He must have been at least half joking.
I’m pretty sure he was. At the very least, the part about inviting the President and his cabinet to observe a British/American ship-to-ship duel from the quarterdeck of the American vessel was either a joke or a grossly irresponsible suggestion, since that would be an ideal place for them to get killed during the battle. He should have suggested the armoured conning tower as an observation post, which would have been much safer.
Interestingly, the German operation to save the 6th army at Stalingrad was Operation Winter Storm.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Winter_Storm
Failed as you are all aware.
Interestingly, the German operation to save the 6th army at Stalingrad was Operation Winter Storm.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Winter_Storm
Failed as you are all aware.
I assumed that it barely began before they either said, “Nah, this is a bad idea…” or they were quickly annihilated.
Not the German way, Hoffman.
There was only one full strength Panzer Division (the 6th) for Operation Winter Storm. Manstein did not think he could wait for the very good 17th PD. We know they hot within 30 miles of 6th Army, but only needed Paulus to cooperate and move towards him.
1st Panzer Army managed to extricate itself from the Caucasus too. That was no mean feat. The lead elements were 400 miles from Rostov, while the Russians were only 50 away.
@wittmann:
but only needed Paulus to cooperate and move towards him.
Which Paulus had been prohibited to do by Hitler. Paulus had requested earlier to be allowed to break out, but Hitler told him to stay put and offered instead to send troops to break in to relieve him, which was the origin of the plan to send in Mannstein.
Afternoon Marc.
Troops which did not exist or could even get there.
If Manstein could not make it work, no one could.
Special Access Programs have codenames that have zero bearing on the item to which they relate, nor do covert operations.
Big to-dos (Enduring Freedom, Desert Storm) etc., usually have political agendas associated with the names (i.e., garnering domestic or international support), hence the need for a name that is 1) romantic and 2) bears some relation to the activity being executed.
Big to-dos (Enduring Freedom, Desert Storm) etc., usually have political agendas associated with the names (i.e., garnering domestic or international support), hence the need for a name that is 1) romantic and 2) bears some relation to the activity being executed.
But when did this really start? I cannot think of any operation in WWII era that was named with a political bent. Even the Berlin Airlift doesn’t qualify. My impression is that the political tinged operation naming started (at the earliest) in Vietnam and possibly later. In my lifetime I have really only been exposed to the 1990s Desert Operations and post.
The non-related naming for Special Programs/Covert Ops makes sense, but I like similar ideas for theater scale operations. My issue with the Enduring Freedom/Iraqi Freedom etc… is that they are not really operations in a theater sense but are effectively names for a war.
I think it came into vogue with 1979 Desert Eagle attempt to get American hostages out of Iran.
But you’re right, when you don’t have a war but you have operations, you need a cool name for them.
Yes, the other name was Desert One, but Eagle Claw is also used interchangeably. My mistake.
