The FReeper Foxhole Remembers Anzio - 1944

The 3d Division and the 1st, 3d, and 4th Ranger Battalions under Col. William O. Darby were responsible for the initial attack on Cisterna. The 1st and 3d Rangers were to spearhead the assault by infiltrating the German lines and seizing and holding Cisterna until the 4th Rangers and 15th Infantry, 3d Division, arrived via the Conca-Cisterna Road. Meanwhile, at 0200, 30 January, the 7th Infantry, 3d Division, was to push on the left to a point above Cisterna and cut Highway 7, while the 15th Infantry passed to the right of Cisterna and cut the highway south of town. As a diversion the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment would attack along the Mussolini Canal. Unknown to the Americans, their assault was aimed directly at the center of the area where thirty-six enemy battalions were massing for their 1 February counterattack.

The Rangers moved out at 0130 to the right of the Conca-Cisterna Road and by dawn were within 800 yards of Cisterna. But German soldiers of the 715th Motorized Infantry Division discovered the lightly armed Ranger force during the night and sprang a devastating ambush at first light. Heavy fighting broke out and the Rangers were pinned down quickly by an enemy superior in arms and numbers. Efforts by the 4th Rangers and 15th Infantry to rescue the beleaguered units failed, and by noon armored units of the Hermann Goering Division had forced the Rangers into the open. The Americans had only grenades and bazookas for antitank weapons, and as they attempted a fighting withdrawal in small and scattered groups they were cut down mercilessly. Of the 767 men in the two battalions, only 6 eventually returned to Allied lines.

In spite of the disaster that befell the Rangers, the 7th and 15th Infantry regiments continued their attacks toward Cisterna, one soldier recalling that the defenders clung stubbornly to their entrenched positions while launching locally heavy counterattacks. Sgt. Truman O. Olson, a light machine gunner with Company B. 7th Infantry, took part in one sixteen-hour assault on entrenched enemy positions in which one-third of his company became casualties. Having seized a toehold, the survivors dug in while Sergeant Olson and his crew took their one available machine gun and placed it forward of the line to bear the brunt of an expected enemy counterattack. Although he had been firing without respite all day, Olson stuck grimly to his post throughout the night while his gun crew was killed, one by one, by accurate and overwhelming enemy fire. Weary from over twenty-four hours of continuous battle and suffering from an arm wound, Olson manned his gun alone, meeting the full force of a 200-man enemy dawn assault supported by mortars and machine guns. After thirty minutes of fighting, Olson was severely wounded, but he refused evacuation. For an hour and a half after receiving a second and subsequently fatal wound, he continued to fire his machine gun, killing at least twenty of the enemy, wounding many more, and ultimately forcing the attackers to withdraw. For his actions Sergeant Olson was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.

While some progress was made by 3d Division units in the face of noticeably stronger enemy resistance, by nightfall on 31 January the Americans were still one mile from the village, battling stubbornly forward but unable to break through. On the following day fighting was equally inconclusive, and by noon it had become obvious, after three days of costly attacks and counterattacks, that the Americans could not capture Cisterna, still 1,500 yards away. Heeding intelligence reports delivered on 2 February, which indicated the arrival of new German units in the Anzio area and an imminent enemy counterattack, Truscott, on the orders of Clark and Lucas, again told his command to dig in.

The other prong of the Allied attack launched by the British 1st Division and CCA, 1st Armored Division, toward Campoleone and the Alban Hills initially fared little better. Rain-soaked terrain, fierce enemy fire, and ubiquitous minefields slowed CCA's advance, and by nightfall on 30 January the unit was still struggling to reach its line of departure. The British succeeded in advancing two miles the first day, but they also failed to breach the German defenses. General Lucas changed plans for the second day of the attack and ordered the British to breach the enemy line along the Albano Road at Campoleone for exploitation by CCA. During the next two days the Allies reached Campoleone, penetrated the German main line, and opened a two-mile-wide gap. But the exhausted Allied troops were unable to exploit their success, and the drive ground to a halt.

The failure of the Allied breakout attempt, stymied by stiff resistance, convinced Alexander, Clark, and Lucas that an enemy counterattack must be in the offing. Reinforcements were rushed to Anzio, including 1,800 men of the American-Canadian 1st Special Service Force, elements of the British 56th Division, and additional antiaircraft and artillery units, raising the total number of Allied soldiers in the beachhead to 100,000.

The German Counter-attack

Despite these additions, the Fourteenth Army outnumbered the Allies at Anzio by 4 February. But the German force was a hodgepodge of rapidly thrown together units. All were critically short of ammunition, training, qualified leaders, and reserves. Allied air attacks had disrupted communications, hampered troop and supply movements, and caused morale problems. From the outset Mackensen had doubted the available force could eliminate the Anzio beachhead, but he prepared a forceful counterattack nonetheless. The 4th Parachute and 65th infantry Divisions of the I Parachute Corps were to pinch off the Campoleone salient and recapture the Factory at Aprilia. The same units would then break through to the sea along the Albano Road. Elsewhere the LXXVI Panzer Corps, consisting of the 3d Panzer Grenadier, 715th Motorized Infantry, 71st Infantry, Hermann Goering, and 26th Panzer Divisions would attack south of Cisterna along the Mussolini Canal and attempt to breach the Allied perimeter and advance on Nettuno and Anzio.

The counterattack opened with an artillery barrage on 3-4 February, followed by armored and infantry assaults which smashed into the partially prepared British 1st Division defenses in the Campoleone salient. The British held, despite suffering 1,400 casualties, but their dangerously exposed position prompted Lucas to order their withdrawal to one mile north of the Factory and Carroceto on the night of 4-5 February, a retreat of about 2.5 miles. Although the salient was eliminated, the Germans failed to break the Allied line or retake the Factory. The undulating and soggy Albano Road area was just as inhospitable to German armor and infantry as it had been to Allied forces the week before. However, the critical situation the Germans created in the Allied center convinced Lucas to form a beachhead defense line running from the Moletta River in the north, through the fields of the central sector, to the Mussolini Canal in the south. He issued orders to all Allied troops that this was the final line of resistance to be held at all costs—the shallow beachhead precluded any further retreat.

