History | dual personalities

Today is the 74th anniversary of Operation Chastise, an attack on German dams during WWII, carried out by Royal Air Force No. 617 Squadron using a specially developed “bouncing bomb” invented by Barnes Wallis. The raid was subsequently publicized as the “Dam Busters” and was made into a movie called The Dam Busters (1955).

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It was quite an undertaking. In total, 53 of the 133 aircrew who participated in the attack were killed, a casualty rate of almost 40 percent. In addition, later estimates put the death toll in the Möhne Valley at about 1,600, including people who drowned in the flood wave downstream from the dam.

The Mohne Dam breached

There are, of course, questions now about whether it in fact changed the course of the war by slowing down industrial production in the Rohr Valley. (Two hydroelectric power stations were destroyed and several more were damaged. Factories and mines were also either damaged or destroyed.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_EDXw5qr04

But I still recommend the 1955 movie as a very good one–full of tension and heroics.

And those RAF pilots were really something, weren’t they?

So join me in a toast to “the dam busters”!

P.S. You will recall that there is a scene in the original Star Wars (1977) which is clearly inspired by the dam busters!

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February 8, 2017

“War is hell.”

by chuckofish

Today is the birthday of William Tecumseh Sherman (known as “Cump” to his friends and “Uncle Billy” to his men)–famous American general and Episcopalian.

He was a great friend to our cousin U.S. Grant and had his back in war and in peace. Like Grant, he had a reputation for “hard” warfare, but also, like Grant, was generous in victory.

“You might as well appeal against the thunder-storm as against these terrible hardships of war. They are inevitable, and the only way the people of Atlanta can hope once more to live in peace and quiet at home, is to stop the war, which can only be done by admitting that it began in error and is perpetuated in pride.”

He had no use for politicians or newspapermen.

“The American press is a shame and a reproach to a civilized people. When a man is too lazy to work and too cowardly to steal, he becomes an editor and manufactures public opinion.”

Sherman being led by an angel at Grand Army Plaza, NYC, Saint-Gauden’s last major work

I have seen this statue in New York and it is pretty impressive. INSCRIPTION: TO GENERAL / WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN / BORN FEB. 8, 1820 / DIED FEB. 14, 1891 / ERECTED BY CITIZENS OF NEW YORK / UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE / CHAMBER OF COMMERCE / OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK /

GENERAL WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN / AUGUSTUS SAINT-GAUDENS, SCULPTOR / CHARLES FOLLEN MCKIM, ARCHITECT / 1903 /

He wasn’t perfect; who is? But I would want to be on his team come the apocalypse. I will toast him twice tonight.

(The quotes are from his memoir, Memoirs of General W.T. Sherman, which is worth reading. Also worth reading is The March: A Novel by E.L. Doctorow.)

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December 7, 2016

Awakening a sleeping giant

by chuckofish

Today is the 75 anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, that “date that will live in infamy.”

At 7:55 a.m. Hawaii time, a Japanese dive bomber bearing the red symbol of the Rising Sun of Japan on its wings appeared out of the clouds above the island of Oahu. A swarm of 360 Japanese warplanes followed, descending on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in a ferocious assault. The surprise attack struck a critical blow against the U.S. Pacific fleet and drew the United States irrevocably into WWII. (History.com)

The battleships West Virginia and Tennessee burning

Wheeler Army Air Field under attack

Here are more pictures.

Our parents were, of course, deeply affected by this horrific attack. Our mother was 15 and in high school. She never quite forgave the Japanese for their part in this event and she would be shocked, I know, that we own a Japanese car. Our 19-year-old father dropped out of college and joined the army just like scores of other young men.

ANC III in 1942, Miami Beach

He served throughout the war. I have no doubt that my 41-year old grandfather Bunker would have joined up if the powers that be had let him. Our other grandfather, the newspaper man, spent a good part of the war in London during the Blitz. (My DP probably knows more about what he was actually doing there.)

It was a long and traumatizing war that left its mark on several generations of Americans. Everyone I knew growing up had a father in the war (and a few mothers). As small children we would proudly compare branches of the service in which our fathers served. And, of course, we watched Combat! on television with a certain amount of sophistication.

