Althouse: At the Deeply Purple Café...

June 6, 2019

At the Deeply Purple Café...

... you can stay up all night.

95 comments:

JackWayne said...: This shows just how despicable Mueller is.; 6/6/19, 9:30 PM
Temujin said...: Just started watching Band of Brothers again. D-Day and all. I watched that, then read our news. This is not the generation that will be scaling the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc under intense enemy fire.

On the other hand, they do have a lot of nice pronouns.; 6/6/19, 9:30 PM
JackWayne said...: Although True The Vote wins their case vs the IRS (and shows how despicable Obama is), it’s mostly a Pyrrhic victory. I don’t see the government changing their behavior if all it cost them is taxpayer money.; 6/6/19, 9:37 PM
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...: the Purple Heart is the oldest military award still given to U.S. military members

deeply purple. Deeply grateful.; 6/6/19, 9:38 PM
chickelit said...: The smug ran deep with all these famous people. Most of them -- if not all of them -- still don't get him or his supporters. The divide seems unbridgeable.; 6/6/19, 9:40 PM
chickelit said...: Just started watching Band of Brothers again. D-Day and all.

That is a great series. I binge watched it with my teenaged son.; 6/6/19, 9:41 PM
buwaya said...: There are still men that would scale Pointe du Hoc.
They are in the military, and there are a good number out of it that could be recruited and trained, and would go willingly.
There weren’t many Rangers in 1944.
But there are many fewer in the general manpower pool than there were in 1941-45. This is not a sentimental judgment, we do have good numbers on available military manpower and it’s condition, then and now.
A more sentimental judgment though probably as accurate is that the US will suffer most from a lack of physically and mentally adequate junior officers.; 6/6/19, 9:48 PM
stephen cooper said...: I am a big fan of the Purple Heart.

Almost nobody with a Purple Heart winds up begging for coins along the road, with a sign saying "Homeless Vet"

But military life is hard, and lots of people who got sick from those hours spraying paint and cleaner in confined quarters in a sub, getting that sub ready for its next cruise, and lots of guys who never got over the vicious hazing of infantry school, and lots of guys who never got over so many other bad things that happen when you are part of the military , whose purpose after all is not to be kind but to be tougher than tough i order to protect the rest of us - I Remember - lots of guys get hurt really badly in peacetime and they get asked to leave the military and go fend for themselves, as soon as they become useless or less than efficient at the normal tasks of shooting, keeping equipment up to speed, or showing basic NCO leadership, I remember.

Maybe I don't know what I am doing, but whenever I see some poor sad guy walking down the street with a sign that says "homeless vet" I always throw a buck or two his way. Sure maybe they are lying but maybe they are not, maybe they once were my brothers in arms.

That is my way of remembering the sacrifices of the best and bravest among us.; 6/6/19, 9:52 PM
stephen cooper said...: Military life is really really hard if you do it right.
Just saying.

And Buwaya is right, todays soldiers are tough and brave , and we should be proud of them.; 6/6/19, 9:56 PM
Narayanan said...: I've read about carpet bombing cities. I don't see any account of allies bombing the cliffs to soften up the kraut.

How come there is no air support?; 6/6/19, 9:57 PM
narciso said...: That's not the end of it:

https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2019/05/30/scorched_earth_lives_upturned_muellers_targets_speak_out.html; 6/6/19, 9:57 PM
narciso said...: I imagine there was heavy anti aircraft concentrations; 6/6/19, 9:59 PM
stephen cooper said...: also I find it amusing how many people - particularly people who watch too much TV and who sadly learn to be condescending from their addiction - have no idea how tough and moral the American military really is, even now.

even I , perhaps one of the least tough persons you will ever meet, was just as tough as I needed to be in my decade or two in our military.

Just saying.; 6/6/19, 10:03 PM
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...: from another blogger:

How do you thank a Vet?
Be the kind of American worth fighting for; 6/6/19, 10:04 PM
Lawrence Person said...: The logistics of D-Day.; 6/6/19, 10:04 PM
buwaya said...: There was heavy air support. There was extensive, but brief, bombing and shelling of every identified target.
Brief because a long bombardment would only have signaled the location of the attack, and given the enemy a chance to prepare, to assemble his reserves. An lesson from WWI.; 6/6/19, 10:04 PM
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...: the air support question has been puzzling
7000 ships coming at you, and you can see them, what-
an hour away?
Didnt that give the germans a signal? Seems like either way
at some point there's no hiding it.

