Those "Things"

One of the things I enjoy the most about this blog are the comments.  They reflect a wide variety of views and experiences on a subject  and as I have said before, they educate me on many things that I know nothing about, but find fascinating.

And as a person who posts on this blog, I confess, I never really know where the comments are going to go.

For instance, last Friday, Sarge had a back to nature themed post about bunny rabbits.  Here a picture of the Star of that post.  I believe his name, or the name Sarge gave him, is "Peter".

In any case, Sarge waxed eloquent (as only he can) for a dozen or so paragraphs and then signs off inviting comments.

By the time the fifth comment stream is initiated, we are talking about nuclear weapons.

See what I mean?

Little Bunnies to Nukes in 5 Easy Pieces. (Sometimes you just want toast!)

But....

Referring to Nukes as "Those Things" did remind me of a time....

So, There I was....*

A brand new, but fully qualified wingman in the F-4D.  Yep, the mighty Phantom 2

The Sharp Eyed reader will quickly discern that these are aircraft from two different squadrons, however they ARE in the proper order.  The 80TFS aircraft (the Juvats) is in the lead and the 35TFS (Pantons...PTUI!) is following along.

I have been a fully qualified wingman for about 2 weeks and as there's an Operational Readiness Inspection (ORI) expected at any moment, I have been relegated to the night schedule.  Out of sight out of mind.  Given that any mistake in an ORI can be cause for termination of the Wing Commander and any/all folks under him with the word "Commander" in their job description, I can't fault their decision.

Howsomeever, little did they know that the ORI team had a little something up their sleeve.  They were going to kill two birds with one TDY visit  (to mix two metaphors with a cement mixer).  They were not only going to give the Wing an ORI, they were going to give it a Nuclear Surety Inspection as well.

Well...that's just peachy keen.  While an ORI tests "How well will the Wing do in Combat?", a Nuke Surety tests how well do they handle all the procedures and safety precautions for weapons that can reschedule sunrise.

In excruciating detail.  as in, one slipup and it's fail, no do-over, off to retirement for all involved.

Unfortunately, for the Wing King, they have requested for their aircrew, the newest fully qualified flight lead with his crewed WSO and the newest fully qualified wingman with his crewed WSO.

One of those four positions would be filled by me!

Oh S4!7!, Oh Dear!

So, the Squadron Commander sits the 4 of us down with the Squadron Weapons Officers (pilot and WSO) and tells us that we are going to go through (informally) the recertification process once again.  Having done that just the week previously, I thought it a bit of overkill.

But, Hey, I don't have much of a career yet to lose.

So, we study, and study and walk through the preflight on the shapes (practice weapons no payload).

No Sweat, Batman!  We got this!

So...The day rolls around.  The horn goes off and the 8TFW is at "War".

I'm on the night schedule still and so is my designated flight lead, so we get to play all the ground crew CBW games whilst trying to get some crew rest for night flying.  No, I don't sleep well while in chemical gear.

We've been at the ORI for a couple of days and now it's time for our command performance.  We're called in to the Wing Weapons shop where we're handed our "Lines".  These are the target folders and mission information that we will be briefing to the Wing Commander (with the Inspectors noting every word, gesture, nuance....)

We get to work.  4 hours later, we're done with the briefing and the Wing King turns it over to the Inspector's for the Inquisition.

Cue Monte Python

They're going to play "Stump the Dummy" with us for another hour or so.  "Lt juvat, can you fly this line with the aircraft you're assigned?

Duh! "Yes, Sir"

"Can you fly it without a gunsight?"

"Yes, Sir"

"Can you fly it without wing tanks?"

"Yes, Sir"

"Can you fly it without a generator?"

"Yes, Sir"

"Can you fly it without either generators?"

"No, Sir"

"Why not?"

Blah, blah blah!  On and on.  Finally we're blessed to proceed out to the jets.

 We suit up and head out to the jets.  First thing I notice different is they've issued me an actual .38 with actual bullets and had me load them.  I figured it was just part of the "show".

We get to the jets and the SP's are out in force.  Ah well, everybody needs their moment in the sun! So to speak!

But they're walking around with their M-16s looking important and checking badges etc, etc, etc.

Cue Yul Brynner

The bread van drops my WSO and I at the Whiskey Shelter for our jet.  Not sure why they were called Whiskey Shelters, there certainly wasn't any "Adult Recreational Beverages" available.  Lead and his WSO are dropped off at the Shelter across the Taxiway.  (We can see each other.)

