FLAK TOWERS ! ! !

Flak towers (German: Flaktürme) were large, above-ground anti-aircraft gun blockhouses used by the Luftwaffe to defend against Allied air raids on certain cities during World War II. They also served as air-raid shelters for tens of thousands of people and to coordinate air defence.





Flak Tower, Vienna, Austria

After the first RAF raid on Berlin in 1940, Adolf Hitler ordered the construction of 3 massive flak towers to defend the capital from air attack. This massive project was completed in a mere 6 months. The priority of the project was evidenced in the fact that the German national rail schedule was altered in order to facilitate the shipment of the necessary materials, namely concrete, steel and lumber to the construction sites.

The flak towers were considered to be invulnerable to attack with the usual ordnance carried by Allied bombers. Constructed with concrete walls up to 3.5 metres thick, each flak tower was supported by a radar dish (retractable behind a thick concrete and steel dome in order to prevent damage during an air raid).

Although Allied aircraft generally appeared to have avoided the flak towers, it is unlikely the towers themselves would have withstood Grand Slam bombs which successfully penetrated much thicker reinforced concrete. The towers were able to sustain a rate of fire of 8000 rounds per minute from their multi-level guns, with a range of up to 14 km in a full 360-degree field of fire. The 3 flak towers around the outskirts of Berlin created a triangle of formidable anti-aircraft fire that covered the center of Berlin.

The flak towers had also been designed with the idea of using the above-ground bunkers as a civilian shelter, with room for 10,000 civilians, and even a hospital ward, inside. The towers, during the fall of Berlin, formed their own communities, with up to 30,000 or more Berliners taking refuge in a single tower during the battle. These towers were some of the safest places in the fought-over city and some of the last places to surrender to Allied forces, eventually forced to capitulate as supplies ran out.

The Soviets, in their assault on Berlin, found it difficult to inflict significant damage on the flak towers, even with some of the largest Soviet guns, such as the 203 mm howitzers. Soviet forces generally manoeuvered around the towers, and eventually sent in envoys to seek their submission. Unlike much of Berlin, the towers tended to be fully stocked with ammunition and supplies, and the gunners even used their anti-aircraft 20 mm cannons to defend against assault by ground units. The Zoo Tower was one of the last points of defence, with German armoured units rallying near it at Tiergarten, before trying to break out of the encircling Soviet Red Army.

For a time after the war, the conversion to representative objects with decorated facades was planned. After the war was lost, the demolition of the towers was in most cases unfeasible and many remain to this day.

Flak Tower Design Iterations


Each flak tower complex consisted of:

o a G-Tower (German: Gefechtsturm) or Combat Tower, also known as the Gun Tower, Battery Tower or Large Flak Tower, and

o an L-Tower (German: Leitturm) or Lead Tower also known as the Fire-control tower, command tower, listening bunker or small flak tower.


Flakturm I - Berliner Zoo, Berlin (1st Generation) G-Tower was demolished by the British at the end of the war. L-Tower was demolished after the war.


Flakturm II, G- Tower - Friedrichshain, Berlin (1st Generation)
G-Tower was partially demolished after the war; one side remains visible. L-Tower was demolished after the war.


Flakturm III - Humboldthain, Berlin (1st Generation) G-Tower was partially demolished after the war; one side remains visible. The interior can be visited. L-Tower was partially demolished after the war; some walls remain visible.



Flakturm IV - Heiligengeistfeld, Hamburg (1st Generation): G-Tower was transformed into a nightclub with a music school and music shops. L-Tower was demolished after the war.


Flakturm V - Wilhelmsburg, Hamburg (2nd Generation)
G-Tower remains to this day, L-Tower was demolished after the war.


Flakturm VI - Stiftskaserne, Vienna (3rd Generation)
G-Tower is located within a military base of the Austrian Army.

L-Tower (in Esterhazypark) is used as an aquarium ("Haus des Meeres")

There is a climbing wall on the outside of Flakturm VI.


Flakturm VII - G-Tower & L-Tower - Augarten, Vienna (3rd Generation)

G-Tower remains empty. The entire north-east and half of the east machine gun platforms have been removed during 2007 including the connecting walkways due to deterioration. The tower itself has been reinforced with steel cables encircling the entire structure, 12 cables are located above the machine gun nests, 6 just below, and an additional 4 midway up the tower. The tower is home to thousands of pigeons which nest on every platform and opening. The west side of the structure is used as a cellular communications tower. L-Tower remains empty.


