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The FReeper Foxhole Remembers The Race to Messina (Jul-Aug 1943) - Feb. 23rd, 2005
American History Magazine | Eric Ethier

Posted on 02/22/2005 10:06:56 PM PST by SAMWolf



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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Patton's Race to Messina


General George S. Patton was a flamboyant commander who was not content to wait on the sidelines. So when the plans for the Allied conquest of the island of Sicily called for a British army to capture the key port of Messina, Patton decided he would get there first.


Patton at Messina, Life 1943/8/17


Inside Seventh Army headquarters on the southern coast of Sicily, a scowling Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr., greeted Lieutenant General Omar Bradley with bad news. "We've received a directive from Army Group, Brad," Patton said between puffs on a cigar. "Monty's to get the Vizzini-Caltagirone road in his drive to flank Catania and Mount Etna by going up through Enna. This means you'll have to side-slip to the west with your 45th Division."

"My God," Bradley replied angrily, "you can't allow him to do that!"

But Patton had nothing else to say on the subject. "Sorry Brad," he said evenly, "but the changeover takes place immediately. Monty wants the road right away."

To Patton, Bradley, and just about every other senior United States Army officer, British General Sir Bernard Montgomery got his way entirely too often. This time, just four days into Operation HUSKY (the code name for the Allied Invasion of Sicily), Montgomery had convinced 15th Army Group Commander General Sir Harold Alexander to grant his Eighth Army exclusive use of a highway previously promised to the Americans. Patton and Bradley considered the decision an insult to American military prestige.


Gen. Terry Allen's "Big Red One" lands at Gela July 10, 1943


On July 10, 1943, Allied ships had deposited Patton's Seventh U.S. Army on the beaches along the Gulf of Gela, on Sicily's southwest coast. Montgomery's British Eighth Army went ashore to the east, south of Syracuse. The Allies targeted the city of Messina, at the northeast tip of the triangular island. Capturing Sicily would eliminate persistent Axis attacks on nearby Mediterranean supply routes, and if Messina could be taken quickly, the invaders would snare thousands of Axis prisoners and gain a convenient jump-off spot for the upcoming invasion of Italy.

By July 13, Bradley's II Corps had advanced inland to within 1,000 yards of the Vizzini-Caltagirone road (Route 124)--a major transport route that cut east to west across the center of the island. Meanwhile, dug-in German troops had blunted Montgomery's advance up the island's east coast, hemming Eighth Army in on the plain of Catania between towering Mount Etna and the sea. In a sudden change of plan, Montgomery decided to send a flanking force west around Etna. To do so he needed Route 124, and Alexander, who had overall command of HUSKY's ground forces, gave it to him. The Americans, one of Patton's frustrated staff officers said, were left to "sit comfortably on our prats while Montgomery finishes the goddam war!"


Sicily invasion map from Newsweek 1943/09/06


The British generals thought little of American fighting ability. In February, German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps had thrust across the hot sands of North Africa and smashed through inexperienced and poorly led U.S. troops at Tunisia's Kasserine Pass. The unfortunate performance of the young Americans--many of whom had never before seen battle--distressed the British commanders. Alexander declared, "they lack the will to fight." Montgomery believed "they have no confidence in their Generals."

In the wake of the disaster at Kasserine Pass, the Allied Commander in the Mediterranean, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, sent Patton to Tunisia to take over U.S. II Corps. Patton quickly injected discipline and his fighting spirit into the corps and led it to victories at Gafsa and El Guettar. In mid-April as the Tunisian Campaign neared its end, Patton left the corps in Bradley's hands and returned to French Morocco to take part in planning for the Sicily operation.


General Sir Harold Alexander


Despite the Americans' improvement on the battlefield, Alexander and Montgomery remained unimpressed. For their part, Patton and many of his colleagues resented British impertinence, especially on the part of Montgomery. Arrogant, self-centered, and pushy, the 56-year-old general in the natty black beret irked his colleagues with outlandish statements and demands. In many ways he was not unlike Patton. At the age of 58, Patton was deeply religious, swashbuckling, "human dynamo" who strutted around in a polished steel helmet with a pair of ivory-handled revolvers strapped to his waist. "His vigor was always infectious, his wit barbed, his conversation a mixture of obscenity and good humor," Bradley wrote. "He was at once stimulating and overbearing. George was a magnificent soldier." By the time he waded ashore on Sicily, Patton's antipathy toward his British counterparts had also come to affect his relationship with his boss, Eisenhower. Patton's long-time friend had the difficult job of holding together the young Anglo-American alliance. But Patton felt that American interests and honor too often took a back seat to British demands. "God damn all British and all so-called Americans who have their legs pulled by them," Patton wrote in his diary in Tunisia. "Ike is more British than the British and is putty in their hands . . . ."

