World War II

“Operation Greif” German Special Operation During the Battle of the Bulge

The Battle of the Bulge began on December 16, 1944, when two Panzer armies, comprising most of the German armored reserve, crashed into a lightly defended sector of the American lines in the Ardennes Forest.

The overly ambitious plan by Adolf Hitler was to split the American and British armies in two and race to the port of Antwerp. Hitler’s generals knew the plan had zero chance of ever succeeding. While the Germans made big gains in the opening days, punching a “bulge” deep into the American lines, tremendous resistance at the Elsenborn Ridge in the north and Bastogne in the south slowed the advance to a crawl.

One of the other ambitious parts of the German plan was “Operation Greif.” It is a German special operation designed to seize bridges over the Meuse River, destroy American ammunition and fuel dumps, and reroute Allied units by having German soldiers posing as American troops while wearing American uniforms.

Operation Greif was commanded by SS Obersturmbannführer (Lieutenant Colonel) Otto Skorzeny, who was already known as “the most dangerous man in Europe.” The actual accomplishments of Operation Greif were few. However, the panic that Skorzeny caused among the Allies on the Western Front was vast and continued for several months afterward.

Skorzeny – The Ultimate Nazi Special Operator:

Otto Skorzeny was born in Vienna in 1908. He lived in a lower-middle-class family in Austria, although his forebears originally came from Poland. While pursuing an engineering degree, Skorzeny developed a fearsome reputation in the dueling societies that gave him the characteristic scar on his cheek. He fought in at least 15 duels.

In 1938, during the German unification with Austria, Skorzeny came across Nazi roughnecks trying to kill Austrian President Miklas. He stopped them, and soon word spread in Germany about the 6’4 Austrian who possessed the makings of a fighter that they could rely on.

When war broke out in 1939, Skorzeny joined the Waffen SS and fought with distinction on the Eastern Front after the invasion of the Soviet Union. He was wounded in the head by shrapnel and sent to Berlin to recuperate and became a staff officer.

While there, he worked on concepts to create a German unconventional commando unit. He led the training and was named the commander of the unit. In 1943, he led the daring commando raid in Italy at the Campo Imperatore Hotel, a ski resort at Campo Imperatore in Italy’s Gran Sasso massif, high in the Apennine Mountains. His mission was to rescue Benito Mussolini, who had been deposed and held prisoner.

Skorzeny’s men landed by glider in a dangerous move on top of the mountain and captured all 200 guards without firing a shot. In just 10 minutes, Mussolini was freed, and Skorzeny accompanied Mussolini to Germany for an audience with Hitler.

Hitler personally selected Skorzeny to lead Operation Greif (which means Griffin in German). The word went out to all German units calling for volunteers that could speak English and knew American slang. At this point in the war the German Army may have been running short of English speaking troops or those that did speak English weren’t all that keen to “volunteer” for a risky operation, the result was that Skorzeny’s unit did not draw nearly enough English speaking troops as he had hoped. Skorzeny would end up with only ten men who spoke English like native speakers. In desperation, Skorzeny would send some of his men to POW camps holding American prisoners to brush up on the English.

This later proved to be a fatal flaw in Operation Greif,

The Plan:

Skorzeny’s men (the 150th Panzer-Brigade) were split into teams with a demolition group responsible for blowing bridges, ammo, and fuel dumps, a reconnaissance element reporting enemy troop movements, and a lead commando group who would be in charge of cutting telephone wires, disrupting enemy communications, and reversing road signs. The concept of the plan was for Skorzeny’s men to wear American Army uniforms employ captured U.S. jeeps to go behind U.S. lines and sow chaos and confusion. Skorzeny’s men knew that under the rules of war if they were captured by the Americans in these uniforms they would be summarily executed. There was also the very real risk that they would be shot at by their own side as well if they came back into contact with SS troops who mistook them for actual American soldiers in the fog of battle.

Getting the necessary uniforms, weapons, and equipment was a huge issue. So was the procurement of American tanks and other vehicles. The Germans disguised Panther tanks to resemble American M-10 tank destroyers since only one Sherman tank was available.

His men were assigned to the 1st SS Panzer Corps under the command of Joachim Peiper. His men were to follow the Panzers into battle and then break off and surge ahead to their different targets. Peiper would later face war crimes charges for the massacre of eighty-four American prisoners at Malmedy.

German Panther tank camouflaged to appear to be an American M-10 tank destroyer. Photo; US Archives

The Operation:

The Battle of the Bulge began in the early morning hours of December 16. Following a massive artillery bombardment, the heavy German units easily cut through the thinly defended American lines. Confusion on the American side lay supreme as they were caught completely unprepared. The road net soon became a tangle of combat units rushing to meet the Germans being met by rear-echelon support units caught in the offensive trying to get back to the rear of the fighting where they could support the counterattack. These units were generally artillery, quartermasters, field hospitals, and the like. The narrow, two-lane roads were jammed.

Skorzeny’s men were easily able to infiltrate the American lines in the confusion of the early hours of the battle. One of his units was able to drive right into an American-held town and scout out all defenses. On the way out of town, he redirected an American convoy of armor and supplies to a different road. Two of his other units misdirected Allied convoys of supplies and reinforcements. They added to the general chaos among the Americans in the early hours of the battle.

But the Allies soon learned that German soldiers were operating in American uniforms and sent out a warning to check out the identification and behavior of any suspicious troops. It was here that Skorzeny’s men accomplished far more than they did on the ground. Near panic ensued as GI checkpoints were posted everywhere.

Troops initiated questions about American sports, celebrities, and slang as a means to ferret out Nazi infiltrators. General Bruce Clarke of the 7th Armored Division was held after telling MPs that the Chicago Cubs were in the American League. British Field Marshall Montgomery was briefly held when he said he “had no idea” who won the World Series.

Rather than impede Skorzeny’s actions, this overreaction only caused to slow down the Allied response behind their lines and caused far more confusion than the threat itself. One of his men was captured by the Americans and under interrogation made up a story that Skorzeny was en route to Paris to kidnap General Eisenhower. Thus the Allied HQs became a fortress with tanks, machine guns, and troops posted everywhere. According to Eisenhower’s naval aide, Captain Harry Butcher, “He is a prisoner of our security police and is thoroughly but helplessly irritated by the restriction of his moves.” Several actual U.S. soldiers were killed at check points by jittery guards who suspected they were Skorzeny’s men. One sharp-eyed sentry figured out that the forged identity cards the Germans were using had corrected the misspelled word “Indentification” used on the actual U.S.-issued ID cards. Anyone caught with an ID with the corrected spelling of “Identification” was arrested.

With the stiffening American resistance, soon the Germans knew that the offensive would fail in its ultimate goals, and the 150th Panzer-Brigade was withdrawn by the end of December. Out of the forty-four men Skorzeny sent behind U.S. lines in disguise, just eight were lost. As the initiative in the battle shifted back over to the Americans, the Germans still behind U.S. lines changed back into their German uniforms and slipped across American lines again. The Allies were particularly fierce in the treatment of German soldiers caught in American uniforms. Many were caught, imprisoned, and then executed.

German troops caught wearing American uniforms during Operation Greif are executed by firing squad. Photo; US Archives

But the search for Skorzeny in Paris continued until February.

