laststandonzombieisland

This month’s weapon of the month is one of the most interesting (and I think sexy) rifles in military history: The Fusil Automatique Léger (Light Automatic Rifle) or FAL — also known as the SLR, or the L1A1 put popularly referred to as the ‘right arm of the free world’. This weapon holds the number three spot for proliferation, behind the Ak47 and the M16 and is truly a classic. The weapons were produced in at least nine countries and end used in no less than forty.

The assault rifle was invented in 1916 by a Tsarist Russian arms designer named Federov. His design was revolutionary and ahead of its time. Only a few hundred Federov AVT’s were built and are as rare as Faberge Easter eggs now. Fast forward to world war two, overwhelmed German panzergrenadiers on the eastern front were given a new weapon to help even the odds, the StG44 assault rifle. This weapon was light, easy to produce, carried a large magazine, and could fire at an impressive rate. The victorious allies seized upon the lessons of the StG 44 and went in two directions. The soviets in the east went on to design the Ak-47, what is arguably the firearm that has taken the most lives in the 20th Century from these lessons. The western European countries as a rule (except notably the US) adopted the FAL

Today we have lost a great American, former President Gerald Ford died peacefully at his ranch in California. He will be memorialized for his precedent setting presidency and his time devoted to public service in the House of Representatives. However, before he was Congressman Ford, Vice-president Ford, or President Ford, he was Lieutenant Ford of the United States Navy Reserve.

A lawyer by trade, Ford became a warrior during World War Two, joining the navy and serving on the newly minted light aircraft carrier USS Monterey (CVL-26) attached to Admiral Halsey’s Third US Fleet of fast carriers fighting the war in the pacific. Ford endured kamikaze attacks and the constant threat of combat for two years. On December 18, 1944, the Monterey along with the rest of the Third Fleet became engulfed in a fierce typhoon. During the midst of fifty to sixty foot seas and 70mph winds a fire was started in the hangar deck which soon racked the ship from stem to stern. Admiral Halsey, never one to give up, signaled to the ships captain to abandon the vessel. The ships captain refused and decided to attempt to save the ship.

Lt. Ford led a damage control team into the hell of the enflamed hangar deck and fought the blaze until morning. They removed the dead and dying. They put their ship back together when it all seemed lost. The Monterey survived the war and so did Ford.

Years later Ford inherited a white house on fire and instead of blame and scandal he united his country and put it back together when all seemed lost.

History does repeat itself.

While the world media seems to love to relay countless stories of how the Russian Military is but a shadow of its Cold War ancestor, several news stories are neglected. Importantly the Russian Military Air Forces (RMAF) took delivery of their first two series production Su-34 advanced long-range bomber aircraft from Sukhoi’s OKB Novosibirsk factory on December 15th. These aircraft were marked with numbers 49 and 48 were delivered to the 4th Combat and Conversion Training Centre in Lipetsk. Starting next year (2007) and continuing to 2015 the RMAF will take possession of a large number of these Su-34 bombers. It is thought that these will replace the 1980’s era Su-24 ‘Fencer’ fleet. Russian air units are organized in Regiments (roughly the same concept as a USAF or RAF ‘Wing’) and it is planned that the RMAF will have as many as 58 fully operational Su-34s by 2015 equipping two or three dedicated bomber regiments. In preproduction since 1994, the Su-34 was successfully tested in the Chechnya in 1999 with live ordinance. It has also set a number of world records for flight altitude and payload capabilities. The Su-34 can be compared to (and by some is seen as superior to) the US F-15E Strike Eagle, possibly the world’s most perfect multi-role tactical strike aircraft in current squadron use. It carries the NATO designation “Fullback”. The RMAF also plans to use the same basic aircraft for a series of electronic warfare aircraft.

Maybe most important of all, The Russian aircraft costs some $50 million apiece. While this is a huge sum for Russia however when compared with the newest Western aircraft like the F22 ($200 million) and Eurofighter Typhoon ($90 million), it still seems like a bargain. Export may well be in its future.

While the old soviet air force may be gone, the new RMAF still has a few tricks up its sleeve.

