Jimmy Carter and NOT John Paul II saved Poland from invasion. (According to a former US intelligence analyst & declassified info.)

  Below:  Colonel Ryszard Kuklinski

 If you recognize this face, then you had a security clearance during the Carter administration.  I was in college at the time.  So, don't look at me.  None the less, the event surrounding that Soviet gentleman was literally Jimmy's last hurrah.

In December of 1980, the Soviet Union was poised to invade all of Poland, under the guise of a military training exercise with East Germany and Czechoslavkia.  John Paul II did NOTHING to stop that which Jimmy Carter succeeded at getting accomplished, through his diplomatic channels AND optical technology.  The false praise given to that cleric who allowed altar-boy molestation to run rampant is always unacceptable.  None the less, an intelligence analyst and I sat down one afternoon and talked and talked.  The near-invasion of Poland came up in the conversation.  So . . .

None the less,  Carter did mention that time in his memoirs:   

”I sent Brezhnev a direct message warning of the serious consequences of a Soviet move into Poland, and let him know more indirectly that we would move to transfer advanced weaponry to China. I asked Prime Minister [Indira] Gandhi to pressure Brezhnev (who was about to visit New Delhi), and warned the opposition leaders in Poland so that they would not be taken by surprise. I and other administration officials also made public statements about the growing threat to European stability”.                                 

 Introduction

On May 1, 2011, an act of cronyism was used in canonization process.  John
Paul II was beatified, and for the first time in church history a pope beatified
his immediate successor.  This amounted to the pope beatifying his former
boss.  This amounted to conflict of Interest.  None the less, the beatification
was construed to have been a diversionary tactic, intended to deflect attention
and away from John Paul II's sins of accessory in the long-term sex abuse out-
rage of the Vatican II Church.  It came to be discovered that John Paul II was
very much current on the topic, fully aware of the sex abuse epidemic.

If he weren't beatified, it would perhaps arouse the suspicions of law enforce-
ment authorities as to John Paul's culpability ... and therefore the cupability of
John Paul's employees, such as Ratzinger, Bertone, and Sodano.

Concerning John Paul, Benedict XVI should have recused himself from the
case and left the decision to approve or deny beatification to a successor, sole-
ly on the grounds of conflict of interest and cronyism.   Before approving the
beatification, the Vatican should have interviewed at least two dozen sex abuse
victims and three dozen retaliation victims.  Even as recently as April 30, 2012,
a witness to modern church corruption feared coming forth, and this individual
was a nun.

Now that the canonization process for John Paul is complete, will he be made
the patron saint of altar boys or the priests who molested them?  He did far
more for the molesters than the molested.

The insult of the beatification would result in 20,000 pages of documentary evi-
dence and an official petition being filed at the Hague's international criminal
court, during the same year.  In fact, this filing occurred on April 11, weeks be-
fore the scheduled beatification.  It meant nothing to the modern Vatican.  In
fact, according to Ireland's Prime Minister your pain means nothing to the nar-
cissists who hijacked the Vatican.  Moreover, during the same year when John
Paul was beatified, Ireland's prime minister sent a mandate to the Vatican, on
account of the crimes of clergy members in Ireland which were repeatedly ig-
nored by John Paul II.

Those who were the principle accomplices of the crimes of the modern church
are still in power at the very Vatican where they engaged in the crimes.  None
the less, the praise of John Paul constituted teenie bopper idolatry.  He was
credited with having crushed Communism, despite the fact that Communist
China now owns over $1.4 trillion worth of America's debt, and despite the
fact that the same Maoist dictatorship became an oppressive economic world
power during John Paul's reign.  The present regimes of China, Cuba, Vietnam,
North Korea, and Laos show that over a billion people are still locked in Com-
munist tyranny.

Add to this all of the other sweatshop nations which equally constitute dictator-
ships which rob people of their civil rights.  Don't forget the military junta na-
tions, such as Burma (Myanmar), and nations in chaos.  Plus, keep in mind
that many dictatorships falsely title themselves the people's republic of this,
that, and the other thing.  In addition, the Russian election of 2011 resulted
in the Communist Party taking possession of 92 seats in the Duma (Russian
Parliament.)

John Paul did little more than make vain stage appearances and curtain calls.
He succeeded in crushing the spirits of devout Catholics more effectively than
Soviet tanks crushed the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and the Czech Revolu-
tion of 1968.

Concerning John Paul II, the bottom line is that he did not make his world a better
place as did Saint Patrick in Ireland and St. Francis in Assisi Italy.  Yet, in the pre-
dictable Orwellian con game, we were being told for years, was that the world was
now a better place.  It was a far worse place.  The economic crisis of 2008 and all
that was uncovered during it proved otherwise.  The wave of terrorism since 2001
also prove otherwise, and economic conditions which resulted in the worldwide
OWS Movement proved the same.  Yet, John Paul was praised as a one-man lib-
erator of Poland.  In as much, the truth concerning Poland needs to be made known,
simply to take people out of their hypnotic trance, concerning the media marketing
campaign of John Paul II:

Jimmy Carter is the one who Saved Poland from Invasion

It was Jimmy Carter who ordered the tactic that prevented Poland from being invaded
by Russian armored units, and it was the citizens of Moscow, along with Russian mili-
tary personnel, in their refusal to fire on their own Russian people, who brought Soviet
satellite statesmanship to an end.  Proof of this exists in what happened the very year
Carter left office.

For those unfamiliar, Russia almost rolled into Poland in 1979 and 1980, but were
deterred by one simple Jimmy Carter tactic.  Carter then left office in 1981.

Reagan's first year in office: 

Jaruzelski suddenly declared martial law, in December of 1981.  This shows that he
saw Reagan as enough of a bumbler and a paper tiger that he would test Reagan.
Therefore, it was former military officer James Earl Carter who was the one hold-
ing the Communists at bay. 

The Source for the Following:

The confirmation source of the following information is a former Washington D.C.
intelligence analyst.  For the record, nothing below is classified.

Background

In 1968, the Soviets were already halfway into Czechoslovakia before anyone knew
they invaded.   Therefore, the Soviet crackdown on Czechoslovakia was guaranteed.
However, during the John Paul years, American technology kept the West current on
Soviet troop movement.   This included the movement of Soviet armored and infantry
divisions during the near-invasion of Poland.

The Polish Crisis During the Carter Years

Being that American technology had Russia's number, President James Earl Carter
kept declassifying intelligence on current Russia troop movements and released it to
the public.  Jimmy was telling the Russians that NATO knew where they were in re-
lation to Poland's topography.  The Russians, in turn, knew that they didn't have the
benefit of stealth, as they were forced to entertain the possibility that NATO would
be their welcoming party, if they decided to roll into Poland.  It's that simple.

There is another logical reason for Russia to have declined to invade Poland.  Russia
was already in Afghanistan, as of Christmas season 1979.  It had enough on its plate.
In as much, there was no type of religious conversion going on with the Soviets in the
Year 1980.  Their consciences weren't being enlightened and their hearts weren't be-
ing moved.  They would have invaded Poland if they knew they could get away with
doing so.  Jimmy Carter made sure that they wouldn't risk invading Poland.  Thus, no
speech of John Paul had any effect on the Russians. 

The Following is Standard History:

The Iran hostage crisis was in progress, and Russia was waiting to see if it would have
an excuse to roll into Iran.  If America rolled in, Russia would have followed.  So, do
not be deceived into thinking that the Russians would have cowered so close to their
own terrain.

For those not taught well in school, know this:  Russia's greatest quest was long since
understood by Western analysts to be the acquisition of a warm weather port.  Invad-
ing Iran would have given the Russians the opportunity to achieve that goal.  Invading
Poland wouldn't have given them any warm water port.  Therefore, the Russians elect-
ed to forgo Poland out of logistics ... not by moral conversion.  Oil-producing Iran was
more valuable than non-petroleum Poland.  After all, Russia still had a hold on White
Russia, aka Belarus.  Therefore, Poland was expendable.

                                The Way Jimmy Carter Really Was

The following anecdote about Carter came via the Pentagon:  Shortly before Jimmy
was to be sworn-in, he was being given a detailed tour of the Department of Defense.
There came the point when he was being told that a helicopter would always be on a
pad, ready to take him to command headquarters within 15 minutes, in the event of a
military emergency.  Jimmy asked, "Is this true?"  His tour guide: "Yes sir.  Within 
15 minutes."  Jimmy then looked at his wrist watch and said, "Okay.  Go!"  "Sir?"
While looking at his wrist watch Jimmy once again said, "Go!"  He wanted to test the
procedure on the spot.  Such was former navy officer Jimmy Carter.

Incidentally, Jimmy Carter was the first military officer in history to head the clean-
up of a nuclear power plant leak.  Chernobyl wasn't the first one in history and Three
Mile Island wasn't the first nuclear crisis in the Western Hemisphere  The Chalk River
Plant in Canada was.  It occurred on December 12, 1952.  Twenty-seven years later,
Jimmy saved Poland from its pending crisis.  Who gives him the credit for having done
so?  This is ingratitude for you.
________________________________________________________________

War ::: How to conduct one.

Revolutionary France, on July 14, 1789

                           The first law of society is this:  If you do not have justice, you'll have
                           no peace.  The second law is that, if you liberate others, you'll liberate
                           yourself.  Conversely, if you enslave others, you will end up in a trap
                           of your own construction and simultaneous destruction.

                           At present, there is an overweight dictator who will sit on his nuclear                                          stockpile until its blown-out from under him, because he doesn't want                                                            to die with a bayonet in his anus, as did Muammar  al-Qaddafi.

                           Also, someone who needed a buffer between NATO and his nation                                                        wanted to fight the last war which lasted very shortly.  He is keeping                                                             the tradition of massive casualties suffered by his countrymen

                           In fact, the oceanside dwellers, Barrack Obama & John Kerry, were                                                              wrong to have deceived an entire generation into thinking that CO2
                           is the greatest threat to mankind.   Nuclear armaments are.  In fact,                                                                Nuclear Winter is far worse than Global Warming ever could be.

