Pearl Harbor - 66th anniversary

As you may recall, today is the 66th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack. Click here for previous anniversary posts.

Below are photos of the U.S.S. California that I poached from navsource.org. The California suffered less damage than the more famous U.S.S. Arizona, but it eventually sank also. After burning for a portion of the day on December 7th, the California took on water. Rescue workers tried to keep it afloat and pumped out the water for three days. Finally, workers abandoned the effort on December 10.

U.S.S. California - 66 years ago today





The California was later raised from the bottom of the harbor and put back into service during the war.



Wearing special camouflage more than two years after Pearl Harbor

Falklands War 25th anniversary; Frank Reynolds; John Chancellor; Elizabeth Drew

25 years ago today - British soldiers taken captive



Today is the 25th anniversary of the start of the Falkland Islands war between Britain and Argentina. I won't try to repeat the entire story. Suffice it to say that Argentina seized some British Islands in the South Atlantic on April 2, 1982. The British took them back after a three month war.

The war began when Argentina seized South Georgia Island on April 2nd and later seized the main Falkland islands 750 miles away.

South Georgia Island H/T antarcticlife.com

The war is notable for several things.

(1) As we already have established, the MSM/DNC is wrong about almost everything. This war proved to be no exception. On the night of the invasion, the teleprompter of ABC's anchor Frank Reynolds opened the nightly news broadcast with the following:

"It would appear the sun has set on yet another corner of the British Empire."

[My source is my own tape recording from the news the night of the invasion.] Reynolds' teleprompter did not anticipate that the British would fight back and retake the islands. ABC was apparently too eager for a western power and U.S. ally to lose territory. Weeks later, Elizabeth Drew would appear on "Agronsky and Company" and insist that even if Britain retook the islands by force, Britain "can't sustain it." I hope you didn't hold your breath waiting for Drew to apologize when it became apparent that the invasion was, in fact, sustainable. [If you don't recognize the names Elizabeth Drew or Agronsky, don't worry about it. You didn't miss much.] MSM/DNC is frequently guided by wishful thinking and is deluded by its own ability to issue self-fulfilling prophecies [like polls].

(2) The MSM/DNC will oppose Republican policy no matter what.

The U.S. remained officially neutral during the war. President Reagan didn't lie/no kids died. Halliburton made no profit. There was no quagmire. No one mentioned Vietnam. We didn't need a timetable in which to "redeploy" our troops to Okinawa. We didn't lose standing in the world due to warmongering "go-it-alone" cowboy policies.

Was this neutrality good enough for the MSM/DNC? No. Did Reagan get credit for keeping the U.S. at peace? No. John Chancellor's teleprompter denounced the administration for not siding with its ally, Great Britain. Even though Britain was more than capable of handling this war on its own, Chancellor's teleprompter would be satisfied with no less than all out war by the U.S. against Argentina. [MSM/DNC commentators are happy to support war so long as the enemy (e.g. Argentina) poses no real threat to the U.S.]

(3) Appeasement provokes aggression. Here is one headline I am afraid we will not see as a result of Iran capturing 15 British sailors last week. This difference between the two incidents is that today England and much of the west places its faith in international institutions, like the UN and EU. These institutions will not recover the sailors or prevent aggression from rogue states. See Mark Steyn's commentary for more on this point.

[For those who cannot conceive of a military response to Iran, see this.

There were many who doubted the potential for success of a military resolution back in 1982, but the doubters were wrong. They did not anticipate the following:

D-Day - British invasion









H/T latinamericanstudies.org.

June 17, 1982 - Argentine POWs returning home






We can either learn the lessons of the Falklands war and act accordingly today, or we can treat the 1982 war as just another historical event, forget about it and allow the danger from Iran to grow.
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update - 9:30 AM 4-2-07 Michelle Malkin posts her thoughts, including this quote from Diana West:

When a civilization no longer inculcates an overriding attachment to its own survival, well, it no longer survives as a civilization. In peacetime, the disintegration appears more theoretical. In wartime, the holes really begin to show.

Pearl Harbor 65th anniversary

As most of you know, today is the 65th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Numerous American battleships, destroyers and other vessels were destroyed in the water that Sunday morning as the United States entered World War II.

The West Virginia was among those battleships that the Japanese planes sunk that day.

65 years ago today







The West Virginia was anchored immediately to the outside of the U.S.S. Tennessee, which did not sink. Both the Tennessee and West Virginia were inundated by burning oil that escaped from the wreckage of the Arizona and flowed through the rest of the harbor. The Tennessee was trapped by the sunken West Virginia and could not escape, but kept its propellers operating all day just to push away the burning oil flowing towards it.


