Arnold was born in Norwich, Connecticut. He was named after his great-grandfather, a colonial governor of Rhode Island. He moved to New Haven and established himself as a pharmacist and bookseller. He obtained a large amount of property and began participating in West Indies trade, sometimes commanding his own ships as his father had before him. During his sailing days some of his business turned towards smuggling. He married Margaret Mansfield on February 22, 1767. They had three sons together. Margaret died on June 19 1775.
By the time the fighting started at Lexington and Concord in April 1775, Arnold was a seasoned army man, having fought in the French and Indian War. He was a militia captain in the Governor’s Second Company of Guards. On April 23, 1775 Arnolds troops broke into the New Haven Power house, armed themselves and marched off to Massachusetts, ready to fight. Once they arrived, Arnold requested permission from the Massachusetts Committee on Safety to capture Fort Ticonderoga. In response the appointed him colonel of the Massachusetts militia. In Bennington, Vermont Arnold ran into Ethan Allen who had a commission from Connecticut to attack Fort Ticonderoga. Allen would not submit to be under Arnolds command, but agreed to let him tag along with his Green Mountain Boys. On May 22, 1775 Fort Ticonderoga was captured from 22 stunned British troops who did not know they were at war.
After the successful raid Allen sent close friend Colonel James Easton to Massachusetts with a letter announcing the fort was no longer under British rule. The letter toned down Arnold’s role in the battle. Once Arnold learned about the letter he challenged Easton to a duel. Easton refused the duel. Arnold remained with some Connecticut replacements at the fort. Arnold had been left in command of the fort but soon Colonel Benjamin Hinman arrived and Arnold learned he was to be Hinman’s second in command. Infuriated, Arnold resigned from the militia. Heading to New York after he changed his mind about resigning, he submitted a claim for expenses that was scrutinized and legislators protested the amount, further enraging Arnold. Then, as previously mentioned in June his wife passed away.
In 1775 Arnold and Allen led separate invasions into Canada. Allen was successful in Montreal, however he was captured. Arnold on the other hand participated in the Battle of Quebec. In which he was shot and the battle was a loss. Arnold was put in command of Montreal and he remained the recuperating until they were forced to retreat from Canada in June 1776.
Arnold who was promoted to brigadier general supervised the construction of America’s first gun ships in 1776 at Lake Champlain in the town of Whitehall, New York, which is why it is now known as the birthplace of the US Navy. In 1777 Arnold missed the opportunity for promotion. At the Battle of Saratoga Arnold lead the charge without approval and earned himself some awkwardness among his superiors. Although, I should mention that he played a crucial part in winning that battle by gathering the necessary troops. While rallying the troops his horse was shot and he fell on the leg, which was previously shot. This new injury rendered him partially disabled.
After the British evacuated Philadelphia Arnold was put in charge of the city. While there he met 18-year-old Peggy Shippen, the daughter of family that was known to he loyal to the crown. On April 9, 1779 they were married. They would have four sons and a daughter together.
Arnold was angered by the alliance Congress & Washington had made with France. He had been distrustful of the French since his time during the French and Indian War. Arnold began communicating with British Major John Andre. John Andre had courted his wife while the British were still in control of Philadelphia. Arnold had secured a position as head of the fort at West Point. In 1780 Arnold struck a deal with Henry Clinton to hand over the fort at West Point to the British for $20,000 (about a million today). On September 23, 1780 Major Andre was captured with documents outlining his relationship with Arnold found in his boot.
When Arnold learned of Andre’s he switched sides. Arnold’s wife played stupid and was returned to Philadelphia. Arnold’s two top aides also were also deemed innocent. Arnold became brigadier general and proceeded to do well, burning down Richmond, Virginia and New London, Connecticut, his home colony.
After the war Arnold moved with his wife to London where he was never fully trusted. He was paid only $6,000 for his participation in the conspiracy to obtain the fort at West Point. He died in 1801 and is buried with his wife and daughter in a crypt at St. Mary’s Church, Battersea, London. He is buried in the uniform of a Continental soldier.
In a letter titled “To the inhabitants of America” Benedict tried to explain his conduct.
Francisco Franco, sometimes known as Generalísimo Francisco Franco, was the Head of State of Spain in parts of the country from 1936 and in its entirety from 1939 until his death in 1975. He presided over the authoritarian government of the Spanish State following victory in the Spanish Civil War. From 1947, he was de facto regent of Spain. During his rule he was known officially as por la gracia de Dios, Caudillo de España y de la Cruzada, or “by the grace of God, the Leader of Spain and of the Crusade.”
That was Intellect with PodTheme from music.podshow.com. Thank you all very much for tuning in. My name is Jason Watts the host of historypodcast. I’m a history lover just like you. Today’s episode is a suggestion from forums user menolly. menolly said in the forms “I’d like to know more about Francisco Franco and the Spanish Civil War.” Well, we are going to cover half of your request today. Be sure to check out the website at historypodcast.blogspot.com where you can post your own suggestions in the forums, add yourself to the frapper map, and email me via historypodcast@gmail.com.
Franco, Francisco, in full Francisco Paulino Hermengildo Teodulo Franco Bahamonde, general and leader of the Nationalist forces that over threw the Spanish democratic republic in the Spanish Civil War (1936-39); thereafter until his death he was the head of the government of Spain.
Franco was born at the coastal city and naval centre of El Ferrol in Galicia (north-western Spain). His family life was not entirely happy, for Franco’s father, an officer in the Spanish Naval Administrative Corps, was eccentric, wasteful, and somewhat dissolute. More discipline and serious that other boys of his age, Franco was close to his mother, a pious and conservative upper-middle class Catholic. Like four generations and his elder brother before him, Franco was originally destined for a career as a naval officer, but reduction of admissions to the Naval Academy forced him to choose the army. In 1907, only 14 years old, he entered the Infantry Academy at Toledo. Three years later he was graduated.
Franco volunteered for active duty in the colonial campaigns in Spanish Morocco that had begun in 1909 and was transferred there in 1912 at the age of 19. The following year he was promoted to first lieutenant in an elite regiment of native Moroccan cavalry. At a time in which many Spanish officers were characterized by sloppiness and lack of professionalism, young Franco quickly showed his ability to command troops effectively and soon won a reputation for complete professional dedication. He devoted great care to the preparations of his units actions and paid more attention than was common to the troops’ well being. Reputed to be scrupulously honest, introverted and a man of comparatively few intimate friends, he was known to shun all frivolous amusements. In 1915 he became the youngest captain in the Spanish Army. In the following year he was seriously wounded by a bullet in the abdomen and was brought back to Spain to recover. In 1920 he was chosen to be second in command of the newly organized Spanish Foreign Legion, succeeding to full command in 1923. In that year he married Carmen Polo, by whom he had a daughter. During the crucial campaigns against the Moroccan rebels, the legion played a decisive role in bringing the revolt to an end. Franco became a national hero, and in 1926, at the age of 33, he was promoted to brigadier general. At the beginning of 1928 he was named director of the newly organized General Military Academy in Sarasogossa.
After the fall of the monarchy in 1931, the leaders of the new Spanish Republic adopted a sharply anti-military policy, and Franco’s career was temporarily halted. The General Military Academy was dissolved, and Franco was placed on the inactive list. Thought he was an avowed monarchist and held the honor of being a Gentleman of the King’s Chamber, Franco accepted both the new Regime and his temporary demotion with perfect discipline. When the conservative forces gained control of the republic in 1933, Franco was restored to active command; in 1934 he was promoted to major general. In October 1934, during the rising of Asturian miners who opposed the admission of three members of the right to the government, Franco was called in to quell the revolt. His success in the operation brought him new prominence. In May 1935 he was appointed chief of the Spanish Army’s general staff, and then began the work of tightening discipline and strengthening military institutions, both seriously weakened by the republic’s earlier anti-military position.
No longer able to retain control of the country, the centre-right government was dissolved, and new elections were announced for February 1936. By this time the Spanish political parties had split into two factions: the rightest National Bloc and the leftist Popular Front. The left proved victorious in the elections, but the new government was unable to prevent the accelerating dissolution of Spain’s social and economic structure. Although Franco had never been a member of either political party, the growing anarchy compelled him to appeal to the government to declare a state of emergency. His appeal was refused, and he was removed from the general staff and sent to an obscure command in the Canary islands. For some time he refused to commit himself to a military conspiracy against the government, but as the political system disintegrated, he finally decided to join the rebels.
