt fever seems like the empty hold of a ship. The winter wind roars above me like a gale at sea. I wriie by candleUght, although it is daytime. The hospital carpenter has been loo busy to rig windowpanes into When will the brigades go on rest? We're wearing out. Our equipment is wearing out. Hardly a watch left with which to take a pulse. Most of ihe thermometers have broken. But so long as the rifling in the barrels of the guns don't wear out, nothing much matters.

he would always have to be anificially relieved. He begged for morphine, which coukl nut be given him. Crying all the mon.' pitifully because lie was not delinous, Fred was carried out of the ward and evacuated this mtimit\g. 1 hear tliat spine cases, sooner or later, all die. Why are we such good troops? Why aiv wt' a match for any bcxly of men the military preoccupation of Europe can produce? Whenever 1 look at the men, I wonder how this can bc true. We look like any sub'way earful or movieful ol' men, slight as to physique rather than husky rhe onl>' answer 1 can find for the excellence with which even Franco credits us is that I he ability of troops to undergo the mtxiem conditions of war depends not so much on their training and their commanil, but their understanding of why the war is being fought and what they stand to lose or gain by the outcome-.. .No ofTicer's pistol can fire fast enough to make men stay in their trenches unless they are given something better to fight for than 'making the world safe for democracy," "for race, for blood and honor," or "for God and Country," or "for the Fatherland." "For a New World"? Yes. We will not I un from the trenches if we know we are making a new world. We will hold our ground, to share in the wealth with which the world is ever more overflowing. That p<">verty amidst plenty should cease, we will bear against the full weight of mechanical death-machines bottght by men who ihink that poveny amidst plenty is the natural and immortal principle of life laid down by the essential foulness of what they call "human nature." There will be a new world. Who likes this one?

and 1 cany various shrapnel scars on my left leg and my scalp. 1 am very lucky. "Wliat do you want to do?" ihe major asketl me. "Stay liere and drive my car or go back to the States and write that Ixwk?"

omelet after omelet, but manqui' de la volunte. No tengo gusto. Do not know what is the matter. Goodbye to Sjwin and the Spanish. 1 am alraid ihat many, many more of

Neugass and other members of the American Medical Bureati enjoy a rare moment of calm. I told him that I would rather go back to the States and write what 1 had seen in Sjiain. "O.K., I'll send you out. But who the liell is going to send me out?" ihcrn are going to be killed They lack planes, giin.s and skill. The Spanish are too young at war to stand ofl. unaided, German and Italian ejqx'rts. .. A long time after 1 ha\ e fcrgottcn everything else about these months in Spainif I am able to lorget about any pan orinsiant of them1 will remember the time when 1 mistook the sound ol my own lips puffing on a cigarette for the sound of a falling bomb; and the spectacle my headlights picked out one cold nigh! miles from the nearest lines, of a very old woman hobbling back to the rear, alone, on a cane. We have finished the omeLn the waiter brought us, and the boule of wine. My three comrades sit silent and taciturn ahout the table No one speaks of ordering more food. The heel of the loai we at: iell to the lloor. Four hands reached out to pick it up, Suddenly realizing th.it we were in t ranee and not in Spain, in pe.iee and not in war, we smiled loolishly at each other, leaned back in our chairs and again were silent. (ffi|

March 24. Cerbre, France. 8 a.m.

I sit at a table in the buffet of a French railroad station near enough to Spain to hear bombs fall on Port Bou. Ten minutes ago 1 passed through the last passport, the last customs formality. My good luck had held to the end....This is a great moment. This is the instant at which everything has become safe and healthy and peaceftil. .. .The four of us who sit at this table a tank driver and a machine gunner from the Luxembourg, a Czech aircraft mecl lanic and mysell^^wail foranomeletThc waiter just put a bottle of wine and a lai'ge loaf of bread, made of wheat and baked with yeasl, on the table. . The letdown has come. I should he drinking bottles of wine and eating

March 22. Barcelona

The major and I have shared, for the past week, half of the home of a lawyer in ihe former residential district, far above the city As soon as my passport and International brigade papers are ready, 1 will leave Spain. I am very lucky My lun^ occasionally throw up blood into my throat, 1 have a hernia, the weakness of my legs is probably due to small pieces of metal that R'main In or near my spinal column.

