I've mentioned before that I enjoy different newsletters and "this day in history" type factoids. Every morning I look forward to my History Channel "This Day in History" email. Today's lead article informed me that on August 20, 1911, the first around-the-world telegram was sent. Started by the New York Times to see how long it would take to travel the 28,000 plus miles around the globe, the message left New York at 7:00 pm and was passed by 16 different operators to arrive back to the sender sixteen and a half minutes later. The article also points out that 66 years later, to the day, on August 20, 1977, NASA launched the Voyager II spacecraft. Voyager II was the one that carried the copper phonograph record called "Sounds of Earth" with greetings in 60 languages, etc.
In only 66 years we went from sending Morse code by cable around the world to sending a record across the solar system. Amazing. That number, 66, stuck in my head. Later, I recalled that it was 66 years from the Wright Brothers' first flight at Kitty Hawk (December 17, 1903) to Neil Armstrong's walk on the moon (July 20, 1969). More amazing. Okay, I know it's just coincidence. But already this morning I talked on a cell phone, sent a text message, and I'm about to publish my observation on the Internet for anyone in the world to read. It sure makes me wonder what we'll be doing 66 years from now.
In The News: Wreck of German Submarine Found off Massachusetts
I've been doing some reading on U.S. Navy destroyers in WWII recently. So when I saw this item come up in the news, it really got my attention. Marine archaeologists recently found the German submarine U-550 on the bottom of the Atlantic ocean, about 70 miles south of Nantucket Island.
On April 16, 1944, while on its first deployment, U-550 attacked the tanker ship SS Pan-Pennsylvania. The Pan-Pennsylvania was at that time the largest tanker in the world, carrying a cargo of 140,000 barrels of aviation gasoline. The tanker had fallen behind the rest of her convoy that was making its way from New York to Great Britain, making her an inviting target. The torpedo attack set the cargo on fire, killed 25 of the Pan-Pennsylvania's crew of 81, and eventually sink the huge tanker. While the escort destroyers USS Joyce (DE-317), USS Gandy (DE-764), and USS Peterson (DE-152) went to work rescuing the surviving crew, U-550 hid under the mayhem.
As the Joyce was about to withdraw, the German submarine moved from its hiding place and was picked up by sonar above. Joyce laid a spread of 13 depth charges that drove U-550 to the surface. The crew of the U-boat meant to fight it out and began to fire its deck gun at the American ships. All three escort destroyers returned fire, with Gandy moving to ram the soft target of U-550's conning tower. The German sub's attempt to move out of the way caused Gandy to strike about 30 feet from the stern. Meanwhile, Peterson dropped two more depth charges that exploded near the submarines hull. The U-boat's guns were silenced. Joyce hailed the Germans, demanding they abandon ship. With his vessel doomed, the German commander chose to scuttle his boat rather than let it fall into American hands. Another explosion was heard, only this time from within the hull of the German submarine. Only 40 minutes after the Joyce had first detected her, U-550 was sunk. The USS Joyce was only able to find 13 surviving Germans, one of whom died while in route to England.
A little over 68 years later, on July 23, 2012, the wreck of U-550 was found by a private group of shipwreck hunters funded by Joseph Mazraani, a successful attorney from New Jersey. Some of the members of this group have been searching for this wreck for two decades. They are currently working on a project to document the wreckage of ships from the Battle of the Atlantic. To see some great pictures taken of this engagement during WWII and some links to videos, visit the Discovery Channel page for this event. If you are not familiar with this part of WWII naval history, I've picked out an excellent video (10 minutes, in color!) for you, courtesy of YouTube:
On April 16, 1944, while on its first deployment, U-550 attacked the tanker ship SS Pan-Pennsylvania. The Pan-Pennsylvania was at that time the largest tanker in the world, carrying a cargo of 140,000 barrels of aviation gasoline. The tanker had fallen behind the rest of her convoy that was making its way from New York to Great Britain, making her an inviting target. The torpedo attack set the cargo on fire, killed 25 of the Pan-Pennsylvania's crew of 81, and eventually sink the huge tanker. While the escort destroyers USS Joyce (DE-317), USS Gandy (DE-764), and USS Peterson (DE-152) went to work rescuing the surviving crew, U-550 hid under the mayhem.
