Maritime warfare branch of Germany's military
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The U-boat war was going quite well for the Germans at the beginning of 1943, but by mid-year, the German Navy was on the verge of abandoning the effort.
Join the hosts as they take you through all the news from around the world and across the UK. Take part in our chatroom to help shape the conversation of the show. In this week's show we discuss the incident involving the CRJ900 at Toronto Pearson airport, the case of an airline crew being investigated for opening an emergency exit and posing for photos on the plane's wing, and Airbus are to delay their new freighter as A350F problems linger. In the military, Boeing has officially unveiled the first of the new P-8 Poseidon patrol aircraft for the German Navy and we discuss the DARPA Large Hypersonic Bomber Prototype Project. You can get in touch with us all at : Email podcast@planetalkinguk.com or comment in our chatroom on YouTube.
Today I talked to Peter Harmsen about his book Fury and Ice: Greenland, the United States and Germany in World War II (Casemate, 2024). The wartime interest in Greenland was a direct result of its vital strategic position--if you wanted to predict the weather in Europe, you had to have men in place on the vast, frozen island. The most celebrated example of Greenland's crucial contribution to Allied meteorological services is the correct weather forecast in June 1944 leading to the decision to launch the invasion of Normandy. In addition, both before and after D-Day a stream of weather reports from Greenland was essential for the Allied ability to carry out the bombing offensive against Germany. The Germans were aware of the value of Greenland from a meteorological point of view, and they repeatedly attempted to establish semi-permanent weather stations along the sparsely populated east coast of the island. This resulted in an epic cat-and-mouse game, in which US Coast Guard personnel assisted by a celebrated sledge patrol manned by Scandinavian adventurers struggled to locate and eliminate German bases before they could make any difference. It's a story seldom told, but the fact remains that Greenland was the only part of the North American continent in which German troops maintained a presence throughout almost the entirety of the war. At the same time, the US entry into the war triggered an enormous American effort to hastily establish the necessary infrastructure in the form of harbors and air bases that enabled Greenland to form a vital link in the effort to send men and supplies across the North Atlantic in the face of stern opposition from the German Navy. While Allied ships were passing through Greenland waters in massive numbers, planes were plying the so-called Snowball Route from Greenland over Iceland to the British Isles. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network
Today I talked to Peter Harmsen about his book Fury and Ice: Greenland, the United States and Germany in World War II (Casemate, 2024). The wartime interest in Greenland was a direct result of its vital strategic position--if you wanted to predict the weather in Europe, you had to have men in place on the vast, frozen island. The most celebrated example of Greenland's crucial contribution to Allied meteorological services is the correct weather forecast in June 1944 leading to the decision to launch the invasion of Normandy. In addition, both before and after D-Day a stream of weather reports from Greenland was essential for the Allied ability to carry out the bombing offensive against Germany. The Germans were aware of the value of Greenland from a meteorological point of view, and they repeatedly attempted to establish semi-permanent weather stations along the sparsely populated east coast of the island. This resulted in an epic cat-and-mouse game, in which US Coast Guard personnel assisted by a celebrated sledge patrol manned by Scandinavian adventurers struggled to locate and eliminate German bases before they could make any difference. It's a story seldom told, but the fact remains that Greenland was the only part of the North American continent in which German troops maintained a presence throughout almost the entirety of the war. At the same time, the US entry into the war triggered an enormous American effort to hastily establish the necessary infrastructure in the form of harbors and air bases that enabled Greenland to form a vital link in the effort to send men and supplies across the North Atlantic in the face of stern opposition from the German Navy. While Allied ships were passing through Greenland waters in massive numbers, planes were plying the so-called Snowball Route from Greenland over Iceland to the British Isles. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history
Today I talked to Peter Harmsen about his book Fury and Ice: Greenland, the United States and Germany in World War II (Casemate, 2024). The wartime interest in Greenland was a direct result of its vital strategic position--if you wanted to predict the weather in Europe, you had to have men in place on the vast, frozen island. The most celebrated example of Greenland's crucial contribution to Allied meteorological services is the correct weather forecast in June 1944 leading to the decision to launch the invasion of Normandy. In addition, both before and after D-Day a stream of weather reports from Greenland was essential for the Allied ability to carry out the bombing offensive against Germany. The Germans were aware of the value of Greenland from a meteorological point of view, and they repeatedly attempted to establish semi-permanent weather stations along the sparsely populated east coast of the island. This resulted in an epic cat-and-mouse game, in which US Coast Guard personnel assisted by a celebrated sledge patrol manned by Scandinavian adventurers struggled to locate and eliminate German bases before they could make any difference. It's a story seldom told, but the fact remains that Greenland was the only part of the North American continent in which German troops maintained a presence throughout almost the entirety of the war. At the same time, the US entry into the war triggered an enormous American effort to hastily establish the necessary infrastructure in the form of harbors and air bases that enabled Greenland to form a vital link in the effort to send men and supplies across the North Atlantic in the face of stern opposition from the German Navy. While Allied ships were passing through Greenland waters in massive numbers, planes were plying the so-called Snowball Route from Greenland over Iceland to the British Isles. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/military-history
Today I talked to Peter Harmsen about his book Fury and Ice: Greenland, the United States and Germany in World War II (Casemate, 2024). The wartime interest in Greenland was a direct result of its vital strategic position--if you wanted to predict the weather in Europe, you had to have men in place on the vast, frozen island. The most celebrated example of Greenland's crucial contribution to Allied meteorological services is the correct weather forecast in June 1944 leading to the decision to launch the invasion of Normandy. In addition, both before and after D-Day a stream of weather reports from Greenland was essential for the Allied ability to carry out the bombing offensive against Germany. The Germans were aware of the value of Greenland from a meteorological point of view, and they repeatedly attempted to establish semi-permanent weather stations along the sparsely populated east coast of the island. This resulted in an epic cat-and-mouse game, in which US Coast Guard personnel assisted by a celebrated sledge patrol manned by Scandinavian adventurers struggled to locate and eliminate German bases before they could make any difference. It's a story seldom told, but the fact remains that Greenland was the only part of the North American continent in which German troops maintained a presence throughout almost the entirety of the war. At the same time, the US entry into the war triggered an enormous American effort to hastily establish the necessary infrastructure in the form of harbors and air bases that enabled Greenland to form a vital link in the effort to send men and supplies across the North Atlantic in the face of stern opposition from the German Navy. While Allied ships were passing through Greenland waters in massive numbers, planes were plying the so-called Snowball Route from Greenland over Iceland to the British Isles. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/german-studies
