SPITFIRE DOWN

I thought I'd start the Independence Day weekend posts with this unique story about an American soldier-of-fortune caught up in the odd politics of war - S.L.

An attempt to recover a Spitfire from a peat bog in Donegal, Ireland reveals the peculiar story of men - both Allied and German - who spent much of World War II in internment camps in Dublin.


From BBC News: The WWII camp where Allies and Germans mixed


NORTHERN IRELAND 1941: A routine Sunday afternoon sortie, one of Britain's Spitfire fighters runs into difficulties.

Returning to base after flying "top-cover" for maritime convoys off the coast of Donegal, the Rolls Royce Merlin engine overheats and fails.

The pilot yells into his radio "I'm going over the side", slides back the bubble canopy, releases his seat straps and launches himself into the air.

The Spitfire is one of the most vaunted examples of British engineering's history. The greatest ever single-seat, piston-engined fighter, it had played a vital role during the Battle of Britain the year before.

Its design was so advanced that it served on the front line from the first to the last day of the war. Bailing out was no easy task.

The air flow hit this particular pilot like a freight train and tore off his boots. Luckily he was able to deploy his parachute and landed in a peat bog. His aircraft smashed into the bog half a mile away.

It sounds like a typical wartime accident but it was anything but. It was the beginning of one of the strangest incidents of WWII.

133 Squadron RAF was one of the famous Eagle Squadrons - American volunteers serving with the RAF during World War II.


The pilot was 23-year-old Roland "Bud" Wolfe, an RAF officer from 133 "Eagle" Squadron, a unit composed entirely of Americans.

Bud was from Nebraska, one of a number of Americans who had volunteered to take up Britain's cause. Since the US was not yet at war with Germany when the men volunteered, the American government stripped Wolfe and others of their citizenship. These pilots were a mix of idealists and thrill seekers.

Nowadays we would call them "adrenalin junkies" - S.L.


When Wolfe was found by the authorities he realised his, already unusual, situation was much more complicated than he had guessed. He had crashed over the border.

South of the border from (British) Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland was neutral; it had been decided that all servicemen of any belligerent nation that ended up on Irish soil through navigational error, shipwreck or other accident would be interned for the duration of the war.

Wolfe found himself heading not back to his airbase, RAF Eglinton, now City of Derry Airport, in Northern Ireland just 13 miles away, but to Curragh Camp, County Kildare, 175 miles to the south.

Bud Wolfe was very keen to get back into action





Here, a huddle of corrugated iron huts housed 40 other RAF pilots and crewmen who had accidentally come down in neutral territory. They were effectively prisoners of war.

It was an odd existence. The guards had blank rounds in their rifles, visitors were permitted (one officer shipped his wife over), and the internees were allowed to come and go. Fishing excursions, fox hunting, golf and trips to the pub in the town of Naas helped pass the time.

But what was really odd was the proximity of the Germans.

It was not just the British and their allies who got lost above and around Ireland. German sailors from destroyed U-boats and Luftwaffe aircrew also found themselves interned. The juxtaposition of the two sides made for surreal drama.

CURRAGH INTERNMENT CAMP:

• 140 Germans, mainly Luftwaffe and U-boat crew
• 100 Allied servicemen from Poland, Canada, New Zealand, Britain and sole American Bud Wolfe
• There were also 400 IRA internees in the camp

Sport was a notable feature. In one football match the Germans beat the British 8-3. There were also boxing contests.

It appears that the rivalry on the pitch followed the teams into the pub afterwards as well. They would drink at different bars, and the British once complained vigorously when the Luftwaffe internees turned up to a dance they had organised.

Anything further from front-line service is hard to imagine.

It may seem to us like a welcome chance to sit out the war with honour intact, plenty of distractions and no danger, but for Wolfe it was an unacceptable interruption to his flying activities.

On 13 December 1941 he walked straight out of camp and after a meal in a hotel, which he did not pay for, he headed into nearby Dublin and caught the train the next day to Belfast. Within hours he was back at RAF Eglinton where he had taken off two weeks earlier in his defective Spitfire.

He could not have expected what was to happen next. The British government decided that, in this dark hour, it would be unwise to upset a neutral nation.

The decision was made to send Wolfe back to The Curragh and internment. Back in the camp, Wolfe made the best of it, joining the fox-hunting with relish.

He did try to escape again but this time he was caught. Finally in 1943, with the US in the war, and the tide slowly turning, The Curragh was closed and the internees returned. Wolfe joined the US Army Air Force and served once again on the front line.