                           With the aforementioned being the case, you might as well learn how
                           modern wars are actually fought.    Below is an outline of Military
                           History and Science 101.  It glosses over that which is known as
                           tactical level and strategic level of military science.

France in July, 155 years later (V-1 Rocket site bombed by the Americans)

                                     When Your Destiny Places You in the Arena of War ...

1a] The first assignment at the start of every war is that of putting out of commission
       the enemy's eyes & ears, as well as its ground-to-air defenses.  Hitting radar in-
       stallations, surface-to-air missile batteries, and communications posts are always
       Objectives #1, 2, and 3 simultaneously.

 1b] Equally important to General Objective #1 is that of disconnecting your enemy
       from his supply lines and drop zones.  It's far more effective to go behind enemy
       lines and end your enemy's ability to manufacture war materiel than to go to the
       front line and bring enemy platoons to their untimely end.  This means that, if the
       enemy is being supplied by another nation, then you have to attack the supplier
       nation, in order to end its ability to supply your main enemy.  If you are not go-
       ing to do this, don't go to war against the nation being supplied from elsewhere.

Even decorated combat vets taught us that, in war, there are no winners;
only the survivors of incendiary, smoke-flooded, and blood-ridden battles.
Keep in mind that those who didn't survive also received medals. 

1c] Of course, the other objective at the start of warfare is to achieve air superiority
       and to prevent your own ships from being blocked at bay.  This necessitates mine
       sweeping technology which involves the need for wooden ships, in order to pre-
       vent those ships from being mine magnets during the mine sweeping process.

1d] Throughout the war, NEVER interupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.

   2] All wars are won in the Research and Development Department ... in the R&D
       Section.  This includes psychological research and troop training techniques.

  2b] Incidentally, the one war which gave military science a treasure of learning
        in the tactical arts was none other than . . . The Vietnam War.

  3] Never order a logistics unit to drive through a town during war.  Have it go the
      extra distance in circumventing the town, or else it will never drive to anywhere
      again.  Laziness is war leads to death.

4a]  If you see a structure that looks totally foreign and unrecognizable to you, and
       it's certain that it neither contains civilians nor is booby-trapped, either hit it or
       commandeer it and reverse engineer it.  The Nazis had no idea that the metal
       towers over which their pilots flew were the radar installations that alerted the
       British of the return of the German Luftwaffe.  The Nazis ignored the British
       radar installations.

5a]  Shock & Awe is an entire waste of time.  Your enemy will only surrender after
       he is drained and fatigued, not able to take any more of what he has been endur-
       ing.  Wearing down the enemy is more effective than initial shock & awe.  You
       must save your most devastating fire power for either defending yourself at the
       point of attack or for depleting your enemy's stockpiles.  Don't use ordnance
       for intimidation purposes, because it's a waste of time.  Howe tried to do so at
       the start of the American Revolutionary War.  He failed in the process.

5b]  It's an erroneous and arrogant presumption to think that you want your enemy
        to be intimidated and frightened by your arrival, as was publicly stated during
        the George WMD Bush years.  An enemy thinking that it is to face a strong op-
        ponent is one placed in a state of heightened awareness, and this state of aware-
        ness will be deadly for many of your troops.

        Instead, you want your enemy to be entirely unprepared for you.  You want
        your enemy to be lackadaisical when you arrive, thinking that you're nothing
        more than a Gomer Pyle.  Then, when your fire power strikes the enemy's line,
       frustration and bewilderment will rocket throughout his psyche, as he drains his
       emotional strength in trying to handle the fact that something much worse than
       what he anticipated struck for his jugular vein.  The lesson to memorize is this:

        Shock and awe will only work if you were originally underestimated by your
        enemy.  General Sun Tzu was the author of the time-tested military treatise,
        The Art of War.  Within it he stated: 
       
              "Even though you are competent, appear to be incompetent.  
                            Though effective, appear to be ineffective."

 5c] Nothing intimidates a person more than realizing that the poody cat he thought
        he saw in the distance turned out to be a full scale lion or a pack of wolves on
        a relentless mission toward him, entirely aware of where he is.  The fear of the
        unknown will drain the strength out of anyone.  When the enemy is emotional-
        ly drained, he loses the flag waving inspiration to fight back.  There upon, you
        win the psychological aspect of the war.  If you have not yet triggered the fear
        of the unknown in your enemy, then you have not yet won the war.

5d]  Achieving air superiority isn't optional in the tactical sense.  The British Navy
        learned this in Norway, as early as 1940.  When air superiority is guaranteed
        by one of the warring parties, the war's eventual outcome is generally ascer-
        tained.

        For example, at recent count, the United States generally has twice as many
        pieces of military aircraft as does China.  Even though China was said to have
        7,400 tanks to the US total of 5,600 or so, the outcome of any U.S./Chino war
        would be ascertained upon America securing its in-range air bases.  The U.S.
        Navy and Marine air units will shred Chinese armored units very effectively.
        A B-52 raid could destroy armored divisions in the spirit of the July 1944
        St. Lo Raid (Operation Cobra.)

  6] If you're escaping a mall or school that is under attack by terrorists, only crawl
       three or so feet away from a concrete, stone, or metal-girded wall.  If you are
       too close to the wall, a ricocheting bullet will hit you.

  7] If you are combating drugged-up terrorists, keep firing at each one, even if you
       already hit each one three times.  Death by gunfire usually comes from the en-
       suing shock to the body.  A drugged-up terrorist doesn't feel the shock.  Thus,
       if drugged-up terrorists are in the equation, a gun won't suffice.  Take posses-
       sion of a baseball bat, club, pipe, umbrella, knife, crowbar, etc.

 8a] If you are going to dock a ship during war, get your sailors off of it, or else you
       will have made them sitting ducks.  During the Falkland Islands/Malvinas war
       between Argentina and England, an exocete missile hit an aluminum clad ship
       at port.  British sailors were harmed and killed.  Aluminum reaches a higher
       temperature than does steel.

 8b] Incidentally, exocet means flying fish in French, and the exocet missile was a
       French invention.  Now, concerning the French ... the joke about them surrend-
       ering at the slightest breeze is a total lie.  Even during WWII, there were the
       Free French forces, commanded by Charles De Gaulle, and they never sur-
       rendered.   Neither did the French underground.

       If you believe that the French are cowards, then how do you explain Napoleon's
       army, the French empire, the Marquis of La Fayette, St. Joan of Arc, General
       Rochembeau,  the Battle of the Marne, Charles Martel, Charlesmagne, Simon
       of Montfort, the Battle of the Somme, and the Francs' victory over Danish Vik-
       ings during the Siege of Paris, as well as the Maginot Line?

 8c] Concerning this, it was in 1940 when the French had a mighty fortification on
       the German border called the Maginot Line.  One big problem.  The Nazi Ger-
       mans avoided the Maginot line, electing to outflank the French, instead.  Thus,
       it was the Germans who were afraid of the French, being that fear is sometimes
       a common-sense thing to follow.  So, the Germans went around French fortifi-
       cations, in circumventing the 500 buildings that comprised the Maginot Line.

       In the mean time, 15% of the French army weren't in the fight, because they
       were manning the Maginot Line that the Germans avoided.  The French did
       not expect the Nazis to invade France through neutral Belgium, thereby vio-
       lating the norms of international law.  In addition, the Ardennes was difficult
       terrain for armored units to cross.  So, the French didn't expect the Germans
       to use their very best troops to cross through the Ardennes.

        A million German troops and 1,500 tanks invaded the parts of France and Bel-
        gium not protected by the Maginot troops.  It was Operation Sichlschnitt, as in
        cutting with a sickle.   It was the ultimate flanking maneuver.  Therefore, it was
        not the French who avoided a fight.  It was the Germans who did.  Ironically
        enough, German military personnel were against starting a war on the Western
        Front.  Some of them attempted to assassinate Adolph Hitler even before the
        Nazi invasion of France began.

   9] Concerning surrounding your enemy, the danger of drawing your enemy into a
        trap is that your enemy is becoming concentrated in the process, with a concen-
        trated fire power ready to be fired upon your forces.  Compacted army units are
        powerful ones, at least for a short period of time.

Fort Pitt was surrounded, under siege on account of Pontiac dishonoring a treaty.
None the less, the Fort Pitt Blockhouse is still standing, meaning that the siege
failed, as the ancient commander, Sun Tzu,  would have forecast.

  10] It's more important to scatter the enemy than to trap and surround him.  A tiger
        whom you back into a corner will pounce you.  An enemy whom you surround
        will have an added incentive to fight, along with a dose of adrenaline and focus
        that your platoons won't have.  Never provide your enemy with the inspiration
        to fight.  Surrounding him will put him in the mindset one gets when he has no-
        thing left to lose.  As Gerald Celente once stated, "When people have nothing
        left to lose, they lose it."

