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The FReeper Foxhole Revisits Case White - The Invasion of Poland (9/1/1939) - Sept. 3rd, 2004
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/ww2/ww2-3.htm ^

Posted on 09/02/2004 10:59:14 PM PDT by snippy_about_it



Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in Your care

Give them victory over the enemy...

Grant them a safe and swift return...

Bless those who mourn the lost.
.

FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer
for all those serving their country at this time.



...................................................................................... ...........................................

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The FReeper Foxhole Revisits

Invasion of Poland
World War Two in Europe Begins


On September 1st, 1939, 1.8 million German troops invaded Poland on three fronts; East Prussia in the north, Germany in the west and Slovakia in the south. They had 2600 tanks against the Polish 180, and over 2000 aircraft against the Polish 420. Their "Blitzkrieg" tactics, coupled with their bombing of defenseless towns and refugees, had never been seen before and, at first, caught the Poles off-guard. By September 14th. Warsaw was surrounded. At this stage the poles reacted, holding off the Germans at Kutno and regrouping behind the Wisla (Vistula) and Bzura rivers. Although Britain and france declared war on September 3rd. the Poles received no help - yet it had been agreed that the Poles should fight a defensive campaign for only 2 weeks during which time the Allies could get their forces together and attack from the west.



There are many "myths" that surround the September Campaign; the fictional Polish cavalry charges against German tanks (actually reported by the Italian press and used as propaganda by the Germans), the alleged destruction of the Polish Air Force on the ground, or claims that Polish Armour failed to achieve any success against the invaders. In reality, and despite the fact that Poland was only just beginning to modernise her armed forces and had been forced (by Britain and france) to delay mobilisation (which they claimed might be interpreted as aggressive behavior) so that, at the time of invasion, only about one-third of her total potential manpower was mobilised, Polish forces ensured that the September campaign was no "walk-over".

The Wehrmacht had so under-rated Polish anti-tank capabilities (the Polish-designed anti-tank gun was one of the best in the world at that time) that they had gone into action with white "balkankreuz", or crosses, prominently displayed in eight locations; these crosses made excellent aiming points for Polish gun-sights and forced the Germans to radically rethink their national insignia, initially overpainting them in yellow and then, for their later campaigns, adopting the modified "balkankreuz" similar to that used by the Luftwaffe. The recently-designed 7TP "czolg lekki", or light tank, the first in the world to be designed with a diesel engine, proved to be superior to German tanks of the same class (the PzKpfw I and II) inflicting serious damage to the German forces, limited only by the fact that they were not used in concentrated groups. They were absorbed by the Germans into their own Panzer divisions at the end of the campaign.


German Panzer I and Panzer II vehicles with a Hanomag to their left.
The German tanks were only lightly armed and armoured but when used in mass formations, they proved more than a match for the small number of Polish vehicles.


At 04.30 Stuka dive-bombers prematurely bombed the bridge at Tczew in the Pomeranian Corridor. SS troops dressed in Polish uniforms attacked the radio station at Gleiwitz and broadcast inflammatory statements urging Polish minorities to take up arms against Hitler. For a touch of realism, several bodies of concentration inmates dressed in Polish uniforms, were left behind as 'evidence' for journalists to report on.

The Free City of Danzig was heavily shelled and bombed, inflicting heavy casualties upon the civilian population and military coastal defences or navy flotillas. In Danzig, the defenders, particularly civilian volunteers were shot. The Army Pomorze faced the 4th Army whose tactic was to isolate them in the north from the rest of the Polish Forces and then link up with the Third Army and attack Warsaw.


JU87 Stuka


Daylong fighting produced at times, scenes of sheer heroism. The Pomorska Cavalry Brigade had been in contacts with the German 20th Motorized Infantry Division. Colonel Masterlarz had half the unit mount up and attempted a surprise attack from the rear. Catching an infantry battalion by surprise in a woodland clearing, the sabre attack wiped them out. Legends and myths were borne of cavalry units taking on armoured vehicles. However, what is forgotten, is that the cavalry units carried anti-tank weapons for rapid deployment.

