Contributors

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the Sea (2008), 1453: The Holy War for Constantinople and the Clash of Islam and the West (2005) and a forthcoming book on the Venetian Mediterranean.
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Dennis Showalter is

a professor of history at Colorado College and past president of the Society for Military History. Co-editor of the quarterly journal War in History., he speciahzes in comparative military history. Showalter is the author of Hitler's Panzers (2009) and Patton and Rommel: Men of War in the 20th Century (2005).

Edward G. Lengel is a professor at the University of Virginia and editor in chief of the Papers of George Washington documentary editing project. He is the author of several books on military history, including To Conquer Hell: 11 ]l Rear Adm. Joseph F. The Meuse-Argonne, Callo, U.S. Naval Re- 1918 (2008) and .scrve (Ret.), won the General George Washington: A MiliSamuel Fliot Mori- tary Life (2005). son Award for excellence in naval liter- Stephan Wilkinson is a regular contribature for his latest utor to Military History and Aviation book,Jofin Pauljones: History. He is also a member of the board Ameruas IHM Sea Warrior ( 2 0 0 6 ) . H e has written three books about Admiral of contributors ol Lord Nelson and was U.S. editor for Air & Spaee/Smithsonian. Wilkinson is Who's Who in Naval History. author of the book Roger Crowley is a graduate of Cam- The Gold-Plated Por\ bridge University and a former resi- sche (2004). dent of Istanbul. He William H. McMichael has covered the has traveled widely military for a quarter century in locales in the Mediterrafrom Vietnam to the Persian Gulf. After nean and has a deep three years as the Military Times Newsknowledge of its papers' Pentagon correspondent, he is geography and past. now the Navy Times' Hampton Roads, Crowley is the auVa., bureau chief. thor of Empires of

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War of 1812: Perry and the Frontier Fleet North Africa Campaign: Battling the Desert Fox lor oil < Oradour-Sur-Glane: Punished for the Resistance Peyton March: Unsung general of World War I Military History Reader Poll: How effective was the French Resistance during World War II compared to such paramihtary forces as the Polish Home Army, Soviet partisans, Yugoslav Partisans and Chetniks, or Filipino guerrillas?

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Leners
Japanese Brutality
Mark Felton's article "The Culture of Cruelty" in the January 2011 issue looked at the issue of the hehavior of the Japanese military, particularly the army, during World War II from the top down. Equally if not more important was the pervasive culture of ahuse and violence that existed within the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA). Draftees were called ni sen ("two cents"), referring to the postage on the card sent lo induct them. Physical abuseincluding slapping, punching and kicking, and outright heatings were administered hy those of higher rank for failure to obey or perform quickly or correctly, or
Given how the IJA treated its own men, and the reality that soldiers of any nationality are not usually overly empathetic with their former enemies, expecting decent treatment of POWs by the Japanese was a forlorn hope it would have meant the soldiers of the IJA treating their enemies better than they treated themselves.
Steven L. Oreck Captain, U.S. Navy (Ret.)
MADISON, WIS.

ism in World War II. They undertook their war of conquest simply to steal the land, natural resources and financial assets of their neighbors, using murder and terrorism as weapons.
Edwin Houldsworth
HILTON HEAD, S . C .

Why were Japanese Soldiers in WWII so brutal?

10 Battles
The section on Manila Bay, part of "10 Battles That Shaped America" [by Thomas Fleming, January], caught my eye. My father's mother, Laura Dewey (1868-1942), was related to Admiral of the Navy George Dewey. He was granted that exalted rank after bis victory at Manila Bay and was the only officer ever to hold that rank; it died with him. Grandmother Dewey was rightly proud of the admiral, and it was she who gave me my first exposure to patriotism. "One Revolution, Two Wars," in the same issue, gave me additional background on three paternal ancestors. One enlisted in the New York Line of the Continental Army and served at Fort Stanwix, N.Y. His father served in the Orange Coimty militia, and his uncle, William Allison, was colonel of that unit. Allison's son was killed in the capture of Fort Montgomery, and William was captured and imprisoned on a British hulk. He was eventually exchanged in a prisoner swap, pro-

for no reason at all. This was not limited to the enlisted ranks; even junior officers could be struck. This was deeply humiliating, as a slap to the face was a deep insult in Japanese culture. The top-down, or command, climate of condoning or even encouraging maltreatment of POWs and civilians in conquered territories allowed even the most junior Japanese soldier to physically abuse POWs or civilians, by definition all ranking below him, without the need to be directed to do so. It is well accepted that those who are abused in their youth are at high risk to become abusers themselves, and this applies to the learned behavior inculcated in the IJA among lower ranks. Combining this with an official policy accepting or promoting abuse, scenarios where semi-starved POWs would be incapable of meeting demands for prompt obedience or adequate work output, and significant language barriers produced the tragic outcome.

A longtime subscriber to Military History, I was moved by your cover story on Japanese World War II atrocities. The opening segment detailing the murder of the 22 Australian nurses and dozens of wounded Allied soldiers was especially shocking. Your full page of poignant individual photos of 12 of the nurses will not soon be forgotten. Possibly under the guise of "political correctness," the American, British and Australian mediaand their nations' historianshave never adequately made this partic-

ular outrage known to the world. Your magazine is to be commended. Unfortunately, your article includes the totally inaccurate statement, "While just 4 percent of Allied prisoners in German hands perished in the war, 27 percent of those captured by the Japanese died." France and Poland whose combat with Germany was brief but intensestill claim that many of their soldiers taken prisoner by the Germans never returned, while Russia estimates that less than one half of the estimated 1 million Russian soldiers taken prisoner by the Germans ever made it home. As for prisoners of the Japanese, the known number of American, Canadian, British and Dutch prisoners renders the 27 percent figure abysmally low. And this is not to mention the unknown numbers of Chinese and Filipinos captured by the Japanese and who are now lost to history. No psychocultural rationalization is necessary when exploring Japanese barbar-

WILITARY HISTORY

nioted lo brigadier and commanded a division at the Battle of Long Island. Until I read your article, I'd never heard of the "Neutral Ground" and had no idea that Orange County was such a hotbed of Loyalists. My only problem with Militaiy Histoiy is waiting 30 days for the next issue. Bob Allison
VENTURA, CALIF.

1 disagree with the implication in "10 Battles That Shaped America" that the United States would not have etnerged a world power had the Nonnandy landings failed in 1944. The Allies' will to fight would not have been crushed. Yes, the war would have gone on much longer. German troops and resources would have slowed Soviet advances instead of fighting in the west. It would have taken longer to defeat Japan due to reverses in Europe. Nevei iheless, Germany would have been defeated. The war in Europe would have continued long enough for Berlin and other German cities to be devastated by American atomic bombs. Kurt Helmig
BERWYN, I I I .

us that Americans think of themselves as a nation that has never sought to occupy others and has been a liberating force. But historians tell us that all dominant powers thought they were special. Their very success confirmed for them that they were blessed. But as they became ever more powerful, the world saw them differently. English satirist John Dryden described this phenomenon in "Absalom and Achitophel," a poem set during the Biblical King David's reign: "But when the chosen people grew too strong / The rightful cause at length became the wrong." Evan Dale Santos

Thomas Fleming's January 2011 article " 10 Battles That Shaped America" was superb. George Dewey's victory at the Battle of Manila Bay showed

dive an open valve permitted uncontrollable flooding aft, resulting in her sinking in 243 feet of water and drowning 26 men. When Squalus failed to report, a search was ordered, and Sculpin, her sister ship from Portsmouth, discovered the stricken ship's messenger buoy. The subsequent rescue effort brought 33 survivors from the forBETHLEHEM, PA. ward end of the ship to safety using the McCann Rescue Chamber. iSailfish sank Three months later Chuyo. On board Squalus was raised and returned to the Portswere 21 of the mouth Navy Yard. The ship was repaired, recrew rescued and returned to from Sculpin two named the Navy as USS Sailfish. On Dec. 3,1943, Sailfish weeks earlierf ADELANTO, CALIE attacked the Japanese escort carrier Chuyo 300 Toy Soldiers miles southeast of Tokyo. The [Re. "Playing at War," JanuSister to Sculpin follovdng day Sailfish renewed ary;] Wow! P. 56 had a few memories. 1 recall that [the The September 2010 Valor the attack and sank Chuyo. [ "Dovm vidth His Submarine" ] On board were 21 of the crew machine gunner's] helmet was fixed to a pin in the top relates the stirring story of rescued from Sculpin when of his head. That means it Captain John Cromwell, who Cromwell had scuttled her was lost, quite early. Also, sacrificed his life when he two weeks earlier. Only one that grenade thrower still has chose to go down with USS Sculpin survivor was recovan impact on memory. But, Sculpin rather than face inter- ered from the destruction inrogation by the Japanese and flicted by the submarine that they were Dad's toys. In the '40s, when I was learn- risk reveahng highly classified more than four years earlier ing to walk and play, no new information. The article men- had been rescued by Crommetal figures went on sale un- tions that many Sculpin sur- well's very submarine. John T. Pierce til after the war. Everyone used vivors captured by the enemy Captain, U.S. Navy (Ret.) the "rubber guys," or green later died when another U.S. STONE MOUNTAIN, GA. Army guys. They were made submarine sank the ship in of plastic, some very flexible, which they were being transSend letters to but that meant very few lost ferred to Japan. The details Editor, Military History become more poignant when helmets during catnpaigns. Weider History Group Dennis R. Roeder one learns about a previous 19300 Promenade Dr. encounter between Sculpin Leesburg, VA 20176 GAHANNA, OHIO and a sister submarine. or via e-mail to tnilitaryhistory@ USS Squalus was underYour caption identified [the weiderhlstorygroup.com toy soldiers] as "tnetal troops going sea trials off the Isle of Please include name, address .. .from the 1940s and 1950s." Shoals [off Portsmouth, N.H.] and telephone number. That may be true, but they on May 23, 1939. During a are certainly inferior attempts to reproduce those manufactured in the late 1930s. By 1940 Barclay had dispensed with the separate tin helmets and switched to one-piece soldiers with cast helmets. World War 11 needs brought production of lead soldiers to a close. Bill Latshaw

By Brendan Man ley

DISPATCHES World War I Officially Ends

Germany made its final World War I reparations payment last fall, officially ending the Great War 92 years after the Nov. 11,1918, armistice. The last installment, roughly $95 million, satisfies Germany's debt from the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, compensating war-torn France and Belgium and re-

West Florida (see inset) declared its independence from Sp^.

on Sept. 26,1810.

Louisianans Celebrate the Birth of a NationWest Florida, That Is

In 1810, decades before Texians raised tbe Lone Star Flag or Californians tbe Bear Flag over tbeir respective republics, a band of peeved Gulf Coast rebels stormed tbe Spanish garrison in Baton Rouge and raised tbe Bonnie Blue over tbe sbort-lived Republic of West Florida. Tbe tiny breakaway nation wbicb spanned parts of modem-day Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and tbe Florida Panbandleremained independent little more tban a month before being annexed by tbe United States. Baton Rougeans marked its bicentennial last fall at Capitol Park, site of tbe original Spanisb fort. Passed over by tbe Louisiana Purchase in 1804, West Floridians grew disaffected with Spanish rule and plotted an overthrow of the provincial government in Baton Rouge. An earlier rebellion failed, but in tbe predawn bours of Sept. 23, 1810, a group of armed farmers and tradesmen slipped into Fort San Carlos, subduing the garrison in what was described as a "sbarp and bloody firefigbt." Tbree days later tbe rebels signed a declaration of independence establishing "tbe free and independent state of West Florida." Tbe rebels initially claimed all Spanisb holdings east tbrougb Mississippi Territory to tbe Perdido River, but an attempt to seize Mobile failed, and tbe populace outside Louisiana never actively rebelled. Seeking to bead off diplomatic protests from Spain and Great Britain, President James Madison declared "a crisis.. .subversive of tbe order of tbings under tbe Spanish authorities" and annexed the nascent republic on October 27. The Bonnie Blue last ew on Dec. 10,1810, when U.S. troops arrived in Baton Rouge and raised Old Glory over Fort San Carlos.

munerating the Allies for the immense cost of the conflict. The initial 1919 sum was 226 billion Reichsmarks, later reduced to 11.' billion Reichsmarks, the equivalent of $35 billion at the time.

Pentagon Adds POW/MIA Display

The Pentagon Ipcniagoiialis ostl mill has unveiled a new public corridor dedicated to American POWs and MIAs from all conflicts. The thirdfloor exhibit features panels that relate tbe POW/MIA experience. POW nuruora-

o
tvi

'Whenever the time shall come when we must choose hetween a loss of our constitutional rights and revoiution, i shail choose the latter' Sam Houston

bilia, artifacts from excavations for wartime remains and examples of grass-roots public awareness efforts by MIA families. The Pentagon's free reserve 1 tours will visit the corridor.

MILITARY HISTORY

Norwegian Survey Finds Viking Ships

Archaeologists using groundpenetrating radar have recorded the imprints of burial mounds and two large Viking ships near Kaupang, a

Boston Harbor to Host Tea Party Redux

Tea parties may be back in fashion, but Boston, home to the original Tea Party, has lacked a proper venue since the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum | www.bostonteapartyship.coml was struck by lightning in 2001 and then gutted byfirein 2007. But this fall city and state tourism officials put up funding toward a new $25 million museum off the Congress Street Bridge, centered on replicas of the tea ships Dartmouth,
Eleanor and Beaver.

WAR RECORD
The transition from winter to spring augurs change, for better or worse. Whether it be shifts in leadership or law, political upheaval or the end of protracted tension, historical combatants have often faced an altered landscape. Feb. 6.1940: After pleading with Adolf Hitler, German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel is given command of the 7th Panzer Division in anticipation of the invasion of France. Rommel's World War I experiences (P 26) inform his ensuing tactics. Feb. 21,1944: After their arrest, torture and public trial, 22 partisans (P 42) of the Communist Francstireurs face a German firing squad in Fort MontValrien, France. The group's messenger, a woman, is later beheaded with an ax. MarcK 3,1813: Congress authorizes the enlistment of free black sailors into the U.S. Navy. They later comprise up to a quarter of Oliver Hazard Perry's Great Lakes crews during the War of 1812, contributing to the Americans' naval victories (see P 36). March 26,1848: Longtime Austrian occupiers withdraw from Venice, Italy, four days after rebels led by Daniele Manin seize its arsenal (see P 62), the most powerful naval complex of its time. Manin capitulates within six months and is exiled.

dig Mil- MiLUli ol c)hlo, Norway. One of the ships may be 80 feet longthe largest yet discovered. Images of the find by the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research | www.niku.nol and Ludwig Boltzmann Institute larciipro.lbg.ac.atl clearly show the ship silhouettes. Though the hulls may have disintegrated, researchers hope to find period artifacts.

On the evening of Dec. 16,1773, more than 100 Patriot men and boys, ihinly di.->guibtd as Mohawk Indians, boarded the ships and dumped their cargoes into Boston Harbor in symbolic defiance of the recently passed Tea Act and the British monopoly on tea imports. Visitors to the new museum, slated to open by spring 2012, will gather at a replica of the Old South Meeting House for background and a bit of sedition before touring the ships.

Museum Coming to Appomattox, Va.

Riclimonds Museum of the Confederacy | www.inoc.orgl broke ground this fall on a sister museum a mile from Appomattox Court House National Historic Park | www iipsgov/apcol, site of the surrender ceremony that ended the Civil War. The groundbreaking comes as

'It does not require a majority to prevail, but ratiier an irate, tireless minority keen to set brushf ires in peopies' minds'

Samuel Adams

Mayan Tactics Revealed

Thousand-year-old temple murals in Mexico's northern Yucatn Peninsula have shed new light on Mayan military formations and tactics. Eduardo Tejeda Monroy of the National Institute of Anthropology and History [www itiah.gob.mxl presented his findings last fall following extensive iconographie analysis of murals at four sites. Like their Roman contemporaries halfway around the globe, Mayan armies marched in column and formed an initial battle line. They also fielded specialized troops, such as long-range dart throwers and close-in infantry armed with clubs and axes and bearing salthardened cotton breastplates and wooden shields. Unlike the Romans, however, the Maya did not fight head-on but launched lightning flanking maneuvers from different directions to quickly corner and overwhelm opponents.

the nation marks the sesquicentennial of that conflict. The 11,700-square-foot facility is slated to open by April 2012. Exhibits will relate the wars final phase, the surrender itself and reunification.

News
Bronze Honors Bear That'Fought'Nazis
Scottish sculptor Alan Herriot is crafting a statue to Private Voytek, a 500-pound brown bear tbat worked alongside Polish soldiers in World War 11 and lived out his postwar days at the Edin-

burgb Zoo. Adopted by soldiers as a cub and officially drafted into the Polish army in 1942, Voytek (Polish for "happy warrior") served as an artillery company mascot and was present at the 1944 Battle of Monte Cassino, where be toted ammunition. The statue will be unveiled in Edinburgh later this year.

John Paul Jones made naval history with his victory at the 1779 Battle of Flamborough Head.

Navy Seeks Bonhomme Richard

An underwater research team vdth the Naval History and Heritage Command [www.histor)' .navytnil] joined a large-scale search last fall for USS Bonhomme Richard,flagshipof famed Continental Navy Captain John Paul Jones, which sank in battle with the Royal Navy on Sept. 25, 1779, somewhere off the coast of northeast England. The latest 10-day mapping expedition marks the fifth time the U.S. Navy has sought to pinpoint the legendary East Indiaman, which has also eluded countless treasure hunters through the years. On Sept. 23, 1779, an American squadron led by Jones aboard the 42-gun Bonhomme Richard encountered a British merchant fleet under escort off Flamborough Head in Yorkshire. Jones quickly engaged in a ship-to-ship duel with Captain Richard Pearson aboard the 44-gun fifth rate HMS Serapis. The British ship got the early upper hand, and after pounding his opponent for several hours, Pearson called for Jones to strike his colors and surrender. "I may sink," replied Jones, "but I'll be damned if 1 strike!" He was right on both counts, as his ship would indeed sink, but not before the American crew had lashed the ships together, subdued Serapis' crew in vicious close-quarters flghting and taken the British warship as a prize. The shattered Bonhomme Richard, adrift and on fire, sank 36 hours later. That's where the picture gets hazy. Among the reasons Bonhomme Richard has defied detection is that researchers are unsure of the ship's course after the battle. The search grid comprises 900 square nautical miles in less than 200 feet of seawater. That shallow depth likely exposed the wreck to damage from fishing nets, further reducing its sonar proflle. Operating from the 329-foot survey ship USNS Henson, the Navy surveyors used side-scan sonar, electro-optical imagers and remotely operated underwater vehicles to map the search zone. Researchers will study the resulting images and revisit likely targets.