Keviews
Demise of the German 'Way of War'
planned and suffered from slapdash logistics. Moreover, the Soviets refused to play by tbe Wehrmacht's aes. Instead, the Red Army retreatedat times witb wild abandon, but Dcciih of the Wehrmacht es- more often with skilland the tablishes Robert Citino as a great German encircling admajor figure in the history of vances that bad worked so well the German army in World in 1941 came up empty Lack of battlefield success led to War II. His basic thesis is fierce quarreling among Hitler I hat the Wehrmacht's 1942 and his senior generals. Meancampaigns in Russia and while, the Red Army gathered North Africa did far more to its strength for a counterblow, speed the demise ot the oerman method of warfighting while Hitler, the generals and than did its 1941 defeat outside Moscow. The authors German intelligence remained argument is persuasive and sharply rendered. oblivious to the growing threat. The fall of 1942, Citino Citino notes that 1942 began well for the Wehmacht, posits, spelled the definitive end far better, in fact, than 1941 had ended, the latter marked to the Wehrmachl's blitzkrieg by significant reverses in both the Soviet Union and Africa. successes. In Nortb Africa, Cerman units advancing on Moscow had not only outrun their supply lines, they'd bogged down in the appalling newly arrived Lt. Gen. Bernard Russian winterthe Wchrmachfs leading generals appar- Montgomery fought an attriently forgetting both Napoleon's experience in 1812 and tional battle on his own terms that steadily ground the Afnha their own in World War I. As the Wehrmacht ground to a Korps into dust. And in Russia, halt al the gates of Moscow, von Manstein's May rout of the German catastrophe at StalField Marshal Erwin Rommel Soviet forces on tbe Crimea's ingrad revealed the Soviets' forsuffered the first serious setback Kerch Peninsula and Rommel^ midable industrial capacity, as in his World War II career, as June recapture of Tobruk and well as Red Army senior comthe British Eighth Army broke subsequent drive into Egypt. manders' increasing operational through to relieve Tobruk and But then, he explains, the Allies' mastery. The time of blitzkrieg end the Afnka Koi-ps siege. growing materiel superiority had passed, the German way of Citino argues that these and significantly improved gen- war overwhelmed and bested temporary setbacks did not eralship in botb theaters grad- by opponents figbting a very invalidate the German "way of ually erased the Wehrmachl's different t\pe of conflict. war," which he defines as an gains and forced it into an Williamson Murray aggressive approach centered increasingly defensive posture. on wresting the initiative from Adolf Hitler and his gener- The Khyber Pass: A History one's enemy and delegating als did little to help matters, of Empire and invasion, autbority to field commanders. Citino argues. For example, by Paddy Docberty, Union In tbe initial battles of 1942, planning for Operation Blue Square Press, New York, Citino says, Wehrmacht com- the main attack on the East- 2008, $24.95 manders brilliantly demon- ern Front intended to destroy strated the validity of the Cer- the Red Army and cut off tbe Rudyard Kipling once wrote, man way of war. Examples Soviet Union from its major "East is East, and West is West, include Colonel-Ceneral Erich sources of oilwas poorly and never the twain shall Death of the Wehrmacht: rhe German Campaigns of 1942, by Robert Citino, University Press of Kansas, Uwrence, Kan., 2007, $34.95.

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In 17^8 Maj. Gen. Napoleon Bonaparte, buoyed by his recent iriunipb in Italy, embarked on an invasion of Oitomanruled Egypian expedition embodying tbe idealistn, romanticism, genius, ambition and overreacbing folly tbat would mark bis future career. Straihern combines cautionary tale with swashbuckling epic, replete wilb larger-tbanlife characters.

