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Egypt Bans 62 News Websites in Censorship Crack Down

Egypt is cracking down on dissident news websites among them the Muslim Brotherhood but opponents to the move say it is a step by the government to censor all that isn’t the state-run media.

The government has countered and stated that they’re banning sites that express support for terrorism. The media flourished in the final years of President Hosni Mubarak’s rule. But those days seem long ago now.

Journalists see the campaign against them as a step toward banning all but the most state-aligned media, effectively reversing the private media boom that flourished in the final decade of former president Hosni Mubarak’s rule and which they say helped push him from power in 2011.
Though no precise figures on readership are available, Egypt enjoys an active private media that includes widely read print and web format publications as well as popular late-night talk shows. State newspapers still maintain wide circulation.
The spike in censorship has come as a surprise, even to journalists long-accustomed to reporting within strict red lines in Egypt where direct criticism of the military, the president, and judiciary are considered taboo and punishable by jail time.
The government has offered no comment on the reason behind the blockages and the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology had no immediate comment.
Makram Mohamed Ahmed, head of the newly formed Supreme Media Council, a state media regulator, told Reuters he believes “the main reason is how much [these websites] deal with the Muslim Brotherhood or express support for terrorism,” referring to the Islamist group whose president Mohamed Mursi held office for a year before being ousted in 2013 by the military after mass protests.
But the blockages have also hit Mada Masr, a self-described progressive outlet with no Islamist ties, as well as the widely read Al-Borsa, a financial newspaper favored by the largely pro-government business community.
“If they did something more grave like arresting team members or me it would make big noise, whereas blocking the website is the best way to paralyze us without paying a high price for it,” Lina Atallah, editor of Mada Masr, told Reuters.
Some journalists say a presidential election in 2018 means Egypt is doubling down on press restrictions, a move intended to ensure opposition candidates have few spaces to challenge general-turned-president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who is widely expected to run for a second term.
“There are people getting ready to nominate themselves for the presidency and they have to make their voices heard or else they won’t be competitive,” said Adel Sabry, the editor-in-chief of Masr al-Arabia, a website blocked last month.
“[The goal] is that it’s just one voice,” said editor-in-chief of Al-Borsa, Hussein Abd Rabo, who said his paper could be closed any day.

The situation there will have to be monitored closely as the government continues to crack down on what they characterize as terrorist sympathizers. The good news is that SOFREP was not among those news sites that have been banned.

To read the entire article from Reuters, click here:

Photo courtesy Reuters

Op-Ed: First Woman Battalion Commander in a Special Forces Group

A career Quartermaster, LTC Megan A. Brogden assumed her new position as a battalion commander of the 3^rd SFG(A) Support Battalion.

Her change of command ceremony marked a milestone for the Army’s Special Operations Command. Brogden is the first woman to assume command of a battalion within any of the Army’s seven Special Forces groups. While it is a first in terms of gender diverseness, the matter of her gender has little to do with whether she’ll be successful in her latest assignment. And it shouldn’t matter at all in the grand scheme of determining her fitness to command.

“It was a very humbling moment,” she said after the ceremony on Fort Bragg’s Meadows Field. “It’s such a great organization.”

Brogden is quick to downplay talk of herself as a GI-Jane type of groundbreaking role model, instead focusing on her opportunity to excel in her career field that she’s been in since entering the service in 2000 from a ROTC scholarship.

“I don’t necessarily see it as much of a milestone,” she said. “I didn’t go to Ranger school or selection. It’s a lot about timing.”

Officials have called Brogden’s assuming command a historic moment for 3rd Group and the rest of the Special Forces Regiment. But during the change of command, leaders made clear that she was chosen for her expertise and leadership, not because she is a woman.

LTC Brogden, official Department of the Army photo.

And other than the fact that she’s the first woman, her command of a support battalion in an operational Special Forces group should matter very little. As long as her troops do their job to support the line battalions, her tenure will be a success. Being SF qualified or a man isn’t a precursor to success as a support battalion commander.

The biggest thing she and her troops need to do is perform the three basics and develop a mindset of supporting the line battalions while deployed, in training and while at their home station. The 3rd SFG(A) Support Battalion mission is to provide rapidly deployable logistical, medical, administrative, communication, chemical, all-source intelligence support to the 3rd SFG(A).

One of the biggest complaints the A-teams had in my time in Special Forces was that the Support Battalion personnel other than the communications companies were more self-supporting than focused on taking care of the teams, which is their reason for being in the first place.

In a classic UW (Unconventional Warfare) scenario, the Group’s Support Battalion would help set up an SFOB (Special Forces Operating Base) in an austere environment and form the core of Group’s support staff for a Joint Special Operations Task Force. Until the operation would mature into a Theater Level type venture, the Group’s Support Battalion would be the lifeline for the Operational Detachments for supply and Combat Service and Support. The Group Support Battalion and its commander will be responsible for setting up tailored capability packages to support SF units that may be involved in Humanitarian Assistance/Disaster Relief missions as well.

Brogden served two tours with a Joint Special Operations Task Force in Afghanistan and Kuwait and should have ample experience in helping run service and support for Special Operations Forces.