bombs away.; 6/6/19, 10:11 PM
JackWayne said...: The problem with the air support over Utah was the weather. Heavy clouds so the bombers didn’t have a chance to do a proper job.; 6/6/19, 10:11 PM
JackWayne said...: Btw, the bombing was done on the 5th.; 6/6/19, 10:13 PM
narciso said...: The maisey casenents covered not just one of the beaches but another. Luckily the Germans fell for operation mincemeat so they had fewer detachments at key points.; 6/6/19, 10:14 PM
readering said...: Bombing just wasn't accurate in those days. Shelling from ships somewhat better.; 6/6/19, 10:20 PM
Ken B said...: David Begley: “Smoke on the Water”

Not in the Deeply Purple Cafe sir. Smokily on the Water.; 6/6/19, 10:30 PM
William said...: My father was with the Army Air Corps. He was stationed in England for the war and never got shot at. My uncle was a regimental cook. He wasn't there on D-Day but during the Battle of the Bulge, he had to grab a rifle and be in combat.....They both spoke highly of Eisenhower. I know Eisenhower didn't storm the beaches, but it was his show. He was greatly loved by not only the Americans but also the Brits. Ike doesn't get the full measure of respect for his achievements on D-Day and for his management of the war.; 6/6/19, 10:31 PM
Churchy LaFemme: said...: When the deeply purple falls.
Over sleeply garden walls.
And the stars begin to twinkly in the night; 6/6/19, 10:51 PM
Gahrie said...: If someone did a breakdown of the socio-economic status of Black people who live in areas controlled by Democrats, and compared it to the same breakdown for Black people who live in areas controlled by Republicans, what do you think the results would show?; 6/6/19, 11:03 PM
Gahrie said...: They both spoke highly of Eisenhower.

Eisenhower's gift was administration. He was the perfect man for the job. He would have sucked trying to do Patton's job, and Patton would have sucked trying to do his.; 6/6/19, 11:06 PM
Bay Area Guy said...: Today was a great day. I really enjoyed the speeches in France, commemorating our brave young soldiers from D-Day. I enjoyed the threads here by the great Commentariat, riffing on WW2. Work was good. I'm taking the next 2 weeks off, for a nice vacation.

Ready for summer, man!; 6/6/19, 11:06 PM
Quaestor said...: Didnt that give the germans a signal? Seems like either way
at some point there's no hiding it.

In late 1942, the British invented a means to confuse German radar. It consisted of strips of aluminum cover cloth cut to fit the wavelength of the scanning signal. Because it was intended to create an echo similar to a bomber in flight it was called Window. (Today it is called chaff.)
The Germans quickly figured out how Window interfered with their radar and learned how to compensate for it. This meant the end of Window as a defensive measure to protect bombers, but another use was found for the stuff. On the night of the 5th about a hundred RAF planes with tons of Window aboard instead of bombs created the illusion of thousands of ships crossing the Channel from Dover to Calais to convince the Germans that the (completely fictitious) First United States Army Group was crossing at the narrowest point to invade and capture the port of Calais. They did this by drop dropping curtains of Window progressively closer to the French coast. The timing was critical, and they pulled it off beautifully. German radar fixated on that huge, slow-moving echo and basically ignored the echos coming from the real invasion fleet.; 6/6/19, 11:18 PM
Quaestor said...: Luckily the Germans fell for operation mincemeat so they had fewer detachments at key points.

I may be in error, but I believe Operation Mincemeat (referring to the corpse used to fool the Germans) was mean to convince the Germans that the Allies would land in Greece and not in Sciliy.; 6/6/19, 11:23 PM
narciso said...: You may be right, whatever that other deception op was called.; 6/6/19, 11:27 PM
JackWayne said...: For some reason, this made me think of Raquel Welch in Fantastic Voyage.; 6/6/19, 11:41 PM
buwaya said...: The Germans had at most an hours notice, generally less than that, of the amphibious assault. The night-time parachute drops caused great confusion and because of deception operations it was not clear that the landings were not coming to Calais until almost H-hour.

Their closest armored reserves on the Normandy front were more than 6hours away, closer (21st Panzer) to the Canadian and British beaches. But most were 24hours to a week away. There wasn't much of a reserve immediately available near the beaches.