For the first invasion of the Axis' home turf, Patton commanded the new Seventh U.S. Army, including Bradley's II Corps. Patton welcomed the chance to assert U.S. military might. Initially scheduled to land on the island's northern coast and capture Sicily's capital Palermo, American troops expected to go on the offensive in Sicily. But Montgomery favored a less dispersed landing to the south and in the end, his plan won out. Patton still expected Seventh Army to make its mark. But to Alexander, it was clear that "Eighth Army would have the glory of capturing the more obviously attractive objectives of Syracuse, Catania, and Messina . . . ."


Messina and view of distant Itlay, ILN 1943/09/11


From the outset Eighth Army strategy left little room for Patton to operate, and Montgomery essentially imposed his will on Alexander. Montgomery reasoned that if the Americans could simply "hold firm against any action from the west I could then swing hard with my right with an easier mind. If they draw enemy attacks on them my swing north will cut off enemy completely." Two days later, Alexander transferred use of Highway 124 to Montgomery. "They gave us the future plan of operations," Patton wrote bitterly, "which cuts us off from any possibility of taking Messina."



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Patton considered himself, with good reason, "the best damn ass-kicker in the U.S. Army," but he accepted this outrageous decision without a protest. This was not the time to raise a fuss. For the moment he saved his invective for his diary. "Ike has never been subjected to air attack or any other form of death. However, he is such a straw man that his future is secure. The British will never let him go."


General Montgomery in a Canadian Army ambulance conversion jeep on the beach in Sicily, 1943.


Yet Patton did not simply give up Highway 124 with a smile. He slyly secured authorization to expand the American perimeter west. Patton had his eyes set on Palermo, and, ultimately, Messina. The next day Patton and Major General Lucien K. Truscott, who headed up the 3rd Infantry Division, discussed a westward reconnaissance in force toward Agrigento and Porto Empedocle. Truscott felt that Alexander would not object to such a move, and Patton, Truscott wrote, "with something of the air of the cat that had swallowed the canary, agreed . . . ." Patton had his foot in the door and he meant to swing it open.

On July 16 Alexander issued another directive that positively infuriated Patton. The order stipulated that Montgomery's Eighth Army would advance on Messina on three fronts. The Americans were officially left with the distasteful task of protecting Montgomery's left flank. Alexander lamely authorized Seventh Army "to capture Agrigento and Porto Empedocle"--something Truscott had done that very day. Patton blamed Montgomery. "Monty is trying to steal the show," he wrote to his wife, Beatrice, "and with the assistance of Divine Destiny [Eisenhower] may do so . . . ."


Lt. Col. Lyle Bernard, CO, 30th Infantry Regiment, a prominent figure in the second daring amphibious landing behind enemy lines on Sicily's north coast, discusses military strategy with Lt. Gen. George S. Patton. Near Brolo, NA 1943/08/09


Patton had had enough. Alexander clearly had no intention of assigning Seventh Army anything other than mop-up duty in Western Sicily, while Montgomery's Eighth marched to Messina and glory in the east. Patton felt his superior lacked "any conception of the power or mobility of the Seventh Army." On July 17 he climbed aboard a B-25 and flew to 15th Army headquarters in Tunisia to confront Alexander. Patton told the army group commander in no uncertain terms that he wanted his army unleashed. He explained "it would be inexpedient politically for the Seventh Army not to have equal glory in the final stage of the campaign." Patton asked for authorization to drive north to split the Axis forces and to clear out remaining resistance in the west. Alexander agreed, providing Seventh Army hold a crucial road network near Caltanissetta in the center of the island. "If I do what I am going to do," Patton confided to his diary, "there is no need of holding anything, but 'it's a mean man who won't promise,' so I did."

Patton wasted no time putting his new plan into action. He created a Provisional Corps under the command of Major General Geoffrey Keyes, his deputy commander, and sent it northwest towards Palermo while Bradley's II Corps set out for the north coast, knifing across the island's center through tough German defenders. Facing light resistance from largely dispirited Italian troops, Keyes' troops "moved so fast that often the German and Italian 88s [88mm anti-tank guns], which they captured en route, had not been pointed around or set up to shoot against them." On July 22 Truscott's Division entered Palermo after covering an astonishing 100 miles in just 72 hours. Wild celebrations and ebullient Sicilians greeted the Americans. Support for Italy's Fascist Dictator Benito Mussolini was nowhere to be seen. The next day the 45th Division of Bradley's II Corps reached the coast at Termini, 25 miles to the east. Until he took matters into his own hands, Patton wrote in his diary, "Monty was trying to command both armies and getting away with it." Now Seventh Army was making its mark.