I walk up to the roped off area around our jet.  The area is known as the No-Lone Zone.  This means that NO ONE is allowed to be in their by themselves under any circumstances.  There are two SP's inside the rope.  The Crew Chief and his assistant are also in there.  After checking our credentials, my WSO and I are allowed in.  We must remain within sight of each other until in the jet.  We begin our preflight and as I walk around the nose of the aircraft and look at the right pylon, my heart skips a few beats.

The weapon attached to the pylon is not blue colored like I'd practiced with, but a very shiny silver.

We are now in the presence of greatness.  Great potential for screwing things up massively.

We continue to follow the checklists and eventually complete the preflight.  We climb up the ladders and strap in.  I look across at Lead's jet and see the nose gear light flash.  The signal to start.  We crank and go through the various starting and pre-takeoff checklists.  Once complete I flash my nose gear light to tell Lead I'm a go.

He contacts the Command Post who will give us the go or no go code word.  At this point, I'm no longer sure it's just an exercise and therefore, am reciting my favorite Fighter Pilot prayer as fast as I can.

"Dear Lord, please don't let me screw this up!"

Finally, we hear the shutdown code being transmitted.  I breathe a small sigh of relief, but...

I'm climbing out of the Aircraft with my WSO close behind.  We're still in a No-Lone Zone.  As I get down and start to walk around the nose, I see my Flight Lead standing up in his cockpit with his 38 drawn, pointing it at the Lt Colonel Inspection Chief.

Who is in the No-Lone Zone, by himself!

There's a lot of hubbub going on over there, but "Not my Circus, Not my Monkeys", I've got a weapon of my own I need to handle.

Later at the club, with the inspection and, indeed, the ORI  over, the four of us are sitting down for a cold and much needed adult recreational beverage, when the Lt Colonel comes walking up to our table.  He addresses my Flight Lead.  "Captain, I was wrong and you were right to pull your weapon on me.  I should not have been in the No-Lone Zone unescorted.  I wish you hadn't told me to "Freeze, Mother F...er!" and then directed the SPs to shoot me dead if I so much as took another step, but that was the right thing to do."

He leaves and Lead's WSO starts laughing.  We look at him questioningly.  He says "After LowRent, told the SP to shoot him, the Lt Col said 'Captain, the exercise is over!' at which point LowRent, still with his weapon pointed at him says "Colonel, the exercise is over when I sign this bomb back to maintenance!"

Yep!

Later that night, the Wing Commander showed up at our table with a tray full of drinks.  I don't remember much after that.

*SJC

Death of an Empire

(Source)

On a long weekend in June of 1815, Napoléon Bonaparte took to the field for the very last time. In a last cast of the dice, he set forth to cement his position on the throne of the French Empire as Emperor. He would be facing the armies of Field Marshal Sir Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington and Generalfeldmarschall Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, Fürst von Wahlstatt.

The Duke of Wellington commanded a polyglot army of English, Scots, Welsh, Irish, Dutch, Belgians, and a smattering of German contingents from any number of small duchies, principalities, and bishoprics of the old Holy Roman Empire, which Napoléon had shattered in 1806 with his devastating defeat of the Prussian Army at the dual battles of Jena and Auerstädt. Some of the regiments he had led to victory in Portugal and Spain were in the process of returning from America and Britain's defeat in the War of 1812. Many were young, some of his Dutch, Belgian, and German troops had fought with Napoléon in days past.

Old Field Marshal Blücher's Prussian Army wasn't any more established than that of the Great Duke's. There were a few experienced regiments which had fought Napoléon in 1813 and 1814 but there were a number of young, hastily recruited regiments, some of whom were only recently made Prussian by the annexation of their homes by the Prussian Empire.

Napoléon's army was, for the most part, made up of old veterans of many campaigns, many returned from  captivity, many still bitter about the forced abdication of the Emperor in 1814. They hungered for revenge, yet they didn't trust their senior officers. It was a fragile army, capable of extreme valor in combat, yet never far from breaking in the face of further setbacks. Treason was everywhere, they thirsted for the blood of their enemies.

I have written a number of times of the events of the 15th, 16th, 17th, and 18th of June 1815, that constitute the Campaign of Waterloo. Rather than attempt to top what I have written before, I decided to repeat the posts I wrote on the 200th anniversary of the battle. You will get two today, covering the 15th and 16th of June. On Tuesday, the posts covering the 17th and the 18th will be presented for your reading enjoyment.

I have walked the field of Waterloo many times. I have stood on the very spot where the Imperial Guard assaulted the British Guards atop the ridge behind La Haye Sainte, I have stood on the spot where Herzog Friedrich Wilhelm von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel, was killed in action leading his troops at the age of 43, just as his father Herzog Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel before him fell in action at the head of his troops fighting the French at Auerstädt. (He had been badly wounded at that action, dying of his wounds that November.)

