From the Pages - Steeds of Steel

The U.S. Army's mechanized cavalry force served in an astounding variety of ways in World War II -- certainly a greater variety in one three-year period than any other cavalry force in human history. The transition from a traditional horse-mounted force to a mechanized force reliant on tanks, armored cars, and jeeps was not without its learning curve.

In the following excerpt from Steeds of Steel: A History of American Mechanized Cavalry in World War II, author Harry Yeide explores the first true test for America's new fighting force on the battlefields of North Africa during World War II.

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The first mechanized cavalrymen to engage the enemy appear to have belonged to the 1st Reconnaissance Troop, 1st Infantry Division, which landed near Oran, Algeria, at about 0830 hours on 8 November 1942 as part of Task Force Center in Operation Torch. The task force had sailed from England, as had the Eastern Task Force, which was landing British and American troops at Algiers. The Western Task Force deposited troops brought from the United States near Casablanca, Morocco. Mounted in scout cars and jeeps and feeling out the infantry’s route of advance, the 1st Reconnaissance Troop encountered French resistance at Ste. Jean Baptiste crossroads at about 2130 hours on 9 November. The men withdrew and reported the encounter to the commander of the 2d Battalion, 16th Infantry, who immediately ordered his force to engage the foe while the cavalrymen pulled back to screen the rear. This first encounter resulted in no losses of men or material.

The 3d Infantry Division’s Reconnaissance Troop, which landed at Fedala as part of the Western Task Force, had been scheduled to be the first cavalry outfit into action. The men wore special black uniforms for their pre-dawn assault on Yellow Beach. But a series of mishaps in lowering and loading boats prevented their landing until daylight. The troop returned to the transports rather than conduct a frontal attack across a well-defended beach in broad daylight. Elements of the 2d Armored Division’s 82d Reconnaissance Battalion did reach shore as part of the armored landing team of the same task force, but they do not appear to have engaged in battle that day.

Aviation Snapshot - Hail Testing on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner's Turbofan Engine

The GEnx-1B, GE's next generation turbofan engine on the Dreamliner, undergoes a hail test at Site 4D on the Peebles test site in Ohio as part of the initial certification effort. Ice accretion testing was conducted at Mirabel Icing Facility in Montreal, Canada, where tests simulated the sort of sever icing conditions in which slabs of ice would form in the inlet cowl and engine face after a two-minute delay in activating anti-icing systems. Photo courtesy of GE, from Boeing 787 Dreamliner by Guy Norris and Mark Wagner.

They Said It... - Claude Dreno and the Bombing of Valognes, France

In the first days of the Allied invasion of Normandy in June of 1944, many coastal communities in Northern France were subjected to fierce bombing campaigns carried out to soften German defenses posted throughout the countryside. 

One such community, Valognes, would bear the brunt of the seemingly unrelenting, often hasty bombings. Much of the town's ancient architectural jewels in "Normandy's Little Versaille" were lost amidst the force of apocalyptic fire. 

In the following account from Normandy: Breaching the Atlantic Wall, Claude Dreno, fifteen years old in 1944, lived in the center of Valognes near the train station and was caught in the terrible bombing of June 7 and 8.

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"On June 7 at 8:30 p.m., we heard a dull sound that started approaching and getting louder. We then saw forty-five bombers flying in three formations of fifteen each, and little black dots began to drop out of the plans and fall through the sky. My mother and I instantly left the house to take shelter elsewhere. We knew it was a bad sign if we did not hear the whistle of the bombs, because it meant they were headed straight for us. And we heard nothing—not until they exploded!

"The noise was unbelievably frightening, like an earthquake. I don't know how long it lasted; probably it was only a few minutes, but in situations like that you totally lose notion of time. You are so afraid, you don't understand anything that's happening. Once it's over, you fell dazed. The atmosphere seems very strange. After all the deafening noise, suddenly everything's gone silent and you don't hear a thing!

"Our house was destroyed. We had gone to my aunt's, who lived right in the center of town. The next day, the bombs started falling again. By some miracle, no one in our family was killed or hurt. This time we took refuge at Yvetot-Bocage, three kilometers from Valognes, where eighty people had already gathered. At moments like that, there are no social barriers, no questions of class. Everyone helps everyone else, and chips in. Some people slaughtered animals for food; others returned to Valognes to bring back whatever provisions they could scrounge up.

"When the Americans arrived, their reception was very reserved—not hostile, but reserved. People in Valognes didn't understand the reason for all the bombing. For that matter, neither did the American soldiers!"

Photo courtesy of Lt. Col. G. E. Goodwin, part of the G-5 section of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force Team (SHAEF).

Military Snapshot - Infantry Hugging an M4 During Operation Cobra

American soldiers hug an M4 Sherman medium tank as they enter an enemy-held town during Operation Corbra. Before the armored and motorized infantry units of Maj. Gen. Joseph "Lightning Joe" Lawton Collins' VII Corps could reach Coutances, they had to take the French towns of St. Gilles and Marigny. St. Gilles fell on the afternoon of July 26, and Marigny fell the next morning. Photo courtesy of the National Archives, from Patton's Third Army in World War II by Michael Green & James D. Brown.

