#german rocket fighters

[deutschland-im-krieg]

One of a handful of photos taken of the Messerschmitt Me 163B Komet rocket fighter in action. Boeing B-17F Flying Fortress in foreground is not part of the original photo, it was added to Humphrey Bogart's 1950 film, Chain Lightning. For more, see my Facebook group - Eagles Of The Reich

[matan4il]

Proportionality in war does not mean what so many of you seem to think it means.

Proportionality in war doesn't mean that an army fighting another military force is standing with their hand on a stopper, counting the dead and waiting for the moment when the number on both sides is equal. Not a single war in history has been fought like that, and it is an insane double standard, that people talk about Israel as if this is how it's meant to fight. In WWII, there were way more German civilian fatalities than there were American or British ones, and NO ONE says the Americans and British carried out a genocide of the Germans, just because the impact on the civilian populations was dissimilar. No one looks at that war and says, "The allies should have totally stopped before defeating the Nazis, once the number of German civilians killed was bigger than their own."

(and all this holds true whether we're talking about a regular army fighting another, such as in most wars, or whether it's this case, where we see Israel facing in this war in Gaza a terrorist organization, that is made up of tens of thousands of armed fighters, with proper military training, backed by tens of thousands of rockets, using even more people as human shields, booby trapping entire residential areas, digging an entire underground network of tunnels and bunkers stretching for miles, dedicated solely to terrorism, and having collaborators from other terrorist organizations in that territory and outside it fighting with them, plus members of that terrorist organization attacking from outside the war zone)

Proportionality in war means that an army's impact must be proportionate to the size of the threat. Not to the number of casualties, to the size of the threat.

Just like when we talk about the allies' response to the Nazis in WWII, we do take into account more than just how many people actually died in the war the Germans started, we take into account what would have happened, had Nazi Germany been successful in conquering even more countries, or reaching even more Jews to exterminate, as the Nazis planned to (demonstrated by, among other examples, their special death squad geared to kill the Jews in Israel had they managed to occupy it, the pressure they placed on the Japanese to get rid of the Jews living in East Asia under Japanese rule, and the lists of Jews to be arrested first in places the Nazis were planning to occupy, but thankfully failed to, including the UK, the US and Canada).

Since Hamas is an extremist terrorist organization, that has repeatedly stated it targets all Israelis and Jews, and has acted accordingly, that means that when Israel is fighting to dismantle Hamas, the threat it's trying to remove is the one posed to:

9.8 million (as of Dec 2023) people threatened in Israel, Jewish and non-Jewish alike (as demonstrated in action on Oct 7, when Hamas murdered Israeli Muslim Arabs as well, for being affiliated with the Jewish state)

about 8.4 million Jews living outside of Israel and targeted by Hamas (as demonstrated in action when Hamas terrorists were arrested last month for intending to carry out terrorist attacks on Jewish targets in at least 3 European countries)

Every single Gazan who might be killed due to Hamas. As Hamas has gotten Gazan kids killed building its terror tunnels, killed Palestinian kids by recruiting teenagers as terrorists, killed Gazan civilians when using them as human shields, killed Palestinian women and Palestinian queers by allowing (even condoning) "honor killings," killed Gazan protestors, killed Gazans affiliated with opposing political parties, and as Hamas is seemingly hellbent on waging this war to the last Gazan, when they didn't have to start it by attacking Israel on Oct 7, and they could have saved so many of their people by surrendering and ending it, all 2.1 million Gazans can be seen as endangered by Hamas

In total, this would mean that there are currently 20.3 million people in the world directly threatened by the very existence of Hamas.

By fighting Hamas in Gaza, Israel is currently actively defending 20.3 million people!

(obviously, minus the 30,000 Hamas terrorists)

That's before we start counting Palestinians outside of Gaza (because yes, Hamas exists and operates in other areas as well, as I mentioned above, and if it's seen as victorious in Gaza, that will strengthen Hamas outside it, too), or what it would mean for the entire Middle East region, or even for the whole world, if the moderate countries in this area see that the extremist terrorist tactics of Hamas are successful at stopping a democratic state from protecting its people.

THAT is the size of the threat. And THAT is what Israel's war impact is in proportion to.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[pinturas-sgm-aviacion]