My favorite character was PFC Kirby who carried the BAR. Yes, I was seven.

Today TCM is honoring the anniversary with a 24-hour tribute. I plan to watch Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970), which I saw with my father when it was first released.

He, of course, found many mistakes in the film, as he always did, but he enjoyed it nonetheless. Among its stars is Jason Robards, who was a radioman, 3rd class, on the USS Northampton, which was about 100 miles off Hawaii at the time of the attack.

TCM is also showing They Were Expendable (1945) starring John Wayne, Donna Reed and Robert Montgomery, which is about American PT Boats (“those high powered canoes”) defending the Philippines in World War II. Directed by “John Ford, Captain U.S.N.R.”, it is blatantly propagandistic, but who cares?

This film is also noteworthy because John Wayne uncharacteristically wears a baseball cap through most of it (and he looks adorable.)

So pick a movie and toast the brave men and women who fought and died on December 7, 1941 and toast again for the rest who joined up shortly after.

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November 16, 2016

The broad and beckoning highway or it’s good to have a hobby

by chuckofish

On this day in 1822 Missouri trader William Becknell arrived in Santa Fe, New Mexico over a route that became known as the Santa Fe Trail.

As you know, I am very interested in this historic route which connects Independence, MO and Santa Fe. One reason I am so fascinated by it is because my ancestor, John Simpson Hough, was an Indian trader in his youth and he made many trips up and down the trail and knew all the old timers, as did his brother-in-law, John Wesley Prowers.

Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site today

I have been to several stops along the way, including Arrow Rock, Mo, Westport Landing, MO, Council Grove, KS, and Bent’s Old Fort in La Junta, Co. There is a lot more to see! For instance, I can’t wait to make my way out to Pawnee Rock, KS,

the scene of many a dramatic encounter and the mid-point of the long road. I would also like to see the Santa Fe wagon ruts near Dodge City, KS, which are also (thank goodness) on the Historic Register.

Recently I have been reading Colonel Henry Inman’s famous book, The Old Santa Fe Trail, the Story of a Great Highway. A book reviewer in 1897 noted that

Colonel Inman sees his material with the eyes of a frontiersman, and herein lies the great charm of his book. He has accepted things as he found them, and has not stayed to philosophize on the deeper meaning of the scenes he describes, but has contented himself with the role of raconteur.

This is delightfully true.

It’s good to have a hobby.

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November 15, 2016

Better to wear out than to rust out

by chuckofish

No, that isn’t a saying originated by Neil Young (“it’s better to burn out than to fade away”). Indeed, this aphorism is attributed to quite a few people, but one of those people who firmly believed it was George Whitefield (1714–1770), an 18th century Anglican clergyman who was one of the founders of Methodism and the evangelical movement, “The Great Awakening.”

It is said that Whitefield preached at least 18,000 times to perhaps 10 million listeners in Great Britain and the American colonies. Impressive.

He is honored today, together with Francis Asbury, with a (lesser) feast day on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church.

Francis Asbury (1745 – 1816) was one of the first two bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States. In 1784 John Wesley named Asbury and Thomas Coke as co-superintendents of the work in America. This marks the beginning of the “Methodist Episcopal Church of the USA.”

For the next thirty-two years, Asbury led all the Methodists in America. Like Wesley, Asbury preached in all sorts of places: courthouses, public houses, tobacco houses, fields, public squares, wherever a crowd assembled to hear him. For the remainder of his life he rode an average of 6,000 miles each year, preaching virtually every day and conducting meetings and conferences. Under his direction, the church grew from 1,200 to 214,000 members and 700 ordained preachers.

Holy God, who didst so inspire Francis Asbury and George Whitefield with evangelical zeal that their faithful proclamation of the Gospel caused a Great Awakening among those who heard them: Inspire us, we pray, by thy Holy Spirit, that, like them, we may be eager to share thy Good News and lead many to Jesus Christ, in whom is eternal life and peace; and who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Boy oh boy, both the Episcopal Church and the Methodist Church could really use these two today.

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November 9, 2016

Unsung hero

by chuckofish

Elijah Parish Lovejoy (November 9, 1802 – November 7, 1837) was an American Presbyterian minister, journalist, newspaper editor and abolitionist. He was murdered by a pro-slavery mob in Alton, Illinois, during their attack on his warehouse to destroy his press and abolitionist materials.