As the war ended, Skorzeny was tried for war crimes but was exonerated on all charges. One charge that nearly stuck was one of improperly wearing US uniforms. But a witness for the defense, F. F. E. Yeo-Thomas, a former British Special Operations Executive (SOE) agent, testified that the Allies had done the exact same thing. He was acquitted. Although he was still held in a POW camp awaiting a de-Nazification hearing, Skorzeny escaped. He later worked as an adviser to Egyptian President Nasser and even the Mossad, helping track down German rocket scientists working for the Egyptians. Skorzeny died of cancer in 1975.

Although Operation Greif never accomplished its stated goals at the outset of the operation, the confusion and panic it caused among the Allies was a success. It ultimately proved to be a successful special operation by the Germans in their failed offensive.

This Is How 4 OSS Operators Captured Sardinia From 270,000 Italians in WWII

The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) grew out of humble beginnings and Washington’s political infighting to be a huge part of the American effort in World War II. OSS agents provided important intelligence, furnished operatives who worked behind the lines, and helped resistance and guerrilla movements against occupying German, Japanese, and Italian forces. One of the most successful operations of OSS was the capture of Sardinia, where four American operators convinced more than 270,000 Italian troops to surrender.

The Glorious Bastards

General William Donovan and his band of “PhDs who can win a bar fight” had developed a stellar reputation among the senior Allied leaders. General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, credited the American OSS and the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) with the exemplary manner in which the resistance forces were organized, supplied, and directed. After the war, Eisenhower said,

“In no previous war and in no other theater during this war, have Resistance forces been so closely harnessed to the main military effort…I consider that the disruption of enemy rail communications, the harassing of German road moves, and the continual and increasing strain placed on the German war economy and internal security services throughout occupied Europe by the organized forces of Resistance, played a very considerable part in our complete and final victory.”

General George Marshall, after WWII, wrote how the OSS had far surpassed expectations. “The Resistance surpassed all of our expectations, and it was they who, in delaying the arrival of German reinforcements and in preventing the regrouping of enemy divisions in the interior assured the success of our landings.”

OSS Jedburgh team William Colby — OSS Jedburgh team gather around Lt. William Colby, future Director of the CIA, prior to a mission. (U.S. Army)

A Russian Aristocrat in Sardinia

Sardinia had a garrison of 20,000 Germans and over 270,000 Italians. With the invasion of Italy underway, the Allies wanted to capture Sardinia without having to resort to another full-scale invasion by ground troops.

It was a tailor-made mission for the OSS. The mission was tasked to a four-man special operations team. General Marshall later wrote that he wanted to “give [General] Donovan a chance to do his stuff without fear of compromising some operation in prospect. If he succeeds, fine, if not, nothing will be lost.”

Chosen to lead the OSS team was the larger-than-life character Lieutenant Colonel Serge Obolensky.

Born a Russian aristocrat, Prince Sergei (Serge) Obolensky had a life full of vicissitudes and varied experiences in both the Russian military under the Czar and the American military. During World War I, he was awarded the highest medals for personal courage as an officer in the Russian cavalry. After the Russian Revolution, the Bolsheviks hunted him. He escaped to America, where he remade himself as a financial advisor to President Roosevelt. He became one of the founders of the U.S. Special Forces, a lieutenant colonel of the Office of Strategic Services, and the oldest combat U.S. Army paratrooper at the age of 53.

Because of his experiences, propensity for languages, and natural ability to influence people, he was a natural for OSS. General Donovan quickly recruited Obolensky into the fledgling agency.

In early September 1943, the U.S. Army landed at Salerno. Eisenhower wanted the Italian soldiers on Sardinia to surrender and harass the Germans on the island. Obolensky was to carry a letter from Eisenhower, the Italian King Emmanuel, and Prime Minister General Pietro Badoglio to the garrison commander, General Basso, ordering him to surrender. Donovan personally selected Obolensky because he believed the former Russian aristocrat had both the social standing and the gift of gab to persuade the Italian general in charge to surrender to him.

The second member of Obolensky’s four-man team was 1LT Michael Formichelli from New York City. An original member of the Italian-American Operational Group, whom Obolensky had trained with in the U.S., Formichelli was to be the interpreter. The team was rounded out with two radio operators: 2LT James Russell, a special operations instructor at the OSS training school in Algeria; and Sergeant William Sherwood from the British SOE, who would relay information to the OSS base station in Algiers.

Although neither Formichelli nor Russell had ever jumped from an aircraft, they both volunteered for the mission. Since the OSS had no contacts on Sardinia, this operation would be a “blind jump” into enemy-held territory.

The Coup de Maître

On the night of September 13, 1943, the team parachuted into the island via a blacked-out bomber. They landed safely and buried their parachutes. Russell and Sherwood remained with the communications gear, while Obolensky and Formichelli took off on a 15-mile reconnaissance of the town of Cagliari.

Warned that the Germans were close, the sight of the two Americans in uniform with submachine guns shocked the Italian townspeople at the nearby railroad station. Yet, thinking that the Americans had arrived to free them from the hated Germans, the Italians began to cheer.

Approaching the local police station, Obolensky acted as if he had battalions of paratroopers under his command nearby. He told the police chief, “I have a very important message from the King of Italy and General Badoglio to General Basso. Take me to him!”

Obolensky and Formichelli were escorted to General Basso’s headquarters. General Basso was concerned. Although he agreed to “follow the orders of my king,” and surrender his troops, he did not agree to attack the Germans who were leaving for Corsica and then northern Italy.

The attitude among the Italian officers was split. Many of them wanted to fight the Germans. However, one unit of paratroopers commanded by a hardcore fascist disobeyed General Basso’s surrender order and shot his representative. The OSS men, including the two radio operators, were kept in a safe house until General Basso and his men could bring the paratroopers back in line. The audacious plan had worked.

Obolensky radioed back to OSS HQs that “except for the Germans retreating in the far north, Sardinia was ours.”

The mission was a complete success, and it was astonishingly completed in 36 hours without the loss of a single American life.

Serge Obolensky Marilyn Monroe OSS — Serge Obolensky dances with Marilyn Monroe in the years after the war. (Obolensky family)

Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. arrived a few days later with a small occupation force and formally accepted the surrender of the 270,000 Italian troops on Sardinia. But it was Obolensky and the OSS men who had made it all happen.

After the war, Obolensky worked for the Hilton Hotel chain and later started his own public relations firm in New York City, Serge Obolensky Associates, Inc. He hobnobbed with celebrities and high-ranking politicians and was photographed dancing with Marilyn Monroe at one of his parties. He died in 1978 at the age of 88.

The modern-day CIA and U.S. Army Special Forces are the direct descendants of the OSS.

Why the Rangers Scaling Cliffs at Pointe du Hoc 75 Years Later is Important

The message that members of the 2nd Ranger Battalion of today carried forth to the few…and dwindling survivors of the original assault on Pointe du Hoc from 75 years ago was respect. They re-enacted the climb up the cliffs made by their forebearers on that fateful day in 1944 and it wasn’t an easy slog up a hill.

On June 6, 1944, Rangers from the 2nd Battalion were weighed down by assault vests, gas masks, ammunition, helmet, grenades, sub-machine guns, pistols, a box of rope and a hand projector rocket that would launch the ropes attached to grappling hooks up the cliffs. And the Germans on top pouring fire and grenades down on them to boot.

The Rangers of today already had a healthy respect for the men of 75 years ago, but after seeing the cliffs up close and personal and climbing up it, albeit not under fire this time, the respect given was quadrupled. And as they finished the climb, the surviving members of the original Pointe du Hoc assault were there to greet them. It was a powerful moment and one that will live in their memories forever.