  11] Needless to say, the objective in surrounding the enemy is to get the enemy to
        surrender its surrounded forces.  However:  I} Governor Paulinus did not have
        the luxury of surrender to a Queen Boudicca who wanted every Roman on the
        British Isle dead,  II} The Francs did not surrender to the Danish Vikings during
        the Siege of Paris,  III} The Austrians did not surrender to the Turks during the
        1529 Siege of Vienna, IV} Jacobite troops did not surrender to Cromwell's army
        during the 1690 Siege of Limerick,  V} Union forces did not surrender to any of
        the Confederate forces at Little Round Top,  VI} The Russians did not surrender
        to the Nazi Germans during the Battle  of Leningrad,  VIII} the Nazi Germans
        did not surrender to the allied troops at Monte Cassino, IX} Japanese forces did  
        not surrender to the Americans during the Battle of Guadalcanal,  X} the 101st
        Airborne Division did not surrender at Bastogne, XI} and the Americans did 
        not surrender to the Viet Cong during the Battle of Khe Sanh.  Concerning the
        Battle of Khe Sanh, General Westmoreland stated:

               Our entire philosophy [is] to allow the enemy to surround us closely, 
               to mass about us, to reveal his troop and logistic routes, to establish 
               his dumps and assembly areas, and to prepare his siege works as ener-
               getically as he desires.  The result [will be] an enormous quantity of
               targets ... ideal for heavy bombers.

http://books.google.com/books?id=G35yog6wKv0C&pg=PA105&lpg=PA105&dq=westmoreland+khe+sanh+b-52+to+reveal+his+troop+and+logistic+routes&source=bl&ots=fUw5iF5TwK&sig=UEKQWwprrxBR2W5q0rre6dzkgF4&hl=en&sa=X&ei=H2veUaLUCsHkygH2o4Eg&ved=0CFQQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=westmoreland%20khe%20sanh%20b-52%20to%20reveal%20his%20troop%20and%20logistic%20routes&f=false

12a] General Sun Tzu was the author of the time-tested treatise the Art of War.
        In it he stated, "the psychology of soldiers is to resist when surrounded."
        He then went on to state, "Confront them with annihilation, and they 
        will then survive.  Plunge them into a deadly situation, and they will 
        then live.  When people fall into danger, they are then able to strive 
        for victory."

        Concerning an enemy, he stated,"Do not press a desperate enemy."
        He also stated, "A surrounded army must be given a way out."

        This means that being surrounded is not automatic defeat, while surrounding
        an enemy can backfire.  Actually, when your enemy surrounds you, it's thin-
        ning out its lines.  Pick an arc in that thinned-out circle and fire away, while
        closing your gaps.  If you can break a circle, you just broke the enemy.  You
        then proceed with a flanking maneuver if you are not faster than the enemy,
        and retreat if you are faster and outnumbered ...  if and only if you aren't be-
        ing visited with tactical air strikes against you.

12b] Disconnecting the enemy from its supply lines is partially similar to placing
        him under siege.  Whenever he is separated from his supply lines, the enemy
        is confronted with the choice of surrendering or scattering.  In both instances,
        you win, if you don't surround your enemy.  When you surround your enemy,
        expect him to become relentless and uncontrollable in one arc of the circle
        you have around your enemy.

         Whenever you can do so, manipulate your enemy into thinning out his line,
         always and in every way.  Now, if you are playing Feigning Retreat and are
        draw-
         ing the enemy into a trap, you are initially doing the opposite of thinning out
         enemy lines.   However, if you give your enemy the incentive to gain ground
         fast, he will be thinning out his line in the overly zealous pursuit of you.

12c] In the same mind set, when you break through an enemy's line, expect tactical
        air fire to rain down upon you.  This means that the only viable alternative for
        you is to outflank the enemy and get so close to him that you are literally in en-
        emy fox holes, inviting a lot of friendly fire casualties.  In order to get out of a
        tactical air strike (after breaking out of an encirclement), you will literally have
        to take some of your enemy soldiers prisoner, so as to provoke a temporary
        truce.  However, if you have already gained air superiority, you will have no
        problem breaking out.  Thus, the reason why the Battle of the Bulge was
        an American success was because the allies already had air superiority
        over the Germans.

13a] When it comes to breaking an enemy's circle, a relatively comparable situation
        occurred during the American Civil War.  Union batteries would first target a
        confederate artillery unit or a single canon and fire away.  When the single can-
        on or artillery unit would get put out of action, the Union battery would go to its
        next target.  It was the systematic decimation of artillery units.

13b] Alexander the Great did something similar in battle.  He took a chariot unit and
         traveled along the face of an enemy phalanx.  As soon as he saw an opening, he
         attacked and broke the opened wedge even wider.  You can break a circle in a
         similar fashion, when you are surrounded.  If you get defeated while surrounded,
         it was only because you faced superior numbers that were layered.  It wasn't be-
         cause of being surrounded, per se.  Being surrounded, in itself, is not guaranteed
         defeat.  Bastogne confirmed this.  However, during a breakout, look up at the
         sky and respond accordingly.

 13c] Incidentally, Alexander the Great was the ultimate military genius.

 13d] Surrounding the enemy involves placing the enemy under siege, and in today's
         technological societies, sieges are not advisable.  This is due to the existence of
         air drops, air support, and air cavalry forces.  Thus, it is even less expected for
         military forces to surrender when surrounded in the modern era.

13e] If a child runs up to your unit and pleads for you to quickly go to his town, to
        defuse a bomb in the middle of the street, expect to be ambushed.  This literal-
        ly happened in Afghanistan.  The general rule is that, if the local citizens aren't
        bearing gifts, they are bearing trouble.  Even at that, don't readily eat food that
        is offered to you by a native of the land you invaded.  The other rule is that, if
        the official mayor doesn't approach you with an official request, then expect to
        be set up for the kill.

13f] However, if the townsfolk, in a collective effort, offer your soldiers something
        such as bed sheets during winter, then chances are that they are your friends.
        This literally happened during the Battle of the Bulge.  American soldiers were
        clad in white bed sheets, compliments of the nearby villagers; of camouflaging
        sheets the color of the snow that surrounded them.

14a] Don't be foolish enough to drive through a ravine.  The general rule is that, if
        you can see Terra Firma above you, something will be hurled down upon you
        by the enemy.  Taking the high ground is a general rule. Taking the low ground
        is asinine, unless you are placing the enemy under siege and are trying to get
        him to thirst to death.  As was previously stated, in this era of air cavalry, air
        drops, and air support, performing a seize is very very very limited in its abil-
        ity to be effective.

14b] As a general rule, the air force is to be regarded as soldiers on high ground.

15a] Always approach battle in wolf pack formations.  If you thin out your lines,
        you lose.  This happened to Czechoslovakia in WWII.  Think phalanx forma-
        tion or wolf pack formation.  If you don't have the numbers, then your war
        will be an attack on the enemy's supply installations behind the lines, in raid
        after raid.  Needless to say, if you approach battle in wolf pack form, you will
        still have to cover your flank, as was the case with Patton and Montgomery in
        Sicily.  He who gets outflanked loses the battle.  This happened to a thorough-
        ly incompetent military commander named George Washington during the
        Battle of Brooklyn Heights.

15b] It is of the utmost importance for you to know that a Wolf Pack Formation is
        NOT a Sardine Formation or a Bowling Pin Formation.  If soldier are too tight-
        ly packed, one hand grenade could put them out of action.

15c] If you're en route to the main front and pass a solitary house containing enemy
        troops, bypass it, lest you lose a lot of ordinance and soldiers in attempting to
        take it.  Henry Knox learned this the hard way during the American Revolution.

16a] If you are in a foreign nation, fighting an army foreign to the land where you
        find yourself, the people there are likely to befriend you.  If you're in a foreign
        nation, fighting the army native to that nation, expect the people there to regard
        you as the enemy and not as the liberator, even if you're liberating them from a
        dictator.  This is because their relatives are in the army you are attacking.

        For example, the Belgians were friendly to the Americans who were fighting the
        German army on land where the German military did not belong.  In contrast, the
        Iraqi people were not friendly to the American GI's who came to fight the Iraqi
        army who was native to Iraq.

16b] The George Walker Bush administration mistakenly assumed that the invasion
         in Iraq in 2003 was going to be equivalent to invading France and then Holland
         in 1944.  The administration assumed that the Iraqi people would welcome the
         American and British forces the same way that the French and Dutch welcomed
         allied forces during World War II.  The difference is that, in WWII, American
         troops fought an army foreign to France and Holland.  In Iraq, American and
         British ground forces fought an army native to Iraq.  Years of sabotage were
         guaranteed to occur in Iraq against the occupying American and British forces.

16c] Concerning what was erroneously presumed to have been the end of the Second
         Iraq War, in 2003:

                         If soldiers exit their tanks and proceed to walk away, 
                                the solders only do so, to fight another day.
                         There is a difference between retreat and surrender.

         The lesson is that, if your enemy doesn't physically perform an outward act of
         surrender in front of you, it didn't surrender.  He will continue to fight you, in
         the shadows, via sabotage.  The war didn't end until eight years after Bush II
         claimed that the "mission was accomplished." 

17a] During the Cold War, the Soviet Union high command didn't think in terms of
        Shock and Awe.  It's military policy was literally Brute Force.  Such a thing re-
        sults in a lot of casualties on your side and on the enemy side.  Therefore, if the
        United States and the Soviet Union would have gone to war with each other in
        the 1980's, NATO's high command would have drawn Soviet land forces into
        an array of killing field scenarios, thereby making the B-52 bomber heavily in
        demand and heavily in peril.  The Soviet high command would have respond-
        ed by firing missiles at the U.S. air base in Spain (Diego Garcia.)

17b] No matter how Ronald Reaganish and Rush Limbaughish you are, do not be
        deceived:  War between the United States and the Soviet Union would have
        been guaranteed mutual destruction, resulting in Madd Maxx types of societies.
        And remember, both Mitt Romney and Rush Limbaugh were cowardly chicken
        hawks who hid from combat service during war time.  They  were the opposite
        of experts.  In addition, even drugs conquered Limbaugh.  None the less, World
        War IV would have been fought with sticks and stones, after a Soviet/American
        World War III.

17c] The NATO forces in Europe were originally designed to survive for six weeks.
        Then, in the 1980s, the life expectancy of a NATO unit, in the event of war, was
        22 to 32 minutes.

17d] Plus, the mark of a dictatorship is that it's battle plan is to lose its first wave of
         soldiers.  This is a plan of mutual attrition.  In a dictatorship, even the citizens
         are expendable. 