1942 03 12 Polikarpov I-16 aces cover - Mark Postlethwaite

The I-16 took a beating from the Jagdwaffe during the first few months of the 'Great Patriotic War', as the obsolescent fighter struggled to match the performance of the Bf 109E/F. Occasionally, however, the nimble Polikarpov fighter hit back, especially when flown by a skilled pilot such as Lt Vasiliy Golubev. On the morning of 12 March 1942 he had led his 3rd Squadron of 4th GvIAP in an attack on the railway station at Mga, near Lake Lodoga. The mission was being flown in support of an offensive launched that day by the Soviet 54th Army from the southern shore of the frozen lake, which was situated near the Finnish border. Having attacked their target without interference from German fighters, the I-16 pilots knew that they would almost certainly be bounced on their way home. In fact, the Me 109Fs of 1./JG 54 waited until the Soviet pilots were almost back over their airfield before they made their move. Golubev, who had seen combat in I-16s since the start of the war flying with the Air Force of the Baltic Fleet, had dropped slightly behind the main body of Soviet fighters so as to protect the rear of the formation. He soon spotted two Me 109Fs heading towards them above the treetops;'A pair of enemy fighters stayed low and closed on us - they had swallowed the bait. They thought we were easy meat, but wanted to show off by shooting us down right over our own airfield. That was what I'd been waiting for. I accelerated and climbed.'With 13 victories already to his credit, Golubev knew exactly how to get the most out of his I-16, and he soon shot the lead Bf 109 down in a head-on pass; 'I got the leader in my gunsight when he was about 500 metres away. Now I had just a second-and- half left - it was death or glory.The fingers of my right hand instinctively pressed the machine gun firing button and three streaks of fire pierced the slender Messerschmitt's fuselage like some magic lightning strikes. Not waiting to see the outcome, I made a sharp turn and saw the second "Messer" attempting to flee above and ahead of me. Instinctively, I pulled the firing handle, hardly bothering to assess the necessary deflection, and launched all four underwing RS-82 rockets in his direction. Four black clouds from the explosions appeared just behind the tail of the enemy fighter, but the "Messer" continued climbing steeply. I had no chance of catching him.'A few moments later, its elevators jammed by debris from the rockets, the second Bf 109 hit the treetops and crashed on its belly on the edge of the Soviet airfield. The German pilot extricated himself from the wreckage of his fighter but subsequently died of the wounds he had received in the crash. The latter was almost certainly 26-victory ace Unteroffizier Hans Schwartzkopf, although the identity of the first pilot remains a mystery. Golubev would eventually claim 19 victories with the I-16, and survive the war with a tally of 39 and 12 shared kills to his name

[whencyclopedia]

Junkers Ju 88

The Junkers Ju 88 was a two-engined medium bomber plane used by the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) throughout the Second World War (1939-45). Ju 88s were involved in the Battle of Britain and London Blitz as bombers, but this versatile aircraft saw action in many other theatres of the war, primarily as a dive bomber and a night fighter.

Design Development

After much debate between the German high command and the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), the Luftwaffe bomber command (Kampfwaffe) was obliged to adopt the position that bombers should primarily be used strategically to assist ground troops. This meant that unlike, say, the British Royal Air Force, the Luftwaffe concentrated not on heavy bombers but building squadrons of more versatile medium bombers.

In August 1935, aeronautical companies were invited to provide an answer to the German Air Force's requirement for a two-engined, medium-sized and high-speed bomber (Schnellbomber). Junkers came up with the Junkers 88, with various prototypes given a V designation plus a number 1 to 5. The first prototype, the Ju 88 V1, flew in December 1936 and impressed with its high speed. By March, the Ju 88 V5 was capable of speeds of over 300 mph (500 km/h) and so broke several records.

The decision in 1937 to give the Ju 88 a dive-bombing capability meant that the design process now became fraught with delays and constant revisions. As the historian J. Holland notes, "some 25,000 changes were made to the original design" (216). Most significant of these changes, perhaps, was the strengthening of the wings to take the force which resulted from steep dives, the addition of brakes to arrest the plane at the nadir of the dive, and the lengthening of the fuselage to admit extra crew members. The consequence of all this was that the plane ended up being much heavier and slower than the original plan, a situation that led Field Marshall Erhard Milch (1892-1972), one of the founders of the Luftwaffe, to disparagingly describe the Ju 88 as a "flying barn door" (ibid). The problems of weight and speed were partially alleviated by adding rocket boosters for takeoff when carrying heavier bomb loads. The design changes kept on coming, too, notably an increase in the wingspan. As a result of the complex design, the Ju 88 took more time to build than many other aircraft types.

Introduced into Luftwaffe service in September 1939, just as WWII started, the Ju 88s' challengers as the medium bomber of choice within the Luftwaffe were the antiquated and poorly armed Dornier Do 17, the equally vulnerable but faster Dornier Do 215, and the tried and tested Heinkel He 111, which was overall the best of the three at the beginning of the war. The Junkers Ju 88 was smaller than the other three medium bombers but faster than the He 111 and the Do 17, and yet it was capable of carrying as heavy a bomb load as the He 111. As a consequence, gradually the Ju 88 took over from the He 111 as the bomber of choice but both saw service right through the war. All of these planes had two engines, which fundamentally restricted their bomb loads and range compared to Allied heavy bombers like the B-17 Flying Fortress and Avro Lancaster bomber.

The upside of its checkered design history was that the 1940 version of the Ju 88 was more versatile than originally planned, making it perhaps the most versatile of any aircraft of any air force in WWII. The Ju 88 could perform as a bomber, dive-bomber, and night fighter. Other duties performed by the Ju 88 included long-range reconnaissance (when they were fitted with extra fuel tanks, radar, and cameras), attacking shipping, and minelaying at sea. Finally, one distinct advantage of the Ju 88 was that its frame was built in such a way that it could withstand tremendous punishment from enemy fire. Factories dedicated to Ju 88 production included those at Brünn (now Brno in the Czech Republic) and Graz and Vienna in Austria. Air forces which operated Ju 88s besides the Luftwaffe included the Finnish, French, Hungarian, Italian, and Romanian.

Continue reading...

[himitsusentaiblog]

The only real quibble I have with Godzilla Minus One was in the English translation. The characters in the subtitles kept referring to jet fighters. Japan didn't have any usable jet fighters in World War II. They had a single prototype called the Nakajima Kikka but it only ever flew once in August of 1945 before the war was over and the project scrapped.

It was heavily based on the Luftwaffe's Messerschmitt Me 262 and even looks a great deal like it.

