St. Lo and our (mis)perception of history

One of the things that struck me while I was working on my biography of Omar Bradley* is how much misperception there is of the man. He’s not so much the blank slate of World War II but the punching bag.

Everyone from historians to political columnists have used him as a straw man for whatever sort of prejudice they have or point they want to make. Mostly that’s because:

a) readers don’t really know much about him, and

b) neither do historians.

There are a number of reasons for this, which I go into in the book. But it’s not just the fact that Bradley hasn’t had much attention. Much of what we focus on when looking at the history of World War II helps distort who he was.

Take, for example, the battle of St. Lo in Normandy. Capturing the city was an important accomplishment during the campaign that followed D-Day; it was an American victory. It was also a bloody mess that resulted in a pile of rubble and not much else. Because of the geography, lack of ammunition and a host of other factors, it was a slow, plodding affair, absolutely not what the Americans, or Bradley, wanted.

It happens, though, that because the battle lasted so long, we have a lot of specific information on it, which has allowed historians to focus on it. It’s often used as the last battle of the D-Day campaign – which of course it’s not. (That would be Cobra, a decidedly different affair, and the one plan completely drawn up by Bradley and followed to his specifications. And contrary to some historians’ contentions, there’s little evidence that Bradley saw St. Lo as the precursor to Cobra.)

There are a lot of things you can say about that battle. But if you look at it and think that it represents Bradley or American doctrine during the war, you’d be totally mistaken. Even if the historian writing about it doesn’t think that or say that, many readers will certainly get that impression if they spend a lot of time reading about it.

I should note that the documentary I’m in does end at that battle, and for that and many other reasons I don’t mean to exempt myself from the criticism of inappropriate context. But we do have to keep in mind that history, even at its most accurate, comes to us with many hidden strings. What we know is not always what we think we know, and what we think is often not what we know.

* which you can get here and here.

In Dutch:

Hello, Netherlands, and thanks.

(First time I've ever had a book translated into Dutch. I can't understand a word, but then that's not an unusual situation...)

Scanning books is fair use . . .

... says judge, dismissing what was a landmark case between authors and Google

Item from Reuters:

(Reuters) - Google Inc on Thursday won dismissal of a long-running lawsuit by authors who accused the Internet search company of digitally copying millions of books for an online library without permission.

U.S. Circuit Judge Denny Chin in Manhattan accepted Google's argument that its scanning of more than 20 million books, and making "snippets" of text available online, constituted "fair use" under U.S. copyright law.

Story.

Damn, Van Damme



It hurts just to watch this . . .

Speaking of Cobra . . .



. . .  this is the Army's official history of the attack.

There are a few things that'll make your eyes roll, but the footage of the troops and the terrain alone make it worth watching.

The visuals that always amaze me are the ones showing the sheer damage to St. Lo. The obliteration of French cities during the campaign is something quite often overlooked, even in the best books.

(Ignore the comments at the bottom of the page. Apparently the commentators didn't know that Patton wasn't involved in Cobra, or realize that Bradley's in the film to tout the Army's history series (including, it should be said, historians whose interpretations he didn't agree with). Then again, it's always interesting to see how the Patton-Bradley myths are perpetuated.)

What would 007 say?

Item:

A spy whose naked, decomposing body was found in a padlocked gym bag at his apartment likely died in an accident with no one else involved, British police said Wednesday. 

Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt said the death of Gareth Williams, whose remains were found inside a bag in his bathtub in August 2010, was "most probably" an accident.

"I'm convinced that Gareth's death was in no way linked to his work," Hewitt told Reuters. 

Story.

People lock themselves in gym bags all the time, I'm sure . . .

More D-Day books

Reading D-Day

One of the questions that I wasn't asked for the History Channel documentary, and that surely would have taken hours and hours to answer, is probably the most basic:

What's a good book to read if you're interested in D-Day?

Stephen Ambrose's D-Day is usually mentioned as one of the best introductions for a general reader, and I still remember my first reading when I was . . . a few years younger than I am today. Anthony Beevor's one volume D-Day is another good survey of the battle - and I'm not just saying that because he's in the History Channel documentary, too. (You should see my dog-eared copy, still tagged with a mountain of Post-It notes.) Max Hastings' Overlord is another good introduction, a bit older than the others, but still an excellent read.

After a general introduction, you might want to dig in a little deeper with Carlo d'Este's Decision in Normandy and John Keegan's Six Armies in Normandy. Both books take you well beyond D-Day, and in fact past Cobra, the battle that broke the american army out and set the stage for the race across France. Speaking of Cobra, James Jay Carafano's After D-Day is the best one-volume account of the battle I've found.

There are literally thousands of other books to round out the picture. You won't agree with every interpretation, not even (or especially not) in the best-known books, but that's part of the fun of history.

Veterans Day

I've attended my share of moving Veterans Day ceremonies over the years, but for me the most memorable was the one I missed.

It was 2006, and I was working on Rangers at Dieppe, an account* of the American Army Rangers first battle during World War II. I was on research trip to Great Britain and France, and was supposed to arrive in Dieppe on November 11, just before dawn, which would have been roughly the time that the Rangers had landed - along, of course, with a much larger contingent of British Commandos and the main Canadian force.

Things didn't quite work out for various reasons, mostly the weather, and I ended up arriving the next night. In the morning as I walked through the small city, I saw flower arrangements everywhere, as well as red poppies, a universal symbol of remembrance for the fallen in the wars. They were left from services that had taken place all around the city, services held every year.

