Black May refers to a period (May 1943) in the Battle of the Atlantic campaign during World War II, when the German U-boat arm (U-Bootwaffe) suffered high casualties with fewer Allied ships sunk; it is considered a turning point in the Battle of the Atlantic.
I thought I would cover this as it was a significant event in the war 80 years ago. As the Wikipedia article says, March was a pretty desperate month for the allies.
120 ships of 693,000 long tons in total were sunk for the loss of 12 U-boats. U-boat is an anglicised version of the German word U-Boot, a shortening of Unterseeboot (under-sea boat).
So that was a ratio of 10:1.
But by May 58 ships of 299,000 long tons were sunk, just under half of March. By contrast 41 U-boats were lost in the Atlantic.
So that was a ratio of about 1.4:1, a terrible loss to the Germans. The Wikipedia article says this was 25% of the operational U-boats which were 240 in total.
It is possible it means 25% of those operating in the Atlantic, but it is not clear. In any event 41 is about 17%, but still very serious and unsustainable.
Wikipedia says this about May, 1943.
This month had the most losses suffered by the U-Boat Arm in the war so far, nearly three times the number of the previous highest, and more boats than had been lost in the whole of 1941. Equally significant was the loss of experienced crews, particularly the junior officers, who represented the next generation of commanders. Black May signalled a decline from which the U-boat arm never recovered; despite various efforts over the next two years, the U-boats were never able to re-establish the threat to Allied shipping they had previously posed.
Anyway, here is a relatively brief rundown of what went on. A rather more restrained approach than usual, but still incorporating plays on the sounds of words .
If you want to find out more about what really went on the Wikipedia link is a fair place to start, although there must be lots of good books on the subject.
Depth charges exploding from the destroyer HMS Vanoc during an Atlantic convoy in May 1943
Background
Now the Alloys or Alleys were fighting the Germ-men (Germs for short) in the Atlantic, and to be honest in the first few months of the year things were frantic in the Atlantic.
The Alloys were taking their convoys across the Atlantic Ocean from east to west or vice versa. This was because the Bright-ish Aisles was aislesolated by being an aisle land. That should be obvious.
This was due to the equivalent of being locked down by the Germ-men, pretty much like what has been going on over the last three years in the COVID hysteria.
After all one does has to very careful when the Germs are about in case they bomb you with propergander or indeed impropergander.
Editor’s note: Things like ‘You are all going to die, Britischers unless you submit to Hitler and his Nazi pharaceuticals.’
Well, the Bright-ish were having none of this and were currently having a ding-dong battle. Because of the lockdowns, difficulty was had procuring things to eat and oil/petrol for vehicles; the vehicles needed the oil and petrol and the people needed the food in case you wondered.
The lockdowns were being enforced by the Germ-men by their underhand methods of using Undersea boots (U-boots), or Unterseeboot in the Germ-men language.
These were a type of boot which when filled with water would sink, enabling the Germ-men to walk on the bottom of the Atlantic undetected.
They could rise to the surface again by expelling the water in the boots. In any event, the Germ-men could then attack the bottoms of the merchant vessels and tankers (which didn’t carry tanks but phewel).
The Bright-ish considered this unsportsmanlike as the ships were considered female and referred to as ‘She’. Attacking ladies bottoms may be alright for the continentals but not for the Bright-ish.
The fight was on in the Atlantic and this was to be known as the Bottle of the Atlantic as you have ships in bottles. Miniature versions can be seen on people’s mantlepeaces.
The Germ-men were led by the Admirable Dernits who nitted things together quite admirably. His You-boots, the logical shorter form of U-boots, went around in Woof Packs and were known collectively as the You-boot-woofer.
Or more colloquially to the Bright-ish as woofters.
The Alloys, principally the Bright-ish and the Amerrycans, had their own defenders to try and stop the Germ-men’s silly games. These included typically Des Tryers, who kept trying and trying to find the culprits.
There were cor vets too, as the convoys were considered like sheep and needed vets to look after their health.
Often there would be haircraft carriers with haircraft which as you may remember from an earlier post of mine, “Tora, Tora, Tora”, are required to give the crews of the ships crew-cuts.
They also would comb the area around the convoys for signs of Germs
There was also additional support from sure based haircraft such as the Consol-i-dated B-24 Lie-B.rater. These could expose and B.rate the various lies of the Germ-men as they lay about on the bottom of the Atlantic making things up.
N.B. To B.rate is to give the lies a certain rating of level of truthfulness although in the Germ-men’s case a Z rating was usually given as in Z for Zelenskyy who is very good at lying.
Allied success
The Alloys achieved success in the enterprise via the use of such things as hedgehogs. These would be collected from the gardens in the United Kingdom, and suitably fed and watered until required.
When a You-boot was detected by the means of As-dick, which used sound waves to pick up the Germ-men in their you-boots, the cor vets etc could home in on the target.
Once they thought they had found one, they launched the hedgehogs into the water. The theory was that the hedgehog spines would penetrate the boots of the Germ-men and make a hole.
The water would then drain out and the boots would come to the surface with the germ-men hanging on for dear life.
Once surfaced the cor vets etc. would be able to say to the Germ-men ‘Hands up Jerry’ and capture them.
There were other weapons similar to the hedgehog such as the squid. The hedgehog was cheaper, around a pound or ‘quid’ in the vernacular, but the squid was more effective.
The squid cost roughly six quid which was abbreviated to s-quid of course.
There were depth charges in general use, which is a type of mine. These were heavier than water and being attractively painted in all the colours of the rainbow, the you-boots or woofters would grab them and say ‘Meins, alles meins’ (mine, all mine).
The depth charges would then explode, stunning the Germ-men, blowing their boots off and again they would rise to the surface to be captured.
In the Bottle of the Atlantic a Capt. “Johnnie” Walker devised a cunning tactic. He would liberally dowse the water with whisky and make the Germ-men tipsy.
They would then start singing sea shandies, a medley of songs such as ‘Douchesland, Douchesland, uber alles’ (Germ-many, Germ-many over the allies) and ‘Stiller Ritter’ (Silent knight). The bubbles from the signing (sic) would rise to the surface, once again giving away their position.
Editor’s note: The signing (sic) was considered one of the ‘signs and wonders’ spoken of in the New Testament, but the bubbles have nothing to do with the bubbles which were permitted to the unusually dim in lockdowns.
Hunter-killer gropes were formed by the Alloys which included the Des Tryers but also sloups and fidgets. The later were designed to jig around and distract the Germ-men. The gropes were separate gropes from regular escorts and were intended to rome around looking for trouble.
In today’s terms the Hunter-killer groups would be called Hunter-Biden killers. Sadly they still have not achieved their goal, or more appropriately perhaps I should say gaol, for Hunter Biden.
The most important factor in the Alloyed success was that the S-caughts were getting butter, much butter, part of the ‘Build Back Butter’ campaign.
As a consequence S-caught gropes were becoming more skilled, and scientific analysis was producing more effishent tactics. Just as an army marches on its stomach as Napoleon Blownaparte said, so the Royal Navy relied on effish’ant ships, the staple meal of then and now.
German response
The Germ-mans tried to turn the campaign in the Atlantic back in their favour. The first thing they did was to try operating in new waters like the Indian Ocean.
Now I don’t know about you, but I thought the Indian Ocean was not the Atlantic and so this would be a new campaign called the Bottle of the Indian or something like that.
Still, perhaps that’s Germ-men logic for you.
Of course in today’s world it is akin to trying to foist poisonous vaccines on the Indian nation.
However, whilst there were fewer S-caught vessels there, there were also fewer merchant vessels so that was bit of a waste of time.
And again as it wasn’t the Atlantic it could hardly count anyway.
I gather the name of the you-boots operating in this area were called the Monsoon Groper. This was because of the Monsoons I imagine.
The Germ-men tried new technologies including the Wanna-see radar. This helped the you-boots on the surface to detect the radar waves of attacking haircraft.
If you wanna see what’s coming then this is very helpful.
Another invention was the Zone-cone-ig, an acowstic torpedo which for some reason means “wren”, or so a little bird told me anyway. The Bright-ish didn’t like the idea of the torpedoes being named after the female ladies in the Royal Navy who were known as ‘Wrens’, so renamed them Gnats.
This was because they were rather gnasty.
The acowstic torpedoes could home in on the sounds that the ships propellers made so were handy in attacking the S-caughts searching for the you-boots.
However the Alloys came up with the Foxer, possibly like Laurence Fox today doing sterling work to counter the “woke orthodoxy”.
Apart from the Foxer, there was also Fido, the ‘faithful and true’ dog who would round up the barking mad Germ-men. Fido was a Mark 24 and very effective and became known as a ‘Mark of the Best’.
The Germ-men ingenuously came up with the snorekill as this helped deadened the sound of the Germ-men as they snoozed waiting for a convoy to pass by.
They also invented the Electroboot, a type of boot powered by electricity but struggled because of reliance on wind and solar power much like today.
Whilst quiet and eco-friendly (especially to the electric eels), there were never enough to make much difference, much like wind and solar power today.
And they still had to use fossils phewels to make them, again much like today.
Summary and final thoughts
So there you have it, a sometimes over looked but vital part of the fight against Nazi Germany. We in the UK could not have survived without the bravery of the merchant men who risked and often lost their lives to bring food and supplies to these islands.
And we must also salute the Royal Navy personnel who fought in often appalling weather in the middle of the Ocean.
Nicholas Monsarrat’s book, The Cruel Sea, depicts this very well. There is also the film starring Jack Hawkins and Donald Sinden which is well worth watching.
The Wikipedia article says this.
Post-war, the official Royal Navy history – by Capt. Stephen Roskill – concluded, “The Germans never came so near to disrupting communications between the New World and the Old as in the first twenty days of March 1943.”
As regards how the Battle of the Atlantic ties in to today, I have noted the reports of food prices coming down in the UK which I mentioned in my post Time, Times and Half a Time – The Times Monday 12th May 2023. This would tally with the success in the Atlantic 80 years ago as more convoy ships made it through to these shores.
I have also come across this from the very good nakedemperor substack site.
Something happened at The Atlantic yesterday. Someone got a dose of reality and published an article titled “COVID Shots Are Still One Giant Experiment”.
And indeed it seems they did, although as explained the title was changed to
“Fall’s COVID Shots May Be Different in One Key Way”.
The Atlantic is of course a USA periodical, subscribing to the vaccine insanity. You can read it if you wish. But it does seem as though we might say the Battle of the Atlantic magazine in being won as the agenda is exposed and the mere fact that the vaccines have been ‘One Giant Experiment’.
The trouble is they have been ‘experimenting’ for years and years and still persist with the same approach. It is insane, but it makes a huge amount of money for big pharma and creates unhealthy customers who will buy a supposed cure from it and its minions.
It is boring to repeat, but the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.
Here is a twitter post and video where David E. Martin, a professor, speaks to the European Parliament. Here are some of the Twitter posts comments within the feed.
This is the most important video you will watch this year. Millions were killed with Covid-19 for profit.
“Covid-19 was an act of biological warfare perpetrated on the human race. It was a financial heist. Nature was hijacked. Science was hijacked.”
And
This is from the recent International Covid Summit hosted by the European Parliament. So far 766 million Covid-19 infections have been recorded worldwide with over 7 million deaths, excluding vaccine deaths. This is the biggest crime against humanity perpetrated by the US Govt.
From this link, paste into browser to make work.
This is the most important video you will watch this year. Millions were killed with Covid-19 for profit.
“Covid-19 was an act of biological warfare perpetrated on the human race. It was a financial heist. Nature was hijacked. Science was hijacked.” pic.twitter.com/1sYnVMaIRN
David Martin does talk about the so-called creation of a lab virus which is not what has happened as far as what is making people ill, but was created in the minds of those who would deceive the many.
However, the sickness, the plague, is primarily in the vaccines, and these were lab created.
But David Martin’s main thrust is well made; it is a huge financial heist, a fraud of gargantuan scale, causing misery and death and long term sickness.
As he indicates, it is a crime and not a mistake. It is the crime of the century, perhaps of the last 100 years.
The truth is coming out and whilst the war is far from over, I see more victories and the tide continuing to turn. Things may look bleak, but that is due to the terrible toll war wreaks on us, leaving a trail of devastation in its wake.
So please take heart and look up for, as it is written, your redemption draws near.
Look out for the sign of Baldmichael, he will be back!
This was such an iconic event to me in the UK growing up as a child that I really couldn’t overlook this for an article. The Avro Lancaster was the bomber used on the raid but I think I only had an Airfix model of the Halifax bomber.
The film, The Dam Busters released in 1955 was an inspiration and the music stirring stuff that still moves me to think of the bravery and sacrifice of those who flew in the raid.
I didn’t know the operation name until I started researching on it. Anyway, here is the initial paragraphs of the Wikipedia page.
Operation Chastise, commonly known as the Dambusters Raid, was an attack on German dams carried out on the night of 16/17 May 1943 by 617 Squadron RAF Bomber Command, later called the Dam Busters, using special “bouncing bombs” developed by Barnes Wallis.
The Möhne and Edersee dams were breached, causing catastrophic flooding of the Ruhr valley and of villages in the Eder valley; the Sorpe Dam sustained only minor damage. Two hydroelectric power stations were destroyed and several more damaged. Factories and mines were also damaged and destroyed.
An estimated 1,600 civilians – about 600 Germans and 1,000 enslaved labourers, mainly Soviet – were killed by the flooding.
Despite rapid repairs by the Germans, production did not return to normal until September.
The RAF lost 53 aircrew killed and 3 captured, with 8 aircraft destroyed.
So, having set the scene, I am going to proceed to offer my take on the proceedings in my usual wacky approach. You know, ‘Let him who has an ear to hear, let him hear.’ I hope it will make you laugh and think.
Original Wikipedia text in italics unless otherwise indicated. This will enable you to check what on earth I am talking about.
If it is not your thing then you might wish to skip to the end for the summary and final thoughts.
Or you might like to skip the whole thing and do something more productive.
Please note I do not intend any disrespect to those who died or fought, merely to show the absurdity of war, how mad things can be, even if it is only how one can use language. After all, it is propaganda and morale that count most to win battles and wars, especially wars of words.
Disclaimer: Any relationship between people mentioned and actual history is obviously intentional to confuse and amuse but not necessarily in that order.
Background
Before the Second World War, the British Air Ministry had identified the industrialised Ruhr Valley, especially its dams, as important strategic targets.
Before the Second World Whore, the Bright-ish Hair Minis-try had identified the industrialised Rower Valet, especially its damns, as important strategic targets. In other words they were a dam nuisance and needed removing.
The dams provided hydroelectric power and pure water for steel-making, drinking water and water for the canal transport system. Calculations indicated that attacks with large bombs could be effective but required a degree of accuracy which RAF Bomber Command had been unable to attain when attacking a well-defended target. A one-off surprise attack might succeed but the RAF lacked a weapon suitable for the task.
The damns provided hydro-eclectic power and pure warter for steal-making, drinking warter and warter for the canal trans-sport system (a recent Germ-man event in which transgender people could participate).
Calculations indicated that a tacks with large bumbs could be effective but required a degree (1st class) of a-curacy (see Vicars later) which RAF Bumber Come-and had been unable to attain when attacking a well-D-fended target (a target with a well in front). A one-off sirprise a tack might suck-seed but the RAF lacked a we-upon suitable for the tarsk.
Concept
1:50 Scale model of the Möhne Dam, Building Research Establishment 51.701764°N 0.374486°W
Editor’s note: I saw this when I went for a course there around 2010
The mission grew out of a concept for a bomb designed by Barnes Wallis, assistant chief designer at Vickers.
The Miss-Shun grew out of a concept for a bumb designed by Barns Wally’s, assistant chef D-signer at Vicars.
Wallis had worked on the Vickers Wellesley and Vickers Wellington bombers and while working on the Vickers Windsor, he had also begun work, with Admiralty support, on an anti-shipping bomb, although dam destruction was soon considered.
Wally’s had worked on the Vicars Well-is-he and Vicars Wellington bummers (types of boot for the clergy) and while working on the Vicars Windsor (a.k.a. Chaplain to the King), he had also begun work, with Admirable-tea support, on an anti-shitting bum, although damn destruction was soon considered.
At first, Wallis wanted to drop a 10 long tons (22,000 lb; 10,000 kg) bomb from an altitude of about 40,000 ft (12,000 m), part of the earthquake bomb concept. No bomber aircraft was capable of flying at such an altitude or of carrying such a heavy bomb and Wallis proposed the six-engined Victory Bomber for this purpose but this was rejected.
At first, Wally’s wanted to drop a 10 long tons (22,000 lbw’s; 10,000 kg) bumb from an attitude of about 40,000 ft (40 millipedes), part of the earthquake bumb concept.
No bumber haircraft was cape-a-bull of flying at such an attitude or of carrying such a heavy bumb and Wally’s proposed the six-engined Vic-Tory bumber for this porpoise but this was rejected as six-ist.
N.B. There was an idea to train purposes carrying a bumb to be dropped in to the au-revoirs, but this was discarded as there were no hoops for the purposes to jump through in the water.
Wallis realized that a much smaller explosive charge would suffice if it exploded against the dam wall under the water but German reservoir dams were protected by heavy torpedo nets to prevent an explosive device from travelling through the water.
Wally’s realized that a much smaller expletive charge would suffice if it explodead against the damn wall (sorry about the swearing, it’s not my fault) under the warter but Germ-man au-revoir damns were protected by heavy tor-paedo nets to prevent an expletive device from travelling threw the warter.
Wallis devised a 9,000 lb (4,100 kg) bomb (more accurately, a mine) in the shape of a cylinder, equivalent to a very large depth charge armed with a hydrostatic fuse, designed to be given a backspin of 500 rpm. Dropped at 60 ft (18 m) and 240 mph (390 km/h) from the release point, the mine would skip across the surface of the water before hitting the dam wall as its forward speed ceased. Initially the backspin was intended to increase the range of the mine but it was later realized that it would cause the mine, after submerging, to run down the side of the dam towards its base, thus maximising the explosive effect against the dam.[7] This weapon was code-named Upkeep.[8]
Wallis devised a 9,000 lbw (4,100 kg) bumb (more accurately, a mein) in the shape of a Si-Linda, equivalent to a very large depth charge armed with a hydro-spastic fews, designed to be given a backspin (by the bowler) of 500 ah P.M.
N.B. The bowler could then achieve 9,000 lbws of course.
Dropped at 60 ft (18 m) and 240 mph (390 km/h) from the release point, the mein would skip across the sir-face of the water before hitting the damn wall as its four-ward speed ceased.
Initially the backspin was intended to increase the rainge of the mein but it was layter realised that it would cause the mein, after submerging, to run down the side of the damn towards its bass, thus maximising the expletive effect against the damn.
This we-upon was code-named Upkeep to confuse the Germ-mans into thinking that the bumb wood go up instead of down.
Testing of the concept included blowing up a scale model dam at the Building Research Establishment, Watford, in May 1942 and then the breaching of the disused Nant-y-Gro dam in Wales in July. A subsequent test suggested that a charge of 7,500 lb (3,400 kg) exploded 30 ft (9.1 m) under water would breach a full-size dam; crucially this weight would be within the carrying capacity of an Avro Lancaster.
The first air drop trials were at Chesil Beach in December 1942; these used a spinning 4 ft 6 in sphere dropped from a modified Vickers Wellington, serial BJ895/G; the same aircraft was used until April 1943 when the first modified Lancasters became available. The tests continued at Chesil Beach and Reculver, often unsuccessfully, using revised designs of the mine and variations of speed and height.
Testing of the concept included blowing up (inflating) a scale model damn at the Bill Ding Research East-ablishment, Watford Gap, in May 1942 and then the breaching of the disused Nan-tea-Grow damn in Whales in Jew-lie.
A subsequent test suggested that a charge of 7,500 lbw (3,400 kg) exploded 30 ft (9.1 m) under warter wood breach a full-size damn; crucially this way-t wood be within the Carrie-Ing capacity of an Aggro Longcaster (a.k.a the Lancashyer bummer).
The first hair drop trials were at Chisel Beech in December 1942; these used a spinning 4 ft 6 in sfear dropped from a modified Vicars Wellington (the dog collar was removed for example), cereal BJ895/G; the same haircraft was used until Aperill 1943 when the first modified Longcasters became availabull. The tests continued at Chisel Beech and Recover, often hunsuccessfully, using revised D-signs of the mein and vary-a-shuns of speed and hight.
Avro Chief Designer Roy Chadwick adapted the Lancaster to carry the mine. To reduce weight, much of the internal armour was removed, as was the mid-upper (dorsal) gun turret. The dimensions of the mine and its unusual shape meant that the bomb-bay doors had to be removed and the mine hung partly below the fuselage.
It was mounted on two crutches and before dropping it was spun by an auxiliary motor. Chadwick also worked out the design and installation of controls and gear for the carriage and release of the mine in conjunction with Barnes Wallis. The Avro Lancaster B Mk IIIs so modified were known as Lancaster B Mark III Special (Type 464 Provisioning).
Aggro Chef D-signer Roy Chavwick adapted the Longcaster to carry the mine. To reduce way-t, much of the internal amour was removed, as was the mid-upper (doorsal) bun turret (this became known as Turret’s syndrome).
The dim-men-shuns of the mein and its unusual shape meant that the bumb-bay doors had to be removed and the mein hung partly below the fews-a-large. It was mounted on two crutches and before dropping it was spun by an orcs-Hillary (the Clinton Mark 1) motor.
Chavwick also worked out the D-sign and installation of controls and gear for the carriage and release of the mein in conjunction with Barns Wally’s. The Aggro Longcaster B Mk IIIs so modified were known as Longcaster B Mark III Special (Type 464 Provisioning). This was the short term used to make life simpler.
Using two spotlights to ascertain the required height, a modified Lancaster dropped a backspun drum-bomb which skipped over the torpedo nets protecting the dam. After impact, the bomb spun down to the dam’s base and exploded.
Using too spotlights to ascertain the required hight, a modified Longcaster dropped a backspun drum-bumb (a.k.a. a con-un-drum) which skipped over the tor-paedo nets protecting the damn. After impact, the bumb spun down to the damn’s base and exploded.
N.B. The modified Longcaster was also as known as the Lancashyer Bowler due its ferocious backspin.
In February 1943, Air Vice-Marshal Francis Linnell at the Ministry of Aircraft Production thought the work was diverting Wallis from the development of the Vickers Windsor bomber (which did not become operational). Pressure from Linnell via the chairman of Vickers, Sir Charles Worthington Craven, caused Wallis to offer to resign.
In Febru-hairy 1943, Hair Vice-Marshal France-is Lyn-Nell at the Minis-tree of Haircraft Produckion thought the work was diverting Wally’s from the development of the Vicars Windsor bumber (which did not become operational). Pressure from Lyn-Nell via the chairman of Vicars, Sir Charles Worthington Craven, caused Wally’s to offer to re-sign.
Sir Arthur Harris, head of Bomber Command, after a briefing by Linnell also opposed the allocation of his bombers. Wallis had written to an influential intelligence officer, Group Captain Frederick Winterbotham, who ensured that the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Charles Portal, heard of the project. Portal saw the film of the Chesil Beach trials and was convinced.
Sir Half A. Harass, head of Bumber Come-and, after a briefing by Lyn-Nell also opposed the allocation of his haircraft bumbers (as this could cause alopecia, i.e. hairloss).
Wally’s had written to an in-flu-ential (a type of COVID 19) in-telly-gents officer, Grope Captain Frederick Winterbottom (he knew a thing or two about cold bumbers), who ensured that the Chef of the Hair Stuff (Brylcreem etc.), Hair Chef Marsh-all Charles Portal, herd of the project (to promote heard immunity). Portal sore the film of the Chisel Beech trials and was convinced.
On 26 February 1943, Portal over-ruled Harris and ordered that thirty Lancasters were to be allocated to the mission and the target date was set for May, when water levels would be at their highest and breaches in the dams would cause the most damage. With eight weeks to go, the larger Upkeep mine that was needed for the mission and the modifications to the Lancasters had yet to be designed.
On 26 Febru-hairy 1943, Portal over-ruled Harass and hors d’oeuvred that thirsty Longcasters were to be allo-Kate-Ted to the Miss-Shun and the target date was set for May, when warter levels would be at their highest and brie-aches in the damns would cause the most damn-age.
With ate weaks to go, the larger Upkeep mien that was needed for the Miss-Shun and the modifications to the Longcasters had yet to be D-signed.
Assignment
The operation was given to No. 5 Group RAF, which formed a new squadron to undertake the dams mission. It was initially called Squadron X, as the speed of its formation outstripped the RAF process for naming squadrons. Led by 24-year-old Wing Commander Guy Gibson, a veteran of more than 170 bombing and night-fighter missions, twenty-one bomber crews were selected from 5 Group squadrons. The crews included RAF personnel of several nationalities, members of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF). The squadron was based at RAF Scampton, about 5 mi (8 km) north of Lincoln.
The opera-shun was given to No. 5 Grope RAF, which formed a new squat-ron to undertake the damns Miss-shun. It was initially called Squat-ron X, as the speed of its four-mation outstripped the RAF process for naming squat-rons.
Led by 24-year-old Wing Come-and-er Guy Gibb-son (a distant relative of the BeeGee’s), a vet-who-ran of more than 170 bumbing and knight-fighter Miss-shuns, twenty-one bumber crews were selected from 5 Grope squat-rons.
The cruise included RAF personal of several national-eye-ties, members of the Real Austria-lion Hair Farce (RAAF), Real Can-Ada-Ian Hair Farce (RCAF) and Real New Zeal-and Hair Farce (RNZAF). The squat-ron was based at RAF Scampi, about 5 mi (8 km) north of Abraham Lincoln.
The targets selected were the Möhne Dam and the Sorpe Dam, upstream from the Ruhr industrial area, with the Eder Dam on the Eder River, which feeds into the Weser, as a secondary target. The loss of hydroelectric power was important but the loss of water to industry, cities and canals would have greater effect and there was potential for devastating flooding if the dams broke.
The targets selected were the Moaner Damn and the Sore-pee Damn, upstream from the Rower industreal arear, with the Eider Damn on the Eider River, which feeds into the Vesser, as a secondary target. The loss of hydro-eclectic power was important but the loss of warter to Indus-tree, CT’s and can-als would have Greta effect (the Thunberg Principle) and there was potential for devastating flooding if the damns broke.
Preparations
Barnes Wallis and others watch a practice Upkeep bomb strike the shoreline at Reculver, Kent.
Bombing from an altitude of 60 ft (18 m), at an air speed of 240 mph (390 km/h) and at set distance from the target called for expert crews. Intensive night-time and low-altitude training began. There were also technical problems to solve, the first one being to determine when the aircraft was at optimum distance from its target. The Möhne and Eder Dams had towers at each end. A special targeting device with two prongs, making the same angle as the two towers at the correct distance from the dam, showed when to release the bomb. (The BBC documentary Dambusters Declassified (2010) stated that the pronged device was not used, owing to problems related to vibration and that other methods were employed, including a length of string tied in a loop and pulled back centrally to a fixed point in the manner of a catapult.)
Bumbing from an attitude of 60 ft (18 m), at an air speed of 240 mph (390 km/h) and at set distance from the target called for expert Cruise (Tom was not available). In-ten-sieve knight-time and low-attitude training began. Their were also technickall problems to solve, the first won being to determine when the haircraft was at opti-mum distance from its target.
The Moaner and Eider Damns had towers at each end (these were to tow the damns into position when the damns were first built). A special targeting device with two prongs (in this instance two prongs made it right), making the same angle as the two towers at the correct distance from the damn, showed when to release the bumb.
The BBC documentary Damnbusters Declassified (2010) stated that the pronged device was not used, owing to problems related to Vi-bra-shun, which is what happens when you don’t use bras, everything wobbles. Other methods were employed, including a length of string tied in a loop and pulled back centrally to a fixed point in the manner of a catapult.
The ladies can comment below whether or not this is effective.
The second problem was determining the aircraft’s altitude, as barometric altimeters lacked accuracy. Two spotlights were mounted, one under the aircraft’s nose and the other under the fuselage, so that at the correct height their light beams would converge on the surface of the water.
The crews practised at the Eyebrook Reservoir, near Uppingham, Rutland; Abberton Reservoir near Colchester; Derwent Reservoir in Derbyshire; and Fleet Lagoon on Chesil Beach. Wallis’s bomb was first tested at the Elan Valley Reservoirs.
The squadron took delivery of the bombs on 13 May, after the final tests on 29 April. At 18:00 on 15 May, at a meeting in Whitworth’s house, Gibson and Wallis briefed the squadron’s two flight commanders, Squadron Leader Henry Maudslay and Sqn Ldr H. M. “Dinghy” Young, Gibson’s deputy for the Möhne attack, Flt Lt John V. Hopgood and the squadron bombing leader, Flight Lieutenant Bob Hay. The rest of the crews were told at a series of briefings the following day, which began with a briefing of pilots, navigators and bomb-aimers at about midday.