During WWII, the Japanese used prop-driven planes exclusively. Only the Nazis ever fielded a jet fighter and then only at the very end of the war and in a very limited capacity. No one in the movie would have experience with flying jets. The Imperial Japanese also had a Rocket Plane called the Mitsubishi JM8 Shushui but that was powered by a rocket.

Again, it was based one a German design, the Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet

The JM8 did not see much use as there were only 8 operational planes ever made and 60 training versions produced before the end the the war. That may have been way too much historical info for why the characters using Jet Fighter as a term in the subtitles of G -1.0 bothered me.

[usafphantom2]

2nd September 1942. First flight of the Hawker Tempest fighter. A major redesign of the Typhoon, the addition of a new laminar flow wing led to a significant improvement in performance. Despite a protracted development process, the Tempest emerged as one of the best piston-engined fighters of the Second World War. Fast, manoeuvrable and heavily armed, the type had an impressive impact despite its late arrival.

Though the first kills claimed by Tempests came over Bf109s on 8th June 1944, its main baptism of fire came during the V-1 offensive against southern England. Here, their high speed of over 400 mph was a key asset. Tempests destroyed over 800 V-1s, almost half of the total destroyed by Allied aircraft. A number of pilots amassed impressive individual totals, including Sqn Ldr Joseph Berry of 501 Squadron, with 59, with seven on 23rd July alone.

As the V-1 offensive declined and German forces retreated, Tempests began to operate from airfields on the continent. Designed as high-performance interceptors, they proved a match for any Luftwaffe aircraft, shooting down over 200 including several jets. However, they were also increasingly used for ground attack missions, with their 4x20mm cannon being highly effective against trains and vehicles. Rockets weren’t carried during the war, while only a small number of sorties were flown with 500lb bombs, shortly before VE Day.

In the postwar period, the standard Mark V Tempests were joined - and partially replaced - by the Mark II, an even faster variant equipped with a Centaurus radial engine. There was also the Mark VI, a specialised fighter-bomber with an improved Napier Sabre engine. However, the widespread introduction of jets soon saw a decline in the Tempest fleet and they had left frontline squadrons by 1950. Aircraft converted to target tugs, however, continued to serve until 1955.

Pictured:

1) The first Tempest to fly was Mark V HM595, which shared the tailfin and original ‘car door’ cockpit of the Typhoon. These would change before the type entered service.

📷 baesystems.com

2) The Commanding Officer of 486 Squadron RNZAF, Squadron Leader J H Iremonger, standing by the cockpit of Hawker Tempest Mark V at Newchurch. This unit was part of 150 Wing, sharing the airfield with 3 and 56 Squadrons.

📷 IWM (HU 92148)

3) Tempest of 80 Squadron RAF equipped with drop tanks at a Dutch airfield in late 1944. The unit was primarily flying armed reconnaissance missions, tasked with attacking any targets they encountered in a given area.

📷 IWM (MH 6860)

4) Hawker Tempest TT Mk.5, carrying a target winch pod under the port wing. These aircraft replaced the much slower types previously used as target tugs, such as the Miles Magister.

📷 IWM (ATP 16813B)

@JamieMctrusty via X

[theworldatwar]

A German Me 109 Gustav-2s of Fighter Geschwader 11 - Jever, Germany 1943. This particular variant is fitted with underwing rocket launchers for two 210mm air to air rockets for use against heavy bomber formations

[captain-price-unofficially]

RAF Hawker Typhoon fighter-bomber attacking a German train in west Soltau with unguided rockets. 1945

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Hugh Fitzgerald

Those who wish Israel ill are up in arms about the IDF’s plan to flood the network of tunnels Hamas has built under Gaza. They are angry because they fear the novel plan will work: Hamas operatives will be flushed out, forced to scurry out of the tunnels and appear above ground, where the IDF can pick them off. The water in the tunnels will also weaken the tunnels by soaking their walls, and the soil just above them, so that they will be more susceptible to eventual collapse; Hamas will never again be able to use them as they have been doing. More on the proposed tunnel flooding, and the reasons given by Hamas and its supporters as why it should not take place, can be found here: “Did the UN Human Rights Council just admit Hamas steals civilian aid? Plus, the dumbest argument yet against flooding tunnels,” Elder of Ziyon, December 15, 2023:

The UN Human Rights X account tweeted something spectacularly stupid:

Israel’s flooding of tunnels with saltwater could have severe adverse human rights impacts, some long term. Goods indispensable to civilian survival could also be at risk, as well as widespread, long-term & severe environmental damage. Civilians must be protected.

Hold on: when they say “Goods indispensable to civilian survival could also be at risk,” doesn’t that mean that they are admitting that Hamas tunnels are warehouses for the aid that the world has been sending into Gaza for the past decades?

Yes, there is no other possible interpretation: those “goods indispensable to civilian survival” — humanitarian aid — are apparently being stored in those tunnels, Hamas having seized them from the shipments of aid meant for all the people of Gaza. Hamas has now stored them inside its tunnels for safe-keeping, for the future care and feeding of Hamas operatives alone. The rest of the Gazans will have to make do with whatever ”goods indispensable to civilian survival” Hamas left behind after taking its massive cut.

Critics of the flooding plan, like Eurasia Review,  also say things like “Flooding the tunnels could damage Gaza’s aquifer and soil, if seawater and hazardous substances in the tunnels seep into them.”