What we call Veterans Day in the U.S. began as a celebration of the end of World War I; while many of the ceremonies in Europe recalled that conflict, in Dieppe the remembrances were largely devoted to World War II and the valiant but failed effort to rout the Germans from the city in 1942. The Americans played a very, very small part in that battle, but their courage and their blood was remembered as prominently and properly as the others'. Not only were the memorials decorated (there are no remaining American graves from the invasion battle that we know of), but in the days that followed, many of the residents I spoke mentioned their sacrifices and thanked our country for their efforts to free France. America had long forgotten about the small contribution of a handful of men in the battle; they hadn't.

As you'd expect, the French have their own perspective on the war; it's a complicated and heart-rending perspective, one with contradictions and complications. A lot has changed - I don't think the lingering resentment toward Germans that I encountered on my first visit to France in the late 1980s is anywhere near as virulent, if it even still exists. But one thing that hasn't changed is the French appreciation of the sacrifices others made for them in World War II. When they honor their dead, they honor the men and women from America and the rest of the world who fought besides them. American graves are still tended with loving care, as their own.

There's a slogan many of us use: Never forget. For me, Dieppe proved the sentiment is more than just words. We owe a large debt not only to those who have served, but to those who have helped us remember the importance of their sacrifices.

* Actually, the account, as I believe it's the only book-length investigation.

Hedgerows

In talking about Bradley and D-Day, it occurs to me that the two battles where Bradley's armies had their worst problems came in terrain he probably didn't fully understand before his men fought there: the "boccage" or hedgerow country of Normandy, France, and the Hurtgen forest.

I realize it's way too simplistic to say that the Americans got bogged down in both places because their overall commander had never hunted in their fields. And Bradley did have intelligence and photos demonstrating what the terrain was like. (And ignorance is never a defense.) Still, neither he nor his army had fought in that kind of terrain before, his overall tactics and battle doctrine were ill-adapted to it, he didn't really have the right equipment for it (though who did), and the analogies an American would make upon hearing the area described are very misleading. Taken together with equipment shortages and everything else plaguing the allies, it shouldn't be surprising that it took the Americans a few weeks to figure it out.

I've often thought that the biggest problem of fighting in the hedgerow country began with semantics: when an American hears the word "hedges," he thinks of those cute little things in front of suburban houses. Everyone who's studied World War II and the aftermath of D-Day realizes that the boccage was difficult country to fight in, but I think it's hard to imagine exactly how hard it was unless you walk through it. Even the photos of long mounds of dirt with trees tangled in them don't really do the place justice. It's easy to get lost even on the roads; throw German machine guns (arguably the best ground weapon in the war) and mortars in there, and even an army that knew the ground it was fighting on would have trouble.

Americans would take one small Norman field, only to come under fire from the next and then the next. Rather than the rapid movement Bradley (and everyone else) had envisioned, the Germans threatened to tie them down in Normandy for months.

It didn't work out that way, mostly because of Cobra - but that's another story. (And another documentary - this one will end with the capture of St. Lo.)

Too timid to fight against the odds


Mentioning Balkoski's book, Beyond the Beachhead, reminds me of another great story he tells, that of one of the German commanders' assessment on St. Lo - a grueling battle that the 29th finally won after days of bloody and confused fighting.

According to the German, the 29th Division won because its soldiers weren't brave enough to fight unless they held a serious advantage in men and material.*

Guess you can say that when you get your butt kicked. "Neh, neh, now try and fight me with one hand tied behind your back . . ." Kind of makes you wonder how he would have fought the battle from the other side.

The Germans were great soldiers, and always did extremely well on the defensive. But obviously they were very sore losers.

* For once I'm not exaggerating - see page 217

Balkoski, Cota, and D-Day


I was recently filmed for an upcoming History Channel special on D-Day. (Details when we get closer.) Mostly I was there to talk about Omar Bradley because, well, I wrote a biography - the biography - of the important but largely neglected WWII general. But we ended up talking about a lot of things, most of which will probably never get into the show.

One of my great pleasures - besides visiting Portland, Maine - was reacquainting myself with some of the books about D-Day that I haven't read or thought about in quite some time.

One of my favorites is Beyond the Beachhead, by Joseph Balkoski. The book focuses on the 29th Infantry and its experiences in Normandy. It's a wonderfully written, extremely well researched account of the division's combat experiences. My version - an ebook for Android - was published by Stackpole in 2005. His terse but descriptive account of General Norman Cota on the beach has to rank as one of the more illuminating accounts of heroism in the war.

Cota was the assistant commander of the division. He was also, as they used to put it, a real piece of work. My favorite story has to do with him coming upon a small group of soldiers contemplating how they were going to get past a German position in a tree.

"Watch and learn,"* Cota said, and he ran to the building, threw in a couple of hand grenades and then went in with guns blazing. My kind of general.

* Not a direct quote. But close in spirit, if nothing else.

Moving at Mach 6

Bye-bye Blackbird

Item:

After years of silence on the subject, Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works has revealed exclusively to AW&ST details of long-running plans for what it describes as an affordable hypersonic intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and strike platform that could enter development in demonstrator form as soon as 2018. Dubbed the SR-72, the twin-engine aircraft is designed for a Mach 6 cruise, around twice the speed of its forebear, and will have the optional capability to strike targets.