In every pivotal battle, there are always several smaller actions that take place that define the scope and bravery that takes place. In Normandy, you could point to 100 different actions. But some of the more notable:

Major John Howard’s glider-borne assault with the Ox and Bucks infantry that landed within 50 feet of the Orne River “Pegasus Bridge” just minutes after midnight. Howard’s men, using surprise, speed, and violence of action overwhelmed the German defenders in less than 15 minutes. Howard’s men were later reinforced by men from the British 7th Parachute Battalion and held the vital bridge until relieved by Commandos under the command of Lord Lovat. One of the paratroopers at the bridge from the 7th Battalion was a young trooper named Richard Todd. He would later portray Howard in the war film epic, “The Longest Day”.

Lt. Dick Winters and the men of Easy Co. 506th Parachute Infantry (101st Airborne) and the assault on Brecourt Manor was an exercise in tactical leadership and tactics. Winters, and Lt.s Buck Compton and Ronald Spiers led a group of determined paratroopers who were vastly outnumbered and successfully assaulted prepared German defenses and destroyed four 105mm howitzers that threatened nearby Utah Beach. This was immortalized in the book and later the miniseries, “Band of Brothers”.

Which brings us to the Rangers’ assault on the cliffs at Pointe du Hoc. The Germans had built gun emplacements on the cliffs where the six 155mm coastal guns could easily engage American assault troops on Omaha Beach or the Americans at Utah Beach.

The Rangers were initially going ashore at the wrong place, at Pointe du la Percee due to heavy seas and navigational error. LTC James Rudder, commander of the Ranger Group saw this and had the landing craft turn toward the correct landing beach.

The Germans recognized it and took the assault craft under fire. Due to this, the Rangers arrived late to their landing beach and were taken under heavy fire and grenades from the defenders on top of the cliffs.

The commanders of the destroyers U.S.S. Satterlee and H.M.S. Talybont risked running their ships aground and closed their ships in very shallow water offshore and raked the German positions with every weapon at their disposal, including 5-inch guns, 40mm and 20mm anti-aircraft guns to keep the defenders at bay.

The Rangers made the perilous climb and once reaching the top immediately went about the deadly task of clearing the gun emplacements. Unbeknownst to them. The Germans had removed the 155mm guns and replaced them with telephone poles.

However, coming ashore wounded was 1SG Bud Lomell, who along with SSG Jack Kuhn who saw ruts in a dirt lane that they believed were the gun carriages. Following the tracks, they found five of the 155mm guns 200 meters off the cliffs, concealed under camouflage nets. The guns were pointed toward Utah Beach and had ammunition stacked beside them, ready to go.

Lomell and Kuhn smashed the gun sights with rifle butts and then burned the barrels and traversing mechanisms with thermite grenades. Nearby, another Ranger patrol found the 6th 155mm gun in a hedgerow. They destroyed it with thermite and blew up the ammunition. Mission accomplished. Of the 225 men that came ashore with the Rangers at Pointe du Hoc, only 80 would still be in action two days later.

On the 40th anniversary of the assault, President Ronald Reagan delivered his famous “Boys of Pointe du Hoc” speech. Last week, 35 years later, few of the “boys” remain. It is imperative we never forget the service and sacrifice of the brave men who swept the cliffs of the German defenders and thereby saved countless lives of men on the beaches of Omaha and Utah beaches.

Photo: US Army

Remembering BG Norman “Dutch” Cota, One of the D-Day Heroes

Brigadier General Norman Cota, known to his friends as Dutch was one of the most senior officers who went ashore with the assault troops on Omaha Beach. There finding a disorganized, shell-shocked, pinned down American assault, that was in danger of foundering, he reorganized and reinvigorated the assault and personally took charge on the beach.

He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his personal bravery and was credited with uttering the now motto of the United States Ranger Regiment. He was later portrayed on film as one of the heroes of D-Day.

The 51-year old Assistant Division Commander for the 29th Infantry Division was leading his men, less than half his age up to the murderous Vierville Draw. That was leading by example and from the front.

Cota was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts in 1893 and was accepted to the US Military Academy at West Point in 1913. His class of 1917 graduated seven weeks early because the United States had just entered into World War I. In his class, nine of his classmates (including himself) would become General Officers. They included Matthew Ridgway, J. Lawton Collins, Mark W. Clark, and Ernest N. Harmon.

Because of the war, he rose quickly thru the ranks going from 2LT to Major in less than two years. By the end of WWI, he was an instructor at West Point. Between the wars, he served in Virginia, Hawaii and was an instructor at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff School.

When World War II broke out Cota was the G-2 (intelligence), G-3 (plans and operations) and later the Chief of Staff for the 1st Infantry Division. After the invasion of North Africa, he rewrote the task organizations for assault divisions and his plans were used in the invasion of Sicily.

After being promoted to Brigadier General, he was assigned to England for the preparation for Operation Overlord, the invasion of France. He was given the Assistant Division Commander position of the 29th Infantry Division from Maryland, the famous “Blue and the Grey”. Cota was an outspoken critic of a daylight landing in France, arguing for a nighttime assault.

But his, and other officers concerns were shot down by the senior Allied command. The massive naval and air bombardment, it was argued, would annihilate the German defenses. And as we’ve seen in several other amphibious operations of the war, those theories were shown to be totally wrong.

Cota told his staff, to expect the worst and even his warnings were pale to what actually transpired on Omaha Beach.

“This is different from any of the other exercises that you’ve had so far. The little discrepancies that we tried to correct on Slapton Sands are going to be magnified and are going to give way to incidents that you might at first view as chaotic . . . You’re going to find confusion. The landing craft aren’t going in on schedule and people are going to be landed in the wrong place. Some won’t be landed at all . . . We must improvise, carry on, not lose our heads.”

Cota went ashore with the second wave, one hour after the initial assault on the Dog White sector of Omaha Beach with part of the 116th Regiment of the 29th Division. Omaha Beach and the Vierville Draw was concave and its natural outline allowed the Germans to pour fire down in a cone on the assault troops.

The first wave was ineffective and pinned down. Cota’s landing craft came under heavy machine gun fire and the first three men to disembark were killed as they exited. Mortar and artillery fire was also raining down on the troops.

Due to failed communication with other Rangers at Pointe du Hoc, elements of the 2nd and 5th Ranger Battalions didn’t receive a signal that the cliffs were secured so they went ashore on Omaha and reinforced the 29th.

Cota tried to rally his shell-shocked men. He strode upright and willed them to fight. He uttered the words, “Gentlemen, we are being killed on the beaches. Let us go inland and be killed.” Another quote, attributed to Cota but was actually uttered by another 29th Division officer was, “There are two kinds of people who are staying on this beach: those who are dead and those who are going to die. Now let’s get the hell out of here.“

Robert Mitchum, portraying Cota in the film, “The Longest Day”

But with the situation on Omaha hanging in the balance, Cota strode upright to a group of men huddled in the sand. “What outfit is this?” Cota asked still standing upright. “5th Rangers,” he was told. “Well Hell Rangers, Lead the Way!” That became the Ranger Regiment’s motto and history was born.

Cota supervised men placing a bangalore torpedo under a barbed wire obstacle, blowing it up and creating a path for the men to get off the beach. The first soldier to attempt it was killed by a German sniper. The rest of the men froze. Cota, however, jumped into action.

Joseph Balkoski, a soldier from the 29th, authored the book “Beyond the Beachhead: The 29th Infantry Division in Normandy” recalled, “Cota leaped up, dashing across the road, and through the gap.” Eventually, a steady stream of soldiers followed him up the beach, and he led that column into the village of Vierville-sur-Mer, shouting at the last men, “Where the hell have you been, boys?”