On the Prussian Front the German Third Army broke through defences to the north of Warsaw. Ground attacks started at 05.00 and aimed to knock out the heavy fortifications at Mlawa. It was on this front that the Polish Mazowiecka Cavalry Brigade had a number of sabre clashes with the German First Cavalry Brigade thus marking an end to mounted warfare. The Polish Special Operational Group Narew had virtually no contacts with German forces due to the restraining action of the Polish Third Army and therefore effectively denied rapid gains on this front.



The heaviest fighting took place in the Southwest, a front covered by Army Lodz and further south, Army Krakow. Army Poznan in the centre saw little action or contact on the first day of fighting. The German Eighth and Tenth Armies pushed through the massive densely forested areas with major infantry clashes en route. The Wolynska Cavalry Brigade successfully countered attacks by the German 4th Panzer Division whose poor co-ordination in attack delayed advance and lost equipment. This front was geographicaly the most diverse and faced the largest concentration of mechanized troops. The heaviest fighting was around the industrial zone of Katowice.

In the south, the 44th and 45th Infantry Divisions attacked throught the Jablonkow Pass near Karwina and Cieszyn which were lightly defended. In the southern mountainous area, the XXII Panzer Corps attacked just below Nowy Targ at the Dunajec river which was defended by the 1st KOP Regiment and National Guard Zakopane Battalion. Army Krakow was forced to commit support to stem the attack which was temporarily held.



Outflanked and harassed by German guerrilla units, Army Krakow had to deal with a large number of armed German units set up by the Abwehr to carry out sabotage.

Once the Germans broke through the various fronts, poor communications impeded any chance of reforming on a grand scale. From the 10th until 18th September Polish units were able to reform quickly and still were able to harass and inflict serious damage. For field commanders like Anders, confusion and contradictory orders added to the pain and humiliation of the inevitable defeat. Units attempted to move south-east despite heavy co-ordinated artillery bombardments. Soldiers and civilians who were able to bear arms bravely defended and resisted for as long as possible as they moved behind the Vistula. Encirclement began and 60,000 troops were destroyed at Radom. Partisan units were organized and regular army units kept moving southeast in order to gain supplies of food and munitions and regroup to avoid annihilation once the Russians entered the war on 17th September.


Polish P11 Fighter


On September 17th. Soviet forces invaded from the east. Warsaw surrendered 2 weeks later, the garrison on the Hel peninsula surrendered on October 2nd., and the Polesie Defence group, after fighting on two fronts against both German and Soviet forces, surrendered on October 5th. The Poles had held on for twice as long as had been expected and had done more damage to the Germans than the combined British and french forces were to do in 1940. The Germans lost 50,000 men, 697 planes and 993 tanks and armoured cars.

Thousands of soldiers and civilians managed to escape to france and Britain whilst many more went "underground" . A government-in-exile was formed with Wladyslaw Raczkiewicz as President and General Wladyslaw Sikorski as Prime Minister.


German forces in the outskirts of Warsaw. In the background of the photograph, the city burns as a result of the German military assault. Warsaw, Poland, September 1939.


Field commanders moved as many of the remnants of the army to an escape route which led to Romania and Hungary . Units breached German lines on 22nd September before Soviet troops blocked all routes. Poland finally fell on the 6th October as the last organized resistance was crushed at Hel and Kock. Zaloga and Madej (1991) estimated the Germans took 587,000 prisoners and the Soviets 200,000. Anders (1949) estimated between 200 - 300,000 escaped into Romania and Hungary through the Dukla Pass. Those who were caught by the Soviets may have been far higher (Anders, 1949). Fiedotov, an NKVD general estimated it to be nearer 475,000. However, if all those arrested including White Russians, Jews and political prisoners, the number was between 1.5 and 1.6m people. Transported to the Gulags, few survived.

The Fourth Partition:




Under the German-Soviet pact Poland was divided; the Soviets took, and absorbed into the Soviet Union, the eastern half (Byelorussia and the West Ukraine), the Germans incorporated Pomerania, Posnania and Silesia into the Reich whilst the rest was designated as the General-Gouvernement (a colony ruled from Krakow by Hitler's friend, Hans Frank).