A bombardment of several days to "soften up" the defenses would have set all the German reserves moving that much sooner.; 6/6/19, 11:43 PM
narciso said...: Sadly not fake:

https://www.caracaschronicles.com/2019/06/06/unreserved-devastation/; 6/6/19, 11:43 PM
Yancey Ward said...: Wow, so Kiliminik was also a US government intelligence source. This just shows how corrupt Mueller and his team were- information like that was important to know because Mueller was perfectly happy to write in the report that Kiliminik had connections to Russian intelligence, even though Mueller knew Kiliminik was a highly valued source on all matters Russian and Ukrainian for the US State Department. Just gobsmackingly corrupt behavior by Mueller and his team.; 6/6/19, 11:49 PM
narciso said...: Exactly, now some have even second guessed the need for point du hoc, but did they tlreally have another strategy; 6/6/19, 11:49 PM
chickelit said...: So, Biden is not a leader but is instead led leftward. Good to know.; 6/6/19, 11:55 PM
Yancey Ward said...: The coast of France and the Low Countries is so large that the Germans couldn't effectively guard all of it with the forces to drive the invaders back into the sea. Major firepower has to be held in reserve at a distance to be moved to where one knows the invasion is taking place. Tanks and artillery pieces don't move quickly (and they were under assault themselves from the previous night's paratrooper drops).; 6/6/19, 11:57 PM
narciso said...: There were signs he was a member of mccains iri for about 10 years, yes he was trained at the KGB language school, they knew that already; 6/6/19, 11:57 PM
readering said...: Looking at forward to when Democratic rallies include crowd chants of "lock him up" and commenters here go ballistic!; 6/7/19, 12:21 AM
JackWayne said...: When I remember all the times we were told that Mueller was a Republican, a straight-shooting boy-scout, blah, blah it makes me think that Christopher Wray and Gina Haspel are just as dirty as Brennan, Clapper and Mueller. Unexpectedly the Republicans in Congress are silent aren’t they?

What amuses me the most right now is the hissy fight among “conservatives” about how they need to fight back vs turn the other cheek. IMO it all started with the sainted Buckley. He Did The Right Thing and drove the Philistines (Birchers) out of the party thereby saving its purity. What he did was to blunt the tip of the spear. Since then the Republicans have been in retreat. Buckley ensured that the weak-kneed would be in charge. If he wasn’t a Manchurian Candidate, I’ve never seen one.; 6/7/19, 12:23 AM
readering said...: Yeah, rightists please take wisdom from a Bircher. Although, don't you wonder what attracts these types to your site?; 6/7/19, 12:30 AM
JackWayne said...: Meet readering. The lefty side of the Bircher coin.; 6/7/19, 12:32 AM
readering said...: Absolutely do not want Biden as nominee but good to know he has his faculties (24 hour reversal on Hyde Amendment).; 6/7/19, 12:34 AM
readering said...: I was in the gallery when the Senate debated this in 76. Jesse Helm said the proposed rape and incest exception was a red herring. He said there were so few abortions on those grounds he would pay for them out of his own pocket. In days before span he could revise his remarks and have that promise deleted from the Congressional Record. Learning experience.; 6/7/19, 12:37 AM
buwaya said...: The "type" is normal.
It is common through history, from Comuneros to Choauans to Carlists. Indeed, your own American Minutemen are of the same sort. Take away the frippery and it is the same essential minarchist, anti-centralizing, fed-up popular reaction.
A noble type. Sometimes they win, sometimes they lose.

The argument re conservatives vs Birchers is the same in spirit as Unamunos against Millan Astray, Salamanca 1936.
Your Trumpists are a la Millan Astray, prefering victory to principle. Unamuno was a good man but unworldly.; 6/7/19, 12:46 AM
Gahrie said...: Looking at forward to when Democratic rallies include crowd chants of "lock him up" and commenters here go ballistic!

When? That started in Nov. 2016.; 6/7/19, 12:47 AM
chickelit said...: Deep Purple at their deepest hue: link; 6/7/19, 12:55 AM
readering said...: Francoism did not outlast Franco.; 6/7/19, 1:00 AM
buwaya said...: There is not even a hairs-breadth of difference between your American Trumpist from the hinterland of Pennsylvania and the Chouan peasant from Craon on the Loire, or the Basque hillman from Lizarra. Or from his own ancestors, the villagers of Lexington.

All fought what they saw as a despotic central power, determined to take away their traditional rights.