18a] More important than hitting the enemy front line is the assignment of destroy-
        ing or even commandeering enemy supplies.  Charles Martel did this in France.
        So too did the 8th Army Air Force do this in the European Theater of Operation.
        In fact, before the arrival of D-Day, there were numerous air raids upon Nazi
        railroad yards.  This was done, so that the Nazis wouldn't be able to quickly
        send reinforcements to Normandy's coastline.  The objective in attacking rail-
        road yards was not to disrupt train tracks.  The objective was to destroy the
        ordnance, vehicles, and even soldiers in the boxcars, on the flats, and in the
        cabins.        

18b] The bombing of the Hamm marshaling yards, done shortly after the cessation of
         Operation Market Garden, was done so that the Nazis couldn't readily send re-
         inforcements into Holland.  Bombing truck assembly plants, armament factories,
         and fuel supply depots is what wins wars.  Uprooting landing strips is equally as
         important.  Targeting civilian neighborhoods is a waste of time and ordnance.

18c] It was repeatedly stated that, if Hitler immediately sent all available Panzer units
        to Normandy Beach on D-Day, the Nazis would have pushed the allied forces
        back into the English Channel.  This is a complete lie.  If all of the available Pan-
        zer units roared toward Normandy Beach on D-Day, they all would have been
        decimated by the 8th and 9th Army Air Forces the same way in which the Pan-
        zer Lehr Division was decimated at St. Lo, France, on July 25, 1944.  The war
        would have ended much sooner.

18d] Concerning the St. Lo Air Raid, Lieutenant-General Fritz Bayerlein, recounted
        the event, as was witnessed from his German position.   Concerning this account,
        his mention of heavy bombs was a reference to that fact that the numerous small
        bombs which assailed the troops and tanks that day were dropped out of heavy
        bombers: 

     "The entrenched infantry was either smashed by the heavy bombs while

       in their foxholes and dugouts or else they were killed and buried by the

       blast.  Infantry and artillery positions were blown up.   The bombed area

      was entirely transformed into a field covered with craters, where no hu-

      man was left alive.   Tanks and guns were destroyed  and overturned,

      unable to be recovered, because all roads and passages were blocked."   

     "The shock effect was nearly as strong the physical effect"  ...  "Some of
       the men got crazy and were unable to carry out anything.  I was person-
       ally in the center of the bombardment and could experience the tremen-
       dous effect.   For me, one who, during this war, was at every theater of
       operation, and who had been assigned to the places of the main efforts,
       this was the worst thing I ever saw."

       Bayerlein summarized the aftermath in the following way: 

      "My front lines looked like the face of the moon, and at least 70% of my
        troops were out of action - dead, wounded, crazed, or numb." 

18e] Now, it's important to note that the shock effect came from the fact that the Nazi
         panzer unit originally underestimated the 8th and 9th Army Air Forces.  You see,
         the day before was the original date of the air raid, but it was canceled when most 
         of the bomb groups were in mid-flight.  Such a cancellation was known as a RTB 
         Order; a Return to Base Order.  This meant that very few bombs dropped on the
         Panzer division on July 24.  

         As a result, the panzer troops assumed that the 8th & 9th Army Air Forces
         offered little challenge.  Then, when the two U.S. air  forces came back the 
         following day and converged upon the Nazis in full force, the vast majority 
         of the panzer troops couldn't handle it.  They were unprepared for what was 
         to come.   Therefore, Sun Tzu was completely correct in having stated, 

        "Even though you are competent, appear to be incompetent.  Though ef-
          fective, appear to be ineffective."  On the day it was decimated, the Panzer
         Lehr Division thought that the U.S. tactical &strategic air forces would be
        ineffective.

 18f] Famed war correspondent and eventual war casualty, Ernie Pyle, witnessed
         the July 25th air raid from the American encampment: 

      "And then a new sound gradually droned into our ears.   The sound 
        was deep and all encompassing, with no notes in it --- just a gigantic 
        faraway surge of doom-like sound.   It was the heavies." ...

      "I've never known a storm or a machine or any resolve of man that 

        had about it the aura of such ghastly relentlessness." ...

" ...  and then the bombs came.  They began ahead of us as a crackle of
        popcorn and almost instantly swelled into a monstrous fury of noise

        that seemed surely to destroy all the world ahead of us.  From then

        on,  for an hour and a half that had in it the agonies of the centuries,

        the bombs came down." ...

      "By now everything was an indescribable cauldron of sound.  Individual
        noises did not exist.  The thundering of motors in the sky and the roar
        of the bombs ahead filled all the space (spatial capacity) for noise on
        earth.   Our own artillery was crashing all around us, yet we could

        hardly hear it."

        The bottom line is that, if all available Panzer units stormed toward the Nor-
         mandy Coastline on June 6, 1944, the July 25th St. Lo news report would
         have been the June 7th and 8th report coming from the Normandy Coastline.

18g] The July 25th air raid was known as Operation Cobra, and the greatest lesson
         that it taught was the many smaller bombs are far more devastating than a few
         large bombs of the same total tonnage.  Some of the Eighth Army Air Force
         bombers only carried 20 lb. fragmentation bombs @ 240 bombs per bomber,
         while other ones went to St. Lo with a load of 260 lb fragmentation bombs
         @ 20 bombs per bombers.  Yet other ones carried 100 lb demolition bombs
         @ 38 bombs per bomber.  Neither 500 lb bombs, nor 1,000 pounders, nor
          2,000 lb bombs were used that day.

19a] Concerning WWII, it was George Patton's doctrine to never never never dig
         in.  It was Charles DeGaulle's doctrine also.   Think outflank, outflank, out-
         flank, or think deplete the enemy's supply.   If you dig in, you will not deplete
         the enemy's supply.  The enemy's supply of ammunition will deplete your dug
         in troops.

19b] The bottom line is this:  

          When you destroy the enemy's war-making machine, the war is over.

20]  The Nazis were the first ones to place a jet-propelled fighters into the air.  The
        first jet fighter in history was the ME262.  Yes, it was much faster than a P-51,
        but all of the WWII jet fighters were shot down.  This is because, in order for
        them to return to base, they had to coast downward.   They were only jet pro-
        pelled while going up.

21a]  Do not target any civilian area of any kind.  If you strike a civilian target on
         purpose, you will awaken a lion of vengeance.  The city of Hamburg only
         burned because of the bombing of  London.  Therefore, always always al-
         ways accommodate your enemy with a civilized incentive for ceasing
         hostilities.  You do this by giving him a civilian sanctuary to where he
         can return.

21b] In addition, a bombed-out civilian area can become a fortress of rubble for the
        enemy, enabling for a roster of future Sniper Hall-of-Fame inductees.  For ex-
        ample, the Bombing of civilian sectors in Leningrad and Monte Casino result-
        ed in a lot of casualties after the bombings thereof.

21c]  In order to prevent a shooting war, keep talking at the negotiating table, especi-
         ally if you and your enemy do little more than yell at each other.  Keep in mind
         the observation made centuries ago by Sun Tzu:  In modern terms, those who
         saber rattle are poised to cower, while those who speak humbly are poised to
         attack.

21d] The first sign of eminent war is silence.  After all,  George Bush II refused to
         talk to the Saddam Hussein who actually didn't have the weaponry that the
         Bush administration claimed him to possess.   Should the negotiators at the
         conference table act like a dysfunctional family during the holidays, let them
         keep talking and you will prevent the occurrence of something known as a
         daily body count.

22a] Treat every enemy prisoner of war as either a captured king or a cast member
         in a Shakespearean tragedy.  A man or a woman whom you treat kindly will
         not be inclined to hang you from a noose after the war.  Do NOT water board
         your enemy.  Let your enemy know that there are nice guys on the other side
         who will treat him or her humanely should he/she think of surrendering.  Your
         goal is to get the enemy to stop firing at you.  Such an enemy, after the war,
         might even become your ally.

22b]  Chapter II of  the Art of War prescribes that captured prisoners be treated
          well and respectfully.  This is contrary to the failed and fatally expensive wat-
          er boarding Bush II war years which cost trillions of dollars in term of lives,
          the physical health of many vets, and the psychological health of military per-
          sonnel, as well as the cost to the Iraqi's in their land being arrayed with a de-
          pleted uranium. 

22c]  One more thing:   Make it appear that you are impressed that your captured
          enemy was man enough to face you, if he were captured in battle.  If your en-
          emy looked for you, act as if he is a wearied pilgrim looking for sanity in the
          world.  You don't want your captured enemy to be intimidated by you.  You
          want him to feel sorry for you, as if you have too many burdens in life.  Your
          want the Stockholm Syndrome to take effect.  If your captured enemies is
          made to fear you, it will be equivalent to surrounding your enemy, and you
          never ever should do that in warfare.  At the end of every war is the peace
          treaty.  Begin the motion to peace during the war.

22d]  In order to make escape difficult for your prisoners of war, you need to make
         the perimeter of your P.O.W. camp a deep trench of sand.  Prisoners can dig
         tunnels from earth effectively.  However, making a tunnel in a sand pit takes
         engineering skills and added materials.  In addition, make life in the prison
         camp so nice that the prisoners won't want to leave it.

 23] Require all of your officers to eat exactly what the troops in the theaters of
        battle are eating.  In this way, high command, local command, and field com-
        mand will know how much physical strength and alertness the soldiers have.
        Do NOT be a miser when it comes to your soldiers' cuisine.  Rather, think in
        terms of perish able food vs. non-perishable items.

        Let it be repeated:  No gourmet treats for your officers during military opera-
        tions, and NEVER while in a theater of war, unless your front line troops, sail-
        ors, and airmen get the exact same thing.

  24] The most audacious military maneuver in history was when Napoleon ordered
         his cavalry to enter the Austrian trenches.  In second place would be Alexander
         the Great's attack on Tyre.  In third place would be the scaling of the Cliffs of
         Omaha Beach.  That act placed D-Day in the "You gotta be nuts" Department.
         All that the American forces had to do was change course and land on Sword
         Beach.  The British liberated it quickly.  The Americans could have liberated
         Omaha Beach from behind.

