Rao bulletin 1 October 2014 html edition this bulletin contains the following articles
Medal of Honor Citations ► Thompson, Max WWII
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- Aviation Art 74 ► A Bandit Goes Down
- Military History ► Only U.S. Woman POW in WWII Europe
- D-Day ► Andrew Jackson Higgins
- Land Craft Vehicle Personnel Ship
- WWII PostWar Events ► Hitler’s Retreat May 1945
- Spanish American War Images 55 ► Battle of Las Guasimas Illustration
- WWI in Photos 112 ► Battlefield at Midnight
- Faces of WAR (WWII) ► Returning B-17 Bomber Crewmen 1942
- Nevada during her running trials in early 1916, stern of Nevada during WWI, and in drydock at Pearl Harbor Navy Yard, c. 1935
- Nevada beached and burning at Hospital Point, providing artillery support for Allied ground forces in France on D-Day, and painted in red-orange for the atomic tests
- The USS Nevada Hawaii memorial located at the Naval Station Pearl Harbor complex is only accessible to the general public with a military escort
- Personal equipment carried by the common British soldier
Medal of Honor Citations ► Thompson, Max WWII
The President of the United States in the name of The Congress takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor To THOMPSON, MAX Rank and organization: Sergeant, U.S. Army, Company K, 18th Infantry, 1st Infantry Division Place and date: Place and date: Near Haaren, Germany, 18 October 1944 Entered service at: Entered service at: Prescott, Arizona Nov 1942 Born: July 21, 1922, Bethal North Carolina Citation On 18 October 1944, Company K, 18th Infantry, occupying a position on a hill near Haaren, Germany, was attacked by an enemy infantry battalion supported by tanks. The assault was preceded by an artillery concentration, lasting an hour, which inflicted heavy casualties on the company. While engaged in moving wounded men to cover, Sgt. Thompson observed that the enemy had overrun the positions of the 3d Platoon. He immediately attempted to stem the enemy's advance single-handedly. He manned an abandoned machinegun and fired on the enemy until a direct hit from a hostile tank destroyed the gun. Shaken and dazed, Sgt. Thompson picked up an automatic rifle and although alone against the enemy force which was pouring into the gap in our lines, he fired burst after burst, halting the leading elements of the attack and dispersing those following. Throwing aside his automatic rifle, which had jammed, he took up a rocket gun, fired on a light tank, setting it on fire. By evening the enemy had been driven from the greater part of the captured position but still held 3 pillboxes. Sgt. Thompson's squad was assigned the task of dislodging the enemy from these emplacements. Darkness having fallen and finding that fire of his squad was ineffective from a distance, Sgt. Thompson crawled forward alone to within 20 yards of 1 of the pillboxes and fired grenades into it. The Germans holding the emplacement concentrated their fire upon him. Though wounded, he held his position fearlessly, continued his grenade fire, and finally forced the enemy to abandon the blockhouse. Sgt. Thompson's courageous leadership inspired his men and materially contributed to the clearing of the enemy from his last remaining hold on this important hill position. 
Born in the community of Bethel in Haywood County, North Carolina, Thompson joined the Army from Prescott, Arizona in November 1942. By October 18, 1944, he was serving in Europe as a sergeant in Company K, 18th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division. During a battle on that day, near Haaren, Germany, he single-handedly attacked the German forces on several occasions. For his actions, he was awarded the Medal of Honor eight months later, on June 18, 1945. He was one of two people from Haywood County, North Carolina, to receive the medal in World War II, the other being William D. Halyburton, Jr.. In addition to the Medal of Honor, Thompson also received the Purple Heart and, from the Soviet Union, the Order of Glory, third class. He reached the rank of technical sergeant before leaving the Army, After his military service, Thompson worked in Canton, North Carolina, for Champion International Paper's inspection department. He died at age 74 on November 30, 1996, and was buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Enka, North Carolina. 
[Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Thompson_(Medal_of_Honor) & www.history.army.mil/html/moh/wwII-t-z.html Sep 2014 ++] * Military History *  
Aviation Art 74 ► A Bandit Goes Down 
A Bandit Goes Down by William S. Phillips Hedgehopping sometimes gives a scared pilot the chance to shake off pursuit. Not this time. “As I closed in to fire, he must have looked back,” recollects Col. “Bud” Anderson” and inadvertently shoved forward maybe an inch on the stick. At that height and speed, an inch would have been more than enough. The Messerschmitt simply flew into the ground at full power and blew up like a bomb.” [Source: http://www.aviationarthangar.com/bagodobywisp.html Sep 2014 ++] ********************************* Military History ► Only U.S. Woman POW in WWII Europe On September 27, 1944 a C-47 assigned to the 813th Medical Air Evacuation Squadron lifted off from England into the clear morning sky. Its destination was a landing field at St. Trond, Belgium to pick up casualties. Since the aircraft usually carried military supplies and troops on the outbound flight and casualties on the return trip, it was not marked with the Red Cross. Aboard the aircraft was 24-year-old Texas born Second Lt. Reba Whittle, an experienced flight nurse with 40 missions and over 500 hours flight time. Somewhere along the way to Belgium the plane strayed far from its intended route, entering German airspace where it was hit by German flak a couple of miles outside Aachen. The crew braced themselves as the plane gained and lost elevation from heavy shrapnel tearing through its thin-skinned fuselage and disabling an engine. Whittle held onto her seat for dear life as they began to nosedive. On impact, Whittle was violently thrown from her seat and into the navigator's compartment five feet away. Sergeant Hill, her surgical technician, was wounded in the arm and leg, one of the pilots was killed, the other badly hurt. Whittle herself suffered from concussion, and injuries and lacerations to her face and back. Dazed, the crew immediately evacuated the burning plane through the top hatch. As soon as the last of the crew had left the plane, they saw German soldiers had arrived and were pointing their rifles at them. Whittle was startled when a German soldier suddenly stepped forward, set down his rifle, grabbed a bandage out of his bag and began to wrap it around her head. She didn't even know that she was bleeding. Soon the other Germans followed his lead and began providing the rest of the aircrew first aid before marching them the two miles to Aachen. In Aachen, they were led to a brick house where they were each given some fruit to eat before being questioned by an English speaking officer. They each gave the officer their name, rank and serial number (as required by the Geneva Conventions) and were then taken into the kitchen where they were given coffee with black bread and butter. When finished eating, the five American prisoners were ushered onto an old bus and driven 40 miles to their next destination. After driving through a tall metal fence, they were taken into an office filled with officers working on assorted paperwork and led upstairs to sleeping quarters. The four men were given one room and Whittle was given another. About an hour and a half later the five were awakened and taken back downstairs where another English speaking officer question each of them as the officer had done at their previous stop. At 1100, they were loaded into the back of a truck and brought to a German military hospital where the doctor finished Whittle's treatment and said, "Too bad you're a woman, you are the first one and no one knows exactly what to do with you." On October 1, 1944 the group was separated as the men were sent to a nearby Stalag or prison camp and Whittle waited for the Germans to decide on what they were going to do with her. Five days later, she was sent to Stalag IXC or 9C in Meiningen where she was assigned to work in the hospital, caring for her fellow POWs. A Swiss legation that negotiated POW transfers, mostly of wounded prisoners, discovered her in custody and began to arrange her release. Whittle was escorted by the German Red Cross away from the camp along with 109 male POWS as part of a prisoner exchange. She was then transported by train to Switzerland along with other prisoners who