At dawn on July 18, 1936, Franco’s manifesto acclaiming the military rebellion was broadcast from the Canary Islands, and the same morning the rising began on the mainland. The following day he flew to Morocco and within 24 hours was firmly in control of the protectorate and the Spanish Army garrisoning it. After landing in Spain, Franco and his army marched toward Madrid, which was held by the government. When the Nationalist advance came to a halt on the outskirts of the city, the military leaders, in preparation of what they believed was the final assault that would deliver Madrid and the county into their hands, decided to choose a command in chief, or generalissimo, who would also head the rebel Nationalist government in opposition to the republic. Because of his military experience and prestige, a political record unmarred by his sectarian politics and conspiracies, and his proved ability to gain military assistance from Hitler’s Germany and Mussolini’s Italy, Franco was the obvious choice. In part because he was not a typical Spanish “political general,” Franco became head of state of the new Nationalist regime on Oct. 1, 1936. The rebel government did not, however, gain complete control of the country for more than three years.
Franco presided over a government that was basically a military dictatorship, but he realized that it needed a regular civil structure to broaden its support; this was to be derived mainly from the antilefist middle classes. On April 19, 1937, he reorganized the Falange (the Spanish Racist Party) and made it the rebel regimes official political movement. While expanding the Falange into a more pluralistic group, Franco made it clear that it was the government that used the party and not the other way around. Thus, his regime became and institutionalized authoritarian system, differing in this respect from the Fascist party-states of the German and Italian models.
As commander in chief in the Civil War, Franco was a careful and systematic leader. He made no rash moves and suffered only a few temporary defeats as his forces advanced slowly but steadily; the only major criticism directed at him during the campaign was that his strategy was frequently unimaginative. Nevertheless because of the relativity superior military quality of his army and the continuation of heavy German and Italian assistance Franco won a complete and unconditional victory on April 1, 1939.
The Civil War had been largely a bloody struggle of attrition, marked by atrocities on both sides. The tens of thousands of executions carried out by the nationalist regime, which continued during the first years after the war ended, earned Franco more reproach than any other single aspect of his rule.
Although Franco had visions of restoring Spanish grandeur after the Civil War, in reality he was the leader of an exhausted country still divided internally and impoverished by a long and costly war. The stability of this government was made more precarious by the outbreak of WWII only five months later. Franco was at first shocked at Hitler’s unprovoked assault on Catholic Poland and carefully avoided involvement in the war. His wartime diplomacy was perhaps Franco’s ablest political achievement; it was marked by cold realism and careful timing. The evidence indicates that had Hitler ever been in a position to win a quick and total victory, Franco would have been willing to enter the conflict on Germany’s side. As it was, his government remained relativity sympathetic to Hitler while carefully avoiding direct diplomatic and military commitment. After his interview with Franco in 1940 at Hendaye, Fr., Hitler is said to have remarked that he would “as soon have three or four teeth pulled” as go through another bargaining session like that.
The most difficult period of Franco’s regime began in the aftermath of WWII, when his government was ostracized by the newly formed United Nations. He was labeled by hostile foreign opinion the “last surviving Fascist dictator” and for a time appeared to be the most hated of Western heads of state; within his country, however, as many people supported him as opposed him. The period of ostracism finally came to and end with the worsening of relations between the Soviet World and the West at the hight of the Cold War. Franco could now be viewed as one of the world’s leading anti-communist statesmen, and relations with other countries began to be regularized in 1948. His international rehabilitation was advanced further in 1953, when Spain signed a 10-year military assistance pact with the United States, which was later renewed in more limited form.
Franco’s domestic policies became somewhat more liberal during the 1950’s and ’60’s, and the cohesion of his regime, together with its capacity for creative evolution, won him at least a limited degree of respect from some of his critics. Franco said that he did not find the burden government particularly heavy, and, in fact, his rule was marked by absolute self-confidence and relative indifference to criticism. He showed marked political ability in gauging the psychology of the diverse elements, ranging from moderate liberals to extreme reactionaries, whose support was necessary for his regime’s survival. He maintained a careful balance among them and largely left the execution of policy to his appointees, there by placing himself as arbiter above the storm of ordinary political conflict. To a considerable degree, the shame for unsuccessful or unpopular aspects of policy tended to fall on individual ministers rather than on Franco. The Falange state party, downgraded in the early 1940s, in later years became known merely as the “Movement” and lost much of its original quasi-Fascist identity.
Unlike most rulers of rightist authoritarian regimes, Franco provided for the continuity of his government after his death though an official referendum in 1947 that made Spanish state a monarchy and ratified Franco’s powers as a sort of regent for life. In 1967 he opened direct elections for a small minority of deputies to the Parliament and in 1969 official designated then 32-year old prince Juan Carlos, the eldest son of premier of the state, commander in chief of the armed forces, and head of the “Movement”.
Franco was never a popular ruler and rarely tried to mobilize mass support. But after 1947 there was little direct or organized opposition to his rule. With the liberalization of his government and relaxation of some police powers, together with the country’s marked economic development during the 1960s, Franco’s image changed from that of the rigged generalissimo to a more benign civilian elder statesman. The company of his six grandchildren and frequent hunting and fishing expeditions constituted the principal diversions of his later years. Franco’s health declined significantly in the late 1960s, but advanced age brought no slackening of his self-confidence. He believed it within his powers to bequeath to his country a stable continuation of his regime in an atmosphere of prosperity and accelerating modernization.
Source: Encyclopedia Britannica.
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Welcome to History Podcast number 80. This is a very special episode. Just a quick warning, it does not cover history, instead it is three history podcasters Matt Datillo from Matt’s today in history, Bob Wright from Baseball History podcast and myself. If you have a color ipod you should see a picture of us recording this episode. This is a long one so there will be no Frapper Mapper segment at the end of the discussion. I hope you all enjoy. For more information please stop by historyonair.com, and while you are there please take our survey. Thank you for listening!
Much to discuss about the podcast and its wonderful listeners after this history, so stay tuned for that
Kent State
What you hear now in the background the Kent State Fight Song. And if I figured it out and you have a color ipod capable of displaying an image for this podcast you should see that famous picture of the shootings aftermath, more on the later in the show.
Located in the in northeastern Ohio
city Kent
a city of some 30,000
rests on the banks of the Cuyahoga River
11 miles east of Akron, 33 miles southeast of Cleveland
May 4, 1970
Ohio National Guard fired into a crowd of Kent State University demonstrators, killing four and wounding nine Kent State students
triggered a nationwide student strike that forced hundreds of colleges and universities to close
The shootings have come to symbolize the deep political and social divisions that sharply divided the nation during the Vietnam War
WHY WAS THE OHIO NATIONAL GUARD CALLED TO KENT?
Nixon was elected president of the United States in 1968 based in part on his promise to bring an end to the war in Vietnam.
During the first year of Nixon’s presidency, America’s involvement in the war appeared to be winding down.
In late April of 1970, however, the United States invaded Cambodia and widened the Vietnam War.
This decision was announced on national television and radio on April 30, l970 by President Nixon, who stated that the invasion of Cambodia was designed to attack the headquarters of the Viet Cong, which had been using Cambodian territory as a sanctuary.
Protests occurred the next day, Friday, May 1, across United States college campuses where anti-war sentiment ran high.
At Kent State University, an anti-war rally was held at noon on the Commons, a large, grassy area in the middle of campus which had traditionally been the site for various types of rallies and demonstrations.
Fiery speeches against the war and the Nixon administration were given, a copy of the Constitution was buried to symbolize the murder of the Constitution because Congress had never declared war, and another rally was called for noon on Monday, May 4.
Friday evening in downtown Kent began peacefully with the usual socializing in the bars, but events quickly escalated into a violent confrontation between protesters and local police.
The exact causes of the disturbance are still the subject of debate,
but bonfires were built in the streets of downtown Kent, cars were stopped, police cars were hit with bottles, and some store windows were broken.
Kent Mayor Leroy Satrom declared a state of emergency
Bars were closed – increased size of angry crowd
Police used tear gas to disperse the crowd from downtown,
Crowd moved back to the campus.
Fearing further disturbances Mayor Satrom asked Governor Rhodes to send the Ohio National Guard, which he did at 5pm.
There had been threats made to downtown businesses and city officials as well as rumors that radical revolutionaries were in Kent to destroy the city and the university.
WHAT HAPPENED SATURDAY MAY 2 AND SUNDAY MAY 3 AFTER THE GUARDS ARRIVED ON CAMPUS?
Members of the Ohio National Guard were already on duty in Northeast Ohio, so they quickly to move to Kent.
They arrived at 10 p.m., and encountered a riotous scene.
The wooden ROTC building adjacent to the Commons was on fire and would eventually burn to the ground
There is still controversy regarding who set fire to the ROTC building
Assumed protestors responsible
Interfered with firemen extinguishing the fire
Cheered the burning
Confrontations between Guardsmen and demonstrators continued well into the night
tear gas filled the campus
numerous arrests were made
Sunday, May 3rd
Nearly 1000 Ohio National Guardsmen occupied the campus
The day was warm and sunny, however, and students frequently talked amicably with Guardsmen.