NPS Opens Trail of Tears Pathway

Tbe National Park Service bas opened tbe first segments of its Trail of Tears National Historic Trail | www nps.gov/trtel, wbicb will trace the 800-mile route travCedar Town

eled by more tban 16,000 Eastern Cberokees forcibly removed to Oklaboma by U.S. soldiers in 1838. Tbe completed trail will cross tbrougb parts of nine states (Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Tennessee).

'I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast; for I intend to go in harm's way'

^ -

John Paul Jones

MILITARY HISTORY

News
Bentley Priory to Host RAF Museum
Northwest Londons Harrow Council has approved plans for a Battle of Britain museum in Bentley Priory [www.bcnlleypriory.org], the manor house that served as

Roman Parade Helmet Fetches $3.6 Million

A rare classical Roman cavalry parade helmet sold at a recent Christie's London lwww.christies.com] auction for $3.6 million10 times its prsale estimate. The Crosby Garrett helmet (named for the northern England town where it was unearthed last spring) dates from the late 1st to 2nd century and is one of just three such headpieces ever found in Britain. Its copper alloy face mask is remarkably intact, with open eyes, incised eyelashes, herringbone eyelashes and pierced nostrils. Capping the Phrygian-style peak is a winged bronze griffin. Roman cavalry soldiers wore such plumed helmets more for pomp than protection in ceremonial sporting events called hippika gymnasia ("horse exercises).

WAR SPOILS
In a recent issue we told the story of a former Scottish paratrooper who returned a trumpet confiscated from an Argentine soldier during the Falklands War. lt is not the only spoil of war to have made a notable homecoming. Flying Tricolor: An anonymous World War II Army veteran from New York recently returned the French flag that hung from the Arc de Triomphe during the Liberation of Paris. Members of the French Resistance suspended the flag from the arch on Aug. 25, 1944. Adolf's Album: World War II veteran John Pistone returned to Germany a 12pound tome he pinched from Adolf Hitler's Berchtesgaden retreat in the Bavarian Alps. The book was one of 31 pboto albums of seized artwork Hitler intended for a Fuhrermuseum in Austria. Turkish Delight: Britisb Eighth Army veteran Stanley Parry returned an 18lh century Turkish coral and silver flintlock pistol looted from Florence's Stibbert Museum in 1944. Parry had saved the gun from a guilt-ridden mate about to toss it into the sea.
Cannon on "Loan": The

the Royal Air Force (RAF) Fighter Command headquarters during World War II. Work crews will restore the priory's ground floor to its 1940 appearance, including then-Air Chief Marshal Lord Hugh Dowding's office and a large map of Britain over the ballroom dance floor. The museum is slated to open in spring 2013.

'Man is a military animal, glories in gunpowder and loves parade'

Philip James Bailey

Design Chosen for Spitfire Memorial

North London architect Nick Hancock [www.nick hancock.com] has won a recent competition to design a national memorial to the Supermarine Spitfire,

H.L Hunley to Surface

This spring the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley ]www . hunley org 1, the first combat sub to sink an enemy warship, will roll into an uprigbt position for tbe first time since it went to tbe bottom off Cbarleston nearly 150 years ago. A recovery barge raised Hunley in 2000 and kept it at its 45-degree starboard list to preserve artifacts and remains aboard the sub. Conservationists will scour Hunley's bull of concretion and in 2015 begin its full restoration for display on the Charleston waterfront. On Feb. 17, 1864, Hunley pierced the hull of the Union blockader USS Housatonic witb a spar torpedo, which detonated as the sub pulled

the Royal Air Force's iconic World War II single-seat fighter. The $3 million memorial, featuring a polished steel Spitfire atop a 131-foot polished steel column, will rise from the waterfront in Southampton, where Supermarine designed and built the plane.

away, sinking the sloop and killing five of its crew. Hunley and its eight-man crew mysteriously failed to return from the mission. Restorers hope to learn what sank the sub.

FBI recently turned up a Civil War cannon lost more than 30 years ago when reenactors "borrowed" it from tbe Illinois State Military Museum in Springfield.

MILITARY HISTORY

interview
Gary Sheffield: Rethinking World War I
veloped after about 1900, could have no other target than the Royal Navy. To get anywhere the German navy would have to pass through the North Sea, which would mean challenging the RN. And how did Britain view America's emerging naval strength? London pragmatically accepted the growth of U.S. power, including the development of the Navy, realizing there was nothing Britain could do about it and that Washington would not pose a threat to the major British interest in the areaCanadalet alone to Britain itself Things were very different with Germany, of course, since it was seen as a militaristic state. What was the most significant World War I battle? Inevitably national allegiances color such considerations. British and Commonwealth historians tend to argue that the turning point in 1918 was the Battle of Amiens, in August, where Australian, British, Canadian and French troops won a major victory. The French and some Americans, on the other hand, favor the Second Battle of the Mame, a few weeks earlier. The argument in favor of Amiens is based on the fact that while Second Marne finally halted the German offensives, it was the battle of August 8 tbat seized the strategic initiative for the Allies and initiated the "Hundred Days" of Allied victories that ended with the German capitulation in November 1918. How about your view of the most decisive battle? I would argue that the single most decisive battle came two years earlier, on the Somme. The fighting in the long term had an attritional impact on the German army, while the amateur British army learned how to fight, albeit at a terrible cost in casualties. As a result of the Somme, the Germans began unrestricted submarine warfare, knowing

What was Austria-Hungary's role in precipitating the war? There is no doubt Vienna deliberately initiated a war against Serbia after the assassination of Archduke [Franz Ferdinandl in Sarajevo in June 1914, in the full knowledge this might bring in Russia, which in turn ran the risk of a major European war. In this the Austrians were backed by Germany, You've said that World Berlin which gave them a War I was not an "acciblank check on July 5. dental" war into which gambled the Berlin, too, knew that the great powers stumBritish could a limited war in the bled. How so? German historian Fritz be starved into Balkans might turn into something much Fischer argued that Gersubmission bigger and nastier. So many had gone to war in a bid for world powbefore America at best in 1914 you have Germany and erthe events of July could make a Austria deliberately 1914 were the occasion risking a major war; rather than the cause difference f at worst there was of the war. I simplify conscious aggression Fischer's arguments, of course, and I don't accept them in their aimed at Russia and France. entirety, but at the very least he pointed to an expansionist, militaristic tendency Why was the United Kingdom so conamong German policy makers. cerned about Germany's emergence as a naval power? How did Germans react to Fischer's Simple: British security against invaconclusions? sion of the British Isles and safety of They caused absolute fury in West the sea-lanes that connected its global Germany when they first appeared in empire rested upon command of the 1961, because he was basically saying seas. Tbe German High Seas Fleet, de-

rofessor Gary Sheffield, chair of War Studies at Britain's University of Birmingham, is a former instructor at both the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, and the British Joint Services Command and Staff College. Sheffield has written extensively on 20th century military history, particularly on World War I. His 2001 book. Forgotten Victory: The First World War, Myths and Realities, is a highly acclaimed analysis ' ' of the many falsehoods ^ about the conflict that --a over the years have come to be accepted as historical fact. Sheffield's latest book is The Chief: Douglas Haig and the British Army (20JJ).

the Nazi era was not a one-off, that there were continuities with the kaiser's Germany. This was a body blow to more conservative Germans, who looked back to before 1933 as the "normal" Germany.

MILITARY HISTORY

Sheffield disputes the widespread postwar perception that British soldiers hated Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig (above, speaking with Canadian troops in May 1918).

this was likely to bring America into the war. Berlin gambled the British could be starved into submission before America could make a difference. It was a huge miscalculation, and Germany later paid the price. The British experienced few large-scale mutinies, despite ghastly conditions, staggering casualties and a perceived callous leadership. Why? You are right and wrong about this right in that there was only one largescale mutiny (at taples base camp in September 1917), but wrong about the troops' views of leadership. Contrary to the postwar perception that soldiers hated Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, there is very little contemporary evidence they thought very much about him at all. Haig was a remote figure, as were most generals. Things were very different at the unit level. Enlightened, paternal, regimental-level leadership was in my view the key to maintaining soldiers' morale. The prewar ethos of the British officer, which laid heavy stress on putting the ordinary solder first, was passed on to wartime officers. And the

British working class was prepared to defer to those of a higher socioeconomic class, provided they kept their part of an unspoken bargain to look after them. So, for the most part, relations were good, if formaland don't forget that the generals were at heart regimental officers, which helps explain the army's attempts to support soldiers' welfare. Paradoxically, all this existed side by side with tough, even harsh discipline, but the paternalism tended to counterbalance the darker side. taples was really a one-off How do you address the perception of Haig as a stubborn butcher who was bent on frontal attack, believed in a perpetual role for cavalry and thought machine guns were a passing fad? 1 concluded that the general perception you mention is almost entirely wrong. I am not claiming he was a military genius, but the nature of the Western Front meant that every attack by either side had to be frontalthere were no flanks to turn. Haig actively promoted the methods and technologies that eventually helped break the deadlocknew tactics, machine guns,

effective training, airpower, artillery, tanks and the like. In my book I argue that Haig's role in the transformation of the British army from the clumsy amateur force of 1916 to a superb instrument of war in 1918 was his greatest achievement. As for cavalry, along with many other thinking officers he continued to believe it had a battlefield role, and events on the Western Front (especially in 1918) and elsewhere, notably [Field Marshal Fdmund[ Allenby's campaign in Palestine, show he was right. Haig was undoubtedly too ambitious in some of his plans for use of cavalry, but that is not to say he was entirely wrong to use them. Was Haig a "stubborn butcher?" He was too profligate with lives and prolonged some battles, but there were political or operational/tactical imperatives for doing so, certainly at the Somme and Passchendaele. Ultimately, he was a winner. How did the conduct of World War I affect the conduct of World War II and subsequent wars? The British junior officers of the Great War who became the senior commanders of 1939-45 rejected much of the Western Front approach. Manylike William Slim and Bernard Montgomerydeliberately rejected the "chteau generalship" fashion of Haig, adopting an informal, "people's general" persona. In the desert in 1941-42 there was a conscious rejection of the triedand-trusted methods of 1918 in favor of a half-baked form of maneuver warfare, and the British simply weren't very good at it. More generally, what happened from 1939-45 was in large part a development of methods learned by trial and error in the earlier war. "Three-dimensional" warfare, involving airpower and indirect artillery fire, was born around 1915 and continues to dominate conventional warfare today. (^

What We Learned...
from the Moro Rebellion
By William H. McMichael

hile the Moro Rehellion lasted roughly from 1903 to 1913, it's perhaps more accurate to describe the insurgency by Muslim southern Filipinosdubbed Moros by the Spanishas a 600-year struggle for religious autonomy and independence that has never really ended. In 1903 U.S. commanders in the Philippines weren't hamstrung by the lack of forces or resources that have hindered them in subsequent conflicts. Nor was the force itself inexperienced. Atnedcan troops had heen fighting Filipino nationalist insurgents in the northern Philippines since the 1898 end of the Spanish-American War. On the southern island of Mindanao, the Moros weren't a major concern. Under the terms of the 1899 Bates Agreement, the Moro leaders (datus) who recognized American sovereignty retained power and stayed neutral in the fight between American and Filipino nationalist forces. But when that insurrection ended in 1902, the United States sought to ex-

pand its control of Moro territory, imposing a military government as part of the annexation of the Philippines. The Moros rebelled to defend their autonotny and culture against what they saw as a foreign, and Christian, assault. Maj. Gen. Leonard Wood, the first U.S. military governor, tried to establish a layered government down to the local level, believing exposure to the American system would win converts. But Moro attacks on U.S. outposts forced him to fight hack, with limited success. Succeeding Wood was Maj. Gen. Tasker H. Bliss, who introduced economic and social reforms while restraining U.S. troops. The strategy made headway but only in American-controlled areas. When Maj. Gen. John Pershing took the reins in 1909, he concluded that too tnany U.S. troops were being kept in garrison. He dispersed units deep into Moroland and more broadly engaged the datus, whose several thousand combatants were armed mostly with primitive weapons and whose leaders operated in what amounted to

individual fiefdoms. Pershing also began disarming the Moro groups with an "acquiesce or fight" approach. Pershing's strategy worked: American authority was established, the rebels were crushed and generally peaceful years followed. Indeed, the Moro Rebellion is often cited by military theorists as America's most striking success in counterinsurgency. Yet the desire for independence reappeared 55 years later with the 1968 founding of the Moro National Liheration Front. An eight-year uprising challenged President Ferdinand Marcos, who used martial law, the arrest of opposition leaders and military force to quell the insurgency. The global emergence of Islamic extremist groups, however, has in the Philippines seen formation of such violent antigovernment factions as the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and Abu Sayyaf Fighting cotitinues in the south, and the United Nations estimates the conflict has killed as many as 20,000 people since the 1970s.

Lessons:
Study local culture and identify key leaders. Theirs are the most important hearts and minds to win. Decentralize. Send uniformed troops into the countryside to negate insurgent influence among the people. Learn from others. Pershing huilt on his predecessors' experiences and added his own refinementsan approach today's counterinsurgency advocates have taken. U Provide or facilitate good governance. It's far easier to defeat an insurgency when locals trust their government more than the insurgents. Kill the holdouts. The stiffest resistance is not going to capitulate and must be militarily defeated. Patience is a virtue. Insurgencies are persistent and incredibly difficult to eradicate, flu

Pooriy armed Moros rareiy fared weii in pitched batties against American troops.

Britain's American Hero

By Stephen Harding
Navy, at a time when it was illegal for American citizens to serve in Britain's military forces. Seeley's first assignment was aboard HMS Imprieuse, flagship of the Royal Navy's East India and China Station until replaced by HMS Euryalus in 1863. Seeley transferred to the latter vessel at that time, a decision that within a year would thrust him into the midst of a brief, vicious and largely forgotten battle that pitted three European navies against a Japanese warlord. Though "opened" to foreigners following the 1853-54 visits of U.S. Commodore Matthew C. Perry and his fleet, Japan remained deeply xenophobic. Attacks on foreign diplomats, traders and seamen increased throughout the late 1850s and early 1860s. In the spring of 1863 Emperor Komei's "Order to expel barbarians" prompted several of Japan's powerful clans to undertake unilateral action against foreigners. Among those roused to military action was Mori Takachika of the Choshu clan, whose territory straddled the Shimonoseki Straits, separating the islands of Honshu and Kyushu. Takachika etnplaced 100 cannonincluding five modem 8-inch Dahlgren guns, an earlier goodwill gift to Japan from Americaatop the hills dominating the waterway and began firing on any Western vessel transiting through to the Inland Sea. Though repeatedly engaged by U.S., French and Dutch warships, the Japanese artillery remained obstinately active. By mid-August 1864 British Vice Admiral Sir Augustus Kuper had had enough. He sortied from Yokohama aboard Euryalus at the head of a multinational eetnine British, four Dutch and three French warships carrying several thousand troopsto

Ordinary Seaman William Seeley Royal Navy Victoria Cross Shimonoseki, Japan September 6,1864

n the 155 years since it was instituted by royal warrant, the Victoria Cross Britain's highest military honor for valor in battlehas been awarded to just 1,353 individuals. Of those, only five were Americans, and the first Yank so honored was a slight and unassuming sailor whose acts of valor violated U.S. law. While we know that William Henry Harrison Seeley was born in Topsham, Maine, on May 1, 1840, details of his early life are scarce. In his teens he became a merchant seaman, sailing from East Coast ports aboard American ships bound for Asia. In 1860 he jumped shipmost probably in a Far Eastern portand joined the Royal

force Takachika to surrender and open the straits. The battle began on September 5 with a furious but ineffective bombardment of the Japanese positions, followed by the landing of several thousand soldiers, marines and sailors tasked with silencing the guns. Assigned to a small reconnaissance party, Seeley was sent to reconnoiter the Japanese positions and on the way back to the beach was ambushed by several sword-wielding Japanese. After dispatching the attackers with pistol, rifle and bayonet, he made his report to a Lieutenant Edwards, commander of the landing force's 3rd Company. Seeley's careful observation of the Japanese batteries was used to help plan the September 6 final allied assault, in which the American played a prominent role. He advanced in the first wave, which the enemy targeted with heavy fire. Seeley maintained his position despite being shot in the arm and distinguished himself during the fierce hand-to-hand fighting that led to the capture of a key Japanese battery. The allied victory at Shimonoseki made the waterway safe for European ships; revitalized Western interest in, and trade with, Japan; and, ironically, spurred Japanese interest in acquiring the modern military technologies that within a few decades would make them Asia's dominant military power. Seeley recovered from his wound and on Sept. 22, 1865, was presented the Victoria Cross for his "intelligence and daring" at Shimonoseki by Admiral Sir Michael Seymour, commander in chief of Britain's Portsmouth naval base. Seeley left the Royal Navy soon after, returned to America and led a quiet life until his death in October 1914. Though four other Americans later received VCsall while serving in the Canadian army during World War 1 William Seeley retnains the only Yank to be so honored while fighting, albeit illegally, in the British armed forces. (^

Hand Tool
Socket Bayonet
The plug was uglythen came the socket

By Jon Guttman ' Illustration by Gregory Proch

The socket bayonet was easy to affix for close-quarters combat: L First, slide back to the lug/sight atop the muzzle. 2. Then twist clockwise to second groove. 3. Finally, fix flush to the forestock and lug/sight. Note bayonet's triangular cross sectionthe best compromise between strength and flexibility.