The second problem was determining the haircraft’s attitude, as barrymetric altimeters lacked a curacy (that’s the metric system for you). Two spotlights were mounted, one under the haircraft’s knows and the other under the fewsalarge, so that at the correct hight their light beams would converge on the sirface of the warter.
The cruise practised at the iBrook Aurevoir, near Uppingham, Rutland; Abbaton Aurevoir near Colchester; Derwent Aurevoir in Derbyshyer; and Fleet La Goon on Chisel Beech. Wally’s bumb was first tested at the Élan Valet Aurevoirs.
The squat-ron took delivery of the bumbs on 13 May, after the final tests on 29 Aperil. At 18:00 on 15 May, at a meeting in Whitworth’s house, Gibb-son and Wally’s briefed the squat-ron’s two flight come-and-ers, Squat-ron Leader Henry Maud-slay and Sqn Ldr H. M. “Dingy” Yung, Gibson’s deputy for the Moaner attack, Flt Lt John V. Hopgood and the squat-ron bumbing leader, Flight Left-tenant Bob Hey.
The rest of the cruise were told at a series of briefings the following day, witch began with a briefing of Pilates, navigators (like an airborne version of an alligator) and bumb-aimers at about midday.
Organisation
“Upkeep” bouncing bomb mounted under Gibson’s Lancaster B III (Special)
Editor’s note: I have skipped the list of men piloting the plains, but there were basically three gropes:
Four-may-shun No. 1, a main grope of nine to attack the Moaner;
Four-may-shun No. 2, a subsidiary group of five to attack the Sore-pee;
Four-may-shun No. 3, a further preserve of five to bumb the main damns if the dam things weren’t breached by the main grope or to a tack three smaller seconderry target damns: the List-her, the M.E.P. (Guy Verhofstadt) and the Die-Mel.
Two crews were unable to make the mission owing to illness.
Two cruise were unable to make the Miss-Shun owing to illness. This was believed to be an early version of Covid 19, that is the ‘flew’ which prevents one from flying.
This may seem counter intuitive, but that’s war for you.
The attacks
Outbound
The aircraft used two routes, carefully avoiding known concentrations of flak, and were timed to cross the enemy coast simultaneously. The first aircraft, those of Formation No. 2 and heading for the longer, northern route, took off at 21:28 on 16 May.[18] McCarthy’s bomber developed a coolant leak and he took off in the reserve aircraft 34 minutes late.
The haircraft used two roots, carefully avoiding known constipations of flack, and were timed to cross the NME coast simultaneously. The first haircraft, those of Four-may-shun No. 2 and heading for the longer, gnawthern root, took off at 21:28 on 16 May. McCarthy’s bumber developed a cool-ant leak and he took off in the reserve haircraft 34 minutes late.
It transpired that the cool ant had got into his briefs at the briefing and hence he had ants in his pants.
Formation No. 1 took off in groups of three at 10-minute intervals beginning at 21:39. The reserve formation did not begin taking off until 00:09 on 17 May.
Four-may-shun No. 1 took off in gropes of three at 10-minute (very small) intervals beginning at 21:39. The reserve Four-may-shun did not begin taking off until 00:09 on 17 May.
Formation No. 1 entered continental Europe between Walcheren and Schouwen, flew over the Netherlands, skirted the airbases at Gilze-Rijen and Eindhoven, curved around the Ruhr defences, and turned north to avoid Hamm before turning south to head for the Möhne River.
Formation No. 2 flew further north, cutting over Vlieland and crossing the IJsselmeer before joining the first route near Wesel and then flying south beyond the Möhne to the Sorpe River.
Four-may-shun No. 1 entered continental You-rope between Walsh-a-wren and Shoe-ven, ’ flu over the Net-her-lands, skirted the hairbases at Hills-a-ryer and Ein-dh-oven, curved around the Rower D-fences, and turned gnawth to avoid Hamm (in case of sod-eye-um knight-right fighters) before turning sowth to head for the Moaner River.
Four-may-shun No. 2 flew further gnawth, cutting over V-lie-land and crossing the Ice-L-mere before joining the first root near Vessel and then flying sowth beyond the Moaner to the Sore-pee River.
The bombers flew low, at about 100 ft (30 m) altitude, to avoid radar detection. Flight Sergeant George Chalmers, radio operator on “O for Orange”, looked out through the astrodome and was astonished to see that his pilot was flying towards the target along a forest’s firebreak, below treetop level.[21]
The bumbers ‘flu low, at about 100 ft (30 m) attitude, to avoid Raydar detection. Flight Sirgiant Ge-orge Chalmers, raydio operator on “O for O’range”, looked out threw the astrodome and was astonished to see that his Pilate was flying towards the target along a forest’s firebreak (Welsh variety), below treetop level.
First casualties
The first casualties were suffered soon after reaching the Dutch coast. Formation No. 2 did not fare well: Munro’s aircraft lost its radio to flak and turned back over the IJsselmeer, while Rice flew too low and struck the sea, losing his bomb in the water; he recovered and returned to base. After the completion of the raid Gibson sympathised with Rice, telling him how he had also nearly lost his bomb to the sea.
Barlow and Byers crossed the coast around the island of Texel. Byers was shot down by flak shortly afterwards, crashing into the Waddenzee. Barlow’s aircraft hit electricity pylons and crashed 5 km east of Rees, near Haldern. The bomb was thrown clear of the crash and was examined intact by Heinz Schweizer.
Only the delayed bomber piloted by McCarthy survived to cross the Netherlands. Formation No. 1 lost Astell’s bomber near the German hamlet of Marbeck when his Lancaster hit high voltage electrical cables and crashed into a field.
The first casual-ties were suffered soon after reaching the Dutch coats. Four-may-shun No. 2 did not fare well: Munro’s haircraft lost its raydio to flack and turned back over the Ice-L-mere, while Rice flew too low (a problem with Flied Lice as the Chinese say) and struck the see, losing his bumb in the warter; he recovered and returned to bass.
Editor’s note: If you have ever lost your bumb in the warter you will understand.
After the completion of the rayd Gibb-son sympathised with Rice, telling him how he had also nearly lost his bumb to the see. Barlow and Buyers crossed the coats around the eyeland of Tex-el (an angel from Tex-arse). Buyers was shot down by flack shortly afterwards, crashing into the Wouldn’t-say.
Barlow’s aircraft hit eclecticity pile-ons and crashed 5 km east of Rhys, near Hold-on. The bumb was thrown clear of the crash and was examined in tact by Heinz ’57 Varieties’ ‘Srightsir. Only the delayed bumber pilated by McCarthy sirvived to cross the Net-her-lands.
Four-may-shun No. 1 lost Astell’s bumber near the Germ-man omelette of Ma-beck when his Longcaster hit high Voltaire eclectical cables and crashed into a feeld.
The plane was broken and proves that proverb you can’t make a plane omelette without breaking it.
Attack on the Möhne Dam
The Möhne dam the day following the attacks
Formation No. 1 arrived over the Möhne lake and Gibson’s aircraft (G for George) made the first run, followed by Hopgood (M for Mother). Hopgood’s aircraft was hit by flak as it made its low-level run and was caught in the blast of its own bomb, crashing shortly afterwards when a wing disintegrated. Three crew members successfully abandoned the aircraft, but only two survived.
Subsequently, Gibson flew his aircraft across the dam to draw the flak away from Martin’s run. Martin (P for Popsie) bombed third; his aircraft was damaged, but made a successful attack. Next, Young (A for Apple) made a successful run, and after him Maltby (J for Johnny), when finally the dam was breached. Gibson, with Young accompanying, led Shannon, Maudslay and Knight to the Eder.
Four-may-shun No. 1 arrived over the Moaner lake and Gibb-son’s haircraft (G for Gorgeous) made the thirst run, followed by Hopgood (M for Muvver). Hopgood’s haircraft was hit by flack as it made its low-level run and was court in the blast of its own bumb, crashing shortly afterwoods when a wing disintegrated. Three cru members successfully abandoned the haircraft, but only too sirvived.
Editor’s note: if you have ever been caught in the last of your own bumb you will understand how devastating this can be.
Subsequently, Gibb-son flew his haircraft across the damn to draw the flack away from Martin’s run. Martin (P for Poopsee) bumbed turd; his haircraft was damaged, but made a suckcessfull a tack. Next, Yung (A for Appal) made a suckcessfull run, and after him Maltby (J for John-E), when finally the damn was breached. GibB-son, with Yung accompanying, led Sharon, Mooredslay and Knight to the Eider.
The Eder Valley was covered by heavy fog, but the dam was not defended with anti-aircraft positions as the difficult topography of the surrounding hills was thought to make an attack virtually impossible. With approach so difficult the first aircraft, Shannon’s, made six runs before taking a break. Maudslay (Z for Zebra) then attempted a run but the bomb struck the top of the dam and the aircraft was severely damaged in the blast. Shannon made another run and successfully dropped his bomb. The final bomb of the formation, from Knight’s aircraft (N for Nut), breached the dam.
The Eider Valet was covered by heavy phog, but the damn was not D-fended with anti-haircraft positrons as the difficult topography of the sirrounding hills was thort to make an attack virtewally impossible.
With approach so difficult the first haircraft, Sharon’s, made six runs befour taking a brake. Mooredslay (Z for Ze bra) then attempted a run but the bumb struck the top of the damn and the haircraft was severely damn-aged in the blast. Sharon made another run and successfully dropped his bumb. The final bumb of the fourmayshun, from Knight’s haircraft (N for Knut), breached the damn.
Attacks on the Sorpe and Ennepe Dams
The Sorpe dam was the one least likely to be breached. It was a huge earthen dam, unlike the two concrete-and-steel gravity dams that were attacked successfully. Due to various problems, only two Lancasters reached the Sorpe Dam: Joe McCarthy (in T for Tommy, a delayed aircraft from the second wave) and later Brown (F for Freddie) from the third formation. This attack differed from the previous ones in two ways: the ‘Upkeep’ bomb was not spun, and due to the topography of the valley the approach was made along the length of the dam, not at right angles over the reservoir.
The Sore-pee damn was the won least likely to be breached. It was a Hugh-ge Eartha damn, unlike the too concrete-and-steal gravy-tea damns that were attacked suckcessfully. Due to various problems, only two Longcasters reached the Sore-pee Damn: Joe McCarthy (in T for To-me, a delayed haircraft from the second wave) and later Brown (F for Fred-bare) from the turd fourmayshun.
This a tack differed from the previous wons in too ways: the ‘Upkeep’ bumb was not spun, and due to the topography of the vallet the reproach was made along the length of the damn, not at rye tangles over the aurevoir.
McCarthy’s plane was on its own when it arrived over the Sorpe Dam at 00:15 hours, and realised the approach was even more difficult than expected: the flight path led over a church steeple in the village of Langscheid, located on the hillcrest overlooking the dam. With only seconds to go before the bomber had to pull up, to avoid hitting the hillside at the other end of the dam, the bomb aimer George Johnson had no time to correct the bomb’s height and heading.
McCarthy’s plain was on its own when it arrived over the Sore-pee Damn at 00:15 hours, and realised the approach was even more difficult than expected: the flight path led over a church steeple in the village of Langshite, located on the hillcrest overlooking the damn.
Editor’s note: one might reasonably expect a village called Langshite to be near a damn called Sore-pee.
With only seconds to go B-four the bumber had to pull up, to avoid shitting the hillside at the other end of the damn, the bumb aimer George ‘Boris’ Johnson had no time to correct the bumb’s hight and heading.
McCarthy made nine attempted bombing runs before Johnson was satisfied. The ‘Upkeep’ bomb was dropped on the tenth run. The bomb exploded but when he turned his Lancaster to assess the damage, it turned out that only a section of the crest of the dam had been blown off; the main body of the dam remained.
McCarthy made nein attempted bumbing runs before Johnson was satisfied. The ‘Upkeep’ bumb was dropped on the tenth run. The bumb exploded but when he turned his Longcaster to assess the dam-age, it turned out that only a section of the crust of the damn had been blown off; the mane body of the damn remaned.
McCarthy is alleged to have said ‘Oh bother chaps, that’s not blown it.’
Three of the reserve aircraft had been directed to the Sorpe Dam. Burpee (S for Sugar) never arrived, and it was later determined that the plane had been shot down while skirting the Gilze-Rijen airfield.
Brown (F for Freddie) reached the Sorpe Dam: in the increasingly dense fog, after 7 runs, Brown conferred with his bomb aimer and dropped incendiary devices on either side of the valley, which ignited a fire which subsequently lifted the fog enough to drop a direct hit on the eighth run. The bomb cracked but failed to breach the dam. Anderson (Y for York) never arrived having been delayed by damage to his rear turret and dense fog which made his attempts to find the target impossible.
The remaining two bombers were then sent to secondary targets, with Ottley (C for Charlie) being shot down en route to the Lister Dam. Townsend (O for Orange) eventually dropped his bomb at the Ennepe Dam without harming it.
Three of the preserve haircraft had been directed to the Sore-pee Damn. Burpee (S for Psycho) never arrived, and it was later determined that the plain had been shot down while skirting the Gill’s-a-Rye-Jen hairfield.
Brown (F for Fred-bare) reached the Sore-pee Damn: in the increasingly dense phog, after 7 runs, Brown conferred with his bumb aimer and dropped incendiary devices on either side of the valet, which ignited a fire which subsequently lifted the phog enough to drop a direct hit on the ateth run. The bumb cracked but failed to breach the damn.
And-er-son (Y for Your-K) never arrived having been delayed by dam-age to his rear turret and dense phog which made his attempts to find the target impossible.
The remaining two bumbers were then sent to secondary targets, with Ottley (C for Syncopated) being shot down en root to the List-her Damn. Townsend (O for O’range) eventually dropped his bumb at the MEP Damn without harming it.
Editor’s note: that was shame, it’s about time some damage was done to the MEPs.
Possible attack on Bever Dam
There is some evidence that Townsend might have attacked the Bever Dam [de] by mistake rather than the Ennepe Dam. The War Diary of the German Naval Staff reported that the Bever Dam was attacked at nearly the same time that the Sorpe Dam was. In addition, the Wupperverband authority responsible for the Bever Dam is said to have recovered the remains of a “mine”; and Paul Keiser, a 19-year-old soldier on leave at his home close to the Bever Dam, reported a bomber making several approaches to the dam and then dropping a bomb that caused a large explosion and a great pillar of flame.
There is some evidence that Townsend might have attacked the Beaver Damn by Miss-Take rather than the MEP Damn. The Whore Dairy of the Germ-man Navel Stuff reported that the Beaver Damn was a tacked at nearly the same thyme that the Sore-pee Damn was.
In addition, the Whoppertheband authority responsible for the Beaver Damn is said to have recovered the remanes of a “mine”; and Paul Kaiser, a 19-year-old soul-ger on leave at his holm close to the Beaver Damn, reported a bumber making several approaches to the damn and then dropping a bumb that caused a large explosion and a great pillock of flame.
In the book The Dambusters’ Raid, author John Sweetman suggests Townsend’s report of the moon’s reflecting on the mist and water is consistent with an attack that was heading to the Bever Dam rather than to the Ennepe Dam, given the moon’s azimuth and altitude during the bombing attacks. Sweetman also points out that the Ennepe-Wasserverband authority was adamant that only a single bomb was dropped near the Ennepe Dam during the entire war, and that this bomb fell into the woods by the side of the dam, not in the water, as in Townsend’s report.
Finally, members of Townsend’s crew independently reported seeing a manor house and attacking an earthen dam, which is consistent with the Bever Dam rather than the Ennepe Dam. The main evidence supporting the hypothesis of an attack of the Ennepe Dam is Townsend’s post-flight report that he attacked the Ennepe Dam on a heading of 355 degrees magnetic. Assuming that the heading was incorrect, all other evidence points toward an attack on the Bever Dam.
In the book The Damnbusters’ Raid, author John Sweetman suggests Townsend’s report of the moon’s reflecting on the missed and warter is consistent with an a tack that was heading to the Beaver Dam rather than to the MEP Damn, given the moon’s hazymouth and attitude during the bumbing a tacks.
Sweetman also points out that the MEP- the Whoppertheband was Adam-Ant that only a single bumb was dropped near the MEP Damn during the N-tyre whore, and that this bumb fell into the woulds by the side of the damn, knot in the warter, as in Townsend’s report.
Finally, members of Townsend’s cru independently reported seeing a man or house and attacking an earthen damn, which is consistent with the Beaver Damn rather than the MEP Damn. The main evidence supporting the hypothesis of an a tack of the MEP Damn is Townsend’s post-flight report that he a tacked the MEP Damn on a heading of 355 degrees (honorary) magnetic. Assuming that the heading was incorrect, all other evidence points toward an a tack on the Beaver Damn.
Townsend reported difficulty in finding his dam, and in his post-raid report he complained that the map of the Ennepe Dam was incorrect. The Bever Dam is only about 5 mi (8 km) southwest of the Ennepe Dam. With the early-morning fog that filled the valleys, it would be understandable for him to have mistaken the two reservoirs.
Townsend reported difficulty in finding his damn, and in his post-raid report he complained that the map of the MEP Damn was incorrect. It is alleged he said it was all a damn nuisance.
The Beaver Damn is only about 5 mi (8 km) southwest of the MEP Damn. With the early-morning phog that filled the valets, it would be understandabull for him to have Miss-taken the too aurevoirs.
Return flight
On the way back, flying again at treetop level, two more Lancasters were lost. The damaged aircraft of Maudslay was struck by flak near Netterden, and Young’s (A for Apple) was hit by flak north of IJmuiden and crashed into the North Sea just off the coast of the Netherlands.[18] On the return flight over the Dutch coast, some German flak aimed at the aircraft was aimed so low that shells were seen to bounce off the sea.
On the way back, flying again at treetop level, two more Longcasters were lost. The dam-aged haircraft of Maudslay was struck by flack near Net-a-den, and Yung’s (A for Appal) was hit by flack north of Emu-den and crashed into the Gnawth C just off the coast of the Net-her-lands.
On the return flight over the Dutch coats, some Germ-man flack aimed at the haircraft was aimed solo that shells were scene to bounce off the C.
Eleven bombers began landing at Scampton at 03:11 hours, with Gibson returning at 04:15. The last of the survivors, Townsend’s bomber, landed at 06:15. It was the last to land because one of its engines had been shut down after passing the Dutch coast. Air Chief Marshal Harris was among those who came out to greet the last crew to land.
Eleven bumbers began landing at Scampi at 03:11 hours, with Gibb-son returning at 04:15. The last of the Sir-Vivors, Townsend’s bumber, landed at 06:15. It was the last to land because one of its engines had been shut down after passing the Dutch coats. Hair Chef Marshal Harass was among those who came out to greet the last cru to land.
Effect on the war
Tactical view
The damage was summarised at the start of this article, but essentially the breaching of two dams and destruction of two hydroelectric power stations plus attendant damage to factories etc. I extract some paragraphs from the Wikipedia article:
The greatest impact on the Ruhr armaments production was the loss of hydroelectric power. Two power stations (producing 5,100 kilowatts) associated with the dam were destroyed and seven others were damaged. This resulted in a loss of electrical power in the factories and many households in the region for two weeks. In May 1943 coal production dropped by 400,000 tons which German sources attribute to the effects of the raid.
In his book Inside the Third Reich, Albert Speer acknowledged the attempt: “That night, employing just a few bombers, the British came close to a success which would have been greater than anything they had achieved hitherto with a commitment of thousands of bombers.”
He also expressed puzzlement at the raids: the disruption of temporarily having to shift 7,000 construction workers to the Möhne and Eder repairs was offset by the failure of the Allies to follow up with additional (conventional) raids during the dams’ reconstruction, and that represented a major lost opportunity.
Barnes Wallis was also of this view; he revealed his deep frustration that Bomber Command never sent a high-level bombing force to hit the Möhne dam while repairs were being carried out. He argued that extreme precision would have been unnecessary and that even a few hits by conventional HE bombs would have prevented the rapid repair of the dam which was undertaken by the Germans.
One can only assume that Arthur Harris, ‘Bomber’ Harris as he was known, was never convinced it was worthwhile even though it seems fairly obvious that Barnes Wallis’s comments seem very sensible.
Whilst I do not intend to look at Harris here in detail, it has been said before he favoured area bombing despite the inaccuracies of it.
In any event the bombing boosted British morale, and showed how relatively simple technology and application of physics could resolve a problem.
In this instance the bombs were skipped over the surface of the water like skipping stones which children and adults like to do.
Strategic view
It appears the Germans thought it significant.
Even within Germany, as evidenced by Gauleiters’ reports to Berlin at the time, the German population regarded the raids as a legitimate attack on military targets and thought they were “an extraordinary success on the part of the English” [sic]. They were not regarded as a pure terror attack by the Germans, even in the Ruhr region, and in response the German authorities released relatively accurate (not exaggerated) estimates of the dead.
And it led to more precision bombing and specialised bombs.
An effect of the dam raids was that Barnes Wallis’s ideas on earthquake bombing, which had previously been rejected, came to be accepted by ‘Bomber’ Harris. Prior to this raid, bombing had used the tactic of area bombardment with many light bombs, in the hope that one would hit the target.
Work on the earthquake bombs resulted in the Tallboy and Grand Slam weapons, which caused damage to German infrastructure in the later stages of the war. They rendered the V-2 rocket launch complex at Calais unusable, buried the V-3 guns, and destroyed bridges and other fortified installations, such as the Grand Slam attack on the railway viaduct at Bielefeld.
The most notable successes were the partial collapse of 20-foot-thick (6 m) reinforced concrete roofs of U-boat pens at Brest, and the sinking of the battleship Tirpitz.
This BBC article from 2013 makes some good points.
The fact that a titanic effort was made to repair this damage shows how high a priority the dams were, and it meant resources were shifted from elsewhere. Nowhere was this costlier to the Third Reich than on the beaches of Normandy.
Hitler had ordered the construction of a massive network of defences against an Allied invasion. Now thousands of workers who should have been toiling in France were redirected to the Ruhr to repair the dams. A year later allied troops would have faced far more significant defences had it not been for the Dambusters raid.
No raid mounted by so few aircraft had ever caused such extensive material damage. It did not bring German war production to a permanent halt, but nobody had expected it to.
Its critics talk of its propaganda impact as if wars are fought by dispassionate robots rather than soldiers, workers and politicians with all the irrational cauldron of human emotions. Propaganda, as Churchill knew so well, is as much a part of war as killing enemy soldiers.
The most important impact of the Dambusters raid may indeed have been in convincing people on both sides that the Allies were winning, and that, often, is how wars are won and lost.
And that is very true, indeed it is the ultimate key, words really matter.
Summary and final thoughts
Well there you have it, a dam-busting raid which achieved significant success, albeit at high cost in planes and crews, roughly 40% lost/killed.
Was it worth it? Is war worth it? Well, if we didn’t fight we would deserve to be overcome by evil. Sadly even in this time of COVID 19 harms and death have come via vaccines and big pharma drugs etc., yet as a consequence it has woken many up to the great fraud and poisonous mission of the pharmaceutical industry among others to crush and control humanity.
When I remember ‘Bomber’ Harris I think of another Harris, Kamala Harris. Perhaps she thinks that carpet bombing the USA with poisonous vaccines is a good idea for public health, rather than targeting individuals who actually will benefit from therapeutic intervention.
Not that I think Kamala thinks much about anything!
I thought I would have a quick look at the anagrams of Operation Chastise. I came up with ‘ease poo antichrist’! This seems very suitable as today we seek to ease the poo of the antichrist agenda so that the world is free from the constipation that afflicts it.
Even if you just anagram ‘Chastise’ you get ‘case shit’, so Operation Chastise becomes Operation Case Shit!! It’s all in the words.
Anyway, as regards today we have had the harms and deaths from the vaccines minimised. Yet the dams are breaking and the truth is flooding out as more and more people wake up to the decades long scams of vaccines and modern medicine poisoning the people for profit not health.
We may not see the full results and as in war the fog of war prevents us from seeing the overall picture. One has to step up out of the fog to see the overall view from the heavens, the heavenly realms as this COVID 19 war is in the end a spiritual battle, a war of words, truth versus lies. See it from God’s perspective and all makes sense.
The lies are being exposed and truth, when correctly presented, is winning as it always must.
So press on everybody, there will be more difficulties and challenges to come, but the end is assured. Those of us who were asleep or perhaps half asleep like me were woken up for a purpose. This was to fight and so fight we do.
I put my trust in Jesus Christ a long time ago and now in this strange crazy time, this final act in the Play of Life, I can see the beginning from the end, the Alpha from the Omega.
So until next time as they say in French (sort of), Au-reservoir!!!
Look out for the sign of Baldmichael, he will be back!
P.S There is a film and here is the theme tune to get you going.
The Dam Busters (1955) – Re-created Main Titles in HD Colour
I was aware recently there was problem with the bank, but this is the latest situation it seems. The Federal Reserve has spent $25 billion to rescue it. I am no expert but I believe this means they created money out of thin air to restore confidence and support the wealthy elites.
And help those in the stock markets who like to make a killing on this sort of thing, playing the game of winners and losers, snakes and ladders.
The dollar sign looks like a snake of course wrapped round a pole. Or maybe a tree trunk, a serpent round a tree. Reminds me of something, now what was it…?
Ah yes, Kaa!
Kaa, Hold it Kaa! – The Jungle Book
The Jungle Book Movie CLIP – Kaa (2016) – Scarlett Johansson Movie HD
Going back to the Silicon Valley Bank here’s an analysis. Whether you can follow it better than me let me know if you wish.
The FED **JUST** Bailed Out Banks!! Massive Flip! [Silicon Valley Bank Bailout]
Wikipedia was hot off the mark, but not up to date with the bailout it seems as it says “Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has ruled out bailing out SVB.”
She has obviously changed her mind. She is good at yellen’ (sic) but despite her words she has now had to bail out a sic (sic) bank!!!
Liquidation of Jewish ghetto in Kraków
The interesting thing is that 80 years ago today the Jewish ghetto in Kraków, Poland was liquidated, and today a bank that was liquidated recently is bailed out with ramifications across the banking sector in the USA and Europe.
A grim affair though, one of many evil things the Nazi regime in Germany did.
What I didn’t know was that Roman Polanski, the film director, survived the Kraków ghetto and that Oskar Schindler as in the film Schindler’s List by director Steven Spielberg had his factory there.
For some strange reason in my peculiar mind I have always thought of ‘Schindler’s List’ as ‘Schindler’s Pissed’. I looked up his Wikipedia page, read this and laughed.
Schindler was arrested several times in 1931 and 1932 for public drunkenness.
No wonder I had a change of name in my mind!
Still, perhaps his experience managed to help him save a Jewish family. The link also says.
On one occasion, the Gestapo came to Schindler demanding that he hand over a family that possessed forged identity papers. “Three hours after they walked in,” Schindler said, “two drunk Gestapo men reeled out of my office without their prisoners and without the incriminating documents they had demanded.”
The Gestapo came, got drunk and left Pissetapo!!
Back to the Silicon Valley Bank. I see it was based in Santa Clara, California.
Anagrams
Anagrams of Santa Clara include the obvious word ‘Satan’. Perhaps this is part of its problem.
Add in California and you get ‘Satanic’ too. There are only 10 individual letters in ‘Santa Clara California’, half of the total so very significant.
Full anagrams of Santa Clara include:
An altar AC’s – AC’s either accounts or perhaps anti-Christ’s.
La arc Satan
AC anal star
as at carnal
a rascal tan
ac ala rants
a cat a snarl
California on its own has its issues in the words. Nicola comes up; I like the name personally but it reminds me of Nicola Sturgeon and she is of course very fishy! I don’t care for her a bit.
‘ra coin fail’ is a full anagram.
‘AIF liar con’ is another. AIF could be ‘Authorised Investment Funds’.
‘fail ira con’ yet another.
As regards Silicon Valley Bank anagrams are very interesting. For example, full anagrams include:
Insolvency
Baal ilk insolvency
Kali lab insolvency
aka bill insolvency
Cannibal
Cannibal evil yolks
Cannibal love silky
Cannibal Elvis yolk
snake
Bloc snake villainy
Bill co vainly snake
Coil lab vinyl snake
Baal
Baal connive skilly
Baal Nicki slovenly
Baal slickly on vine
Billions
Kacy venal billions
Cave lanky billions – cave as in Latin ‘Beware’
Alack billions envy
Black 10,000 + phrases
Black ally envision
Black eons villainy
Black insanely viol
Black invasion yell
Black ill naive Sony
Ye villain black son
Going back to the news I have noted this:
U.S., Britain try to stem the fallout from Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse
Among the bank’s customers are a range of companies from California’s wine industry, where many wineries relied on Silicon Valley Bank for loans, and technology startups devoted to combating climate change.