“Hazardous substances” means “explosives.” Now, why might there be explosives in the tunnels?… The list of bad things listed in that article that “could” happen if Israel floods the tunnels is almost comical, but the pièce de résistance (so to speak) comes at the end.

Flooding the tunnels could affect the cultural heritage and identity of Gaza, which has a rich and diverse history and culture. The tunnels are part of Gaza’s landscape and memory, and they reflect its character and spirit. Flooding the tunnels could .. affect the cultural expressions and practices of Gaza’s people, such as the art, literature and folklore that are inspired by or related to the tunnels.

Yes, the terror tunnels must be protected because they are an important part of Gaza’s culture!

The tunnels were built by the terror group Hamas to do one thing: help facilitate the terror group’s murderous attacks on Israelis. That is their sole reason for being. The tunnel network has served as a vast underground pedestrian passage, allowing the hiding of weapons, rocket launchers, and Hamas terrorists under most of Gaza, and also allowed the undetected movement underground of weapons and fighters. The tunnels are instruments of murder, not “cultural artifacts” that must be preserved as part of Gaza’s “landscape and memory.” These terror tunnels cost billions of dollars to construct; they likely represent the greatest misallocation of resources in the Middle East since the pyramids were built in the Valley of the Kings.

Do the Gazans really want those ghastly tunnels — which will be left in ruins by the IDF — to be thought of as part of the “cultural heritage and identity of Gaza”? How many Germans like to think of the extermination camps as part of the “cultural heritage and identity” of their country, or aren’t those camps, rather, something of which they are ashamed? The camps are part of their history, but not of their “cultural heritage,” which is a different, and a positive, thing.

How many Russians want to preserve the Soviet labor camps of Vorkuta and Kolyma, as part of their “cultural heritage”? A museum in Moscow, containing testimonies, photographs, and videos, of life in the camps that constituted the Gulag, would be enough to preserve the memory of that hideous aspect of Soviet history.

By all means, the people of Gaza should preserve the memory of the malignant and wasteful tunnels forced on them by Hamas, but they have no need to preserve what remains of those tunnels — 800 of the approximately 1000 that existed have already been destroyed by the IDF —themselves. Must the tunnels really be preserved as part of Gaza’s “landscape and memory,” or are they testimony only to the murderous madness of Hamas, hellbent on murder, and indifferent to the wellbeing of the people of Gaza it has caused? Perhaps one tunnel might be preserved, so that Gazan schoolchildren can visit and see what Hamas wrought in its unhinged unquenchable desire to kill Israelis; that would be more than enough to preserve the memory of the terror group’s madness. Some claim that the tunnels must not be flooded because the resulting damage would affect “the art, literature and folklore that are inspired by or related to the tunnels.” I very much doubt that the “art, literature, and folklore” of Gaza — is there any worth mentioning? — could ever be “inspired” in a good way by those hideous tunnels. Go to it, IDF engineers. Flood those tunnels. Flush the killers out.

[hawksonganimations]

Scotland and Germany doing a preflight check before Scotland becomes the only one of the Allies to fly a komet (a rocket propelled fighter)

this like many of my random little interaction headcannons is based off of an actual historical anecdote, that being the only non-German to ever fly a komet was a Scottish man just after the war ended

also I’m not gonna lie I did trace the komet because even just normal looking planes are hard as hell to draw.

I should also probably mention GERMANY AND REICH ARE NOT THE SAME PERSON. Germanys like 17 in this image, or he would be were he a human.

I completely forgot to mention but Germany is a trans guy in my HC which is why he's wearing the skirt

[girlactionfigure]

*ISRAEL REALTIME* - "Connecting the World to Israel in Realtime"

🔹No rockets from Gaza yesterday.

▪️Wall Street Journal: Israel informed the US of its intention to establish a buffer zone one kilometer deep in the Gaza Strip.

▪️Shiite militias of Iraq (Iran supported and weapon supplied) state they have shut down Israel’s Haifa and Ashdod ports via suicide drone attack.  “The Islamic resistance in Iraq began the second phase of the naval blockade of the Zionist entity, which includes: a naval blockade in the Mediterranean Sea and the shutdown of its seaports. The siege on it will continue until the blockade of Gaza is lifted and the massacres in the Gaza Strip stop.”  This is called believing your own propaganda and assuming that your enemy failing to report on it is enemy lies.

▪️Flood alert:  Normal Negev and Dead Sea sites for seasonal rain flow are flooding or expected to flood and must be avoided.  Hiking and nature trips should be suspended.  The National Center for Flood Prediction: a flow has been detected down Nahal Ergot, it is expected to reach Highway 90 soon.

▪️The compound and neighborhood where 21 soldiers fell was destroyed yesterday afternoon.

🔶 GAZA-HAMAS Front 

▪️Heavy fighting continues in Khan Yunis, including airstrikes on enemy terror squads.

▪️Enemy action reports: Violent bombardment in various parts of the Gaza Strip now. Israeli aircraft bombed a group of people (fighters - but we report they were children) on the shore of the sea near Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip.  Heavy concentration of IDF forces southwest of Gaza City.  IDF tanks firing at buildings next to Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, south Gaza.

▪️Gaza Now reports that somehow, nobody knows why (sarcasm), the HUNDREDS of trucks of food aid entering Gaza and sent to north Gaza keep not arriving or arriving mostly empty.  Where is the aid going?