The Germans renewed their attacks on 7 February in the weakened British 1st Division sector and, in two days of bitter fighting, pushed the British troops from the Factory and Carroceto. Although battered and exhausted, they managed to maintain a coherent line and were reinforced on 10 February by the 1st Armored Regiment, CCA, 1st Armored Division (itself at 50 percent strength), the 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion, the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, and the 179th and 157th regiments of the U.S. 45th Infantry Division. Ordered to counterattack and retake Aprilia on 11 February, the 179th Infantry and 191st Tank Battalion began a two-pronged attack seeking to outflank the Germans holding the Factory. In two days of costly, hand-to-hand fighting, the Americans failed to retake the lost ground, but inflicted heavy losses on the enemy. Lucas still expected further attacks in the weakened central sector and removed the British 1st Division from the line, replacing it with the British 56th and U.S. 45th Infantry Divisions. As an added precaution, VI Corps artillery was strengthened and Allied tactical air attacks were stepped up.

Spurred by the elimination of the Campoleone salient, the Germans continued their counterattack on 16 February by moving down the Anzio-Albano Road on a four-mile front. The brunt of the assault hit the 45th Division sectors held by the 157th and 179th Infantry regiments. The initial attacks by the 3d Panzer Grenadier and 715th Motorized Infantry Divisions were beaten back with heavy losses, allowing only minor penetrations, while the 180th Infantry rebuffed lighter attacks. Just before midnight, however, enemy persistence paid off. A gap was created between the 179th and 157th Infantry, which was promptly exploited by three German regiments supported by sixty tanks. By dawn the Germans had driven a two-by-one-mile wedge in the center of the 45th Division and were poised to break the Allied line, threatening the entire beachhead. Compounding the already critical situation, the 179th Infantry attempted to withdraw in full view of the enemy the following afternoon and suffered heavy casualties. All through 16-17 February the Allies scrambled to plug the gap with hastily redeployed 90-mm. antiaircraft guns, naval gunfire, and units of the 1st Armored Division. The XII Tactical Air Command flew 730 ground support sorties and later claimed that the total weight of bombs dropped and the number of bombers employed was the greatest ever allotted up to that date in direct support of ground forces.

The Germans launched a more intense assault against the 45th Division at dawn on 18 February and destroyed one battalion of the 179th Infantry before pushing the remainder of the unit back a half mile farther to Lucas' final defensive line by midmorning. Fearing that the 179th Infantry was in danger of giving way, Lucas ordered Col. William O. Darby to take command of the unit and allow no further retreat. The regiment held, later counting 500 dead Germans in front of its positions. Elsewhere, the 180th and 157th regiments also held their positions in spite of heavy losses during three days of German attacks. By midday, Allied air and artillery superiority had turned the tide. When the Germans launched a final afternoon assault against the 180th and 179th regiments, it was halted by air strikes and massed mortar, machine gun, artillery, and tank fire. Subsequent enemy attacks on 19 and 20 February were noticeably weaker and were broken up by the same combination of Allied arms before ground contact was made The crisis had passed, and while harassing attacks continued until 22 February, VI Corps went over to the offensive locally and succeeded in retaking some lost ground.

The Germans could ill afford the loss of the 5,389 men killed, wounded, and missing during their five-day counterattack. Enemy troop morale plummeted, and many units lost their offensive capability. The 65th Infantry Division's combat strength had dropped to 673 effectives by 23 February, and one regiment of the 715th Motorized Infantry Division numbered fewer than 185 men. Allied casualties numbered some 3,496 killed, wounded, or missing in addition to 1,637 nonbattle casualties from trench foot, exposure, and combat exhaustion. Allied commanders at Anzio often claimed that losses would have been lower if soldiers were periodically rotated away from the lines, but replacements simply were not available. All 96,401 Allied soldiers were required to hold the 35-mile perimeter against an estimated ten German divisions in the Fourteenth Army, totaling 120,000 men by 12 February.

At midnight, 28 February, German artillery signaled the commencement of the new attack. But VI Corps and 3d Division artillery responded in mass, returning twenty shells for each one fired by the Germans, expending 66,000 rounds on 29 February alone. When the enemy infantry advanced at dawn at a half-dozen points along the 3d Division front, only one attack made any progress, penetrating 800 yards northeast of Carano before being halted with heavy losses. The other attacks fared less well amid a hail of American artillery and mortar fire. Attacking on too broad a front, the Germans lacked the overwhelming strength needed to break through anywhere, and by the end of the day they had barely dented the American line. Over the next several days, the well-entrenched Americans, supported by closely coordinated artillery, armor, and air support, shattered subsequent German attacks. Even though the 7th and 15th Infantry regiments and the 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion often were hard pressed and suffered heavy losses between 1 and 4 March at the hands of the 715th and the 16th SS Panzer Grenadier Divisions, all three units held their positions and beat back successive enemy assaults. The Germans continued to seek a breakthrough, but their efforts gradually weakened. Mackensen realized that the Fourteenth Army had spent itself in a costly and futile offensive after a last German assault failed on 4 March.

The final five-day German counterattack cost 3,500 men killed, wounded, and missing, plus thirty tanks destroyed. It had failed to eliminate the beachhead, and 3d Division counterattacks quickly reclaimed all territory. From then, the Germans went over to the defensive, clearly incapable of mounting any further serious offensive action.

The Breakout

After six weeks of continuous bombing, shelling, and fighting, the men of the VI Corps were as exhausted as their German adversaries. Following the collapse of the final enemy drive on 4 March, a three-month lull began. During this time both armies limited their operations to defending the positions they held at the beginning of March, while they conducted limited counterattacks and raids and marked time until the renewal of offensive operations on the southern front. Although the reinforced Fourteenth Army, totaling 135,698 troops by 15 March, considered another offensive, plans were shelved in early April in favor of conserving troop strength to counter an expected Allied spring offensive.

During March, all of April, and the first part of May 1944, recalled one veteran, the Anzio beachhead resembled the Western Front during World War I. The vast majority of Allied casualties during this period were from air and artillery attacks, including fire from "Anzio Annie," a 280-mm. German railway gun which fired from the Alban Hills. During March, shrapnel caused 83 percent of all 3d Division casualties, and other units experienced similar rates. The Anzio beachhead became a honeycomb of wet and muddy trenches, foxholes, and dugouts. Yet the Allied troops made the best of a bad situation, and one soldier recalled that during these months the fighting was light and living was leisurely.

On the night of 11-12 May, the Fifth and Eighth Armies launched their long-awaited spring offensive against the Gustav Line. Stymied in attempts to break through at Cassino in February, March, and April, the Allies initially encountered little success in their new drive. Nonetheless, the Germans abandoned Monte Cassino after a week of heavy fighting by Polish forces, and the French Expeditionary Corps and U.S. II Corps succeeded in breaking the Gustav Line by 15 May. The II Corps continued its drive north toward Terracina, which fell on 23-24 May, and raced toward the Anzio beachhead against rapidly crumbling German resistance as enemy troops began withdrawing northeast toward Rome.