Others dressed up the essentials of the struggle with Bourbon royalism or reactionary Catholicism or 18th century political fashions, but that all is not what really mattered.; 6/7/19, 1:01 AM
readering said...: Trying to picture a Bircher coin. Must be gold, for the gold standard.; 6/7/19, 1:01 AM
wildswan said...: Biden is sorry he's white and sorry he's Catholic and just generally a sorry candidate.; 6/7/19, 1:05 AM
chickelit said...: Looking at forward to when Democratic rallies include crowd chants of "lock him up" and commenters here go ballistic!

Madame Speaker Pelosi got a head start on that one just to prove that she’s a leader. Sadly, she too is caving to the far left.; 6/7/19, 1:08 AM
buwaya said...: But the Basque fueros did win out. Those men who marched for Don Carlos in 1833 eventually got their autonomy, their state within a state.

Btw, Franco was in the tradition of the "liberal" Isabelinos, a dedicated centralizer, those who fought the Carlists. You have to twist your mind out of the present day to understand the world in a foreign land in the 19th century.
Which if you go through the exercise you realize just what a lot of strange bedfellows were driven together in 1936.; 6/7/19, 1:08 AM
chickelit said...: Just tonight I realized that President Trump’s SOTU remark about America and socialism may been a direct retort to Bernie Sander’s rhetoric in my 9:40 link.; 6/7/19, 1:11 AM
buwaya said...: And Franco did win. Mostly. Spain is one, mostly. There is no Spanish Republic, the Bourbons are restored, there is no communist state, the aristocracy is undisturbed and the Spanish flavor of capitalism prevails.
And the nature of the State is as Franco left it, including the corporatist welfare state that he himself created.
They tear down his memorials out of rage that they cannot tear down the social order that is his actual legacy. Because if they wrecked that they would destroy themselves. So small men take petty vengeance against a great man.; 6/7/19, 1:19 AM
chickelit said...: @buwaya: Just wanted to second your admiration for Lampedusa’s “Il Gatopardo” that you mentioned the other night. I read a snippet of that work years ago when I studied Italian at UW-Madison. I never read the whole work, but I recall enjoying what I did read. I also recall that Lampedusa started writing relatively late in life - something which stuck with me to this day.; 6/7/19, 1:20 AM
Guildofcannonballs said...: "2. A high level of concentration on a limited field
This allows a person's consciousness to delve deeply into the activity. In contrast, there are often chaotic and contradictory demands in daily life which may cause confusion and dissatisfaction."

https://www.flowskills.com/the-8-elements-of-flow.html; 6/7/19, 1:36 AM
buwaya said...: Its interesting, about "Il Gattopardo". It's a book you understand much better after age 50 I think. The ironies and conundrums and desperate dilemmas, with the frustration of knowing the limits of your abilities, tinged with nostalgic pain. You owe so much to the living and the dead. And you must carry on regardless.; 6/7/19, 1:38 AM
Guildofcannonballs said...: We all decided we can take some jokes and shit, and wish Bu Bu well. That move will do us all well.

Granted the writing reflects the conditions as they are.; 6/7/19, 1:43 AM
chickelit said...: “Its interesting, about "Il Gattopardo". It's a book you understand much better after age 50 I think.”

Lampedusa was at least 50 — perhaps older — when he wrote it.; 6/7/19, 1:46 AM
chickelit said...: ...and it was his first published work.; 6/7/19, 1:47 AM
Guildofcannonballs said...: Never has been escaping America easier, but it has never, ever been a problem to start with, save here.; 6/7/19, 1:53 AM
Guildofcannonballs said...: I suppose we could have provided more, in theory.; 6/7/19, 1:54 AM
buwaya said...: Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa was himself a Prince, indeed the last Prince of Lampedusa. Interestingly it is a Spanish title, granted by Carlos II.

A very fitting background to write about a fading Prince.; 6/7/19, 1:54 AM
chickelit said...: GOC wrote “Never has been escaping America easier, but it has never, ever been a problem to start with, save here.”

I’d argue the opposite. The gravitational pull has never been greater. Fewer reach escape velocity, and so many more are sucked into suckage like never before.; 6/7/19, 1:57 AM
chickelit said...: @buwaya: I have limited shelf space now and have stowed away my copy of “”Il Gattopardo” and the snippet I mentioned but I shall dig it out and trade recollections — if not outright passages in Italian — at a future date. Good Night!; 6/7/19, 2:02 AM
Drago said...: readering: "Looking at forward to when Democratic rallies include crowd chants of "lock him up" and commenters here go ballistic!"

readering once again takes actual democrat actions and projects them onto republicans.