🔶 RED SEA-Houthis Front 

▪️The Pentagon:  Since the 11th of this month, we have destroyed 25 missile launch facilities and more than 20 missiles, drones and radars in Yemen.

▪️Due to the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, the German shipping company Hapag Lloyd announced the launch of an overland corridor from the shores of the Persian Gulf in the UAE and Saudi Arabia to the Red Sea - bypasses the "Houthi problem" and also significantly shortens shipping time - truck shipping the containers across Saudi Arabia and loading them on ships in the northern Red Sea closer to the Suez Canal.

🔶 REGIONAL War 

▪️Iraq:  A wave of American attacks in southwestern Iraq and on the way to Qaim (against Iranian backed Shiite militias that have been attacking US bases).  The area under attack is Jarp al-Nasr, an area that was taken over by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (yes, Iran operating in Iraq).  Iraqi Hezbollah battalions were also attacked.  American planes carried out 5 airstrikes.

🔶 JUDEA-SAMARIA Front 

▪️The village of Urif: our forces blew up the house of the terrorist who carried out the deadly shooting attack near the settlement of Eli on June 20 of last year.

[admiralnelsoniii]

The Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet is a rocket-powered interceptor aircraft primarily designed and produced by the German aircraft manufacturer Messerschmitt. It is the only operational rocket-powered fighter aircraft in history as well as the first piloted aircraft of any type to exceed 1,000 kilometres per hour (620 mph) in level flight.

Credited with the destruction of between nine and 18 Allied aircraft against ten losses.

Armament

Guns:

2 × 30 mm (1.181 in) Rheinmetall Borsig MK 108 cannon with 60 rpg (B-1a)

or

2 × 20 mm (0.787 in) MG 151/20 cannon with 100 rpg (Ba-1 / B-0 pre-production aircraft)

Germany started small-scale combat operations with the Me 163B in May 1944. The Me 163B's unsurpassed velocity was something Allied fighter pilots were at a loss to counter. The Komets attacked singly or in pairs, often even faster than the intercepting fighters could dive. A typical Me 163 tactic was to fly vertically upward through the bombers at 9,000 m (30,000 ft), climb to 10,700–12,000 m (35,100–39,400 ft), then dive through the formation again, firing as they went. This approach afforded the pilot two brief chances to fire a few rounds from his cannons before gliding back to his airfield. The pilots reported it was possible to make four passes on a bomber, but only if it was flying alone. According to the historian Mano Ziegler, Nazi officials were allegedly considering using the Me 163 to directly ram into enemy aircraft in suicide attacks; this desperate tactic was never actually used.

[gehenna-checklist]

Day 14 of Worldbuilding From Zero - Butcher Bird

As countless other infernal archontechnologies, the Butcher Bird, also known as the Shrike, is a corrupted version of a German plane from the original war. Built over the FW 190-A, a deadly fighter aircraft, the Butcher earned its designation rightfully, as it took hundreds of lives of pilots from all over the world.

The mere sight of a Shrike, with its nose that melts into a fanged beak and living wings that flap to keep it aloft, is enough to make most pilots simply turn tail and retreat. When it dives, a whistling call of doom heralds its presence before flaming bombs and soul-seeking rockets obliterate positions and units with painful ease. Yet, though deadly from the ground and when ambushing prey, the Shrike's pilot, an experienced fiend, is still prone to failure.

Most aces from the brotherhood found its weakness after surviving the first fight: energy bleed. The Shrike's firepower and speed are enough to easily outmatch any human fighter, but on a prolonged dogfight its speed quickly fades and the much nimbler foes it faces can quickly turn and destroy it with a quick burst. To get this far a miracle is needed, but in this time and age there are many that can rely on that luck.

[blackswaneuroparedux]

A load of Porkies: Verlaine’s poetry and the French resistance on D Day 1944

Les saglots longs Des violons De l'automne Blessent mon coeur D'une langueur Monotone.

- Paul Verlaine, Chanson d’automne (1866)

6 June 1944 marks the commemoration of the historic D Day landings in Normandy. Every year I exchange messages with family members, friends, and also some of my army veteran comrades with whom I served in the past. The simple messages of remembrance are a reminder to us of the sacrifices made by British and the Commonwealth, American, and the French on that fateful day when Allied forces stormed the beaches on Normandy.

I remember receiving one post from an ex-veteran friend who flew with me. It was a picture of a local delicacy, Lincolnshire Chine, a traditional dish of cured pork and parsley only made in Lincolnshire, and a cryptic message underneath, ‘chanson d’automne’.

My friend is too witty for his own good sometimes and even I was stumped. He had read modern languages at Oxford and so was always prone to quoting French poetry at every opportunity, no matter how inappropriate the situation - like the time we were fortunate to have avoided a rocket attack from the Taliban but for some cool headed piloting and as we took a breather to thank God we made it out he bursts into poetry. He was (and still is) ferociously clever but wears it lightly behind his amiable character. It’s not surprising that our senior officers didn’t warm to his dry wit in the officers mess as he often lampooned the more boorish of the officer class that passed through our mess as guests. At heart he was a farmer and he longed to go back to his family farm lands in Lincolnshire after his time was up flying helicopters in the British army.

I nicknamed him Lucy after the great Roman patrician, soldier, and statesman, Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus. Cincinnatus was the outstanding Roman military leader who displayed humility, loyalty, and modesty. At the height of his power and fame he displayed the highest civic duty by giving up everything to go back to his simple farm life - which in time became the Roman civic ideal. I still think the nickname suits my ex-comrade in arms very well.