were being returned on medical or psychiatric grounds, then flew back to the United States. She returned to duty in the hospital at Hamilton Field, California where she was awarded the Air Medal and a Purple Heart, and promoted to first lieutenant. She also married Lieutenant Colonel Stanley W. Tobiason, her fiancé before being captured. They later had two sons, one who was a naval aviator who flew mission in Vietnam. She was discharged on January 13, 1946. Whittle continued to suffer from an assortment of physical and psychiatric problems. She sought compensation from the Veterans Administration, and in 1950 began a series of appeals for military medical retirement. Despite diagnoses of post-traumatic encephalopathy, chronic severe anxiety reaction, and early lumbosacral arthritis, her appeals were denied. Finally, in January 1954 the Army Physical Disability Appeal Board agreed that she was relieved from active duty by reason of physical disability, and thus eligible for retirement pay benefits, but as her disability was not "combat incurred", it was backdated only to the time of her application, April 1952. Her retroactive pay amounted to $3,780. After another review of her case an additional $999 was added. Had she received retroactive pay from the date of her discharge in 1946 it would have totaled $13,760. In 1960 she appealed for the full amount of retroactive pay, but this was rejected. Whittle made no further attempts to pursue her case. She and Colonel Tobiason had two sons, one of whom became a naval aviator and served in Vietnam. Reba Whittle Tobiason died of cancer on January 26, 1981 and was buried in the San Francisco National Cemetery. In April 1983, Colonel Tobiason wrote to the Department of the Army following the announcement of the honoring of the Army and Navy nurses captured and imprisoned by the Japanese, which stated that the Department of Defense and the Veterans Administration knew of no other American military women to have been taken prisoner. On September 2, 1983, she was finally given official prisoner of war status. When that acknowledgment finally came, her husband said, "She would have been very delighted." No known photos of Reba white hve ever been released to the public. [Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reba_Z._Whittle & Together We Served Sept. 2014 ++ ********************************* D-Day ► Andrew Jackson Higgins In 1964, Dwight D. Eisenhower called Andrew Jackson Higgins "the man who won the war for us". Without Higgins's famous landing crafts (LCPs, LCPLs, LCVPs, LCMs) the strategy of World War II would have been much different and winning the war much more difficult. Higgins was born in Columbus, Nebraska, on August 28, 1886. His early life was spent along the Loup and Platte Rivers near the city. Perhaps his interest in shallow draft boats was born on these shallow, sandbar-infested rivers. His interest in shallow draft boats, the type you would see on these rivers, was a life-long influence. He built his first boat in the basement of their Omaha home. Unfortunately he had overlooked the technicality of having to remove the boat from the basement, and a wall had to be knocked down in order to get his boat to water. His independence and self-assurance became obvious as his high school and college days were marked by conflict with authority figures.  
In the early 1900's Higgins joined the Nebraska National Guard and served as an infantry officer. Higgins then moved south to pursue opportunities in the lumber business. He designed shallow-draft boats Higgins tried for years to sell his boats to the U.S. military, In order to get to the stands of hardwood trees in the back swamps of Louisiana and to rescue Mississippi River flood victims he developed a shallow draft boat. in the late 1920s . This design would later help the nation win a war. In the 1930's Higgins created Higgins Industries of New Orleans and designed the famous Eureka boat. The design features of this craft would be used in the LCVPs (Land Craft Vehicle Personnel) of World War II. Prior to WWII, Higgins had traveled to the Philippines to acquire stocks of mahogany (a primary material for his boats) with his own capital. He realized that steel would be in short supply should a war break out, and in that case he would be far ahead in actual production of landing craft. 
