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7 December 1941, Pearl Harbor Day

  A few minutes before 0800, 7 December 1941, an Imperial Japanese Navy strike force composed of 31 ships (2 battleships, 6 carriers, 2 heavy cruisers, 1 light cruiser, 9 destroyers, 3 submarines, and 8 tankers; and an air strength of 432 planes, 39 for combat patrol, 40 for reserve, and 353 for the raid) attacked the United States Naval Station Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, without warning or declaration of war. Eighteen American ships were seriously damaged or sunk; and 188 Army and Navy planes were destroyed and 159 damaged. There were 2,008 sailors killed and 710 wounded. One-hundred and nine Marines were killed and 69 wounded. Army casualties were 218 killed, and 364 wounded. Civilian casualties were 68 killed and 35 wounded. Total casualties: 2,403 killed, 1,178 wounded. The Japanese reported losing 29 planes, 4 or 5 midget submarines, and possibly one large submarine. Therein began the largest naval war in history that was not decided until the United States dropped two atomic bombs on
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B-26 Marauder, "The Widow Maker"

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My father, Robert P. Cook,  Lieutenant Colonel, USAF (Ret.), flew B-26s in the Pacific Theater during World War II. When the squadron needed replacements, he and other pilots would on occasion hop rides to the States to pick up new planes and fly them back. Family legend says that it was on this trip that I was conceived. That's how I got ahead of the post-war "Baby Boom." This is his photo.
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How Big Was World War II?

Many general histories of World War II begin by quantitatively describing the size of the war. Numbers in history are often problematic. It is, for example, generally safe to assume that all quantitative historical data is inaccurate or incomplete. Moreover, very large numbers are difficult for us to comprehend. We know the purchasing power of $100, but the current estimate of $13.3 trillion for the national debt is beyond our grasp. Nevertheless, many authors will observe that World War II is the largest event in human history. How do we understand something that is that big? One approach is to use geographical references. World War II, for example, was fought on every continent including Antarctica. Because the war was indeed global, however, events happened in places that few had ever heard of and fewer could find on a map. Where is Tinian, Saipan, Malmédy, Kiev, or even Bastogne? Who on earth had ever visited Ft. Polk, Louisiana, or Camp Kilmer, New Jersey? Where was the Gil
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An Invitation to: “The Surgeons of Bastogne”

I invite you to my lecture, “The Surgeons of Bastogne”, 14 September 2015, 10:00 AM to 1130: AM at the Griswold Center, 777 High Street, Worthington, Ohio, 43085. Between now and then I will be posting here some short essays that will provide an introduction to my presentation. I hope you enjoy them and you may also enjoy more of my posts on Clio Muses.   Our story takes place in the Belgium village of Bastogne. Prior to the war Bastogne was a picturesque and popular tourist attraction. But in December of 1944 Bastogne was the center of the most important American battle in the European Theater of Operations (ETO), World War II.   Bastogne was the junction of several major roads through the Ardennes Forrest. The 101 st Airborne Division had been sent to hold Bastogne at all costs. They were surrounded by General Lüttwitz’s XLVII Panzer Corps who attacked relentlessly. Early in the battle most of the division’s doctors, surgeons, nurses, and all of its medical supplies were c
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Persian Gulf War 25th Anniversary, 2 August 1990

At 0100 hrs (Kuwait time), 2 August 1990, I Corps and II Corps, Republican Guard Forces Command (RGFC), commanded by Lieutenant General Iyad Futayyih Khalifah al-Rawi, attacked across the Kuwaiti frontier.   The Hammurabi Armored Division supported by the Nebuchadnezzar Motorized Infantry Division, and the Tawakalna Mechanized Infantry Division with the Al Faw Infantry Division in support, spearheaded the main attack south into Kuwait along the Safwan-‘Abdally axis, driving toward the Al-Jahra pass.    Farther west, the Medina Armored Division supported by the Adnan Infantry Division and the Baghdad Mechanized Infantry Division also crossed the frontier. Simultaneous with the main attacks, units from the 8 th As Saiqa Special Operations Divisions conducted an air assault attack on key installations in Kuwait City; and an amphibious attack on Bayan Palace, the Amir’s official residence.       By 0530 the two attacking columns had linked up with the special operations units j
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The Berlin Airlift, 1948-1949

On this day, 26 June 1948, the Berlin Airlift began. The Berlin Airlift is one of American Armed Forces’ great humanitarian achievements. It was successfully executed on short notice by a military that was gutted from post-World War II hasty downsizing. It was agreed at the Potsdam Conference that at the end of World War II Germany would be divided into 5 occupying zones: France, Great Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union was assigned the Eastern Zone, which they had conquered and occupied by May of 1945. Berlin fell within the Soviet Zone and it was determined jointly that Berlin would be a “free city” divided into two sectors (East Berlin and West Berlin). The civil governance of the Western Zone was shared by the French, British, and Americans; East Berlin was governed by the Soviet Union. The Soviets allowed access to West Berlin by one autobahn, one railroad, and two air corridors. West Berlin, the largest post-war German city with a populat
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Memorial Day 2015

Memorial Day is a day set aside to for the nation to remember and honor American Armed Forces members who died in war. Veterans Day, on the other hand, is a day set aside for the nation to remember and honor all who have served in the American Armed Forces. Our contemporary Memorial Day grew out of the Civil War experience. As deaths increased from 1861 to the end of the war those killed in action were recovered, buried, and memorialized through the service member’s unit, his comrades, his family, his home town, or his home state. There was no army-wide system for accurate identification of the remains, next of kin notification, or burial. For years after the war the bodies of tens of thousands of soldiers were reinterred by their family to family or local cemeteries; or, after 1867, to the new national cemeteries. Today there are 147 United States National Cemeteries maintained by the Department of Veterans Affairs; 14 cemeteries associated with historic sites or battlefields main
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