The famous British Supermarine Spitfire single-seat fighter plane used by RAF and many Allied countries during WWII; its thin, elliptical wing allowed a higher top speed than similar fighters.


So great was his love of flying that he also served in Korea and even Vietnam. He eventually died in 1994.

Bud Wolfe's epic story did not end with his death; thanks to the highly unusual nature of the Irish peat bog where his Spitfire crashed, a team of archaeologists is attempting to dig up his aircraft.

Dan Snow is following the attempt to recover Bud Wolfe's Spitfire in County Donegal and will be posting updates via the Twitter account @DigWW2.

Today's Bird HERE


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THESE ARE MY CREDENTIALS

OPERATION COBRA - BREST, FRANCE

The Battle for Brest was one of the fiercest battles fought during Operation Cobra, the Allied breakout of Normandy which began on 27 July 1944, during the Battle of Normandy during World War II. Brest was surrounded and eventually stormed by the U.S. VIII Corps. The fight proved extremely difficult, as the German garrison was well entrenched and partially made up of elite Fallschirmjäger (paratroopers) forces. Festung Brest ("Fortress Brest") was under the command of General der Fallschirmtruppe Hermann-Bernhard Ramcke, a paratroop veteran of the Afrika Korps.

General Ramcke eventually surrendered the city on 19 September 1944 to the Americans after rendering useless the port facilities. When U.S. Brigadier General Charles Canham arrived to accept his surrender, General Ramcke asked the lower-ranking man to show his credentials. Canham pointed to his nearby troops and said "These are my credentials". Canham was at the time the deputy commander of the U.S. 8th Infantry Division, and that phrase has become the division's motto.

THE NINE-O-NINE

The Nine-O-Nine completed 140 combat missions with the 323rd Bomb Squadron, 91st Bomb Group during World War II - believed to be the Eighth Air Force record for most missions - she never lost a crewman as a casualty.

The Nine-O-Nine was a block 30 B-17G manufactured by the Boeing Company, she was nicknamed after the last three digits of her serial number: 42-31909. She was added to the USAAF inventory on December 15, 1943, and flown overseas on February 5, 1944. After depot modifications, she was delivered to the 91st BG at RAF Bassingbourn, England, on February 24, 1944, as a replacement aircraft, one of the last B-17s received in factory-applied camouflage paint.

A former navigator of the 91st BG, Marion Havelaar, reported in his history of the group that Nine-O-Nine completed either 126 or 132 consecutive missions without aborting for mechanical reasons, also believed to be a record. M/Sgt. Rollin L. Davis, maintenance line chief of the bomber, received the Bronze Star for his role in achieving the record.

The Nine-O-Nine's first combat mission was Augsburg, Germany on February 25, 1944. She dropped 562,000 pounds of bombs, and flew 1,129 hours. The letter “B” was painted on ten of the 140 bomb symbols to represent ten missions “Nine-O-Nine” flew to Berlin; she was credited with downing three enemy fighters. She had 21 engine changes, four wing panel changes, 15 main gas tank changes, and 18 changes of Tokyo tanks (long-range fuel tanks).

After the end of hostilities in Europe, Nine-O-Nine was returned to the United States on June 8, 1945, and was consigned after the war to the RFC facility at Kingman, Arizona on December 7, 1945.

Sadly, she was eventually scrapped but thanks to dedicated hard-working enthusiasts, the Nine-O-Nine flies again!

B-17G-85-DL, 44-83575, civil register N93012, owned and flown by The Collings Foundation of Stow, Massachusetts, currently appears at airshows marked as the historic Nine-O-Nine.

Today's Bird HERE


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D DAY

Busy on the road this year, so it is my pleasure today to link to an earlier post about Ben Leavell, Canadian veteran of the Normandy Campaign. Ben was the father of a good friend of mine - he departed this earth last summer, but not before seeing his story presented on STORMBRINGER - which I am told brought much pleasure to himself, his family and their circle of friends and acquaintances in the city of Collingwood, Ontario.

U.S. forces landing at Omaha Beach


When Americans think of the great Normandy Invasion, visions of the troops landing under terrible fire at Omaha Beach come to mind.

I must admit, for years I believed (falsely) that the Canadian landings at Juno Beach were a cake walk, that opposition was so light that Canadian troops were able to wade ashore with bicycles over their shoulders.

Au contraire - the Canadians faced a frightening Atlantic Wall, like the Americans at Omaha. Juno Beach was defended by elements of the 736th Regiment of the 716th German Infantry Division, composed of 29 companies and armed with 500 machineguns, 50 mortars and 90 various types of guns.

