So I bought some really small WWII planes (Wildcats, Hellcats, and two types of Zeros), painted, and ready to go for bags of $5 a piece (about 35 planes per baggie) at the flea market at Fall-In. I’ve been really interested in playing Check Your 6! and thought this would be a great way to do it. The rules are not scale dependent, so why not try some planes that look like they’re 1/1250 scale. So, i picked up some great bases from NavWar and after painting up the bases, and mounting the planes, this is what I have. Hopefully I can print out some hex boards from the Roman Seas rule set that I bought, and use those for some WWII aerial action. I’ll let you all know soon.

The preceding post in the AW Book Blog Chain is Fictional: Lurker in the Dark and Others and the following can be found at Random Writerly Thoughts.

For a couple of weeks, every time I spoke with my mom she urged me to read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. “It’s about WWII,” she told me. “It takes place on Guernsey during the Nazi occupation.”

Being a sucker for all things related to the UK and WWII, I gave in over Thanksgiving break.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society begins with Juliet Ashton, a writer, receiving a letter from a founding member of the titular Society. Juliet decides to write an article about the society (for a philosophy and literature series) and begins to receive more letters from Guernsey. She determines that the best way to write the article is to go to Guernsey itself.

The book is written in a different fashion–various lines of correspondence between Juliet and the other characters, such as her publisher, best friend, and the people of Guernsey. Through the letters, notes and telegrams we get a sense of who these people are. Their thoughts are intimate and thoroughly engaging.

One thing that I enjoyed is the care the authors put into developing individual voices for each of the characters. Some write only one or two letters, yet sound distinctive from the others. This aids with the realism of the book. One can’t help but feel like one is spying on these people, yet also feel like they are friends (or acquaintances at the least).

The story is one that is alternatively light and dark. The tones the characters write to each other in are humorous and self-deprecating. On numerous occasions I started laughing out loud. As the book is about the Nazi occupation of the Channel Islands, the story becomes serious at times, but never loses its charm.

It saddens me that letter writing has fallen by the wayside for email, facebook and twitter. Fifty years from now, will anyone write a story in a similar manner about people like us? Emails lack that personal feel. Will an entire book be told over tweets? It strikes me as a bit ridiculous, really (if a fun poetry experiment).

All said, this is a charming book. Recommended for those looking for a feel-good novel (it does have a very happy ending!). Light, enjoyable, and worth the few hours it takes to read. Best enjoyed with a continuous stream of tea and digestive biscuits.

DavidZahir
Lost Wanderer
RavenCorinnCarluk
Vein Glory
Shethinkstoomuch -  That’s me!
Lady Cat – http://randomwriterlythoughts.blogspot.com
Rosemerry – http://beyondtourism.wordpress.com/

Por Mark Thomas.

Observador Juvenil/Kaos en la Red.

LA FÁBRICA DE LA FELICIDAD

“El lado Coca-Cola de la vida”

“Dentro de la fábrica de la felicidad,” ‘documental de The Coca-Cola Company

La mañana es jovialmente fría, un hermoso día sureño de invierno en Atlante; el sol no influye en nada en la temperatura pero brilla en el claro cielo azul. Unos pocos policías rondan por Pemberton Park en el centro de la ciudad, con sus chaquetas con cremallera cerrada y con gorros con orejeras que cuelgan por los lados de sus cabezas, reduciéndolos amablemente de representantes de la autoridad a parodias de Elmer Gruñón. Toman café, sonríen y saludan cuando paso. Es la entrada al Mundo de Coca-Cola y en algún sitio hay discretos altavoces tocando el más memorable jingle publicitario de Coke: “Quisiera comprar una Coke al mundo.” Lo que podría explicar las orejeras…

Prefiero pensar que la compañía toca esa canción como himno de gracias a la Autoridad de Desarrollo de Atlanta que le dio 5,4 millones de dólares para contribuir al hermoseamiento del parque y a la plaza de ingreso, o al Concejo de la Ciudad que redujo 1,5 millones de dólares del impuesto a las ventas de la compañía, o ciertamente el impuesto a la propiedad de 2 millones de dólares que Coca-Cola no tuvo que pagar por decisión de las autoridades municipales. Coke podrá valer miles de millones de dólares pero no es reacia a estirar la mano para recibir un poco de moneda, especialmente si esa moneda tiene seis ceros al final.

En el sitio de honor en Pemberton Park, subvencionado por el Estado, hay una estatua de bronce de casi dos metros de alto del homónimo del área, el padre fundador de Coca-Cola, el farmacéutico John Pemberton. Oficialmente, creó la bebida en 1886 y la vendió desde la farmacia Jacobs; ahora, más de 120 años después, su noble imagen enfrenta el parque, con una mano sobre una pequeña mesa victoriana. En su otra mano levanta un vaso de Coca-Cola, en parte en celebración, en parte inspeccionándolo, con su cara impasible examinando la bebida y ofreciéndola al mundo. Es la imagen de un pionero, de un héroe científico y de un benefactor a la humanidad. A Sir Alexander Fleming le hubiera gustado tener una estatua semejante, y descubrió la penicilina. La estatua representa a Pemberton más delgado que en las fotos que he visto de su persona, donde se ve un poquito regordete. Al parecer no es la única discrepancia con los hechos. Según Mark Pendergrast, uno de los autores más respetados sobre la compañía, John Pemberton volvió de la guerra civil de EE.UU. convertido en un adicto a la morfina. De modo que el fundador de Coca-Cola fue un yonki, aunque para ser justos, ¿quién erigiría una estatua de un drogui gordo frente a una atracción turística familiar – con la excepción de la casa de Elvis Presley?

De modo que por el bien de la imagen corporativa, el gordo Pemberton pierde unos kilos y se desintoxica. Y en el interior sigue el revisionismo histórico: extrañamente, no hay ninguna mención de uno de los ingredientes originales de la bebida: cocaína, que a posteriori no parece ser su mayor pecado, ya que hubo otras bebidas a fines del Siglo XIX que contenían diferentes cantidades de la exportación más famosa de Colombia. Reconocidamente, es un hecho ligeramente confuso: un instante quieres enseñarle al mundo a cantar, al siguiente quieres enseñarle a hablar verdaderamente rápido y a frotarse las encías con el dedo índice.

Son los ‘hechos confusos’ que al parecer la Compañía trata de ocultar por un deseo casi patológico. Son desviaciones de la narrativa de la Compañía, arenilla en la grasa de las Relaciones Públicas. Y a Coca-Cola no le gusta que haya arenilla en la grasa.

El control de imágenes del Mundo de Coca-Cola se extiende incluso a su selección de vecinos. Directamente al lado está el Acuario Georgia: En 2002 Coke entregó 3,6 hectáreas para el acuario. En 2006, Coke separó 1 hectárea para un museo de derechos civiles – una atracción que celebrara Atlanta como cuna del movimiento, con planes de albergar unas 7.000 páginas de escritos del doctor Martin Luther King Jr. Por lo tanto la historia corporativa y la de los derechos civiles se entrelazan en un solo sitio en el centro de la ciudad, para que podamos recordar la lucha por la dignidad humana y visitar los peces.

Los nuevos vecinos podrán o no exhibir detalles del último discurso del doctor King. Hecho el día antes de ser asesinado. En él llamó a los afro-estadounidenses a retirar su apoyo económico a compañías si ‘no han sido justas en sus políticas de contratación,’ es decir, si han favorecido a trabajadores blancos por sobre los trabajadores negros. Una de las compañías que debían ser boicoteadas era Coca-Cola. Las palabras exactas del doctor King fueron: ‘os pedimos esta noche, que vayáis y digáis a vuestros vecinos que no compren Coca-Cola en Memphis.’

De la misma manera puede o no que haya mención de la demanda judicial presentada contra la compañía por cientos de empleados de Coke, acusándola de discriminación contra trabajadores negros en la remuneración y los ascensos. La Compañía no admitió esas acusaciones, pero en noviembre de 2000 anunció que pagaría 192,5 millones de dólares para dirimir el caso. Si uno mide el racismo en dólares, representa un montón de racismo.

Otra pequeña historia que no es del gusto de la Compañía tiene que ver con los Juegos Olímpicos. La relación de Coca-Cola con los Juegos Olímpicos comenzó en 1928. Pero Coke minimiza su patrocinio de la Olimpíada de 1936, la Olimpíada de Berlín, en la cual un cierto pintor y decorador psicópata lanzó una ofensiva de relaciones públicas para promover su Estado nazi. A The Coca-Cola Company le gusta mencionar que uno de los miembros del equipo de remo estadounidense en la Olimpíada de 1936 posteriormente llegó a ser su presidente. También se enorgullece al mencionar que el corredor Jesse Owens hizo publicidad para Coke – aunque fue años después de ganar cuatro medallas de oro en Berlín, con lo que afectó en algo las teorías de la raza superior de su anfitrión. La Compañía prefiere colocarse junto a los que son vistos como ‘luchando’ contra los nazis o promoviendo el ‘ideal olímpico’, en lugar de mostrarse como patrocinadores de una plataforma olímpica para Hitler. Y, francamente, ¿quién no lo preferiría?

Pero la Compañía tiene unos pocos ítems nazis más en su desván. Por ejemplo, Max Keith, el director gerente de Coca-Cola GmbH, embotellador de Coke en Alemania durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Al avanzar la guerra, se acabó el suministro de ingredientes para hacer Coca-Cola, modo que Max inventó una nueva bebida para aliviar la sed alemana. La llamó Fanta. Y tenemos un eslogan para un anuncio: ‘Una Fanta, un Reich ¿Juegas?’

Los historiadores de la Compañía señalan que Max Keith nunca se unió al Partido Nazi, pero exhibió a Coca-Cola GmbH en una exposición organizada para abrazar el concepto del trabajador alemán bajo el Führer. En otro caso, Max Keith decoró su stand de Coca-Cola con banderas nazis. Esto fue confirmado por The Coca-Cola Company que dijo: ‘[Max] Keith en una convención de embotelladores exhibió esvásticas y terminó con un saludo a Hitler. Esto no hubiera estado fuera de lugar en EE.UU. al revés y el podio hubiera tenido una bandera estadounidense y los actos comenzarían o terminarían con el Juramento de Lealtad.’ Dejo que juzguéis por vuestra propia cuenta.

Lo que sé es que los archivos de The Coca-Cola Company tienen fotos del stand en la exposición ‘que muestran esvásticas utilizadas como decoración’ bajo el emblema de Coca-Cola. Sólo imagino que el archivista preferiría irse al infierno que exhibir esas fotos al público.

Seguramente no me equivoco si digo que estas historias no van a aumentar las ventas de Coca-Cola, con la excepción de uno que otro cliente del Ku-Klux-Klan. Ninguno de estos hechos, sea la traviesa aguja de Pemberton, el problemático parentesco de Fanta o la condena de King, presenta la historia que Coca-Cola quisiera que conociéramos ni es la historia que quiere presentar para vender su bebida.

