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SEPTEMBER 2021

Letters 6 News 8

24

Features

Breakthrough at Saint-Lô Allied troops punched through the hedgerows of Normandy to capture the ‘Capital of Ruins.’

By Ron Soodalter

34

Operation Enduring Freedom The United States was the latest of many invaders to be caught up in the Afghan quagmire.

By Jon Guttman

Departments

14

Interview Woody Williams To Hell and Back

18

Valor Colossal Warrior

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Reviews 74 War Games 78 Captured! 80

50

58

The arrival of gunpowder changed the nature of war in 14th century Europe.

By Robert C.L. Holmes

Officials tried to cover up NFL standout Pat TIllman’s friendly fire death in Afghanistan.

By Paul X. Rutz

When Powder Proved Its Worth

Honor Before Glory

42

66

In April 1775 Redcoats ran into a Patriot ambush at a bend in the road east of Concord, Mass.

By Douglas L. Gifford

The U.S.-built Brewster Buffalo proved its mettle in the hands of Finnish pilots.

By Barrett Tillman

A Turn for the Worse

20

What We Learned From...

Mobile Bay, 1864

Finland’s Famed ‘Sky Pearl’

22

Hardware M109 SelfPropelled Howitzer

On the cover: The twin towers of New York’s World Trade Center burn following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which prompted the U.S.-led 20-year War in Afghanistan. (David Handschuh/New York Daily News Archive/Getty images)

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MICHAEL A. REINSTEIN CHAIRMAN & PUBLISHER DAVID STEINHAFEL PUBLISHER ALEX NEILL EDITOR IN CHIEF

Join the discussion at militaryhistory.com

SOS Indianapolis: Behind the Sinking It took a sailor, a schoolboy and survivors more than half a century to disperse the cloud hanging over the 1945 loss of the heavy cruiser

By Marty Pay IN THE ARCHIV E S :

A Look Back at D-Day A photographic retrospective on the 75th anniversary of history’s largest amphibious operation

By Jon Guttman

Interview Archaeologist Simon Elliott set out to determine the fate of Rome’s Legion IX Hispana, which vanished somewhere in Britain Tools The Consolidated PBY Catalina flying boat racked up a notable World War II record in search and rescue, recon and combat

SEPTEMBER 2021 VOL. 38, NO. 3

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Letters

The British officer carrying the white flag in the photograph of the surrender at Singapore on P. 44 of the article “Translating for the ‘Tiger,’” [by Suzanne PoolCamp, May 2021] was then Maj. (later Col.) Cyril Wild, who had a similar role to U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Harry Pratt in translating for Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita.

Wild spent several years before World War II in Tokyo, where he learned Japanese while working for Shell Oil. In February 1942 Wild, an intelligence officer, translated for Lt. Gen. Arthur Percival during the surrender negotiations with Yamashita in Singapore. As a prisoner of war Wild was a member of a joint British and Australian POW group forced to build the Burma– Thailand “Railway of Death.”

In September 1945, after the Japanese surrender in

Singapore, Wild was assigned as a war crimes investigator.

In Manila he interrogated Yamashita about his role in atrocities after the Japanese takeover of Singapore in February 1942. Wild had a one-hour interview with Yamashita on Oct. 28, 1945, the day before the trial began. In his report Wild said, “Yamashita gave the impression of speaking the truth when he disclaimed knowledge of these Malayan atrocities.” Wild went on to investigate other Japanese war crimes in Southeast Asia.

He was killed in a plane crash in Hong Kong on Sept. 24, 1946, while returning from testifying at the Tokyo war crimes trial.

Wild’s role as a war crimes investigator can be found in my book A River Kwai Story: The Sonkrai Tribunal (2008).

Robin Rowland Kitimat, B.C., Canada

Editor responds: The MP Regimental Museum has the noose used to execute Gen. Hideki Tojo. But there is a Yamashitarelated display at the MacArthur Memorial museum in Norfolk, Va. The exhibit includes Yamashita’s personal effects, as well as the noose and the ropes used to tie his hands when hanged on Feb. 23, 1946.

The collection belongs to the family of Charles F. Helderman Jr., an American soldier who had guarded the general in captivity.

Schmidt “What We Learned From the Battle of Schmidt, 1944” [by David T. Zabecki, January 2021] lacked one major point—having a competent and trusted Army commander in charge. Lt. Gen. Courtney Hodges was far from competent. His actions during the Battle of the Hürtgen Forest proved that. The man commanded by fear, firing anyone who did not see things his way or told him the truth. He blamed others for his own failure to understand the strategic

and tactical situation. His insistence on World War I– style head-on attacks on well-planned German defensive positions and failure to ensure his soldiers had the correct cold-weather gear bordered on criminal negligence.

The main reason the overall campaign finally went in the Army’s favor was the dogged determination of the U.S. soldier and the fact the Americans had the manpower and logistics to replace their losses. The Germans did not have that luxury. Yet they had the battle won before the first shot was fired because they had competent commanders and soldiers with strong motivation to defend their homeland. Plus they had the weather on their side.

Generals Dwight D. Eisenhower and Omar Bradley share the blame for the Hürtgen Forest fiasco. They knew of the horrendous American losses and that objectives were not being met, yet they did not relieve Hodges and put a more competent commander in charge. Sad to say, the good ol’ boy West Point network was alive and well during this time, and many American soldiers suffered greatly because of it.

James A. Goodwin II Huntsville, Ala. Send letters via e-mail to militaryhistory@historynet.com or to Editor, Military History HISTORYNET 901 N. Glebe Road, 5th Floor Arlington, VA 22203 Please include name, address and phone number

IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUMS

Yamashita

In 1976, while attending the U.S. Army Military Police basic officer course at Fort McClellan, Ala., I visited the Military Police Regimental Museum. One of the displays was the hangman’s noose used to execute Gen. Yamashita. The MP School was eventually moved to Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., and I wonder if that item is still displayed or kept in storage.

Stanley Gurski Clark, N.j.

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News

By Dave Kindy

It all started with a bang. Operation Enduring Freedom launched on Oct. 7, 2001, with air strikes against Taliban and al-Qaida forces and infrastructure in Afghanistan in retaliation for the September 11 terrorist attacks against the United States. So began the ongoing Global War on Terrorism. Following the strikes by American and British warplanes and warship-launched cruise missiles, an invasion by Afghan Northern Alliance troops got underway, supported by Green Berets and special operations units of the U.S. Air Force. Soon both the Taliban and alQaida were on the run. The U.S.-backed forces hammered away at the enemy, coming close to but never quite obliterating them. Despite devastating losses, they always managed to slip away and re-form to continue the fight.

Eventually, a fragile democracy emerged in Afghanistan. But the effort required to keep that government standing proved costly— in both fiscal and human terms. The Department of Defense reports

‘Only the dead have seen the end of war’ —George Santayana 8 MILITARY HISTORY SEPTEMBER 2021

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FROM TOP: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP (GETTY IMAGES); PETTY OFFICER 2ND CLASS CHRISTOPHER GORDON (U.S. NAVY); CHRONICLE (ALAMY STOCK PHOTO)

ENDURING FREEDOM ELUSIVE 20 YEARS ON

having spent upward of $1.5 trillion on war costs in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, with more than 2,300 American troops killed and 20,000 wounded in Afghanistan alone.

While Operation Enduring Freedom officially ended on Dec. 28, 2014, the struggle to secure Afghanistan persisted. Troop levels surged and fell as the administrations of four U.S. presidents have sought elusive victory in the Global War on Terrorism. By Sept. 11, 2021, the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, American troops are scheduled to be fully withdrawn from Afghanistan.

While the families of 9/11 victims, Gold Star families, veterans, active-duty service members and their families will mark that day with solemn observances, few Americans are likely to recall the October 7 anniversary of the invasion. At press time no federal ceremonies had been announced to commemorate the start of Operation Enduring Freedom.

BRENNAN LINSLEY/AFP (GETTY IMAGES)

The 20-year war in Afghanistan started with an invasion by Afghan Northern Alliance troops supported

by U.S. special ops forces, including the men in the gathering above.

A Nod to Marine Heroism in Iraq

FROM TOP: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP (GETTY IMAGES); PETTY OFFICER 2ND CLASS CHRISTOPHER GORDON (U.S. NAVY); CHRONICLE (ALAMY STOCK PHOTO)

BRENNAN LINSLEY/AFP (GETTY IMAGES)

Semper Fidelis. For two U.S. Marines in Ramadi, Iraq, on April 22, 2008, that motto led them to make the ultimate sacrifice. The 11th Order, a 25-minute documentary on YouTube, relates how Lance Cpl. Jordan Haerter and Cpl. Jonathan Yale—of the 9th and 8th Marines, respectively—defended the gates to their post from an approaching truck bomb, firing on the vehicle until it exploded. They died to save 150 fellow soldiers, earning them both posthumous Navy Crosses.

Blue Angels Mark 75th In 1946 World War II Fleet Adm. Chester Nimitz established the Blue Angels flight demonstration team, which

RANGER LEGEND RECEIVES MOH

Aug. 1, 1941

Flying a U.S.-built Brewster F2A-1 Buffalo (P. 66), Finnish air force Warrant Officer Ilmari Juutilainen downs two Soviet fighters amid the 1941–44 Continuation War. He proves the top-scoring Finnish fighter ace of World War II with 94 victories.

Aug. 19, 1775 Five times Chinese communist troops charged Hill 205 near Unsan, North Korea, and each time they were repelled by the 8th Ranger Company under U.S. Army 1st Lt. Ralph Puckett Jr. Though his unit was outnumbered 10-to-1, the young officer repositioned his troops after each assault and called in artillery on the enemy. Then came an overwhelming sixth wave. The thrice-wounded Puckett ordered his men to retreat while he provided cover fire. Instead, they dragged him downhill to safety.

For his heroism that Nov. 25–26, 1950, Puckett received the Distinguished Service Cross—the first of two in his military career. Seven decades later that first DSC has been upgraded. On May 21, 2021, President Joe Biden awarded 94-year-old Lt. Col. Puckett (U.S. Army, Ret.) the Medal of Honor in a White House ceremony.

FIRST MODERN SUBMARINE FOUND IN ENGLISH CHANNEL still thrills crowds 75 years later. The first Blue Angels (named after a New York nightclub) flew the Grumman F6F Hellcat. The team has graduated to the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, with a top speed of Mach 1.8.

The Angels will celebrate their milestone by— what else?—appearing at air shows nationwide.

WAR RECORD

Divers searching for U-boat wrecks in the English Channel off Devon, U.K., have found HMS D1, a forerunner of modern submarines. Commissioned in 1909, the lead British D-class warship in many aspects represented the design on which all future subs were based. The eight D-class submarines were noted for their pioneering use of diesel engines, twin propellers and torpedo tubes at both the bow and stern. They were longer and wider than earlier designs and had a range of nearly 3,000 miles, enabling them to put to sea instead of being relegated to shore patrol like predecessors. Despite its historical import, D1 was scuttled in 1918 during target practice.

Lieutenant Colonel Loammi Baldwin takes command of the 26th Continental Regiment. Four months earlier then Maj. Baldwin led the Woburn Militia in fighting at the “Bloody Angle” (P. 42) during the April 19 British retreat from Concord, Mass.

Aug. 26, 1346

King Edward III of England deploys gunpowder weapons (P. 50) for the first time on the Continent in his victory over the French under King Philip VI at Crécy.

Sept. 19, 2004

Cpl. Pat Tillman (P. 58) is honored and his jersey retired at an Arizona Cardinals football game.

The former NFL safety who joined the U.S. Army Rangers had been killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan earlier that year.

Sept. 20, 2001

In an address to Congress President George W. Bush identifies Osama Bin Laden as the prime suspect behind the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Within weeks coalition forces launch Operation Enduring Freedom (P. 34) in Afghanistan.

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News

A memorial to the 93 U.S. Army specialists lost in 1962 aboard Flying Tiger Line Flight 739 honors their service, though questions remain about the crash.

They were on a secret mission to Vietnam. On March 14, 1962, 93 Ranger-trained U.S. Army communications specialists boarded a Lockheed Super Constellation at Travis Air Force Base, Calif., bound for Saigon. They never made it. Somewhere over the Pacific west of Guam two days later Flying Tiger Line Flight 739 vanished. One of history’s largest air and sea searches turned up nothing. The only evidence of a mishap came from sailors on a tanker who reported seeing a bright flash in the sky along the predicted flight path of the airliner.

A Civil Aeronautics Board investigation concluded Flight 793 likely exploded in midair, though no cause was ever determined. The victims’ survivors sought answers, but none were forthcoming. The Army has yet to disclose the nature of the mission. For years family members lobbied unsuccessfully to have their loved ones’ names inscribed on the wall at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. Six decades after their disappearance, the lost soldiers of Flight 739 finally have a memorial in their honor. Inscribed with the names of all 93 soldiers and 11 flight crew members, the granite slab in Columbia Falls, Maine, was donated by Wreaths Across America, the nonprofit that each December provides garlands for and coordinates wreath-laying ceremonies at more than 1 million veterans’ graves stateside and abroad. The memorial stands on land owned by the family of Karen Worcester, the organization’s executive director.

Family members of more than 20 soldiers killed on Flight 739 attended the dedication ceremony on May 15, Armed Forces Day. “They needed some kind of closure and some kind of recognition,” Worcester said.

‘Glory lights the soldier’s tomb, and beauty weeps the brave’ — Joseph Rodman Drake

More than 3,000 stereoscopic images of World War I have been made available for free online [greatwarin3d.org].

Culled from two major collections and organized by the Western Front Association, the paired images (viewable with or without a stereoscope) depict wartime scenes from around the globe. “Previously unseen images of life and death from the First World War are rare, and rarer still those that used 3D, or stereoscope,” WFA trustee David Tattersfield said.

Couple Seeks to Restore a D-Day Launch While recently browsing eBay, British couple Gemma and Simon Robins bought ML 1392, a 72-foot harbor defense motor launch that took part in the D-Day invasion and helped capture a Ger-

man midget submarine. Launched in 1943, the ship was converted to a luxury yacht in the 1980s. The Robinses are restoring it to wartime condition and welcome donations.

Learn more at linktr.ee/ ShiphappensUK.

ABOVE: ROBERT F. BUKATY (ASSOCIATED PRESS); BELOW: GEMMA ROBINS (SHIP HAPPENS)

LOST VIETNAM SPECIALISTS HONORED WITH MEMORIAL

Rare 3D Images of WWI Online

10 MILITARY HISTORY SEPTEMBER 2021

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News German Town Honors the King Elvis sightings are on the rise in a German town that hosted Presley when “The King of Rock and Roll” served in the U.S. Army. Two German fans raised

ROMAN GUARD CAME TO RESCUE AT HERCULANEUM

DIG IT? Researchers worldwide routinely unearth troves of military significance.

Witness the following:

Knight Into Day

A Polish metal detectorist recently turned up a sword, knight’s belt, partial scabbard and two knives near the site of the 1410 Battle of Grunwald, among the largest recorded conflicts in medieval Europe.

more than $42,000 to have a bronze statue of a uniformed Private Presley installed on a bridge in Bad Nauheim, where the singer/actor lived from 1958 to ’60 while serving with the 3rd Armored Division.

The town hosts an annual Elvis festival.

Stamp Honors Nisei Soldiers Composed almost entirely of Nisei (second-generation Japanese-Americans), the 442nd Regimental Combat Team was among the most decorated units in World War II. Choosing the motto “Go for Broke,” its members fought with ferocity to prove their patriotism. The U.S. Postal Service is honoring their service with a new “Forever” stamp featuring a uniformed soldier and the unit motto.

Decades ago researchers unearthed 300 bodies on the beach at Herculaneum, Italy, which like its sister city Pompeii was destroyed by the ad 79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius. One corpse carried an ornate dagger and a bagful of money. “The coins he had on him were coincidentally the same amount as a praetorian’s monthly wage,” said Francesco Sirano, director of the archaeological site. That and other clues recently led researchers to conclude the man was part of the Praetorian Guard, the military unit that protected Roman emperors. During the eruption Roman naval commander Pliny the Elder launched galleys from the nearby base of Misenum to rescue those fleeing the volcano. While this particular soldier remains anonymous, the world can now appreciate his heroic sacrifice.

U.S. ARMY MUSEUM REOPENS TO PUBLIC

A melting glacier in the Italian Alps has released a cache of artifacts left in a cave by invading AustroHungarian troops during World War I. Items include coins, cans, clothing and more amid barracks used between 1915 and ’18.

Spilled Milk

Workers in Poland’s Karnieszewice Forest unearthed a milk can containing the personal effects of a Wehrmacht soldier. As Soviet troops approached in 1945, Leutnant Gerhard Liedtke buried his uniform, cap, papers and other identifying items. The effects will go on display at the Forest Culture Center in Goluchow.

Altar Call

The National Museum of the U.S. Army opened its doors for the first time on Veterans Day 2020, then promptly closed them due to the resurging COVID-19 pandemic. On June 14, 2021—Flag Day—the museum at Fort Belvoir, Va., reopened. Named one of USA Today’s “best new attractions,” NMUSA offers the only comprehensive portrayal of Army history and traditions through the eyes of the American soldier. The $430 million museum on 84 acres is a joint effort between the Army and the Army Historical Foundation.

In 1945 British soldiers salvaged an altar from the ruins of a Normandy church and gave it to the Talbot House (aka “Toc H”), a World War I–era soldiers’ club in Poperinge, Belgium, where British troops went to recoup and pray in an attic chapel. The altar went missing in 1965 but was recently found in a nearby brewery and returned to Toc H, which operates as a World War I museum.

FROM TOP: IMAGEBROKER (ALAMY STOCK PHOTO); ASSOCIATED PRESS; COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY, SCOTT METZLER

Unfrozen in the Alps

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TODAY IN HISTORY DECEMBER 18, 1934 FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT VISITED BEAR RUN IN SOUTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA AND REQUESTED A SURVEY OF THE AREA AROUND A PARTICULAR WATERFALL. PITTSBURGH BUSINESSMAN EDGAR J. KAUFMANN HAD COMMISSIONED WRIGHT TO BUILD A COUNTRY HOME WITH A VIEW OF THE WATERFALL. THE FAMOUS ARCHITECT SURPRISED HIS CLIENT

BY INSTEAD DESIGNING THE HOME OVER THE WATERFALL. FALLINGWATER COST $155,000 TO COMPLETE IN 1941. THE HOME WAS MADE AVAILABLE TO VISITORS IN 1964.

For more, visit WWW.HISTORYNET.COM/ TODAY-IN-HISTORY

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12/14/20 10:52 AM

Interview To Hell and Back

By Dave Kindy

Hershel Woodrow “Woody” Williams went through hell and lived to talk about it. As a corporal in the U.S. Marine Corps he carried a flamethrower and fought bravely enough to receive the Medal of Honor. Williams, 97, is the last living World War II recipient of that distinguished award.

He received it for actions on Feb. 23, 1945, during the Battle of Iwo Jima, when he took out several Japanese pillboxes amid the fierce fighting to earn the nation’s highest honor for valor in combat. At heart Williams remains a simple farm boy from West Virginia, where he was born and still lives. In 2010 he established the Hershel Woody Williams Medal of Honor Foundation [hwwmohf.org] to support Gold Star families and the legacy of their loved ones who made the ultimate sacrifice.

What was it like to wield a flamethrower?

Well, in January 1944 none of us had ever heard of it or seen it. We didn’t know what it was or how to use it. We did a lot of practicing and changing because we would do something that didn’t work. One time I fired it but the wind was blowing strongly toward me.

Who got the flame? I did! We had to learn the hard way, but they were good lessons. I lost my eyebrows on a number of occasions. You’d think a guy would get smarter after the first time.