The main immediate opposition came from three, fairly low grade, battalions of the 716th Division, but the presence of offshore rocks meant that the tide would not be high enough for the landings to begin until half an hour later than those elsewhere, and so the Canadians faced an alerted enemy.

The Canadian landing took place on JUNO beach, on either side of the mouth of the River Seulles.


As on the other invasion beaches, the Canadian landings were preceded by heavy air and then naval bombardment, two hours before the beginning of the landing. Frogmen were charged to open several accesses to the beach, 20 minutes before H Hour, in order to facilitate the navigation of the landing crafts.

In the early morning of June 6, 1944, however the preceding days storm in the English Channel was still not over, although definitely less powerful than the day before. There was strong surge to the seas at Juno, and the waves increased progressively during the approach to the beach.

The attack start time of 0735 hrs was delayed by this strong swell and the lack of visibility affected navigation of the landing crafts. Because the high tide covered much of the beach defenses, the hulls of many landing craft were pierced, causing them to sink. Several of the amphibious "Duplex Drive" tanks became submerged by waves passing above the floating system.

Sappers - charged to open and mark out breaches through the forest of beach defenses - could not work efficiently in the heavy surge. As on Omaha Beach, not enough exits were created before the arrival of the tanks and the landing craft of the second wave.

Despite the risk, the ships transporting the amphibious tanks (Landing Craft Tank, LCT) had to approach close to the beach in order to limit the losses. Thus, some tanks crossed a distance of 600 meters, but the waves remained dangerous.

These delays made it possible for the Germans to reorganize and effectively defend the beaches. By the evening of June 6, 1944, the losses of the 3rd Infantry Division were very high: 1,074 soldiers were killed or wounded; it was the heaviest ratio of losses of the three Commonwealth invasion beaches.

Today's Bird HERE


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ITs NEVER OVER

Libya, World War II - British Long Range Desert Group patrol of 3 trucks.



Today's Bird HERE



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THE EPITOME OF HONOR

A Marine Force Recon buddy sent this to me today; this is what the American warrior class does for it's own - we always bring them back. It might take fifty, or a hundred and fifty years, but in the end . . . we always bring them back.


This is Honor.





The Marine Raiders of World War II were the forerunners of Force Reconnaissance.

Also today, we honor Tim Hetherington, British war correspondent and photographer - killed in action, 20 April 2011 in the besieged Libyan city of Misurata.

Journalists go forward to the battle fronts as absolute volunteers - there is no requirement they go. This is guts, and they serve an important role as scribes of history. But in the end, theys rolls the dices and theys takes theys chances. Hetherington was worthy, however - he was director and producer of the film “Restrepo”

In 2007 and 2008, Hetherington spent 14 months with a platoon of 
paratroopers from the famed 173d Airborne Brigade in the Korangal Valley, Afghanistan.

I saw that documentary; it was so real for me, it sent shivers up my spine.

Timothy (Tim) Hetherington, 1970 – April 20, 2011

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THEY'D MURDER ME IF THEY EVER FOUND OUT . . .

The Incredible Story of Lt. Col. William M. Hoge and the Army's First Obstacle Course

Written by Dwight Jon Zimmerman for the Defense Media Network

Officers train on an obstacle course at Camp Edwards, Mass., around 1942. Hoge's invention of the American version of the obstacle course solved the problem of limited space and prompted countless groans and curses from generations of warfighters. Library of Congress photo


When World War II started in Europe in September 1939, the United States was the 17th largest military power. Its army, containing just 190,000 troops, was effectively a constabulary force. By February 1941, all that had changed. Thanks to the recently passed conscription law, the number of recruits had ballooned almost ten-fold, with millions more to come.

Before they could be shipped out to the new and expanding training centers being prepared for them, they had to be shaped up. While all base and camp commanders had that problem, it was particularly acute for Lt. Col. William M. Hoge.

Hoge’s most vexing problem was how to provide proper military outdoor physical exercise training. Because he was located on a peninsula, he couldn’t expand. Space was at a premium.

. . . one of his subordinates, Paul W. Thompson, had spent a year in Germany as an attaché. Calling Thompson into his office, Hoge asked him, “What in the hell do the Germans do to get exercise for their men? They have much less area than we have.” Thompson told him about specially designed fields filled with a variety of trenches and constructions that the men had to overcome through climbing, crawling, swinging, hopping, and jumping.

Hoge brought in the officer responsible for physical training and the three drew up a blueprint for the Army’s first obstacle course.


Read this incredible story in it's entirety HERE.