Meanwhile, Patton pushed his personal competition with Montgomery to comical new heights. On July 25 he flew across the island to Syracuse for a meeting with Alexander and Montgomery. On seeing his erstwhile British rival, Patton noted, "I made the error of hurrying to meet him. He hurried a little too, but I started it." At the end of the conference, during which, Patton noted, he didn't receive lunch, "Monty gave me a 5¢ cigar lighter. Some one must have sent him a box of them." When Montgomery visited Palermo a few days later, Patton sent an escort to meet him at the airport and greeted him at his headquarters with a full band. "I hope Monty realized that I did this to show him up for doing nothing for me on the 25th," Patton wrote. At Syracuse, Montgomery surprised Patton by suggesting that Seventh Army capture Messina. While Keyes and Bradley had raced across Sicily, Montgomery's Eighth Army had become completely bogged down in the east. Dug-in German troops continued to hold Montgomery at Catania, while his circling movement west around Etna proceeded slowly. With Seventh Army now poised, cat-like, ready to strike east, Montgomery realized that Patton was best positioned to take the city. Besides, by attacking east Patton would relieve the pressure on Eighth Army and allow him to finally punch past Catania.


Major General Lucien K. Truscott


Patton doubted Montgomery's motives, but he needed no further urging. "This is a horse race in which the prestige of the US Army is at stake," he wrote to 45th Infantry Division Commander Major General Troy Middleton. "We must take Messina before the British. Please use your best efforts to facilitate the success of our race." Montgomery made little of this "race," but to Patton it became a personal crusade to win acclaim and respect for his much-maligned troops. British soldiers and officers undoubtedly wanted to beat the Americans into Messina. But Patton definitely hyped the contest.

On July 25, 1943, King Victor Emmanuel III, supported by leading Italian political figures, deposed dictator Benito Mussolini, and Italy began to negotiate peace terms with the Allies. (Italy would pull out of the Axis in September.) As German commanders planned to evacuate Sicily, Patton and Montgomery began squeezing Axis defenders into the island's northeast corner. Eighth Army continued to probe German defenses at Catania while Canadian and British troops drove in a "left hook" around Etna's western slope. To the north, the 1st and newly arrived 9th American Divisions advanced east from the island's rugged center, while the 3rd Division attacked down the north coast road. "The mountains are the worst I have ever seen," Patton wrote on August 1. "It is a miracle that our men can get through them but we must keep up our steady pressure. The enemy simply can't stand it, besides we must beat the Eighth Army to Messina."

1 posted on 02/22/2005 10:06:57 PM PST by SAMWolf
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To: snippy_about_it; PhilDragoo; Johnny Gage; Victoria Delsoul; The Mayor; Darksheare; Valin; ...
On August 3, Patton stopped by an army hospital outside Nicosia and chatted with several injured soldiers; "All were brave and cheerful," he noted. Then he encountered a 1st Division infantryman who seemed unhurt. Patton asked him what was wrong. "I guess I can't take it," the soldier replied. Patton erupted. Cursing the soldier as a coward, he slapped him with his gloves and pushed him out of the tent. Such men, Patton wrote, "should be tried for cowardice and shot." A week later at another hospital Patton came across another "alleged nervous patient," a private in the 13th Field Artillery Brigade whose case was diagnosed as severe shell shock. Again Patton's anger overcame him; again he slapped and cursed the soldier. "I can't help it," he said, "but it makes my blood boil to think of a yellow bastard being babied." Patton didn't realize the seriousness of what he had done, but the incidents would soon change his life and career.



Patton's relentless push for Messina also took its toll on his relationship with Bradley, a straight-laced subordinate who deplored Patton's use of profanity and flamboyant style of command. "He traveled in an entourage of command cars followed by a string of nattily uniformed staff officers," Bradley wrote. "His own vehicle was gaily decked with oversize stars and the insignia of his command. These exhibitions did not awe the troops as perhaps Patton believed. Instead, they offended the men as they trudged through the clouds of dust left in the wake of that procession." Where Patton was eager to outshine Montgomery, Bradley failed to see the point in capturing Palermo. "Certainly there was no glory in the capture of hills, docile peasants, and spiritless soldiers," he wrote. To Bradley, racing Montgomery to Messina was equally unnecessary, for "However rapidly we pushed into that city, we could not cut the enemy's escape route across to Italy."

Yet Patton wanted more than a cheap victory over Montgomery. Despite galling BBC reports (soldiers called them Badly Biased Comments) "that the Seventh Army has been lucky to be in western Sicily eating grapes," the capture of Palermo had been a publicity coup for Patton's army. The troops' morale soared. The Americans' non-stop marching and ability to operate tanks and other armored vehicles in rough terrain began to open the eyes of their Eighth Army counterparts. Capturing Messina promised more of the same.


Palermo entered by US tanks, ILN 1943/07/31


As the final phase of the Sicily Campaign heated up, Patton drove his officers to push as hard as they could. Troina fell on August 6. To the south, British forces captured Adrano and--finally--Catania. Fighting a brilliant rearguard action, German army units crept back from their narrowing front toward the beaches of the Straits of Messina. There, German and Italian ships waited to ferry troops and equipment across the two-mile passage to the Italian mainland.