Today I talked to Peter Harmsen about his book Fury and Ice: Greenland, the United States and Germany in World War II (Casemate, 2024). The wartime interest in Greenland was a direct result of its vital strategic position--if you wanted to predict the weather in Europe, you had to have men in place on the vast, frozen island. The most celebrated example of Greenland's crucial contribution to Allied meteorological services is the correct weather forecast in June 1944 leading to the decision to launch the invasion of Normandy. In addition, both before and after D-Day a stream of weather reports from Greenland was essential for the Allied ability to carry out the bombing offensive against Germany. The Germans were aware of the value of Greenland from a meteorological point of view, and they repeatedly attempted to establish semi-permanent weather stations along the sparsely populated east coast of the island. This resulted in an epic cat-and-mouse game, in which US Coast Guard personnel assisted by a celebrated sledge patrol manned by Scandinavian adventurers struggled to locate and eliminate German bases before they could make any difference. It's a story seldom told, but the fact remains that Greenland was the only part of the North American continent in which German troops maintained a presence throughout almost the entirety of the war. At the same time, the US entry into the war triggered an enormous American effort to hastily establish the necessary infrastructure in the form of harbors and air bases that enabled Greenland to form a vital link in the effort to send men and supplies across the North Atlantic in the face of stern opposition from the German Navy. While Allied ships were passing through Greenland waters in massive numbers, planes were plying the so-called Snowball Route from Greenland over Iceland to the British Isles. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-studies
Today I talked to Peter Harmsen about his book Fury and Ice: Greenland, the United States and Germany in World War II (Casemate, 2024). The wartime interest in Greenland was a direct result of its vital strategic position--if you wanted to predict the weather in Europe, you had to have men in place on the vast, frozen island. The most celebrated example of Greenland's crucial contribution to Allied meteorological services is the correct weather forecast in June 1944 leading to the decision to launch the invasion of Normandy. In addition, both before and after D-Day a stream of weather reports from Greenland was essential for the Allied ability to carry out the bombing offensive against Germany. The Germans were aware of the value of Greenland from a meteorological point of view, and they repeatedly attempted to establish semi-permanent weather stations along the sparsely populated east coast of the island. This resulted in an epic cat-and-mouse game, in which US Coast Guard personnel assisted by a celebrated sledge patrol manned by Scandinavian adventurers struggled to locate and eliminate German bases before they could make any difference. It's a story seldom told, but the fact remains that Greenland was the only part of the North American continent in which German troops maintained a presence throughout almost the entirety of the war. At the same time, the US entry into the war triggered an enormous American effort to hastily establish the necessary infrastructure in the form of harbors and air bases that enabled Greenland to form a vital link in the effort to send men and supplies across the North Atlantic in the face of stern opposition from the German Navy. While Allied ships were passing through Greenland waters in massive numbers, planes were plying the so-called Snowball Route from Greenland over Iceland to the British Isles. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
I was hired to find lost Nazi gold. I found Ariella instead.Based on a post by ronde, in 2 parts. Listen to the ► Podcast at Steamy Stories.The shiny, black, Mercedes X-Class pickup slowly worked its way down the road about a hundred meters from where I was crouched behind a rock. The fact the pickup was alone and had an M 60 machine gun on a pintle mount in the bed told me this wasn’t some unit of the Argentine Army. The Argentine Army might have been driving a Mercedes pickup, but it would have been OD green and the machine gun would have been an FN Mag.The woman nudged me then.“They’ll be on top of us in a few minutes. I’ll take out the truck driver and the M 60. That’ll slow them down while they’re trying to figure out where the shots came from. They might run then, but if they don’t it’ll take both of us to take out the rest. Are you ready for that?”I was ready, because I knew if we didn’t take out all of them, we’d be running for our lives. I’d experienced that before. I was a former US Army Ranger with two tours of Afghanistan under my belt before I decided civilian life would be a whole lot healthier.I had no reservations about what we had to do, though it was going to be tough. With it’s short barrel, iron sights, and a tendency to overheat if fired quickly, the HK G 36 C carbine I carried lost accuracy fast after about two hundred meters, so they’d have to be closer than that. I could use the old “spray and pray” technique used by some US Army soldiers before the M4 came out with a selector switch for a three round burst instead of just full-auto fire. The problem with that was I only had a hundred and twenty rounds and they wouldn’t last long if I did that. After that, all I had was a 9 millimeter Browning pistol. They’d have to be a lot closer before I had any chance of putting even one down with that.The woman was in better shape for long range shooting. The Israeli M 89 SR rifle she was crouched behind was accurate out to about a thousand meters if she knew what she was doing, and if she did, the thirty rounds in her magazine would be more than sufficient.She let the truck get to about seventy-five meters from our position and then put one 7.62 millimeter round through the windshield. The driver slumped down in the seat at the same time her second shot hit the M60 just behind the operating handle and effectively froze the action. The truck turned sharply into a rock and then the engine died. The whole thing couldn’t have taken more than about five seconds. The woman definitely knew her way around a rifle.The three guys in the truck bed and the one left in the cab bailed out, got behind the truck, and started looking for the shooter. They were going to have a difficult time finding us. The suppressor on the M89SR effectively hid any muzzle flash and any dust caused by the gasses exiting the barrel. It also reduced the sound enough that it would be difficult for the guys to pinpoint it since the echo from the mountains made the sound seem to come from all directions.The woman and I watched them for the next five minutes, and it became obvious they weren’t battle-trained troops. They were probably considered a serious threat by the local population, but to me they were just amateurs; well-equipped amateurs, but still amateurs.They were well equipped because they had money, and money was the reason I was in Argentina in the first place. Meeting the woman was just a lucky accident. Well, that’s what I thought at the time. I later found out it was no accident.How it all started.The whole thing started six weeks before I found myself with the woman crouched behind a rock and waiting to see what the guys behind the truck were going to do next.After separating myself from the US Army, I needed some way to keep myself indoors and fed. When I looked at what I knew how to do, planning for close combat and then executing that plan was all I could come up with.Given the domestic and political climate at the time, a lot of former military men were running self defense schools. After reading about a few of the schools, I decided I could make some money that way too.I’d been deployed for much of my Army career so most of my Army pay was sitting in my bank. I used half of what I had as a down payment on fifty acres in Eastern Tennessee with a house and barn on it, and built a pistol and rifle range.I was doing OK, teaching a class a couple times a week in basic gun safety and giving the Tennessee concealed-carry class and test. The other days, I taught advanced courses in long-range rifle shooting and rapid-fire pistol shooting. I also sold targets and ammunition. I wasn’t getting rich, but I was able to make the mortgage payments, put food on the table, and keep my fridge stocked with beer.One afternoon after I’d finished up my class on accurate rapid pistol fire, I was policing brass from the range when a guy in a suit and tie walked up and stuck out his hand. He introduced himself as Marcus Richter.