Ohio Governor James Rhodes flew to Kent on Sunday morning
At a press conference, he said, campus protesters the worst type of people in America and every force of law will be used to deal with them.
Rhodes also indicated that he would seek a court order declaring a state of emergency
Never happened
National Guard and University officials assumed it was being declared
All rallies were banned when the Guard acted on its assumption and took control from the University officials
Further confrontations between protesters and guardsmen occurred Sunday evening
Rocks and tear gas thrown and arrests took place on campus
On Friday, May 1, student protest leaders called for another rally to be held on the Commons at noon on Monday, May 4.
Although University officials warned against it a crowd began to gathering beginning as early as 11 a.m.
By noon, the Commons area contained 3,000 people
Although estimates are inexact,
about 500 core demonstrators , Victory Bell at one end of the Commons
another 1,000 people were supporting the active demonstrators
and an additional 1,500 people were spectators standing around the perimeter of the Commons
Across the Commons at the burned-out ROTC building stood about 100 Ohio National Guardsmen carrying lethal M-1 military rifles.
Little evidence exists as to who were the leaders of the rally and what activities were planned, but initially the rally was peaceful.
WHO MADE THE DECISION TO BAN THE RALLY OF MAY 4?
1975 federal civil trial, General Robert Canterbury, the highest official of the Guard, testified that widespread consensus existed that the rally should be prohibited because of the tensions that existed and the possibility that violence would again occur.
Kent State President Robert White had explicitly told Canterbury that any demonstration would be highly dangerous.
In contrast, White testified that he could recall no conversation with Canterbury regarding banning the rally.
The decision to ban the rally can most accurately be traced to Governor Rhodes’ statements on Sunday,
May 3 when he stated that he would be seeking a state of emergency declaration from the courts.
Although he never did this, all officials — Guard, University, Kent — assumed that the Guard was now in charge of the campus and that all rallies were illegal.
Thus, University leaders printed and distributed on Monday morning 12,000 leaflets indicating that all rallies, including the May 4th rally scheduled for noon, were prohibited as long as the Guard was in control of the campus.
WHAT EVENTS LED DIRECTLY TO THE SHOOTINGS?
Shortly before noon, General Canterbury made the decision to order the demonstrators to disperse.
A Kent State police officer made an announcement using a bullhorn.
When this had no effect, the officer and several Guardsmen drove across the Commons to tell the protesters that the rally was banned and that they must disperse.
This was met with angry shouting and rocks, and the jeep retreated.
Canterbury ordered his men to lock and load their weapons
tear gas canisters were fired into the crowd around the Victory Bell
the Guard began to march across the Commons to disperse the rally
The protesters moved up a steep hill, known as Blanket Hill, and then down the other side of the hill onto the Prentice Hall parking lot as well as an adjoining practice football field.
Most of the Guardsmen followed the students directly and soon found themselves somewhat trapped on the practice football field because it was surrounded by a fence.
Yelling and rock throwing reached a peak as the Guard remained on the field for about ten minutes.
The Guardsmen huddling together knelt and pointed their guns, but no weapons were shot at this time
The Guard then began to return up Blanket Hill.
At the top of the hill, 28 of the more than 70 Guardsmen turned and fired their rifles and pistols. Many fired into the air or the ground. However, a small portion fired directly into the crowd. There were between 61 and 67 shots fired in a 13 second period.
HOW MANY DEATHS AND INJURIES OCCURRED?
Four Kent State students died as a result of the firing by the Guard.
Jeffrey Miller
The closest student at 270 feet from the Guard
standing in an access road leading into the Prentice Hall parking lot
shot in the mouth
Allison Krause
Prentice Hall parking lot
330 feet from the Guardsmen
shot in the left side of her body
William Schroeder
Prentice Hall parking lot
390 feet from the Guard
left side of his back
Sandra Scheuer
Prentice Hall parking lot
390 feet from the Guard
bullet pierced the left front side of her neck
9 Kent State students were wounded in the 13 seconds of fire. Most of the students were in the Prentice Hall parking lot. A few were on the Blanket Hill area
Wounded:
Joseph Lewis
closest about 60 feet
middle finger extended
bullets struck him in the right abdomen and left lower leg
Thomas Grace
60 feet
was wounded in the left ankle
John Cleary
100 feet
upper left chest
Alan Canfora
225 feet
right wrist.
Dean Kahler
most seriously wounded of the nine students
small of his back
300 feet and was permanently paralyzed from the waist down.
Douglas Wrentmore
330 feet.
right knee
James Russell
375 feet
right thigh and right forehead
Robert Stamps
500 feet
right buttock
Donald Mackenzie
farthest, 750 feet
neck.
WHY DID THE GUARDSMEN FIRE?
(1)the Guardsmen fired in self-defense, and the shootings were therefore justified
(2)the Guardsmen were not in immediate danger, and therefore the shootings were unjustified.
Guardsmen:
fear of their lives.
numerous investigating commissions, federal court
had to fire in self-defense.
federal criminal and civil trials have accepted the position of the Guardsmen
1974 federal criminal trial
District Judge Frank Battisti dismissed the case
against eight Guardsmen indicted by a federal grand jury
ruling at mid-trial that the government’s case against the Guardsmen was so weak
that the defense did not have to present its case
1975 (much longer and more complex) federal civil trial
a jury voted 9-3 that none of the Guardsmen were legally responsible for the shootings
This decision was appealed,
Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a new trial had to be held because of the improper handling of a threat to a jury member.
January of 1979 with an out-of-court settlement
a statement signed by 28 defendants
$675,000 to the wounded students and the parents of the students who had been killed.
money was paid by the State of Ohio rather than by any Guardsmen
the amount equaled what the State estimated it would cost to go to trial again.
the statement signed by members of the Ohio National Guard was viewed by them to be a declaration of regret, not an apology or an admission of wrongdoing:
In retrospect, the tragedy of May 4, 1970 should not have occurred. The students may have believed that they were right in continuing their mass protest in response to the Cambodian invasion, even though this protest followed the posting and reading by the university of an order to ban rallies and an order to disperse. These orders have since been determined by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals to have been lawful.
Some of the Guardsmen on Blanket Hill, fearful and anxious from prior events, may have believed in their own minds that their lives were in danger. Hindsight suggests that another method would have resolved the confrontation. Better ways must be found to deal with such a confrontation.
We devoutly wish that a means had been found to avoid the May 4th events culminating in the Guard shootings and the irreversible deaths and injuries. We deeply regret those events and are profoundly saddened by the deaths of four students and the wounding of nine others which resulted. We hope that the agreement to end the litigation will help to assuage the tragic memories regarding that sad day.
numerous other studies of the shootings
primary responsibility for the shootings lies with the Guardsmen
Experts who find the Guard primarily responsible find themselves in agreement with the conclusion of the
Scranton Commission Report
1970, p. 87
“The indiscriminate firing of rifles into a crowd of students and the deaths that followed were unnecessary, unwarranted, and inexcusable.”
WHAT HAPPENED IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE SHOOTINGS?
Faculty marshals convinced the students (willing to risk their lives trying to kill the Guardsmen) to leave the Commons.
Ambulances arrived and took those not already dead to hospitals for treatment.
The University was ordered closed immediately
first by President Robert White
and then indefinitely by Portage County Prosecutor Ronald Kane under an injunction from Common Pleas Judge Albert Caris.
Classes did not resume until the Summer of 1970
faculty members engaged in a wide variety of activities through the mail and off-campus meetings that enabled Kent State students to finish the semester.
WHAT IS THE STORY BEHIND THE PULITZER PRIZE WINNING PHOTO OF THE YOUNG WOMAN CRYING OUT IN HORROR OVER THE DYING BODY OF ONE OF THE STUDENTS?
A photograph of Mary Vecchio, a fourteen year old runaway
screaming over the body of Jeffery Miller appeared on the front pages of newspapers and magazines throughout the country
the photographer, John Filo, was to win a Pulitzer Prize for the picture.
The Mary Vecchio picture shows her on one knee screaming over Jeffrey Miller’s body.
Miller is lying on the tarmac of the Prentice Hall parking lot.
One student is standing near the Miller body closer than Vecchio.
Four students are seen in the immediate background.
John Filo, a Kent State photography major in 1970
continues to works as a professional newspaper photographer and editor.
He was near the Prentice Hall parking lot when the Guard fired.
He saw bullets hitting the ground, but he did not take cover because he thought the bullets were blanks. Of course, blanks cannot hit the ground.
Well that is all for the history portion of todays show. I hope you all enjoyed learning about the 1970 Kent State Shooting. I would like to thank David from Irvine for suggesting this episode.