Story in Aviation Week.
 (The SR-71, long-since retired, was called the Blackbird.)

Shocking news - America spies!

I have to say that I've been both baffled and amused by the "revelations" regarding NSA spying. What exactly did people think spy agencies did, anyway?

The latest "sandal" - the "revelation" that the U.S. spied on our "allies" is pretty precious. I'm sure the Germans, et al, are shocked, simply shocked, to find that out. though I can't imagine Merkel has much that's interesting to listen to.

Anyone reading the Deep Black series - which is a few years old now - would have been prepared. But it's all fiction, right?

But here's a question no one seems to be asked: given the NSA's obvious skill with computers, why weren't they tasked with designing the Obamacare website?

RIP, Lou Reed

American Sniper returns to NYT best-seller list

Thanks


One of the great things about working on the Memorial edition of American Sniper was getting to talk to a wide range of people who were friends of Chris. It was amazing to me how many people had so many good things to say about him. In fact, if I hadn't known him myself, I wouldn't have believed half. But I think if anything, he was probably twice as nice and twice as generous as people even remember.

It was an honor helping to get these memories into print. I, and I'm sure everyone involved, are grateful for the support readers have shown, not just to Chris and his memory, but to all veterans.

The Memorial edition of American Sniper appears at 17 on the NY Times best-seller list next week. Given that the book has now been out for nearly two years, it's an incredible achievement, due solely to Chris and his many, many supporters, readers and friends.

Moving up

Number 8 on the list . . .

. . . in D.C. at least.

Thank you.

One way to get Cubans . . .

Cigars from the birds



Now this is what I call art.

Now available

The Memorial edition of American Sniper, which includes memories of Chris from a wise array of friends, neighbors, and acquaintances.

For some more about it and links to purchase, check my website here or here.

A heartwarming story . . .

. . .  and a heartwarming book by a friend of mine - if you watch the video closely, you'll see he plays keyboards as well as types on them.

Larry Bond on Tom Clancy


From USNI News - this is Larry speaking:

The most correct thing you can say about the relationship between Hunt for Red October and “Harpoon” is that “Harpoon” was one of the many data sources that Clancy used when he was writing the book.

One way to tell “Harpoon” was one of [Clancy’s] sources is in the knife fight at the very end of the book where the Alfa-class is dogfighting with Red October. The Alfa fired a “Type-F” torpedo, which is what I called the Russian wire-guided torpedo in my [“Harpoon”] rules. When I wrote the first draft there was almost nothing in the unclassified realm regarding torpedo designations for the Russians. In fact I didn’t want to use the classified stuff—that was amazingly complicated.

I came up with Type A through Type F. When you see a bad guy fire a Type F torpedo [in the book]—that’s Tom using “Harpoon.”

Interview.

(USNI = U.S. Naval Institute)

Why I always go for the Big Mac . . .

Item:

For the research, nuggets were preserved, dissected and stained before they were examined under a microscope.
Nugget number one was about 50 percent muscle tissue such as from the breast or thigh, which is what most people think of when they think of chicken meat. The rest of it was made from fat, blood vessels and nerves, specifically the cells that line the skin and internal organs of the chicken.
Nugget number two was 40 percent muscle. The rest was fat, cartilage and bone.

Story.

"More than anything . . ."

". . . I'm a technology freak."

- Tom Clancy

Early interview in Publishers Weekly.

Clancy

Some good pieces on Clancy and his impact here:

NPR

And here:

NYT

I think some of the comments by readers and fans are especially touching.

Tom Clancy played an important role in my early career, both directly and indirectly. It’s pretty much an open secret that I worked on a few projects for him. More importantly for me personally, it was through this association that I ended up making a lot of good friends, some of whom I'm still close with today. My early association led directly to Dreamland and other series that followed.

I would add one thing to what’s been written: Clancy made reading and patriotism cool again. That’s something I don’t think you can underestimate.

Tom Clancy, 1947-2013

Tom Clancy, author of ‘Hunt for Red October’ and ‘Patriot Games,’ dead at 66 

Story.

A-10 cuts update

Frustrated that the Air Force hasn't explained why it wants to cut the A-10 from its fleet, one of New Hampshire's senators has placed a "hold" on the nomination of the Air Force's civilian head. In Senate decorum, this means that the nomination won't proceed (usually) until the Senator removes the hold.

WASHINGTON — Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., has placed a hold on the White House’s nominee for Air Force secretary, blocking the confirmation process of Deborah Lee James until questions are answered regarding potential cuts to the A-10 Thunderbolt attack aircraft, according to an Ayotte aide.

“Yes, she has placed a hold until she gets answers on the A-10 issue,” the aide told Defense News Wednesday evening. “She (as ranking member of the readiness subcommittee) views this as a readiness issue. Until we have a replacement for the A-10, why would the [Air Force] try to eliminate it? She isn’t necessarily saying we must retain the A-10, but wants to ensure there isn’t a capability gap that could result in lost American lives.”

Story.

My new assistant

She's not much on dictation, but no deer have come into the office while she's been on the job.