In an effort to by-pass enemy positions and speed up his advance, Patton authorized two amphibious landings along the north coast. On the night of August 7-8 Americans swept ashore virtually unopposed behind German lines at St. Agata. At the same time, troops from Truscott's 3rd Division launched an attack on the high ridges inland and took 1,500 prisoners, bringing Seventh Army 12 miles closer to Messina. The second landing nearly proved a disaster. Truscott felt he would not have time to get his infantry up in time to support it, and wanted to postpone the attack for one day. Bradley agreed. But Patton was having none of it. Messina lay around the corner, and this wasn't the time to slow down. Early on August 11 elements of Truscott's 30th Infantry regiment went ashore at Brolo, 12 miles behind a German front. The Americans were quickly pinned down on a hill just above town. Nearly 30 hours passed before the balance of Truscott's troops could relieve them. Progress had again been made, but at a high price.


Palermo - women hold up babies to U.S. soldiers, ILN 1943/07/31


On August 13 American troops captured Randazzo. To the south, British and Canadian troops forced the Germans from the slopes of Mt. Etna. Axis forces flooded toward Messina. On the night of August 15-16 Montgomery tried an amphibious landing of his own, putting elements of his commando and armored units ashore at Scaletta, just eight miles from Messina.

Patton ordered a third "leap-frog" operation for that same night, but by then American troops were moving so fast that they had already passed the scheduled landing site by the time the ship borne force arrived. Around 10:00 p.m. on August 16 elements of Truscott's 3rd Division entered bomb-scarred Messina. Patton immediately notified Eisenhower and Alexander, and called Bradley to tell him "we would enter Messina in the morning at 1000 hours."


Gen. Bernard Law Montgomery is bid a jolly farewell by Lt. Gen. George S. Patton, Jr., at the Palermo, Sicily airport after a visit by Gen. Montgomery. (28 Jul 43) Signal Corps Photo: MM-Bri-7-28-43-R2-6 (Lt. Brin)


Early the next morning as the last of the Axis troops slipped off the island, Patton met Truscott, Keyes, and a host of reporters on a hill outside town. "What in hell are you all standing around for?" he bellowed. Bradley remained conspicuously absent. "This is a great disappointment to me," Patton later wrote, "as I had telephoned him, and he certainly deserved the pleasure of entering the town." But Bradley wanted no part of Patton's pomp and ceremony. Minutes later, a procession of army vehicles led by Patton's command car roared into Messina, chased all the way by exploding shells fired by Axis guns on the Italian mainland.

After fighting their way over mined roads and around blown-up bridges in the early-morning hours, Lieutenant Colonel J.M.T.F. Churchill's British commandos reached the city only to find the Americans already there. At about 10:30 a.m., Patton pulled into the city square just as a squadron of Brigadier J.C. Currie's British 4th Armored tanks rumbled into town. Both Churchill and Currie had brought along a set of bagpipes to celebrate beating the Americans into town. "I think the general was quite sore that we had got there first . . . ." Patton wrote. Currie climbed out of his Sherman tank to shake hands with a glowing Patton. "It was a jolly good race," Currie said with a smile. "I congratulate you."


Comino entered by U.S. 7th Army July 16, ILN 1943/07/31


Patton's victorious, hell-for-leather drive on Messina restored some luster to an otherwise badly managed campaign. Rather than firmly coordinating the moves of Seventh and Eighth Armies, Alexander had vacillated, first backing down to Montgomery and then allowing, almost forcing, Patton to set his own course. Poor decisions, such as the reassignment of Highway 124 to Montgomery (and poor air cover over the Messina Straits), ultimately cost time, and allowed Axis ships and ferries to evacuate roughly 60,000 Italian soldiers, 40,000 Germans, 10,000 vehicles, and 17,000 tons of equipment from the island--all of which would soon be used against the Allies in Italy.

The race had significant, if less tangible, repercussions for Patton and American fighting men. The fast-moving Seventh Army had proved itself the equal of Eighth Army and set a new standard in mobile warfare. The Americans, Montgomery admitted after the war, had "proved themselves to be first-class troops. It took time; but they did it more quickly than we did."

Patton was entirely satisfied with his own performance. "Of course, had I not been interfered with on the 13th of July by a full change of plan," he wrote to his wife, "I would have taken Messina in ten days, but then I would have had to turn back to get Palermo, so it all came out O.K." Although Alexander would continue to rate British troops above the Americans, Patton had effectively exorcised the demons of Kasserine Pass.


Messina entered by American troops, ILN 1943/09/11


Yet the Sicilian campaign almost ended Patton's 34-year army career. Reports of the two slapping incidents made their way to Eisenhower and, even worse, a small group of reporters. Eisenhower was furious. He ordered Patton to apologize to the soldiers involved and warned him that such behavior "will not be tolerated in this theater no matter who the offender may be." Meanwhile he asked the reporters to refrain from publishing the story for the good of the Allied cause. Patton was his best general and would be needed again. They agreed.