For more than a century the French musketeer used the socket bayonet, which allowed him to reload and fire even with the bayonet fixed in place.

mong single-shot musket-bearing troops of 17th century Europe, cold steel remained more effective than lead in close-quarters clashes. As early as 1611 put-upon musketeers were jamming pocket daggers into the muzzles of their guns. This makeshift weapon of last resort evolved into the plug bayonet, its name likely derived from the cutlery center of Bayonne, Erance. The first known mention of its military application appears in the memoirs of Chevalier Jacques de Chastenet, seigneur de Puysgur, who describes the Erench use of crude, foot-

long plug bayonets during the Thirty Years' War (1618-48). Not until 1671, however, did General Jean Martinet standardize plug bayonets for his fusilier regiment. English dragoons adopted the weapon a year later. By then the plug bayonet had proved a mixed blessing, as it was difficult to remove from the muzzle should an infantryman need to reload his musket and resume firing. At the July 1689 Battle of Killicrankie, Scottish Maj. Gen. Hugh Mackay lost half of his 4,000-man infantry to a Highlander charge when his troops failed to fix their plug bayo-

nets in time. An early solution was the ring bayonet, offset from the barrel to allow firing with the bayonet fixed in place. Mackay re-equipped his surviving infantrymen with this variation. In 1703 the French army chose the socket bayonet for its infantry. Secured to a lug/sight atop the muzzle by a zigzag slot, a butterfly screw or a springloaded catch, socket bayonets predominated on battlefields through the 1840s. Over the next half century, sword or knife bayonets eclipsed the socket type, as soldiers could wield such bayonets independent of their other weapons. (^

Power Tool
Flammenwerfer
Spewing hell on earth in the trenches
Though lighter than some models, the M.1916Kleif still weighed nearly 70 pounds and was usually operated by two men.

By Jon Guttman Illustration by Gregory Proch

Protected by a metal cap, the gas cock controlled the flow of propeilant into the 4-gallon oil reservoir. The propeilant flowed through a metal hose, forcing the flammable oil out of the tank at high pressure.

An igniter fixed to the end of the metal lance turned the stream of oil into a tongue of flame with a range of 60 feet.

The Flammenwerfer operator controlled the rate and range of the flame with this release valve.

The 5-foot rubber tube from tank to lance was covered with linen and wrapped in heavy wire to keep it from kinking.

A heavy leather carrying harness distributed the weapon's weight.

s World War I bogged down in the trenches, each side sought a means of breaking the stalemate. Germany's first attempt was a weapon developed in secret more than a decade earlier. In 1901 Richard Fiedler rolled out a prototype of what he called a Flammenwerfer ("flamethrower"). Fiedler's early design centered on a vertical tank divided into two compartments. The lower section held compressed gas, usually nitrogen, which forced flammable oil from the upper section through a rubber tube and past a simple ignition device in the steel nozzle. A stationary form of the weapon.

the grosse Flammenwerfer, or Grof, was capable of throwing fire as far as 120 feet. Its smaller cousin the kleine Flammenwerfer, or Kleif, could project flames only half as far but was portable, small enough to be operated by two men. The German army adopted the Kleif in 1906, and by 1912 the Guard Reserve Pioneer Regiment boasted its own regiment of Flammenwerfer troops. The weapon and its units largely remained a secret, however, until the Germans finally unleashed it at Verdun on Feb. 26,1915. Shaking off their initial terror, the French counterattacked, retook the lost ground and managed to

capture a Kleif, which its weapons researchers promptly disassembled. At the Second Battle of Ypres, a halfdozen Kleif operators so terrified British soldiers on the night of July 29-30,1915, that the Germans were able to capture several trench lines. But its material effectiveness seldom exceeded its psychological effect, as the fuel lacked a thickening agent to make it stick to its targeta shortcoming remedied by World War II. Regardless, the Allies soon developed their own versions of the weapon, canceling out what little advantage the Flammenwerfer had briefly granted its inventors. (

What Made Rommel

HOW A 26-YEAR-OLD LIEUTENANT, FIGHTING AT CAPORETTO IN THE ITALIAN ALPS IN 1917, BECAME THE LEGENDARY ROMMEL BY DENNIS SHOWALTER ust after midnight on Oct. 24, 1917, it began to rain in Italy's Isonzo River valley. Conditions were wet, dark and overcast "attack weather" to the 15 German and Austro-Hungarian divisions moving into final position, y s . They were massing for an ^ intended decisive counter- "^^*-. attack against an Italian army N that in the previous two years had worn the Habs- burg army and German Empire to the hmits of their endurance. ^ The assault was an all-or-nothing
gamble, and Germany had committed some of its best units to the mission. Serving in one of them was 1st Lieu, . . ^ .

commanders. He would also become a symbol of soldiers' honor misused and perverted by the Third Reich. But in 1917 he was an obscure junior officer, one of thousands in a war where a subaltern's average lifespan was measured in weeks. /y Obscure though young Rommel ?//L might have been, he was ' hardly anonymous. He had . won the Iron Cross in France . in 1914, and in Romania ^ he had bolstered his reputation for fearlessness by leading ^ ^ from the front and for a tactical sense that seemed to intuit an
. . , ^ -, ,.

The/our/eAfr/e,above,was established in 174O and remained through 1918.Rommel,opposite, proudly wore the "Blue Max" he
the highest Prussian military order

enemy's moves. Men saw, and jyien spoke: "Everybody was

inspired by his initiative, his courage, his dazzling acts of

tenant Erwm Johannes Eugen ZZ'^SjZ'

Rommel. Rommel would eventually master maneuver warfare, reach the rank of field marshal and become one of the most feared of World War II battlefield MILITARY HISTORY

g^"^""^." ""'ed one of Rom-

mel's platoon leaders. As yet his reputation did not extend much beyond his immediate milieu. But over the following weeks in northern Italy,

Rommel would begin making a name for himself in the German army as an expert in a new approach to war, an approach transcending the trench warfare that had stifled momentum and multiplied casualty lists since the war's early weeks. ommel's extraordinary tactical prowess did not develop in a vacuum. He served most of his war with arguably the best unit in one of history's finest fighting armies. The Wrttemberg Mountain Battalion

ments of a particular action. When properly employed by the WGB's offlcers, this adaptability enabled the unit to meet the war's two greatest tactical challenges: reinforcing advances and exploiting battlefield opportunities. Major Theodor Sprsser commanded the battalion throughout Rommel's service with it. Sprsser rejected the orthodoxies of trench warfare and recognized Rommel's talent and potential An ideal mentor, Sprsser allowed Rommel to extend himself without overextending the battalion, restrained the young offi-

eal mi Sprsser [at left] allowed Rommel to extend himself withoii overextending tn^ battalion and never let him forget wl was commander
(Wrttembergische Gebirgs-Bataillon), formed in 1915, was in fact an infantry unit with supplementary training in rock climbing and not a true "alpine" unit like those in the French and Italian armies. The WGB's original volunteers included everyone from winter sports enthusiasts to bored cavalrymen. One hundred fifty of them had already earned bravery awards. Rommel, who had won both classes of the Iron Cross on the Western front, fitted in admirably The WGB's structure was optimized for flexibility. Its developed order of battle was six rifle companies and six machine-gun companies, plus mortar and signal units. The companies in turn were grouped into two or three detachments (Abteilungen) whose composition changed with the requirecer when necessary and never let him forget who was the WGB's commander And at 5 a.m. on October 25 Rommel needed his help. The day before, Rommel had led three companies across broken ground in front of Hill 1114, a heavily fortified Italian strongpoint. A frontal attack promised only high casualties. Then Rommel spotted a supply trail leading into the Italian defenses. Reinforced by three additional companies, he followed it. The rewards of his boldness included the capture of an artillery batterywithout firing a shota thoroughly welcome hot lunch and a favorable jump-off point for the next day's attack. The Italian main line of defense lay along the Kolovrat ridge and even steeper Mount Matajur. A major with the elite Royal Bavarian Guard Regi-

ment (Kniglich Bayerisches Leib-Regiment) announced that his unit would lead the attack on the liigh ground; the Wrttembergers could mop up what they left. But when Sprsser arrived, Rommel outlined an alternate plan: to swing west, outside the Leib-Regiment's sector, bypass Hill 1114 and go straight for Mount Kuk, the sector's first key terrain feature. Sprsser gave his lieutenant three companies and his blessing, then informed the Bavarian major he could observe the WGB's progress through his field glasses. One reason Rommel often achieved surprise in his attacks involved the difficulty of sounding an alarm through a slit throat, as his patrols ruthlessly dispatched enemy lookouts and skirmishers. When one such patrol reported part of the ridgeline unoccupied, Rommel ordered a charge that caught most of the ostensible defenders in their bunkers. Shouts of "Rtiu.s! Hnde hochl" ("Come out! Hands high!") brought the Italians to the surface. But that victory left the Germans isolated, facing trench systems too strong to clear and a developing counterattack too powerful to resist head-on. Rommel's response was to press forward, ignoring odds of 2-to-l or better A British officer once remarked of a similar combat encounter that "blood was flying about like spray from a hairwash bottle." Rommel spoke more soberly of his Wrttembergers' "savage resolution." Most of an enemy battalion, 500 men, decided within minutes their war was over That made Rommel responsible for more than 1,500 prisonersthree times his own remaining strength. The Germans were by now taking machine-gun fire from three sides, and Italian reserves were moving up in truckloads for a new attack. ommel had 300 men scattered across the high ground just short of Mount Kuk. And he had three options: withdraw, stand or attack. His decision was predictable. While he was arranging artillery support and planning lines of advance. Sprsser appeared at the head of tworiflecompanies and two machine-gun companies

MILITARY HISTORY

rman and Ausiro-Hungari lops rest briefly following t.. itial assault of what ultimately became known as the Battle of Caporetto. Rommel and his men played a key role in penetrating the Italian front line, crushing enemy morale and breaking up attempted counterattacks.

Overwhelmed by fast-moving, grenade-throwing Germans-perhaps ones led by Rommel-Italian soldiers lie dead in a ravine on the approach to Cividale. The speed of the attack prompted many Italian defenders to surrender or flee. of the WGB and gave Rommel three of them. What for another officer might have been a mere force multiplier for Rommel multiplied maneuver opportunitiesespecially since WGB machinegun companies were able to function as assault units as well as flre support. And when one of his forward patrols encountered another force of Italians who surrendered after the Wrttembergers waved handkerchiefs at them, the way to Kuk's summit seemed open. Then Rommel spotted another possibilitya camouflaged supply track that led down the southwest slope of Kuk to the Italian rear Just after 10:30 a.m. he led two rifle and two machine-gun companies at a dead run downhill along a blind trail his patrols had no time to scout.

Rommel's men had been marching, climbing and fighting for two days straight. His machine-gunners carried loads of up to 100 pounds on their backs: water jackets, mounts, ammunition boxes. Nevertheless, they literally overran Italian supply dumps, artillery batteries and command posts, scattering men and animals, the surprise so complete that even token resistance seldom developed. By then Rommel had shifted his objective from the Italians' immediate rear to the Luico-Savogna valley below. Block that, he reasoned, and he would trap the entire sector of Italians. The Wrttembergers stumbled downhill at the double, slaking their thirst with eggs and grapes snatched from the baskets of abandoned pack mules. At 12:30 the detachment's leading elementsincluding Rommel and his staff officersappeared like wraiths from the underbrush along the LuicoSavogna road. As surprised Italians

scattered in all directions, Rommel's troopers cut the Italian field telephone wires and began digging in. Their progress had been remarkable, Rommel observed, and his soldiers' morale remained high. Italian truck and wagon drivers unwittingly continued using the road, and the hungry Germans who stopped them enjoyed the chocolate, jam and white bread in their cargosdelicacies that had vanished from German rations long before. Still, only about 150 of Rommel's men had as yet reached the valley, and a scout soon reported a long column of Italian infantry marching toward the roadblock. Rommel lot the Italians advance into the killing zone of his machine guns, then sent an officer to demand their surrender. The Italians, part of the elite 20th Bersaglieri
Regiment {20'Reggimento Bersaglieri),

responded with a few random shots. Rommel blew his whistle, German machine guns swept the road, and a 10-

MILITARY HISTORY

minute firefight ensued. Then Italian resistance collapsed. Fifty officers and 2,000 menmost of whom never had a chance to get into the fightsurrendered to a German force fewer than one-tenth their number. As his men were disarming this new bag of POWs, Rommel mounted a heavy machine gun on a captured automobile and drove into the village of Luico. There he found Sprsser, the rest of the WGB and the Bavarian battalion, which had taken Kuk and advanced on Luico from a different direction. Again Rommel urged action. His detachment, he argued, should move cross-country immediately to the next high ground, Hill 1096. That would put the Germans even deeper in the enemy rear, in a position to cut the main Italian supply routes. Sprsser concurred and gave Rommel command of six companies, including all the WGB's heavy machine guns. The advance rapidly turned into

a demanding climb through gullies and thombushes, with more and more men dropping out with twisted ankles and other minor injuries. When patrols reported strong Italian positions ahead, Rommel camped for the night while his scouts searched for an alternate route up to Hill 1096. And when the Germans moved out at 5:30 a.m., they found the defenders alert and ready to fight. Indeed, the Italians quickly and effectively pinned down the bulk of Rommel's assault force. With most of his men shooting instead of moving, Rommel pulled three light machinegun squads out of the line and led them across dead ground to the enemy rear. A shout of, "Surrender!" prompted 1,600 surprised Bersaglieri in nowexposed positions to drop their ries without the Germans firing a shot. It had been a Hghtning attack, but the rest of the fight was not exactly a Cakewalk. Hill 1096 was in German hands by 7:15 that morning, but the ItaUans fought it out, trench by trench and bunker by bunker. WGB casualties were heavy, Rommel's flanks were wide open, and he had no idea where any other German troops were.

rue to form, Rommel rejected the idea of waiting for reinforcements or allowing his exhausted troops to rest and reorganize.

His next objective was Mrzli Peak a mile awaythe next and last high ground before Mount Matajur. By 10 a.m. Rommel had assembled the equivalent of three companies from the men who had followed him that morning. As this improvised and attenuated force climbed toward Mrzli, Rommel saw what appeared to be two or three battahons' worth of Italians blocking the path. Fully armed, on high ground, they nevertheless watched the German advance without firing. Rommel risked walking forward, waving a handkerchief, calling for their surrender. Suddenly, hundreds of Italians started running toward him, throwing down their rifles and shouting, "Viva la GermaniaV ("Long live Germany!"). The first men to reach Rommel hoisted him on their shoulders, while others shot one of their own officers who seemed reluctant to surrender. As Rommel's detachment began to disarm what turned out to more than 1,500 men of the Salerno Brigade, he received an order from Sprsser to withdraw. The major had arrived at Hill 1096 and, on seeing the mass of prisoners, had assumed the fighting was over and Matajur too was in German hands. In a neat piece of superiorfinessing, Rommel sent back most of his detachment as instructed but kept 100 riflemen and six heavy machine-

ROMMEL AT CAPORETTO, OCT. 2 4 - 2 6 , 1 9 1 7

he 11th Battle of the Isonzo had played out much the same as the previous 10 battleswith artillery exchanges, attacks and counterattacks until survivors in the opposing armies lay exhausted and out of ammunition. In the lead-up to the Battle of Caporetto (aka 12th Isonzo), however, the Italians lacked mohile reserves while the Austro-Hungarians were ahle to draw on German reinforcements. Among the latter was 26-year-old Erwin Rommel, a hattle-tested lieutenant in the Wrttemberg Mountain Battalion and already a two-time recipient of the Iron Cross.

Rommel had witnessed the futility of ' trench warfare on the Western Front and was doubtless familiar with the seesaw war of attrition along the Isonzo. He knew Jh key lay in taking the luj^jground, bupii was determined not tcSHKipped like a # treed fox. Scouting the foothills to gauge enemy strength and map likely routes oi attack, he launched a series of lightnina strikes and flanking maneuvers, promptH^ the Italian defenders to surrender en masse and capturing the key peak of Mount Maj^ ' jur by noon on the third day. Ronimel ^s^m the Pour le Mrite for his acti

i'

f\

n on October 2 _.e Major Sprsser an Royal Bavarian Guar rengage the Italians at ^Hill 1114, Rommel heads vwest toward Mount Kuflcf Italian Defensive Pos/tj#s (red lines) 2. Ronimel leaves the path to engage the enemy above, taking positions along the ridge to Hill 1066 by 11 a^ and reaching Hevnicit pe 4it noon. By 6 p.m. the W..,^ RBG have taken Hill 1066, re they camp for the night.

' RjrH Bavarian .^ Guards / Wrttemberg Mountain < Battaliotyy

1. October 24, fa. Rommel detachme heads to the right along a traii toward the town of Foni.
12th Division

6. Outnumbei Rommel engages the Italians along the road from Polava to Luico, capturing more than 2,000 of the enemy by 1:30 p.m. POLAVA
p a.m. !S t h e

8. October 26. Pinn down at the town of Jevsek in the early morning hours, Rommel leads a bold assault into the enemy rear and captures another 1,600 Italians. By 7:15 a.m. he has taken Hill 1096.
Hill 1096

10. October 26, 11:40 a. jt With a minimal assault force, Rommel captures Matajur and its remaining 1,200 Italian defenders. 9. As Rom traverses road to Mount Mirzli, 1,500 , Italian soidiers. throw down ; their arms and surrender.
Mount Matajur - i 1,642 mi >..

^JEVSEK,

Mount Mirzli (1,356 m)

artillery engagement on Mount Kuk and heads ' wnhiii toward Poiava.
Moue Kuk (1,263 ml

LUICO
Hill 1192

4. Evading detection, Rommel snakes between defensive positions along the Kolovrat Ridge and finds an opening a miie west of Mount Kuk. His unexpected appearance takes defenders by surprise at 9:15 a.m. By 2 p.m. he has taken a half-mile of the ridge all the way to Hill 1192.

12th Division,

7. At 3:30 p.m. Rommel meets with Major Sprsser at tuico, then heads toward Hill 1096.

PORETT

THE BATTLES OF THE ISONZO

The 60-mile-long Isonzo River valley, which paralleled the Italian border just . inside Austria-Hungary, presented the Italian army an opportunity in World War I. If it could just thread this narrow gap, the road to Vienna lay open. Determined to stop it were the combined divisions of the Austro-Hungarian and German armies. The 1917 Battle of Caporetto itself represented something of a denouement in the Isonzo campaign. Eleven times over the preceding two years the Italians had tried and failed to break through the valley. Geography played a role, as any approach along the river left attackers vulnerable to artillery in the surrounding heights. In his sector Rommel would rely on tactical agility and speed to outflank and outfight the Italian defenders.