As the Joyce was about to withdraw, the German submarine moved from its hiding place and was picked up by sonar above. Joyce laid a spread of 13 depth charges that drove U-550 to the surface. The crew of the U-boat meant to fight it out and began to fire its deck gun at the American ships. All three escort destroyers returned fire, with Gandy moving to ram the soft target of U-550's conning tower. The German sub's attempt to move out of the way caused Gandy to strike about 30 feet from the stern. Meanwhile, Peterson dropped two more depth charges that exploded near the submarines hull. The U-boat's guns were silenced. Joyce hailed the Germans, demanding they abandon ship. With his vessel doomed, the German commander chose to scuttle his boat rather than let it fall into American hands. Another explosion was heard, only this time from within the hull of the German submarine. Only 40 minutes after the Joyce had first detected her, U-550 was sunk. The USS Joyce was only able to find 13 surviving Germans, one of whom died while in route to England.
A little over 68 years later, on July 23, 2012, the wreck of U-550 was found by a private group of shipwreck hunters funded by Joseph Mazraani, a successful attorney from New Jersey. Some of the members of this group have been searching for this wreck for two decades. They are currently working on a project to document the wreckage of ships from the Battle of the Atlantic. To see some great pictures taken of this engagement during WWII and some links to videos, visit the Discovery Channel page for this event. If you are not familiar with this part of WWII naval history, I've picked out an excellent video (10 minutes, in color!) for you, courtesy of YouTube:
Gingerbread Man's Dog Tag Found Near Rome
The Italian gardeners, Olga Romagnolo and a friend, sent the dog tag to Nellie Baranek, Mike’s widow, in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. Nellie will be sending the tag on to Niagara Falls in Ontario, Canada where Mike’s granddaughter, Tammy Mahoney, is receiving treatment for breast cancer. The finding of the dog tag is viewed as a heavenly sign by Mahoney, who believes her grandfather is watching over her.
For pictures of Mike Baranek taken during WWII and the recently found dog tag, visit the 509th Parachute Infantry Association website's "soldier page" for Sgt Mike Baranek.
For pictures of Mike Baranek taken during WWII and the recently found dog tag, visit the 509th Parachute Infantry Association website's "soldier page" for Sgt Mike Baranek.
Working on the Locks
For those of you who have known me for a while, or the two or three who have been reading this blog from the start, you know that I did a project for my MA in History at the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks in Seattle back in 2009. The site is more commonly known as "the Ballard Locks" for the Seattle neighborhood in which it is located. The Army Corps of Engineers site along with the co-located Carl English Botanical Gardens is typically listed as one of the top three visitor attractions in Seattle. The volunteer group we started to accomplish that archive project is still going strong. Since I've moved back to western Washington, I've been able to visit at the locks and help out the organization the best way I can (being that I live a two-hour journey by car and ferry away) by helping out with their blog.
In case you had not checked in for a while, I thought I would put the "Friends of the Ballard Locks" back on your radar. One of their members, Kyle Stetler, let us know in his article for the FOBL blog that June 25th is the 102nd anniversary of the passage of the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1910, which appropriated the funds to begin construction of the locks. A good investment, I'd say.
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| The Abner Coburn along with the tug Wanderer move east through the Ballard Locks, circa 1916. |
In case you had not checked in for a while, I thought I would put the "Friends of the Ballard Locks" back on your radar. One of their members, Kyle Stetler, let us know in his article for the FOBL blog that June 25th is the 102nd anniversary of the passage of the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1910, which appropriated the funds to begin construction of the locks. A good investment, I'd say.
Remembering the Cold War
For me, one of the frustrating things about getting older is that what seems like ancient history to young people just happened yesterday in my mind. But after finding a couple of videos on YouTube that have to do with the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment during the Cold War, I counted up the years. It’s been almost 23 years since the fall of the “Iron Curtain,” and going on 24 since I left the "Fulda Gap." It did seem like yesterday, at least until I took a look at these old clips.
We saw the Wall come down on television but we never really celebrated the end of the Cold War here in the United States. It just sort of ended one day without notice and Bob’s your uncle, it wasn’t there anymore. But we won it, sure enough. And we did our job so well we never had to experience the horrors of the war we imagined with the Warsaw Pact. It brought a smile to my face when I read an article at military.com and saw the pictures of all those Russian tanks we were so afraid of. They’re for sale… and currently gathering rust in the Ukraine.