Flakturm VIII - Arenberg Park, Vienna (2nd Generation)

Flakturm VIII G Tower

Flakturm VIII L Tower

G-Tower is used as a storehouse for art. L-Tower remains empty.

I used to live up the hill from the Pragstattel Flakturm in Stuttgart Germany:


Here it is at night:

COMING HOME

Laura Ling and Euna Lee, the two American journalists sentenced to 12 years hard labor in North Korea, are on their way back to the United States, thanks to the efforts of President Bill Clinton.



Do not fall for North Korean attempts to exploit this; Bill Clinton did a good thing, this is a time for joy & celebration. Two American citizens being held against their will have been liberated. 4+ months in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is no vacation - the DPRK is NOT a fun place to be, even in a "guesthouse" in Pyongyang.

Euna Lee and Laura Ling were arrested for "grave", though unspecified, crimes on the North Korea-China border earlier this year. It is widely thought that they deliberately crossed the border


The former President meets Yang Hyong Sop, Vice-President of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly - whatever you gotta say, whatever it takes - as long as there's no strings attached - to get your people back.


North Korea’s official news agency reported that Mr Clinton and Mr Kim engaged in "sincere and exhaustive discussions" on a range of issues.

Yeah, WHATEVER. Notice how Bill Clinton negates the North Korean propaganda photo-op event by showing NO EMOTION. Mister Charisma is NOT SMILING; he is stiff as a board, lifeless - this is not by accident, he has been coached. His body language says: "None of this counts, nothing of what you see or hear means anything. My heart is not in this. There is no meaning to my words. I am just going through the motions. There is no recognition of the people with whom I am speaking (the North Koreans). I give you nothing, and you give me my people." - S.L.


South Koreans have been demanding the release of the two women. Here they burn a defaced North Korean flag during a rally - where can I get a spray can that squirts out flames like that?

Here at STORMBRINGER we NEVER lost hope & faith . . . Welcome Home Laura Ling & Euna Lee ! ! !

ETERNAL VIGILENCE DOWN UNDER

. . . paid off this time, thankfully:



Australian police thwarted a suicide terrorist plot in which extremists with ties to an Al Qaeda-linked Somali Islamist group planned to conduct an armed assault on a military base and open fire with automatic weapons until they were shot dead themselves.

Some 400 officers from state and national security services took part in 19 raids on properties in Melbourne, Australia's second largest city, before dawn Tuesday, arresting four men and detaining several others for questioning.

"Details of the planning indicated the alleged offenders were prepared to inflict a sustained attack on military personnel until they themselves were killed," police said.

Australia Foils Terrorist Plot to Attack Army Base

AMERICANA

J.C. Higgins Model 20 - 12 Gauge Shotgun

From 1908 until 1961, Sears, Roebuck & Company sold a wide variety of sporting goods and recreational equipment, including bicycles, rifles and shotguns, under the brand name "J. C. Higgins." These products were well made and popular with the company's historical core of rural and working-class consumers.

Like many other Sears products, the Sears firearms were originally made by Stevens & Savage and other many other well-known firearms manufacturers specifically to be sold under the Higgins brand. Higgins rifles and shotguns were also sold at Western Auto Parts. The durable J.C. Higgins products are still available as second-hand items.

Ron from Hayesville, North Carolina says: "I've got a J.C. Higgins12 gage. I like it. It was my Daddy's gun. For that reason I like it a lot. I remember my Daddy used to say, 'I'm gonna git the J.C. Higgins off the wall,' and then I'd know we was goin' huntin'."

"IT’s TIME FOR THE US TO DECLARE VICTORY AND GO HOME"

COLONEL REESE’s MEMO

Col. Timothy R. Reese, Chief, Baghdad Operations Command Advisory Team, MND-B, is an adviser to the Iraqi military’s Baghdad command. He has written a controversial memorandum detailing Iraqi military weaknesses in scathing language, including corruption, poor management and the inability to resist Shiite political pressure. Extending the American military presence beyond August 2010, he argues, will do little to improve the Iraqis’ military performance while fueling growing resentment of Americans.

HEADS UP!!! Members of Team STORMBRINGER will recall Operator Erik's warning:"BLOODSHED WITHIN 30 DAYS" - 27 July 09

Below are some excerpts of COL Reese's memo, published in the New York Times 30 July 2009. In this incredible piece of ground-based analysis, COL Reese makes the following points with keen insight:

“As the old saying goes, ‘Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days,’ ” Colonel Reese wrote. “Since the signing of the 2009 Security Agreement, we are guests in Iraq, and after six years in Iraq, we now smell bad to the Iraqi nose.”