The next day, the troops were driving inland and he came across a unit pinned down by German fire from a farmhouse. Stephen Ambrose in his excellent book, “Citizen Soldiers: The U. S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany” tells what happened next.

Cota asked the captain in command why his men weren’t trying to take the house.
“Sir, the Germans are in there, shooting at us,” the captain said.
“Well, I’ll tell you what, captain,” said Cota, unbuckling two grenades from his jacket. “You and your men start shooting at them. I’ll take a squad of men and you and your men watch carefully. I’ll show you how to take a house with Germans in it.”
“Cota led his squad around a hedge to get as close as possible to the house. Suddenly, he gave a whoop and raced forward, the squad following, yelling like wild men. As they tossed grenades into the windows, Cota and another man kicked in the front door, tossed a couple of grenades inside, waited for the explosions, then dashed into the house. The surviving Germans inside were streaming out the back door, running for their lives.
Cota returned to the captain. “You’ve seen how to take a house,” said the general, still out of breath. “Do you understand? Do you know how to do it now?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Well, I won’t be around to do it for you again,” Cota said. “I can’t do it for everybody.”

In the epic film “The Longest Day” Cota was portrayed by Robert Mitchum and his exploits will forever be remembered, as well as by the Rangers.

Cota died in 1971 and was buried with his wife Connie at the cemetery in West Point.

Photos: Wikipedia

SOE Agents Paved the Way For D-Day, Remembering Violette Szabo

The preparation for D-Day on the Allied side took a couple of years of meticulous planning, training, the massing of troops and then intense coordination with air, sea and land forces as well as coordinating the French resistance.

The British Special Operations Executive (SOE) was the driving force behind infiltrating agents into occupied France, setting up intelligence networks, coordinating with the French resistance, arming guerilla bands, and performing acts of sabotage and subversion.

One of the best known of these British agents was a woman, Violette Szabo who was as brave as she was beautiful. Code-named Corrinne, Szabo conducted two missions into France. On her second one, shortly after D-Day, she was captured by elements of the 2nd SS Panzer Division who were moving into Normandy after the Allied invasion. She got into a sharp fire-fight with the Germans, allowing her teammates to escape. But she was captured, beaten, tortured by the Gestapo and sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp where she was executed in January 1945. She was just 23 years old at the time of her death.

Early Life, Following a Tomboy Lifestyle:

Szabo was born Violette Reine Elizabeth Bushell in Levallois Paris on June 26, 1921. Her father was English and her mother French. They met during World War I and together they had four boys and just one girl, Violette.

Because she was surrounded by four brothers as well as several other male cousins, Violette was a tomboy and she competed with them, excelling in athletics, gymnastics, cycling, and shooting, something her father taught her well. It was said, that despite being just five foot three, she was as strong as a man.

The family moved to South London and Violette was popular because she was athletically gifted, beautiful, and could speak French as well as English. She left school at just 14, working in the retail industry.

When the war broke out, she was a perfume saleswoman in a department store. In the dark days of 1940 with Free Frenchmen pouring into England, her mother sent her to find a lonesome French soldier to celebrate Bastille Day with.

Violette met Etienne Szabo, French Foreign Legion officer. And although he was 31 and she just 19, they began a torrid love affair and the two were married just five weeks later. Soon after their marriage, Etienne was sent back to Africa where he served in Senegal, South Africa and then Syria. Violette was working as a telephone operator. Etienne returned briefly to England, where Violette got pregnant with their first child. He was then sent to North Africa where he was killed at El Alamein in October 1942. His daughter Tania was born on June 8, 1942, he never got to see his daughter. He was awarded the Croix de Guerre, the Medaille Militaire, and the Legion d’honneur.

Szabo Joins SOE:

Violette was devastated by her husband’s death and then volunteered to join SOE as a courier. Because of her ability to speak fluent French and English, she was accepted. She was given a cover assignment as a Section Leader of The First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, as was typical for SOE operatives.

Szabo had to successfully complete paramilitary training in Scotland where she was instructed in Field Craft, Weapons, Demolition and Night and Day Navigation. She then attended training in Hampshire where she learned communications, cryptography, weaponry, uniform recognition and escape and evasion tactics. Although she wasn’t excelling in her courses, she passed. Where she did excel was in the physical aspects of the course and was rumored to be the best shot in the SOE.

After completing the Group B’s “finishing school” at Beaulieu in Hampshire, which taught students how to operate as undercover agents, she learned how to parachute out of an airplane and passed the second time around as her first attempt resulted in a badly sprained ankle.

Szabo was offered her first mission as a courier to Philippe Liewer, the head of the SALESMAN circuit in Normandy. This was a busy time for SOE. In the buildup for the Normandy invasion, during the fourth quarter of 1943, SOE flew 105 sorties to France. By the second quarter of 1944, that number skyrocketed to 1665.

Szabo’s mission was a dangerous one. London had received a message that Liewer’s deputy, Claude Malraux was arrested in Rouen. Liewer couldn’t risk going himself, so he remained in Paris and sent Szabo to assess the situation, far more difficult than a traditional courier role.

They arrived on April 6 and Szabo traveled to Rouen under the false identity of a secretary named “Corinne Leroy”. She spent three weeks doing a careful investigation of what happened to the SALESMAN circuit. Malraux and SOE radio operator Isadore Newman had been arrested. Also, more than 100 members of the resistance group had been rounded up and were in the hands of the Gestapo. She delivered the news to Liewer back in Paris that his cell was shattered. His wanted poster was plastered all over the town. They left France and were flown back to England on April 30.

During the period of February-May 1944, SOE airdropped to French resistance forces in France 76,290 Sten guns, 27,961 pistols, 16,945 rifles, 3441 Bren guns, 572 bazookas, 304 PIATs, and 160 mortars.

In addition to the SOE agents, 100 Jedburgh teams were dropped into France in uniform to coordinate with French resistance units operations. Each Jedburgh team had two officers and one sergeant radio operator. The “Jeds” had British, American and French team members.

Szabo had proved herself very capable and was promoted to Ensign in the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, her cover organization. She volunteered for a second mission with Liewer to attempt to rebuild the SALESMAN cell in Limoges in west‐central France. They parachuted in on the night of June 7-8 just after the Allied invasion.

On the morning of June 10, Liewer sent Szabo by car with another agent Jacques Dufour to meet with Jacques Poirer. The Maquis in the area weren’t as ready for action as previously believed and poorly led. Szabo was to act as his liaison officer. The local Maquis also didn’t know that, due to the invasion, the 2nd SS Panzer Division was moving up to the coast and passing thru their area.

Szabo wanted to move by bicycle but Dufour insisted that they travel by car, something the Germans had forbidden the French to drive in the aftermath of the invasion. If even seen driving, it would immediately arouse suspicion with the Germans. It would prove to be fateful. Szabo was armed with a Sten gun and two magazines. On the way, they picked up another resistance member Jean Bariaud.

The Germans had set up roadblocks in the town of Salon-la-Tour to find Sturmbannführer Helmut Kämpfe, a battalion commander of the 2nd SS that had been kidnapped by the resistance. As Dufour slowed the car, Bariaud leaped from it, escaping into the woods and warning the rest of the resistance about what transpired.

Szabo and Dufour leaped from the car and Dufour opened fire. The gun battle resulted in a French woman being killed as she emerged from a nearby barn. Once armored cars arrived on the scene the two fled across a stream and up to a hill where Szabo twisted the same ankle that she had hurt during her parachute training.