Please stay tuned at the end of the show to hear a promo from one of my favorite podcast The Unreal OC. Also, I have received many emails from listeners these past few weeks and I would like to thank all of you especially, Becky and Christian who submitted intros for the podcast and won a book each. I promise to mail your books soon.
Todays intro was from Andy Walker of Lab Rats TV. I meet Andy and Sean at the Podcast Expo in Ontario California and they interviewed me for their video podcast. I highly recommend their show to all of you. Make sure you watch Episode 45: LabRats at Podcast Expo 2006 (Part 1) and you can see me in person, kinda.
Coming up on the podcast you will be hearing a great program on Nauropathy medicine by Listener Brett. Also, coming up I was lucky enough to run into Matt Ditillo from Matt’s today in history and Bob Wright from Baseball History Podcast. We all got together on the show room floor and recorded for an hour. That special episode will be coming out soon as well.
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Welcome to History Podcast. I’m Jason Watts your host and you are listening to episode 77. Before we start here is a audio file I received from Bob of Baseball History Podcast.
Thanks Bob! That was awesome!
On August 30 Juan from LA called in this request to the history hotline:
Thank you very much for calling into the history hotline Juan!
First lets do a little background on the Engima device. Once called “the greatest secret of World War II after the atom bomb”. The device was invented during the second world war which ran between 1939 and 1945. The principal players where the Axis Powers which included Germany, Italy, and Japan and the Allies which included France, Great Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union and to a less extent China. The Enigma was most famously used by Germany during the war to keep its information secret when transmitting.
The Enigma was a class of cipher machine generally known as rotor systems. Pneumatic and optical systems have been built, but we will only be discussing the electrical variety. Typically, these electrical cipher machines employ wired rotors as a means of generating a multiplicity of substitutions. Such a rotor generally consists of a small disk. On each of the two sides of the rotor are 26 electrical contacts arranged in a circle near the edge. (The normal A-Z alphabet sequence is often engraved on the periphery of the rotor, providing a convenient means of aligning it at specific positions against a benchmark.) The contacts on one side of the rotor are connected by wires in mixed order to the contacts on the opposite side. In this way an arbitrary set of one-to-one connections (i.e. Simple monoalphabetic substitutions) is realized between the two opposite sides of the rotor. A set of these rotors is usually arranged in a stack called a basket; the rotation of each of the rotors in the stack causes the next one to rotate. In some systems, each rotor advances one step in a regular sequence much as the wheels in an odometer advance 1/10 of a revolution for every full revolution of its driving wheel. In operations, the rotors in the stack provide an electrical path from contact to contact through all of the rotors. In a straight through rotor system, closing the key contact on a typewriter-like keyboard sends a current to one of the contacts on the end rotor. The current then passes through the maze of interconnections defined by the remaining rotors in the stack and their relative rotational positions to a point on the output plate, where it is connected to either a printer or an indicator, thereby producing the cipher equivalent of a plain text letter.
During World War II and important variation was introduced: the output end plate was a reflector to which 13 pairs of electrical contacts on the end rotor were connected. In this type of arrangement, an electrical current flows through the rotor stack and is then turned back to pass through a second time. The output is taken from a contact in the same set to which the input was made. Accordingly, if A encrypted to W, then conversely W encrypted to A, for a particular set of rotors and positions. The advantage of this scheme is that when a pair of rotor machines is set to the same starting configuration, plain text input to one machine generates cipher text, which when input to the other reproduces the plaint text. The reflector also ensures that the cipher text symbol is different from the plain text symbol. The German enigma cipher machine of WW II made use of this innovation. Although the Germans are famous for using the rotor cypher machines the credit for their invention goes to an American, Edward H. Herbern, for first recognizing that by hardwiring a mono-alphabetic substitution in the connections from the contacts on one side of a collection of such rotors, poly-alphabetic substitution of almost arbitrary complexity could be realized. Herbern also realized that a permutation in which several letters were shifted by the same amount in the rotor connections , say A to D and B to E, was cryptographically weaker that one in which this partial periodicity was minimized and designed his rotors accordingly. Starting in 1921 and continuing through the next decade, Herbern a series of steadily evolving that were evaluated by the U.S. Navy and undoubtedly lead to the united states superior position in cryptology as compared to the Axis Powers during world war II.
At almost the same time that Herbern was inventing the rotor cipher machine in the United States, European engineers, notobaly Hugo A. Koch of the Netherlands and Arthur Scherbius of Germany, independently discovered the rotor concept and designed machines that became precures to the best known cipher machine in history, the German Enigma.
Breaking the code:
Bletchley Park
In the summer of 1939, a small team of codebreakers arrived at the Government Code and Cipher School’s (GC&CS) new home at Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire. Their mission was to crack the backbone of German military and intelligence communications, the Enigma cipher.
The Germans thought Enigma was unbreakable. The combination of rotating wheels, electrical contacts and wires meant that the odds against anyone who did not know the machine’s settings being able to break Enigma were 150 million to one!
But Bletchley Park achieved a breakthrough when the Poles passed on their knowledge of how the machine worked. This helped the codebreakers exploit a design weakness in Enigma – that no letter could ever be encrypted as itself.
At the same time, Bletchley Park mathematician Alan Turing realized that ‘cribs’ offered a way of cracking Enigma. A ‘crib’ is a piece of encrypted text whose true meaning is known or can be guessed. German messages were formulaic in places and the first line often contained standard information, for example weather conditions. Once a crib was known, it was still necessary to check thousands of potential Enigma settings to read a message, and to do this quickly Turing designed a electro-mechanical codebreaking machine called a Bombe. Each Bombe simulated the actions of 10 Enigma machines and was able to check all potential settings at high speed.
Cracking the ‘impenetrable’ Enigma code enabled Britain to foil Luftwaffe bombing raids, minimize U-Boat attacks and secure sea-based supply routes
Further codebreaking success enabled Bletchley Park to exploit Lorenz, a highly sophisticated cipher used personally by Hitler and his High Command. But many of the messages still took several weeks to decipher – a computing machine was needed. The result was Colossus, the world’s first programmable electronic computer, designed by Max Newman.
Colossus was the size of a living room and weighed about one ton. Its 2,400 valves replicated the pattern of an encrypted Lorenz message as electrical signals. This breakthrough in computing remained a secret for many years, to the extent that two Americans took the credit for inventing the computer in 1945. But the creation of Colossus proved to be a key contributor to the success on D-Day.
It is estimated that over 10,000 people worked at Bletchley Park at the height of its wartime activity. Their work affected the fate of nations and helped shorten the war by at least two years. But by March 1946, the people were gone and every scrap of evidence of their codebreaking exploits had been removed from Bletchley Park.
Here is the article that Juan was probably talking about…
ENIGMA: THE FINAL RIDDLE from Discover magazine, August 2006, p.20
The losing side in World War II just can’t seem to catch a break. More than 60 years since the end of hostilities, a team of amateur cryptologist’s have set to work trying to crack three previously undecoded messages that were encrypted by the Nazis’ famous Enigma machine – and they are making speedy progress.
The original cracking of the Enigma code was an early and crucial Allied triumph in WW II. The Germans’ encryption machine used a system of mechanical rotors (build your own enigma or cipher device, like the one form da vinci code movie) to garble messages in such a way they code be decoded only by someone with the preset key and the knowledge of how to arrange the rotors. However, sleuths including Alan Turing (who) and Donald Michie (who) at the Bletchley Park (where) facility in Britain eventually broke the code by isolating certain repeated phrases and guessing what they might be – the once fashionable “Heil, Hitler,” for instance. The Nazis eventually realized the game was up and changed their keys. They also added an extra rotor, thus increasing the level of encryption by an order of magnitude.
Now even these later messages are yielding their secrets. The M4 project, led by German violinist Stefan Krah, uses the spare computing power of enthusiast connected online to solve the encryptions. So far more than 2,100 computer terminals have signed up since January, and by March two of the secret Kriegsmarine messages had been decoded.
Not that the text is really interesting. “They’re just routine messages about attacks on a convoy and so on,” says Ralph Erskine, an amateur historian who published the undecoded intercepts in Cyptologia back in 1995. “It’s more that modern technology had succeeded where Bletchley Park couldn’t.”
by Anne Casselman
There are a ton of links to very cool sites about the Engima machine at historyonair.com. There are also links to books about Enigma on the site. Remember, if you are going to by from Amazon please click on our links to get to their site and the podcast will get a small percentage from Amazon. Thank you!
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Since I will be away at the conference this weekend it may delay the podcast next week. Also, I’m extending the contest for this months book. Call the history hotline and give me a intro. Leave your email address also so I can let you know you have won. All entries must be received by October 15! The prize will be a copy of The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq by George Packer.
