Seventy-Four Years Ago Right Now

This was happening tonight here, but early tomorrow morning there:


For my foreign readers who are not familiar with this event, this was the Western Allied amphibious assault (a.k.a. Operation Neptune) on German forces in Normandy, France, as the tip of the spear of a broader invasion of Nazi-controlled Western Europe known as Operation Overlord in June, 1944, per the agreement at the Tehran Conference a year earlier.

Tank Duel in Cologne

I have encountered this 10-minute long rather remarkable short documentary titled "Battle for Cologne" before now. However, with my ongoing obsession with German tanks of World War Two thus far this year, I was roaming across Youtube this past weekend and encountered it once again. For reasons I cannot fathom, I have not previously shared this here. Tonight I am finally getting around to sharing it here. This is perhaps the most famous tank duel in history if for no other reason than it was filmed and photographed more than any other in history. It featured a German Panther tank versus two American M-4 Sherman tanks, of which it destroyed one of them in a single shot, killing three of five crew members and forcing the other tank to retreat. An American M-26 Pershing tank came to their aid and hit the German tank thrice, killing one of five crew members. The "Battle of Cologne" occurred on March 6, 1945, in a final stand for the Germans. The dead German gunner can be seen, legless, laying dead atop the turret of his tank as the second shot from the Pershing tank hit as he was exiting the turret a few seconds too late. Another, more detailed analysis using the same footage, but with the addition of some computer animations and more accurate analysis can be viewed below.
*NOTE: there is some graphic violence in this historic footage as the Sherman tank commander (who died a short time later) can be seen sans the lower part of one leg stumbling out of his tank and a dead German sans both his legs can be seen atop his tank as fire erupts out the hatch next to his remains.

Loving Tigers

As I explained about a month and a half ago HERE, I have been oft-obsessed with Tiger tanks thus far in 2017, particularly the Tiger II design. Not mentioned in the aforementioned post, is my second-place obsession with the Tiger I (seen in the above meme in the bottom half), which although not quite as bad-assed as the Tiger II, actually looked very much more bad-assed IMHO. My younger-brother-by-another-mother, Blake, shared this meme with me yesterday. I love it and it still speaks to my oddball mind and its obsessions and wanderings.

Compelling Portrayal of Hiroshima Nuking

This week I played this video segment for my students in prepping them for a classroom debate on the merits of the decision by U.S. President Harry Truman to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 & 9, 1945. I find it fascinating and compelling and the best yet which I have found on Youtube in the short clip category. It also reminds me of this short segment from the 2009 Battlestar Galactica movie The Plan which can be viewed HERE.

Quote of the Day - Count Galeazzo Ciano

The following quote came up today in the course of events. Before today, I had believed it was the late Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's line and apparently most people who know this quote believe it to have originated with the late U.S. president John F. Kennedy. However, as it turns out, the line comes from the pen of Count Galeazzo Ciano, the late son-in-law of the late Fascist leader Benito Mussolini. It originally appeared in Italian, written in his diary two years before his execution.

 "Victory has a hundred fathers and defeat is an orphan (La victoria trova cento padri, a nessuno vuole riconoscere l'insuccesso)."

King Tiger

I started this month mentioning something relating to the World War II-era German military (Wehrmacht) and in particular, the Germany Army (Heer). I'm finishing this month on a similar note. For reasons I cannot fathom, I have been obsessed with the World War II German-era Tiger II or Königstiger (King Tiger in Anglo-American English). In idle moments I find myself regularly imaging myself commanding one such tank in a final futile battle somewhere in western Europe towards war's end destroying a lot of American (esp. M4 Shermans) and British tanks (esp. Cromwells) and tank destroyers (such as M10 Wolverines) before being forced to surrender after running out of ammo. I have a strong feeling this is a metaphor for something. I sure hope I'm not engaged in a lost cause at present and don't realize it. Below is a sample of the tank to which I refer. It was the best tank in the world up into the 1950s and some are still being used in the Syrian Civil War right now as a measure of how great they were and still are.

Wehrmacht Amputation Image

Earlier last month I encountered this image on Google Images while searching for something else Wehrmacht-related which I can no longer recall. Anywho, I found this image strangely compelling and powerful. This image was shot in Russia in 1942 and shows a German soldier being treated by comrades after taking a high energy hit from a piece of metal (bullet or shrapnel) which amputated his left arm which rests in the foreground. It is highly probable none of the these men pictured survived the conflict. What a waste of fine infantry and humanity. If anybody can tell me more about this as a result of their own prior knowledge I am quite welcome to more information. Photographer unknown.

My Favorite Pearl Harbor Attack Image

Today marked the 75th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. It is somewhat difficult for me to wrap my mind around that fact as it does not feel like it has been that long. Perhaps that is partly due to my growing older. When I was born it had only been 29 years since the attack. It is also somewhat strange to consider that the two most closely-associated navies in the world are the two navies that clashed that day.

The Impossible Shot(s)

This is one of the most inspirational things I have watched in quite some time. This is both beautiful and heartwarming with maybe just a tad bittersweetness. This old vet puts on an awe shucks performance that wows the young wippersnappers. For more on this story go HERE.
*UPDATE: Gundy passed away in 2015. *NOTE: Updated 4/19/2017.

Death of a Tank

I found this the other night while looking up something else on Youtube. You know full well how one can easily get distracted and lost on Youtube following one interesting link after another. This is a very haunting short film showing the immediate aftermath of a USMC M4 Sherman Tank flipped over and on fire after driving over a Japanese tank-killing landmine on Okinawa on the morning of May 14, 1945. You see fellow marines try to put the fire out and dig out their trapped and endangered comrades but it is to no avail and they (and you) must watch the crew get "brewed" alive as the British called it when a tank crew got burned in their rig.

Porcelain Unicorn

I saw this for the first time a few years ago and was blown away by its power and ability to succinctly tell a tale covering the period of two people's lifetimes in the span of a handful of minutes.