She leaned against an apple tree and provided covering fire against the Germans long enough for Dufour to escape. He made it to a friend’s barn and hid out. Szabo was captured. A German SS officer put a cigarette in her mouth, she spat it out and demanded one of her own.

Szabo was transferred to the Sicherheitsdienst (SD, the SS Security Service) in Limoges, where she was brutally interrogated for four days by SS-Sturmbannführer Kowatch. She was then transferred to Gestapo HQ in Paris where she was tortured. Her cover story and the name she used “Vicky Taylor” was blown and by then the Germans knew of her real name and her activities.

Szabo was shackled to SOE radio operator Denise Bloch and they began a long, circuitous journey to Ravensbrück concentration camp which took ten days. There she kept up the morale of other prisoners and refused to work as slave labor in the Heinkel munitions factory. They were placed in the vegetable garden where the women dug potatoes.

In early October, they were moved back to Ravensbrück and later to a punishment camp at Königsburg where they were forced into hard, physical labor cutting down trees and clearing the field by hand to construct an airfield. But despite this, Szabo kept the morale of the others high and was always trying to find a way to escape.

With the Allies pushing the Germans back on all fronts, they weren’t going to allow the SOE agents to survive. On the morning of February 5, 1945, Szabo was executed, shot in the back of the head while forced to kneel, by SS-Rottenführer Schult in the presence of camp commandant Fritz Suhren. Along with her the other two SOE women, Denise Bloch, and Lilian Rolfe were also executed. The other two women were too weak to stand and were carried by stretcher to the execution. Their bodies were then sent to the crematorium.

Awarded the George Cross:

Szabo was posthumously awarded the George Cross on December 17, 1946, only the second woman to be awarded that honor. Her citation reads:

St. James’s Palace, S.W.1. 17 December 1946

The KING has been graciously pleased to award the GEORGE CROSS to: —

Violette, Madame SZABO (deceased), Women’s Transport Service (First Aid Nursing Yeomanry).

Madame Szabo volunteered to undertake a particularly dangerous mission in France. She was parachuted into France in April, 1944, and undertook the task with enthusiasm. In her execution of the delicate researches entailed she showed great presence of mind and astuteness. She was twice arrested by the German security authorities but each time managed to get away. Eventually, however, with other members of her group, she was surrounded by the Gestapo in a house in the south-west of France. Resistance appeared hopeless but Madame Szabo, seizing a Sten-gun and as much ammunition as she could carry, barricaded herself in part of the house and, exchanging shot for shot with the enemy, killed or wounded several of them. By constant movement, she avoided being cornered and fought until she dropped exhausted. She was arrested and had to undergo solitary confinement. She was then continuously and atrociously tortured but never by word or deed gave away any of her acquaintances or told the enemy anything of any value. She was ultimately executed. Madame Szabo gave a magnificent example of courage and steadfastness.

She was also later awarded the French Croix de Guerre and the Médaille de la Résistance. She and her husband Etienne were the most decorated couple in World War II.

Her daughter Tania wrote a book about her mother’s missions in France, called “Young, Brave and Beautiful”, that author Jack Higgins (The Eagle has Landed) wrote the forward for. A film was made about her exploits, “Carve Her Name with Pride” that starred Virginia McKenna as Szabo. A 2009 video game, “Velvet Assassin” is based on Szabo.

In 2009 she was also chosen as the “face” of the SOE memorial, unveiled on London’s Albert Embankment. There is a Violette Szabo museum at Wormelow, Herefordshire.

Photos: Wikipedia

Looking For a Binge-Watching Series on Memorial Day? Look No Further

Memorial Day preparations and programs are all going non-stop this weekend. In our small bucolic town in Central Massachusetts, our schools have all put together very nice programs to honor those members of our country who have paid the ultimate sacrifice. Our high school put together a nice program where the students researched town members who had been killed in World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam and the Global War on Terror. They then read a brief bio on each to hit home the high cost of our freedoms.

Our vets from the local Veterans Council, VFW, American Legion, the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and Cub Scouts, as well as local citizens, went into our local cemeteries, placed flags on all of the military graves recently. Then we placed wreaths on all of the monuments around town.

Our local Memorial Day ceremonies will kick off at 8:20 today. Once that is over, we’ll partake in the traditional Memorial Day activities by grilling some food outside while giving thanks to those who made this all possible.

One of the other traditional fares on Memorial Day is the War Film marathons that are always on television. We’ve compiled a list of our favorites in the past, however, this year, we’re going to recommend a mini-series to binge watch and if you can last thru the entire thing, it will take some time.

Ken Burns produced some outstanding mini-series on PBS, his one of the Civil War back in 1990 was a classic. He later did one on Baseball in 1994 that was another must watch. But the one we’re recommending everyone dust off on Netflix is his marathon documentary on World War II, simply called ‘The War’.

Burns made this one in 2007 and it took six years of research to put together. Critics panned it because they said he tried to make it sound like the United States won the war alone. That is hogwash, Burns just eschewed the big picture and focused on the regular small town people of four communities and how the war was seen and felt down in Waterbury, Connecticut, Mobile, Alabama, Luverne, Minnesota, and Sacramento, California.

I was out of the country when it first aired and I missed it. It was put on my list of things to see but I never got around to watching it. Recently we saw it on Netflix and binge-watched the entire 15 or so hours over one weekend. And we were glad we did.

At the end of World War II, Eric Sevareid had reported to the people of the United States what he saw during the war years but after the war was over, he felt like he …and others like him failed to bring the true cost of it home. He wrote:

“Only the soldier really lives the war. The journalist does not — war happens inside a man — and that is why, in a certain sense, you and your sons from the war will be forever strangers. If, by the miracles of art and genius, in later years two or three among them can open their hearts and the right words come, then perhaps we shall all know a little of what it was like — and we shall know then that all the present speakers and writers hardly touched the story.”

What Burns showed in this masterpiece of filmmaking was while we all get to know several small-town Americans during the seven episodes, there is nothing ordinary about any of them. This isn’t a glossed over, sanitized version of World War II but a true first-hand look at the ugliness and cost of sending an entire generation off to war.

Burns often shows the brutality and the gruesome nature of how the war was conducted. With some never seen before footage. Troops being starved and beaten on the Bataan Death March, Japanese troops being burned alive by flamethrowers, the awful scope, and brutality of the Nazi death camps.

The remembrances of Quinten Aanonsen, a farmer’s son from Luverne are particularly poignant. He wanted to learn to fly to escape the family farm. He became a pilot of a P-47 Thunderbolt and as a close ground support squadron member, he saw up close what the awesome firepower of “the Jug” could bring on the enemy. He also watched many of his friends die. The girl he met while in flight school and their letters back and forth kept his sanity.

Two of the people who appear in the film have written books and they give a great look at the war in Europe and the Pacific. Paul Fussell was in the infantry fighting the Germans in France and Germany and his book “Doing Battle” was a definite page-turner. E.B Sledge from Mobile wrote the fantastic book, “With the Old Breed.”

“Something in me died at Peleliu,” Sledge wrote. “Possibly I lost faith that politicians in high places who do not have to endure war’s savagery will ever stop blundering and sending others to endure it.”

The film also shares the plight of Japanese-Americans who were uprooted from their homes and ordered to internment camps. Then asked to serve the very country that treated them and their families as the enemy.

The treatment of the blacks both in the war factories and in the military gets spared nothing either. One of the more telling moments was that of a black Marine who was wounded and transported to a hospital ship, the only black man on board. And the ship’s barber refused to cut his hair.