  25] One of  the reasons why Napoleon lost at Waterloo was because it rained the
         night before the battle.  His artillery used something known as canister shot.
         It didn't explode until it hit the ground.  This meant that the mud was buffer-
         ing the explosions of anti-personnel ball bearings and pellets.  It were as if
         Napoleon had no artillery on that day.

         Plus, Napoleon attack later than usual.  He wanted to attack the British as
         soon as possible, because the Prussians were on their way.  Napoleon's army
         was on the verge of breaking the line of the army of Arthur Wellesley, the
         first duke of Wellington.  Wellesley then ordered his remaining troops to
         lie down, slightly beyond the ridge of the hill where the fight was soon to
         be decisive.  This place was known as the Hougoumont farm.  The French
         were then ambushed when they went over the crest of the hill there.  The
         area had pine trees that were tapped regularly for their gum and turpentine.
         Napoleon sent 14,000 troops to the Hougoumont farm, while Wellesley
         kept 12,000 British troops in the area, to defend it.
        
         In addition, the cavalry performed a flanking maneuver that was misunder-
         stood by the infantry.  The infantry thought that the cavalry was retreating.
         The French infantry then fled in retreat.  Napoleon's greatest error was leav-
         ing the battlefield and not calling the play by play orders.  His greatest mis-
        fortune was that the Prussians arrived at 4:30 in the afternoon, requiring the
        French to fight one battle on two fronts.  Their arrival was inevitable.

  26] Napoleon's navy lost the Battle of Alexandria (the Battle of the Nile), because
        the British were smart enough to park close to the coast, thereby making one
        side of each ship unable to be attacked by the French navy.

27a] George Washington was an incompetent military commander, dating back to
         the French & "Indian" War.  One of the few reasons why the Americans out-
         lasted the British was because the Comte de Rochambeau was in America,
         convincing Washington to not be so foolish as to fight the British in New
         York. Yorktown was to be the place of destiny, but not until the French fleet
         came north during the Caribbean hurricane season.

27b] Even though Daniel Morgan's victory at Cowpens helped greatly, if it weren't
          for the French navy, the Comte de Rochambeau, and the money provided by
          King Louis XVI, there would have been no United States of America.  Amer-
          ica owes everything to the French, in that department of history.

27c] During the Battle of Yorktown, American troops repeatedly shouted "Rush on
        Boys"  as their battle cry.  It was a play on words, concerning Rochambeau.

27d] The Comte de Rochambeau was Jean Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur.  He was
         the youngest son of his family.  King David was the youngest son of his family,
         too, as was the Joseph of Egyptian fame.  Simon V of Montfort, victor of the
         Battle of Lewes & originator of the parliamentary concept, was also the young-
         est son, as was Andrew Jackson, victor of the Battle of New Orleans and her-
         alded capturer of Pensacola.  General Robert E. Lee was the youngest son of
         major-general Henry Lee.  Even Alfred the Great, along with Peter the Great,
         were youngest sons.  Going one step further, General Norman Schwarzkopf
         was the youngest of three children.

27e] In light of this pattern, there is an instinct possessed by the youngest male of a
        family that the other males don't possess.  This makes the youngest the ultimate
        military strategist.  The youngest male knows what it is to be the little one.  He
        has the survival instinct, as well as an instantaneous defensive mechanism.  In
       fact, there is also the matter of having observed the family who came before him
       and learning from its influence.  The eldest in a family might be able to give ef-
       fective financial advice, but it's the youngest male who will prevail in the most
       brutal of wars ... according to the pattern found in history.

        However, this does not apply to the youngest brothers of men who already were
        in military power.  The prime example would be Napoleon Bonaparte's young-
        est brother, Jérôme, who misinterpreted his orders at Waterloo, and the lacked
        the needed reinforcements to defend Westphalia, in another military conflict.
        None the less, he had a prestigious political career.

        Concerning Napoleon Bonaparte, he was the fourth of eleven children, and
        he entered military schooling at the age of ten.  Dwight Eisenhower was a
        middle child.  Polk, the American/Mexican War president, was the eldest.
        Harry Truman was the eldest also, and he was a WWI artillery officer dur-
        ing the end of the war.  In addition, Paul Gilbert, the Marquis of La Fayette,
        was an only child who become a wealthy orphan relatively early in life.  So,
         the youngest child tendency is only a very broad generality which did have
         in its ranks notable military figures.

        As a point of interest, a grandson of Napoleon Bonaparte's youngest brother
        was Secretary of the United States Navy and United States Attorney General.
        In 1908, he founded the prototype of the FBI.  Charles Joseph Bonaparte was
        his name.

28a] The greatest outnumbered military victory in history was logically the Battle
        of Watling Street, in 61 C.E., when governor Gaius Suetonius Paulinus' army
        of 8,000 to 12,000 Romans completely decimated Queen Boudicca's army of
        60,000 to 80,000 or more in southern England.  Roman pila (javelins) were de-
        signed to bend as soon as they hit enemy shields, thereby taking away from the
        enemy its ability to defend itself from Roman short-swords, aka gladioli.  The
        Romans hurled two volleys at Boudicca's advancing army.  The Romans kept
        repelling each attack and then counterattacked.  It turned out to be a massacre
        upon the attacking British.

28b] The lesson learned is that, if your initial military game plan fails, stop attempt-
         ing it.  No one in Britain took on the Roman legions until the early 400s.  The
         ancient Rome Empire did not fall until September 4, 476 C.E.

  29] The fatal error of the Confederate forces at Gettysburg was attacking Little Big
        Top and then sending in Pickett's soldiers from the right, in an advertised attack.
        The Southern forces simply needed to start marching east toward Washington
        DC, in order to bring the Union forces out of their protective embankments.

 30] Never disband a conquered army.  This was Bush's fatal error in Iraq.  Make it
        as if your enemy combatants just became your new allies.  In this way, you will
        keep track of men who would otherwise become terrorists, firing at you from
        the shadows.  Keep in mind that you went to war against a government whose
        officials held its military personnel on puppet strings.  When the enemy govern-
        ment or targeted dictator is no longer in power, you need let surviving military
        units know that they have been released from the puppet strings.  Conquered
        troops still need to be called to roll call.

 31] Any society who understands the following is in possession of great wisdom:
       War is a punishment from God for mankind's sins. 

       Sincerely,

       Patrick Pontillo,  youngest son of an authentic liberator of France
      _____________________________________________________________

The 8th Army Air Force: Cool, collected, calmness under fire.

The following excerpts come from famed journalist and eventual war casualty
Ernie Pyle.  They describe the experience of seeing and hearing the 8th Army
Air Force approach an enemy target and then unleash its fire power upon its tar-
get.   More specifically, they come from the journalist's account of the July 25,
1944 bombing of the Panzer Lehr Division near St. Lo, France.  At the time of
the air raid, American troops were approximately 1,500 yards from the targeted
Panzer Lehr troops, making the air raid a surgical military operation:

...  "And then a new sound gradually droned into our ears.   The sound 

     was deep and all encompassing, with no notes in it --- just a gigantic 

     far away surge of doom-like sound.   It was the heavies." ...

...  "I've never known a storm or a machine or any resolve of man that
       had about it the aura of such ghastly relentlessness." ... 

... "The Germans began to shoot heavy, high ack-ack (88mm canon fire).

      Great black puffs of it by the score speckled the sky until it was hard

      to distinguish the smoke puffs from the planes.   And then, someone

      shouted that one of the planes was smoking.  Yes, we could all see it." ...

... "But before it was done there were more cries of 'There's another one 

      smoking, and there's a third one now!'  Chutes came out of some of 

      the planes, and out of some came no chutes at all." ... 

... "And all that time the great flat ceiling of the sky was roofed by all

     the others that didn't go down,  plowing their way forward,  as if

     there were no turmoil in the world.   Nothing deviated them by the 

     slightest.   They stalked on slowly,  with a dreadful pall of sound, 

     as though they were seeing only something at a great distance and 

    (as if) nothing existed in between."   ...

..."and then the bombs came.   They began ahead of us as a crackle 

     of popcorn and almost instantly swelled into a monstrous fury of 

    noise that seemed surely to destroy all the world ahead of us.  From   

    then on, for an hour and a half that had in it the agonies of the cen-

    turies, the bombs came down." ...

..."By now everything was an indescribable cauldron of sound.   Indi-

    vidual noises did not exist.  The thundering of motors in the sky and

    the roar of the bombs ahead filled all the space (spatial capacity) for 
    noise on earth.   Our own artillery was crashing all around us,  yet 
    we could hardly hear it."

  A narration of the same event, as was seen by General Fritz Bayerlein,

  the commanding Nazi officer caught in the middle of it, goes as follows: 

"The entrenched infantry was either smashed by the heavy bombs while 

  in their foxholes and dugouts or else they were killed and buried by the 

  blast.   Infantry and artillery positions were blown up.  The bombed-out

  area was entirely transformed into a field covered with craters, where no 

  human was left alive.   Tanks and guns were destroyed and overturned, 

  unable to be recovered, because all roads and passages were blocked." 

  General Bayerlein also wrote: 

"The shock effect was nearly as strong the physical effect" ... "Some of the 

   men got crazy and were unable to carry out anything.   I was personally 
   in the center of the bombardment and could experience the tremendous 
   effect.  For me, one who, during this war, was at every theater of opera-
   tion, and who had been assigned to the places of the main efforts,  this
   was the worst thing I ever saw." 

   Bayerlein summarized the aftermath in the following way:        

  "My front lines looked like the face of the moon, and at least 70%          

    of my troops were out of action - dead, wounded, crazed, or numb."
  ___________________________________________________________________ 

The airmen of the 8th Army Air Force enlisted for the entire duration of the war that
was started by Adolph Hitler and his war machine.   These airmen were literally in
it till death  ...  of either themselves or their heavily equipped enemy.  During their
tours of duty, there were multiple occasions when 88, 108, and 128 mm canon fire
would barrage them so intensely that the surviving airmen would wonder how they
made through it the high speed metal hailstorms.   They would return to British air
bases, only to be impressed by the amount of battle damage that their B-17 Flying
Fortresses and B-24 Liberators endured in flight.