The Iranian killer in Syria

From the New Yorker:

[Qassem] Suleimani took command of the Quds Force fifteen years ago, and in that time he has sought to reshape the Middle East in Iran’s favor, working as a power broker and as a military force: assassinating rivals, arming allies, and, for most of a decade, directing a network of militant groups that killed hundreds of Americans in Iraq. The U.S. Department of the Treasury has sanctioned Suleimani for his role in supporting the Assad regime, and for abetting terrorism. And yet he has remained mostly invisible to the outside world, even as he runs agents and directs operations. “Suleimani is the single most powerful operative in the Middle East today,” John Maguire, a former C.I.A. officer in Iraq, told me, “and no one’s ever heard of him.”

Story.

Few Americans realize the extent to which Iran caused destruction, death and chaos in Iraq, nor its continued drive for influence in that country. Quds Force and Hezbollah (and their antecedents) have been critical instruments for some four decades, and have had far greater impact than nuclear weapons ever will.

Memorial edition

Coming in October

Thanks, everyone, for your help. Details forthcoming.

Insecurity . . .


Item:

(Reuters) - Federal prosecutors have documented at least 350 instances of faulty background investigations done by private contractors and special agents for the U.S. Office of Personnel Management in recent years, illustrating what some lawmakers call systemic weaknesses in the granting of federal security clearances.

Never could have guessed. Full story from Reuters here.

Meanwhile, in Syria

Asad wanted to use gas . . .

. . . says key general.

Item:

Brigadier-General Zaher al-Sakat, a former chemical weapons chief in President Bashar al-Assad's own army . . .

. . . says he was ordered three times to use chemical weapons against his own people, but could not go through with it and replaced chemical canisters with ones containing harmless bleach.

He also insists that all such orders had to come from the top – President Assad himself – despite insistent denials by the regime that it has never used chemical weapons.

Story in UK Telegraph.

Can you live with the bomb?


Item:

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean scientists are able to build crucial equipment for uranium-based nuclear bombs on their own, cutting the need for imports that had been one of the few ways outsiders could monitor the country's secretive atomic work, according to evidence gathered by two American experts.

The experts say material published in North Korean scientific publications and news media shows that Pyongyang is mastering domestic production of essential components for the gas centrifuges needed to make such bombs. The development further complicates long-stalled efforts to stop a nuclear bomb program that Pyongyang has vowed to expand, despite international condemnation

Story.

The remarkable part of the story is not North Korea's continued development of nuclear weapons, but the restraint thus far by South Korea and Japan, which could quite easily develop their own devices. The logic of a first-strike blow against the North Korean nuclear armory - which would be much easier with nuclear-tipped penetrating weapons - is overwhelming. Even if one thought that retaliation by China was inevitable, a first-strike against North Korea would probably result in less overall damage (on both sides) than waiting for an attack and then retaliating.

Meanwhile, as the export of North Korean military technology continues, the goal of nonproliferation becomes more and more difficult. Iran will not be the last country to join the nuclear club.

Chinese UAVs

Item:

BEIJING — For almost two years, hackers based in Shanghai went after one foreign defense contractor after another, at least 20 in all. Their target, according to an American cybersecurity company that monitored the attacks, was the technology behind the United States’ clear lead in military drones.

Full story.

The piece is more than a little breathless, and misinformed (or maybe purposely under-informed) about U.S. capabilities, but must reading anyway.

The next air war

It's the mindset . . .

. . . not the plane.

Item:

“The fifth generation pilots are going to have to be trained that firing first is not their core con-ops.  Giving validated targets to other shooters is the ‘to be’ condition,” Wynne said. “This is reversing decades of training and experience where the instinct is to fire first and ask questions later.

“With fifth-gen aircraft you are setting up the air space for air dominance, and weapons are delivered from assets throughout the managed airspace.  Without the fifth generation aircraft you have to fight your way in and expend significant effort just trying to survive.  With the fifth generation aircraft you are setting up the grid to shape the offensive and defensive force to achieve the results which you seek.”

Full article.

Fifth generation = F-22 and F-35. The article is an excellent summary, though since it's by necessity it skims the surface and doesn't mention other technologies that are changing the entire shape and demands of the battlefield. (Think UAVs for starters.)

(Thanks DR, for the link.)

Now available for Nook

Ugly hurts . . .

. . . . the enemy, that is.

Book 3 of the Hogs series is now available for the Nook. Preview and download here.

An adjunct's life and death

Ever wonder where the tens of thousands of dollars students spend each year on college tuition goes? Evidently not to teachers:

As amazing as it sounds, Margaret Mary, a 25-year professor, was not making ends meet. Even during the best of times, when she was teaching three classes a semester and two during the summer, she was not even clearing $25,000 a year, and she received absolutely no health care benefits. Compare this with the salary of Duquesne's president, who makes more than $700,000 with full benefits.

There's more to the story.

Franzen goes off


Jonathan Franzen, from a long but tart rant:

In my own little corner of the world, which is to say American fiction, Jeff Bezos of Amazon may not be the antichrist, but he surely looks like one of the four horsemen. Amazon wants a world in which books are either self-published or published by Amazon itself, with readers dependent on Amazon reviews in choosing books, and with authors responsible for their own promotion. The work of yakkers and tweeters and braggers, and of people with the money to pay somebody to churn out hundreds of five-star reviews for them, will flourish in that world. But what happens to the people who became writers because yakking and tweeting and bragging felt to them like intolerably shallow forms of social engagement? What happens to the people who want to communicate in depth, individual to individual, in the quiet and permanence of the printed word, and who were shaped by their love of writers who wrote when publication still assured some kind of quality control and literary reputations were more than a matter of self-promotional decibel levels? 