U.S.S. West Virginia in the forefront with U.S.S. Tennessee in the immediate background








H/T navsoure.org for these and other photos depicting the attack, the history of all of the battleships and most other ships in the U.S. Navy.

I have not read Daniel Madsen's book, Resurrection, but it is on my list of books to buy. He describes the process by which most of the sunken ships were raised from the harbor and put back into action. Some of these ships took months or years to refloat. Some of the ships, including the Arizona and the Utah, were left in place where they remain to this day. The Oklahoma was raised and then scrapped. Others, like the Pennsylvania and the Nevada, saw action in the Pacific later in the war.



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Michelle Malkin has more, including information on what probably is the final reunion of Pearl Harbor survivors.

Veterans Day

Take a moment to remember our fallen heroes.


Yorktown memorial

Vicksburg anniversary

Today is the anniversary of the surrender of Vicksburg during the Civil War. Vicksburg -

the last Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River, surrenders to Gen. Grant and the Army of the West after a six week siege. With the Union now in control of the Mississippi, the Confederacy is effectively split in two, cut off from its western allies.

The History Place posted this photo.







143 years ago today

Bismarck - 65 year anniversary

Today is the 65th anniversary of the sinking of the Bismarck during WWII. This event received a great deal of attention at the time. The sinking of the Bismarck has been the subject of a movie, various books and documentaries over the years. The sinking has been viewed as a turning point in the war.


65 years ago today









The wreckage lay undiscovered at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean until 1989.

From the Amazon.com review

With a new introduction by the author. First published in 1974, this work remains in the forefront of the many books, movies, and television programs about the epic World War II drama played out in the stormy Atlantic. It is a thrilling firsthand account of the hunting down and sinking of the battleship Bismarck, pride of the German Fleet, told by a member of the Royal Navy's destroyer force who participated in the pursuit. The author's own experiences add fire and immediacy to the account that has come to be considered a classic by critic and general reader alike. The world's largest warship when she first sailed into the Atlantic in May 1941, the Bismarck was a serious threat to Britain's survival and her sinking of the beloved battle cruiser HMS Hood with nearly fifteen hundred aboard sent shock waves throughout Britain.
Determined to track her down, the Royal Navy engaged in pursuit, finding the mammoth warship just hours from her safe harbor. The chess-like plotting, the horror and heroism on both sides, the final apocalyptic action have never been portrayed more vividly and objectively--and never with the benefit of such detailed documentation from both British and German sources. A measure of the book's epic qualities is that knowledge of the outcome in no way lessens the tension. When she was sunk just days after her own victorious action with the Hood, the Bismarck took more than two thousand German sailors to the bottom of the ocean and with them the dreams of the German naval high command. For sheer suspense, this book can hardly be equaled. For carefully researched history, it is an admirable example of fine writing. Ludovic Kennedy's introduction to this new edition places the event in perspective for today's audiences.

Also:



[DVD - originally produced in 1960]




[a survivor's story]

and


[the version I read when I was 10]




[National Geographic account of Bismarck's discovery in 1989 (along with historical WWII footage and info re: search for PT 109 and other WWII ships)]

If the terrorists possesssed a similar ship today, and U.S. forces sunk it, headlines would focus on the fact that we sunk the ship without convicting the enemy sailors in a court of law first.
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another update -

The Bismarck, as noted above, was missing at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean from 1941 until 1989. If the MSM/DNC had been true to form during that time period, it would have denied that the Bismarck ever existed in the first place.

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Michelle Malkin, Wizbang, LaShawn Barber and Debbie Schlussel post their thoughts on Memorial Day.

Pearl Harbor - 64 year anniversary

I apologize for not having time to post new thoughts on the Pearl Harbor anniversary. Last year's post was pretty good.

December 10, 1941 - USS Arizona three days after the attack. The St. Louis and Baltimore are in the far background.




Also, check out Michelle Malkin's roundup. She is thorough as usual.

60 year anniversary - Hiroshima

Sixty years ago today.


The devastation is described here, including descriptions of building damage at various distances from ground zero.


A similar description of potential damage radii from a nuclear explosion in Manhattan today is found here. The devastation is almost too horrific to contemplate.

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update
previous WWII anniversary posts

Pearl Harbor
Battle of the Bulge
Iwo Jima
V-E Day
New Mexico
D-Day