Free Republic

Sometimes a military operation is such a tactical success that you enrage the enemy and lose the war. Just ask Japan: their surprise attack on Pearl Harbor was a smashing victory, but turned an anti-war American population into a fierce enemy that crushed not just Japan, but Germany and Italy simultaneously. Likewise, Hamas thought they had everything going for them when they pulled off the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, but it is going to blow up in their face. If you know you can’t achieve your strategic objectives militarily — or via terrorist tactics — why risk war in...

The Pentagon disclosed that Chinese fighters have conducted more dangerous intercepts of American military aircraft in the last two years than that of the past decade. This is because China knows we are led by a very weak and compromised president who will do nothing to stop them. These incidents are a tool to show the world China can do what it wants to the United States and there isn't a damn thing we will do about it. China and Russia have sent fighters dangerously close to our aircraft during every presidential administration. One Chinese fighter even collided with an...

Here’s a who’s who of the post-World War II military veterans of the National Football League. I started writing this post back in 2010 and it is still under construction, but if you know of players who I haven’t added to the list yet, put them in a comment. Ralph Heywood: After playing only five games for USC in 1943, Heywood was drafted by the Marine Corps and sent to the South Pacific aboard the battleship USS Iowa. Despite his short season, he was selected as an All American end and punter. Following the war, he played five seasons for...

The beautiful Chance-Vought Corsair is one of the most iconic planes of the second world war. But it has a lot of designations, and that can get confusing. There’s the F4U, the FG, the F2G, the F3A to name a few. The British flew the Corsair Mk I, II, III, and IV. There’s also an AU-1 Corsair, used by the Marines during the Korean War. Let’s break it down. Beginning in 1922 the Navy classified fighter aircraft as “F.” Each manufacturer was assigned a code letter, and Vought’s was “U.” So in 1927 Vought developed the FU biplane. 1929 was...

Pictures not loading when I post to FreeRepublic, but they are at the linked site.Curtiss SC Seahawk The Seahawk served as a scout for U.S. warships at the tail end of World War II. It featured two M2 Browning .50-cal. machineguns and could carry bombs, depth charges, or even radar on external pylons. If needed, this versatile scout could even rescue aviators or sailors. Entering combat service in 1945, the Seahawk saw the end of scout planes and was phased out for helicopters in 1949. Consolidated Vultee XP-81 Had we not captured Saipan and Guam, negating the need for long-range,...

I grew up listening to baseball games on the radio. Fans “tuned in” to men with great storytelling skills whose voices sounded just right. Paired with the broadcasters — like a fine wine with dinner — was the stadium ambience: organ music, beer vendors, the crack of the bat. Now most everything is video. Turn on a television set today and graphics and stats of every kind bombard you. Even if you’re not paying attention you can instantly see the score. The screen is full of graphics showing you where exactly the ball went in the strike zone and how...

The front page reports that the largest formation of American bombers in the war to date has attacked Germany in a multi-layered assault. [...] On page two, the Northwest African Air Forces are hammering Axis targets from one end of the Mediterranean to the other. American bombers have hit the port of Civitavechhia, which is 40 miles northwest of Rome, targets across Sardinia, and the remnants of the Afrikakorps off Cape Bon. Meanwhile in the Pacific, B-25s and A-20s of the Fifth Air Force hit targets in New Guinea and New Britain. Seventh Air Force B-24s out of Midway bomb...

The upcoming heavyweight title fight between Billy Conn and Joe Louis has been postponed after Conn broke his hand fighting with his father-in-law (see page 12). "Greenfield" Jimmy Smith was a former major league ball player who was better known for his mouth than his bat. During the 1919 World Series Cincinnati made Smith a base coach and his job was to get in Chicago second baseman Eddie Collins' head. It worked, because soon the players were scrapping, but to what degree we don't know as several White Sox players had been paid to throw the Series. Smith really liked...

A few years ago I came across a photo of an American solder posing with a tiger he shot during a patrol. Tigers were a threat in Vietnam, especially to LRRPs (Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol soldiers) who would go behind enemy lines for days at a time and report on enemy activity. Shortly after sharing, a reader named Larry Flanagan said he was the man in the picture. “The soldier in the picture is me,” Flanagan wrote. “I was with K Co. 75th Rangers, 1st Brigade, 4th Infantry Division LRRPs. I was the team leader of a four-man team doing...

Like many teenagers in the 1990s, my television was usually tuned to ESPN. SportsCenter highlights while I ate breakfast before school. NFL season highlight videos between two-a-day football practices. Baseball and basketball games on at night during homework. The “S” in ESPN clearly stood for “sports” back then, focusing on the achievements of the athletes and stories that inspire us. Now, based on the juvenile trash that I occasionally see when eating at a sports bar or when I catch a provocative news headline, the “S” stands for s–t. I stopped watching ages ago, because I have better things to...

1863: During day two of the Battle of Chancellorsville, Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson is shot by a Confederate sentry while performing a leaders-reconnaissance mission. Following the amputation of Jackson’s shattered arm, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee will lament, “He has lost his left arm, but I have lost my right arm.” The revered Jackson will die in eight days of pneumonia. 1945: Members of the 82d Airborne and the 8th Infantry Division liberate the Wöbbelin concentration camp in northern Germany. The Nazis allowed the 5,000 inmates to starve, and U.S. soldiers found some 1,000 dead upon arrival. Conditions were...

