D PLUS 79

 

History is where you find it.       

Certainly it’s found in books, and on television. But while we still enjoy the company of perhaps 150,000 Americans who served in World War II, they include veterans of June 6, 1944, and the scores of D-Days that preceded and followed the Normandy invasion. We can still appreciate their sacrifice and their service.

For a moment, let’s consider what those veterans meant to America and the world. Let’s ponder what their victory accomplished -- and what it did not.

Operation Neptune (the naval portion) delivered Overlord (the invasion) to five beaches along the Normandy coast: two American, two British, one Canadian. Some 175,000 Allied airborne and ground troops comprised the initial landings, with perhaps 4,400 dead or missing, including 2,500 Americans.

German losses remain uncertain; perhaps 9,000 total casualties.        

French citizens suffered severely from the Germans, from the Allies, and from internecine conflict. Allied bombers and artillery inflicted massive damage: surveying a ruined French city, an American soldier gained anonymous immortality when he said, “We sure liberated the hell out of this place.”

Among the eloquent oratory attending the World War II Memorial and the D-Day anniversary is a frequent refrain: The Greatest Generation preserved America’s freedom. It is, however, a gross overstatement. The plain fact is that neither Germany nor Japan ever had the ability to conquer America.

By June 1944, both Axis powers had lost control of the sea, lacking the ships and manpower to occupy North America. (If Hitler was unable to invade Britain in 1940, how could he possibly occupy America?) In fact, the Axis already was fatally overextended on the Eurasian landmass and in China.

Even today, orators continue overstating the threat to America’s freedom. While our security may be at risk in the war on terror, our freedom is as secure as We the People want it. Not even during the height (or depth) of the Cold War was American freedom at stake. The Soviet Union had the power to destroy us, but never could have enslaved us. Only Americans have the ability to deprive Americans of their freedom.

What, then, was America’s stake on Normandy beaches?        

The question answers itself. At stake was Western Civilization and the freedom of most of Europe. France, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Italy, Poland, Greece, Yugoslavia, Norway, and other nations awaited liberation. In fact, so did Germany and its European allies: Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania. Sadly, many of them exchanged one oppressor for another: Nazism for Communism.

A Monumental Undertaking

World War II was a people’s war. More than 15 million of 138 million Americans entered the armed forces. If today’s military represented the same proportions, we would have over 30 million of America’s 331 million people in uniform. Today, there are but 2.1 million in the active, reserve, and National Guard forces.        

The production feat was enormous, easily the greatest in history. Of more than 5,000 ships and landing craft in Operation Neptune, most of the former and all the latter had been built since 1941. But long before D-Day, the Allies had to defeat Hitler’s U-boats, a campaign largely completed by mid-1943. Once the Atlantic pipeline was opened, a flood of men and materiel spanned the sea lanes, bringing the wealth and youth of the New World to the rescue of the Old.

It was a war of logistics. Consequently, it was won at home, in factories and on farms. Among other things, America manufactured 79,000 landing craft; 297,000 airplanes; 2.5 million trucks; 12.8 million rifles; and 190 million pairs of boots and shoes.

Logistics also bore heavily upon manpower, as less than 25 percent of the Allied troops in France belonged to combat units. For every infantryman, tanker, or artilleryman who crossed Omaha and Utah beaches, four or five other GIs backed him up: clerks, cooks, mechanics, truck drivers, doctors and nurses.

So when you think of the World War II vet, don’t allow your mental computer to default to the traditional image. He may have been your father, grandfather, or the neighbor you hardly knew. But give him tribute, gentle reader, whether he wielded a bazooka, a bomber, or a bulldozer.

When you think of the World War II vet, think of the uncle who collected scrap metal or the aunt who learned to use a rivet gun.

When you think of World War II, think of a nation unified in its purpose with steely resolve. It was the kind of singlemindedness that took us from 30,000 feet in the skies of Europe in 1944 to the lunar Sea of Tranquility only 25 years later.