That field haunts me, I have studied this battle since I was very young. 47,000 men (and not a few women disguised as men) were killed or wounded on a very small parcel of land. The entire battlefield is no more than eight square miles, roughly four miles east to west and two miles north to south. The most intense fighting took place in an area even smaller.

The dead were buried where they fell, the ground above the mass graves was still springy for years afterwards. It is probably not a place to linger when the sun has fallen below the horizon.

Monday, June 15, 2015

Act I - Charleroi

Charleroi, Belgium circa 1775

The bridge across the Sambre appeared as empty of defenders as the portion of the town south of the river had been. The Chef de l'Escadron decided to roll the dice, turning to the nearest troop, he ordered the troop commander to rush the bridge with his chasseurs. There was no time to wait for Vandamme's infantry, no doubt they were back there, somewhere, trying to sort themselves out after the morning's comedy of errors, mishaps and screw ups.

"En avant! Vive l'Empereur!" The cavalrymen went forward with considerable élan, and fell back with equal velocity as the Prussian defenders, just outposts really, opened fire from the houses near the bridge.

Several green-coated chasseurs were left on the bridge along with two of their mounts. The bridge would not be taken without infantry. Reports went up the line, tempers were flaring already as the sun rose higher in the sky.

General Pajol's frustration mounted with the sun. "Gaudry, send dispatch riders to Vandamme ask him, with my compliments, where the Hell are his fantassins!*"

Riders were sent. The day had started badly enough and was going further downhill with each passing minute.

The 1815 campaign seemed doomed to failure from the start. Many of the Emperor's old marshals decided to sit the campaign out. Yes, they owed their careers, titles and riches to Napoléon but his day, they felt, was done. Many of the marshals had sworn allegiance to the Ancien Régime of the Bourbons and did not wish to throw away what they had gained.

This campaign was a crap shoot and most of the senior officers knew it.

That very morning of the 15th, Général de Division Count Louis de Bourmont, commanding a division in Général de Division Comte Étienne Maurice Gérard's IV Corps had deserted to the enemy, leaving that division rather shaken.

The Duke of Wellington, when informed of this, is said to have observed that while a few high ranking officers of Napoléon's army were no doubt of questionable loyalty, the rank and file would fight. And fight hard. (The Prussian commander, Field Marshal von Blücher refused to speak with Bourmont, calling him a traitor to his face!)

Another thing which had gone wrong was because of who the Emperor had chosen to be his Chief of Staff. Marshal Nicholas (also known as Jean-de-Dieu) Soult was a very capable soldier whom Wellington had faced in the Peninsula and for whom the Duke had a great deal of respect. However, Soult was a combat officer and the skill set required of a Chief of Staff is far different from that needed by a fighting general, which Soult certainly was.

The orders sent out to the various corps of the army were allegedly carried by single dispatch riders. The one carrying the orders for Vandamme's III Corps had had an accident and never delivered his dispatch.

The Emperor's long time Chief of Staff, Marshal Louis-Alexandre Berthier, was "unavailable" to act in that role for the 1815 campaign. He had left France for Bamberg in Bavaria (he was married to a Bavarian duchess) upon Napoléon's return to France. There he met his death on the 1st of June, just before the start of the campaign. He died in a "fall" from an upstairs window. Legend has it that he was either pushed by assailants unknown or threw himself from the window, perhaps in despair at seeing enemy troops heading out to invade France.

Berthier would have sent multiple riders by differing routes to the units of the Armée du Nord. Pajol would not have had to wait for infantry, they would have been right behind him.

But Berthier was dead. Perhaps murdered?

Another, perhaps bad, choice made by the Emperor was to leave his arguably best Marshal, Louis-Nicholas Davout, behind in Paris as Minister of War.

Now the Emperor's position in Paris was quite weak, he did need a strong hand there to keep the government under control.

Still, one wonders what the outcome of the Waterloo campaign would have been with Marshal Davout leading one wing of the Armée du Nord and the Emperor commanding the other.

One more omission from Armée du Nord must be mentioned, Marshal Louis-Gabriel Suchet. He had been told off to command along the Alpine frontier with Piedmont. A very capable man for the job but this was definitely a secondary theater.

Suchet was the one man who came out of the Peninsular Campaign with his reputation not only intact but enhanced. The area of Spain for which he was responsible was considered "pacified" within two years of his taking command. By a combination of wise administration and superb generalship.

One wonders how the pursuit of the Prussians after Ligny would have gone had Suchet been available to take over the right wing of the army.