Enlisted men training on an obstacle course during World War II. The original caption reads: "Swinging across fifteen feet of horizontal ladders are soldiers of the anti-aircraft training center. This is the next-to-the-last obstacle on the course and comes at a time when a man's wind is coming hard and his arms are feeling fatigue. Library of Congress photo.



Today's Bird HERE


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ORIGINS OF THE GREEN BERET

I was recently asked:  

Which is "proper" or preferred by these men when referring to them, "Green Beret" or "Special Forces"?

It is a very insightful question, and the answer is long & complex. Each one of the following paragraphs is the subject of at least a chapter-long essay; but it is my tribe, and I am the teller of the tale, so here goes:

As I recall, the "Green Berets" label became popular during the sixties, with the song, the book and the movie:

The green beret itself, as a piece of headgear for elite forces, dates to WWII and the French Underground. The Royal Marine Commandos were already wearing it, and it was picked up by the OSS Jedburghs (direct predecessors of modern day US Army Special Forces).

45 Royal Marine Commando, WWII

I don’t know exactly when French Foreign Legion paratroopers started wearing green berets - sometime after WWII when they acquired Airborne capability within the French forces, and before Dien Bien Phu - where they wore the green beret in combat.

Foreign Legion Soldiers in Algiers, 1957

Beret of the 2° Regt Etrangere Parachutiste (French Foreign Legion)

Early U.S. Army Special Forces in Europe adopted the beret as an unofficial headgear, worn only in the field. By the time of General William Yarborough’s famous First Formation in front of John F. Kennedy the beret was being worn openly (and unofficially) on post at Fort Bragg by Special Forces personnel.

President Kennedy granted official recognition & Presidential award of the headgear.

Then came the song, the book, and the movie, and from that point we were designated “Green Berets” in the popular lexicon.





Then something happened in the late 70s / early 80s. Everyone knows the Army can ruin a wet dream. The beret was officially sanctioned by no less than Presidential Executive Order, and so the Army, in it’s wisdom, determined that EVERYONE assigned to a Special Forces unit should wear the uniform (to include distinctive headgear) of that unit. Hence the phenomenon of pregnant female office clerks seen walking around Fort Bragg wearing green berets.

This sacrilege was finally put to rest when Special Forces became it’s own branch, MOS; 18-series Career Management Field. Nowadays only Special Forces qualified personnel wear the green beret; non-SF qual’d personnel assigned to Special Forces wear maroon berets (indicating airborne unit status).

For the longest time during the 70s and 80s it was almost taboo amongst Special Forces soldiers to refer to ourselves as “Green Berets”. This was how Hollywood described us, and of course there was that whole thing about the pregnant personnel clerk walking around the PX at Bragg wearing a green beret. We were and ARE Special Forces soldiers. Likewise, there is no such thing as “Navy Special Forces” or “Air Force Special Forces”. These units are designated “Special Operations Forces” (SEALs are Navy SOF, Para-Rescue are AF SOF, etc) to differentiate from the “Special Forces” designation, which has belonged to the Army since World War II.

World War II-era jump wings of the OSS (Office of Special Services)
"Special Forces"

Nowadays however a certain pride and ownership has come of the label “Green Beret” and we once again refer to ourselves as “The Green Berets”. You will see it on web sites, chatrooms, certain YouTube clips, etc. We are still not quite yet comfortable with the monicker, given the Hollywood over-usage in the past, but I have heard the term used even in Tactical Operations Centers (TOCs) and Joint Operations Centers (JOCs) by Special Forces soldiers, when discussing order of battle, to differentiate between Special Forces soldiers out there on the battlefield and other Special Operations Soldiers (Rangers are Army SOF, Marine Force Recon are MARSOF, etc).

Of course, I am (semi) retired now – I refer to myself as EX-Special Forces (“ex;” being Latin for “out of”) but NEVER “former” Special Forces; on the grounds that there is no such thing as a “former” Special Forces soldier (with the possible exception of the guys drummed out in disgrace – I’ve seen a few of those). I work and hang out with a number of colleagues from my former life, and recently a retired Sergeant Major said to me (in front of everyone), “You’re a Green Beret, Linnane – get yerself out there and KICK SOME ASS ! ! !”


Hope this answers your question for now . . . SEAN LINNANE SENDS



Today's Bird HERE


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BY THE GRACE OF GOD AND "OLD SLABSIDES"

This awesome tale of a very special 1911 comes to us via the worthy blog of a friend who is also a Brother and Charter Member of Team STORMBRINGER- Chasmatic's SPILLERS OF SOUP:

"One of the older technicians at work was telling me a story today about a pistol that was in his in-laws' family.