Land Craft Vehicle Personnel Ship During the war, his company produced over 20,000 boats for the war effort, including the famous LCVP, more often called the Higgins boat. This landing craft participated in every major invasion of the war, including North Africa, Sicily, Italy, D-Day at Normandy, and the islands of the Pacific, including Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Saipan, Tinian, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. Socially, Higgins and his company were ahead of the times. Higgins Industries employed blacks and whites, men and women, paying them all equally. In turn, the workers produced a world class product that helped win the war. Andrew Jackson Higgins died on August 1, 1952. He is buried in Metairie Cemetery just outside of New Orleans. [Source: http://www.higginsmemorial.com/higgins.asp Jun 2014 ++] ********************************* WWII PostWar Events ► Hitler’s Retreat May 1945 
A P-47 Thunderbolt of the U.S. Army 12th Air Force flies low over the crumbled ruins of what once was Hitler's retreat at Berchtesgaden, Germany, on May 26, 1945. Small and large bomb craters dot the grounds around the wreckage. ********************************* Spanish American War Images 55 ► Battle of Las Guasimas Illustration 
Battle of Las Guasimas on June 24. The battle ended indecisively in favor of Spain and the Spanish left Las Guasimas on their planned retreat to Santiago. 16 Americans were killed and 10 Spanish soldiers were killed. ********************************* WWI in Photos 112 ► Battlefield at Midnight 
The front in France, a scene on a battlefield at midnight. Opposing armies were sometimes situated in trenches just yards apart from each other. ********************************* Faces of WAR (WWII) ► Returning B-17 Bomber Crewmen 1942 
Returning B-17 bomber crewmen of the 8th Bomber Command being interrogated by Intelligence officer 1942 ********************************* USS Nevada (BB-36) ► 100th anniversary As Nevada celebrates its 150th year of statehood, one of her storied namesakes is marking an anniversary as well. One hundred years ago on July 11, 1914 the battleship USS Nevada (BB-36) "kissed the waves" for the first time with these words from Gov. Tasker Oddie at the Fore River Shipbuilding Corporation in Quincy, Mass. "I believe we all share a pride that the nation has selected Nevada as the name of a ship that will be one of the greatest of our navy or of any navy. There is no citizen of the state who will not follow the vessel's career with close, personal interest, whatever port she may enter and whatever sea she may sail." Oddie's 10-year-old niece, Eleanor Ann Siebert, christened the battleship with a bottle of Champagne, and so began the story of the "unsinkable Nevada," which would go on to endure two world wars, the attack on Pearl Harbor, a kamikaze strike and two nuclear bombs. The christening bottle used by Ms. Siebert was scheduled to be in Carson City 11 JUL, part of a ceremony to commemorate the battleship's 100th anniversary. A new plaque was also scheduled to be unveiled at the USS Nevada Memorial. In 1914, the Nevada and her sister ship, Oklahoma, were the newest and most-advanced battleships in the U.S. fleet. Nevadans were excited to have a namesake ship and a 65-piece silver service set was produced, crafted from 250 pounds of silver from Tonopah and gold from the mines of Goldfield. The Nevada did not see battle during World War I, but that changed drastically at the onset of World War II. On Dec. 7, 1941, the Nevada was one of eight battleships in Pearl Harbor when the Japanese launched their surprise attack in the early morning hours. The Nevada was the only battleship to get underway during the attack. It was hit with at least six Japanese bombs and a torpedo which opened a 45-by-35 foot gash in the side of the ship. Crew members manning the guns were the first to shoot down an enemy plane. As the Nevada moved out, the Japanese turned their attack to her. Fearing she might be sunk and block the harbor, she was ordered to run aground, which she did at Hospital Point. At the end of the battle, the Nevada suffered 50 deaths and 140 wounded. The names of the 50 soldiers killed are listed on the USS Nevada Memorial at the Capitol in Carson City.   
Nevada during her running trials in early 1916, stern of Nevada during WWI, and in drydock at Pearl Harbor Navy Yard, c. 1935 The Nevada eventually was refloated and taken to the shipyards at Bremerton, Wash., for repairs. She was off the beaches of France for the Normandy invasion in 1944. The crew fired a continuous volley of shells for three consecutive days in support of the allied assaults. Nevada Gov. James Carville, proud of the accomplishments of the state's namesake battleship, asked Nevadans to contribute silver dollars that would be given to the officers and crew of the battleship. More than 2,300 were collected. They were placed in a magnesium chest, the magnesium mined at Gabbs and processed at Basic in Southern Nevada. When the Nevada returned to the states for repair, Joseph Kievit, a University of Nevada student before the war and an officer on the Nevada, was charged with traveling to the state to secure the chest containing the silver dollars. On Nov. 19, 1944, the crew was assembled on deck, and all were presented with a silver dollar.   