And that’s how she’ll ultimately be judged. No one cares if she’s tabbed out, can clear a building of bad guys, can shoot the eyes out of a gnat at 100 meters or can carry a ruck 20-miles in five hours or less, that isn’t her job. While some people may watch her with more of a jaundiced eye because of her gender, it shouldn’t matter at all, but we have seen this type of thing before. However, her job is to ensure that the guys who do those things have everything they require from the Combat Service and Support personnel.

From reading about her experience and her assignments LTC Brogden is more than qualified to do the job and it sounds like the Army put the right person in the position, regardless of her gender. Speaking from a personal standpoint, I could care less that she’s a woman and it would have zero concerns with that if I am either on an A-Team or commanding one in 3^rd Group.

She is authorized to wear the Combat Action Badge, Parachutist Badge, Rigger Badge, and the German Parachutist Wings. So, she has the requisite background to know what type of support will be needed to support the line battalions. That is all that is required and no more of the support staff. The A-teams are the bread and butter of the Special Forces Groups. They need the support of the support personnel. Go back to the SOF Truths and #6 is “Most Special Operations Require Non-SOF Support.”

And as long as LTC Brogden does that, she’ll be successful in her newest assignment. I congratulate her on the command and can say that I wish her all the best. Take care of the troops. That is all. I don’t care that she’s woman. No one else should either.

Photos courtesy Fayetteville Observer, US Army

Justice Department Will Not Prosecute in Over-Budget VA Hospital

The Justice Department isn’t just facing questions about the Trump-Russia fiasco. Now they have declined to prosecute two senior Veterans Affairs Department executives after lawmakers accused them of misleading Congress about massive cost overruns at a Denver-area VA hospital.

The House Veterans Affairs Committee asked Justice to conduct a perjury investigation last fall, claiming these executives repeatedly gave false testimony that masked serious problems with the hospital construction project that rose to nearly three times what was estimated.

The Justice Department told lawmakers in a May 19 letter that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute. Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman of Colorado released the letter to The Associated Press on Thursday.
The decision means no one has yet been fired or charged since the cost of the hospital ballooned to nearly $1.7 billion, almost triple earlier estimates.
The VA has said everyone involved in the problems has retired or was transferred or demoted.
The hospital is still under construction in the Denver suburb of Aurora and is expected to be finished next year.
The VA executives targeted by lawmakers were Glenn Haggstrom, then the top official in charge of construction projects, and Stella Fiotes, director of the VA’s Office of Construction and Facilities Management.
Neither returned phone messages seeking comment Thursday. VA spokesman Paul Sherbo said the agency had no comment.
Multiple investigations concluded that the VA bungled the project, providing insufficient oversight, approving lavish design elements, failing to get the designers and builders to agree, and trying to use a complicated form of construction contract that agency executives didn’t fully understand.
The VA’s inspector general, an internal watchdog, said last year that Haggstrom knew the project was veering toward huge cost overruns but didn’t tell lawmakers when he testified before Congress in 2013 and 2014. That prompted lawmakers to call for the perjury investigation of Haggstrom and Fiotes.

Haggstrom retired in 2015, one day after testifying under oath by the VA officials in regards to these problems.

To read the ABC News/AP entire article click here:

Photo courtesy of AP

Turkey Readies For “Aggression” From US-Backed SDF in Raqqa

The US-backed coalition of Kurds and Arabs of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have begun their long-awaited assault on the Islamic State’s self-proclaimed caliphate in Raqqa. The forecast for the battle has it that it will be long and costly as the IS fighters are cut off from any support.

But the government of Turkey released an ominous warning that they’ll be watching the SDF for any aggression to their own interests. Turkey considers the Kurds terrorists in their country which makes the entire alliance against the IS on shaky ground.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Binali Yildrim said Turkey would act immediately should any perceived threats arise from the Syrian Democratic Forces’ operations to recapture the city of Raqqa from the so-called “Islamic State” (IS).
Yildrim made his remarks in Ankara to deputies from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling Law and Justice Party on the same day that the SDF launched an attack on the IS stronghold from the east, north and west.
Yildrim said Turkey was taking precautions in case its interests were threatened
The SDF, a roughly 50,000-member alliance backed by the United States, largely consists of Arabs and fighters from the People’s Protection Units (YPG), a Kurdish militia formed in 2011 that Turkish officials consider a terrorist organization. The Turkish government has been facing a Kurdish insurgency, primarily from the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK), in areas of southeast Turkey since 1984. Officials in Ankara have expressed concern that a YPG takeover of Raqqa, about 55 miles (90 kilometers) south of Turkey’s border, could embolden Kurds in their fight for autonomy.
But the United States views the SDF as key partners in the fight against IS in Syria and has provided the alliance with air support, training and weapons.
The United States also began arming the YPG directly to help them battle the approximately 3,000-4,000 IS fighters believed to still be in Raqqa.
IS seized Raqqa in 2014 and made the city the Syrian capital of the group’s self-declared caliphate – the counterpart to the group’s besieged former stronghold of Mosul in Iraq. The SDF’s launch of its operation to retake Raqqa on Tuesday comes after months of violent back-and-forth fighting aimed at eventually expelling the militants from the city.
Read: Civilian casualties surge as anti-IS coalition moves towards Raqqa
Using a common Arabic acronym for IS, SDF spokesman Talal Silo said late Monday that the battle to retake Raqqa would be “fierce because Daesh will die to defend their so-called capital.”
But “morale is high and military readiness to implement the military plan is complete, in coordination with the US-led coalition,” Silo added.
The offensive would be “long and difficult,” but that retaking the city would be a “decisive blow to the idea of ISIS as a physical caliphate,” said Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend, the commanding US military leader, using a common English-language acronym for IS, Reuters reported.