Para escuchar la historia de Coca-Cola cobran 15 dólares por adulto, 9 dólares por niño entre tres y doce años. Pero antes de dejarse tentar por una visita al Mundo de Coca-Cola, hay que hacerse una pregunta: ¿qué es lo que muestran? Hacen gaseosas y las anuncian en todo el mundo para venderlas; todo lo que tienen son botellas y anuncios – no pueden hacer un museo con eso, ¿verdad? Sí, pueden. Es exactamente lo que es el Mundo de Coca-Cola: Coca-Cola, anuncios de Coca-Cola y una tienda de regalos que vende artículos publicitarios de Coca-Cola.

———

Mark Thomas es comediante, presentador, activista político y periodista del sur de Londres. Es mejor conocido por satíricas políticas en su The Mark Thomas Comedy Product, que ha causado inmensas controversias al denunciar crímenes políticos y corporativos. Figura en el Libro de Récords Guinness por realizar la mayor cantidad de protestas políticas en un solo día. Vive en Londres.

Del libro “Belching Out The Devil: Global Adventures with Coca-Cola” de Mark Thomas. Pasajes extraídos por acuerdo con Nation Books, miembro del Perseus Books Group. Copyright © 2009.

© 2009 Nation Books All rights reserved.

http://www.alternet.org/story/140917/

Esta obra está bajo una licencia de Creative Commons.

Lee, J. Y. K. (2008). The piano teacher: A novel. New York: Viking Penguin. 978-0-00-728638-6

I noticed The Piano Teacher numerous times while flipping through Publisher’s Weekly while at work. However, I didn’t have enough interest in it until I saw the book on Amazon’s “People who bought this also bought. . .” for another book I recently read (see Marie Arana’s Lima Nights) . Sure enough, this book was on the shelf at the library where I work.

Lee tells at least two stories. Initially, she begins with young English wife Claire Pendleton in 1952. She and her husband, Martin, come to Hong Kong due to his job. With nothing else better to do, Claire seeks employment as a piano teacher. When she’s hired by the wealthy Chen family to teach their daughter Locket to play piano, Claire becomes infatuated with the Hong Kong expatriate scene as well as developing kleptomania. Through all of this, she becomes the paramour of Will Truesdale, an English expatriate with numerous skeletons in the closet.

The other story Lee tells begins in 1941 Hong Kong with the dashing newcomer Will Truesdale and his tempestuous affair with Trudy Liang, an exquisite daughter of a wealthy Chinese man and a Portuguese beauty. Will sinks into Trudy’s glib  lifestyle – parties, dinners with her efeet cousin Dominick, parties with her cousin Melody Chin, going to the beach, etc. When there are nervous rumblings on the eve of World War II, Trudy appears ambivalent and Will plays along until Japan invades.

Lee alternates between these two story lines, ultimately showing us how the past transgressions color Claire’s present. Characters face all sorts of trials and decisions, costing them all in the end.

I found Lee’s writing quite colorful and even transcendent. I especially wanted to climb into my time machine and check out pre-World War II Hong Kong.  While I didn’t like most of the characters, I found them very human and multidimensional.

I also liked how Lee confronts issues of race, class, and gender. Through Trudy, she presents us with the reality of being “not Asian”, “not Caucasian,” but simply both. Her wealthy Chinese father’s status opens doors for his daughter. I was impressed also by Claire’s awakening to this as well. Here we have 2008 values quelled in a novel about 1940s-1950s Hong Kong.

Still, I didn’t like the construction of the story much. I felt as though I was bounced around in the beginning, stuck in the middle, and rolled around like a pingpong ball in the end.  I do recall that this is Lee’s first novel and I’m sure she’ll overcome this in future novels.

As a grammar geek, I must comment on my chagrin upon reading Trudy utter the non-word “anyways.”

Two out of Five Pearls

Places: Hong Kong, Macau, China, Japan, The United Kingdom, India

Word Bank: ablution, Amah, anodyne, avuncular, collusive, consular, gendarmerie, guipure, inculcated, lissome, OBE, qipao, prescient, sotto voce, Tai Tais, venal,

For more on Janice Y.K. Lee’s The Piano Teacher:

• The New York Times
• Roman Review – YouTube
• YouTube – The Piano Teacher: Janice Y.K. Lee

It’s Thanksgiving weekend. I’ve spent three days in Florida with no one but old people to keep me company.  What else do I have to do?

Thumbs up: Lost Season 3. Okay, I really like Lost now.  Season one was pretty good. Season two was stellar. I’m now about 3/4ths of the way though season three and I’ll admit it, I am fully addicted invested. Yesterday, I refused to come to dinner because I still had 15 minutes of an episode left.

Thumbs down: I’m in Florida but it’s too cold to go to the beach

Thumbs up:

I made sweet potato casserole

Thumbs Down: Thanksgiving without any dressing.  We had a kitchen fiasco and it was ruined.

Thumbs up: Christmas!

Thumbs down: Christmas. Not ready yet.

Thumbs up: Beck’s Record Club project, which led me to download Skip Spence’s 1969 album “Oar.” I’m not sure how Skip Spence escaped my attention until now; it was a gross oversight. Thanks, Beck.

Thumbs down: My impending homelessness

Thumbs up: Living with Thomas’ record collection for two weeks.

Thumbs down: Not knowing how to get his record collection onto my laptop

Thumbs up: Yeasayer – “Ambling Alp”

Thumbs down: Russian train bombs

Thumbs up: Horseback riding for the first time in 2 years

Thumbs down: Not being able to walk straight the next day

A confused thumbs up: I don’t normally like OK Go, but I like this song.

Thumbs down: The Food Network. My dad and stepmom watch it. I don’t get it. Why do I want to watch someone else eat a hamburger?

Thumbs up: Beating my family at poker

I'm rich

Thumbs down: Realizing this was probably a fluke

Thumbs up: Having dinner with a 91-year-old woman who was a British spy during World War II

Thumbs down: Hitler

Ich habe nun den Großteil meines Samstagabends damit zugebracht mir englische Komödien anzuschauen. Ich tue dies mit größter Freude und schaue mir unbeharrt jeden Film, der sich in meiner Sammlung findet, aufs Neue an. Heute Abend waren es gleich zwei: About a Boy und Bridget Jones’ Diary.

Bevor ich selbst nach London gezogen bin, habe ich immerzu in der wunderbaren Fantasiewelt gelebt, in der mir lauter ‘Daniel Cleavers’ und ‘Mark Darcys’ über den Weg laufen würden, sobald ich in diese wunderbare, aufregende Metropole ziehe. Die Realität, als mehr oder weniger mittelloser Student, sah allerdings sehr viel anders aus.
Zwar hatte ich meinen persönlichen ‘Mark Darcy’ bereits getroffen (wer weiß, vielleicht war er doch eher ein ‘Daniel Cleaver’), allerdings machte es mir die Stadt nicht sehr einfach ein romantisches Verhältnis zu ihr aufzubauen. Schlechtes Essen, schlechtes Wetter, unendlich viel Tee  und ein unendlich schlechter Humor was Deutsche und den zweiten Weltkrieg betrifft(also alle gängigen Clichés, die man sich so vorstellen kann), haben es mir nicht gerade schmackhaft gemacht in dieser Stadt zu bleiben. Ganz zu schweigen von den horrenden Mietpreisen.
Ein Aspekt der Engländer fiel mir immer wieder und penetrant auf: Es ist unmöglich sie wirklich kennenzulernen. Hinter all den Höflichkeitsfloskeln steckt ein Panzer von Scham. Sie mögen keine unbequemen Situationen und ‘Gott bewahre’, dass jemals jemand wirklich offen und ehrlich seine Meinung zu irgendeinem Thema äußern sollte. Meine Offenheit stieß hin und wieder auf saure Mienen, die ich daraufhin zum guten Spiel machen musste. Ich habe mich noch niemals in meinem ganzen Leben so zurückhalten müssen und war erstaunt, dass der so bekannte schwarze Humor nur soweit reicht wie der englische Horizont – ergo – nicht sehr weit, wir sind ja schließlich auf einer Insel.
Ein weiteres interessantes Thema ist das Trink- und Balzverhalten. Das eine kann auf das andere nicht verzichten, schier unmöglich, würde ich gar sagen. Spätestens um 17Uhr an einem Freitagnachmittag, sieht man sämtliche Büroangestellte sich vor dem nächstbesten Pub tummeln. Egal ob Sonnenschein oder Regen (es kann ja nur noch vor den jeweiligen Etablissements geraucht werden), stehen sie qualmend und trinkend vor der Tür der Tränke ihres Vertrauens. Das Ziel ist die schnelle Realisierung eines Rausches und das jeweils zugehörige Verhalten. Sarah aus der Buchhaltung bandelt dann schon mal schnell mit ihrem Vorgesetzen Alistair an, um diese Peinlichkeit tunlichst am nächsten Montag zu ignorieren. Es ist einfach niemals passiert, auch wenn es eigentlich geplante Absicht war, man war ja betrunken und daher unzurechnungsfähig.

Wenn man über diese Aspekte hinwegsieht, kann man jedoch trotzdem eine wunderschöne Stadt, mit grünen Parks, wundervollen, alten Gebäuden und unendlich vielen Museen (viele davon kostenlos) sehen, die wirklich liebenswert und lebenswert ist, wenn man das nötige Kleingeld (ja, trotz der vielen, kostenlosen Museen) hat. London ist leider nicht wie in den meisten Hugh Grant Komödien. Die meisten Engländer sind eher ein riesiger Scherz, aber ich weiß ja, dass sie das auch über uns denken. Es ist eine Art von Hassliebe, die mich mit dieser Stadt verbindet und auch wenn diese Komödien nicht der Wahrheit entsprechen, so hofft mein Herz immer noch ein wenig, dass ich eines Tages zurückkehre und dieses London vorfinden werde.

In guter Hoffnung!

Bis dahin…

…cheerio!

Cyber-Monday Super Sale!! 

Save 5%-20% Off Your Order!*

Take 5% off $25.00-$49.99, 10% off $50.00-$74.99, 15% off $75.00-$99.99 and 20% off $100.00 or more!* Monday, November 30th ONLY.

* $25.00/$50.00/$75.00/$100.00 minimum order is before shipping and/or taxes. Order must contain $25.00-$100.00 or more of product. Discount does not apply to trades. Discount will be automatically applied to your order once minimum amount has been reached. No coupon code required.

Sale is one day only – Monday, November 30th, 2009.

I haven’t posted a Flames of War report lately, but not because we haven’t been playing, but more because I keep forgeting my camera.  It’s all about the eye candy.   A couple of the guys in our group have recently gotten their North Africa collections to a game ready point, so we’ve been doing some North Africa games set around the time of Operation Crusader.  At some point (probably during the 8 hours driving to and from Fall In!) we were talking about ways to get the feel for the desert war on a game table.  Since wargamers are seldom going to emulate the tactics of the British voluntarily, I decided to try and write a scenario that might  capture some of the feel of the British tanks attacks.  A feature of the British armoured forces during this period was that they tended to operate in tank heavy battlegroups with very little infantry and no artillery.   Another feature was their disturbing tendency to wander into German anti-tank gun traps.  So I set out to put together a scenario to capture the feel of the British tank attacks I’ve read about.

