Tag Archives: partisans

Overlord Hearts and Minds

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Listen, Pierre…

Original Caption, June 6,1944: “French civilians give directions to American paratroopers who made successful landings, on Utah Beach, at St. Marcouf, France.”

Note the ready M1911A1 in the paratrooper’s shoulder holster along with a Mk. 2 pineapple grenade. Original Field Number: ETO-HQ-44-4810. Photographer: Werner. Signal Corps Photo 111-SC-189927-S, National Archives Identifier: 176887768

I’m not sure which unit the above Camel-smoking junior officer is from, but the same photo is identified in other records as “Capt. Kenneth L. Johnson and paratroopers of HHC S-2 Intelligence Section, 508th PIR, 82nd Airborne Division ‘All Americans,’ talking with two Francs-tireurs partisans in the village of Saint Marcouf, Normandy, France. D-Day, 6 June 1944.” The Frenchman certainly looks to have a slung rifle or shotgun over his shoulder, something the Captain would surely be interested in. 

The interaction was captured on film as well. 

Saint-Marcouf saw scattered sticks of both the 101st Airborne’s 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR) as well as the 508th PIR landed in the area.

They were one of the first to make contact with the Germans as, at 0220, Naval Commander Normandy (Konteradmiral Walther Hennecke) reported paratroopers near Batterie Marcouf.

The fight for the city and its nearby battery was an all-paratrooper affair until the afternoon of 7 June when the 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment (4th Infantry Division) arrived inland from Utah Beach.

Via 508thPIR.com: These men are from Hq & Hq Co. S- 2 Intelligence Section, 508th PIR of the 82nd US Airborne in Ravenoville. The group consists of: Capt. Kenneth L. Johnson, Capt. Robert Abraham (Company CO), SSgt Worster M. Morgan, Pfc Luther M. Tillery, Pfc Joel R. Lander, Pvt John G. McCall, Pfc James R. Kumler, and T / 5 Donald J. MacLeod. The photo was taken by T/4 Reuben Wiener, a combat photographer attached to the 508th

It certainly looks like later pictures of Johnson. 
 
His jacket: 
 
Brigadier General (later Major General) K. L. Johnson enlisted in the Minnesota National Guard in 1940 and was called to active duty with the 135th Infantry, 34th Division in February 1941. After serving at Camp Claiborne, Louisiana; Fort Barrancas, Florida; and Fort Dix, New Jersey, he entered OCS and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant, Infantry on 3 July 1942. 
 
General Johnson joined the 363rd Infantry, 91st Infantry Division at Camp White, Oregon, in November of 1942, volunteered for parachute training and was reassigned to the 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment at Fort Benning, Georgia. Subsequently, the organization was moved to Camp McCall, North Carolina, for advanced training.
 
In October of 1943, General Johnson proceeded to North Ireland as a member of the Advance Detachment of the 2nd Parachute Brigade. After a brief period of training, his regiment joined the 82nd Airborne Division and was moved to Nottingham, England, where it prepared for the invasion of France. General Johnson made combat parachute jumps in Normandy and Holland, and fought with the 82nd Airborne Division throughout the European Campaign, including the Battle of the Bulge.
 
Following World War II, he returned to the U.S. briefly and was reassigned to Europe to join the U.S. Constabulary in July of 1946. After serving in the 68th Constabulary Squadron and the 2d Armored Cavalry Regiment, he returned to the U.S. in 1949 to attend the Advanced Course at The Infantry School. Subsequently, he served as an instructor and group chief in the Airborne Department of The Infantry School.
 
Following graduation from the Regular Course at the Command and General Staff College in 1953, he joined the 40th Infantry Division in Korea where he served as G-3. Later, he was assigned as Plans Officer, I Corps (Group) until he returned to the U.S. in November 1954 for assignment to the Officers Assignment Division, Department of the Army. 
 
After four years on the Department of the Army Staff, General Johnson was selected to attend the Army War College, graduating with the class of 1959. His next assignment was to the Staff of the Commander in Chief Pacific where he served as a Joint Plans Officer and Executive Assistant to the Deputy Chief of Staff for Foreign Affairs and Logistics. In 1961, he joined the 25th Infantry Division where he commanded the 2nd Battle Group, 21st Infantry and 1st Battle Group, 5th Infantry, successively until the fall of 1963.
 
Returning to The Pentagon, he served briefly as Chief of Plans and Policy, Enlisted Personnel Directorate, Office of Personnel Operations and then for the next two years on the General Staff as Chief of the Special Review Division, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel. He was selected for promotion to Brigadier General in November 1965 and assigned to the 2d Infantry Division. He joined the Division as Assistant Division Commander (Maneuver) in April 1966. 
 
General Johnson has been awarded the Senior Parachutist Badge with two combat-stars; the Combat Infantryman Badge, the Silver Star, Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star w/ V for Valor and Oak Leaf Cluster, the Army Commendation Medal w/3 Oak Leaf Clusters and the Purple Heart.
 
Retired Army Maj. Gen. Kenneth L. Johnson died on August 21, 1990 at the age of 71 and is now buried in Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Arlington County, Virginia, USA.

Hell for leather

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The Great War saw the U.S. Army balloon from 100,000 regulars who were spending most of their time in the Philippines and along the border with Mexico, to a modern fighting force of nearly 3 million– and this from a country that had a population less than a third of what we have today.

With so many hardlegs pulled from the fields, factories, police forces and offices, many women stepped forward to do their part for the war effort. While Germany was still an ocean away, very real threats of sabotage by enemy agents and U-boats stalking towns up and down the East Coast led to mobilization of home guards and auxiliary police units.

One of the most interesting is the “Cavalry Corps of the American Woman’s League for Self Defense” in New York City.