Fighting has begun at the eastern and northern edges of the town and officials believe that it will take several weeks to clear the IS fighters. Clearing the town’s narrow streets will prove difficult and the IS fighters have forced the civilian men in the town to wear the traditional garb that they favor, something that will make it difficult to differentiate between IS fighters and civilians.

To read the entire article from Deutsche Welles, click here:

Photo courtesy Reuters

US Wants UN Inquiry in Killed Investigators in the Congo

The United States is urging the United Nations to investigate the disappearance and murder of two U.N. sanction monitors in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DNC).

The US is among many others casting doubt on the credibility of the quick and shoddy investigation that was done by Congolese officials. In March, American Michael Sharp and Swede Zaida Catalan and their interpreter Betu Tshintela disappeared in the Congo’s Kasai region, where hundreds have died since last July in an insurrection against the government.

Two weeks later their bodies were found in a shallow grave not far away. The fate of their driver and two other motorcycle drivers also abducted remains unknown.

The U.N. workers traveled to the village of Bunkonde, south of the provincial capital, Kananga in Kasai Central to investigate human rights abuses. The next day, they were kidnapped by what the DNC referred to as “unidentified negative forces.”

Sweden has opened a police investigation and U.N. diplomats said U.S. authorities had also been looking into the case.
Congo’s foreign minister, Leonard She Okitundu, last month opposed the creation of an international inquiry.
Congolese military prosecutors announced last month that two suspected militiamen would soon face trial for the killings, but rights groups say they suspect Congolese forces could have been involved in the deaths.
A U.N. spokesman last month cast doubt on the credibility of the Congolese investigation, saying the world body was “taken aback at the rapidity at which it was done.”
Haley said the United States would also support the Geneva-based Human Rights Council establishing a Commission of Inquiry into the ongoing human rights violation in the Kasai region, where Sharp and Catalan went missing.
The remote, heavily forested region in central Congo has been riven by clashes between security forces and a local tribal militia called the Kamuina Nsapu since July.
At least 400 people have been killed and 200,000 displaced since fighting broke out when police killed the militia’s leader last August, the U.N. has said. The top U.N. rights official said in March that three mass graves had been discovered.

Sharpe’s father in a separate interview said that he hopes the work his son was doing would continue and that he hoped to have the Congolese government release his body so that he can be buried at home. Sharpe’s body was intact, Catalan was beheaded.

To read the entire article from Voice of America, click here:

Photo courtesy Facebook

Britain Vows Solidarity After Latest Terrorist Incident “You Won’t Break Us”

The latest terrorist incident in London has galvanized the people of the UK as they preached solidarity and defiance after the attack on citizens Saturday.

A rented van rammed pedestrians on a crowded London bridge and terrorists who were later claimed to be part of ISIS then went on a stabbing spree that killed seven people and injured dozens of others.

Prime Minister Theresa May has called for the revamping of Britain’s anti-terror strategy and for the heightened action to combat what she categorized as “Islamist extremism.”

On Sunday, white-clad forensic technicians scoured for clues, and police in black body armor patrolled the scene of the assault, which began late Saturday when a rented white Renault van rammed pedestrians on the bridge and continued with a knife rampage by three attackers in the crowded nightlife district on the south bank of the River Thames.
Londoners of all creeds and visitors from across the globe flocked to the area — drawing as close as they could get behind police cordons — to lay flowers and express defiance amid their grief.
“It’s to show our solidarity,” said Chris Prentice, a 40-year-old British photographer who lives in the city. He was in jeans and stubble as he set down a bouquet. “It’s a message: You won’t break us. You won’t break us, ever.”
With the country still mourning a major assault less than two weeks ago, in the northern city of Manchester, London Mayor Sadiq Khan tweeted that “we will never be cowed by terrorism.”
With the investigation still in its early stages, May unleashed tough rhetoric against what she called “a single evil ideology of Islamist extremism” without linking a particular group or network to the latest strike.
“Enough is enough,” she said as expressions of sympathy and solidarity continued to pour in from around the world. At the Vatican, Pope Francis offered prayers for the victims at his weekly Sunday blessing.
In a televised statement from her official residence at 10 Downing St., where flags had been lowered to half-staff, the prime minister grimly cautioned that the attack marked a “new trend in the threat we face” — assaults in which methods and ideology echoed those of previous strikes.
“While the recent attacks are not connected by common networks, they are connected in one important sense. They are bound together by the single evil ideology of Islamist extremism that preaches hatred, sows division and promotes sectarianism,” said May, clad in a dark suit and peering into the cameras.

The police who killed the attackers in a fusillade of bullets just moments after the attack began have arrested a dozen people who are suspected of being involved in the incident.

To read the entire article from the LA Times click here:

Photo courtesy Getty Images

Surviving the Unthinkable, What to do in a Terrorist Incident

The recent events that have unfolded in London, Manchester and other places have people scrambling for answers as to what to do in a terrorist incident. We as a people must maintain our way of life and go about our daily business. Otherwise, the terrorists win. Because they ultimately want to disrupt your lives and if they can fill people with enough fears as to keep them from going to large public events then, they’ve won.