One of the things I like about FOW is that the points system can be used for good as well as evil.  Points systems get bashed for allowing all kinds of ahistorical power gaming, but if the players in your group are willing to work within historical boundries, it can be very helpful in terms of ‘distributed scenario design’.   For this game I asked Bob (who owns the Brits) and Tom (who owns the DAK) to each assemble companies from their collections to fit the scenario criteria.  I don’t have to keep careful track of what everyone in the group owns to make the senario – I simply give them a point value and restrictions and they do the OOB work.  In this case I wanted to have a strong British tank force with armored cars for recon and with one of the little British motor companies following along behind to secure ground seized by the tankers and hold it against counterattacks.  I asked Bob to provide a couple of companies of crusiers tanks (with only organic assets, no divisional support stuff), a company of armored cars, and a motor rifle company.  I asked Tom to provide us with a panzergrenadier company for the initial defense and a fairly hefty panzer company for a counterattacking force.  The Germans would be able to place as many of their panzergrenadier platoons as desired into ambush (although since we were using a 6′ x 10′ table they were required to specify a table section to deploy into).

Both sides had some air assets they could distribute between various missions.  Neither side chose any aerial reconnaissance – both sides would be blind.  The Germans Air Superiority took control of the skies and would be able to intercept many of the British attempts to provide close air support.  The Germans initially chose to place only a platoon in the town (along with some imbedded ATGs).  That allowed the British armored cars to deploy far forward and to swarm ahead across the open ground on the south side of the battlefield.  The two tank companies followed behind the armored cars.

As the game opened, the British armored car platoon decided to aggressively move forward, attempting to block off potential ambush sites and to seize forward objectives.  For this game I made the number of dice rolled to receive reserves dependent on the British VP level.  By storming forward, the armored cars captured a lot of VP, resulting in release of the British motor rifles from reserve very early.  Unfortunately for the British, this also lit a fire under the Germans HQ and their panzer company was quickly marshalled and made ready to advance.

On the north of the battlefield, Andy swarmed his company of Honey Stuarts over the rocky ridge and approached the town.  Undeterred by the Pak36’s, the Lend Lease tanks roared in and opened up with a torrent of machine gun fire pinning down the Germans.  Although the guns unpinned and bagged a tank or two, Andy’s boys were ready for a rumble and with a blast of MG fire, pinned down and assaulted the extended panzergrenadier platoon all along their line.  A couple of the tanks were lost, but the forward Germans positions were smashed with heavy casualties.  As the survivors pulled back into town, Andy attacked any teams unable to reach a building (such as the attached PaKs) and eventually routed the defending platoon and killed the company commander.  The Stuarts rolled seized the objective in town and rolled through to take up new firing positions for their next bound.

The Crusader company rolled in behind the armored cars, looking to move around the town and utilize the open ground to move onto the German positions covering the third pair of objectives.  The motor rifle company with trucked infantry and scout carrier patrols moved in behind them.  As these units rolled forward, they began to come under heavy attack by Stukas of the Luftwaffe and by 105mm artillery fire.  Although these attacks were not devastating, the British forces were picking up the occasional casualty, made worse by the fact that Brett’s troops adamantly refused to recrew their tanks after being bailed out.

The Germans deployed their remaining infantry platoons (with PaK38 support) on the ridge to the rear, protecting the objective there and began rolling on the panzers.   A fortunate strike by Hurribombers destroyed on platoon of panzers, but in the SW corner a juggernaut was approaching in the form of 3 Panzer IV Es and a pair of 88mm FlaK guns.  The recon armored cars there tried to duck into protective cover of some scrub, but that did them no good as the PzIV’s gutted two of them.  The remaining amored cars began to disengage and redirect through the newly captured town to positions where they could provide MG support to the Honeys.

The air forces of both sides finally exhausted themselves with a couple of more destroyed vehicles.  The 88’s posed a significant problem for the British and their Crusader Close Support tanks were not in range yet to bombard the guns, so the Bob’s carrier platoon passed through and charged at the guns, blazing away with 0.30 cal and 0.50 cal machine guns.  One FlaK gun was taken out and the other pinned down.  Unfortunately, the Panzer IV’s were proving to be a real problem for the Crusaders, whose thin armor and 2 pounder gun were no match for the heavier panzers.

Andy made one dash at the German line, but failed to pin down the defending German platoon and lost a couple of Stuarts.  Attrition was starting to wear his tank force down while on the other side the Crusaders had lost much of their strength to continuous artillery, air attacks, and the Panzer IVs.  Unfortunately we ran out of playing time before we ran out of scenario turns, but then end was getting fairly close.  The British players were content to fall back into defensive position to hold the two objectives in the table’s center.  Although the DAK had decent tank strength remaining, they would still be hard pressed to knock the British of of their positions with the time remaining.  I declared it a British victory, although it would have been close in the end.

The game was a blast and achieved the goals.  The British players definitely were in favor of a combined arms approach and missed having some artillery with which to reach out and soften up the Germans.  The early rush by the British combined with Andy’s aggressive use of the Stuarts against the infantry in the town allowed them to seize the center of the table and negate much of the German superiority in terms of anti-tanks capability.  We had quite a bit of maneuver and the large table allowed us to make good use of double moves, trucks, etc. and to have a lot of vehicles (there were 39 British tanks and 13 armored cars) without it looking entirely like a parking lot.  Definitely need to make some sort of dust clouds though to place behind the moving vehicles and complete the desert look.

*Update for 11/28/09*

Restock!

SideShow Indiana Jones German Indy

Guernica by Dave Boling

Bloomsbury, New York, 2008

Won in a giveaway.

At the center of this novel is the town of Guernica, a cultural center of the Basque people and the site of one of the first carpet bombing of a town and its civilian population.  At the beginning of World War II the German Luftwaffe, showing support for Franco and his rebel forces in Spain, bombed this small town to bits.  No one knows how many people died.

Boling tells a story of two families from the Basque Country in the western Pyrenees mountains.  The region lies on the border between France and Spain along the Atlantic coast.  The story of the Ansotegui and Navarro families begins in the late 1800’s but most time is spent in the 1930 focused on the meeting and marriage between Miren Ansotegui and Miguel Navarro.

Boling portrays members of both families with depth and caring and there is almost a touch of magical realism woven throughout the book.  The reader follows many characters through their lifetimes.   Through great detail and lyric language, Boling conveys the rugged landscape and rich history of the region.

Historical figures play important roles, the most obvious being Pablo Picasso.  I found this to be the one awkward layer in the novel but I understand Boling’s desire for Picasso’s presence.  Many people only know the name Guernica because of the artist’s famous mural and the history surrounding it.

Guernica is a wonderful, carefully written novel about an important piece of European history.  It is richly layered, carefully researched and its characters will stay with me for some time.

Boling’s dedication reads: For the victims of Guernica…and all the Guernicas that followed.  For more information he suggests a visit to the Guernica Peace Museum.

Other reviews:

Caribousmom

Devourer of Books

Dreadlock Girl Reads

She Is Too Fond Of Books

For our Christmas Eve services this year our theme is going to be “Memory Lane.” Christmas is so much about our memories. Our memories of family, friends, traditions, food, and obviously Jesus. Last night I was at my dad’s show and during the Christmas portion they told a story I’ve heard before about opposing soldiers in WWII. Last night the story made me think of the church. If the birth of Jesus can bring opposing forces together in WWII shouldn’t it be able to do the same with our enemies (friends, family, Church, etc) today?

I can’t think of a better memory to make this holiday season than reconciling a relationship that has been non-existent for some time. Whether that relationship is with a parent, grandparent, former friend, former spouse, or even Jesus.

When you look at the life and the purpose of Jesus it’s impossible not to see the reconciling spirit He lived His life with. I don’t know of anything that would bring more glory to Jesus than if all of us would be willing to come together with our “enemies” to reconcile for the simple reason that reconciling us to God is the main purpose of Jesus coming to this earth (aka – the Christmas Story).

I’m excited for both of our Christmas Eve services. This year we will have one service begin at 6 p.m. and the other will start at 11 p.m. So come hang out with us as we take a stroll down Memory Lane.

A reader writes to Joe Bageant, author of both the book and the blog titled “Deer Hunting with Jesus“:

Author Joe Bageant with friends, in Belize, his second home. Photo Arvin Hill

“…..As for me, I was born working class, well, underclass, truth be told. My dad had been a prosperous farmer post World War Two, but after he lost the farm, he had no other skills to fall back on. He became a house painter, working from dawn till dusk. When his health failed, he became a janitor. My mom was a nurse’s aid at a time when not only didn’t you need a certificate, you didn’t even need to show an 8th grade diploma.

It was my bad fortune to be born long after the farm was gone, so all I ever heard from my parents was how wonderful everything use to be, and how shitty it is now. I was one of those quiet, bookish, pessimistic little kids, having little in common with my parents or peers. But rural poverty will have its effect, and I grew up to hold the same jobs as everybody else, working at Wal-Mart, Kroger, and at gas stations which seemed to change their names every few months. I never had what most would consider a real job. I guess because I never felt I deserved it….” – Dave

And now, an excerpt from Joe Bageant’s reply:

“….Anyway, one of the things that click between me and my Illinois wife is that she has an unerring ability to see class distinctions play out between people. A small town farm girl whose father, like yours, failed at farming, she moved “into town,” and like farm kids of our generation who’ve spent countless hours alone as a society of one, she could see the unacknowledged class structure. She just plain “gets it.”

We’ve spent thousands of hours talking about the rural values and cultural experience that led to so many of these people becoming the foundation of America’s permanent white underclass. So much so that a big part of my new book (now finished and due out in October, 2010) is about that. The book masquerades as a memoir, but is really more of my jack-leg American sociology. From what I’ve seen in your letter, I can assure you that you will find yourself and your family in the book like no other book you’ve ever read. I put my soul into this puppy.

Incidentally, your father’s experience farming sounds classic. Midwestern farmers made good money supplying the war effort and for a while thereafter. Then big ag and vertical integration rose up swiftly to capture all agricultural profits and assure that people like your father and my grandparents could never again be so successful as independent farmers.

Fearful, conservative, and self-defeating, our people, yours and mine, did not become that way all by their little lonesomes. They had a lot of outside help from government and corporations right after World War Two, when some 22 million (my family among them) were purposefully driven off their farms to work in industry, providing a cheap, docile, and anti-union work force.

More importantly though, this migration caused millions more people to depend on paychecks in a wealth-based economy so the high profits of the wartime boom could be maintained for DuPont and many other corporations. Much effort and policy went into creating a nation of wage dependent consumers (commodity slaves). One government “social behavior film” shown in theaters before and between movies stated bluntly that “Being self sufficient is a waste of time. You can buy a better life in the city than you can create on a farm.”