We used 82-octane gasoline in that thing, the same as we used in our jeeps and trucks. They had a phosphorus powder you’d mix with gasoline, and it would turn into gel. It would stick to you like glue and just kept on burning.

If you tried to brush it off, all you did was spread the burn. It was terrible stuff. You could get maybe 20 yards out

What happened in the action for which you received the Medal of Honor?

There were a couple of pillboxes, I remember. How I eliminated the enemy at the others, I have no idea. I remember one where I was trying to crawl up close and get flame in the pillbox. They were made out of concrete and steel bars. Bazooka or artillery wouldn’t affect them.

I was crawling up this little pitch, and they were shooting at me with a machine gun. The bullets were ricocheting off my flamethrower. I moved to the right so they couldn’t shoot at me. I saw blue smoke coming out of the top of the pillbox. I crawled on top of it, and there was a pipe. They were cooking. I stuck the flamethrower down the pipe and filled the pillbox with flame.

The next one, I was getting close to the pillbox, and they came charging out toward me. How many Japanese, I don’t know. I remember seeing them with their weapons. They had rifles in their hands with bayonets. I just pointed the flamethrower at them and opened up. A big ball of flame came out. What happened at the other pillboxes, I just don’t remember.

That was the day the flag went up on Mount Suribachi. I didn’t see the first one, but I did see the second one.

The Marines around me were yelling and screaming, so I turned to see what they were looking at, and I saw the flag.

That’s something you don’t forget!

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U.S. MARINE CORPS HISTORY DIVISION (3)

Woody Williams

of it. You couldn’t aim the dumb thing because you were firing from the waist.

And you only had 72 seconds of fuel.

I was 21 years old and weighed 150 pounds, and it weighed 70 pounds.

RANDY GLASS STUDIO

What does it take to endure combat?

Trying to explain combat is like trying to explain what it is like having a baby.

If you’ve never been through it, it’s hard to understand. Even though I can explain combat, I’m not really sure someone who has never been through it could really understand the fear and anxiety and doubts you have.

I would never allow myself to think —even for a second—that I wasn’t going to make it. I would think, I’m going to get through this. I am going to get back home to my girl. I think that gave me courage I would not have had otherwise. I remember hearing about individuals who would say, “I’m never going to get off this island.” You don’t take the precautions you should if you think you’re not going to make it.

U.S. MARINE CORPS HISTORY DIVISION (3)

RANDY GLASS STUDIO

Though not widely used by American forces in the European Theater, flamethrowers saw extensive service in the Pacific. Below left and right: The flamethrower Williams wielded on Iwo Jima was the M2-2 variant.

What other episodes from your time in service stand out?

Vernon Waters was my assistant. He and I agreed that if something happened to the other, we would get the ring from his hand and give it to the family. Back in my day you didn’t have to have a notarized statement to realize your responsibility. If you shook hands on something and made a promise, then you’d better live up to it.

He and I shook hands that we would get the ring back to my girlfriend or his dad. When I saw Vernon get hit, I ran to him to see if he was still alive.

When I saw him stretched out on the ground, I knew he was dead, and that

agreement came back to me. Although it was against regulations, I had to get that ring off him. When I took it off, I saw how white his finger was under it, so I rubbed some ash on it to darken the skin.

What’s the most important lesson from war you can share?

Being in the Marines was a commitment. That’s what kept you going. You committed yourself to do whatever you got to do, and you’re going to live up to that. That was instilled in us.

When we were told to do something, we were only told one time. I can remember my dad saying, “I’m going to

tell you this, and I’m only going to tell you one time.” He didn’t want to repeat himself. That helped me when I got to boot camp. When I was told to do something, I had no questions. I was going to do it or do the best I could.

Same thing in combat. You make that commitment you are going to do whatever it takes, regardless of the situation.

Describe your postwar struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Well, I got home in ’45, and I had the demons. If I didn’t keep myself occupied doing something, there would be things going through my mind. One of

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Williams received the Medal of Honor from President Harry Truman at an Oct. 5, 1945, ceremony at the White House.

the best therapies I ever had was receiving the Medal of Honor. I took on a new life I never expected to live. I was raised on a farm very shy, timid.

After I received the Medal of Honor, I was forced to explain how I got it.

I had to talk about it. I couldn’t say, “That’s none of your business.” When I got the citation, I realized other Marines had witnessed what I had done and made it possible for me to receive the medal. I felt an obligation to them.

There is no odor on earth like burned flesh. That’s the thing that bugged me for years. I was taught growing up the value of life. With a flamethrower you are killing people up close, so you get that odor. That certainly gave me fits, until I finally found the Lord and sought forgiveness for having to kill people.

That’s when I finally found peace like I never had before.

Did you specifically choose a career in Veterans Affairs to give back?

When I got home in ’45, there was no VA. We didn’t even know it existed back then. In December I got this call from a guy I never heard tell of who asked me if I wanted to work for the VA. I didn’t know what he was talking about, so I turned it down. A couple of weeks later I got a phone call from some other guy asking me if I wanted the job. This time I asked, “What does it pay?” It was good money, so I said I would take it. I had never seen so much money.

How does it feel to be the last MOH recipient of World War II? All these years, I kept asking the same question: Why me? I still haven’t found the answer. I guess the Lord is going to have to tell me. Why was I selected as the person to receive the Medal of Honor? Why not the individual who sacrificed his life? Why me? That ques-

tion keeps going through my mind. I’ll be 98 in October. I’ve outlived everyone in my family. There were 464 Medal of Honor recipients in World War II. Why am I the last one? I don’t have an answer.

Do you feel a kinship with other MOH recipients?

There is a fellowship and a bond that does not exist in any other group. Almost every one, if you ask them about their medal, will say it belongs to somebody else. They didn’t do it for themselves—they did for somebody else.

To whom does your Medal of Honor belong?

I wear it in honor of two Marines who never got to come home. They provided cover for me while I went after the pillboxes but were killed in the fighting. For many years I never knew who they were. Because of computers, a couple Marines were able to learn the names of the two who died that afternoon: Cpl. Warren Bornholz and Pfc. Charles Fischer. I’ve said many times, I wear the medal in their honor. MH

U.S. MARINE CORPS HISTORY DIVISION

I kept asking the same question: Why me? I still haven’t found the answer

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Subscribe Now! JULY 3, 1863: FIRSTHAND ACCOUNT OF CONFEDERATE ASSAULT ON CULP’S HILL H

DEATH FROME ABOV

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The Somers Mutiny Ted Williams at War Israel’s Close Call Riding a Torpedo Cedar Creek, 1864

HISTORYNET.COM

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A U.S. Special Forces leader directs local militiamen atop a hill in Ha Thanh.

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Valor Colossal Warrior

A born fighter who thrived in the eye of the storm, Robert Blair Mayne was known to fellow soldiers as “Paddy.” Born Jan. 11, 1915, in Newtownards, County Down, Northern Ireland, to a large Protestant family, Mayne was a quiet young man with literary ambitions who studied law at Queen’s University in Belfast.

Few would have expected him to become a founding member of Britain’s elite Special Air Service (SAS).

Early in life Mayne distinguished himself as a sportsman and troublemaker.

Standing 6 foot 3 and weighing 240 pounds, he was an exceptional athlete.

As a boxer he became Irish Universities Heavyweight Champion in 1936. An outstanding rugby player, he won six international caps for Ireland from 1937–38 and toured South Africa in 1938 with the British Lions. Mellow among friends, Mayne was prone to violent outbursts under the influence of alcohol.

Just 24 at the outset of World War II, Mayne joined the Royal Ulster Rifles in 1940 and later volunteered for No. 11 (Scottish) Commando. He was mentioned in dispatches in 1941 for his actions during the Litani River raid in Lebanon that June. A month later he was recruited to join the newly formed “L” Detachment, Special Service Brigade, by the unconventional aristocrat-soldier David Stirling.

Mayne received the Distinguished Service Order for a Dec. 14, 1941, raid behind enemy lines in Libya on Wadi Tamet airfield. After gunning down enemy airmen socializing in an officers’ mess, he and his team destroyed 14 planes and damaged 10 others. While serving in North Africa he was credited with personally destroying some 100 enemy aircraft on the ground—47 on a single occasion.

Promoted to major in 1942, Mayne received a bar to his DSO for destroying coastal batteries at Capo Murro di Porco and capturing the town of Augusta, Sicily, in July 1943. His citation credited him with “courage, determination and superb leadership.” As commander of the newly formed 1st SAS Regiment, Mayne

Robert Blair Mayne British Army DSO and Three Bars Mediterranean and European Theaters 1941–45

spearheaded raids in France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway and Germany. Promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1944, he received a second bar to his DSO that summer for his leadership in covert operations, penetrating German lines “on four occasions in order to lead parties of reinforcements,” his citation read, with “utter disregard for danger.”

“People think I’m a big, mad Irishman. But I’m not,” Mayne once told a comrade. “I calculate the risks for and against and then have a go.”

Mayne received a third bar to his DSO for heroism in Germany in 1945.

On April 9 he rescued men pinned down by a German force near Oldenburg. In a death-defying feat, Mayne drove his jeep up and down a road within firing range of German troops as his gunner riddled the enemy with machine gun bullets. Over the next few days Mayne helped beat back enemy forces. He was recommended for the Victoria Cross in a commendation personally signed by Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery. However, the award was denied him for reasons that remain debatable. He later received the French Legion d’honneur and Croix de guerre.

Left with physical and emotional scars, Mayne had difficulty adjusting to postwar civilian life. Debilitating back injuries made it impossible for him to lead the active lifestyle he craved.

Working as a solicitor and struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder, he had difficulty sleeping and was prone to outbursts, according to family. Mayne drowned his troubles with bouts of heavy drinking. The Earth proved too small to contain his forceful spirit. Speeding home after a night out drinking with a friend, 40-yearold “Paddy” Mayne was killed when his roadster collided with a parked truck at 4 a.m. on Dec. 14, 1955. He is buried at Movilla Cemetery in his hometown of Newtownards. MH

ASSOCIATED PRESS; INSET: BONHAMS

By Zita Ballinger Fletcher

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6/25/21 9:03 AM

From Gregory Lalire, the editor of

MAGAZINE

MAN FROM MONTANA

by Gregory J. Lalire

JACKET DESIGN BY KATHY HEMING

This historical novel follows adventurer Woodie Hart to the violent goldfields of what would become Montana Territory.

Woodie discovers the boomtowns of Virginia City, Bannack and Hell Gate and faces the twin terrors of road agents looking to get rich quick and vigilantes intent on dishing out cruel justice.

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PRICE: $25.95 / 370 PAGES HARDCOVER (5.5 X 8.5) / ISBN13: 9781432871178 TIFFANY.SCHOFIELD@CENGAGE.COM FACEBOOK & TWITTER: @FIVESTARCENGAGE

6/21/21 7:09 PM

What We Learned From...

Mobile Bay, 1864

By William John Shepherd

B

y the summer of 1864 the three-year Union naval campaign to blockade Southern ports and choke off the Confederacy was at its zenith.

Mobile, Ala., was one of only two major ports—along with Wilmington, N.C.—left to the Rebels. Tennessee-born David Glasgow Farragut (1801–70) was America’s first and most celebrated admiral. His loyalty to the Union, bold command decisions and courage epitomized the American spirit. His resolve was never more on display than when he led his battle fleet into the heavily defended port of Mobile on Aug. 5, 1864.

Though Mobile Bay spans more than 400 square miles, only two narrow channels link it to the Gulf of Mexico. The wider of the two is the 3-mile gap between Fort Morgan Peninsula to the east and Dauphin Island to the west. The other is 2-mile Grant’s Pass, between the north tip of Dauphin and the mainland at Cedar Point. The Confederate defenses included three forts. From the western tip of its namesake peninsula Fort Morgan and its 46 guns defended the wider channel. Opposite it on the east end of Dauphin was the smaller, 26-gun Fort Gaines. Built on a half-acre artificial island, Fort Powell guarded Grant’s Pass with 16 guns. The Confederates had obstructed much of the wider channel with torpedoes (actually floating barrels of explosives akin to modern naval contact mines), leaving only a small, marked passage beneath Fort Morgan’s walls. The small Confederate flotilla comprised the ironclad CSS Tennessee and three gunboats.

Farragut, who’d earned promotion to rear admiral (the U.S. Navy’s first) in 1862 for his capture of New Orleans, used a combined Army/Navy force at Mobile.

On August 3 Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger landed with 1,500 soldiers on the west end of Dauphin to besiege Fort Gaines. At dawn on the 5th the Union fleet of four ironclad monitors and 14 wooden ships entered the harbor with Farragut tethered high in the mainmast of USS Hartford. He’d split the fleet into two parallel columns, the ironclads sailing nearest Fort Morgan to shield the wooden ships to port.

The ships steamed through the unmined gap beneath the fort. Off course, the ironclad USS Tecumseh struck a torpedo and sank, causing alarmed Union

Lessons: Once committed, finish the job.

Farragut’s determination to pierce the torpedo barrier was key to the ultimate Union victory.

Combined operations can be incalculable force multipliers.

The skillful, integrated employment of naval and land forces enabled the attacking Union force to prevail against determined Confederate defenders.

Military action is inevitably linked to politics. Farragut’s victory bolstered the Union cause and led to Lincoln’s re-election at a crucial moment in American history. MH

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

CSS Tennessee (lower left) leads gunboats in an attack on Farragut’s ships even as USS Tecumseh sinks after having struck a Confederate torpedo at the mouth of the bay.

captains to hesitate within range of Fort Morgan. At that moment Farragut reportedly bellowed, “Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!” Hartford passed through the minefield, the rest of the fleet following. Once in the bay Farragut swiftly captured or drove away the Confederate gunboats. After three hours of fighting Tennessee surrendered, ending what Farragut called “the most desperate battle I ever fought.”

Three days later Fort Gaines surrendered, while Fort Morgan capitulated on August 23. Though Mobile itself would not fall until 1865, Farragut had cut off one of the last of the Confederates’ deepwater ports. His victory—and those of Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman at Atlanta in September and Brig. Gen. Philip Sheridan at Cedar Creek, Va., in October—helped secure President Abraham Lincoln’s reelection in November. A grateful president and Congress created the rank of vice admiral for Farragut in December 1864, and two years later he became the nation’s first full admiral.

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TEDDY ROOSEVELT SPORTED A LARGE TATTOO ON HIS CHEST THAT DEPICTED...

His famed horse ‘Little Texas,’ the Roosevelt family crest, a U.S. flag planted atop San Juan Hill or a trio of entwined mermaids?

For more, visit WWW.HISTORYNET.COM/ MAGAZINES/QUIZ

HISTORYNET.com ANSWER: THE ROOSEVELT FAMILY CREST. OTHER PRESIDENTS PURPORTEDLY HAD TATTOOS. ANDREW JACKSON WAS SAID TO HAVE HAD A TOMAHAWK TATTOOED ON HIS THIGH, WHILE JAMES POLK REPORTEDLY HAD A TATTOO OF THE CHINESE CHARACTER MEANING “EAGER.”

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Hardware M109 Self-Propelled Howitzer

By Jon Guttman Illustration by Tony Bryan

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he M109 was conceived in the early 1960s by the Ground Systems Division of United Defense (now part of BAE Systems) as a replacement for the M44 self-propelled howitzer using a chassis and other components common to other U.S. armored vehicles. Accepted in November 1962 and entering service in Vietnam, where its 360-degree traverse made it a welcome asset at firebases, the air-transportable M109 mounted an M126 23-caliber 155 mm howitzer within an armored turret, as well as a flexible .50-caliber M2HB machine gun. A lighter version, the M108, with a 105 mm howitzer, entered service in 1966, but was abandoned in 1975, many being rebuilt to carry the M109’s 155 mm gun.

In 1973 the M109A1 entered production, featuring a M189 39-caliber 155 mm cannon with a longer tube and more efficient muzzle brake, which increased its range from 9 miles to 11.2 miles. A succession of upgrades in armament and technology followed. Introduced in 1991, the M109A6 Paladin featured an advanced fire control system that allowed its gun to fire with accuracy within 30 seconds of the vehicle coming to a stop. The latest model is the M109A7, introduced in 2013.

Although it shares the same chassis, transmission and tracks as the Bradley fighting vehicle, the 78,000-pound M109A7 is faster and more maneuverable. Used by armies worldwide, M109s have seen combat in every American war since Vietnam, as well as the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the 1982 and 2006 Israeli interventions in Lebanon, and the 1980–88 Iran-Iraq War. They remain in active service with no sign of outliving their usefulness. MH

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Muzzle brake Bore evacuator Gunner’s panoramic sight Trunnion .50-caliber M2HB machine gun Commander’s cupola Commander’s seat Turret bustle Projectile stowage

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10. Rear turret stowage bin (left side) 11. Propellant stowage 12. 155 mm gun breech 13. Gun rammer assembly 14. Manual turret traverse mechanism 15. Driver’s seat 16. Road wheel

17. Batteries 18. Drive sprocket 19. Diesel engine 20. Transmission 21. Armored headlight cover 22. Transmission access panel 23. Engine fans 24. Engine exhaust 25. Recuperator cover

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FROM M109 155 MM SELF-PROPELLED HOWITZER, 1960-2005, BY STEVEN J. ZALOGA (OSPREY PUBLISHING, BLOOMSBURY PRESS PUBLISHING)

6/25/21 9:05 AM

Ground clearance: 18 inches Combat weight: 55,000 pounds Armament: One M185 39-caliber 155 mm

Specifications (M109A2) Engine: 405 hp Detroit Diesel

8V71T Model 7083-7396 two-stroke eight-cylinder Transmission: Allison XTG-411-A2 cross-drive with four forward and two reverse speeds Length: 29 feet 11 inches Width: 10 feet 4 inches Height: 10 feet 9 inches

howitzer with 36 rounds of ammunition, one flexible turret-mounted M2HB .50-caliber machine gun with 500 rounds Emplacement time: One minute Rate of fire: Four rounds per minute for three minutes; one round per minute sustained

Maximum effective range:

11.2 miles (14.6 miles rocket-assisted) Gun depression/elevation:

-3 to 75 degrees Speed Road: 35 mph Cross-country: 12 mph Fuel capacity: 135 gallons internal Maximum range: 217 miles Crew: Six

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BREAKTHROUGH AT SAINT-LO It took tens of thousands of lives and weeks of fighting through the bedeviling Norman hedgerows to capture what remained of the ‘Capital of Ruins’

By Ron Soodalter

American war artist Ogden Pleissner (1905–83) based this watercolor of U.S. troops moving through the ruins of Saint-Lô on sketches he made after the city’s liberation.

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The standard-issue American steel helmet and field binoculars both came in handy for troops fighting through the bocage.

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RUE DES ARCHIVES (GRANGER)

This aerial reconnaissance photo of the terrain around Saint-Lô clearly shows the hedgerow country the Allies would have to take field by field.

By the beginning of July 1944—three weeks after D-Day —Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Normandy, was not progressing as rapidly as anticipated. The British Second Army had yet to secure one of its primary objectives, the pivotal crossroads city of Caen, effectively halting its advance on Paris before it began. To block the Second Army the Germans had deployed a staggering force of tanks and armored fighting vehicles along a tight 20-mile front.

Farther to the west the American First Army under Lt. Gen. Omar Bradley had just achieved its first tactical objective by seizing the port city of Cherbourg, on the northern tip of the Cotentin Peninsula. But with the exception of V Corps, which had begun its southward push on June 9, First Army had progressed no further in breaking out of the peninsula. Resupplied and reinforced, Bradley ultimately launched an early July offensive, consisting of 14 divisions in four corps along a 25-mile front, only to encounter obstacles that slowed his advance to a crawl.