At 0545, 23 May, a 45-minute Allied artillery barrage opened on the Cisterna front, followed by armor and infantry attacks along the entire line from Carano to the Mussolini Canal. Although resistance was very stiff, by evening the 1st Special Service Force and 1st Armored Division had breached the enemy main line of resistance, while the XII Tactical Air Command completed the last of 722 sorties. The following day VI Corps forces cut Highway 7 above Cisterna and encircled the town, the scene of continued heavy fighting by desperate enemy forces. The town finally fell on 25 May at the cost of 476 Americans killed, 2,321 wounded, and 75 missing.

Earlier on 25 May, at 0730, troops of the 91st Reconnaissance Squadron, 85th Infantry Division, U.S. II Corps, racing north from Terracina across the Pontine Marshes, met soldiers of the 1st Battalion, 36th Engineer Combat Regiment, from the Anzio beachhead, effecting the long-planned and longer-awaited link-up between Fifth Army forces. With the physical juncture of the II and VI Corps, the beachhead ceased to exist and the formerly isolated soldiers became the left flank of the Fifth Army. Clark personally greeted the II Corps troops three hours later.

Meanwhile, the breakout west was proving costly to the VI Corps. The 1st Armored Division lost 100 armored vehicles in the first day alone, while the entire corps took over 4,000 casualties in the first five days of the offensive. Allied troops, however, counted 4,838 enemy prisoners, including 1,000 in Cisterna, and destroyed or damaged 2,700 enemy vehicles.

On the same day that the Fifth Army front merged with the Anzio beachhead, General Clark also split Truscott's forces into two parts, sending the 3d Division, the 1st Special Service Force, and elements of the 1st Armored Division toward Valmontone. This thrust, however, proved insufficient, and most of the Tenth Army escaped north to fight again. In the meantime the 45th and 34th Infantry Divisions, along with the rest of the Fifth Army, joined in the hot pursuit of German forces falling back on Rome, a scarce thirty miles distant. Americans liberated the Italian capital on 4 June 1944.

Analysis

During the four months of the Anzio Campaign the Allied VI Corps suffered over 29,200 combat casualties (4,400 killed, 18,000 wounded, 6,800 prisoners or missing) and 37,000 noncombat casualties. Two-thirds of these losses, amounting to 17 percent of VI Corps' effective strength, were inflicted between the initial landings and the end of the German counteroffensive on 4 March. Of the combat casualties, 16,200 were Americans (2,800 killed, 11,000 wounded, 2,400 prisoners or missing) as were 26,000 of the Allied noncombat casualties. German combat losses, suffered wholly by the Fourteenth Army, were estimated at 27,500 (5,500 killed, 17,500 wounded, and 4,500 prisoners or missing)—figures very similar to Allied losses.

The Anzio Campaign continues to be controversial, just as it was during its planning and implementation stages. The operation clearly failed in its immediate objectives of outflanking the Gustav Line, restoring mobility to the Italian campaign, and speeding the capture of Rome. Allied forces were quickly pinned down and contained within a small beachhead, and they were effectively rendered incapable of conducting any sort of major offensive action for four months pending the advance of Fifth Army forces to the south. Anzio failed to be the panacea the Allies sought. As General Lucas repeatedly stated before the landing, which he always considered a gamble, the paltry allotments of men and supplies were not commensurate with the high goals sought by British planners. He steadfastly maintained that under the circumstances the small Anzio force accomplished all that could have been realistically expected. Lucas' critics charge, however, that a more aggressive and imaginative commander, such as a Patton or Truscott, could have obtained the desired goals by an immediate, bold offensive from the beachhead. Lucas was overly cautious, spent valuable time digging in, and allowed the Germans to prepare countermeasures to ensure that an operation conceived as a daring Allied offensive behind enemy lines became a long, costly campaign of attrition.

Yet the campaign did accomplish several goals. The presence of a significant Allied force behind the German main line of resistance, uncomfortably close to Rome, represented a constant threat. The Germans could not ignore Anzio and were forced into a response, thereby surrendering the initiative in Italy to the Allies. The 135,000 troops of the Fourteenth Army surrounding Anzio could not be moved elsewhere, nor could they be used to make the already formidable Gustav Line virtually impregnable. The Anzio beachhead thus guaranteed that the already steady drain of scarce German troop reserves, equipment, and materiel would continue unabated, ultimately enabling the 15th Army Group to break through in the south. But the success was costly.

'We hoped to land a wildcat that would tear out the bowels of the Boche. Instead we have stranded a vast beached whale with its tail flopping about in the water.'