Millions paid the price

It’s astonishing to contemplate. Germany, with a population of 77 million, challenging virtually the rest of Western Civilization. The United States counted 138 million people; Russia around 108 million. Yet it took the United States, the Soviet Union, and the British Empire nearly six years to defeat Nazi Germany.

It’s an inherent fault of democracies, which seldom learn the ancient wisdom of fourth-century military writer Vegetius. Fifteen centuries before D-Day, he wrote: “Who desires peace should prepare for war.” That’s why years of European appeasement and American complacency required a generation of young men to crawl up fire-swept beaches, leaving their blood and the friends of their youth in sandy venues from France to New Guinea to Okinawa.

The Atlantic Wall was an imposing barrier, with Wagnerian bunkers concealing powerful cannon. But it was a porous blockade, often thinly manned. Germany disposed of 850,000 troops in France but only 80,000 in Normandy.

The Allied deception plan worked; Hitler’s strength lay in the Pas de Calais. Against 175,000 Allied troops enjoying uncontested air supremacy, it seems remarkable that the issue was ever in doubt. And yet it was, however briefly. The Allied Supreme Commander, General Dwight Eisenhower, penned a note for release in event that Overlord failed.

Overlord was coalition warfare writ large -- writ huge, in fact. Five Allied nations were involved at sea or ashore: America, Britain, Canada, Free France, and Poland in exile. It set a standard for what followed on larger scales in Korea, Southeast Asia, and the wastes of Mesopotamia.

In the unlikely event that Overlord failed, the Allies had an ace up their sleeve. Operation Anvil-Dragoon landed in southern France two months later, making the Riviera the most glamorous arena of the war.

However, the larger picture involved the Soviet Union. Had the western allies failed to gain traction in France, eventually Josef Stalin’s tankers would have parked their T-34s at Calais. The entire postwar history of Europe would have been vastly different.

Meanwhile, there are eleven U.S. government cemeteries in France. They contain the graves of some 60,000 Americans who died liberating that country, roughly 30,000 each in both world wars.

Somehow, the Great War -- the one that was to end all wars -- escaped the same degree of memorialization. There is little tribute to the 116,000 Americans who died in uniform in 1917-18; the Kansas City World War I memorial opened in 2006, five years before the last doughboy died.

While most French citizens were grateful for liberation, their governments then and since remain truculent. Perhaps it’s Gallic resentment of essential American aid in two world wars, combined with a cultural invasion expressed in Levi’s and McDonald’s. If so, surely America’s huge debt to France in the Revolution has been paid with interest.

Let a retired airline pilot describe the situation: “On the 50th anniversary of D-Day in 2004, I was flying a 757 from JFK to Paris. After the usual post-landing customs dance, we met the wizened little Frenchman with the large white moustache who drove our crew bus to town. He had decorated his dashboard with a little display of crossed American and French flags, and he greeted us with repeated, ‘Sank you, Americans! Sank you!’”

Despite the political rhetoric, America did not free itself on Utah or Omaha Beach. America did something grander: It freed a continent of enslaved peoples. And for that, Mon vieu, most U.S. veterans would reply, “You’re welcome.”

This column is reprinted with permission of American Thinker, June 6, 2023.  https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/06/dday_history_and_memory.html

LETHAL FORCE AND WOKE VIOLENCE

  

Less than three years ago, America was burning.  Yet some people seem to forget.

 

A perfect storm of political-cultural unrest and the worst pandemic in a century combined to produce deaths and injuries among months of rioting, arson, and looting.  Liberal mayors and governors, eager to demonstrate solidarity with the “protesters,” did little or nothing to quell the violence in Minneapolis, Portland, Seattle, and elsewhere.  National figures in the Democrat Party were largely silent, although the current vice president said that the “protests” needed to continue and would continue. 

 

Spurred by controversial police use of force, political partisans and hell-raisers seized the opportunity to run rampant in extremely permissive jurisdictions.   

 

Nationwide riots followed George Floyd’s May 2020 death in Minneapolis, spurred by emotionally-charged video of a white police officer kneeling on the black man’s neck.  Aside from at least 25 ensuing deaths, the national mayhem was estimated at $2 billion by insurance companies although many businesses were uninsured or underinsured.  Some of those—operated by black and other minority owners—would never recover.