Rosa Luxemburg also went by the name Bloddy Rosa. Polish born on March 5, 1871. She was a German revolutionary and agitator who played a key role in the founding of the Polish Social Democratic Party and the Spartacus League, which grew into the Communist Party of Germany. As a political theoretician theory of Marxism, stressing democracy and revolutionary mass action to achieve international Socialism. She was murdered during the Spartacus Revolt of January 1919. To be exact she died on January 15 of that year.
Hannah Duston was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts. She was born in circa 1657. She was the daughter of Michael Emerson and Hannah Webster. Michael was a shoemaker who immigrated from England. Nothing is known about Hannah Duston before her marriage to Thomas Duston. Duston is also written, Dustin with an I, Dusten with and E and Durstan. Thomas and Hannah married in December of 1677. Thomas was originally from Dover, New Hampshire. He was a bricklayer and farmer by trade. Thomas was a well respected citizin of Haverhill and eventually was elected a constable. They lived in a cottage two miles from Haverhill. The couple had 13 children……
Sources: Robert D. Arner. “The Story Of Hannah Duston: Cotton Mather To Thoreau,” American Transcendental Quarterly, 18 (1973). 19-23.
Samuel Willard Crompton. “100 Colonia Leaders Who Shaped North America,” p.69
Tory Horwitz. “The Devil May Care: Fifty Intrepit Americans and their Quest for the Unknown,” p.25-28.
Hannah Duston. Britannica Biography Collection via EBSCOhost
ANN-MARIE WEIS. “THE MURDEROUS MOTHER AND THE SOLICITOUS FATHER: VIOLENCE, JACKSONIAN FAMILY VALUES, AND HANNAH DUSTON’S CAPTIVITY” American Studies International.
Welcome to HistoryPodcast 75! I’m Jason Watts your host and Kyle from South Carolina called in the the History Hotline with this request.
Okay Kyle here you go…
Hannah Duston was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts. She was born in circa 1657. She was the daughter of Michael Emerson and Hannah Webster. Michael was a shoemaker who immigrated from England. Nothing is known about Hannah Duston before her marriage to Thomas Duston. Duston is also written, Dustin with an I, Dusten with and E and Durstan. Thomas and Hannah married in December of 1677. Thomas was originally from Dover, New Hampshire. He was a bricklayer and farmer by trade. Thomas was a well respected citizin of Haverhill and eventually was elected a constable. They lived in a cottage two miles from Haverhill. The couple had 13 children. The twelve born March 1697.
Thomas had recently been appointed Captain of a local garrison on the fears that an Indian attack was eminent. A group of Abenaki raiders (Canadian Indians) attacked the frontier town of Haverhill, Massachusetts on March 15, 1697. Thomas saw the Indians approaching his home from the fields he was working in. He raced to his home, but was only able to escape with seven of his children. He was unable to save his wife, 1 week old newborn and Mary Neff, their nurse who came to live with them while Hannah recouped from her pregnancy. Thomas led the seven children to a garrison a few miles away. In the brief conflict the Indians killed many, burned some of the residences, and captured a dozen whites. Included in the group of captives was Hannah Duston, her newborn, Mary Neff.
The Indians stopped long enough to swing the newborn’s head against an apple tree on their way out of the flaming settlement. Hannah was forced to watch as they killer her child. Days later the Indian group split they would re-join at a village near Penacook River in Maine. Once they arrived at there the women were told that they would be stripped, whipped, and forced to run the gauntlet. An Indian family of twelve, who were Roman Catholic converts were assigned to watch Hannah, Mary and Samuel Lennardson, a boy of 15 captured 8 months earlier in Worcester. The Indian family consisted of two warriors, three women, and seven children.
Lennardson had convinced one of his captors to explain how to kill and scalp. He then shared this information with Duston. She decided to use this new information on March 30, 1697. Accounts differ on whether the captives attacked their sleeping foes on the early morning on the 30th or the late evening of the 30th. While still several days distance from the rendezvous, Hannah gathered other captives and together they used Tomahawks to kill their sleeping guards. Lennardson killed one Indian and Duston nine. Only one Indian woman and one Indian boy escaped. They then scalped the slain Indians and followed the Merrimac River by canoe and foot back to Haverhill. A few days later they travelled to Boston and met with the Massachusetts General Court. Mr. Duston asked that they court give his family a reward as reimbursement for his loss. The General Court, in keeping with it policy for providing bounty for Indian scalp awarded 25 pounds to Duston and gave Lennardson and Neff, 12 pounds, 10 schillings each for their bravery. The deeds of Hannah were widely publicized. Francis Nicholson the Governor of Maryland send Hannah a gift. In later years Mrs. Duston requested more compensation for her services as Indian murder and received it.
While in Boston Hannah also shard her story with Samuel Sewall and Cotton Mather, who wrote about it in his Magnalia Christi Americana. This is where the story is first printed. Mather touted Mrs, Duston’s harrowing escape as a wonder of Christian religion and painted her as a Puritan saint.
In his book Mather failed to mention the moral objections of Duston murdering and scalping the sleeping Indians. Instead his account of Duston raises her on high as a unquestionable model for all Puritans.
Many artists preferred to paint images of Mr. Duston saving his seven children than one of Hannah hacking at sleeping Indians. However, there is an image up at the website of Hannah doing just that.
Many writings about Hannah’s ordeal handle the issue of her killing the Indians guards differently. Some state they she killed them in revenge of her newborns slaughter. One could argue that she could have just crept into the night to escape. Maybe she was afraid that they would come after her or hear her leaving.
Interestingly enough Hannah never became a part of American folklore as did John Smith and Pocahontas. Hannah does not reflect the American character. With the decrease in Puritanism, she lost her significance as a hero/saint and became only a slayer of Indians. Also, her story was limited to the shores of the Merrimac, which cannot support a national legend.
Hannah returned to Haverhill to live out her years. She had one more child in 1698. Her husband Thomas died in 1732. Hannah moved in with her son Johnathan and died circa 1736.
Other interesting notes on the Duston family….
In 1676, Hannah’s father was fined for “cruel and excessive beating . . . and kicking ” of Hannah’s younger sister Elizabeth Emerson, who was eleven years old at the time. Seventeen years later, Elizabeth herself entered the court, accused of killing her newborn twins. She had given birth to illegitimate children at home, without her parents’ knowledge, hidden their bodies in a chest by her bed and later buried them in the garden. She claimed not to have hurt the infants, and it is possible that they were stillborn (one of them had its umbilical cord twisted about its neck). But the colonial laws had been revised in 1692 to make “concealing of the death of a bastard child ” a capital crime. Elizabeth was tried by a jury and hanged on June 8, 1693. In a striking coincidence, one of the women who examined Elizabeth at the discovery of the dead babies was Mary Neff, the widow who four years later assisted Hannah in killing six Native American children.
Sources:
Robert D. Arner. “The Story Of Hannah Duston: Cotton Mather To Thoreau,” American Transcendental Quarterly, 18 (1973). 19-23.
Samuel Willard Crompton. “100 Colonia Leaders Who Shaped North America,” p.69
Tory Horwitz. “The Devil May Care: Fifty Intrepit Americans and their Quest for the Unknown,” p.25-28.
Hannah Duston. Britannica Biography Collection via EBSCOhost
ANN-MARIE WEIS. “THE MURDEROUS MOTHER AND THE SOLICITOUS FATHER: VIOLENCE, JACKSONIAN FAMILY VALUES, AND HANNAH DUSTON’S CAPTIVITY” American Studies International.
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I will be on vacation next week and unable to podcast. However, I am assigning homework, kinda…
It is time for another contest! This time please call the history hotline and give me the best intro you can. Be creative. But please include your name and where you live! On the last episode of September I will announce the winner. That means all entries must be received by September 25! The prize will be a copy of The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq by George Packer.
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The New York Observer says…”sobering…A pocket history of Iraq and the United States tangled history….its indispensable…The Assassins’ Gate is a book every American needs to read.
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Her full name was Clarissa Harlowe Barton. She was a humanitarian and founder of the American Red Cross, known as the “angel of the battlefield”. Born on December 25, 1821 in Oxford, Mass., the youngest of 5 children in a middle-class family, Barton was educated at home, and at 15 started teaching school. In addtion to the Foundation of the American Red Cross, she established a free public school in Bordentown, N.J. Though she is remembered as the founder of the American Red Cross, her only prewar medical experience came when for 2 years she nursed an invalid brother.
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Her full name was Clarissa Harlowe Barton. She was a humanitarian and founder of the American Red Cross, known as the “angel of the battlefield”.
Born on December 25, 1821 in Oxford, Mass., the youngest of 5 children in a middle-class family, Barton was educated at home, and at 15 started teaching school. In addtion to the Foundation of the American Red Cross, she established a free public school in Bordentown, N.J. Though she is remembered as the founder of the American Red Cross, her only prewar medical experience came when for 2 years she nursed an invalid brother.