The worst seasonal torrential rains in local memory turned the marshy ground to soup, rendering rapid for-

PREVIOUS SPREAD: OGDEN MILTON PLEISSNER/LOOK AND LEARN (BRIDGEMAN IMAGES); TOP: GUVENDEMIR (GETTY IMAGES); LEFT: LIFE PHOTO COLLECTION

T

he Allied forces’ hard-won foothold on the bloody beaches of Normandy, France, on D-Day, June 6, 1944, was only the beginning of what would become a costly, foot-slogging effort to retake—field by field, town by town and house by house—all French ground the Germans had occupied since 1940. Myriad small farms and villages on the Allies’ line of march paid a bitter price for their liberation, with entire towns left in rubble and thousands of citizens killed. Among the hardest hit was the village of Saint-Lô.

Within 20 miles of the Normandy coast, the once-picturesque community of 11,000 had long been the provincial seat of the Manche government. It also had the wartime misfortune to straddle the junction of seven roads and a railroad line. The vital crossroads was a key to the success of the Allied invasion. As historian Ted Neill wrote, “Taking [Saint-Lô] would allow the Allies access to the entire region and provide an avenue of advance toward Paris.”

The Americans were well aware of this, as were the Germans. On D-Day the Allies had bombed the town’s power plant, railroad station and most other buildings in an effort to prevent enemy troops and tanks from passing through.

American and British planes had dropped leaflets over the town the day before, warning citizens to evacuate. But strong winds had scattered the flyers, leaving residents unaware of what would befall them. The resulting mortality list approached 800, including dozens of French partisans the Germans were holding in Saint-Lô Prison, which was reduced to rubble. Before the campaign was over, Saint-Lô would be bombed twice more by the Allies and once by the Germans. Nearly the entire town was leveled, earning it the chilling epithet, the “Capital of Ruins.”

The hellish contest for the crossroads and the miles of tangled countryside leading to it was destined to become one of the bloodiest in the European Theater of Operations. In less than three weeks it cost thousands of GI lives, with tens of thousands more wounded or missing.

ward movement difficult at best. This delay provided the German Seventh Army, by then significantly reinforced, with more time to establish formidable defenses. Worse yet, a captured American field order citing Saint-Lô as the primary Allied objective gave the Germans the opportunity to dig in along the likeliest routes of advance.

The most formidable obstruction to First Army’s rapid forward movement was the countryside itself. Spreading out from the base of the Cotentin was countryside dotted with small farms, many comprising less than an acre of orchard or plowed ground, each bordered by thick hedgerows. The barbed hedges ranged anywhere from 4 to 15 feet in height. Along each row ran a deep, highbanked trench. “From a military perspective,” historian Steven Zaloga wrote, “the hedgerows created a network of inverted trenches, forming a natural, fortification system that was well suited to defense.”

War correspondent Ira Wolfert gave a contemporaneous eyewitness account of the terrain in a July 12 dispatch: RUE DES ARCHIVES (GRANGER)

PREVIOUS SPREAD: OGDEN MILTON PLEISSNER/LOOK AND LEARN (BRIDGEMAN IMAGES); TOP: GUVENDEMIR (GETTY IMAGES); LEFT: LIFE PHOTO COLLECTION

Members of a U.S. patrol move carefully through the ruins of Saint-Lô before the complete withdrawal of German forces.

The hedges are thick and green and all brambly. You can’t see through them if you stick your face into them to look through. It’s like trying to look through a mask.

Under every hedge is a German slit trench—one, three or five of them, dug right into the roots of

the hedges. Men who know a great deal about war built them.

A battalion today was driving due south on SaintLô, and there were Germans ahead of them and on two sides of them, waiting behind hedges in every field with mortars, machine guns, rifles and machine pistols.…

Our artillery couldn’t drive them the conventional 6 feet under, unless it hit each one separately on the head.

The landscape proved invaluable to the Germans in their efforts to establish an impenetrable defense. The

The Norman countryside was dotted with small farms, each bordered by thick hedgerows centuries-old maze of small fields, steep earthen embankments and thorny hedges—known to locals as bocage— to an extent negated Allied air superiority. The difficulties lay in accurately spotting and targeting the enemy and in distinguishing friend from foe in a contest defined by continual close-quarters fighting.

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improvised bulldozer, hedge-cutter and timber-prong modifications welded to their bows—tanks exposed their underbellies when rolling up over the steep embankments, providing easy targets for the Germans’ tankbusting Panzerschreck and Panzerfaust rocket launchers.

Such limitations left the advance largely in the hands of infantrymen. While some were combat veterans, many more were inexperienced replacements. “As soldiers,” veteran Charles Cawthon recalled, “we were overwhelmingly amateur.” All would have to be fast learners.

To troops pouring south from the Cotentin, the bocage presented a daunting series of obstacles, each looming hedgerow seemingly identical to the ones behind and in front, and all potentially concealing waiting enemies.

“Fighting through this bocage country was famously bloody,” Neill wrote, “as combatants engaged each other at distances sometimes of just a few yards. Ground had to be won step by bloody step in close-fought infantry battles from one field to the next.”

The defenders waged a veritable guerrilla war. A War Department study of the operation summed up the difficulties of fighting among the hedgerows:

‘The Germans are making us pay an exorbitant price for each paltry meter we gain’ its limitations in such country, due to the effective cover the hedgerows offered defenders. To compensate, GIs increasingly turned to the use of rifle grenades, bazookas and 60 mm M2 light mortars.

Armored support was also limited. Beyond the difficulty of motoring through the thick terrain—even with

Nor were the nightmarish hedges the only threat. As GIs emerged from the rows into an enclosed field or orchard, they became easy targets for German artillery and nested machine guns. “We’re advancing at a snail’s pace,” a frustrated Bradley himself commented. “The Germans are making us pay an exorbitant price for each paltry meter we gain.”

It was slow and bloody going, and casualties mounted exponentially. But gradually, foot by foot, the Americans pushed back the Germans.

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KEITH ROCCO (BRIDGEMAN IMAGES)

For all its effectiveness, Allied artillery faced similar obstacles. The hedges and trees impeded effective artillery fire, often blocking and detonating outgoing rounds before they reached their targets. Even basic rifle fire had

NATIONAL ARCHIVES (2)

Top: The need to pierce the hedgerows led Army engineers to develop various types of scratch-built plows, which they welded to the bows of tanks. Above: The gaps created by the plows enabled infantry to advance.

There were just three ways that our infantry could get through the hedgerow country. They could walk down the road, which always makes the leading men feel practically naked (and they are). They could attempt to get through gaps…or rush through in a group.…

This was not a popular method. In the first place often there were no gaps just when you wanted one most, and in the second place the Germans knew about them before we did and were usually prepared with machinegun and machine-pistol reception committees. The third method was to rush a skirmish line over a hedgerow and then across the field. This could have been a fair method if there had been no hedgerows.

Usually, we could not get through the hedge without hacking a way through. This of course took time, and a German machine gun can fire a lot of rounds in a very short time.…

Of course the Germans did not defend every hedgerow, but no one knew without stepping out into the spotlight which ones he did defend.

In a painting by American artist Keith Rocco, GIs use a hedgerow as cover while engaging dug-in German troops across an open field.

KEITH ROCCO (BRIDGEMAN IMAGES)

NATIONAL ARCHIVES (2)

Bradley’s First Army targeted and took town after town, 43 submachine guns, as compared to the slowly gaining ground in the advance on Saint-Lô. As in all wars, it was essential to control the high ground.

While there are few mountains in the region, that part of Normandy is dotted with low hills that make for ideal observation posts, and the Germans had occupied them.

Reclaiming them proved a daunting proposition. Hardest and costliest of all was an elevation just outside Saint-Lô.

Four miles northeast of town stands what Allied planners labeled Hill 192, the number designating its height in meters. Though far short of mountain status, it is the highest elevation in the area, commanding excellent views of the countryside. Thick with hedgerows, Hill 192 was home to a fortified German position overlooking every approach to Saint-Lô. On a clear day spotters could see the English Channel. There would be no Allied capture of Saint-Lô—and arguably no subsequent breakthrough— unless and until the hill was wrested from the Germans.

While the promontory may not have been impressive, the Germans who held it were. Dug in on Hill 192 were two battalions of the elite 3rd Parachute Division. In the words of one chronicler, they had been “trained for the assault and honed to the point of fanaticism.” Each of its companies fairly bristled with 20 machine guns and

Tactical Takeaways

Americans’ two light machine guns and nine Browning Automatic Rifles (BARs) per rifle company. The Germans had also Use the terrain. had time to mark off distances for the most By digging in beneath and behind hedgerows, effective mortar and artillery fire. the Germans were able The U.S. 2nd Infantry Division had been to inflict high casuala part of V Corps’ early June push to the ties on the Allies while south and by mid-month had made it to delaying the breakwithin a few miles of Saint-Lô. On June 16 out from Normandy.

Improvise. elements of the division had tried and Confronted by the failed to take Hill 192, losing 1,253 killed tenacious German and wounded in the process. Others’ at- defence anchored on tempts also came up short. It then fell in the hedgerows, Allied large part to the “Second to None” troops engineers developed tank-mounted plows to to finally capture the seemingly impreg- breach the obstacles. nable hill. “For the 2nd Infantry Division,” Combine arms.

Zaloga wrote, “no objective had greater When used effectively together, airpower symbolic importance than Hill 192.”

The division launched its attack early on artillery, armor and infantry often prevail. the morning of July 11. Between the hedgerows and the elevation, the defenders again held a decided advantage. The accuracy of the German mortars and artillery was uncanny, prompting one soldier

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Battle of Saint-Lô

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y the time the U.S. First Army launched its final push on the key crossroads town of Saint-Lô in mid-July 1944, little remained of the “Capital of Ruins.” In the hours following the D-Day landings waves of Allied bombers had pounded the town’s power plant, train station and other German-held infrastructure in a bid to thwart enemy reinforcement. Hundreds of citizens died in the attack, as warning leaflets dropped the day before had blown off course in high winds. Three follow-on bombardments (two Allied, one German) had reduced the town to rubble. But control of Saint-Lô remained a linchpin in the Allied invasion plans, and Lt. Gen. Omar Bradley resolved to take it at all costs.

On June 12 elements of the 2nd Infantry Division succeeded in taking Hill 192, the key vantage overlooking town. Three days later XIX Corps launched the main attack on Saint-Lô in the face of German artillery and mortars that had had plenty of time to zero in on likely targets. Allied casualties were staggering. But on July 18 American troops occupied Saint-Lô proper. A week later Operation Cobra opened the road to Paris. MH

Friendly Fire Incident

On July 25, having secured Saint-Ló, Bradley launched Operation Cobra, first sending some 3,000 Allied aircraft to blast a gap through enemy positions. Unfortunately, errant bombs wounded nearly 500 Americans and killed more than 100 others, including Lt. Gen. Lesley J. McNair.

DISTANCE: Hill 192 to Saint-Lô, 4 miles/6.5 km MAPS BY STEVE WALKOWIAK/SWMAPS.COM

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D-Day to Saint-Lô

On June 6, 1944, five divisions of the First Army under Gen. Bradley invaded Normandy, three coming ashore on the westernmost landing beaches of Utah and Omaha, and two dropping by air on the Cotentin Peninsula. By month’s end U.S. forces had cut off the peninsula to enemy reinforcement and secured the deep-water port of Cherbourg (though not before the Germans destroyed its facilities). Progress inland, however, was frustratingly slow.

Weather proved a factor, and a captured field order tipped off the Germans that Saint-Lô was an objective, enabling them to reinforce the approaches to town. But the countryside itself proved the primary obstacle. The stout hedgerows of the Norman bocage would require the Allies to fight field by field for long weeks.

Capture of Hill 192

So designated for its height in meters, Hill 192 stood alongside the road to Paris and commanded views of every approach to Saint-Lô. Defending it were two German paratroop battalions armed with 60-odd machine guns. The U.S. 2nd Infantry Division took it on July 12 after a costly fight.

A Vital Crossroads

A regional hub since the Middle Ages, Saint-Lô by the 20th century straddled seven roads and a rail line. In wartime that made the bustling town of 11,000 a target for both Allied and German air strikes. By war’s end an estimated 95 percent of Saint-Lô lay in ruins. It has since been reborn.

Onward to Paris...and Berlin

By late July the First Army had secured Saint-Lô and muscled its way through hedgerow country.

Operation Cobra punched a hole in the German lines. Exploiting the gap, the Third Army under Lt. Gen. George S. Patton made lightning strikes west into Brittany, south and east toward Paris.

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to marvel that the enemy could drop a mortar round in his back pocket.

By then, however, the Americans had deJULY 7—22, 1944 vised a successful method for dealing with the hedgerows. Attached to the infantry were teams of engineers tasked with dynamiting ALLIED CASUALTIES gaps in the rows wide enough for tanks to 29TH INFANTRY DIVISION: 3,706; 30TH INFANTRY DIVISION: 3,934; pass. Working in tandem, the infantry, engi35TH INFANTRY DIVISION: 2,437; neers and tanks made good progress, though XIX CORPS: 3,000+; PLUS 352 FRENCH CIVILIANS German anti-tank weapons still took a terrible toll on the Shermans, often leaving foot soldiers to fend for themselves.

GERMAN The fighting continued unabated for two CASUALTIES days, the slugfest finally ending late on the 12th with the Germans in retreat. Through the combined effort of infantry, tanks and artillery—the latter of which dropped more than 20,000 rounds on the enemy the first

13,000+ UNKNOWN

day alone—the Americans took Hill 192. Yet German resistance remained heavy in other sectors around SaintLô. Not until July 19 could GIs begin rooting German stragglers out of the ruined town itself.

“The Battle of the Hedgerows involved no dramatic advances or decisive maneuvers,” Zaloga summed up.

“It was a grinding battle of attrition.” The ultimate butcher’s bill was staggering. In less than three weeks of brutal, relentless fighting the First Army suffered more than 40,000 casualties.

American troops occupied Saint-Lô proper on July 18.

The first GI credited with entering town had actually been killed the day before. Major Thomas D. Howie of the 29th Division’s 116th Infantry Regiment had succumbed to a mortar barrage after having led a successful bayonet charge.

On orders from the division commander the stretcher bearing his flag-draped body was borne on the hood of the first

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TOP: BETTMANN (GETTY IMAGES); BELOW: ARTERRA PICTURE LIBRARY (ALAMY STOCK PHOTO)

Battle of Saint-Lô

TOP: NATIONAL ARCHIVES; LEFT: PHOTO 12 (GETTY IMAGES); RIGHT: VINTAGE_SPACE (ALAMY STOCK PHOTO)

In a series of images captured by an Army Signal Corps photographer, U.S. infantrymen cautiously peer through a gap in a hedgerow, fire on enemy soldiers in the open (below left) and dash across a farm road past a German tank and truck to the next hedgerow (below right).

TOP: BETTMANN (GETTY IMAGES); BELOW: ARTERRA PICTURE LIBRARY (ALAMY STOCK PHOTO)

TOP: NATIONAL ARCHIVES; LEFT: PHOTO 12 (GETTY IMAGES); RIGHT: VINTAGE_SPACE (ALAMY STOCK PHOTO)

jeep to roll into the ruined town. His men then gently laid the stretcher atop the rubble of the Saint-Croix Church.

Photographs of Howie’s flag-draped remains saw widespread publication stateside, where he achieved legendary posthumous status as the “Major of Saint-Lô.”

Tragically, the hard-won fight for Saint-Lô was also marked by one of the most devastating friendly fire incidents of the war in Europe.

Just days after the capture of the town, Bradley— hoping to blast a gap the tanks of Lt. Gen. George S. Patton’s Third Army might exploit—requested the dispatch of a combined American-British force of nearly 3,000 bombers and fighter-bombers to bombard the Germans’ new defensive line just beyond Saint-Lô. Over the span of two days, due to a communications breakdown and foiled by low cloud cover, the planes unloaded their ordnance on Germans and Americans alike, killing some 130 GIs and wounding nearly 500 more. Among the dead was Lt. Gen. Lesley J. McNair, one of the four highest-ranking American soldiers killed in the entire war —the others being Lt. Gens. Frank Maxwell Andrews, Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr. and Millard Harmon.

In the end, a combination of foul weather, a determined foe and the tortuous Norman bocage took a terrible toll on both the Allies and their German counterparts.

To Gen. Dietrich von Choltitz, commanding the German 84th Army Corps, the battle was “a monstrous bloodmill, the likes of which I have not seen in my 11 years of battle.” American casualties were unexpectedly high.

Unsurprisingly, roughly 90 percent were infantrymen.

According to a U.S. Army survey, rifle companies on average suffered casualties of some 60 percent of their enlisted men and 68 percent of their officers.

As a result of the Allied bombing campaign, upward of 25,000 civilians were killed and some three-quarters of the region’s buildings were leveled. The Battle of the Hedgerows and capture of what remained of Saint-Lô and its neighboring towns lasted considerably longer than Allied strategists and commanders could have envisioned. Ultimately, it opened the gate to Bradley’s Operation Cobra, which enabled Patton’s historic armored breakthrough and race across France, the liberation of Paris and, in less than a year, the defeat of Germany.

The hedgerows still stand in Normandy, though they have been considerably reduced to accommodate modern farming techniques and equipment. As for Saint-Lô itself, by late July 1944 hardly anything remained standing, other than a church façade here and a lone wall or chimney there. Bodies that could not be immediately recovered putrefied beneath the rubble. One war correspondent made a biblical reference to the town as the “valley of the shadow of death.”

Widespread, dire predictions suggested Saint-Lô was beyond recovery. “The city was 97 percent destroyed,”

Top: The flag-draped body of Maj. Thomas D. Howie lies amid the ruins of Saint-Croix Church in Saint-Lô. Above: A U.S. M5A1 Stuart light tank is among the exhibits at the Dead Man’s Corner Museum in Carentan.

the U.S. consul to France reported, “and not only were the buildings decimated, but water mains, gas and electric conduits, etc. were also torn up.”

However, beginning in the late 1940s and continuing into the ’50s—and with the help of several nations, including the United States—the little market town literally rose from the ashes. Several monuments dot the town, including a memorial dedicated to Howie, “Le Major de Saint-Lô.” Among Saint-Lô’s public buildings is the Musée du Bocage Normand—Museum of the Norman Bocage. Housed in a 17th century farm complex, it traces the rich agricultural history of the region an army at war had known only as “that damned hedgerow country.” MH A frequent contributor to Military History, Ron Soodalter is chairman of the board of the Abraham Lincoln Institute.

For further reading he recommends The Clay Pigeons of St. Lô, by Glover S. Johns Jr.; Dying for Saint-Lô: Hedgerow Hell, July 1944, by Didier Lodieu; and St. Lô 1944: The Battle of the Hedgerows, by Steven J. Zaloga.

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OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM The United States was the latest of many invaders caught in an Afghan quagmire

By Jon Guttman

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Struck by two of the four airliners commandeered by al-Qaida terrorists on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan makes a burning backdrop for the Brooklyn Bridge shortly before both towers collapse to the ground.

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ENDURING FREEDOM

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hen the Soviet Union left Afghanistan in 1989 after a futile decade spent propping up a communist regime, several Afghan resistance factions vied for control. In 1996 Kabul fell to a militant Islamic movement called the Taliban (“Students”), which by 1998 controlled 90 percent of the country and was also harboring and training the multinational terrorist organization al-Qaida (“The Base”).

On Sept. 11, 2001, 19 al-Qaida operatives hijacked four American airliners and crashed them into the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and a field near Shanksville, Pa., killing themselves and 2,977 other people. The administration of George W. Bush responded by launching the Global War on Terrorism, with Afghanistan its first target.