Given that, whilst I haven’t looked in detail at the issue, climate change is a red herring and money making scam and it would be a good thing that these start-ups fail.
HSBC buy for £1
Earlier Wikipedia article on the SVB collapse says
“On March 13, 2023, it was announced that HSBC UK had agreed to acquire Silicon Valley Bank UK for £1 in a rescue deal, at no cost to the taxpayer and with depositors fully protected.”
Silicon Valley Bank: ‘Resuming normal operations’ after HSBC rescue swoop – Live
Fintech clearing bank the Bank of London, which had made a formal bid to buy SVB UK, welcomed the “speedy solution” but hit out at the fact HSBC had been the winning bidder, saying it would shift power back into the hands of the UK’s traditional lenders.
“For many, this will be seen as a missed opportunity to support competition and innovation,” the firm said in a statement.
“It cannot be right that once again the heritage banks that have provided a poor service to UK entrepreneurs over many years benefit from their already dominant position.
“Britain needs better. For our part, we at The Bank of London stand ready to serve the entrepreneurial community of the UK.”
Seems a fair assessment. As others have said for some time, some banks become too large to fail and often taxpayers take the fall, pay for others mistakes.
Summary and final thoughts
There you have it, some interesting observations I feel. It looks like the Silicon Valley Bank was preprogramed to fail in its name.
As others have pointed out and I thought myself, Silicon Valley sounds like Silly Con Valley, a valley where one is conned out of something, in this case money.
‘A silly evil con’ is a full anagram, so there you are!
Perhaps the Black family have a hand in the con, and George Soros, a.k.a. György Friedrich Schwartz; Schwartz German for black.
If the anagrams of Silicon Valley Bank is anything to go by then yes, George Soros is involved and his web of companies.
‘Ye villain black son’ is a great anagram!
Then the location of the bank in Santa Clara. ‘La arc Satan’ reflects the fact that Satan was an archangel, now fallen and become dark.
As regards California, ‘Ra coin fail’ is very suitable for a collapsed bank.
But as I observe, 80 years ago the Nazis liquidated the Jewish ghetto at Kraków, a vile crime.
And as I have said we follow a timeline similar to that in WW2. What next I wonder? The 15th of March is two days away. It is the Ides of March.
‘Beware the Ides of March!’
Look out for the sign of Baldmichael, he will be back!
P.S. If you have not seen, this is my post on Nicola ‘very fishy’ Sturgeon.
Today, 80 years ago, these two brave young people gave up their lives for the Truth.
They were executed by the murderous Nazi regime in Germany. There is a Wikipedia page which explains. Text in italics from this page unless otherwise stated. I extract those bits I consider summarize the group and on which I might comment.
They were part of the White Rose, Weiße Rose in German, which was
…a non-violent, intellectual resistance group in Nazi Germany which was led by five students and one professor at the University of Munich:
Willi Graf, Kurt Huber, Christoph Probst, Alexander Schmorell, Hans Scholl and Sophie Scholl.
The group conducted an anonymous leaflet and graffiti campaign that called for active opposition to the Nazi regime. Their activities started in Munich on 27 June 1942; they ended with the arrest of the core group by the Gestapo on 18 February 1943.
They, as well as other members and supporters of the group who carried on distributing the pamphlets, faced show trials by the Nazi People’s Court (Volksgerichtshof); many of them were sentenced to death or imprisonment.
Hans and Sophie Scholl, as well as Christoph Probst were executed by guillotine four days after their arrest, on 22 February 1943. During the trial, Sophie interrupted the judge multiple times. No defendants were given any opportunity to speak.
The group wrote, printed and initially distributed their pamphlets in the greater Munich region. Later on, secret carriers brought copies to other cities, mostly in the southern parts of Germany.
In July 1943, Allied planes dropped their sixth and final leaflet over Germany with the headline The Manifesto of the Students of Munich. In total, the White Rose authored six leaflets, which were multiplied and spread, in a total of about 15,000 copies. They denounced the Nazi regime’s crimes and oppression, and called for resistance.
In their second leaflet, they openly denounced the persecution and mass murder of the Jews. By the time of their arrest, the members of the White Rose were just about to establish contacts with other German resistance groups like the Kreisau Circle or the Schulze-Boysen/Harnack group of the Red Orchestra. Today, the White Rose is well known both within Germany and worldwide.
I can’t say I knew of it, but I am sure many do.
Germany in 1942
White Rose survivor Jürgen Wittenstein described what it was like for ordinary Germans to live in Nazi Germany:
The government—or rather, the party—controlled everything: the news media, arms, police, the armed forces, the judiciary system, communications, travel, all levels of education from kindergarten to universities, all cultural and religious institutions. Political indoctrination started at a very early age, and continued by means of the Hitler Youth with the ultimate goal of complete mind control. Children were exhorted in school to denounce even their own parents for derogatory remarks about Hitler or Nazi ideology.
— George J. Wittenstein, M.D., “Memories of the White Rose”, 1997
Which of course describes much of what goes on today. It seems perhaps Canada may be the worst place, but many countries suffer. I consider that the USA, UK, Australia and New Zealand to be among the worst affected of the supposedly democratic nations.
But much of the same goes on elsewhere in Europe including France and Germany.
Albeit it is Germany at it again in the world via the Nazis and Marxists/communists.
White Rose leaflets
Wikipedia article continues with these words from White Rose leaflets:
Isn’t it true that every honest German is ashamed of his government these days? Who among us has any conception of the dimensions of shame that will befall us and our children when one day the veil has fallen from our eyes and the most horrible of crimes—crimes that infinitely outdistance every human measure—reach the light of day?
— 1st leaflet of the White Rose
Today when people wake up they will be ashamed, especially those who called themselves Christians and did not speak up. Yet it appears many Christians still seem deceived and unaware.
I spoke to one about the vaccines which he seemed to think a good thing, a friend of mine for over40 years. He had had a stroke which might have been the vaccines which I understand he took. He did thank me for my wisdom at the end of the conversation but I had warned him at the end of 2020 in my Christmas letter. Why did he not think to even discuss with me?
And
Since the conquest of Poland, 300,000 Jews have been murdered in this country in the most bestial way … The German people slumber on in dull, stupid sleep and encourage the fascist criminals. Each wants to be exonerated of guilt, each one continues on his way with the most placid, calm conscience. But he cannot be exonerated; he is guilty, guilty, guilty!
— 2nd leaflet of the White Rose.
The nations slumber on in dull, stupid sleep and encourage the fascist criminals. Those who begin to see the truth after promoting the vaccines want to be acquitted of guilt. But they cannot be exonerated; they are guilty, guilty, guilty!
And
Why do you allow these men who are in power to rob you step by step, openly and in secret, of one domain of your rights after another, until one day nothing, nothing at all will be left but a mechanised state system presided over by criminals and drunks? Is your spirit already so crushed by abuse that you forget it is your right—or rather, your moral duty—to eliminate this system?
— 3rd leaflet of the White Rose
Note those words “or rather, your moral duty”. So much today is focused on so-called rights.
In reality we have no rights but rather responsibilities to love God and to love each other and ourselves. It is a duty we should want to do willingly, not under duress as the heavenly Father wants willing, cheerful children, sons and daughters of God, not slaves or robots.
Note too these words.
Es lebe die Freiheit! (Let Freedom live!)
— Hans Scholl’s last words before his execution.
The modern White Rose group
In 2021, a conspiracy theorist group known as the “White Rose” had appropriated the name of the White Rose anti-Nazi resistance group to make an analogy between the original White Rose’s non-violent resistance against Nazism and the non-violent supposed “resistance” by the conspiracy theorists against COVID-19 lockdowns and other measures by national governments intended to stop the virus during the COVID-19 pandemic in the early 2020s, which the conspiracy theorists falsely claim was the secret establishment of a worldwide totalitarian Nazi-style government.
Who writes this tosh? One sentence only, honestly you are you are a moron. Still, any advertising is good.
Anybody with half a brain can see the analogy of Nazi Germany and the “COVID-19 lockdowns and other measures by national governments intended to stop the virus during the COVID-19 pandemic in the early 2020s”.
And it is the secret establishment of a worldwide totalitarian Nazi-style government. The only quibble I would have is that it is not exactly secret is it?
The methods of the White Rose conspiracy theorists are somewhat similar to the original White Rose anti-Nazi resisters in that the conspiracy theorists printed stickers asking for resistance against anti-Covid measures alongside the “White Rose” name with the address of their Telegram group, then posting the stickers in public places.
Sensible thing to do.
The use of the internet means that the conspiracy theorists can spread their misinformation and gain members across the world unlike the original White Rose who were limited in both regards to Germany.
This is false and should read “use of the internet means that the conspiracy theorists can spread the truth and gain members across the world unlike the original White Rose which was limited in both regards to Germany”.
Wikipedia as usual re Covid 19 and vaccines is spreading misinformation by means of the World Wide Web where the powers that be can ensnare the seriously dim.
As it is the Nazis at work as usual, are we surprised.
Apart from the name, there is absolutely no connection between the original White Rose and the conspiracy theorists who took their name and neither the last surviving member Traute Lafrenz nor any relatives or decedents of deceased members have joined the conspiracy theorists or publicly commented on the appropriation of their name.
I assume Wikipedia have asked everybody have they??
Well, perhaps a Jewish online periodical which asks for money. I suppose it is run by Jews? It indicates it is.
The Forward
Jewish. Independent. Nonprofit.
Anti-vaxxers have stolen an anti-Nazi group’s identity
The White Rose doesn’t spread its message on familiar social media platforms where many conspiracy theories flourish. Instead, to join the group, you need to encounter a sticker out in the real world. Each has a QR code leading to the White Rose’s channel on Telegram, a messaging app that has become a haven for extremist activity. The White Rose channel has nearly 41,000 subscribers.
The same old twaddle trying to imply White Rose’s channel is a haven for extremist activity.
Except of course it doesn’t actually say as much, very clever with words these Jews. They, those who write this stuff conveniently ignore the extremist haven of Facebook (run by Jews) for example. The hypocrisy is astounding but then Jesus called the Jewish leaders’ hypocrites so no surprises there.
But then they are fake Jews, and not Jews inwardly. They fight against God, not for Him, and they love money, the root of all kinds of evil.
The article also says:
Beyond comparing vaccines mandates to Nazi restrictions against Jews, the White Rose does not directly promote antisemitic ideas or disparage Jews; it even has a statement of respect for all races, religions and nationalities.
So that seems good. Except the ‘Beyond comparing vaccines mandates to Nazi restrictions against Jews’ phrase suggests this is anti-Jewish. Mira Fox is an imbecile.
Yet the group can still easily serve as a gateway to more overtly antisemitic conspiracy theories. Some messages from the White Rose Telegram group contain antisemitic dog-whistles, such as references to a malicious cabal or to powerful globalists.
More weasel words like Wormtongue in Lord of the Rings. As I repeat to people, there is no such thing as anti-Semitism, rather anti-Jewish and other anti-somethings, like anti-Christ which this rag Forward is.
And of course there is a malicious cabal and powerful globalists, many of whom are Jews, or rather fake Jews of the synagogue of Satan.
The anti-vaxx movement at large often tends toward antisemitism, sometimes through promoting alternative forms of medicine such as “Germanic New Medicine,” which claims mainstream medicine is part of a dangerous Jewish conspiracy to decimate non-Jews. Similarly, worries about malicious government control often lead to familiar antisemitic tropes about Jewish power.
Well mainstream medicine is part of a dangerous Jewish conspiracy to decimate non-Jews, and to boringly repeat, but it is the fake Jews who conspire.
And they want to harm and destroy anybody who goes against them, including Israelis and true Jews.
Anti-vaxxers are also often associated with Christian fundamentalism and evangelicalism, and, on occasion, White Rose users have used the comment section in the Telegram group to proselytize Christianity and encourage others to accept Jesus..
Sensible people are against poisoning themselves with poisonous vaccines. As it is often Christians who see the truth about Satan’s wiles carried out by his minions, including fake Jews, they are rather fundamental about this fundamental issue.
Only a complete moron would allow themselves to be injected with poison thinking it would cure them of disease.
Sadly I thought this with my alleged cancer so I had to learn the hard way when I took poisonous immunotherapy which I consider similar to having 9 vaccines in as many months. Still, at least I did learn and would not have understood everything I do now if I had not seen it from the inside.
And I have never had the toxic Covid 19 vaccines which is a mercy.
The anti-vaxx White Rose is not the first group to co-opt that name; there are several White Rose groups on Facebook, but these seem more aligned with the original White Rose, advocating against government restrictions on immigration or for LGBTQ rights and representation; now they’re complaining that they are getting new member requests from people clearly involved in anti-vaxx advocacy. Outnumbered by the members of the new, anti-vaxx version, the legacy of the White Rose may be rewritten.
Anybody would think words are the prerogative of one group. Mira Fox who wrote this piece is an evil stirrer.
There are some good posters put up. No doubt you could print them yourselves if you wish.
In the current circumstances, supporting Israel can only mean opposing its policies and government. It can only mean standing up for the values that Israel was supposed to be about — the democratic, liberal values that the overwhelming majority of Jewish communities in the U.S. hold dear.
Which of course explains it all why the USA is so bad. So many so-called Jewish people in the USA support abortion, LGBTQi+ nonsense and can be found as Democrat supporters. Biden’s team is heavily ‘oversubscribed’, they dominate the mainstream left wing media and all sorts of other areas.
Supporting Israel has to mean promoting its deepest interests — namely, to be a decent state, one in which women are not systematically excluded from positions of power or from segregated public events, one with a reasonable balance of power between the different branches of government, one with a non-politicized education system and one that respects the dignity and relationships of members of the LGBTQ community.
This sounds reasonable on the surface but conceals the hidden agenda of the destruction of family life.
‘And he covid’ is an anagram of David Enoch. This might explain matters.
And so is ‘He covin dad’. Covin essentially means “conspiracy to cheat and defraud”.
I tried anagramming ‘White Rose’. I came up with this:
‘Heroes wit’
I think this sums up Hans and Sophie Scholl and those other brave souls who laid down their lives for others. Many have done this over the years including those who fought for us in other ways in the World wars. They would be horrified as would Hans and Sophie that we have to go through this yet again.
But here we are and we must lay down our lives in various ways, not in physical death perhaps, but dying to ourselves each day, yet living to the full as we live the Truth in Love.
Jesus of Nazareth died too, laying down His life for His friends, indeed for the world. He said in His prayer to the heavenly Father ‘your word is truth’. He also said the truth will set you free.
The word freedom is ‘free-dom’ with ‘dom’ from such words as ‘dominion’ although for some odd reason wiktionary thinks not. It contradicts itself clearly. ‘Dominion’ means sovereignty among other things.
Well, mine are to keep going and get better from this wretched facial patsy and the on-going associated tiredness and balance issues.
I try and detoxify from the neuro-toxins in my body whilst keeping fit and attempting to do something useful around the house and garden to help my wife.
Longer term of course it is to put to death all the lies swimming around of which there are a very great many. I have so many ideas in my head and hundreds of headings for posts, many of which are part completed.
But when I woke up this morning and wondered about my next post, I thought of the word ‘goal’ and the breakdown of it meaning. Here are some thoughts and anagrams.
Go al – i.e. go angel, perhaps go and be an angel to someone, a good angel that is, not a bad angel.
Gaol – to get people out of the Covid 19 gaol and the false narratives that enthral or ensnare them.
A log – to log the events and comment upon them.
Olga – to find out who Olga is! Well I had a quick search; its amazing what one can come up with. There is this film.
While in exile in Switzerland, a 15-year-old Ukrainian gymnast prepares for the European Gymnastics Championships when Euromaidan protests begin in Kyiv.
I had no idea what Euromaidan protests were so I followed the link.
Essentially these were “… a wave of demonstrations and civil unrest in Ukraine, which began on 21 November 2013 with large protests in Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) in Kyiv.
The protests were sparked by the Ukrainian government’s sudden decision not to sign the European Union–Ukraine Association Agreement, instead choosing closer ties to Russia and the Eurasian Economic Union.”
Now I don’t propose to go into the ins and outs of all that has gone one since then, but given the mixed Nazi history of Ukraine we must be very suspicious.
Zelenskyy seems to have been lauded by the sycophants in the House of Congress. There are two in the background of this picture.
They are of course Harris the Camel (with two humps of course, she is female I gather) and Nazi Pelosi who is no longer Speaker since the date of the article. Zelenskyy has his hand placed where his heart should be, but like Biden’s brain it is missing.
I think it is worth analysing the article in detail. Selected paragraphs in italics.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has delivered a defiant wartime message in Washington, DC, in which he thanked US leaders and “ordinary Americans” for supporting his country’s fight against Russia and reminded them that military assistance to Ukraine was not “charity” but an “investment” in a democratic world.
And an investment in the Biden’s pockets kindly paid for by the USA taxpayers.
Of course it is not just Biden who probably has little interest in money as long as he is fed and watered and told what to do.
No, we have George Soros, Bill Gates, Klaus Schwarb and Uncle Tom Cobley and all in the so-called elites of the world, a.k.a money grubbing bastards.
Invoking memories of the United States’s victory over Nazi Germany in a key World War II battle, Zelenskyy also said there could be “no compromises” in trying to bring an end to Russia’s war on his country.
As this will keep the gravy train going.
US to send $1.8bn aid to Ukraine, including Patriot system: Media
Where is the money really going? Have you checked? See earlier link and another here.
In his first trip outside of Ukraine since the war began in February, Zelenskyy told a joint session of the US Senate and House of Representatives on Wednesday that he hoped they would continue to support his country’s war effort on a bipartisan basis.
Bipartisan is like bisexual, they play it both ways to be on the safe side. Like a two-way bet perhaps.
“Your money is not charity,” Zelenskyy said in English, clad in his customary khaki fatigues.
True, people worked hard for it on the whole to have it stolen by the government to benefit creeps like Zelenskyy and his overlords.
And please note Zelenskyy wears his khaki fatigues because he is a ‘fake git AI husk’. This is an anagram of khaki fatigues. Don’t you love it when words work so well?
“It is an investment in the global security and democracy,” he said.
Bollux.
His bi-partisan appeal comes as Republicans are due to take the majority in the US House in January and when some in the party have voiced concern over the soaring levels of assistance sent to Kyiv.
Only some have voiced concern? Are the others on the gravy train too? Or are they just too thick?
The US has so far sent about $50bn in assistance to Kyiv, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken announcing another $1.85bn in military aid on Wednesday, including the Patriot air defence system. The Patriot missile system is deemed to be one of the most advanced US air defence systems, offering protection against attacking aircraft as well as cruise and ballistic missiles.
But not Joe Biden’s used pampers. Or Harris the Camel’s cackle. Or Nazi Pelosi’s face.
Perhaps she has a facial palsy like me. Or the Botox injections didn’t go too well.
Countries that have provided Ukraine with weapons – interactive.
This includes the UK to our shame.
Zelenskyy’s arrival was greeted with multiple raucous ovations in the House’s nearly full chamber where members of Congress held up a large Ukrainian flag as he walked in. Most stood, cheered, applauded and many shook Zelenskyy’s hand as he entered, with several wearing the colours of the Ukrainian flag, blue and yellow.
Blue for weasel Democrats and yellow for RINO cowards.
“It is a great honour for me to be at the US Congress and speak to you and all Americans. Against all doom and gloom scenarios, Ukraine did not fall. Ukraine is alive and kicking,” he said.
He is speaking to the House of Representatives and to those who can tolerate this little sh; it might include those researching like me.
“We defeated Russia in the battle for the minds of the world,” he added.
I think conned the world into believing the MSM propaganda by shutting down dissenting opinion would be better.
Referencing former US President Franklin D Roosevelt, who served between 1933 and 1945, Zelenskky reminded his audience of the hardships faced by US forces who fought to liberate Europe from Nazi occupation during World War II.
“Just like the brave American soldiers, which held their lines and fought back Hitler’s forces during the Christmas of 1944, brave Ukrainian soldiers are doing the same to Putin’s forces this Christmas,” he said.
Although he was thinking “As the scumbag yanks defeated the brave Nazi storm troopers who despite their best efforts under their beloved Fuhrer’s superb direction, we are now getting our own back by stealing you money from under your noses without you realising it, you pig dogs..”
The Ukrainian leader was referring to the Battle of the Bulge, which began in December 1944, and was Hitler’s final significant attempt to push back the Allied forces. Poor weather hampered initial US efforts to halt the offensive, which lead to many fatalities and threatened to divide the allies – who ultimately prevailed.
Which was just as well but didn’t prevent the Nazi’s cunning economic plan from going ahead and their Fourth Reich, a.k.a. the EU.
In a tweet, Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s victory over Russia “will also be America’s victory”.
Ha, bloody, ha. It will mean the USA will be indebted even further which will piss off many, but make rabid Democrat supporters very happy.
Of course as 6 out of top 10 arms manufacturers are in the USA they will be very happy too.
Please note America is strictly either north or south and North America also contains Canada. Many in the USA are not too bothered about such details.
‘United defence’
US President Joe Biden welcomed Zelenskyy to the Oval Office earlier on Wednesday, saying the US and Ukraine would continue to project a “united defence” as Russia wages a “brutal assault on Ukraine’s right to exist as a nation”.
I wonder if Joe memorized that or had his earphone whisper it to him?
Zelenskyy said his visit demonstrated that the “situation is under control, because of your support”.
Or possibly he wanted to see his bankrollers in the CIA.
Pressed on how Ukraine would try to bring an end to the conflict, Zelenskyy rejected Biden’s framing of a “just peace”, saying: “For me as a president, ‘just peace’ is no compromises”.
Just peace means no war and no more money to squirrel away into secret bank accounts.
He said the war would end once Ukraine’s sovereignty, freedom and territorial integrity were restored and it received “payback for all the damages inflicted by Russian aggression”.
And by deliberate destruction by Ukraine forces. He forgot to mention that.
“There can’t be any ‘just peace’ in the war that was imposed on us,” he added.
Imposed by the CIA and the EU, i.e. Nazis/banksters.
The highly sensitive trip takes place after 10 months of a brutal war that has seen tens of thousands of casualties on both sides and devastation for Ukrainian civilians and their cities, towns and villages.
This is the true cost of the love of money.
Zelenskyy’s visit is designed to reinvigorate support for his country in the US and around the world, amid concerns that allies are growing weary of the costly war and its disruption to global food and energy supplies.
Too right mate. About time people woke up to the scam and punish the politicians etc. who inflicted this upon them.
Biden said Russia is “trying to use winter as a weapon but Ukrainian people continue to inspire the world”.
The Russian’s always used winter as a weapon. See WW2 80 years ago. I keep saying we follow that timeline and that makes us January 1943 and Stalingrad will be retaken.
In a joint news conference, Biden said Russian President Vladimir Putin has “no intention of stopping this cruel war”.
And Biden has no intention of going without nappies. And I don’t see NATO/EU trying to do much about it, but then NATO is essentially the USA which is run by the Nazis/Marxists now.
The two leaders appeared to share a warm rapport, laughing at each other’s comments and patting each other on the back throughout the visit, though Zelenskyy made clear he will continue to press Biden and other Western leaders for more military support.
Probably because Joe made some idiotic remarks (the Remarks of the Beast) and Zelenskyy hoping to push Joe over as that would be schadenfreude and Nazi like that sort of thing.
He said that after the Patriot system was up and running, “we will send another signal to President Biden that we would like to get more Patriots”.
Which is code for ‘We need more money for our protection racket.’
“We are in the war,” Zelenskyy added with a smile, as Biden chuckled at the direct request from the Ukrainian leader.
Yeah, the Whore of Babylon as Biden prostitutes himself and the USA to the Nazis of the Ukraine etc. ‘In the war’ takes on a new meaning I hope you realise. Let him who has ears to hear let him hear.
Biden said it is “important for the American people, and for the world, to hear directly from you, Mr President, about Ukraine’s fight, and the need to continue to stand together through 2023″.
To keep the scam going.
Zelenskyy’s arrival in the US comes just days after he made a daring and dangerous trip to what he called the hottest spot on the 1,300-kilometer (800-mile) front line of the war – the city of Bakhmut in Ukraine’s contested Donetsk region.
What a hero. I daresay it might have been a studio somewhere, so much is faked.
Arriving there on Tuesday, Zelenskyy praised Ukrainian troops for their “courage, resilience and strength” as artillery boomed in the background.
Those were Biden’s farts, collected together as the Ukraine’s new Fartriot defence system, nicknamed ‘The Godfarter’.
Volodymyr Fesenko, head of the Kyiv-based Penta Center think-tank, said Zelenskyy’s US visit “should determine the course of the war – Zelenskyy for the first time dared to leave Ukraine and is counting on being able to maintain, and possibly even strengthen, US military and economic assistance”.
Penta Center, Penta Center?! Good grief, whatever next? Are they ‘aving a larf?? Satan likes penta and penta houses.
Putin on Wednesday told his country’s military leaders that Russia will achieve its stated goals in Ukraine and use the combat experience to strengthen its military. His defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, said Russia’s military must be expanded from the current 1 million to 1.5 million for the fight in Ukraine.
Which I suppose is Putin puttin’ the boot in.
Summary and final thoughts
Well, I didn’t expect to end in the Ukraine but there you are. I am in the UK though but it is not raining as I type this.
Anyway, regarding ‘goal’ I did want to add the following:
g – this is tail down, grounded into the earth as in geo, of the earth
o – this is representative of love from tennis, the word for zero.
a – the first letter of the English alphabet representing God the Al-pha, the angel Father
l – the angel letter, l for leg which as a child you see as the part of adults when on the ground
So goal is perhaps ‘earth love God angel’.
And rather like the earth in Genesis 1 v1 which is feminine looking up to the heavens which is masculine, in wonderment at the stars at night or the Big One we see during the day, the sun.
Which sounds like son. So we have the sun of God and the Son of God who is Jesus Christ who came a while ago and is now in the heavenly realms fighting for you.
And we can all be sons and daughters of God.
“But to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God”
That’s a great goal.
P.S. If you fancy some football try these goals. I am not a football fan, but these are good.
Top 10 Best Corner Kick Goals In Football
No wonder George best was one of the best!
George Best – Top 10 goals
If you want something hopefully both funny and peculiar yet true in a funny sort of way why not try this.
How as the year for you? Getting worse or improving?
As for me, I can see some improvements in my health despite some ups and downs. For example, I have been off line for the last week due to unforeseen circumstances.
My wife and I were unceremoniously chucked out by her sister and brother-in-law to make way for his son and granddaughter. Well ok, maybe I exaggerate, but we had to find accommodation elsewhere or face driving back from North Wales either to home or my sister’s in the Midlands.
In reality my wife had forgotten she had been told by her sister our brother-in-law’s son was coming and therefore we didn’t plan on anything else.
Anyway, we managed to get accommodation at a Warner Hotel at Bodelwyddan, North Wales. This had once been a girl’s school in an earlier incarnation. In fact, my wife was at the school and was able to show me from the outside where her room had been overlooking what was then a golf course.
Whilst my energy was and is not brilliant by any means, we managed to dance to night away on New Year’s Eve and see the New Year in. Somehow the music energises me as music always has.
However, I have not been very well the last two days. I had a slight temperature and increase in ‘flu like symptoms and had to take to my bed.
To be honest, I have had in essence the ’flu for years as my body was dealing with the sodium nitrite poisoning and the additional toxins kindly inserted by the ignorant NHS doctors and nurses.
Anyway, here I am again, back in the land of living to do battle once more against the evil forces in the world.
Or should that be farces? After all, the whole Covid 19 charade has appeared like a surreal nightmare to those of us sensible enough to retain our marbles.
And if not a surreal nightmare, then a pantomime with an all-star cast of moronic celebrities and bit parts played by the minions. As Shakespeare rightly said
“All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely Players…”
But what of 2022? Well, I have said we are following a timeline similar to WW2, only 80 years ago, and in the USA it appears that it also follows a pattern of the American Civil War 160 years ago.
I anticipated that 2022 would be a year that the tide turns for the forces of righteousness. So what can be listed?
Roe vs. Wade overturned and the enemy is not amused
John Campbell exposing vaccines side effects. Of course there are those of us like me who said in 2020 before the roll out ‘Don’t take the wretched things!’ and who understood the real battle going on. And there were those well before the Covid 19 crisis trying to warn us.
Vaccine adverse reactions, reanalysis of mRNA trial data
And my wife’s sister apologised to my wife for torturing her verbally as a child and my wife apologised to her sister for her envy of her sister’s academic ability. There is still a lot to unravel however.