The story finally broke in November but Eisenhower refused to relieve his old friend. Still, the public furor over the slapping incidents doomed Patton to many months of glum idleness while the war passed him by. Eisenhower dropped him from consideration for command of American ground forces in the inevitable invasion of Europe--an honor that eventually went to Bradley. When Patton finally returned to action in France in command of Third Army in August 1944, he was subordinate to both Bradley and Montgomery. Yet to Patton, that was secondary. Destiny had beckoned him and he would soon become, as one German officer said, "the most feared general on all fronts."

Additional Sources:

www.answers.com
history.acusd.edu
www.1uptravel.com
www.temple.edu
www.webbuild.net
bcoy1cpb.pacdat.net
www.army.mil
www.ibiblio.org

2 posted on 02/22/2005 10:08:00 PM PST by SAMWolf (My tagline is in the shop. This is a loaner.)
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To: All
Husky was the largest amphibious operation of World War II in terms of men landed on the beaches, and of frontage; it overshadowed even the later Normandy landings. Strategically, the Sicilian operation achieved the goals set out for it by Allied planners. Axis air and naval forces were driven from the island; the Mediterranean sea lanes were opened and Mussolini had been topled from power. It opened the way to the invasion of Italy, which had not necessarily been seen as a follow-up to Operation Husky.

The invasion also had an impact on the Eastern front. One of the reasons why the Germans had to cancel their offensive near Kursk was that they decided to send units to Italy after they received news of the invasion.

The casualties on the Axis side totalled 29,000, with 140,000 captured. The capture of Biscari airfield also resulted in an atrocity when American troops killed seventy-three Prisoners of War. The US lost 2,237 killed and 6,544 wounded and captured; the British suffered 2,721 dead, and 10,122 wounded and captured. For many of the American forces this was their first time in combat. However the Axis successfully evacuated over 100,000 men and 10,000 vehicles from Sicily. No plan had been made by the Allies to prevent this.


3 posted on 02/22/2005 10:08:22 PM PST by SAMWolf (My tagline is in the shop. This is a loaner.)
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To: All


Veterans for Constitution Restoration is a non-profit, non-partisan educational and grassroots activist organization. The primary area of concern to all VetsCoR members is that our national and local educational systems fall short in teaching students and all American citizens the history and underlying principles on which our Constitutional republic-based system of self-government was founded. VetsCoR members are also very concerned that the Federal government long ago over-stepped its limited authority as clearly specified in the United States Constitution, as well as the Founding Fathers' supporting letters, essays, and other public documents.





Actively seeking volunteers to provide this valuable service to Veterans and their families.




We here at Blue Stars For A Safe Return are working hard to honor all of our military, past and present, and their families. Inlcuding the veterans, and POW/MIA's. I feel that not enough is done to recognize the past efforts of the veterans, and remember those who have never been found.

I realized that our Veterans have no "official" seal, so we created one as part of that recognition. To see what it looks like and the Star that we have dedicated to you, the Veteran, please check out our site.

Veterans Wall of Honor

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UPDATED THROUGH APRIL 2004




The FReeper Foxhole. America's History. America's Soul

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4 posted on 02/22/2005 10:08:42 PM PST by SAMWolf (My tagline is in the shop. This is a loaner.)
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To: SAMWolf; snippy_about_it; bentfeather; Darksheare; Light Speed; PhilDragoo; Matthew Paul; All
Good morning everyone!

To all our military men and women past and present, military family members, and to our allies who stand beside us
Thank You!


5 posted on 02/22/2005 10:14:56 PM PST by radu (May God watch over our troops and keep them safe)
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To: SAMWolf

Good evening Samwolf....I'm bookmarking for reading in the morning. A great thread as always.


6 posted on 02/22/2005 10:15:38 PM PST by AZamericonnie
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To: AZamericonnie

Great post. Today's climate with Europe's new governments, really makes me wonder if the huge sacrifice was worth it.


7 posted on 02/22/2005 10:23:11 PM PST by EagleUSA
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To: SafeReturn; Brad's Gramma; AZamericonnie; SZonian; soldierette; shield; A Jovial Cad; ...



"FALL IN" to the FReeper Foxhole!



Good Wednesday Morning Everyone.

If you want to be added to our ping list, let us know.

If you'd like to drop us a note you can write to:

The Foxhole
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Oregon City, OR 97045

8 posted on 02/22/2005 10:23:25 PM PST by snippy_about_it (Fall in --> The FReeper Foxhole. America's History. America's Soul.)
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To: SAMWolf

Teaser
1942 - Japanese sub fires on oil refinery in Ellwood, Calif
/Teaser

"I'm going to beat that...gentleman too Messina!"


9 posted on 02/22/2005 10:23:45 PM PST by Valin (DARE to be average!)
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To: SAMWolf

Looks like a good read, I'll need to take some time off to read this in the morning. Paging through quickly before bed I see a couple pics of old Monty. Grrrr. I'll report back after reading in the morning. Good night Sam.