Operation Enduring Freedom began with air strikes against al-Qaida and Taliban targets on Oct. 7, 2001, though U.S. intelligence agents had contacted Taliban opponents weeks earlier. Kandahar, the Taliban’s spiritual home, fell on December 9. That same month alQaida militants and the organization’s founder, Osama bin Laden, escaped from the Tora Bora cave complex in eastern Afghanistan into neighboring Pakistan. In 2003 President Bush declared an end to major combat operations, and the United States and its allies set about rebuilding the Afghan state, military and police. Two Michael T. Weinberg, 34, a member of FDNY’s Engine decades later, despite international efforts, President Company 1, was off duty on Barack Obama’s troop “surge” in 2009 and the Navy September 11. When he heard SEALs killing of Osama bin Laden on May 11, 2011, the of the attacks, he raced to Taliban—whose ambitions were always more local than the scene, becoming one of 342 firefighters who died those of al-Qaida—remains a menace. Indeed, the when the World Trade Center future of Afghanistan’s elected government appears towers collapsed. His recovuncertain as the bulk of forces fighting the United ered helmet is part of the States’ longest war prepare for departure by Sept. 11, permanent collection at New 2021, the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. MH York’s 9/11 Memorial & Museum.

Memento of a Hero

A Saudi-born al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, who targeted the United States primarily for its steadfast support of Israel, had been largely dismissed until the September 11 attacks.

B From left: Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell, President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney confer on the United States’ response on September 12.

C Members of the 3rd Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry watch the bombardment of an enemy position in the rugged Shah-i-Kot Valley by a U.S. Air Force Boeing B-52 Stratofortress on March 14, 2002. D Demonstrating their legendary versatility, three members of the U.S. Army Special Forces ride through Kunduz in search of retreating al-Qaida and Taliban fighters on Aug. 25, 2002.

E A 30-ton cache of weapons captured by Special Forces in Khowst province await disposal on July 3, 2002. F Troops of the U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Division fight their way through the bombed-out enemy strongholds of Sherkhankheyl, Marzak and Bobelkiel on March 8, 2002.

PREVIOUS SPREAD: SARAH K. SCHWITTEK (REUTERS); A: AFP (GETTY IMAGES); B: AC NEWSPHOTO (ALAMY STOCK PHOTO); BELOW: 9/11 MEMORIAL & MUSEUM; C, D, E, F: POOL, SCOTT NELSON, SCOTT NELSON, JOE RAEDLE (GETTY, 4)

A

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PREVIOUS SPREAD: SARAH K. SCHWITTEK (REUTERS); A: AFP (GETTY IMAGES); B: AC NEWSPHOTO (ALAMY STOCK PHOTO); BELOW: 9/11 MEMORIAL & MUSEUM; C, D, E, F: POOL, SCOTT NELSON, SCOTT NELSON, JOE RAEDLE (GETTY, 4)

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ENDURING FREEDOM

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G, H, I, K: ROBERT NICKELSBURG, SCOTT NELSON, JOHN MOORE, JOHN MOORE (GETTY IMAGES, 4); J: AGEFOTOSTOCK (ALAMY STOCK PHOTO); L, M, N: DAVID FURST/AFP, JOE RAEDLE, SCOTT OLSON (GETTY, 3)

Now Comes the Hard Part G The gunner on a Boeing-Vertol CH-47 Chinook helicopter scans the town of Wazakhwa for signs of al-Qaida or Taliban activity on Sept. 11, 2004. H Gunners of the 1st Battalion, 319th Airborne Field Artillery Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, put their 105 mm howitzer through a live-fire exercise near Khost on Oct. 28, 2002. I Troops of the 2nd Bn., 87th Infantry Regt., 10th Mountain Div., stationed at Camp Tillman, within 2 miles of the Pakistani border, scan the terrain on Oct. 15, 2006, a day after strikes by 20 Taliban rockets. J A B-52 departs a forward air base on April 13, 2006. K Royal Marine Lee Oliver of Britain’s 42 Commando follows up on a bomb strike during Operation Achilles, a successful 2007 coalition effort to clear Helmand province of Taliban forces.

L A Boeing AH-64 Apache helicopter fires missiles at Taliban positions on Nov. 19, 2008, during Operation Shir Pacha, a joint effort by U.S. and Afghan army troops to disrupt Taliban activity in the Derezda Valley of Khost province. M Members of Company E, 2nd Bn., 8th Marines, come under Taliban fire at Mian Poshte on July 3, 2009, during Operation Khanjar, intended to clear the Helmand Valley in preparation for the Afghan presidential election. N Sergeant Robert Carnes and Corp. Dave Needham of Co. I, 3rd Bn., 12th Marines, use their mortar to return Taliban fire at Forward Operating Base Zeebrugge, near Helmand’s Kajakai Dam, on Oct. 19, 2010.

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ENDURING FREEDOM

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O: BOB STRONG/REUTERS (ALAMY STOCK PHOTO); P, Q, S: SCOTT OLSON, JOHN MOORE, JOHN CANTILE (GETTY IMAGES, 3); R: PFC. CAMERON BOYD (U.S. ARMY); T: U.S. ARMY; U: PFC. CODIE MENDENHALL (U.S. ARMY); V: ROBERT NICKELSBURG (GETTY)

History Repeats?

O An Oshkosh M-ATV armored vehicle of the 101st Abn. Div. burns after incurring damage from an improvised explosive device near Combat Outpost Nolan, in the Arghandab Valley north of Kandahar, on July 23, 2010.

P Pfc. Logan Harty (foreground) and Lance Cpl. José Dehoyos of Co. I, 3rd Bn., 12th Marines, engage the enemy at FOB Zeebrugge on Oct. 9, 2010, in a firefight that left some five Taliban dead and one Marine wounded.

Q Troops of 2nd Bn., 1st Inf. Regt., 2nd Inf. Div., rush for cover in an opium-producing poppy field near Howz-e-Madad, northern Kandahar province, during a firefight with Taliban fighters on March 14, 2010.

R Members of the 2nd Bn., 327th Inf. Regt., 101st Abn. Div., engage Taliban insurgents during a firefight in Barawala Kalet Valley, Kunar province on March 31, 2011. S A soldier of the 2nd Bn., 12th Inf. Regt., 4th Inf. Div., fires a captured Taliban rocket-propelled grenade at its former owners in the Pech Valley on June 22, 2012 T Two AH-64 Apaches use their forward-looking infrared cameras to turn the tables on a Taliban platoon waiting to ambush a Special Forces patrol at night in 2009. U Coalition troops patrol using night-vision gear in the Waghaz district of Ghazni province on May 1, 2013.

V In a prelude of withdrawals to come, soldiers and Marines board a Boeing C-17 Globemaster III at Bagram Air Base on May 11, 2013.

The bulk of forces fighting America’s longest war are to be withdrawn from Afghanistan

by Sept. 11, 2021— the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks

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A TURN FOR THE WORSE After the ‘shot heard round the world,’ as Redcoats retreated to Boston, Patriots sprang an ambush at a bend in the road known since as the Bloody Angle

By Douglas L. Gifford

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The bearskin caps worn by British grenadiers who fought at Lexington and Concord and during the retreat to Boston marked them as elite troops.

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he relationship between Great Britain and the American province of Massachusetts Bay deteriorated rapidly during the late winter and spring of 1775. On April 14 Lt. Gen. Thomas Gage, the commander of British forces in North America, received orders from London to disarm colonial militias and arrest rebel leaders. British intelligence had learned the Massachusetts militia was stockpiling weapons and supplies in Concord, 16 miles west of Boston. On April 18 Gage ordered a task force to march on Concord “with the utmost expedition and secrecy” to capture and destroy the military stores.

Gage entrusted the Concord mission to Lt. Col. Francis Smith, commander of the 10th Regiment of Foot. Instead of assigning the mission to complete regiments, Gage created a task force, selecting light infantry and grenadier companies from the regiments under his command and the 1st Battalion of Royal Marines. The 21 companies totaled more than 700 men. Major John Pitcairn of the Royal Marines was Smith’s second-in-command. There was no intermediate level of command between them and the 21 companies. Gage’s use of only elite troops in the unorthodox task force was an indication of the mission’s importance.

British troops in colonial North America carried the Model 1756 long land pattern “Brown Bess” musket. The .75-caliber smoothbore fired a .69-caliber ball with a maximum effective range of about 100 yards. In Boston, the Redcoats bound for Concord received 36 rounds of ammunition—then the basic load for a British infantryman. They would receive no resupply on the march. The Redcoats also carried bayonets, giving them a huge advantage over the Patriot militia in close-quarters fighting.

In a contemporary illustration Patriot militiamen engage British troops retreating from Lexington and Concord.

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TOP: DOMENICK D’ANDREA (U.S. NATIONAL GUARD); BELOW: SHELDON LEVIS (ALAMY STOCK PHOTO)

of grenadiers, one company of light infantry and eight battalion companies. The grenadiers and light infantry were the elite troops. The period London Encyclopedia called the grenadiers “the tallest and stoutest men, consequently the first upon all attacks.” These shock troops were used for breaching obstacles and other heavy work. In combat grenadiers operated on the regiment’s right. Light infantrymen acted as flankers and protected the left of the formation.

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In 1775 a British infantry regiment comprised one company

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PREVIOUS SPREAD AND THIS PAGE, TOP: DON TROIANI (BRIDGEMAN IMAGES, 2); BOTTOM: SARIN IMAGES (GRANGER)

At Concord’s North Bridge (pictured below) Capt. Isaac Davis’ company of minutemen from Acton skirmish with troops of the 4th (King’s Own) Foot— the famed “shot heard round the world.”

Massachusetts law required all able-bodied men aged 16 to 60 to join their local militias. Many of their officers were veterans of British campaigns against the French and Indians. The colonial government also urged each town to organize a third of its militia into companies of “minutemen,” composed primarily of younger men, who received extra training and committed to turn out immediately in an emergency. That said, most of the Patriots who would confront the British during their retreat from Concord were regular militiamen. Furthermore, though towns purchased weapons and ammunition, most militiamen fought with their personal muskets, shot and powder. Few owned bayonets.

Militia weapons included a range of locally crafted hunting and military designs, commercial arms contracted from private makers, firearms drawn from provincial arsenals, confiscated Loyalist arms, state purchases of spare guns from civilians, surplus arms from European dealers and muskets issued in North America by the British during earlier conflicts.

The Patriots learned of Smith’s mission to Concord on April 18 and sent dispatch riders (including the celebrated Paul Revere) to alert area townships the British were coming. Militiamen from across the region began assembling in their home villages, including Concord.

The Redcoats began marching west from Cambridge,

across the Charles River from Boston proper, at about 2 a.m. on April 19. By 5 a.m. the column had reached Lexington, some 7 miles shy of Concord, where they skirmished with the local militia, spilling the first blood of the American Revolutionary War. The British arrived in Concord around 7 a.m. When the Redcoats marched into town, the militia retreated to the outskirts. Smith then dispatched detachments of soldiers to seize the cached military stores. He sent one group of soldiers 2 miles north of town to search the farm of Colonel James Barrett, the local militia commander. After searching the village, British soldiers smashed up and torched several cannon carriages. Enraged at the sight of smoke rising from the center of town, militiamen from

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Concord, Acton, Lincoln, Bedford, Carlisle, Chelmsford, Groton, Littleton, Stow and Westford—some 500 men in all—confronted Redcoats guarding the North Bridge over the Concord River near Barrett’s farm. The British fired a volley as the Patriots approached. The militiamen returned fire, killing several Redcoats and wounding many others, in an action memorialized as the “shot heard round the world.” The bloodied British withdrew to Concord.

After the fight at North Bridge the Redcoats tarried in Concord several more hours. They destroyed a cache of confiscated military supplies, consolidated their scattered forces and organized transportation for their wounded.

Smith showed no sense of urgency. That would prove a mistake, for while the British lingered, militiamen spread word and converged on Concord.

Finally, around noon, after having dallied five hours in Concord, the British force began its return trek to Boston. At the outset of the march Smith took the precaution of deploying 80 to 100 flankers on a ridge to the left, or north, side of Bay Road, the outbound route. The main column marched unmolested for about a mile to a junction known locally as Meriam’s Corner. At that point Bedford Road came down from the north to join Bay Road. Just past the intersection Bay Road crossed Mill Brook. Although only a trickle today, in 1775 it was a

Brown Bess

flowing stream that required a bridge to traverse. The ridge ended just shy of Bedford Road, so as the Redcoats approached the bridge, Smith ordered the flankers to rejoin the main body to cross Mill Brook.

About the time the British started across the bridge, Patriot militia began converging at Meriam’s Corner.

From the north fresh companies arrived from Reading, Billerica and Bedford. The militiamen who had fought at North Bridge marched across open pasture known as the Great Meadow, north of Concord. As Smith’s flankers rejoined the main column, Patriots took up positions around the home and outbuildings of Nathan Meriam, within 100 yards of Bay Road. Six small militia companies from Sudbury watched the British from a respectful distance across open fields south of the road.

As the last of the British forces crossed Mill Brook, the rear guard turned and fired a wild volley to drive off approaching militia. That was all the excuse the Patriots needed. From either side of Bay Road they unleashed a volley at the retreating Redcoats. When the smoke cleared, two British soldiers lay dead and several others were injured. “Up to this moment the remainder of the day might have passed without further incident,” a history of that fateful day noted. “The few minutes of action at Lexington Green and Concord Bridge might even have been written off as part of a chronicle without any fulfillment or far-reaching end. Such however, was not destined to be the case.…From this volley there was to be no point of return.”

British troops in colonial North America carried the .75-caliber long land pattern musket, this example of which was used by a grenadier company of the 18th Foot at Lexington, Concord and Bunker Hill.

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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

Captain John Parker’s 77 militiamen were the first to confront the British on April 19, 1775, just after sunrise on Lexington Green.

LEFT: DON TROIANI (U.S. NATIONAL GUARD); RIGHT: NATIONAL ARMY MUSEUM, U.K.; BOTTOM: HERITAGE AUCTIONS

Francis Smith

The village of Woburn lies some 4 miles northeast of

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

LEFT: DON TROIANI (U.S. NATIONAL GUARD); RIGHT: NATIONAL ARMY MUSEUM, U.K.; BOTTOM: HERITAGE AUCTIONS

As the British force continued to retreat east on Bay Road, militiamen shadowed their march and sniped at the Redcoats from both sides of the thoroughfare. Once over Mill Brook, Smith redeployed his flankers—which helped keep the Patriots from approaching too closely—and inflicted casualties among the militia. Less than a mile past Meriam’s Corner the British column reached Brooks Hill (aka Hardy’s Hill), where waiting militiamen had flanked the road. Wooded terrain and buildings on the Brooks farm and at Brooks Tavern offered concealed positions, allowing the Patriots to lay down accurate fire on the Redcoats from close range. Although the British quickly pushed through the hail of musket fire with their flankers’ help, the worst was yet to come.

Lexington. At about 1 a.m. on April 19 a lone horseman had ridden through to alert officials the British were marching out from Boston, and the Woburn Militia immediately began assembling. “The town turned out extraordinary,” recalled Maj. Loammi Baldwin, the local commander, “and proceeded toward Lexington.” Down dirt roads and across country Baldwin and three companies of Woburn Militia, totaling some 250 men, made their way south. Although they heard “a great firing” from the direction of Lexington, the Woburn men were too late to make a stand with their neighbors on the green. When they did arrive, they were infuriated to find “eight or 10 dead.”

Baldwin ordered his men to trail the British to Concord.

Some 4 miles west of Lexington they reached Tanner’s

Battles of Lexington and Concord

Brook, a stream cutting across Bay Road, where the men refreshed themselves. Before moving on, they heard the fighting on Brooks Hill and soon spotted approaching Redcoats.

The Woburn Militia, in Baldwin’s recollection, “then concluded to scatter and make use of the trees and walls for to defend us and attack COLONIAL them.” Dashing uphill to a sharp northeastMILITIAMEN 77; CONCORD: 400; ward bend in Bay Road, they took up positions LEXINGTON: END OF BATTLE: 3,960 in an apple orchard overlooking the road.

From Brooks Hill the British line of march dipped into the narrow ravine drained by KILLED 39 WOUNDED, FIVE MISSING Tanner’s Brook. From there the road climbed some 100 yards before reaching a bend to the left, or northeast—the first of two turns. Beyond the first bend the road climbed sharply BRITISH TROOPS LEAVING BOSTON: 700; and then leveled off as it approached the LEXINGTON: 400; CONCORD: 100; END OF BATTLE: 1,500 second bend. To the left, or west, side of the road was open pasture dotted with large trees.

The apple orchard stood to the right of the KILLED first bend, while a woodlot filled with younger 174 WOUNDED, 53 MISSING trees flanked the second. The half-mile of Bay Road between the two bends—the Bloody Angle— offered ideal cover and concealment for an ambush.

Exploiting their familiarity with the terrain and local roads, the Patriots converged on the stretch of Bay Road between the bends ahead of the Redcoats. Before reaching the Bloody Angle, the British had the advantage of interior lines, forcing the Patriots to move farther and faster to maintain contact with the Redcoat column. After

3,960 49

1,500 73

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Retreating British regulars under Lt. Col. Francis Smith continue their orderly withdrawal toward Boston despite continuing attacks by Patriot militiamen firing from the roadsides. Below: The Bloody Angle as it appears today.

avows each man fought on his own, in reality the militia moved as companies, each under its commander’s control. “Far from being a disorganized rabble,” historian Walter Borneman wrote, “the rebels were working together with deadly efficiency.” The British were about to march into a half-mile-long gauntlet of fire.

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DADEROT

the skirmish at Brooks Hill, however, some militiamen cut cross-country to Bay Road beyond the first bend, allowing them to reach the wooded pasture ahead of the Redcoats—a classic example of the use of interior lines.

Other militiamen who had fought at Meriam’s Corner marched cross-country through an open area known as the Great Fields before scaling a wooded height to reach Bay Road and take up firing positions in the wooded pasture near the second bend. A third group of Patriots dogged the Redcoats from the rear. Though popular lore

marched quickly down the east face of the rise to escape.

It was 1:30 p.m.

Militiamen from Westford, Stow and Groton, who had just arrived from their homes west of Concord, harassed the rear of the column. At the bottom of the hill Lincoln Bridge spanned Tanner’s Brook, where the restrictive terrain again forced Smith to recall his flankers to cross the stream. Once past Lincoln Bridge the weary Redcoats trudged uphill some 100 yards to the first bend. Capt.

Lawrence Parsons’ light company of the 10th Foot was in the lead. Parsons was the only officer in his company who remained uninjured. As they rounded the bend, the British met a blast of musket fire from Woburn militiamen concealed in the apple orchard and behind stone walls.

After firing, the Woburn men raced into the adjacent woodlot to keep the British column under constant fire.

TOP: DON TROIANI (BRIDGEMAN IMAGES); LEFT: NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

After passing the ambush on Brooks Hill, the Redcoats

DADEROT

TOP: DON TROIANI (BRIDGEMAN IMAGES); LEFT: NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

After the Woburn Militia opened up on the right flank of the British column, Patriots across the road took their turn. There, concealed behind large trees in the wooded pasture, militiamen from Reading, Redford, Chelmsford, Billerica and others who had engaged the enemy at Brooks Hill fired on the exhausted Redcoats. Smith detached flankers to drive back the Patriots, but they were not as effective at engaging militiamen hiding behind large trees as they had been in the more open landscape closer to Concord. The trees provided good cover, and the flankers merely became better targets the closer they came to the concealed militiamen.