When World War Two started 45% of Americans lived on farms or in farming based communities. Ten years after the war only 12% remained on farms, and not much later it dropped to six percent. And believe me, they did not all leave willingly….”

Read the whole exchange here.

In view of recent events, particularly with regard to the savaged prices with which American dairy farmers are being insulted these days, one can’t help but feel that a whole new round of “clearances” is underway for American farmers, who, once again, are not going to have much say in the matter. More and more the only viable options seem to involve selling direct to consumers as cow-share dairy farmers do. The notion that a farmer can survive by going big and going chemical — or these days, GMO — is more and more being recognized for the illusion that it maybe always was.

Thanks to George for introducing us to Joe Bageant and his work!

See this earlier story on the Bovine titled “A Stockholm Syndrome of the Soul”

“We have always been here. Since the American Revolution. We will always be here, waiting in the shadows ’til America needs us again. We are your Veterans and we love you more than our own lives, America.” –Anonymous

This venerable and much honored WW II vet is well known in Hawaii for his seventy-plus years of service to patriotic organizations and causes all over the country. A humble man without a political bone in his body, he has never spoken out before about a government official, until now.  He dictated this letter to a friend, signed it and mailed it to the president.

Dear President Obama,

My name is Harold Estes, approaching 95 on December 13 of this year. People meeting me for the first time don’t believe my age because I remain wrinkle free and pretty much mentally alert.

I enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1934 and served proudly before, during and after WW II retiring as a Master Chief Bos’n Mate. Now I live in a “rest home” located on the western end of Pearl Harbor, allowing me to keep alive the memories of 23 years of service to my country.

One of the benefits of my age, perhaps the only one, is to speak my mind, blunt and direct even to the head man.

So here goes.

I am amazed, angry and determined not to see my country die before I do, but you seem hell bent not to grant me that wish.

I can’t figure out what country you are the president of. You fly around the world telling our friends and enemies despicable lies like:

” We’re no longer a Christian nation”

” America is arrogant” – (Your wife even announced to the world,”America is mean-spirited. ” Please tell her to try preaching that nonsense to 23 generations of our war dead buried all over the globe who died for no other reason than to free a whole lot of strangers from tyranny and hopelessness.)

I’d say shame on the both of you, but I don’t think you like America, nor do I see an ounce of gratefulness in anything you do, for the obvious gifts this country has given you. To be without shame or gratefulness is a dangerous thing for a man sitting in the White House.

After 9/11 you said,” America hasn’t lived up to her ideals.”

Which ones did you mean? Was it the notion of personal liberty that 11,000 farmers and shopkeepers died for to win independence from the British? Or maybe the ideal that no man should be a slave to another man, that 500,000 men died for in the Civil War? I hope you didn’t mean the ideal 470,000 fathers, brothers, husbands, and a lot of fellas I knew personally died for in WWII, because we felt real strongly about not letting any nation push us around, because we stand for freedom.

I don’t think you mean the ideal that says equality is better than discrimination. You know the one that a whole lot of white people understood when they helped to get you elected.

Take a little advice from a very old geezer, young man.

Shape up and start acting like an American. If you don’t, I’ll do what I can to see you get shipped out of that fancy rental on Pennsylvania Avenue. You were elected to lead not to bow, apologize and kiss the hands of murderers and corrupt leaders who still treat their people like slaves.

And just who do you think you are telling the American people not to jump to conclusions and condemn that Muslim major who killed 13 of his fellow soldiers and wounded dozens more. You mean you don’t want us to do what you did when that white cop used force to subdue that black college professor in Massachusetts, who was putting up a fight? You don’t mind offending the police calling them stupid but you don’t want us to offend Muslim fanatics by calling them what they are, terrorists.

One more thing. I realize you never served in the military and never had to defend your country with your life, but you’re the Commander-in-Chief now, son. Do your job. When your battle-hardened field General asks you for 40,000 more troops to complete the mission, give them to him. But if you’re not in this fight to win, then get out. The life of one American soldier is not worth the best political strategy you’re thinking of.

You could be our greatest president because you face the greatest challenge ever presented to any president.You’re not going to restore American greatness by bringing back our bloated economy. That’s not our greatest threat. Losing the heart and soul of who we are as Americans is our big fight now. And I sure as hell don’t want to think my president is the enemy in this final battle.

Sincerely,
Harold B. Estes

When a 95 year old hero of the “the Greatest Generation” stands up and speaks out like this, I think we owe it to him to send his words to as many Americans as we can.

Please pass it on.

Οι Ιταλοί ανακατασκεύασαν την γέφυρα που λειτούργησε ξανά σε 5 εβδομάδες, συγκεκριμένα τον Ιανουάριο του 1943. Ανέλαβαν οι ίδιοι την φρούρησή της Γέφυρας, αλλά στην συνέχεια ανέλαβαν την φύλαξη της οι Γερμανοί , διότι δεν είχαν πλέον  εμπιστοσύνη στους Ιταλούς. Οι  Γερμανοί φεύγοντας ανατίναξαν ξανά την Γέφυρα στις 13 Οκτώβρη του 1944 .  Η νέα γέφυρα ανακατασκευάστηκε το 1948.

Γράφει ο Διονύσης Ε. Κονταρίνης  Νέα Υόρκη Νοέμβρης του 2009

 Τη νύχτα της 25^ης Νοεμβρίου του 1942, ακριβώς πριν από 67 χρόνια, κλιμάκιο Άγγλων σαμποτέρς  με επικεφαλής τον ταγματάρχη Έντυ Μαγερ, που είχανε πέσει με αλεξίπτωτα στην περιοχή της Γκιώνας την 1^η Οκτωβρίου, με την συμμετοχή ομάδων ανταρτών του ΕΛΑΣ υπό τον Άρη Βελουχιώτη και του ΕΔΕΣ υπό τον Ναπ. Ζέρβα, ανατίναξαν την σιδηροδρομική γέφυρα του Γοργοπόταμου. Οι συνέπειες γιά την Γερμανία και ιδιαίτερα γιά την στρατιά του Ρόμμελ στην Αφρική υπήρξαν ανυπολόγιστες, αφού έτσι έκλεισε γιά μεγάλο διάστημα η κυριώτερη οδός ανεφοδιασμού των στρατευμάτων του Africa Corp.

Το ιστορικό της ανατίναξης της γέφυρας οποσδήποτε είναι πλέον γνωστό με όλες τις λεπτομέρειές του, παρ΄όλες τις παρεμβάσεις που κατά καιρούς αποτολμήθηκαν προκειμένου να διαστρευλωθεί η αλήθεια και να μειωθεί η καθοριστική συμμετοχή του ΕΛΑΣ.

Πέρα απ΄όλα αυτά το πρωινό της 26^ης Νοεμβρίου του 1942 η ανατίναξη ήτανε ένα γεγονός που συνεκλόνησε όλη την κατεχόμενη Ευρώπη και καταγράφτηκε στην Ιστορία.  Τι έγινε όμως από κει και πέρα; Ποιός ο λόγος να παραμείνουν οι Αγγλοι πάνω στα βουνά; Ποιός θα ήτανε ο ρόλος τους εκεί πάνω, ανάμεσα στις αντάρτικες δυνάμεις και των δύο παρατάξεων; Σε τι θα βοηθούσε η παρουσία τους εκεί; Με ποιού το μέρος θα τοποθετούσαν, όχι μόνο τον εαυτό τους αλλά και τις ενισχύσεις που τυχόν θα αποστέλονταν από την Μέση Ανατολή;

Η ανατίναξη της γέφυρας του Γοργοπόταμου και η μετέπειτα παραμονή των Άγγλων στα βουνά, υπήρξαν το καθοριστικό σημείο γιά την εξέληξη της Εθνικής Αντίστασης και την τύχη της Ελλάδας. Και είναι αυτά που σημάδεψαν ανεξίτηλα την μεταπολεμική πορεία της.

Είναι γεγονός πως όταν στο στρατηγείο του Καϊρου αποφασίστηκε και σχεδιάστηκε η επιχείρηση «Γοργοπόταμος,» είχε προβλεφθεί και σχεδιαστεί, οποσδήποτε  και η επιστροφή του κλιμακίου αυτού από κάποια ελληνική ακτή αφού τελείωνε η επιχείρηση και ειδοποιείτο σχετικά το στρατηγείο. Όπως επίσης είναι γεγονός ότι το στρατηγείο του Καϊρου δεν είχε ακριβή εικόνα του αντιστασιακού αγώνα που διεξήγετο την συγκεκριμένη περίοδο στα ελληνικά βουνά. Κι΄ακόμη πιό ανακριβής ήταν η εικόνα που είχαν γιά τον ΕΛΑΣ, του οποίου εγνώριζαν την ύπαρξη αλλά αγνοούσαν την δύναμή του. Γνώριζαν φυσικά πως στην περιοχή του Βάλτου της Ηπείρου είχε κάμει πριν λίγο καιρό την εμφάνησή του ο Ζέρβας. Και τούτο το εγνώριζαν διότι ήσαν αυτοί, οι ίδιοι οι Άγγλοι, που με εκβιασμό και απειλές τον είχαν αναγκάσει να βγει στο βουνό. Όχι τόσο γιά να ενοχλεί τους Γερμανοϊταλούς, αλλά περισσότερο γιά αντιπερισπασμό στο εαμικό κίνημα.

Σ΄αυτόν λοιπόν, τον Ζέρβα, μοιραία στηρίχτηκαν οι Άγγλοι και στον πράκτορά τους στην Αθήνα τον Σεφεριάδη, ο οποίος όμως δεν είχε καμμιά συγκεκριμένη επαφή με τον αρχηγό του ΕΔΕΣ. Έτσι το κλιμάκιο των Άγγλων σαμποτέρς αλλά και το στρατηγείο του Καϊρου δεν είχαν κανένα συγκεκριμένο στοιχείο που θα βρουν τους ανθρώπους που υποτίθεται θα έπρεπε να τους περιμένουν πάνω στα ελληνικά βουνά.

Το τι έγινε κείνο το βράδυ της 1^ης Οκτωβρίου του 1942 στην περιοχή της Γκιώνας είναι γνωστά. Όπως γνωστα είναι και τα αποτελέσματα αφού η έλλειψη συντονισμού στοίχησε την απώλεια πολύτιμου χρόνου και παρ΄ολίγο να ναυαγήσει και αυτή τούτη η επιχείρηση.