Well, perhaps Italy might vote to come out of the EU. Perhaps all the EU’s lies about Russia might be exposed, whatever else Russia may be up to of course.
And as the V 2 rocket facilities were bombed hopefully more will come out in the media about the SARS-CoV2 deceit.
We have a way to go but as I said the tide turned in 1942, and it turned in 2022. But then it was 42, the ultimate answer to the ultimate question in the universe.
And 2022 consist of digits 2 and 22. 2 + 2 = 4. So 2 and 4 or 24. In reverse, 42.
Thus a reflection of ’42 the year that the tide turned in WW2.
So that’ my round up and observations. All thoughts welcome in the comments.
P.S. If you haven’t yet seen, here is my timeline of WW3.
This took place 80 years ago six months after the attack on Pearl Harbour. It was a major naval engagement between the U.S. Navy and the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN).
It was principally a battle involving aircraft carriers and their compliment of planes; fighters, and dive and torpedo bombers as we well as the invaluable scouting planes.
The 5th June was the most significant, as the Japanese had lost four of its 10 main fleet carriers, although 3 of these were sunk on the 4th. The fourth, the Hiryū, was substantially destroyed but didn’t sink until the 5th.
In was a serious strategic defeat for the IJN from which they would not recover. It was the turning point in the war from the naval perspective but in reality was also the turning point for World War Two in general.
Wikipedia says it was
“one of the most consequential naval engagements in world history, ranking alongside Salamis, Trafalgar, and Tsushima Strait, as both tactically decisive and strategically influential”.
I will approach the post in a similar manner to other war posts I have done, using a play on words. As I have said before, I intend no disrespect to the combatants but as there is more than enough information out on the internet I don’t consider we need another serious approach. Not today in any event.
And any way, we talk about theatres of war so, as all the world’s a stage as Shakespeare wrote, why not some humour to lighten the terror.
I use the Wikipedia link as a template. I do my own version after a block of text. I suggest you can ignore the italics original to avoid it being too long a read, but it is probably useful to have it here so you refer to what the hell I might be taking about.
Don’t forget hell means ‘light’, not a place of darkness and torment. You might consider my twisting of the sound of words as torment though!! If you don’t get the references, just ask me; I shall be happy to clarify.
After expanding the war in the Pacific to include Western outposts, the Japanese Empire had attained its initial strategic goals quickly, taking British Hong Kong, the Philippines, British Malaya, Singapore, and the Dutch East Indies (modern Indonesia). The latter, with its vital oil resources, was particularly important to Japan. Because of this, preliminary planning for the second phase of operations commenced as early as January 1942.
Now as I have indicated before the Ja’s Pan Knees had expanded their umpire and achieved lots of goals, although they weren’t playing football.
They had taken Hong Pong, the Phillip Pines, Bright-ish Ma Layer, The Singer poor, and the Dutch East Windy’s. The last mentioned had lots of oil to help the Ja’s Pan Knees grease back their hair, and which their haircraft carriers depended on to help give their crews crew cuts.
I gather the U.S. Navy referred to them as the Crew Cuts Clan, or CCC for short. Because their hair was short, obviously.
Because of strategic disagreements between the Imperial Army (IJA) and Imperial Navy (IJN), and infighting between the Navy’s GHQ and Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto’s Combined Fleet, a follow-up strategy was not formed until April 1942. Admiral Yamamoto finally won the bureaucratic struggle with a thinly veiled threat to resign, after which his plan for the Central Pacific was adopted.
There were strategic disagreements between the Ja’s Pan Knees army and navy, and some infighting due to fighting in the inns, or Ryokans, in Ja’s Pan. Probably drinking too much sake, for goodness sake!
The admirable Is-or-row-coo Hammer-my-toe had a fight with a bureau or biro, I’m not sure which. He threatened to re-sign, re-sign what is not clear. Perhaps this suggests it was a fight with a biro. He created a stink about the ink. Anyway it seems he won.
Yamamoto’s primary strategic goal was the elimination of America’s carrier forces, which he regarded as the principal threat to the overall Pacific campaign. This concern was acutely heightened by the Doolittle Raid on 18 April 1942, in which 16 United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) B-25 Mitchell bombers launched from USS Hornet bombed targets in Tokyo and several other Japanese cities. The raid, while militarily insignificant, was a shock to the Japanese and showed the existence of a gap in the defenses around the Japanese home islands as well as the vulnerability of Japanese territory to American bombers.
Hammer-my-toe’s primary goal was to eliminate the A-merry-cars haircraft carriers. This had become an area of particular concern following the Do Little Raid which did more than first met the eye.
This, and other successful hit-and-run raids by American carriers in the South Pacific, showed that they were still a threat, although seemingly reluctant to be drawn into an all-out battle. Yamamoto reasoned that another air attack on the main U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor would induce all of the American fleet to sail out to fight, including the carriers. However, considering the increased strength of American land-based airpower on the Hawaiian Islands since the 7 December attack the previous year, he judged that it was now too risky to attack Pearl Harbor directly.
I gather the A-merry-can’s haircraft carriers had been undertaking hit-and-run raids, where they would take business away from the Ja’s Pan Knees for a day and then shove off.
As opposed to today where the likes of Amazon muscle in and take it all without so much as a by-your-leave, i.e. you buy from us and the rest of you can leave.
Hammer-my-toe thought another hair attack on Pearl’s Arbour (see Tora, Tora, Tora) would be a good idea, but as the land based air power had increased there he thought better of it.
Instead, Yamamoto selected Midway, a tiny atoll at the extreme northwest end of the Hawaiian Island chain, approximately 1,300 miles (1,100 nautical miles; 2,100 kilometres) from Oahu. This meant that Midway was outside the effective range of almost all of the American aircraft stationed on the main Hawaiian islands. Midway was not especially important in the larger scheme of Japan’s intentions, but the Japanese felt the Americans would consider Midway a vital outpost of Pearl Harbor and would therefore be compelled to defend it vigorously. The U.S. did consider Midway vital: after the battle, the establishment of a U.S. submarine base on Midway allowed submarines operating from Pearl Harbor to refuel and re-provision, extending their radius of operations by 1,200 miles (1,900 km). In addition to serving as a seaplane base, Midway’s airstrips also served as a forward staging point for bomber attacks on Wake Island.
Instead Hammer-my-toe selected Midway, which is a toll point where tolls are taken for crossing the Specific Ocean. And which is roughly equidistant between North A-merry-car and A- seer, hence the name.
The Ja’s Pan Knees thought that although the toll was not that critical in the grand scheme of things for them, the A-merry-cans would consider it important to Pearl’s Arbour. A sort of outlying paradise for Pearl when she fancied a break.
And where you could isolate without worrying about the ‘flu or Covid 19.
Typical of Japanese naval planning during World War II, Yamamoto’s battle plan for taking Midway (named Operation MI) was exceedingly complex. It required the careful and timely coordination of multiple battle groups over hundreds of miles of open sea. His design was also predicated on optimistic intelligence suggesting that USS Enterprise and USS Hornet, forming Task Force 16, were the only carriers available to the U.S. Pacific Fleet. During the Battle of the Coral Sea one month earlier, USS Lexington had been sunk and USS Yorktown suffered so much damage that the Japanese believed she too had been lost. However, following hasty repairs at Pearl Harbor, Yorktown sortied and ultimately played a critical role in the discovery and eventual destruction of the Japanese fleet carriers at Midway. Finally, much of Yamamoto’s planning, coinciding with the general feeling among the Japanese leadership at the time, was based on a gross misjudgment of American morale, which was believed to be debilitated from the string of Japanese victories in the preceding months.
Hammer-my- toe’s battle plan was exceedingly complex. As Murphy’s law states “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong”, it is not a good idea to make life too complicated as your ‘cunning plan’ may be scuppered by events.
As regards Hammer-my- toe it assumed that U.S.S. Enter-prize and U.S.S. Hornet (the latter was a type of W.A.S.P. or White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) were the only haircraft carriers available to the U.S. Specific Fleet.
During the battle of the Coral C, sort of like the bun fight at the O.K. Coral, a month earlier, the U.S.S. Loxingten was sunk and the U.S.S. Your-K-town was so damaged it was thought that she had been lost too.
But in reality, her hair was such a mess after the fight that she didn’t want to come out until she had it properly done by Pearl in her Arbour. Any ladies will understand.
Pearl was so efficient that she was able to book in an appointment and sort most of the important bits out and make her presentable within 72 hours.
Unlike today with the GP’s in the UK were you will struggle to see a doctor in person, let alone have your health problems resolved.
Hammer-my- toe’s planning assumed that A-merry-can’s morale was very poor. This ignored the truth in the name. Merry suggests they are generally upbeat and won’t be beaten, and can because they have a can-do spirit. Obvious really, it’s in the name, A-merry-can do spirit.
The Ja’s Pan Knees had been winning in the preceding months, so perhaps understandable up to a point that they might misjudge the situation. But in reality they had only scratched the surface of the A-merry-can’s capabilities.
Yamamoto felt deception would be required to lure the U.S. fleet into a fatally compromised situation. To this end, he dispersed his forces so that their full extent (particularly his battleships) would be concealed from the Americans prior to battle. Critically, Yamamoto’s supporting battleships and cruisers trailed Vice Admiral Chūichi Nagumo’s carrier force by several hundred miles. They were intended to come up and destroy whatever elements of the U.S. fleet might come to Midway’s defense once Nagumo’s carriers had weakened them sufficiently for a daylight gun battle. This tactic was doctrine in most major navies of the time.
Hammer-my- toe felt that deceiving the A-merry-cans into a fatally compromised situation, such as getting them into a bedroom with hidden cameras would be good.
So he dispersed his forces to help distract and conceal quite how big a force he was assembling. A large force would be much easier to spot and be viewed as a significant threat.
So he decided to have his bottleships and bruisers trail behind the admirable Shoe-itchy Nag-omo’s carrier force by several hundred miles, which seems a very long way off to keep your bouncers which might protect the haircraft carriers.
But then this was the standard tactic at the time as haircraft carriers were very good at messing up the enemy’s hair. As ships are all considered female by men, ladies will understand that having your hair messed up can put you out of sorts and no good for anything.
But not all ladies think this way, which is just as well.
Anyway, once the haircraft carriers had done their bit, the bottleships and bruisers could move in to finish the job.
What Yamamoto did not know was that the U.S. had broken parts of the main Japanese naval code (dubbed JN-25 by the Americans), divulging many details of his plan to the enemy. His emphasis on dispersal also meant none of his formations were in a position to support the others. For instance, despite the fact that Nagumo’s carriers were expected to carry out strikes against Midway and bear the brunt of American counterattacks, the only warships in his fleet larger than the screening force of twelve destroyers were two Kongō-class fast battleships, two heavy cruisers, and one light cruiser. By contrast, Yamamoto and Kondo had between them two light carriers, five battleships, four heavy cruisers, and two light cruisers, none of which saw action at Midway. The light carriers of the trailing forces and Yamamoto’s three battleships were unable to keep pace with the carriers of the Kidō Butai[nb 1] and so could not have sailed in company with them. The Kido Butai would sail into range at best speed so as to increase the chance of surprise, and would not have ships spread out across the ocean guiding the enemy toward it. If the other parts of the invasion force needed more defense, the Kido Butai would make best speed to defend them. Hence the slower ships could not be with the Kido Butai. The distance between Yamamoto and Kondo’s forces and Nagumo’s carriers had grave implications during the battle. The invaluable reconnaissance capability of the scout planes carried by the cruisers and carriers, as well as the additional antiaircraft capability of the cruisers and the other two battleships of the Kongō-class in the trailing forces, was unavailable to Nagumo.
What Hammer-my- toe did not know was that the A-merry-cans had broken part of the Ja’s Pan Knees code, a.k.a. ‘A code in de doze’ which is what you sound like when you are all bunged up. ‘A cold in the nose’ as we would understand it.
A.k.a. Covid 19 or the ‘flu in some quarters although really these are a more severe variant of a cold.
Dispersing his forces meant that they could not be called upon to help each other quickly, and by the time might arrive it would be too late.
The problem was that Nag-omo had only two bottle bruisers, a cross between a bottleship and a bruiser (but not a cross-dresser), two heavy bruisers and one light bruiser.
Whereas Hammer-my- toe and admirable No-butt-ache Kan-do had two light haircraft carriers, five bottleships, four heavy bruisers, and two light bruisers between them which would take no part in the fight.
Despite being light, the haircraft carriers were too slow to keep up with Nag-omo’s force and Hammer-my- toe’s three bottleships were also too slow anyway being big and heavy.
The Fast carrier force or Kid-o Butt-aye, or the ‘cool kid’ as it was known, was fast enough to sail to the help of the other parts more quickly. But as the main thrust was via this force, lacking the additional support would have grave consequences during the fight.
Grave as in watery grave of course. Watery gravy is not nice as I am sure you know.
The lack of the other groups scouts who could scour the ocean for signs of the enemy and reduced anti-haircraft cap-abilities (i.e. unable to provide additional caps to protect the heads of Nag-omo’s force from bird dropping etc.) would be fatal.
1.1.2 Aleutian invasion
In order to obtain support from the Imperial Japanese Army for the Midway operation, the Imperial Japanese Navy agreed to support their invasion of the United States through the Aleutian Islands of Attu and Kiska, part of the organized incorporated Alaska Territory. The IJA occupied these islands to place the Japanese home islands out of range of U.S. land-based bombers in Alaska. Similarly, most Americans feared that the occupied islands would be used as bases for Japanese bombers to attack strategic targets and population centers along the West Coast of the United States. The Japanese operations in the Aleutians (Operation AL) removed yet more ships that could otherwise have augmented the force striking Midway. Whereas many earlier historical accounts considered the Aleutians operation as a feint to draw American forces away, according to the original Japanese battle plan, AL was intended to be launched simultaneously with the attack on Midway. A one-day delay in the sailing of Nagumo’s task force resulted in Operation AL beginning a day before the Midway attack.
Probably little known, is the A-loo-shun invasion. These were some frankly rather shitty islands off Alaska where the weather is foul and life is shitty on them.
Unless you are used to that sort of life and like the isolation and usually cold weather. And the rain, as the main settlement is ‘Unalaska, with about 250 rainy days per year, is said to be one of the rainiest places within the U.S.’
This was a faint by the ladies in the group who, while fainting hoped to draw A-merry-can forces away. But in reality the A-merry-can’s didn’t respond as hoped; not as gallant as the Ja’s Pan Knees hoped perhaps.
A similar thing happens today in the Ukraine as people are distracted by this war which is a feint, while the real battles are going on nearer to home and will prove significant.
1.2 Prelude
1.2.1 American reinforcements
To do battle with an enemy expected to muster four or five carriers, Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Commander in Chief, Pacific Ocean Areas, needed every available flight deck. He already had Vice Admiral William Halsey’s two-carrier (Enterprise and Hornet) task force at hand, though Halsey was stricken with severe dermatitis and had to be replaced by Rear Admiral Raymond A. Spruance, Halsey’s escort commander. Nimitz also hurriedly recalled Rear Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher’s task force, including the carrier Yorktown, from the South West Pacific Area.
Now the man in charge of the A-merry-cans was an admirable No-mitts who had a chest with a W on it I gather. He was called No-mitts as he had a hands- off approach to operational matters. Either that or he didn’t wear gloves.
He had an admirable vice called Will-I-am Hall-see, who was also a bull I understand. Probably a bull in a China shop as he made a bit of a mess in the South China Sea. That is a vice of course.
Hall-see had doormat-tight-is, a rather curious affliction where his door mat was too tight fitting and was very irritating.
So he had to be replace by a rear admirable Ray-mon Da Spew-ants, who looked good from the rear rather than the front it appears. But looking at the photos of him online, I can’t see why. Never mind.
Despite estimates that Yorktown, damaged in the Battle of the Coral Sea, would require several months of repairs at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, her elevators were intact and her flight deck largely so. The Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard worked around the clock, and in 72 hours she was restored to a battle-ready state, judged good enough for two or three weeks of operations, as Nimitz required. Her flight deck was patched, and whole sections of internal frames were cut out and replaced. Repairs continued even as she sortied, with work crews from the repair ship USS Vestal, herself damaged in the attack on Pearl Harbor six months earlier, still aboard.
U.S.S. Your-K-town had quite a few buildings demolished in the Coral C fight, and would several months of rebuilding work, but the elevators in the buildings lost were, amazingly, still standing. And for a haircraft carrier, her fly tzedek was largely intact.
Now No-Mitts needed her for the fight ahead, and so Pearl in her arbour worked around the clock (which was in the way) and managed to sort out Your-K-town’s hair capabilities and make her presentable, if not good as new.
Pearl being an obliging woman, even was sorting her out as she sortied from Pearl’s Arbor, ably supported by a Vestal virgin I think.
Yorktown’s partially depleted air group was rebuilt using whatever planes and pilots could be found. Scouting Five (VS-5) was replaced with Bombing Three (VB-3) from USS Saratoga. Torpedo Five (VT-5) was also replaced by Torpedo Three (VT-3). Fighting Three (VF-3) was reconstituted to replace VF-42 with sixteen pilots from VF-42 and eleven pilots from VF-3, with Lieutenant Commander John S. “Jimmy” Thach in command. Some of the aircrew were inexperienced, which may have contributed to an accident in which Thach’s executive officer Lieutenant Commander Donald Lovelace was killed.[34] Despite efforts to get Saratoga (which had been undergoing repairs on the American West Coast) ready, the need to resupply and assemble sufficient escorts meant she was unable to reach Midway until after the battle.[35]
Your-K-town’s hair was made good using planes and pies, lots of them – she was quite hungry after the fight at the Coral C. Using planes seems a bit drastic on one’s hair, but I suppose if you haven’t got suitable clippers, a plane is the next best thing.
Five scouts were replaced by 3 bummers. Seeing as scouts ‘do their best’ and bummers are, well, just bummers this doesn’t’ make sense. The bummers came from a Sarah Toga, I suppose she wanted to get rid of them and was glad of an excuse.
5 tor-pedos were replace by 3 tor-pedos. As ‘pedos’ is farts in Spanish, I imagine this is a good thing. After all, the methane produced is flammable, and that could be dangerous in a fight.
On the other hand it could be a ‘secret weapon’ to be released on the enemy when he least expects it,
Like Joe Biden, the old fart, who was installed like a toilet as POTUS in 2021. No one in their right minds expected that. Except probably Donald Trump.
Those in their left minds, mainly women it seems, thought it perfectly reasonable. Such as Nancy Pelosi and Kamala Harris for example. Where they left their minds is anybody’s guess. In the toilet whilst doing their toilet no doubt.
The ‘Fighting three’ was remade to replace VF-42 with 16 and 11 lots of pies, or 27 pies in total which is a lot of pies. But then Your-K-Town was a big girl, so how else could she maintain her figure?
Please note 42 for those that want to make up a question to this ultimate answer. See this for more information.
This is the VT-42 insignia. It looks quite mad. If anybody can explain what is on its feet I would be grateful. They sort of look like planes to me.
It had been hoped that Sarah Toga would be ready to make it to the fight at Midway, but her toga was in such a mess there just wasn’t time.
And anyway, she needed lots of men to escort her, and they couldn’t be found in time.
On Midway, by 4 June the U.S. Navy had stationed four squadrons of PBYs—31 aircraft in total—for long-range reconnaissance duties, and six brand-new Grumman TBF Avengers from Hornet’s VT-8.[36] The Marine Corps stationed 19 Douglas SBD Dauntless, seven F4F-3 Wildcats, 17 Vought SB2U Vindicators, and 21 Brewster F2A Buffalos. The USAAF contributed a squadron of 17 B-17 Flying Fortresses and four Martin B-26 Marauders equipped with torpedoes: in total 126 aircraft. Although the F2As and SB2Us were already obsolete, they were the only aircraft available to the Marine Corps at the time.
On Midway the U.S. Navy had 4 squat-Rons (like Mac-Rons, only far more useful) for lone ranger activities. There were also 6 brand-new Grim-men Avengers from the Hornet.
Please note she, the Hornet, was excellent at the stinging remark. She was also known by hair nickname ‘The Hairnet), which would come in handy for keeping her hair in one place during the fight.
There were also 19 Dugless Dawn tea lassies, or DD for short. Some lassies have DD’s (ahem). There were 7 wild cats, 17 Thought Windicators for indicating whether one was thinking of turning left or right and 21 Brew-star Buff-hellos for greeting people with a nice brew, tea or coffee.
There were also 17 Flying Four-tresses for plaiting the hair into tresses or pig-tails, and 4 Martin Ma-Orders for ordering whatever you wanted ordered.
1.2.2 Japanese shortcomings
During the Battle of the Coral Sea one month earlier, the Japanese light carrier Shōhō had been sunk, while the fleet carrier Shōkaku had been severely damaged by three bomb hits and was in drydock for months of repair. Although the fleet carrier Zuikaku escaped the battle undamaged, she had lost almost half her air group, and was in port in Kure awaiting replacement planes and pilots. That there were none immediately available is attributable to the failure of the IJN crew training program, which already showed signs of being unable to replace losses. Instructors from the Yokosuka Air Corps were employed in an effort to make up the shortfall.[38]
The Ja’s Pan Knees had a number of shortcomings. This was because they were relatively short in stature compared to the A-merry-cans. They also had short combings because their hair was short.
They also had short coamings on their ships as if they had tall coamings, they would have had more difficulty getting in and out of their ships.
Now, in the fight at the Coral C, the light haircraft carrier So-ho had been sunk, and the flea-T haircraft carrier Shock A. Coo severely damaged by 3 bums.
The flea-T haircraft carrier Zoe Cacku was undamaged, but lost almost half of her hair which was pulled out in the fight. She was having some port as a cure I believe whilst someone made her a wig to replace the lost hair.
Historians Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully believe that by combining the surviving aircraft and pilots from Shōkaku and Zuikaku, it is likely that Zuikaku could have been equipped with almost a full composite air group. They also note, however, that doing so would have violated Japanese carrier doctrine, which stressed that carriers and their air groups must train as a single unit. (In contrast, American air squadrons were considered interchangeable between carriers.) In any case, the Japanese apparently made no serious attempt to get Zuikaku ready for the forthcoming battle.
There are those who think that combining the haircraft from Shock A. Coo and Zoe Cacku would have been sufficient to make one wig for Zoe Cacku.
However, they have also noted that this would have violated the Ja’s Pan Knees carrier Doc Trine’s principles, that each carrier must train as one unit, unlike the A-merry-cans. Good in theory but not so good in wartime.
Rather like doctors nowadays not being ‘allowed’ to use Ivermectin to treat patients for Covid 19/the ‘flu, despite the fact it clearly works for many people.
Anyway, it seems they weren’t too bothered; perhaps they thought they were strong enough already and the A-merry-cans were a feeble, demoralised, bunch. Got that wrong didn’t they. Never underestimate your enemy’s capabilities of recuperation.
Thus, Carrier Division 5, consisting of the two most advanced aircraft carriers of the Kido Butai, was not available, which meant that Vice-Admiral Nagumo had only two-thirds of the fleet carriers at his disposal: Kaga and Akagi forming Carrier Division 1 and Hiryū and Sōryū making up Carrier Division 2. This was partly due to fatigue; Japanese carriers had been constantly on operations since 7 December 1941, including raids on Darwin and Colombo.[40] Nonetheless, the First Carrier Strike Force sailed with 248 available aircraft on the four carriers (60 on Akagi, 74 on Kaga (B5N2 squadron oversized), 57 on Hiryū and 57 on Sōryū).[41]
Thus the carrier Division 5 which contained the two most skilled haircraft carriers of the Kid-o Butt-aye were not available which meant the admirable Nag—mo had only two-thirds of the flea-T carriers at his disposal.
These were A car guy and Gaga in carrier Division 1, and Saw you and How are you in Division 2.
I gather this was due to a fat ague, a type of illness that afflicts the obese. Like Covid 19/the ‘flu.
It is said that the haircraft carriers had constant operations, at least I think that’s what they meant, since 7th December 1941. This included hair raids of Charles Darwin and Columbo, a.k.a Peter Falk (R.I.P.).
The main Japanese carrier-borne strike aircraft were the D3A1 “Val” dive bomber and the B5N2 “Kate”, which was used either as a torpedo bomber or as a level bomber. The main carrier fighter was the fast and highly maneuverable A6M “Zero”. For a variety of reasons, production of the “Val” had been drastically reduced, while that of the “Kate” had been stopped completely and, as a consequence, there were none available to replace losses. In addition, many of the aircraft being used during the June 1942 operations had been operational since late November 1941 and, although they were well-maintained, many were almost worn out and had become increasingly unreliable. These factors meant all carriers of the Kido Butai had fewer aircraft than their normal complement, with few spare aircraft or parts stored in the carriers’ hangars.
As with the fight at Pearl’s Arbour, the haircraft available were called Val and Kate as dive bummers (who would dive into disreputable dives or night clubs), and tor-pedos or a level bummer respectively.
With all the operations on them they were getting worn out, and rather unreliable, so one sympathises.
In addition, Nagumo’s carrier force suffered from several defensive deficiencies which gave it, in Mark Peattie’s words, a “‘glass jaw’: it could throw a punch but couldn’t take one.” Japanese carrier anti-aircraft guns and associated fire control systems had several design and configuration deficiencies which limited their effectiveness. The IJN’s fleet combat air patrol (CAP) consisted of too few fighter aircraft and was hampered by an inadequate early warning system, including a lack of radar. Poor radio communications with the fighter aircraft inhibited effective command and control of the CAP. The carriers’ escorting warships were deployed as visual scouts in a ring at long range, not as close anti-aircraft escorts, as they lacked training, doctrine, and sufficient anti-aircraft guns.
Also Nag-omo’s carriers could throw a punch but not take one, due to their glass draws or pantaloons. Such things are obviously unsuitable in a fight as I’m sure any ladies reading this post will understand.
Their carriers anti-haircraft buns, tied in a bun on their heads, were not sufficient protection from being bopped on the head.
Added to this was the fact that their caps were limited. They just didn’t have enough caps to go round.
And they didn’t have Ray Darr, who was excellent at spotting trouble looming ahead. Their communications was poor limited to hand signals which were easily misinterpreted.
The carriers’ escorts, the males, were in a ring a long way off which seems odd for escorts as you would have thought they would be close at hand to help the ladies in a haircraft fight.
Japanese strategic scouting arrangements prior to the battle were also in disarray. A picket line of Japanese submarines was late getting into position (partly because of Yamamoto’s haste), which let the American carriers reach their assembly point northeast of Midway (known as “Point Luck”) without being detected. A second attempt at reconnaissance, using four-engine H8K “Emily” flying boats to scout Pearl Harbor prior to the battle and detect whether the American carriers were present, part of Operation K, was thwarted when Japanese submarines assigned to refuel the search aircraft discovered that the intended refueling point—a hitherto deserted bay off French Frigate Shoals—was now occupied by American warships because the Japanese had carried out an identical mission in March. Thus, Japan was deprived of any knowledge concerning the movements of the American carriers immediately before the battle.
The Ja’s Pan Knees scouts were in Diss, Aray, as opposed to Diss in Norfolk, England. This was still not the place they were meant to be. The sub-Maureens were late because Hammer-my- toe was hasty, and so the A-merry-cans reached a point where they weren’t detected.
Four N. Djinns all called Emily were supposed to scout Pearl’s Arbour to see if the A-merry-cans carriers were present (part of Operation Qué?, meaning ‘what?’ in Spanish). However, they were unable to refuel because the refuelling point was now occupied by A-merry-can were-ships.
This was because the Ja’s Pan Knees had carried out an identical mission in March. This was of course very fuelish (sic). It is no good assuming you can do the same thing twice, as your enemy may not be that dumb.
Unless perhaps you are democrat, for example, voting for Joe Biden whose long career has being littered with gaffs and lies.
In which case getting them to play Russian roulette with their body by keeping on injecting vaccines will work, even though earlier vaccines have clearly made them ill.
Japanese radio intercepts did notice an increase in both American submarine activity and message traffic. This information was in Yamamoto’s hands prior to the battle. Japanese plans were not changed; Yamamoto, at sea in Yamato, assumed Nagumo had received the same signal from Tokyo, and did not communicate with him by radio, so as not to reveal his position. These messages were, contrary to earlier historical accounts, also received by Nagumo before the battle began. For reasons which remain unclear, Nagumo did not alter his plans or take additional precautions.
The Ja’s Pan Knees did note an increase in radio traffic, where the traffic on the Roads was moving alone with its radios on full blast which should have been a warning sign the A-merry-cans were on the move.
But the Ja’s Pan Knees did not review their plans in the light of this. Always sensible to at least make contingencies.
And don’t forget pride comes before a fall. Just like Pride marches come in the summer before the Fall, or autumn in the UK. They will fall too, these Pride marches.