10 posted on 02/22/2005 10:25:33 PM PST by snippy_about_it (Fall in --> The FReeper Foxhole. America's History. America's Soul.)
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To: snippy_about_it
Good morning Snippy.


11 posted on 02/23/2005 2:16:22 AM PST by Aeronaut (You haven't seen a tree until you've seen its shadow from the sky. -- Amelia Earhart)
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To: snippy_about_it

BTTT!!!!!!


12 posted on 02/23/2005 3:03:05 AM PST by E.G.C.
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To: snippy_about_it

Good morning ALL


13 posted on 02/23/2005 3:47:49 AM PST by GailA (Glory be to GOD and his only son Jesus.)
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To: snippy_about_it; SAMWolf; alfa6; Professional Engineer; Samwise; Matthew Paul; radu; PhilDragoo; ...

Good morning everyone!

14 posted on 02/23/2005 5:46:25 AM PST by Soaring Feather
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To: snippy_about_it; SAMWolf; All

February 23, 2005

The Ethics Of Good News

Read:
2 Kings 7:3-9

We are not doing right. This day is a day of good news, and we remain silent. -2 Kings 7:9

Bible In One Year: Numbers 21-24

cover If a scientist discovered the cure for cancer, we would expect the discovery to be shared with the world. Basic ethics requires that good news not be kept secret.

When the king of Syria laid siege to the city of Samaria, the food supply was cut off. Four men with leprosy, deciding it would be preferable to die at the hands of the Syrians than to starve, went to surrender to the enemy. But when they came to the camp, they found it deserted. The army had fled in the night.

Food lay everywhere. The four men stuffed themselves, and they were tempted to remain silent about the good news. But then the memory of Samaria with its famished inhabitants came back to them. "We are not doing right," they told each other (2 Kings 7:9). So they became evangelists-bearers of good news. Ultimately, evangelism comes down to this: one starving person telling another starving person where to find food.

You and I have discovered that salvation is found in Jesus Christ. It is a breakdown of basic integrity to keep that truth to ourselves. If we have found the cure for a guilty conscience, if we have found the food of life, we are obligated to share it with others. -Haddon Robinson

If you've received God's great salvation,
Do not keep it to yourself;
The Bible tells where all may find it-
Do not leave it on the shelf. -Hess

Evangelism is one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread.

FOR FURTHER STUDY
How Can I Break The Silence?
What About Those Who Have Never Heard?

15 posted on 02/23/2005 5:57:14 AM PST by The Mayor (http://www.RusThompson.com)
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To: snippy_about_it; SAMWolf; All

Shades of the movie "Patton" bump for the Freeper Foxhole

Regards

alfa6 ;>}


16 posted on 02/23/2005 5:57:48 AM PST by alfa6
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To: SAMWolf; snippy_about_it; All

Good morning, thanks for the ping. Very interesting read today. Of course most of us know what happens when you put two egomaniacs on the same team. I just believe Patton's motivation was more selfless than Montgomery's and just wanted to knock Montgomery down a few pegs.

Cheers!


17 posted on 02/23/2005 6:27:55 AM PST by SZonian (Tagline???? I don't need no stinkin' tagline!)
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To: SAMWolf

On This Day In History


Birthdates which occurred on February 23:
1417 Paul II [Pietro Barbo], Italy, Pope (1464-71)
1633 Samuel Pepys London England, navy expert/composer (Diary, Memoirs)
1649 John Blow composer of 1st English opera (Venus & Adonis) (baptized)
1685 George Frideric Händel Halle Germany, organist/baroque composer (Messiah)
1734 Mayer Amschel Rothschild Frankfurt, founder (House of Rothschild)(it's all a plot)
1776 John Walter II London, chief proprietor (The London Times, 1812-47)
1818 Major General Jeremy F Gilmer General/Chief Engineer Confederate War Department
1824 Lewis Cass Hunt Brigadier General (Union volunteers), died in 1886
1838 Gilbert Moxley Sorrel Brigadier General (Confederate Army), died in 1901
1865 Barney Dreyfuss baseball owner (Pittsburgh Pirates)
1868 W E B Du Bois Great Barrington MA, civil rights writer (Souls of Black Folk)
1879 Agnes Arber English biologist/philosopher (Mind & the Eye)
1883 Victor Fleming Pasadena CA, director (Wizard of Oz, Gone With Wind)
1883 Karl Jaspers Oldenburg Germany, existentialist philosopher
1904 William L Shirer historian (Rise & Fall of 3rd Reich)
1911 G Mennen Williams Detroit MI, Sup Court Justice/(Governor-D-MI, 1949-60)
1917 Kenneth Tobey actor (Chuck-Whirlybirds)
1928 Vasily Grigoryevich Lazarev Siberia USSR, cosmonaut (Soyuz 12, 18A)
1929 Elston Howard Yankee catcher (1st black New York Yankee/1963 AL MVP)
1937 Tom Osborne college football coach
1939 Majel Barrett Columbus OH, actress (Christine Chapel-Star Trek)
1940 Peter Fonda actor (Easy Rider, Lilith, Wild Angels, Trip)
1943 Fred Biletnikoff NFL wide receiver (Oakland Raiders)
1944 Johnny Winter [John Dawson], Leland MS, guitarist (Silver Train)
1947 Colin Sanders British computer engineer (Solid State Logic)
1951 Ed "Too Tall" Jones NFL linebacker (Dallas Cowboys)
1963 Bobby Bonilla New York NY, outfielder (New York Mets, Baltimore Orioles, Marlins)