Στην ανατίναξη της γέφυρας του Γοργοπόταμου, ο Ζέρβας δεν ήταν σε θέση να παρατάξει περισσότερους από 60 άνδρες κι΄αυτούς ανέτοιμους γιά μιά τόσο σημαντική επιχείρηση. Απόδειξη τούτου ότι κατά την διάρκειά της και ενώ το όλο εγχείρημα της ανατίναξης βρισκόταν στο πλέον κρίσιμο σημείο, οι άνδρες του Ζέρβα δεν κατάφεραν να εξουδετερώσουν το ιταλικό φυλάκιο στη νότια πλευρά της γέφυρας και η κατάσταση σώθηκε με την επέμβαση των εφεδρικών δυνάμεων του ΕΛΑΣ. Άλλωστε η ολική δύναμη του ΕΔΕΣ τότε δεν ξεπερνούσε τους τριακόσιους άνδρες. Ένας αριθμός που δεν ήταν δυνατόν να εμπνέυσει καμμιά επμιστοσύνη στους Άγγλους – και ιδιαίτερα η ανύπαρκτη μαχητική τους ικανότητα – όχι μόνο γιά την επιχείρηση του Γοργοπόταμου αλλά ακόμη και γιά το μέλλον. Εξ άλλου ο περιορισμένος χώρος της περιοχής όπου εκινείτο ο Ζέρβας αλλά και ο έλεγχος των γύρω περιοχών από τις πολυάριθμες δυνάμεις του ΕΛΑΣ, δεν άφηνα γιά τον Ζέρβα πολλά περιθώρια στρατολογίας.

Αντίθετα, ο ΕΛΑΣ διέθετε μιά αριθμητική δύναμη ορισμένων χιλιάδων μαχητών, οι οποίοι κάτω από την αυστηρή καθοδήγηση του Άρη Βελουχιώτη αλλά και άλλων εμπείρων αξιωμτικών και καπεταναίων, είχαν αναδειχθεί σε φοβερούς πολεμιστές, γνώστες ιδιαίτερα του ανταρτοπολέμου. Παράλληλα οι περιοχές που ήλεγχε το αριστερό κίνημα, στη συγκεκριμένη περίπτωση ο ΕΛΑΣ, ήσαν πάρα πολλές. Ρούμελη, Θεσσαλία, ένα μέρος της Ηπέιρου, Μακεδονία, Θράκη αλλά και τα νησιά ήσαν κάτω από τον έλεγχο των αριστερών δυνάμεων. Εξ΄άλλου σε όλες σχεδόν τις πόλεις της Ελλάδας το ΚΚΕ είχε καταφέρει όχι μόνο να εντάξει στις τάξεις του το μεγαλύτερρο μέρος του λαού,                                                αλλά είχε οργανώσει και οχυρώσει συνοικίες στις οποίες οι Γερμανοί δεν τολμούσαν να πατήσουν. Είναι γεγονός ότι την περίοδο που το κλιμάκιο των Άγγλων βρισκόταν στην Ελλάδα, η χώρα ολόκληρη είχε κλειστεί σε μιά κομμουνιστική αγκαλιά.

Ο Μάγερ και ο Γκουντχάουζ θα είναι οι πρώτοι που θα έχουν μιά πλήρη και αντικειμενική εικόνα της πραγματικότητας, που επικρατούσε τότε στα ελληνικά βουνά. Και φυσικά είναι μέσα στα καθήκοντά τους να ενημερώσουν το Κάϊρο και να ενημερωθεί κατά συνέπεια και το Λονδίνο. Είναι η στιγμή που ο Τσώρτσιλ θα νοιώσει πως θα πρέπει να ετοιμαστεί γιά κάποια δυναμική επέμβαση στην Ελλάδα κάποια στιγμή στο εγγύς μέλλον.

Στα σχέδια του Τσώρτσιλ, πολύ πριν από την διάσκεψη της Γιάλτας, εκεί που τόσο αναίσχυντα μοιράστηκαν πάνω σ΄ένα κομμάτι χαρτί ο κόσμος και η τύχη του, η Ελλάδα είχε κληρωθεί στην κυριαρχία της Αγγλίας, με έναν πολιτικοστρατωτικό έλεγχο πάνω της. Γιά να γίνει όμως αυτό το σχέδιο μιά πραγματικότητα  έπρεπε με κάθε τρόπο να απαλλαγεί η Ελλάδα από τον κομμουνιστικό κλειό. Με οποιοδήποτε τρόπο. Και πάνω σ΄αυτό το σχέδιο ο Τσώρτσιλ δεν θα διστάσει μπροστά σε τίποτα. Και την απόφασή του αυτή θα την δείξει δυό χρόνια αργότερα, στην Αθήνα τον Δεκέμβρη του ’44.

Γιά την ώρα ξέρει πως το τέλος του πολέμου είναι ακόμη μακρυά και το μόνο που χρειάζεται είναι ένα γερό «μάτι» πάνω στα βουνά της Ελλάδας και πλάϊ στον Άρη Βελουχιώτη και τους αντάρτες του, με ό,τι αυτό μπορεί να αποφέρει. Και τούτο το μάτι είναι ο αρχηγός της αποστολής των σαμποτέρς, ο Έντυ Μάγερ.

Ο Μάγερ θα ανταποκριθεί τέλεια στο ρόλο που θα του ανατεθεί γιά την παρεμπόδιση του έργου του ΕΛΑΣ πάνω στα βουνά. Σε μυστική του έκθεση με την κωδική ένδειξη Χ.85-L.S. της 12^ης Αυγούστου 1943 προς το στρατηγείο του Καϊρου, θα γράψει. «Σύμφωνα με τις τελευταίες οδηγίες σας, έδωσα εντολή στους Άγγλους και Έλληνες πράκτορες, που εργάζονται κάτω από την διοίκησή μου, να τορπιλίσουν το έργο του ΕΛΑΣ και του ΕΑΜ και να εμποδίσουν την σταθεροποίηση των θέσεών τους που θα οδηγούσε σε εξασφάληση μιάς δεσπόζουσας επιρροής των στην Ελλάδα…» Στην ίδια έκθεση ο Μάγερ λίγο πάρα κάτω γράφει. « Η πολιτική και στρατιωτική Οργάνωση του ΕΔΕΣ παρουσιάζει αξιοσημείωτη πρόοδο.Είναι επιβεβλημένο να του χορηγηθεί πολεμικό υλικό και να τον ενισχύσουμε ηθικά. Κατά την γνώμη μου η Οργάνωση αυτή θα μας είναι χρήσιμη αφ΄ενός σαν αντιστάθμισμα προς τον ΕΛΑΣ και αφ’ ετέρου, όταν θα έχει ενισχυθεί, θα μπορεί ενδεχομένως να χρησιμοποιηθεί εναντίον του. (του ΕΛΑΣ) Μία ημέρα θα καταστεί αναγκαίο να διαλυθεί ο ΕΛΑΣ…»  (Μεγάλες αντιθέσεις της εποχής μας. Ζακ Ντε Λωναί. Λωζάννη 1967)

Παρ’ όλα αυτά ο Μάγερ θα αποτολμήσει να δει κάποια στιγμή το δίκιο του αριστερού κινήματος και σ’ ένα από τα σημειώματά του προς την κυβέρνηση του Λονδίνου θα προσπαθήσει να μιλήσει «….γιά ζήτημα δημοψηφίσματος μετά τον πόλεμο σαν καθολικό αίτημα των αντιστασιακών.» Αυτό θαν είναι το τέλος του σαν αρχηγός της Βρεττανικής Αποστολής στην Ελλάδα.

Πολύ σύντομα ο Μάγερ θα αντικατασταθεί από τον Κρις Γουντχάουζ όταν θα θελήσει να δείξει ευαισθησία και τιμιότητα προς τους μαχητές του ΕΛΑΣ αρετές που δεν συμβιβάζονται με τις απαιτήσεις και τους σκοπούς του Τσώρτσιλ. Γιατί ο Τσώρτσιλ έχει ήδη αρχίσει να σχεδιάζει την ένοπλη επέμβαση στην Ελλάδα.

Ο Γουντχάουζ υπακούοντας στις προσταγές του Λονδίνου θ΄αρχίσει να κινεί τα νήματα γιά τον αλληλοσπαραγμό των ανταρτών των δύο παρατάξεων, πολύ πιό δυμναμικά από τον Μάγερ. Ο ίδιος σε διάλεξή του, που έδωσε το 1958 στο Μόναχο θα μιλήσει καθαρά «…γιά την διπλή πολιτική της αγγλικής κυβερνήσεως στηνβ Ελλάδα και το πόσο μοιραία υπήρξε η πολιτική αυτή γιά την τύχη της χώρας μετά τον πόλεμο.»

Ο ΕΛΑΣ και γενικά το αριστερό κίνημα στην Ελλάδα στερούμενο μιάς ικανής πολιτικής ηγεσίας θα πέσει σε όλες τις παγίδες, που θα φροντίσει έντεχνα να στήσει ο Γουντχάουζ. Ο Ζέρβας απλά θα δεχτεί να παίξει το παιγνίδι των Άγγλων. Ουσιαστικά ο Εμφύλιος έχει ήδη αρχίσει. Όμως οι Άγγλοι συνεχίζουν να προετοιμάζονται γιά το μεγάλο χτύπημα που θα δοθεί μετά την απελευθέρωση της χώρας. Ο Δεκέμβριος και ο Εμφύλιος πρέπει να προετοιμαστούν έντεχνα και με κάθε λεπτομέρεια. Και οι τελευταίες αυτές λεπτομέρειες θα συμπληρωθούν δυό χρόνια αργότερα στο Συνέδριο του Λιβάνου.

Η παρουσία των Άγγλων ανάμεσα στους αντάρτες μετά την επιχείρηση του Γοργοπόταμου θα μπορούσε να πει κανείς ότι όχι μόνο δεν ωφέλησε αλλά έβλαψε συνολιά την υπόθεση της Αντίστασης. Και μάλιστα την έβλαψε πάρα πολύ. Φυσικά και οποσδήποτε αυτό ήταν μέσα στα σχέδια των Άγγλων.

Από τις ενισχύσεις που κατά καιτρούς έφταναν πάνω στα βουνά από το στρατηγείο του Καϊρου ο ΕΛΑΣ δεν βοηθήθηκε καθόλου. Οι απαιτήσεις του Άρη Βελουχιώτη γιά πολεμική ενίσχυση δεν υλοποιήθηκαν ποτέ. Αντίθετα στον Ζέρβα δόθηκε άφθονο πολεμικό υλικό, όχι φυσικά γιά να ενοχλήσει με κάποιες επεμβάσεις τον καταχτητή αλλά οποσδήποτε γιά να χρησιμοποιηθούν την κατάλληλη στιγμή ενάντια στον ΕΛΑΣ.

Είναι γνωστό ότι οι άντρες του Ζέρβα ήσαν μισθοφόροι των Άγγλων και μάλιστα ο μισθός τους εκαταβάλετο σε χρυσές λίρες Αγγλίας. Αντίθετα οι άντρες του Άρη έδωσαν αναρίθμητες μάχες ενάντια στο καταχτητή με οπλισμό όχι μόνο περασμένης τεχνολογίας αλλά και πρωτόγονο. Ξυπόλητοι, γυμνοί και πεινασμένοι πολεμούσαν τους Γερμανοϊταλούς ασταμάτητα. Σκοπός και ιδανικό τους η απελευθέρωση της χώρας από τον καταχτητή και όχι οι λίρες της Αγγλίας.