 

Caught in the political crossfire are minority police officers who, like their uniformed brothers and sisters, are vilified and heartsick as their cities are torched and trashed, and a precinct house was burned in Minneapolis, ground zero for the riots.  Meanwhile, at least two reports by CNN and MSNBC featured reporters commenting on “mostly peaceful protests” while stores burned in the background.

 

More recently some focus shifted to abuse of Asian Americans, as if it’s something new.  In March 2021, six Asian women were among eight killed in three Georgia massage parlors. Some media assumed the gunman’s motive was racial when subsequently it appeared that he was spurred by conflicting religious and sexual beliefs.  

 

Meanwhile, a California State survey in 2019-2020 reported nearly a 150 percent increase in hate crimes against Asian Americans.  The presumed reason: devastating effects of the Chinese-Wuhan-Corona Virus.

 

In fact, the trend was widely covered nearly 20 years ago during the Los Angeles riots of 1992.  Four LAPD officers were acquitted in the prolonged beating of Rodney King, a black parole violator captured after a highspeed drunk driving spree.  Eventually two of the cops went to prison.

         

Public response to the acquittals was immediate and violent.  Four days of arson, looting and vandalism left about 50 people dead and perhaps 1,000 injured.  Monetary loss was reckoned at $1 billion with more than half sustained by Korean-American or Korean immigrant businesses.        

 

Left to fend for themselves, store owners’ family and friends took turns standing guard and patrolling rooftops—popular antigun imagery in the mainstream media.   Missing from reports was that many of those business outlets doubled as residences, often on the second story.  Gun-toting citizens were protecting their homes as well as their livelihoods.

 

Last June a St. Louis couple, both attorneys, brandished an AR-15 and a handgun in the face of a mob that broke through their community’s gate, intending to protest at the mayor’s nearby house.  Instead, the crowd confronted the homeowners with threats of violence and arson.  The city attorney announced charges against Mark and Patricia McCloskey, saying, “We must protect the right to peacefully protest, and any attempt to chill it through intimidation or threat of deadly force will not be tolerated.”

 

Missouri’s Republican governor quickly stated that if the couple were convicted for defending their home, he would issue a pardon.  Eventually the attorney and her staff were removed for conflict of interest in linking personal agendas to the case.  Apparently no charges were filed against any trespassers but the case against the home owners was resolved when they received probation for a year.

Whatever the circumstances, when business or home owners defend themselves with police absent or overwhelmed, armed citizens are branded “vigilantes.”  The media, almost universally lacking in knowledge or context, apparently neither knows nor cares about San Francisco in the 1850s.  Absent adequate law enforcement, and amid obvious civic corruption, “committees of vigilance” filled the vacuum.  The comparison between Then and Now are readily apparent. 

 

Politics is not the only reason for large-scale riots.  Look no farther than Detroit “celebrations” of the Tigers’ World Series victory in 1984 and the Pistons’ NBA win six years later.  Mobs numbering thousands caused multiple deaths, rapes, arson, and property destruction.  

 

Regardless of the timeframe, facing a determined, unarmed attacker can be high risk.  Year by year the FBI Uniform Crime Report shows 600 to 700 people killed by blows from fists or feet.  (Youtube has numerous videos of gangs stomping victims on the ground.)  So what are the odds of escaping a swarm of enraged assailants?  Or those armed with pipes, bricks or skateboards?  (Google for Kenosha and Skateboard.)

 

Whether the police or DA would acknowledge the “unarmed” threat is of course another matter.  

 

So: assume that everything you do will be filmed—that’s the world today. It could be a Good Thing if it shows you had to defend yourself, although remember this is the XXI century, and often facts do not matter. 

 

A new option for armed citizens is body cameras.  They’re usually affordable (up to $250 online) and can provide valuable context in court.  The problem with body cams, as often seen on police videos, is limited field of view, sometimes mainly showing the officer’s hands and bottom of his pistol grip.  In those cases, audio can take up some of the slack.

