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Posted on 05/23/2005 9:41:38 PM PDT by SAMWolf
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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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The great Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe once characterized society’s need for three kinds of people. He called them drummers, warriors and storytellers. Drummers, Achebe said, are those who develop a deep understanding of the past, a realistic appraisal of the present, then drum up enduring causes for the future. Warriors are those who go forth to fight military, political and even social battles for great causes, perhaps many times if necessary, demonstrating thereby the enduring worth of the causes. Storytellers recount what happened -- tell the story of great events.  Relief of Bastogne Of the three, Achebe said storytellers are the most important, for it is their version of what happened that is recorded as history. Notwithstanding that suggestion of how history becomes what it is, we also note that seldom in one person do we find all three of these people -- drummer, warrior, storyteller -- but when we do, that happy juxtaposition more often than not makes the history they tell what it might not be from the hand of a non-drummer, non-warrior. In the entrance hall to the Patton Museum of Cavalry and Armor, there is a wall designated as the International Commanders Wall. On it are displayed five splendid Jody Harmon prints of famous armor commanders of the 20th century. Certainly all you conscientious armor leaders have gone there, sat on your camp stools before that wall and studied those five portraits hoping to learn something from the lives and deeds of those five great men. I had intended to ask someone to name those five heroes. But I learned from a recent survey of college senior history students in the 10 leading U.S. universities that a large percentage of them had identified the American commander at the battle of Yorktown in the American Revolution as Ulysses S. Grant. Some even believed the Yorktown battle was fought within a few days of the battle of Gettysburg, and that the two battles were what caused President George Washington to send Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders to Cuba to unseat Castro. So perhaps I should avoid embarrassment and just identify the five men on the commander’s wall for you.  Israeli Centurion tanks counterattacking against Syrian forces during the "October War" of 1973. Who are they? One is a German; two were U.S. Army general officers; two were general officers in the Israeli Defense Force (IDF), both commanders of the IDF Armored Corps. The German, of course, is Field Marshal Rommel. The U.S. officers are Gen. George Patton (the elder) and Gen. Creighton Abrams (the elder). The Israeli officers are Gen. Israel Tal (Talik) and Gen. Musa Peled. Why are their portraits there? They are there because each of them in his own way was first a drummer, then a warrior -- several times over -- then a storyteller, either firsthand or by the hand of a remarkable biographer. If you take away from your study of the wall nothing more than that metric by which you might judge yourself, your time will have been well spent. May I just illustrate?  We probably know Field Marshal Rommel best from his son Manfred’s version of his father’s war diaries, The Rommel Papers, edited by Liddell Hart. But Rommel himself wrote a book called Infanterie greift an from his experience as an infantry battalion commander in World War I. Translated into English as Infantry Attacks, it literally means to seize the initiative at tactical and operational levels with tactical and operational maneuver. Based on his own storytelling, Rommel became a drummer for seizing the initiative and a warrior who did just that at tactical and operational levels, leading to his striking successes in World War II. You will find his ideas deeply embedded in what we called "AirLand Battle" -- the doctrine that was so successful in the 1991 Gulf War -- for it came from lengthy study of Infanterie greift an. Both Generals Patton and Abrams were warriors whose exploits need no comment. But each was also a drummer and a storyteller in his own unique way. Gen. Patton kept extensive records, from which Martin Blumenson published two volumes of The Patton Papers, and he and others have written excellent biographies. And firsthand from Patton we have Paul Harkins’ edition of Patton’s memoirs, War As I Knew It, and from that book we have Patton’s dictums regarding causes -- tactical and operational, the fighting of battles and campaigns, the winning of wars.  Although he himself disdained record keeping and did not live to write his own memoirs, Gen. Abrams’ story found a remarkable storyteller. His story is recounted in Bob Sorley’s superb books Thunderbolt and A Better War. As I commented in a review of Thunderbolt, had Gen. Abrams commanded in Vietnam sooner, that war would surely have had quite a different and much happier outcome, for he had quite a different cause to drum than had his predecessor.  Musa Peled’s cause was the survival and independence of the state of Israel, and to that end he fought in all of his country’s wars. A graduate of the armor school at Fort Knox, during his active service he would become commandant of the Israeli Defense Force Command and General Staff College and commander of the IDF Armored Corps. His story is writ large in the several histories of his division’s relief of the beleaguered garrison brigades on the Golan Heights in the early hours of the Yom Kippur war. Quite soon after the Syrian attack began, Musa’s division started north. He himself arrived first; the Northern Command commander instructed him to put his battalions, one at a time, into the breaches in the defenses of the 188th Brigade, most of whose battalions had been rendered noneffective. Musa demurred, saying his division should take the initiative, attacking into the left flank of Syrian echelons coming down the road from Damascus towards crossings over the Jordan. Prime Minister Golda Meir was called; Gen. Bar Lev was sent to referee; Bar Lev sided with Musa; with about a fourth of his division still en route, Musa attacked. Within four hours nearly 600 Syrian tanks were destroyed along the front; Musa’s division was across the Green Line, its lead brigade heading for Damascus. The Syrian attack was destroyed. When word came that the Soviets were moving their airborne divisions to marshalling airfields inside the Soviet Union, the Israelis shut down the attack at the outskirts of Damascus, but their remarkable operational maneuver had saved Israel.  