Εν τω μεταξύ, μετά την επιχείρηση στον Γοργοπόταμο μέσα στους στρατούς κατοχής επικρατεί η αντίληψη ότι η επόμενη επιχείρηση θα είναι οποσδήποτε κάποια απόβαση των συμμαχικών δυνάμεων στα Βαλκάνια. Και φυσικά σαν πιό πιθανό σημείο υπολογίζεται η Ελλάδα. Όμως η συντριβή των Γερμανών στο Στάλινγκραντ και η αιχμαλωσία της στρατιάς του Φον Πάουλους θα υποχρεώσει το στρατηγείο του Καϊρου να αναθεωρήσει τα σχέδια του.Ο κίνδυνος της καθόδου των Ρώσσων προς την Ευρώπη υποχρεώνει τους Αγγλοαμερικάνους  σε αλλαγή σχεδίων. Η επόμενη απόφαση θα είναι Γαλλικές ακτές, Νορμανδία. Επομένως το ελληνικό αντάρτικο κίνημα παύει πλέον να έχει κάποια πρωταρχική σπουδαιότητα και να παίζει κάποιο ρόλο ανάγκης γιά τις μετέπειτα πολεμικές εξελήξεις. Στον Τσώρτσιλ απομένει η ευκαιρία να κινηθεί άνετα γιά την διάλυσή τους ακόμη και με στρατιωτική επέμβαση αν χρειαστεί.

Τον Ιούλιο του 1943 οι συμμαχικές δυνάμεις θα αποβιβαστούν στην Σικελία. Δυό μήνες αργόυτερα η Ιταλία θα συνθηκολογήσει. Το ένα σκέλος του φασισμού σβύνει πλέον οριστικά.

Ο πόλεμος σε λίγο θα τελειώσει. Κι ο Τσώρτσιλ θα στραφεί πλέον ανενίχλητος να προετοιμάσει τον ματωμένο Δεκέμβρη και στην συνέχεια τον Εμφύλιο. Η Ελλάδα γιά μιά ακόμη φορά θα πέσει θύμα των συμφερόντων αυτών που τόσο αφελώς πίστευε παντοτε σαν «συμμάχους» και «φίλους» της.

Διονύσης Ε.Κονταρίνης

denniskontarinis@yahoo.com

patrinos12@hotmail.com

http://eftanhsa.blogspot.com

http://hellascafe.blogspot.com                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Movies:

The forbidden kingdom

(all movies are on dvd unless otherwise noted)

Books:

Bears in the night / Stan Berenstain; Jan Berenstain
Seven bears sneak out of bed, through the window, and across the dark countryside to investigate the source of a noise. (Age Range: 3 to 6)

The monster in the box / Ruth Rendell
Outside the house where Wexford investigated his first case – a woman found strangled in her bedroom – he noticed a short, muscular man wearing a scarf and walking a dog. He gave Wexford an unnerving stare. Without any solid evidence, Wexford began to suspect that this man – Eric Targo – was the killer. Over the years there are more unsolved, apparently motiveless murders in the town of Kingsmarkham and Wexford continues to quietly suspect that the increasingly prosperous Targo – van driver, property developer, kennel owner and animal lover – is behind them.

Now, half a lifetime later, Wexford spots Targo back in Kingsmarkham after a long absence. Wexford tells his long time partner, Mike Burden, about his suspicions, but Burden dismisses them as fantasy. Meanwhile, Burden’s wife, Jenny, has suspicions of her own. She believes that the Rahmans, a highly respectable immigrant family from Pakistan, may be forcing their daughter, Tamima, into an arranged marriage – or worse. (Chief Inspector Wexford Series #22; read an exerpt)

No less than victory / Jeff Shaara
After the success of the Normandy invasion, the Allied commanders are buoyantly confident that the war in Europe will be over in a matter of weeks, that Hitler and his battered army have no other option than surrender. But despite the advice of his best military minds, Hitler will hear no talk of defeat. In mid-December 1944, the Germans launch a desperate and ruthless counteroffensive in the Ardennes forest, utterly surprising the unprepared Americans who stand in their way. Through the frigid snows of the mountainous terrain, German tanks and infantry struggle to realize Hitler’s goal: divide the Allied armies and capture the vital port at Antwerp. The attack succeeds in opening up a wide gap in the American lines, and for days chaos reigns in the Allied command. Thus begins the Battle… (read an exerpt)

Murder in Montmartre / Cara Black
Aimée’s childhood friend, Laure, is a policewoman. Her partner, Jacques, has set up a meeting in Montmartre with an informer. When Laure reluctantly goes along as backup, Jacques is lured to an icy rooftop, where he is shot to death. Laure’s gun has been fired, gunpowder residue is found on her hands, and she is charged with her partner’s murder.

The police close ranks against the alleged cop killer. Aimée is determined to clear Laure. In doing so, she encounters separatist terrorists, Montmartre prostitutes, a surrealist painter’s stepdaughter, a crooked Corsican bar owner, and learns of “Big Ears”—the French “ear in the sky” that records telephonic and electronic communications—which the Security Servicesmonitor. Identifying Jacques’ murderer brings her closer to solving her own father’s death in an explosion in the Place Vendôme years earlier. It still haunts her. She cannot rest until she finds out who was responsible.(Aimee Leduc Series #6; read a sample chapter)

In the Lake of the Woods / Tim O’Brien
When long-hidden secrets about the atrocities he committed in Vietnam come to light, a candidate for the U.S. Senate retreats with his wife to a lakeside cabin in northern Minnesota. Within days of their arrival, his wife mysteriously vanishes into the watery wilderness.

A face at the window / Sarah Graves
It starts with a phone call that reopens a painful chapter in Jake Tiptree’s past. After years of delay, the man who murdered Jake’s mother is finally scheduled to stand trial—until he vanishes into thin air. Maybe the only thing worse about Ozzie Campbell’s disappearing is that Jake has a terrible foreboding of just where he’ll turn up next. With her family away, Jake had hoped to savor a few days of unaccustomed solitude. Now, without warning, her cozy, well-loved home in Eastport, Maine, seems more like a death trap ready to snap shut. Suddenly Jake feels that her house—and her life—has far too many windows. And in any one of them she might see the face of her killer. (Home Repair Is Homicide Series #12; read an exerpt)

Rough country / John Sandford
Virgil’s always been known for having a somewhat active, er, social life, but he’s probably not going to be getting too many opportunities for that during his new case. While competing in a fishing tournament in a remote area of northern Minnesota, he gets a call from Lucas Davenport to investigate a murder at a nearby resort, where a woman has been shot while kayaking. The resort is for women only, a place to relax, get fit, recover from plastic surgery, commune with nature, and while it didn’t start out to be a place mostly for those with Sapphic inclinations, that’s pretty much what it is today.
Which makes things all the more complicated for Virgil, because as he begins investigating, he finds a web of connections between the people at the resort, the victim, and some local women, notably a talented country singer, and the more he digs, the move he discovers the arrows of suspicion that point in many directions, encompassing a multitude of motivations: jealousy, blackmail, greed, anger, fear. And then he discovers that this is not the first murder, that there was a second, seemingly unrelated one, the year before. And that there’s about to be a third, definitely related one, any time now. And as for the fourth… well, Virgil better hope he can catch the killer before that happens.
Because it could be his own. (Virgil Flowers Series #3)

The audacity to win: the inside story and lessons of Barack Obama’s historic victory / David Plouffe
For two years Plouffe worked side by side with Obama, charting the course of the campaign. His is the ultimate insider’s tale, revealing both the strategies that delivered Obama to office and how the candidate and campaign handled moments of great challenge and opportunity. Moving from the deliberations about whether to run at all, through the epic primary battle with Hillary Clinton and the general election against John McCain, Plouffe showcases the high-wire gamesmanship that fascinated pundits and the drama and intrigue that captivated a nation.

New York / Edward Rutherfurd
Rutherfurd celebrates America’s greatest city in a rich, engrossing saga that showcases his extraordinary ability to combine impeccable historical research and storytelling flair. As in his earlier, bestselling novels, he illuminates cultural, social, and political upheavals through the lives of a remarkably diverse set of families.

As he recounts the intertwining fates of characters rich and poor, black and white, native born and immigrant, Rutherfurd brings to life the momentous events that shaped New York and America: the Revolutionary War, the emergence of the city as a great trading and financial center, the excesses of the Gilded Age, the explosion of immigration in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the trials of World War II, the near-demise of New York in the 1970s and its roaring rebirth in the ’90s, and the attacks on the World Trade Center. Sprinkled throughout are captivating cameo appearances by historical figures ranging from George Washington to Abraham Lincoln to Babe Ruth. (read an exerpt)

Love walked in / Marisa De los Santos
For thirty-one-year old Cornelia Brown, life is a series of movie moments, and “Jimmy Stewart is always and indisputably the best man in the world, unless Cary Grant should happen to show up.” So imagine Cornelia’s delight when her very own Cary Grant walks through the door of the hip Philadelphia café she manages. Handsome and debonair, Martin Grace sweeps Cornelia off her feet, becoming Cary Grant to Cornelia’s Katharine Hepburn, Clark Gable to her Joan Crawford. Meanwhile, on the other side of town, eleven-year-old Clare Hobbes must learn to fend for herself after her increasingly unstable mother has a breakdown and disappears. With no one to turn to, Clare seeks out her estranged father, and when the two of them show up at Cornelia’s café, the lives of Cornelia and Clare are changed in drastic and unexpected ways. (read a sample chapter)

Wish you well / David Baldacci
Precocious twelve-year-old Louisa Mae Cardinal lives in the hectic New York City of 1940 with her family. Then tragedy strikes–and Lou and her younger brother, Oz, must go with their invalid mother to live on their great-grandmother’s farm in the Virginia mountains. Suddenly Lou finds herself coming of age in a new landscape, making her first true friend, and experiencing adventures tragic, comic, and audacious. But the forces of greed and justice are about to clash over her new home…and as their struggle is played out in a crowded Virginia courtroom, it will determine the future of two children, an entire town, and the mountains they love. (read a sample chapter)

Cape Perdido / Marcia Muller
Amid ancient redwoods and sun-dappled reeds, the Perdido River runs clear and cold from the mountains of Soledad County to the blue Pacific. A wildlife refuge and a pristine recreational area, the river brings tourists to the old lumber town of Cape Perdido…and flows through the memories and hearts of the rugged people who have settled there since the Gold Rush days.

Now that is about to change. An out-of-state corporation wants to pump the river nearly dry and float the water to southern California’s thirsty cities in huge rubber rafts. With lobbyists, lawyers, and dirty tricks, the company intends to get what it wants-any way it can.