Drinking wine gives me moments of clarity and it slowly dawned on me what his cryptic message had meant.

Chanson d’Automne (1866) was a poem by the celebrated French poet, Paul-Marie Verlaine. His poem Chanson d’Automne (1866) is among the most beloved in French poetry. It captures his nostalgia for lost time in fewer words, and possibly just as well, as does Proust in six volumes.

Although it might have surprised Verlaine had he known it, the first lines of his poem were used by the British in the Second World War to signal the start of D-Day to the French resistance, which began the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France. D-Day (or "Operation Overlord") was a herculean planning task, requiring remarkable coordination both between the British, American, Free French, and Commonwealth armies, and with French resistance fighters on the ground, who were charged with helping aerial bombers disrupt German transportation routes, so as to impair the Germans' ability to send reinforcements.

But what had Paul-Marie Verlaine got to do with a side of cured pork from Lincolnshire?

Paul-Marie Verlaine lived and worked in Lincolnshire in 1875, teaching French, Latin and drawing at William Lovell's school. He had spent eighteen months in prison for shooting and wounding his lover Arthur Rimbaud and, when released in January that year, considered becoming a Trappist monk before deciding (the next best thing?) to become a school master in England. He came to London, registered with an employment agency and was soon heading north to this remote and, on the face of it, inhospitable backwater. Verlaine then spent a year as a schoolmaster in the village of Stickney, just north of Boston, Lincolnshire, in the mid-1870s and it is said that he became enamoured with this Lincolnshire delicacy. Verlaine continued to search for stuffed chine as he journeyed around Britain, but as is still the case today, he failed to find it outside Lincolnshire.

Unless you’re from Lincolnshire then the chances are you’ve never heard of stuffed chine. Unique to Lincolnshire, stuffed chine is a traditional dish made with cured pork and parsley. Once a county staple, its popularity has declined over the years as the younger generation looks to more modern cuisine and the older cuts are slowly forgotten. In the days before fridges and freezers, families would cure their meat to last them through the lean winter months. Each family would have a couple of pigs to kill - some of the meat would be salted and hung, and the rest used fresh.

Communities were tightly knit and there was often a friendly agreement between neighbours to stagger their kills and share fresh meat among the families, who then reciprocated when they in turn killed their pigs. Neighbours would pass on and receive this “pig cheer” all through the winter months while the pig killing went on, thus ensuring they always had fresh meat.

Once spring approached, however, they would look to use up some of the meat that had been salted and put away. Stuffed chine was traditionally served when the May Hiring Fair was in town (a kind of outdoor employment exchange, where people made themselves available for temporary work), and the largest chine was usually saved for Christenings – seeing a fresh row of parsley growing in a garden was often the sign that there was a baby on the way!

When the time came to use the chine it was soaked in cold water overnight, then carefully sliced from the spinal side towards the rind. Finely chopped parsley was packed tightly into the deep pockets in the flesh, then the joint was turned over and the process repeated on the other side. Next, the chine was very tightly wrapped up in muslin or an old pillowcase and simmered until cooked through. The cooked meat was left to cool still wrapped in cloth in order for it to set. Once completely cooled it was unwrapped, sliced thinly and served with a sprinkle of vinegar to cut through the fat.

Few butchers still use this traditional method as the cooked chine has to be carefully sliced by hand to avoid the bones, which due to the large bone-to-meat ratio makes it quite an expensive cut. For this reason many butchers choose to use collar bacon instead, which contains no bone and can therefore be sliced by a machine. There is something rather beautiful about the strips of pink salty pork divided by the flashes of punchy green parsley that immediately draws you in when you see it standing proudly in the butcher’s shop.

My ex-veteran friend’s witty post was a reminder how deeply immersed the British and the French (as well as the Germans) were in sharing a common currency of shared culture even in the bloody carnage of war. It was at 9.15pm French time on 5 June 1944, the opening notes of Beethoven's 5th, forming the Morse for V for Victory, sounded across the airwaves of BBC's Radio Londres into France. The speaker, Franck Bauer, read out personal messages that were known to individual Resistance groups in France. Hundreds of messages were sent out on the eve of the invasion, such as “Les carottes sont cuites” (The carrots are cooked), "La mélasse demain donnera le cognac" (Molasses tomorrow will bring forth cognac), and ““Jean a une longue moustache” (Jean has a long moustache).

But the most famous of all were verses from Verlaine's 'Chanson d'automne' destined for a Resistance group in central France. For the Resistance, these were a call to arms. All of these messages were picked up by the 15 Army listening post in Tourcoing, but although the Germans knew these messages were destined for the Resistance, they didn’t know their exact meaning. During the night of 5/6 June, the Resistance would carry out over 1,000 acts of sabotage, knocking out phone lines and blowing up railways, thus playing a vital and often overlooked role in the success of D-Day.

One of my favourite details of the whole D Day plan was how the Allies alerted the French that it was time to begin sabotaging rail-lines. On 1 June 1944, to tell the resistance to stand by for further alerts, the BBC transmitted the first three lines:

Les sanglots longs Des violons De l'automne

Per Arthur Symons' translation: "When a sighing begins / In the violins / Of the autumn-song".

