(Gen. George S. Patton)

DENVER RADIO ANNOUNCES THE IMMEDIATE AND COMPLETE SURRENDER OF THE NORTH AMERICAN ARMED FORCES

It is hereby announced, at 13:00 hours, on the 28th of October, 1943, that the combined allied forces of the United States of America, and of Canada, is surrendering unconditionally to the German, Mexican and Japanese armies. The garrisons of Salt Lake City, Seattle, Minneapolis have all laid down their arms; and the full forces of Denver, Colorado, have also laid down their weapons. Denver is hereby declared as an open city.

DENVER RUNDFUNK MELDET DIE UMMITTELBARE UND VOLLSTÄNDIGE KAPITULATION DER NORDAMERIKANISCHEN ARMÉEN

Es wird jetzt gemeldet, um 13 Uhr, den 28:en Oktober, 1943, die Gesamtkapitulation den Streitkräften den Vereinigten Staaten auch des Kanadas, ohne Konditionen, zu den Arméen des Deutschlands, Mexikos und Japans. Die Garnisonen in Salt Lake City, Seattle und Minneapolis haben alle die Waffen abgelegen, als wie die gesamte Streitkräften in Denver, Colorado. Denver ist jetzt als offene Stadt erklärt.

Which means that the long-running, sorrowful conflict between me and Johan is finally at an end. The German, Mexican and Japanese armies conquered the armies of Canada and the USA in a brilliant series of attacks. The unrelenting pressure on the desperate defense finally brought about the surrender.

It was, in effect, the final result of the prolonged disinterest from the nations of the world to engage in this conflict, particularly on behalf of the Soviet Union, who did little to intervene. An extract from a radio speech (“infamy speech”) delivered by the President on the 9th of August, after the Japanese invasion, summarizes it best.

Yesterday, August 8th, 1943 - a date which will live in infamy - the mainland of the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and army forces of the Empire of Japan. Two Japanese divisions, in the early morning, launched an amphibious invasion into the Los Angeles bay. The American defensive forces, being hard pressed to defend against Mexican and German armor divisions in the south, were taken by surprise at this unprovoked aggression, and were overwhelmed. Counterattacks, so far, have been resisted. [...]

This is a most serious escalation of the war against the United States. It marks a new era of aggression and peril throughout the entire world. Undoubtedly, this will throw the nations of the world into a dark, abysmal war from which there can be no escape. Soviet Russia, so far reluctant to enter into battle, must now be massing its forces in a preemptive defense of its very own heartland. The European continent - what is left of it - stands now on the brink of destruction. Indeed, the forces of the United States itself are hard pressed, and are holding back its enemy only by heroic sacrifice.

For far too long, the world has been standing by, unwilling to commit their own forces in this fight for freedom for all mankind. They must now reap the terrible destruction, which their indecision has brought. Once the beacon of light gallantly streaming from the American continent has been extinguished by the unjust oppressors of humanity, there can only be darkness. May the grace of God be with us.

- Presidential address to the Congress of the United States of America; August 9th, 1943; Denver, Colorado.

Fire and maneuver is important because it is a relatively simple, but extremely effective attack, if carried out well. It combines two elements: firepower, meaning that one team keeps firing mercilessly at the enemy, keeping his head down – as soon as he moves, he’ll exposed and you’ll kill him; and the other, maneuverability, meaning that another team keeps shifting position and can suddenly attack from an unexpected direction.

There are four main interesting effects of fire and maneuver.