1.2.3 U.S. code-breaking
Admiral Nimitz had one critical advantage: U.S. cryptanalysts had partially broken the Japanese Navy’s JN-25b code. Since early 1942, the U.S. had been decoding messages stating that there would soon be an operation at objective “AF”. It was initially not known where “AF” was, but Commander Joseph Rochefort and his team at Station HYPO were able to confirm that it was Midway: Captain Wilfred Holmes devised a ruse of telling the base at Midway (by secure undersea cable) to broadcast an uncoded radio message stating that Midway’s water purification system had broken down. Within 24 hours, the code breakers picked up a Japanese message that “AF was short on water”. No Japanese radio operators who intercepted the message seemed concerned that the Americans were broadcasting uncoded that a major naval installation close to the Japanese threat ring was having a water shortage, which could have tipped off Japanese intelligence officers that it was a deliberate attempt at deception.
The admirable No-mitts had a critical advantage; the nail sisters in the crypt had partly broken the Ja’s Pan Knees code. This was the ‘code in the doze’ referred to earlier.
There was a chap called Joe Rochefort who was the big cheese at the HYPO station where they dealt with cases of hypochondria. Such as with people who think they are going to die from Covid 19 and have a vaccine or anti-viral pill which might do the trick.
A Will Fred Homes, a property developer, pretended that Midway was suffering a water shortage and sent a message to that effect without a ‘code’. As you will know, a ‘code’ makes one speak rather peculiarly and can make it difficult for people to understand you.
Apparently the Ja’s Pan Knees Ray D. O’Pereighter was not concerned that the A-merry-cans were telling a fib by not having a ‘code’ or even a sniffle as everyone was having them back then.
HYPO was also able to determine the date of the attack as either 4 or 5 June, and to provide Nimitz with a complete IJN order of battle.
HYPO was able to get under the skin of the Ja’s Pan Knees and determine that they would be making a date for the 5th or 6th with June whoever she was.
Japan had a new codebook, but its introduction had been delayed, enabling HYPO to read messages for several crucial days; the new code, which took several days to be cracked, came into use on 24 May, but the important breaks had already been made.
Ja’s Pan had devised or new ‘codebook’ or variant as we might call them nowadays. Like monkey pox for example. Although this has been around for a while anyway and is a load of boll-pox or something like that.
As a result, the Americans entered the battle with a good picture of where, when, and in what strength the Japanese would appear. Nimitz knew that the Japanese had negated their numerical advantage by dividing their ships into four separate task groups, so widely separated that they were essentially unable to support each other. This dispersal resulted in few fast ships being available to escort the Carrier Striking Force, thus reducing the number of anti-aircraft guns protecting the carriers. Nimitz calculated that the aircraft on his three carriers, plus those on Midway Island, gave the U.S. rough parity with Yamamoto’s four carriers, mainly because American carrier air groups were larger than Japanese ones. The Japanese, by contrast, remained largely unaware of their opponent’s true strength and dispositions even after the battle began.
As a result, the A-merry-cans had a good picture of where, when and what the Ja’s Pan Knees would do. Rather like anticipating the next move of big pharma/governments to try and fool people today. We know what you are doing dipsticks.
Anyway, knowing that the Ja’s Pan Knees had spilt their forces into four groups which could not, in essence, support each other meant that No-mitts worked out his haircraft would roughly match the Ja’s Pan Knees haircraft.
Which goes to show that what you know is very useful in a war, not just who you know, let alone knowing the WHO.
Although knowing the WHO is a corrupted organisation is very helpful.
1.3 Battle
1.3.1 Order of battle
You can look up the full detail via Wikipedia and I won’t bother to go into the detail of the surface ships but in essence these included:
Haircraft carriers – these were called flat tops, a type of hair do.
Ja’s Pan people had various bottleships, bruisers and des Troyers
The main haircraft carriers
A car guy
Gaga
saw you
How are you
The haircraft were
‘Vals’ – Itchy dive bummers – these were always itching to get at the enemy
‘Kates’ – Knackered Jims torpedo bummers – Editor’s note: these were obsolete by 1941!!!
Zero fighters – zero or nought fighters, although bizarrely there were quite a lot of them.
‘Judy’ dive bummers
‘Jake’ floats who floated around looking for trouble
‘Dave’ float who floated around looking for trouble
A-merry-cans had various bruisers and des Troyers
The main haircraft carriers
Enter-prize
Hornet or hairnet
Your-K-Town
A-merry-cans haircraft included:
Grim-men wild cat fighters
Dugless Dawn-tea-lasses dive bummers
Dugless De vast taters tor-pedo bummers. They were very large potatoes or ‘taters’.
Midway Garrison
As well as some of the above they had:
Brew-star Buff-hellos
Thought Windicators dive bummers
The cats for scouting. They could cope with the water which is very unusual for cats.
Martin Ma order medium bummer
Bowing Flying Four tresses – these were bendy haircraft with four tresses or plaits.
1.3.2 Initial air attacks
At about 09:00 on 3 June, Ensign Jack Reid, piloting a PBY from U.S. Navy patrol squadron VP-44,[59] spotted the Japanese Occupation Force 500 nautical miles (580 miles; 930 kilometers) to the west-southwest of Midway. He mistakenly reported this group as the Main Force.[60]
At about 9:00 on the 3rd June (2 Junes had come along before her), and N-sign as opposed to a V-sign was made by Jack Reed who was in charge of a PB, why I don’t know.
He spotted the Ja’s Pan Knees Occupation Team 500 nought-tickle miles to the south-west of Midway. He thought this was the main team but it wasn’t.
Nine B-17s took off from Midway at 12:30 for the first air attack. Three hours later, they found Tanaka’s transport group 570 nautical miles (660 miles; 1,060 kilometers) to the west.[61]
Nine Flying Four-tresses took off to make the first hair attack to give the Ja’s Pan Knees crews a crew cut.
Harassed by heavy anti-aircraft fire, they dropped their bombs. Although their crews reported hitting four ships,[61] none of the bombs actually hit anything and no significant damage was inflicted.[62] Early the following morning, the Japanese oil tanker Akebono Maru sustained the first hit when a torpedo from an attacking PBY struck her around 01:00. This was the only successful air-launched torpedo attack by the U.S. during the entire battle.[62]
The Ja’s Pan Knees did not take kindly to this, so put up a fight. The Four-tresses dropped their bums and although they thought they hit four ships, they didn’t, and didn’t even get close enough to damp down the crew’s hair.
However, the following morning the Ja’s Pan Knees Olly Tanker, Ache-bono Ma-are-you got hit by a tor-pedo, a type of long sandwich like a submarine. This was noticeable as the only hair lunched torpedo thrown at the Ja’s Pan Knees during the entire battle which seems pretty pathetic.
At 04:30 on 4 June, Nagumo launched his initial attack on Midway itself, consisting of 36 Aichi D3A dive bombers and 36 Nakajima B5N torpedo bombers, escorted by 36 Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighters. At the same time, he launched his seven search aircraft (2 “Kates” from Akagi and Kaga, 4 “Jakes” from Tone and Chikuma, and 1 short range “Dave” from battleship Haruna; an eighth aircraft from the heavy cruiser Tone launched 30 minutes late). Japanese reconnaissance arrangements were flimsy, with too few aircraft to adequately cover the assigned search areas, laboring under poor weather conditions to the northeast and east of the task force. As Nagumo’s bombers and fighters were taking off, 11 PBYs were leaving Midway to run their search patterns. At 05:34, a PBY reported sighting two Japanese carriers and another spotted the inbound airstrike 10 minutes later.[63]
On the 4th June who passed by, Nag-omo lunched his initial attack on Midway with 36 itchy dive bummers, 36 knackered Jims torpedo bummers and 36 Zero fighters. I have said before that 36 zeros are still zero, so it is all rather odd.
Anyway, he also had lunch with 2 Kates, 4 Jakes and a Dave who would go scouting. Someone else also had lunch but it was a late lunch and we don’t seem to know what he/she was called.
The scouting arrangements were flimsy to cover such a large area of ‘sy’ or sea especially when the weather was poor. I assume it was pooring with rain, but it doesn’t say.
By contrast, 11 PB’s, why I still don’t know, left Midway with their search patterns with which they could create a nice garment as they looked around. One sighted two Ja’s Pan Knees and another spotted the strike 10 minutes later.
Midway’s radar picked up the enemy at a distance of several miles, and interceptors were scrambled. Unescorted bombers headed off to attack the Japanese carriers, their fighter escorts remaining behind to defend Midway. At 06:20, Japanese carrier aircraft bombed and heavily damaged the U.S. base. Midway-based Marine fighters led by Major Floyd B. Parks, which included six F4Fs and 20 F2As,[64] intercepted the Japanese and suffered heavy losses, though they managed to destroy four B5Ns, as well as a single A6M. Within the first few minutes, two F4Fs and 13 F2As were destroyed, while most of the surviving U.S. planes were damaged, with only two remaining airworthy. American anti-aircraft fire was intense and accurate, destroying three additional Japanese aircraft and damaging many more.[65]
Midway’s Ray Darr picked up the enemy at a distance of several miles, which just shows how long his arms were. Interceptors were scrambled (these were presumably eggs for breakfast), whilst unescorted bummers went off to have ‘words’ with the Ja’s Pan Knees carriers.
The Ja’s Pan Knees haircraft heavily damaged the US base, i.e. kicked their bottoms very hard as a base is a bottom of course. The Midway based fighters fought the Ja’s Pan Knees but suffered heavy losses, but did not leave the Ja’s Pan Knees unscathed.
And the anti-haircraft fire was in tents which kept the tents warm. It also burnt the Ja’s Pan Knees who entered the tents, three being burnt to a crisp and many others being damaged.
Of the 108 Japanese aircraft involved in this attack, 11 were destroyed (including three that ditched), 14 were heavily damaged, and 29 were damaged to some degree. The initial Japanese attack did not succeed in neutralizing Midway: American bombers could still use the airbase to refuel and attack the Japanese invasion force, and most of Midway’s land-based defenses similarly remained intact. Japanese pilots reported to Nagumo that a second aerial attack on Midway’s defenses would be necessary if troops were to go ashore by 7 June.[66]
The Ja’s Pan Knees had half of the attacking force damaged to some degree, and did not put Midway into neutral. The Ja’s Pan Knees pilots reported that a second hairy el attack would be required if troops were to go ashore for sure. On the foreshore of course.
Having taken off prior to the Japanese attack, American bombers based on Midway made several attacks on the Japanese carrier force. These included six Grumman Avengers, detached to Midway from Hornet’s VT-8 (Midway was the combat debut of both VT-8 and the TBF); Marine Scout-Bombing Squadron 241 (VMSB-241), consisting of 11 SB2U-3s and 16 SBDs, plus four USAAF B-26s of the 18th Reconnaissance and 69th Bomb Squadrons armed with torpedoes, and 15 B-17s of the 31st, 72nd, and 431st Bomb Squadrons. The Japanese repelled these attacks and the attacking force, losing only three Zero fighters while destroying five TBFs, two SB2Us, eight SBDs, and two B-26s.[67][68] Among the dead was Major Lofton R. Henderson of VMSB-241, killed while leading his inexperienced Dauntless squadron into action. The main airfield at Guadalcanal was named after him in August 1942.[69]
The A-merry-can bummers made several attacks on the Ja’s Pan Knees carriers, but these were repelled as they were not wanted. The Ja’s Pan Knees lost three Zero’s, but this is still zero. Very confusing.
The A-merry-cans lost 17 bummers which is a lot of bummers. And as one might say, a bit of a bummer for the A-merry-cans.
One B-26, piloted by Lieutenant James Muri, after dropping his torpedo and searching for a safer escape route, flew directly down the length of Akagi while being chased by interceptors and anti-aircraft fire, which had to hold their fire to avoid hitting their own flagship. As it flew down the length of the ship, the B-26 strafed Akagi, killing two men.[70][71] Another B-26, which had been seriously damaged by anti-aircraft fire, didn’t pull out of its run, and instead headed directly for Akagi’s bridge.[72] The aircraft, either attempting a suicide ramming, or out of control due to battle damage or a wounded or killed pilot, narrowly missed crashing into the carrier’s bridge, which could have killed Nagumo and his command staff, before it cartwheeled into the sea.[73] This experience may well have contributed to Nagumo’s determination to launch another attack on Midway, in direct violation of Yamamoto’s order to keep the reserve strike force armed for anti-ship operations.[74]
A Martin ma-order under the control of a Maori called James dropped his torpedo and strafed the A Car Guy on the way out.
Another Martin ma-order who was running at the A Car Guy headed for the island where those in charge were playing bridge. He did a cartwheel into the sea which was impressive.
Nag-omo was so impressed it is thought that this encouraged him to have another lunch on Midway, although this violated Hammer-my-toe’s order to keep something in reserve. That is, not to have lunch too often as this is greedy.
While the air strikes from Midway were going on, the American submarine Nautilus (Lt. Commander William Brockman) found herself near the Japanese fleet, attracting attention from the escorts. Around 08:20, she made an unsuccessful torpedo attack on a battleship and then had to dive to evade the escorts.[75] At 09:10, she launched a torpedo at a cruiser and again had to dive to evade the escorts, with destroyer Arashi spending considerable time chasing Nautilus.
In the meantime a naughty lass, an A-merry-can submarine, a type of long sandwich as mentioned before, found herself near the Ja’s Pan Knees feet which attracted the escorts attention who were still hungry.
She tried throwing a torpedo at a bottleship but that didn’t work and had to go into a dive to avoid the escorts. It is dimly lit in a dive so this was helpful.
She tried again at a bruiser, with one persistent Des Troyer spending much time chasing her. He obviously was very hungry.
1.3.3 Nagumo’s dilemma
In accordance with Yamamoto’s orders for Operation MI, Admiral Nagumo had kept half of his aircraft in reserve. These comprised two squadrons each of dive bombers and torpedo bombers. The dive bombers were as yet unarmed (this was doctrinal: dive bombers were to be armed on the flight deck). The torpedo bombers were armed with torpedoes should any American warships be located.
Nag-omo had a problem; he didn’t know whether to dial Emma or not for advice. Indeed, he didn’t know whether to dial Emma for murder either.
Hammer-my- toe had given orders to keep half of the haircraft in reserve. The dive bummers were as yet unarmed, as their arms had been removed for safe keeping (I assume they were artificial arms).
Apparently this has to do with Doc Trinal who said they must do this, as otherwise they were at risk of catching Covid, or the ‘flu as it was known then.
And not dissimilar to today when ladies, who have a diagnosis of breast cancer, are told they will need to have their breasts removed to prevent cancer.
As opposed to detoxifying themselves of the toxins that probably caused the problem in the first place. Or a misdiagnosis which is common.
But then far too many are just a load of tits nowadays. The doctors that is.
At 07:15, Nagumo ordered his reserve planes to be re-armed with contact-fused general-purpose bombs for use against land targets. This was a result of the attacks from Midway, as well as of the morning flight leader’s recommendation of a second strike. Re-arming had been underway for about 30 minutes when, at 07:40, the delayed scout plane from Tone signaled that it had sighted a sizable American naval force to the east, but neglected to specify its composition. Later evidence suggests Nagumo did not receive the sighting report until 08:00.
Nag-omo ordered his reserve planes to have confused bums fitted as arms which doesn’t seem very handy to me. Apparently these would be good against L.A. And-argets although it sounds rather confusing to me.
In the middle of rearming with bums there was a signal from Tony, one of the heavy brusiers. He said that there was a large A-merry-can navel force to the east with exposed belly buttons but neglected to say if they were male or female or what size, hair colour etc.
Not dissimilar to today where there are people who can’t define a women let alone a man. Such as Judge Jackson in the U.S.A. who I believe is a woman, although you can’t be 100% sure nowadays.
As she says she is not a biologist, perhaps she is not a woman either.
Possibly she is just confused as so many women can be. But then she is a Democrat, so we understand things are hard for them in the Brain Department.
Nagumo quickly reversed his order to re-arm the bombers with general-purpose bombs and demanded that the scout plane ascertain the composition of the American force. Another 20–40 minutes elapsed before Tone’s scout finally radioed the presence of a single carrier in the American force. This was one of the carriers from Task Force 16. The other carrier was not sighted.
Nag-omo reversed his order and said put G.P, or jeep, bums on instead. Tony was asked to clarify the position and after some delay he said he could see only one carrier.
Nagumo was now in a quandary. Rear Admiral Tamon Yamaguchi, leading Carrier Division 2 (Hiryū and Sōryū), recommended that Nagumo strike immediately with the forces at hand: 16 Aichi D3A1 dive bombers on Sōryū and 18 on Hiryū, and half the ready cover patrol aircraft. Nagumo’s opportunity to hit the American ships was now limited by the imminent return of his Midway strike force. The returning strike force needed to land promptly or it would have to ditch into the sea. Because of the constant flight deck activity associated with combat air patrol operations during the preceding hour, the Japanese never had an opportunity to position (“spot”) their reserve planes on the flight deck for launch.
Nag-omo was now in a Quan Derry, rather like a Tie Quan do, the martial art. Only he was not sure what to do, do up his tie or not as it were. He had doubts which were nagging him, hence his name.
The admirable rear, Tar-man Yah-ma-guchi, who wore expensive shoes from Italy and in charge of carrier Division 2, advised going on strike immediately, although going on strike doesn’t seem very helpful.
Especially as the force already on strike on Midway were returning soon for lunch I gather. And if the decks weren’t cleared, they would have to turn to drink, or ditch in the drink or sea as they say, and they wouldn’t be fit for anything for the rest of the day.
And because the Ja’s Pan Knees were maintaining their caps due to the shortage of caps referred to earlier, the reserve planes hadn’t had had their lunch yet. What a to-do.
The few aircraft on the Japanese flight decks at the time of the attack were either defensive fighters or, in the case of Sōryū, fighters being spotted to augment the combat air patrol.[85] Spotting his flight decks and launching aircraft would have required at least 30 minutes. Furthermore, by spotting and launching immediately, Nagumo would be committing some of his reserves to battle without proper anti-ship armament, and likely without fighter escort; indeed, he had just witnessed how easily the unescorted American bombers had been shot down.
Now the decks were being spotted, probably by seagulls making the usual mess, and this makes lunching difficult, if not hazardous. One does not want something extra unpleasant in one’s lunch if one can help it.
Japanese carrier doctrine preferred the launching of fully constituted strikes rather than piecemeal attacks. Without confirmation of whether the American force included carriers (not received until 08:20), Nagumo’s reaction was doctrinaire. In addition, the arrival of another land-based American air strike at 07:53 gave weight to the need to attack the island again. In the end, Nagumo decided to wait for his first strike force to land, and then launch the reserve, which would by then be properly armed with torpedoes.
The Ja’s Pan Knees carrier Doc Trine preferred lunching full strikes rather than having meals in bits and pieces.
Nag-omo not having confirmation of whether the A-merry-cans had haircraft carriers had to consult Doc Trine air, i.e he had to stick his finger in the air to see which way the wind was blowing. And therefore whether or not lunch on deck was feasible.
As the A-merry-cans had arrived from land and gone on strike again, Nag-ome thought it best to attack the island. Please note this was Midway, not the island which each haircraft carrier has I gather. This explains why.
In the end Nag-omo decided it would be best to have his first force go on strike on land (although as the carriers were all at sea this seems confusing), and then for his reserve to have lunch.
Had Nagumo elected to launch the available aircraft around 07:45 and risked the ditching of Tomonaga’s strike force, they would have formed a powerful and well-balanced strike package that had the potential to sink two American carriers. Furthermore, fueled and armed aircraft inside the ships presented a significant additional hazard in terms of damage to the carriers in an event of attack, and keeping them on the decks was much more dangerous than getting them airborne. Whatever the case, at that point there was no way to stop the American strike against him, since Fletcher’s carriers had launched their planes beginning at 07:00 (with Enterprise and Hornet having completed launching by 07:55, but Yorktown not until 09:08), so the aircraft that would deliver the crushing blow were already on their way. Even if Nagumo had not strictly followed carrier doctrine, he could not have prevented the launch of the American attack.
Had Nag-omo chosen to have lunch first for those who were keen to eat and risked the two-man Aga going in the ditch, they would have formed a powerful and well-balanced packaged strike. Rather like vitamins C and D working well together against Covid 19 or the ‘flu.
Of course getting the Aga out of the ditch would have been problematic as Aga’s are very heavy and might take more than two men.
Leaving the fooled armed haircraft bods inside the ship presented a significant hazard as they tended to fuel (sic) around, and even on deck they could muck around, so really much better to get them hairborne.
Nevertheless, there was no way the strike that was scheduled against the Ja’s Pan Knees could be stopped, as the Union leaders of the A-merry-cans knew very well.
They had planned properly and had lunch early at 07.00. Very early I know, but some people will skip breakfast and have lunch instead.
The haircraft that would deliver the Cushing blow (like Peter Cushing the vampire slayer) were on their way regardless, so even if Nag-omo had not followed Doc Trine’s advice, he could not have prevented the A-merry-cans having lunch by dropping in unexpectedly and pinching all their food.
1.3.4 Attacks on the Japanese fleet
The Americans had already launched their carrier aircraft against the Japanese. Fletcher, in overall command aboard Yorktown, and benefiting from PBY sighting reports from the early morning, ordered Spruance to launch against the Japanese as soon as was practical, while initially holding Yorktown in reserve in case any other Japanese carriers were found.
As we know the A-merry-cans had already had lunch. The fletcher on board with Your-K-Town and benefitting from Si Ting’s reports, had hors d’oeuvres with Spew- ants for lunch. An odd combination.
Anyway, he said they should have lunch with the Ja’s Pan Knees as soon as possible. This seems rather greedy.
Spruance judged that, though the range was extreme, a strike could succeed and gave the order to launch the attack. He then left Halsey’s Chief of Staff, Captain Miles Browning, to work out the details and oversee the launch. The carriers had to launch into the wind, so the light southeasterly breeze would require them to steam away from the Japanese at high speed. Browning, therefore, suggested a launch time of 07:00, giving the carriers an hour to close on the Japanese at 25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph). This would place them at about 155 nautical miles (287 km; 178 mi) from the Japanese fleet, assuming it did not change course. The first plane took off from Spruance’s carriers Enterprise and Hornet a few minutes after 07:00. Fletcher, upon completing his own scouting flights, followed suit at 08:00 from Yorktown.
Spew-ants thought this extreme, but nevertheless agreed. He left Hall-see’s chef of stuff to sort out the menu for what was to be a picnic, although considering the reception the Ja’s Pan Knees would give them when they arrived unannounced it would be no picnic, I assure you.
The chef of stuff was a Mr Browning, a type of gravy seasoning which is why he joined the catering arm of the US Navy, or Gravy Navy as it is colloquially known.
The carriers had lunch in the wind it appears. Or it may be eating it too quickly gave them wind, I’m not sure. Anyway, it involved steaming away to presumably cook the vegetables as this helped preserve the flavours and vitamins etc.
Fletcher, along with Yorktown’s commanding officer, Captain Elliott Buckmaster, and their staffs, had acquired the first-hand experience needed in organizing and launching a full strike against an enemy force in the Coral Sea, but there was no time to pass these lessons on to Enterprise and Hornet which were tasked with launching the first strike. Spruance ordered the striking aircraft to proceed to target immediately, rather than waste time waiting for the strike force to assemble, since neutralizing enemy carriers was the key to the survival of his own task force.
The Fletcher with Ellie ‘Hot’ Buckmaster and their stuff had acquired first-hand experience at organising lunch at the Coral C, but had no thyme to pass on the lesions which would have helped heal them.
Spew-ants thought that it was better to send the haircraft going on strike to get some tar immediately. This would be useful to apply to the Ja’s Pan Knees hair and help neuter them, turning the she’s (as ships are considered female) to it’s. So from ship she’s to ship it’s.
Or more simply shi’she’s to shi’it’s which can be more readily disposed of as worthless, i.e a complete load of shi’its
While the Japanese were able to launch 108 aircraft in just seven minutes, it took Enterprise and Hornet over an hour to launch 117. Spruance judged that the need to throw something at the enemy as soon as possible was greater than the need to coordinate the attack by aircraft of different types and speeds (fighters, bombers, and torpedo bombers). Accordingly, American squadrons were launched piecemeal and proceeded to the target in several different groups. It was accepted that the lack of coordination would diminish the impact of the American attacks and increase their casualties, but Spruance calculated that this was worthwhile, since keeping the Japanese under aerial attack impaired their ability to launch a counterstrike (Japanese tactics preferred fully constituted attacks), and he gambled that he would find Nagumo with his flight decks at their most vulnerable.
While the Ja’s Pan Knees could have 108 for lunch in just 7 minutes, the Enter-prise and Hairnet took over an hour. This was probably sensible as it helped them digest their meal and not suffer indigestion.
Spwe-ants judgedthat the need to throw something at the enemy asap was greater than the need to co-ordinate the haircraft accordingly to size, height, weight etc.
If he could have thrown something else no doubt he would, but the enemy was a long way off and they would need the pots and pans for cooking the next meal.
Of course today people may still be banging pots and pans to try and ward off evil spirits such the Covid 19 monster, or Jermy Corbin as he sounds catching.
Anyway, it did mean that the lack of co-ordination would diminish the impact of the strikes and increase their casual ties which they wore around their heads as opposed to their necks. Like this.
Or a better way to do it like the Ja’s Pan Knees do. See
Spew-ants had worked out that this was worthwhile as this kept the Ja’s Pan Knees occupied with their hair. This impaired their ability to have another lunch which they preferred to do in one sitting than to have piece meals or snacks.
If they were caught unawares when having their lunch together when the A-merry-cans dropped in uninvited all hell would break loose in the confusion.
American carrier aircraft had difficulty locating the target, despite the positions they had been given. The strike from Hornet, led by Commander Stanhope C. Ring, followed an incorrect heading of 265 degrees rather than the 240 degrees indicated by the contact report. As a result, Air Group Eight’s dive bombers missed the Japanese carriers. Torpedo Squadron 8 (VT-8, from Hornet), led by Lieutenant Commander John C. Waldron, broke formation from Ring and followed the correct heading. The 10 F4Fs from Hornet ran out of fuel and had to ditch.
The A-merry-can haircraft had difficulty finding the target. The strike being organised by a Ring (one of the Ring leaders) went off course having too many degrees, rather like those awarded honorary degrees by universities which are meaningless.
As a consequence the hair groups eight dive bummers missed the Ja’s Pan Knees carriers. However, I gather there were 19 dive bummers, not eight, so more confusion here.
In any event, the torpedo squat Ron led by a John C. Walled Ron, broke from the ring and went in the right direction. Some wild cats ran low on energy and fell into a ditch.
Waldron’s squadron sighted the enemy carriers and began attacking at 09:20, followed at 09:40 by VF-6 from Enterprise, whose Wildcat fighter escorts lost contact, ran low on fuel, and had to turn back. Without fighter escort, all 15 TBD Devastators of VT-8 were shot down without being able to inflict any damage. Ensign George H. Gay, Jr. was the only survivor of the 30 aircrew of VT-8. He completed his torpedo attack on the aircraft carrier Sōryū before he was shot down, but Sōryū evaded his torpedo. Meanwhile, VT-6, led by LCDR Eugene E. Lindsey lost nine of its 14 Devastators (one ditched later), and 10 of 12 Devastators from Yorktown’s VT-3 (who attacked at 10:10) were shot down with no hits to show for their effort, thanks in part to the abysmal performance of their unimproved Mark 13 torpedoes. Midway was the last time the TBD Devastator was used in combat.
Walled Ron’s squat Ron sighted the enemy carriers, followed by the haircraft group from Enter-prize, but the wildcats ran low on energy and had to turn back.
All 15 De vast taters were shot down without causing damage in return. The N-sign, a George Gay, was the only sir viva, i.e. the only man to live through the experience. He was of course very happy or gay about this, the true meaning of the word despite what others want it to mean nowadays.
The vast majority of De vast taters were shot down with no hits to show for their effort, which was in part due to the abyss mal performance of the Mark 13 torpedoes. The abyss mal was the bad abyss or pit from which the mark of the worst torpedo came as opposed to the mark of the best (sic).
The De vast taters were devastated about all this, so much so they were never seen again.
The Japanese combat air patrol, flying Mitsubishi A6M2 Zeros,[104] made short work of the unescorted, slow, under-armed TBDs. A few TBDs managed to get within a few ship-lengths range of their targets before dropping their torpedoes—close enough to be able to strafe the enemy ships and force the Japanese carriers to make sharp evasive maneuvers—but all of their torpedoes either missed or failed to explode.[105] The performance of American torpedoes in the early months of the war was extremely poor, as shot after shot missed by running directly under the target (deeper than intended), prematurely exploded, or hit targets (sometimes with an audible clang) and failed to explode at all.[106][107] Remarkably, senior Navy and Bureau of Ordnance officers never questioned why half a dozen torpedoes, released so close to the Japanese carriers, produced no results.[108]
The Ja’s Pan Knees caps with their Zeros made short work of clipping the bummers haircraft. The performance of the torpedoes was due to due to missing entirely going too deep or premature explosions or even on target but not exploding at all but making a loud clang.