-- Winston Churchill
on Operation Shingle

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On This Day In History

Birthdates which occurred on January 23:
1574 Lucas I Franchoys Belgian painter
1582 John Barclay Scottish satirist/Latin poet (Argenis)
1730 Joseph Hewes US merchant (Declaration of Independence signer)
1752 Muzio Clementi Italian composer
1761 Friedrich von Matthison German poet (Adelaide)
1762 Christian A Vulpius Germany, writer (Rinaldo Rinaldini)
1783 Stendahl [Marie Henri Beyle], France, writer (Le Rouge et Le Noir)
1785 Carl A Agardh Sweden, botanist/bishop of Karlstad
1813 Franz Commer composer
1816 Carl Herrmann near Hanover Germany, stage magician
1820 Alexander Nikoleyevich Serov composer
1828 Calvin Edward Pratt Brigadier General (Union volunteers), died in 1896
1830 Gaston AA Marquis de Gallifet French General /minister of War (1899-1900)
1832 Édouard Manet France, Impressionist painter (Déjeuner sur L'Herbe)
1833 John Randolph Chambliss Jr Brigadier General (Confederate Army), died in 1864
1840 Ernst Abbe Germany, physicist (Carl Zeiss Optics Company)
1843 Hans Heinrich XIV Hochberg composer
1857 Andrija Mohorovicic Croatian geologist (Moho discontinuity)
1862 David Hilbert Konigsberg East Prussia, mathematician
1865 Benjamin Delmonte theater director/actor (Black Haired Whore)
1867 Herbert Bedford composer
1868 Juventino Rosas composer
1869 Carlo Felice Boghen composer
1869 Herbert David Croly US author (Promise of American Life)
1878 Oton Zupancic Slovenian poet (Zimzelen pod Snegom)
1878 Rutland Boughton composer
1885 Boleslaw Wallek-Walewski composer
1887 Miklós Kállay premier Hungary (1942-44)
1888 Gilbert Ledward British sculptor
1889 Franklin Pangborn Newark, actor (My Best Gal, Hats Off, Easy Living)
1889 Prosper Arents Flemish bibliographer (Rubens-bibliography)
1891 Antonio Gramsci Italian philosopher/marxist theorist
1893 Frank Carlson (Governor/Republican/Senator-R-KS)
1894 Remy Angenot Flemish actor (Patriot/Idiot)
1896 Charlotte grand duchess of Luxembourg (1919-64)
1897 Amanda Berry Smith famous African
1897 Subhas Chandra Bose Indian politician
1898 Sergei Eisenstein Russia, film maker (Battleship Potemkin)
1898 Randolph Scott actor (Last of the Mohicans, Western Union)
1899 Humphrey Bogart actor (Casablanca, Caine Mutiny, African Queen)
1899 Joseph Nathan Kane historian (Famous Firsts)
19-- Angela Carrasco Santo Domingo Dominican Republic, Spanish singer
19-- Ray Girardin Wakefield MA, actor (Charlie & Company)
1900 Mary Philips CT, actress (Farewell to Arms, Incendiary Blonde)
1900 Ralph Graves Cleveland OH, actor (Dirigible, Flight, Dream Street)
1901 Benno Stokvis Dutch attorney/politician
1902 Benny Waters saxophonist
1904 Theodor Schaefer composer
1905 David Newell Missouri, actor (Runaway Bride, White Heat, Dangerous Curves)
1905 Konstanty I Galczynski Polish poet (Zielona Ges)
1906 Bob Steele Pendleton OR, actor (Duffy-F Troop, Big Sleep)
1907 Dan Duryea White Plains NY, actor (Pride of the Yankees)
1907 Hediki Yukawa Japan, physicist (Nobel 1949)
1908 Hubert Nicholson poet/novelist
1908 Pak Saleman Siswowitono Javan/Surinamese writer
1909 Norman Fulton composer
1910 Django Reinhardt Belgium, Gypsy jazz guitarist
1911 Dan Smith harmonica player/gospel singer
1912 Ank van der Moer actress (Verkade, Dutch Comedy)
1914 Napoleon L Bonaparte French pretender to the throne
1915 Herma Bauma Austria, javelin thrower (Olympics-gold-1948)
1915 Potter Stewart Michigan, 94th Supreme Court justice (1958-81)
1918 Gertrude Belle Elion New York City NY, biochemist/drug researcher (Nobel 1988)
1919 Ernie Kovacs Trenton NJ, comedian (Ernie Kovacs' Show)
1919 Bob Paisley English soccer player/trainer/manager of FC Liverpool
1919 Nina Dumbadze USSR, Discus thrower (Olympics-bronze-1952)
1920 Erbet Pawel biographer (Kafka)
1923 Florence Halop Queens, actress (Florence-Night Court, St Elsewhere)
1923 Horace Ashenfelter US, 3000m steeplechase (Olympics-gold-1952)
1923 Walter M[ichael] Miller Jr US, sci-fi author (Hugo, View from Stars)
1924 Frank R Lautenberg (Senator-D-NJ, 1983- )
1925 Marty Paich Oakland CA, orchestra leader (Sonny & Cher, Glenn Campbell)
1928 Eugene Monti Italy, bobsledder (Olympics-2 golds-1968)
1928 Jeanne Moreau Paris France, actress (Going Places, Jules & Jim)
1928 Kees [Cornelis] Broekman Dutch speed skater (Olympics-silver-1952)
1929 John Polanyi Berlin, Canadian chemist (Nobel 1986)
1929 Ian Thomson cricketer (England seam bowler vs South Africa 1964-65)
1930 Derek Walcott St Lucia, poet/writer (Omeros, Nobel 1992)
1930 Ken Errair singer (Four Freshmen)
1930 William Reid Pogue Okemah OK, Colonel USAF/astronaut (Skylab 4)
1932 Bud Shuster (Representative-R-PA, 1973- )
1933 Arlene Golonka Chicago IL, actress (Millie-Mayberry RFD)
1933 Chita Rivera Washington DC, actress (West Side Story, Sweet Charity)
1933 Joel Spiegelman composer
1934 Lou Antonio Oklahoma City OK, actor (Barney-Snoop Sisters, Makin' It)
1936 Jerry Kramer Green Bay Packer, author (Instant Replay)