We’re not going to get into a long philosophical discussion on terrorism, the mentally unhinged or the common criminal. While the number of these incidents are rising, they’re still pretty rare. But regardless of how you feel about any particular group or activity, you can still get caught up in one of these types of incidents… so what are you to do? One is to prevent them from happening in the first place.

Hotel/Airports: Try to alleviate any potential situations, when staying at a hotel, try to get a room between the 3^rd and 5^th floors. You don’t want the bottom two floors because those are too easily attained by terrorists when attacking. Above the fifth floor isn’t ideal as that will take the authorities too long to clear and leaves you vulnerable to continued assault by the bad guys.

A good rule of thumb is to try to get a room centrally located between the elevators and stairwells. It gives you better options to egress from danger.

Avoid the long lines at the airport ticket counters. If you must, get there early to avoid the long lines. Our airport security is lax until you go to the gates. Anyone can enter around the ticket counters and there is little to stop a catastrophe from occurring during peak times or at the Holidays.

No one’s bags are scanned or checked and no one goes thru a metal detector in the US until AFTER the ticket counter. Passing thru Israel many times, you have to go thru multiple checks as well as metal detectors before reaching the ticket counters. Our airport terminals are ripe for a disaster. But having tried to bring this to someone’s attention has fallen on deaf ears.

Situational Awareness: Most trained members of the military and law enforcement have an excellent situational awareness that the average person isn’t trained in nor pays much attention to. But once they become ingrained into your being, those traits never leave you.

Today, whenever my family and I go to large public gatherings, my instincts tend to go into a higher level of alert. Kind of a relaxed alert where your senses are heightened but you aren’t facing imminent danger. We all think that “this will never happen here” but I’m sure if you asked the people of London or Manchester that prior to those incidents, they’d say much the same thing. So, make yourself and your family into a hard target. How do we do that, if we aren’t all Special Operations trained, steely-eyed commandos?

Above all, always trust your gut instincts. In the vast majority of problems, you’ll encounter, the people making the fuss will stand out prior to the incident. Suspicious people and objects are a dead giveaway. And what makes them suspicious? Sometimes their dress or choice of apparel doesn’t fit the surroundings. Three guys enter a building wearing heavy jackets on a summer day? Easy to spot and maybe they’ve got something under those to start a problem. If their mid-sections seem unnaturally rigid, that could be evidence of a suicide bomb or vest.

Their body language and mannerisms are often a dead giveaway. Despite the trying to blend, most people aren’t trained well enough to mask their heightened anxiety and will appear nervous, sweating, or jumpy before an incident.

Report any individual taking pictures of security measures, cameras, and such. And some are even so bold as to draw diagrams, blueprints, or maps in the open.

See someone timing the traffic lights or the response times of a police call to at or near a specific area? You may be witnessing a “dry run” where terrorists or criminals go thru a practice run before the real thing.

But for the average person out there who may not recognize these, use your peripheral vision and scan your surroundings. And the first thing one should always be aware of are the exits. How many are there and where are they located? And never forget that sometimes, the nearest and most easily accessible exit is behind you. In stores and restaurants, the “employee only” signs don’t count during a terrorist incident. And usually, there is a rear exit that can be used. We’ve become conditioned to never go there, but these aren’t normal times.

Are there natural or man-made barriers that will stop or slow your family from exiting? Will those turn into choke points where panic could ensue and create even more problems and carnage?

OK, you’ve taken all the precautions but what happens if you still find yourself in an active terrorist incident… what the heck do you do now?

First thing is, don’t panic. While that sounds overly simplistic it may mean the difference between living and dying. Always keep your wits about you and you’ll have a better chance of getting out of this alive.

Run, Shelter in Place, Resist: These are the steps that experts agree on. Even if you’re carrying a concealed weapon, the last thing you want to do, [unless forced to] is to get into a shootout with your wife and kids in tow.

Run: If it all possible get out of the immediate danger area quickly and safely. Remember, the quickest, safest way out may be behind you or thru an employee only area. Try to get people to follow. If they don’t, leave them. The majority of people’s first instinct won’t be to run but to hide. You’re the professional, the sheepdog, lead them out but don’t dawdle.

If there are wounded people present that aren’t ambulatory, you have to leave them. I know that sounds like some really cold-blooded stuff but there it is. The first wave of police and/or Counter-terrorist [CT] types in will do the same.

This goes against our inbred compassion and as Americans, we never want to leave anyone behind but turning one casualty into two or three isn’t the answer. Move quickly out of the danger area to a safe location and call 911. While moving out of the shooting zone, keep your hands visible so that police on-scene don’t mistake you for one of the bad guys.

Leave any items that you’re carrying and get the hell out of Dodge. You can replace shopping items, laptops, etc. but you can’t replace the life of your family members or yourself. Travel light and sleep at home that night. Use any cover to get out and do so quickly.

Shelter in Place: What if you’re stuck in the middle of a shit-storm and there’s no way to safely exit? Then hiding in a safe location comes into play. You want as much cover and concealment as possible. In an office building or school, find an interior room that has a lockable door. Barricade the door to prevent anyone from pushing thru the doorway easily using tables, chairs, or wood that is available. They’re looking for easy targets and by presenting a barricade will buy you valuable time.