Today the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) are good enough to keep the Government of Iraq (GOI) from being overthrown by the actions of Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), the Baathists, and the Shia violent extremists that might have toppled it a year or two ago.

Iraq may well collapse into chaos of other causes, but we have made the ISF strong enough for the internal security mission . . .

He dares to declare:

. . . We . . . ought to declare victory and bring our combat forces home.

COL Reese's conclusions are not shared by the senior American commander in Iraq, Gen. Ray Odierno, and his recommendation for an accelerated troop withdrawal is at odds with the timetable approved by President Obama.

The memo opens a rare window into a debate among American military officers about how active the American role should be in Iraq and for how long. While some in the military endorse Colonel Reese’s assessment, other officers say that American forces need to stay in Iraq for the next couple of years as the Iraqis struggle with heightened tensions between the Kurds and Arabs, insurgent attacks in and around Mosul and checking authoritarian tendencies of the Iraqi government.

“We now have an Iraqi government that has gained its balance and thinks it knows how to ride the bike in the race,” Colonel Reese wrote. “And in fact they probably do know how to ride, at least well enough for the road they are on against their current competitors. Our hand on the back of the seat is holding them back and causing resentment. We need to let go before we both tumble to the ground.”

Before deploying to Iraq, Colonel Reese served as the director of the Combat Studies Institute at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., the Army’s premier intellectual center. He was an author of an official Army history of the Iraq war — “On Point II” — that was sharply critical of the lapses in postwar planning.

Colonel Reese’s memo lists a number of problems that have emerged since the withdrawal of American combat troops from Baghdad, completed June 30. They include, he wrote, a “sudden coolness” to American advisers and the “forcible takeover” of a checkpoint in the Green Zone. Iraqi units, he added, are much less willing to conduct joint operations with their American counterparts “to go after targets the U.S. considers high value.”

Italics mine - S.L.

“If there ever was a window where the seeds of a professional military culture could have been implanted, it is now long past,” he wrote. “U.S. combat forces will not be here long enough or with sufficient influence to change it. The military culture of the Baathist-Soviet model under Saddam Hussein remains entrenched and will not change. The senior leadership of the I.S.F. is incapable of change in the current environment.”

I have presented this analysis based on the legitimacy of the source, and his valid position to express the conclusions stated above. I do not wish to present myself as a Polyanna or a Cassandra, but we have certainly reached a timely juncture - one of several encountered over the years. A General must avoid seige operations at all cost - Iraq for us has represented a giant seige on a national level, since a few days after the fall of Baghdad. We perservered through the dark days and have endured heavy bloodletting. We have lifted the seige, apparently, and now may be a rare opportunity to break contact.- Sean Linnane

Read the entire memo, as printed in the New York Times, here.

STORMBRINGER's BOOKSHELF

This is what I'm reading right now - or rather, this is what I'm RE-reading - I first read this EXCELLENT treatise on Leadership back in the early 90's. I still soldier by the tenets I gleaned from it then. - S.L.









ATTILA (406-53), King of the Huns (433-453 A.D.)
Attila (called Etzel by the Germans or Ethele in Hungarians, was a member of the ruling family of the Huns, a nomadic Asian people who spread from the Caspian steppes throughout the Roman Empire in search of global conquest. By AD 432, the Huns had gained so much power that they were receiving a large annual tribute from Rome.

By AD 451, Attila's army consisted of 700,000 warriors, and was intent on nothing less than ransacking Rome itself. They had earlier moved against the Chinese Empire but were turned away. The Huns had a reputation for cruelty and barbarism that was not undeserved. They ate their meat raw (often human flesh), had little use for virgins, and possessed a strong appetite for murder and mayhem. No one could look Attila in the eyes, not even any of his 400 wives.

(My kind of guy! - S.L.)

THE LESSONS OF ATTILA:

#1: YOU MUST WANT TO BE IN CHARGE - You've got to be ruthlessly ambitious. Never be bored, disinterested, or cowardly in any way about always strengthening your position. Good leaders are lustful leaders. Power is like sex, but don't appear overeager, just extremely determined to succeed under any circumstances, fair or unfair. (This will inspire confidence in those you lead).