Some men have this problem in other areas I understand. Lots of effort, a loud bang, signifying nothing. Rather like Macbeth as Shakespeare wrote.
‘And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.’
Or more simply put, ‘That was a bloody waste of time and effort wasn’t it?’
I gather that senior Navy and Bureau of Ordnance officers never questioned why half a dozen torpedoes, released so close to the Japanese carriers, produced no results.
This is bureaucracy for you. Get them to fly the aircraft and get them to test the thing in real life. They would either learn the lesson or be dead; either way it would be a win-win situation.
Similar issues occur today in the NHS where the managers don’t know what they are doing and poor doctors and nurses have to carry the can. Not that there aren’t issues with doctors but that’s another matter.
Despite their failure to score any hits, the American torpedo attacks achieved three important results. First, they kept the Japanese carriers off balance and unable to prepare and launch their own counterstrike. Second, the poor control of the Japanese combat air patrol (CAP) meant they were out of position for subsequent attacks. Third, many of the Zeros ran low on ammunition and fuel.[109] The appearance of a third torpedo plane attack from the southeast by VT-3 from Yorktown, led by LCDR Lance Edward Massey at 10:00 very quickly drew the majority of the Japanese CAP to the southeast quadrant of the fleet.[110] Better discipline and the employment of a greater number of Zeroes for the CAP might have enabled Nagumo to prevent (or at least mitigate) the damage caused by the coming American attacks.
Despite all this, the attacks achieved three important results.
1. They kept the Ja’s Pan Knees carriers off balance (wobbly knee syndrome) and unable to have lunch before their own strikes.
2. The poor control of the caps meant it was caps off during subsequent attacks when they need caps to protect their hair-dos.
3. Many of the Zeros ran low on energy and ammunition. But they were Zeros, so what do you expect. As with the human body, you will be vulnerable to disease if you run low on energy and immunity. Your immune system always needs topping up with suitable vitamins and minerals.
The appearance of a third torpedo attack by an Ed Mass-sea with a lance drew most of the caps off to the south east of the fleet.
It is said that better discipline and a greater number of Zeros might have enabled Nag-omo to prevent or mitigate the damage from further attacks to come. But I struggle to this this. As I said before, more zeros are still zero when you add it all up.
By chance, at the same time VT-3 was sighted by the Japanese, three squadrons of SBDs from Enterprise and Yorktown were approaching from the southwest and northeast. The Yorktown squadron (VB-3) had flown just behind VT-3, but elected to attack from a different course. The two squadrons from Enterprise (VB-6 and VS-6) were running low on fuel because of the time spent looking for the enemy. Air Group Commander C. Wade McClusky, Jr. decided to continue the search, and by good fortune spotted the wake of the Japanese destroyer Arashi, steaming at full speed to rejoin Nagumo’s carriers after having unsuccessfully depth-charged U.S. submarine Nautilus, which had unsuccessfully attacked the battleship Kirishima. Some bombers were lost from fuel exhaustion before the attack commenced.
By chance it is said (but the Lord God knows better) three squat Rons were approaching from different angels. Your-K-Town’s group were elected to approach from a different angel to the Enter-prize who had followed the Des Troyer Arashi steaming at full speed back to the main fleet, leaving his wake behind him as an obvious marker as to where he was going.
Of course if he hadn’t been in such a rash (sic) to rush after the naughty lass, this might not have happened and history could have been different. But then rash is his name so…
McClusky’s decision to continue the search and his judgment, in the opinion of Admiral Chester Nimitz, “decided the fate of our carrier task force and our forces at Midway …” All three American dive-bomber squadrons (VB-6, VS-6, and VB-3) arrived almost simultaneously at the perfect time, locations and altitudes to attack. Most of the Japanese CAP was directing its attention to the torpedo planes of VT-3 and was out of position; meanwhile, armed Japanese strike aircraft filled the hangar decks, fuel hoses snaked across the decks as refueling operations were hastily being completed, and the repeated change of ordnance meant that bombs and torpedoes were stacked around the hangars, rather than stowed safely in the magazines, making the Japanese carriers extraordinarily vulnerable.
It was a wide Mac Lucky who decided to continue the search despite being low on energy, so in one sense we could say that luck had something to do with it. But then as people say, you make your own luck by being persistent.
No-mitts considered that Mac Lucky’s decision decided the fate of the USA’s carriers and Midway. One man’s decision on which the fate of the battle turned. So often this is true.
All three squat Rons of dive bombers arrived at almost simultaneously at the same perfect time. The armed Ja’s Pan Knees haircraft filled the hanger decks and fool hoses snaked across the decks as refooling was being completed. Fooling about is no joke.
The repeated change of orders for dinners meant that the bombes for dessert and the torpedoes for main course were stacked around rather than being safely stored with the magazines. They should have been in the larder, but there you go, each to his own. Anyway, this left the carriers extremely vulnerable to having their food messed up.
Beginning at 10:22, the two squadrons of Enterprise’s air group split up with the intention of sending one squadron each to attack Kaga and Akagi. A miscommunication caused both of the squadrons to dive at Kaga. Recognizing the error, Lieutenant Richard Halsey Best and his two wingmen were able to pull out of their dives and, after judging that Kaga was doomed, headed north to attack Akagi. Coming under an onslaught of bombs from almost two full squadrons, Kaga sustained three to five direct hits, which caused heavy damage and started multiple fires. One of the bombs landed on or right in front of the bridge, killing Captain Jisaku Okada and most of the ship’s senior officers. Lieutenant Clarence E. Dickinson, part of McClusky’s group, recalled:
The two squat Rons of Enter-prize spilt up intending for one each to attack the Gaga and the A car guy. However, a Miss Communication made them both go for Gaga. So often the case when men get distracted by a pretty face or legs.
Nvertheless, a Best man and his two winged men, i.e. angels, were able to pull out of the dives and headed north to attack A car guy. In the meantime the Gaga sustained three to five direct hits which caused heavy damage and started lots of fires.
One landed of the office were the senior men were playing bridge, which included Ji Sack you Ok Ada.
We were coming down in all directions on the port side of the carrier … I recognized her as the Kaga; and she was enormous … The target was utterly satisfying … I saw a bomb hit just behind where I was aiming … I saw the deck rippling and curling back in all directions exposing a great section of the hangar below … I saw [my] 500-pound [230 kg] bomb hit right abreast of the [carrier’s] island. The two 100-pound [45 kg] bombs struck in the forward area of the parked planes …
One of the dive bummers, a left ten ant was coming down of the port side, i.e. the left. Which is sensible when you are a left ten ant. He found the target satisfying and he saw the deck (probably the pack of cards that was being used for the game of bridge) rippling and curling back in all directions which ruined the pack completely.
Several minutes later, Best and his two wingmen dove on Akagi. Mitsuo Fuchida, the Japanese aviator who had led the attack on Pearl Harbor, was on Akagi when it was hit, and described the attack:
Several minutes later, the Best (no close relation of George the footballer I assume) and two winged men, dove down like doves but not in peace, and splatted the decks of A car guy, making more than a mess of his paintwork I can tell you.
A look-out screamed: “Hell-Divers!” I looked up to see three black enemy planes plummeting towards our ship. Some of our machineguns managed to fire a few frantic bursts at them, but it was too late. The plump silhouettes of the American Dauntless dive-bombers quickly grew larger, and then a number of black objects suddenly floated eerily from their wings.
A Ja’s Pan Knees man screamed “Look out” and “Oh hell, divers” or something like that. He saw 3 black divers eating plums as they dropped in uninvited on the ship. Some Manchurian Buns burped at them but this did not distract the divers.
The divers were rather plump from the plums as they plum-etted in and this extra weight helped the element of surprise. Then a few black objects floated down. These were possibly their ears or their wings, it is unclear. Or merely the stones from the plums they ate.
Although Akagi sustained only one direct hit (almost certainly dropped by Lieutenant Best), it proved to be a fatal blow: the bomb struck the edge of the mid-ship deck elevator and penetrated to the upper hangar deck, where it exploded among the armed and fueled aircraft in the vicinity. Nagumo’s chief of staff, Ryūnosuke Kusaka, recorded “a terrific fire … bodies all over the place … Planes stood tail up, belching livid flames and jet-black smoke, making it impossible to bring the fires under control.” Another bomb exploded underwater very close astern; the resulting geyser bent the flight deck upward “in grotesque configurations” and caused crucial rudder damage.
A car guy took only one hit dropped by the best diver called Best. Obviously. This found its mark. Hence forth it would be known in US Navy circles as Mark of the Best. I believe this is mentioned in the book of Revelation.
The hit was fatal as it caused internal damage to all the foolish haircraft. A geezer in the water made some gross configurations, presumably some rude signs, as way as causing some ruddy damage.
Simultaneously, Yorktown’s VB-3, commanded by Max Leslie, went for Sōryū, scoring at least three hits and causing extensive damage. Gasoline ignited, creating an “inferno”, while stacked bombs and ammunition detonated. VT-3 targeted Hiryū, which was hemmed in by Sōryū, Kaga, and Akagi, but achieved no hits.
At the same time, Your-K-Town’s 3 B’s, commanded by a Mac S. Le Sly, went for Saw-you and scored at least three hits and causing ten sieves damage, i.e. an awful lot of holes.
Gazza O’Line was furious and “ignited” creating a Towering Inferno which made a good film.
Within six minutes, Sōryū and Kaga were ablaze from stem to stern, as fires spread through the ships. Akagi, having been struck by only one bomb, took longer to burn, but the resulting fires quickly expanded and soon proved impossible to extinguish; she too was eventually consumed by flames and had to be abandoned. As Nagumo began to grasp the enormity of what had happened, he appears to have gone into a state of shock. Witnesses saw Nagumo standing near the ship’s compass looking out at the flames on his flagship and two other carriers in a trance-like daze. Despite being asked to abandon the ship, Nagumo did not move and was reluctant to leave the Akagi, just muttering, “It’s not time yet.” Nagumo’s chief of staff, Rear Admiral Ryūnosuke Kusaka, was able to persuade him to leave the critically damaged Akagi. Nagumo, with a barely perceptible nod, with tears in his eyes, agreed to go. At 10:46, Admiral Nagumo transferred his flag to the light cruiser Nagara. All three carriers remained temporarily afloat, as none had suffered damage below the waterline, other than the rudder damage to Akagi caused by the near miss close astern. Despite initial hopes that Akagi could be saved or at least towed back to Japan, all three carriers were eventually abandoned and scuttled. While Kaga was burning, Nautilus showed up again and launched three torpedoes at her, scoring one dud hit.
Within six minutes the Saw-you and the Ga-ga were on fire from head to toe or vice-versa. Hammer-my-toe was certainly getting his toes hammered. Indeed, with all the fires it looked like his force was toe-st (sic).
And it only took six minutes. Six, six, six minutes. Mmm…
A car guy took only one hit from a bum, but as he was careless (but not car-less as he was a car guy, and loved cars) he left petrol cans all over the place. Thus he was consumed with flames.
This is what happens when you use inflammatory language, in the end you get consumed yourself.
Poor old Nag-omo was in a trance. Probably the equivalent of MSM on people nowadays stunned by all the propaganda they see, and all the piles of dead and harmed from the vaccines.
Well ok, maybe not piles of dead, but you know what I mean.
An admirable rear Rhino Sue Key Cuss-a.k.a (a.k.a. what, well I swear I don’t know) persuaded Nag-omo to leave.
The three carriers remaining afloat as they had not been hit below the belt, apart from some ruddy damage to the A Car guy, caused by Ann Ear (Miss).
It had been hope they could be toed back but had to have a band on for some reason before being put in the scuttle.
I gather the naughty lass showed up again and had lunch with the Gaga and shared three torpedoes or filled baguettes as we might say in the UK. One of these hit Dud, short for Dudley of course.
1.3.5 Japanese counterattacks
Hiryū, the sole surviving Japanese aircraft carrier, wasted little time in counterattacking. Hiryū’s first attack wave, consisting of 18 D3As and six fighter escorts, followed the retreating American aircraft and attacked the first carrier they encountered, Yorktown, hitting her with three bombs, which blew a hole in the deck, snuffed out all but one of her boilers, and destroyed one anti-aircraft mount. The damage also forced Admiral Fletcher to move his command staff to the heavy cruiser Astoria. Damage control parties were able to temporarily patch the flight deck and restore power to several boilers within an hour, giving her a speed of 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph) and enabling her to resume air operations. Yorktown yanked down her yellow breakdown flag and up went a new hoist—”My speed 5.” Captain Buckmaster had his signalmen hoist a huge new (10 feet wide and 15 feet long) American flag from the foremast. Sailors, including Ensign John d’Arc Lorenz called it an incalculable inspiration: “For the first time I realized what the flag meant: all of us—a million faces—all our effort—a whisper of encouragement.” Thirteen Japanese dive bombers and three escorting fighters were lost in this attack (two escorting fighters turned back early after they were damaged attacking some of Enterprise’s SBDs returning from their attack on the Japanese carriers).
How are you was the only haircraft carrier left on its feet or soles, and so attacked the A-merry-cans counter.
The first wave was 18 Vals, i.e. 6 + 6 + 6 or 6,6,6 and 6 Zero fighters. But not Zero 6 fighters as this is zero. Anyway, that is one fighter to 3 Vals, 1 in 3, or 3 in 1 like the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.
They followed the retreating A-merry-can haircraft and attacked the first carrier they encountered, the Your-K-Town, hitting her with three bums. One of these blew a hole her deck, which must have taken a lot of puff from the bum.
In even snuffed out all but one boiler which really is commendable for one bum and just shows how much wind bums can generate. One assumes beans were what the bums ate for lunch in the absence of any further information.
The admirable Fletcher had to move to the heavy brusier A-storey-ya. The flat top was repaired and Your-K-Town got her energy back quite quickly and was able to make 19 knots. These were braids in her hair of course, and she could then resume hair operations.
The captain Buckmaster had his single men hoist a Hugh Flag from Four masts. Not sure that was very kind, but an N-sign called Jean Dark Lo Rents called in an ‘incalculable inspiration’.
“For the first time I realized what the flag meant: all of us—a million faces—all our effort—a whisper of encouragement.”
I am not sure where he got a million faces from as there weren’t that many personnel around, but perhaps he was using poetic license.
Approximately one hour later, Hiryū’s second attack wave, consisting of ten B5Ns and six escorting A6Ms, arrived over Yorktown; the repair efforts had been so effective that the Japanese pilots assumed that Yorktown must be a different, undamaged carrier. They attacked, crippling Yorktown with two torpedoes; she lost all power and developed a 23-degree list to port. Five torpedo bombers and two fighters were shot down in this attack.
An hour later How are you’s second wave came as they wished to wave goodbye to the Your-K-Town. However, as she had been so effective in her repairs, make-up and so on she looked in pretty good shape so she was mistaken for another lady.
Sadly, they hit her with two torpedoes under the belt which crippled her. She lost all strength as one would and developed a lust for port for some strange reason. This meant she took to drink. Any port in a storm of Ja’s Pan Knees haircraft I suppose.
But she lurched drunkenly over to the left. Doesn’t one get that sinking feeling when people incline to the left?
News of the two strikes, with the mistaken reports that each had sunk an American carrier, greatly improved Japanese morale. The few surviving aircraft were all recovered aboard Hiryū. Despite the heavy losses, the Japanese believed that they could scrape together enough aircraft for one more strike against what they believed to be the only remaining American carrier.
The news of the two strikes greatly improved the Ja’s Pan Knees morals, especially as they thought they had scuppered two carriers, not one.
Despite the heavy losses, they thought they could scrape together enough haircraft for one more strike or scrap, i.e. fight to remove the A-merry-cans last carrier (so they thought). This would make ‘three strikes and you’re out’ against the A-merry-cans, as in baseball.
1.3.6 American counterattack
Late in the afternoon, a Yorktown scout aircraft located Hiryū, prompting Enterprise to launch a final strike of 24 dive bombers (including six SBDs from VS-6, four SBDs from VB-6, and 14 SBDs from Yorktown’s VB-3). Despite Hiryū being defended by a strong cover of more than a dozen Zero fighters, the attack by Enterprise and orphaned Yorktown aircraft launched from Enterprise was successful: four bombs (possibly five) hit Hiryū, leaving her ablaze and unable to operate aircraft. Hornet’s strike, launched late because of a communications error, concentrated on the remaining escort ships, but failed to score any hits. Enterprise dive bomber Dusty Kleiss struck the Hiryū on the bow, crippling it so badly that it effectively rendered the carrier out of commission immediately, with Dusty comparing his damage to the bow to being “folded over like a taco”.
Late in the afternoon, a scout on behalf of Your-K-Town found How-are-you, but didn’t ask how she was. The Enter-prize found out about this and had lunch again whilst going on strike. 24 dive bummers went to say hello instead.
And despite How-are-you having a strong cover of more than a dozen Zeros, the strike by planes from Enter-prize and orphans from Your-K-Town. Their mother was stricken of course and was taking to drink as I have mentioned.
This happens sadly, and very damaging it is to children’s welfare.
Anyway, four or maybe five bums hit the How-are-you, but left her a blazer to keep her warm which is kind.
The Hairnet also went on strike, having had a late lunch because no-one had had told them lunch was ready, concentrated on the escorts, but missed.
An enterprising dive bummer hit How-Are-you on the nose, breaking it so badly that the carrier was rendered useless immediately. If you have ever been punched on the nose like that no doubt you will understand.
After futile attempts at controlling the blaze, most of the crew remaining on Hiryū were evacuated and the remainder of the fleet continued sailing northeast in an attempt to intercept the American carriers. Despite a scuttling attempt by a Japanese destroyer that hit her with a torpedo and then departed quickly, Hiryū stayed afloat for several more hours. She was discovered early the next morning by an aircraft from the escort carrier Hōshō, prompting hopes she could be saved, or at least towed back to Japan. Soon after being spotted, Hiryū sank. Rear Admiral Tamon Yamaguchi, together with the ship’s captain, Tomeo Kaku, chose to go down with the ship, costing Japan perhaps its best carrier officer. One young sailor reportedly tried to go down with the ship with the officers, but was denied.
Despite being given a blazer, the crew couldn’t handle it (I assume it was far too large and smothered the poor lady). A Ja’ Pan Knees Des Troyer tried to put How-are-you in a scuttle, to which she didn’t take kindly.
She was still afloat the next day but Ann Haircraft from an escort, a carrier called Ho-Show, which gave the Ja’ Pan Knees hopes she could be saved or towed back. But it was a no-go as she sank after being spotted.
Probably the seagulls making a mess on her, the bird poo being sufficient weight to be the last straw for the old girl.
The admirable rear Tar-man Yah-ma-guchi together with the ship’s captain, To-me O’Kacku (of part Irish descent) decided to go down with the lady. This was a bit silly, as the Ja’ Pan Knees lost one of its finest carrier captains.
As darkness fell, both sides took stock and made tentative plans for continuing the action. Admiral Fletcher, obliged to abandon the derelict Yorktown and feeling he could not adequately command from a cruiser, ceded operational command to Spruance. Spruance knew the United States had won a great victory, but he was still unsure of what Japanese forces remained and was determined to safeguard both Midway and his carriers. To aid his aviators, who had launched at extreme range, he had continued to close with Nagumo during the day and persisted as night fell.
As darkness fell (which is another reason why the word fell means ‘dark’ among other things), both sides took stock. This was because the tired and hungry men needing feeding of course and soup would need to be made for souper, sorry, supper.
The admirable Fletcher CD’d operational command to Spew-ants, i.e. gave him the CD with all the data on it. Spew-ants knew the U.S Navy had won a grate victory having set fire to the Ja’s Pan Knees carriers, but was still unsure of what Ja’s Pan Knees forces remained and wanted to protect both Midway and his carriers.
Finally, fearing a possible night encounter with Japanese surface forces, and believing Yamamoto still intended to invade, based in part on a misleading contact report from the submarine Tambor, Spruance changed course and withdrew to the east, turning back west towards the enemy at midnight. For his part, Yamamoto initially decided to continue the engagement and sent his remaining surface forces searching eastward for the American carriers. Simultaneously, he detached a cruiser raiding force to bombard the island. The Japanese surface forces failed to make contact with the Americans because Spruance had decided to briefly withdraw eastward, and Yamamoto ordered a general withdrawal to the west. It was fortunate for the U.S. that Spruance did not pursue, for had he come in contact with Yamamoto’s heavy ships, including Yamato, in the dark, considering the Japanese Navy’s superiority in night-attack tactics at the time, there is a very high probability his cruisers would have been overwhelmed and his carriers sunk.
He feared a possible knight encounter with the Ja’s Pan Knees surface forces who were still very strong (their knights had better armour and weapons). He had a Miss Leading report to him with her Tambor, a smaller version of a tambourine which made a lot of noise but that wasn’t very helpful.
Thus he went to the east with Drew, whoever he was, and then at midnight turned west again.
Hammer-my- toe decided to continue the engagement (despite the fact the wedding was clearly off after all the fighting) and continued east to look for the A-merry-can carriers, but with Drew (who clearly kept switching sides) to the west.
It is just as well Spew-ants did not pursue as Hammer-my- toe’s heavies, including Jam-a-toe, a very large red chap rather like a sumo wrestler but even bigger, would have overwhelmed him and his fleet.
It should be noted that the Ja’s Pan Knees were very good nights, and their knights at night were even better.
Spruance failed to regain contact with Yamamoto’s forces on 5 June, despite extensive searches. Towards the end of the day, he launched a search-and-destroy mission to seek out any remnants of Nagumo’s carrier force. This late afternoon strike narrowly missed detecting Yamamoto’s main body and failed to score hits on a straggling Japanese destroyer. The strike planes returned to the carriers after nightfall, prompting Spruance to order Enterprise and Hornet to turn on their lights to aid the landings.
Spew-ants failed to regain contact with Hammer-my-toe on the 5th June. He had lunch again at the end of the day with a Sea Arch and Des Troy Miss Eon.
They missed Hammer-my- toe’s main body despite the presence of the sumo wrestler who was very large and should have been obvious.
The planes that went on strike came back at night and they had to turn the lights on. These were on the landing so they could go to the bathroom for a wash.
At 02:15 on the morning of 5 June, Commander John Murphy’s Tambor, lying 90 nautical miles (170 km; 100 mi) west of Midway, made the second of the submarine force’s two major contributions to the battle’s outcome, although its impact was heavily blunted by Murphy himself. Sighting several ships, neither Murphy nor his executive officer, Edward Spruance (son of Admiral Spruance), could identify them. Uncertain of whether they were friendly or not and unwilling to approach any closer to verify their heading or type, Murphy decided to send a vague report of “four large ships” to Admiral Robert English, Commander, Submarine Force, Pacific Fleet (COMSUBPAC). This report was passed on by English to Nimitz, who then sent it to Spruance. Spruance, a former submarine commander, was “understandably furious” at the vagueness of Murphy’s report, as it provided him with little more than suspicion and no concrete information on which to make his preparations. Unaware of the exact location of Yamamoto’s “Main Body” (a persistent problem since the time PBYs had first sighted the Japanese), Spruance was forced to assume the “four large ships” reported by Tambor represented the main invasion force and so he moved to block it, while staying 100 nautical miles (190 km; 120 mi) northeast of Midway.
At 2:15 am on the 5th June a John Murphy with a Tambor, a sub-marine, i.e. short for a Tambourine, was lying 90 nought-tickle miles west of Midway. What he was lying about I am not sure.
Anyway, it made the second contribution to the battle’s outcome, although its impact was heavily blunted by Murphy himself. Thus we have a version of Murphy’s Law – “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong if a Murphy is involved.”
Sighting several ships, neither Murphy nor his executive officer, Edward Spew-ants (son of the admirable Spew-ants), could identify them, although they could see they were ships, obviously.
They couldn’t tell if the ships were friendly, although if they were traveling together it seems obvious that they must be friendly as enemies can surely hardly ever travel together, can they?
Anyway, as Murphy was unwilling to get any closer, he sent a Vogue report of ‘Four large ships’ to an admirable Bob English who was A-merry-can and not English.
This report was passed on by English in English, well A-merry-can English anyway, to No-Mitts then to Spew-ants.
Spew-ant who had been a sub-marine himself was understandably furious at the Vogueness of the report. This is probably a similar type or report that the Vogons (sic) of Hitchhiker’s Guide fame would have submitted. In triplicate.
The report gave him no concrete, and without concrete you cannot have a sure foundation to build on, can you? Which reminds me of a short story…
With not much to go on (the gents toilets, or ‘heads’ as they are called in naval terms, were blocked) he assumed the ships were the main invasion force and he moved to block them. Not the toilets as these were already blocked, but the Ja’s Pan Knees.
In reality, the ships sighted by Tambor were the detachment of four cruisers and two destroyers Yamamoto had sent to bombard Midway. At 02:55, these ships received Yamamoto’s order to retire and changed course to comply. At about the same time as this change of course, Tambor was sighted and during maneuvers designed to avoid a submarine attack, the heavy cruisers Mogami and Mikuma collided, inflicting serious damage on Mogami’s bow. The less severely damaged Mikuma slowed to 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph) to keep pace. Only at 04:12 did the sky brighten enough for Murphy to be certain the ships were Japanese, by which time staying surfaced was hazardous and he dived to approach for an attack. The attack was unsuccessful and around 06:00 he finally reported two westbound Mogami-class cruisers, before diving again and playing no further role in the battle. Limping along on a straight course at 12 knots—roughly one-third their top speed—Mogami and Mikuma had been almost perfect targets for a submarine attack. As soon as Tambor returned to port, Spruance had Murphy relieved of duty and reassigned to a shore station, citing his confusing contact report, poor torpedo shooting during his attack run, and general lack of aggression, especially as compared to Nautilus, the oldest of the 12 boats at Midway and the only one which had successfully placed a torpedo on target (albeit a dud).
It appears the ships sighted by Tambor were the four bruisers and two Des Troyers sent by Hammer-my-toe to bum-bard Midway. These were then told by Hammer-my-toe to retire, i.e. put new tires on.
The Tambor was spotted (it was dark don’t forget) and in the confusion to avoid the possibility of sub-marine attack, the heavy bruisers Mog-am-I (a type of cat, a mog-gy cat) and Mike-You-Ma collided. This caused serious damage to Mog-am-I’s bow, a pretty red bow round its neck, and made it limp.
Only as Dawn came was it obvious the ships were Japanese. Whilst the Tambor tried an attack from under the water it failed. This seems surprising given how the two bruisers were slowed down.
Over the next two days, several strikes were launched against the stragglers, first from Midway, then from Spruance’s carriers. Mikuma was eventually sunk by Dauntlesses, while Mogami survived further severe damage to return home for repairs. The destroyers Arashio and Asashio were also bombed and strafed during the last of these attacks. Captain Richard E. Fleming, a U.S. Marine Corps aviator, was killed while executing a glide bomb run on Mikuma and was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.
Over the next two days there were more strikes over lunch. Mike-You-Ma was sunk by Dawn tea Lasses whilst Mog-am-I suffered further heavy damage to its fur.
The Des Troyers A-rash-io and A-sash-io who had a rash and sash respectively were bummed and stray fed.
Meanwhile, salvage efforts on Yorktown were encouraging, and she was taken in tow by fleet tug USS Vireo. In the late afternoon of 6 June, the Japanese submarine I-168, which had managed to slip through the cordon of destroyers (possibly because of the large amount of debris in the water), fired a salvo of torpedoes, two of which struck Yorktown. There were few casualties aboard since most of the crew had already been evacuated, but a third torpedo from this salvo struck the destroyer USS Hammann, which had been providing auxiliary power to Yorktown. Hammann broke in two and sank with the loss of 80 lives, mostly because her own depth charges exploded. With further salvage efforts deemed hopeless, the remaining repair crews were evacuated from Yorktown. Throughout the night of 6 June and into the morning of 7 June, Yorktown remained afloat; but by 05:30 on 7 June, observers noted that her list was rapidly increasing to port. Shortly afterward, the ship turned onto her port side, and lay that way, revealing the torpedo hole in her starboard bilge—the result of the submarine attack. Captain Buckmaster’s American flag was still flying. All ships half-masted their colors in salute; all hands who were topside stood with heads uncovered and came to attention, with tears in their eyes. Two patrolling PBYs appeared overhead and dipped their wings in a final salute. At 07:01, the ship rolled upside-down, and slowly sank, stern first, with her battle flags flying.