“The War” is marvelously filmed with some outstanding action shots, the personal stories are both riveting and at times both funny and sad. And the narration by Keith David, who did the older Navy recruiting films, is first rate.

Take the time to watch “The War” which Burns brilliantly put together and when you see one of those bent-over WWII vets today, shake his hand and wish him well. After all, “The War” is their story.

Photo of US Pilot Quinten Aanonsen: PBS

Remembering MG John Frost, British Airborne Officer At Arnhem

Major General John Frost is best remembered as the battalion commander of a British airborne infantry battalion during Operation Market Garden. Frost’s battalion was part of the famous “Bridge Too Far” operation and his unit was able to capture one side of the famous and final Arnhem bridge and holding it for several days before being overwhelmed and captured by numerically superior German forces.

But Frost’s life was full of adventure from the time he was a little boy. He served with distinction throughout the Second World War and eventually retired as a Major General before passing away on this day in 1993 at the age of 80.

Childhood and Early Life:

Frost was born in India in December of 1912. His father was a Major in the British Army. According to his obituary, when he was just eight months old, his father shot a snake that was attempting to crawl in his crib. When he was just eight, he was riding a train in Baghdad, where his father was stationed and the train was attacked by men mounted on camels. While he thought it was great adventure, it was written that he took great delight in the fact that his governess was terrified.

He graduated from the British military academy at Sandhurst in September of 1932 and was assigned to the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) Regiment. He was promoted to First Lieutenant three years later in 1935. Frost was assigned to the unit’s 1st Battalion and served in Palestine during the early stages of the Arab Revolt.

From 1938 to 1941 Frost served in Iraq and was promoted to Captain.

Early World War II Duty and Fame:

Upon returning to England during 1941, Frost was assigned coastal defense duties and was itching to get into the action. He volunteered for the Special Air Service and was sent to the Parachute Training School. After completing his required jumps, Frost was assigned to the new 2nd Parachute Battalion of the Parachute Brigade and given command of C Company.

Frost’s men were given the job of parachuting into the northern French coastal town of Bruneval and destroy a German radar installation there. They conducted “Operation Biting” flawlessly on February 27-28, 1942. The troops jumped in, took down the radar installation and brought back parts of the radar and were successfully exfiltrated by boat on the coast. They captured a German technician who was able to inform the British on the German advances of radar technology. Frost was decorated by Winston Churchill with the Military Cross for his actions there.

During the fighting in North Africa, Frost now the acting battalion commander was ordered to attack a Tunisian airfield and destroy the aircraft there. When his troops arrived, however, they found no aircraft but heavy German armor. In the ensuing melee, Frost’s men were able to get away but suffered heavy casualties, 16 officers and 250 men were lost. Frost was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for that action.

Frost with the remainder of the 1st Parachute Brigade took part in the invasion of Sicily where the troops, like their American counterparts, were hopelessly scattered and forced to attack their targets piecemeal, and later in Italy, part of the 1st British Airborne Division.

Operation Market Garden:

After the invasion of Normandy, the Allies broke out of the hedgerows and began to push the Germans back across France. Field Marshall Montgomery proposed a bold, ambitious plan to knock the Germans out of the war by the end of 1942.

The Allies would lay an “airborne carpet” of paratroopers and seize several bridges over the Waal, Maas, and Lower Rhine Rivers. Then the British XXX Corps under General Horrocks would travel quickly thru the Dutch countryside, across the bridges and into Germany where they would invade the German Ruhr industrial area and cease the ability of them to supply the German war machine.

The intelligence was faulty from the start. Originally thought to be inhabited by “old men and boys”, Holland was, in fact, the exact spot that the Germans sent their SS Panzer units, battered in Normandy, to rest and refit. This development was later thought to be have been kept deliberately from the lightly armed paratroop units.

Frost’s battalion was to be the spearhead of the British 1st Airborne Division, commanded by Roy Urquhart. They were to take the final bridges at Arnhem over the Rhine. But due to antiaircraft positions near the bridges, the RAF was forced to land the British eight miles away. Their dropzones located in Oosterbeek would prove to be a major issue as they’d lose the critical element of surprise.

Still, the prevailing thought from the Allied side was unbridled optimism. Frost was so sure of quick success, he had his Batman pack his shotgun and golf clubs.

The Allied paratroopers landed in Holland on a beautiful Sunday in daylight hours without a cloud in the sky. Frost’s battalion landed without opposition but in moving thru Oosterbeek, they were slowed by thousands of Dutch civilians who came out in jubilation that they’d been delivered, it seemed from the German grasp. Soon, however, Frost and all of the men in the airborne carpet came to realize that the intelligence estimates were wrong. The airborne troops were encountering much stiffer resistance than was thought to be in place.

Just before dusk, the British paras of Frost’s battalion reached the southern end of the bridge and established a headquarters in buildings beside the bridge. Frost sent a force to take the opposite end but they ran into a pillbox and armored vehicles. The British paras knocked the pillbox with flamethrowers but more German vehicles stopped their advance cold.

Early the next morning the British were shocked to see an armored element of the 9th SS Panzer Division, which attacked the bridge. The British troops held but infantry on both sides of the river began taking a toll on the lightly armed paratroopers. German prisoners compounded the desperateness of the situation by telling the Brits that they were with the 2nd SS Panzer Corps which was placed in Holland.

Frost was an inspiration to his men, moving between positions, and encouraging them as their casualties mounted while ammunition, food, and water ran low. The Germans sent heavy armor across the bridge but the British anti-tank gunners stopped them once again. Despite their bravery, Frost’s men were cut off and isolated at the bridge from the rest of the division. They were in increasingly desperate fighting around Oosterbeek.

Frost was then wounded in both legs. His men held on for another day but then were nearly completely out of ammunition. German tank shells had set fire to the building. His battalion surgeon told him that they couldn’t douse the fires and the 200 wounded men in the cellar would likely burn to death. Which is when Frost requested a truce with the Germans and they surrendered.

The SS then helped the British evacuate their casualties. Frost spent the remainder of the war in a POW Camp until he was freed by American troops. He was awarded a bar to his DSO for his bravery at Arnhem.

Postwar Years:

Frost resumed command of the 2nd Parachute Battalion which was stationed in Palestine. He later attended the Staff College and was made a General Staff Officer (GSO 2) with the 52nd Lowland Division.

He served in Malaya in 1950 as a GSO 1 with the 17th Gurkha Division. He later commanded the 4th Airborne Brigade. He retired in 1968 as a Major General. During his time in Palestine in 1946, he met his future wife and they had two children.

During the filming of “A Bridge Too Far”, Frost served as a technical adviser and was portrayed on the screen by Anthony Hopkins. The bridge over the Rhine at Arnhem was renamed John Frostbrug (“John Frost Bridge”) in his honor in 1978.

Frost passed away on May 21, 1993, at the age of 80 and was buried at Milland Cemetery in West Sussex.

Photo: British Archives

10th Special Forces Group Troops Parachute into Normandy

Seventy-five years ago, thousands of American and British paratroops were waiting on the go-ahead to begin the airborne assault on Normandy during World War II. The airborne assault on Hitler’s Fortress Europe was expected to be a very bloody affair for the airborne troops which were expected to suffer grievous casualties in the opening days of the invasion.

The airborne troops would fare much better than expected but the Normandy hedgerows proved to be a terrible obstacle and the troops ended up in the line much longer than anticipated as the days after the invasion proved to be bloodier than was originally expected.

