ACG WebOps (28 October 2007)
Welcome to WebOps, Armchair General’s weekly recon of links to military history news, articles, websites, and more. Before delving into that huge bag of Halloween candy this week, read about the Conn sisters and soldiers of Somerset, Indiana; Erna Wallisch, grandmother and Nazi war criminal; and The Military Geography Project. Clicks away!
News
Medal of Honor ceremony at White House – Yahoo! News (video)
President Bush publicly honored a fallen Navy SEAL Monday by presenting his grieving parents with the Medal of Honor — and privately honored their sacrifice by wearing a dog tag they’d given him moments before.
{default}Reserve tanker wing makes history – Eyewitness News 9 Greenville, NC (video)
The Air Force Reserve wing located at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in eastern North Carolina will be the first tanker wing in Air Force history with an active associate partnership.
Local Sisters Are Making Military History – kdka.com
Five feet tall, blond, blue-eyed and as sweet as they come… that’s not how you would describe your average military commander but there are two ladies in our area that fit that description and now they are making military history.
Civic illiteracy – The Winchester Star
Universities falling down on job
Historian tracks down evil Erna the Nazi killer – a ‘harmless’ granny in Vienna – the Daily Mail
Erna Wallisch, an 85-year-old grandmother, rarely ventures out, spending her days drinking coffee and being cared for by her family.
But the image she presents belies a dark past which has put her seventh on the Simon Wiesenthal Centre’s list of most-wanted Nazi war criminals still at large.
Army Marks 50 Years Since First Vietnam Casualty – Army.mil/News
A wreath-laying ceremony to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the death of the first U.S. service member to die in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam Conflict was conducted Sunday at West Point Cemetery.
Replica Of First Sub Passes ‘Sea Trial’ – TheDay.com
The Turtle, so named because the 7-foot-tall, slightly egg-shaped ship resembles a turtle that’s standing on end, was built over the last four years by Frese, the technology education teacher at Old Saybrook High School, with the help of two retired engineers and at least 50 of his students.
Articles
Mass beatification revives memories of Spain’s War – Reuters
The Catholic Church is preparing to beatify 498 of its members killed during the Spanish Civil War, putting them on the path to possible sainthood but reviving memories of a conflict that still divides Spain.
Books – Movies – TV
New Book Brings Little-Known Story of Nisei Resistance to Japanese Readers – New America Media
Published by Tokyo’s Sairyu-sha Publishing Co., "America Nikkei Nisei no Chohei Kihi" (American Nikkei Nisei Draft Resistance) is a comprehensive 638-page volume documenting the once shunned history of a group of young men who are now heralded for their principled stand for civil liberties.
Blogs – Netcasts
What If Hitler Had Won World War II? (pts. 1 & 2) – Blog Them Out of the Stone Age
This month’s column is less a true counterfactual than a critical reflection upon Adolf Hitler’s “vision of victory†should he have fulfilled his dream of conquering western Europe, central and eastern Europe, and of course, the Soviet Union. The phrase echoes the title of a slim but fascinating book by historian Gerhard L. Weinberg, author of the magisterial A World at Arms (1994), which is widely considered the finest study of World War II yet written.
The Napoleon Bonaparte Podcast #30 – The Journey To Elba
Today we look at the period immediately after Napoleon’s first abdication in 1814 – his suicide attempt, the Allies’ discussions about where to send him (the Treaty of Fontainebleau), and his incredible work ethic once he arrived in Elba. Then we examine his reasons for deciding to leave Elba after a mere ten months and return… to France.
Sir Cecil Burney – Military History Blog on the Web
Sir Cecil Burney was a British admiral who served as second in command of the Grand Fleet from 1914-1916, was present at the battle of Jutland, and then served as Second Sea Lord.
The Military Geography Project – Military History Blog
I have created The Military Geography Project, a new site on WordPress and am organizing it to be a professional site that will showcase what we are doing in terms of research and presenting one of our projects, Sources in American Military Geography , which will be an annotated bibliography of important sources relating to American military history and military geography.
History as Narrative – bull runnings
While the problems with the narrative form may be particularly severe in the case of chaotic events like military conflict, they are certainly not exclusive to those events. The same can be said of gender and race studies, biographies, political analysis – of history in general.
Website
North Carolina Civil War Sesquicentennial
Commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War in North Carolina, 2011-2015
The Gunpowder Plot – BBC-History
The failed plot to assassinate James I and the ruling Protestant elite would, however unfairly, taint all English Catholics with treason for centuries to come. Who were the conspirators and what did they hope to achieve?
(front page image: "Gunpowder Plot: the arrest of Guy Fawkes." Online Photograph. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 28 Oct. 2007 <http://www.britannica.com/eb/art-75136>.)
WebOps is a weekly report linking to military history news and articles published in mainstream online media. Excerpts are taken exactly as they are on the noted source websites; quotation marks are not used. The hyperlinks are added by me as I can find them. Please visit the Armchair Forums to discuss the topics in WebOps. If you just can’t wait until Sunday for the next WebOps, plug yourself into the new del.icio.us Armchair General WebOps feed and get each link as its posted!
Stay Alert, Stay Alive!
Jim H. Moreno