Hungary Modem Italy

Modern Austria

S Modem Slovenia
DETAIL AREA

Italy

Fortunate to have survived the German and Austro-Hungarian assault, Italian POWsamong the quarter million captured in less than four weeks-head into captivity. Caporetto claimed more than 30,000 Italian casualties. gun crews witb bimand started up the road to Matajur. He was confident the small force could infiltrate Italian defenses and break them open from the inside. Fven before he could test his hypothesis, the firing died down. Rounding a bend in the road, the Germans encountered 1,200 more Italians, surrendering their arms as their colonel wept. Rommel sent his prisoners downhifl under a token guard and continued toward Matajur's summit with the few men he had left. Again he took advantage of broken ground to force the pace while keeping out of sight of defending Italians above. Along the way the Germans passed scores of Italians, some armed and some not, making their way downhill. One Italian com-

pany engaged with Germans attacking from another direction surrendered when Rommel's men appeared behind them. The WGB detachment brought up its machine guns, and Rommel was making final preparations to storm Matajur's summit when what remained of the garrison there raised a white flag. At 11:40 the Germans sent up flaresthree white, one greenannouncing Matajur's capture. Rommel gave his men a well-deserved hour's rest, spent a few minutes admiring the spectacular views and settled in to write his report. Then, relieved by other German troops, the Rommel detachment moved slowly back down the Kolovrat ridge. n a war in which gains were measured in hundreds of yards and losses in tens of thousands, the saga of the WGB reads like military melodrama. In the first 52 hours of the offensive Rommel and his men had traversed some 12 miles of Italian defenses, as-

cending 8,000 feet and descending 3,000. The Rommel detachment, never much more than 500 men at the contact point, had destroyed five Italian regiments, in the process capturing some 9,000 men and 81 guns. Total German casualties, once all stragglers reported, were six dead and 30 wounded. Sprsser basked in an order of the day praising the WGB's "resolute leader" and his "courageous officers" for playing the principal role in the collapse of Italian defenses across the sector. The collapse itself remains a point of controversy. Popular histories regularly ascribe it to low morale in the Italian units following the spread of defeatism among the soldiers, though that is an egregious oversimplification. Italy's war to date, characterized by headdown frontal attacks and draconian punishments for failure, did little to prepare its officers for the situations they faced in October 1917. For example, tbe Italian high command had rushed the garrison of Matajur into the

MILITARY HISTORY

line with no time to reconnoiter the position or evaluate its defenses. Anxiety and uncertainty are war's most contagious diseases. Small wonder that substantial numbers of Italians, losing confidence in the army's culture of competence, straggled to the rear from exhaustion and confusion. The WGB pressed forward. On November 9-10 Rommel replicated at the town of Longarone his downhill dash of October, this time taking 10,000 prisoners and 200 machine guns. But the Central Powers' offensive was running out of steam, as had each previous one. Their supply lines were overextended. Winter was coming. More important, the Italians were finding their feet. They were no longer the obliging enemy who left gaps for Rotnmel's patrols to discover and who surrendered to a waving handkerchief Sprsser, moreover, had reached a point where he took as given "the tested and brilliant Rommel would find a way to break through" no matter the

circumstances. A bloody nose at Monte Salarol on November 25 was a signal it was time to rest. By then Rommel, Sprsser and the WGB had achieved folkloric renown along the battle line. On December 13 Sprsser announced to the WGB that he and Rorntnel had each been awarded the German Pour le Mrite (aka "Blue Max"). Originally reserved for senior officers in recognition of major victories, the Blue Max was being increasingly awarded to deserving junior officers at afl levels. It recognized performance, not heroism, and two recipients in a single battalion was an unheard-of honor. When on December 18 the WGB's mail caught up, it included two small packages, each containing one of the coveted medalsnot exactly a formal award ceremony. But though the record is silent on the subject, it seems a reasonable assumption that the WGB's Christmas celebration was correspondingly enhanced.

job and cultivating. In fact, the promotion and transfer were routine. Rommel spent the war's final weeks as just another junior officer, moving file folders instead of combat teatns. He did lecture on his Italian experiences, though no one seemed particularly interested. But unlike many of his counterparts, Rommel survived the carnage of World War I to dwell on and draw lessons from his front-line years. His conclusions were basic but significant: Fmphasize surprise, speed and initiative; paralyze and demoralize the enemy; win the tactical battle as a necessary condition for operational and strategic success. Years later these principlesapplied in the context of internal-combustion engines, tracked vehicles and field radioswould place Rommel among history's most feared and respected tank commanders. But the man who ultimately became the "Desert Fox" learned his craft on foot in the rugged mountains of northern Italy, one bloody fight at a time. For further reading Dennis Showalter recommends his own Hitler's Panzers: The Lightning Attacks that Revolutionized Warfare, as well as Infantry Attacks, by Erwin Rommel; Rommel and Caporetto, by John Wilks and Eileen Wilks; and Futility Fnding in Disaster, by Gaetano V. Cavallaro.

he WGB was transferred to the Western Front, where it fought until the 1918 Armistice. Rommel eventually earned promotion to captain and was assigned to the staff of a rear-echelon corps headquarters. It would seetn appropriate had the duty been a recognition of his special talent, a talent worth placing in a safe

ONE CLEAR WINNER IN A MURKY WAR WAS THE NEW-AND OVERMATCHED-U.S. NAVY BYJOSEPHF. CALLO I ate on the afternoon of June 22, 1807, the 36-gun frigate USS Chesapeake cleared Virginia's Hampton Roads and entered international waters. Outbound for the Mediterranean, the vessel was provisioned for a long patrol and carrying passengers and their baggage, its decks cluttered and guns obstructed by unstowed equipment. Just off the coast of Norfolk, Chesapeake encountered the 50gun HMS Leopard, one of several British vessels blockading French warships that had sought shelter in American waters. Leopard's captain, Salisbury Pryce Humphreys, demanded permission to search Chesapeake for Royal Navy deserters he believed had joined the American frigate's crew. Commodore James Barron refused, and Humphreys opened fire on the unprepared U.S. vessel. After enduring 20 minutes of unanswered broadsides from Leopard which killed three Americans and wounded 18, including Barronthe frigate's captain struck his colors. A boarding party removed four seamen, one of whom the W i t h her main, m i z z e n and foremasts shot away, HMS Guerrire British hanged as a deserter. The U.S. Navy lies dead in the water and at the ultimately blamed Barron for the debacle. mercy of Captain Isaac Hull's USS He was court-martialed, convicted of negli- Constitution. The British vessel's gence and poor leadership and suspended defeat was a clear signal that the U.S. Navy, though outnumbered, from Navy service for five years. was a force to be reckoned with. MILITARY HISTORY

T^'fws

fr

Stephen Decatur As a veteran of the QuasiWar with France and the First Barbary War, he entered the War of 1812 as one of the Navy's best combat leaders, a fact he proved beyond doubt with his masterful action against HMS Macedonian. James Lawrence An experienced and highly capable naval officer, Lawrence had enjoyed several notable successes against the Royal Navy before he and his USS Chesapeake ran afoul of HMS Shannon off Boston Harbor on June 1, 1813. tsaac Hull His victory over the 38-gun HMS Guerrire in August 1812 provided America a huge morale boost, earned USS Constitution the nickname "Old Ironsides" and proved conclusively the U.S. Navy could outfight Britain's best. William Bainbridge In command of the battleproven "Old Ironsides," Bainbridge encountered HMS Java off Brazil on Dec. 29, 1812, and in a three-hour fightwhich left him with wounds to both legspounded the British ship into defeat. Oliver Hazard Perry His defeat of a Royal Navy squadron at the 1813 Battle of Lake Frie was among the most significant naval actions of the war, as it secured American control of the waterway and opened Canada to a potential U.S. attack. Thomas Macdonough A year after Perry's victory, Macdonough matched it with his decisive win on Lake Champlain. His victory helped foil the invasion of New York and stymied Britain's land claims during later treaty talks at Ghent.

While Barron's dismissal may have been a personal tragedy. Leopard's attack on his ship sparked outrage across America and was seen as a haughty assault on the national honor. London's grudging apology for the attack in November 1811 did little to assuage American public disgust with what it widely perceived as Britain's arrogance, and on June 18, 1812, the United States declared war. Neither America nor Great Britain was prepared for the subsequent conflict, and both sides would ultimately pay dearly in blood and treasure. Yet at war's end both would justly be able to claim victory he War of 1812 was a conflict neither belligerent government really wanted. Great Britain was militarily and economically overextended in its ongoing global conflict with France, and in the years since the American Revolution it had come to consider the United States an important trading partner. The Americans had fought a brief war of their own against France and were politically divided along regional lines over the question of war with Britain. But above all the United States was militarily unprepared for a shooting war against a nation that was a leading global power. Its unreadiness for war was particularly evident at sea. President James Madison's predecessor, Thomas Jefferson, had advocated a defensive course of action to counter Britain's aggressive foreign policy, implementing a policy of proactive diplomacy with a limited naval plan based on gunboats stationed in American ports. At the outbreak of the war Britain was the most powerful maritime nation in the world, with approximately 1,000 commissioned ships in the Royal Navy. It deployed more than 100 of those ships in the American theater, including seven ships of the line and 31 frigates. The entire U.S. Navy comprised just 18 warships, none larger than a frigate, and some largely irrelevant gunboats. On paper, at least, the outcome of a war at sea between the United States and Great Britain seemed a foregone conclusion.

Despite the obvious naval mismatch, some positive surprises for America emerged as the war unfolded. The first occurred on August 19, during a singleship fight between the 44-gun USS Constitution and the 38-gun HMS Guerrire.

o
CM

O OC

The American ship, comtnanded by Captain Isaac Hull, had a leg up in the weight of metal it could deliver. But Hull's opponent. Captain James Richard Dacres, could rely on seasoned gun crews to maintain a faster rate of fire. Hull gained the early advantage through more aggressive tactics and eventually shot away Guerriere's mizzenmast. With the British ship's maneuverability compromised, Hull then raked Guerrire several times. As both sides prepared boarders, Guerriere's main and foremast followed its mizzen over the side. The British ship was helpless, and Dacres struck his colors. Hull's victory was stunning. Two comparable ships had met, and the U.S. captain and crew had won a clear victory over their British opponents. It had been decades since a Royal Navy captain had been bested in a one-on-one struggle and surrendered his ship. But the outcome of the battle between Constitution and Guerrire proved more than mere good luck; two additional U.S. Navy victories followed in rapid succession. In late October the 44-gun USS United States, commanded by Captain Stephen Decatur, bested the 38-gun HMS Macedonian. And in December Constitution, under Commodore William Bainbridge, defeated the 38-gun HMS Java. What accounted for the American frigates' upset victories of over their Royal Navy opponents? First, the U.S. Navy was beginning to develop a new breed of commanders who could win in combat when on roughly equal terms with any opponent. Second, the new heavy frigates being designed and built in America were proving a breakthrough in vessel design. With seamanlike verbal economy, it was said the U.S. Navy's new frigates "could outfight any ship they couldn't outrun." The quick U.S. victories sent Britain a clear message that the warat least at seawas not going to be a walkover. The message for America was that its

MILITARY HISTORY

Navy now could, under equal circumstances, hold its own against the Royal Navy. That was a disturbing surprise in Britain and a significant psychological plus in America. The naval vision expressed by John Paul Jones more than three decades earlier had finally begun to gain real traction with Congress and the Atnerican public. In a letter to a friend in 1778 Jones had written about the nascent Navy: "Our marine [Navy) will rise as if by enchantment and become... the wonder and envy of the world." This vision of a navy anticipated far more than gunboats. The most far-reaching result of the American frigate victories was to shift the thinking in the United States about the importance of a blue-water navy. The fact that U.S. vessels had defeated warships of the vaunted Royal Navy encouraged those who believed that America's honor, as well as its economic and diplomatic future, were inextricably linked to the nations ability to deploy a powerful and capable navy. Tangible evidence of that shift in mindset was Congress'

WhJie thundering broadsides could quickly determine the victor in a naval battle, it was often an aggressive boarding action that carried the day. Here, Marines in USS Wasp'% rigging support the assault on HMS Reindeer. quick vote to fund six more frigates and four larger ships of the line. ncouraging events, for Britain, soon counterbalanced those U.S. Navy victories. The early score in naval actions between the U.S. Navy and Royal Navy wound up close to a draw, with five U.S. triumphs and four British victories. Great Britain was also able to successfully apply two significant elements of naval power against the United States: blockades and expeditionary raids. Thus, when the British Admiralty admonished Admiral Sir John Borlase Warren, commander in chief of the Royal Navy's North American Station, that "the naval force of the enemy should be quickly and completely disposed of," Warren responded with a

naval blockade and punitive raids along the U.S. Atlantic coast. To a degree Warren was able to check the U.S. Navy's newfound combat proficiency. The efficacy of the blockade was underscored by a battle on June 1, 1813, between Chesapeake, under Captain James Lawrence, and Captain Philip Broke's 38-gun HMS Shannon. Chesapeake had been bottled up in Boston, and its crew lacked training. When the U.S. frigate left port, it took Broke and his well-drilled crew only a quarter hour to pound Chesapeake into submission and fatally wound its captain. The British blockade^which initially targeted the Chesapeake Bay area and eventually expanded to the entire Atlantic coast^had the broader effect of crippling U.S. foreign trade. By 1814 U.S. merchant ship traffic was just 11 percent of what it had been before the war. The Royal Navy's punitive coastal raids made the blockade still more painful. The govemor of Connecticut, for instance, complained, "Serious depredations have been committed even

in our harbors and to such an extent that the usual communication through the [Long Island] Sound is almost wholly interrupted." Through such raids the British also sought to suppress the very active privateersessentially pirates acting under U.S. government auspiceswho had become an economic thorn in Britain's side. The most noteworthy of the raids was the British attack on Washington in mid-August 1814. A British force sailed up the Patuxent River and put ashore in Maryland, sent American defenders packing at Bladensburg and quickly fought its way through mostly militia defenses to Washington. There they set fire to the Capitol, the White House and other federal buildings. A classic application of expeditionary warfare, it emphasized speed and focused impact to achieve its objective. Within a month the British force that occupied Washington had withdrawn, but the point had been made: Fvery harbor on the U.S. Atlantic coast was vulnerable. he most significant actions of the war, in the view of many naval theorists, occurred not along the Atlantic, but on the conflict's northern front. Before the war American political leaders generally believed that a ground invasion of Canada would be the most efficient way to fight Great Britain. But U.S. ground campaigns in that theater were poorly led and mostly met with frustration. In fact, until the autumn of 1813 it was the British who enjoyed a string of successes on the war's northern front. An ill-conceived American ground attack on Montreal had failed, as had one on Niagara. And the British had seized the U.S. forts at Detroit and Mackinac. But the Battle of Lake Frie would turn the military tide in the north. On Sept. 10, 1813, Master Commandant Oliver Hazard Perry put control of the lake on the line just north of Put-in-Bay, Ohio, with a nine-ship squadron formed around the newly built 20-gun brigs USS Lawrence and USS Niagara. Opposing Perry was a force of six British ships led by the 19-

gun HMS Detroit and the 17-gun HMS Queen Charlotte. As the squadrons closed on one another. Perry pulled Lawrence out of the American formation and charged headon at the British linea tactic reminiscent of Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson at Trafalgar in 1805. For two hours and at point-blank range, Lawrence and the

When the smoke cleared, Macdonough had reinforced the lesson of Perry's Lake Erie victory: The U.S. Navy now had officers who could win fleet actions V
British ships poured heavy fire into one another untu Lawrence was a total wreck. Perry transferred hisflagto Niagara, reentered the fray and carried the day. After the action Perry sent a now-famous message to his military commander, Maj. Gen. William Henry Harrison: "We have met the enemy, and they are ours." Perry's victory put Lake Frie under effective U.S. control, dashing British hopes of establishing a buffer Indian state between the United States and Canada. A year later 31-year-old Master Commandant Thomas Macdonough won a

battle of comparable importance on Lake Champlain. British forces under Lt. Gen. Sir George Prvost had launched an invasion of the United States through the Lake Champlain region. Operating in close support of Brig. Gen. Alexander Macomb, the American general opposing Prvost, Macdonough's squadron fought from an anchored position between Cumberland Head and Plattsburgh, N.Y. Macdonough's flagship was the 26gun corvette USS Saratoga. Three other shipsthe 20-gun brig USS Eagle, the 17-gun schooner USS Ticonderoga and the 9-gun sloop USS Prebleformed the American line, with 10 gunboats in support. The British squadron comprised the 36-gun frigateand flagshipHMS Confiance, the 16-gun brig HMS Linnet, the 11-gun sloops HMS Chubb and HMS Finch, and a dozen gunboats. They approached frorn the north, with the intention of raking the American ships as they passed. The British were thwarted, however, by the strength of Macdonough's position and fickle winds. After more than two hours of withering exchanges, the British flagship, its commander dead, stnick its colors, and the other British ships followed suit. When the smoke cleared, Macdonough had reinforced the lesson of Perry's Lake Erie victory: The U.S. Navy now had officers who could win fleet actions as well as single-ship battles. The timing of the Lake Champlain victory was crucial. The United States and Britain had already begun peace negotiations in Ghent, then part of Holland. In their seminal work Sea Power: A Naval History, editors F.B Potter and Admiral Chester W. Nimitz summed up the strategic impact of Macdonough's victory:
Macdonough's victory and Macomb's stubborn resistance to heavy British attacks persuaded Prvost to retire to Canada for the winter As a consequence of his failure the British government restudied its position, accepted Wellington's estimate that the cost of launching a successful offensive outweighed the probable gain and modified instructions to its delegates at Ghent,

MILITARY HISTORY

paving the way for conclusion of peace before the end of the year.

ndeed, Britain and the United States signed the Treaty of Ghent within a few months of the Lake Champlain battle, ending the War of 1812. They returned prisoners and captured territory The treaty imposed neither indemnities nor any territorial boundary changes. Surprisingly, the treaty also did not address Britain's infringement of neutral rights in ocean commerce, nor did it call for any official British concessions regarding impressment, although the latter issue faded away after the war due to a reduction in the size of the Royal Navy America was free to continue pushing its boundaries farther into the Northwest. The war also enhanced U.S. stature internationally, while domestically Americans felt they had successfully stood up to Great Britain and particularly to the Royal Navy That feeling was enhanced by the decisive U.S. victory at the Battle of New Orleans, which unfolded before news of the war's end had reached the combatants. Louis Snirier, French foreign minister in Washington at the time, observed: "Finally, the war has given the Americans what they so essentially lacked a national character founded on a gloiy common to all." Part of that national character was an appreciation of the importance of both a blue-water navy and of the tradition of courage and professionalism established by the victories of Hull, Decatur, Bainbridge, Perry and Macdonough. Back across the Atlantic, the British exploited the cessation of hostilities to concentrate on building their mercantile and colonial power for the next century. Thus the War of 1812 can fairly be described as a long-range strategic victory for each sidea war that both sides won. (^
For further reading Joseph Callo recom-

Huzza Old Iron Sides

3.
TUBE OretamUh Peasinatr.

HE Consiitution's glory 1 Her crew so bold and brjve ! Are faiTi'd in brilliant story ! Our righti dtfeiid and save. Who true to every duty, For thsir couiiiry's honor fight ; VVhili- ashore, wealth, fame, and beauty. Reward them with delight. Ahoy ! brave bo\ s, superior ! Weigh anchornothing fear. Our enemy's inferior .' Then fight, far all that's dear. Wasn't Hull a Nelson ? tell me, With stern chase-guns and sweejis ; To " dear off"boys, and qilelt ye. While grim Britannia weeps ! By the noble Constuution, Wsj captured la Guerrire ; John Bull's complete confusion. Huzza ! boys^nothing fear. Ahoy ! my lads, superior ! Chaunt Hull's deserving praise, Yourenetny's inferior .' iluzza ! for better dayj !