 

Perhaps of more relevance to citizens is the potential shooter’s perspective.  Viral video from the St. Louis incident only shows the home owners holding firearms.  Viewers did not see through their eyes, facing a hostile, trespassing crowd.  So consider withdrawing inside the doorway, limiting a mob’s ability to surround victims, and clearly showing criminal trespass at the entrance or inside a home.

         

Train for muzzle awareness.  The St. Louis couple was prosecuted partly for pointing guns at the mob.  Check your state laws on “brandishing.”  If you have a long gun, maintain low ready until-unless you reach your trigger decision.  With a sidearm, certainly low ready is an option but consider “holster ready” with hand on the grip because you know how long it takes to draw and shoot. 

         

As for “nobody needs 30 ‘bullets’” consider facing a vicious mob with 10 rounds in your firearm.  You’re surrounded by urban jackals with no cops in sight—and the Supreme Court has twice declared (1989 and 2005) that police have no obligation to protect any individual.

 

Be sure to check state and local laws.  For instance, here in Arizona, trespassing charges usually require a knowing violation of posted or spoken notice to offenders.  Meanwhile, arson of an occupied building justifies lethal force—not necessarily valid elsewhere.

 

As the ancient wisdom notes, there is strength in numbers.  Consider the case of Kyle Rittenhouse in August 2020.  He was armed with an AR-15, voluntarily patrolling the troubled streets of Kenosha, Wisconsin, reputedly to protect a car dealership.  Other citizens also augmented the overwhelmed police.  In the turmoil Rittenhouse was separated from his partner—a significant factor.  A rioter grabbed the AR’s barrel; the teen shot the assailant and retreated, pursued by an enraged crowd.  Eventually Rittenhouse killed another attacker who struck him from behind and wounded a third who threatened him with a handgun.  Over a year later Rittenhouse was acquitted of criminal charges, but a “wingman” might have averted or at least reduced the violence level.  

 

Ultimately, avoidance is the preferred tactic whenever possible.  You can still contribute by serving as an observant, objective witness.  But sometimes that option is unavailable, and you become your own first responder.

BALLOONS VERSUS AMERICA IN PERPSECTIVE

 The current focus on Chinese and other balloons in U.S. airspace probably is so popular in part because it’s  so unusual.  But America’s experience with hot air and other balloons goes far, far back.

The French Montgolfier brothers captured France’s imagination with their hot air creations in the 1780s.  Though other nations took note, the first large-scale military use of balloons occurred during our Civil War (1861-1865).  Professor Thaddeus Lowe, a prolific inventor with four years ballooning experience, emerged as President Lincoln’s “chief aeronaut.”  His unit deployed several hydrogen balloons for observation of Confederate forces in the next two years, then was disbanded.

However, Lowe’s influence extended abroad.  His success drew European attention, including Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin who returned to Germany with optimistic reports.  Subsequently the Prussian returned to obtain more information, leading to the rigid airships of Great War fame.

Before Zeppelins caught the world’s attention in 1914, tethered balloons were recognized as excellent observation platforms.  They were especially suited to modern artillery, which could engage targets far beyond visual range on the ground.  Usually filled with hydrogen, depending on winds aloft, “kite balloons” could fly at 4,000 feet, bearing one or two men armed with binoculars and voice communication with the ground crew.

Nearly 80 fighter pilots became “balloon aces” by flaming five or more “gasbags.” Thirty were German or Austrian; 26 were French; 15 British Commonwealth.  Due to limited opportunity, only five U.S. Air Service pilots achieved that distinction, led by Lt. Frank Luke, the famed “Arizona Balloon Buster” credited with 14 before his death in September 1918. 

America’s first balloon unit arrived in France at the end of 1917, training alongside French aeronauts.  By the end of the Great War in November 1918 the U.S. Army balloon corps logged nearly 7,000 hours aloft, losing 48 to all causes.  Contrarily, Yank pursuit pilots were credited with 69 German drachen destroyed.