Marshal Edward Smigly-Rydz


In the Soviet zone 1.5 million Poles (including women and children) were transported to labour camps in Siberia and other areas. Many thousands of captured Polish officers were shot at several secret forest sites; the first to be discovered being Katyn, near Smolensk.

The Germans declared their intention of eliminating the Polish race (a task to be completed by 1975) alongside the Jews. This process of elimination, the "Holocaust", was carried out systematically. All members of the "intelligentsia" were hunted down in order to destroy Polish culture and leadership (many were originally exterminated at Oswiencim - better known by its German name, Auschwitz). Secret universities and schools, a "Cultural Underground", were formed (the penalty for belonging to one was death). In the General-Gouvernement there were about 100,000 secondary school pupils and over 10,000 university students involved in secret education.


Refugees, September 1939


The Polish Jews were herded into Ghettos where they were slowly starved and cruelly offered hopes of survival but, in fact, ended up being shot or gassed. In the end they were transported, alongside non-Jewish Poles, Gypsies and Soviet POWs, to extermination camps such as Auschwitz and Treblinka; at Auschwitz over 4 million were exterminated. 2000 concentration camps were built in Poland, which became the major site of the extermination programme, since this was where most of the intended victims lived.

Many non-Jewish Poles were either transported to Germany and used as slave labour or simply executed. In the cities the Germans would round-up and kill indiscriminately as a punishment for any underground or anti-German or pro-Jewish activity. In the countryside they kept prominent citizens as hostages who would be executed if necessary. Sometimes they liquidated whole villages; at least 300 villages were destroyed. Hans Frank said, "If I wanted to put up a poster for every seven Poles shot, the forests of Poland would not suffice to produce the paper for such posters."


Polish 7TP light tanks


Despite such horror the Poles refused to give in or cooperate (there were no Polish collaborators as in other occupied countries). The Polish Underground or AK (Armia Krajowa or Home Army) was the largest in Europe with 400,000 men. The Jewish resistance movement was set up separately because of the problem of being imprisoned within the ghettos. Both these organisations caused great damage to the Nazi military machine. Many non-Jewish Poles saved the lives of thousands of Jews despite the fact that the penalty, if caught, was death (in fact, Poland was the only occupied nation where aiding Jews was punishable by death).






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KEYWORDS: casewhite; freeperfoxhole; germany; history; michaeldobbs; poland; russia; samsdayoff; veterans; wwii
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To: snippy_about_it; SAMWolf; alfa6; Professional Engineer; Iris7; E.G.C.; Aeronaut; Matthew Paul; ...
Memories of dark days - and a bear

POLAND was the first victim of Germany's ruthless `Blitzkrieg'. Heavily outnumbered and outflanked on three sides, the Poles defended themselves for six weeks.

German planes attacked not only military and industrial targets, but also hospitals, schools and innocent civilians, trying to escape eastwards. We fought alone while the Western allies remained passive, though they were supposed to give us support.

More than that, the Soviet Union, with which we had non-aggression treaty, stabbed us in the back and in collusion with the Germans, divided Poland between themselves.

Almost immediately, the Polish underground, called the Home Army, comprising eventually half a million men, women and youngsters, began to operate. They performed acts of sabotage and attacked communication lines and smaller German garrisons.

At the same time a Free Polish Army was formed in France of émigrés and men who by various ways managed to escape to the West. In the Norwegian and French campaigns, two Polish Infantry Divisions, one Rifle Brigade and one Armoured Brigade took part. The Rifle Brigade distinguished itself capturing the important port and city of Narvik.

The first Polish Grenadier Division supported the French on the Maginot Line, Lagarde and Rhine-Mosel Canal. The second Rifle Division covered the retreat of the 45th French Army Corps and eventually was interned in Switzerland.

The units in Brittany and remnants of the two divisions made their way to the Atlantic coast and were evacuated to Britain. So, too, did the Polish Government and the Supreme Command and established themselves in London. The re-organised first Polish Army Corps guarded the Scottish east coast against a possible German invasion. Further south, an armoured Division and a Parachute Brigade were formed which played an important role in the later invasion of the Continent.

At the same time the Polish Air Force was reorganised in France. It embraced some 7,000 men and women and played a vital part in the defence of Britain. In the Battle of Britain, Polish airmen destroyed 1,300 German planes. One in every nine German planes shot down then was the victim of a Polish airman.