“Mr. Dale Stevenson; did I get your name right? Ah, good. Mr. Stevenson, I understand you have somewhat of a unique background, a background I would find useful if you agree to my proposal.”I figured he’d gotten that information from my web site. I thought “US Army Ranger” sounded better than “former military” like some of the school web sites used.I shrugged.“I can teach you how to fire a weapon and how to defend yourself in an emergency if that’s what you mean.”He shook his head.“No, though the thought has crossed my mind. Fortunately, I have people who take care of those duties for me."No, I’m a successful business man in a rather unique business. I trade in world currencies. It is that business that resulted in my visit to your establishment today. I fear the explanation of that business will be quite lengthy, so would it be possible to find a place where we might sit down and out of the sun?”I’d converted part of the barn into a classroom for my classes, so I led the man there. Once we were seated, he cleared his throat.“As I said, I am a trader in world currencies and that includes gold and silver in its many forms, from coinage to bullion. My business is of necessity rather secretive, for were some in the precious metal market to have advanced knowledge of my activities, it would have an impact upon the world pricing of said precious metals. It is such advanced knowledge I hope to exploit to my advantage if you agree to perform a service for me, a service for which you will be very well compensated.”I wasn’t entirely convinced this guy was on the level, but I had no reason to stop listening to him.I smiled.“It sounds like you have some sort of secret mission you want me to do for you.”He smiled.“Yes, secrecy is of the utmost importance. When you hear the details, you will understand why."As you probably know, in the last stages of World War Two, many high-ranking members of the Nazi party and German military realized any favorable outcome to the war was an impossibility. Germany would be defeated and given the atrocities committed, those same people would be prosecuted for war crimes, found guilty, and imprisoned or executed."They began making plans to escape before they were captured by the Allies. Argentina was neutral during the war and indeed declared war on the Axis powers a month before the war in Europe ended, but many in Argentina were still sympathetic toward Germany. As a result, Argentina was viewed as a possible haven by those attempting to escape what would surely be their ultimate fate."Argentina, in fact, encouraged those high-ranking people to come there. It is well known that many were able to successfully leave Germany and take up residence in Argentina. The efforts of some Israeli organizations that were able to locate some of them and transport them back to Israel for trial is a testimony to that fact."What is not well known is how those same people funded their escape and managed to live in Argentina until they were able to find employment. There are suspicions of the transfer of gold either before or after their escape, but no proof. What is known is there were large caches of gold the Nazi’s looted from the countries and people they overran in the early stages of the war."While much of that gold was gold bars plundered from the repositories in Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland, a significant amount was in the gold taken from individuals. To date, some of that gold has been recovered, but a sizeable portion has not and there are only rumors as to its location, until about a month ago."Ah, shall we say, a friend of a friend mentioned he had been offered a small bar of gold bullion bearing the imprint of the Heraeus Corporation of Germany. I do not know if you know of this German company, but Heraeus has been in the business of refining and producing precious metals since the late 1800’s when they discovered a method of melting platinum."During World War Two, one small gold smelting facility of the Heraeus corporation located on the outskirts of Hanau, Germany was taken over by the Nazi party, managed by Nazi party members, and slave labor was used for the smelting process. They began melting the gold looted from the countries occupied by the German Army into bullion. The bullion was stamped with the hallmark of the Heraeus corporation in order to make it appear to be legitimate, though the Heraeus company per se had nothing to do with the operation."This knowledge has been common since the war ended, but what happened to the gold bullion produced by the Nazi controlled factory has been unknown until this single bar of bullion was offered to this friend of my friend. The offer was made in somewhat secretive circumstances and the design of the hallmark dated to the period of the Second World War. These two things intrigued this friend of my friend and also intrigued me."My interest was passing until I spoke to a man who wished to buy gold as an investment. He related a tale told by his grandfather of watching U-boats berthed at Helgoland, Germany when he was twelve years old. His grandfather had watched the U-boats before as they were fueled, armed, and then sent back out to sea. On a few occasions, this was not the case."According to his story, over the course of a week, several men in prison uniforms loaded six submarines with wooden cases that appeared much too heavy to be supplies and not large enough to hold munitions. He thought it unusual that they did not load any torpedoes as they always had before, but assumed the submarines were supply submarines used to re-supply U-boats at sea."Once the submarines were loaded, the men in prison uniforms were taken away and a few men in the uniform of the German navy went on board, but not in the same numbers this man had seen before. Instead of a full crew, a number of men in business dress also boarded the submarines. The submarines then left port. Three months later, those same six submarines were again docked in Helgoland and were being once again loaded as before. This cycle was repeated two more times before he witnessed the same submarines being loaded with torpedoes and manned by full crews of the German Navy."Another very interesting event happened in Argentina at the end of the war. Juan Peron was elected president and set about nationalizing industries and services while at the same time raising the wages of workers. Most importantly, he paid off the entire amount of externally held Argentine debt."Because Argentina does mine native gold and silver ore, I have people there to keep me informed about the latest developments. When I heard the stories about the bar of gold bullion and the German submarines and put that story into the context of what I know about the country, I asked my people there to do some research into the matter. The report I received a few weeks ago offered some tantalizing conclusions."At the end of the war, Argentina had external debt amounting to about two hundred million US Dollars. When Peron was elected President, he settled the national debt with payments in gold bullion, which is understandable because gold is the currency of the world. What is not understandable is where Peron was able to find enough gold to do that without bankrupting the country. The entire gold reserves of Argentina at the time were about two hundred and fifty million US dollars. He would have had to drain most of those reserves, but apparently did not. He continued to implement his policies by using that same gold reserve."My people were not able to identify how that situation changed so rapidly once Peron was in office nor the source of the gold with which he paid the Argentine debt. They were able to report that prior to settling that debt, the Argentine government ceased operations of a small, older smelter in the foothills of the Andes near Mendoza to bring that facility up to the level of current technology. They learned this from an old man who had been employed at the smelter in his youth. He said he was sent home and told to not report for work for two months."The man was interested in what changes were going to be made so over the course of seven weeks, he watched the activities at the smelter. He related to my people that the first week, he saw many trucks drive into the smelter and each truck had armed guards who were all tall men who looked European. He could not see what they did in the smelter, but he did notice the smokestack continued to emit smoke just as it had when the smelter was operating."A week before his two month furlough was to end, he witnessed those same trucks with the same armed guards drive out of the smelter and take the road that led to Buenos Aires. He also said when he returned to work, there was little difference from how the smelter had operated before.”I wasn’t sure what all this had to do with me. When I asked, his face became grim.