Nevada beached and burning at Hospital Point, providing artillery support for Allied ground forces in France on D-Day, and painted in red-orange for the atomic tests The Nevada's war service was not done, however. It was sent to the Pacific, where it was involved in the invasion of Iwo Jima and the battle of Okinawa. At Okinawa, the ship was hit by a Japanese kamikaze airplane, resulting in the deaths of 11 crewmen. With the end of World War II, the Nevada was deemed too old to continue in service and was selected as a target ship for nuclear bomb testing at the Bikini Islands. Despite two atomic bomb blasts, the ship was still afloat, though damaged and radioactive. She was towed back to Pearl Harbor and decommissioned on Aug. 29, 1946. In July 1948, the Navy decided to dispose of the Nevada by sinking her in deep water 65 miles southwest of Hawaii, but the "unsinkable Nevada" proved stubborn. After five days of bombardment ranging from explosives inside the ship to 5-inch shells from other ships, the Nevada would not go down. Finally, an aerial torpedo dropped at amidships sent the Nevada to the depths. For those who served on the Nevada, there was a sense of pride that continues to this day. "They are very proud of their battleship, they're very proud of their service during World War II," said Ellen Derby McCollum, president of the USS Nevada Reunion Association and the daughter of crewman Woodrow Wilson Derby, who served on the Nevada throughout World War II. "I know they'll be proud to know their memorial (in Carson City) is being restored and that people still remember their service." For more information on the USS Nevada refer to the association’s Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/USS-Nevada-BB-36/123566977746973. [Source: Reno Gazette-Journal | Guy Clifton | Jul 10, 2014 ++] 
The USS Nevada Hawaii memorial located at the Naval Station Pearl Harbor complex is only accessible to the general public with a military escort ********************************* Military Kits ► 1645 Battle of Naseby | New Model Army Musketeer 
Personal equipment carried by the common British soldier: 1. Latchet shoes - straight lasted shoes, i.e. no left or right foot 2. Stockings 3. Linen shirt and a pair of breeches 4. Brown doublet; these would be the soldiers own clothes 5. Red coat issued by the New Model Army (NMA). The NMA was the first to try and standardize equipment and equip its soldiers with a standard coat. Red was the cheapest dye you could get, apart from natural grey which the Scots army had already adopted 6. Powder flask with spare gunpowder 7. Belt with bandoliers – each have a measured amount of gunpowder in 8. Satchel 9. & 10. Dagger with its sheath 11. Whetstone and to it’s left, a picker, which clears the touchhole in the musket in case of blockages 12. Matchlock Musket, which used a slow match to fire the main charge. The barrel was four feet long and fired a lead ball weighing 1/12th of a pound 13. & 14. Cards and some dice - although this was a religious army, the men still liked to play games and gamble 15. Very fine comb used for removing nits from hair 16. Lump of animal fat soap 17. Belt 18. Woolen leg ties to hold stockings up 19. Smoking pipes made from clay; tobacco was expensive, so the bowls of the pipes are very small 20. Letter from home - the army operated a fairly regular postal service to the major towns – and news-sheet (early newspaper) 21. Bag for tobacco 22. Metal striker and flint 23. Knife and fork - forks were a reasonably new invention and were just starting to work their way down the social scale. At the time they only had two prongs 24. Spoon 25. Drinking vessel made from horn 26. Wooden bowl 27. Leather flask lined with pitch 28. Felted woolen hat, the paper in the hat band is a religious tract. A lot of the soldiers of the New model Army were from the "low church" tradition, where sermons are the central feature of the service. Levels of literacy were quite high from soldiers recruited from London and the major towns and they would buy published sermons to read, as well as other works explaining the passages from the bible and news-sheets which were printed weekly and gave news of the war 29. Tuck – soldier’s sword [Source: The Telegraph | Inventories of war | Aug 07, 2014 ++] ********************************* Directory: wp-content -> uploads -> 2014 2014 -> For want of a nail 2014 -> Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act of 2014 2014 -> Ihbb asian Championships 2014 middle school bowl Round 4 First Quarter 2014 -> Ihbb european Championships 2014 Bowl Round 4 First Quarter 2014 -> International History Bee and Bowl 2013-14 Asian Division Question Set Bowl Round Six 2014 -> United states patent and trademark office 2014 -> Coffs harbour eisteddfod vocal syllabus 2014 -> Listen News Programs Schedule pledge now 2014 -> Slow club announce third album complete surrender Download 479.35 Kb. Share with your friends:
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