T.

At the Madeira station. Two cruisers hove a >ight : Our Captain made'the motion. My boys ! 'tis time to fight ? Now let us prove with spirit, S And how Britannia's boys : S That Yankees make a merit, S That two to one are toys. \ Ahoy ! tny tars, superior ! y Our thunders shall proclaim^ \ Our enemy's inferior ! {j Huzza ! for Naval Fame.

We catne into an action. Two ships along side ride, i O u r bull dogs told by fraction, From honest Iron-side. i Our lad they cry'd with spirit : } We'll give you ballsby heart 1 t Shall prove to you the merit, I , Of Commodore Stewart. Ahoy ! niiy boys, superior ! Three cheer*give every man ; Our enemy's inferior ! We'll beat them two to one. After fifty minutes fighting. They b Jth " gave up the ship j " " Old Iron-side" was riding. Had scarcely lost a chip. While the sloops Levant, Cyane, In less than in an hour ; Acknowledg'd on the Main, Columbia's Naval Power ! Ahoy ! brave lads, superior f True honor now invites. Your enemy's inferior ! 1 " Free trnile and ssilors' rights.

t..

mends Sea Power: A Naval History, edited by E.B. Potter and Chester W. Nimitzi This People's Navy: The Making of American Sea Power, by Kenneth J. Hagan; and Mahan on Naval Warfare, edited by Allan Westcott.

Huzza ! for valiant Bainbritlge, Who on Brazilian coast ; The pride of AlhionJav hitch. The Constitution's second boast. Who after a smart beating, Gave up to her hrave foes ; For cooling off her heating. To the bottom snug she goes. Ahoy ' my boys, superior ! Pass round the flowing can. Your enemy' inferior ! A pri.Te-'-for every mrtti. E68

THE ONLY THING IRRESISTIBLE ABOUT THE WORLD WAR II FRENCH RESISTANCEWAS HOLLYWOOD'S ROMANTICIZATION OF THE SMALL, SECRET, DISORGANIZED MOVEMENT BY STEPHAN WILKINSON

Blame Ernest Hemingway. Ever since he wrote For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940), the popular image of the wartime partisan has been one of T-handles shoved down into detonator boxes, of bridges blowing and railway tracks pretzeling, of snipers taking out troops that stumble into their sights. That image has also shaped modern-day impressions of the

Erench Resistance, the multifaceted, misunderstood World War II movement that eventually coalesced among brave civilians after Germany steamrolled Erance in 1940. But the Hemingwayesque view of resistance in For Whom the Bell Tolls (set during the 1936-39 Spanish Civil War) bears little semblance to the real-life Erench Resistance. The truth, however, is hard to deter-

MILITARY HISTORY

Buttressed by heroic images of steely-eyed partisanssuch as the trio of Corsican Maquis fighters, opposite, waiting in ambush-and eye-catching posters lauding the importance of armed action against the occupying German forces, this page, the true efficacy and extent of the French Resistance has often been exaggerated.

FRENCH
HELPS THRO

SISTANCE

minewhat the Resistance was, what it accomplished, who its members were, how big and effective or small and ineffective it wasbecause the France of World War II had one large piece of dirty linen waving in the wind: Alone among the countries of Europe overrun by the Wehrmacht, France chose to collaborate actively with the enemy, and the French people became deeply ashamed of that choice as soon as the Allies liberated them. The country compensated for that shame by

nation of resisters. Anti-Nazi partisans in Yugoslavia, Poland and Greece were far more effective and constituted a substantially higher percentage of the population of each country. As Time described Marcel Ophul's Resistance-debunking 1969 documentary The Sorrow and the Pity, the film "tries to puncture the bourgeois myth or protectively askew memorythat allows France generally to act as if hardly any Frenchmen collaborated with the Germans."

peans, albeit ones in gray Wehrmacht and black SS uniforms. After all, the thinking went, national socialism at least looked preferable to the communism that was already a powerful force among French workers. The Germans did their part by being polite to the French populace, giving up Mtro seats to old people, handing candy to children and spending freely at Paris cabarets, restaurants and couturiers. Some Frenchmen went so far as to fight on the German side: more than 7,000 Frenchmen volunteered for the Wehrmacht and eventually fonned the Charlemagne Division, which fought on the Eastern Front and in Berlin.

While France's relatively quick capitulation undoubtedly prompted many citizens to resist the German occupation in ways both violent and passive, others were happy to fraternize-and even openly collaboratewith troops of the victorious Wehrmacht. sometimes exaggerating the accomplishments of those partisans who did propagandize, spy upon, sabotage and even openly fight the Germans.

he French, understandably, reacted [after liberation] to their ordeal by retreating into a myth," writes Ian Ousby in Occupation: The Ordeal of France, 1940-1944. "A myth of a people united in hostility to the Nazi occupiers, of a nation of rsistants." In truth France was far from a

Fully 90 percent of France's population either supported the collaborationist Vichy regime or were too frightened to have anything to do with the underground. Most civilians evidently no longer wanted to be part of any war, and many French soldiers lacked the will to continue the fight. German soldiers were stunned when some of the French they captured in June 1940 danced jigs and sang folksongs, delighted to be done with warfighting. A considerable number of French men and women were outright collaborationists, and those who weren't were content to simply coexist with their conquerors. To many, collaboration meant making the best of an awkward situation, sharing space (and sometimes beds) with fellow Euro-

o the French Resistance grew slowly. Paris and much of the rest of occupied France flew swastikaflagson every hotel and public building until the August 1944 liberation. By contrast, when the Germans invaded Greece and flew their garish banner from the Acropolis, resisters tore it down within days. Initially, at least, the French were far more interested in getting along with the Germans than in challenging them. The Resistance first revealed itself as underground publishers of antiNazi broadsides and mimeographed mini-newspapers. It was an offense that could get one arrested, jailed, tortured or even executed, so this was indeed resistance. Clandestine publishing also made good use of the talents of these early French partisans, for many were intellectuals and had no idea how to fire a gun. This remained a problem for the Resistance. The movement eventually comprised wellmeaning anti-Fascist activists, especially communists; a relatively small number of the bourgeoisie and intellectuals; the inevitable young thugs, malcontents and outcasts who gravitate toward the action; and a core of men and women who despised what the Germans had done to France. What the Resistance didn't have was military professionals; most of the French army had been captured and imprisoned1,540,000 men were in German captivity. A few had fled to

MILITARY HISTORY

In the months immediately following France's surrender, German troops could sightsee in Paris with little fear for their safety. But the Aug. 21,1941, shooting of a low-level German naval adjutant in a Mtro station heralded the beginning of violent resistance in France.

England to join Brig. Gen. Charles de Gaulle's fledgling Free French forces, but among those few remaining in France, guerrilla warfare was something they neither understood nor wanted any part of. So the Resistance was an amateur "army," ready and able to produce anti-Nazi propaganda and gather intelligence but not do battle. Small groups of Resistance fighters did harass and annoy the German occupiers, but whenever larger bands gathered to fight the occasional skirmish, Wehrmacht firepower, armor and air support quickly destroyed them. The Resistance initially had few weaponsobsolete World War I pistols, a few hunting rifles and shotgunsand even fewer people who knew how to use them. Nor was there any way to get more guns until the British began air-dropping weapons, ammunition, explosives and other supplies in 1943. he first violent act of armed resistance to the occupation of France is generally thought to have been the shooting of Alfons Moser, a low-level German naval adjutant, in the Paris Mtro on Aug. 21, 1941. The shooter was Pierre Georges, a communist. The Parti Communiste Franais was at the core of much of the early Resistance movement. Experienced agitators, skilled at organizing strikes and rabble-rousing, the communists gravitated toward the Resistance, especially after Adolf Hitler broke his nonaggression pact with the Soviet Union and attacked on the Fastern Front on June 22, 1941. At that point the communist resisters took it upon themselves to commit as much mayhem as possible, particularly in metropolitan areas, and force the Germans to deploy additional troops against them, thus diverting soldiers from service in war zones." Jews were another major group of resisters, for obvious reasons. Accounting for just 1 percent of the population in an infamously anti-Semitic country, they were said to comprise 15 to 20 percent of its Resistance. The Vichy government had handed over to the

Germans all foreign Jews who had fled to France as refugees, most of whom died in concentration camps and forced labor. It went even further in its 1940 Statute on Jews, denaturalizing several thousand French-born Jews and then rounding them up for deportation to concentration camps. The murder on the Mtro elicited from the Germans a brutal but effective response: reprisal executions. For every German killed by the Resistance, the Nazis would kill dozens, even hun-

i What the Resistance didn't have was military professionals; most of the French army had been captured and imprisoned 1,540,000 men were in German captivity f

dreds, of civilians. At first the Germans chose victims from among existing prisonerscommunists, anarchists, GauUists and other categories of offenders. Eventually, however, they became less discriminating about whom they shot or hanged. In such reprisals the Germans killed an estimated 30,000 innocent French men and women by the time of the liberation. Resisters ultimately had as much to fear from countrymen-tumed-informants as they did from the Nazis.

he most valuable work the French Resistance did was to provide, for the British and later the Americans, pre-invasion intelligence about German troop move-

ments and coastal defenses, as well as accurate maps and photos to be used by D-Day planners. After the war. Supreme Allied Commander in Europe General Dwight D. Eisenhower grandly estimated the French Resistance had been worth "an extra six divisions." It was a rare bit of Eisenhower hyperbole likely foisted upon him by de Gaulle, but Ike certainly never meant the resisters were the equal of 90,000 fully armed and trained troops. It was the intelligence they provided he felt was priceless. Some of the intel made its way to England in the hands of British agents, picked up at night in pastures and fields by slow, black-painted Westland Lysanders of the Royal Air Force. Much more was transmitted by radio. Given the diligence with which the Geheime Staatspolizei, or Gestapo, sought to ferret them out. Resistance radio operators were reputed to have an average life expectancy of just six months. They weren't particularly skillful amateurs, and their radios were bulky, hard-to-hide units. Mobile German radio direction finders could triangulate their positions as the French made their slow transmissions, virtually ensuring their capture. The British and Americans dismissed much of the Resistance intelligence, however, as amateurish, useless or just plain wrong. "As late as the first months of 1943," wrote historian Douglas Porch in his thorough book The French Secret Services, "40 percent of Resistance broadcasts were on frequencies which only the Germans were capable of listening to." In England, de Gaulle, who had controversially and single-handedly established the Free French government in exile, claimed credit for instigating the Resistance, but that was a considerable exaggeration. In a June 1940 BBC speech broadcast to France, de Gaulle had urged "resistance," but what he clearly meant was for ablebodied Frenchmen to make their way to England to join the Free French army to resist the Germans. Homegrown resistance, especially not under his command, was not his intent.

MILITARY HISTORY

Allied airdrops of weapons, explosives and advisers allowed the Resistance to expand its activities. A favorite tactic was to conceal timed or pressure-triggered charges beneath raiiroad tracks, right, to disrupt-albeit temporarily-German supply lines, above. A measure of enmity also existed between the Free French and the Resistance. Frenchmen who made their way to England often discounted resisters as those who had cravenly "stayed behind," while the resisters considered the expatriates Frenchmen who had "fled to safety." Few understood or respected the other's motive. Regardless, few early resisters ever heard the de Gaulle speech. Entirely separate cells and cadres formed spontaneously among such disparate groups as Paris museum curators and angry caf esthetes. They initially served as propagandists, intelligence gatherers and couriers to return downed Allied airmen to England. The latter network comprised safe houses and trekking guides who would deliver the downed airmen to Allied submarines off French

beaches or to safety in neutral Spain and Portugal. While some Resistance mythologizers have compared this network to the 19th century Underground Railroad, others say it bore more similarities to the "coyotes" who today prey on ille-

gal immigrants, as many ol the passeurs who guided the escapees over the Pyrenees were well paid for their work. Some collected fees twiceonce from their clients and again from the Germans to whom they turned over the airmen. The Resistance also sometimes

Resistance groups in remote areas (above, in the French Alps) were often more effective than their urban counterparts. The liberation brought retribution for enemy collaborators: Female fraternizers, left, endured public ridicule, while men often faced execution.

and useful. These weren't Parisian cafesitters or underground newspaper editors but rough-hewn, would-be saboteurs and fighters, and they became the Hemingwayesque public image of the Resistancethose cinematic guys in berets with Sten guns slung from their shoulders and Gauloises drooping from their lips. charged fees for its intelligence, saying "the cause" needed the money. hatever its initial shortcomings, the Resistance was substantially strengthened when in early 1943 the collaborationist Vichy government made a fateful concession to the Germansagreeing to the Service du travail obligatoire (STO), new work rules requiring the forced labor in Germany of virtually all able-bodied Frenchmen. Almost immediately, thousands of young menespecially in the southfled to the countryside, living in the scrubland that covered much of the south. They called themselves the Maquis, a word that loosely translates to "the bush." Resistance leaders soon realized these maquisards were not only numerous but desperate, brave, trainable

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he Resistance came to maturity in the months just before and after the June 1944 Allied invasion of Normandy. The intelligence, maps, photos and reports they sent to England were helpful to invasion planners and would have been even more useful had the Allies fully trusted the resisters. There had always been a strong undercurrent of doubt, particularly among the Americans, regarding the

MILITARY HISTORY

chine-gunned convoys of sinister, veracity of the intel the amateurs proGestapo-stuffed Citroens or sent movided. Despite Ike's "extra six divitorcycles of the Feldpolizei and their sions" valuation of the Resistance, his sidecar passengers careening into Supreme Headquarters Allied Expediditches along lonely French roads," tionary Force wouldn't even provide wrote Porch in The French Secret Servde Gaulle with the D-Day date, a snub ices. "So powerful was the Resistance the French commander never forgave. myth, so important did it become to But for the first time, the Resistance French self-esteem, that only graduhad planned specific, well-coordinated ally, and not without controversy, have sabotage campaigns against railroads, historians been able to assess its size power networks, highways, fuel and and significance." , ammunition depots, command centers and communications lines to aid the invasion they knew was inevitable. The Resistance reportedly destroyed 1,800 railway targets in the months before and after the invasion, versus 2,400 hit by Allied bombers. The resisters also learned they didn't even ling, need explosives and the accompanying danger. They simply removed the bolts the inflated holding track lengths together. Almythology that ihough the Hollywood image is one of vast derailments, with entire trains and today surrounds their cargoes tumbling down mounthe French tainsides, such sabotage was more annoying than disruptive to the Germans, Resistance only who usually made repairs and resumed profanes the service within hours. With the August 1944 Liberation memory of those of Paris, spearheaded by General Philwho really did ippe Leclerc and his Free French 2nd Armored Division, the work of the serve bravely f Resistance was essentially finished, yet it also augured its darkest hour: Resisters were not the only citizens to indulge in the orgy of lynchings and Citizen resistance works well. Porch svnnmary executions that followed the points out, when a populace is deeply liberation, but many were enthusiastic committed to the cause. But in France, participants. Accustomed to being "a handful of German police backed a law unto themselves, resisters and by Vichy authorities and the ruthless others took out their fury on everyreprisals of the Wehrmacht and SS were body from acknowledged collaboraenough to keep the population actorsparticularly women who had ceptably docile until the very eve of slept with Germansto innocents on D-Day and beyond." the vwong end of an informant neighbor's grudge. This lawless, post-liberao, was the French Resistance tion purge was called l'puration lgale effective? Perhaps, in some ("the legal purification"). Some 10,000 places at some times, but its suspected collaborators were sentenced value was often grossly exaggerated. to death, though officials carried out The Resistance, for example, claimed fewer than 800 executions. it had killed 6,000 members of the vicious Das Reich Division. British "In countless postwar films and historian Max Hastings, however, exnovels, shadowy agents whispered inamined the unit's records for his book formation vital to the war effort, while Das Reich: The March of the Second SS resisters intrepidly derailed trains, ma-

Panzer Division Through France, June 1944 and concluded the French were responsible for the death of approximately 35 soldiers out of the division's 15,000. The French have long boasted the Resistance so harried that division that it took the Germans more than three weeks to move from Strasbourg to Caen after the Normandy Invasion, normally a threeday slog for an armored division. The truth, however, was that the German unit had been ordered to move deliberately and pulverize the Maquis in the region through which it passed, which it did. Such mythmaking abounds in French, British and American postwar accounts. Resistance records claim that ultimately there were 400,000 resisters. But official French government numbers say 220,000, while Porch's research shows 75,000. The truth may never be known. Among the most caustic comments on the Resistance was uttered by German Rcichministcr for Armaments and War Production Albert Speer. When asked by British economic historian Alan Milward to comment upon the effectiveness of the Resistance in hampering German wartime efforts, Speer responded, "What French Resistance?" And when General Alfred Jodl, operadons chief of the German Armed Forces High Command, in November 1943 outlined for Heinrich Himmler the military situation on the Western Front, the only guerrilla group Jodl saw fit to mention was the Yugoslav partisans. To Jodl, the French Resistance was irrelevant. Still, for those of us who have never experienced enemy occupation or illequipped, marginal guerrilla warfare criticism comes too easily in retrospect. If anything, the inflated mythology that today surrounds the French Resistance only profanes the memory of those who really did serve bravely. (^ For further reading Stephan Wilkinson recommends France: The Dark Years, 1940-1944, by Julian Jackson, and Occupation: The Ordeal of France, 19401944, by Ian Ousby.