At the age of 25, Elijah left Maine and settled in St. Louis, Missouri where he worked as an editor of an anti-Jacksonian newspaper, the St. Louis Observer and ran a school. Five years later he attended the Princeton Theological Seminary in New Jersey and became an ordained Presbyterian preacher. Returning to St. Louis, he set up a church and resumed work as editor of the Observer. His editorials criticized slavery and other church denominations. Clearly he was not out to win any popularity contests.

In May 1836, after anti-abolitionist opponents in St. Louis destroyed his printing press for the third time, Lovejoy left the city and moved across the river to Alton in the free state of Illinois. In 1837 he started the Alton Observer, also an abolitionist paper. On November 7, 1837, a pro-slavery mob attacked the warehouse where Lovejoy had his fourth printing press. Lovejoy and his supporters exchanged gunfire with the mob, which fatally shot him five times. He died on the spot and was soon hailed as a martyr by abolitionists across the country. After his death, his brother Owen Lovejoy entered politics and became the leader of the Illinois abolitionists.

The 110-foot Lovejoy monument in Alton, Illinois, erected in 1897

Lovejoy’s life and death are said to have inspired John Brown, who came to personify the crazy side of the abolitionist movement. Membership in anti-slavery societies skyrocketed. The reputation of Alton, Illinois was forever besmirched.

It is a shame, however, that so few people today even remember Lovejoy, who gave his life for the freedom of the press and the abolition of slavery.

Indeed, Lovejoy’s life (and murder) is another reminder to us today of how rough and dangerous life was in my part of the country back in the mid-nineteenth century. And people think emotions run high these days!

Although I have been to Alton across the river several times, I have never seen the Lovejoy monument. I feel that this oversight should be corrected as soon as possible. In the meantime, I’ll be toasting Elijah tonight on his birthday.

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October 12, 2016

“Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes, Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies”

by chuckofish

This is the day Nurse Edith Cavell was executed in 1915 by the Germans during WWI.

Accused of treason, i.e. helping British and French soldiers to cross the border and eventually enter Britain, Edith was found guilty by a court-martial and sentenced to death. Despite international pressure for mercy, she was shot by a German firing squad. Her execution received worldwide condemnation and extensive press coverage. While the First Geneva Convention ordinarily guaranteed protection of medical personnel, the German authorities justified prosecution merely on the basis of the German law and the interests of the German state. What were they thinking?

In the months and years following Edith’s death, countless newspaper articles, pamphlets, images, and books publicized her story. Her execution was represented as an act of German barbarism and moral depravity. (As it turned out, they weren’t wrong on that count.) The Allies claimed Edith as a martyr and she became an iconic propaganda figure for military recruitment in Britain. Within eight weeks of her death, enlistment into the British Army had doubled.

Edith, aged 49, was executed by firing squad just outside Brussels on October 12, 1915. Permission was given for the English Chaplain, the Rev. Stirling Gahan, to visit her the night before she died and together they repeated the words to the hymn Abide With Me. It was also to Gahan that Edith made her famous comment that “patriotism is not enough”. Her strong Anglican beliefs propelled her actions and so the Church of England commemorates her in their calendar of saints on October 12. Although we do not commemorate Edith Cavell on our Episcopal calendar, I think it is fitting that we recognize her here.

Martyrs never regret
what they have done
having done it.
Amazing too
they never frown.
It is all so mysterious
the way they remain
above us
beside us
within us;
how they beam
a human sunrise
and are so proud.

–Alice Walker

5 Comments

October 11, 2016

Drawing the line

by chuckofish

Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon completed surveying for the “Mason-Dixon line” separating Maryland and Pennsylvania on this day in 1767. The work was done between 1763 and 1767 in order to resolve a border dispute involving Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Delaware.

In popular usage, the Mason–Dixon line still symbolizes a cultural boundary between the North and the South.

Reading about this, it suddenly occurred to me that the name “Dixie” (used as a historical nickname for the southern states) must derive from Jeremiah Dixon’s name!

Mind-blowing that I just thought of that. Did you know that?