The Germans wrongly believed that these lines were addressed to all Resistance circuits in France, and that when the next three lines were broadcast it would mean that invasion would follow within forty-eight hours. The lines were directed to a single Resistance circuit, Ventriloquist, working south of Orléans, instructing it to stand by for the next three lines, which would be the signal for it to carry out its railway-cutting tasks - in conjunction with the Allied landings.

Then, on June 5, to signal that sabotage efforts should begin, the next three lines were sent:

Blessent mon coeur D'une langueur Monotone

Symons: "My heart is drowned / In the slow sound / Languorous and long."

Both lines were intercepted by German forces, who took them as significant but didn't take adequate action; for one thing, they overestimated the scope of the sabotage operations to come. The second three lines of the Verlaine poem were broadcast over the BBC to the Ventriloquist Resistance circuit, instructing it to act at once in carrying out its railway-cutting sabotage. The SS Security Service radio interception section in Paris heard this as it was broadcast.

Believing, rightly, that the broadcast of the section of the poem was related to invasion, but wrongly, that it was an Allied call for railway sabotage throughout France, the Security Service immediately alerted the German High Command in the West.

An hour later, the German Fifteenth Army warned its various corps that intercepted messages pointed to an invasion within forty-eight hours (the parachute landings were fewer than three hours away). The German force responsible for most of the imminent assault area, the Seventh Army, which had received too many false warnings in the past, took no action.

The combination of airstrikes and ground sabotage proved extremely successful, especially as they wound up forcing the Germans to cross the Seine via ferry. The Germans ended up sending two panzer divisions all the way from the Russian front to fend off the invasion, but because of sabotage and bombings,  it took less time to travel from the eastern front to France than it did for them to proceed from eastern France to Normandy.

This is a good time as any to also point out at the Allied invasion of the Nomandy beaches would not have gone as well as they did without the help and support of the French themselves. I think there has been a skewering of perceptions that the D Day landings and the subsequent liberation of France was purely due to the Allied forces. What gets overlooked is the bravery and courage of the home grown French Resistance that played a crucial part also.

Truth be told as Allied soldiers stormed the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, 6 June 1944, the French Resistance were paving the way for their arrival. The French Resistance, the covert volunteers who had been struggling against the Nazis since 1940, leaped into action. They put their lives on the line as at no other time in the Second World War, risking everything to help the professional soldiers. This was their chance to liberate their country, and they seized it with both hands.

The French Resistance first emerged following the fall of France in 1940. With the nation’s armed forces shattered, some French people fled to Britain to remain free and continue the war. Most others bowed, with varying degrees of willingness, to the occupiers and the collaborating Vichy regime. But a few took another path, forming cells of spies and guerrillas who kept the hope of a free France alive. They provided intelligence to the Allies, sabotaged German facilities, and smuggled downed airmen and escaped POWs to safety.

The risks were incredibly high, and many Resistance members met horrible deaths at the hands of the Nazi regime. But their numbers kept growing, and by June of 1944, 100,000 Resistance members were waiting to rise up.

From the start, the Resistance had received support from elsewhere in the Allied camp. Britain’s Special Operations Executive (SOE), America’s Office of Strategic Services (OSS), and the exiled Free French forces under General de Gaulle had all made efforts to strengthen the volunteer force. They had forged connections with existing Resistance cells, fostered the growth of new ones, and provided them with supplies.

Perhaps the most important support the Allies gave came in the form of radio sets. These allowed the Resistance to more effectively coordinate with the rest of the Allies and with each other. Central to this was Radio London, a propaganda station the Allies used to keep hope alive in Europe. By transmitting pre-arranged code phrases in the personal messages part of its broadcasts, Radio London let Resistance members know about specific events, such as supply drops.

Immediately before D-Day, the Allies sent in the Jedburgh teams; three-man groups of Allied soldiers who were parachuted into France with radio sets. They joined up with Resistance cells, supporting them in their work and bringing them under Allied military leadership.

The Americans and British couldn’t afford to entirely trust the Resistance or even the Free French. Therefore, they kept details of the plans for D-Day from these critical allies until the last minute. In the lead-up to D-Day, signals told the Resistance that something was coming. They were encouraged to launch attacks on specific types of targets to prepare the way. At the start of June, a signal told them that the invasion was imminent, but when and where remained a closely guarded secret.

The Resistance carried out several distinct but related operations around D-Day: • Plan Vert – sabotaging the railway system. • Plan Tortue – sabotaging the road network. • Plan Violet – destroying phone lines. • Plan Bleu – destroying power lines. • Plan Rouge – attacking German ammunition dumps. • Plan Noir – attacking enemy fuel depots. • Plan Jaune – attacking the command posts of the occupying forces.

Some of these plans went active in the weeks leading up to the invasion. Plan Vert was particularly effective. Together with an Allied bombing campaign, the Resistance destroyed 577 railroads and 1,500 locomotives, three-quarters of the trains available in northern France. As part of Tortue, they also destroyed 30 roads and, again with British bombers, 18 of the 24 bridges over the northern stretch of the River Seine.

These attacks on the transport network were crucial to the success of D-Day. With trains out of action and roads ruined, the Germans struggled to get reinforcements to the front. The work of the Resistance crippled any potential for a significant counter-attack.

So on the night of 5 June 1944, when the crucial message arrived from Radio London, they knew attack was coming and more importantly they were ready. This is what they waited for since 1940, it was time for for Plan Violet. Across the country, they sprang into action, cutting phone lines and attacking communications centres. 32 telecommunications sites were destroyed in these attacks.