Deaths which occurred on February 23:
0155 Polycarp disciple of Apostle John, arrested & burned at stake
1447 Eugene IV [Gabriele Condulmer], Italian Pope (1431-47), dies

1468 Johannes Gutenberg German inventor (boekdrukkunst), dies

1792 Joshua Reynolds English portrait painter (Simplicity), dies at 68
1821 John Keats Romantic poet, dies of tuberculosis at 25 in Rome
1848 John Quincy Adams 6th US President (1825-1829), dies of a stroke at 80
1900 William Butterfield architect of the Gothic revival, dies
1915 Robert Smalls Reconstruction congressman, dies at 75 in South Carolina
1924 Thomas Woodrow Wilson 28th US President (1913-21), dies
1930 Fahne Hoch lyricist (Horst Wessel) German Nazi, dies at 22
1945 Aubrey Cousins Canadian sergeant (Victoria Cross), dies in battle
1965 Stan Laurel comedian (Laurel & Hardy), dies in California of heart attack at 74
1969 Abd al-Aziz Abd al-Rahman al-Faisal al-Saud King Saudia, dies at 67
1976 Fuzzy Knight actor (Gun Town, Ragtime Cowboy Joe), dies at 74
1990 James Gavin commandant US 82nd Airborn Division (Normandy), dies at 82
1990 Jose Napoleon Duarte President of Salvador (1984-89), dies at 62
1995 James Herriot (78), Scottish author (All Creatures Great & Small), died.
1995 Peter Guy Wykeham Fighter Pilot (WWII ace) dies at 79
1996 Lieutenant General Hussein Kamel al-Majid, Saddam Kamel al-Majid, murdered (sons-in-law of Saddam Hussein)


Reported: MISSING in ACTION

1968 DONALD MYRON L.---MORAVIA NY.
[03/14/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE AND WELL 98]
1968 GUTTERSON LAIRD---CULVER CITY CA.
[03/14/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE AND WELL 98]
1968 HUBLER GEORGE L.---MOAB UT.

POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.


On this day...
0303 Emperor Diocletian orders general persecution of Christians
1455 Johannes Gutenberg prints 1st book, the Bible (estimated date)
1540 Spanish explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado began his unsuccessful search for the fabled Seven Cities of Gold in the American Southwest.
1574 France begins 5th Holy War against Huguenots
1660 Charles XI becomes king of Sweden
1672 Joan Blaeus publishers destroyed by fire in Amsterdam
1689 Dutch prince William III proclaimed king of England

1778 Baron von Steuben joins the Continental Army at Valley Forge

1792 Humane Society of Massachusetts incorporated (erected life-saving stations for distressed mariners)
1792 Joseph Haydn's 94th Symphony in G, premieres
1813 1st US raw cotton-to-cloth mill founded in Waltham MA
1820 Cato Street conspiracy uncovered
1821 College of Apothecaries organized in Philadelphia; 1st US pharmacy college
1822 Boston is incorporated as a city

1836 Alamo besieged by Santa Anna; entire garrison eventually killed

1847 Battle of Buena Vista, México; Zachary Taylor defeats Mexicans
1854 Great-Britain & Orange Free state sign Convention of Bloemfontein
1861 By popular referendum, Texas becomes 7th state to secede from US
1861 President-elect Lincoln arrives secretly in Washington DC to take office
1869 Louisiana governor signs public accommodations law
1870 Mississippi is re-admitted to US
1874 Major Walter Winfield patents game called "sphairistike" (lawn tennis)
1883 Alabama becomes 1st US state to enact an antitrust law
1883 American Anti-Vivisection Society organized (Philadelphia)
1886 Aluminum manufacturing process developed
1886 London Times publishes world's 1st classified ad
1887 French/Italian Riviera struck by Earthquake; 2,000 die
1892 1st college student government established, Bryn Mawr PA
1896 Tootsie Roll introduced by Leo Hirshfield
1898 In France, Emile Zola is imprisoned for writing his "J'accuse" letter accusing government of anti-Semitism & wrongly jailing Alfred Dreyfus
1903 Cuban state of Guantanamo leased to USA
1904 Control of Panamá Canal Zone acquired by US for $10 million
1905 Rotary Club International established by 4 men in Chicago
1910 1st radio contest held (Philadelphia)
1915 Nevada enforces convenient divorce law
1916 French artillery kills entire French 72nd division at Samogneux Verdun (another great moment in French military history)
1917 February revolution begins in Russia
1919 Benito Mussolini founds the Facist party of Italy
1921 1st US transcontinental air mail flight arrives in New York NY from San Francisco CA
1927 President Coolidge creates Federal Radio Commission (FCC predecessor)
1934 Casey Stengel becomes manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers
1934 Coronation of King Leopold III of Belgium
1936 1st rocket air mail flight, Greenwood Lake NY
1938 Twelve Chinese fighter planes dropped bombs on Japan
1938 Joe Louis KOs Nathan Mann in 3 for heavyweight boxing title
1940 Walt Disney's animated movie "Pinocchio", released
1942 Japanese sub fires on oil refinery in Ellwood CA
1943 German troops pull back through Kasserine-pass Tunisia