There's alot of that going around.....for about 60 years.; 6/7/19, 2:03 AM
buwaya said...: If I recall correctly, the Democratic party battlecry some 50 years ago was "Up against the wall m********er"

"Lock her up" seems very mild as tit for tat goes. And very long delayed. There is such a thing as an excess of civility. One wonders how things would have gone if there had been an actual equal and opposite popular reaction at the time.; 6/7/19, 2:13 AM
Achilles said...: readering said...
Looking at forward to when Democratic rallies include crowd chants of "lock him up" and commenters here go ballistic!

I had a TS/SCI clearance. I know what Hillary did. She took stuff off of SIPR and put it on her personal computer. Then during the investigation she deleted 33000 records that were under subpoena.

This is minimum of what is known.

I can guarantee that if I did what Hillary did describe above I would be in jail forever.

But it gets better. She knowingly distributed the information she took off of SIPR to people without clearances.

At this point any normal person would face execution.

But Hillary doesn't face consequences because pieces of shit like you don't give two shits about the rule of law and support people like her.

There are service people in jail for much less than what Hillary did. Every one of those people is a better person than you are.; 6/7/19, 3:35 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: No expert here, but...

Someone above commented that Eisenhower was the perfect man for D Day and running the war in Europe, due to his organizational abilities. The D Day invasion was one of the most complex operations ever attempted up until then, in modern times. An article over at Chicago Boys yesterday on airborne electronics, ECC, etc was interesting. There were an unprecedented number of planes involved, including bombers of different types, fighter bombers, and fighters protecting against German aerial responses. Too many planes for the frequencies available, and too many planes to control (thus ship based, and then portable land based control centers). One solution to this problem was the addition of invasion stripes for all of the allied planes involved.

The Germans had a very sophisticated radar and early warning system in place. Maybe by then even more sophisticated than what the Allies had at that time. A lot of work went into defeating it, at least partially. A lot of bombing in the last weeks before D Day. And it couldn’t just be aimed at Normandy, because that would have given away target of the invasion. One of the interesting bombing successes was the regional German air defense headquarters. The result there was that even when evidence of the invasion was seen by the Germans, it couldn’t be properly utilized to respond, since the high ranking officers who would have had to give the orders were dead and buried in the rubble there. One low level German electronics technician noticed thousands of EFF transmitters warming up in S England, and suggested that that might mean invasion. He was ignored, possibly because their air defense headquarters was rubble by then.

All sorts of other innovations were tried. For example, read today about the floating tanks that didn’t. Apparently, they were tested in calmer seas. Many of them were let out by the Navy too far out for the conditions, foundered, and sank. Years ago, I Rembrandt reading about all the innovative things invented to try to neutralize beach defenses. Ike seemed to be a sucker for this sort of thing, which was probably good. Not attacking a port city meant that they wouldn’t have docks to unload the bulk of the men and supplies, so floating docks were fabricated and floated over from England.

In the end, looking back, success looks almost foreordained, by the massive amount of resources thrown by the Allies into their invasion. But part of their success was the result of keeping the Germans from committing their reserves until too late. It appears that the German high command believed the invasion was just a feint, to get them to commit their reserves to Normandy, so they wouldn’t be available against the real invasion along the coast east of there. The invasion might have failed, and one of the more telling things there was that Eisenhower wrote a speech that took full responsibility for the failure of the invasion, that he never had to utilize.; 6/7/19, 4:08 AM
Jaq said...: It becomes clearer and clearer over time that the “rational Trump haters” have no actual crimes, and the irrational Hillary haters can point to specific actions and specific laws broken, along with specific evidence. If you Trump haters hat a tenth of what is out there on Hillary, from her destroying records of her meetings as SoS as testified to by her assistant, a crime right there even without the fact that it came from a time when she was collecting hundreds of millions for her foundation, much of which provides personal benefits to the Clintons.

https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2016/0705/Did-Hillary-Clinton-violate-protocol-by-using-burn-bags

Incidenctly, the headline suggests that she simply misused burn bags, but the article makes clear that she broke far more serious laws, not “protocols."; 6/7/19, 5:10 AM
Jaq said...: They want to lock Trump up for selling real estate to Russians, as if it were the responsibility in the US for a seller to investigate the source of funds for a purchase, especially Russians when we are not at war with Russia.; 6/7/19, 5:14 AM
Jaq said...: good to know he has his faculties (24 hour reversal on Hyde Amendment).