The two marshals who did accompany the Armée du Nord were excellent fighting generals, but...

Michel Ney was perhaps the most famous combat general in the French Army. It is said that he was the last man out of Russia after that disastrous defeat. Legend has it that he stopped, turned to face the pursuing Russians and fired a musket round in their direction.

The legend doesn't mention whether he had hit anything with that shot.

Ney had been one of the original marshals, originally an enlisted man he rose quickly in the Wars of the Revolution and served valiantly and capably no matter where posted. However, by 1815 he was a bit "addled," to put it politely.

When Napoléon had landed in the south of France that spring, the King had ordered him south to stop the putative Emperor's advance and take him into custody, he swore to Louis that he would bring Bonaparte back to Paris "in an iron cage."

Instead his troops went over en masse to the petit caporal. Leaving Ney two choices, return by himself to Paris, in shame, or rejoin the Eagles and his old commander. He chose the latter. (For which he was executed in December of 1815 by a royalist firing squad.)

Emmanuel de Grouchy had become a Marshal upon the Emperor's return to France from his exile on Elba. Though he was a brilliant cavalry commander he had not commanded a combined arms force made up of infantry, cavalry and artillery on a large scale. Yet he was ear-marked to command the right wing of the Armée du Nord!

As the Emperor himself was initially with that wing, Grouchy's command was in name only. However, the events of the 16th of June left him on his own to pursue the retreating Prussians. The Emperor was needed elsewhere. To say Grouchy bungled that task is something of an understatement.

Pajol greeted the arriving infantry with relief, his cavalry had been skirmishing with the Prussians all morning but could not get the blue coated bastards to budge. With the arrival of the Emperor and his Imperial Guard the Prussians didn't stand long.

The "Immortals" of the French Army quickly drove the Prussians out of Charleroi, who fell back on the main body of the Prussians under von Blücher gathering to the north. The main event would have to wait until Friday, the 16th.

Though reports were coming in of Anglo-Allied troops holding the crossroads of Quatre Bras on the Brussels road, the Emperor was confident that Ney would sweep them aside. Once he had crushed the Prussians, Napoléon would show the world just how contemptible were the redcoats and their Dutch, Belgian and German hirelings.

The Emperor would, no doubt, dictate peace from Brussels in just a day or so. Watching the Prussians fall back convinced him of that. Even with the delays, misunderstandings and treasonous behavior of that morning, things were back on track.

For an excellent account of the events of the 15th of June 1815, go here.


* Fantassin = a slang term for a French infantryman of the period.

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Act II, Ligny and Quatre-Bras

Summoned to Waterloo, Brussels, dawn of June 16, 1815
by Robert Alexander Hillingford (Source)

"So we are clear Monsieur le Maréchal? You are to advance up the Brussels chaussee to this crossroads at..." the Emperor paused to adjust his reading glasses then looked again at the map, "here, this crossroads, Quatre-Bras! Then you will pivot to the east and move down this east-west road towards Sombreffe. That should put you just behind the Prussians' right flank."

"Yes Sire, provided I don't encounter the English and..." Marshal Ney began but was immediately interrupted.

"Bah, you people do not understand! Wellington is a bad general and the English are bad troops. The whole affair will be no more serious than a petit dejeuner!"

"Sire..." Ney tried again.

"Enough Ney, it is late. Ride to your troops and have them on the march by sunrise."

"Yes Sire, it shall be done."

Le Rougeaud* left the headquarters muttering to himself, "over twenty years a soldier and I'm treated like a subaltern. Bah, I shall show them. I shall show them all who knows how to fight, to make war!"

It was just after midnight in Charleroi, the 16th of June.

Many people know of Napoléon's defeat at Waterloo on the 18th of June 1815. What many don't know is that four battles were fought during this brief campaign. Five if you count Marshal Grouchy's brilliant fighting withdrawal from Wavre the day after Waterloo. (The most energy that Marshal showed during the campaign.)

• Quatre-Bras: The French left wing under Marshal Ney against the Duke of Wellington's Anglo-Allied Army (British, Netherlanders, Belgians and various German contingents)
• Ligny: The French right wing under Marshal Grouchy (but with the Emperor on the scene) against Field Marshal von Blücher's Prussian Army
• Waterloo: The climactic event of the campaign with the reinforced French left wing against Wellington, reinforced by the Prussians as the day drew to a close.
• Wavre: Grouchy's right wing against the Prussian corps left behind by von Blücher to keep his lines of communication open to Liege and the Rhine beyond.