• Surprise: One of the most crucial advantages you can get is the element of surprise. The enemy, who did not expect an attack at that time, from that direction, or in such numbers, will not be prepared; and it will take him time to judge the situation, get into position and defend himself. This gives you a crucial window of opportunity to act.
• Shock: When an attack is pressed, surprise may progress into shock, which is the inability to process information and make rational decisions from it. The enemy may be “stunned”; meaning he is unable to grasp the situation correctly and act accordingly. Responses carried out in shock may be wrong and may even aggravate the enemy’s situation. The faster you can be (i.e. maneuverability), the faster the situation will proceed, which may push the enemy even further; when he finally realizes the threat and counters it, the response it too late because you’ve already advanced, thus maintaining his state of shock.
• Suppression: The objective of maintaining a base of fire towards the enemy is a suppression of enemy activity. If he cannot move without being shot at, he may, simply out of fear of being harmed, remain passive. Suppression may be accomplished through direct firepower being brought against the enemy, or by threat – such as a well-concealed sniper who shoots at the enemy every time he looks out. Achieving suppression means that you can move in on the enemy position and act without him knowing it.
• Isolation: Correctly using fire and maneuver against the enemy will cause him to believe, eventually, that he is surrounded. The realization that he is cut off from his own forces and helpless, will in many cases cause him to surrender. Even large enemy forces may surrender if isolated and surrounded, which is of course far more effective than having to close with the enemy and eliminate him. The enemy does not have to be surrounded, but he must believe he is.

All of these effects are interesting because they are psychological. This is the purpose of fire and maneuver; at a sudden time and place bring such overwhelming firepower against him, while at the same time moving in with such speed, that the unprepared enemy (surprise) becomes unable to grasp the situation (shock), and unable to act (suppression) and ultimately isolated and surrounded.

The faster and more violent the attack is, the easier it will be to press this state on the enemy. This is one reason why armored vehicles in large contingents are so excellent; giving an operational maneuverability which will outperform the enemy.

This is part of the reason why, for instance, France collapsed in a few weeks in 1940. The German forces, suddenly breaking through the Ardenner forest, emerged in force with several armored corps and broke through the relatively weak defenses. Using their speed, they proceeded to cut straight through the Allied rear-echelon units (command and logistics) and cause havoc. The French and British were unprepared for this sudden, ferocious assault, shocked by its force and speed, suppressed by the overwhelming air attacks, and ultimately cut off and surrounded at Dunkirk.

(For more information, see Infantry Magazine: Fire and maneuver effects)

(Image originally from Wikipedia, published under the GNU Free Documentation License 1.2)

Ah the sun now it shines on these green fields of France,
The warm summer breeze makes the red poppies dance,
And look how the sun shines from under the clouds;
There’s no gas, no barbed wire, there’re no guns firing now.
But here in this graveyard is still No Man’s Land,
The countless white crosses in mute witness stand…

The song moves me very deeply. World War I was madness… just madness. One million guys in trenches firing with everything they had – machine guns, gas weapons, artillery, bombs – at the other million guys entrenched a hundred yards away. And neither making headway. Mobility was achieved merely a few times during the war, on the western front.

“Did you really believe that this war would end wars?” they sing. The war to end all wars, indeed. Colonel Potter in M*A*S*H ironizes over it, remembering his fallen friends: The one who died in the “war to end all wars”, and the one who died “in the war after that”.

When Napoleon I set out to invade Russia in 1812, he began with an enormous army of 422.000 soldiers from all over Europe. They fought all the way to Moscow. Much like the German armies of World War II, they got caught in mud, bad weather, and when they entered the burned capital, the winter came. The retreat was an endless agony… men freezing, starving, dying in heaps along the way. The slow, agonizing retreat through the snow… and then the Russians move in with their cannons. In the end, less than 10.000 survived.

And Guy Sajer, the french man fighting for the Germans in World War II, tells his story in his book “The forgotten soldier”. Driving trucks endless miles through Russian winter and temperatures of -20 F to supply the enclosed sixth army in Stalingrad, hands, feet and faces burn from frostbite and people die from freezing. (Of the hundreds of thousands of soldiers in the sixth army, only 6.000 returned home to Germany.)

Is there then no end to war? With every book I read, war becomes even more terrible. What happens to the collective soul and spirit of a nation that sees four hundred thousand of its young men lie dead like heaps of rubble, leaving fathers, mothers, wives, girlfriends, children behind?