When I was a kid I remember watching the Sound of Music (“Doe a Deer, a female Deer”) with my mother—who to this day counts the movie on her top five list—and I wondered about something that went unsaid in the film:

Since Austria was a landlocked country, How in the world did Captain Georg Von Trapp serve in the navy?

Well, that’s just it. Austria had a quite extensive naval history going back to the 14th Century. It had the unique coincidence of fighting both the last naval battle between wooden ships (which it won) and the first fleet battle by all armored ships (which it also won). In World war one it had one of the largest fleets in the world and its submarines were in fact quite deadly. (Captain Von Trapp was a Uboat commander.) However, coming up the loser along with Germany in 1918 Austria lost 99% of its fleet along with most of its empire at the end of the war.

What little survived was three small boats on the Danube River who continued the Austrian naval tradition from 1918 until 1945 when Austria found itself on the losing end of another war and lost even this small fleet.

In 1955, at the end of the Allied occupation, the Austrian navy was reformed as a small unit attached to the Army. These patrol boats served to protect Austrian Neutrality until this year. Budget cuts forced the retirement of the ships In August and they are now museums pieces.

Captain Von Trapp must be rolling in his grave —which is in Vermont

A living legend has left us. You may have seen him depicted in the Movie Tora, Tora, Tora…and him and his friend’s exploits stolen for the use of otherwise fictional characters in the 2001 hit Pearl Harbor.

On the morning of December 7th, 1941, a 21 year old Ken Taylor and his friend George Welch were pilots attached to the 47th Pursuit Squadron assigned to the US Army Air Force in Hawaii. They had gone to a party with fellow officers the night before and were ‘recovering’ when the Japanese attacked that Sunday morning at 7:55 am. Throwing on a pair of tuxedo pants from the night before he took to the air in his P-40 Warhawk (think Shark Teeth and the Flying Tigers) and shot down two Japanese bombers. Along with Lt. Welch’s victories that day he was credited with the first American aerial victories of World War two. They were the only two US planes to get off the ground during the attack.

Lt. Taylor went on to survive the war and retire as a Brigadier General in the US Air Force 1967. He is survived by his wife, two children and three grandchildren. His wingman, Lt Welch died in 1954 in a plane crash of an experimental aircraft

At the end of World War two There were 398 German U-boats afloat, mostly in the Baltic, however 49 were at Sea in the Atlantic ocean. On 4th May 1945, u- boats were ordered to cease attacking and sinking ships at sea, the U-boats were also ordered not to damage or scuttle their boats in any way. This order, however, was disobeyed and many U-boats scuttled themselves in various harbors in Norway and Germany

On May 5th U-853, under the command of Oberleutnant Fromsdorf, attacked and sank the collier SS Black Point along the coast of Massachusetts and was sunk the following day along with Kapitanleutnant Frische’s U-881. Similar fates under similar circumstances also befell the Type VIIC U-1008 and U-320, plus three Type XXIs: U-2534, U-3503 and U-2538, all attacked and sunk in European waters by Allied aircraft a few days after the surrender order had been repeatedly broadcast. It is unknown if these U-boats understood the war was over as they were lost with all hands.

On May 8th allied commanders using German frequencies broadcast that all remaining ships were to immediately surface and fly a black pennant, then report via radio there location to be brought into the nearest allied port. Some of the skippers decided not to surrender immediately. Kapitanleutnant Ehrenreich Stever refused to surrender his ship and instead scuttled U-1277 off the Portuguese coast on May 20th. U-530 continued to make unsuccessful attacks on allied shipping as it wandered all over the Atlantic before reaching Argentina on July 10, 1945. The last ship left afloat,U-977 was the most controversial of all. This ship was thought to be the flagship of a ‘ghost convoy’ transporting Hitler and other key nazi’s to a secret base in South America.

As the Allies swept through France to Germany, it bypassed the large Nazi forces in parts of Holland as well as Denmark and Norway. Gen MacArthur did much the same thing in the Pacific, skipping non-essential large Japanese garrisoned islands on the way to Tokyo, allowing them to ‘wither on the vine’. The last german garrison in Western Europe, withering for weeks after all others had surrendered was on the island of Texel in Holland. However when the Canadians arrived to liberate the island they found a very odd situation, click here to read the rest.

