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Dear Grumpy Advice on Teaching in Today's Classroom War

Over There! It seems like a completely Different Planet doesn’t it ?

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War

Part of the price of War – (1918) WWI veterans: shell shock sequels, war neurosis.

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All About Guns Allies War

1917 one of the Better War Films about WWI – 2 Soldiers Must Cross Over Into Germans Territory To Save 1,600 Fellow Commrade From Deadly Ambush

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Hard Nosed Folks Both Good & Bad I am so grateful!! Leadership of the highest kind Soldiering Stand & Deliver War

Audie Murphy’s .45 Colt Revolver on Public Display by J ABSHER

audiemurphy.jpg

For anyone who grew up in the post-World War II era, his was a household name, one synonymous with “hero,” and “soldier.”

Audie Murphy was known as “the most decorated combat soldier of World War II.”A quintessential soldier, a master of the tools and tactics of ground warfare, he literally wrote the book on military valor—an autobiography entitled, “To Hell and Back.”

He starred in the movie adaptation, too.

This week, the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, located in Cody, WY, announced that Murphy’s .45 caliber Colt Model 1905 Bisley flattop target revolver—a gift from western film legend Gary Cooper—is on display to the public in its Cody Firearms Museum. The single-action revolver features mother-of-pearl grips that Cooper had molded to perfectly fit Murphy’s hand. Dr. Jim and Marilyn Phillips of Bakersfield, CA, have loaned the firearm to the Center for a period of one year.

.45 Colt, Audie Murphy, World War II  

In 1942, Murphy lied about his age to join the infantry at 17, after the Marines and paratroopers denied his application due to his small stature. Rising to the rank of First Lieutenant, he fought in nine major campaigns throughout Europe. His gallantry is even more impressive given that victory in Europe was achieved before his 21st birthday.

On January 26, 1945, at the edge of a forest in France, Murphy’s company was pinned down, outnumbered and facing annihilation by a column of German tanks supported by infantry. Ordering his men to retreat into the forest, Murphy commandeered the .50 caliber machine gun on a burning tank destroyer. While directing American artillery over his field telephone, Lt. Murphy swept the German tanks with deadly fire. Shells bursting and bullets ricocheting all around him, and the tank destroyer threatening to explode at any moment, Audie Murphy continued to fire until the enemy force broke and ran.

For his incredible acts of bravery and valor, Audie Murphy received the Medal of Honor. The accompanying citation reported 50 German soldiers killed or wounded and stated, “Lieutenant Murphy’s indomitable courage and his refusal to give an inch of ground saved his company from possible encirclement and destruction and enabled it to hold the woods, which had been the enemy’s objective.”

After the war, Murphy became a Hollywood star, albeit reluctantly, appearing in more than 40 films and receiving critical acclaim for his role in the 1951 movie version of Stephen Crane’s Civil War novel “The Red Badge of Courage.”

Murphy was known to suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), known then as “combat fatigue,” sharing his struggles and bringing early awareness to the issue. His advocacy for increased government research and funding for veterans with PTSD was honored by the 1973 dedication of the Audie L. Murphy Memorial VA Hospital in San Antonio, TX.

Murphy was 45 when he died in a private plane crash near Roanoke, VA. On June 7, 1971, he was buried at Arlington, where his grave remains one of the most-visited at the National Cemetery.

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All About Guns War

A Real Old School 1911 Veteran of the war to end all war (Please stop laughing!)

Colt 1911 U. S. ARMY .45 AUTO... BLACK ARMY FINISH, COMPLETELY ORIGINAL, GOOD BORE... NICE SHAPE, SHIPPED JULY, 1918... C&R OK .45 ACP - Picture 2

Colt 1911 U. S. ARMY .45 AUTO... BLACK ARMY FINISH, COMPLETELY ORIGINAL, GOOD BORE... NICE SHAPE, SHIPPED JULY, 1918... C&R OK .45 ACP - Picture 4

Note the  2-tone WWI magazines!

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Allies War

The Real Story Of The Tomb Of The Unknown Warrior

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War

The Battle of the Lys and the Escaut. 11 November, Armistice Day.