Talik, like Musa, is a veteran of all his country’s wars. Drummer for tactical and operational level maneuver, Talik also became drummer for an Israeli designed, engineered and built tank, the Merkava. It is, perhaps without question, the tank in the world inventories of tanks that most closely matches concepts of employment visualized by its user. By many standards, it is the best tank in the world -- designed, engineered and built under the firm hand of Talik. So you see, despite different cultures, nationalities, backgrounds and generations, these five great warriors tell a consistent story. What are its important elements? We tend to see them all as men of action, leaders who led from the front, set the example, seized the initiative. They were all that indeed, but more besides. First, they were profound students of the art of war at the tactical and operational levels -- the history of war. Second, from their studies they formed quite clear concepts of what was needed in order to fight and win, at tactical and operational levels, in the first and succeeding battles of the next, not the last, war. Third, they were all convincing teachers of the lessons of their study and experience. They recognized the need to persuade the many of what the few had learned the hard way. Finally, they all saw the training and education of leaders as key. To them leadership was an art, an art required by the ever-present need to identify and train leaders for the next generation of soldiers and wars.  Both Musa Peled and Gen. Abrams would remark many times that soldiers are a constant; they will do what they have been taught and trained to do and do it as well as their leaders have taught them to do it. When things go wrong, look to the leadership. Remember that as you contemplate these great men from your camp stool perch in front of that wall. Remember also, that in the history of the mechanization of battle, which is the history of war in the 20th century, many, if not most of the drummers and their causes, of the warriors and their exploits, of the storytellers and their remarkable stories, came directly or in some cases roundabout from this old camp where we assemble tonight -- Fort Knox. For Lt. Gen. Adna R. Chaffee was a drummer. While a warrior, he did not live to fight battles which were the target of his causes. But many, if not most, of his subordinates did. Those subordinates, in their World War II operations, refined the causes for which Gen. Chaffee drummed. And while the realized cause was in the end the work of many, Gen. Chaffee was the drummer and would-be warrior. His story, in a modest way, is set forth in Camp Colt to Desert Storm: The History of U.S. Armored Forces. From tanks in World War I to the end of Desert Storm 1991, it is the story of the mechanization of our army. There George Hofmann and I are editors and storytellers, along with Bob Sorley, Bob Sunell, Phil Bolté and Oscar Decker. The drummers, warriors and storytellers for what became AirLand Battle began life right here at Fort Knox. For from the dismal aftermath of the Vietnam War, no more than a handful of determined drummers, warriors and storytellers fashioned the ideas, the organization, the battlefield operating systems, and the training and education systems for soldiers, and especially for leaders, for the magnificent force which would fight and win the Hundred Hour War in 1991. That is your legacy from all of us; those who have been and those who are still drummers, warriors, storytellers. What legacy will you leave to the generations of soldiers, leaders and armies who will fight the battles yet to come?
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Oh BTW, Flag-o-Gram.
Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld poses for a photograph with Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Lauren Fyfe, of Raleigh, N.C., following a town hall meeting at Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, on April 29, 2003. Rumsfeld addressed the troops and then took questions from the military audience. Rumsfeld is visiting the troops and senior leadership in the Persian Gulf region. DoD photo by Helene C. Stikkel. (Released)
Happy Treadhead Tuesday to all.
"1941 Bismarck sinks British battle cruiser HMS Hood, 1,416 die 3 survive"
Sink the Bismark
Johnny Horton
In May of 1941 the war had just begun
The Germans had the biggest ship that had the biggest guns
The Bismarck was the fastest ship that ever sailed the sea
On her decks were guns as big as steers and shells as big as trees
Out of the cold and foggy night came the British ship the Hood
And every British seaman he knew and understood
They had to sink the Bismarck the terror of the sea
Stop those guns as big as steers and those shells as big as trees
We'll find the German battleship that's makin' such a fuss
We gotta sink the Bismarck cause the world depends on us
Yeah hit the decks a runnin' boys and spin those guns around
When we find the Bismarck we gotta cut her down
[ ac.guitar ]
The Hood found the Bismarck and on that fatal day
The Bismarck started firing fifteen miles away
We gotta sink the Bismarck was the battle sound
But when the smoke had cleared away the mighty Hood went down
For six long days and weary nights they tried to find her trail
Churchill told the people put every ship asail
Cause somewhere on that ocean I know she's gotta be
We gotta sink the Bismarck to the bottom of the sea
We'll find the German battleship...
[ ac.guitar ]
The fog was gone the seventh day and they saw the morning sun
Ten hours away from homeland the Bismarck made its run
The Admiral of the British fleet said turn those bows around
We found that German battleship and we're gonna cut her down
The British guns were aimed and the shells were coming fast
The first shell hit the Bismarck they knew she couldn't last
That mighty German battleship is just a memory
Sink the Bismarck was the battle cry that shook the seven seas
We found the German battleship t'was makin' such a fuss
We had to sink the Bismarck cause the world depends on us
We hit the deck a runnin' and we and spun those guns around
Yeah we found the mighty Bismarck and then we cut her down
We found the German battleship...