The rest of the article. (Starts slow, and probably a little esoteric for most, but gathers steam.)

For a limited time

Fires of War is available free for the Kindle via Amazon's UK site.

Fires is the third book in the First Team series, which features Bob "Ferg" Ferguson as a free-wheeling, smooth-talking CIA officer who works with a group of special operators and is backed up by a Special Forces unit.

You can download the book here. The free offer expires Monday.

(I know it's book three, but you can certainly read them in whatever order you want.)

Hog haircut



What an A-10 looks like up close and personal . . .

Coming soon . . .

. . . to a Nook near you: We're putting the finishing touches on the Nook version of Book 3 in the Hogs series; it should be available on the Barnes & Noble site soon.

Meanwhile, in Iran . . .


Item:

Iranian President Hassan Rohani said Tuesday that Iran will not forgo any part of its nuclear program, Iranian news agency Mehr reported. The president also said his country would not relinquish its right to nuclear technology, which he called "complete."

Prior to Rohani's remarks, Western commentators had been optimistic that Iran was undergoing a policy change with regard to its contested nuclear program. Iran recently announced its Foreign Ministry would take over nuclear talks with world powers, removing conservative hardliners from the negotiations.

Link.

The likely legacy of the authorization debate

Ah, you might say, but if Congress actually votes the Syria authorization down, then future presidents will feel constrained by the threat of a similar congressional veto whether they want to emulate Obama or not. Except that it’s actually more likely that future presidents will look at a congressional rejection in the case of Syria and see a case for going to Congress even lessfrequently than recent chief executives have done. The lesson will be clear enough: Presidents who ignore Congress’s Article I powers (Clinton in Kosovo, Obama in Libya) get away with it, while presidents who respect those powers set themselves up for a humiliation. 

Douthat blog.

Read the entire entry for the (highly unlikely) impeachment scenario.

One argument Douthat doesn't make, but fits in with his logic (and would have made much more sense, to the extent that sense is to be found in the situation): The authorization for force should have been sought BEFORE the use of chemical weapons. Then it might actually have had a deterrent value, which frankly is more than half its worth.

Landing in the dark

This was actually the first time on a ship; the aircraft had landed vertically at night several months ago.

(Note to purists: Yes, of course - the USS Wasp is an amphibious assault ship, not a carrier. Sorry for the earlier slip.)

Coming down easy

Phenomenal forced landing . . . and I thought my flight instructor was good.

Hog story

Birthday in Iraq

The story is still available at this link here, but unfortunately can no longer be offered for free. (Amazon's rules, not mine. It's set at the lowest price I'm allowed.)

Thank you, everyone, for checking it out. and happy birthday!

The last war

It's often said that generals prepare for the last war they fought. The debate over what to do in Syria shows civilian leaders and the media do that to the nth degree. Many of the comments that are being made by politicians and the so-called analyses by pundits have a lot more to do with the situation in Iraq pre-invasion than Syria (or the region) now.

I expect the strike will be approved. I also expect it won't have any effect on the civil war itself, partly by design. What the effect of the debate will have is yet to be determined.

The real question that should be debated - and is in some quarters - is this: What should be done to countries that commit murder on a mass scale using weapons that are universally detested? It's a valid question at any point, but especially this week.

If the answer is not swift, direct, and intense military punishment, then how do you ever justify taking action against a country because it uses nuclear weapons, let alone acquires them?

Happy birthday

Last day . . .

. . . for the free story.

(And thank you for lifting it into the top 100 on Kindle.)

Link.

Punting on first down . . .

. . . is a good way to lose.

Item:

(Reuters) - Syria hailed an "historic American retreat" on Sunday, mockingly accusing President Barack Obama of hesitation and confusion after he delayed a military strike to consult Congress.

Story.

These are the sort of mistakes that have grave consequences as time goes on.

Free Hogs short story for Kindle

So here's the story:

It's been a wild and crazy year. Besides Sniper, American Gun, Rogue, Dreamland, TV rumors and movie deals, one of the real high points has been the reaction to Hogs. So I wanted to celebrate my birthday by thanking the people who have been so kind to me over the past year - my readers.

I came up with the idea of giving away a Hogs story. The idea was this: I'd write the story - unlike the books, there is no backlog of short stories - and then give it away for free as my own personal thank you card.

The problem is, you can't give away short stories for free on Kindle Amazon, or at least I can't.* The best we could do was enroll it in a special program that lets us give it away for free for five days. After that, it will cost the lowest price that we can set: 99 cents.

Here's the link.

Happy birthday! (And no, I don't see myself as Skull, in case you're wondering.)

* Other writers may be able to make different arrangements, but this is what the agreement I'm bound by states.

Syria

Everyone condemns the use of chemical weapons against civilian populations. But what does that mean, exactly? Tsk-tsk, or consequences for those who use them?

The parallels to Iraq that are so popular in Britain and in some of the mass media are way off the point. Much more relevant here is the Iranian nuclear weapons program.

The Syrian civil war - part of a much larger internecine war in the Muslim community - is a complicated quagmire; from a Western point of view, the choice of winner is none of the above. But if you don't think you've just seen proof of how likely it is that a nuclear weapon will be used once it's built, you're kidding yourself.

If you're serious about curtailing the use of chemical weapons on civilians or even stopping war in general, logic dictates a doctrine that says the use of any weapons of mass destruction will provoke a military response, if not by all, at least by some. And the response has to be very serious and out of proportion with the consequences of the chemical strike. Pinpricks will have the opposite effect.