ITHWAR
FAMOUS FOR HIS KNIGHTS AND PIRATES, HOWARD PYLE ALSO TOOK INSPIRATION FROM AMERICA'S FIGHT FOR INDEPENDENCE Delaware-born illustrator and author Howard Pyle (18531911) was fascinated from an early age by stories of buccaneers, cowboys and knights, and his widely acknowledged status as the father of American graphic illustration I is due in large part to the enduring popularity of
such works as The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood and Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates.

his Civil War mural "Battle of Nashville") was prolific: Between 1877 and 1909 he rendered 88 illustrations of Colonial and Revolutionary War subjects, most of them for magazines. "Thomas Jefferson Writing the Declaration of Independence," opposite, ran in the March 1898 Scribner's Magazine.

But Pylewhose career included assignments for such illustrated magazines as Scrihner's, Collier's and Harper's Weeklywas also fascinated by American H- history. He was particularly interested in the events leading up to, and conduct of, the Revolutionary War, and his illustrations for other authors' books ; and articles on the birth of the United States are ug his most accomplished and popular works. As with all the subjects to which he turned his brush, Pyle sought to depict as accurately as possible the events and those who participated in them. He carefully researched tactics and uniforms, terrain and weaponry; but he was no mere technical illustrator, for he also sought to infuse his works with an overarching sense of both the participants' humanity and the import of their actions. As teacher and mentor Pyle imbued younger artistsincluding N.C. Wyeth^with his love of chivalry, adventure and heroic art. Just as important, he passed on his love for Amer

''.i

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Common, April 19,1775," top, to illustrate the 12-part series "The Story of the Revolution," which ran In Scribner's Magazine in 1898.

Pyle's "Battle of Bunker Hill, June 17,1775," above, depicts the second British advance on American positions atop Breed's Hill.

on Makers," op e2,1906,issue ,. It is the only one of Pyle's Revolutionary War images not created for a specific article.

HISTORY

Induded fn "The Story of tfie Revol "The Attack Upon the Chew House," top, depicts Americans trying to dislodge British troops from a private home in Germantown, Pa.

In another Illustration for the Scribner's series, "The Retreat Through the Jerseys," above, George Washington and his men fall back from New York in the final days of 1776.

ey Scrambled Up the Parapet an Went Over the Top, Pell Mell, Upon the British," opposite, illustrated the Battle of Yorktown for a book published in 1899.

> 1 .'.

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To t^e surviving doughboy, the cry seemed like a deatk knell. Only aiew'^ of them rerhained, scattered in the cellars of half-ruified hoiis&s-and stryng behind a batte.red stor^e wall that spanned the northern edge of th villageV/h^y' frazzled and lungs wracked by gas, they slumped at their postsrseemingly^ than alive. They had long since used up th:e^''gre^i*a<les. GermarP^t.ilety'h'g. knocked out -their only machine gun< Their-Ti^g^inmtiition was runiTH'6a. And they were trapped. Jc - ""^ "^^ ^ The doughboys occupied the village of iismette, on the north bank^ot FranceV' Vesle River. German troops occupied the steep hillsides that dominated fhb^iUage to the north, east and west. To the south the debris-choked river flowed 45 feet v^de. and 15 deep. A man could swim it if he didn't mind slithering across submergedx coils of barbed wire and risking German machine-gun fire. Otherwise, the only way across was a shattered stpne footbridge that barely linked one bank to the other. Clambering over the bridge was a slow businessimpossible in daylight, due to enemy mortars and machine guns, and risky at night.
y 3 An exploding phosphorous

For the past two hours the Germans had bombarded Fismette round silhouettes a heimeted with every gun in their arsenal. Now dawn had broken, and American doughboy o f the
r1 . J 1 1 1 1 1 n . 28th Division at Fismette,

German observers stationed on the hills above or flying in planes overhead would watch the Americans' every movement for at least the next 12 hours" It was at this momentwhen the doughboys' situation seemed impossibly desperatethe RY HISTORY

France, in August 1918.The French-ordered attack failed, "P^f^ecausedefending

Germans controlled the

heights surrounding town. .

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Soissons

Fismette Fsmes

Reims Germans chose to attack. A ^^^^ battalion of elite stormtroopers armed with rifles, grenades and flamethrowers rushed the weak American line. As thick black smoke and flames spurted toward them, the ranking American officer. Major Alan Donnelly, could find only two words to say. "Hold on!" he shouted. ^^ v/e****" enemy-held salient backed by the Aisne River. On August 4 the Americans captured the town of Fismes on the south bank of the 'Vesle River. They had advanced 20 miles in just over a month and cleared out most of the German salient. Dgoutte nevertheless ordered the 28th Division to cross the Vesle, capture Fismette and hold it as a bridgehead. Muir and Bullard vehemently disagreed with Degoutte's orders. The bridgehead at Fismette was too vulnerable, they argued. Enemy-held hills overlooked it on all sides, and withdrawal under fire over the Vesle would be next to impossible. But Dgoutte would have none of it, and the American generals had to swallow their objections. Until the independent American Army that General John J. Pershing had sought for so long became a reality, they had no choice but to follow the Erenchman's orders. The Germans did not concede Fismette easily. On the night of August 6-7, troops of the 112th Infantry attacked

Belleau Wood

Chateau Thierry

Ihe Pennsylvania National Guard's 28th Division, the famed "Keystone," was among the best the Americans had in France in the summer of 1918. "They struck me as the best soldiers I had ever seen," said Brig. Gen. Dennis Nolan, commander of the division's 55th Infantry Brigade. "They were veterans, survivors who didn't seem to be oppressed by the death of other men." When the United States entered World War 1 in April 1917, the Pennsylvania National Guard's 109th, 110th, 111th and 112th infantry regiments formed the 7th Division. Later that year the unit was redesignated the 28th Division, assigned to the American Expeditionary Forces and shipped to France under the command of Maj. Gen. Charles H. Muir Though grouchy and inflexible. Muir knew what fighting meant. Serving as a sharpshooter during the Spanish-American War, he had received the Distinguished Service Cross for single-handedly killing the entire crew of a Spanish artillery piece. Muir's men affectionately called him "Uncle Charley" The Pennsylvanians entered combat for the flrst time in early July 1918, fighting as part of the American III Corps under Maj. Gen. Robert Lee Bullard. As no independent American Army in France yet existed, however, they were under the overall command of Maj. Gen. Jean Degoutte's French Sixth Army. Attacking northward from the Marne River about 50 miles east of Paris, they pushed into an

the village, but German resistance was too strong, and they had to withdraw. They tried again the following morning after American artillery had laid down a heavy barrage, and after a savage street fight they gained enough of a toehold to hang on. Eor the next 24 hours attacks, counterattacks and constant hand-to-hand fighting engulfed Fismette in an inferno of flame, smoke and noise. Lieutenant Hervey Allen, a literate young man from Pittsburgh who would later become a successful novelist, approached the riverbank opposite Fismette late on the evening of August 9. His company of the 111th Infantry had been fighting the Germans for six weeks and had not received rations for the past few days. Allen's thoughts were less than cheerful as he gazed across the Vesle at a churning cloud of smoke flickering with muzzle flashes and echoing with gunfire and explosions. Somewhere in there lay Fismette. The infantrymen crossed the stone bridge just after midnight. As they picked their way forward, they prayed enemy flares would not light up the sky and expose them to machine-gun flre. Fortunately, the sky remained dark. Rifle flre intensified, however, as the doughboys entered Fismette. The Germans still held much of the village, and contested the Americans house to house. Allen's captain led them

MILITARY HISTORY

through the village, dodging and sprinting, until they reached its northern edge just before dawn. Ahead, on a half-wooded upward slope cut by a small gully German machine guns barked at them furiously from the shelter of some trees. The captain ordered an attack but was shot dead as he led his men into the open. Allen and the others continued forward another 50 yards before retiring to the village with heavy losses. The few remaining officers in Allen's company held a hurried conference in an old dugout. Their standing orders were to attack and seize the hills above Fismette, but this seemed insane when even survival was problematic. One of them, they decided, had to return to headquarters in Fismes and seek further orders. Allen said he could swim, so the other officers chose him. Allen approached the riverbank by slithering down a muddy ditch, dragging his belly painfully over strands of barbed wire half-submerged in the mud. Small clouds of German mustard gas filled the ditch in places, and although he wore his mask, the gas burned his hands and other exposed patches of skin. Enemy shells fell nearby, stunning him into near-unconsciousness. Allen nevertheless made it to the river's edge, where he slipped into the water, discarding his gas mask and pistol. The lieutenant crossed the Vesle beneath the bridge, sometimes swimming and other times crawling over submerged barbed wire. As he reached the opposite bank, Allen's heart sank. American and German machine guns constandy raked the shore. There seemed no way forward and no way back. "I lay there in the river for a minute and gave up," he later remembered. "When you do that, something dies inside." After a moment, fortunately Allen noticed a small culvert that offered just enough cover for him to make his way into Fismes. A few minutes later he was racing down rubblestrewn streets toward the dugout serving as battalion headquarters. No signposts were necessaryall he had to do was follow the macabre trail of dead runners' corpses. He arrived at the dugout to the sight of an unexploded German shell wedged into the wall just over the entrance. Inside, Allen waded through a crowd of officers, wounded soldiers and malingerers to reach his battalion major. The major looked rather pleased with himself, for he had so far received only

positive reports of the fighting in Fismette. Allen, as the only eyewitness present, quickly disabused him of his optimism. His duty done, the lieutenant saluted, moved to a corner and lost consciousness. Several hours later an officer shook Allen awake and ordered him to guide a group of reinforcements back into Fismette. Night had fallen. Little remained of the bridge, and the surrounding area was strewn vnih shell holes, broken equip-

ment and pieces of men. A sentry warned that the slightest sound would provoke German machine guns to open fire on the bridge, and that several runners had been killed trying to cross. Waves of nausea engulfed Allen. For a moment his resolve wavered. "No more machine guns, no more!" he said to himself over and over. An American sniper, sheltering nearby and waiting to fire at German muzzle-flashes, hissed, "Don't stoop down, lieutenantthey are shooting low when they cut loose!" Allen sucked in his stomach and led his men carefully over the bridge. As they reached midspan, an enemy flare lit up the sky The doughboys stood frozen and prepared to die. "That," Allen later recalled, "was undoubtedly the most intense moment 1 ever knew." The flare seemed to float eternally, until it finally descended in a slow arc, sputtered and went out. Miraculously, the enemy had not fired a shot. The hours that followed sank only partially into Allen's memory, passing in a haze of sights, sounds and impressions. What he remembered most was weariness. "In that great time," he later wrote, "there was never any rest or let-up until the body was killed or it sank exhausted." Around him, the fighting continued without letup. I onths afterward many members of the regiment would receive medals in tribute to their bravery in 1 Fismette. Sergeant James I. Mestrovitch rescued his wounded company commander under fire on August 10 and carried him to safety. Mestrovitch would receive the Medal of Honor for this act of heroismbut posthumously, as he was killed in action on November 4. Lieutenant Bob Hoffman would return home with a Croix de guerre. He spent his days and nights in Fismette

scouting German positions and fighting off counterattacks. One morning Hoffman noticed German preparations for an attack and deployed his men in a block of ruined houses they had linked together with strongpoints and tunnels. The Americans had just taken their positions, poking their rifles through apertures in the crumbling stone walls, when German soldiers came rushing down the street. Hoffman never forgot the sight: "Clumpetyclump, they were going, with their high boots and huge coal-bucket helmets. I can see them coming yetbent over, rifle in one hand, potato-masher grenade in the other; husky, red-faced young fellows, their eyes almost popping out of their heads as they dashed down the street, necks red and perspiring." Hoffman had positioned his men well. As the 50 or so Germans advanced further into the village, they stumbled into preset kill zones and were shot down to a man. During the fighting, a young German popped into the doorway of the house where Hoffman had taken shelter and paused to catch his breath. Hoffman, standing in the semidarkness of the ruined house, hesitated for a split second as he decided what to doshoot the German, challenge him to fight or just stick a bayonet in him? He chose the last option and lunged forward. The surprised German died spitted on the lieutenant's bayonet. After three days of flghting the 111th seemed in no condition to withstand a determined enemy attack. But everyone knew one was coming. One evening Hoffman led a scouting party that captured a teenaged German soldier. The frightened boy told his captors that German shock troops had arrived and were preparing an all-out assault on Fismette. Hoffman crept out along the village outskirts in a search for evidence to corroborate the boy's story. He found Fismette strangely quiet. German artillery fired intermittently. Enemy snipers had gone dormant. American reinforcements had crossed the bridge without drawing fire. The only enemy activity seemed to be in the air. An unusual number of German planes were aloft, sputtering along slowlyand uncontestedabove the village. A sense of stillness and expectancy reinforced Hoffman's sense of foreboding. ack across the river in Fismes the 111th regimental , officers thought the tide had turned in their favor. Muir kept relaying messages from Dgoutte attack, advance, attackand as the German guns fell silent, it seemed the Frenchman's persistence had borne fruit. The time had come, they thought, to clear the Germans out of

Fismette and seize the surrounding heights. Hoffman and Allen received their orders early in the morning on August 11. They must rouse every available man and attack at dawn. Fismette must be cleared. If the Germans lied as expected, the doughboys must also drive them from the surrounding hills. "It was a frightful order, murder," thought Allen. He asked Major Donnelly, whose 3rd Battalion would spearhead the attack, to reconsider. Donnelly brushed him off. Orders, he repliedthey had no choice. The word "murder" also popped into Hoffman's mind as he watched Donnelly assemble his men, but he stayed quiet. Neither Allen nor Hoffman took part in the initial attackbut they would share in its aftermath. As the 3rd Battalion moved forward, the German artillery burst forth with sudden, frightful intensity. It was, indeed, murder. After a few minutes a handful of doughboysall that remained of the battalioncame staggering back down the hill, chased by German shells. Donnelly, who had sent them forward, watched in silence. Then the American artillery retaliated, and Fismette burst into flames. Allen took refuge in a cellar, surrounded by the dead, the dying and men driven half-mad by shell concussions. Hoffman, delirious with exhaustion, made a feeble attempt to care for the wounded before he too hunkered down in a basement. There was nothing more any of them could do. The German bombardment continued all the rest of that day and through the night. Toward dawn the shelling intensified. Then, as daylight broke, the German guns fell silent. "That," Allen knew, "meant only one thing." Hardly conscious of what he was doing, he ordered every man who

could stand out of the dugout and drove them toward a wall to face the enemy attack. "They are all dead up there along the wall, lieutenant," someone said. Hoffman, nearby and heading for the same wall, thought the same: "Everywhere 1 looked were dead men. There seemed to be no live men around to man the guns." "Here they come!" someone shouted. "Hold on!" Donnelly cried. Staring past the wall, Allen saw a sudden puff of smoke that rolled forward with a jet of yellow flame. Men curled up

MILITARY HISTORY

as smoke and flame rolled over them, and he dazedly thought of burning leaves. Another flash burst among some nearby houses. One of Allen's men stood up and whirled to face him, his body outlined against the flames. "Oh! My God!" he screamed, staring wide-eyed into the lieutenant's face. "Oh God!" Hoffman felt the same knot of terror in the pit of his stomach as he watched the flamethrowers move forward, borne by men with tanks on their backs, clutching hoses that sjU'wed liquid fire up to 50 yards. His body seemed to shrivel with the heat as banks of smoke wafted past him. For all their terror and exhaustion, the doughboys held. From behind the wall and along the village perimeter, they opened fire on the German stormtroopers. They concentrated on the men with flamethrowers. Their morale soared when a bullet punctured a flamethrower tank and a German erupted into flames. The other flamethrowers followed, one by one like roman candles, until all that remained was the smell of burning flesh. Rifle and grenade-toting German infantry surged forward regardless and managed to drive the doughboys from several houses. But the enemy had spent his energy. The American hne held. That night troops of the 109th and 112th regiments relieved the survivors. Hoffman's entire company had been reduced to just 32 men. Allen was in no condition to call roll for his company. Suffering from gas inhalation and burns, shrapnel wounds and shell shock, he was evacuated and spent the remainder of the war in a French hospital.

That night companies G and H of the 112th236 men in alltook up positions in Fismette. At dawn the following morning, August 27, German artillery laid down a barrage around the village, destroying the bridge over the Vesle and sealing off the beleaguered Americans. Twenty minutes later 1,000 German stormtroopers with machine guns, hand grenades and the dreaded flamethrowers descended on Fismette. The Pennsylvanians held on doggedly for several hours, inflicting severe casualties on the attackers. The Germans nevertheless broke through to the river at several points, separating the Americans into isolated pockets they then methodically destroyed. Just over 30 doughboys managed to swim across the Vesle to safety. Of the remainder, an estimated 75 were killed and 127 taken prisoner. Fismette was back in German hands. Bullard blamed Dgoutte for the disaster and wrote a letter to Pershing describing how the French general had countermanded Muir's orders to evacuate Fismette. Dgoutte tried to make amends by publicly praising the 28th Division for its gallantry. Pershing was not mollified. A few days later he confronted Bullard at headquarters. "Why did you not disobey the order given by General Dgoutte?" he demanded. Nothing like Fismette, Pershing resolved, must ever happen again. From then on the bulk of American forces in Europe would fight under American command. On August 10, even as Hervey Allen and Bob Hoffman fought for their lives in Fismette, the independent American First Army was formed. It would spearhead the American drive to victory that ended with the armistice on Nov. 11, 1918. ( For further reading Ed Lengel recommends Toward the Flame: A Memoir of World War I, by Hervey Allen, and Doughboy War; The American Expeditionary Force in World War I,
edited by James H. Hallas.

he tragedy of Fismette had yet to reach its denouement. The Americans cleared the village step by step, and on August 22 they declared it under control. The Germans continued to hold the heights, however, and were reinforcing their lines. By this time the defense of Fismette had reverted to the hands of the 112th Infantry. Its commander, Golonel George C. Rickards, knew the division was exhausted and that it lacked further reserves to meet a Gennan attack. On August 26, Rickards invited Bullard and Muir to his headquarters in Fismes. After a brief consultation, all three men agreed the Americans must abandon Fismette. Muir promptly issued an order to evacuate the "uselessly small bridgehead," and Bullard approved. Unfortunately, Bullard's chief of staff tattled to Dgoutte before Rickards could execute the order. Furious, Dgoutte countermanded Muir's order and ordered Bullard and Muir to hold Fismette at all costs.