Eventually the Polish Air Force comprised of 10 fighter squadrons, four bomber squadrons and one artillery observation squadron. In all, the Polish Air Force destroyed 1,120 German planes, dropped 17,708 tons of bombs and mines over Germany. Polish Transport Command pilots delivered to the RAF 12,084 aircraft. A special unit, stationed in Italy, delivered supplies to European resistance fighters and flew 440 times to Poland with supplies to the Home Army.

In 1941, in Syria, an Independent Carpathian Brigade was formed from Poles who escaped there through Hungary, Rumania and Balkan countries. The Brigade fought in Tobruk and Gazala and later formed the nucleus of the third Carpathian Rifle Division.

In March 1942 the Division was incorporated into the second Polish Corps. That was possible because Poles, captured in 1939 by the Russians, were released when Germans attacked their former allies, the Soviets.

Hungry, skeleton-like people flocked from all over Russia to the recruitment centres. There they were fed, clothed and partly armed. Thousands perished from cholera and hunger. The Russians wanted to send them immediately to the front. Fortunately, under Allied pressure, they permitted them to be evacuated to the Middle East where the second Polish Corps became part of the eighth British Army.

The Second Polish Corps was composed of three infantry divisions, one armoured brigade, an Army Artillery Group and all the services, including women secretaries, telephonists and drivers. (One of them was my present wife who used to drive a huge lorry).

After a period of extensive training in the Middle East, the Corps landed in Italy, where they fought to the end of the war. Poles captured Monte Cassino opening the way to Rome, fought on the eastern side of the Italian Peninsula, taking, among others, the important port of Ancona and ended their campaign by liberating the city of Bologna.

At the same time the first Armoured Division, formed in Britain, fought in France, Belgium, Holland and Germany. The division took part in the battles of Falaise and Chamboix, ending its victorious march in Wilhelmshafen, taking the important German naval base.

Losses

In September 1944, the first Polish Parachute Brigade took part in the battle of Arnhem, suffering heavy losses because it was dropped in a wrong place while its artillery and heavy weapons were dropped somewhere else.

Polish Underground in France supplied the Allies with important information about the Germans, while the Polish Home Army did the same. They even managed to send to London a whole `V-2' rocket.

The Polish Navy fought in the Baltic and North Sea and escorted convoys of supplies from the United States and Canada to Russia. The Navy had two cruisers, 10 destroyers, several minesweepers and eight submarines. Polish Army cryptologists, stationed in Bletchley Park, played an important part in breaking the German secret code, which enabled the Allies to know every German plan well in advance.

On a lighter note, I would like to tell you about the most famous Polish `soldier', the brown bear called Wojtek (pronounced Voytek). Our soldiers found an orphaned cub while passing through the Iraqi mountains.

Bottle-fed

They bottle-fed him while later he developed a special liking for beer. During the battle of Monte Cassino Wojtek helped their masters to carry ammunition. The picture of him doing that became the 22nd Supply Company's badge.

When the second Polish Corps was evacuated to Britain, Wojtek had to be sent to the Edinburgh Zoo where he remained to his death. When visited by Poles and called by his name, Wojtek jumped up and waved his paw.