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Allies Soldiering War

Battle of Belleau Wood – (The battle that put The USMC on the Map)

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All About Guns Allies War

Colt Pistols of The United States Marine Corps

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War

The War that Thank God never happened! – Could Germany have won World War II if they had not attacked the Soviet Union? by John Vaughan

Perspective : Consider theMirror

In the spring of 1941 the enemy force (more than 150 divisions, about 3.8 million men) invades along the entire East Coast of the US, from Maine to Florida.

Although we have a reasonably large army, the surprise and ferocity of the attack drives US forces quickly back several hundred miles. Losses are huge: Entire US army groups are destroyed and captured.

By December of 1942, enemy forces have advanced across a front line which extends from Chicago in the North to Houston in the South. They are at the gates of the US capital, which is now in St Louis. They occupy or besiege most of the major US cities.

Still smarting from our failed-but-bloody attempt to invade them a couple of years ago, the Canadians are now allied with the enemy. They occupy US forces across our northern border and assist in the siege of Chicago.

Although Chicago withstands the siege for 900 days, hundreds of thousands die of starvation and cold. The Great Lakes are a tomb for uncounted supply vehicles and troops lost in attempts to lift the siege. An estimated 1.5 million, both civilian and military, die. Only 700,000 people were left alive of a 3.5 million pre-war population.

The enemy attempts to seize the rich oil reserves in the SouthWest, but are stopped in the winter siege of Houston, in which one of their armies is destroyed.

The enemy uses racial and ethnic hatred against the civilians in the occupied areas. Fierce partisan resistance results in cycles of war crimes against the civilian population.

A huge proportion of the major population and industrial centers were occupied and the civilian population was displaced.

Military deaths: 10 million

Civilian deaths due to military action, as well as famine and disease: 16 million

Almost 14% of total population is killed

“During the first 6 months of the invasion, [enemy] forces managed to occupy or isolate territory which prior to WWII accounted for over 60% of total coal, pig iron, and aluminum production. Nearly 40% of total grain production and 60% of total livestock was lost. Moreover, this area contained 40% [of the] population before the war, 32% of the state enterprise labor force, and one-third of the fixed capital assets of the state enterprise sector.” — from Wikipedia

This is pretty much what happened to Russia in WWII:

(The preceding story is all true, except for the names.)

  • USA = USSR
  • Chicago = Leningrad
  • Houston = Stalingrad
  • St Louis = Moscow
  • Canada = Finland

Ratio of Axis forces dedicated to Eastern Front at least 4:1. Allied commanders agreed that without active Russian involvement, losses in Allied invasion in West would have been almost unsustainably heavy.

Addendum (less than a day after posting):

Wow. Thousands of views and hundreds of upvotes. Am delighted to see the activity. A little disappointed to see the continuing and relentless focus on ‘how and why the Axis forces could never carry out an amphibious invasion of the US’.

Kudos to Scott Kanna and Ron Larson for ‘splainin’ it:

  • “the author was just describing what happened to the USSR during Operation Barbarossa so an American audience would understand what happened to the Russians in WWII.”
  • “Commentators… The story was an analog. You have to suspend your trans-Atlantic issues and just assume that Germany had total access to the coast.”

Yup. That’s one reason why I never refer to Germany or the Axis in the article. It is simply ‘the enemy.”

This article recycles a hypothetical scenario which appeals to me because it simply and compellingly puts the impact of the invasion of Russia in 1941 into accessible context – especially for Americans. And this scenario really is a remarkable historical mirror.

For those who remain befuddled: It’s in the form of a limited analogy (definition below)- not a literal comparison. Do we understand the meaning of ‘analogy’?

a comparison between two things, typically for the purpose of explanation or clarification

  • a correspondence or partial similarity
  • a thing which is comparable to something else in significant respects.

The key terms here are “partial” and “in significant respects”

… as differentiated from shallow nitpicking.

Please note: Most of us grasp the undeniable fact that Russia does not have much of a coastline in the West, just as the US does not have a major landmass to the East. They never have. They never will. You win … I guess.

I tip my hand in the title of the posting of this article on my own website:

Barbarossa : USA