And how enormously and terribly deformed will the heart of the nation be that sets out on a lunacy like this? What drives a nation to invade another without sane reason or purpose?

Did you leave ‘ere a wife or a sweetheart behind?
In some faithful heart is your memory enshrined? …
…or are you a stranger without even a name,
Enclosed forever behind a glass pane,
In an old photograph, torn, and battered and stained,
And faded to yellow in a brown leather frame?

For the next hour, I sat glued to the TV screen. The things I saw etched itself into my mind and which I will never forget. I saw the second plane hit. My mind raced with thoughts concerning the people inside those burning buildings. I knew Sears Tower in Chicago took about 25.000 people. I had no idea how many would die. I remember staring at the TV screen, looking in wild disbelief at the carnage and I thought to myself “I can’t see tower two… I f***ing can’t see tower two“. One of the towers had collapsed. Shortly thereafter, the other tower collapsed as well, and the skyline of Manhattan was forever changed in that fateful morning. I turned off the TV and went for a long walk.

The day after was terrible. I felt like I was trapped over in Sweden while America was in need of help. It was like I should have been over there, helping, aiding, doing whatever I could to be there to share the grief and help carry the burdens. I cried, because I couldn’t be standing on the bridges over to Manhattan and cheer the firemen on as they went to work the days after, searching for survivors and putting out the fires.

My friend Bob used to work for American Airlines, and one of the flight attendants on board those two planes was a close friend of his. As for myself, I ended up making a small donation to the American Red Cross. It was the least I could do. I wish I had done more.

A few months before I had been in Florida on Memorial Day and watched the newly released movie “Pearl Harbor”. I wrote in my travel journals after watching it, that despite all of the everyday America I saw with gas stations, cheap motels, neon lights and all, that “I know that if America is ever attacked again, she will rise up in strength and strike back with ferocious unity and power”. In September, America was attacked, and she rose up and struck back.

Somehow, for some strange reason, my heart is forever tied to America and the American people; I don’t know why. But as I wrote on one site supporting American soldiers overseas: “I stand with you, and I’ll keep standing with you; in rain, in tears, in heartaches, and in glorious victory.”

God bless America.

The general himself describes the events during the 1930′s, in building up Germany’s armored force, the invasion of Poland in 1939, France in 1940, and the disastrous events on the Eastern front during 1941-1945. He was relieved of his duties twice because of lengthy and heated arguments with the OKH/OKW and with Hitler himself. Guderian was an outspoken man, who was not a member of the Nazi party and who disagreed with the Nazi ideals, but still fought as a soldier and officer during the wars started by the Nazis.

The book offers an insightful view into the German army, the Wehrmacht, and the military and political leadership during these years. Not everyone comes out looking good in the progress; least of all the clique around Hitler himself: Göring, Goebbels, Bormann, Himmler, Keitel and Jodl.

I met my friend Johan the other day over a plate of sushi, and we talked about Guderian and how it all seemed to go downhill after the fateful decision of diverting the 2nd Panzer Armee down towards Kiev instead of Moscow. But in the end, Johan suggested it was all for the better; had Guderian been given free hands, the Germans might actually have defeated the Russians and won the war.

It is not without a sense of achievement that I now have finished reading all six volumes of Churchill’s memoirs. In a way, it feels as though I have myself been a witness to all the workings and dealings of the British Government during the fateful years of 1939-1945. I have been a close follower of the agony of the War Office in containing the U-boat threat in the Atlantic; I have seen the Home Guard prepare for defence in their homeland; and I have partaken in the efforts of Generals Alexander, Montgomery, Wavell and many more in battles all over the world. I have followed military engagements in France, Belgium and the Netherlands; from there over to North Africa including Egypt, Tunis, Morocco, Syria, Jordan, Iraq; and then Hong Kong, Singapore, the Dutch Indies and Burma; from there far over the raging seas of the Indian Ocean, the Pacific, the Atlantic, the North Sea and the Mediterranean. And then back to England and France again, the liberation of Europe, and Germany and Japan itself.