1938 Anatoly Marchenko Siberia, Soviet dissident
1939 Arlene Golonka Chicago IL, actress (Millie-Mayberry RFD)
1940 Johnny Russell country singer
1942 Ivan Ivanovich Bachurin cosmonaut
1942 Laurie Mayne cricketer (Australian pace bowler in 6 Tests 1965-70)
1942 Willy Bogner Jr Munich Germany, director (On Her Majesty's Secret Service)
1943 Gil Gerard Little Rock AR, actor (Buck Rogers in 25th Century)
1943 William E "Bill" Gibb Scottish fashion designer
1944 Sergey Belov USSR, basketball player (Olympics-gold-1972)
1944 Jerry Lawson US singer (Persuasions-Under the Boardwalk)
1944 Marty Russo (Representative-D-IL, 1975- )
1944 Rutger Hauer Dutch actor (Blade Runner, Ladyhawke, Osterman Weekend)
1946 Asif Masood cricketer (Pakistani quick with long & erratic run-up)
1947 Thomas R Carper (Representative-D-DE, 1983- )
1948 Anita Pointer Oakland, rock vocalist (Pointer Sisters-She's So Shy)
1949 Robert D Cabana Minneapolis MN, Major USMC/astronaut (STS 41, 53, 68, 88)
1950 Patrick Simmons guitarist/vocal (Doobie Brothers-Minute by Minute)
1950 Richard Dean Anderson Minneapolis MN, actor (MacGyver, Emerald Point NAS)
1950 William Cunningham rock bassist/pianist (Box Tops-Letter)
1950 Danny Federici rocker (E Street Band)
1950 Richard Gilliland Fort Worth TX, actor (Jonesy-Waltons, Tom-Heartland)
1951 Margaret Johnson Bailes Bronx NY, 4X100 runner (Olympics-gold-1968)
1951 Michael Matz equestrian show jumper (Olympics-silver-96)
1952 Omar Henry cricketer (1st colored player for South Africa 1992)
1952 Robin Zander rocker vocalist/guitarist (Cheap Trick-Dream Police)
1953 Pat Haden Westbury NY, NFL quarterback (Los Angeles Rams)
1954 Rick Finch rocker (KC & Sunshine Band-Give It)
1954 Edward Ka-spel English singer/songwriter (Legendary Pink Dots)
1954 Franco De Vita Caracas Venezuela, Spanish singer (Extranjero)
1954 Trevor Hohns cricketer (Australian leg-spinner 1989)
1955 Reginald Calloway trumpet player (Midnight Star-No Parking)
1955 Alexander O'Neal R&B singer
1957 Princess Caroline [Louise Marguerite Grimaldi] of Monaco
1958 Lorraine Michaels Canterbury England, playmate (April 1981)
1959 Tyrone Power Jr Los Angeles CA, actor (Shag)
1959 Earl Falconer British reggae bassist (UB40-Red Red Wine)
1960 Misha Mck East Orange NJ, actress (Gerri-Me & Mrs C)
1960 Greg Ritchie cricketer (Queensland & Australian batsman Fat Cat Mahatma Cote)
1961 Trey Junkin tight end (Arizona Cardinals)
1963 Gail O'Grady Detroit MI, actress (Hitman, Nobody's Perfect, NYPD Blue)
1963 Hakeem Olajuwon NBA center (Houston Rockets)
1963 Rocco Romano CFL guard (Calgary Stampeders)
1964 Mariska Hargitay Los Angeles CA, actress (Jesse Smith-Downtown)
1964 Frank Winters NFL center (Green Bay Packers-Super Bowl XXXI)
1965 Tim Berrett Tunbridge Wells England, Canadian 20k walker (Olympics-14-92, 96)
1966 Haywoode Workman NBA guard (Indiana Pacers)
1966 Mike Brim NFL cornerback (Cincinnati Bengals)
1966 Scott Fortune Newport Beach CA, volleyballer (Olympics-G-88,B-92, 96)
1967 Naim Suleymanoglu Bulgaria, Turkish weight lifter (Olympics-gold-1988)
1967 Christine Parris-Washington Truro Nova Scotia, softball (Olympics-96)
1968 Eric Metcalf NFL receiver/running back (Atlanta Falcons, San Diego Chargers)
1968 Lubomir Kolnik Skalica Czechoslovakia, hockey forward (Team Slovakia, Espoo)
1968 Petr Korda Prague Czechoslovakia, tennis star (1993 Doubles-Cincinnati OH)
1968 Todd Scott NFL safety (Tampa Bay Buccaneers)
1969 Brendan Shanahan Mimico Ontario, NHL left wing (Whalers, Red Wings)
1969 Eric Carter CFL cornerback (Hamilton Tiger Cats)
1970 Alan Embree Vancouver WA, pitcher (Cleveland Indians)
1970 Jim Schwantz NFL linebacker (Dallas Cowboys, San Francisco 49ers)
1970 Mark Wohlers Holyoke MA, pitcher (Atlanta Braves)
1970 Marquel Fleetwood WLAF quarterback (Frankfurt Galaxy)
1970 Richard Smehlik Ostrava Czechoslovakia, NHL defenseman (Buffalo Sabres, Olympics-Gold-98)
1970 Sherman Obando Changuinola Panama, outfielder (Montréal Expos)
1971 Adam Parore cricket wicket-keeper (New Zealand, 1st Maori Test centurion)
1971 James Logan WLAF linebacker (Scotland Claymores)
1971 Julie Foudy San Diego CA, soccer midfielder (Olympics-96)
1971 Kevin Mawae NFL center/guard (Seattle Seahawks)
1971 Mark Grimmette Ann Arbor MI, doubles luger (Olympics-1994)
1972 Anthony Peterson NFL linebacker (Chicago Bears, San Francisco 49ers)
1972 Gary Harrell NFL/WLAF receiver (New York Giants, Frankfurt Galaxy)
1972 Kez McCorvey NFL wide receiver (Detroit Lions)
1972 Tanya Harding Australian softball pitcher (Olympics-bronze-96)
1973 Mark Kolesar Minnesota, NHL right wing (Toronto Maple Leafs)
1974 Glen Chapple cricketer (Lancashire & England A pace bowler)
1974 Tiffani-Amber Theissen Long Beach CA, actress (Saved by Bell, 90210)
1975 Kevin Alexander NFL wide receiver (New York Giants)
1976 Byron Hanspard NFL running back (Atlanta Falcons)
1976 Phil Boudreault Copper Cliff Ontario, boxer (Olympics-96)
1980 Theresa Kulikowski Tacoma WA, gymnast (World-bronze-95, Olympics-96)