The main battles though were Ligny and Quatre-Bras on the 16th and Waterloo on the 18th. Napoléon won the first, Wellington fought Ney to a draw at the second (one could argue, quite rightly, that Wellington won that one, but as the British had to withdraw, I count it as a draw) and, of course, Napoléon lost at Waterloo. One could say that the Emperor was one, one and one (1-1-1) on that campaign. But as many students of history can attest, sometimes the only battle that counts is the last one.

The French Empire under Napoléon died on that June day in 1815. But we're not there just yet. Oh no, there were many things which happened prior to that day.

The Main Area of the Campaign from Charleroi to Brussels and Braine-le-Comte to Namur
Detail from "Part of Belgium as engraved by J. Kirkwood" (Source)

The days in June are very long at the latitude where the campaign took place. I lived near there for seven years, in June the sun is up by 0530 and doesn't set until 2200, giving 16 and a half hours of daylight. Of course, that's nowadays with Daylight Saving Time (which is used in Europe as well as the U.S.), in 1815, the sun was up by 0430 and set around 2100. A very long day.

So it is most odd when you read the accounts of the battles on the 16th. Marshal Ney didn't start his attack until around two in the afternoon. Nearly ten hours of daylight were wasted! Though Ney was an experienced commander, he shouldn't have to shoulder all of the blame for this. The Emperor didn't dispatch his orders to both Ney and Grouchy until around 0600. Ney received his orders at 1100. The Emperor himself had joined Grouchy on the field somewhat earlier than that.

Ney could be said to have dithered on the road to Quatre-Bras but the Emperor was no less laconic about getting his own battle started. He went on his own personal reconnaissance at around 1100. It wasn't until then that the French realized that the Prussians intended to make a stand.

The Battles of Quatre-Bras and Ligny, 15 June 1815
EB1911-28-0376-a-Waterloo Campaign, Map II
by Hugh Chisholm editor of Encyclopædia Britannica
 - Encyclopædia Britannica eleventh edition (1911).
Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons (Source)

The Battle Of Ligny by Ernest Crofts(Source)

The Prussian position was a strong one. They were positioned in a string of villages along the Ligne brook. The Prussian army was also on a forward slope. Those men not in houses or behind walls would be exposed to the 200 plus cannon the French had available.

The French attack went in between 1430 and 1500 (again, why so late?) and the initial results were bloody. Gérard's (IV Corps) initial attack towards Ligny village was repulsed. Vandamme's (III Corps) advance across the open ground before Saint-Amand suffered heavy casualties. Villages in that area of the battlefield changed hands many times, combat was, at times, at bayonet point.

On the field of Ligny
(Google Street View)

Battle of Ligny
by Theodore Yung (Source)

Buildings began to burn as the fighting continued. The Prussians were being pounded by French cannon and assaulted by French infantry and cavalry. Gradually the Prussian reserves had all been fed into the fight, Vandamme's troops had seized Saint-Amand by 1500.

The Prussians were leaning to their right due to the success of Vandamme's advance. The Emperor prepared his Guard to go forward and clinch the victory. Then reports came in of unknown troops moving towards the French left. Who were they?

Troops were sent forward to support Vandamme and scouts dispatched to identify the mysterious force looming on the flank. The time was around 1800. French hesitation allowed von Blücher time to try and organize his troops. They had suffered greatly from French artillery and the struggle for Saint-Amand.

By 1830 the mysterious force to the left was identified as the French I Corps under d'Erlon. Just as the Emperor had visions of d'Erlon falling on the Prussian flank, that force began to march back the way they'd come.

The Emperor was livid!

But the battle wasn't over. The Imperial Guard, the "Immortals" went forward and quickly began to gain ground and inflict more casualties on the shaken Prussians. Which is when the old field marshal (he was 72) put himself at the head of 32 squadrons of cavalry and launched a desperate charge.

His horse was shot out from under him and von Blücher was pinned underneath. He was actually ridden over several times by French counter-charges. His aides eventually  managed to extricate him from his predicament but by then the Prussian units were starting to drift away from the fighting. They had had enough. With von Blücher missing in action, his chief of staff von Gneisenau was organizing a retreat.

Though von Gneisenau did not trust the English (he also assumed that von Blücher was dead), rather than order a retreat back on the Prussian line of communications towards Liege, he ordered the army to fall back towards the north, towards Wavre.

At that point, von Gneisenau set the stage for the events of the evening of the 18th, two days hence. The Prussians would remain within supporting distance of their ally, the Duke of Wellington.

The Field Marshal in danger!
(Source)

Now why had those French troops wandered so near the fighting on the Ligny battlefield and then wandered off again? That takes us over to Marshal Ney's wing advancing towards Quatre-Bras.