#2: ALWAYS APPEAR AS THE ONE IN CHARGE - Dress appropriately for your high station in life. Own the biggest horse and sword. Be first in everything, but never appear pompous. (Be marked with armament that distinguishes you from the masses).

#3: MAKE OTHERS ADAPT TO YOUR "CUSTOMS" - Make people do things your way, not their way. Make them adjust or adapt to you. Express this as the way things are going to be from now on, or pretend it's the way things have always been. Refuse to acknowledge any other way of doing things other than the way you do things. (This will extract tribute and praise from those you lead).

#4: NEVER CONDONE A LACK OF MORALE OR DISCIPLINE - Terminate people at the first sign of disrespect for the common good, but by no means stifle individualism or punish the innocent who don't know the common good. Definitely, do not allow uncontrolled celebration. Pillaging and looting are only fun if done in the name of nationalism. (Discipline builds morale).

#5: NEVER TOLERATE ANYONE WITH THEIR OWN AMBITIONS - People who are "cunning" are dangerous, especially new people who have just joined the organization. Be vigilant about how people lose their ambition and become team players; that is the pattern you want everyone to follow. Never reward anyone for what is a common effort. (The spirit of unity must prevail).

#6: PERPETUATE A LEGEND OR REPUTATION FOR YOURSELF - Find out whatever it is that your worst enemy calls you, and try hard to live up to it, with a passion. This will have its advantages to you whenever you need to use your fury and power, and it will accumulate minor privileges to you along the way. (You are your reputation).

#7: PICK YOUR ENEMIES WISELY - Do not consider all opponents, or everyone you argue with, as enemies. These are accidental enemies. Choose your enemies with purpose. They may be people you have friendly relations with, and in fact, you should let them think of you as a friend, all the while never telling them anything, and lulling them into a state of complacence and acting prematurely. (Do not make enemies unless you mean it).

#8: EXPECT CONTINUAL IMPROVEMENT - You must encourage learning and innovation among those you lead. This can be done in several ways, by creating competitions among the people. Never allow them to wander aimlessly. Regularly upgrade your standards of performance. (This fulfills most of a leader's duties).

#9: USE TIMING IN MAKING DECISIONS - Never rush a decision, although sometimes you have to because the moment is ripe or an omen exists. It's better to use timing, to find the obscure places and critical elements needed to ensure you always make the right decision. This way, you ensure that even a less-than-perfect decision is followed. (Time your decisions).

#10: EXPLOIT THE DESIRE TO ENJOY THE SPOILS OF WAR - Harness your peoples' desires for short-term gains. Grant small rewards for light tasks. Reserve heaps of booty for other times, and be generous with items that hold a value to yourself. (Never underestimate the ability to buy obedience).

#11: ONLY ENGAGE IN WARS YOU CAN WIN - Use diplomacy, negotiation, or other techniques of conflict in battles you cannot win. When in a political war, always keep an eye to your rear. When in an external war, go all out. (Waging war is a natural condition).



Attila, Scourge of God

V-22 OSPREY UPDATE

A reader writes:

". . . it's a nice "whiz-bang NEATO!" thing but still after ALL THESE YEARS OF DEVELOPMENT ISN'T SAFE. FAA won't approve them for Civil Aviation for all their design faults."

Why the V-22 Osprey is Unsafe.



"Yes the wing rotates and things fold BUT:

V-22 Lies Exposed

"G2mil's March article, V-22 Alternatives describes why V-22s are not shipboard compatible. This has been known by those profiting from the V-22 program for a decade. This is why they avoided deploying V-22s with naval task forces. However, all the CH-46Es have been retired from the East Coast, so V-22s were forced to deploy last month with the 22nd MEU. They deployed only 10, rather than the standard 12 with the CH-46E, because V-22s are twice their size."

Read the rest of Tom's insightful analysis here.


Sean Linnane write: Thanks for this info, Tom. I was aware of the controversy surrounding the V-22, from the inception of the military program, but not in such detail. In late 2007 I observed a large number of MV-22's in the air and on the airstrip at Camp Lejeune, NC. At that time my impression was 'Thank God I'm retiring and will never be forced to get onto one of those science fiction-looking eggbeaters.'

There's a standard line the military aviators always say about the Airborne: "I don't know why anyone would want to jump out of a perfectly good airplane."

Let me say it proud and say it loud: I am not an aviator, I am Airborne. I ride around in birds I don't fly them, and always, always, ALWAYS I prefer to jump out of them rather than land in them.