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Post by Benedict Arnold on Jan 29, 2007 14:44:17 GMT -5
Arnold, Benedict (1741-1801) British General: Benedict Arnold began as a successful merchant in New Haven ,Connecticut. He served in the Continental Army, working with soldiers such as Ethan Allan to bring about the capitulation of Fort Ticonderoga in 1775. The next year, he led one of the two columns invading Quebec. In October of 1776, Brigadier General Arnold stopped Guy Carleton at the Battle of Valcour Island. As a major general, he was an important part of the American victory at Saratoga. After that point, his career began to disintegrate. Arnold's debt grew after his second marriage; He was unfairly criticized by political adversaries, and felt that he was unappreciated by his fellow Americans. Possibly for these reasons, he made a secret deal with Major John André to surrender West Point to the British in exchange for a royal military commission and a large monetary payment. When his plan was discovered by the patriots, he fled to the British and was made a brigadier general of a loyalist legion. After the war, Arnold worked as a merchant shipper in England, where he died.
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Post by Aiko Kogasu on Jan 29, 2007 14:52:13 GMT -5
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Post by Aiko Kogasu on Jan 29, 2007 14:55:52 GMT -5
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Post by Aaron on Jan 29, 2007 14:59:41 GMT -5
BORN: 1825 in Nashville, TN DIED: 1825 in Battle at Franklin CAMPAIGNS: Vicksburg, Franklin and Nashville. HIGHEST RANK ACHIEVED: Brigadier General.
Adams was born on July 1, 1825, in Nashville, Tennessee, of Irish immigrant parents. Having entered the U.S. Military Academy in 1841, he graduated 25th in his class, and was commissioned 2d lieutenant in the 1st Dragoons/U.S. Regular Army. He served under Captain Philip Kearny in the Mexican War. Brevetted in 1848 for gallantry and meritorious conduct at the Battle of Santa Cruz de Rosales, he was commissioned 1st lieutenant in 1851 and promoted to captain in 1856. Adams spent the next five years at Fort Crook, California, on frontier duty, except for two years as a recruiting officer. He resigned in 1861, then went to Tennessee to enlist in the Confederate army. As a captain of cavalry, he was placed in command at Memphis, advancing to the rank of colonel by May of 1862 and then brigadier general by December of that year. Adams took over Brigadier General Lloyd Tilghman's command of the Mississippi infantry brigade after Tilghman's death in 1863. During the campaign to relieve Vicksburg, Adams served under Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, later joining Lieutenant General Leonidas Polk in Mississippi. Adams was transferred to the Army of Tennessee, and his brigade served during most of General John B. Hood's campaign to push Major General William T. Sherman north after the fall of Atlanta. Receiving commendation for his brave service, Adams continued with General Hood during the Franklin and Nashville Campaign, and served briefly under Major General Nathan B. Forrest. Adams was killed in the Battle of Franklin on November 30, 1864, while leading his regiment in a forceful but unsuccessful attack on Union forces.
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Post by Aiko Kogasu on Jan 29, 2007 15:04:05 GMT -5
OKINAWA
(April 1-June 21, 1945) The only invasion of the Japanese homeland, 360 miles south of Japan. The 81 day battle for the island in the Ryukyus caused losses totalling 107,500 among the Japanese garrison. The US 10th Army casualties were 7,374 killed and around 4,600 wounded. This was the highest losses suffered by the Americans in the Pacific War. For the first time large numbers of enemy troops surrendered, a total of 7,400. The commanding general of the Japanese forces, Lieutenant General Mitsuru Ushijima, committed suicide. The commander of the Japanese naval base, Admiral Minoru Ota, also committed suicide. In all, 234,183 persons were killed. This included Japanese and US soldiers, Korean labourers and Okinawa residents. All their names can be seen today inscribed on 114 stone Memorials. Just before the invasion, US forces discovered around 350 Japanese suicide boats in nearby Kerama Islands. All were positioned for attacks on Allied ships in the expected invasion of Okinawa. The US Navy lost 4,907 men and 36 ships. The ferocity of the Japanese defenders was a key consideration in the decision to drop the atomic bomb on the Japanese homeland although conventional fire-bombing had killed more civilians than the two atomic bombs. Without the nuclear bombs the Japanese would have probably surrendered anyway. (It was here on Ie Shima, near Okinawa, that American war correspondent Ernie Pyle (aged 44) was shot dead by a sniper on April 18. His grave is in the Punchbowl Cemetery, Honolulu. In the six days of fighting for the island, 4,706 Japanese troops were killed)
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Post by Aiko Kogasu on Jan 29, 2007 15:05:08 GMT -5
OPERATION 'STARVATION'
The code name for the American attempt to starve the Japanese into submission in early August, 1945. The US Navy and Air Force blockaded Japan's inner waters and harbours by laying 12,135 mines the result of which around 670 ships of all sizes were sunk or put out of commission. On August 6 the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and the second bomb dropped on Nagasaki on the 9th. Japan agreed to surrender unconditionally on August 14. (Japanese casualties in all theatres from 1937 to 1945 were 1,140,429 killed in action)
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Post by Aiko Kogasu on Jan 29, 2007 15:06:18 GMT -5
BOMBING MISSION
On Saturday, March 3, 1945, fifty-six RAF B25 Mitchell bombers appeared over the Hague in Holland. Their mission was to bomb the V-2 rocket sites situated in the woods just outside the city. Inadvertently the bombs started to fall on Bezuedenhout, a residential suburb of the city and at least a mile from the V-2 sites. Over 3,000 houses were destroyed and 511 of its citizens killed. In all, around 12,000 people were rendered homeless. An inquiry by the RAF revealed that the tragedy was the fault of the aircrew briefing officer who had read the horizontal and vertical co-ordinates the wrong way round. The officer concerned was later court martialled and punished.