"He tells me that his wife's late father, who was a Marine in the battle of Iwo Jima, had brought back his pistol from the war. I'm thinking, OK, must be a nice old 1911 model, one that has probably seen more than a few soldiers' hands; then comes the rest of the story.

"Turns out that the guy's father in law had a camera with him in his sack, and had taken some pictures of when they raised the flag on Mt. Suribachi. He submitted his photo but it was not chosen as the one that is now famous. The family still has this picture hanging in their living room.

"A few days after the flag raising the Japanese attacked the Marines and another fight broke out. While they are in the middle of everything a Japanese sniper takes a shot at him. The bullet hits him in the right wrist and hits his gun hanging from his belt. The round, after completely disabling his right hand, penetrates his leather pistol holster and embeds itself into the slide of his 1911. Fragments from the round penetrate through the other side of the holster and into his leg, injuring him further. The Marine was able to get to the medic, where he was then evacuated to care for his injuries.

"So the technician asks me if I would like to see it. After telling him the obvious, he calls his wife's brother and asks if he could bring it up to the shop.

 
"Here are the pictures I took after listening to the same story again from the Marine's son. (it was a good story, I had no problem listening twice.)

I asked him if he would mind me posting them on here, as long as I blocked out the serial number. He said go right ahead.

"Although I had to blur out the serial #, it fell into the early/mid 600,000 range. Found this Colt: S/N 450,000 to 629,500 = Oct. 24, 1918 to April 10, 1919

The Marine's name was Horace Arthur Smith "Arty". he passed away 3 years ago."

Honor

Wednesday Bird HERE


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GUESS WHO?

When this actor died in Switzerland, the largest wreath was sent by London's Heathrow airport staff along with a card that read: "To the finest gentleman who ever walked these halls. He made a porter feel like a king."

A graduate of Sandhurst, he returned to Britain in 1939 and was turned down by the RN, the RAF, and the Scots Guards. He got into the Rifle Brigade, later joined the Royal Marine Commandos, then commanded A Squadron of the "Phantom" reconnaissance regiment.

He told his troops that they only left their butcher shops and factories, but he "could've been with Ginger Rogers right now . . . "

After the war he was made a Legionnaire of the Order of Merit (the highest American order that can be earned by an alien). This was presented to Lt Col David Niven by General Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Lt Col David Niven, Royal Marine Commando, Normandy 1944

Although Niven had a reputation for telling old stories over and over, he was totally silent about his war experience. He said "I will, however, tell you just one thing about the war, my first story and my last. I was asked by some American friends to search out the grave of their son near Bastogne. I found it where they told me I would. but it was among 27,000 others, and I told myself that here, Niven, were 27,000 reasons why you should keep your mouth shut after the war."

Niven also had special scorn for the newspaper columnists covering the war who typed out self-glorifying and excessively florid prose about their meager wartime experiences.

David Niven, 1910-1983

Wednesday Bird HERE


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LADY LUCK

PB4Y-1 BuNo 38892

VPB-111

This aircraft belonged to the commander of VPB-111 in late 1944 - Lt. Cdr. J.V. Barry was 'PPC'. The PBY4-1 also carried the AAF serial# 44-41279. It flew for the first time on July 1944, and was delivered to the Navy eight days later.

Derived from the B-24 bomber, the Consolidated PB4Y Privateer was deployed on long-range anti-shipping and anti-submarine patrols. It helped to close the "Atlantic Gap" and was able to provide air support in areas that had been previously out of reach from both US and British shores.

Today's Bird HERE




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Captain Dick Winters, United States Paratrooper, January 21, 1918 - January 2, 2011

Dick Winters, the former World War II commander whose war story was told in the book and miniseries “Band of Brothers,” has died.

Dick Winters led a quiet life on his Fredericksburg farm and in his Hershey home until the book and miniseries “Band of Brothers” threw him into the international spotlight.

Since then, the former World War II commander of Easy Company had received hundreds of requests for interviews and appearances all over the world.

When people asked him if he was a hero, he liked to answer the way his World War II buddy, Mike Ranney, did.

“No,” Ranney said. “But I served in a company of heroes.” That became the tag line for the miniseries.

People who knew Winters during and after the war said he is exactly what he appears to be. He could lead without ever raising his voice or swearing. His friend Bob Hoffman, a Lebanon architect, said Winters’ eyes could “burn a hole right through you.”

According to the book, one wounded member of Easy Company wrote Winters from a hospital bed in 1945, “I would follow you into Hell.”

Ambrose, the author of “Band of Brothers,” said in a 2001 BBC interview that he hopes young people say. “I want to be like Dick Winters.”

He's in that Great Big Drop Zone in the Sky.



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