After 18 years as a schoolteacher in Massachusetts and New Jersey, Barton moved to Washington, D.C., and became a clerk in the U.S. Patent Office.
In 1865, at the request of President Abraham Lincoln, she set up a bureau of records to aid in the search for missing men. While she was in Europe for a rest, the Franco-German War broke out, and she again distributed relief supplies to war victims. She helped with the effort to identify 13,000 unknown Union dead at the horrific prisoner-of-war camp at Andersonville, Ga. This experience launched her on a nationwide campaign to identify soldiers missing during the Civil War. She published lists of names in newspapers and exchanged letters with veterans and soldiers’ families. The search for missing soldiers and years of toil during the Civil War physically debilitated Miss Barton. Her doctors recommended a restful trip to Europe.
Although still ailing, another crisis jolted Miss Barton into action. The outbreak of war in 1870 between France and Prussia (part of modern-day Germany) brought hardship to many French civilians. Miss Barton joined the relief effort, and in the process, was impressed with a new organization–the Red Cross.
On May 21, 1881 in Washington, D.C., she established the American Red Cross. In 1882 she succeeded in having the United States sign the Geneva Agreement on the treatment of the sick, wounded, and dead in battle and the handling of prisoners of war. Barton’s organization took its service beyond that of the International Red Cross Movement by adding disaster relief to battlefield assistance. She wrote the American amendment to the constitution of the Red Cross, which provides for the distribution of relief not only in war but also in times of such calamities as famines floods, earthquakes, cyclones, and pestilence.
Barton conducted relief for sufferers from disasters in the 1880s and 1890s and served in Cuba during the Spanish-American War in 1898.
The natural disaster with the highest death toll in U.S. history was the Galveston, Texas, hurricane of 1900 in which an estimated 6,000 people were killed. Clara Barton, founder and president of the American Red Cross in 1900, gathered a team and traveled by train from Washington, D.C., to Galveston as soon as she heard the news of the disaster to provide relief.
She served as president of the American Red Cross until 1904, when, under increasing critisim of her arbitrary leadership, she stepped down to avoid further dissension within the organization. She wrote several books, including History of the Red Cross in 1882 and The Red Cross in Peace and War in 1899. She retired to her home at Glen Echo, outside Washington, D.C., where she died April 12, 1912.
Biographies are P.H. Epler, Life of Clara Barton, and Ishbel Ross, Angel of the Battlefield: The Life of Clara Barton (1956).
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The 442nd Regimental Combat Team of the United States Army, was a unit composed of Japanese Americans who fought in Europe during the Second World War. The families of many of its soldiers were subject to internment. The 442nd was a self-sufficient fighting force, and fought with distinction in North Africa, Italy, southern France, and Germany, becoming the most highly decorated unit of its size and length of service in the history of the U.S. Army, including 21 Congressional Medal of Honor recipients.
Goforbroke.org – Great website full of wonderful content, including audio and video resources!
Not sure if any of you recognize Justin Pitts voice from episode 70, but his tone in this voice message just really reminded me of Mission Impossible, I couldn’t resist. But on a more serious side Justin makes a great suggestion.
The first Japanese dive bomber appeared over Pearl Harbor at 7:55 am Hawaii time, on December 7, 1941. We all know this date that brought the United States in to World War II. On that morning the lives of many Japanese American’s were set on a new path. Just two months later on February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt would issue Executive Order 9066.
Any one with “foreign enemy ancestry” living in certain areas, mostly in the west, could be forcibly moved to internment camps. This lead to about 120,000 Japanese American’s being moved to such camps. 62 percent of which where Nisei, American born, second generation.
Herded from the coastlines of the continental United States and placed in these camps, stripped of their right of due process, forced to sell their property and leave their homes, and most importantly robbed of their dignity. They were moved from their homes and ordered to show up at the Assembly Centers and eventually the Internment Camps located in barren wastelands and deserts of California and several mountain and central plain states.
Assembly Centers were hastily erected and located throughout California and the West at fairgrounds, racetracks and other facilities. Though conditions varied from camp to camp, perhaps the worst of them was the housing of people in horse stables at Tanforan and Santa Anita Racetracks. Security was run by the military police and most of the camps were surrounded by barbed wire and guard towers. At the time, the government pleaded that it was for the safety of the Japanese Americans. And because they were loyal Americans they submitted to the indignity and left everything that they worked for behind.
These Internment Camps are also referred to as “relocation centers”, were ten camps in all: Topaz (Central Utah), Poston (Colorado River), Gila River (Arizona), Granada (Colorado), Heart Mountain (Wyoming), Jerome and Rohwer (Arkansas), Manzanar and Tule Lake (California), and Minidoka (Hunt, Idaho). Incarceration of the Japanese-Americans lasted three years, 1942-1945. These camps were under the authority of the War Relocation Authority (WRA). Located in isolated areas in either desert or swampland they were surrounded by barbed wire and guards with guns pointed inward instead of out of them. The WRA tried to make conditions resemble normal communities by erecting schools, hospitals, and having camp newspapers. However, for the most part conditions at camps were primitive and cramped. The WRA conducted “loyalty checks” upon the residents of the camps and those that they deemed “disloyal” were isolated at Tule Lake “Segregation Center” or in WRA prisons. Conditions at Tule Lake led to the tragic Renunciation of Citizenship by 5,589 native-born American citizens.
The Renunciation of Citizenship was the product of Public Law 405 of the 78th Congress, an amendment to the Nationality Act of 1798, which permitted a citizen of the United States to renounce his or her citizenship during time of war, upon approval of the attorney general. Later after much thought many of the applicants of renunciation appealed their decision and 5,409 asked to have their citizenship returned (4,978 were granted).
In Hawaii the government couldn’t incarcerate the population of Japanese-Americans. Most of the economy and population hinged on the backs of the Japanese farmers, fishermen, everyday workers, and shop owners. Curfew laws came into effect here as well as most of the West Coast, the incarceration of Buddhist priests, and the government suspicion of any person of Japanese ancestry. However, the treatment of the Hawaiian Japanese-Americans was far better than the humiliation suffered by the mainland Japanese. This is where the 100th Battalion came from.
After the bombing of Pearl Harbor the Government was still unsure on the loyalty of the Japanese-Americans and considered them 4C (Enemy Alien) and so the general population of Japanese were ineligible for the draft. Delos C. Emmons (Commanding General of the Army in Hawaii) discharged all Japanese Americans from the Hawaiian Territorial Guard, as well as the discharge of the 298th and 299th regiments of the National Guard of Hawaii. Dismayed at the lack of confidence in them the discharged veterans of the Hawaiian Territorial Guard offered their services in whatever capacity that the Army might choose to use them. This usually consisted of cleaning up the grounds, building new installations, and other menial tasks. They did it without complaint and did it with diligence and dedication. As a result, General Emmons reversed his decision and recommended to the War Department that the Japanese Americans should be formed into a special unit and be sent to the mainland for training and safekeeping in the event of another enemy attack.
On May 26, 1942, General George C. Marshall issued orders establishing the Hawaiian Provisional Battalion. On June 5th, the Hawaiian Provisional Battalion consisting of 1300 men and 29 officers, under the command of Lt. Col. Farrant Turner, sailed for the mainland and training. The Hawaiian Provisional Battalion landed in Oakland, California on June 10, 1942. Two days later the 100th Infantry Battalion was activated. The 100th Infantry battalion was assigned to the Second Army shortly after their arrival at Camp McCoy.
The 100th had their basic training from June to December. Most of them had already gone through these tests when they were part of the National Guard or Territorial Guard, so doing it again seemed a waste of time. However, not wanting to give the Army any excuse into sending them back they completed their basic training with superior ratings in the field and on the drill grounds. They also earned five Soldier’s Medals for heroism while not in combat for saving the lives of several local residents who almost drowned in a frozen lake.
The Army and the government still didn’t have too much trust in the “guinea pigs from Pearl Harbor”, and had several people keeping an eye on them during this time. All the officers of the 100th Battalion, and later the 442nd RCT, were haole (Hawaiian for white) and most had some background in psychology or were picked to keep tabs on the army’s new recruits.
In February of 1943, the 100th Battalion was transferred from Camp McCoy to Camp Shelby, Mississippi for advanced-unit training. They were now attached to the 69th Division. The 100th scored top marks and received a two-week rest period. Because of their excellent training record the decision was made to open the draft to all Japanese-Americans. In the nine months that the 100th Battalion existed President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the War Department were forced by the steady stream of petitions and interventions by prominent Americans, both civilian and military, to re-open military service to Americans of Japanese ancestry.