Forgotten Patriots, by Edwin G. Burrows

h'oi^nllcii I'ltlriots barks

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MILITARY HISTORY

GAMES

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meet." Throughout history, however, a handful of important geographic nexuses have linked Eastern and Western civilizations. Among the more familiar are Istanbul, Singapore and the Strait of Gibraltar. Although more remote, the Khyber Pass is yet another. Thirty miles long and in places oniy 50 feet wide, the legendaiy Khyber has for thousands of years been the principal cultural, religious and military conduit between India and the rest o the world. A look at a map reveals the Khyber's Linique importance through the ages. Geographically the Indian subcontinent is largely isolatedbarricaded to the north by the tallest mountains in the world, to the east by the nearly impenetrable jungles of Burma (Myanmar) and to the west by the equally forbidding deserts of what is now southern Iran. The pass is one of the few overland access points to the subcontinent.

Oxford University scholar Paddy the principal trade route between India Docherty has done a superb job of and Persia to the west, Afghanistan and researching and recounting the Khyber's cities of Central Asia to the north, and colorful history, from the reign China to the east. OOV DOCMENT of Emperor Cyrus the Great In parallel with the region's of Persia, around 550 BL, rich history, the author recounts through current activities cenhis own recent travels from tering on Osama bin Laden aiui IV'shawar to Kabul through the Taliban. The cast of characthe pass. Never the safest region ters includes some of the bestin the world for outsiders, the known conquerors in historj' Khyber is particularly dangerXerxes, Darius. Alexander the ous nowadays. Uke a characGreat, Chandragupta, Genghis ter out of a Kipling adventure Khan. Tamerlane, Babur and story, Docherty set out dressed Ranjit Singh^as well as more as a Pathan, accompanied by recent invaders from Britain, the Soviet a local guide and an armed bodyguard. Union and the United States. The Khyber Pass is a fascinating and The author points out, however, that highly entertaining read. It's also an importhe Khybers historic importance does not tant and timely book for anyone interested lie solely in its value as an invasion route. in modem Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran. For thousands of years the pass was also Robert Guttman

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ILITARY HISTORY

Reviews
MUSEUM
"In Memoriam: Remembering the Great War" Through Sept. 6, 2009 Imperial War Museum Lamheth Road Southwark, London +44 20 74165320 www.iwm.org.uk Ninety years after the Armistice, the Imperial War Museum has opened "In Memoriam" to chart personal remembrances of World War 1. The exhibit opens on images of the conflict's three surviving British veteransthe last living links to an era. Beyond are cases holding artifacts, photos and quotations tied to specific individuals. Some remain familiar, German ace of aces Baron Manfred von Richthofen appears alongside a fragment o fabric from the aircraft in which he was shot down. Other household names include Lord Kitchener, Wilfred Owen, Joseph Joffre, Winston Churchill, Siegfried Sassoon, Lloyd George and future U.S. President Harry S. Truman. The exhibit also pays homage to ordinary people who performed acts of extraordinary bravery. Take, for example, sailor Jack Cornwall, awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross after the Battle of Jutland for maintaining his station despite mortal wounds. Visitors can read the teenager's last letter home, signed off vv'ith kisses for his family, the cat and even the chickens. Many artists of the era put biush to canvas to exorcise their demons. One poignant example is Harold Sandy Wilhamson's A German Attach on a Wet Monday, which juxtaposes a dreary European winter against the abject horror of trench warfare. The space closes on a collection of massive paintings, including the moving Gassed, by John Singer Sargent, which centers on gas-blinded Tommies, each with his hand on the shoulder ofthe man before him. "In Memoriam" is a fitting tribute to the men, women and children who experienced what, sadly was not the "war to end war," Simon Rees

Young British and German soldiers emerge from the trenches during the 1914 "Christmas truce."

