ACG WebOps (9 June 2007)
Welcome to WebOps, Armchair General’s weekly recon of links to military history news, articles, websites, and more. WebOps debuts its’ brand new very own del.icio.us RSS feed this week! The World War II Victory Museum is expanding to become the National Military History Center, the NOVA and PBS television networks combine their talents on a military history program called Great Escape, and the Napoleon Bonaparte Podcast has returned with episode #22. Clicks away!
News
Mass Holocaust grave found in Ukraine – Yahoo! News
{default}KIEV, Ukraine – A mass grave holding the remains of thousands of Jews killed by the Nazis has been found in southern Ukraine near the site of what was once a concentration camp, a Jewish community representative said Tuesday.
National Military History Center Being Planned – Inside Indiana Business
The World War II Victory Museum in Auburn will soon be expanded into a new center known as the National Military History Center. The Dean V. Kruse Foundation says it will announce the facility during a press conference on June 14. The center will pay tribute to U.S. military history from the Revolutionary War to the present. The American Veterans Hall of Honor will be located within the center and will induct vets who have distinguished themselves.
WWII Vet Remembers Service – Army.mil
WASHINGTON (Army News Service, June 5, 2007) – A World War II veteran who fought the Nazis with Patton’s 3rd Army found himself reminiscing about the war during a Pentagon tour one week before the 63rd anniversary of D-Day.
Area veterans remember the largest invasion in military history.
Intrepid Ceremony Commemorates D-Day – Military.com
NEW YORK – The historic aircract carrier USS Intrepid is fresh from a body scrub and makeover, including a stem-to-stern painting with 7,000 gallons of traditional naval haze-gray – enough to cover about 400 large houses.
Articles
Know Your Military History: The Big Red One – Associated Content
1917 marks the beginning of the First Infantry Division, better known as The Big Red One. General John (Blackjack) Pershing arrived in France with the first American Expeditionary Force. The fighting first lead the way for troops in World War One.
June 6, 1944: Artifical Harbor Paves the Way for Normandy Invasion – Wired
1944: The invasion of Normandy was as much a triumph of technology as it was a feat of logistics or firepower. That an invasion was coming was well known by everyone, including the Germans. The only question was, where would the Allies land? The Germans expected a landing near Calais, where the English Channel is narrowest and where the invaders would have access to a deep-water port.
Ohio Military Museum ‘rouses the lion’ – The Independent
The 332nd Infantry Regiment of the 83rd “Ohio†Infantry Division was not to be trifled with, as the Austro-Hungarian army learned in November 1918.
Battle of Midway: History’s finest example of our Navy’s capabilities – NavyCompass.com
Every man or woman serving in our nation’s military should take advantage of all opportunities to learn more about our military’s history.
Museum’s top scavenger hunts aviation history – The Connecticut Post Online
The first piece of Connecticut aeronautical history Dick Evans snared for the Connecticut Air & Space Museum in Stratford was a classic Sikorsky S-55 helicopter (H-19 if you prefer the military designation).
Announcements
BridgeFest celebrates coastal transportation, military history – Village Soup
VERONA ISLAND (June 8): The BridgeFest celebration, a regional welcome celebration for the new Penobscot Narrows Bridge and Observatory, will launch at 10 a.m. Saturday, June 23, with a parade that will start on Verona Island, cross the new bridge and end at Fort Knox.
Books – Movies – TV
Experts dig into World War II’s most daring and technically ingenious prison break.
Blogs – Netcasts
Au Revoir Josphine, Bonjour Marie-Louise and the King of Rome! – The Napoleon Bonaparte Podcast
In this episode we cover some of the events that happened in Napoleon’s private life during the peace that lasted from Wagram in 1809 until The Sixth Coalition in 1812, including:
Napoleon’s divorce from Josephine
His attempts to wed Tsar Alexander’s sister Anna
His eventual marriage to Marie-Louise of Austria
The birth of his first legitimate son known as the King of Rome aka Napoleon II
How About a Confederate Ship on the Header? – Civil War Navy, et. al.
The new header, the first Confederate ship to grace that spot, is the CSS Nashville.
North American P-51 Mustang – Military History Blog on the Web
Today we add a series of twenty one articles on the North American P-51 Mustang, one of the best fighter aircraft to see service during the Second World War.
Vietnam War: Fighting Begins at Dong Xoai – about.com: Military History
June 10, 1965 – Fighting breaks out near Dong Xoai between US-trained South Vietnamese Special Forces and the Viet Cong.
Orders of battle, and other obsessions – Arms and influence
The other day, when I was writing a post about urban warfare and counterinsurgency, I tripped over a classic problem in military history: the order of battle. It’s a good window into many issues, from the particular concerns of military history, to the reasons why you hardly ever hear substantive news about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Most Dazzling Camouflage Ever – mental_floss magazine
Apparently, the World War I camouflage scheme (also called Razzle Dazzle) wasn’t used to hide ships, but instead to confuse naval artillery, since the patterns made it hard to estimate a ship’s distance and speed (both necessary to sink your battleship).
Twentieth Century Battlefields: Video Podcast – BBC
Dan Snow takes you behind the scenes to reveal how the programmes were made and why he and Peter chose the battles they did.
LOST at War, the backstory – The LOST Blog
We’ve published special issues before. But though we had a lot of fun putting "LOST at Sea" and "LOST in Space" together, our latest special issue, "LOST at War," was altogether a different experience.
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