THE LARGEST BOMB
On March 29, 1945, the railway viaduct at Bielefeld, Germany, was attacked by RAF Lancaster's of 617 Squadron, (The Dambusters). The bombers were specially modified to carry the 'Grand Slam' the monster 22,000lb (9,979kg) bomb designed by Barnes Wallace. At almost 10 tons, the Lancaster could only carry one bomb at a time. Piloted by Squadron Leader C. Calder, his Lancaster, one of the 33 converted, dropped the bomb about thirty metres from the viaduct, the resulting explosion caused powerful shock waves to radiate outwards destroying two arches each 1,100 feet in length. The bomb was the largest ever used in war, it could penetrate seven meters (23 feet) of reinforced concrete as it did on the U-boat pens near Bremen. The Grand Slam measured 7.7 meters in length and contained 4,144 kg of explosive. A total of 41 of these bombs were dropped during the war. A total of 7,374 Lancaster bombers were built during the war. (The last RAF crews to loose their lives in the war were the crews of two Halifax bombers which collided in mid-air during a raid on Kiel on May 2, 1945. All thirteen crew members were killed.)
SLAVE LABOUR?
Just over 18,400 Italian POWs were brought to Australia between 1943 and 1945. Due to a labour shortage in rural areas, around 13,000 were assigned to work on farms throughout the country. Farm owners were obliged to pay £1 sterling per week to the War Office for each prisoner assigned to them. The POW's themselves received one shilling and three pence per week for their work. Food and lodging was free. Labour Unions and the Returned Services League (RSL) bitterly opposed this arrangement, seeing the use of prisoners as a form of slave labour. The RSL complained that Italian prisoners on the farms were being treated as members of the family while Australian soldiers were dying in battle in a war that Italy helped create.
BERGEN-BELSEN CONCENTRATION CAMP
On April 15, 1945, the Belsen concentration camp, near the village of Bergen, was liberated by British troops. Scattered around the grounds were around 10,000 decaying corpses which the troops had to bury in mass graves using bulldozers. Some of the survivors who had been transferred to Belsen from Auschwitz, stated that living conditions here were far superior to those in Auschwitz. But this was soon to change as trains bringing thousands of inmates from camps in the east began to arrive in Belsen. Conditions became catastrophic during the final months of the war as transports bringing food supplies to the camp were increasingly being destroyed on the roads and railways by Allied bombers. Gross overcrowding, inadequate supplies of food, water and medicines and an uncontrollable outbreak of typhus caused the deaths of about 37,000 inmates up to the day of liberation.
In the few weeks after the British takeover, another 13,000 died in spite of all the care taken to preserve life. On May 2 some 95 medical students from London's teaching hospitals were flown to Belsen to help treat the sick prisoners. But in striking contrast to the distorted press coverage at the time, the Belsen Concentration Camp was not an extermination facility. There was no deliberate intention by the Germans to starve the prisoners to death at Belsen (officially designated as a convalescence camp). No gas chambers were discovered and the crematorium consisted of only one furnace in which to cremate the dead. The Camp's Commandant, Josef Kramer, along with his chief physician, Dr Fritz Cline, quarantined the camp and did everything in their power to prevent the catastrophe, even appealing to higher authority for more transport to fetch vegetables and other foodstuffs from the countryside. In spite of their efforts both Kramer and Cline were executed after being found guilty at the Belsen War Crimes Trial. A total of 86 staff members, including 28 SS women guards were captured. By June 17, twenty had died, some by suicide and others from the rigours of digging graves to bury the dead inmates which the British forced them to do. (By the end of the month the whole camp had to be burned down, even the timber building housing the crematorium).
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Post by Aiko Kogasu on Jan 29, 2007 15:07:23 GMT -5
THE ANCIENT SWASTIKA SYMBOL
The Swastika is a very old sacred symbol from near-prehistoric times and referred to in Germany as the Hakenkreuz. There is no evidence that Hitler ever used the word “Swastika”. It was traditionally a sign of good fortune and well-being, its name is derived from the Sanskrit 'su' meaning 'well' and 'asti' meaning 'being'. For thousands of years the Swastika symbol given courage, hope and security to millions. It is well-known in Hindu and Buddhist cultures and used by the Aryan nomads of India in the Second Millennium B.C. Unfortunately, Nazism has turned the Swastika into a hate symbol. Hitler displayed the symbol on a red background 'to win over the worker' and it had an hypnotic effect on all those who supported the Nazi movement. In his book Mein Kampf, Hitler wrote 'In the red we see the social idea of the movement, in the white, the Nationalist idea and in the Hakenkreuz the vision of the struggle for the victory of the Aryan man.'