During WWII, if you were in Germany during daylight hours and heard a thunder-
ous roar of airplane engines approaching you, it was always the Americans in all
their audacity, coming in plain sight, in order to have a better chance at hitting the
Nazi industrial war machine.  This included V1 rocket sites, Luftwaffe air bases,
Tiger Tank factories, warplane assembly lines, truck assembly lines, military rail
yards, chemical plants, fuel depots, buzz bomb sites, gun positions, and even the
Panzer Lehr Division which, within one ninety minute span of time, was no longer
the Fatherland's impenetrable armored division.  When compared to the strategic
8th Army Air Force, and even the tactical 9th, the mighty Panzer Lehr Division
was no stronger than cardboard boxes and coastline sand castles.

In a nutshell, if the 8th Army Air Force didn't knock out the Nazi German war in-
dustry, World War II would have endured much longer than it did, resulting in far
more casualties than it did.   In fact, if the 8th AAF didn't make a dedicated effort
in bombing Nazi rail yards in France, the allied invaders of Normandy would have
been met with far more resistance than they did.

As a general rule, the easiest missions where those made to submarine bull pens
and V1 Rocket sites.   Close encounters with death often occurred during those
missions that targeted the various Nazi marshaling yards, tank factories, and war-
plane assembly plants.  A marshaling yard, incidentally, was a railway staging area
that sent Nazi troops, supplies, and ordnance rolling.   The 8th Army Air Force
stopped the rolling, but only at a heavy price, being that the Nazi marshaling yards
were so heavily defended.

The 8th Army Air Force carried on its bombers men as iconic as Jimmy Stewart,
Walter Cronkite, Clark Gable, and the famous 60 Minutes Tour de Farce master,
Andy Rooney.  In performing its missions during daylight hours, it was a corps
of sitting ducks in the sky. 

The Presence of the 8th Army Air Force
in the European Theater of Operation
_________________________________ 

Of the 115,332 casualties sustained by the U.S. Army Air Force during WWII, 41%

of them were Eighth Army Air Force casualties.  Of the 47,483 casualties sustained

by the Eighth Army Air Force in WWII, over 26,000 were fatalities.   This exceed-

ed the 19,733 combat deaths and 24,511 total deaths that the U.S. Marine Corps

sustained during the same war.

___________________________________________________________________

"We didn't get any flak until we got to the I.P.   Over the target, it 

 was a barrage. (Very intense.)   Twenty-six ships in all went down."

__________________________________________________________________

Over 28,000 airmen of the Eighth Army Air Force became prisoners of war in Eur-

ope.   Other airmen who bailed out over Nazi airspace were rescued by French,

Belgian, or Dutch underground networks.   Other airmen, upon parachuting to the

earth, were lynched by German civilians.

__________________________________________________________________ 

"Over this target, I saw one ship go down in a ball of fire.   At the 

   coast, I saw another one go into a tight spin.   It blew up when it

   hit the ground.   I only saw five chutes come out of this one."

__________________________________________________________________

As the war in Europe progressed, the ratio of flak-induced casualties to the fighter-

induced ones increased significantly.   During the months June, July, and August,
in 1944, 86.2% of the Eighth Army Air Force's casualties were due to flak.

__________________________________________________________________ 

"The flak over the target was terrific;  very heavy and very accurate. 

  We lost one plane in our group.   It was burning as it headed toward 

  the earth.   We saw three chutes come out of it."

__________________________________________________________________

The First and Third Air Divisions of the 8th Army Air Force operated B-17 Flying

Fortresses. The Second Air Division operated the B-24 Liberators.  The number of

B-24 Liberators lost in combat by the Second Air Division was 1,458.

__________________________________________________________________

"As we peeled away from the target, I saw a B-24 blow up in mid-air.   

  No chutes came out of it."

__________________________________________________________________

The phrase that American airmen used to describe the act of bailing out of a fall-
ing war plane was "Hit the silk(s)."   American parachutes were made of silk, and
a number of wedding gowns were made from American parachutes.

_________________________________________________________________ 

"We were ready to bail out when the pilot finally stabilized things."

_________________________________________________________________

A bombing run that encountered very little enemy resistance was called "a milk
run."   However, milk runs were not worthless. Some of them inflicted pivotal
damage upon the Nazi War Machine.

         "Our target for today was a buzz bomb site in the Pas-de-Calais

            area.   This mission, I believe, has been the easiest one so far.

            The bombing was visual, and the target was well smashed." ...
 

None the less, one crew's
milk run was another crew's 
disaster.

"While going in, a flak gun 
at the Siegfried Line shot 
down one of our planes."

________________________________________________________________

Shortly after the Liberation of Paris, the Second Air Division delivered tons of
food to Orleans, France.   These flights were called "grocery runs."   They were
were also called mercy missions.

________________________________________________________________

"We saw many, many tanks and vehicles along the roads and in the fields, 
  all wrecked and burnt.   I must have seen at least a million bomb craters 
  and foxholes.  I saw a lot of wrecked planes.  Dead cows and horses were 
  laying in the fields.    There was evidence of a battle everywhere along 

  our route."

______________________________________________________________

Bomber crewmen called fighter pilots "little buddies."

___________________________________________________________________

"As we were falling back (out of formation), fighter escorts stayed 

  with us despite the heavy flak and German interceptors."

___________________________________________________________________

Marshaling yards, (repeatedly mentioned throughout the missions log), were railway

staging centers through which Nazi ordnance, supplies, and troops were transported.

Some of them were heavily guarded by Nazi flak guns.

Marshaling yards were so strategically important that the allied strategy, leading up

to D-day, was that of bombing German marshaling yards.   This was done, in order

to prevent the Nazis from being able to quickly send reinforcements to Normandy

Beach.

__________________________________________________________________ 

"The railroad cars at the marshaling yards were a mass of wreckage."

__________________________________________________________________

The I.P., also mentioned throughout the missions log, was the Initial Point.  It was

the spot in the sky where a mission's bombing phase began.   This was the coordi-

nate where each remaining bomber crew was to lock in on the target and fly in a

straight line, making neither turns nor evasive maneuvers until its bomb load was

released.   This phase was one in which American bomber crews were extremely

vulnerable to anti-aircraft fire.

________________________________________________________________

"We flew to the I.P. and got some more flak.   As we were making our

   bombing run, from the I.P. to the target, we got even more flak.   We 

   released our bombs on the target and they were still shooting at us."

________________________________________________________________

Individual crews would have an engine shot out over the target more than one.

"We lost altitude so fast that we made for the nearest level strip."

The Initial Point was usually five minutes from the target.

"The flak was really heavy all the way from the IP to the target, 

and even past the target.   I was sweating it out, because a four

gun enemy battery was barely missing our left wing."

________________________________________________________________

The Ruhr Valley was called Flak Valley by American airmen, on account of the
number of flak guns in the region.

_________________________________________________________________

"Long before we dropped the bombs, (though after the I.P.), flak 

  was hitting all around us.  We dropped the bombs and made a left-

  hand turn.   The flak was so close that I could see the red flashes 

  as it burst."

__________________________________________________________________

Mentioned in a few of the mission log entries from where came the quotes appear-
ing on this page are readings such as "10/10 cloud cover." In as much, 10/10 stood
for 100% cloud cover, while 9/10 stood for 90% cloud cover, so on and so forth.

___________________________________________________________________

"We had about 6/10 cloud cover all the way."

____________________________________________________________________

The United States Army Air Force flew its missions during daylight hours in the Eur-

opean Theater of Operation, while the British RAF flew its missions at night.   An ex-

ception for American air units was the 801st/492nd Bomb Group. The airmen who

served in that bomb group were known as the Carpetbaggers.

The Carpetbaggers included American airmen who flew behind enemy lines at night,

delivering supplies to resistance forces, evacuating downed allied airmen, scattering

leaflets throughout the night sky, and transporting allied spies.   The Carpetbaggers

even delivered skis and sleighs to Norwegian resistance forces.

The Carpetbaggers had a clandestine airfield in Ain, France.

__________________________________________________________________

The C-1 auto-pilot would be activated as soon as a crew entered into the bombing

phase of a mission.   It was during the actual bombing phase when the bombardier

would assume complete command of the bomber.  Bombardiers were the ones hit

the most often by flak, along with navigators.  In fact, before the bombing phase of

a mission, the bombardier would be in charge of the nose gun.

The instrument used by bombardiers by 1944,  whenever radio-guided Pathfinder

Force Technology (P.F.F.) was not present, was the Norden Bombsight.   The

Norden Bombsight was an analog computer comprised of gyros, gears, mirrors,

bubble levels, and a small telescope.

Having replaced the Sperry S-1 Bombsight in 1943, it was preferable to P.F.F.

technology.   It was even preferable to the rarely used Azon radioguided bombs.

In fact, updated versions of the Norden Bombsight were used in Korea and Vi-

etnam.

     "Our target for today was a German airfield at Laon, France.

              The bombing was visual and results looked good."

In the event that a bomber began to fall out of the sky, it was the bombardier's duty

to destroy the Norden Bombsite before he bailed out, if of course, the bomber were

equipped with one.

The bombsight's necessity consisted in the fact that a degree of bombing accuracy

was needed by the 8th Army Air Force in Europe, due to the nature of the targets

assigned to it.

                                 "Our target was a concentration

                                    of enemy stronghold positions

                                  about three miles west of St. Lo." ...

                                  ... "enemy troops were about

                                       1,500 yds from our troops." ...

                       ... "The Field Artillery signaled us with flares.