Close the blinds, shut off the lights and if possible the air conditioning. Place cell phones on silent not vibrate, be as quiet as possible. Use other desks, chairs, etc. as cover inside the room. Try to call 911 and let an operator know what is going on. If the shooter/shooters are too close, leave the line open so that the 911 operators can hear what is on-going at the site.

Under no circumstances open the door for anyone that you can’t positively identify as either the police or a Hostage Rescue Team [HRT]. I’ve heard that the terrorists in Mumbai used the ruse to yell for help or falsely identify themselves as police in an attempt to get people to show themselves. Don’t make their job easier.

If all else fails and if you can’t hide in a covered and a concealed area, that’s when we get to the least preferred method of handling an active terrorist incident and that is also the most dangerous and that is to fight.

Resist: So, you can’t run, shelter in place and the terrorists are moving in your direction. You are left with basically two choices, be shot out of hand execution-style or fight. But once again, it is the people that keep their wits about them that have a better chance at survival.

Even if you have a concealed weapon, odds are you’re going to be out-gunned. So, you have to be creative and quickly task organize. Gather anything that can be used as a weapon. Is the area dark or close to it? A mini-Maglite can temporarily blind someone just long enough for others to jump a gunman.

Chair legs, any sharp instruments, such as knives, box cutters, and scissors, or a fire extinguisher are usually readily available. Surprise will be your advantage. Most terrorists or criminals don’t expect and aren’t prepared for their victims to fight back. So you’ll have to strike and strike quickly.

Get mad-dog mean. Don’t be like the victims in every teen horror flick, attack the gunman from as many different angles as possible and take him out. The Marquis de Queensberry Rules don’t apply here. Survival, your survival is at stake here. Don’t stop until he’s completely incapacitated or dead.

Get the gunman’s weapon out of his hands and be prepared for follow-on attacks in the case he has other gunmen who come looking for him. The more people involved in attacking a terrorist, the better odds of taking him down and surviving to live another day.

These incidents are happening with increasing frequency today and there is no substitute for preparedness. There will be times that some people will die because there was no way to foresee, prevent or survive some terror attacks. But to survive an on-going one will require a cool head and clear thinking. Because if you lose your composure and the will to resist, you’ll neither win nor live.

Photo courtesy UK Daily Mirror

Battle of Lampaden Ridge, Germany, March 1945

With Memorial Day nearly upon us, we as Americans take the time to remember the soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines that paid the ultimate sacrifice. Today I will join other members of our local Veterans Council and visit the local high school for a Memorial Day ceremony to fill in for those who can’t be there. Many of our veterans, especially the WWII vets are still reluctant to talk about their experiences. That’s why this story is personal and was eye opening.

My father fought in WWII in Europe and was a Tank Destroyer commander. He never spoke about what he saw. Even after I was a soldier myself and in Special Forces, he wouldn’t speak much except when the subject came to the concentration camps which he liberated one and the images haunted him until he passed on.

As coincidence would have it, he was assigned to the 774^th Tank Destroyer Bn. Many years later my team number in the 7^th SFG(A) would be A-774. A weapons sergeant from my team and good friend Chuck Simpson’s dad it turned out was also a member of the same TD Bn.

After my father passed away, a few veterans came to his wake. His TD driver, “Spike” Alessandro and “Bones” Fongemie. There were many others who were frequent guests at our home growing up. But whenever the talk about the war came up, they would retreat into another room. At my father’s wake, Alessandro told my sister, brother and me to research what my dad had done, and that he was mentioned in a book that was written by the infantry guys that he was attached to at a battle in Obersehr, Germany in March 1945.

That got my interest, so I did some digging and found a fantastic write up from the battle and yes indeed, I was reading things about my father that I never knew. I then contacted the 94^th Infantry Division historian. And asked about the battle of Lampaden Ridge of which Obersehr was a part of. I asked him if he knew about it. “Oh yes, like it was yesterday,” he said. “I was there in Lampaden.” I relayed what I had read. He laughed and said, “you need to talk to one of our guys, he was there and I’m sure he’d be happy to relay what he remembers.” Later as the events unfold, I’ll relay this vet’s comments whose memory was sharp as a whip. But first some background on the battle. I won’t mention his name as to not use it without his permission.

The action in which the 1st Platoon, Company B, 774th Tank Destroyer Battalion as well as the men from 3rd Bn. 302nd Infantry Regiment was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation took place during the early days of March 1945 during the campaign to clear the Saar-Moselle Triangle and the resulting Saar-Palatinate Campaign. During the battle, the tank destroyers were attached in small units to the Infantry as was very common back for the TD Battalions. Interestingly enough, the men were not aware of their award of the Presidential Unit Citation until 1994, when it was finally issued by President Bill Clinton.

The Germans who counter-attacked during this action across Lampaden Ridge were from the German LXXXII Corps and were using a fresh Division, just in the line to spearhead it. The 6th SS Mountain Division was a Waffen-SS formation, composed of both ethnic and native Germans from Tyrol, the Balkans, and Denmark. It was originally formed as an SS Totenkopf (Death’s Head) Division, to mainly occupy Norway. It was originally a Motorized Regiment “Nord” and finally a division.