“What I and my people believe is that a very large amount of gold was shipped to Argentina by the Nazis on submarines and used to pay the Argentine government for allowing them to stay there. That is the only explanation for how Peron was able to find the gold to pay off the national debt. It is also an explanation for the unusual loading of the submarine and for the bar of gold bullion offered to, as I said, a friend of a friend. The smelter was shut down in order to melt the Nazi gold and then recast it into bullion that bore the Argentine hallmark.”I was still confused.“OK, that’s all well and good, but again, what does that have to do with me?”He placed his hands on the table between us and smiled.“I want to pay you to find the rest of the Nazi gold.”Now, I was confused again.“The rest? I thought you said they melted it all down and recast it.”He shook his head and chuckled.“I said they melted and recast enough to pay off the Argentine debt, not that they melted and recast all the gold. The total amount of gold plundered by the Nazis is not accurately known, but it has been estimated at nearly two billion US dollars in the currency of the day. About a fourth of that can be reasonably accounted for as it was transferred to various banks in neutral countries, though some of those transfers are disputed. The rest has never been found."It is my estimate that the Nazis shipped at least four hundred tons of gold to Argentina on those submarines. In the currency of the day, that would be about half a billion US dollars. In 1945, the Argentine debt was about two hundred million US dollars. That leaves us with a difference of about three hundred million which would be a little over one and a half billion US dollars at today’s market price.”I said I didn’t think that was feasible because of the weight of gold. It wouldn’t fit on a submarine. He smiled.“Yes, gold is heavy but also very dense and does not require much space. The normal armament for a U-boat of the type loaded at Helgoland was fourteen torpedoes that weighed a little over a ton and a half each. Each submarine could have carried over twenty tons of gold if the torpedoes were not on board. The six submarines making four trips could have carried that much gold and many passengers. With a range of about nine thousand nautical miles, they could easily have made the trip from Germany to Argentina and back in about three months at sea.It sounded like another Nazi conspiracy theory to me, but it was interesting so I decided to play along for a while."So, you want me to find this gold and then what? Hire a bunch of trucks to bring it back to the US?”He smiled and shook his head.“No. I only want you to confirm its location from the information my people have developed after almost a year of research. Near Mendoza in Mendoza province, my people located the ruins of what they described as a replica of The Berghof, Hitler’s residence in Bavaria. The surrounding area is mostly unpopulated now, but was once the site of a now closed led mine. We believe the building was built to house German Army and SS officers who fled Germany and surmise the gold must have been secreted in the led mine. Once you have confirmed the gold is indeed at that location, others will orchestrate its removal and transport.That little bell in your head that tells you something’s not right started to ring."Mr. Richter, if your people know where it is, why don’t those others you talked about confirm the gold is there and then remove it?”He pursed his lips.“My people in Argentina are carefully watched by the Argentine government to detect any financial dealings they might attempt. It is highly likely some in the Argentine government are also aware of their findings. Were my people to investigate that mine, well, the current government of Argentina would consider the gold to be the property of Argentina. It is not, but Argentina would be very upset were they to find it has been discovered and removed from the country.”The little bell in my head was now clanging.“So what you’re asking me to do is illegal? I don’t much like the idea of spending time in an Argentine prison.”He shook his head.“Your involvement will only be to locate and enter an abandoned and unguarded mine, confirm with photographs that the gold is there, and then bring those photographs and an accurate location back to me. It will be as if you were a tourist seeing the countryside and just happened upon the mine during your travels. There is nothing illegal about that."You will be well compensated for your efforts. I am prepared to offer you transportation to and from Argentina, a vehicle and other equipment for your use while there, and the sum of one hundred thousand dollars. I have arranged for twenty thousand dollars to be transferred to your bank account immediately upon your arrival in Argentina and commencement of your search. You will, of course, be provided with a small sum for travel expenses. The balance will be transferred upon your return, assuming you are successful. If not, the transfer will be for an additional twenty thous
I was hired to find lost Nazi gold. I found Ariella instead.Based on a post by ronde, in 2 parts. Listen to the ► Podcast at Steamy Stories.The shiny, black, Mercedes X-Class pickup slowly worked its way down the road about a hundred meters from where I was crouched behind a rock. The fact the pickup was alone and had an M 60 machine gun on a pintle mount in the bed told me this wasn’t some unit of the Argentine Army. The Argentine Army might have been driving a Mercedes pickup, but it would have been OD green and the machine gun would have been an FN Mag.The woman nudged me then.“They’ll be on top of us in a few minutes. I’ll take out the truck driver and the M 60. That’ll slow them down while they’re trying to figure out where the shots came from. They might run then, but if they don’t it’ll take both of us to take out the rest. Are you ready for that?”I was ready, because I knew if we didn’t take out all of them, we’d be running for our lives. I’d experienced that before. I was a former US Army Ranger with two tours of Afghanistan under my belt before I decided civilian life would be a whole lot healthier.I had no reservations about what we had to do, though it was going to be tough. With it’s short barrel, iron sights, and a tendency to overheat if fired quickly, the HK G 36 C carbine I carried lost accuracy fast after about two hundred meters, so they’d have to be closer than that. I could use the old “spray and pray” technique used by some US Army soldiers before the M4 came out with a selector switch for a three round burst instead of just full-auto fire. The problem with that was I only had a hundred and twenty rounds and they wouldn’t last long if I did that. After that, all I had was a 9 millimeter Browning pistol. They’d have to be a lot closer before I had any chance of putting even one down with that.The woman was in better shape for long range shooting. The Israeli M 89 SR rifle she was crouched behind was accurate out to about a thousand meters if she knew what she was doing, and if she did, the thirty rounds in her magazine would be more than sufficient.She let the truck get to about seventy-five meters from our position and then put one 7.62 millimeter round through the windshield. The driver slumped down in the seat at the same time her second shot hit the M60 just behind the operating handle and effectively froze the action. The truck turned sharply into a rock and then the engine died. The whole thing couldn’t have taken more than about five seconds. The woman definitely knew her way around a rifle.The three guys in the truck bed and the one left in the cab bailed out, got behind the truck, and started looking for the shooter. They were going to have a difficult time finding us. The suppressor on the M89SR effectively hid any muzzle flash and any dust caused by the gasses exiting the barrel. It also reduced the sound enough that it would be difficult for the guys to pinpoint it since the echo from the mountains made the sound seem to come from all directions.The woman and I watched them for the next five minutes, and it became obvious they weren’t battle-trained troops. They were probably considered a serious threat by the local population, but to me they were just amateurs; well-equipped amateurs, but still amateurs.They were well equipped because they had money, and money was the reason I was in Argentina in the first place. Meeting the woman was just a lucky accident. Well, that’s what I thought at the time. I later found out it was no accident.How it all started.The whole thing started six weeks before I found myself with the woman crouched behind a rock and waiting to see what the guys behind the truck were going to do next.After separating myself from the US Army, I needed some way to keep myself indoors and fed. When I looked at what I knew how to do, planning for close combat and then executing that plan was all I could come up with.Given the domestic and political climate at the time, a lot of former military men were running self defense schools. After reading about a few of the schools, I decided I could make some money that way too.I’d been deployed for much of my Army career so most of my Army pay was sitting in my bank. I used half of what I had as a down payment on fifty acres in Eastern Tennessee with a house and barn on it, and built a pistol and rifle range.I was doing OK, teaching a class a couple times a week in basic gun safety and giving the Tennessee concealed-carry class and test. The other days, I taught advanced courses in long-range rifle shooting and rapid-fire pistol shooting. I also sold targets and ammunition. I wasn’t getting rich, but I was able to make the mortgage payments, put food on the table, and keep my fridge stocked with beer.One afternoon after I’d finished up my class on accurate rapid pistol fire, I was policing brass from the range when a guy in a suit and tie walked up and stuck out his hand. He introduced himself as Marcus Richter.