My wife and I will, as usual, proudly march on Remembrance Sunday with our British colleagues.

~~~


John Kerry's typewriter used in medals hoax

From 1928 onward Polish Intelligence intercepted German Radio transmissions using a new cipher system which was eventually identified as coming from an Enigma machine.

Polish Intelligence had obtained examples of the commercial Enigma machine but quickly found that the German Enigma was different in detail from the commercial version.

The Polish Mathematicians

Polish Intelligence were initially unable to break the German Enigma traffic, however driven by the imperative of finding what the Germans were up to, they, uniquely among other nations at that time, decided to try a mathematical approach. In 1932 a team of young mathematicians was set up. It included Jerzy Rozycki, Henryk Zygalski and Marian Rejewski (all of whom were products of the notable flowering of Polish mathematics in the 1920s and 1930s).

Rejewski quickly showed that mathematical techniques could be used to attack the problem of finding the message key by exploiting the German's cryptographic error in repeating the message key at the start of a transmission.

The problem that still had to solved was the internal wiring connections in each wheel. In this Polish Intelligence were helped by the French. The French were very interested in assisting Poland because they also were disturbed by the rise in German militancy and wanted an ally on Germans Eastern flank.

In 1931 and 1932 the French cryptographer Gustave Bertrand obtained priceless information about the German Enigma from a spy, Hans-Thilo Schmidt, known by the code name Asche. The French were unable to use this information to break into the German Enigma traffic. It was also passed to the British who were also at this time unable to break into Enigma. Finally Bertrand passed the information to Polish Intelligence who had not revealed how far they had got with their attack on Enigma. This information, which included German operating instructions for Enigma and two sheets of monthly key settings enabled Rejewski to deduce the internal wheel wiring for all three wheels, but only after he had made an inspired leap of imagination. The problem was the order of the 26 wires connecting the keyboard to the fixed entry disc at the right hand end of the three wheels.

In the commercial Enigma, which the Polish team possessed, the wiring order clockwise round the entry disc was the order of the keys on the keyboard, QWERTZUIO... Rejewski had realised that the wiring order must be different on the German Forces Enigma, but had no way of finding out what the order was. The inspired leap of imagination was to suppose the Germans had, in their logical way, just used ABCDEFG... as the order. He tried this and it worked and he could now work out from his equations the internal wiring of the three wheels and the reflector.

The deduction of the internal wiring of the wheels was a spectacular feat by Rejewski. It enabled the Polish cryptographers to build replicas of the German Enigma machine which could then be used to decipher the intercepted Radio messages once the Enigma configuration and the message settings had been deduced.

At this point Neville Kerry interceded, insisting the Polish cryptoanalysts stop reading "other gentlemen's mail".

The brown bear "Kojak" [older meaner brother of Wojtek] was unleashed and summarily ate Lord Neville-Kerry.

Virtual Bletchley Park--The Breaking of Enigma by the Polish Mathematicians

~~~

John Walker began giving the Soviets U.S. crypto manuals, keylists, messages in 1967, and, with Jerry Whitworth and Michael Walker, continued until 1985.

They should have been cat shot for the crew of USS Nimitz, Michael's last assignment.