The Redcoats fighting at the Bloody Angle faced several disadvantages. Perhaps foremost, the Patriots outnumbered them more than 2-to-1. The British decision to supply each man the basic load of 36 rounds of shot and not plan for resupply also began to tell as they ran short of ammunition. If Smith allowed the column to stop and engage the militia, his force would be overwhelmed by the Patriots. There wasn’t even time for the British to tend to casualties, so they left wounded comrades to their fate along the road. Most officers were dead or wounded, so the redoubtable British sergeants took over and kept the column moving forward. Their situation was becoming critical. At that point, midway between the two bends, the British began to break.

The Redcoats double-timed it uphill toward the second bend, where militiamen from Concord and other towns were waiting for them. As the British approached the bend on the run, the Patriots unleashed a volley. The Woburn Militia also continued firing on them from the woodlot across the road. Although staggered by these vicious attacks, the column kept moving. Then the Redcoats caught a break.

The terrain, which had plagued the British all day, suddenly became their ally. One hundred yards past the second bend Bay Road crested a hill and began a gentle descent for a half mile. To the weary Redcoats, running downhill must have seemed a godsend. Also in their favor was the roadside terrain, which past the second bend became overgrown and swampy, slowing Patriot pursuit.

Although exhausting for the British, running had saved their lives. Though far from out of danger, they had survived the Bloody Angle and had a few minutes to regroup until the Patriots reorganized and resumed their attacks.

Unveiled in 1900, the Lexington Minuteman, by Henry Hudson Kitson, honors all the militiamen who fired the “shots heard round the world.”

The Redcoats had entered Bloody Angle as an organized

percent of all British casualties during the retreat from Concord to Boston. The day after the battle locals buried five of the Redcoats killed at Bloody Angle in a little cemetery in Lincoln. Other British dead still lie where they fell along Bay Road.

The Patriots did not escape unscathed. Several Massachusetts militiamen were wounded at the Bloody Angle, and three were killed— Ammunition is cheap.

Had the British troops Jonathan Wilson of Bedford, Nathaniel Wy- marching on Concord man of Billerica and Daniel Thompson of been provided with Woburn. Redcoat flankers inflicted most of more ammo before the Patriot casualties. Compared to the losses leaving Boston, they of their adversaries, however, militia casu- might have fared better during their retreat. alties were surprisingly light.

Red isn’t camouflage.

The British survivors of the Bloody Angle Though British troops’ weren’t out of the woods, as the Patriot mili- red coats made for a tias quickly regrouped and resumed their at- daunting display on the tacks on the beleaguered column. Had Smith’s battlefields of Europe, they only encouraged command not received reinforcements at Lex- Patriot sharpshooters ington in the form of 1,000 men and two can- in North America. nons under the command of Brig. Gen. Hugh Roads are death traps.

Percy, they would never have made it back Restricting troops to to Boston. As it was, militiamen from all over movement by roads bordered by walls or eastern Massachusetts gathered along the Brit- vegetation virtually ish escape route and turned their retreat into guarantees ambushes. one long, bloody running fight. The British eventually reached Boston, but not before feeling the full wrath of the Massachusetts militia at the Bloody Angle. MH

military formation and emerged a bloodied mob. It is a testament to the British leaders and soldiers’ resolve and professionalism that they survived at all. Had they been less resolute, the whole column could have been annihilated or captured. Eight Redcoats died outright during the fighting at Bloody Angle, 30 more received wounds of varying severity and an unknown number went missing or were captured. The figures represent nearly 15

Historian and retired Army officer Douglas L. Gifford specializes in American military history. For further reading he recommends American Spring: Lexington Concord and the Road to Revolution, by Walter R. Borneman; Paul Revere’s Ride, by David Hackett Fischer; and Lexington and Concord: The Battle Heard Round the World, by George C. Daughan.

Tactical Takeaways

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WHEN POWDER PROVED ITS WORTH

The advent of gunpowder weapons in 14th century Europe prompted medieval commanders to conceive new tactics and adjust existing ones

By Robert C.L. Holmes

A 16th century etching, likely by Dutch engraver-cartographer Joannas van Doetecum the Elder, depicts the sound and fury of early gunpowder weapons.

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Developed in China in the 9th century, gunpowder is a mixture of potassium nitrate (saltpeter), charcoal and sulfur.

B

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RIJKSMUSEUM

A stained-glass image by 20th century German artist Fritz Geiges depicts Berthold Schwarz, a likely fictitious 14th century alchemist widely credited in medieval Europe with the invention of gunpowder.

Fourteenth century European armies made use of a wider variety of tactical systems than is generally recognized. Two major trends greatly affected the tactical introduction of gunpowder weapons. The first was the rise of the professional soldier. Often described as mercenaries, these men came from the lesser noble or non-noble classes. They typically served within their own countries rather than traveling abroad to find employment. As such they were mercenaries only in the sense that they, unlike feudal levies or militia, fought for pay and were full-time soldiers. Commanders generally considered them more trustworthy and disciplined than feudal or militia levies, and they often possessed highly prized technical skills.

Since they served for pay rather than for fixed periods of time, they were willing to stay in the field longer. As the 14th century progressed, the line between mercenaries and levies blurred, and the cost of waging war greatly increased. To make themselves more attractive to potential employers, professional soldiers developed specialized technical skills. Those able to operate gunpowder weapons commanded handsome salaries, thus encouraging others to develop such skills.

The 14th century also witnessed the rise, or revival, of infantry as an effective or even decisive combat arm.

While infantrymen in previous centuries had occasionally proved decisive, their main function had been to screen the knightly cavalry or provide the horsemen with a place of refuge in which to regroup. If the cavalry managed to disrupt the enemy lines, the infantry might be sent forward to break up the enemy formation. Most medieval infantry forces were able to do little more, as they lacked the necessary training, discipline and equipment.

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y the mid-14th century European soldiers were confronting strange and fearsome weapons that bellowed like thunder and belched smoke and flame. Such diabolical devices heralded the arrival of gunpowder technology on the Continent some five centuries after its development in China.

Medieval commanders seeking to incorporate such weapons into their armies soon discovered it was no simple task. Given technological constraints of the period, bringing gunpowder weapons to bear on the battlefield proved far more difficult than employing them in a siege. Before the new weapons could yield results in the field, commanders had to either develop innovative tactics or adjust existing ones. The successful ones ultimately employed gunpowder weapons as part of a combined-arms approach to both inflict casualties and sap morale.

RIJKSMUSEUM

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That situation changed in the 14th century as foot soldiers became more professional. Armed with both shock and missile weapons, infantrymen displayed an increasing ability to win decisive victories on the battlefield. Commanders achieved such victories by relying on a fairly uniform set of tactics with regional variations. After carefully selecting and preparing the ground on which they fought, they often deployed their soldiers in a solid defensive line. Once the battle began, the foot soldiers closed ranks to resist enemy assaults.

Only when the enemy had lost momentum and become disorganized did the infantry launch an all-out counterattack. Such tactics were not particularly elaborate, nor were they always successful. Yet when employed by disciplined professional soldiers, they were quite effective.

Incorporating gunpowder weapons into such tactical systems was no easy task, given the limitations of the technology. Such weapons were severely lacking in mobility, and their rate of fire was glacially slow. Take gunpowder artillery, which was not initially mounted on wheeled carriages. To transport the heavy pieces, commanders had to have them either dragged on sledges or borne on carts. Even after armies developed purpose-

An engraving published in the mid-16th century as part of a 19-volume series about important inventions depicts a Dutch artillery workshop turning out new cannons using metal from damaged older weapons.

built artillery carriages toward the end of the century, the weapons remained quite heavy and cumbersome.

Individual firearms of the period also proved problematic since they were unwieldy and slow to load and fire.

The latter was a particularly important consideration, as

Mid-14th century soldiers confronted strange weapons that belched smoke and flame aiming such weapons was difficult, and their accuracy was questionable. Tacticians and firearms designers devised various methods to compensate for the slow rate of fire, such as massing several pieces, attaching multiple barrels to the same carriage and developing breechloading weapons. But the high cost of gunpowder, lack of standardized firing procedures and challenge of creating reliable breech-

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Shot from a gunpowder weapon was likely to cause injuries or knock enemies from their feet enemies from their feet. That stopping power was critical, as body armor grew heavier through the 14th century.

Armies recording the most effective use of gunpowder weapons during the 14th century were those assuming the tactical defensive, choosing to receive the enemy’s attack. The earliest evidence for the tactical use of gunpowder artillery on the battlefield during the period was

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FROM TOP: HERVE CHAMPOLLION (AKG-IMAGES); PRISMA ARCHIVO (ALAMY STOCK PHOTO); INTERFOTO (ALAMY STOCK PHOTO)

loaders proved difficult to overcome. Thus commanders were unlikely to rely on gunpowder weapons to fire more than a few rounds over the course of a battle. Compensating somewhat for the slow rate of fire was the lethality of such weapons. While incapable of battering down castle walls, they were more than capable of killing or maiming armored foes. Even if it failed to penetrate armor, shot from a gunpowder weapon was likely to cause injuries or knock

at the Aug. 26, 1346, Battle of Crécy. After weeks on the march King Edward III of England deployed his 10,000to 15,000-strong army atop a hill to offer battle, a challenge the larger French army of 20,000 to 30,000 men under King Philip VI could not refuse. The English deployed an unknown number of various gunpowder weapons, likely some form of early artillery.

The French opened the battle with a barrage by mercenary Genoese crossbowmen, who sought to disrupt the English formation ahead of a charge by mounted French knights. In the subsequent exchange of fire with English longbowmen, the Genoese got the worst of it. The crossbowmen also came under fire from the English gunpowder weapons. The combination proved too much for the Genoese, who hastily withdrew. Interpreting their erstwhile allies’ retreat as cowardice or treason, the French knights proceeded to massacre the fleeing Genoese. The battle then devolved into a series of rash, uncoordinated and unsupported attacks by the French knights against the strong English position, where they were cut down in droves. It is unclear how many French and Genoese casualties the English gunpowder artillery had inflicted.

Perhaps only a few, as surviving chronicles barely acknowledge the presence of such weapons.

Another occasion in which an army on the tactical defensive made good use of gunpowder weapons was at the May 3, 1382, Battle of Beverhoutsveld (near Bruges in present-day Belgium). The Flemish city of Ghent had re-

GIANCARLO COSTA (BRIDGEMAN IMAGES)

After defeating the French at Crécy, English troops under King Edward III employ hand cannons and bombards alongside traditional weapons of the medieval period during the successful 1346–47 siege of Calais.

belled against its overlord, Louis II of Flanders, who had imposed a blockade with willing help from the citizens of Bruges, Ghent’s traditional enemy. To break the blockade, the army of Ghent—some 4,000-8,000 men under Philip van Artevelde—marched on Bruges and deployed in a defensive position on a nearby hill. Artevelde positioned several hundred ribauldequins, a form of multibarreled light artillery, on one flank to deliver enfilading fire.

The far larger combined army of Louis II marched from the city in a disorganized manner, as Bruggians had marked a religious holiday the day before, and many soldiers were either hung over or intoxicated. As Louis’ army approached, Artevelde opened a massive barrage with his ribauldequins. The unexpected fusillade caused the Bruggians to waver and then halt in confusion. A second Ghent barrage followed, as did an infantry attack that routed Louis’ forces. In the aftermath Artevelde’s army occupied Bruges, and Louis barely escaped. Again, the number of casualties inflicted by gunpowder weapons is unclear, but the effect of the Ghent ribauldequin fire on the morale of the Bruggians was undeniable. Two barrages and an infantry assault had transformed a confident advance into a panicked rout.

FROM TOP: HERVE CHAMPOLLION (AKG-IMAGES); PRISMA ARCHIVO (ALAMY STOCK PHOTO); INTERFOTO (ALAMY STOCK PHOTO)

GIANCARLO COSTA (BRIDGEMAN IMAGES)

Despite such victories from the defensive, it proved nearly impossible to successfully employ gunpowder weapons on the tactical offensive during the 14th century.

Following Ghent’s victory at Beverhoutsveld, more Flemish towns joined it in revolt. That prompted France to side with Louis II, and in late 1382 the crown dispatched to Flanders 10,000 men under Olivier de Clisson, the constable of France. Artevelde led the 30,000- to 40,000-strong Flemish army to meet the invaders.

At the resulting Battle of Roosebeke that November 27 Artevelde resolved to use his previously decisive gunpowder weapons against the French, who had chosen a strong defensive position. He deployed the Flemish pikemen in a tight infantry square, with gunners and crossbowmen on the flanks. During the Flemish advance, however, those wielding the cumbersome gunpowder weapons struggled to keep up over the rough terrain.

They likely only managed to fire once or twice before the advancing Flemish pikemen masked the French line.

The French center initially wavered, but the Flemish formation had not engaged heavy cavalry on the enemy flanks, which were thus free to attack the exposed flanks of Artevelde’s infantry square. A well-timed French cavalry charge finally drove the Flemish crossbowmen and gunners from the field, leaving the pikemen with no hope of support. Artevelde was killed as repeated charges by the French cavalry destroyed the Flemish infantry.

Having earlier employed their gunpowder weapons so effectively to break the morale of the enemy, the Flemings had hoped for a repeat at Roosebeke. They came close, as the French center did waver, but ultimately the Flemish

Top: A medieval bombard on display at France’s Loches Castle rests in a non-elevating wooden cradle. Above: Simple elevating posts allow a smallcaliber gun to fire at a higher angle. Below: An overhead wooden shield provided some protection to the crew of a wheeled double bombard.

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Gunpowder weapons proved effective for breaking the morale of an attacking force his claim and eliminate any resistance, John of Castile launched an invasion at the head of 31,000 troops. John of Portugal received the invaders with fewer than 7,000 men, deploying his vastly outnumbered army in a hilltop redoubt fortified with interlocking trenches and caltrops.

Noting the strong defensive position of the Portuguese, John of Castile subjected them to an extensive bombardment from his gunpowder weapons, while his light cavalry circled behind the Portuguese to cut off their escape.

The bombardment alarmed the Portuguese but did not dislodge them, not that they had anywhere to flee. When it became apparent the barrage was having little effect, the Castilians gunners ceased fire to conserve their dwindling gunpowder supply. They then launched a series of cavalry and infantry attacks, which also failed to make an impression on the Portuguese position. When the Castilians ultimately moved to break contact and withdraw, the Portuguese emerged to launch their own attack, driving their besiegers from the field with heavy losses.

Unfamiliar as they were with gunpowder, few soldiers of the period could have been expected to endure a protracted cannonade, even those within fixed field fortifications. The Castilian gunpowder weapons had served their intended purpose of weakening the morale of the Portuguese, but the Castilians had failed to fully integrate such weapons into their tactical system. Had the Castilians employed a combined-arms approach and not cut off potential escape routes, it is probable their bombardment would have succeeded in dislodging the Portuguese.

The 14th century also saw the first use of individual firearms on the battlefields of medieval Europe. Contemporaneous artworks depict firearm-bearing soldiers marching beside and among bowmen and crossbowmen in something of a mixed formation.

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TOP: JOHNNY SHUMATE, FROM THE MEDIEVAL CANNON 1326-1494 BY JONATHAN DAVIES (OSPREY PUBLISHING, BLOOMSBURY PRESS PUBLISHING); BELOW: YATTON

gunpowder weapons had neither the mobility nor the rate of fire to defend the infantry square on the attack. Their poor tactical use and deployment prevented the Flemish gunners from fulfilling their intended role, with disastrous consequences.

Gunpowder weapons were also employed offensively at the Aug. 14, 1385, Battle of Aljubarrota, which pitted the army of King John I of Castile against that of King John I of Portugal for the throne of the latter kingdom. To solidify

GRAHAM TURNER, FROM THE FALL OF ENGLISH FRANCE 1449-53 BY DAVID NICOLLE (OSPREY PUBLISHING, BLOOMSBURY PRESS PUBLISHING)

While large-caliber gunpowder weapons could prove decisive in medieval battles, they and their crews were vulnerable to direct attack by enemy foot soldiers.

TOP: JOHNNY SHUMATE, FROM THE MEDIEVAL CANNON 1326-1494 BY JONATHAN DAVIES (OSPREY PUBLISHING, BLOOMSBURY PRESS PUBLISHING); BELOW: YATTON

GRAHAM TURNER, FROM THE FALL OF ENGLISH FRANCE 1449-53 BY DAVID NICOLLE (OSPREY PUBLISHING, BLOOMSBURY PRESS PUBLISHING)

Tactical Takeaways

Such a formation allowed the strengths of one weapon system to compensate for the weakness of anFollow the tech. other. While the bow and crossbow The appearance of had a greater range and rate of fire gunpowder weapons than any 14th century firearm, the in medieval Europe latter had greater stopping power. was a game changer, In a fight bowmen in the formation and armies slow to adopt the new arms would batter the enemy at long found themselves range. Gunners would then employ at a severe tactical their firearms to either prevent the disadvantage. enemy from closing or at least stagSize does matter. ger them enough to allow their own While hand cannons proved themselves in compatriots to withdraw in order. close combat, bigger The poor accuracy of 14th cenguns fired stones and tury firearms did not necessarily other projectiles large reduce their effectiveness. Soldiers enough to batter down fought in tight-knit, slow-moving the enemy’s defenses.

Protect the guns. masses, thus a firearm triggered in The enemy will always the enemy’s general direction stood try to find and destroy a good chance of hitting a target. To your artillery. a degree such weapons were capable of penetrating armor, while soldiers and horses were unused to the intimidating sight, sound and smell of firearms. Mass volleys sapped morale, often disrupting an enemy’s advance and preventing them from closing. That said, technological constraints prevented firearms from assuming an effective offensive role on the battlefield. Like their larger cousins, individual firearms lacked the mobility and rate of fire necessary to break up enemy formations or drive enemy soldiers from defensive positions.

The size and weight of early guns made them difficult to move and emplace. Bottom: Once in position, however, guns such as the Mons Meg (on display at Scotland’s Edinburgh Castle) could breach most defenses.

Ultimately, 14th century European armies integrated gunpowder weapons into their defensive tactical systems in a manner conforming to the tactical trends of the period. By remaining on the tactical defensive, one had less need to redeploy such cumbersome weapons, either to maintain contact with friendly troops or to adjust to new enemy attacks. Friendly infantry protected the gunners, allowing them to do their work unmolested by the enemy. That in turn enabled the gunners to reload and fire their weapons more frequently. The more volleys they fired, the more casualties they could inflict.

As fundamental to victory as it was to inflict casualties, however, gunpowder weapons also proved effective for breaking the morale of an attacking force, an often overlooked aspect of medieval warfare. Faced with the sound and fury of such weapons, some troops froze in their tracks, others fled and almost all wavered. In doing so, the attackers lost cohesion and momentum, further sapping their morale and exposing themselves to a counterattack.

Also key to the successful tactical use of gunpowder weapons on the medieval battlefield was the adoption of a combined-arms approach. Troops armed with gunpowder weapons were most effectively employed along-

side and in support of troops armed with more traditional weapons. Ultimately it was not technology but tactics that made gunpowder weapons an effective tool on medieval battlefields and for centuries to come. MH Robert C.L. Holmes is a historian and author specializing in the military history of the ancient and medieval worlds.

For further reading he suggests Firearms: A Global History to 1700, by Kenneth Chase; Weapons and Warfare in Renaissance Europe, by Bert S. Hall; and Infantry Warfare in the Early 14th Century, by Kelly DeVries.

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Pat and Kevin Tillman joined the Army, trained and deployed together. The brothers posed for this photo soon after arriving in Afghanistan in April 2004.

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HONOR BEFORE GLORY NFL standout Pat Tillman wasn’t out to win recognition or stir up controversy when he enlisted and deployed to the Middle East

By Paul X. Rutz

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While Pat Tillman was an all-around gifted athlete, football was his passion from an early age, and his pugnacity on the gridiron won him a scholarship to Arizona State University in 1994.