Emboldened by the Allies’ arrival, many Resistance cells went on a war footing. They ambushed German troops heading for the front. In some towns and villages, they killed or drove out the occupying authorities.

Close to the Allied landings, some of these operations were carried out in coordination with the SOE and Jedburgh teams, or with paratroopers who had landed behind German lines. As the regular forces advanced, the Resistance rose up to help and to punish the occupiers who had oppressed them for the past four years.

Unfortunately, this ended badly for some groups. Far away from the newly arrived armies, they lacked the support they needed to survive now that they had revealed themselves. Some of these groups were forced on the run. Others were killed weeks before the Allies could reach them. French leaders encouraged them to stand down and return to guerrilla operations until regular forces reached them, in hopes of saving lives.

Having understood the meaning behind my friend’s cryptic message of Paul Verlaine’s poem gave me pause for thought as I reflected on the bravery and the sacrifices made by all who took part in D Day, both on the beaches and behind occupied enemy lines.

The nature of war always reveals the true nature of those who fight. War, someone said, is not human nature, but a habit. We tell the dead to rest in peace, when we should worry about the living to live in peace.

So I messaged back to ‘Lucy’, my witty ex-comrade in arms, and quoted a stanza from Paul Verlaine well known poem, Crimen Amoris.

I knew ‘Lucy’ would understand that I understood his message on this most solemn of days to commemorate the bravery and sacrifices of the Greatest Generation through the prism of our own shared experience of war in Afghanistan:

Nous avons tous trop souffert, anges et hommes, De ce conflit entre le Pire et le Mieux. Humilions, misérables que nous sommes, Tous nos élans dans le plus simple des voeux.**

Too greatly have we suffered, angels and men, In this endless war between the Worst and the Best, Humiliated, unhappy have we been In darkling flights by the simplest vows addressed. ***

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar׳s exclusive interview on BBC

Rachel: Bood evening from London. 39 days after Hamas Freedom Fighters peacefully attacked Israel, we have now an exclusive interview with its leader Yahya Sinwar.

Sinwar: Yes. Good evening Rachel. Let me just correct you. There were also freedom rapists, and freedom butchers.

Rachel: Of course, of course, I apologize. Mr Sinwar, I understand that you are now working towards a ceasefire.

Sinwar: Yes, Rachel, you know me. Wherever there is fire, I say let's cease it. All we are saying, is give ceasefire a chance.

Rachel: The fire must be ceased.

Sinwar: The situation in Gaza is terrible, Rachel. All innocent civilians are running out of town, so we are left without protection.

Rachel: With no human shield at all. So unfair.

Sinwar: So unfair. And our hospitals, Rachel, our schools, all ran out of rockets. How are we supposed to kill Jews like this? I mean, with lectures?

Rachel: Actually, we've tried that one, didn't work.

Sinwar: I plead to the world. We need a ceasefire. We are tired, we need a break. Don't forget, we started a day earlier than the Israelis. A day earlier.

Rachel: So unfair, so unfair. But I understand the Zionists refuse to put down their weapons.

Sinwar: Yes, can you imagine? Can you imagine? All we want is a little time to rearm before we continue to kill them, and they won't let us…

Rachel: I'm sorry Mr Sinwar, I can't hear you… the, all this noise in the background.

Sinwar: Yeah, yeah, I'm sorry Rachel, there is a baby here.

Rachel: Could you please get him to be quiet?

Sinwar: Yeah, I wish I could, he's not mine and his mother is in Israel. Never mind.

Rachel: Okay, look, it's really hard to conduct an interview with this noisy kidnapped baby. Is he always like that?

Sinwar: Oh, at night it's even worse, Rachel. Every time we fire a rocket, he wakes up.

Rachel: Oh no!

Sinwar: I didn't have one good night's sleep in a month.

Rachel: Wait, are you telling me that there is an Israeli baby that's torturing you by sleep-deprivation?

Sinwar: Wha- yes!

Rachel: Occupying your house?

Sinwar: Aiwa! Yes!

Rachel: So unfair, so unfair. And the world does absolutely nothing about it. I really hope you'll get to ceasefire soon. Thank you so much, Mr Sinwar.

Sinwar: No, no, no, no, no, thank you, Rachel.

Rachel: And now please stay with us for "A Moment of History."

Voiceover: On this day in 1944, heartless Winston Churchill refused a ceasefire and continued the genocidal attack on Nazi Germany. As we well know now, far more German civilians have died in the war, which makes them the victims, and Britain the war criminal.

==

Eretz Nehederet (meaning, "A Wonderful Country") is an Israeli prime-time television satirical sketch comedy show.

If you think this is some kind of strawman, it's not.

This was the Reuters report.

"The IDF forces include medical teams and Arabic speakers, who have undergone specified training to prepare for this complex and sensitive environment, with the intent that no harm is caused to the civilians."

And this was the IDF's Tweet.

Nobody noticed or fixed the "mistake" until at least the next program and presenter. Keep in mind, the presenter has an earpiece with a direct link to the control room. Nobody in the control room thought, hey, that sounded wrong. Or perhaps, simply didn't care to fix it. And, of course, they omitted the last part of the statement explaining "the intent that no harm is caused," which would have undermined the "misquote."

[usafphantom2]

80 years ago today, the German Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet flew its first operational sortie. It was the first and only tailless rocket-powered interceptor to see operational service. s.si.edu/3SOda4o

@airandspace via X