“It is finished”, then, may very well have been something that the victors of World War II said to themselves. When Churchill, Stalin and Truman stood in the heap and rubble of Potsdam in 1945, they may have looked out over defeated Germany and rested on their achievements, proclaiming peace and goodwill to man in the future. Unfortunately, it was not to be so, for now an iron curtain descended over Europe, and tore her in two; one with free and newly liberated nations; and the other under a new form of oppression – communism.

And for the next fifty years, Moscow would rule with an iron fist not only over the land of the Rodina, but over Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Roumania and many other nations trapped by the Red Army’s advancing forces. They would continue to pay their penalties and dues from the war in full, under the oppression of their own puppet dictators, disguised in the form of communist party doctrine.

Being Swedish, it is difficult to imagine that so little of Europe and the world has been able to live in times of peace and liberty. For uncertain reasons (and I glance with remorseful eyes towards the Finnish border), Sweden has been spared the heavy blows of war for nearly 200 years. It is a cherished mercy to be able to grow up without war. Nevertheless, war will come, sooner or later, in this fallen world. I hope we may be ready to rise to our duties, when our time will come, and accomplish them with as much grace and dignity as did the British and Americans, in those days.

The ships are already on their way. The airplanes are already on their runways, preparing for the takeoff. The largest invasion ever seen throughout the history of man is beginning. Over the next 60 days, over 1.900.000 allied soldiers will be transported into battle in northern France, to spell out the doom of Nazi Germany forever.

These are good times. The Russians are already standing at the Polish borders. Crimea is freed, Leningrad saved. Rome has just fallen to the allies, North Africa is since long secure. Japan has been beaten back step by step from its far-reaching grasp and is recoiling in its home islands. Now “Festung Europa”, Adolf Hitler’s prized possession, is ready to give way.

Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force!

You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have
striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The
hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you.
In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on
other Fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war
machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of
Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world [...]

Good luck! And let us beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great
and noble undertaking.

Signed, Dwight D. Eisenhower.

One thing always amazes me, though. The crew of the Enterprise is so blatantly naive. They never hesitate to send a tiny away team to board an alien vessel. When they go down on an alien planet, they never recon their surroundings or maintain proper security. And invariably, they run into problems, which always is solved one way or other by the ingenuity of the captain or some of his staff.

By properly adhering to common-sense tactics and employing fundamental security measures, I feel that it would be possible to minimize the dangers that away teams are constantly put into. For instance, these initial measures might provide a basic situational improvement:

• Always thoroughly recon the environment before advancing. Failure to observe this rule could endanger the team and place them at severe risk to unknown toxins or other biological hazards, which is a recurring theme on the show.

• Never send out a team without proper rules of engagement, and with a clear mission. “See if you can do anything” is hardly a specific order under which to operate when communications are down and difficulties emerge.

• Plan ahead, and plan for contingencies. Backup procedures should be available once problems arise. Always keeping a second away team on standby should be standard procedure.

• Never move alone. It is not infrequent for a Star Trek away team to split up into single individuals, a practice which should be frowned upon and taught against in Star Fleet Academy basic training. All experience has repeatedly shown that two-man teams are safer and more efficient.

An away team needs to practice tactical procedures in hostile situations. A firefight on the Star Trek show looks more like an old Wild West shootout than a disciplined team under fire. Proper defense techniques need to be employed, such as fire-and-maneuver, providing suppressive fire, and using speed to surprise and shock the opponent; and better weapons are needed, such as rapid-fire automatic weapons and stun grenades.It seems strange to me that Star Fleet should send a crew of such seemingly “untrained cowboys” on their first, high-profile exploration mission throughout space. Personally, I feel that a few weeks of proper combat training should cure many of the problems the away teams are facing.

It would also help to instill a sense of proper chain of command in the ensigns and, more specifically, the officers on board the Enterprise… even if the commanding officer is a Vulcan.