Deaths which occurred on January 23:
1002 Otto III German king/emperor 983/996-1002, dies at 21
1356 Margaretha of Bavaria Empress of Germany, dies
1516 Ferdinand II king of Aragon/Sicily, dies at 63
1548 Bernardo Pisano composer, dies at 57
1622 William Baffin British explorer, dies at about 38
1639 Francisco Maldonado da Silva Solis Peruvian poet, burned at stake
1648 Francisco de Rojas Zorrilla Spanish poet (Del Rey Abajo), dies at 40
1708 Thomas Bullis composer, dies at 80
1800 Edward Rutledge US attorney (signed Declaration of Independence), dies at 50
1805 Vaclav Pichl composer, dies at 63
1806 William Pitt the Younger, PM Great Britain (1783-1806), dies at 46
1813 George Clymer US merchant (signed Declaration of Independence), dies at 73
1814 Georg Friedrich Theodor Wolf composer, dies at 52
1837 John Field composer, dies at 54
1838 Arnold A Buyskes Dutch Vice-Admiral/colonial director, dies at 67
1845 Francesco Ruggi composer, dies at 77
1864 Michele Puccini composer, dies at 50
1875 Charles Kingsley English vicar/writer (Westward Ho!), dies at 55
1879 Adolf Jensen composer, dies at 42
1883 Gustave Doré French illustrator, dies at 51
1891 Boudouin prince of Belgium/count of Flanders, dies at 21
1893 José Zorrilla y Moral Spanish poet (Granada), dies at 75
1898 W A Remy composer, dies at 66
1908 Edward Alexander MacDowell US composer (Indian Suite), dies at 47
1913 Nazim Pasha Turkey's PM assassinated
1921 Wlasyslaw Zelenski composer, dies at 83
1926 Désiré J Mercier Belgian philosopher/cardinal, dies at 74
1926 Joseph Carl Breil composer, dies at 55
1931 Anna Pavlova Russian ballerina (Diaghilew, Dying Swan), dies
1936 Dame Clara Butt alto singer (Country of Hope & Glory), dies at 62
1939 Matthias Sindelar Austria soccer star, commits suicide
1941 Dobri Khristov composer, dies at 65
1943 Alexander Woollcott critic, dies of a heart attack on radio, at 56
1944 Edvard Munch Norwegian painter (The Scream), dies at 80
1945 Helmuth J Moltke German politician ("July 20th Plot"), executed at 37
1946 Feliks Nowowiejski composer, dies at 68
1946 Matteo Giulio Bartoli linguist, dies at 72
1947 Pierre Bonnard French painter/illustrator, dies at 79
1947 Roy Park cricketer (prolific Victorian bat & official), dies
1956 Alexander Korda English movie producer (Henry VIII), dies at 62
1957 Willie Edwards US black, murdered by KKK at 25
1964 Louis Horst composer, dies at 80
1966 Jo van Ammers-Küller Dutch playwright (Opstandigen), dies at 81
1969 Jaroslav Kricka composer, dies at 86
1975 Karel Paul van der Mandele director (Rotterdam Bank), dies at 94
1976 Aleksey Vasilyevich Sorokin Russian cosmonaut, dies at 44
1976 Paul Robeson athlete/lawyer/singer, dies in Philadelphia at 77
1977 Bernard "Toots" Shor barkeeper, dies at 73
1978 Jack Oakie actor (Great Dictator, Gang Buster), dies at 74
1978 Terry Kath rock guitarist (Chicago), accidently shot in head at 32
1981 Bobby Sherwood orchestra leader (Milton Berle Show), dies at 66
1981 Samuel Barber US composer (School for Scandal), dies at 70
1982 Hope Hampton actress (Star Dust, Lawful Larcency), dies at 83
1984 Samuel Gardner composer, dies at 92
1986 Joseph Beuys West German avant-garde artist/politician, dies at 64
1989 Salvador Dalí Spanish Surrealist painter, dies in Spain at 84
1990 Albert Collins guitarist (Lynyrd Skynyrd), dies of pneumonia at 57
1990 Mariano Rumor Italy's PM (1968-70, 73-1974), dies
1992 Freddie Bartholomew child actor (Kidnapped), dies of emphysema at 67
1992 Ian Wolfe actor (Houdini, THX-1138, Homebodies), dies at 95
1992 Simon Brand South African banker/adviser to President De Klerk, dies
1993 Dudley Stevens entertainer, dies of AIDS at 57
1993 Thomas A Dorsey jazz pianist (Take My Hand, Precious Lord), dies
1994 Nikolai Ogarkov Russian marshal (Flight KAL 007), dies at 76
1994 Oliver Smith US set designer (Guys & Dolls-7 Tony Awards), dies at 75
1994 Sherry Mathis actress (Search for Tomorrow), dies of cancer at 44
1994 Suzanne M Blum French lawyer (Charlie Chaplin), dies at 95
1995 Harold Collett Dent journalist/educationist, dies at 100
1995 Ken Hill playwright/director, dies at 57
1995 Michael Whalley Wickham artist, dies at 91
1995 Peter Ambrose Cyprian Luke playwright, dies at 75
1996 John Mackin programmer, dies at 36
1996 Norman MacCaig poet, dies at 85
1996 Shirley Carter Burden patrician, dies at 54
1997 Charles Craig opera singer, dies at 77
1997 David Waller actor (Lady Jane, Perfect Friday, Hannay), dies at 76
1997 Jeremy Stephen Maas writer/art dealer, dies at 68
1997 Laura "Dinky" Patterson dies during bungee jump at Super Bowl rehearsal at 43
1997 Randy Greenawalt convicted killer, executed by injection at 47
1997 Richard Berry lyricist (Louie Louie), dies at 61
1997 Roger John Tayler astrophysicist, dies at 67
1998 Hilla Limann President of Ghana in (1979-81), dies