In 1941, it went to the Russian Front fighting alongside the Finns, until withdrawn in late 1944, into Norway and then Denmark. They infiltrated the lines using the 11th SS Mountain Regiment and the men of the 774th TD Bn. while attached to the 302nd Regt. bested them while inflicting horrible casualties on the Germans. A fine book on the subject “Patton’s Ghost Corps” by Nathan Prefer is a detailed account of the campaign and about the 94th Infantry Division’s personal stories which the 774th took part. There was also the “Destroyer Diaries” from the 774th TD Bn. which was printed by the unit just after the war ended.

OBERSEHR

The Germans were from the Sixth SS Mountain Division, and they were proud of it. Their objective was to cut the supply lines to Trier. The village of Obersehr was to be taken, but they had not counted on so many of Americans already being there. Only a handful of Infantry was supposed to be holding it. There was less than half a company; two crews of an Infantry cannon company, and three sections of the first platoon of Company B, 774th TD Bn.

Their attack on the village started on a night as black with no moon; their forces were a full company of Mountain Infantry, plus a platoon of engineers. The German’s tactics were excellent; the village was quietly by-passed, encircled with MGs and infiltration into the main street started.

As one German was setting up an MG between two vehicles in front of the TD CP, he was shot by SGT Carl G. Parsons. The Germans opened fire and mowed down two men, SGT Frank Pilys, and PVT Edward White, who had been on guard at the edge of town and had been edging their way through the darkness to find out what was going on.

More of the enemy could be heard moving into the village but could not be seen. The Infantry took their post at a corner house, bringing the two wounded men with them. PFC Walter “Bones” Fongemie, at an outpost, called in to warn the CP that more Germans were coming but no help could be sent to him. He was on his own and cut off.

On the opposite flank at almost the same moment, PVT Frank Marion and PVT Roy Robinson opened fire with .50 cal. MG and the cries of the enemy told that several were hit. When the gun jammed, Marion field stripped it and put it back while under murderous machine-gun crossfire. The gun jammed again, so bringing it with them they withdrew into one of the houses where they joined the rest of the 1st TD section. The 2nd Section was located directly across the street. The fire and resultant chaos in the house to house fighting at point-blank range kept the TD men from getting to their vehicles.

Lt Charles Smith was heard making his way down the street, trying to reach his wounded men and to contact the Infantry. They hailed him and informed him that the wounded men were with them. On his return to the TD CP, he was hit twice. In spite of intense enemy fire from automatic weapons, SGT Sherman Norton crawled out and half dragged, half carried the LT to safety. Lt Smith is a man of large proportions, being 6’0,190 pounds, but SGT Norton, of Indian and Irish descent, was immense, 6’3″ and 230 lbs. SGT Norton was awarded the Silver Star for his heroism, one of six the Bn. was awarded during this action.

In the meantime, SSG William J. “Brooklyn” Murphy and PFC Thomas T. Legista stripped one of the vehicles of ammunition and weapons. T/4 Harry S. Hansen crept out to the M-20 Command Armored Car and sent a radio message. These actions drew concentrated fire from all sides. SGT Hurlbert D. Martin dashed across the street to inform the 2nd section of the situation, but they were well aware of it. Action quieted down on both sides until daylight.

A dirty gray mist came with the dawn. The M-1 rifles of the Infantry began to bark, picking off the SS who were trying to observe from foxholes outside the village. The enemy was revealed in possession of a house opposite the TD CP from which they hurled incendiary grenades. PFC Roy M. Arendall ran about the CP building smothering the grenades with blankets.

A German Panzerfaust shell ripped a huge hole through the wall upstairs, narrowly missing SGT Louis L. Balestrieri, who was stunned by the concussion, and hurled into the back of the room and covered with debris. He quickly recovered and went back to his post in the window with a .30 caliber MG. From across the street, Infantryman SSG Arthur Cross called to SGT Norton and Balestrieri, “Hey TDs, we stick it out to the cemetery”. This brought back the laconic, muffled reply “Yeah Boy!”

Not long afterward Lt. John R. “Black Jack” Stewart called for artillery. Shells screamed over the roofs in a devastating, accurate barrage. The men held their posts in the village which the enemy was using for an ammo dump was reduced to rubble after being set on fire, destroying large quantities of ammunition.

Next came in the radio message that help was coming, Slowly, but surely, during a lull in artillery file, a German officer came out with a white flag to urge the Americans to surrender as they were cut off for miles and greatly outnumbered. SSG (Later LT) Murphy, PFC Legista, and PFC William J. Bergeron (a .50 cal MG in his hands) rejected this offer with very strong language (GFY was the actual reply) and informed him that help was on the way. The German laughed and said, “Don’t be comical”. He returned to his position, the flag went down, and the fight was on again.

Then artillery, both German and American, poured into and around the village. This time everyone tried to take cover. Screaming meemies (Nebelwerfers) exploded all over the place, doing the enemy more harm than good falling on German positions, but they were becoming desperate. When the artillery would stop for a moment the German SS would open up with automatic weapons and scream at the top of their voices.