Such a doctrine is not exactly pretty, and it doesn't have the beautiful internal logic of Aristotle, but it's a hell of a lot more effective than economic sanctions, let alone hand-wringing by talking heads on Fox and CNN.

The Sunni-Shia conflict in the Middle East is only going to get worse and deeper over the next few months and most likely years. Syria will continue to burn. It's not a conflict that the West can win or even stop.  But if you're looking to lessen the fallout, both in the region and the wider world, you need to take steps to do so.

Free Hogs story

Happy birthday - to me. But don't buy the story until tomorrow, when it's free and I can post the link (or you'll have to pay 99 cents.

I'll explain in a future post.

A-10 watch . . .

Item:

FORT WAYNE – The Air National Guard’s 122nd Fighter Wing left this week for its first full-fledged multination training exercises using its A-10 Warthog jets.

The fighter wing, based in Fort Wayne, is participating in a “red flag,” or high intensity air-to-air and air-to-ground combat, exercise at Eielson Air National Guard Base near Fairbanks. Units involved will use live ammunition, said Tech Sgt. Kurt Briner, a Guard spokesman in Fort Wayne.

Story.

In training terms, going to Red Flag is kind of like going to the World Series. These guys are good, and will get even better.

Naming names


One of the things writers do. Charles Salzberg:

Since the technique worked for me once, both creatively and as a nice little inside joke, a kind of cut-rate Nabokovian element, I thought it might be fun to use other names of people I knew. And so when I needed to create a character who was an expert on rare books, I used my old friend and fellow writer Ross Klavan, even giving the character some of Ross’s physical and vocal qualities, as well as his love of books. Swann’s search takes him up to Syracuse University, where he meets an unconventional English professor, one more link in the chain of his search. This became Richard Dubin, a real-life professor friend who teaches film and television at the Newhouse School, where I once taught.

I didn’t bother asking permission of any of these friends, knowing I could always change the names once the book was finished. But when I offhandedly mentioned my little literary parlor game to them, none seemed the least bit disturbed. In fact, they were pleased. The only surprising plea: “please don’t make me a good guy.”

Story. (NYT paywall)

Elmore Leonard, 1925-2013

RIP

. . . there are no parts to skip in heaven.

His home page.

What goes up . . .

. . . comes down gently.



The latest SpaceX test. Seriously impressive.

U2 history declassified

Everything you wanted to know about the CIA and the original U-2 program (and Oxcart, known to the Air Force as the SR-71), but were afraid to ask, has recently been published in a declassified history report here.

Well, not everything. But it's an excellent start.

A-10s

Is the Hog ready to retire?

Many in the Air Force want them to.

Story:

The A-10 Thunderbolt II — better known as the Warthog — was the darling of the first Gulf War, destroying some 4,000 military vehicles and artillery pieces in that conflict.
Today, it remains one of the most requested aircraft by ground commanders in Afghanistan, according to one Air National Guard representative.
But its day may be coming to an end.  

Story.

People have been trying to retire the Hog since before the First Gulf War. For an obsolete aircraft, it kicks a lot of ass - and does it better than any fast jet.

Soon in paperback:

The last installment in the Red Dragon Rising series.

I won't ever make this list . . .

The World's Top-Earning Authors:

With '50 Shades,' E.L. James Debuts At No. 1

. . . but some of the pictures make me feel a little better about my recent haircut.

From the article:

If you’re not writing in a genre with mass commercial appeal, you can pretty much forget about making the list. But even if you are, and your books are best sellers, that’s still not a guaranteed in.

Amen to that. Story here.

Dylan

What's old is new . . .



"Forgotten" Dylan song reemerges. From Spin here. and Rolling Stone here.

It's said to have been recorded during the Self Portrait sessions - if so, it sounds better than a lot of what was included on that album.

Speaking of Gun . . .

We've just celebrated the second month on the NYT best-seller list. Thank you, thank you, thank you . . .

At the same time, American Sniper remains on the paperback list . . . where it's been since publication.

No Gun in jail . . .

The California prison system has forbidden inmates to read AMERICAN GUN . . . it's a dangerous book. From the explanatory letter:

“Inmates may not possess … any writing which describes the making of any weapons”

Because they'll surely go out an duplicate the Spencer from our description, no doubt.

I'm not entirely sure whether this is an honor, or a big blow to prospective sales . . .

August 1, 2013

Old planes don't die . . .

. . . they simply bake away.

Item:

The aircraft that once spirited President Dwight D. Eisenhower on cross-country voyages now sits in a field that's part of Marana Regional Airport, decaying under the relentless glare of the sun.
The first plane to be designated as Air Force One is fenced off from public viewing - alone and nearly forgotten on a 10-acre parcel.
"I think it's one of these big secrets that, really, few people know that it's out there," said Steve Miller, airport manager. "It's sad that it's just sitting out there, considering its history over the past 70 years."

Story.

Hogs 5

Now up . . . .

Target Saddam, Book 5 in the Hogs First Gulf War series, is now available for Kindle here.

Sorry for the delay - we've had some technical problems with the formatting and cover; hopefully those glitches are fixed. (If anyone experiences problems, I'd appreciate it greatly if you could drop me a note via the author site email, author(at)jimdefelice.com. We'll try and make it up to you.)

And a note for Nook readers - Book 3 should be up very soon.