 

Why did Gotham need Batman? Was it a city in need of a hero or was the hero in need of the city? Our problem is that today there are thousands of loud boisterous heroes in search of a Gotham. Too many people after the fact are quick to state what they would have done, or should have done. They themselves are mum, quiet and silent on what they actually did when Gotham needed them.

I think a lot of this has to do with background. No one has the background anymore to take matters in their own hand. Think about this:

1961, The University of Texas in Austin: Charles Whitman, a troubled man with more red flags than a Spanish Bullfighter’s retirement home, climbed a tower and with an assortment of weapons and some Spam and killed 14 people and wounded 32 others. Three Austin Police officers and a civilian volunteer, Allen Crumb, climbed the tower and ended his rampage. Mr. Crumb was a 40 year old retired Air Force tail gunner who had never fired a shot in combat. He had served his time hanging out in the cramped cold tail end of B-17 and later B-50 bombers in WWII and the Cold War. He never again had to touch a gun if he didn’t want to. He ran to the sound of the gunshots and with a borrowed rifle led the officers to the observatory deck, pausing along the way to give first aid to victims of Whitman’s fire. Crum engaged Whitman and drew his fire while two of the APD officers engaged him with a 38 and a 12 gauge, ending the threat.

Crum, for lack of a better word is and was a hero- Someone who didn’t have to even be there but was and made a difference. He stepped from the shadows and made a stand. He made a difference.

October 1997, Pearl Mississippi: Luke Woodham, another troubled man, this one only 16, decided to bring a 30.30 to school because he had some shit on his mind. Luke quickly shot ten students and teachers, of whom three tragically lost their lives. The school’s Assistant Principal, Joel Myrick, a sixteen year National Guardsman, retrieved his Colt 1911 from the glove box and confronted Woodham, stopping his killing spree while he still had two pockets full of shells left.
This was two years before Columbine where two other kids with shit on their minds shot 39 in a rampage that lasted much longer than the Pearl Shooting.

July 2008, Brooklyn New York: a woman lay dying on the floor. This is not terribly tragic until you find out the floor she was lying in was the psych ward at Kings County Hospital. Her name was Esmin Green and she reportedly laid there for almost two hours. No less than two hospital security guards saw Ms Green on the floor and did not help her. She died. She did not have an Allen Crum.

Fast forward to Richmond California, 2009: a 15 year old girl was gang raped by 20 or more youths and no one stopped them, or even went so far as to dial 911 on their phone. She endured 2.5 hours of misery. This happened outside of a high school homecoming dance. News stories mention that as many as 50 people knew this was occurring during that time period. She did not have an Assistant Principal like Joel Myrick evidently.

Crum and Myrick were both military men. Crum arguably was a member of the ‘greatest generation’ and a more often than not these men saw service in uniform. Crum however volunteered for flight crew operations in metal tubes filled with bombs and aviation fuel. Myrick was a volunteer guardsman. They both were volunteers again on their respective days. They could have kept their head down and survived and no one anywhere would have said a thing to them throughout the rest of their lives.

They chose to train, to take up a weapon, to not hide.

We are losing our civilian heroes.

This Last Stand on Zombie Beach is going to be very lonely.

 

 

Let me introduce myself. I am a bit of a conflict junkie. I am fascinated by war and warfare, assassination, personal protection and weaponry ranging from spud guns and flame throwers to thermonuclear bombs and soviet-trained Ebola monkeys. In short, if it’s violent or a tool to create violence it is kind of my thing.

I have written a few hundred articles on the dry encyclopedia side for such websites as History Times, Suite 101 (where I am the contracted Feature Writer for Military History) and Combat Forums; as well as for print publications like England Expects and Strike First Strike Fast. I am working on several book projects, including a section in the upcoming Mississippi Encyclopedia (to be published by Ole Miss this summer), a novel about the upcoming Zombie Apocalypse, and a biography of Bennett Doty. It looks as if the zombie novel will be the next one completed, hence the title of this blog.

In my day job I am a contractor for the US federal government in what could best be described as the ‘Force Protection’ field. In this I am a certified Firearms, and less than lethal combat instructor.

I am merging two old blogs I had elsewhere here and moving forward. Thanks

 

Chris