On Saturday, as part of the on-going 75th-anniversary celebration for the invasion to free the French people from Nazi rule, some 135 American Special Forces troops jumped into Normandy. Soldiers from the 10th Special Forces Group jumped into the area surrounding Mont Saint-Michel from aircraft flown by the 352nd Special Operations Wing and the 86th Airlift Wing.

The town nearby Avaranches was one of the keys to the allied breakout from Normandy during Operation Cobra in late July 1944. The town turned out to greet the Special Forces troops who then laid a wreath at the monument dedicated to General George S. Patton Jr. and then had a ceremonial toast with the mayor.

The Special Forces troops were celebrating the and recalling the Jedburgh teams of OSS (Office of Strategic Services) which are the direct forefathers of both the Army Special Forces Groups and CIA. Jedburgh teams or “Jeds” as they were known back then, consisted of three-man teams dropped behind enemy lines to train, equip and advise local resistance groups.

It is fitting that the Special Operations community used the backdrop of Mont Saint-Michel to jump into Normandy. Back in 1944, one Special Operations trooper captured the abbey and town by himself.

In the summer of 1940, the Germans overran France and they took the abbey the day before the French government capitulated. They put up observers in the spire of the abbey which dominated the surrounding area. German troops were billeted in the town and they trained nearby for what was supposed to be “Operation Sea Lion”, the invasion of Britain.

But after the Battle of Britain, Operation Sea Lion was canceled and the Germans then changed their focus on holding onto their territory. They began to place fortifications all along the coast. In the area nearby they put up “Rommel asparagus” long poles with mines attached to the top to disable landing craft if they tried to pull up on the beach. Because of this, they banned fishing anywhere close to the coastline, putting more bad tidings upon the French citizens.

After D-Day, the Germans were fighting all along the Normandy coastline. And as the Allies finally began to push the Germans back after 6-7 weeks of intense fighting, they were streaming into the town as they retreated.

As Operation Cobra, was getting underway, troops streaming into the continent were part of Patton’s 3rd Army. They were the fresh troops who would become operational and do the open field running for the American Army once they punched a hole in the German lines.

On July 30, the newly arrived 4th Armored Division struck a critical blow, capturing the town of Avranches, effectively cutting off any retreat for German troops to the east and south of there. The American 6th Armored Division pushed westward toward Pontorson which was pinning the Germans along the coast.

Patton knew Pontorson well, having gone there with his wife before the first world war. He mentioned the town in his diary. On August 1, Third Army became operational and the breakout commenced with tremendous speed. Patton’s troops broke into the enemy rear and began to rout the Germans as they overran Brittany and pushed westward.

But a lonely private would make a big contribution to the effort. Private Freeman Brougher of the 72nd Psychological Operations Bn. was in a jeep with two war correspondents, one American and one British.

They raced down the open roads and were approaching the abbey when they stopped to ask directions from a French civilian. At first, the man was distrustful but once he realized that Brougher was not one of the hated Germans but an American soldier that all changed. The French people were delirious with joy. And the word quickly spread.

“They sprang from nowhere,” one of the war correspondents remembered. “No sooner did the magic words go around, ‘Les Americans,’ than folks came running from every direction.” By the time they reached the abbey, The small jeep had added two priests, three women, a fireman, and several other local citizens.

The Germans inside the abbey were exhausted and had nowhere to run, they surrendered to the lone private. The jubilant Frenchmen then took Brougher to the mayor’s house where he toasted with champagne, decked out in flowers and carried on the crowd’s shoulders where he was asked to sign the Town’s Golden Book, which records the list of the local nobility. Soon other Americans would arrive and Brougher would happily load up some prisoners on his jeep and get back into the war.

Brougher survived the war and would return to his life in Pennsylvania. He married and had two children and would return with them to Mont Saint-Michel in 1987 to show his family where his service took him and to revisit with the French people. His two children said he was called the “savior of Mont Saint-Michel.” Brougher passed away in 2003.

More can found on the freeing of Mont-Saint Michel here:

Photos: DVIDs, US Army

Catch-22 Comes Close But Doesn’t Quite Stick the Landing

George Clooney takes on Joseph Heller’s dark, satirical novel that he penned in 1961, starring in it, directing two of the series six episodes and producing it as well. Trying to reproduce Catch-22 is no easy feat although the insanity of war and the weird characters that war produces lend itself well to the insanity we see on a daily basis today.

Unlike the novel, and the 1970 film that was directed by Mike Nichols, Clooney and his writers take on a more linear approach and play the events in more chronological order, something Heller himself disapproved of. In an interview he did with Rolling Stone back in the day, he said: “Put the events in chronological order, and you’ll find an uneventful story about a bombardier and a colonel who wants his men to fly more missions than anyone else.”

The problem with it is, like many adaptations, if you have read the book and remember it well, then you’ll be on the fence with it. Filmed mainly in Italy, where Clooney reportedly spends much of his time, the cinematography has a sepia-toned, dusty feel for the B-25 bases during the war.

The cast is excellent. Clooney as the mugging General Scheisskopf (Shithead) who rises from Lieutenant to Lieutenant General is a perfect foil. Kyle Chandler is outstanding as Colonel Cathcart, the tough-talking, an often idiotic commander who keeps raising mission-counts to buck for a promotion. Martin Balsam played the role brilliantly in the 1970 version. But if anything Chandler outdoes him. Hugh Laurie (House), and Daniel David Stewart as the uber-capitalist Milo Minderbinder, who is out to make a profit and doesn’t care where, whether it be from the Allied side or even the Germans. It was a not-so-subtle jab at firms like Haliburton et al in today’s world.

But the film revolves around Yossarian, the bombardier who’s only mission of note is to get out of the war at any price. He’s expertly played by Christopher Abbott. Yossarian takes everything about the war personally and his only way is to complete his mission total. But with the rising mission counts frustrating him, he seeks to plead insanity in a war gone insane that is run by lunatics straight out of the insane asylum.

But, says the camp doctor Daneeka, who delivers his lines like a military Groucho Marx, played well by Grant Heslov, who also directed two of the episodes there is a catch….Catch-22.

“Catch-22. Anyone who wants to get out of combat isn’t really crazy, so I can’t ground him,” says Daneeka.

“Ok, let me see if I’ve got this straight,” asks Yossarian. “In order to be grounded, I’ve got to be crazy. And I must be crazy to keep flying. But if I ask to be grounded, that means I’m not crazy anymore, and I have to keep flying.”

“You got it, that’s Catch-22,” says Daneeka. “Whoo… That’s some catch, that Catch-22,” Yossarian says… “It’s the best there is,” deadpans Doc Daneeka adds.

Giancarlo Giannini is perfectly cast as the old Italian pimp where the horny GIs like to spend as much time as possible. His lines, as a survivor of Italy’s long list of glorious losses in war, are perfectly delivered.

The bombing runs where Yossarian has a non-obstructed, first-hand view of the war, are something that is both beautiful and terrifying. One of my bucket list things to do was to fly in the nose (bombardier position) of a B-17. Of course, flying there in wartime is a very different proposition.

And every time Yossarian flies another mission, it takes a little piece of his own sanity with it. The officers who are insistent on sending the pilots up in the sky full of death are immune to both their suffering and the horrors of it, safely remaining on the ground. And while their bombastic aura of dealing with subordinates is tough sounding, they show their true colors when dealing with superiors of their own.

While satire is often hard to capture on the small screen, the funny lines are often too drawn out and could have benefitted from more snappy timing.