Eventually they will strip Biden of every single policy that appeals to the voters they imagine he will take from Trump.

The whole premise of nominating Biden comes from the Democrats drinking their own kool aid about Trump’s voters being largely racist.; 6/7/19, 5:18 AM
Jaq said...: Democrats are explicity seeking the votes of racists.; 6/7/19, 5:23 AM
BUMBLE BEE said...: RIP Dr. John.; 6/7/19, 5:23 AM
rehajm said...: It's become unbearable to watch sport. It's become a reflection of the times fraught with officiating ignoring rule of law, asymmetry and attention grabbing.; 6/7/19, 5:43 AM
Jaq said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 6/7/19, 5:51 AM
Danno said...: Blogger readering said...I was in the gallery when the Senate debated this in 76.

Didn't know they took the special ed students on field trips.; 6/7/19, 6:04 AM
Nichevo said...: buwaya said...
If I recall correctly, the Democratic party battlecry some 50 years ago was "Up against the wall m********er"

"Lock her up" seems very mild as tit for tat goes. And very long delayed. There is such a thing as an excess of civility. One wonders how things would have gone if there had been an actual equal and opposite popular reaction at the time.

6/7/19, 2:13 AM

I wonder what explains the sadistic, hateful, evil nature of the Left. I guess they feel they're dishing out just deserts to sinners, and are therefore righteous, but is that a fig leaf, because they seem to enjoy it so much that they have to root around for sinners, and redefine sin, in order to find prey anymore.

Look how hateful readering is. Look at his desire to wound, and moreover, his desire to spectate. The cliche is that conservatives believe leftists are wrong (and must be corrected), but leftists believe rightists are evil (and must be punished).; 6/7/19, 7:01 AM
Marc in Eugene said...: Someone at the Guardian has a perhaps untoward interest in Keanu Reeves: the third piece in two weeks? or perhaps three featuring his photograph on the front page (although today's article is evidently only partly devoted to him). In my several years of reading/glancing at the G. it has become increasingly tabloid-like.; 6/7/19, 7:05 AM
Quaestor said...: All sorts of other innovations were tried. For example, read today about the floating tanks that didn’t.

There was an entire menagerie of specialist beach assault vehicles developed for Operation Overlord which grew out of bitter experience at other beach landings in Sicily, Italy, and particularly Dieppe, where the tanks merely dug themselves into the shelving when they tried to move off the beach and into the town. Among them were such imaginative creations as:

— The bobbin tank, an AFV with an immense spool of asphalt impregnated canvas about 12 feet wide which laid a waterproof "carpet" on the beach to allow conventional tanks to move more quickly up the slope of a beachhead without getting bogged down in waterlogged sand.

— The fascine tank which carried a bundle of tightly compress brushwood bound with spring steel tape which could be used to fill in an anti-tank ditch or a shell crater.

— The Sherman Crab, a mine removal tank which used a rotating drum fitted with weighted chains which flailed the ground in front of the tank, thereby safely detonating and buried mines in its path.

— The Crocodile, a Churchill tank equipped with a high-pressure flamethrower in the hull fed from a 200-gallon tank of jellied gasoline sited in a wheeled trailer which could to jettisoned by an explosive charge in an emergency.

— And most importantly, the AVRE, Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineers, a Churchill tank with a 290mm spigot mortar instead of a typical 75mm tank gun. The AVRE could fire a devastatingly powerful demolition charge at bunkers and other reinforced concrete beach defenses of the kind the Germans were known to have installed to trap invading troops on the exposed shoreline and prevent their rapid infiltration of the rear areas.