The 442nd Regimental Combat Team of the United States Army, was a unit composed of Japanese Americans who fought in Europe during the Second World War. The families of many of its soldiers were subject to internment. The 442nd was a self-sufficient fighting force, and fought with distinction in North Africa, Italy, southern France, and Germany, becoming the most highly decorated unit of its size and length of service in the history of the U.S. Army, including 21 Congressional Medal of Honor recipients.
The 442nd RCT consisted of the following units: 442nd Headquarters Company, Anti-tank Company, Cannon Company, Medical Detachment, Service Company, 100th Battalion(Company HQ, A, B, C, D), 2d Battalion(Company E-H), 3d Battalion(Company I-M), 522d Field Artillery Battalion(Company A-C), 206 Army Band, and 232nd Combat Engineer Company.
One of the most decorated units in World War II. The 100th had the dubious distinction of being called the “Purple Heart Battalion” because almost everyone who served in the 100th had at least one Purple Heart. Like the Tuskeegee Airmen, the 100th Battalion/ 442nd Regimental Combat Team had to fight two wars, one in Europe and one at home.
“At full strength the 442nd only numbered 4,500 men, but this unit earned over 3,900 individual decorations.”
-From the book “Americans:The Story of the 442nd Combat Team”
Because of it’s success during basic training and advanced training the United States Army began the activation of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team on February 1, 1943. President Roosevelt announced the formation of the 442nd RCT, with the famous words, “Americanism is not, and never was, a mater of race or ancestry.” The call to arms was sounded and those that answered astounded and probably shocked the Army. The original plan called for a quota of 3,000 volunteers from the mainland and 1,500 from Hawaii. Nearly 10,000 Hawaiian nisei (second generation Japanese-Americans) volunteered and over 2,600 were accepted. And from the mainland the Japanese from the internment camps, only 1,256 nisei volunteered. There were some 23,606 nisei of draft age in the camps. From the camp volunteers around 800 were inducted into the Army.
By June 1943, the 442nd RCT arrived at Camp Shelby. The 100th Battalion was just finishing up advanced training in Louisiana. There were some reunions of cousins and old friends, and also at this time some sibling rivalry. There were many fights that broke out between the two units during their time together at Camp Shelby, but slowly a mutual respect developed, and soon the 100th Battalion was called and sent overseas while the 442nd started their training.
In July of 1943, the 100th Infantry Battalion received its colors emblazoned with the motto, “Remember Pearl Harbor.” It was time for the men of the 100th Battalion to set off and prove themselves. August 11, 1943, they left Camp Shelby for North Africa. It would be nine long months of heavy fighting before the 442nd would team up with the 100th in Italy.
Attached to the famed 34th “Red Bull” Division…Landing in Oran, North Africa on September 2, the 100th was originally going to be guarding the supply trains in North Africa. Colonel Farrant L. Turner had other plans and insisted that the 100th be committed to combat. They were then attached to the 34th “Red Bull” Division. The 34th Division was the first US division to enter combat and fought with the British at Kasserine Pass and around Tunis in North Africa. The Commanding General of the 34th Division was Major General Charles W. Ryder. The 100th Battalion took the place of the top-rated 2d Battalion, 133d Infantry Regiment (which was designated as General Dwight D. Eisenhower’s headquarters “palace” guards).
September 19th, 1943, the 34th Division left Oran and headed for Italy. They landed at Salerno, Italy on September 26th, and then the 100th left for their first objective: Monte Marano. On September 28th, 1943, the first casualty of the 100th was taken. 1st Lt. Conrad Tsukayama, then sergeant and squad leader in D Company, was hit by a fragment from a land mine and was slightly wounded in the face.
On the 29th of September, the 100th led the advance on the drive to Monte Milleto. B Company was on point with the 3d platoon, when the Germans opened fired with machine guns, mortar, and artillery. Sgt. Shigeo “Joe” Takata was hit in the head by a ricocheting machine gun bullet while advancing and spotting a machine gun nest. Dying from his wounds Sgt. Takata pointed out the nest for his platoon and they finally silenced the gun. Later that day in a separate action, Private Tanaka of the 2d platoon was killed to make him the second KIA for the 100th.
In two days of combat the 100th Battalion gained one hero and started their unwilling start on the “Purple Heart Battalion” legend. They lost 2 men KIA and 7 wounded in action (WIA). The Germans were forced to give up seven miles of real estate, one bridge, two towns, and several road junctions. In the first week of combat (September 28th – October 4th) the 100th suffered 3 KIA, 23 WIA, and 13 injured in accidents.
Moving north the 100th banged into the 29th Panzer Grenadier Regiment that was defending a road junction near San Angelo d’Alife, on October 17th, 1943. The enemy was entrenched behind minefields and fortified machine-gun nests. Artillery and “screaming meemies”(six barrel rocket launchers) showered shell fragments on the 100th. For two days the 100th and 3d Battalion, 133d Regiment, drove the Germans back and took over the area. It was during this fight that Private Masao Awakuni single-handedly knocked out a tank with his bazooka shot and earned the Distinguished Service Cross. Also during the fight after crossing the Volturno River the platoon led by S/Sgt Ozaki ordered his platoon to fix bayonets and charge toward a hedgerow, over a low stone wall and over the road.
January 24th, 1944, the 100th was put back on the line and put in the offensive to take Cassino. Facing them was the 1st German Parachute Division(a crack division entrenched in the Gustav Line). Below the German position, the German army had demolished every building and cleared away the trees so that any movement can be clearly spotted. On top of that the Rapido River had flooded and for 200 yards it was nothing but mud and mines. Companies A and C of the 100th moved to the river wall. During the night Maj. Dewey and Maj. James Johnson and Capt. Mitsuyoshi Fukuda made a further reconnaissance of the area of attack for Companies A and C. During the recon they were caught in artillery and machine-gun fire. They were forced to run into a minefield and one of the mines blew up beneath them. Maj. Johnson died and Maj. Dewey was wounded. In broad daylight B Company tried to follow A and C to the river wall but were caught in artillery and machine-gun fire. Out of 187 men 14 made it to the wall. Depleted of their top command, the battalion was ordered to San Michele for reorganization.
On February 8th, after the battalion was refitted the 100th attacked in the dead of winter. They secured Hill 165 with light resistance. However, the right and left flanks were unable to keep pace with the 100th battalion. The 100th dug in and waited for four days but resistance on the flanks were fierce and made their position perilous. The 100th were ordered to fall back behind the hills adjacent to Cassino to join the regimental reserves.
On September 22, 1943, the 100th Battalion had 1,300 men. After five months of fighting it could only muster 521. Because of the sacrifices of the “Original” 100th Battalion the battalion became known as “The Purple Heart Battalion” and “the little iron men.”
On February 18th, the 34th Division launched its final attack on Cassino. The 100th Battalion was under-strength, one platoon moved into line with 40 men….they came back with 5. The 100th regained the ground halfway up to the stone Abbey, but the 100th was ordered back when their flank support collapsed. The 100th were ordered back to Alife for replacements and reissue of equipment.
The 34th Division with the 100th almost took Casino in one day, but before they could they ran out of men and material. Army records later noted that five fresh divisions finally were required to take Cassino along with aerial bombardments. The 34th almost took it alone.
In the nine months of fighting that the 100th Battalion underwent the 442nd RCT were finishing final combat training at Camp Shelby, Mississippi. During their training replacements from the 442nd RCT were sent to the depleted 100th Bat. In six months, the 442nd RCT had sent 530 enlisted men and 40 officers.
On March 6, 1944, after being reviewed by Army Chief of Staff, Gen. George C. Marshall, orders were received by the 442nd RCT to “prepare for overseas movement.” In april, the 442nd were sent to a staging area at Camp Patrick Henry, Virginia, and on May 1st, they were on Liberty ships heading out of Chesapeake Bay to head east across the Atlantic. However, the 442nd left behind their 1st Battalion to act as a cadre for replacements. The trip took over 28 days, and on June 2, 1944, they disembarked at Naples. The staging area here was near the town of Bagnoli.
Sometime between June 9-11, 1944, the 442nd arrived at Civitavecchia, and was officially attached to the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. The 442nd was then attached to the 34th Division. The Regimental Combat Team structure created a self sustaining force. The RCT system, as was noted earlier, consisted of 3 infantry battalions, anti-tank company, cannon company, medical detachment, service company, field artillery battalion, combat engineer company, and an Army band. Because of the distinguished service record the 100th Battalion, which became the 1st Bat. of the 442nd RCT, was allowed to retain its original designation.