1945 US Marines raise flag on Iwo Jima, famous photo & statue

1947 General Eisenhower opens drive to raise $170 million in aid for European Jews
1954 1st mass inoculation with Salk vaccine (Pittsburgh)
1956 20th Congress of CPSU closes in Moscow
1956 Russian party leader Khrushchev attacks memory of Stalin
1960 Demolition begins on Brooklyn's Ebbets Field (opened in 1913)
1966 Aldo Moro forms Italian government
1966 Premier Obote grabs power in Uganda
1967 25th amendment (Presidential succession) declared ratified
1967 US troops begin largest offensive of Vietnam War
1969 Nayif Hawatimah forms Democratic People's Front for Liberation of Palestine
1971 Lieutenant Calley confesses & implicates Captain Medina (My Lai massacre)
1976 Owners announce spring training won't open without a labor contract
1979 Frank Peterson Jr named 1st black general in Marine Corps
1980 Eric Heiden wins all 5 speed skating golds at Lake Placid Olympics
1985 Indiana basketball coach Bobby Knight throws a chair during a game
1985 US Senate confirms Edwin Meese III as Attorney General
1987 Supernova 1987A in LMC 1st seen; 1st naked-eye supernova since 1604
1987 Russian Writers Union accepts Boris Pasternak posthumous as member
1991 US insists Iraq publicly announce it is leaving Kuwait by 12 PM EST
1991 North Carolina is 1st NCAA basketball team to win 1,500 games
1997 Ali Abu Kamal opens fire in Empire State Building & kills 1
1997 NBC TV shows "Schindler's List", completely uncensored, 65 million watch
1997 Scientists in Scotland announced they succeeded in cloning an adult mammal, producing a lamb named "Dolly"
1998 Supreme Court lets Megan's Law stand
1998 Tornadoes in Florida kills at least 31
1998 Osama bin Laden declares a holy war on the US.
2003 In Iraq Saddam Hussein met separately with Russian Yevgeny Primakov and former US attorney gen'l. Ramsay Clark. Clark said Hussein feared that Pres. Bush had made up his mind to attack and that there was nothing he could do to prevent it.


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

World : International Dog Biscuit Appreciation Day
Brunei : National Day
Guyana : Republic Day (1970)
US : Iwo Jima Day (1945)
US : Wine Appreciation Week (Day 2)
US : Engineers Week (Day 2)
Macadamia Nut Month


Religious Observances
Ancient Rome : Terminalia; festival of Terminus, god of boundaries
Anglican, Lutheran, Roman Catholic : Memorial of St Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, martyr
old Roman Catholic : Feast of St Peter Damian, bishop of Ostia/confessor/doctor (2/2)
Lutheran : Commemoration of Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg, missionary
Christian : Shrove Monday


Religious History
155 Martyrdom of Polycarp, an early Church Father who was a disciple of the Apostle John. Arrested at age 86, Polycarp was burned at the stake for refusing to deny the Christian faith.
1744 Colonial missionary to the American Indians David Brainerd wrote in his journal: 'There is a God in heaven who over-rules all things for the best; and this is the comfort of my soul.'
1775 Anglican hymnwriter John Newton wrote in a letter: 'How great and honorable is the privilege of a true believer! That he has neither wisdom nor strength in himself is no disadvantage, for he is connected with infinite wisdom and almighty power.
1834 Scottish clergyman Robert Murray McCheyne wrote in his journal: 'Rose early to seek God and found Him whom my soul loveth. Who would not rise early to meet such company?'
1970 The Holy Eucharist was distributed by women for the first time in a Roman Catholic service.

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.


Thought for the day :
"Almost anything is easier to get into than out of."


18 posted on 02/23/2005 6:34:12 AM PST by Valin (DARE to be average!)
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To: radu

Morniing Radu.


19 posted on 02/23/2005 6:39:51 AM PST by SAMWolf (My tagline is in the shop. This is a loaner.)
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To: AZamericonnie

Morning AZamericonnie.


20 posted on 02/23/2005 6:40:42 AM PST by SAMWolf (My tagline is in the shop. This is a loaner.)
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