All of these vehicles and many others were developed and tested by engineers attached to the British 79th Armoured Division commanded by Major General Sir Percy Hobart and were known collectively as Hobart's Funnies. The 79th was divided into several self-contained battalions so that each invasion beach could have its share of specialist armored support. However, General Omar Bradley declined to employ the Funnies on Omaha and Utah except for some of the Duplex Drive Sherman tanks, which were developed in cooperation with Hobart's 79th but were organic to the American divisions rather than exclusively part of the 79th Armoured. As it developed many of the DDs assigned to V Corps founded in the swells and rollers spawned by the very unseasonable weather. At best their rubberized canvas sides only gave the Sherman less than three feet of freeboard, which proved adequate in pre-invasion testing. To add to their misfortune most of the DD that did survive the surf, the obstacles, and the tellermines buried in the sand could make no impression on the massive concrete walls the Germans used to close the natural exits off the beach with their 75mm guns. What was really needed was a few AVRE tanks, which Bradley declined to use. Instead, engineer combat teams had to expose themselves to enfilading fire from multiple MG42s to place satchel charges at the base of those walls, a by-hand operation that killed and wounded many.; 6/7/19, 7:09 AM
Quaestor said...: Bradley's stubbornness caused many needless deaths and woundings on Omaha Beach, but the bloodbath was not entirely his fault. Unluckily for his V Corps, German units defending Omaha Beach had been scheduled for anti-invasion field exercises that day. Daily defense and observation on the beaches were the tasks the so-called static divisions, these were often second-line troops, older conscripts and those recuperating from wounds or disease encountered on the Ostfront, which lacked organic transport. Static troops were expected to fight exactly where they were stationed, often within a few yards of where they slept and ate, with machine guns, mortars, and heavy artillery. Supplementing the static troops on the beaches were mobile reserves which had the trucks and other vehicles required to move them from their concentration areas in the rear to the beaches once the Allies' main effort was identified. As it happened on 6 June 1944 Omaha Beach had almost three times as many enemy forces holding the beach defenses than was anticipated.; 6/7/19, 7:12 AM
Michael K said...: I Rembrandt reading about all the innovative things invented to try to neutralize beach defenses.

Autocorrect is goofy.
The British used more innovative devices. A retired general named Percy Hobart developed what were called Hobart's Funnies.

The Americans wouldn't use them. They did develop, or at least a sergeant did, Curtis G Culin was credited by Eisenhower for creating the "Rhino Tank."

Culin was serving as a tanker with the 102nd Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron (New Jersey National Guard, the "Essex Troop," 2nd Armored Division)[1] when he came up with the four-pronged plow device created from scrap steel from a German roadblock. When attached to the front of his tank it was successful in rapidly plowing gaps in the hedgerows.[2] Military historian Max Hastings notes that Culin was inspired by "a Tennessee hillbilly named Roberts",[3] who during a discussion about how the bocage could be overcome said "Why don't we get some saw teeth and put them on the front of the tank and cut through these hedges?" Rather than joining in the laughter that greeted this remark, Culin realised the idea's potential and put together a prototype tusk-like assembly welded to the front of a tank.

By Cobra, 60% of Sherman tanks had them welded on the front.; 6/7/19, 7:57 AM
rhhardin said...: Friday is Donut Day, D-Day II.

Donuts make my brown eyes blue. Crystal Gayle.; 6/7/19, 8:21 AM
Gahrie said...: Didn't know they took the special ed students on field trips.

They do it almost every day at my high school. They're trying to teach them how to function in our society.; 6/7/19, 8:40 AM
mockturtle said...: Thanks, guys, for all the D-Day info. Though I've read quite a few books on this pivotal operation, I've learned some new and interesting D-tails.; 6/7/19, 9:09 AM
readering said...: Enjoying the hateful comments.; 6/7/19, 11:22 AM
Jaq said...: I see one hateful comment, care to point out any others?; 6/7/19, 11:26 AM
Nichevo said...: Nobody said...
I see one hateful comment, care to point out any others?

Look for the ones posted by "readering"; 6/7/19, 12:59 PM
readering said...: What great comebacks!; 6/7/19, 1:17 PM
Jaq said...: So the answer is no, then, it’s just the one insult, and a bunch of criticisms of your thinking to which you have no answer. This is my shocked face 8^0; 6/7/19, 3:04 PM
Rusty said...: readering said...
"What great comebacks!"
try being witty.

Quaestor said...
The tank, Shermans, Chuchills, etc were ineffective against the German fortifications. Even the large guns of the navy's cruisers were ineffectual. Until on destroyer got close enough to the beach to nearly ground herself. Then they could target the casement openings with its six inch guns.
The Canadians were issued bicycles, but were not issued shovels.; 6/7/19, 3:16 PM
Jim at said...: Pssst. Readering.

Just because we're no longer blessed with Inga's snarling stupidity doesn't mean you need to take up the slack.; 6/7/19, 4:31 PM
madAsHell said...: I think Facebook just died.

They won't let me see the NewsFeed until I identify more friends. Fuck'em!!; 6/7/19, 8:14 PM
readering said...: More profound wit!; 6/7/19, 9:37 PM