Wild
Elephants Attack Indian Air Force Base
Biswajyoti
Das, writing for Reuters, reported that wild elephants are wreaking havoc
on Indian Air Force bases in Assam. The giant critters lumber across the
runways and also put high tech equipment in jeopardy.
The airfield at Tezpur from which your
editor flew as a radioman in a converted B-24 on the Hump gas baul is especially
threatened. We saw wild elephants outside the air base in our time. None
on it! There were native guards keeping the runways elephant free.
There were other nasty animals. A tiger was shot among the GI cans
in back of the mess hall. We could hear the damn things coughing in the jungle
as we watched movies in our open air bring your own chair theater.
An Indian rhino basked in a mudhole as we
took a hike off base one day. Some dummy threw clods at it and it
began to shake itself and move. We stopped walking and ran.
Das also writes that the Indian Air Force is
planning to cut much of the forest near Tezpur. Experts say it is
impossible to drive the herds numbering in the fifties or even the hundreds back
into the jungle.
The ele[phant population has grown by 40% in
the past 20 years. That was when the Assam government banned the capture
and private ownership of pachyderms. There are now more that 5000 in
Assam. Herds and humans are in frequent conflict as the beasts invade
populated areas and destroy rice fields.
People are going hungry because of elephant
attacks on granaries. Before one questions why this is allowed to
occur recall that this country is protecting the voracious marine predator, the
seal, upon which in more sensible times a bounty was placed. Our
fishermen, not the ever hungry seals, are then blamed for the fish shortage.
And some in this country are more concerned
about the comfort of the caribou rather than our own citizenry, many of whom,
especially the elders, are finding it dificult to pay to heat their homes. Oil
production in the north country would help America toward
independence from OPEC and other foreign oil cartels.
We hardy folk who manage to survive winters like the one that
has just ended have developed certain regimens to insure our physical and mental
health. We try to eat well and have heart-warming beverages available.
We wear long johns and heavy sweaters. We aren't frightened a bit by
threats of global warming. Sometimes it even sounds good to us.
If we are lucky we have a decent library nearby where we can get books
that men, especially veterans, enjoy. Most of us like history and
adventure, books that bring back memories of our early years or illuminate some
of the great military events of our time.
Your editor has found a number of such books and recommends them to you.
He read them on blustery winter days and snowy nights but they will be
just as much fun for you to read on a summery porch, with your toes in the
Atlantic or in a shady spot where you can catch the breeze from the lake.
OPERATION DRUMBEAT
AUTHOR: Frank Gannon
Publisher: Harper Collins
Operation Drumbeat was the name Hitler and his admirals gave to
the great German submarine offensive against America's east coast shipping.
The author says that the German U-boat offensive gave the
United States Navy its greatest defeat in our countries history. The
attack on Pearl Harbor had greater shock value but the ships sunk in Hawaii were
for the most part obsolete or readily replaceable.
The freighters and tankers sunk in the German offensive were not
replaceable until more than a year had past. Admiral Ernest King was a
battlewagon admiral who held the British in low esteem according to
Gannon. He refused the help and advice of the British, felt convoys were
useless, called the British skill on plotting the course of U-boats as
"toys and games." He made little effort to install air
surveillance of the East Coast and was against using smaller craft to track and
fight submarines.
One of his most incomprehensible errors was failing to order seacoast
cities towns and even amusement parks to observe blackouts. This
meant that American vessels going north or south along our coast were backlit
like targets in a shooting gallery. Gannon follows the fortunes of a
U-Boat commander whom he met and interviewed after the war. The commander
was one of the few survivors as the war later turned sour for the Germans.
This is explained fully in Gannon's second book on U-Boat
operations.
BLACK MAY tells of
the epic defeat of the Nazi unterseebooten in May, 1943. The Nazis ended
the month of April, 1943 winning the Battle of the Atlantic in what they called
"The Happy Time". One month later the U-Boat forces were
reeling. The Bay of Biscay which led to the great submarine pens on the
French coast (which no doubt some of you bombed) was now a death
trap for subs.
Were you stationed by the North Atlantic, the
Canadian Maritimes, Iceland, Northern Ireland, Cornwall or any of the
other bases which provided air cover for slow moving convoys. Then you
know what it was like to hunt and try to destroy the deadly subs. PBYs, Halifax
bombers and the mighty Liberators turned the tide against the Enemy. The
British even modified Libs to VLF Liberaors. Very Long Range. Three
fuel tanks were installed in the bomb bay and just one for anti-sub
weapons. Missions were frequently 20 hours in length.
The mighty pocket battleship Bismarck was so damaged by Faery Swordfish Mark 1
fabric covered biplanes that it could only steer in circles. It
was sunk by a pack of British cruisers and other warships.
The British also had great success with undersized war ships which some
wag named the "flower" class. All the vessels bore names of flowers.
Can't you just see a Monty Python skit where the Python crowd is standing
over a chart table and the commander is saying "Violet, you follow
Rose and Ivy, pay particular attention to any periscopes you see."
Or picture a seaman's bar in Liverpool and in
walk a bunch of tars from Flower Class warships. The beer fumes are
thicker than a Newfie fog.
"Eh, mate, wot ship you from?"
"Pansy!"
"Wot you say?"
The sailors answer in unison. "Buttercup!", "Daffodill!"
"Forget-Me-Not!"
"Damn right I won't . Put up yer dukes!" POW! POW!
SMASH!"
The author doesn't describe the problems of
Flower Class crews as I have but he does say the men had less and less trouble
in port as their sub-killing reputation grew.