I have not written much about my own military service in this blog. I share a portion of it here, just to contribute part of my own "oral history." I served in the 11th ACR, the Blackhorse Regiment, as an aviation officer and scout helicopter pilot from 1985 to 1988. During those Cold War years, the mission of the 11th Armored Cavalry was to patrol approximately 230 miles of the East German border. We linked up with the 2nd Armored Cavalry to our south, and the British Army of the Rhine on the north. The Regiment’s headquarters was based in the town of Fulda, about twenty miles from the border.
Just before I came to the unit, the Regiment had made a promotional video that everyone called “The Blackhorse Movie.” Self-serving and corny, but man, as a new lieutenant in the Blackhorse, I thought it was cool. I had a copy of my own until the VHS tape finally disintegrated. But isn’t YouTube wonderful? Someone posted a copy. It’s just under fifteen minutes long, but I think you’ll enjoy it. It’s got a good history lesson on the beginning of the Cold War in Germany:
Fast forward two years to a day or so before Thanksgiving in 1987. The whole community was abuzz, because the Today Show was going to broadcast live from the “frontiers of freedom” in Fulda, Germany. That same week the morning show had been filmed at an Air Force base in England and on the deck of an aircraft carrier at sea. The largest building available was our aircraft hangar on Sickles Army Airfield, so that’s where they would broadcast from. For days prior to the broadcast our operations were curtailed. No training flights, only the required daily border surveillance missions. The hangar had to be cleared out and all of the aircraft were lined up on the runway. I assumed that any conflict with the Soviets would be put on hold until Jane Pauley and Bryant Gumbel had left town.
I had just recently been made the squadron’s S-2 (staff intelligence officer). I was given a mission to lead a flight of helicopters carrying a camera crew up to a border outpost (O.P. Tennessee). The flight was delayed due to forecasted clouds over a pass we had to fly through to get to the border. When our squadron commander took command a few months earlier, he gave a speech where he promised that safety was paramount and there would be no more launching of “weather birds” to prove the Air Force weather forecasters wrong. Well, when he saw me on the flight line he sternly reminded me that these were important people with a schedule to keep. He strongly suggested that I get in my little helicopter and go see for myself whether or not the pass was open. So much for no weather birds. We eventually got the camera crew up to the border. The Russians were kind enough to send up a couple of their aircraft to see why we showed up with so many aircraft ourselves. So the NBC folks shot a great segment and for a brief moment you could catch a glimpse of the tail of my aircraft on television.
Here’s a segment of that episode of the Today Show I found on YouTube:
I didn’t go to the hangar to watch the filming. Instead I stayed in my office and watched it on television. I was told that as soon as it was over, Jane Pauley and Bryant Gumbel walked off stage without looking back. But Willard Scott (the jovial weatherman before Al Roker) stayed and signed autographs for every soldier and family member who wanted one.
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| Photo from article "Soviet Tanks As Far As The Eye Can See" |
Bridge in West Virginia Named for 509th PIB Veteran
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| Photo from WBOY.com Channel 12 in Upsur County, West Virginia. |
The dedication ceremony was held at the bridge in Upshur county on Sunday May 27, 2012. An honor guard from the 1/509th at Fort Polk was present, as well as members of the 509th PIB WWII Living History Group. Victor Osburn's nephew Joe Osburn, who was instrumental in having the bridge dedicated to his uncle's memory, had graciously sent me an invitation to the ceremony. Unfortunately, being in the process of relocating to the other coast, I was unable to attend. However, I was able to watch a well done video clip from local TV news WDTV covering the dedication. Congratulations, Joe. It looks like the event was a success.
New Home Base: Sequim, Washington
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| Here's Jim at Railroad Bridge Park, and there's a new bike trail to conquer! |
Between getting ready to move, moving across the country, and settling in to our new home, I've been out of the loop for about a month. Before I left Pennsylvania, I completed researching the 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment at the AHEC and NARA. That of course is my next writing project, as a companion to The Boldest Plan is the Best, about the 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion. I wanted to complete the story of the first airborne units to deploy in WWII, before the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions went overseas. However, as I learn more about my new surroundings I'll be passing on some information here. For instance, did you know that back in the 1970s, some mastodon bones were found in the area? They contained a spear point that dates the inhabitants of the area to pre-Clovis period, which means that travelers have been coming to the Sequim for more than 14,000 years!