Against this corporate Goliath, a community protest group and four unusual individuals are drawing a line in the sand. Flying in from New York City, ecologist Jessie Domingo hopes to grab headlines for her cause. Environmentalist Joseph Openshaw has come back to the home, and the secrets, he left behind decades ago. His former lover, local restaurateur Steph Pace, fears both the emotions and the ghosts arriving to haunt her. And old man Timothy McNear, owner of the defunct mill that once employed most of the town, silently broods about the sins he has hidden for too long. (Sharon McCone series #26; read an exerpt)

By the rivers of Babylon / Nelson DeMille
Two Concorde jets take off from Lod Airport in Israel for a U.N. conference that will finally bring peace to the Middle East. Covered by F-14 fighters and accompanied by security men, the planes carry warriors, pacifist, enemies, dignitaries – and a bomb! Forced to crash-land, the men and women of the peace mission make a desperate life or death stand against Palestinian commandos.

Nine / Jan Burke
Los Angeles County Homicide Detective Alex Brandon lives to bring killers to justice — but when unknown assailants begin systematically killing off the FBI’s Most Wanted suspects, Alex sees no cause for celebration. The vigilante slayings eerily echo the work of a serial killer from a decade ago, and convince Alex that “the Exterminators,” as a grateful public has dubbed them, are more ruthless and sadistic than their victims. As the attacks mount, it is the ninth target that pulls Alex into a case that is quickly spiraling into deadly territory — where justice is no longer enough. (read a sample chapter)

Set sail for murder / Carolyn G. Hart
Though retired newspaper reporter Henrietta O’Dwyer Collins, Henrie O to her friends, once turned down a marriage proposal from Jimmy Lennox, he’s still one of her most cherished friends. So when he asks for her help on behalf of his wife, world-famous documentary filmmaker Sophia Montgomery, Henrie O reluctantly agrees to join them on a Baltic cruise. Sophia is the stepmother to the now-grown heirs of a great fortune, who are none too happy that she controls their inheritance. But do they really want her dead? Jimmy thinks so, and he wants Henrie O to prove it.

On the cruise, Henrie O soon realizes that this dysfunctional family is plunging toward destruction. As the ports of call pass—Copenhagen, Gdynia, Tallinn, St. Petersburg—death inexorably approaches. But Henrie O discovers that love, once kindled, never dies. When Jimmy is accused of murder and time is running out, she pursues a clever killer who won’t hesitate to strike again. (Henrie O Series #7; read a sample chapter)

The archbishop in Andalusia / Andrew M. Greeley
Blackie goes abroad–to prevent a murder! (Blackie Ryan Series)

Evidence / Jonathan Kellerman
In the half-built skeleton of a monstrously vulgar mansion in one of L.A.’s toniest neighborhoods, a watchman stumbles on the bodies of a young couple–murdered in flagrante and left in a gruesome postmortem embrace. Though he’s cracked some of the city’s worst slayings, veteran homicide cop Milo Sturgis is still shocked at the grisly sight: a twisted crime that only Milo’s killer instincts–and psychologist Alex Delaware’s keen insights–can hope to solve.

While the female victim’s identity remains a question mark, her companion is ID’d as eco-friendly architect… (Alex Delaware Series #24; read an exerpt)

Loitering with intent / Stuart Woods
Dumped by his glamorous Russian girlfriend during dinner at Elaine’s, and running low on cash, Stone Barrington is having a bad week. So his luck seems to be improving when he’s hired to locate the missing son of a very wealthy man—lucky because the job pays well, and because the son is hiding in the tropical paradise of Key West. But when Stone and his sometime running buddy Dino Bacchetti arrive in the sunny Keys, it appears that someone has been lying in wait. When Stone very nearly loses his life after being blindsided at a local bar, he realizes that the young man he’s been hired to track may have good reason for not wanting to be found. Suddenly Key West is looking less like Margaritaville and more like the mean streets of New York… (Stone Barrington Series #16)

Hothouse orchid / Stuart Woods
After Special Agent Holly Barker lets international terrorist Teddy Fay slip through her fingers for a second time, the CIA thinks she might want a long vacation, at least until Teddy is captured and the bad publicity has blown over. So Holly returns to her hometown of Orchid Beach, Florida, where she had been police chief for many years. But a very unpleasant surprise awaits her. Many years earlier, Holly and another female army officer had brought charges against their commanding officer for sexual harassment, attempted rape, and rape. Holly had managed to fight him off, but the other woman, a young lieutenant, had not. The officer in question was acquitted of all charges, and has also left the army-for a job as Orchid Beach’s new police chief.

Will Holly return to the CIA? Or will she challenge her old nemesis for control of the Orchid… (Holly Barker Series #5)

Hardball / Sara Paretsky
Chicago’s unique brand of ball is sixteen-inch slow pitch, played in leagues all over the city for more than a century. But in politics, in business, and in law enforcement, the game is hardball.

When V. I. Warshawski is asked to find a man who’s been missing for four decades, a search that she figured would be futile becomes lethal. Old skeletons from the city’s racially charged history, as well as haunting family secrets-her own and those of the elderly sisters who hired her-rise up to brush her back from the plate with a vengeance. A young cousin whom she’s never met arrives from Kansas City to work on a political campaign; a nun who marched with Martin Luther King Jr. dies without revealing crucial evidence; and on the city’s South Side, people spit when she shows up. Afraid to learn that her adored father might have been a bent cop, V. I. still takes the investigation all the way to its frightening end. (V.I. Warshawski Series #13)

Knitting Fair Isle mittens & gloves: 40 great-looking designs / Carol R. Noble
Make beautiful mittens and gloves featuring classic Fair Isle patterns, with classic snowflake, star, flower, and butterfly motifs. Some of the 45 distinctive designs stay close to tradition; others go modern and feature a contemporary color palette. You’ll find a style for everyone: gloves and mittens made especially for women, styles for toddlers, and the fingerless variations that men especially like. Every project has fantastic full-color graphs of both sides–so knitting is easier then ever.

The everything parents guide to children with autism: know what to expect, find the help you need, and get through the day / Adelle Jameson Tilton
Approximately 1 in every 1,000 children has autism, and about 70 to 75 percent of these children suffer from mental retardation. For parents of children with autism, daily activities such as grocery shopping or getting dressed can become extremely challenging. Autistic children require special attention-not necessarily special treatment-but careful strategy must be applied when learning how to think with your child instead of against him. The Everything® Parent’s Guide to Children with Autism offers practical advice, gentle reassurance, and real-life scenarios to help your family get through each day. Written by Adelle Jameson Tilton, the About.com Guide to Autism, this sensitive work helps you:

• Communicate effectively with your child
• Deal with meltdowns-public or private
• Keep your family together as one unit
• Find a school that suits your child’s needs – integration vs. special education
• Learn about assistive devices, such as computers and picture boards
• Find intervention and support groups

[Note: All synopses are provided by the publisher unless otherwise noted and do not constitute reviews by the Seldovia Public Library.]

*Update for 11/25/09*

New Breakdowns & Restock!

SideShow Star Wars Shock Trooper

Crazy Owner Ninja

Hot Toys Two Face

Dragon WWII Aldo Holger
Dragon WWII Lothar Kroh
Dragon Modern Lam

Here is an email letter circulating the Internet.

The validity is still to be determined but the point is still clear.

I have a few thoughts on this: If Mr. Estes didn’t write the letter, then why didn’t someone take credit by using their own name, I mean, obviously someone wrote it; and on the flip side of that, again, obviously someone wrote it, so why would one need to wonder if Mr. Estes is his real name? It seems that people always seem to question “who wrote . . .? ” when ever something courageous, poignant, and patriotic surfaces, take for example Jody McLoud and his football speech. . .

This gentleman makes some great points. I hope this letter really was mailed to the President.

American Soldiers - photo source: shmoop.com

This venerable and much honored WW II vet is well known in Hawaiifor his seventy-plus years of service to patriotic organizations and causes all over the country. A humble man without a political bone in his body, he has never spoken out before about a government official, until now. He dictated this letter to a friend, signed it and mailed it to the president.

Dear President Obama,

My name is Harold Estes, approaching 95 on December 13 of this year. People meeting me for the first time don’t believe my age because I remain wrinkle free and pretty much mentally alert.

I enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1934 and served proudly before, during and after WW II retiring as a Master Chief Bos’n Mate. Now I live in a “rest home” located on the western end of Pearl Harbor, allowing me to keep alive the memories of 23 years of service to my country.

One of the benefits of my age, perhaps the only one, is to speak my mind, blunt and direct even to the head man.

So here goes.

I am amazed, angry and determined not to see my country die before I do, but you seem hell bent not to grant me that wish.

I can’t figure out what country you are the president of.

You fly around the world telling our friends and enemies despicable lies like:

” We’re no longer a Christian nation”

” America is arrogant” – (Your wife even announced to the world,”America is mean-spirited. ” Please tell her to try preaching that nonsense to 23 generations of our war dead buried all over the globe who died for no other reason than to free a whole lot of strangers from tyranny and hopelessness.)

I’d say shame on the both of you, but I don’t think you like America, nor do I see an ounce of gratefulness in anything you do, for the obvious gifts this country has given you. To be without shame or gratefulness is a dangerous thing for a man sitting in the White House.

After 9/11 you said,” America hasn’t lived up to her ideals.”

Which ones did you mean? Was it the notion of personal liberty that 11,000 farmers and shopkeepers died for to win independence from the British? Or maybe the ideal that no man should be a slave to another man, that 500,000 men died for in the Civil War? I hope you didn’t mean the ideal 470,000 fathers, brothers, husbands, and a lot of fellas I knew personally died for in WWII, because we felt real strongly about not letting any nation push us around, because we stand for freedom.

I don’t think you mean the ideal that says equality is better than discrimination. You know the one that a whole lot of white people understood when they helped to get you elected.

Take a little advice from a very old geezer, young man.

Shape up and start acting like an American. If you don’t, I’ll do what I can to see you get shipped out of that fancy rental on Pennsylvania Avenue. You were elected to lead not to bow, apologize and kiss the hands of murderers and corrupt leaders who still treat their people like slaves.

And just who do you think you are telling the American people not to jump to conclusions and condemn that Muslim major who killed 13 of his fellow soldiers and wounded dozens more. You mean you don’t want us to do what you did when that white cop used force to subdue that black college professor in Massachusetts, who was putting up a fight? You don’t mind offending the police calling them stupid but you don’t want us to offend Muslim fanatics by calling them what they are, terrorists.

One more thing. I realize you never served in the military and never had to defend your country with your life, but you’re the Commander-in-Chief now, son. Do your job. When your battle-hardened field General asks you for 40,000 more troops to complete the mission, give them to him. But if you’re not in this fight to win, then get out. The life of one American soldier is not worth the best political strategy you’re thinking of.

You could be our greatest president because you face the greatest challenge ever presented to any president.

You’re not going to restore American greatness by bringing back our bloated economy. That’s not our greatest threat. Losing the heart and soul of who we are as Americans is our big fight now.