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MILITARY HISTORY

Hallowed Ground
Belleau Wood, France
By Colonel Joseph H. Alexander

I
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n 1918 Belleau Wood was a French hunting preserve as idyllic as its name, a 200-acre hardwood forest 50 miles northeast of Paris. Left untended to attract wild game, the area's steep hills, tangled underbrush and massive boulders provided a natural defensive stronghold for German troops, who occupied the woodland during the first week of June. I Today, visitors standing in dark shadows amid the woods can appreciate the concealment and fields of fire exploited by German machine gunners as they pointed their Maxims west across sunlit acres
Western Front since 1914, The third German oiensive of 1918 exploded with great velocity on May 27 in the Chemin des Dames region, penetrating 30 miles in the first three days and threatening Paris. Desperate, the Allies had no choice other than piecemeal deployment of the newly arrived American divisions into the Aisne-Marne breech. The moment was portentous. The Allies needed a strong combat performance by the untested Americans, while the Germans needed lo defeat them decisively The first clash came on May 28 at Cantigny, where the U.S. 1st Infantry Division won a bloody battle. Four days later, a machine-gun battalion of the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division stopped the Germans from crossing the Marne at Chteau Thierry The Germans recoiled briefly, then regained momentum by wheeling westward to bypass the Marne through farm country around Torcy and Belleau and back lo the Paris highway Three miles north of ihe highway, they June 1918. A 37mm gun crew of the U.S. 2nd Infantry collided with the U.S. 2nd Division fires at German positions during the advance Infantry Division. Stung by through the battle scarred landscape of Belleau Wood.

of knee-high wheat at the advancing U.S. 4th Marine Brigade on June 6, the first day of the battle. In minutes, the pleasing aroma of new wheat, poppies and apple blossoms gave way to the overpowering stench of cordite, mustard gas and the putrefaction of the dead, who would lie where they fell for weeks to come. Some may question whether possession of the forest justified the thousands of casualties suffered by both sides in three weeks of desperate, point-blank fighting. Yet the eventual American victory at Belleau Wood had a profound psychological effect on Allied morale, as it demonstrated unanticipated U.S. military prowess to the Germans. It also marked the transformation of the modern U.S. Marine Corps. o o
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he war was in its founh year in the spring (^1 1918, and both sideknew that victory or defeai teetered on a razor's edge. Surprising German oifensives had broken the long staletnate of trench warfare that had prevailed along the

MILITARY HISTORY

The wheatf Jelds and woodlands of the Belleau Wood region bear few visible scars of the battle that raged there 90 years ago. But a sea of markers in the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery commemorates the 2,289 U.S. troops who gave their lives.

unexpectedly slrong resisrance on June 3 at Les Mares Farm, the Germans regrouped in the shelter of the hunting preserve, two miles east. There, out of sight of Allied observation aircraft, they took advantage of the broken terrain to establish a strong defensive position. The ensuing Battle of Belleau Wood proved the war's longest, bloodiest and most widely reported test of Americans' readiness to seize the offensive, overcome casualties and eventually defeat veteran German forces. Belleau Wood lay in the path of the 4th Manne Brigade, which did much of the fighting, supported by soldiers of the 2nd Infantry Division, 3rd Marine Brigade, as well as divisional artillery and engineer regiments. On June 16, the U.S. 7th Infantry, a regiment from the Army's 3rd Division, replaced exhausted Marine units. The Marines herald Belleau Wood as one of their most significant battles, a touchstone that would transfonn the small band of naval infantry into a modern, combined-arms expedttionar)' force. The Marines' valor notwithstanding, the fact remains that Belleau Wood was both a joint-service operation andgiven the supporting role of French artillery

and aircrafta conibmed one, as well. In all respects, it was a timely and auspicious Allied victory.

oday the villages of Belleau, Bouresches and Lucy-leBocage, though flattened by artillery during the battle, have been n^stored to their earlier churm. The wheat fields and woodlots are essentially unchanged. The American Battle Monuments Commission maintains the nearby AlsneMarne Amencan Ce nietery A liniestone memorial chapel rises 80 feet above the scene of the final fighting along the north edge of Belleau Wood, an edifice flanked by a vinual sea of white headstones marking the graves of 2,289 men. One in 10 contains the remains of a soldier "knovro but to God."