On-line stores as gatekeepers


Joseph Espisito on Amazon, et al . . .

Today’s gatekeepers are no longer the big media companies (defined as organizations that invest in and distribute content:  books, magazines, television, journals, movies) but the huge technology companies that have learned how to profit from others’ content:  Amazon, Google, Apple, Facebook.  Unlike the gatekeepers of old, however, who were characterized by editorial decision-making, the new gatekeepers control access through an abstract network of relationships, some of which qualify as what economists call “network effects”: instead of a product or service increases as more people use it.   A rose by any other name . . .  is still a gatekeeper.

Article. Found through Linked-in.

Sicily, 1943 (4)

What role did the journalist play?

Having raised the subject of Bradley and Sicily, I’m reminded of two personnel conflicts that took place there that are still studied and debated by historians to this day. The first is Patton and the slapping incident, which Bradley tried to suppress, a fact rarely reported though Bradley himself talked about it, admittedly briefly, in his memoir.

The second was Bradley’s firing of Terry Allen, at the time the commander of the 1st Division.

Allen has a legion of fierce defenders on that score, and it doesn’t make sense to go back over the issues. (They are laid out in Omar Bradley, General at War, if you’re interested.) To what extent, if any, Allen’s drinking may have played in the decision is probably impossible to determine.

What really interests me is what role, if any, the journalist Quentin Reynolds played in both the Patton affair and in Allen’s sacking.

Reynolds – who by the way wrote an interesting first-hand account of the battle of Dieppe – reported the slapping incident to Eisenhower and was probably instrumental in convincing Eisenhower that he had to be punished. That’s been pretty well documented. What’s less well known is that Reynolds was in Allen’s camp, and witnessed at least one briefing where Allen acted, well, not in the way we would expect a general to act before an important battle. His report hints, but doesn’t say, that he was drinking.

Did Reynolds talk to Eisenhower about Allen? Did he talk to Bradley?

There’s no record that he talked to Bradley, and given Bradley’s attitude toward reporters, it’s at least debatable that he would have had much influence with him. Eisenhower’s a different story. And while Bradley denied it, many historians believe that he only fired Allen because Eisenhower wanted him to. (My view is that it had more to do with Bradley, but admittedly the case can be made that it went the other way.)

As far as I know, there’s no real evidence that Reynolds was involved. But I’d love to see someone dig into the issue. Reynolds himself is an interesting figure – worth a biography by someone someday, I’d say.

Bradley links

Speaking of Omar . . .


You can find more on Bradley, along with links to purchase my book, at my website. Start here.

Sicily, 1943 (3)

Bradley & the invasion

Omar Bradley was one of the key American generals on Sicily, Patton’s corps commander and occasional sounding board. Sicily was a critical battle for him in many ways; it set the stage for him to command in northern Europe.

Having written a biography of Omar Bradley*, I think I’ll defer to the book for a fuller account of his time there, even though I wish I had been able to devote more space and time in the book to the campaign. However, I have two observations about Bradley and Sicily that are pretty subjective, and are probably passed over because of everything else that happened in his career.

I think Bradley learned a great deal on Sicily. He was always regarded as a great tactician in the army before the invasion, but I think the geography and the Americans’ subordinate role prevented him from really strutting his stuff as a corps commander. Most people don’t realize that he was very much in Patton’s mold when it came to bold attacks with plenty of movement – something that, if you think about who he’d been working with in Africa (Patton) makes a lot of sense. Patton’s dash around the backside of the island notwithstanding, Sicily wasn’t particularly conducive to that kind of warfare.

But in commanding his divisions under fire and in a much more intensive atmosphere even than Africa, I think Bradley realized that he was actually a pretty good general. He was able to spot several tactical errors that Patton made, and pointed them out to them. The results weren’t particularly encouraging – Patton on Sicily wasn’t given to listening to anyone, not even Bradley – but I think that Bradley realized he needn’t be in the older man’s shadow. And the same could said, in spades, about his relationship with Montgomery. Without those realizations, he never could have commanded in northern Europe.

I also think – and this admittedly is even more speculative – that the combat he saw on Sicily made him much more compassionate toward his rank and file soldiers. After Africa, his critique was that Americans didn’t want to kill enough – he wanted, rightly, for them to be vicious in closing with the enemy. In contrast, we see a much more compassionate side of him after Sicily. It’s after Sicily that most of the stories about his kindness toward the troops – giving men coats, etc. – come from. Admittedly, this may just be a coincidence. But I think the accumulation of the war had its effect – not that he was softened exactly, but to the extent that there was a philosophical side of the general, it dates after this campaign.

Very, very subjective, I know.

* Actually, the only one so far. Bradley deserves more.

Sicily, 1943 (2)

What did they learn?

A lot.

The World War II allies’ Sicily campaign, which took place seventy years ago this month, had its share of snafus and fubars. Among other things, the allies missed a chance at destroying a significant portion of the German army protecting southern Italy, a failure that quickly came to haunt them in the following months.

On the other hand, a lot of good things did come from that battle. For one, it probably convinced Eisenhower that Bradley was the man he needed to run the D-Day invasion. It also featured the largest beach landings under fire to that point in the war; by some measures, it was even larger than Normandy.

Logistics never get much attention in the history books, but dealing with the sheer size of the American force was a critical learning experience. Sicily was also the place where a significant number of junior NCOs and officers learned how to lead.