“Mr. Dale Stevenson; did I get your name right? Ah, good. Mr. Stevenson, I understand you have somewhat of a unique background, a background I would find useful if you agree to my proposal.”I figured he’d gotten that information from my web site. I thought “US Army Ranger” sounded better than “former military” like some of the school web sites used.I shrugged.“I can teach you how to fire a weapon and how to defend yourself in an emergency if that’s what you mean.”He shook his head.“No, though the thought has crossed my mind. Fortunately, I have people who take care of those duties for me."No, I’m a successful business man in a rather unique business. I trade in world currencies. It is that business that resulted in my visit to your establishment today. I fear the explanation of that business will be quite lengthy, so would it be possible to find a place where we might sit down and out of the sun?”I’d converted part of the barn into a classroom for my classes, so I led the man there. Once we were seated, he cleared his throat.“As I said, I am a trader in world currencies and that includes gold and silver in its many forms, from coinage to bullion. My business is of necessity rather secretive, for were some in the precious metal market to have advanced knowledge of my activities, it would have an impact upon the world pricing of said precious metals. It is such advanced knowledge I hope to exploit to my advantage if you agree to perform a service for me, a service for which you will be very well compensated.”I wasn’t entirely convinced this guy was on the level, but I had no reason to stop listening to him.I smiled.“It sounds like you have some sort of secret mission you want me to do for you.”He smiled.“Yes, secrecy is of the utmost importance. When you hear the details, you will understand why."As you probably know, in the last stages of World War Two, many high-ranking members of the Nazi party and German military realized any favorable outcome to the war was an impossibility. Germany would be defeated and given the atrocities committed, those same people would be prosecuted for war crimes, found guilty, and imprisoned or executed."They began making plans to escape before they were captured by the Allies. Argentina was neutral during the war and indeed declared war on the Axis powers a month before the war in Europe ended, but many in Argentina were still sympathetic toward Germany. As a result, Argentina was viewed as a possible haven by those attempting to escape what would surely be their ultimate fate."Argentina, in fact, encouraged those high-ranking people to come there. It is well known that many were able to successfully leave Germany and take up residence in Argentina. The efforts of some Israeli organizations that were able to locate some of them and transport them back to Israel for trial is a testimony to that fact."What is not well known is how those same people funded their escape and managed to live in Argentina until they were able to find employment. There are suspicions of the transfer of gold either before or after their escape, but no proof. What is known is there were large caches of gold the Nazi’s looted from the countries and people they overran in the early stages of the war."While much of that gold was gold bars plundered from the repositories in Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland, a significant amount was in the gold taken from individuals. To date, some of that gold has been recovered, but a sizeable portion has not and there are only rumors as to its location, until about a month ago."Ah, shall we say, a friend of a friend mentioned he had been offered a small bar of gold bullion bearing the imprint of the Heraeus Corporation of Germany. I do not know if you know of this German company, but Heraeus has been in the business of refining and producing precious metals since the late 1800’s when they discovered a method of melting platinum."During World War Two, one small gold smelting facility of the Heraeus corporation located on the outskirts of Hanau, Germany was taken over by the Nazi party, managed by Nazi party members, and slave labor was used for the smelting process. They began melting the gold looted from the countries occupied by the German Army into bullion. The bullion was stamped with the hallmark of the Heraeus corporation in order to make it appear to be legitimate, though the Heraeus company per se had nothing to do with the operation."This knowledge has been common since the war ended, but what happened to the gold bullion produced by the Nazi controlled factory has been unknown until this single bar of bullion was offered to this friend of my friend. The offer was made in somewhat secretive circumstances and the design of the hallmark dated to the period of the Second World War. These two things intrigued this friend of my friend and also intrigued me."My interest was passing until I spoke to a man who wished to buy gold as an investment. He related a tale told by his grandfather of watching U-boats berthed at Helgoland, Germany when he was twelve years old. His grandfather had watched the U-boats before as they were fueled, armed, and then sent back out to sea. On a few occasions, this was not the case."According to his story, over the course of a week, several men in prison uniforms loaded six submarines with wooden cases that appeared much too heavy to be supplies and not large enough to hold munitions. He thought it unusual that they did not load any torpedoes as they always had before, but assumed the submarines were supply submarines used to re-supply U-boats at sea."Once the submarines were loaded, the men in prison uniforms were taken away and a few men in the uniform of the German navy went on board, but not in the same numbers this man had seen before. Instead of a full crew, a number of men in business dress also boarded the submarines. The submarines then left port. Three months later, those same six submarines were again docked in Helgoland and were being once again loaded as before. This cycle was repeated two more times before he witnessed the same submarines being loaded with torpedoes and manned by full crews of the German Navy."Another very interesting event happened in Argentina at the end of the war. Juan Peron was elected president and set about nationalizing industries and services while at the same time raising the wages of workers. Most importantly, he paid off the entire amount of externally held Argentine debt."Because Argentina does mine native gold and silver ore, I have people there to keep me informed about the latest developments. When I heard the stories about the bar of gold bullion and the German submarines and put that story into the context of what I know about the country, I asked my people there to do some research into the matter. The report I received a few weeks ago offered some tantalizing conclusions."At the end of the war, Argentina had external debt amounting to about two hundred million US Dollars. When Peron was elected President, he settled the national debt with payments in gold bullion, which is understandable because gold is the currency of the world. What is not understandable is where Peron was able to find enough gold to do that without bankrupting the country. The entire gold reserves of Argentina at the time were about two hundred and fifty million US dollars. He would have had to drain most of those reserves, but apparently did not. He continued to implement his policies by using that same gold reserve."My people were not able to identify how that situation changed so rapidly once Peron was in office nor the source of the gold with which he paid the Argentine debt. They were able to report that prior to settling that debt, the Argentine government ceased operations of a small, older smelter in the foothills of the Andes near Mendoza to bring that facility up to the level of current technology. They learned this from an old man who had been employed at the smelter in his youth. He said he was sent home and told to not report for work for two months."The man was interested in what changes were going to be made so over the course of seven weeks, he watched the activities at the smelter. He related to my people that the first week, he saw many trucks drive into the smelter and each truck had armed guards who were all tall men who looked European. He could not see what they did in the smelter, but he did notice the smokestack continued to emit smoke just as it had when the smelter was operating."A week before his two month furlough was to end, he witnessed those same trucks with the same armed guards drive out of the smelter and take the road that led to Buenos Aires. He also said when he returned to work, there was little difference from how the smelter had operated before.”I wasn’t sure what all this had to do with me. When I asked, his face became grim.