Anyway, here’s a great song by Mark Knopfler (with James Taylor) about Mason and Dixon, which was itself inspired by the book Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon.

P.S. I read that book back in the 1990s and liked it.

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August 10, 2016

What are you reading?

by chuckofish

My scholarly dual personality is too modest to tell you that her book has just been published!

It was six years in the making, but now it is out!

Gregory Urwin of the University of Oklahoma Press writes:

I am pleased to announce the release of Volume 55 in the Campaigns and Commanders Series that I edit for the University of Oklahoma Press — The Campaigns of Sargon II: King of Assyria, 721-705 B.C. by Sarah C. Melville.

If you think you know the Assyrians from fleeting references in the Old Testament, think again. Melville has plunged deep into the sources, which are more extensive than most of us would think. She mastered Akkaidian, the language of the Assyrians, so she could read the clay, gold, silver, copper, lead, and lapis lazuli tablets on which these people recorded their history, along with inscriptions on freestanding steles, natural rock formations, walls, doors, thresholds, and bull colossi of palaces. She also deciphered palace reliefs, consulted archaeological studies, and reviewed the documentation left by the Assyrians’ enemies.

The result is a history that depicts the Assyrians as a much more complex race of warriors. They could be cruel in war, but they devised much more sophisticated means to hold their empire together than beheading defeated warriors and sending conquered peoples into exile. I found the brand of geo-politics that Sargon II practiced to be surprisingly modern.

At a time when ISIS fanatics are attempting to obliterate the pre-Muslim history of the Middle East and south Asia, the appearance of Sarah Melville’s book could not be more timely. Impeccable research and a lively writing style makes this the definitive look at the Assyrian way of war.

It is with no little pride that I see this volume take its place in my series. Part of that pride rests on the fact that Sarah is also the first woman historian to publish with Campaigns Commanders. It was about high time that happened…

So get your copy of The Campaigns of Sargon II today! I have mine and I look forward to finding out all about Sargon II.

On the fiction side of things, I finished the Grantchester book this weekend and also re-read Olive Kitteridge, the wonderful novel by Elizabeth Strout. If you have not read this great book, I highly recommend it.

Enjoy your Wednesday!

9 Comments

August 4, 2016

Scots Wha Hae*

by chuckofish

Today is the birthday of Harry Lauder (August 4, 1870 – February 26, 1950)–famous Scottish music hall performer.

Lauder was, at one time, the highest-paid performer in the world, making the equivalent of £12,700 a night plus expenses. During the First World War Lauder promoted recruitment into the services and starred in many concerts for troops at home and on the western front. His entertainment activities were made ever the more poignant by the death in action of his only son at the end of 1916.

Our pater was a big fan of Harry Lauder and I recall him listening attentively to his scratchy 78 records, losing himself in a sentimental and, no doubt, alcohol-inspired fog. Frequently we would run from the room.

Anyway, here is Harry with Danny Kaye!

And here he is with Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.

And here’s Robin Williams dressed like the good Scotsman he was. (He bears a certain resemblance to Sir Harry, don’t you think?)

Since we’re on a roll, here are some other great Scots in suitable attire.

Cheers to Sean Connery, Ewan McGregor, Gerard Butler, and the boy (in a kilt at his 8th grade graduation)! and to…

Roamin’ in the gloamin’ on the bonnie banks o’ Clyde.

Roamin’ in the gloamin’ wae my lassie by my side.

When the sun has gone to rest, That’s the time we love the best.

O, it’s lovely roamin’ in the gloamin!

*The title of a poem by Robert Burns

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dual personalities

Category: History

May 17, 2017

Après moi le déluge

by chuckofish

February 8, 2017

“War is hell.”

by chuckofish

December 7, 2016

Awakening a sleeping giant

by chuckofish

November 16, 2016

The broad and beckoning highway or it’s good to have a hobby

by chuckofish

November 15, 2016

Better to wear out than to rust out

by chuckofish

November 9, 2016

Unsung hero

by chuckofish

October 12, 2016

“Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes, Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies”

by chuckofish

October 11, 2016

Drawing the line

by chuckofish

August 10, 2016

What are you reading?

by chuckofish

August 4, 2016

Scots Wha Hae*

by chuckofish