The German flag was abolished on March 12, 1933 and replaced with the flag of the Third Reich. On September 15, 1935, the Swastika was officially incorporated into the Third Reich flag.
(In Ontario, Canada, there is a small mining town named Swastika. In 1911, two brother's discovered gold at a nearby lake and named the mine after a visitors good luck charm, a swastika. When World War 11 broke out, Ontario changed the name to 'Winston' after the British wartime leader. The name change did not please the residents who removed the sign and replaced it with the original and other signs saying 'To hell with Hitler, we came up with our name first'. The name Swastika, stayed. The new sign read, Swastika, Population 545).
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Some More Magazine Stuff
Guest
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Post by Some More Magazine Stuff on Jan 31, 2007 14:27:54 GMT -5
Colonel Robert Anderson (1805-1871)
Robert Anderson was an American soldier who became known as "The Hero of Fort Sumter." He served as colonel in the Black Hawk War and distinguished himself in the Mexican War. At the outbreak of the Civil War he was appointed to the defense of Charleston Harbor and held Fort Sumter for two days against the Confederates and was subsequently brevetted major general. He returned to the April 14, 1865 Fort Sumter ceremony to raise again the U.S. flag he had lowered four years earlier.
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Post by Aaron on Jan 31, 2007 14:40:26 GMT -5
Ernest Hemingway Biography>World War I
At the time of Hemingway's graduation from High School, World War I was raging in Europe, and despite Woodrow Wilson's attempts to keep America out of the war, the United States joined the Allies in the fight against Germany and Austria in April, 1917. When Hemingway turned eighteen he tried to enlist in the army, but was deferred because of poor vision; he had a bad left eye that he probably inherited from his mother, who also had poor vision. When he heard the Red Cross was taking volunteers as ambulance drivers he quickly signed up. He was accepted in December of 1917, left his job at the paper in April of 1918, and sailed for Europe in May. In the short time that Hemingway worked for the Kansas City Star he learned some stylistic lessons that would later influence his fiction. The newspaper advocated short sentences, short paragraphs, active verbs, authenticity, compression, clarity and immediacy. Hemingway later said: "Those were the best rules I ever learned for the business of writing. I've never forgotten them."
Hemingway first went to Paris upon reaching Europe, then traveled to Milan in early June after receiving his orders. The day he arrived, a munitions factory exploded and he had to carry mutilated bodies and body parts to a makeshift morgue; it was an immediate and powerful initiation into the horrors of war. Two days later he was sent to an ambulance unit in the town of Schio, where he worked driving ambulances. On July 8, 1918, only a few weeks after arriving, Hemingway was seriously wounded by fragments from an Austrian mortar shell which had landed just a few feet away. At the time, Hemingway was distributing chocolate and cigarettes to Italian soldiers in the trenches near the front lines. The explosion knocked Hemingway unconscious, killed an Italian soldier and blew the legs off another. What happened next has been debated for some time. In a letter to Hemingway's father, Ted Brumback, one of Ernest's fellow ambulance drivers, wrote that despite over 200 pieces of shrapnel being lodged in Hemingway's legs he still managed to carry another wounded soldier back to the first aid station; along the way he was hit in the legs by several machine gun bullets. Whether he carried the wounded soldier or not, doesn't diminish Hemingway's sacrifice. He was awarded the Italian Silver Medal for Valor with the official Italian citation reading: "Gravely wounded by numerous pieces of shrapnel from an enemy shell, with an admirable spirit of brotherhood, before taking care of himself, he rendered generous assistance to the Italian soldiers more seriously wounded by the same explosion and did not allow himself to be carried elsewhere until after they had been evacuated.
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Post by Arayna Umara on Jan 31, 2007 14:41:24 GMT -5
Advice Column: Question: I'm behind on all of my bills and in need of a budget. What are some ideas to help me save some money around the house? Answer: Anything that can be re-used, don't throw out. Buttons, canisters, old clothes, all of those can can alternative uses for mending, making, or cleaning. Lost buttons can be replaced, things put in old jars, and old clothes ripped into cloths and diapers for young children. This should save you a bit of money on new things.
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Post by Arayna Umara on Jan 31, 2007 14:47:19 GMT -5
Und mit dem Spaten in der Hand sounds like "And it then spat in the hand"
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Post by Aaron on Jan 31, 2007 14:48:14 GMT -5
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Post by Aaron on Jan 31, 2007 14:50:40 GMT -5
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Post by Arayna Umara on Jan 31, 2007 14:55:10 GMT -5
Pânã când noi întâlnim iarãºi. Until we meet again -romanian -note to self- use this on Lee
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