Forty-one U-Boats were sunk in May, 1943, and
37 others were damaged and had to flee to the sub pens. Yankee shipyards were
turning out Liberty ships faster than the Germans could sink them. Escort
carriers appeared to provide further air cover and the Liberators kept the subs
submerged and unable to fight at their maximum potential.
Worse luck for the Germans was the loss of so
many experienced crews. The fighting caliber dropped dramatically as
losses mounted. Among those lost was the younger son of U-Boat Admiral Doenitz.
Chickens coming home to roost.
Remember experiencing or reading about
missions where 10% or more of bombers were knocked from the sky? The death rate
for Germans who served on subs was 70%. That's right. Only 30% survived
the war.
An
Almost Pearl Harbor
Scratch the Carrier Kitty Hawk!
The Los Angeles Times Moscow Bureau filed a story Nov.16,2000, that might
have been one of the biggest and saddest American defeats for our Navy since
Nazi subs ran amok on our East Coast in 1942 . The story was also published on
Web site highfrontier.org/nov.172000 htm. Robyn Dixon and
Paul Richter, Times staff writers , authored the piece.
The carrier Kitty Hawk was cruising in the Sea of Japan when two Russian fighter
planes appeared out of nowhere and buzzed the elite carrier from one end to
another at low altitude……twice! The story quotes the Russian
air force chief as saying the hot shots took pictures of crew activity on
the flight deck.
"You can clearly see the panic on deck" Gen.Anatoly
Kornukov is reported to have said.
A Russian military analyst with the Collegium of Military
Experts in Moscow said the Americans should have found, warned and, if
necessary, intercepted the Russian intruders long before they approached the
ship. He called the episode " a surprising lack of vigilance and
discipline".
Add this near tragedy to the attack on the Cole and the
apparent carelessness in sinking the Japanese trawler off Hawaii and even, at
this writing, the efforts to award the coveted Black Beret to almost
anyone,( note. It is reported that manufacture of the Black Berets will
take place in Red China instead of the U.S where our uniforms are always
made. Mounting opposition to this move by the Clinton Administration in its last
days may force a change by the time you read this.
Another thought occurs to your editor as he writes this.
Why was a dramatic and portentous story like the simulated attack on the
Kitty Hawk so poorly reported? Wouldn't you think our powerful newspapers
and TV news show would spend some time on such an event. I suppose they don't
want to worry us.
More Book Reviews
You like military history? Are
you interested in combat flying? Did you do any? Do you wonder what
I!t was like in other theaters of war? Try ""Fire in the
Sky"" by Eric Bergerud. This is a big thick book that traps you
the moment you start page one. I've recommended it to some of the Chapter
members and they agree that once you start it it kind of takes over your life.
"Fire in the Sky" tells of
the air campaigns in the South Pacific. The main action takes place over
the islands of Guadalcanal, New Guinea, Truk and all the little hell holes in
between.
Want to know how tough the territory
was? The atmosphere was brilliantly clear. Air crew gazing down into the
waters near New Guinea could see hungry sharks swimming about in great numbers
looking for their next meal. Suppose your plane was in trouble. New Guinea
was nearby. You are going to have to bail out over New Guinea or ditch.
You chose ditching. You have a far better chance of surviving the
sharks than you do the Guinean jungle .One more thing! B-17 crews
loved to be accompanied on missions by B-24s. Seems that the Japanese much
preferred to fight Liberators and attacked them first.
Bergerud has a second book on the
South Pacific. It is "Touched by Fire. The Land War in the
South Pacific." This is probably the best history I've read about
fighting in that area. I cannot recommend either of Bergerud's books too
highly. Interesting note. Bergerud says of General MacArthur
that he was a "flawed personality but a magnificent general." Bergerud
writes that he was always very careful with the lives of his men. MacArthur
fought the U.S. Navy and powers in Washington who wanted to go slam -bang into
every Jap base in the South Pacific and hang the cost in American lives.
MacArthur preferred to go right by them whenever possible and leave
them marooned. When the war ended over 250,000 Japanese troops were
sitting looking at the sky and ocean, armed to the teeth but with no one to
fight. It is important to remember that much of the criticism
of MacArthur came from those who told us Mao was an "agrarian
reformer" and were also hopeful a defeated Japan would fall behind the Iron
Curtain. MacArthur prevented that.
David L.Robbins thrilling
"The War of the Rats" tells of the battle for Stalingrad through
the eyes of expert snipers whose task it is to pick off Nazi officers at
distances where the officers think they are safe. It's a morale buster for
the Germans! The Nazis bring in their expert sniper to try and pick off the
Russian marksman. There's a movie "The Enemy at the Gates"
recently filmed in what was East Germany about the snipers at Stalingrad. Skip
it. The book is better and you get it from the library for free.
Robbins's other recent book, "
The End of War, a Novel of the Race for Berlin" follows three
people through the last few months of WW2. There is a Life photographer,
possibly with a death wish, who must be up front whenever possible. There
is a Russian who has found himself abruptly stripped of his officer rank and
flung into a penal battalion. You know what a Red penal battalion
was like? You had the Nazis dug in smack in front of you. You had
the NKVD (secret police) behind you ready to shoot you if you faltered. Mine
field ahead? Forward march. But I don't have a weapon! Pick one up
from a corpse! The third character is a young woman cellist with the
Berlin Philharmonic which continues to give concerts until the Reds are in the
front room,as the saying goes.
Robbins gives a fine picture of what life was like on the receiving end of the
air raids.
Read it It's fiction whereas the books reviewed above are histories. They
both are so exciting and fascinating to read that you could say, "The
history reads like fiction and the fiction reads like history." We
liked the scenes in crumbling Berlin the best.
The Eighth Air Force Historical
Society