Friendly fire incidents directed the allies’ attention to the problem, though there was never a wholly satisfying solution.

Another lesson learned but only partly implemented was the difficulty of using paratroopers to seize significant tactical points early in the battle. On Sicily, paratroopers were blown significantly off course, which kept them from achieving their targets in the initial stages of the battle. Ironically, their unplanned dispersion, along with their courage and ferocity, helped them play a key role as the battle progressed. They would end up having somewhat similar problems in Normandy, though there they were successful in holding key beach exits necessary for the invaders to escape the noose at the sands. (Bradley did adjust their objectives before the battle, scaling them back a bit in response to intelligence reports, but to the end he was an extreme advocate and supporter of paratroop attacks, probably beyond what was practical.)

The conquest of Sicily gave the allies a place to base their planes for the Italian campaign. Close-air support was not yet a perfected science – aside from some early experiments, it wasn’t until France that fighter-bombers started teaming up closely with advancing ground units – but Sicily’s bases extended the range and time that could be covered on the mainland.

How you view Sicily probably depends on whether you think Italy was worth attacking in the first place. I think it was, and while I think the allies could have achieved better results with a more daring plan (and better execution of the plan they stuck themselves with), on the whole, it was a necessary campaign.

And one they won.

Here's a link to the U.S. Army's official history of the campaign:

http://www.history.army.mil/brochures/72-16/72-16.htm

Twist & shout

Some of what the Su-35 can do . . .

Sicily, 1943

The Bungled Campaign

Some seventy years ago this month, the allies landed on Sicily in one of World War II's largest amphibious assaults. Over the course of the next four or five weeks, they fought a confused and in some cases haphazard campaign against German troops, Italian troops, severe geography, and themselves.

World War II’s Sicily campaign tends to get overlooked, especially by Americans. While it was arguably a necessary stepping stone for an Italian campaign, the very decision to invade Sicily was controversial among the allied leaders at the time. While the allies eventually won the island, it can’t be said that they did so because of any brilliant maneuvering or military leadership. They let a major portion of the German army escape, and functioned with a lack of coordination that could easily have been fatal, had they faced a more determined and better led enemy in the Italians.

Bernard Montgomery, and to some extent his boss Harold Alexander, generally get the bulk of the criticism. Though Alexander in theory was running the show*, Montgomery ended up drawing the invasion plan and calling most of the shots. His slow plodding attack -–I know, easy for me to say – was pretty much typical Montgomery, and anyone who studies it can’t be very surprised by his performance in northern Europe the following year.

Interestingly, George Patton often escapes criticism for his Sicilian campaign. Instead, critics tend to focus on the so-calling slapping incidents, where he attempted to rouse men from hospital beds by humiliating them in front of others.

In the context of the times, Patton’s actions in the hospitals may have been harsh, but they’re certainly understandable. What isn’t understandable was his decision to flaunt Alexander’s orders and Montgomery’s plans, and have half the American force take an end run around the island. While his troops didn’t entirely abandon the British – Bradley’s corps held Montgomery’s mountainous western flank, Patton's end run meant the Americans were in no position to pressure the retreating Germans at Messina.

That could have been done, and presumably would have yielded some results. But for some reason, Patton often gets a pass from most historians. It’s not surprising, really – making the case that Patton was a superb general is a heck of a lot easier if you don’t have to puzzle out what he had in mind there.

On the other hand, Patton's dash was merely the icing on the cake of a tepid plan; even if he'd been available it's possible he would have simply sped the German retreat.

So what might the allies have done?

Invade from the north as well as the south, striking Messina early, cutting off the German retreat.

Admittedly, this would have been a risky move - among other things, the north was probably outside of fighter cover and amphibious landings were still iffy. But it was also a high-stakes plan that would have isolated a significant portion of the German army. (The Italians, one presumes, would have quit in even larger numbers.) If those men didn't live to fight another day in Italy, maybe the entire Italian campaign would have started a lot more smoothly . . .

* Technically Alexander was under Eisenhower, but Alexander was really the one who was supposed to be in charge of the actual invasion force.

How to start

Stephen King on opening lines:

Stephen King: There are all sorts of theories and ideas about what constitutes a good opening line. It's tricky thing, and tough to talk about because I don't think conceptually while I work on a first draft -- I just write. To get scientific about it is a little like trying to catch moonbeams in a jar.
But there's one thing I'm sure about. An opening line should invite the reader to begin the story. It should say: Listen. Come in here. You want to know about this.

From the Atlantic.

Coming soon . . .

. . . installment five in the Hogs series. Kindle first; other ebook versions to follow.

Banksters

How middlemen big banks get rich 

Call it a bank tax.

Item:

Only a tenth of a cent or so of an aluminum can’s purchase price can be traced back to the strategy. But multiply that amount by the 90 billion aluminum cans consumed in the United States each year — and add the tons of aluminum used in things like cars, electronics and house siding — and the efforts by Goldman and other financial players has cost American consumers more than $5 billion over the last three years, say former industry executives, analysts and consultants.
The inflated aluminum pricing is just one way that Wall Street is flexing its financial muscle and capitalizing on loosened federal regulations to sway a variety of commodities markets, according to financial records, regulatory documents and interviews with people involved in the activities.

And it's not just aluminum or metals:

 . . .speculation added about $10 per fill-up for the average American driver. Other experts have put the total, combined cost at $200 billion a year.

Story.