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TOP LEFT: MIKE HASKEY/COLUMBUS LEDGER-ENQUIRER (GETTY IMAGES); TOP RIGHT: REUTERS (ALAMY STOCK PHOTO); BELOW: U.S. ARMY

In 1998 Tillman joined the Arizona Cardinals, where he outworked and outhit teammates to earn a spot as the Cardinals’ strong safety.

Patrick Daniel Tillman Jr. was born on Nov. 6, 1976, and raised with two younger brothers in suburban Fremont, Calif., on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay. An all-around gifted athlete, he became a football star on both offense and defense, making up for his relatively slight stature with dedication in the weight room, a taste for delivering hard hits and the acumen to guess an opponent’s moves and react quickly. By age 16 he stood 5 feet 11 inches and weighed 195 pounds. His aggressive nature got him in trouble during his senior year when he assaulted another teen in a parking lot brawl and landed in juvenile hall for 30 days. Fortunately, the misdemeanor did not prevent him from claiming Arizona State University’s last football scholarship for the 1994 season. He joined the team as a defensive specialist.

Tillman said his short time in lockup prompted a major reassessment of his priorities, and in college his ambition kicked into high gear. He’d built a reputation among friends for climbing tall objects and taking death-defying leaps from canyon ledges into trees. At ASU he applied

PREVIOUS SPREAD: AF ARCHIVE (ALAMY STOCK PHOTO); TOP: PIXHOOK (ISTOCKPHOTO); TOM HAUCK/ALLSPORT (GETTY IMAGES)

D

uring the broadcast of Super Bowl LIV in 2020 a three-minute commercial featured a boy with a football dashing past several current and former National Football League stars who encouragingly yell, “Take it to the house, kid!” amid cheerful music. In the middle of the ad the boy pauses, as does the music, and he gazes up at the statue of Arizona Cardinals safety Pat Tillman outside State Farm Stadium in Glendale. After the ad aired, a familiar debate bubbled up in the press and on social media.

Was the NFL honoring or exploiting the memory of a generation’s most famous fallen soldier?

After Tillman walked away from football to join the Army in 2002, he refused to speak publicly about it, believing his enlistment spoke for itself. But circumstances took his life, and therefore his legacy, in directions he couldn’t have foreseen, from the invasion of Iraq to his preventable death in Afghanistan in 2004. The events surrounding his final moments were initially obscured behind a smoke screen of medals, political praise and redacted documents before the truth came out he’d been killed by members of his own platoon. Even today, after a slew of investigations and a congressional hearing, his story evokes bitter disagreement about who was to blame and what his service meant.

In an interview given five years after Pat’s death his mother, Mary “Dannie” Tillman, bemoaned her son’s iconic status. “He was a human being, and by putting this kind of heroic, saintly quality to him, you’re taking away the struggle of being a human being,” she said.

“He had to make choices, just like we all do.” Why had Tillman chosen the Army over the NFL? What had he sought to accomplish as an enlisted soldier? A few clues —including football-related interviews, his family’s remembrances and passages from his personal wartime journal—bring us as close as we may ever get to answering such questions.

TOP LEFT: MIKE HASKEY/COLUMBUS LEDGER-ENQUIRER (GETTY IMAGES); TOP RIGHT: REUTERS (ALAMY STOCK PHOTO); BELOW: U.S. ARMY

PREVIOUS SPREAD: AF ARCHIVE (ALAMY STOCK PHOTO); TOP: PIXHOOK (ISTOCKPHOTO); TOM HAUCK/ALLSPORT (GETTY IMAGES)

Following graduation from basic and advanced individual training at Fort Benning, Ga., Pat (left) and Kevin went to airborne school and then the Ranger Indoctrination Program before joining the 75th Ranger Regiment’s 2nd Battalion at Fort Lewis, Wash.

his energies to voracious reading and debates on politics and international relations. He earned his bachelor’s degree in three and a half years, graduating in December 1997 with a 3.84 grade point average.

The young athlete became a darling of the press for his mix of eccentric and admirable qualities, including a patriotic streak. In one interview Tillman mentioned legendary World War II Gen. George Patton. “He made some comment one time,” Pat said, “something to the effect of, ‘No one ever won a war dying for their country.

Let the other son of a bitch die for his.’ It’s things like that, you know, it’s guys like that, guys where their attitude—they’re a little bit crazy—but it’s that craziness that propels them to greatness.”

Still considered undersized and somewhat slow on his feet for pro football, he nevertheless made it onto the NFL’s radar by leading his college team in tackles. Of the 241 players chosen in the 1998 NFL draft, Tillman came up number 226. He signed a one-year contract with the Cardinals for $158,000, the league minimum. As he had done throughout his youth, he outworked and outhit teammates to earn his spot as the team’s go-to strong safety, though he never earned more than the league minimum salary, which for a fourth-year player was $512,000. Meanwhile, he maintained his reputation for unconventional antics. He initially rode his bicycle to team practice, eventually upgrading to a secondhand Volvo station wagon. During the off-season he finished

a marathon, the only NFL player to do so in the year 2000. In 2001 he completed an Ironman half-triathlon, comprising a 1.2-mile swim, a 56-mile bike ride and a 13.11 mile run. He also re-enrolled at ASU to pursue a master’s degree in history.

Tillman twice turned down a major payday—first a $9.6 million offer in 2001 because he didn’t want to leave Arizona to play for the St. Louis Rams, and then a $3.6 mil- While the black-and-yellow lion offer from the Cardinals in spring 2002. Ranger skill identifier The Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on tab is only worn by soldiers who have graduAmerican soil hit Tillman hard. He watched ated from Ranger School, TV footage of the unfolding tragedy all the shoulder sleeve insigmorning from home and then with team- nias of the 75th Ranger mates at the Cardinals’ practice facility. He Regiment and its three was especially shocked to see footage of battalions are worn by anyone who is officially desperate people holding hands and leap- assigned to those units. ing from the blazing World Trade Center towers. With pro sports on hold, he sat for an on-camera interview the next day. “My great grandfather was at Pearl Harbor, and a lot of my family…has gone and fought in wars, and I really haven’t done a damn thing as far as laying myself on the line like that,” he said. “So I have a great deal of respect for those that have.” The interviewer then asked whether he was itching to return to the field.

“We play football, you know?” he replied. “It is so unimportant compared to everything that’s taken place.”

Ranger SSI

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SCOTT NELSON (GETTY IMAGES)

While Tillman’s parents encouraged their boys to question authority, they also taught reverence for fellow Americans who had answered the call to serve. After Pat’s death, Dannie—herself a college history major— reflected on those lessons. “Discussions about the military had been part of the boys’ childhood—why people fight for their country; why they should; when it is right to do so; the effect of war on people; how it crushes them tragically or enables them to do heroic things,” she wrote. Dannie recalled some of her own favorite memories, including visits to Gettysburg National Military

ABOVE: STEALTH MEDIA SOLUTIONS (REUTERS); BELOW: COURTESY OF MARIE TILLMAN (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

After returning from Iraq in May 2003 Pat (top) and Kevin completed the arduous nine-week Ranger course, earning the tab that marked them as full-fledged Rangers. Above: Holding his M249 SAW, Pat takes a break after deploying to Afghanistan in April 2004. He was killed days later.

Park and watching plebes march at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

In the six months following 9/11 Pat explored his options, and in February 2002 he ventured to Provo, Utah, to climb frozen waterfalls and speak with a former Force Recon Marine. After deciding to join the Army, Tillman told middle brother Kevin, then a minor league baseball player with the Cleveland Indians organization. To no one’s surprise, Kevin, who had considered military service since he was a teen, quit baseball to join up with Pat. The Tillmans met with a recruiter who explained that if they joined the Army Rangers, the brothers would incur a modest three-year commitment, do short (three-month) deployments and could choose to be based at Fort Lewis, Wash., just south of Seattle. Pat and Kevin—just 14 months apart and lifelong best friends—called Dannie on Mother’s Day 2002 to explain their plan. They had wanted to so do in person, they said, but someone at the recruiting station had recognized Pat, and the brothers thought they might soon be in the news. Although both had college degrees, they chose not to become officers, loathing the idea of having to send others into harm’s way.

On April 8, 2002, Pat penned a reflective document he titled “Decision,” writing in part, “It seems that more often than not we know the right decision long before it’s actually made.” Being an NFL player, he noted, “strokes my vanity enough to fool me into thinking it’s important…[but] especially after recent events I’ve come to appreciate just how shallow and insignificant my role is.”

The next month Pat married Marie Ugenti, his one and only girlfriend, and the newlyweds honeymooned in Bora-Bora. In June he and Kevin signed their enlistment papers and took the oath.

From the moment the Tillman brothers joined up, the nation’s military leaders were watching. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld wrote a memo to the Army secretary calling Tillman “world-class” and adding, “We might want to keep an eye on him.” On June 28 he wrote Pat a personal letter of praise. Rumsfeld’s senior military assistant later said it was the only time he could recall the defense secretary having sent personal congratulations to a soldier on his enlistment. Major General John Vines also sent a letter, inviting the Tillmans to join the 82nd Airborne Division instead of the Rangers.

On July 8 Pat and Kevin traveled to Fort Benning, Ga., for basic and advanced individual training. Aged 25 and 24, respectively, they were dismayed at the immature behavior displayed by many of their younger fellow recruits, many of whom had joined for practical instead of patriotic reasons. Pat journaled his alarm at seeing “all these guns in the hands of children.” He also wrote of longing for the wife and career he’d left, along with the hope his military experience would “free up my conscience to enjoy what I have.” The Tillman brothers stuck it out through airborne school and the Ranger

During their first deployment, to Iraq, the Tillman brothers spent five uneventful weeks patrolling Baghdad International Airport and its environs.

Indoctrination Program, and just before Christmas 2002 they were sent to Fort Lewis as the newest members of 2nd Platoon, Company A, 2nd Ranger Battalion.

SCOTT NELSON (GETTY IMAGES)

ABOVE: STEALTH MEDIA SOLUTIONS (REUTERS); BELOW: COURTESY OF MARIE TILLMAN (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

By early March 2003 Pat and Kevin were setting up tents and stringing concertina wire with the rest of Company A near Arar, Saudi Arabia, within 40 miles of the Iraqi border. Wearing uncomfortable protective suits in the desert heat to protect them from Saddam Hussein’s rumored chemical and biological weapons, they followed news of the invasion, Operation Iraqi Freedom, which began on March 20.

On March 27 Rangers finally boarded helicopters to join the fight—but the Tillmans remained in camp. With no seniority or experience, they were seen as more liability than asset. “I’m not out for blood or in any hurry to kill people,” Pat wrote in a fiery journal entry, “however, I did not throw my life to s___ in order to fill sandbags and guard Hummers. This is a f______ insult that boils my blood. All I want to do is rip out the throat of one of these loudmouth f___s who’s going as opposed to me.”

Although he expressed great misgivings about the war in Iraq, suggesting it was about oil and little else, Pat clearly wanted to taste combat.

As it happened, while assaulting Qadisiyah Air Base northwest of Ramadi on that first mission, Manuel Avila, the M249 squad automatic weapon (SAW) gunner in Pat’s

four-man fire team, was shot twice in the chest. Avila survived, but from that point Pat took his spot on the SAW. The closest the Tillman brothers came to major action in Iraq was the high-profile rescue of Pfc. Jessica Lynch, a 19-year-old supply clerk in the 507th Maintenance Company who was captured by the enemy on March 23 after

Despite his misgivings about the war in Iraq, Pat clearly wanted to taste combat the convoy she was traveling in took successive wrong turns into the southern city of Nasiriyah, inadvertently becoming the tip of the invasion spear. Breathless initial news reports claimed Lynch had fought until her M16 ran out of ammunition, sustained stab and gunshot wounds, and was tortured—none of which turned out to be true.

In fact, she hadn’t fired a shot, and the injuries she received occurred when the Humvee she was riding in collided with a tractor trailer during the ambush. Her name was eventually linked to Pat’s in the official record, as each became characters in a mendacious wartime propaganda campaign.

Lynch’s rescue—a massive undertaking involving roughly 1,000 troops—came at midnight on April 1. The

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In Memoriam

Pat, Kevin and the rest of 2nd Platoon (the “Black Sheep”) arrived in Afghanistan for their second deployment on April 8, 2004. Six days later they helicoptered to Forward Operating Base Salerno, along the Pakistani border in the southeastern province of Khost, to search

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TOP: U.S. ARMY; RIGHT: ROBERT LABERGE (GETTY IMAGES)

special operations team responsible met light resistance and suffered zero casualties as they bore Lynch on a stretcher from Saddam Hussein Hospital. A camera crew from the 4th Psychological Operations Group recorded the action, during which someone placed a conspicuous U.S. flag on Lynch’s chest. The Tillman brothers, part of a standby quick-reaction force, spent a cold night waiting at bombed-out Tallil Air Base.

Beginning on April 9 Pat and Kevin spent five weeks patrolling out of an aircraft hangar at Baghdad International Airport. Pat fired his weapon just once, on April 21, to ward off approaching vehicles with warning shots. In mid-May the Tillmans, having yet to earn the coveted Combat Infantryman In its May 3, 2004, issue Sports Illustrated honored Badge, returned stateside to attend Ranger Tillman as both athlete School at Fort Benning. On November 28, and soldier. The memorial after nine arduous weeks, the brothers reservice held in San Jose’s ceived their shoulder patches—or tabs— Municipal Rose Garden that day drew some 3,000 marking them full-fledged Rangers. spectators. Among the 18 As 2003 drew to a close, Pat learned that speakers who eulogized since he had deployed to a war zone, he Tillman was U.S. Sen. could be honorably discharged under special John McCain of Arizona. circumstances. His agent told him several NFL teams were hoping to sign him to play in the fall 2004 season, but Pat refused to consider an early discharge. He would stick to his three-year commitment.

nearby villages for Taliban activity. On April 22, just two weeks into the deployment, Pat was killed. A day later superiors submitted a Silver Star recommendation that claimed Tillman had “put himself in the line of devastating enemy fire” during an ambush. The recommendation quickly went up the chain of command, along with a posthumous promotion to corporal. News accounts parroted the official line Pat had succumbed to enemy fire while saving fellow Rangers. Within weeks, however, that version of events began unraveling.

In fact, on the afternoon of Pat’s death headquarters had ordered Black Sheep commander 1st Lt. David Uthlaut to split his platoon to meet a predetermined time line. As they threaded through steep-walled valleys in their Humvees and Toyota Hilux pickups, the platoon’s two sections lost radio contact with each other.

The trailing section, whose members included Kevin Tillman, soon came under ambush by mortars and small arms from the hills above. As members of the other section, including Pat, dismounted from their vehicles and rushed to help, trigger-happy Rangers—many in their first firefight—mistook Pat and fellow rescuers for enemy combatants. They killed Sayed Farhad, an Afghan ally.

Standing beside Farhad, Pat took an initial 5.56-caliber round to the chest, then three more to the right forehead, likely from a SAW. According to fellow Ranger Pfc. Bryan O’Neal, as he and his teammates came under fire, Pat waved his arms over his head, yelling, “I’m Pat Tillman!

I’m Pat f______ Tillman! Why are you shooting at me?!”

Wounded in the friendly fire incident were Lieutenant Uthlaut and Spc. Jade Lane.

Kevin arrived on scene 10 minutes after the shooting.

He was told his brother was dead but not about the circumstances. Over the following days unit members burned Pat’s body armor, uniform and other potential evidence, while officials doctored written statements for the Silver Star recommendation and lied to the press and the Tillman family. A week after Pat’s death Brig.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the Joint Special Operations

LEFT: UPI (ALAMY STOCK PHOTO); RIGHT: PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP (GETTY IMAGES); BELOW: HERITAGE AUCTIONS

As his mother and Jessica Lynch look on, Kevin Tillman testifies at an April 24, 2007, House hearing into the Army’s misleading information about Pat’s death and Lynch’s capture. Above right: Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld testifies about both issues in August 2007.

TOP: U.S. ARMY; RIGHT: ROBERT LABERGE (GETTY IMAGES)

LEFT: UPI (ALAMY STOCK PHOTO); RIGHT: PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP (GETTY IMAGES); BELOW: HERITAGE AUCTIONS

As part of the investigation into Tillman’s death, Army Criminal Investigation Division personnel re-enact the friendly fire incident in April 2006.

commander, sent senior government officials a confidential P4 memo mentioning fratricide—friendly fire— and warning civilian leadership to tread carefully. The story fell apart on May 24 when Rangers finally told Kevin what had happened.

In 2008 the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform released a report, “Misleading Information From the Battlefield: The Tillman and Lynch Episodes,” detailing the damage done by deliberate deception in both cases. “The bare minimum we owe our soldiers and their families is the truth,” said committee chairman Henry Waxman. “That didn’t happen for two of the most famous soldiers in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. For Jessica Lynch and Pat Tillman the government violated its basic responsibility.” Yet the committee assigned little blame. Officials all the way up to former Defense Secretary Rumsfeld testified they could not recall many details. The highest official punished for the cover-up was retired Lt. Gen. Philip Kensinger, former commander of the Army Special Operations Command.

The Army censured Kensinger for misleading investigators and stripped him of his third star, stating he knew about the fratricide even while attending Tillman’s May 3, 2004, memorial service.

Despite the tragic circumstances of Pat Tillman’s death and the subsequent shortfall in officialdom, Pat’s family honored his legacy of service by creating the Pat Tillman

On Nov. 12, 2006, a statue honoring Tillman was unveiled at the Cardinals’ State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz.

Foundation [pattillmanfoundation.org]. Still going strong, it provides scholarships and other support for service members, veterans and military spouses who want to parlay their education to serve their communities. MH Paul X. Rutz, a former U.S. Navy officer, is a visual artist and freelance writer. For further reading he recommends Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman,

by Jon Krakauer, and Boots on the Ground by Dusk: My Tribute to Pat Tillman, by Mary Tillman.

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FINLAND’S FAMED ‘SKY PEARL’

During World War II the Finnish variant of the U.S.-built Brewster Buffalo proved more than a match for top Soviet, German and British fighters

By Barrett Tillman

Though Hans Wind was Finland’s second-highest scoring ace, with 75 total career victories, he was the world’s top ace in a Buffalo, having scored 39 of his victories in the stubby fighter.

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I

t was an incongruous scene. On a June day in 1942 a few stubby, blunt-nosed U.S.-built fighters bearing swastika markings climbed eastward to intercept British-built fighters bearing red Russian stars. Meanwhile that month on the opposite side of the planet the same American-made fighters suffered a disastrous encounter with the Imperial Japanese Navy near Midway Atoll.

The barrel-shaped American-made fighter was the Brewster Buffalo. Both the Finns and the U.S. Marine Corps flew the type—though with vastly different outcomes. Near Midway the Marine squadron VMF-221 lost 13 out of 20 Buffalo, while the Finns typically outshot their Soviet enemies by orders of magnitude.

To explain the difference requires strategic and tactical context.

Pictured on a 1937 test flight, the XF2A-1 prototype was the first of 509 Buffalo built for the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps and foreign customers.

neutral, Helsinki allowed Wehrmacht forces to cross its territory en route to Norway. When Germany invaded Russia in June 1941, Helsinki and Berlin became de facto allies, although Finland never joined the Axis. At that point the United States cut off aid to Finland, including replacement aircraft and parts.

Man for man the Finns were among the world’s finest fighter pilots. Necessarily small, the Ilmavoimat sought to produce world-class aviators to oppose the nation’s most likely enemy—Russia. Toward that end, during the 1930s the Finns sent senior airmen to foreign nations to gather information on fighter aviation.

