PLease take a moment to remember this day, and those lost.
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PLease take a moment to remember this day, and those lost.
May 2, 1863 Battle of Chancellorsville. 160th anniversary of Lee's "greatest victory" as some call it.
The Union army under General "Fighting" Joe Hooker (although better known for keeping his men happy by having whores visit the camps, called "Hooker's girls" or just "hookers" now) and 90,000 Yankees had flanked Lee at Fredericksburg and crossed the Rappahannock River. Lee had dispatched General Longstreet on a mission with 20,000 of his men, and General Jubal Early had another 20,000 holding the river crossings to the east. Lee had only Stonewall Jackson and a total of 46,000 men facing Hooker's 90,000. In one of the most daring and ingenious and GUTSY moves in military history, Lee decides to split his army and sends Jackson on a 12-mile hike to flank the Federals with 30,000 men while he retained only 16,000 at Salem Church.
Jackson marched for over 5 hours and then launched his attack destroying the Union's 11th Corps, and elements of the 3rd Corps before darkness stopped the movement. Riding back toward his lines in the dark of night Stonewall Jackson was mortally wounded by nervous Confederate pickets, mistaking his party as attacking Union cavalry. The battle resumed the following morning with the Confederates meeting stiffer resistance, but Joe Hooker balked and ordered a general retreat back across the river. Stonewall Jackson died from his wounds about a week later.
This battle is studied and military historians marvel at Lee's daring maneuver in the face of a numerically superior enemy force.
79 years ago today...
Remembering and honoring "the greatest generation."
John has a long mustache...
''Don't be a bad dagh..."
Hope nobody gets offended today. I heard FDR’s D-Day prayer this morning.
- Although he was probably reading it or at least very well practiced…contrast this two minute prayer with ANYTHING the current idiot in charge has attempted to say
- It would be totally offensive if spoken today.
The long sobs of the violins… fill my heart with a monotonous languor.Originally Posted by Dwayne From Minden
I'm an asshole! What's your excuse?
Have wondered why the Germans didn't do more, or try to, to stop the D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944. Specifically, where were all the German U-boats? Just watched an interesting documentary on that. In a nutshell, the Germans did try, once they learned the landing at Normandy was not a ruse, as Hitler maintained, saying the real invasion would occur at Calais.
The Germans sunk 20 ally ships, most on the return trip to England back across the Channel. They attacked with 46 U-boats and 32 E-boats, which was the German's version of our PT-boats. They also sent 12 destroyers to attack the huge invasion fleet. They lost 20 U-boats, sunk, 24 E-boats, sunk, and 2 destroyers, sunk and 4 others badly damaged. This over the course of several weeks of fighting, with the first of the attacks beginning on June 8, 1944.
The invasion was carefully planned and the threat of the German U-boats was very real. To protect the invasion fleet the allies assigned 342 ships specifically to anti U-boat duty. That was a combination of American, British, and Canadian corvettes, frigates, destroyers and our own patrol boats. And the Brits created 6 squadrons of bombers and fighter-bombers all focused on anti U-boat duty. Most of the German U-boats were stationed in ports in France, and ally scout planes kept a watchful eye on these ports, reporting when U-boats departed for the open sea.
Just a little historic tidbit for ya.
Always loved Andy Rooney's piece on 60 Minutes...this one, well...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8a_S7tUpnU
Patton was the key to all of this -
Using him as s decoy enabled this ruse to be pulled off -
He was our best general and feared by their General Staff
''Don't be a bad dagh..."
He was also feared by the early Washington swamp. Had they done what he called for instead of what the "Big Four" called for we'd see less of a mess today.
https://www.history.co.uk/article/operation-mincemeat
One of my favorite stories of WW2
July 7, 1894
The college that was to become Louisiana Tech University was founded.
AMEN and praise the LORD! Great people to have walked the halls!
Finally made it out there towards the end of last month. I was not prepared for how large of an area the battle covered. I'm going to have to go back. I might have some bias, but I think Louisiana's statue is the best.
And that portion now part of the national park is not all of the original battlefield, although it does encompass a large percentage of it and all the really critical areas. I am not too keen on the Louisiana statue, it's too...what's the term I am searching for....too flamboyant. It's also a shame all the southern monuments are confined to Seminary Ridge rather than being placed where they fought. The Louisiana monument, in a different manifestation, needs to be on East Cemetary Hill, where the "Louisiana Tigers" were engaged. And where they successfully defied the odds and actually captured that hill holding it until after darkness against repeated Yankee counter-attacks. When Anderson's North Carolina brigades failed to provide the promised support, the Tigers had to retire from the hill.
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