As mentioned above, no one in the French army was setting any records for speed or initiative on the 16th. Around 1400, the French II Corps, under Général de Division Comte Honoré Charles Reille began to advance. Bachelu's infantry division on the right (towards the Piraumont farm), Foy up the road towards the crossroads, Foy supported by Piré's cavalry.

Reille was a veteran of the Peninsula and was very wary of the Duke of Wellington. Though Wellington had very little strength on the field initially (a division of Dutchmen, not British at all), Reille was used to the Duke concealing his troops behind ridge lines and woods. He had been beaten before by Wellington's tactics so perhaps he was "once bitten, twice shy."

Battle of Quatre-Bras
by James B. Wollen (Source)

The fighting was see-saw and very bloody. The crossroads itself was seized briefly by French cavalry who were soon driven off (their commander clinging to the stirrups of two troopers as his own horse was shot from under him) by arriving troops.

Wellington's army dribbled in throughout the day, often times just in time to reinforce a position or launch a local counter-attack. But it was bloody and somewhat inconclusive, though Wellington's men held their line, French pressure was increasing.

All Ney needed was more troops.

Unfortunately "his" I Corps under d'Erlon was "wandering" between the two battlefields of Quatre-Bras and Ligny, fighting at neither. D'Erlon claimed to have received a written order from the Emperor directing him to fall upon the Prussian right. Napoléon claimed to have sent no such order (though having Ney's force march to his aid had been the plan all along).

At any rate an entire infantry corps of 19,357 men and 44 guns spent the day "strolling" through the Belgian countryside. If they had intervened at Ligny, the Prussians would have been unable to retreat. If they had stayed at Quatre-Bras Wellington would probably have experienced a defeat. There would have been no chance of his inexperienced troops holding off a fresh French corps.

But that didn't happen.

Brunswick line infantry at Quatre-Bras. The Jäger of the Advance Guard are on the left.
by Richard Knötel (Source)

The Anglo-Allied army held it's ground, though the commander of the Brunswick contingent fell in battle as his father had before him against the French some nine years earlier. Though one English regiment, the 69th Foot, lost many dead and wounded and one of their colors to French heavy cavalry when caught deployed in line.

On the field of Quatre-Bras
(Google Street View)

Capture of the King's Color of the 69th Infantry Regiment of Foot at Quatre-Bras
by Victor Huen (Source)

In reality the battle could be counted as a victory for Wellington. But, the Prussians had been defeated, he might now have to face the entire French army on the morrow.

Reluctantly the Great Duke realized that come the next day he would have to fall back to the north, towards Brussels.

Towards a place called Mont-St-Jean. A place we know as...

Waterloo.

For excellent, brief accounts of Ligny and Quatre-Bras, you can go here and here. OAFS recommended. OAFS approved. 
* Le Rougeaud = The red faced or ruddy. Ney was a ginger and had a temper to match. This was his men's nickname for him.

Aux morts...

In the Air...

It's been a long week.

Here's a couple of videos to mark the end of the beginning of World War II and the beginning of the end...

And how could I not make mention of this momentous event? Probably won't be seen again in our lifetimes, perhaps never again.

(Source)

To those who served in that war.

Especially those who gave the last full measure.

Another Day in Paradise

Eh, what's up Doc?

It was a chilly, gray, wet day here in Little Rhody on the penultimate day of the work week. Seems like summer has been delayed for a bit.

Four beautiful warm days over the Memorial Day weekend, I was convinced that the warm days had arrived...

Not so fast buddy.

Anyhoo, the drive in was drizzly, as I rolled into the parking lot of my place of work, the rain seemed to lift, just enough to keep me somewhat dry as I walked from where I parked to the front door of the building. Which is named for a rather famous five-star admiral dontcha know? Well, it is.

I moved "offices" on Thursday, well technically I went from a desk in a cubicle to a more open area in the lab where I'll be sitting with the rest of the team for the foreseeable future. It took a bit to get everything set up, had my first iced coffee of the day (I have two, no more, no less), and settled in to get some work done.

Right around noon, when our team lead was walking in with his lunch, the fire alarm went off. Of course. To make things even worse, it was raining like it was when Noah was wrapping up work on the ark and admitting the last of his passengers aboard.

Out into the rain we went, I decided to not play nice with others and kept walking to my car to get out of the wet. Technically we're supposed to go to our assembly area where the folks in charge of taking head counts took their head count. I suppose that's in case the building is engulfed in flames, toxic fumes, or the gases from a bad lunch and they want to make sure everyone got out.