The sal veg operations were encouraging as they managed to save much of the veg strewn around by the fight. However on the 6th June a Ja’s Pan knees sub-marine slipped through the Gordon Des Troyers, and fired a Sal Vo at Your K Town. Two of these hit.
A third hit the ham man (possibly a ham actor) who broke apart.
In any event the Your K Town was deemed lost. She remained afloat until the 7th June, but she was taking on the port even more and inclining further to the left.
All the hands on deck got to their feet with their heads uncovered with tiers in their eyes.
Your K Town did one final turn, stood on her bottom and disappeared with her head, her bow, held high, as she gave her last bow as the curtain of water closed over her.
The U.S. forces were in no fit state to pursue without great risk, and anyway had achieved a great victory. They needed to regroup and repair/rearm.
They were around enough to check that Midway was no longer under threat and that was enough for the time being.
It is interesting to note from Wikipedia that the Japanese still thought the Americans were not aware of Japan’s plans, but the whole thing had been compromised from the start.
It seems the Japanese public were told, lied to, that Japan had achieved a great victory. The wounded from the battle were classified as secret patients and ‘…quarantined from other patients and their own families to keep this major defeat secret’.
Mmm, reminds me of lockdowns and patients in hospitals where families were not allowed in. I gather there are still restrictions in the NHS. My opinion of the NHS is extremely low. What I think of the cretins who are running the hospitals is unrepeatable here.
However, if someone cares to express them in the comments feel free.
Or, like the Lord God, take yourself off to some quiet place and swear by yourself. It says this in the Bible of course, Hebrews 6 v.13.
When God made the promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, “He swore by himself,”!!!
The Japanese did institute changes to training and procedures, but serious damage had been done with the loss of highly skilled pilots and aircraft fitters etc.
Replacement pilots never got to be as experienced because of short term needs. The Japanese had over reached themselves, and were now on the back foot.
2.1 American prisoners
You can read about this. Three U.S. airmen were captured during the battle, they were interrogated and then executed, 2 by drowning, 1 by a fire axe.
What made the Japanese do this?
2.2 Japanese prisoners
You can read about this. 37 men from ships were rescued; presumably they were all interrogated and apparently treated reasonably.
3 Impact
Well, there you have it. A battle mainly in the air and via the air. And won largely by a relatively few well targeted bombs on the part of the US Navies air arm part.
But of course it was a joint effort, every part of the naval corps, the body of men who made up the fleet, as well as some land based forces, and radio operators and intelligence listening in and decoding.
Everybody playing their part, however small or large. The same is true in the current war, this war of words. Every little helps.
This battle was a turning point in the war. It was in essence the high tide of Japanese expansion. And like life, and Covid 19/the ‘flu, everything comes in waves.
The waves would recede for the allies in the Pacific exposing the sand once more. This reminds me of the words to Abraham from the angel of the Lord.
I will surely bless you, and I will multiply your descendants like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will possess the gates of their enemies.
And this was because of the sacrifice Abraham had made. He trusted God.
Those who trust in God in this end time war of words will be blessed too. The tide is turning.
And I said “One man’s decision on which the fate of the battle turned”. In the middle of history, Jesus Christ took the decision to go to Calvary, whatever the cost.
History has never been the same since.
And perhaps I may finally point out that today, the 5th June 2022 is Pentecost, the celebration of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit on the disciples in Jerusalem.
As I have said this is the turning point in WW3, we are half way through. I hope you see the significance of all this. Lift up your heads for your redemption draws near.
Or in the words on Bon Jovi
Whoa, we’re half-way there Whoa, livin’ on a prayer Take my hand and we’ll make it, I swear Whoa, livin’ on a prayer
As there are goings on in the Ukraine and can probably be expected to continue for a while to keep the dim from looking at other evils in the world, I thought would do a post on this battle on the eastern front in World War Two.
Kharkov or Kharkiv as some want to call it now, was the focus of attention. The Soviet Union hoped to take it in a two pronged attack.
However, the Germans had decided to destroy the salient the Russians had gained across the river Donets, so the Russians strategy was actually playing into the Germans hands.
What is interesting is that today we see similar goings on in the region. This is a link to what is understood to be the situation on the ground. Whether it is really the case I don’t know. There has been so much distortion of truth, it is difficult to see the wood for the trees.
Anyway, as per usual I shall take a sideways look at the proceedings in WW2. The names and places may bear some resemblance to the real names. We shall see what come of it.
I use this link as a basis and text in italics (if any) will come from it unless otherwise stated.
The Second Battle of Kharkov or Operation Fredericus
Or the second battle for the car keys or Opera-tea-on Fred & Eric (known as US). In other words, a song followed by tea and Fred & Eric are paying.
1 Background
1.1 General situation on the Eastern Front
Now the Germ-man and the Rush-Ian were at loggerheads over the living room they both wanted to use. The Germ-man called it lebens raum, the Rush-Ian called it место обитания or mesto obitaniya.
Or to clarify, the Germ-man was called Ben and said it was Ben’s room, whilst the Rush-Ian said it was ‘mine too, a bit and I yes’ (rough translation). The mesto bit is like ‘mes’ in French meaning ‘my’, so this was part of the MeTo# movement.
Please note that Ben’s country Germ-many, the land of many Germs, was considered the Farterland, where the Farters came from.
And Ian’s country was Rush-here, the Motherland, Родина or Rodina. In reality Rodina was ‘Row diner’ or the row that the two had over who was going to cook diner.
Winter has been tough that year as usual and both were exhausted over the arguments in the latest rounds of lockdown. You know, ‘It’s a hoax, no it isn’t’, that sort of thing.
There was the ruler of the Rushes called Joe Stallin’ as he was always stalling for time and trying to delay his counter-part, the ruler of the Germ-men, A-dolt Hitter (due to his propensity for hitting the stupid or anybody who disagreed with him over the head with a blunt instrument).
Now Joe decided to come off the fence and attack his neighbour A-dolt, who had taken some of his garden in the U-crane.
However, Joe’s advisors (wearing visors against the coronavirus) in the read army staff (they liked reading you see), didn’t like Joe’s idea.
These included Boris-Shap O’ Sneakoff, who would sneak off and have illegal parties despite coronavirus restrictions,I-likes-and-r Vaz-will-love-Sky who liked watching Sky sports for example, and Go-orgy Zoo-cough who got up to something in the local animal sanctuary (don’t ask) and caught Covid 19 in the Fruit bat enclosure.
Vaz-will-love-Sky was hoping the Germ-men’s reserves would run out onto the pitch (he loved football) and was arguing for a defensive strategy.
On the other handZoo-cough thought the Germ-men could carry out their thrusts on two axis, the axident and the v-axident (from their tank the Merck Pfizer), both of which would dent the Rush-Ians badly.
Joe however, was sure that opening a spring by coming off the fence would destabilise the Germ-men before they could get off the fence themselves and attack the cows grazing in the moss, or Mosscow as the locality was known.
1.2 Choosing the strategy
I have decided it may help here to include the Wikipedia text for ease of reference.
After the conclusion of the winter offensive, Stalin and the Soviet –– Armed Forces General Staff (Stavka)
Joe wanted to get his So-ve-ate Staff Car out but the keys were in Car-key-v, held by the Germ-men.
believed that the eventual German offensives would aim for Moscow, and also with a big offensive to the south, mirroring Operation Barbarossa
Barbara Ross was a distant cousin of Diana, the famous singer from Mo’s Town in the U.S.A.
and Operation Typhoon
Opera-tea-on Thai-Food, when the Germ-men tried to go for a takeaway in Mosscow before sitting down with a nice cup of tea to watch an opera win free on the telly.
in 1941. Although the Stavka believed that the Germans had been defeated
– when the winter gave them frost bite and their feet had to be removed –
before Moscow, the seventy divisions which faced Moscow remained a threat. Stalin, most generals and front commanders believed that the principal effort would be a German offensive towards Moscow. Emboldened by the success of the winter offensive, Stalin was convinced that local offensives in the area would wear down German forces, weakening German efforts to mount another operation to take Moscow. Stalin had agreed to prepare the Red Army for an “active strategic defence” but later gave orders for the planning of seven local offensives, stretching from the Baltic Sea
I.e. the Balti C, a curry house in Linengrab (the Rush-Ians like being dressed in Linen, invented by Glad-I’m-here Linen)
to the Black Sea.
Black C, where the owners burnt the food. This was not considered racist back then to make things black (or white for that matter).
One area was Kharkov, where action was originally ordered for March.
As previously indicated the car keys were here in Car-key-v. Also sometimes shortened to Car-key. The Rush-Ians dressed like the locals to look as inconspicuous as possible by donning Khaki uniforms.
As they had no transport they would have to walk or march there, thus setting off in March was a good idea. As far as I am aware you cannot go for an April or May anywhere.
Early that month, the Stavka issued orders to Southwestern Strategic Direction headquarters for an offensive in the region, after the victories following the Rostov
Rust-off, an old rusty car in the rural area (or rust-ic area).
Strategic Offensive Operation (27 November – 2 December 1941) and the Barvenkovo–Lozovaya
Bar-then-covo Lots-of-a-yah, i.e. they went to a bar, caught Covid (allegedly) followed by lots of ‘I’a told you so’ from their self-righteous neighbours.
Offensive Operation (18–31 January 1942) in the Donbas region.
Dumb Ass region, distantly related to the Democratic regions in the USA.
The forces of Marshal Semyon Timoshenko
Ma-Shall Semi-on Timmy-Shen- &-Co., a car rental firm.
and Lieutenant General Kirill Moskalenko
Left-tenant (he was a true socialist of the left) Krill Moss-Car-Len-&-Co (he ran a competing car rental service of course).
penetrated German positions along the northern Donets River,
Doughnuts River where they could get doughnuts to keep them going on the journey to Car-key-v.
east of Kharkov. Fighting continued into April, with Moskalenko crossing the river and establishing a tenuous bridgehead at Izium.
Is-he-um, which is why the bridgehead was tenuous as they couldn’t be, well, um, sure they would hold it.
In the south, the Soviet 6th Army had limited success defending against German forces, which managed to keep a bridgehead of their own on the east bank of the river. Catching the attention of Stalin, it set the pace for the prelude to the eventual offensive intended to reach Pavlohrad
where they had been promised pavlova to eat.
and Sinelnikovo
Sin Ellie Kovo, the local brothel keeper. She was a soup angel, as broth is soup in Scotland, so you can have soup to start with before the pavlova.
and eventually Kharkov and Poltava.
By 15 March, Soviet commanders introduced preliminary plans for an offensive towards Kharkov, assisted by a large number of reserves.
In fact these were p-reserves to help the Rush-Ians if they got caught in a traffic jam.
On 20 March, Timoshenko held a conference in Kupiansk
Cup-Ian’s, something to drink out of.
to discuss the offensive and a report to Moscow, prepared by Timoshenko’s chief of staff, Lieutenant General Ivan Baghramian
I-van Bag-ram-Ian, who had a van they could use and a bag made out of a ram’s fleece for carrying food etc.
summed up the conference, although arguably leaving several key intelligence features out.
such as where were the car keys in car-key-v anyway. And reminding one of governments and many medical ‘experts’ today who forget to stress to people the importance of vitamin D despite the fact this has been known about for decades.
The build-up of Soviet forces in the region of Barvenkovo and Vovchansk
Vol-chance, where they was a chance of voluntary assistance, although others say it was a cryptic allusion to ‘pigs might fly’ such as the NHS might get its act together anytime soon.
continued well into the beginning of May. Final details were settled following discussions between Stalin, Stavka and the leadership of the Southwestern Strategic Direction led by Timoshenko throughout March and April, with one of the final Stavka directives issued on 17 April.
2 Prelude
2.1 Soviet order of battle
By 11 May 1942, the Red Army was able to allocate six armies under two fronts, amongst other formations. The Southwestern Front had the 21st Army, 28th Army, 38th Army and the 6th Army. By 11 May, the 21st Tank Corps had been moved into the region with the 23rd Tank Corps, with another 269 tanks. There were also three independent rifle divisions and a rifle regiment from the 270th Rifle Division, concentrated in the area, supported by the 2nd Cavalry Corps in Bogdanovka.
The Calvary corpse in Bogged-down-of-car. Note the rifle divisions to rifle taxpayers pockets to get money for arms in U-crane.
The Soviet Southern Front had the 57th and 9th armies, along with thirty rifle divisions, a rifle brigade and the 24th Tank Corps, the 5th Cavalry Corps and three Guards rifle divisions. At its height, the Southern Front could operate eleven guns or mortars per kilometre of front.
Nobody mentions small arms, so this was not many guns between all the soldiers. Mortars great for building bricks walls but….
Forces regrouping in the sector ran into the rasputitsa,
Rasputitsa means the muddy season, hence the car was bogged down as previously mentioned. This like “Ra’s put it sa” or “Ra’s put it there”. Or most likely as God gets blamed for the messes in the world “God’s pooh is there”.
I don’t think Rasputin came from here, but as his name is mud he should have done.
which turned much of the soil into mud. This caused severe delays in the preparations and made reinforcing the Southern and Southwestern Front take longer than expected. Senior Soviet representatives criticised the front commanders for poor management of forces, an inability to stage offensives and for their armchair generalship
Like many at home trying to make sense of what is going on in the Ukraine today and led astray by MSM.
Because the regrouping was done so haphazardly, the Germans received some warning of Soviet preparations. Moskalenko,
Possibly a relation of earlier one, Moss-car-Len-car. These were a couple of cars belong to Moss (related to the Moss Brothers who made suits, and Len who wasn’t and didn’t).
the commander of the 38th Army, placed the blame on the fact that the fronts did not plan in advance to regroup and showed a poor display of front management.
Which explains the poor performance of Moss Brothers by not displaying the suits well enough.
2021 February – Moss Bros posts a loss of £7.4m for the year ending January 2020, prior to the COVID-19 virus outbreak.
See. I told you.
(He commented afterwards that it was no surprise that the “German-Fascist command divined our plans”.)
That’s it, blame the Germ-men for your own faults.
2.2 Soviet leadership and manpower
The primary Soviet leader was Marshal Semyon Timoshenko, a veteran of World War I and the Russian Civil War. Timoshenko had achieved some success at the Battle of Smolensk
Where Smole hills helped frustrate the germ-men somewhat. Smole hili short for ‘It’s a mole hill’.
See, told you. Although as the maximum height is about 850’ (260m) mountains is pushing it a bit. Hills please.
in 1941 but was eventually defeated. Timoshenko orchestrated the victory
He castrated the Victory. Nelson wouldn’t have liked that one bit.
at Rostov during the winter counter-attacks and more success in the spring offensive at Kharkov before the battle itself. Overseeing the actions of the army was Military Commissar Nikita Khrushchev.
No-quitter Crush-off, who would crush all resistance.
The average Soviet soldier suffered from inexperience
Inn experience, i.e. spending too much time in the inn drinking vodka rather than training.
With the Soviet debacle of the previous year ameliorated only by the barest victory
Because it was the Russian bear of course –
at Moscow, most of the original manpower of the Red Army had been killed, wounded or captured by the Germans, with casualties of almost 1,000,000 just from the Battle of Moscow. The typical soldier in the Red Army was a conscript
He had been conned into fighting –
and had little to no combat experience, and tactical training was practically nonexistent. Coupled with the lack of trained soldiers, the Red Army also began to suffer from the loss of Soviet industrial areas, and a temporary strategic defence was considered necessary.
The General Chief of Staff, Marshal Vasilevsky, recognised that the Soviet Army of 1942 was not ready to conduct major offensive operations against the well-trained German army, because it did not have quantitative and qualitative superiority and because leadership was being rebuilt after the defeats of 1941. (This analysis is retrospective and is an analysis of Soviet conduct during their strategic offensives in 1942, and even beyond, such as Operation Mars
When Mars bars were opened to provide drinks all round –
in October 1942 and the Battle of Târgul Frumos
Tar-goo Threw-moss where the Rush-Anns were to get rather stuck in the gooey tar –
in May 1944.)
2.3 German preparations
N.B. Known as Operation Friedreichcuss when George Friedreich-cuss Black swore he would destroy the Rush-Ians economy. Like today of course.
Unknown to the Soviet forces, the German 6th Army
Part of the 666 Army Group of course.
under the newly appointed General Paulus, was issued orders for Operation Fredericus on 30 April 1942. This operation was to crush the Soviet armies within the Izium salient south of Kharkov, created during the Soviet spring offensives in March and April. The final directive for this offensive, issued on 30 April, gave a start date of 18 May.
The Germans had made a major effort to reinforce Army Group South, and transferred Field Marshal Fedor von Bock
Via the bock door, not the front, otherwise he would have been in the frontline –
former commander of Army Group Center during Operation Barbarossa and Operation Typhoon. On 5 April 1942, Hitler issued Directive 41, which made the south the main area of operations under Case Blue
The case which the democrats use in the States nowadays –
the summer campaign, at the expense of the other fronts. The divisions of Army Group South were brought up to full strength in late April and early May. The strategic objective was illustrated after the victories of Erich von Manstein
He-rich van Man-stay-in – he had made lots of money from ‘Man and a van’ hire –
and the 11th Army in the Crimea
Crime-here where crimes go on here today of course.
The main objective remained the Caucasus
Where the cork trees grow well (please note) and where the USA holds its party meetings –
its oil fields
Oil wells, see earlier –
and as a secondary objective, the city of Stalingrad
Stallin’grad where the Germ-men would be grad-ually stallin’ later.
The plan to begin Operation Fredericus in April led to more forces being allocated to the area of the German 6th Army. Unknown to the Soviet forces, the German army was regrouping in the center of operations for the offensive around Kharkov. On 10 May, Paulus submitted his final draft of Operation Fredericus and feared a Soviet attack. By then, the German army opposite Timoshenko was ready for the operation towards the Caucasus.
3 Soviet offensive
3.1 Initial success
The Red Army offensive began at 6:30 a.m. on 12 May 1942, led by a concentrated hour-long artillery bombardment and a final twenty-minute air attack upon German positions. The ground offensive began with a dual pincer movement from the Volchansk and Barvenkovo salients at 7:30 am. The German defences were knocked out by air raids, artillery-fire and coordinated ground attacks. The fighting was so fierce that the Soviets inched forward their second echelon formations, preparing to throw them into combat as well. Fighting was particularly ferocious near the Soviet village of Nepokrytaia
No-poo-cry-ta-higher, where constipation was a problem which is why the Rush-Ians only inched forward
where the Germans launched three local counter-attacks. The Luftwaffe’s fighter aircraft
Loftwaffle fighter haircraft, took advantage of the constipated Rush-Ians to give them a crew cut by removing their hair. This may remind you Samson whose hair was cut off and lost his strength, until it regrew.
despite their numerical inferiority, quickly defeated the Soviet air units in the airspace above the battle area, but without bombers, dive-bombers and ground-attack aircraft they could only strafe with their machine guns and drop small bombs on the Soviet supply columns and pin down the Soviet infantry. By dark the deepest Soviet advance was 10 kilometres (6.2 mi). Moskalenko, commander of the 38th Army, discovered the movement of several German reserve units and realised that the attack had been opposed by two German divisions, not the one expected, indicating poor Soviet reconnaissance and intelligence-gathering before the battle. A captured diary of a dead German general alluded to the Germans knowing about Soviet plans in the region.
The Germ-men understood about their lunch plans. Or as they said at the time “Ve knew about zer lunch plans, so ve ate dem”. Some food for thought there.
Next day Paulus obtained three infantry divisions and a panzer division for the defence of Kharkov and the Soviet advance was slow, achieving little success except on the left flank. Bock had warned Paulus not to counter-attack without air support, although this was later reconsidered, when several Soviet tank brigades broke through VIII Corps (General Walter Heitz)
Wall-Tar Heights, a tall man. Despite his height and the wall with tar on it Rush-Ian still managed to get over.
in the Volchansk sector, only 19 kilometres (12 mi) from Kharkov. In the first 72 hours the 6th Army lost 16 battalions
batty lions – well, everyone is batty nowadays. Probably the idea that Covid 19 came from a bat does that –
conducting holding actions and local counter-attacks in the heavy rain and mud. By 14 May the Red Army had made impressive gains, but several Soviet divisions were so depleted that they were withdrawn and Soviet tank reserves were needed to defeat the German counter-attacks; German losses were estimated to be minimal, with only 35–70 tanks believed to have been knocked out in the 3rd and 23rd Panzer divisions.
3.2 Luftwaffe
Hitler immediately turned to the Luftwaffe to help blunt the offensive. At this point, its close support corps was deployed in the Crimea, taking part in the siege of Sevastopol
The-vast-apple, like the Big Apple, New York.
Under the command of Wolfram von Richthofen
Wolf-Ram von Rich-Often, who had the head of a wolf and the body of a ram. And was often rich.
the 8th Air Corps
hair corpse, a dead body with hair on it –
was initially ordered to deploy to Kharkov from the Crimea, but this order was rescinded
by Recinda Ardern, the recidivist .
In an unusual move, Hitler kept it in the Crimea, but did not put the corps under the command of Luftflotte 4
Loft Lottie, who could be found in the roof.
(Air Fleet 4), which already contained 4th Air Corps, under the command of General Kurt Pflugbeil
Curt plug-bile, a rather abrupt vile chap.
and Fliegerführer Süd
Flea-ger-furrer Sud, what you might call a flea circus as opposed to a Flying Circus. You get fleas in furs of course, hence the name here. The sud refers to the soap suds needed to remove fleas from furs when they become a nuisance –
(Flying Command South), a small anti-shipping command based in the Crimea. Instead, he allowed Richthofen to take charge of all operations over Sevastopol. The siege in the Crimea was not over, and the Battle of the Kerch
Bottle of the Kirsch, where they were fighting over the last bottle of cherry brandy. Cherries grow in the Crimea. It is not a crime here of course –
Peninsula had not yet been won. Hitler was pleased with the progress there and content to keep Richthofen where he was, but he withdrew close support assets from FliegerkorpsVIII
Flea-ger-corpse, the fleas you will find in a Germ-man corpse, or indeed any other corpse. Fleas allegedly caused Black Death, but they didn’t know about vitamin D back then. People rather ignorant today too, but that’s another story.
in order to prevent a Soviet breakthrough at Kharkov. The use of the Luftwaffe to compensate for the German Army’s lack of firepower suggested to von Richthofen that the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht
O’Bak-O’Man-do the Were-macked. A distant relation of O’Barak O’Barmy who lives in the USA I believe. Were macked because he had a Big Mac. The rain coat not the edible kind. Mind you, given the way they source the meat, I wouldn’t touch Big Mac’s with a barge pole.
And they might put sodium nitrite in the burgers! May be they don’t.
But no wonder many in the USA are unwell and obese.
(OKW, “High Command of the Armed Forces”) saw the Luftwaffe mainly as a ground support arm. This angered Richthofen who complained that the Luftwaffe was treated as “the army’s whore”
The armies war. This should be obvious. You can’t win war’s without boots on the ground.
As to whores, well, if their boobs are on the ground I don’t know what that might mean. Probably that the war has gone tits down as opposed to tits up.
Now that he was not being redeployed to Kharkov, Richthofen also complained about the withdrawal of his units from the ongoing Kerch and Sevastopol battles. He felt that the transfer of aerial assets
Hairy-elle ass-ates, a type of hairy el or angel riding an ass –
to Kharkov made victory in the Crimea uncertain. In reality, the Soviet units at Kerch were already routed and the Axis position at Sevastopol was comfortable.
The ass was big and comfortable. If you have a big ass you will know what I mean.
Despite von Richthofen’s opposition, powerful air support was on its way to bolster the 6th Army and this news boosted German morale.
Rather like today when people hear there is a booster on the way from big pharma to try out and see if it works this time.
Spoiler alert: it won’t.
Army commanders, such as Paulus and Bock, placed so much confidence in the Luftwaffe that they ordered their forces not to risk an attack without air support. In the meantime, Fliegerkorps IV, was forced to use every available aircraft. Although meeting more numerous Soviet air forces, the Luftwaffe achieved air superiority and limited the German ground forces’ losses to Soviet aviation, but with some crews flying more than 10 missions per day. By 15 May, Pflugbeil was reinforced and received Kampfgeschwader
Camp-gays-Wader, a type of Wellington boot for the camp followers who carried the sandwiches for the picnic. You know the ones with the lettuce, bacon, guacamole, tomato, quinoa plus whatever takes your fancy darling.
Or LGBTQ+ for short.
27 (Bomber Wing 27, or KG 27)
27 KG or kilograms, relatively lightweight.
Kampfgeschwader 51 (KG 51)
51 KG or kilograms, mediumweight.
Kampfgeschwader 55 (KG 55)
A similar weight.
and Kampfgeschwader 76 (KG 76)
76 KG or kilograms, heavyweight.
equipped with Junkers Ju 88
Junk-curs or Jew 88, despite its name not junk but very effective. Bit like the 88mm anti-aircraft gun of WW2 used by the Germans against allied and Russian tanks.
and Heinkel He 111 bombers
He-ink-el or HE 111, the telephone number to ring first if you have a medical problem.
Sturzkampfgeschwader
Starts-camp-gays-wader 77, the first thing to try on.
(Dive Bomber Wing 77, or StG 77)
The dive bummer, the chap who could get you into a dive or night club.
also arrived to add direct ground support.[37] Pflugbeil now had 10 bomber, six fighter and four Junkers Ju 87 Stuka
A stew car carrying the evening meal
Gruppen (Groups). Logistical difficulties meant that only 54.5 per cent were operational at any given time.
3.3 German defence
German close air support made its presence felt immediately on 15 May, forcing units such as the Soviet 38th Army onto the defensive. It ranged over the front, operating dangerously close to the changing frontline. Air interdiction and direct ground support damaged Soviet supply lines and rear areas,
I.e. kicked them up the bottom.
also inflicting large losses on their armoured formations.
As opposed to their leg-oured three-mations.
General Franz Halder –
France Holder. This makes sense as he came from Würzburg a city in the traditional region of Franconia in the north of the German state of Bavaria. –
praised the air strikes as being primarily responsible for breaking the Soviet offensive. The Soviet air force could do very little to stop Pflugbeil’s 4th Air Corps. It not only attacked the enemy but also carried out vital supply missions. Bombers dropped supplies to encircled German units, which could continue to hold out until a counter-offensive relieved them. The 4th Air Corps anti-aircraft units also used their high-velocity
I.e. a high bicycle for the city (velo = bicycle in French).
8.8 cm guns on the Soviet ground forces. Over the course of the 16-day battle the 4th Air Corps played a major role in the German victory, conducting 15,648 sorties
Sore-ties, a type of tie to tie up the Rush-Ians and made by a certain Ge-orgy Sore-arse who spent too long sitting down.
(978 per day), dropping 7,700 tonnes of bombs on the Soviet forces and lifting 1,545 tonnes of material to the front.
On 14 May, the Germans continued to attack Soviet positions in the north in localised offensives and by then, the Luftwaffe had gained air superiority over the Kharkov sector, forcing Timoshenko to move his own aircraft forward to counter the bolstered Luftflotte 4. The Luftwaffe won air superiority over their numerically superior, but technically inferior opponents. The air battles depleted the Soviet fighter strength, allowing the German strike aircraft the chance to influence the land battle even more. Nonetheless, the Soviet forces pushed on, disengaging from several minor battles
Against the minors or children. Protect your children at all costs from those who would rush to vaccinate them –
and changing the direction of their thrusts. However, in the face of continued resistance and local counterattacks, the Soviet attack ebbed, especially when combined with the invariably heavy air raids. By the end of the day, the 28th Army could no longer conduct offensive operations against German positions.
Soviet troops in the northern pincer suffered even more than those in the south. They achieved spectacular success the first three days of combat, with a deep penetration of German positions. The Red Army routed several key German battalions, including many with Hungarian
Hungry-Ians as opposed to Roman-Ians for example. If you are hungary this doesn’t help your morale. After all, an army marches on its stomach as Frederick the Great said, or at least something like that.
and other foreign soldiers. The success of the Southern Shock group, however, has been attributed to the fact that the early penetrations in the north had directed German reserves there, thus limiting the reinforcements to the south. But, by 14 May, Hitler had briefed General Ewald von Kleistand ordered his 1st Panzer Army to grab the initiative in a bold counteroffensive, setting the pace for the final launching of Operation Friderikus.
Regarding Ewald von Kleist, wald means forest or wood, Kleist means glue it seems, so you could say he was ordered to stick to his guns. Rifles had wooden butts, and he had wood glue.Makes sense.