As the two or three regular readers of this blog know, my interests are mainly in the twentieth century. Luckily we've arrived in time for the 117th Irrigation Festival. Sequim, and the Dungeness Valley, are in a rain shadow of the Olympic Mountains. So unlike the rest of Puget Sound, the area gets only approximately 15 inches of rain a year, which is about the same as southern California. In 1895 the local farmers began an irrigation project that brought economic prosperity to the area. The annual celebration of that agricultural endeavor is the oldest in Washington state. More to follow as I head down to join my local historical society. ;-)
A Visual of the New Museum of the U.S. Army
For several years now, the Army Historical Foundation has been raising money for the new Museum of the United States Army to be constructed at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. A recent article in Army Times helped to spread the word that conceptual renderings of what the new museum will look like are available. This pdf provides some of the details of the planned museum and renderings of what the concept looks like.
The Army has donated 55 acres of land on Fort Belvoir, just outside of Washington, D.C. and has also paid for site preparation and some “design activities.” The remainder of the $300 million for the project is the responsibility of the Army Historical Foundation. So far the foundation has raised $64 million, most of which has been donated by defense contractors. About $3 million has come from the sale of commemorative coins. Groundbreaking is tentatively scheduled for mid-2013 with and anticipated opening date sometime in 2015.
There has been some controversy around the building of this museum. On the upside, the new museum will provide a one-stop location to teach the public about the 236-year history of the United States Army and its contribution to the building of the nation. Located in the D.C. metro area, the Foundation (according to the Army Times article) expects to receive from 750,000 to 1 million visitors to the museum each year. Obviously they estimate a large spinoff of visitors from other D.C. attractions.
Some of the criticisms of course have to do with cost, who is paying for it, what other facilities will close in order to support this project, and the fact that the Army has a long list of other, more specialized, museums. For example in Virginia alone there is currently operating the Corps of Engineers Museum in Alexandria, the Army Transportation Museum at Fort Eustis, the Casemate Museum at Fort Monroe, and the Army Women’s Museum, the Army Ordnance Museum, as well as the Army Quartermaster Museum, all at Fort Lee, Virginia. There is also the Airborne and Special Operations Museum at Fort Bragg, North Carolina and in recent years, the Armor Museum at Fort Knox was moved and co-located with the Infantry Museum at Fort Benning, Georgia.
Personally, I was disappointed that the museum was going to be built in already congested, over-crowded Washington, D.C. I had hoped that the Foundation would put the Museum of the U.S. Army near one of our larger bases, like Fort Hood, or Fort Lewis (Washington State doesn't have an operating Army museum), or maybe in a city that could use the economic stimulus. The opening of this museum really affected me when rumors came about that the Army was considering closing the Army Heritage and Education Center here in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, moving the archives to the Army Center for Military History (again in D.C.) and their museum artifacts to the new museum at Fort Belvoir. As you can imagine, I’m a museum fanatic and I’m glad that the Museum of the United States Army is being built. But we must be aware of what the “hidden” costs of this project are and protect what we’ve already built.
News Item: Relics Found in Gettysburg! (and a new museum soon)
Did you really think that we know everything there is to know about the battle of Gettysburg, or have discovered every relic or manuscript with a link to the famous Civil War battle? No, of course you didn’t. The Hanover Evening Sun reports that construction workers found a treasure trove of artifacts while working on a remodeling project on a dormitory at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Gettysburg.
The building, known as the “Old Dorm” is undergoing a 15-month remodel that will turn it into an interpretive museum. The building had been used as a hospital during the battle. Tucked into the walls were old worn out shoes from the 19th Century. It was believed that putting old shoes between wall joists would bring luck. In the ceiling, believed to have fallen through the cracks in the floor above, were several letters belonging to civil war soldiers. Several bottles were also found.