As Lyn Crost documented in her book, “Honor by Fire,” the animosities between the 100th Bat. and the larger 442nd RCT flared up again once the two units were combined. On the one hand the 100th Bat. was fiercely proud of their Red Bull insignia, which they preferred to wear rather than the regiment’s “Go for Broke” insignia. Also the men of the 100th Bat. felt that their accomplishments in the field allowed the deployment of the 442nd into combat, but now they were being “swallowed up” by the 442nd. On the other hand, the 442nd were proud that they consisted of mostly “volunteers” and not draftees (many of the 100th Bat. were a part of the Hawaii Territorial Guard and U.S. Army prior to Dec. 7, 1941). And so besides the old feuds that had existed between the two groups the added problem of “unit loyalty” came into play. It took some time for these differences to be resolved and unit cohesion set into place.
SSGt. Kasuo Masuda, 2nd Bat. was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. Crawling two hundred yards through enemy fire, he secured a 60mm mortar tube and ammunition, and dragged it back to his post. Missing a base plate for the mortar tube, he used his helmet. For the next 12 hours he single handedly fired the mortar without leaving his post, except to run for more ammunition.
During that time, he repulsed two counter-attacks. Masuda was later killed on patrol along the Arno River when he deliberately sacrified himself so the men with him could deliver vital information to their headquarters.
At the end of the war the Masuda family was warned by vigilantes not to return from the Gila River Internment Camp to their farm in Talbert, California, near Santa Ana. But they did. It was there that a special ceremony was done with General Joseph Stillwell presenting to the family Kazuo Masuda’s DSC award.
June 26, 1944, the newly combined 100/442 RCT were placed into action with the 2nd and 3rd Bat. placed in advance with the 100th in reserve, marching northward to Suvereto to relieve the men of the 517th Parachute Infantry Regiment and the 142nd Infantry Regiment en route to Belvedere.
Heavy fire and counterattacks from the enemy on a hilltop held up the advance of the 2nd and 3rd Battalions. General Ryder, furious at the failure of the two units to penetrate and continue the advance, stormed into the HQ of the 100th Bat. and ordered it on line. In what can be described as a “quarterback sneak,” the 100th Bat. attacked between the 2nd and 3rd Battalions. In the process they destroyed or captured: killing 178 Germans, wounding 20, capturing 73, destroying or capturing tanks, trucks, jeeps, and heavy weapons. For this action the 100th Bat. received their first of three Presidential Unit Citations. The 100th Bat. suffered 4 men killed, and 7 wounded.
Inspired and spurred on by this mometum the 2nd and 3rd battalions sustained the attack and began to function as a team. The 442nd took the towns of Sassetta and Castagneto quickly.
As Chester Tanaka wrote: “In three weeks of combat, from July 1 to July 22, the 100/442 melded into a fighting unit. The 100th and the 2nd and 3rd battalions came of age.” No longer existed the animosity between the two groups. They’ve seen each other in action, and respected each others abilities and differences. Now they became a cohesive unit. Which would help them sustain each other in the face of events to come.
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She was the scourge of Spanish and English merchants. “Notorious by land and sea,” her English enemies said. Queen Elizabeth I even put a price — 500 pounds — on her head.
Grace O’Malley, a 16th century pirate, was feared from Ireland’s Galway Bay to Hampton Court in England. A clan chieftain and a sea captain, she once commanded 200 men and a flotilla of galleys and held sway in the west of Ireland in an era when most women led constricted lives.
Little about Grace is written in Irish history, but she is celebrated in legends, ballads and songs, and four centuries after her death there’s a growing interest in her exploits.
This free-spirited pirate queen, nicknamed Granuaile.
Anne Chambers’ biography “Granuaile: Ireland’s Pirate Queen, c. 1530-1603” (Wolfhound, 2003). Chambers’ book sets her life against the troubled 16th century, when English colonization of Ireland became too powerful to resist.
Grace was born in 1530 to Margaret and Dubdhara “Black Oak” O’Malley, the leader of a seafaring clan. Her father recognized that young Grace had an eye for the weather and aptitude for the sailor’s life. There’s a story that she cut off her hair to look more like a boy and better fit in on board. Another says she flung herself down from the mast onto the back of an Algerian pirate about to attack her father. Whether the tales are true, they suggest that Grace’s rebellious, brave character was apparent early on.
Those traits served her well in stormy Ireland were she was born. The country was fragmented into warring fiefdoms, each controlled by a clan. Raiding and cattle stealing were the norm. But, It was the disorder of the 16th century that allowed Grace to mature from a wild girl into an enterprising and canny woman who played both sides, winning a meeting with Queen Elizabeth and a peerage for her son, yet remaining an Irish heroine.
A museum dedicated to a seafaring women. The Granuaile Visitor Centre is about 20 miles from Westport, in Louisburgh. The museum is near Murrisk, which has a ruined abbey, where Grace is said to have been baptized and then married at age 15 to her first husband, Donal O’Flaherty, a violent-tempered man who was killed in a feud with another clan.
Grace’s story is one of a remarkable metamorphosis from a widow with three children and no land or income into the pirate queen.
After Donal’s death, she returned to Clew Bay to trade with southern Europe, and occasionally and apparently with great relish, raid the merchant ships coming from Spain and Portugal to Galway. The museum has some terrific dioramas and models, including one of Grace in doublet and hose, with a sword hanging from her belt. No one knows exactly what she looked like, but clearly she had no trouble finding admirers, even when she was wearing men’s clothing.
Grace O’MALLEY’s pirate headquarters was on Clare Island, outermost and largest of the hundreds of isles of Clew Bay. Grace and her followers lived in the castle, though the Granuaile Visitor Centre suggests there would have been outbuildings all around, including a feasting hall.
Grace was known as a gambler, with cards as well as love and piracy. One story recounts how she saved a young man from a shipwreck and made him her lover. He was murdered by her enemies, and she took revenge, killing those responsible for his death and taking their castle.
Clare Island contains a 15th century church where Grace is reputedly buried.
Fifteen miles north of Westport on the shores of Clew Bay stands another castle that once belonged to Grace, Carrighowley Castle at Rockfleet. The stone tower, several stories tall, is in good condition, and can be visited. Grace married her second husband, Richard Bourke, another clan leader, often called Richard-in-Iron for his habit of wearing a suit of armor.
Grace coveted his castle, Carrighowley, for its location on the innermost shores of Clew Bay, safe from the English.
In the late 1570s, English soldiers captured Granuaile. She was sent to a prison in Limerick for eighteen months, and then held in the dungeon in Dublin Castle. By all accounts she should have perished, but she eventually regained her freedom and returned to Carraigahowley.
Legend has it that a year after their marriage and after the castle was safely in her possession, she met him at the door and said, “Richard Bourke, I dismiss you.” But they remained allies after their divorce, and she bore his son, Tibbot, at sea. The story goes that a day after she’d given birth, her galley was attacked by Algerian pirates, and her men called to her for help.
“May you be seven times worse off this day 12 months who cannot do without me for one day,” she said. Half-dressed, she went on deck, swearing loudly and blasting the Algerians with her musket.
In 1584, Sir Richard Bingham became the English governor, and began to harass Granuaile and her family. Two years later, Bingham’s forces killed Granuaile’s eldest son, Owen. While planning revenge, Granuaile was arrested for treason. Bingham threatened to hang her, but she escaped death by plea-bargaining. Bingham raided her property, and confiscated much of her fleet as well as her valuable herd of cattle.
Discovery Channel was made a five-part series on warrior women, narrated by Lucy Lawless of “Xena” fame. One segment was on Grace O’Malley.
Carrighowley Castle at Rockfleet is set on the shores of Clew Bay, and it’s said that Grace anchored her favorite galley just offshore and threw the hawser (a large heavy rope) through a window in the castle and kept it around the bedpost while she slept. She defended this castle many times as the English encroached deeper into Ireland.
In 1593, after her son Murrough had sided with the English, Granuaile petitioned Queen Elizabeth I for sympathy and support, as she was impoverished and tired of dealing with Bingham’s pursuits.
The Queen replied with a document entitled, “Eighteen Articles of Interrogatory.” This represents the most important written testimony of Granuaile’s life. In answer to the queen’s questions, Granuaile detailed her marriages, children, properties, inheritances, and other personal information.
While Granuaile was waiting to hear from the queen, Tibbot was arrested on charges of treason. Granuaile then rushed to London and in an historic meeting with the queen, obtained all her requests, including the release of Tibbot, the right to a portion of her son’s inheritance that had been denied to her as a woman, and the approval to return to the sea.
While she had convinced the queen that she would only attack incoming ships that threatened Ireland’s security, Bingham wasn’t convinced. He sent men to accompany her on her missions, which prevented her from committing any acts of piracy.
Granuaile lived until her early seventies, and died impoverished at Carraigahowley. She was buried at the Cistercian Abbey on Clare Island. She died at Rockfleet in 1603.
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Colin from Ireland says, “Brilliant, Keep up the good work.”