The “father of Finnish fighter tactics” was then Capt.

Gustaf Erik “Eka” Magnusson. He sought exchange tours in France and Germany during the 1930s and tested a variety of European fighters, leading to Finland’s adoption of Holland’s Fokker D.XXI fixed landing gear monoplane.

With Lt. Col. Richard Lorentz, Magnusson adapted lessons learned from France and Germany and applied them to Finland’s nascent fighter arm. The result was spectacular success in combat. As leader of Lentolaivue (LeLv) 24, Magnusson produced the most effective fighter squadron in his air force. During the 1941–44 Continuation War, flying Brewsters and Messerschmitt Me 109s, LeLv 24 claimed 781 aerial victories against 33 losses—a ratio of nearly 24-to-1.

The Finns recognized the benefit of more flexible formations, using the later world-standard four-plane flight ahead of the Luftwaffe. The optimum fighter flight comprised two four-plane divisions, each with two sections of leader and wingman, sometimes staggered in altitude. Rather than the 30- to 45-degree “pursuit curve” flown by nearly every air arm, the Finns joined the U.S. Navy in training wide-angle shooting, out to 90 degrees.

The ability to hit at full deflection became a force multiplier for the inevitably outnumbered Finns.

Whatever the normal exaggeration attending a unit’s score, the vastly lopsided results spoke volumes. Magnusson led from the front. When he departed LeLv 24 in 1943 to command a flight regiment, he had 5.5 personal kills, leading a roster that included Finland’s top two aces—Ilmari Juutilainen and Hans Wind.

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CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: JHL COLORIZING (MILITARY MUSEUM OF FINLAND, CC BY-SA 4.0); MAP BY BRIAN WALKER; FINNISH HERITAGE AGENCY, CC BY-SA 4.0

Sweden and Russia, shaped its potential for conflict.

Neutral Sweden had not fought a war since 1814, when Norway secured its independence. But Finland and its antecedents had waged war against Russia about a dozen times, mostly in the tsarist era through the early 19th century. During the worst weather many Finnish soldiers sat back to enjoy vodka.

In August 1939 the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany stunned the world by signing a nonaggression pact.

Three months later Russia, coveting the Karelian Isthmus north of Leningrad (present-day St. Petersburg), attacked Finland. The Winter War, as the subsequent conflict was called, lasted until the spring of 1940 when Helsinki agreed to Moscow’s demands, ceding 11 percent of Finnish territory.

In that period the Finnish air force, the Ilmavoimat, was tiny. Excluding training and liaison machines, its combat strength varied from 110 to 166 aircraft. The inventory represented a smorgasbord of types from Britain, France, Holland and Italy, among others. Standardization was an obvious goal, but not easily achieved.

Meanwhile, World War II erupted in September 1939 as panzer armies swept across Europe. In April 1940 the

PREVIOUS SPREAD: MILITARY MUSEUM OF FINLAND, CC BY-SA 4.0; MUSEUM OF FLIGHT/CORBIS (GETTY IMAGES)

The geography of Finland, which shares borders with Germans attacked Norway. As Finland was officially

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: JHL COLORIZING (MILITARY MUSEUM OF FINLAND, CC BY-SA 4.0); MAP BY BRIAN WALKER; FINNISH HERITAGE AGENCY, CC BY-SA 4.0

PREVIOUS SPREAD: MILITARY MUSEUM OF FINLAND, CC BY-SA 4.0; MUSEUM OF FLIGHT/CORBIS (GETTY IMAGES)

Above: Finnish Brewsters sported the Finnish national military insignia, a blue swastika, a symbol adopted in 1918, long before Nazi Germany co-opted it. While aircraft defended Finland’s airspace, camouflaged soldiers—here using reindeer to pull supply sleds during the Winter War—engaged Russian ground forces.

ARCTIC OCEAN RUSSIA A R C T I C

C I R C L E

SWEDEN

FINLAND KARELIAN ISTHMUS

NORWAY OSLO

HELSINKI LENINGRAD PRESENT-DAY ST. PETERSBURG

MOSCOW WARSAW BERLIN

In the lead-up to war the Finnish government considered three American aircraft with which to upgrade its fighter arm, each an all-metal monoplane with retractable landing gear and an enclosed cockpit, including the Grumman F4F and Seversky EP-1, an export version of the P-35. Since the Grumman types were not yet available, and the EP-1s went to Sweden, Helsinki focused on Brewster’s new naval fighter, the F2A-1.

As Finland was not yet at war, the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared the F2As “surplus,” and Helsinki received 44 before an embargo took effect.

Brewster Aeronautical Corp. was a descendant of Brewster & Co. of Long Island, N.Y., founded in 1810 as a carriage maker and later producing luxury automobile bodies and airplane parts. In the mid-1930s to early ’40s Brewster Aeronautical had limited success with its SBN scout bomber for the U.S. Navy and SB2A/A-34 dive bomber for multiple services, though neither saw combat.

The Navy had already entered the monoplane age with the Douglas TBD Devastator and Vought SB2U Vindicator dive bombers, both of which were aboard carrier decks in 1937. A monoplane fighter was bound to follow, and it arrived on two tracks: Brewster’s F2A-1 (tentatively the

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The Brewster was reasonably fast for the era (300 mph) and had responsive controls on the Russians, weight of numbers told. In March 1940, after three months of fighting, the nations signed their settlement. Brewster made up its production deficit by delivering most of the improved F2A-2s to the U.S. Navy that summer.

Other nations receiving Buffalo were Britain (Royal Navy, Royal Air Force), Australia (Royal Australian Air Force) and the Netherlands. In 1941–42 the RAF and RAAF flew against Japan in Singapore, Burma and Malaya, while the Dutch East Indies air force defended Borneo and Java before the Japanese overwhelmed them.

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JIM LAURIER, FROM LENTOLAIVUE 24 BY KARI STENMAN (OSPREY PUBLISHING, BLOOMSBURY PRESS PUBLISHING); RIGHT: FINNISH AIR FORCE

Twister, later Buffalo) and Grumman’s F4F-3 (tentatively Comet, later Wildcat). The Brewster, a major leap from Grumman’s F2F and F3F biplane fighters, entered fleet service in 1939. With hydraulically operated landing gear, the F2A was well ahead of its Grumman counterparts’ hand-cranked wheels. The F2A also boasted a spacious cockpit with a large “greenhouse” canopy to afford pilots better visibility than in most contemporaries.

The prototype XF2A-1, powered by a Wright R-1820 Cyclone nine-cylinder radial engine, first flew in December 1937. A typical early order of 54 production F2A-1s ensued with fewer than a dozen delivered to the carrier USS Saratoga. The Roosevelt administration, sympathetic to Finland during the 1939 Winter War, diverted 44 of the Brewsters to the Ilmavoimat, though the first six arrived too late for combat. Though tiny Finland humiliated the Soviet Union in its expansionist land grab, inflicting about four times as many casualties

MILITARY MUSEUM OF FINLAND, CC BY-SA 4.0

Ilmari Juutilainen

Designated Model 239s, the Finnish Brewsters were very similar to the Navy’s F2A-1 with Wright Cyclones. Despite the type’s dreadful onetime combat in U.S. service, pilots of several nations enjoyed flying it, as it was reasonably fast for the era (300 mph) and had responsive controls. Finns nicknamed it Taivaan Helmi (roughly the “Sky Pearl”).

Researchers with Britain’s Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough Airfield evaluated a Brewster in 1940 and found it far better than the Buffalo’s subsequent reputation. “The elevator control is not too sensitive as on the Spitfire or too sloppy as on the Hurricane,” evaluators wrote. “When airborne it increases speed quite rapidly and has a good initial rate of climb.” Approach to landing was flown at 90 to 95 mph with an “excellent” forward view. Most pilots tended to flatten the glide angle slightly higher than normal, “but the aeroplane settles down after a small float with no bounce, bucket or swing.”

The evaluators were especially enthused about the Brewster’s metal ailerons. “They are crisp and powerful, and the stick forces are not too light at low speeds nor too heavy at greater speeds,” they wrote. “The pilots considered them to be a very definite improvement on the Hurricane and Spitfire fabric-covered ailerons.”

Minus military equipment (guns, sights, etc.), the Brewster deal with Finland was concluded in December 1939 at an average price of $54,000 per aircraft with 950 hp Wright R-1820 radials. After stateside acceptance tests on three 239s, the first of the remaining 41 were sent to Sweden, arriving through March, the month the Winter War ended. It was initially armed with three Finn-built Colt MG 53-2 .50-caliber machine guns and one MG-40 .30-caliber light machine gun, later upgraded to four .50s.

Additional assets included a reflector gunsight and armored seats. At the time many fighters employed World War I–type telescopic sights with limited fields of view, or metal ring and bead sights. Recognizing the advantage of wide-angle gunnery, the Finns produced a Germantype reflector sight.

“A major factor for good shooting results…was that every pilot was taught [by 1939] to hold their fire until within 50 meters of the target,” Finnish historian Kari Stenman wrote. “After the Winter War experiences more emphasis was put on shooting skills, with known results.

“Every fighter pilot course had two gunnery camps— one for fixed targets, and one in the air. Then all newcomers in the squadron were put as a wingman of a veteran for a number of missions until the veteran ‘released’ the pilot for normal duties.”

The Finnish Brewsters operated in an oppressive climate. Roughly a quarter of Finland lies north of the Arctic Circle. Far to the south, the capital of Helsinki averages a high temperature of 48 degrees Fahrenheit with an average low of 37. Five months average below freezing, while three months (December through February) experience highs in that range.

JIM LAURIER, FROM LENTOLAIVUE 24 BY KARI STENMAN (OSPREY PUBLISHING, BLOOMSBURY PRESS PUBLISHING); RIGHT: FINNISH AIR FORCE

MILITARY MUSEUM OF FINLAND, CC BY-SA 4.0

Considered a poor dogfighter by many of the air forces that used it, the Brewster in Finnish hands often proved superior to frontline Soviet aircraft.

Seizing an opportunity to regain lost territory, Finland partnered with Nazi Germany in 1941 in the Continuation War. The Ilmavoimat owned about 235 aircraft at that point, with fewer than 200 considered operational.

With about 116 fighters (34 Brewsters, 26 Fiats, 27 Moranes and 30 Fokkers) against nearly 500 Soviet aircraft on the Finnish front, the Ilmavoimat was spread thin from the first day, June 25, when the Soviets bombed several Finnish airfields and cities.

LeLv 24 engaged repeatedly that day, claiming 10 kills without a loss. In the first combat two pilots tackled 27 Tupolev SB bombers below 5,000 feet only five minutes from base. Staff Sgt. Eero Kinnunen and Cpl. Heimo Lampi made repeated passes, claiming five kills between them, evenly divided. “I gave chase, and the enemy suddenly closed, forcing me to pull up alongside him,” Lampi wrote in his after-action report. “At this point the rear gunner hit me from very close range.

I pulled up and banked again behind the bomber, firing a short burst into it which created a fire on its right side.

It subsequently hit the water burning. I saw Staff Sgt. Kinnunen also down two aircraft.” By month’s end the tally board showed seven more victories with one loss in an accident.

In the first seven months of the war three Finnish pilots—Warrant Officer Juutilainen and Sgt. Maj. Lauri Nissinen of LeLv 24 and Sgt. Maj. Oiva Tuominen, a Fiat ace of LeLv 26—tied for top honors with 13 victories each. By year’s end LeLv 24 was credited with 135 Soviet planes downed vs. two losses, one to combat.

Between combat flights three of LeLv 24’s Brewster aces acquired perhaps the most Formed in 1933, the famous Finnish mascot of the era. In July Finnish air force’s No. 24 Squadron (LeLv 1941, at the outset of the Continuation 24) was flying the Fokker War, 1st Lts. Jorma Karhunen (26.5 Brew- D.XXI fixed landing gear ster victories) and Pekka Kokko (10) visited fighter when the Soviet Sgt. Maj. Nissinen (22.5), then recovering Union attacked Finland in a hospital from wounds. A friendly Irish in November 1939. LeLv 24 re-equipped with the setter named Peggy Brown introduced her- Brewster “Sky Pearl” self to the fliers, who spoke to the dog’s in the spring of 1940. owner. Rationing made it difficult to feed pets, so the pilots agreed to keep Peggy Brown for the duration. According to squadron legend, she sweated out combat missions listening to her friends’ voices in the base radio room. True to their word, the fliers returned Peggy Brown to her master by year’s end 1944.

LeLv Lynxes

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For Bravery

By the June 1941 outset of the Continuation War Juutilainen was a 27-year-old veteran of the Winter War who’d scored three kills flying the Fokker D.XXI. Flying against the Soviets with LeLv 24, he was constantly in combat, thrice claiming triple kills in a day on his way to the top of Finland’s ace roster.

Transitioned to Brewsters, Juutilainen called the 239s “fat hustlers, just like bees. They had speed, agility and good weaponry, too.…We were happy to take them anywhere to take on any opponent.”

Juutilainen described his combat experiences in the memoir Double Fighter Knight, referring to his two Mannerheim Crosses. He pressed attacks to minimum range to ensure lethal accuracy. Juutilainen recalled one particularly close-quarters dogfight with a Soviet Hurricane: I came in at high speed from above and behind and pulled the throttle back to idle. The target grew in my gunsight. It was a very clean airplane and looked brand new. Now I was approaching the perfect firing range and looked around me one more time. No other enemies were in sight. The pipper on my sight was just slightly in front of the nose of the Hurricane, and my glide angle was about 10 degrees. Now I could count rivets on the target.

In contrast to such salty veterans as Juutilainen and 32-year-old Maj. Eino Luukkanen (56 victories), Wind

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MILITARY MUSEUM OF FINLAND, CC BY-SA 4.0

Finnish squadrons led nomadic lives, moving once a month or more and dispersing by flights to avoid making easy targets for Soviet bombers. Sometimes they suffered shortages of aviation fuel from Germany. The Finns selected the Brewster in part because of its compatibility with 87-octane aviation gasoline, the European standard until Britain began obtainGiven in 2nd and 1st ing 100-octane fuel in 1940. classes, the Mannerheim Continuing combat and attrition steadily Cross was named for eroded LeLv 24’s inventory. By early 1943 Finland’s World War II–era just 24 Brewsters remained operational, commander in chief, Gustaf Mannerheim, and was forcing the transition to Me 109s with other awarded for exceptional squadrons over the next year. bravery or vital service.

Finnish fighters’ priority targets were Among its recipients— twin-engined Tupolev SB-2 and Ilyushin twice—was Brewster pilot DB-3 bombers, given their potential to deand ace Ilmari Juutilainen. stroy or damage key targets. But more often Brewster pilots met up with Soviet fighters. The top three Sky Pearl pilots—1st Lt. Wind (with 39 victories in a Brewster), Warrant Officer Juutilainen (34), and 1st Lt. Jorma Karhunen (26.5)—claimed 23 Polikarpov I-16 monoplane fighters, 18 Polikarpov I-153 biplanes and 11 Hawker Hurricanes. Encounters with more modern Russian fighters—Yaks, MiGs and LaGGs—were rare until the Finns began the conversion to Messerschmitts in early 1943.

MILITARY MUSEUM OF FINLAND, CC BY-SA 4.0; LEFT: IAN SHAW (ALAMY STOCK PHOTO)

A quartet of LeLv 24 Brewsters patrols over Karelia in fall 1942. The Finns were among the first to abandon the three-fighter formation in favor of four-plane groups, each with two sections of leader and wingman.

MILITARY MUSEUM OF FINLAND, CC BY-SA 4.0

MILITARY MUSEUM OF FINLAND, CC BY-SA 4.0; LEFT: IAN SHAW (ALAMY STOCK PHOTO)

began the Continuation War as a 21-year-old lieutenant.

He found his shooting eye early, achieving ace status in six scoring encounters.

Lacking external supplies, the Finns waged a constant battle to keep their Brewsters operational. Therefore, the Ilmavoimat’s innovative, industrious mechanics and engineers worked hard to provide spare parts, and during their frequent moves to staging bases crew chiefs rode in their assigned plane’s baggage compartment.

From 1941 to ’44 LeLv 24 Brewsters claimed 477 victories for the loss of 19 in combat and six more in accidents or destroyed on the ground. Many have claimed that at 25to-1 Finnish Brewsters recorded the highest victory-loss ratio of the war, but in fact that title belonged to the Grumman/Eastern FM-2 version of the F4F. Flying from escort carriers in 1944–45, the “Wilder Wildcat” scored a 32-to-1 record, undoubtedly the highest ratio of the piston era.

Between early 1943 and early ’44 the Finnish air force converted four of its six fighter units to Messerschmitt Me 109Gs, though the surviving Brewsters remained operational through war’s end. To experienced Brewster pilots the German fighter plane was lacking. Corporal Lampi later recounted his attachment to the Brewster to historian Dan Ford. “The old friend Messerschmitt, who was a real hard fighter, was my next plane after the Brewster, but it totally lacked in humaneness,” Lampi said.

“I could not love it the way I loved my friend Brewster.

Nor any other plane for that matter.” Lampi made ace in the Brewster and added eight more victories in the 109.

LeLv 24 flew its Pearls until May 1944, when the survivors went to LeLv 26, which claimed 35 victories with the type. The squadron scored the Brewster’s last victory against the Soviets on June 17, 1944, three years almost to the day from the type’s first combat. That September, however, Helsinki’s degraded geostrategic position forced a settlement with Moscow in which Finland was required to expel German forces from its borders. By then the Brewsters were long in the tooth and nearly unsupportable.

Thus, the Finnish Brewster pilots flew their final missions against the Luftwaffe during the seven-month Lapland War. On October 3 ground controllers vectored LeLv 26 planes to intercept a dozen Junkers Ju 87Ds threatening Finnish shipping in the Gulf of Bothnia. First Lt. Erik Teromaa and Staff Sgt. Olva Hietala each claimed Stukas, ending the Brewster’s participation in World War II. By war’s end only eight Sky Pearls remained. Five kept flying until 1948 and were ultimately scrapped in 1953.

For decades aviation enthusiasts have assumed Finland’s squared-off swastika insignia somehow equated to Nazi Germany’s tilted black emblem. Actually, the Finnish blue swastika on a white background served as its military’s insignia from the nation’s establishment in 1918, whereas the German version of the ancient good luck symbol

Finnish Aces of World War II

Victories Total while piloting career a Brewster victories

1st Lt. Hans Wind Warrant Officer Ilmari Juutilainen Capt. Jorma Karhunen 1st Lt. Lauri Nissinen Warrant Officer Eero Kinnunen Master Sgt. Nils Katajainen Maj. Eino Luukkanen Staff Sgt. Martti Alho 1st Lt. Erik Teromaa 1st Lt. Lauri Pekuri

39 34 26.5 22.5 19 17.5 14.5 13.5 13 12.5

75 94 31 32.5 22.5 35.5 56 15 19 18.5

The Finnish variant of the Brewster proved capable of downing most any enemy aircraft type it went up against—including Russian-flown British Hurricanes.

wasn’t formally adopted until 1935. By war’s end the Finns changed to a blue-and-white roundel.

Wind was the most successful Brewster pilot with 39 victories in type. Juutilainen scored 28 of his 34 Brewster victories in the aircraft coded BW-364. Other pilots added 14.5 more in BW-364, probably making it the champion U.S.-built fighter of all time with 42.5 credited kills.

Thirty-six of Finland’s 96 top fighter pilots became aces in Brewsters, including six of the top 10. For perspective, four Finns scored 20 or more victories in Brewsters, a record only exceeded in U.S. service by five P-47 pilots. Combining victories scored in all aircraft types, Juutilainen finished with 94, Wind with 75 and Luukkanen with 56. Three other Finns ran career totals above 40, only one of whom flew Brewsters.