Aviation X-Ray - P-47 Thunderbolt Gun Mount

With four Browning .50-caliber machine guns in each wing, the P-47 Thunderbolt had immesne punching power: thirteen pounds of lead per second! The guns were staggered to allow efficient feeding from the ammunition trays located in the outboard wing. Illustration courtesy of the Cradle of Aviation Museum, from P-47 Thunderbolt at War by Cory Graff.

From the Pages - The War I Always Wanted

Growing up in the shadows of the giant B-52 Stratofortresses that thundered away from the nearby Barksdale Air Force Base, Brandon Friedman dreamed of becoming a warrior and defending his country. But dreams of heroism and the realities of war can look very different, and when Brandon joined the army as a second lieutenant in peacetime, he had no way of knowing how his world was about to change.

In the following excerpt from The War I Always Wanted, Friedman recalls his experiences on the first morning facing off against al-Qaeda and Taliban forces in the Shahi-Kot Valley in "Operation Anaconda."

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An eerie quiet has descended upon the Shah-e-Kot Valley and its surrounding peaks. As the sky turns from black to purple to blue, I sit, unmoved, against my ruck. I am a small, living, breathing dot on a smoking expanse of desolation. The stillness is palpable. All I can hear are my own teeth chattering in the cold air. With the light comes sobriety, and Life itself seems a bit self-conscious about its behavior during the night. Eventually I will learn that the silence and calm following butchery is directly proportional to the amount of bloodletting that occurs.

I am groggy. I think that I must have dozed for nearly an hour because the night’s events are already beginning to seem like a dream. I hear movement around me as guys who aren’t pulling security start to wake from their short naps. As the sky begins to lighten, my heart sinks as I realize mountains buttress us to the east—mountains that will block our only source of heat for hours.

Sergeant Collins is next to me. We make some small talk as I scan our surroundings for the first time in the early morning light. Being in the low ground, I can’t see much. The platoon is facing southwest, stretched in a defensive line spanning a hundred yards. They are on the reverse slope of a rise in the earth. I look for Charlie Company, but can’t see them anywhere. In the night it had come across the net that they had been engaged in a firefight the day prior and are now somewhere on the high ground to our east.

Beyond the Book - Q & A with Robert Morris, author of "Black Faces of War"

From the American Revolution to today, the black soldier has played a significant role in America’s hard-fought struggle in achieving freedom both within the nation’s borders and around the world. From serving on the front lines to holding the highest offices in the Pentagon, African-American men and women have proven time and again that determination, sacrifice, and honor cannot be defined by race.

In the following Q & A, Black Faces of War author Robert Morris discusses the rich legacy of black servicemen and women throughout American military history, the impetus behind writing this book, and the ever-evolving role of the black soldier in the modern military.

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ZENITH PRESS: While the contributions of the black soldier in American military history have been covered to some extent in books, much of it has been focused on individual or unit contributions within a specific conflict. What inspired you to tackle a much broader, wide-ranging approach in Black Faces of War?

ROBERT MORRIS: Growing up around a number of black combat veterans and officers of WWI and various military conflicts since exposed me to many stories that have never seen print before.  Most of the books on black military I have read are unit chronologies, epics of one unit or individual or commonly known history. The discrimination against and humiliation of black servicemen and women has been reported but rarely the specifics. What happened when a WWI black officer encountered a white enlisted man from the south? What happened when a WWII black female WAC encountered a white male officer or enlisted man? What were troop race relations in Korea or Vietnam. This is the type of knowledge I offer in my book and I guarantee most of these stories have never been told in print before.

ZP: What did you find most challenging about researching and writing Black Faces of War?

RM:  Finding the first-person accounts and assembling the massive information and illustrations from so many sources. There is about two years of work in Black Faces of War!

ZP: While many Americans are aware of and honor the service of black servicemen and women in recent decades, fewer are aware of the role of blacks in earlier conflicts such as the American Revolution, the American Civil War, and World War I. Can you briefly describe the roles played by black soldiers in this country’s pre-WWII conflicts?

RM:  Although many people have heard of the Revolutionary War’s Crispus Attucks, few know of Salem Poor or Peter Salem or that most blacks fought for the British not the Americans.  Fewer know that Harriett Tubman not only led slaves to freedom via the Underground Railroad but was a combatant leading the Union Army raid on the Combahee River freeing 700 slaves. How could slave Henry “Box” Brown mail himself to freedom inside a 2 x 3 foot box?  How did slave humor and songs help us cope with the vicious southern institution? From the “Bucks of America” to the “Smoked-Yankees” in Cuba…it’s all in this book.

Weapon Breakdown - SOPMOD M4

The M4A1 shown here has been modified with the Special Operations Peculiar Modification (SOPMOD) accessory kit. The Rail Interface System, or RIS, allows the attachment of numerous aiming devices and accessories depending on the mission. This M4A1 has been modified with a Trijicon ACOG (Advanced Combat Optical Gunsight) 4 x 32 scope; on the handgrip is an AN/PEQ-2 Infrared Target Pointer/Illuminator/Aiming Laser (ITPIAL). The PEQ-2 emits a laser beam for precise aiming of the weapon. It may also be used for lasing target for the delivery of smart bombs. Finally, attached to the barrel is a Quick Attach/Detach (QAD) Sound Suppressor. With the suppressor attached, the muzzle blast, flash, and sound are significantly reduced. Photo courtesy of Department of Defense, from Weapons of Delta Force by Fred J. Pushies.