On this day...
0638 Start of Islamic calendar
1265 1st English Parliament formally convened (some authorities)
1490 1st printing of Ramban's Sha'ar ha-Gemul
1492 "Pentateuch" (Jewish holy book) 1st printed
1552 2nd version of Book of Common Prayer becomes mandatory in England
1556 Most deadly earthquake kills 830,000 in Shansi Province, China
1570 Earl of Moray, regent of Scotland, assassinated; civil war breaks out
1571 Queen Elizabeth I opens Royal Exchange in London
1579 Union of Utrecht signed, forming protestant Dutch Republic
1631 France & Sweden sign anti-German Treaty of Bärwald
1637 Dutch Governor Johan Mauritius lands in Pernambuco Brazil
1643 Sir Thomas Fairfax takes Leeds for the Parliamentarians
1647 Scottish Presbyterians sell captured Charles I to English parliament
1663 King Louis XIV affirms covenant with Rÿnstaten
1668 England, Netherlands & Sweden signs Triple Alliance against French
1719 Principality of Liechtenstein created within Holy Roman Empire
1723 Georg Friedrich Händel's opera "Ottone" premieres in London
1779 Charles Messier catalogs M56 (globular cluster in Lyra)
1789 Georgetown, 1st US Catholic college, founded
1793 2nd partition of Poland, between Prussia & Russia
1793 Humane Society of Philadelphia (first aid society) organized
1796 Armand-Gaston Camus becomes chairman of Council of 500
1812 7.8 earthquake shakes New Madrid, Missouri
1833 Joseph Pease, a Quaker, admitted to Parliament on his affirmation
1845 Uniform US election day for President & Vice President authorized
1849 Mrs Elizabeth Blackwell becomes 1st woman physician in US
1849 Patent granted for an envelope-making machine
1856 Steamer Pacific lost
1861 Agoston Haraszthy, 1st vintner in Sonoma Valley, imports 100,000 cuttings of 350 varieties from Europe
1865 Battle of City Point, VA (James River, Trent's Reach)
1865 General Robert E Lee named Commander-in-Chief of Confederate Armies
1870 173 Blackfoot Indians (140 women & children) killed in Montana by US Army
1879 National Archery Association formed, Crawfordsville IN
1889 Dr Daniel Hale Williams forms Provident Hospital in Chicago
1894 G W Bunbury of Dublin sets shorthand record of 250 wpm for 10 minutes
1896 Edward Macdowell's 2nd Suite in E, premieres
1897 Start of Sherlock Holmes "The Adventure of the Abbey Grange" (BG)
1902 Winnipeg Victorias sweep Toronto Wellingtons in 2 for the Stanley Cup
1907 Charles Curtis of Kansas becomes 1st Native American US senator
1908 US & Great-Britain demand end of abuses in Congo
1909 1st radio rescue at sea
1916 Temp falls from 44ºF (7ºC) to -56ºF (49ºC) night of 23-24, Browning MT
1920 Dutch government refuses to turn over ex-Kaiser Wilhelm I of Germany to the allies
1923 Taxi strike in Amsterdam begins (through March 9th)
1924 Ramsey MacDonald forms 1st Labour government in Britain
1926 Eugene O'Neill's "Great God Brown" premieres in New York City NY
1928 "Abenteuer of brave Soldier Schwejk" premieres in Berlin
1930 George Washington Birthplace National Monument VA established
1930 Clyde Tombaugh photographs planet Pluto
1932 El Salvador army kills 4,000 protesting farmers
1933 20th amendment changes date of Presidential Inaugurations to 1/20
1936 Catholic People's Party (KVP) of Curaçao forms
1937 Karl Radek & 16 others go on trial in Stalin's great purge
1940 Pianist Ignaz Paderewski becomes premier of Polish government in exile
1941 Ground breaking for NACA (now NASA) Lewis Research Center
1941 WOR-AM in Newark NJ moves to New York City
1942 Japanese troops occupy Rabaul New Britain
1942 Tank battle at Adzjedabia, African corps vs British army
1943 66.34 cm (26.12"), Hoegees Camp CA (state precipitation record)
1943 Detroit Red Wings scores NHL record 8 goals in 1 period
1943 British 8th army marches into Tripoli
1943 Japanese Mount Austen on Guadalcanal captured
1944 Detroit Red Wings score 15 goals against New York Rangers & NHL record 37 points, also most consecutive goals & most lopsided game 15-0
1944 Arnold Schoenberg's "Ode to Napoleon" premieres in New York City NY
1945 Dutch Premier Gerbrandy, exiled in London, offers his resignation
1946 Rear Admiral Sidney W Souers, USNR, becomes 1st director of CIA
1948 Bradman scores 201 in 272 minutes vs India, 21 fours 1 six
1948 Huston's "Treasure of Sierra Madre" starring Humphrey Bogart opens
1948 Test debut of Neil Harvey, vs India at Adelaide
1950 3rd edition of Joseph Kane's Famous 1st Facts published
1950 Israeli Knesset resolves that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel
1950 NFL rule changes open way for 2-platoon system (offense & defense)
1950 AP picks "Miracle Braves" of 1914 as greatest sports upset
1950 Rebel army of cap Raymond Westerner occupies Bandung
1951 3rd Emmy Awards Alan Young Show, Alan Young & Gertrude Berg
1953 NFL Dallas Texans become Baltimore Colts (now Indianapolis Colts)
1953 NFL's National & American conferences become Eastern & Western conferences
1953 Bobby Simpson makes 1st-class debut for New South Wales 16 years 357 days
1954 Longest undefeated streak in Toronto Maple Leaf history (18 games)
1954 Harry van Thorn chosen chairman of Dutch KVP
1955 Babe Didrikson-Zaharias wins LPGA Tampa Golf Open
1955 KORK (now KVBC) TV channel 3 in Las Vegas, NV (NBC) 1st broadcast
1958 "Body Beautiful" opens at Broadway Theater New York City NY for 60 performances
1958 Dictator Marcos Pérez Jiménez flees Venezuela, Larrazábal takes power
1958 Hanif Mohammad completes 337 in 970 minutes vs West Indies
1960 Piccard & Walsh in bathyscaph "Trieste" reach 10,900 meters in Mariana Trench
1961 Supreme Court rules cities & states have right to censor films
1961 Venezuela adopts constitution
1962 Libya, Morocco, Algeria & Tunisia plan to form United Arab Maghreb
1962 Bob Feller & Jackie Robinson elected to Baseball Hall of Fame
1962 British spy Kim Philby defects to USSR
1964 24th Amendment ratified, barring poll tax in federal elections
1964 Arthur Miller's "After the Fall" premieres in New York City NY
1965 "The King Family Show" (musical variety) premieres on ABC TV
1965 Boston Celtic center Bill Russell misses all 14 shots in loss to Philadelphia Warriors led by Wilt Chamberlain
1965 BPAA All-Star Tournament won by Dick Weber
1967 Stan Musial is named GM of Cards
1968 Spy ship USS Pueblo & 83-man crew seized in Sea of Japan by N Korea
1968 Joe Medwick elected to Baseball Hall of Fame
1969 Cream releases their last album "Goodbye"
1970 Australia's 1st amateur radio satellite (Oscar 5) launched (California)
1970 US launches 2nd generation weather satellite, ITOS 1
1970 Dolle Mina burns her bra in Amsterdam
1970 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1971 -80ºF (-62ºC), Prospect Creek Camp AK (US record)
1971 UCLA loses to Notre Dame, UCLA then wins next 88 games in a row
1971 4th ABA All-Star Game East 126 beats West 122 at Carolina
1972 2nd AFC-NFC pro bowl, AFC wins 26-13
1972 Bootlegger sells wood alcohol to wedding party-100 die-New Delhi
1972 Ard Schenk becomes European all-round skating champ
1972 Entire population of Istanbul under 24 hour house arrest
1972 NFL Pro Bowl AFC beats NFC 26-13
1973 Helgafell, island of Heimaey Iceland erupts for 1st time in 7,000 years
1973 Jordan Air crash at Kano, Nigeria kills 176 Moslem pilgrims
1973 President Nixon announces an accord has been reach to end the Vietnam War
1973 23rd NBA All-Star Game East beats West 104-84 at Chicago
1974 1st edition of women's magazine "Story"
1975 "Barney Miller" premieres on ABC TV
1975 Ralph Kiner elected to baseball's Hall of Fame
1976 Washington Capitals end 25 game winless streak (0-22-3) beat New York Rangers 7-5
1976 Ian Redpath hits his only 2 sixes in Cricket Tests, vs West Indies Adelaide
1977 $1.5-million Serge Lepage dress exhibited, Paris
1977 Miniseries "Roots" premieres on ABC
1978 8th NFL Pro Bowl NFC beats AFC 14-13
1978 Belgian industrial Haron Empain kidnapped in Paris
1979 Willie Mays elected to Baseball Hall of Fame
1981 1st Richard Nixon museum opens (San Clemente CA)
1981 Mike Bossy becomes 1st in NHL to score 50 goals in 50 games
1981 Jochem Bird elected mayor of West Berlin
1981 Red Sox trade Fred Lynn to Angels for Frank Tanana & Joe Rudi
1982 Urbe Blanca (cow) produces record 110 kg of milk, Cuba (approximate date)
1982 World Airways DC-10 skids at Boston Logan Airport killing 2
1983 "A-Team" with Mr T premieres on NBC
1983 Björn Borg announces his retirement from tennis
1983 In NBA, Portland scores all 17 points in overtime to beat Houston 113-96
1983 Cerebral Palsy telethon raises $14,700,000
1983 Russian radioactive satellite falls into Indian Ocean
1983 Schöne skates ladies world record 5 km (7 40.97)
1984 Buffalo Sabres win NHL record 10th straight road game
1984 Greatest unpaced 1-hour bicycle distance, F Moser (Italy), 51.15 km
1984 Hulk Hogan defeats Iron Sheik to become WWF champ
1985 Britains House of Lords debate 1st televised
1986 Columbia returns to Kennedy Space Center via Davis-Monthan AFB
1986 "Jerome Kern Goes to Hollywood" opens at Ritz Theater New York City NY for 13 performances
1986 1st induction of Rock 'N' Roll Hall of Fame (Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Domino, Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis & Elvis Presley)
1987 Dow Jones rises 64 points then drops 110 points (44.15 point loss)
1987 Japan 1st exceeds military spending cap of 1% of GNP ($23 billion)
1988 Bob Benoit bowls 1st 300-point game in a televised title match
1988 45th Golden Globes Last Emperor, Sally Kirkland, Michael Douglas
1988 62nd Australian Women's Tennis Steffi Graf beats Chris Evert (61 76)
1988 Experimental airplane Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan & Jeana Yeager, complete 1st nonstop, round-the-world flight without refueling lands
1989 Challenge to "who is a Jew" law filed in Israeli Supreme Court
1989 NBA New Jersey Nets begin a 32+ game road losing streak
1990 Dean Jones scores twin Test tons vs Pakistan at Adelaide Oval
1991 High-denomination banknotes withdrawn in USSR
1991 "Seinfeld" debuts on NBC-TV
1991 World's largest oil spill, caused by embattled Iraqi forces in Kuwait
1992 "Visit" opens at Criterion Theater New York City NY for 45 performances
1993 50th Golden Globes Scent of a Woman, wins
1993 Graham Gooch scores his 100th 100, on tour at Cuttack
1993 Indian Airlines B737 crashes art Aurangabad, 61 die
1993 New York Newsday reports Oregon's Senator Bob Packwood sexually harassed 23 women
1993 US female Figure Skating championship won by Nancy Kerrigan
1994 Bernie Kosar is 2nd QB to throw TD passes in AFC & NFC Championship games
1994 Worldwide Day for peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina
1996 Chris Cairns scores 120, 96 balls, 10x4, 9x6 in Test New Zealand vs Zimbabwe
1998 Pope John Paul II condemns US embargo against Cuba
3268 Beginning of 2nd Julian Period

Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

Luxembourg : Grand Duchess' Birthday
China : Chinese New Year-The Year of the Dragon (2012/4710)

Religious Observances
Christian : Commemoration of St Ildephonsus
Roman Catholic : Feast of St Ildephonsus
Roman Catholic : Commemoration of St Emerentiana, virgin/martyr
old Roman Catholic : Feast of St Raymond of Penafort, confessor (now 1/7)
Anglican : Commemoration of Phillips Brooks, bishop of Massachusetts
Jewish : Tu B'Shevat (Arbor Day) (Shevat 15, 5757 AM)

Religious History
1656 French scientist Blaise Pascal, 33, published the first of his 18 "Provincial Lettres," the majority of which attacked the Jesuit theories of grace and moral theology.
1755 Under the influence of the Methodist movement, English clergyman John Fletcher, 26, was converted to a living faith. He remained in the Anglican church but afterward became a chief defender of evangelical Arminianism.
1789 Georgetown College was founded by Father John Carroll, 54, in Washington, D.C. Ä the first Roman Catholic college established in America.
1935 British biblical expositor Arthur W. Pink wrote in a letter: 'Growth in grace is like the growth of a cow's tail Ä the more it truly grows, the closer to the ground it is brought.'
1943 The New Tribes Mission was incorporated in Los Angeles by founder Paul W. Fleming. NTM works today primarily in missionary aviation, Bible translation, church planting and the production and distribution of Christian literature.

Thought for the day :
" Beware the man who can't be bothered with details. "

My pleasure Sam. I meant to develop more graphics for you by now. I try to get some out in the next few days. Thanks for your work on the Foxhole.

Good Morning Bump, SAM.

Good Morning Everybody.

You Know The Drill
Click the Pics

Coffee & Donuts J

bump for a later read

Current Military News
Four Marines Killed in Helicopter Crash

FALCON HEIGHTS, Texas - Two military helicopters crashed while helping the Border Patrol in a drug case, killing all four Marines on board.

The crash of the AH1W Super Cobra helicopters happened Wednesday night at Falcon State Park in far South Texas, near the Mexican border.

Each helicopter carried a crew of two and there were no survivors, U.S. Border Patrol spokesman Armando Carrasco said in a statement.

"The helicopters were conducting a nighttime aviation reconnaissance counterdrug operation in support of the U.S. Border Patrol, Laredo Sector, at the time of the accident," Carrasco said.

The accident was under investigation and no further details were available, the spokesman said.

The helicopter crews were based in Camp Pendleton, Calif., but were operating out of Fort Bliss, an Army post in far West Texas.

Identities of the dead were withheld pending notification of relatives.

Morning HiJinx. Care of a cup of fiddlstix's excellent coffee and some donuts?

1948 Huston's "Treasure of Sierra Madre" starring Humphrey Bogart opensIMHO one of the best movies ever made. Badges! We don't need no stinkin' badges!!

Morning Feather.

Love the coffee and donuts.
The polkas take a little getting used to.
Kinda like salsa, eh SAM?

LOL. I 'd rather eat glass than listen to salsa.

O, Man, Pledge this unto your dead!
"That peace shall ever grow,
That ne'er again shall blood be shed,
on a beach like Anzio."

I'm beginning to believe you can find a poem about anything and if you can't you'd write one.

Thanks Cote.