Today just one Buffalo variant remains. Finland’s BW-372 was damaged by a Soviet Hurricane in 1942 and ditched in a lake near the Russian border. Recovered in 1998, it was purchased by a Florida museum in 2004 before returning to Finland for display in unrestored condition at the Finnish Air Force Museum. MH Barrett Tillman is a frequent contributor to Historynet publications. For further reading he recommends Finnish Aces of World War II, by Kari Stenman, and Brewster F2A Buffalo and Export Variants, by Richard S. Dann and Steve Ginter.

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Reviews

Roosevelt and Churchill risked attack by German U-boats to meet in Placentia Bay, Newfoundland.

Roosevelt and Churchill: The Atlantic Charter— A Risky Meeting at Sea That Saved Democracy,

by Michael Kluger and Richard Evans, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Md., 2021, $37.95

On Aug. 9, 1941, Winston Churchill, the pugnacious prime minister of embattled Britain, sailed into Placentia Bay off the coast of Newfoundland aboard HMS Prince of Wales to secretly meet with U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt aboard USS Augusta. The resulting eight-point Atlantic Charter—advocating freedom of the seas and all peoples’ right to self-determination, among other points—set moral standards for the postwar world order.

British military veteran and war correspondent Richard Evans and academically trained American businessman Michael Kluger examine that defining moment of the “Special Relationship,” arguing that historians have underestimated the risks Churchill took in crossing the U-boat infested Atlantic Ocean for the critical meeting. At that point, however, the United States was the only nation in the world in a position to assist Britain. The four-day meeting resulted in a charter of

agreed principles, largely written by Churchill, and fostered trust between the Allied leaders as they led the crusade to destroy fascism.

After sharing the story of how Churchill and Roosevelt got to their respective positions and then recounting their meeting, the authors devote the remaining chapters to profiling supporting actors who made the accord possible. These include presidential adviser Harry Hopkins; U.S. Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall; Undersecretary of State Sumner Welles; British cabinet minister Max Aitken, Baron Beaverbrook; Air Chief Marshal Wilfrid Freeman; and diplomat Sir Alexander Cadogan. Finally comes an odd chapter on Churchill’s son, Randolph, relating how the brilliant but troubled young man served his father as a key counselor.

The authors support their narrative with endnotes, a bibliography and 14 photographs.

There are mistakes, such as speculation about

NAVAL HISTORY AND HERITAGE COMMAND

A Risky Meeting

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a potential meeting between Churchill and Theodore Roosevelt in Cuba in 1898, when the former only visited the island once in 1895. Regardless, the authors’ prose is often eloquent. Deeming Churchill the “most dominant and extraordinary personality the world has seen,” they express hope the charter’s vision will act as a counter to the types of militaristic populism that “endanger the tenets of decency.”

—William John Shepherd The Brothers York: A Royal Tragedy,

by Thomas Penn, Simon & Schuster, New York, 2019, $35

NAVAL HISTORY AND HERITAGE COMMAND

Fifteenth century England was torn apart by a series of civil wars between competing branches of the royal family—the ruling House of Lancaster and the usurping House of York. Emblems chosen to identify the rival factions— the red rose of Lancaster and white rose of York—provided that tumultuous era’s name, the Wars of the Roses.

Thomas Penn’s The Brothers York explains that after the 1461 Battle of Towton the war took on an entirely different character. With the defeat of the House of Lancaster, the 18-yearold Earl of March became King Edward IV, while his 11-year-old brother, George, became Duke of Clarence, and his youngest brother, 8-year-old Richard, became Duke of Gloucester. From that time on the Wars of the Roses were no longer a rivalry between Lancaster and York, but between York and York.

Penn relates the ensuing conflicts between the brothers. They’d stood united against their common Lancastrian enemies, but once Edward came to power, they could not avoid friction with one another. While the usurpation of Richard III lives in infamy, it is often forgotten the Duke of Clarence also tried to usurp Edward’s throne. The author thus makes a case that sibling rivalry was the tragic flaw that ultimately brought down the House of York.

—Robert Guttman Stalin’s War: A New History of World War II, by Sean McMeekin, Basic Books, New York, 2021, $40 Current histories seldom portray World War II as a battle wholly between good and evil, and Russian history specialist McMeekin rocks no boats by emphasizing that Joseph Stalin’s propensity for evil took no back seat to Adolf Hitler’s.

The author argues Stalin believed that science, as revealed through Karl Marx, doomed capitalist nations to revolution, and that the rise of Nazi Germany (a capitalist regime in Stalin’s mind) persuaded him this was about to happen. The Soviet leader, McMeekin writes, convinced himself that turning communist-hating Hitler’s attention elsewhere would produce a World War I–style stalemate, crippling all combatants and bringing on the revolution.

The 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact stunned the world and gave Hitler the war for which he yearned. Russia’s own best defense against an invasion by Germany was the several hundred miles of foreign land across which the Wehrmacht would have to trundle. By allowing Hitler to invade Poland, however, Stalin opened a long stretch of his nation’s border to German troops, enabling the June 1941 surprise attack.

McMeekin’s description of the largest land campaign in history is hardly unprecedented, but readers won’t complain. Nor will they be surprised at his emphasis on the horrors both armies inflicted and endured.

Stalin’s denunciation of Allied leaders for not immediately flinging their

troops against the Wehrmacht was not unreasonable. Just as reasonable, our military—perhaps Britain’s more than that of the United States—refused to invade Europe until fully prepared, a process that took three years. Some historians fume at Stalin’s ingratitude at our massive aid, though it was designed to keep Russia fighting and not simple charity. He ignored Allied outrage as he annexed his army’s conquests, but this demonstrated no more intelligence than his prewar decisions. The Eastern European satellites, which proved unnecessary buffers against a resurgent Germany, were an expensive drain on Stalin’s clunky command economy.

Hitler and Nazism went down in flames, while Stalin died in bed. McMeekin will raise hackles by claiming the latter’s legacy not only flourished, but also has seen a resurgence. Democracy, the purported victor in 1945, caught on in the two defeated nations but otherwise made a poor showing, the author argues. The 21st century, he writes, is seeing its steady decline as nationalist autocrats take power around the world, not by force but through free elections, and similar movements are prospering elsewhere. China (Stalinism lite) proclaims its intention to become the world’s leading superpower in a few decades, and U.S. skepticism is not widely shared. While little nostalgia for communism exists in Russia, many, Vladimir Putin included, consider Stalin a heroic figure. Uncomfortably revisionist but thought-provoking.

—Mike Oppenheim

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Hallowed Ground Szigetvár, Hungary

I

n 1521 Ottoman Sultan Suleiman I, known to his subjects as “the Lawgiver” and to Europeans as “the Magnificent,” seized Belgrade, and five years later he defeated and killed King Louis II of Hungary at Mohács, thus dividing Hungary and Croatia between the Hapsburg and Ottoman empires. In 1529, however, Suleiman’s attempt on Vienna—the ultimate central European prize—ended in failure. Intermittent but indecisive fighting between the rival empires followed.

On May 1, 1566, Suleiman led a 150,000-strong army from Constantinople in an all-out campaign to take Vienna.

After reaching Belgrade on June 27, however, he learned of a devastating raid on the Turkish encampment at Siklós from Szigetvár, a castle in Hungary garrisoned by some 2,300 Croatian and Hungarian soldiers.

Leading the garrison was Croatianborn Count Nikola IV Zrinski, a veteran of the 1529 siege of BUDAPEST Vienna and numerous other engagements. Suleiman resolved to HUNGARY eliminate Szigetvár and Zrinski SZIGETVÁR before pressing on to Vienna.

Ailing and gout-ridden in the 46th year of his reign—the longest of any Ottoman sultan—Suleiman established an observation point on Similehov Hill and delegated field command to his grand vizier, Sokollu Mehmed Pasha. On August 6 the Turks made a general assault which was repulsed. Szigetvár (Hungarian for “Island Castle”) was bounded by water on three sides, limiting the Turks’ approach and enhancing the strong fortress as a force multiplier. The next month was marked by more costly assaults, relentless cannonading, occasional counterattacks by the defenders, and continuous Turkish efforts to undermine the walls with explosives and wood-fueled fires at the corners. As Zrinski and his desperate troops put up a ferocious defense, Hapsburg Emperor Maximilian II assembled an 80,000-man army at Györ, yet he made no move to relieve Szigetvár. On September 6 Suleiman died at age 71 of a heart attack. Concerned about the effect on troops’ morale at that critical juncture, Grand Vizier

Sokollu kept the sultan’s death secret for 48 days. The siege would end within 48 hours.

On the morning of September 7 Turkish artillery set the stronghold ablaze. Zrinski addressed his 600 remaining troops. “Let us go out from this burning place into the open and stand up to our enemies,” he reportedly said. “Who dies—he will be with God. Who does not—his name will be honored. I will go first, and what I do, you do. And God is my witness, I will never leave you, my brothers and knights!”

As the Turks surged across a narrow bridge toward the castle, defenders greeted them with a mortar barrage of iron fragments that killed about 600 of the enemy. Then Zrinski, eschewing his armor, led a final counterattack, only to take two musket balls to the chest and an arrow to his head. When the rallying Turks finally overran the castle, seven defenders managed to flee, and the Turkish Janissaries spared a few of those captured in admiration for their courage. The rest were slain.

Turkish casualties were estimated at upward of 20,000, but they would suffer more when a rumor of treasure drew thousands into the newly taken castle. They found no riches, but they did find the magazine—just as a slow fuse left by Zrinski reached the powder. Another 3,000 Turks died in the resultant explosion.

Following this pyrrhic victory the Turks canceled their Vienna campaign and did not threaten the Hapsburg capital until 1683. Thus France’s Armand Jean du Plessis, Cardinal Richelieu, retrospectively declared Szigetvár “the battle that saved civilization.” Regarded by Croatians and Hungarians similarly to how Greeks regard Thermopylae, the siege inspired numerous literary works, including the 1647 epic poem “Szigeti Veszedelem” (“Island Peril”), by Zrinski’s Hungarian-born great-grandson Miklós Zrínyi, and the 1876 Croatian opera Nikola Subić Zrinski, by Ivan Zajc.

In 1994 officials established in nearby Cserto the 1-acre Hungarian-Turkish Friendship Park, a memorial funded by Turkey, largely built in Ottoman style and featuring a largerthan-life bronze bust of Suleiman by Turkish sculptor Metin Yurdanur. When Hungarians vehemently objected, officials commissioned Yurdanur to add a bust of Zrinski.

The opposing commanders appear side by side, looking forward, rather than facing each other as antagonists. MH

MAP BY BRIAN WALKER; OPPOSITE, TOP: HERITAGE IMAGES (AKG-IMAGES); BOTTOM: KOZMA JANOS/ANADOLU AGENCY (GETTY IMAGES)

By Jon Guttman

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MAP BY BRIAN WALKER; OPPOSITE, TOP: HERITAGE IMAGES (AKG-IMAGES); BOTTOM: KOZMA JANOS/ANADOLU AGENCY (GETTY IMAGES)

Above: Nikola IV Zrinski leads the defenders of Szigetvár in a final sortie against the Turks, in an 1825 painting by Johann Peter Krafft.

The Hungarian-Turkish Friendship Park in nearby Cserto memorializes the 1566 battle.

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War Games 7

Pour le Mérite 5

1

6

Can you match each of the following decorations to its awarding country?

1. Medal for Bravery 2. Legion of Honor 3. Order of August the First

9 3

4. Pour le Mérite 5. Victoria Cross 6. Mannerheim Cross 7. Gold Medal of Military Valor 8. Knight’s Cross 9. Gold Star of a Hero 10. Order of St. George

____ A. Russia ____ B. Imperial Germany ____ C. Italy

4

10

Post D-Day Divisions

____ D. Finland

Can you match the emblems above to the following divisions that fought for control of Normandy?

____ E. Soviet Union

____ A. British 7th Armored

____ F. Canadian 3rd Infantry

____ F. People’s Republic of China

____ B. 1 st SS Panzer Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler

____ G British 51st (Highland)

____ G. Austria-Hungary ____ H. Great Britain

____ C. Polish 1st Armored

____ H. 12th SS Panzer Hitlerjugend

____ I. Nazi Germany

____ D. 3rd Fallschirmjäger

____ I. U.S. 90th Infantry

____ J. France

____ E. U.S. 8th Infantry

____ J. German 352nd Infantry Answers: A6, B10, C5, D2, E3, F7, G4, H9, I1, J8

Answers: A10, B4, C7, D6, E9, F3, G1, H5, I8, J2

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MILITARY MUSEUM OF FINLAND, CC BY-SA 4.0

Top Honors

LEFT: BORODUN, CC BY-SA 4.0; 1, 3: U.S. ARMY (2); 2, 8: JOEYETI, CC BY-SA 3.0 (2); 4, 6: IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUMS (2); 5: SARMATIA ANTIQUES; 7: JM MILITARIA; 9, 10: MURPHS MILITARIA (2)

8

2

Finns on the Wing Finland’s tiny air force, the Ilmavoimat, is known for having prevailed against steep odds.

Stamps will vary.

1. Who ordered the swastika be made Finland’s national aircraft insignia and when?

A. Adolf Hitler, 1936 B. Carl Gustaf Emil

Mannerheim, 1918 C. Eric von Rosen, 1918 D. Carl Seber, 1918 2. Which was the first Finnish fighter to score a confirmed air-to-air victory?

A. Bristol Bulldog B. Gloster Gauntlet C. Gloster Gladiator D. Fokker D.XXI

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MILITARY MUSEUM OF FINLAND, CC BY-SA 4.0

3. How many Soviet bombers did Jorma Sarvanto shoot down in four minutes on Jan. 6, 1939?

A. Three B. Four C. Five D. Six 4. What was Finland’s primary fighter aircraft in the 1990s?

A. Saab 35 Draken B. F/A-18C/D Hornet MIHP-210900-001 Mystic Stamps.indd C. Saab 37 Viggen D. MiG-21

MIHP-210900-GAMES-BW.indd 79

1

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6/1

Answers: 1B, 2D, 3D, 4B

LEFT: BORODUN, CC BY-SA 4.0; 1, 3: U.S. ARMY (2); 2, 8: JOEYETI, CC BY-SA 3.0 (2); 4, 6: IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUMS (2); 5: SARMATIA ANTIQUES; 7: JM MILITARIA; 9, 10: MURPHS MILITARIA (2)

Jorma Sarvanto

6/29/21 9:58 AM

Captured!

Cats on a Hot Wood Deck

PHOTO 12 (GETTY IMAGES)

Space was at a premium aboard the escort carrier USS Thetis Bay in July 1944.

Bound from Pearl Harbor to Naval Air Station Alameda, Calif., the ship carried eight Consolidated PBY-5A Catalina amphibians, 18 Grumman F4F5 Hellcat fighters and a biplane on its flight deck and another 14 fighters in its hangar deck.

All the aircraft were bound for repair depots. Thetis Bay made more than a dozen such trans-Pacific aircraft-transport voyages during World War II.

80 MILITARY HISTORY SEPTEMBER 2021

MIHP-210900-CAPTURED-CARRIER.indd 80

6/25/21 11:09 AM

$

SA VE

60

NTIC AUTH E E E L T WWI I S S CE NT

OV E

R

Actual size is 19 mm

W

hen our buyer received the call, he nearly fell out of his chair. In his 19 years in the coin business, he had never seen a hoard like this.

20,000 coins—all 1943 Lincoln Steel Cents!

He quickly secured as many as he could, and now you can secure full rolls of this historic World War II-era coin at an incredible price.

What is a Steel Cent?

When the United States entered World War II, copper quickly became a coveted material. Required for our communications as well as munitions, every major supply of copper needed to be turned over to the war effort. That included the large supply of copper used by the U.S. Mint to strike Lincoln Cents!

The Lincoln Cent is the U.S. Mint’s longest-running series, sitting in the pockets and piggy banks of Americans for more than 100 years. But for one year only—1943—the Lincoln Cent was struck in steel-coated zinc instead of copper. This unique, historic mintage is now one of the most coveted in U.S. history!

Authentic Pieces of WWII History

Each 1943 U.S. Steel Cent is an authentic piece of World War II History—an example of America’s dedication to aiding the Allies and winning the war.

Buy a Full Roll and SAVE!

Look elsewhere for these coveted World War II Steel Cents in this same condition, and you could wind up paying as much as $1.80 per coin, or a total of $90 for a full 50-coin roll’s worth! But while our supplies last, you can secure a roll of authentic World War II 1943 Steel Cents for just $29.95 — a savings of over $60!

In addition, you’ll also receive a BONUS Replica WWII newspaper, reprinting frontpage news from 1943!

There’s no telling when or if another hoard of these historic WWII coins will be found.

Don’t wait — secure your very own piece of the Allied victory now!

BONUS

REPLICA WWI I NEWSPAPER

1943 U.S. Steel Cent 50-Coin Roll - $29.95 + s/h

FREE SHIPPING on 5 or More!

Limited time only. Product total over $149 before taxes (if any).

Standard domestic shipping only. Not valid on previous purchases.

Call today toll-free for fastest service

1-800-329-0225 Offer Code RLC338-01 Please mention this code when you call.

GovMint.com • 14101 Southcross Dr. W., Suite 175 Dept. RLC338-01 • Burnsville, MN 55337 GovMint.com® is a retail distributor of coin and currency issues and is not affiliated with the U.S. government. The collectible coin market is unregulated, highly speculative and involves risk.

GovMint.com reserves the right to decline to consummate any sale, within its discretion, including due to pricing errors. Prices, facts, figures and populations deemed accurate as of the date of publication but may change significantly over time. All purchases are expressly conditioned upon your acceptance of GovMint.com’s Terms and Conditions (www.govmint.com/terms-conditions or call 1-800-721-0320); to decline, return your purchase pursuant to GovMint.com’s Return Policy. © 2021 GovMint.com. All rights reserved.

MIHP-210900-003 GovMint Roll 50 1943 Steel Cents.indd 1

6/15/21 4:46 PM

Upper Class Just Got Lower Priced

Finally, luxury built for value— not for false status

U

ntil Stauer came along, you needed an inheritance to buy a timepiece with class and refinement. Not any more. The Stauer Magnificat II embodies the impeccable quality and engineering once found only in the watch collections of the idle rich. Today, it can be on your wrist.

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Powered by 27 jewels, the Magnificat II is wound by the movement of your body.

An exhibition back reveals the genius of the engineering and lets you witness the automatic rotor that enables you to wind the watch with a simple flick of your wrist.

It took three years of development and $26 million in advanced Swiss-built watchmaking machinery to create the Magnificat II. When we took the watch to renowned watchmaker and watch historian George Thomas, he disassembled it and studied the escapement, balance wheel and the rotor. He remarked on the detailed guilloche face, gilt winding crown, and the crocodile-embossed leather band. He was intrigued by the three interior dials for day, date, and 24-hour moon phases. He estimated that this fine timepiece would cost over $2,500.

We all smiled and told him that the Stauer price was less than $100. A truly magnificent watch at a truly magnificent price!

Try the Magnificat II for 30 days and if you are not receiving compliments, please return the watch for a full refund of the purchase price.

The precision-built movement carries a 2 year warranty against defect. If you trust your own good taste, the Magnificat II is built for you.

Stauer Magnificat II Timepiece $399* Offer Code Price

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1-800-333-2045

Your Offer Code: MAG558-08

Stauer

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• Luxurious gold-finished case with exposition back • 27-jeweled automatic movement • Croc-embossed band fits wrists 6¾"–8½" • Water-resistant to 3 ATM

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MIHP-210900-005 Stauer Magnificat Watch.indd 1

6/15/21 4:47 PM