Finally, all hell broke loose when an American Sherman tank leading two others smashed thru the German roadblocks into the encircled town. The effect on the GI’s was electric. They poured from the houses to direct the tanks and the Infantry climbed up on them. The Germans ran in confusion in all directions. Panicked, 70 of the SS men tried to dash across an open field to the safety of the woods, none made it. They were cut down by a mixture of M-1, .30 caliber and .50 caliber machine guns. The Shermans and the tank destroyers, now manned by the 774^th, and the infantry destroyed two German Hetzer tank destroyers that tried to push thru to support the German infantry in the center of the town. Two Shermans were knocked out in the assault.

774 TD troops Murphy, Stewart, and Balestrieri pose with German Burgermeister’s Top Hat and tails after the battle. (LBalestrieri photo)

After the ensuing surrender, a German officer haughtily told an interrogator, “I did not surrender, I was captured”. Seventy-eight others were “captured” with him. Almost double that were found killed in the streets and in the foxholes outside the village. The Infantry from the 302nd Regt. later remarked that without the TD’s, the situation would have been impossible. The Tank Destroyer men then said without the Infantry from the 302nd they would have all been dead.

When I spoke with this vet on the phone, he was talking about this battle like it had taken place yesterday not nearly three quarters a century ago. I asked him about the events that unfolded. “Hell yeah, we got in a good scrap that night,” he said. He said that the Germans had worn captured American uniforms and crawled close to the OPs (observation posts) where they heard the password and countersign.

As I relayed the story of the Panzerfaust, he chuckled. “Now I didn’t know your Dad, as the TD guys would be attached to us for a few days here and there and be gone somewhere else, but I remember that well,” he said.

“We held most of the houses and the Germans were all over the streets, there was hell to pay. I saw your father putting fire on some SS at the corner when this kid with a Panzerfaust blasted him at point-blank range. I thought he was done.”

“We were yelling back and forth across the street, they couldn’t get into the TDs because the SS were all over the place. Once they did in the morning…it was all over. That’s when the Shermans and more infantry broke thru.”

LAMPADEN

At about 0200 of 6 March, SGT Max Ledesma of the Company K of the 302nd Regt. moved forward to run a one-man contact patrol with Company L. As he approached a cemetery he was challenged by several soldiers who knew the correct password. Before he could reply, he recognized the peculiar German helmet silhouette and opened fire. Return fire severely wounded him and he crawled back to his position and notified his men about the compromised password.

The Germans had encircled Lampaden as they had Obersehr, and had infiltrated the town and had surrounded two guns of the 2nd section of the 1st Plt. of B Company, 774th TD Bn. While leading an attack on the third gun position, the crew killed seven Germans and drove the remaining ones back. After daybreak, the enemy attack at all points and the fighting became fierce.

The two gun sections, using small arms fire killed fifteen Germans who had rushed their positions. The 302nd Inf. was fighting fierce battles all over the town. PFC Wallace Gallant, manned an MG position until the barrel was glowing red-hot, and when low on ammunition, used an M-1 rifle to pick off individual targets. He was to earn the Distinguished Service Cross on this day. The Americans held on the 6th and both sides planned to attack the following morning.

The enemy attacked again in the early morning of 7 March. Supported by self-propelled guns, mortars, rockets and artillery fire, the attack came against the southern and eastern avenues into the town. The fighting was more vicious than the day before. Gun tubes were lowered to fire point-blank into the waves of advancing German infantry. Machine gun fire and both 60mm and 81mm mortar fire decimated the German attackers to the extent that the SS troops faltered. The Germans would not take Lampaden.

PS There is an attached US Army after action video from the morning after the battle as it shows the area as the Americans regrouped. Later I was contacted by a Dutch archeologist who dug around the battlefields in the early 2000s and dug up quite a few artifacts. He sent the pictures of the battle some sixty years later which shed new light on it.

To read something about your father in a book that you never knew about was very interesting. Then to talk to someone who was there and remembered it vividly was beyond words. Our greatest generation, the WWII men should be encouraged to tell their stories. Not only on Memorial Day but every day. Their ranks are thinning fast and that segment of our generation is being lost. Don’t let another story go untold. Talk to them and let the rest of the story be told.

Photos/videos courtesy of US Army,94^th Inf. Div., 774^th TD Bn. and Louis Balestrieri

Japanese Special Operations Suicide Attack on Yontan Airfield Okinawa

In the closing days of World War II, the US and the rest of the allies had defeated Germany and Hitler was dead, Italy had capitulated, and Mussolini was executed by partisans. Only Japan was left and the US was tightening the noose around the Japanese homeland.

A successful but bloody island hopping campaign had put the Americans on the doorstep to the homeland. No longer would American B-29s have to fly from long distances at the limit of their range to bomb Japan. Now with airfields on Iwo Jima and Okinawa, they could hit Japan with near impunity. The B-29 raids were taking a dreadful toll on the Japanese war machine, the civilian populace, and the morale of the nation.

The Japanese were desperate to deliver a blow to the US airbases where B-29s were stored. The plan was to deliver “suicide commandos” by air to destroy the B-29s and damage their bases and fuel depots. To fulfill this need, the “Giretsu” Combined Special Forces Airborne Unit was formed, assembling experts in sabotage and demolition.

The Giretsu Special Forces Unit was task organized in a simple Direct Action (DA) mission breakdown; each commando carried HE and WP grenades and a pistol beside his assigned weapon.