The work is being funded with a $4 million grant from the State of Pennsylvania. When the project is completed, visitors will be able to have access to the cupola, where Union General John Buford surveyed the opening moves of the battle, as portrayed by Sam Elliot in the movie, Gettysburg.
The National Museum of American History
Post-holiday winter doldrums? Us too. Sheila and I needed an excellent adventure. Luckily, January is a great time to take in a museum, especially in Washington, DC. Yes, it's cold, cold, cold! But it beats melting in the heat of the National Mall during the summer and you can't beat the crowds, because there aren't any. So the road trip was on. This weekend we drove down and took in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.
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| Photography is not allowed in this exhibit. Photos of the Star Spangled Banner are provided courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution. |
THOMAS online, brought to you by the Library of Congress
I really enjoy finding a new resource on the web. Sometimes it’s kind of a Homer Simpson moment though (“Doh!”), when I think I should have known about this thing earlier. Thanks to a blog post about the Federalist Papers by my friend Paul over at History Delivered, I discovered THOMAS, brought to you by the wonderful folks at your Library of Congress. I thought I would share it with you here.
THOMAS, named for Thomas Jefferson, is the section of the Library of Congress website that provides a bit of transparency to our government. Here’s an explanation from the site’s About page: “THOMAS was launched in January of 1995, at the inception of the 104th Congress. The leadership of the 104th Congress directed the Library of Congress to make federal legislative information freely available to the public.”
The site provides all of the legislative information you could want to get your eyes on, so you don’t have to suffer the biased summations of the media, whatever your political philosophy. On this site you can read the real text of bills and resolutions that our Congress is debating, along with treaties, the Congressional Record, and more (not to mention the Federalist Papers). The site has actually been around since 1995. Realizing that and having not looked into it sooner is definitely one of my Homer Simpson moments. But who has time for all of this reading? Well, perhaps I do watch too much television, but since all of my favorite shows are in repeats, the holiday season is an excellent time to do a little extra reading and research. ;-)
The “High Water Mark” of the Confederacy
During the Gettysburg Campaign in the summer of 1863, Confederate General Richard Ewell moved his corps north from Chambersburg through the Cumberland Valley lead by General Albert Jenkin’s cavalry brigade. Faced with overwhelming odds, the Union forces in Carlisle withdrew to defend the approaches to Harrisburg. On June 28, 1863, Mechanicsburg, about ten mile east of Carlisle, was the northernmost town to surrender to Confederate forces. The Rupp House, just outside of Mechanicsburg at the time, was occupied as headquarters for General Jenkins. A monument commemorating Jenkins and his Confederate cavalry is now located at the location (an office building at 5115 Trindle Road in Mechanicsburg).
Union forces set up defenses on the west side of the Susquehanna to protect the approaches to Harrisburg, about five miles northeast of Mechanicsburg. Under the command of Major General Darius Couch built two earthwork forts on Washington Heights (then known as Hummel’s Heights) in today’s community of Lemoyne, overlooking Harrisburg across the Susquehanna River. Fort Washington was the main fortification was located in an area around Cumberland Road between Walnut and Indiana Avenues. (I found no commemoration of the fort, but it’s a nice neighborhood.) A few blocks west was built a smaller, forward position that was dubbed Fort Couch. Honoring Fort Couch is a large monument and remains of the earthworks set aside in a small park at 8th Street and Indiana Avenue. This park is surrounded by residences on all sides and there is no dedicated parking. Unfortunately with the urban growth you can’t see the approach that General Couch would have seen, but you can certainly appreciate the military significance of the positions on Hummel’s Heights.
Pennsylvania State Historic Markers commemorating the northernmost skirmishes are a little harder to spot if you are whizzing by in your car. Two small engagements took place between Mechanicsburg and Lemoyne. On June 28, General Jenkins sent a small force to engage Union militia units that fled Mechanicsburg as the Confederates entered the town. The Union troops set up a battery of artillery and a hasty defense at Oyster Point, a tavern located on Market at 31st Street in Camp Hill. The Confederates returned the next day with a larger force, but could not dislodge the Yankees. The engagement at Oyster Point was probably a diversion to cover Jenkins reconnaissance of the river crossings to Harrisburg from Slate Hill in New Cumberland. The state marker was hard to spot. It was a foggy morning and the sign was hidden behind some trees. I’ve probably driven past it at least eight times without ever noticing it before.