And I sure as hell don’t want to think my president is the enemy in this final battle.

Sincerely,

Harold B. Estes

Source: TCU Nation

Respectful comments welcome! Thanks for reading!

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Louis BEAM

Though I never knew them, though they died months before I was born, I can not help but to still feel the pain of those innocent people of Dresden [Germany] who suffered so unjustly, unfairly, and totally without fault February 13, 1945.

They make me think of abused children suffering for something that they do not understand. Abused children in a small way share with those now departed souls of Dresden the total unjustness of this world. Innocent people would not in a fair world, a decent world, be made to suffer.

They died this night. So many of them. Bombs raining down upon their heads like manna from hell -the heads of defenseless women and children for the most part. Babies in their cribs. Sobbing children in their mothers arms. Little girls without blemish, little boys full of anticipation at the excitement life promised them. The girls became blemished heaps of burnt flesh. The promise was broken by life to the boys. There would be no future for them.

Even now, across time, distance, culture, language, and ocean, I hear their cries. Ten thousand per second raising their helpless, tortured voices for mercy. No mercy. No relief. Only painful death from planes with United States written on them.

Why did my father’s generation do this? How could they kill all these people – then not know about it?

My father a decorated, battle field commissioned, combat hardened infantry veteran of Roosevelt’s army, told me as I lay at his feet as a small child listening that “Hitler was bad but the German people were good.” The Germans were “very smart” they just had a bad leader he said. He was proud of his role as a soldier in defeating Germany. And if soldiers are without responsibilities for their role in history then he had more right then many to be proud of his many decorations.

Then in 1984 after discovering the horrible truth about Dresden I spoke to my father about it. I told him more people were killed there in a single night of fire and bombing then in England during the entire war. He said “that is a lie.” He refused to believe me. I stressed to him that they were innocent people. He became angry with me. I asked him why they were killed. His anger boiled over and he said I was believing Nazi propaganda. I said to him “there are no Nazi’s daddy you killed them all, there are only people who study history” while pulling an Encyclopedia Americana from the shelf. The encyclopedia while only admitting to a numerical fraction of the dead at Dresden was yet sufficient to exceed England’s total bombing dead.

“These were refugees fleeing the communists” I said, becoming angry myself. “Why did Roosevelt order it done?” I demanded of him.

He read it and became silent. He read it again while running his fingers along the words carefully touching the numbers as if to make sure they were there and real. It then dawned on me. He did not know! He had lived through this time and because of a constant flood of propaganda from America’s news media this horrible war crime and others like it had been kept from him.

I could see this troubled him, for it was from him that I acquired the proclivity of taking up the fight for the down trodden, those abused unfairly. He was a kind man and would have never knowingly participated in such cruelty. I left for home then feeling sorry for Dad. I left him to think in peace. My anger at his being a part of those who did this horrible thing abated.

I swear I will not forget the crime against innocent people at Dresden. I will not forget who is responsible. I will not forget! I am but one small life. One dim light in a world covered with the darkness of cruel machinations by evil men. But this little light of mine, I will let it shine! For only by doing so do I serve my reason for existence, for life, for eternity.

I read as a young person that “all that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” Those words became a part of my soul, my life. Love is put to the test when one takes on the suffering of others – when one becomes a voice against evil for those who have none, a target of abuse for doing nothing but standing for justice.

There is no reward save knowing you have done that which is right. And there is hope. Hope that others will make the light that truth is a part of their life, their existence, so that together we become a bright ray for the future. A light unto the feet of all our fellow men who stumble.

In distant Dresden park they lie in their graves now. Rest my unknown friends, you downtrodden and despised of this world. Though we could not speak the same language if we stood before each other, though I never knew your names, and while your faces I can only imagine, you are my departed loved ones. My heart beats for yours. My mind remembers for yours. My tears for yours…

ALSO READ:

Dresden’s 14 Hours Of Hell

Luftwaffe Pilot Spared B-17 Pilot’s Life

The Unknown GERMAN Holocaust

Some Forgotten Post-War History

Eisenhower’s Death Camps

Pawns In The Game

Wars By Design

We end this month’s Director’s Spotlight on controversial director Spike Lee with his most recent picture, 2008’s Miracle at St. Anna. After viewing Clint Eastwood’s 2006 war pictures Flags of our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima, Spike Lee stated at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival that Eastwood should have included black Marines in his movies. Eastwood responded that they were specifically about the Japanese soldiers and the Americans who raised the flag, that there were black soldiers at Iwo Jima but they were segregated and therefore not directly involved, and that Lee should “shut his face”. Lee countered that Eastwood was acting like an “angry old man” and that he should have included them anyway. Thus, Miracle at St. Anna was born.

Alternating between the 1940’s and the 1980’s, the film opens on Hector Negron (Laz Alonso, Jarhead), a dark-skinned Latino WWII veteran and current employee of the U.S. postal service, watching The Longest Day and murmuring to himself, “We served our country too”. The next day, he seems to recognize an Italian-accented customer, who does the same before Negron shoots him dead. A young reporter (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the chief reason I saw this movie) is thrown a bone by the jaded investigating detective (John Turturro) and witnesses the discovery of a lifetime: a long-lost marble statuehead of a destroyed Italian bridge, found in the perp’s closet. As the reporter pushes Negron for the story behind it, he recounts a tale of four members of the Buffalo Soldiers: one righteous and authoritative (Derek Luke, Antwone Fisher), one smooth and skeptical (Michael Ealy, Barbershop), one a linguist and optimist (Negron) and one huge and innocent (Omar Benson Miller, Transformers). Together, they survive the ambush of their squad in Nazi-occupied Italy and hole up with a fascist-supporting Italian family and a mute boy they rescued. The climactic finale includes betrayal (both romantic and political) and tragedy, but the film’s title is true to its word: hope surrounds the epilogue and Negron’s ultimate fate.

George, as soon as we get out of Nazi-occupied Italy we'll get a little place of our own where I can tend the rabbits...

This is a thoroughly unimpressive epic. It was billed as the African-American version of Saving Private Ryan, and that would be an insult to both that war classic and African-Americans in general. The plot has an interesting premise and starts relatively strong, but quickly loses its Wuthering Heights comparisons and slows to a halt once the soldiers arrive in the village. The characters are all very two-dimensional; there’s a cliched love triangle between Luke, Ealy and an Italian woman, Benson is basically a black version of Lennie from Of Mice and Men, and the protagonist’s only real depth is his survivor’s guilt. And of course, as this is a response piece from none other than Spike Lee, white men are shown in every opportunity to be prejudiced and hateful (one of the unnecessary flashbacks-within-a-flashback features a great character actor, John Hawkes, in the most pointed attack on a group of people I’ve seen this year), and his direction does nothing but beg his audience to cry for the plight of the downtrodden black man.

I understand what Lee was going for, but he went about it in all the wrong ways. There’s a convoluted and overdrawn structure, distracting cameos by the likes of John Leguizamo and Kerry Washington, underdeveloped protagonists and an agressiveness in garnering sympathy for the director’s heritage; none of these are what I look for in a movie. Overall I give the film 1 1/2 pitchforks out of five; Spike Lee got in over his head this time, and I hope he sticks to what he’s good at next time.

After the 312th left Hunter Field, they moved on to De Ridder Army Air Base, which was approximately 50 miles north of Lake Charles, Louisiana. While living at this smaller base, the 312th learned more about supporting ground units in combat. Through this training, they realized how much they needed to work on coordination between operations, intelligence, and communication personnel. Aircrews practiced various dive-bombing techniques and small groups of pilots and intelligence officers spent time with Army units learning about their strategy and tactics.
The Group stayed at De Ridder until they received orders on March 27, 1943 to pack up and move to their next base, Rice Army Air Base, in southern California. It took about two weeks for them to get everything ready for the cross-country trip. During this time, the Group had to deal with their first and only loss at De Ridder: 1/Lt. Elmer R. Cawthon had climbed into an A-24 for an unscheduled flight after leaving a gathering at the Officers’ Club. Cawthon’s plane never returned to the base. The plane wreckage was found near Camp Polk and it appeared that the Cawthon failed to pull the plane out of a steep dive.

Once at Rice, the Group discovered that the living conditions there were a far cry from the comforts they first experienced at Hunter Field. Here, the men lived in tents and endured desert temperatures of over 120 degrees. They couldn’t work between 12:30 and 5:00pm because planes, tools and vehicles were too hot to touch.

At Rice, the 312th’s training included lectures and drills with weapons instruction to sharpen their soldiering skills. While practicing the dive-bombing, the crews got bored bombing disks painted on the sand, so they scrounged around the desert and found abandoned cars from the 1930s. They also practiced attacking railroad centers, crossroads, and supply areas to improve their navigation and bombing skills.
In April, the 312th received their first Curtiss P-40 Warhawks. The A-24 was weak against the Japanese Mitsubishi A6M “Zeke” fighter in combat, so the group transitioned to the P-40. This single-seat, single-engine plane had six .50-caliber machine guns in the wings and held a 500-pound bomb under the fuselage.

The pilots had to get used to a few differences when flying the plane through a bombing run. There were no dive brakes, so pilots would reach nearly 500mph in a near-vertical dive. When approaching the target, the pilots had to quickly pull out of the dive and this was a very dangerous task. They switched from dive-bombing to glide bombing to keep planes at a 45-degree angle. While sorting out the differences between the two planes, the crews had a couple of other problems to deal with. The intense heat at Rice caused the P-40 engines to regularly overheat and the rubber on the landing gear to soften when the planes would land. Sand covered the runways and abraded the tires on landing. Because of this, P-40 tires were only good for about six landings.
In May, the 312th lost two members of the Group. 2/Lt. James N. Goe was flying an A-24 and demonstrating dive-bombing to his passenger, 1/Lt. James P. Matthews, when the plane inverted as it was coming out of the run and crashed into the trees.
By the time July rolled around, another move was imminent. This time to Salinas Army Air Base, 400 miles northwest of Monterey, California. At the new base, the 312th would have to work harder for proficiency in flying and maintaining the P-40, something they didn’t quite pass at Rice.
The Group was happy to be out of the scorching desert and back in the barracks at Salinas. Of course, the men were kept busy learning interception tactics and taking part in military training. While at this base, the 312th lost two more men. On September 12th, 2/Lt. William H. Gillette was flying a P-40 near Point Sur when he collided with another plane. Both pilots bailed out, but Gillette died of hypothermia. A week after Gillette’s crash, 1/Lt. Jay E. Gowers died when his P-40 crash-landed at Stockton, California. In September the Group started to prepare for the overseas voyage that would soon come. The 312th marched and hiked, practiced first aid, learned how to move up and down ship ladders and were taught censorship regulations and emergency procedures. On November 1, 1943, the Group left San Francisco aboard the S.S. Nieuw Amsterdam. They didn’t know where they were going until close to the end of the trip, but they knew they were heading to war.