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World's First Weapons Factory

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VENICE'S MARITIME POWER AROSE FROM A SHIPYARD THAT WITH MASS PRODUCTION TECHNIQUES, SUPERB ORGANIZATION I SKILLED WORKERS COULD LAUNCH TWO NEW SHIPS A DAY BY ROGER CROWLEY
Refined over centuries, the Venetian Arsenal system saw its ultimate test at the Battle of Lepanto on Oct. 7,1571, when the Venice-built galleys and galleasses of the Holy League defeated the once-invincible main fleet of the Ottoman Empire.

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n 1202, at the outset of the Fourth Crusade, the cityshipbuilding and the provision of military resources. The state of Venice accepted a contract from Italian count city-state now required all galleysthe oar-driven vessels Boniface of Montferrat to transport 4,500 knights, their used for war and for such important commercial ventures as horses, 9,000 squires and 20,000 foot soldiers to the the spice tradeto be built at the facility Holy Land in several hundred ships and to supply and The centralization of functions at the arsenal was revolufeed them for one year with the support of 50 of its own tionary. Maritime activities traditionally carried out in small war galleys. The ships were ready on time, and 30,000 workshops scattered around a port were now consolidated maritime specialistshalf of the adult population of Venice in a central location protected by high walls, making the arat the timemanned the fleet that sailed from its lagoon. senal both factory and fortress. It provided for all stages of While the Venetians had constructed the formidable fleet shipbuilding and repair, as well as the manufacture of sails, largely in private shipyards, Venice did boast a small naval falines and oars. It held forges to create nails, iron fittings and cility of 8 acres on drained marshland east of the city proper. weapons, furnaces for casting anchors and, later, cannon, and Called the arsenaldestorage facilities to hold rived from an Arabic term all the raw materials on meaning "house of manwhich these depended. ufacture"it was desThe arsenal was phystined to become the most ically and psychologically famous and feared milicentral to Venice. Townstary installation in the people experienced a medieval and early moddaily reminder of the ern world. By 1500 the "house of manufacture" shipyard/armory was the in the ringing of the Manerve center of the Venerangona (carpenter's bell) tian state and the largest atop the campanile in St. industrial complex in the Mark's Squaremarkworld. It employed proing the start and end duction methods of unof each working day. Its paralleled efficiency thai workers, the arsenalotti, long predated Henry were aristocrats among Ford, including assemworkingmen, enjoying bly lines and the use of standardized Originating in the early 13th century, the special privileges and direct contact with parts; vertical integration; just-in-time Venetian Arsenal was destined to become the centers of power. Supervising them delivery; time management; rigorous the most famous-and feared-military facility was a team of elected nobility who lived accounting; strict quality control; and in the medieval and early modern world. The on-site; their admiral, who directed the a specialized workforce. installation's main gate, the Porta Magna, actual shipbuilding, wore a scarlet robe Because of these innovationsas built about 1460, was suitably impressive. and held an honored place in ceremowell as advanced shipbuilding skills and nial processions; and the state jealously the unique cooperation of the Venetian peoplethe arseguarded the arsenal's greatest assetits master shipwrights. nal was able to produce incomparable warships with a speed and consistency unmatched by any rival. The arsenal en^ entrai to the Venetian Arsenal's production processes ' abled tiny Venice to dominate the Mediterranean and to were specialization and quality control. Each skill become, for a time, the richest place on earth. It was the iron : had its own guild and qualification procedures. The fist in Venice's velvet glove. principal guilds were those of the carpenters, who framed the ships; the caulkers, who planked out and sealed them; he Venetian Arsenal's origins are rooted in the city's and the oar makers. Minor guilds represented the makers unique situation. Stretching across dozens of small of masts, pulleys and gun carriages, the wood-carvers, sawislands, Venice was wholly dependent on the sea for yers, smiths and coopers. Even the rafters who poled felled trade and survival. Everything it required came by ship, and trees downriver to Venice formed a guild. its entire population participated in the maritime lifefrom The carpenters and caulkers underwent a rigorous apthe wealthiest noble merchant to the humblest artisan. prenticeship, starting as young as age 10 and stretching six Commercial rivalry and maritime war drove development to eight years; becoming a master depended on a practical of the arsenal itself. Within a century of the Fourth Cruexam taken before the lords of the arsenal. The care with sade the facility had quadrupled in size. In 1303 and 1325 which the state oversaw each stage of production was a relaborers added new basins, docks and slipways in an adjaflection of its deep respect for the sea. A ship, its crew and cent area of marsh, transforming the arsenal from a shipthousands of ducats of valuable merchandise could be lost repair and -storage facility into the state-managed center for through shoddy construction, so each team's work was the

MILITARY HISTORY

-4^
RSENAL ORGANIZATION .ie arsenal was laid out in logical and efficient plan tfiat would he the envy of any modern shipyard. The launch basin (at top in both plans at left) was surrounded by slipways and lumber storage areas, while the fitting-out basin (at bottom) was flanked by wori(shops providing such ancillary equipment as rope and cannon. The basins were connected to each other and to the open lagoon by a series of small canals.
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subject of continuous oversight. Inspectors checked work daily holding caulkers accountable for split seams, carpenters for snapped masts and rope spinners for weak lines. Poor quality was grounds for dismissal. Ironically, fueling this exacting labor was a continuous supply of wine, distributed to the workstations by a team of a dozen men six times a day. Arsenal workers consumed a prodigious 600,000 liters of wine a yearaccounting for

Large and heavily armed, though ponderous, the galieass was the battleship of its day. Developed from merchant galieys in about 1550, the gaiieass carried guns in its turretiike forecastle and along both sides of its hull and was one of the Venetian Arsenal's major products.

some 2 percent of the city-state's annual budget. By the 17th century, to the astonishment of visitors, wine was being dispensed from a fountain that could pump out 10 liters a minute, or more than 6,000 liters every shift. The arsenalotti worked up to 11 hours per day in summer and six in winter. The core workforce comprised some 2,000 skilled men, backed by emergency extra labor and an army of unskilled laborers and porters. Despite the reportedly harsh working conditions, the arsenalotti enjoyed exceptional privileges. They were more or less guaranteed employment for life and benefited from Europe's first pension system; no matter how old or infirm a man might be, he would be paid for just turning up. Nor was the arsenal solely the preserve of men. A workforce of perhaps 100 women cut, sewed and repaired canvas in the enormous sail lofts. The stars of the whole arsenal system were the master shipwrights, who laid down each galley's basic shapethe keel, frame and ribbing. With them rested the art and skill of shipbuilding. These men worked by eye and instinct rather than from drawn plans, and they passed down the secrets of their craft from father to son. Dynasties of these craftsmen continuously refined the Venetian war galley over

two centuries into the most feared attack vessel afloat. Light, narrow, fast and maneuverable, the Venetian model was built above all for closing speed under oarssome 7 knots with a well-greased hull at 26 strokes a minute. The key lay in the shaping of the hull and the positioning of rowing equipmentbenches, thole pins and rigging. Everything else, even seaworthiness, was secondary in the final attack. To gain ergonomie advantage, shipwrights designed the galley to ride low in the water; thus, it was a poor sailer in high seas, but in close combat it was superb. Venice handsomely rewarded its most talented shipbuilders, and competition among them was fierce. At the turn of the 15th century, the leading shipwrights were the Baxons, a Greek family. Anticipating the death of patriarch Theodoro Baxon, Venetian offlcials preserved some of his galleys as prototypes and then tried to poach his nephew Nicol Palopano from Rhodes. It took 17 years to tempt the latter to Venice, where he encountered fierce competition from homegrown master Bernardo di Bernardo. The state sent both men's galleys to the fleet for evaluation, but it was the sea that would decide the contest: In 1437 Venetian officials dismissed Bernardo after several of his merchant galleys foundered in a storm. Nicolo's designs prevailed. When he died, he passed his craft secrets to his son Giorgio. Succeeding him, in turn, were the Bressans, a Venetian family dynasty that dominated shipbuilding in the first half of the 16th century. The Bressans not only brought the war galley to a new level of perfection but also constructed innovative round ships with which to hunt pirates. I inute attention to detail and relentless sea trials gave Venetian ships their edge. The state's determiI nation to control and integrate all stages of production extended right down to the raw materials. Wood supply was a matter of state security, as the fleet required vast quantities of oak for the framework, larch and fir for masts, and beech for oars. The arsenal's lumber requirements were prodigiousa single mature beech tree, for example, produced just six of a war galley's complement of 180 thirty-foot oars. By the mid-15th century arsenal supervisors were managing Venice's mainland forests, mapping wood supply to the level of individual trees and branding valuable specimens for state use. Carpenters visited the forests in person to select suitable trees; others ensured a supply of crooked oaks for keels and ribbing was available by training branches into the desired shape.

MILITARY HISTORY

1 1 i i

Sultan Mehmcd II, the Conqueror," arSimilar attention was paid to rope. The Venetian Arsenal used a highly efficient rived in the Aegean with an enormous The best quality hemp came from Bo- -though apparently wine-fueled-assembly fleet and took one of the Venetian repubprocess in which vessel hulls constructed logna, but it was expensive and under by shipwrights, above, moved steadily down lic's most valued naval bases at Negrothe control of occasionally hostile Flothe line while such specialists as oar makers, ponte, near Attica. rence. So in 1453 Venice hired an extop, added their respective components. The sense of calamity sparked by Otpert Bolognese hemp grower at a hefty toman conquest plunged the Venetian salary, drained suitable land and trained Arsenal into a new cycle of growth and innovation. In 1473 the local peasantry in hemp cultivation. the state began an ambitious expansion of the facility When Venice was ahead of the curve in keeping a permanent it was completed, two and a half miles of 50-foot-high galley fleet at sea in the 14th and 15th centuries. Its peaceblind brick walls, topped by battlements, enclosed 60 acres time active fleet was as small as 10 vessels, swelling to 25 of basins, covered hangars, workshops, supply depots and or 30 in times of war, but its maritime dominance was lumber yards. The arsenal became the nerve center of a vast largely unchallenged. All this changed with the 1453 Fall war machine that consumed 10 percent of state revenue. Surof Constantinople, which made Venice the frontline state mounting the ornate new gateway was a grim lion; though in Europe's ongoing confrontation with the Ottoman Venetian lions often held an open Bible, proffering peace. Empire. The wakeup call came in the summer of 1470 when

this one's book was firmly closed. The message was clear: The arsenal was ready for war Visitors to this new facility were staggered by its size and the concentration of industrial activity When Milanese prelate and diplomat Pietro Casla visited the arsenal in 1494, he observed in the munitions store "covered and uncovered cuirasses, swords... crossbows, bows, large and small arrows, headpieces, arquebuses and other artillery." In one of the vast sheds used to store galleys he noted 20 compartments, holding "one galley only, but a large one, in each compartment." In his journal, he further described the shipbuilding operations:
in one part of the arsenal there was a great crowd of masters and workmen who do nothing but build galleys or other ships of every kind. ...In one great covered place there are 12 masters, each one with his own workmen and his forge apart; and they labor continually, making anchors and every other kind of ironwork necessary for the galleys and other ships. There seems to be there all the

iron that could be dug out of all the mountains of the world. Then there is a large and spacious room where there are many women who do nothing but make sails... [and] a most beautiful contrivancefor lifting any large galley or other ship out of the water.

Casla also saw the Tana, the hemp cable-making factory, a narrow hall 1,000 feet long, "so long that I could hardly see from one end to the other" Visitors also toured the gunpowder mills (turned by horses), the saltpeter stores and the giant bombards. The immense production units and the sense of immaculate order impressed. It looked like a vision of the industrial future. And indeed it was. The concentration of combustible materials and gunpowder within the arsenaland the fear of sabotagealso required tight security Night watchmen continuously patrolled the battlements, calling out to each other on the hour Failure to respond could lead to instant dismissal. The fear of disaster was well founded. In March 1509, for example, Venetian historian Marin Saudo was attending a session of

MILITAP

STORY

the Senate several hundred yards away when an explosion rocked the building: "Two huge blasts of cannon and powder exploded into the air," he later wrote, "so that the houses and the ducal palace and the stars in the sky shook." Saudo ran to the arsenal, where he witnessed terrible scenes. "I encountered the many bodies pulled from the ruins, some burned, some mangled, some without a head, without an arm, some half-crazy, unable to speak, with faces like Saracens, blackened by the fire, who were being carried out on planks." One of the arsenal's most highly regarded shipwrights was killed in the blast, which ignited when a worker sealing a cask with a hammer and nail sparked the powder.

The galleys and galleasses built in the Venetian Arsenal in the 16th century were such icons of military power and cultural pride that they even popped up in depictions of far earlier historical events, such as this painting ceiehrating Venice's 1380 victory over Genoa at Chioggia; the city walls are accurately rendered, hut the vessels are too "modern." ing the great figures of the day. W^hen Leonardo da Vinci came to Venice, the arsenal may well have experimented with his designs, including floating gun batteries on the river Po. A century later its shipwrights sought Galileo's help to improve the mechanical efficiency of oars. The underlying issue was how to adapt their galleys to the new conditions of gunpowder warfare. The Venetians had observed how round ships, carrying cannon, could be a formidable presence in battle but were extremely difficult to combine with oared galleys. How to build galleys that could function as floating gun platforms and yet still move at reasonable speed? In 1525 the lords of the arsenal commissioned an experimental ship from another scientific mind. Vettor Fausto was

he unrelenting pressure of the Ottoman menace, with its seemingly inexhaustible manpower and natural resources, forced the Venetian Arsenal into a furious half century of technical and organizational innovation. The facility ultimately became a practical laboratory of mechanical engineering and the science of materials, attract-

a mathematician and professor of classical languages with each ship toward the lagoon past a line of warehouses, porters no practical shipbuilding experience. He proposed to use would pass out their respective fittings. Spanish traveler Pero mechanical theory to create a heavy galley as fast as any light Tafur witnessed a squadron of galleys being prepared in this one by employing flve oars to a bench, rather than the usual way as early as 1436. One by one the hulls rolled into the basin, three. The experimental quinquereme was duly built and where teams of carpenters fltted the rudders and masts. Tafur successfully tested, but it ultimately proved too expensive then watched as each galley passed down the assembly line: to build and too hazardous to its crewmen. About 1550 the shipwrights tried another solution: transOn one side are windows opening out of the houses of the arseforming merchant galleys into heavily armed oared gallenal, and the same on the other side, and out came a galley towed asses (think precursor of USS Monitor), with a forward by a boat, and from the windows they handed out to thanfrom wooden gun turret and cannon along its sides. Extremely one the cordage, from another the bread, from another the arms ponderous under oars, the galleass nevertheless offered the and from another the ballistas and mortarsand so from all potential of a heavier punch. sides everything that was required. And when the The arms race also raised the arsenal to a new galley had reached the end of the street, all the men repitch of efficiency, as administrators coordinated quired were on board, together with the complement the storage of raw materials and introduced scruofoavs. and she was fully equipped from end to end. pulous accounting procedures and strict In this manner there came out 10 galleys, time-keeping measures (men who arfully armed, between the hours of 3 and 9. rived late, for instance, weren't paid). 1 know not how to describe what I saw The shipwrights further standardized there, whether in the manner of its congalley designs, enabling faster construcstruction or in the management of the tion in larger batches by specialist teams. workpeople, and I do not think there is In 1537-38 the arsenal rolled out 50 anythingfiner in the world. hulls in just 10 months, an astonishing production rate. Meanwhile, interIhe speed, efficiency, innovation changeable rudders, rigging and deck and quality of the Venetian Arsefurniture replaced the one-off creations nal system saw its ultimate test for action, rapidly of individual shipwrights. The arsenal after the Ottoman invasion of Cyprus. also rethought the storage of fittings and When war broke out in 1570, the emercaulking and flxtures, setting aside a separate waregency fleet of 100 galleys was at sea in greasing the house for each item and aligning the just 50 days. production stages in something apA comparison of Venice's speedy moships before proaching a linear assembly line. bilization with the far slower performWith these systems in place, the arseance of its Spanish allies underlined just nal moved to a just-in-time, prefabricated how revolutionary the Venetian assemproduction system. Rather than keep a bly line was. Venice waited many months fleet in the water against the possibility of for the Barcelona arsenal to prepare its war, the arsenal kept a ready supply of planked and decked ships, a process the Venetian ambassador watched with but uncaulked and unmasted hulls in the galley sheds. Each mounting fury "I see," he wrote "that, where naval warfare hull was numbered, and its respective partsmast, rigging, is concerned, every tiny detail takes the longest time and rowing benches, hand weapons, cannons, flags, anchors prevents voyages, because not having oars or sails ready, were separately stored and tagged with the same number. or having sufficient quantities of ovens to bake biscuits, or This systematic counting, costing, storage and organithe lack of 14 trees for masts, on many occasions holds up zation of a galley's requisite parts was critical to the system, on end the progress of the fleet." which drew increasingly on a hierarchy of sub-managers Venice's centuries of accumulated skill came to fruition and gang bosses. At any one time the arsenal might be stockthe following year at the decisive Battle of Lepanto. On piling, each in its own warehouse, 5,000 benches and braces, Oct. 7, 1571, the innovative Venetian galleasses first amazed 15,000 oars, 300 sails, 100 masts and countless rudders, arms, the Ottoman admiral, then ripped holes in his front line; pitch, cables and ironwork. The Venetians, bean counters to the light galleys on the left wing spun on their axes, pinned their flngertips, were masters of Inventory; the gold standard the Ottoman right against the Greek shore and obliterated it. was to have 100 galleys dry-stored in reserve. Lepanto was a victory manufactured in large part in When war broke out, the arsenal would ready its emerVenice's forge of war. (^ gency fleet for action, rapidly caulking and greasing the ships before sending them down slipways kept perpetually clear. The Forfurther reading Roger Crowley recommends Venetian Ships final fitting of the ships was dramatic and very rapid. Workand Shipbuilders of the Renaissance, by Frederic Chapin Lane, ers raised and rigged the masts, and as tow vessels pulled and Shipbuilders of the Venetian Arsenal, by Robert C. Davis.