This series with the insanity that is war and the larger insanity of those behind it will lend itself well to the current events as the United States, already in endless wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, while still actively engaged in Syria and elsewhere is rattling its saber with Iran, Venezuela, North Korea and elsewhere.

Hulu, which released “Catch-22” on Friday, is taking aim at both Netflix and Amazon Prime with their original productions put out a worthy effort here. You will enjoy it without being wowed. It is good, because of the stellar cast but just misses hitting it out of the park.

Photo: Hulu

May 17, 1943, the Memphis Belle Flies Her 25th and Final Combat Mission

The “Memphis Belle” a B-17F Flying Fortress of the Eighth Air Force would become the most famous of the 12,750 B-17s produced by Boeing during World War II. The plane and her crew would become immortalized, first by the Army who filmed her crew for a documentary prior to a War Bond tour and later by Hollywood who made a fictionalized feature film on the exploits of her crew.

The casualty rates were so high, that the United States put a 25-mission limit on crews. If a crew flew 25 combat missions and survived, they were rotated back to the states. But none of the crews were surviving that long. The Memphis Belle was one of the first to do so.

Background:

The air war for the United States in 1942 and early 1943 was a bloody affair. The United States had entered the war just months before, and Britain decided to pressure the German war machine by bombing it around the clock. The British would bomb at night, the Americans by day.

The Allies didn’t yet have fighters that had the range to escort the bombers to their targets and back. The German Luftwaffe was a formidable adversary with very experienced fighter crews. The German anti-aircraft artillery which they called “Flak” was accurate and plentiful.

In the early days of daylight bombing, the Germans exacted a terrible toll on the new American formations. Casualty rates were appalling. It was here that Captain Robert Morgan and his crew would step into the war.

B-17F 10-BO, manufacturer’s serial number 3470, USAAC Serial No. 41-24485, was added to the USAAF inventory on July 15, 1942, and delivered in September 1942 to the 91st Bombardment Group at Dow Field, Bangor, Maine. The aircraft was deployed to Prestwick, Scotland, on September 30, 1942, and stationed at a temporary base at RAF Kimbolton on October 1, and then finally to her permanent base at RAF Bassingbourn, England, on the 14th of October.

The marking on the sides of the fuselage bore the unit and aircraft identification markings of a B-17 of the 324th Bomb Squadron (Heavy); the squadron code “DF” and individual aircraft letter “A.”

Morgan decided to name the plane after his sweetheart back home, a woman named Margaret Polk from Memphis, TN. Originally the plane would be named after Morgan’s nickname for Polk, which was “Little One” but after he and co-pilot Jim Vennis saw a film where the main character had a riverboat named the “Memphis Belle”, the name stuck. Morgan brought it up to the crew and they voted for it.

The drawing on the fuselage was from a pinup by artist George Petty that was in Esquire magazine in April of 1941 issue. Corporal Tony Starcer, copied the Petty girl pinup on both sides of the forward fuselage, depicting her bathing suit in blue on the aircraft’s port side and in red on the starboard. The Memphis Belle was born.

Air War Over Europe:

Morgan and his crew flew their first mission over Europe on November 7, 1942, at Brest, France. The command of the American Air Forces and the Pentagon set the incentive of 25 missions for crews to reach to be rotated back to the United States. But no one was reaching that threshold. Casualties among the bomber crews in those early dark days were at 80 percent.

In interviews much later, Morgan summed up the horror of the early days of the airwar in describing the awful casualties suffered by American aircrews in the first days of the bombing campaign.

“Eighty-percent losses means you have breakfast with 10 men and dinner with only two of them.”

Memphis Belle had her share of difficult scrapes with German fighter planes and flak and on five different occasions had an engine shot out. Another time, a diving German Focke Wulf Fw-190 came straight at the plane and riddled the tail with holes setting it on fire. After the fire was out, Morgan climbed back into the tail to survey the damage.

His comments, captured by History.net tell of the difficulty he had in bringing the ship back safely. “It looked like we had no tail at all,” Morgan said. “I got back in the cockpit and flew back to the base in two hours. It was tough flying, and tougher than that to set her down. The elevators were damaged so badly that the controls jammed. Somehow we managed to get down safely.”

The American bomb groups were taking on tough, well-defended targets including the Focke Wulf plant at Bremen, locks and submarine pens at St. Nazaire and Brest, docks and shipbuilding installations at Wilhelmshaven, railroad yards at Rouen, submarine pens and powerhouses at Lorient and aircraft factories at Antwerp.

During her 25 missions, Memphis Belle gunners were credited with shooting down eight German fighters with another five probable kills. They damaged 12 more fighters and dropped over 60 tons of bombs on the German war machine.

After their 25th mission, the crew which had been the subject of a war documentary by Hollywood director William Wyler, the crew was rotated home on a 31-city war bond tour. The men were treated as heroes wherever they stopped. Only one female was ever allowed to fly with the Belle. Stuka, a Scottish terrier bought by co-pilot Jim Vennis in England accompanied the crew and was spoiled with the rest of the crew.

Memphis Belle crew, pilot Robert Morgan (5th from left)

One of the stops was in Memphis where Polk was in attendance, although interestingly enough the two never did marry but did remain life-long friends. Morgan put on a stunt at his own hometown of Asheville, NC where he flew the Fortress down the main drag in town and turned it between two large buildings on its side.

General Henry “Hap” Arnold, gave Morgan the choice of any assignment he wanted. He chose to transition to B-29 bombers and bomb the Japanese. He took part in the first raid on Tokyo in November of 1944. After flying 50 missions he was sent home for good. He remained in the Air Force and retired as a Colonel.

Memphis Belle Not the First to Complete 25 Missions:

Unlike the feature film that came out in 1990, the Belle was not the first plane to fly 25 missions in Europe. That distinction belonged to Captain Irl Baldwin of the 303rd Bomb Group and the plane “Hell’s Angels” named after a Howard Hughes, Jean Harlow film from back in the day. Baldwin completed his 25 missions a week before Morgan did. Memphis Belle was the first to complete 25 missions and return to the United States. Baldwin and his crew would go on to fly 48 missions before returning to the U.S. for their own bond tour in 1944.

I met Baldwin at the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum in Savannah, GA a few years before he passed away. And in talking to him, you got a great sense of how difficult life was for those bomber crews over Europe.

Asked which was worse, the fighters or flak he smiled and answered…”Yes!” He said, “it didn’t matter how large the group was when those German fighters were coming head-on into the group, you’d swear to God every one of them was firing at you.”

He added, “Once they’d open up it looked like they were winking at you and the next thing was those cannon shells ripping past.”

Irl Baldwin and the ground crew of Hell’s Angels

I asked how he managed to survive 48 missions where so many didn’t last long at all.

“Some of it is pure luck,” he said. “There is nothing you can do about flak and those German gunners were good. They’d get your range and it looked like you could walk from burst to burst with touching thin air.”

“But the other thing we learned right away was that we had to be better pilots. The only way we could survive the fighters was fly wingtip to wingtip. That way all of our guns could be trained as one. If the Germans could get in between the bombers of the group, and they were some great pilots, they’d cut you to pieces.”

Baldwin too transitioned to B-29s after his War Bond tour. But he never got the chance to fly in combat over Japan. “Right after I got there, we dropped the bomb,” he said with a shrug. “I got there a few days too late.”

Asked why he’d volunteer after already flying so many combat missions, he shrugged again. “We were at war and I felt I was better suited for it than other guys.”

“Besides,” he added, “ I figured the Germans were the best we’d go against. If they couldn’t get me I didn’t think the Japs could.”

Photos: US Archives