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Posted on 05/31/2005 10:38:38 PM PDT by SAMWolf
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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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| Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel free to address their specific circumstances or whatever issues concern them in an atmosphere of peace, understanding, brotherhood and support. The FReeper Foxhole hopes to share with it's readers an open forum where we can learn about and discuss military history, military news and other topics of concern or interest to our readers be they Veteran's, Current Duty or anyone interested in what we have to offer. If the Foxhole makes someone appreciate, even a little, what others have sacrificed for us, then it has accomplished one of it's missions. We hope the Foxhole in some small way helps us to remember and honor those who came before us.
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From Germany's first major drop into Norway in 1940 to the Allies' last airborne operation across the Rhine in March 1945, tens of thousands of airborne soldiers fell from the skies to fight behind enemy lines.  The war's end brought such innovations to a halt, while the penurious decade that followed the conflict ensured that virtually nothing moved forward in terms of preparation for using aircraft to project military power beyond military lines. Only science fiction writers, and precious few of them, took up the possibility of dropping military formations behind enemy lines. In the mid-1930s, two ambitious tyrannies, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, became interested in the possibilities that airborne operations might offer. As with their work in mechanized warfare, the Soviet interest in airborne operations bore fruit first. In 1935 the Soviets dropped large numbers of paratroopers during their annual maneuvers. Tragically for the Russian people, Josef Stalin's brutal and megalomaniacal regime then proceeded to carry out a drastic purge of the Red Army's officer corps -- a savage bloodletting that all but ended early airborne warfare development and destroyed much of the Soviet Union's military effectiveness.  The Nazis did not purge their officer corps. Instead, as a part of Germany's massive military buildup, Adolf Hitler devoted significant resources to the creation of innovative new forms of the combined-arms approach to war. The Luftwaffe, under the ambitious Hermann Göring, took the development of airborne forces under its wing. Concomitantly, the army began developing supporting forces that could reinforce paratroopers by airlift and glider insertion once the airborne had established an aerial bridgehead. With thorough and frightening effectiveness, by the late 1930s the Germans had developed a coherent doctrine for airborne operations, the trained troops to execute such operations and the equipment that would allow its paratroopers, or FallschirmjÄger, to carry out their missions once they had reached the ground. The Luftwaffe was able to supply the transport for airborne operations by transitioning its first bomber force, which largely consisted of Junkers Ju-52/3ms, into the transport force, as faster and more effective bombers such as the Heinkel He-111, Dornier Do-17 and the Junkers Ju-88 became available.  Nevertheless, the number of trained airborne troops and their supporting structure was relatively small -- not much more than a reinforced regiment -- when World War II broke out in September 1939. A portion of that force was used in the Polish campaign, but the German conquest was so rapid and overwhelming that relatively little attention focused on the use of paratroopers. The first major use of Germany's airborne forces came during Operation Weserübung, the invasion of Norway in spring 1940. The German navy was supposed to capture Oslo, but Norwegian reservists using old Krupp guns and shore-based torpedoes along the Oslo fiord managed to sink the brand-new heavy cruiser Blücher and stop the naval attack cold. The Luftwaffethen flew in a company of paratroopers to seize Oslo's undefended airstrip. Over the course of the morning and early afternoon of April 9, the Germans flew in sufficient reinforcements to move into the capital in the afternoon, but by that time the government had fled, and Norwegian resistance went underground.  France was an even bigger success for the Fallschirmjäger. In early May 1940, the strength of German airborne forces was nearly that of a light infantry division. But their impact on the opening moves of one of the most important battles of World War II was out of all proportion to their size. In the southern Ardennes, Fieseler Fi-156 Storch light reconnaissance planes dropped members of the Brandenburg Regiment on the bridges immediately to the south of the 10th Panzer Division's route of march. In Belgium a small group of German gliderborne troops landed on top of the great Belgian fortress of Eben Emael on the morning of May 10. The supposedly unconquerable fortress fell to the glidermen in a matter of hours, opening the way for Colonel-General Fedor von Bock's Army Group B to advance into northern Belgium, which fatally fixed the attention of the French high command there. An even greater success came with two simultaneous airborne operations during the invasion of Holland. The first involved a strike that was quite similar to what Mitchell had first proposed in 1918. In this case, German paratroopers landed at the airport near The Hague, the intention being that they would be reinforced by troops brought in by Ju-52s. The aim was to seize the Dutch government and effect a surrender of its forces before the fighting even began. While the paratroopers initially seized the airfield, Dutch troops quickly drove them off before they could be reinforced. The attack, however, resulted in the Dutch high command's focusing on the defense of the capital and rushing its reserves to The Hague.  Meanwhile, a far more dangerous German drive, led by paratroopers, was gathering steam on the Netherlands frontier. In an operation that resembled the later Operation Market-Garden in conception, if not in execution, the Germans dropped small packets of paratroopers to seize the crucial bridges that led directly across Holland and into the heart of the country. They opened the way for the 10th Panzer Division. At every point they succeeded, while the German armored force showed none of the hesitation that would later mark the Allied armored drive in September 1944. Within a day, the Dutch position was hopeless. How important were these opening moves by airborne troops? In and of themselves they were, of course, not decisive. But airborne incursions throughout France and the Low Countries helped to create a climate of fear and promoted the idea that the Germans were invincible. Moreover, the rumors that swirled around their use, some of which were spread by German propaganda -- such as paratroopers disguised as nuns -- helped to further the disintegration of Allied morale and cohesion. But perhaps most important of all was the fact that their achievements in the Low Countries contributed substantially to Army Group B's success in keeping the French high command focused on northern Belgium and the Netherlands, while the great German armored drive crossed the Ardennes and smashed its way across the Meuse River between May 13 and 15.
