Military History

 

A number of very significant things happened in early Sept. WWII started when Germany invaded Poland and other nations responded. WWII also formally ended when Japan signed the surrender document on the USS Missouri; Germany had already surrendered. Then there was the 9-11 attack on our nation. Plus, Francis Scott Key wrote The Star Spangled Banner. And,

during the Mexican-American War, US forces entered Mexico City and raised the American flag over the Hall of Montezuma. It’s a busy month.

 

On 1 Sept 1864, Union Army General William Tecumseh Sherman laid siege to Atlanta, Georgia, a critical Confederate hub, shelling civilians and cutting off supply lines. The Confederates retreated, destroying the city’s munitions as they went. On November 15 of that year, Sherman’s troops burned much of the city before continuing their march through the South. Sherman’s Atlanta campaign was one of the most decisive victories of the Civil War.

 

On 1 Sept 1939, German forces bombard Poland on land and from the air, as Adolf Hitler sought to regain lost territory and ultimately rule Poland. WWII had begun. On 3 Sept, in response to the invasion, Britain and France, both allies of the overrun nation, declared war on Germany.

 

On 2 Sept 1945, aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, Japan formally surrendered to the Allies, bringing an end to WWII. Germany had surrendered in May. WWII ended six years and 1 day after it began.

 

On 2 Sept 1777, the American flag was flown in battle for the first time, during a Revolutionary War skirmish at Cooch’s Bridge, Delaware. Patriot General William Maxwell ordered the “Stars and Stripes” banner raised as a detachment of his infantry and cavalry met an advance guard of British and Hessian troops. The rebels were defeated and forced to retreat to Brandywine Creek in Pennsylvania, where they joined General George Washington’s main force.

 

On 4 Sept 1918, US troops landed at Archangel, in northern Russia. The landing was part of an Allied intervention in the civil war raging in that country after revolution in 1917 led to the abdication of Czar Nicholas II in favor of a provisional government; the seizure of power by Vladimir Lenin and his radical socialist Bolshevik Party; and, finally, Russia’s withdrawal from participation alongside the Allies in WWI.

 

On 8 Sept 1945, American troops arrived in Korea to partition the country. US troops land in Korea to begin their post-WWII occupation of the southern part of that nation, almost exactly one month after Soviet troops had entered northern Korea to begin their own occupation. Although the US and Soviet occupations were supposed to be temporary, the division of Korea quickly became permanent.

 

On 9 Sept 1942, during WWII, a Japanese floatplane dropped incendiary bombs on an Oregon state forest–the first and only air attack on the US mainland in the war.

 

On 10 Sept 1776, General George Washington asked for a volunteer for an extremely dangerous mission: to gather intelligence behind enemy lines before the coming Battle of Harlem Heights. Captain Nathan Hale of the 19th Regiment of the Continental Army stepped forward and subsequently become one of the first known American spies of the Revolutionary War. He was caught by the British; his final words before he was hung was that I regret that I have but one life to give for my country.

 

On 10 Sep 1913, during the War of 1812, in the first unqualified defeat of a British naval squadron in history, Captain Oliver Hazard Perry led a fleet of nine American ships to victory over a squadron of six British warships at the Battle of Lake Erie.

 

On 11 Sept 2001, at 8:45am, an American Airlines Boeing 767 loaded with 20,000 gallons of jet fuel crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center in NYC. The impact left a gaping, burning hole near the 80th floor of the 110-story skyscraper, instantly killing hundreds of people and trapping hundreds more in higher floors. As the evacuation of the tower and its twin got underway, TV cameras broadcasted live images of what initially appeared to be a freak accident. Then, 18 minutes after the first plane hit, a second plane turned sharply toward the World Trade Center and sliced into the south tower at about the 60th floor. The collision caused a massive explosion that showered burning debris over surrounding buildings and the streets below. America was under attack.