On June 30th two New York militia regiments supported by a battery of Pennsylvania artillery engaged two Virginia cavalry regiments around the McCormick farmhouse, just north of Mechanicsburg along the Carlisle Pike. This engagement became known as the skirmish at Sporting Hill. There is a state marker at the corner of Sporting Hill Road and the Carlisle Pike. It’s a busy intersection, but you can pull into the parking lot of the “Ye Old Ale House” and walk out to the corner to read the marker. Sporting Hill was the northernmost engagement in the Gettysburg Campaign, and as such can be called the high water mark of the Confederacy. In fact, Pennsylvania historian Robert Grant dubbed it so in his article “Highwater 1863: The Confederate Approach to Harrisburg” in Pennsylvania History, 1963 (placed online courtesy of ExplorePAHistory.com).
Sporting Hill can be considered a Union victory, in that the Confederates left the field. But in all fairness, their hurried departure was due to Ewell’s orders to move his corps to Gettysburg, the famous battle kicking off the next day. The Cumberland County Visitors Bureau has produced an excellent self-guided tour brochure/map for “The Civil War on the West Shore.” It is available in pdf for download. Get the full feel of the Gettysburg Campaign by taking this tour. It’s worth it.
Pretzels, Chocolate, and History: Lititz, Pennsylvania
Where has this guy been for two months?! Not roving, I’ll tell you that much. A couple of weeks got shot down when we moved from Hagerstown, MD up to Mechanicsburg, PA. No offense, Maryland, but we like it a lot better up here in Yankee-land. Besides, now I’m only a twenty minute drive from the AHEC!
The rest of the time I’ve been finishing up the manuscript for the book on the 509th Parachute Infantry. When I say “finishing up” I mean editing, which seems like it’s taking as long to do as it did to write the book. We are also now in the layout stage, which means formatting and putting in pictures and maps. All very exciting. I’ll tell you more about that later.In the meantime, Sheila and Meaghan convinced me to take a day off a couple of weeks ago, so we went for a drive over to Lititz, Pennsylvania, “Lancaster County’s Sweet Spot.” Lititz is a charming (yes, I said charming) little town about ten miles north of Lancaster. Our first destination: The Julius Sturgis Pretzel Bakery.
In 1861, Julius Sturgis established the first pretzel bakery in the New World. It says so on the plaque outside, dedicated by the National Pretzel Bakers Institute. So you know it’s true. Go early, it’s a popular tour and worth it. Our tour guide, Ivy, was very knowledgeable, articulate, and friendly. During the presentation, that lasts about 30 minutes or so, the tour group gets a lesson in how to twist a pretzel. I think “hands on” history is great. And fun too. But it probably wasn’t for the 19th century pretzel makers who had to stand there twisting pretzels all day. After the tour, stop by the shop and pick up a bag for the way home. They also have fresh baked soft pretzels for sale, my favorite.
I admit that I had forgotten that the Wilbur Chocolate factory was in Lititz. That turned out to be a pleasant surprise. I had seen Wilbur featured on one of the Travel Chanel shows. They weren’t kidding, the chocolate is better than Hershey’s, in my humble opinion. So from the Sturgis Pretzel Bakery it is worth a stroll through Lititz a few blocks to the house of chocolate. For over 125 years, Wilbur has been making chocolate in Lititz. Their signature product is the “Wilbur Bud” (not to be thought of as the other guy’s “kiss,” this is waaaay better!). Admittedly, the majority of the square footage in Wilbur’s is devoted to the store. But in the back there is a viewing window where you can watch the chocolate treats being made. On the way is a self-service museum of sorts with lots of antique kitchen utensils and Wilbur ephemera on display.
I know this is sounding a lot like a travel piece, but I have to give a shout out to the girls working at the Sandwich Factory, located about a block north of Wilbur’s. Fantastic burgers, sandwiches, and my personal favorite, batter-dipped and deep fried onion rings. The service with a smile was even better than the food.
You know that every once in a while you have to take a break from military history, for family harmony, if nothing else. I highly recommend a trip to Lititz, PA. A little food history with some samples to bring home, what’s not to love?
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