Command section (10 men)
Light Machinegun team (1 x LMG)
Messenger team
Signal team
1st-5th Platoons, broken down by sections:
1st Section (4 men including section
leader): 1 x Type 99 rifle, 2 x Type
100 SMGs, 2 x pole charges, 4 x Type 99
AT charges
2nd Section (3 men): 1 x rifle, 1 x Type 99
LMG, 1 x pole charge, 4 x Type 99 AT charges
3rd Section (3 men): 1 x rifle, 1 x SMG, 1 x
pole charge, 4 x Type 99 AT charges
4th Section (3 men): Ix rifle, lx SMG, Ix
Type 89 grenade discharger,
5^th Section 1 x pole charge, 4 x Type 99 AT charges.

Mock-ups were prepared of the B-29 bombers which were the primary targets of the commandos. But the Japanese soon learned that their standard Type 99 magnetic mine would not adhere to the B-29’s aluminum skin. Special mission weapons would have to be developed. They developed a special pole charge (hakobakurai) with a suction cup that packed 4.5 pounds of explosive which would damage or destroy the bombers. They also had a 15- foot “chain charge” which was designed to be thrown across the wing of the target. The explosive was designed to separate the wing from the fuselage.

On May 15, 1945, the Japanese 6th Air Army requested use of the Giretsu Special Forces Unit to neutralize the American’s Okinawa airbases. The commandos moved to Kengun airfield on Kyushu in preparation for “Operation Gi”.

The Japanese plan and tactics were simple. Once on the ground, the commandos were to destroy or damage as many American aircraft and supplies as possible and then hold the position to the last man.

The night of May 24-25, 1945 saw the Japanese launch their suicidal operation against the Yontan Airfield on Okinawa. Nine twin-engine aircraft (Ki-21 “Sally” Bombers) of the 3rd Dokuritsu Chutai (“Independent Company”), commanded by CPT Chuichi Suwabe took off from Kumamoto Army Airfield from the mainland of Japan. Each of these aircraft carried 14 commandos, destined to attack the Yontan airfield.

The Japanese had sent six waves of conventional bombers against the base. Then five of the bombers carrying commandos appeared over Yontan at 2230 hrs. Four of the Sallys had been shot down by US fighter aircraft. The remainder tried to come in a very low altitude.

Alert American anti-aircraft (AA) gunners, shot down four more. One Sally’s wing was blown off and struck an antiaircraft position, temporarily burying the gunners. The remaining Sally belly-landed with wheels on the runway, eventually coming to rest near a control tower.

Once on the ground, the surviving dozen or so Japanese disembarked from both the nose and side hatches. The commandos having rehearsed this scenario wasted little time and rushed in among parked US aircraft, clamping on hakobakurai charges and hurling grenades.

Wrecked US Army aircraft at Yontan. (US Army photo)

American pilots and grounds crewmen, not accustomed to being in ground warfare panicked. Not realizing that the Japanese had only about a dozen men, they thought the Japanese had landed in force. They took to cover and were firing, widely ineffective harassing shots at the Japanese commandos. They called for immediate ground support from nearby Marine infantry. But they wouldn’t arrive until dawn.

Chaos reigned supreme on the airfield. The Japanese commandos ignited a fuel depot containing 70,000 gallons of aviation fuel and the night sky was illuminated with spectacular geysers of flames that cast a surreal glow on the deadly events that would ring the airfield all night.

The Japanese had inflicted heavy losses on the US aircraft at Yontan, destroying nine and damaging 26 more. Marine infantry arrived at dawn and began the systematic clearing of the airfield.

All 69 Japanese commandos were killed in the attack in addition to the nine bombers that were destroyed either in the air or on the ground after landing. The final commando was found at 1 p.m. the next afternoon hiding in the brush before being dispatched by the Marines.

Two Americans were killed and 18 more were wounded in the daring attack by the Japanese. But the damage inflicted by just the dozen or so commandos that made it to the ground showcased the amount of damage that they could have inflicted had all nine-aircraft made it to Yontan instead of just one.

Crash landed Sally Bomber at Yontan airfield (US Army photo)

The Japanese planned all along on the raid being a suicide attack, so no exfil plan was needed making the operation much simpler from a planning standpoint for them. However, their primary targets, the B-29s were not at Yontan, so while the raid was very successful in the amount of damage inflicted by such a small force on the ground, their ultimate objective, the American bombers weren’t affected at all. The PBY4Y Privateers were converted B-24 bombers that the US used as long-range patrol bombers.

US aircraft losses:

3 F4U Corsair fighters
2 PB4Y Privateer patrol bombers
4 C-47 transports.

US aircraft damaged:

22 F4U Corsairs
3 F6F Hellcat fighters
2PB4Y’s
2 C-47s

Apparently, the Japanese had also planned a major airborne suicidal operation codenamed “Ultra” later that summer. The plan was to assemble 200 transport aircraft and bombers to carry 2000 more commandos from the Giretsu Special Forces Unit and crash land simultaneously at the US B-29 bases of Saipan, Tinian, and Guam.

But the US dropping of the Atomic bomb on Nagasaki on August 9 curtailed those plans. Emperor Hirohito took to the radio soon after to announce that the Japanese people must “bear the unbearable” and that hostilities should end.

This Giretsu suicide raid by the Combined Special Forces Unit is revered in Japan, with a special shrine erected in Peace Prayer Park on Okinawa which marks their heroic but futile efforts.

Photos courtesy US Army