Now that's been just one of my favorite songs since I was a kid. :-)
Howdy PE. Sounds like a might sprint flight you had there to Houston. Was it just as hot down there as it is here?
Howdy ma'am
It's been a loooooong day. I nearly lost my Hobbit Hole knife to the TSA. Fortunately I had enough time to take it bake to the car.
I had gone through my briefcase, and removed the spare HH knife and everything else. I remembered to leave my swiss army knife in my desk.
As I was stepping up to the metal detector, I pulled my hand out of my pocket, and felt my knife catch on my wrist. The screener looked up, motioned me to come through. I just pulled it out and held it up, and told 'em I knew it would set the machine off.
Holy Cow Wizard Man!!! That was *almost* an error of epic proportions!!! Glad you caught it in time!!! Whew!!!
When published in 1952, Panzer Leader quickly became a best seller, but over the half-decade that followed, it also established itself as a classic, lauded by Stephen Ambrose as "a mesmerizing read." A dramatic first-person account by the father of modern tank warfare, it is also a searing group portrait of the Third Reich's leading personalities as they turned imminent victory into agonizing defeat.
This is one of the most significant military books of the twentieth century. By an outstanding soldier of independent mind, it pushed forward the evolution of land warfare and was directly responsible for German armoured supremacy in the early years of the Second World War.
Published in 1937, the result of 15 years of careful study since his days on the German General Staff in the First World War, Guderian's book argued, quite clearly, how vital the proper use of tanks and supporting armoured vehicles would be in the conduct of a future war. When that war came, just two years later, he proved it, leading his Panzers with distinction in the Polish, French and Russian campaigns. Panzer warfare had come of age, exactly as he had forecast.
This first English translation of Heinz Guderian's classic book -used as a textbook by Panzer officers in the war -has an introduction and extensive background notes by the modern English historian Paul Harris.
It was clear that a weapon system of primary importance was at stake, vital to our security, but which had been refused, to Israel by all nations. No change in this attitude was foreseen.The question, which arose therefore, was not whether we should engage in development and manufacture of a homemade tank, but whether we would be capable of achieved the high levels of industrial and technological expertise required to succeed in such a project. To this was added the question of whether we would be capable of doing so at a reasonable price and without disrupting the Israeli economy.
In order to answer these questions, it was decided to conduct a study, presided by Major General Israel Tal. The study was conducted by experts of the Ministry of Defense and of the Ordnance Corps, and was designed to answer two essential questions:
1. Would Israel be capable of planning, designing and manufacturing a Main Battle Tank from the point of view of technological know-how and industrial infrastructure?
2. Is there any economic sense in such a project - does it ensure economic viability in the broad sense, to the economy of Israel?
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Abrams (1914-1974) made a name for himself during WW II's Battle of the Bulge when he led his tank battalion in relief of an encircled American division at Bastogne. A quarter century later, having replaced Gen. William Westmoreland as MAC-V (Military Assistance Command-Vietnam) commander in Saigon, he supervised the process of preparing the South Vietnamese government to take over the war while American forces withdrew. Abrams's reputation for competence and uncompromising integrity was intact when he returned to the U.S. in 1972 ("Abe never talks about ethics," said a colleague quoted here, "he just examples it"). Appointed Army chief of staff, Abrams now faced the greatest challenge of his career: reforming the demoralized Army. Sorley, who has taught at West Point and the Army War College, provides a detailed account of how Abrams initiated such a turnaround in the post-Vietnam days. This anecdote-rich biography captures the essence of a great but little-known general who was an important military transitional figure. Photos. Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Abrams's career spanned three American wars (World War II, Korea, and Vietnam), and he finished it as the Army Chief of Staff. His efforts in the immediate post-Vietnam years helped to reform the army into the efficient war machine of the Persian Gulf War. Thunderbolt covers Abrams's entire career in detail. Sources used in this book include an impressive list of books, articles, documents, and interviews. The author's military background (Sorley was a West Point graduate and Pentagon staff officer) is omnipresent--the book reads much like an official military history. This is not to say that the work aggrandizes the U.S. military or government; many shortcomings and Abrams's attempt to grapple with them are discussed. Thunderbolt fills a gap on a very influential member of the U.S. Army. The book is of value to the military historian as well as to history and military buffs. Recommended for academic and public libraries. Miltary Book Club main selection. -Jim Cunningham, Northern Illinois Univ. Lib., DeKalb
Not a single country agreed to sell new tanks to us. It is still not clear why some countries did allow us to occasionally buy new and modern means of battle, such as jet fighter planes, but persisted in their refusal to sell us new tanks. Merkava-Historical Background
LOL!
Manstein fought mostly on the Russian Front and worked miracles. He was know as the Fuherer's Fireman, always managed to pull a trick out of his hat and give the Soviets a black eye.
Thanks DD. Great video. :-)
Romanians on the North.
There's always a first time. :-D
Got pictures?
Hi miss Feather
:-)
Mine too, I have it memorized, ask Shippy. LOL
Evening PE.
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