r broke out, the arsenal would ready its emergency fleet

sending them down slipways f

MILITARY HISTORY

Reviews
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A Matter of Honor and Hubris?

own. In Sparta's view its premier rank among other Greek city-states was not only its just due, but also the key to holding together its alliances For rnore than a generation and maintaining its grip on Peloponnesian War studies power in the Peloponnesus. have been an educational Maintaining its rank among staple for diplomats and the other Greek city-states soldiers alike. Readers of required the humbling of AthThucydides' account of the ens. Accordingly, Athens' re"Great War of the Greeks" fusal to submit to even the have discovered in this three- most meaningless Spartan decade conflict many un- demand, and thereby admit canny parallels to the modern era. This was particu- its inferiority, brought on war. larly true during the Cold War, when many viewed Through this lens Lendon is the conflict between Athens and Sparta as a near- able to explain almost every perfect analogy for the American-Soviet standoff. major decision of the war as a Now, however, comes J.E Lendon, a professor of his- result of the cyclic interaction tory at the University of Virginia, to inform us that of tim, hybris and revenge much of what we thought we knew about the Pelo- reducing strategic planning to a minor concern. ponnesian War is wrong. Remarkably, Lendon's reviIn Song of Wrath Lendon presents a dramatically new construct of the war. Gone are many of the ele- sionist analysis works, for it ments underpinning the realist view of the world. Re- explains many of the conflict's seemingly senseless military placing them is a new em- and the "fear that this caused decisions and operations that phasis on how such concepts in Sparta." Rather, he argues have long befuddled historias honor and revenge drove it was Athens' quest for status ans. Lendon may have gone a Greek decision making at all and additional tim through bit too far in his dismissal of levels of society and politics. repeated acts of hybris on active strategic thinking, but no student of the PeloponLendon presents Greek war- Sparta that led to the war. To support this radical in- nesian War can ignore his offare as less the result of calculated strategic thinking than terpretation, Lendon contends ten compelling arguments. just as important, Lendon's as a product of a never-end- that Sparta had successfully ing quest for tim ("honor"). dealt with rising Athenian clear writing style and abiliWhenever a city-state found power since the end of the ty to tell a story make Song of its time violated by some in- Greco-Persian Wars. More- Wrath an easy and often fassultan act oihybrisit had over, it had little to fear from cinating read. The narrative two choices: ignore it, thereby any further Athenian gains, is lively, informative and, best deeming the insulting city as their spheres of influence of all, provocative. Song of unworthy of notice, or seek did not overlap in any way Wrath is essential reading for revenge. Lendon dismisses that made Athens an existen- anyone who hopes to underThucydides' claim that the tial threat to Sparta. What did stand ancient Greek warfare war was inevitable due to the concern Sparta were Athens' as the Greeks themselves ungrowth of Athenian power claims to tim equal to Sparta's derstood it. This book is a Song of Wrath: The Peloponnesian War Begins, byJ.E. Lendon, Basic Books, 2010, $35
VALLEYS or DEATH

Valleys of Death, by Colonel William Richardson

This hauiuiiig memoir details the author's experiences as a young NCO thrown into battle against invading North Korean troops, his capture by the Chinese as he staged a last-ditch solo defense to allow his surviving men to escape, and his indomitable spirit in the face of brutal treatment as a prisoner of war

Racing the Sunrise,

byGlenWiiliford

Americas relatively quick comeback frotn the Dec. 7, 194L Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was due in large measure to the massive reinforcement of its Pacific outposts in the six months before the war and the resupply of the Philippines in 1942 little-known efforts fully examined in this wellresearched volume.

Reviews
Some, such as General good deal of time making Dwight D. Eisenhower and love as well as war while the former World War I flying bombs fell: Olson meticuace Lt. Col. Tommy Hitch- lously chronicles liaisons cock Jr., were gallant and sol- between Pamela Churchill dierly Others, like presidential (the PM's daughter-in-law) adviser Harry Hopkins and and Harriman, then Edward ambassador W. Averell Harri- R. Murrow, as well as beman, were deft political oper- tween Janet Murrow and anators. But none could match other journalist. Citizens of London: How Winant for sheer human deBritain Was Rescued in Us The author does a splendid cency, which made him a hero job of bringing these couraDarkest, Finest Hour, by to the Brits with whom he geous, suffering souls to light, Lynne Olson, Bond Street withstood the Nazi onslaught. and she supplements their Books, 2010, $34.95 His appointment as tale with the story The hero of this World War U.S. ambassador to of other nations' II history is not a cigar- Great Britain was a expats in London at chomping general or rhetor- stroke of brilliance. the time. The Poles ical prime minister but a A former Repubcome across as parNew England diplomat who lican governor of ticularly admirable was so tongue-tied that the New Hampshire, lot, and the book C I I I /T. N S most common reaction to Winant was as inincludes a fascihis speeches was sympathy. articulate as a politi- LONDON nating description Certainly Lynne Olson's pleas- cian could possibly of the invaluable ant new book Citizens of Lon- be. But his concern for the intelligence they provided don features a cast of grand poor was legendary, and he to the Allies. Americans who braved life in was at heart a New Dealer beOlson seemingly lacked London between 1939 and fore the term was invented. enough material for an entire 1945, but none is described Winant would walk the book on the expats in Lonin the Olympian proportions streets after bombings and don, however, as her book the author reserves for John console despondent Lon- often drifts into a recitation Gilbert Winant. doners. His public comments of the all-too-familiar tale of Olson's bookat least the were neverflowery,but they World War II. Drawing from best parts of itrelates the struck a chord with the great secondary sources and quottale of the Americans who en- and the masses in England, ing contemporary historians, dured danger and deprivation and he was viewed as the em- Olson simply tries too hard in London throughout the bodiment of American sup- to set her Londoners in the war while their compatriots port for Englandeven when context of the broader conlived in relative comfort across that support was lacking. (Ol- flict. Yet her prose sparkles the Atlantic. They withstood son wholly sympathizes with when she focuses on the band the blitz and tried to con- the British point of view that of London-based Americans vince the U.S. government to the United States was far too and their problematic, critdeclare war on Germany They slow in aiding its cousin ical and often affectionate brought some consolation to across the Atlantic.) deahngs with the Brits. the hard-pressed Londoners Winant's seeming sole morIt is just those exchanges, in their hour of need. And al shortcoming centered on especially the ones between many remained in London an affair he pursued with stiff-upper-lip London comthrough the buildup of U.S. Winston Churchill's daughter, moners and the cat's-gottroops in 1943-44 and even Sarah, while Mrs. Winant was his-tongue Winant, that will after the troops had shipped in the United States. In fact, linger with readers. out to Normandy. these bellicose Yanks spent a Peter Moreira must-read and propels Lendon into the front rank of the community of ancient warfare historians. Hopefully, he has increased his tim without anyone else seeing it as an act of hybris. Jim Lacey

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focuses on deniable operations during the C ok! War. The game follows CIA operative Alex Mason (voice-over by Sam Wortbington) and special agent Jason Hudson (Ed Harris) tbrougb events and locales from 1961-68. Assisting 1 belli is Viktor Reznov (Gary Oldman), formerly of tbe Red Army. Tbe first half interweaves fictional black ops witb actual events (e.g.. an assassination attempt on Cuban dictator Fidel Castro during tbe Bay of Pigs Invasion, participation ill tbe defense of Kbe Sanb. Soutb Vietnam, and tbe extraction of an informant from Hue during tbe Tet Offensive), witb cameos by sucb bistoricalfiguresas Robert McNatnara and Jolin H Kennedy. Tbe second balf is pure fantasy, bowever, as Mason's team tries to stop a rogue Soviet general from releasing a Nazi cbemical weapon on U.S. soil. In tbe end. Black Ops is an entertaining first-person sbooter, witb apologies to bistor)', wliich takes a backseat to tbe conspiracy-laden plot.

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MILITARY HISTORY

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Every issue since 1888 of National Geographic Magazine on your computer Perilous Fight: Anirica's Intrepid War with Britain on the High Seas, I HI 2-1815, by Stephen Budiansky, Knopf, 2011, $35 Among America's less glorious wars, 1812 was the most justified. Battling Napolon Bonaparte for a decade, Britain had been seizing U.S. ships and impressing their crews into its navy. Unlike America's bungled 1812 land campaign, its naval effort was led by competent, aggressive commanders who won spectacular victories. Veteran historian Budiansky seems to have read every official record, diary, letter and contemporary newspaper. The result is an authoritative, richly entertaining political history of the early republic centered on the Navy and culminating in the war. The founding fathers considered professional armed forces a threat to freedom, and by the end of George Washington's administration America possessed a minuscule Army, a few revenue cutters and no oceangoing warships. Matters improved in the mid-1790s in response to the seizure of American merchant vessels by Barbary pirates and the navy of revolutionary France, and by the end of John Adams' administration the U.S. Navy could deploy half a dozen frigates. Progress came to a halt under Thomas Jefferson, who abolished all internal taxes and slashed the Navy's budget. By 1805 America possessed a lone seaworthy frigate. ''' When the Napoleonic wars liealcd up, Britain announced a blockade of continental Europe and began seizing American ships trading with neutral countries, a violation of international law. This led to national outrage and indignant protests from the Jefferson administration but little change in its opposition to a strong Navy. When James Madison succeeded Jefferson he initially confined himself to fine-tuning the existing American trade embargo against Britain, but a growing conviction that diplo-

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Reviews
macy was hopelessplus pressure from congressional "war hawks" who arrived after the 1810 electionultimately convinced him that a credible Navy was key to America's economic and political survival. Budiansky delivers a lucid account of how that Navy developed and of the dynamics that shaped its size and composition. While the Royal Navy's chronic shortage of sailors meant its ships were often undermanned or crewed by sullen conscripts, American warships were populated largely by trained seamen put out of work by Britain's blockade of commercial shipping. American warships also tended to be sturdier, heavier and better armed, with better-trained gun crews. These factors helped produce several notable victories . K for the United States early in the naval war (Constitution over Guerrire, United States over Macedonia), which produced chagrin in Britain and acclaim across America. However, in an effort to husband the nascent American fleet. Secretary of the Navy William Jones ordered his captains to concentrate on commerce raiding, an effective strategy that ultimately helped turned British popular opinion against the war. Commerce raiding works both ways, though, and by 1815 American trade had been crippled. Congress stubbornly refused to raise taxes, and the United States defaulted on its bonds, thereby admitting insolvency Madison informed his peace negotiators they could drop free trade and the end of impressment from their demands, so the resulting peace treaty returned matters to the status quo ante. Budiansky's wit, knowledge and lively prose make this account of America's occasionally stirring and modestly effectual battle with the Royal Navy a delight. Mike Oppenheim

EXHIBIT
"Art of the American Soldier" Through Jan. 10, 20tt (followed by national tour) National Constitution Center Independence Mall 525 Arch St. Philadelphia, Pa. (215) 409-6600 www.constitutioncenter.org Combat photography brought war home to people as never before in the 20th centurystirring emotions and changing perceptions. But there remain limitations on what a photographer can capture. That's where the painter's brush and cartoonist's pen have proved their might, their power to affect us on a deeper human level. J Through January 10 at / the National Constitution fM Center in Philadelphia, " curators offer the public a rare opportunity to experience combat through the eyes of American soldierartists from World War 1 through the current Middle East conflicts. Presented in partnership with the U.S. Army Center of Military History, "Art of the American Soldier" highlights more than 250 works in a variety of media. The exhibition relates the ongoing story of the Army Art Program, drawing on its collection of some 15,000 works rendered over the past century by more than 1,300 soldier-artists. Among those represented is Tom Lea, a noted Depression-era muralist who hopped a Pacific-bound destroyer in 1941one of 17 civilian artists invited by Life to illustrate the war. It was during his stint with the 1 st Marine Division on Peleliu in 1944 that Lea painted Marines Call It That 2,000-Yard Stare (above), a haunting portrait of a Marine suffering battle fatigue that in part popularized the expression "thousand-yard stare." Editor

TET: New research on the Hue Massacre and embassy attack; death match in an NVA tunnel; secret hero Richard Etchberger; the Donut Dollies.

Kursk, 1943: The massive tank battle that decided Germany's fate.

ENJOYTHESE MAGAZINES FROM THE WEIDER HISTORY GROUP AMERICAN HISTORY AMERICA'S CIVIL WAR BRITISH HERITAGE CIVIL WAR TIMES WILDWEST MILITARY HISTORY QUARTERLY AVIATION HISTORY MILITARY HISTORY VIHNAM WORLD WAR II ARMCHAIR GENERAL

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ILITARY HISTOR'

Hallowed Ground
Hill 314, Mortain, France
By David T. Zabecki

T
MILITARY HISTORY

he French village of Mortain sits halfway up the western slope of what during World War II the U.S. Army referred to as Hill 314. The promontory's highest point, 314 meters above sea level (about 600 feet above the valley floor), overlooks a junction from which the area's only main road runs straight for about eight miles, west by southwest, to the town of Saint-Hilairedu-Harcout. From there it is another 15 miles to Avranches, on the Mont-Saint-Michel Bay estuary, the point where U.S. forces in July

1944 broke out of the Cotentin Peninsula to turn the ilank breach. The lead echelon of the German attack comprised of the German army in Normandy. three panzer divisions abreast, from Chrenc-le-Roussel to Hill 314 (listed in some histories as Hill 317) is a perfect Mortain, a five-mile front. Field Marshal Gnther von Kluge observation post. A forward observer with radio communica- tasked one panzer division in the second echelon with adtions to enough artillery batteries could prevent an armored vancing to Avranches and capturing the critical bridge at division from moving down the Mortain-Saint-Hilaire road. Pontaubault, across which Lt. Gen. George S. Pattons newly And that is exactly what activated Third Army was happened when German pouring as it advanced from forces launched an offenNormandy into Brittany. sive meant to drive the Al7 When the German attack lies back into the sea. started early on August 7, By the end of July senior 2 the 2nd SS Panzer Division German commanders knew I struck in two columns, they had lost the battle to * north and south of Morcontain the Allied invatain, capturing the comsion. Most believed they mand post of the U.S. 30th should fall back into the I nfantry Division's 2nd BatFrench interior to re-estabtalion, 120th Infantry Reglish a consolidated defeniment, inside the town. The sive position. But Adolf main body of the 2nd BatHitler, living increasingly talion remained entrenched in his own strategic dream around the summit of Hill world, ordered a massive armored GIs follow an M4 Sherman down a battered 314, which the Germans surrounded counterattack to reverse the break- Mortain street hours before the German and sealed olT. Two forward observers out and cut off those American units counterattack pushed them back and led of the 230th Field Artillery Battalion, that had already passed through the to the entrapment of the men on Hill 314. 1st Lt. Charles A. Barts and 2nd Lt.

Robert L. Weiss, sat within a few feet of Hill 314's summit and could see and call in fire on everything that tried to move down the road below. Until the Germans eliminated the Americans on Hill 314, the southern arm of their counterattack wasn't going anywhere. Captain Reynold C. Erichson assumed command of the position as the 17th SS Panzer Grenadier Division threw everything it had (a regimentsized force) at Hill 314. The battle raged for five days, with Barts and Weiss also calling in close defensive fire around the hilltop. When the beleaguered Gls ran low on ammunition, rations, medical supplies and radio batteries, air crews made several attempts to resupply them by parachute, but less than half the supplies landed within the American perimeter. French farmers, meanwhile, risked their lives to smuggle food to the Americans. As casualties mounted and the Americans' situation deteriorated, Lt. Col.

Traces remain atop Hill 314, above, of the American position in 1944. The nearby summit holds a chapel and a memorial to U.S. battle casualties.

Lewis D. Vieman, commander of the 230th FA Battalion, hatched the idea of taking the leaflets out of propaganda shell cases and repacking them with medical supplies. Artillery crews would then fire the rounds into the center of the American position. Test shots proved the concept workable, and two other battalions also started firing the supply-carrying rounds. The 2nd Battalion hung on grimly until finally relieved a little after noon on August 12. By that time more than 300 of the 700 Gls who'd started the battle had been killed or wounded, but the battalion had fought one of the war's outstanding small-unit actions. Erichson and company commanders Capt. Delmont K. Byrn, 1st Lt. Ralph A. Kerley 1st Lt. Joseph C. Reaser and 1st Lt.

Ronal E. Woody Jr. each received the Distinguished Service Cross, and the battalion itself earned the Presidential Unit Citation. The 2nd Battalion did not stop the German counteroffensive single-handedly, but its defense of Hill 314 halted the left wing of the attack and completely disrupted the German scheme of maneuver. The failure at Mortain left the German army overextended and off balance, which led to greater losses in the subsequent struggle for the Falaise Pocket. Today the top of Hill 314 is a carefully preserved park. Traces of the American fighting positions remain around the hill's crest, near a black granite plinth commemorating those 30th Infantry Division soldiers killed during the battle. Barts' and Weiss' observation post still overlooks the once-vital road, and a memorial chapel rises from the rocky summit, with plaques and stained-glass panels commemorating the combat that once took place there. (^

Weapons we re glad they never built

Patton's Mobile Six-Gun

eneral George S. "Old Blood and Guts" Patton Jr. loved his ivory-handled Colt revolver and his armor One night in Casablanca he had a bad terrine of chicken livers and Moroccan chilies cooked in motor oil and dreamed up the Mobile Six-Gun, or MSG. As the name implies, it only fired six shots. Its designer, Lieutenant Cornwallis Mason, was heir to the Mason jar fortune. His design featured an enormous lid that screwed on, sealing the "Jar-

By Rick Meyerowitz

heads" insidewith the extra bullets! Once they fired six shots, they remained there until found by II Corps' "Lid Men." Field Marshal Erwin Rommel responded accordingly. Patton's "Fightin' Shootin' Iron" and Rommel's armored "Lugennobile" met for a showdown. Bullets couldn't damage either machine, but they crashed into one another Rumor has it the "Desert Fox" was furious the Americans had no collision insurance, (fl

MILITARY HISTORY