 

On 13 Sep 1814, during the War of 1812, Francis Scott Key penned a poem which was later set to music and in 1931 became America’s national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The poem, originally titled “The Defence of Fort McHenry,” was written after Key witnessed the Maryland fort being bombarded by the British during the War of 1812. Key was inspired by the sight of a lone US flag still flying over Fort McHenry at daybreak, as reflected in the now-famous words of the “Star- Spangled Banner”: “And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.”

 

On 14 Sept 1847, during the Mexican-American War, US forces under General Winfield Scott entered Mexico City and raised the American flag over the Hall of Montezuma, concluding a devastating advance that began with an amphibious landing at Vera Cruz six months earlier. The Mexican-American War began with a dispute over the US government’s 1845 annexation of Texas. In January 1846, President James Polk, a strong advocate of westward expansion, ordered General Zachary Taylor to occupy disputed territory between the Nueces and Rio Grande Rivers. Mexican troops attacked Taylor’s forces, and on May 13, 1846, Congress approved a declaration of war against Mexico. On March 9, 1847, our forces invaded Mexico near Vera Cruz. They encountered little resistance from the Mexicans massed in the fortified city of Vera Cruz, and by nightfall the last of Scott’s 10,000 men came ashore without the loss of a single life. It was the largest amphibious landing in US history and not surpassed until WWII. By March 29, with very few casualties, Scott’s forces had taken Vera Cruz and its massive fortress, San Juan de Ulua. On September 14, Scott’s forces reached the Mexican capital. On Sep 15, 1916: During the WWI Battle of the Somme, the British launch a major offensive against the Germans, employing tanks for the first time in history. At Flers Courcelette, some of the 40 or so primitive tanks advanced over a mile into enemy lines but were too slow to hold their positions during the German counterattack and subject to mechanical breakdown. However, General Douglas Haig, commander of Allied forces at the Somme, saw the promise of this new instrument of war and ordered the war department to produce hundreds more.

 

On Sep 15, 1950, during the Korean War, US Marines landed at Inchon on the west coast of Korea, 100 miles south of the 38th parallel and just 25 miles from Seoul. The location had been criticized as too risky, but General Douglas MacArthur insisted on carrying out the landing. By the early evening, the Marines had overcome moderate resistance and secured Inchon. The brilliant landing cut the North Korean forces in two, and the US-led UN force pushed inland to recapture Seoul, the South Korean capital that had fallen to the communists in June. Allied forces then converged from the north and the south, devastating the North Korean army and taking 125,000 enemy troops prisoner.

 

Humor/Puns:

 

Newspaper Readers: Experts have found the following analysis to be nearly100% accurate:

1. The Wall Street Journal is read by the people who run the country.

2. The Washington Post is read by people who think they run the country.

3. The New York Times is read by people who think they should run the country, and who are

very good at crossword puzzles.

4. USA Today is read by people who think they ought to run the country but don’t really

understand The New York Times.

5. The Los Angeles Times is read by people who wouldn’t mind running the country, if they

could find the time and if they didn’t have to leave Southern California to do it.

6. The Boston Globe is read by people whose parents used to run the country.

7. The New York Daily News is read by people who aren’t too sure who’s running the country

and don’t really care as long as they can get a seat on the train.

8. The New York Post is read by people who don’t care who is running the country as long as

they do something really scandalous, preferably while intoxicated.

9. The Chicago Tribune is read by people that are in prison that used to run the state, & would

like to do so again, as would their constituents that are currently free on bail.

10. The Miami Herald is read by people who are running another country, but need the baseball

scores.

11. The San Francisco Chronicle is read by people who aren’t sure if there is a country or that

anyone is running it; but if so, they oppose all that they stand for. There are occasional

exceptions if the leaders are gay, handicapped, minority, feminist, atheists, and those who

also happen to be illegal aliens from any other country or galaxy, provided of course, that

they are not Republicans.

12. The National Enquirer is read by people trapped in line at the grocery store.

13. The Seattle Times is read by people who have recently caught a fish and need something to

wrap it in.

 

The Frontlines of Freedom Newsletter is published twice monthly; the dates of publication each month depend on the events and history of that month.