Last year, on the 90th anniversary' of the Battle of Belleau Wood, Corps Commandant General James Conway, hundreds of other Marines and several thousand French citizens attended Memorial Day ceremonies at the cemetery. A lone bugler played "Taps " sending the notes of that musical prayer echoing through the woods and cascading downslope in a fitting benediction. (

Submachine Learning
A favonie of urban warriors and underworld gangsters, ihe submachine gun has an unmistakable profile. Or does il?

1.

Flags of Our Fathers

Match ihc commaticler wiih the father whoLike Alexanders pop, Philipdid his own share of soldiering. Two are gimmes: 1. Richard the Lionheart 2. Scipio Africanus 3. Frederick ihe Great
4. I laniiihal

2.

Volunteers of America
The American Revolution drew scores of F:uropean volunteers to the Patriot cause. ID the following foreign freedom fighters: 1. Whi(h Irish-born French army officer was appointed to General George Washington's staff, then later imphcaled in a conspiracy against him? A. John Barry B. Richaid Montgomery C. Thomas Conway D. John Paul 2. Which French soldier in American senicc later helped design Washington, U.C.? A. Pierre-Frangois Vernier B. Franois-Louis Teissdre de Fleury C. Pierre Charles CEnfant D. Louis Lebque Duportail 3. Which foreign volunteer was five days past his 20th birthday when George Washington gave him a Continental Army commission as a major general? A. Gilbert dfMoiier, Marquis de Lafayette B. Thomas Conroy C. Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben D. Tadeusz Kociuszko 4. Which foreign ofTu-or in Continental Army service was not killed during the American Revolution? A. Kazmiierz Pulaski B. Mihaly Kovcs de Fabricy C. Pierre-Franois Vernier D. Tadeusz Kociuszko
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3.

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5. Emperor Otto I 6. Edward III 7. Clinton Burdick 8. Douglas MacArthur 9. Matilda of Canossa 10. Henry V

5.

6. 7.

A. Arthur MacArihurJr. B. Edward 1 1 C. Henry II Ptantagenet D. Henry Bolingbroke E. Boniface III F. Publius Cornelius Scipio G. Hamilcar Barca H. Henry I ihe Fowler 1. Howard Burdick J. Frederick William I
A. Heckler & Koch MP5A5 B. Thompson M1921 C. MAT-49 D. Sten Mkll E. Uzi E PPSh-41 G. MP40 H. M3A1 Grease Gun I. Skorpion Vz. 68
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Weapons we Ve glad they never built

The Swiss Army-Navy-Air Force Tool

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hat has ships, planes, tanks, iroops, missiles, an entire ski patrol and a full brigade of Saint Bernards? The all-in-one Swiss Army-Navy-Air Force Attack-Defense-Troop Carrier Supply tool. After 13 years of precision construction, it has just rolled, flown, trundled, sailed and cut its way out of the Victorinox defense plant in the Zmutt Valley. Does it come fully loaded? Yah! There's a bank so Swiss citizen-soldiers can access their secret accounts, a Nestl factory on level 9, and each

officer gets his own plastic toothpick! Critics have pointed out that turning on the motor causes avalanches in all 26 cantons, and that there are no passes or tunnels large enough to allow a vehicle of this size to leave the Zmutt. True: an oversight. But the Swiss Confederation has contracted with the Leatherman company to build the Swiss Army-Navy-Air Force Attack-Defense-Troop Carrier Supply tool Rescue Vehicle. It should be ready to cut its way into the Zmutt by 2028. ( 0

MILITARY HISTORY