“What I and my people believe is that a very large amount of gold was shipped to Argentina by the Nazis on submarines and used to pay the Argentine government for allowing them to stay there. That is the only explanation for how Peron was able to find the gold to pay off the national debt. It is also an explanation for the unusual loading of the submarine and for the bar of gold bullion offered to, as I said, a friend of a friend. The smelter was shut down in order to melt the Nazi gold and then recast it into bullion that bore the Argentine hallmark.”I was still confused.“OK, that’s all well and good, but again, what does that have to do with me?”He placed his hands on the table between us and smiled.“I want to pay you to find the rest of the Nazi gold.”Now, I was confused again.“The rest? I thought you said they melted it all down and recast it.”He shook his head and chuckled.“I said they melted and recast enough to pay off the Argentine debt, not that they melted and recast all the gold. The total amount of gold plundered by the Nazis is not accurately known, but it has been estimated at nearly two billion US dollars in the currency of the day. About a fourth of that can be reasonably accounted for as it was transferred to various banks in neutral countries, though some of those transfers are disputed. The rest has never been found."It is my estimate that the Nazis shipped at least four hundred tons of gold to Argentina on those submarines. In the currency of the day, that would be about half a billion US dollars. In 1945, the Argentine debt was about two hundred million US dollars. That leaves us with a difference of about three hundred million which would be a little over one and a half billion US dollars at today’s market price.”I said I didn’t think that was feasible because of the weight of gold. It wouldn’t fit on a submarine. He smiled.“Yes, gold is heavy but also very dense and does not require much space. The normal armament for a U-boat of the type loaded at Helgoland was fourteen torpedoes that weighed a little over a ton and a half each. Each submarine could have carried over twenty tons of gold if the torpedoes were not on board. The six submarines making four trips could have carried that much gold and many passengers. With a range of about nine thousand nautical miles, they could easily have made the trip from Germany to Argentina and back in about three months at sea.It sounded like another Nazi conspiracy theory to me, but it was interesting so I decided to play along for a while."So, you want me to find this gold and then what? Hire a bunch of trucks to bring it back to the US?”He smiled and shook his head.“No. I only want you to confirm its location from the information my people have developed after almost a year of research. Near Mendoza in Mendoza province, my people located the ruins of what they described as a replica of The Berghof, Hitler’s residence in Bavaria. The surrounding area is mostly unpopulated now, but was once the site of a now closed led mine. We believe the building was built to house German Army and SS officers who fled Germany and surmise the gold must have been secreted in the led mine. Once you have confirmed the gold is indeed at that location, others will orchestrate its removal and transport.That little bell in your head that tells you something’s not right started to ring."Mr. Richter, if your people know where it is, why don’t those others you talked about confirm the gold is there and then remove it?”He pursed his lips.“My people in Argentina are carefully watched by the Argentine government to detect any financial dealings they might attempt. It is highly likely some in the Argentine government are also aware of their findings. Were my people to investigate that mine, well, the current government of Argentina would consider the gold to be the property of Argentina. It is not, but Argentina would be very upset were they to find it has been discovered and removed from the country.”The little bell in my head was now clanging.“So what you’re asking me to do is illegal? I don’t much like the idea of spending time in an Argentine prison.”He shook his head.“Your involvement will only be to locate and enter an abandoned and unguarded mine, confirm with photographs that the gold is there, and then bring those photographs and an accurate location back to me. It will be as if you were a tourist seeing the countryside and just happened upon the mine during your travels. There is nothing illegal about that."You will be well compensated for your efforts. I am prepared to offer you transportation to and from Argentina, a vehicle and other equipment for your use while there, and the sum of one hundred thousand dollars. I have arranged for twenty thousand dollars to be transferred to your bank account immediately upon your arrival in Argentina and commencement of your search. You will, of course, be provided with a small sum for travel expenses. The balance will be transferred upon your return, assuming you are successful. If not, the transfer will be for an additional twenty thous
I was hired to find lost Nazi gold. I found Ariella instead.Based on a post by ronde, in 2 parts. Listen to the ► Podcast at Steamy Stories.The shiny, black, Mercedes X-Class pickup slowly worked its way down the road about a hundred meters from where I was crouched behind a rock. The fact the pickup was alone and had an M 60 machine gun on a pintle mount in the bed told me this wasn’t some unit of the Argentine Army. The Argentine Army might have been driving a Mercedes pickup, but it would have been OD green and the machine gun would have been an FN Mag.The woman nudged me then.“They’ll be on top of us in a few minutes. I’ll take out the truck driver and the M 60. That’ll slow them down while they’re trying to figure out where the shots came from. They might run then, but if they don’t it’ll take both of us to take out the rest. Are you ready for that?”I was ready, because I knew if we didn’t take out all of them, we’d be running for our lives. I’d experienced that before. I was a former US Army Ranger with two tours of Afghanistan under my belt before I decided civilian life would be a whole lot healthier.I had no reservations about what we had to do, though it was going to be tough. With it’s short barrel, iron sights, and a tendency to overheat if fired quickly, the HK G 36 C carbine I carried lost accuracy fast after about two hundred meters, so they’d have to be closer than that. I could use the old “spray and pray” technique used by some US Army soldiers before the M4 came out with a selector switch for a three round burst instead of just full-auto fire. The problem with that was I only had a hundred and twenty rounds and they wouldn’t last long if I did that. After that, all I had was a 9 millimeter Browning pistol. They’d have to be a lot closer before I had any chance of putting even one down with that.The woman was in better shape for long range shooting. The Israeli M 89 SR rifle she was crouched behind was accurate out to about a thousand meters if she knew what she was doing, and if she did, the thirty rounds in her magazine would be more than sufficient.She let the truck get to about seventy-five meters from our position and then put one 7.62 millimeter round through the windshield. The driver slumped down in the seat at the same time her second shot hit the M60 just behind the operating handle and effectively froze the action. The truck turned sharply into a rock and then the engine died. The whole thing couldn’t have taken more than about five seconds. The