A lighter-than-air sidebar involves hydrogen-filled barrage balloons.  The unmanned, tethered items were deployed by WW I combatants to deter air attack, some floating as high as 15,000 feet.  They were far more prevalent in WW II, especially in Britain to foil German dive bombers and later V-1 “buzz bombs.”  U.S. forces used them at the Normandy beach heads in 1944.

Though the Chinese spy balloon of early this year astounded millions of Americans, almost none knew of the offensive use of balloons almost 80 years before.  Japanese scientists had discovered the high-altitude jet stream in the 1920s when weather balloons revealed extremely fast winds aloft.  Eventually the northern stream was determined to flow west to east well above 30,000 feet, often at more than 100 mph, sometimes twice as much.

During WW II, Japan lacked the ability to attack the continental United States in any meaningful way.  A handful of submarine shore bombardments and a single sub-launched aircraft were limited to 1942.

However, the Japanese Army proved innovative and resourceful.  Beginning in late 1944, thousands of fu-go balloons were launched against America.

The paper or rubberized hydrogen balloons were about 30 feet in diameter, armed with as much as 80 pounds of incendiary and explosive bombs.  The goal was to ignite forest fires in the U.S. and Canada, but the Japanese recognized the low prospects for success.  One estimate held that 10 percent of fu-gos would survive a trip of perhaps 6,000 miles in two to four days.  That guess proved optimistic.

Fu-go engineers devised a sophisticated system for maintaining altitude during the Pacific crossing.  Aneroid barometers monitored air pressure, controlling duplicate systems for releasing weights to maintain desired altitude.  At the end of the journey the balloon descended to begin releasing its ordnance.  The timing of course was wildly erratic, with impacts spanning thousands of miles.

The balloons alit across the continent, in 18 states as far east as Michigan and six Canadian provinces.  A few even reached Mexico.  Among 9,300 launched from November 1944 to April 1945, at least 300 were found during the war, but the timing was poor.  When the fu-go campaign began, a record winter in North America severely limited the balloons’ potential effects.

But one balloon inflicted lethal damage.  In May 1945 a Sunday school outing in southeastern Oregon ended with six   dead when youngsters found a balloon and apparently wanted to play with it.

Fast forward to this month.

For reasons yet unexplained, the Biden administration allowed a Communist Chinese surveillance balloon to complete an eight-day, 4,000-mile mission across our continent.  The device finally was shot down off the East Coast on February 4.

The Pentagon embarrassed itself with obvious duplicity.  A general refused to tell reporters where the balloon was at a particular time owing to National Security Concerns when civilians not only tracked the object but photographed it.  Subsequently the defense secretary claimed that the U.S. refrained from downing the intruder to avoid damage on the ground.

That was absurd.

The balloon transited huge wide-open expanses in Alaska, western Canada, and the Great Plains.  The odds of harm to humans hovered around Absolute Zero.  According to FAA statistics, during the week-long transit, about three dozen planes crashed in the United States without any reports of harm to groundlings.

My current and retired airline friends with US Air, Delta, and Continental confirm that airliners seldom fly as high as 40,000 feet.  So the balloon usually was above commercial traffic, but of course there was no way to know if it would stay there.

When the thing finally was downed, an Air Force fighter expended a missile reckoned at $400,000 to accomplish the deed.  Some knowledgeable pundits asked why the far cheaper option of a jet’s 20mm cannon wasn’t used, at a cost of about $27 per round.  I asked some fighter pilots and learned that at 40,000 to 60,000 feet, often jets cannot maneuver precisely enough to line up for a gun kill.

Obviously embarrassed by the growing scandal, the government tried playing catch-up in a frenzy of balloon assassinations.  In the ensuing week or so, a variety of Air Force fighters downed four objects over Alaska, the Yukon, and Lake Huron.  The fact that rules of engagement permitted pilots to destroy unidentified objects (apparently including a Hobby Lobby toy) demonstrates the administration’s desperation to repair its image.

As ever, politics uber alles.