3.4 Second phase of the offensive
On 15 and 16 May, another attempted Soviet offensive in the north met the same resistance encountered on the three first days of the battle. German bastions continued to hold out against Soviet assaults. The major contribution to Soviet frustration in the battle was the lack of heavy artillery, which ultimately prevented the taking of heavily defended positions. One of the best examples of this was the defence of Ternovaya,
Turn-over-here
where defending German units absolutely refused to surrender.
In other words they wouldn’t turn over the settlement.
The fighting was so harsh that, after advancing an average of five kilometres, the offensive stopped for the day in the north. The next day saw a renewal of the Soviet attack, which was largely blocked by counterattacks by German tanks; the tired Soviet divisions could simply not hold their own against the concerted attacks from the opposition. The south, however, achieved success, much like the earlier days of the battle, although Soviet forces began to face heavier air strikes from German aircraft. The Germans, on the other hand, had spent the day fighting holding actions in both sectors, launching small counterattacks to whittle away at Soviet offensive potential,
A good example of how to deal with enemy attacks today when dealing with the terminally dim who think vaccines are a Good Thing –
while continuously moving up reinforcements from the south, including several aircraft squadrons transferred from the Crimea. Poor decisions by the 150th Rifle Division, which had successfully crossed the Barvenkovo River, played a major part in the poor exploitation of the tactical successes of the southern shock group. Timoshenko was unable to choose a point of main effort for his advancing troops, preferring a broad-front approach instead. The Germans traded space for time, which suited their intentions well.
Useful lessons to be learnt here, how to lead the enemy on into a trap of their own making, whilst wearing down their capabilities.
3.5 1st Panzer Army counterattacks
On 17 May, supported by Fliegerkorps IV, the German army took the initiative, as Kleist’s 3rd Panzer Corps[48] and 44th Army Corps began a counterattack on the Barvenkovo bridgehead from the area of Aleksandrovka
Alec’s ‘androver’s car, a 4 x4 Range Rover in other words –
the south. Aided greatly by air support, Kleist was able to crush Soviet positions and advanced up to ten kilometres in the first day of the attack. Soviet troop and supply convoys were easy targets for ferocious Luftwaffe attacks, possessing few anti-aircraft guns and having left their rail-heads100 kilometres to the rear.
I.e. they had left their real heads a long way away, not a good idea by a long chalk. Explains much of the stupidly today re mask wearing etc.
German reconnaissance aircraft monitored enemy movements, directed attack aircraft to Soviet positions and corrected German artillery fire. The response time of the 4th Air Corps to calls for air strikes was excellent, only 20 minutes.
Compared to 20 days to get a doctor’s appointment with a GP nowadays as they are very scared of the ‘flu, a.k.a. Covid 19.
Many of the Soviet units were sent to the rear that night to be refitted, while others were moved forward to reinforce tenuous positions across the front. That same day, Timoshenko reported the move to Moscow and asked for reinforcements and described the day’s failures. Vasilevsky’s attempts to gain approval for a general withdrawal were rejected by Stalin.
Who presumably didn’t want his generals to withdraw. But then it is difficult to understand if you don’t trust them or are able to see what is really going on yourself.
On 18 May, the situation worsened and Stavka suggested once more stopping the offensive and ordered the 9th Army to break out of the salient. Timoshenko and Khrushchev claimed that the danger coming from the Wehrmacht’s Kramatorsk
Crammer tusk, like an elephant tusk dangerous in the wrong hands (or when attached to a charging bull elephant) –
group was exaggerated, and Stalin refused the withdrawal again. The consequences of losing the air battle were also apparent. On 18 May the Fliegerkorps IV destroyed 130 tanks and 500 motor vehicles, while adding another 29 tanks destroyed on 19 May.
On 19 May, Paulus, on orders from Bock, began a general offensive from the area of Merefa
Me-re-fa – next door to doh-re-me –
in the north of the bulge
The beer belly –
in an attempt to encircle the remaining Soviet forces in the Izium salient. Only then did Stalin authorise Zhukov to stop the offensive and fend off German flanking forces. However, it was already too late. Quickly, the Germans achieved considerable success against Soviet defensive positions. The 20 May saw more of the same, with the German forces closing in from the rear. More German divisions were committed to the battle that day, shattering several Soviet counterparts,
Which prevented the parts to the kitchen counters arriving –
allowing the Germans to press forward. The Luftwaffe also intensified operations over the Donets River to prevent Soviet forces escaping. Ju 87s from StG 77 destroyed five of the main bridges and damaged four more while Ju 88 bombers from Kampfgeschwader 3 (KG 3) inflicted heavy losses on retreating motorised and armoured columns.
Although Timoshenko’s forces successfully regrouped on 21 May, he ordered a withdrawal of Army Group Kotenko by the end of 22 May, while he prepared an attack for 23 May, to be orchestrated by the 9th and 57th Armies. Although the Red Army desperately attempted to fend off advancing Wehrmacht and launched local counterattacks to relieve several surrounded units, they generally failed. By the end of May 24, Soviet forces opposite Kharkov had been surrounded by German formations, which had been able to transfer several more divisions to the front, increasing the pressure on the Soviet flanks and finally forcing them to collapse.
3.6 Soviet break-out attempts
The 25 May saw the first major Soviet attempt to break the encirclement. German Major General Hubert Lanz described the attacks as gruesome, made en masse. Driven by blind courage, the Soviet soldiers charged at German machine guns with their arms linked, shouting “Urray!”
Somewhat reminiscent of those charging into having the vaccines thinking that this is a good way to defeat Covid 19, a.k.a. the ‘flu, and glad to die for the cause. It should be noted they were not maintaining a suitable anti-social distance which is shocking.
The German machine gunners had no need for accuracy, killing hundreds in quick bursts of fire.
Like the vaccines perhaps, such as made by Pfizer.
In broad daylight, the Luftwaffe, now enjoying complete air supremacy and the absence of Soviet anti-aircraft guns, rained down SD2 anti-personnel cluster bombs on the exposed Soviet infantry masses, killing them in droves.
By 26 May, the surviving Red Army soldiers were forced into crowded positions
Breaking coronavirus regulations on mass gatherings –
in an area of roughly fifteen square kilometres. Soviet attempts to break through the German encirclement in the east were continuously blocked by tenacious defensive manoeuvres and German air power. Groups of Soviet tanks and infantry that attempted to escape and succeeded in breaking through German lines were caught and destroyed by Ju 87s from StG 77. The flat terrain secured easy observation for the Germans, whose forward observers directed long-range 10.5 cm and 15 cm artillery fire onto the Soviets from a safe distance to conserve the German infantrymen.
Like Pfizer, essentially a German company, despite being set up in the states and under the ultimate control our favourite bogie man, Ge-orgy Schwartz/Soros.
More than 200,000 Soviet troops, hundreds of tanks and thousands of trucks and horse-drawn wagons
These were WAG’s who had become hoarse shouting encouragement to their husbands’ and boyfriends’ teams.
filled the narrow dirt road between Krutoiarka
Crew-two-yucka, it was a dirt road so yucky of course –
and Fedorovka
Furred the Rocker, a hairy biker enjoying the mayhem. It was May of course, otherwise it would be April- or June-hem, for example –
and were under constant German artillery fire and relentless air strikes from Ju 87s, Ju 88s and He 111s. SD-2 cluster munitions killed the unprotected infantry and SC250 bombs smashed up the Soviet vehicles and T-34 tanks. Destroyed vehicles and thousands of dead and dying Red Army soldiers choked up the road and the nearby ravines. General Bobkin
she discovers that Washington, D.C. has been invaded by extraterrestrial insects which are eating the brains and taking control of people, including members of Congress and their staffers. Much of the internal comedy of the series was that, in the altered reality of Washington, D.C. politics, only a few people noticed.
This explains things today obviously. And
The show had a planned four-season arc, which would have seen the bugs then invade Wall Street, Silicon Valley and Hollywood, but on October 17, 2016, CBS cancelled the series after one season.
Too close to reality I imagine. Still, those of us in the know can see it must have taken place anyway, bugs in Wall street etc. Don’t forget the viruses in Microsoft Windows, a.k.a. updates –
was killed by German machine gun fire and two more Soviet generals were killed in action on the 26th and 27th.
The show was ‘killed ‘ by CBS.
Bock personally viewed the carnage from a hill near Lozovenka
Low-so-wanker. Believe it or not there is a mountain in Bavaria, south-west Germany called Wank. It looks a beautiful spot. I wrote about the mountain elsewhere on my site. Low-so-wanker is not as high as the Wank mountain. It’s in the name.
Now if you don’t believe we follow the WW2 timeline only 80 years ago, will you ever?? Mind you, is this all fake news anyway? I sometimes wonder I really do. Reuters are no longer as reliable as I believe they once were.
In the face of determined German operations, Timoshenko ordered the official halt of all Soviet offensive manoeuvres on 28 May, while attacks to break out of the encirclement continued until 30 May. Nonetheless, less than one man in ten managed to break out of the “Barvenkovo mousetrap”. Hayward gives 75,000 Soviets killed and 239,000 taken prisoner. Beevor
Beaver, the eager beaver –
puts Soviet prisoners at 240,000 (with the bulk of their armour), while Glant
Glance, he could tell at a glance –
citing Krivosheev
Cri-vo-shove, makes you weep, doesn’t it.
gives a total of 277,190 overall Soviet casualties. Both tend to agree on a low German casualty count
Not counting Dracula who loves all the bloodletting –
with the most formative estimate being at 20,000 dead, wounded and missing. Regardless of the casualties, Kharkov was a major Soviet setback; it put an end to the successes of the Red Army during the winter counteroffensive.
4 Analysis and conclusions
There you have it. A battle over some car keys. The Germ-men retained the car keys which the Rush -Ians were unable to take.
Hanging onto the car keys enabled the Germ-men to drive the car latter on in the summer on their journey to the Caucasus with the blue case.
As to what happened, well, you can look that up if you don’t already know.
As regards 2022, perhaps you can see the similarities. You have the caucuses I understand prior to mid-term elections in the Fall in the U.S.A.
The blue case could be the democrats, the blue states. The Blue Case failed in 1942 for the Nazis. The case will therefore fail for the democrats.
At the moment, to my knowledge, no one in Geneva has stepped up to organize protests against the proposed amendments to the International Health Regulations at the 75th World Health Assembly.
We need to ensure the WHO does not implement these measures although they have no authority in my books anyway. No wonder Donald Trump wanted to defund the W.H.O.
Anyway, these dates of the meeting match the end of the 1942 Soviet attempts to take Kharkov which ended in disaster. Let’s make it the W.H.O. which does not pass these silly amendments.
This is probably easier to read for a summary of the issues.
Summary of Selected Proposed Amendments to the IHR
The WHO intends to amend 13 IHR articles: 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 18, 48, 49, 53, 59
Increased surveillance: Under Article 5, the WHO will develop early warning criteria that will allow it to establish a risk assessment for a member state, which means that it can use the type of modeling, simulation, and predictions that exaggerated the risk from Covid-19 over two years ago. Once the WHO creates its assessment, it will communicate it to inter-governmental organizations and other member states.
48-hour deadline: Under Articles 6, 10, 11, and 13, a member state is given 48 hours to respond to a WHO risk assessment and accept or reject on-site assistance. However, in practice, this timeline can be reduced to hours, forcing it to comply or face international disapproval lead by the WHO and potentially unfriendly member states.
Secret sources: Under Article 9, the WHO can rely on undisclosed sources for information leading it to declare a public health emergency. Those sources could include Big Pharma, WHO funders such as the Gates Foundation and the Gates-founded-and-funded GAVI Alliance, as well as others seeking to monopolize power.
Weakened Sovereignty: Under Article 12, when the WHO receives undisclosed information concerning a purported public health threat in a member state, the Director-General may (not must) consult with the WHO Emergency Committee and the member state. However, s/he can unilaterally declare a potential or actual public health emergency of international concern. The Director General’s authority replaces national sovereign authority. This can later be used to enforce sanctions on nations.
Rejecting the amendments: Under Article 59, after the amendments are adopted by the World Health Assembly, a member state has six months to reject them. This means November, this year. If the member state fails to act, it will be deemed to have accepted the amendments in full. Any rejection or reservation received by the Director-General after the expiry of that period shall have no force and effect.
P.S. For more reading you could try this. Some nice maps and a few photos.
I have said this elsewhere, we are in World War 3, but a war of words primarily, not guns, tanks and planes, but buns, thanks and plain speaking!
Buns because food is required to sustain us, and to share with people, even our enemies as this helps to win people over.
Thanks because it is written ‘In everything give thanks’ and this makes our hearts glad as well as others. The heavenly Father and Jesus appreciate this too!
The unseen angels should not be forgotten; they thrive on thanks as they work their cotton socks off for us. I thank them every night as I am eternally grateful to them for their faithful service.
And plain speaking because it is not good hiding the truth even if it is hard. Speak the truth in love. This should be with gentleness as far as possible, but we may be angry (there is a lot to be angry about at the moment), but we must not bottle it up as if we go to sleep angry we will not sleep well and our health is affected.
We may be angry with ourselves and indeed I would rather be angry with myself for being stupid or careless than someone else. But even then I must not dwell on it but learn from my mistakes. Onwards and upwards!
Anyway, as regards timelines we are in the equivalent of World War 2, but 80 years ago, making it February 1942. We are following a similar pattern of events as regards significance although it will not be an exact replica, but similarities may be observed.
I use the following link for reference, but there other links on the net which may be of great use.
The principle events will be of note. For example, the war in Europe on the east front is still in the harsh Russian winter where the Russians were resisting and pushing the Germans back a bit.
In the desert Rommel had made recent advances with the Afrika Korps. But will not resume eastwards for a few months.
In the Far East, the Japanese continue to advance into the Pacific and will take the Philippines, whilst against the British they will take Singapore by mid-February.
I have noted that in the USA, it is undergoing another Civil War, albeit the sides are not Union and Confederate as such. Probably nearer Republican vs. Democrat, therefore more the Red and the Blue than Blue and the Gray!
I’m sure you can Google your own links to see what similarities there are, but it must be noted that Gettysburg was essentially the turning point in 1863. Which took place 1st to 3rd of July. Mmm…just before Independence Day. Mmm…
The timeline is 160 years back. This would mean that the American Civil War (mark II) and World War 3 would both end within 24 hours of each other around 8th and 9th of May 2025. You can check the original dates yourself to confirm.
Fascinatingly, my wife and I married on a 12th April, the same day as it were that the ACW started! Perhaps we have been fighting ever since!
I am not aware of other timelines, but I daresay there might be, so if anybody has any observations I would be pleased to know.
Anyway, I thought this link backs up what I have said.
Mr Anthony Fauci, MD, (don’t call him Doctor Fauci, that is a title that no one should have) said this in December last year it seems.
“You know, we’re in a war, Jon. It’s kind of like we’re halfway through World War II, and you decide, well, I think I’ve had enough of this. I’m walking away.
“You can’t do that. You’ve got to finish it — and we’re going to finish this and get back to normal.”
It would have been about three and a half years from his comment to when I see the war ending. Three and a half years. Mmm…ring any bells people?
And I have seen this which will be of interest.
This is extract from above for easier reference.
Matthew K
21 hours ago
The official U.S government website ‘Clinical Trials.Gov’ states that the ‘phase 3’ clinical trial completion dates for each vaccine are as below.
Moderna: October 27, 2022
Janssen (Johnson & Johnson): January 2, 2023
AstraZeneca: February 14, 2023
Pfizer: May 2, 2023
The ‘phase 4’ clinical trial which is the final study regarding the long term side effects will be completed in December 31, 2024
I could point out the links to the significant events in the timelines but I won’t except to say that The Battle of the Bulge took place in 1944 Christmas time. If I told you how it will no doubt play out, then you would groan at the corny-ness of the comparison.
Don’t say God doesn’t have a sense of humour!
Finally perhaps I might point out that as we are in the equivalent of 1942, the number 42 stands out.
The ultimate answer to the ultimate question ‘When will the Covid 19 war tide start to turn?’ Well, in 1942, at the midway point.
The Battle of Midway took place in the Pacific then; the Japanese navy took a severe blow. And the Germans were stalled at El Alamein.
The Germans were advancing significantly in Russia, but Stalingrad occurred at the end of the year and you know or can research what happened.
In November The Second Battle of El Alamein took place and the Germans were pushed back and Libya fell.
In the Far East, the Japanese started to fall back.
So there you have it, something to keep you occupied and hopefully encouraged as you fight this war of words.
Well I am, so I hope you are too. We shall win, so ya, boo, sucks Satan!
P.P.S. 31st May 2022. I came across this site today and this particular post caught my eye. it says among other things:
I notice that most of these signs are completed in 2024. And their completion also refers to the coming of the Lord. So, I expect something major to happen on the word scene in 2024.
So if you fancy going anywhere sensible which doesn’t require them then you know where to go. But then as we are in the middle of World War Three, you might not be too keen to go anywhere.
World War Three, the war of words as spoken about in the book or Revelation in the Bible.
This war is following a pattern of World War Two, but 80 years ago. I also consider the United States has its own internal civil war, another war of words, only 160 years ago.
This places us today at 31st December, 1941 and 1861 respectively. By checking the time lines on the web you will be able to get a sense of what is going on, what major events are likely to occur and what the end result will be.
Victory of course, a victory for truth and justice, a victory of judgement and mercy, ultimately a victory of Love.
We have undergone various battles; some have been lost others won. Evil is being exposed and light is breaking out across the world. The world has been bought to the boil and the scum, the evil scum, is being skimmed off.
Evil has been hidden, the veil is being lifted. Anagrams of evil include vile, veil, Levi and live. So the vile evil which has been hidden by a veil will be exposed by the Levi, the Royal Priesthood, so that we may live!!
And if you are in Christ you are His royal priests, the heavenly Father’s beloved children, always loved from the beginning of time…
So as regards WW3, in the coming year I expect the Battle of Midway in the Pacific to be pivotal (this is why it was the Battle of Midway of course). The 4–7th June 1942 that took place, so 4–7th June 2022 we might expect to be equally pivotal and we can work towards the same.
Germany was still making inroads in Russia, but they would be stalled at Stalingrad in the winter. Which is why it is ‘stal(l) in grad’!!
And amazingly ‘grad’ in Bosnian is ‘varosh’. Sounds like ‘virus’ if you use Google translate. The virus is stalled then? The lies I mean, not the ‘flu which we will always have (all other things being equal). Or maybe we won’t. Mmm…
As regards the American Civil War this is a very good Wikipedia link. It is very detailed.
The American Civil War (A.C.S.) was considered to end on May 9th, 1865. World War Two, at least the War in Europe, ended May 8th, 1945. The War on Japan ended 14th August, 1945, but the ending dates of WW2 in Europe and the A.C.S are uncannily close.
As regards the War in Europe (I include the Desert War in North Africa with this), the Axis forces, Germany and Italy, were halted at the First Battle of El Alamein in July 1942.
Please note that El is an ‘angel’, even ‘god’ in Hebrew. Alamein is very similar to ‘Aleim’ or the Elohim, the angels. If you follow the logic you will see why this is so wonderfully significant, all planned, set out as a riddle for you to work out.
And 1942 is significant because of the 42, the ultimate answer to the ultimate question! Which is ‘Which year do we see the tide of war turn?’ ’42 of course!
And 2022 can be 2 and two ‘2’s. 2 0 22. The two ‘2’s make four, 4. Thus 42! Contrived perhaps? Perhaps that is the point of it all.
Anyway, you can take heart from all this and know that the light is at the end of the tunnel and God, the angels, have it all in hand. We must play our parts as well, to the best of our abilities, however great or small. Nothing is too small, however small you may feel.
You have one talent? Do not waste it like the man in the parable Jesus told as a warning.
And we need not fear, as our God is greater than the world, its views and thoughts and opinions or theories. As John says in his letter
“Little children, you are of God, and have overcome them; for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
They are of the world, therefore what they say is of the world, and the world listens to them.
We are of God. Whoever knows God listens to us, and he who is not of God does not listen to us.
By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”
So I say go hunting for those who will listen, the lost sheep.
And going forward into the coming year we can consider these words which this beautiful website has repeated.
I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year
‘Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.’
And he replied,
‘Go into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way!’
Well, I asked last year for everything as I explain in my CV. So I got everything, at least the keys to everything as I also explain. I intend to share all of it as I go. Things have been held back for a very, very long time. It is time they were exposed, revealed.
Which is why we are in the book or Revelation, in the Greta (Sic!)Tribulation, the final War to End all Wars.
Why is why we have Greta Thunberg, the great thunder mountain, thundering at us!
And sic because of the sickness, the plague, Covid 19. Or put more simply the ‘flu, the influenza the seasonal (largely) toxicosis of the body which occurs in the main due to vitamin D deficiency.
Made worse by lockdowns, masks and poison vaccines, poisons and toxins in the whole environment.
Vaccines and vaccinations. Vaccinations, an anagram of which is ‘Icon Vatican’. The icon is an image, the Vatican is a beast, so the image of the beast.
Vitamin D deficiency, D for what exactly? D for Dog, perhaps. The reverse of which is God. The God deficiency then.
Yes, the God, the heavenly Father, deficiency. D for Daddy then. That’s better, D for Daddy, a heavenly Daddy.
A Daddy to hold hands with as you go forward, like Christopher Robin and Pooh, or Pooh and Piglet.
The initial of which are C.R.A.P. or P.P.!! Crap or pee pee!? You think your life is crap do you? You think people are pee pee-ing on you?
Well, the heavenly Father understands. People have done this to Him for many, many years. Just like they did to His beautiful Boy who became a Man.
So, no fear, only Love, perfect Love. Fear destroys Love. But God is Love and
‘Perfect Love casts out fear.’
But I must say my thank yous. Thank you to all those who have given me the great honour of following my site. Thank you to those who comment, which is very helpful and encouraging.
I welcome anything, even if you disagree, because at least then we can reason together as we seek the truth. If we make mistakes we can always apologise, and anyway making mistakes is how we learn and do things better next time.
And thank you to Nelle, who has reblogged some of my posts. I never expected that, you are very kind Nelle.
If anyone thinks I might benefit from a link or information, let me know. I do my best to dig things out, but I rely on angels seen and unseen such as your good selves.
So tonight at the turn of the year I do hope you have yourselves a real good time, dancing , reading, whatever, whether quietly or noisily. Don’t keep the neighbours awake if they need to sleep, invite them round if they are not afraid. Invite them anyway to show you are not afraid.
Do keep looking after people in the best way you can, whatever that may mean.
And I look forward to being with you in the New Year tomorrow. Although when tomorrow arrives it will then be today!
P.S. don’t forget that ‘real’ in Spanish mean ‘royal’. If you are in Christ you can have a ‘real’ or ‘royal’ good time. Whether you are male or female, a king or a queen, why not dance to some Queen. This is a favourite of mine to dance to.
Another day arrives when we remember the fallen from two world wars, those who died in service of their country. That is, those who served in the armed forces.
Of course, we do also remember others who died, those who died in bombing raids for example. Civilians whose lives were lost, perhaps not in service as such but nevertheless who by and large would have been serving their country in large or small ways.
Whilst I have not checked what’s happening this year, last year it was rather different in the UK. Only small ‘crowds’ gathered, were anti-socially distanced (it can’t be called social), and often wore masks.
Pillocks.
I say this, because nobody seemed to double-check the gov.uk website where such things were guidance and advice, not mandatory.
In any event, Covid 19 is the seasonal ‘flu made out to be a monster to scare the living daylights out of the already fearful, conditioned to accept stupidity.
What the soldiers of WW1 let alone WW2 would have made of it I don’t know. There are those left alive from the second war, but I can’t find any comments at the moment.
‘Photography is permitted, but the Metropolitan Police have powers to remove obstacles (such as camera tripods)’
But not Cressida Dick sadly. Removal of such Dicks is painful which is why a substantially male police service (not ‘force’ if you please) find it difficult to face up to.
Anyway, I suppose people will still be somewhat stupid this year and follow the government guidance and advice when it would be pointless to do so. As regards wearing masks, I suggest wearing them on your arms rather than your faces.
Black ones of course. This will show you are in mourning for the loss of loved ones.
These will be the loved ones who died as a result of government manipulation in so-called lockdowns and the foolishness of the populace in failing to love one another because of the ‘flu.
And kowtowing to vaccine mandates or social pressure and having poisonous shots which are injuring many and killing some. Which of course vaccines have always done, but people forget or ignore.
The day itself is marked by 2 minutes silence at 11am. In more recent years we have often had one minute silences to remember a few people. However worthy the sentiment, it is just virtue signalling.
‘We only have these minute silences for “bad” things that the media and people tell us that we should have a minute silence, but if we truly had a minute silence for all the terrible things that are happening around the world, all the death and destruction what is going on, we as a planet would be silent for god knows how long.’
It reminds me of the passage in Revelation where there is silence in heaven for about half an hour.
I strongly suspect this is the length of time reflecting the huge numbers who have died as a result of Satan’s machinations over the years, all those of God’ children he has murdered through wars, pestilence etc.
Perhaps someone could do a calculation based on 2 minutes for the dead of the first two world wars contrasted with the possible deaths since the world was created.
On a lighter note, one November I noticed a box in a café where my wife and I had stopped for lunch on Anglesey. It said ‘Please help the poppy appeal’.
My in-laws on the island live next door to a couple with a cat called Poppy, so I said ‘I didn’t know they were collecting for next doors cat’!
Of course, poppies are the reminder of the fields on the Western Front during WW1, immortalised it seems by Canadian doctor John McCrae who wrote his poem ‘In Flanders Fields’. The following gives more details.
The memorial services that take place today and on what is called in the UK Remembrance Sunday usually include the following penned by Laurence Binyon
“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, We will remember them.”
This link includes other quotes probably less well known.
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori.
The Latin text means ‘It is sweet and honourable to die for your country’. Is it a lie as Wilfred says? It depends, I suppose, on whether you think it was worth it. Horatio Nelson on board HMS Victory certainly thought so judging by his final words. But in a muddy trench in Flanders Fields, blown to bits with no trace of your body for anyone to find?
People thought it would be a ‘War to end all wars’. It wasn’t, we had another 20 years later. Even that one didn’t finish the job. That is because as I keep saying we are now in WW3, only this time a battle of words.
But people are still dying, many millions dying unnecessarily.
It is often said that the huge losses in WW1 were a consequence of incompetence of the generals in charge. There is a phrase ‘Lions led by donkeys’. This phrase is explained in this link.
It seems to me that this phrase can now apply in the USA. The nation is being led by donkeys, a.k.a .democrats!! After all, the jackass or donkey in the democrats’ symbol, so this seems very reasonable.
And lots of people are dying unnecessarily in the charge to deal with Covid 19, a.k.a the ‘flu.
On a positive note however, this was written by Dylan Thomas. I didn’t know he wrote this.
They shall have stars at elbow and foot; Though they go mad they shall be sane, Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again; Though lovers be lost love shall not; And death shall have no dominion.
The hymn ‘I vow to thee my country ’is usually sung at the memorial services and sung to music from taken from the “Jupiter” movement of Holst’s 1917 suite The Planets. Here’s the text.
I vow to thee, my country, all earthly things above,
Entire and whole and perfect, the service of my love;
The love that asks no question, the love that stands the test,
That lays upon the altar the dearest and the best;
The love that never falters, the love that pays the price,
The love that makes undaunted the final sacrifice.
And there’s another country, I’ve heard of long ago,
Most dear to them that love her, most great to them that know;
We may not count her armies, we may not see her King;
Her fortress is a faithful heart, her pride is suffering;
And soul by soul and silently her shining bounds increase,
And her ways are ways of gentleness, and all her paths are peace.
The first verse says ‘The love that asks no question’. I do not agree with that; it is always good to ask questions. Why are we doing something as stupid as having a war where people die in their millions is a good question.
Why do we follow government diktats when they are obviously stupid is another. Like locking down or having a pointless vaccine which may well harm or kill us.
Still, the second verse of the hymn is better. The verse refers to a king. The king of course is Jesus Christ. He would answer questions, just as the heavenly Father answers questions if you ask Him. Like Father like Son.
The last line might imply that there is not a big fight to undergo. It is just it is a battle of words with a sword of truth tempered with love. Just read the gospels and you will see Jesus at work with His ‘sword’.
He does not mince His words, but they were said out of love even if some things he said were perplexing. He came down hard on the hypocrites of course, but even that is love as it was the truth.
In this war of words, World War Three as I call it, many are fighting for another country, God’s country or kingdom where peace reigns and the Lord God, the Most High is king.
And, as Dylan Thomas says, death shall have no dominion.
But for now many are still falling in battle, many are wounded or lamed in the fight. So let us remember the fallen today and remember Jesus too.
P.S. Lest we forget, there is to be a resurrection of the dead, all of them, so it is not all doom and gloom. And as far as I am concerned this had better be the Last Battle or else!
If you are interested and haven’t read before, here are some links
The Tree of Life 