woman definitely knew her way around a rifle.The three guys in the truck bed and the one left in the cab bailed out, got behind the truck, and started looking for the shooter. They were going to have a difficult time finding us. The suppressor on the M89SR effectively hid any muzzle flash and any dust caused by the gasses exiting the barrel. It also reduced the sound enough that it would be difficult for the guys to pinpoint it since the echo from the mountains made the sound seem to come from all directions.The woman and I watched them for the next five minutes, and it became obvious they weren’t battle-trained troops. They were probably considered a serious threat by the local population, but to me they were just amateurs; well-equipped amateurs, but still amateurs.They were well equipped because they had money, and money was the reason I was in Argentina in the first place. Meeting the woman was just a lucky accident. Well, that’s what I thought at the time. I later found out it was no accident.How it all started.The whole thing started six weeks before I found myself with the woman crouched behind a rock and waiting to see what the guys behind the truck were going to do next.After separating myself from the US Army, I needed some way to keep myself indoors and fed. When I looked at what I knew how to do, planning for close combat and then executing that plan was all I could come up with.Given the domestic and political climate at the time, a lot of former military men were running self defense schools. After reading about a few of the schools, I decided I could make some money that way too.I’d been deployed for much of my Army career so most of my Army pay was sitting in my bank. I used half of what I had as a down payment on fifty acres in Eastern Tennessee with a house and barn on it, and built a pistol and rifle range.I was doing OK, teaching a class a couple times a week in basic gun safety and giving the Tennessee concealed-carry class and test. The other days, I taught advanced courses in long-range rifle shooting and rapid-fire pistol shooting. I also sold targets and ammunition. I wasn’t getting rich, but I was able to make the mortgage payments, put food on the table, and keep my fridge stocked with beer.One afternoon after I’d finished up my class on accurate rapid pistol fire, I was policing brass from the range when a guy in a suit and tie walked up and stuck out his hand. He introduced himself as Marcus Richter.“Mr. Dale Stevenson; did I get your name right? Ah, good. Mr. Stevenson, I understand you have somewhat of a unique background, a background I would find useful if you agree to my proposal.”I figured he’d gotten that information from my web site. I thought “US Army Ranger” sounded better than “former military” like some of the school web sites used.I shrugged.“I can teach you how to fire a weapon and how to defend yourself in an emergency if that’s what you mean.”He shook his head.“No, though the thought has crossed my mind. Fortunately, I have people who take care of those duties for me."No, I’m a successful business man in a rather unique business. I trade in world currencies. It is that business that resulted in my visit to your establishment today. I fear the explanation of that business will be quite lengthy, so would it be possible to find a place where we might sit down and out of the sun?”I’d converted part of the barn into a classroom for my classes, so I led the man there. Once we were seated, he cleared his throat.“As I said, I am a trader in world currencies and that includes gold and silver in its many forms, from coinage to bullion. My business is of necessity rather secretive, for were some in the precious metal market to have advanced knowledge of my activities, it would have an impact upon the world pricing of said precious metals. It is such advanced knowledge I hope to exploit to my advantage if you agree to perform a service for me, a service for which you will be very well compensated.”I wasn’t entirely convinced this guy was on the level, but I had no reason to stop listening to him.I smiled.“It sounds like you have some sort of secret mission you want me to do for you.”He smiled.“Yes, secrecy is of the utmost importance. When you hear the details, you will understand why."As you probably know, in the last stages of World War Two, many high-ranking members of the Nazi party and German military realized any favorable outcome to the war was an impossibility. Germany would be defeated and given the atrocities committed, those same people would be prosecuted for war crimes, found guilty, and imprisoned or executed."They began making plans to escape before they were captured by the Allies. Argentina was neutral during the war and indeed declared war on the Axis powers a month before the war in Europe ended, but many in Argentina were still sympathetic toward Germany. As a result, Argentina was viewed as a possible haven by those attempting to escape what would surely be their ultimate fate."Argentina, in fact, encouraged those high-ranking people to come there. It is well known that many were able to successfully leave Germany and take up residence in Argentina. The efforts of some Israeli organizations that were able to locate some of them and transport them back to Israel for trial is a testimony to that fact."What is not well known is how those same people funded their escape and managed to live in Argentina until they were able to find employment. There are suspicions of the transfer of gold either before or after their escape, but no proof. What is known is there were large caches of gold the Nazi’s looted from the countries and people they overran in the early stages of the war."While much of that gold was gold bars plundered from the repositories in Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland, a significant amount was in the gold taken from individuals. To date, some of that gold has been recovered, but a sizeable portion has not and there are only rumors as to its location, until about a month ago."Ah, shall we say, a friend of a friend mentioned he had been offered a small bar of gold bullion bearing the imprint of the Heraeus Corporation of Germany. I do not know if you know of this German company, but Heraeus has been in the business of refining and producing precious metals since the late 1800’s when they discovered a method of melting platinum."During World War Two, one small gold smelting facility of the Heraeus corporation located on the outskirts of Hanau, Germany was taken over by the Nazi party, managed by Nazi party members, and slave labor was used for the smelting process. They began melting the gold looted from the countries occupied by the German Army into bullion. The bullion was stamped with the hallmark of the Heraeus corporation in order to make it appear to be legitimate, though the Heraeus company per se had nothing to do with the operation."This knowledge has been common since the war ended, but what happened to the gold bullion produced by the Nazi controlled factory has been unknown until this single bar of bullion was offered to this friend of my friend. The offer was made in somewhat secretive circumstances and the design of the hallmark dated to the period of the Second World War. These two things intrigued this friend of my friend and also intrigued me."My interest was passing until I spoke to a man who wished to buy gold as an investment. He related a tale told by his grandfather of watching U-boats berthed at Helgoland, Germany when he was twelve years old. His grandfather had watched the U-boats before as they were fueled, armed, and then sent back out to sea. On a few occasions, this was not the case."According to his story, over the course of a week, several men in prison uniforms loaded six submarines with wooden cases that appeared much too heavy to be supplies and not large enough to hold munitions. He thought it unusual that they did not load any torpedoes as they always had before, but assumed the submarines were supply submarines used to re-supply U-boats at sea."Once the submarines were loaded, the men in prison uniforms were taken away and a few men in the uniform of the German navy went on board, but not in the same numbers this man had seen before. Instead of a full crew, a number of men in business dress also boarded the submarines. The submarines then left port. Three months later, those same six submarines were again docked in Helgoland and were being once again loaded as before. This cycle was repeated two more times before he witnessed the same submarines being loaded with torpedoes and manned by full crews of the German Navy."Another very interesting event happened in Argentina at the end of the war. Juan Peron was elected president and set about nationalizing industries and services