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Morning Aeronaut
Morning Mayor.
Morning GailA.
How'd quilting go?
Today is Norton Update day. be sure to update your anti-virus software.
We had a line of shower and storms move through yesterday. Didn't amount to much.
Believe it or not Oklahoma finished May with only one report of a Tornado. Our storm season looks to end up being one of the least active on record. Some meteoroligists are saying that cooler weather coming in from the Northwest and drier air contributed to this abnormaly less active severe weather.
There's still a couple of weeks left in the storm season of course but it looks like this is one of the least active storm seasons Oklahoma has had this year.
So much for this global nonsense.
How's it going, Snippy?
"Curmudgeon Bridne = Nidjmaegen Bridge. Ah, the beauties of spellcheck!
On This Day In History
Birthdates which occurred on June 01:
1563 Robert Cecil Earl of Salisbury, English chief minister (1598-1625)
1801 Brigham Young religious leader (Mormon church)/polygamist
1814 Philip Kearney Civil War general (Union)
1825 John Hunt Morgan Brig General (Confederate cavalry commander)
1831 John Bell Hood confederate general (lost Atlanta)
1878 John Masefield England, 15th poet laureate (Salt-Water Ballads)
1907 Frank Whittle inventor (jet engine)
1921 Nelson Riddle Oradell NJ, musical conductor (Batman, Frank Sinatra)
1926 Andy Griffith Mount Airy NC, actor (Andy Griffith Show, Matlock)
1926 Marilyn Monroe [Norma Jean Baker], actress (Some Like It Hot)
1930 Edward Woodward England, actor (Breaker Morant, Wickerman)
1933 Alan (the Horse) Ameche Wisc, NFL fullback (Baltimore Colts)
1934 Pat Boone Florida, singer/actor (April Love, Cross & Switchblade)
1935 Reverend Ike SC, evangelist minister
1937 Morgan Freeman actor (Driving Mrs Daisy)
1939 Cleavon Little Chickasha Okla, actor (Blazing Saddles, Toy Soldiers)
1940 Rene Auberjonois NYC, actor (Rev. Oliver-The Patriot, Constable Odo-Deep Space Nine, Paul Lewiston-Boston Legal, Father John Patrick 'Dago Red' Mulcahy-MASH)
1946 Carol Neblett Modesto California, soprano (NYC Opera)
1947 Ron Wood rock guitarist (Faces, Jeff Beck Group, Rolling Stones)
1948 Tom Sneva US auto racer (Indianapolis 500-1983)
Morning!
LOL. You are going to have to learn to type faster.
Nice pics. Soggy here, too.
It's time to renew my Norton software. A good investment I'm sure but I just hate to spend the money! Thanks for the reminder.
Good morning feather.
Good morning PE.
morning!
WN, I just heard about the fire in Austin... The Oasis burned to the ground in the wee hours this mornin.
Present.
Dear snippy_about_it,how are you on the 1st of June?I am probably repeating myself(I often do)but I was very proud to have met an old paratrooper at St.Mere Eglise in December,2000.His name is Howard Manoian and he lived nearby.He was in A Company,505th PIR,82nd Airborne Division.He made 39-jumps(all told),and one of which was into the churchyard(cemetery)behind that famous church in St.Mere Eglise.I met him in a little cafe adjacent that church.I don't know if he is still among the living as he has never written back.I might be going to Normandy this December.I hope he is!
Hi Sam.
A long time ago, at an air force base, far, far away...
I read a book called Ragwings and Heavy Iron by Martin Caidin. He desciribed his adventure in rescueing an Intact Ju-52 from the jungle, and snakes, and bugs, etc. in South America. Greating reading.
Another of his I enjoyed was Everything But The Flak: A Crazy Ride Across the Atlantic in Three Antiquated B-17's. This one was about flying three B-17's back to England to film a war movie. The adventure was very compelling.
His assistant, Mr. Chad Dangle, plants a deliberate flaw, which manifests 131 years later.
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