Problem is, I don't ever recall anyone ever doing a head count. Or taking a roll call of any kind. On this day I'm sure everyone in the herd would've said, "fire truck" that, and headed to their cars.

Well, someone actually shouted out to the dispersing hoard that we could go to another section of the building that wasn't affected by the alarm.

Now that would've been nice to know before my jacket and pant legs got soaking freaking wet. Anyhoo, back inside we went, to the cafeteria to sit out the storm. One of our number wanted to know why we could be in one part of the building while the other part was engulfed in flames, toxic fumes, or the gases from a bad lunch.

"Well, it's a big building innit?"

We all admitted that the logic was perhaps flawed but would we rather stand out in the rain? The consensus on that was a resounding, "NO!"

At any rate, we were cleared to return to our section of the building where we heard that the alarm had been caused by a water leak onto some hot piece of metal in a data center just across the hall from our lab. Which explained the unpleasant aroma in our spaces when we returned to work.

Thinking back on it, it took the local fire department not that long to respond to the alarm. Fifteen minutes or so I think. If something had been engulfed in flames, toxic fumes, or the gases from a bad lunch they were probably there in time to prevent lots of damage. But not all of the damage.

While I'd like to think that my co-workers and I could put out an obvious fire with one of the fire extinguishers strategically placed throughout the building, doing so with the conflagration in a locked data center might be iffy. My suggestion that a handy fire ax would be just the thing was looked askance upon so I pursued that no further. Though a colleague postulated that that would be kind of fun, it could also prove expensive. Best leave that to the pros!

After that the day proceeded apace, the rain reduced to a drizzle, I waded across the parking lot to my vehicular conveyance and headed homewards. The Missus Herself being out with her fellow Koreans, I foraged through the fridge for sustenance. At the end of my repast I went to look outside and saw that little fellow in the opening picture over on the side lawn.

I watched as he made his way to one of the many of The Missus Herself's gardens and proceed to dine on what I presume is a succulent. The love of my life has many of those on the grounds of the estate and within the manse itself. I seem to recall my paternal grandmother filling every available place in her home with plants, The Missus Herself seems to be on a pace for rivaling my dear old grandmother's collection of greenery.

Well, they are nice and they do swap our carbon dioxide for their oxygen. Seems a fair trade.

I'm not sure The Missus Herself would consider the cute antics of Br'er Rabbit being a fair trade for the devouring of her gardens, but I do. We have lots of plants and very few rabbits, the local foxes and coyotes no doubt keep their numbers down.

It does beat having the deer come in and chew up all the shrubberies, which they were starting to do in the late winter. Until the night the neighbor's dogs were out early to do their business (in their fenced in backyard). The baying and frantic running back and forth seemed to put the local whitetails off their feed and we haven't seen 'em since.

Sometimes I feel like I'm living in a National Geographic special.

But today is Friday, so...

I do like that song.

Some People's Kids

So just before hitting the sack Tuesday night, I had the dreaded Windows updating message on my monitor. It happens, I don't turn auto-updates off because I work with software developers, heck, I technically am a software developer but I spend my time now testing and assessing OPS, Other People's Software.

I know the pressures that managers put on developers and I know that a lot (most?) software goes out the door to the customer with all sorts of bugs and features that aren't quite ready for primetime. In reality, we, the consumers, are beta testers for most of the software we buy (actually we rent it, but that's a quibble).

So I let the computer update itself, but I'm a professional, don't try this at home.

Anyhoo. When I got home from work on Wednesday I fired up the computer after dinner and saw that screen above, for about a minute.

Really?

It's at 100% complete and it's still updating? Uh, boys and girls, 100% means effing complete, m'kay?

First World problem, I know, but it truly is irksome.

In other news, I did this for one day -

Yup, I had to turn off Any Mouse comments. The anonymous misogynist who can't apparently get a date, who keeps posting a link to his (I'm assuming it's his) useless "blog," (it has one post, a very stupid and hateful post) will not cease and desist. I suppose I could mark Anonymous as spam, but then I'd still have to delete the idiot's attempt to comment.

Unfortunately it does block a lot of you who are actual commenters (John Blackshoe, Tennessee Budd, and a few others), so I relented and turned Anonymous comments back on, to wit -

If you tried to comment and could not, my apologies, you should be "good to go" again.

If the idiot misogynist returns, I shall delete his comment and consign this prat to the outer darkness, where I hope "it" stays. DO NOT COMMENT UPON OR OTHERWISE ENGAGE WITH THIS EE-JIT, PLEASE. (I'd call him a troll, but that's an insult to trolls.)

I hate doing that but damn, some people's kids.

Seconds from Eternity...