Traitors should suffer.

~~~


161 posted on 09/04/2004 12:49:25 AM PDT by PhilDragoo (Hitlery: das Butch von Buchenvald)
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To: PhilDragoo
Evening Phil Dragoo

Excellent article on the Polish contribution to the Allied cause in WWII.

Love the Wojtek story

The brown bear "Kojak" [older meaner brother of Wojtek] was unleashed and summarily ate Lord Neville-Kerry.

LOL!

It enabled the Polish cryptographers to build replicas of the German Enigma machine which could then be used to decipher the intercepted Radio messages once the Enigma configuration and the message settings had been deduced.

I wonder if this is what started the "stolen/captured" machine story?

Why does that picture look so "right"?

162 posted on 09/04/2004 1:05:57 AM PDT by SAMWolf (To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first, and call whatever you hit the target.)
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To: SAMWolf

What Sam said. :-)


163 posted on 09/04/2004 1:12:26 AM PDT by snippy_about_it (Fall in --> The FReeper Foxhole. America's History. America's Soul.)
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To: SAMWolf

!!!!!!!


164 posted on 09/04/2004 2:17:01 AM PDT by stand watie (Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God. -T. Jefferson)
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To: snippy_about_it
WILCO.

free dixie,sw

165 posted on 09/04/2004 2:17:48 AM PDT by stand watie (Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God. -T. Jefferson)
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To: Valin
yep.

and in this case, that's a GOOD thing.

free dixie,sw

166 posted on 09/04/2004 2:18:44 AM PDT by stand watie (Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God. -T. Jefferson)
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To: PhilDragoo

BTT!!!!!!


167 posted on 09/04/2004 3:04:17 AM PDT by E.G.C.
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Comment #168 Removed by Moderator

Comment #169 Removed by Moderator

Comment #170 Removed by Moderator

Comment #171 Removed by Moderator

Comment #172 Removed by Moderator

To: SAMWolf

There were Enigma machines given to the English and the French. These were not German machines, but Polish machines built from descriptions of the German machines and the Polish deductions of how they had to work. One of the Polish machines is in the museum at Bletchley Park for public viewing. Instead of the "QWERTY" keyboard the Poles put a "ABCDEFG" keyboard on it, since there was no way to know how the Germans had arranged things. The "ABCDEFG" keyboard is seen only on the prewar Polish machines built for study.

Also the Poles transfered to the English and French the motor driven electromechanical machines the Poles called "Bombes". These machines sorted through possibility and came to a stop when programmed to do so. The Germans put the sending and delivery address in the same place in the message as they had before the started encryption (dumb, whew. Bunch of other dumb stuff, later), so one could guess that within a certain range of five letter groups there was a certain letter sequence, say "PZ". Also, punctuation had to be spelled, so have the machine stop on "PERIOD". At Amazon I find "Enigma: How the Poles Broke the Nazi Code"

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/078180941X/qid=1094373197/sr=8-6/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i6_xgl14/104-3601199-2474325?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

I enjoyed "Battle of Wits", Stephen Budiansky,

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0743217349/qid=1094373680/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_3/104-3601199-2474325?v=glance&s=books


173 posted on 09/05/2004 1:44:57 AM PDT by Iris7 ("Democracy" assumes every opinion is equally valid. No one believes this is true.)
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To: Matthew Paul

Looking at those old photos, I had a powerful wave of emotion. "My boys!" my mind said. I hope you will forgive me for seeing eminent men, Poles, as "my boys". It is how I see our lads in Iraq and Afganistan, American, British, and Polish. Comes from the boys I remember in Viet Nam, I suppose.


174 posted on 09/05/2004 2:04:19 AM PDT by Iris7 ("Democracy" assumes every opinion is equally valid. No one believes this is true.)
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To: Matthew Paul

"for us Poles it is freedom"

Duty, Honor, Country.

Some Americans see things the way you describe "us Poles."

Me, I am just a cantankerous old cob who never really wanted to live forever in this world anyway! We've got this problem over here, got these Gierek wannabes. Those people think their sh.. don't stink. That such slimebag criminals wanted to rule my family, my Country, at whim, so that they can have fun, just sticks in my craw.

Been thinking about "Hubal". Consumed two hundred fine men. You remember Leonidas consumed the Three Hundred some time back at Thermopylae, and for much the same reason. The Alamo. Hearts and minds. (Wasn't there, the Spartans said "NO SWABS", but Salamis was excellent, though I got the closest ever to drowning. Boy, I was a swimmer in those days!)(Working on my sea stories. Me and George Patton. Whimsy. True in a way. Actually I am not over 2400 years old! Hehehe.)


175 posted on 09/05/2004 2:24:13 AM PDT by Iris7 ("Democracy" assumes every opinion is equally valid. No one believes this is true.)
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Comment #176 Removed by Moderator

To: Matthew Paul

I do believe you have the high, the true spirit.

"The worst, however, is the feeling of hopelessness and impotence. You see the insolent barbarians murder your country and you can do nothing. Even sacrificing your life is pointless. That's the worst, worse than death itself."

There are no words more true.

Please accept my respect.


177 posted on 09/05/2004 6:13:25 AM PDT by Iris7 (“We showed weakness, and weak people are beaten,” - Vladimir Putin, Sept. 4, 2004)
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To: Matthew Paul

Marshal Foche, the french military genius living off his WWI reputation. Too bad the Germans weren't as impressed with it as he was.


178 posted on 09/06/2004 8:01:35 AM PDT by SAMWolf (A Kerry defeat would be the Vietnam Vets welcome-home parade they never had.)
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To: Matthew Paul

In the 60's the only city with a larger Polish population than Chicago was Warsaw. ;-)


179 posted on 09/06/2004 8:02:32 AM PDT by SAMWolf (A Kerry defeat would be the Vietnam Vets welcome-home parade they never had.)
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To: Matthew Paul
"Make no mistake, we won't find such an ally in Europe."

He got that right!

180 posted on 09/06/2004 8:03:24 AM PDT by SAMWolf (A Kerry defeat would be the Vietnam Vets welcome-home parade they never had.)
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