                          There were also white markers on the ground

                         to direct us in the air.   The targets were all hit."

__________________________________________________________________

The previous quotes came from an airman's account of the July 25, 1944 bombing

of the Panzer Lehr Division near St. Lo, France.   Known as Operation Cobra, the

mission's outcome marked the breakout of allied ground forces from their coastal

confinements.   In fact, the successful outcome of Operation Cobra marked the be-

ginning of Germany's retreat from France.  Ironically, after the successful air raid,

allied ground force moved south and than west, before moving east, to Germany.

The day when the Panzer Lehr Division was decimated by the Eighth and Ninth

Army Air Forces was the day when Nazi troops learned that Germany's heavy

armored divisions were as vulnerable to America's bombers and attack aircraft

as cardboard boxes are vulnerable to sledge hammers.

This reality was evident on D-day, when medium sized B-26 Marauders of the 9th

Army Air Force destroyed a number of German tanks during tactical support mis-

sions.

General Omar Bradley was quoted as having said that Operation Cobra "struck a 

more deadly blow than any of us dared imagine."  A remarkable aspect of the

St. Lo Air Raid was that 20 lb fragmentation bombs, 100 lb demolition bombs, and

260 lb fragmentation bombs were all that were taken into battle by the 8th Army Air

Force, in order to decimate a Nazi armored division.

Neither the 2,000 lb demolition bomb, nor the 1,000 lb demolition bomb, nor even

the 500 lb incendiary bomb made an appearance at St. Lo, on July 25.  In fact, the

napalm incendiary bomb which made its debut eight days prior, during a P-38 raid

over France, was not used at St. Lo, either.

On July 25, a portion of the 8th Army Air Force bomber crews carried 20 lb frag-

mentation bombs @ 240 bombs per bomber, while other ones were equipped with

100 lb demolition bombs @ 38 bombs per bomber, while yet other crews went to

St. Lo with a load of 260 lb fragmentation bombs @ 20 bombs per bomber.

During Operation Cobra, the Panzer Lehr Division was more than fragged.  It had

troops who were literally vaporized.  The impact of the July 25th raid was recount-

ed by attending Nazi officer, Lieutenant-General Fritz Bayerlein.  The following was

posted at the introduction of this expose.  It's posted here again, for the reader's con-

venience.  Within his account is the phrase, "heavy bombs."   This refers to the bomb

loads that were dropped from each heavy bomber, as opposed to the weight of the

individual bombs themselves:

"The entrenched infantry was either smashed by the heavy bombs while 
  in their foxholes and dugouts or else they were killed and buried by the 
  blast.   Infantry and artillery positions were blown up.  The bombed-out
  area was entirely transformed into a field covered with craters, where no 
  human was left alive.   Tanks and guns were destroyed and overturned, 
  unable to be recovered, because all roads and passages were blocked."

General Bayerlein also wrote:

"The shock effect was nearly as strong the physical effect" ... "Some of the 
  men got crazy and were unable to carry out anything.   I was personally in 
  the center of the bombardment and could experience the tremendous effect.   
  For me, one who, during this war, was at every theater of operation, and 
  who had been assigned to the places of the main efforts,  this was the worst 

  thing I ever saw."

Bayerlein summarized the aftermath in the following way:

"My front lines looked like the face of the moon, and at least 70% 

  of my troops were out of action - dead, wounded, crazed, or numb."

The July 25th bombing raid proved erroneous the documentary makers' claim that

the allied invasion force of June 1944 would have been pushed back into the Eng-

lish Channel if all available Panzer divisions had immediately responded to Nor-
mandy Beach.   The truth is that Nazi armored units would have been decimated
near the Normandy shoreline the same way in which the Panzer Lehr Division
was decimated near the town of St. Lo.  

If the Panzer tanks started rolling on that day, the 8th Army Air Force would have

been flying a double shift, along with the tactical Ninth AAF which probably would

have responded to the scene much quicker than the 8th AAF.  Now, the morning

of June 6th was accompanied by low cloud cover and the inability to perform sight

bombing.   However, the skies began to clear in the afternoon.   In addition, the re-

peated bombing of Nazi marshaling yards prior to D-day prevented the rapid de-

ployment of Nazi infantry divisions to the west coast of France.  The Nazis often

traveled by rail.  The 8th Army Air Force kept demolishing its travel routes.

That which the 8th Army Air Force did not have the technology to decimate were

the concrete-reinforced gun positions known as pillboxes and the accompanying

bunkers that were lined along the French coastline.

The number of American troops killed by friendly fire during the St. Lo Raid was

111.   The number of American troops injured by friendly fire during the same raid

was 490.   Forty-two B-26 Marauders of the 9th Army Air Force "short bombed."

This resulted in the 30th Infantry Division sustaining 64 soldiers being killed in ac-

tion, 60 ending up missing in action (presumed to be buried under the blasts), and

374 gettingwounded.   If that hadn't happened, friendly fire casualties would have

been 47 killed and 126 wounded, in unintentional collateral damage.

During the St. Lo Air Raid, Nazi German anti-craft batteries fired upon oncoming

American bomb groups with accuracy.  

                        "The flak was rather intense and accurate.

                         Our right wing ship went down in flames."

__________________________________________________________________

Concerning the bombing of Dresden, it was the 8th Army Air Force's First Air Di-
vision who participated in that bombing, and even at that, the participating Ameri-
can bomb groups only bombed the Dresden rail system.   The RAF was the entity
who deliberately bombed civilian targets as a matter of policy, and the Americans
and British conducted their own operations independent of each other.  The 1st Air
Division's bombing of the Dresden rail system had the strategic effect of impeding
the Nazis from sending reinforcements to the Eastern Front.

Furthermore, the Feuersturm of Hamburg (known as Operation Gomorrah and the

Hiroshima of Germany) took place during the summer of 1943.   It was RAF night

raids which placed that time span in infamy, as it was a deliberate act of revenge for

the bombing of London.

__________________________________________________________________

In 1944, Strategic Bombing, as opposed to Area Bombing, was the operative mode

of the Eighth Army Air Force so much so that, during the same year, its name was

changed to the U.S. Strategic Air Forces (USSAF).  The carpet bombing of civilian

areas was NOT the assigned objective of the 8th Army Air Force.  Rather, the de-

struction of the Nazi War Machine was.  This included military hardware in produc-

tion and in the field, as well as transportation routes, storage areas, airfields, and

enemy troop strong points such as the Nazi gun positions in Metz, France.

__________________________________________________________________ 

"Our target for today was a Heinkel aircraft plant in Rostock, Germany.  
  The plant was one of the largest in Germany, but now it is no more.  Our 
  target was previously hit, but more damage needed to be done to it.   We 
  smashed the target flat this time.   The bombing was visual, and I could 
  see the bombs hit, blowing the place sky high. "

__________________________________________________________________

The official phrase, Precision Bombing, was employed in Europe by United States

bomber command, in order to define the targets as being precisely designated and
precisely limited to those of military significance.   The phrase was intended to con-
trast Area Bombing, the practice employed by RAF bomber command by which en-
tire civilian areas were targeted and indiscriminately bombed.

___________________________________________________________________

American squadrons were also given secondary and tertiary targets before each

bombing mission, along with primary target and targets of opportunity. 

"... we went to our secondary target, which was a chemical and high ex-
  plosives plant at Clausthal-Zellerfeld. We dropped our bombs and then 
  circled the target, to see what we did.   By the looks of the place, it isn't 
  any good to the Germans anymore.  The target was blazing, as smoke was 
  coming up to about 5,000 to 6,000 feet."

The documentary makers' claim that a thousand bombers would be sent to the same

one bombing target per mission is a falsehood.  The truth is that 300 to 1,500 bomb-

ers would be sent out to bomb four, eight, twelve, eighteen or so targets during the

same one outing.   Designated targets would be in the same general geographic re-

gion, and the various bomb groups would eventually separate into a number of dif-

ferent formations en route to the multiple targets.

There were occasions where only 4 to 13 bombers would attack an individual target.

There were even instances when a solitary bomber attacked a solitary target of op-

portunity.   However, the general trend was that the typical Nazi target was attacked

by 1 to 300 bombers, with 25 to 175 being the more frequently observed numerical

range, if not the exact statistical median.   It was even more common for 55 to 135

American bombers to attack a primary target.

                    "There were about 50 bombers at our target."

An exception was the day when the Leuna synthetic oil refinery at Merseberg was

attacked by 383 bombers during one raid and then 210 bombers later in the same

day.   There were other exceptions.  Only on rare occasion would a thousand or

more bombers be sent to one target.  The St. Lo Raid was one example, and even

at that, it was a joint effort between the Tactical 9th Army Air Force and the stra-

tegic 8th Army Air Force.

_________________________________________________________________

The October 1944 attack on Hamm, Germany, was the exception to the precision

bombing rule, even though the first two Autumn raids on Hamm targeted its mar-
shaling yards.  The mission which designated all of Hamm as the primary target
coincided with the recently failed Operation Market Garden which was once por-
trayed on Screen in, A Bridge Too Far, and in the TV serial, A Band  of Brothers.

   - The first autumn mission to Hamm occurred the day after the British

     1st Airborne Division in Holland was ordered to withdraw across the

     Rhine. In fact, takeoff time was a few hours after Operation Market

     Garden was officially declared halted. This was Tuesday, September

     26, 1944. 
                    "Our target for today was one of Germany's larg-

                      est rail centers that support troops in Holland."

  - There was a vested interest in shielding allied troops in Holland from

     a Nazi counteroffensive which would have had its supply line anchored

     at the Hamm marshaling yards. There was also a vested interest in safe-

    guarding Dutch Resistance personnel from Nazi retaliation.   There was

    the additional need to prevent the Germans from turning the western bor-

    der of Holland into a scaled ver ion of the Atlantic Wall (or a replica of

    the Siegfried Line).   In light of this, the allies were in need of establish-

    ing strongholds in the Holland that they invaded ten days prior. 