Photo 1
(Source)

Juvat's Monday post, Attack on Dagua, has the following photo:

Photo 2
(Source)

Photo 3
(Source)

Shown above are three photos of the same raid, the same aircraft, all shot by the same photographer, John F. "Jack" Heyn, who spent 3 years in the Southwest Pacific with the 3rd Bombardment Group.  A year of that time he was with the 13th Bombardment Squadron, the rest of the time with Headquarters Squadron as a Photographer/Labtech. (Great website covering his work here.)

Juvat's caption says, "The black flecks in and around the middle explosion are pieces of a B-25 that flew into the frag pattern of the preceding attacker." Well, yes and no. Before we take a closer look at that second photo, it's worth noting the following:

Aircraft Type: North American B-25D-10 Mitchell
Aircraft Tail Number: 41-30345
Parent Unit: 8th BS, 3rd BG, 5th AF, based at Jackson Airfield, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea

Fate: Crashed Aug 28, 1943 into Hansa Bay, Madang, Papua New Guinea in the South Pacific while on a mission there. Aircraft hit by explosion from bomb blast from another B-25 which knocked off the right wing and tail. All three crew members were killed in action. (Source)

Aircraft 41-30345 is circled, if you look closely she is nearly inverted, left wing down, the right wing and tail missing.

I have zoomed into the photo, aircraft 41-30345 is to the left, what I believe are its right wing and part of the tail are to the right (red arrows).

Now if we look again at "Photo 1," we can see aircraft 41-30345 just above a Japanese vessel which has just suffered a catastrophic hit from a bomb from the aircraft ahead. (Quite possibly the same one Jack Heyn is aboard. We can also see splashes just aft of the Japanese vessel to the left of the photo and another splash to the right, to the left front of aircraft 41-30345.

"Photo 2" shows two of the three bombs detonating, the middle explosion has destroyed the Japanese vessel. Most of the debris is from the boat, not the bomber, I say that because of the trajectory of the debris, mostly going up, debris from the aircraft would tend to follow the aircraft's flight path. I believe that the explosion to the right of the photo is what doomed aircraft 41-30345, based on the aircraft's position in "Photo 1" and that the aircraft has been blown off of it's original flight path, deflected to the right of that path (to the left as shown in the photo).

"Photo 3" shows aircraft 41-30345 impacting the water near three Japanese vessels. If you look back along the flight path you can see debris from the aircraft (I believe) impacting the water about where you might expect. In the next photo I have circled the aircraft (large red circle) and the splash from aircraft debris, with some parts of the aircraft still in the air (small red circle).

Aircraft 41-30345 impacting the water.

Behind every historical photograph there is a story, often more than one story. When I noticed the unusual aspect (inverted and heading down) of the aircraft in the photo in juvat's post, I had to track that story down. What happened? Who were the crew of that ill-fated bird. Having examined the whole sequence of photos (at least the three I was able to track down) I realized that this wasn't just an interesting sequence of photos. No, it was a a sequence of photos showing the last moments of a number of brave men (not just in the air).

This website (from juvat's post) led me to Jack Heyn's website for the story on the aircraft I also did a search in Wikipedia (here) for Hansa Bay in World War II which got me the tail number of the aircraft, which Joe Baugher's site confirmed went down in Hansa Bay, New Guinea.

Joe Baugher's site mentioned that all three crewmen were killed. I looked to see if I could pin down crew sizes for the B-25D without success (standard crew size was five, but the Ds were heavily modified for strafing and low-level bombing, so a three-man crew isn't a big stretch). But looking around I arrived here...

The beginning of which simply states -

Pilot 1st Lt. Robert B. Widener, O-791744 (MIA / KIA) MA
Co-Pilot 2nd Lt Bernard Lazarus, O-795411 (MIA / KIA) NY
Gunner  Sgt James W. Lefler, 16019155 (MIA / KIA) IL
Crashed August 28, 1943

Near the end of that article -

The entire crew was officially declared dead the day of the mission. All are memorialized on the tablets of the missing at Manila American Cemetery. Lefler also has a memorial marker at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery at section M1 Site 64.

Three men, lost flying a low-level mission against the Empire of Japan on the 28th of August, 1943, a Saturday.

A sad tale, we need to remember such men, always.

I did find a fourth photo of this mission, shown below...

The red arrow points towards aircraft 41-30345, coming in for its bomb run.
1Lt. Robert B. Widener, 2Lt Bernard Lazarus, and Sgt James W. Lefler on their last mission.
Seconds from Eternity...
(Source)

RIP my brothers-in-arms, Ave Atque Vale.