A troop-sized unit of some 20 horse-mounted uniformed women organized by one Ethel May Schiess, the group performed messenger and scouting duties in the city through the end of 1918. If there were serious landings in the NYC area by the Germans, they no doubt would have become a noteworthy irregular partisan unit.

Original Caption: Cavalry corps of the American Women's League for Self Defense. Cavalry Corps of the American Woman's League for Self Defense held its first public drill in the 1st Field Artillery Armory, Broadway and 60th Street, New York. Miss Ethel May Schiess, who is seen in the front, put the 20 prospective scouts and message bearers through their paces, while the 1st Field Artillery band played. Photographer: Kadel and Herbert

Original Caption: Cavalry corps of the American Women’s League for Self Defense. Cavalry Corps of the American Woman’s League for Self Defense held its first public drill in the 1st Field Artillery Armory, Broadway and 60th Street, New York. Miss Ethel May Schiess, who is seen in the front, put the 20 prospective scouts and message bearers through their paces, while the 1st Field Artillery band played. Photographer: Kadel and Herbert

Original Caption: New York's female cavalry drilling in city streets. The American Woman's League for Self Defense who have organized a cavalry troop, started outdoor drilling in the streets adjacent to the 1st Field Artillery at 67th St. & Broadway, New York, where their first lessons were received under the supervision of army officers. Photo shows Captain Ethel Schiess giving orders to the troop. Photographer: Western Newspaper Union

Original Caption: New York’s female cavalry drilling in city streets. The American Woman’s League for Self Defense who have organized a cavalry troop, started outdoor drilling in the streets adjacent to the 1st Field Artillery at 67th St. & Broadway, New York, where their first lessons were received under the supervision of army officers. Photo shows Captain Ethel Schiess giving orders to the troop. Photographer: Western Newspaper Union

For an article I did on the similar and very well-armed women’s machine gun squad police reserves of New York City over at Guns.com, click here.

A 16-year old lion from Luxembourg

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Caption: Members of the 108th company of the F.T.P.F. (Francs-tireurs et partisans français), the communist resistance group pose with their weapons at a mountain base. Photo: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Marion Loewenstein

Caption: Members of the 108th company of the FTP (Francs-tireurs et partisans français), the communist resistance group pose with their weapons at a mountain base. Photo: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Marion Loewenstein

Claude Lowenstein (lying down at lower left behind the British-made Bren light machine gun, notably the other weapons are captured German models), was born on 12 February 1928 in Luxembourg, making him a preteen when the Germans thundered across the country in a single day in 1940. Soon, the Germans instituted anti-Jewish measures and young Claude was exiled to an internment camp in France with his family.

Allowed to work as a farm hand in the countryside, as noted by the USHMM:

In July 1944 a cell from the underground Franc-Tireurs et Partisans raided the farm to search for gasoline. They also asked the Jewish farm hands if they cared to join the cell. All 15 teenagers left with the partisans. England gave the partisans orders for their operations, guns and ammunition which they provided by parachute drop. In one operation the partisans climbed a mountain over-looking a road and dropped home-made grenades on an open truck filled with German soldiers thereby disrupting the convoy.

Just 16, Claude participated in the liberation of Lyon and other fighting as the Allies moved into the country from Normandy and the Riviera.

By the autumn of 1944, De Gaulle merged both the nationalist French Forces of the Interior (Forces françaises de l’intérieur) and the now 100,000-stong communist FTP, which Claude was a part of, into the overall French Army under Gen. Jean de Lattre de Tassigny.

As the Germans withdrew East, Claude was reunited with his family in early 1945.

Pushing a hardy 17, he joined the reformed Luxembourg army (whose coat of arms includes a lion) and assisted in the occupation of Bitburg near the Luxembourg border before the war ended.

The 2nd Battalion of the Luxembourg Army took command of the Caserne in 1945 and would remain in the area until 1952, two years longer than the armistice required.

Claude emigrated to the U.S. in 1956.

Gotta Love those Pesky Libyan Rebels

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These guys are like Mad Max and the A-Team all rolled into one

 

The Above is a BMP-1 73mm low-pressure cannon from an armored fighting vehicle taken off and mounted on a Hilux Toyota Pickup Truck

 

An Article at the Atlantic (Below) also shows other crazy Do-It-Yourself weapons from these cheerful freedom fighters

http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/06/diy-weapons-of-the-libyan-rebels/100086/

DIY Weapons of the Libyan Rebels

Jun 14, 2011 | 109

For the past four months in Libya, rebel forces made up of civilians and army defectors have been waging battles against Muammar Qaddafi’s armed forces, holding their own and sometimes advancing with the assistance of NATO air strikes. Scrambling to arm themselves against mercenaries and a professional army, rebels have been making use of everything they can — from using captured weapons and munitions to rigging anti-aircraft guns and aircraft rocket launchers to the backs of civilian pickup trucks. Collected here are recent images of some of this weaponry used by the Libyan rebels. [34 photos]

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At a weapon workshop in Misrata, a Libyan volunteer fixes a UB-32 rocket launcher pod, attached to the back of a pickup truck on May 28, 2011. The UB-32, a launcher designed to fire Russian S-5 rockets, is normally mounted on an aircraft. (Reuters/Zohra Bensemra)

A rebel army officer works on a weapon captured from forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, at a workshop in Benghazi, on June 1, 2011. (Reuters/Mohammed Salem) #

A Libyan rebel fighter, in a vehicle rigged with armor plating, flashes a victory sign at a territory taken from forces loyal to Muammar Qaddafi, after rebels pushed several kilometers in the direction of Zlitan, west of the rebel-held port city of Misrata, on June 13, 2011. (Reuters/Zohra Bensemra) #