             "We were to hit the rail depot at the rail center of 

               Hamm, Germany.   The whole 8th Army Air Corps 

               was bombing in this area today."

 - The second autumn mission to Hamm occurred four days after the first

    mission, on September 30th.   Then, on the following Monday, Hamm's

    ability to export the Nazi War Machine to Holland was significantly dis-

    rupted.

 - The bombing mission was successful enough to enable the 1st Canadian

   Army to maintain a position near Groesbeek, Holland.   This resulted in

   the Operation Veritable that began in February 1945.

          "This is the largest rail center in Germany, and I don't 

            think that we will have to go back there again.  I could 

            see the bombs hit right into the target."

 - Crews of the 578th Bomb Group had already been briefed for a mission
    to Stuttgart on the morning of the Second of October. They then found
    themselves in a briefing room once again, being briefed on the Hamm mis-
    sion shortly before takeoff time. Thus, there was a sense of urgency in the
    third Hamm mission, as opposed to a premeditated plan.

         "After we peeled away from the target, I saw three more

           groups drop their bombs.   They smashed Hamm flat."

 - The Hamm marshaling yards were attacked before the three autumn raids,

    during the end of summer, on the 19th of September.  This occurred while

    Operation Market Garden was still in progress.  Hamm's marshaling yards

    would then be attacked again, on November 26, 1944.   But, the mission

    which made all of Hamm the primary target was October 2, 1944.

_________________________________________________________________

As was previously mentioned, the RAF engaged in Area Bombing as a matter of

policy.   British high command asserted that destroying German civilian neighbor-

hoods would destroy the German workforce and the Nazis' ability to manufacture

its weaponry.  In fact, Winston Churchill ordered the RAF to perform "terror raids"

upon civilian populations.

British high command was proven wrong.   History showed that Area Bombing did

not destroy the Nazi war industry.   Nor did it demoralize Germany to the point of

surrendering.   If anything, the bombing of civilian venues inspires an enemy to fight

even more vehemently against you with the military hardware that was untouched

while you were bombing his civilian neighborhoods.

The Nazi's defeat at Leningrad was attributed to the fact that civilian venues through-

out that city were intentionally bombed by the Luftwaffe, giving Russian snipers free

reign throughout a fortress of rubble.

The systematic bombing of civilian areas is strategically detrimental, as well as a
crime against humanity.   The bombing of merely one truck assembly plant did more
to defeat the Nazis than did the killing of a multitude of German civilians.

____________________________________________________________________ 

"Our target was a truck plant in Cologne, Germany.   This was a very im-

  portant mission, because the Germans were using the trucks to carry sup-
  plies to the front lines at Aachen and other places."

____________________________________________________________________

On occasion, an American bomber squadron would make the error of missing its
assigned target and then hitting a Swiss town or a German municipality.

There were varying degrees of collateral damage for almost any bombing raid that

did not target a submarine bullpen, a Nazi airfield, a remote railway viaduct, a buzz

bomb site, or a recessed gun position.   The amount of collateral damage depend-

ed on a few variables, including the target's proximity to civilian areas, the percen-

tage of cloud cover, the intensity of flak being fired near the target, the flammable

nature of the target, the year in which the air raid took place, and the type of radio

guidance system or bombsight used in the bombing.

Even at that, there were times when the Eighth Army Air Force declined to release

its bombs over Nazi-held territory, due to the presence of too much cloud cover

and the accompanying inability to locate a specific target.

Also keep in mind that a falling American airship (especially one that had not yet

released its bomb load), as well as a plummeting fighter plane, had the potential to

cause collateral damage, also.

__________________________________________________________________

In the European Theater of Operation, there were American bomber crews who be-

came the victims of friendly fire while in the air.

"We lost two ships in our group due

to our own bombs dropping on them."

Fatal bomber accidents were not limited to training venues.   There was the tragedy

of American bombers collidsinf into each other upon their return to Britain, as well

as cases of bombers being lost in the English Channel. 

"As we got back to our base, two of the planes in our group  crashed into 
  each other and blew up.   It was an unbelievable sight.  I saw the planes 
  explode right off our left wing and then hit the ground.   No one got out 
  alive.   The weather was plenty rough when coming in.   We lost another 
  plane in the channel."

__________________________________________________________________

The Nazis acquired radar technology and used it in its anti-aircraft tactics.  The ra-

dar countermeasure employed by the Americans was that of dispersing bundles of

aluminized paper strips throughout the sky.   Known as chaff, the strips were dis-

persed through trap doors by each crew's waist gunners.

The strips served the function of decoys, causing multiple returns to appear on an

enemy's radar screens.  Despite this countermeasure, American bombers were still

being shot down over Nazi airspace, while a significant number of them were re-

turning to England noticeably shot-up.

                 "About 40 bombers were lost.   I now know how a duck

                 feels during hunting season.  One ship in our group was

                 lost.   Plenty of them were pretty well shot up."

Even after the allied invasion of France and the establishment of allied air superior-

ity, American airmen continued to be in peril throughout parts of the European skies.

As an initial example,  three hundred and seventy-three B-24 liberators were sent to

bomb Nazi German oil refineries and aircraft assembly plants thirty-two days after

D-day.   One hundred and twenty-seven of the bombers returned to England with

battle damage, while thirty-seven of them never returned.  Six U.S. fighter planes

were also lost in combat. 
                                          "The flak was heavy and accurate.

                                               Also, plenty of enemy fighters;

                                          (JU-88, Me-109, Me-410, FW-190.)"

As another example, the July 12, 1944 mission to Munich resulted in battle damage

being inflicted upon 301 heavy bombers.  Twenty-six of the bombers were shot

down over the target.  The target was the Munich marshaling yards.

                             "The mission was long and tiresome."

The tragic Kassel Mission occurred 16 weeks after D-day, on September 27, 1944.

Twenty-five of the thirty-five participating airships of the 445th Bomb Group were

shot down in a 15 minute time span.  The intended target was a Tiger Tank factory. 

                           "This bomber group's losses were heavy

                                in spite of heavy fighter support."

As a final example, on the last day of November, in 1944, 29 heavy bombers were

shot down, while 612 other ones sustained battle damage while in Nazi airspace, at-

tacking four synthetic oil refineries, two marshaling yards, and several targets of op-

portunity.

___________________________________________________________________

During their grocery runs to Orleans, American bombers crews did not travel to 

French airports with full crews.

___________________________________________________________________ 

"Only the pilot, co-pilot, navigator, engineer, and radio operator were on 
  board.   I don't know what we would have done if we had been attacked 
  by fighters.   We were so low that we could see the French people wave 
  at us.   Also a few GIs."

__________________________________________________________________

Even though Switzerland was a neutral nation throughout World War II, the Swiss
captured and interned American aviators who bailed out over Switzerland.   Even
though the America prisoners of war were interned at Swiss ski resorts they were
subject to marginal diets of 1,500 calories daily and the gnaw of very poorly heat-
ed quarters.   None the less, Switzerland proved to be a lifesaver for over a 1,700
American aviators.

The United States government received hotel bills from the Swiss, on account

of American airmen interned at the Swiss ski lodges.  In addition, over 100,000
soldiers of various nations and branches of service made their ways to Switzer-
land, along with 200,000+ civilian refugees.

___________________________________________________________________

"Gerry really had our number.   I didn't see any ships go down, but one 
  crew in our barracks was shot up so badly that it had to go to Switzer-
  land."

____________________________________________________________________

If a bomber crew failed to drop its bomb load on a Nazi target during a mission, yet
flew through airspace under attack by enemy flak guns or fighter planes, it would still
receive credit for having performed a combat mission.

_____________________________________________________________________ 

The United States Air Force did not become an independent branch of the American
military until 1947.   Until then, it operated under United States Army command.   It
originally carried the title, Aeronautical Division of the U.S. Signal Corps, followed
chronologically by Aviation Section  (of the Signal Corps), the Division of Military
Aeronautics, and the U.S. Army Air Service.   Then, in 1926, congress changed its
name to the United States Army Air Corps.

In 1941, the United States Army Air Force was established, and the Office of the

Chief of the Army Air Corps was disbanded.   However, throughout World War II,

the phrase Army Air Corps was often used when speaking of the newly formed Ar-

my Air Force.   This was done even by the press and government officials, as well

as by members of the Army Air Force. 

__________________________________________________________________

The Eighth Army Air Force was founded in 1942, and was originally called VIII

Bomber Command.   Its name was then changed to the U.S. Strategic Air Forces,

during February of 1944.   However, consecutive years of familiarity with the phrase,

Army Air Corps, even at the recruiting office, is the reason why the USSAF was of-

ten referred to as the 8th Army Air Corps, even by its own airmen.

____________________________________________________________________ 

"Our group did not lose any planes, but the 8th Army Air Corps lost 51 
  heavy bombers. "

____________________________________________________________________

The airmen saw things as scenic as the White Cliffs of Dover and "the peaks of the
Alps protruding through the clouds."   This is contrasted by the sight of airships go-
ing down in balls of fire, as well as the devastation that was seen in France, during
the grocery runs which occurred after the Liberation of Paris.  The Eighth Army Air
Force, in traveling behind enemy lines, was pivotal in the Liberation of France, the
Netherlands, and Belgium.

___________________________________________________________________ 

"When we left the target, we could see the peaks of the Alps protruding

 through the clouds.   They looked very pretty, but I did not want to hang

 around and look at them. "

____________________________________________________________________ 

For more on an American daylight crew's tour of duty in Nazi airspace, 
refer to the following:

http://themighty8th.blogspot.com/2013/07/combat-missions-1-to-9.html

http://themighty8th.blogspot.com/2013/07/combat-missions-10-to-18.html

http://themighty8th.blogspot.com/2013/07/orleans-france.html

http://themighty8th.blogspot.com/2013/07/combat-missions-19-to-27.html