1898: U.S. Navy Commodore George Dewey’s Asiatic Squadron steams single file into Manila Bay and destroys the out-armored and out-gunned Spanish fleet in the Philippines. Despite the support of shore batteries, the Spanish lose all seven of their vessels and only six American sailors are wounded. The Spanish-American War will effectively end in August, and Spain will cede control of the islands to the United States. 1943: When his B-17 bomber is hit by German flak and Sgt. Maynard H. “Snuffy” Smith loses power in his ball turret gun, he climbs out to assist the other airmen. With a fire...

Page two reports that large formations of Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighters are now flying across the Atlantic to reach combat units in Europe and North Africa. There is attrition, with several planes having mechanical issues or ditching in the ocean, and that brings up the logistics of how best to get everything from the United States to the front. You may not be terribly interested in the logistics of combat, but the economics behind the war can make just as important -- or even more so -- than the thrilling strategy and tactics. We had brilliant leaders and hard-nosed fighters....

The front page mentions an air strike in Burma where a pilot named Grant Mahony busted a Japanese truck. Capt. Gratton Mahony of the 17th Fighter Squadron (Provisional) notched his first victory on the Dec. 8, 1941 and by war’s end will have more combat hours than any other American pilot. He is also about to be assigned to PROJECT 9, which we mentioned yesterday... Eddie Rickenbacker’s copilot continues his story on page four… George Fielding Eliot column on page 12… Sports section begins on page 20, which reports that Chicago Bear halfback Hugh Gallarneau has become an officer in...

A mother who learned her three sons were all killed in action has received a letter from President Roosevelt. Jack, Edward, and Charles Rogers were at their battle stations when an enemy torpedo blew the bow off of the cruiser USS New Orleans during the Battle of Tassafronga. The destroyer USS Rogers (DD-876) is named in their honor. A fourth brother, Hugh, was also aboard the ship but survived the attack... On pages three and 33: Maj. Donald K. Yost of Marine Fighting Squadron 121 (VMF-121) has become an ace, splashing six Japanese planes between Dec. 23 and 24 last...

Brig. Gen. Dion Williams (USMC, ret.) is featured on page 7. As a young first lieutenant during the Spanish-American War he raised the flag over the naval yard at Cavite, now in Japanese hands. Read more on page 35 of the February 1942 edition of ALL HANDS magazine… One of just three men to survive the U-boat attack on the cargo ship Longtaker tells his story of 19 days in a life raft in the Northern Atlantic (see page 15)… Summary of the war’s 121st week on page 28… Page 29 highlights how horse cavalry is adapting to modern warfare…...

Maj. Gen. Mark Clark’s secret submarine operation to secure French cooperation in Operation TORCH has been discussed in previous posts. Clark is pictured on page five with the three officers that accompanied him to his meeting in Cherchell, Algeria. We have already mentioned Navy captain Jerauld Wright. Also participating was Brig. Gen. Lyman Lemnitzer, who served as a coastal artillery officer before becoming Lt. Gen. Dwight Eisenhower’s Assistant Chief of Staff during the North African campaign. He will later serve on the teams that negotiate surrender with Italy and Germany. Lemnitzer commands the 7th Infantry Division during the Korean War,...

King George is pictured with Lt. Robert P. Riordan inspecting a heavily damaged B-17 named Wahoo. The article tells how much damage Riordan’s Fort took and still brought the crew back. Riordan flies 51 combat missions during the war and retires as a colonel… Lt. Col. James Roosevelt is pictured on page six being decorated with a Dominican Republic medal for valor. Pres. Roosevelt’s eldest son participated in the Makin Island Raid while serving with the 2nd Raider Battalion and is currently commanding the newly formed 4th Raider Battalion… ... Page 18 also mentions that two undefeated teams, the Second...

Eddie Rickenbacker has made it back to Washington and is pictured with family on the front page. Both of his sons will enter military service: oldest David joins the Marines in 1943 and Bill enters the Air Force after college and flies transports during the Korean War… With Rickenbacker is his business partner, Danish-born writer and B-17 pilot Capt. Hans Christian Adamson. He publishes a biography of Reickenbacker after the war. Christmas now just one week away here is the Utility Squadron 7’s Christmas card which is seen on page three… The next page features a story of the Office...

Lt. Col. Elliot Roosevelt is interviewed on page two. He has been conducting photo reconnaissance of airfields and other points of interest in North Africa and the Mediterranean. He commands the 3rd Reconnaissance Group, part of (recently promoted) Maj. Gen. James H. Doolittle’s Twelfth Air Force. The 3rd operates B-17s, F-4s (a photographic reconnaissance variant of the P-38E), and a DeHavilland Mosquito… The sports section begins on page 42 which features a list of 32 Annapolis football players who lettered. Seniors: Warren G. Montgomery, Arthur C. Knox, Richard C. Fedon, Fred A. Schnurr, Robert L. Wilcox, Theodore M. Gilliland, Clyde...