while at the same time raising the wages of workers. Most importantly, he paid off the entire amount of externally held Argentine debt."Because Argentina does mine native gold and silver ore, I have people there to keep me informed about the latest developments. When I heard the stories about the bar of gold bullion and the German submarines and put that story into the context of what I know about the country, I asked my people there to do some research into the matter. The report I received a few weeks ago offered some tantalizing conclusions."At the end of the war, Argentina had external debt amounting to about two hundred million US Dollars. When Peron was elected President, he settled the national debt with payments in gold bullion, which is understandable because gold is the currency of the world. What is not understandable is where Peron was able to find enough gold to do that without bankrupting the country. The entire gold reserves of Argentina at the time were about two hundred and fifty million US dollars. He would have had to drain most of those reserves, but apparently did not. He continued to implement his policies by using that same gold reserve."My people were not able to identify how that situation changed so rapidly once Peron was in office nor the source of the gold with which he paid the Argentine debt. They were able to report that prior to settling that debt, the Argentine government ceased operations of a small, older smelter in the foothills of the Andes near Mendoza to bring that facility up to the level of current technology. They learned this from an old man who had been employed at the smelter in his youth. He said he was sent home and told to not report for work for two months."The man was interested in what changes were going to be made so over the course of seven weeks, he watched the activities at the smelter. He related to my people that the first week, he saw many trucks drive into the smelter and each truck had armed guards who were all tall men who looked European. He could not see what they did in the smelter, but he did notice the smokestack continued to emit smoke just as it had when the smelter was operating."A week before his two month furlough was to end, he witnessed those same trucks with the same armed guards drive out of the smelter and take the road that led to Buenos Aires. He also said when he returned to work, there was little difference from how the smelter had operated before.”I wasn’t sure what all this had to do with me. When I asked, his face became grim.“What I and my people believe is that a very large amount of gold was shipped to Argentina by the Nazis on submarines and used to pay the Argentine government for allowing them to stay there. That is the only explanation for how Peron was able to find the gold to pay off the national debt. It is also an explanation for the unusual loading of the submarine and for the bar of gold bullion offered to, as I said, a friend of a friend. The smelter was shut down in order to melt the Nazi gold and then recast it into bullion that bore the Argentine hallmark.”I was still confused.“OK, that’s all well and good, but again, what does that have to do with me?”He placed his hands on the table between us and smiled.“I want to pay you to find the rest of the Nazi gold.”Now, I was confused again.“The rest? I thought you said they melted it all down and recast it.”He shook his head and chuckled.“I said they melted and recast enough to pay off the Argentine debt, not that they melted and recast all the gold. The total amount of gold plundered by the Nazis is not accurately known, but it has been estimated at nearly two billion US dollars in the currency of the day. About a fourth of that can be reasonably accounted for as it was transferred to various banks in neutral countries, though some of those transfers are disputed. The rest has never been found."It is my estimate that the Nazis shipped at least four hundred tons of gold to Argentina on those submarines. In the currency of the day, that would be about half a billion US dollars. In 1945, the Argentine debt was about two hundred million US dollars. That leaves us with a difference of about three hundred million which would be a little over one and a half billion US dollars at today’s market price.”I said I didn’t think that was feasible because of the weight of gold. It wouldn’t fit on a submarine. He smiled.“Yes, gold is heavy but also very dense and does not require much space. The normal armament for a U-boat of the type loaded at Helgoland was fourteen torpedoes that weighed a little over a ton and a half each. Each submarine could have carried over twenty tons of gold if the torpedoes were not on board. The six submarines making four trips could have carried that much gold and many passengers. With a range of about nine thousand nautical miles, they could easily have made the trip from Germany to Argentina and back in about three months at sea.It sounded like another Nazi conspiracy theory to me, but it was interesting so I decided to play along for a while."So, you want me to find this gold and then what? Hire a bunch of trucks to bring it back to the US?”He smiled and shook his head.“No. I only want you to confirm its location from the information my people have developed after almost a year of research. Near Mendoza in Mendoza province, my people located the ruins of what they described as a replica of The Berghof, Hitler’s residence in Bavaria. The surrounding area is mostly unpopulated now, but was once the site of a now closed led mine. We believe the building was built to house German Army and SS officers who fled Germany and surmise the gold must have been secreted in the led mine. Once you have confirmed the gold is indeed at that location, others will orchestrate its removal and transport.That little bell in your head that tells you something’s not right started to ring."Mr. Richter, if your people know where it is, why don’t those others you talked about confirm the gold is there and then remove it?”He pursed his lips.“My people in Argentina are carefully watched by the Argentine government to detect any financial dealings they might attempt. It is highly likely some in the Argentine government are also aware of their findings. Were my people to investigate that mine, well, the current government of Argentina would consider the gold to be the property of Argentina. It is not, but Argentina would be very upset were they to find it has been discovered and removed from the country.”The little bell in my head was now clanging.“So what you’re asking me to do is illegal? I don’t much like the idea of spending time in an Argentine prison.”He shook his head.“Your involvement will only be to locate and enter an abandoned and unguarded mine, confirm with photographs that the gold is there, and then bring those photographs and an accurate location back to me. It will be as if you were a tourist seeing the countryside and just happened upon the mine during your travels. There is nothing illegal about that."You will be well compensated for your efforts. I am prepared to offer you transportation to and from Argentina, a vehicle and other equipment for your use while there, and the sum of one hundred thousand dollars. I have arranged for twenty thousand dollars to be transferred to your bank account immediately upon your arrival in Argentina and commencement of your search. You will, of course, be provided with a small sum for travel expenses. The balance will be transferred upon your return, assuming you are successful. If not, the transfer will be for an additional twenty thous
In Other News with Ethan: Deadpool & Wolverine hits $600 million, Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobayahi face off again, Ahsoka season 2 wont land until 2026, German Navy plays the Imperial March, and Well Fargo employee dies and no one finds her for 4 days.
In the 2nd hour of the Marc Cox Morning Show: Elon Musk to sue Media Matters New Poll shows Trump can win in November by eeking out swing states Former MO Sen. John Lamping talks with Marc & Kim about the upcoming vote for Amendment 3 on abortion and how he thinks it may shake out. Sen. Lamping also talks about Trump saying he's vote for more than 6 weeks on an abortions, but then walking those comments back. In Other News with Ethan: Deadpool & Wolverine hits $600 million, Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobayahi face off again, Ahsoka season 2 wont land until 2026, German Navy plays the Imperial March, and Well Fargo employee dies and no one finds her for 4 days. Coming Up: Todd Piro, Former MO Rep Jered Taylor, and Kim on a Whim, too!
News You Missed 7-19-2024 …The German Navy is still using Floppy Discs
00:00 - PreShow Banter™ — Absolute Madmen02:28 - BHIS - Talkin' Bout [infosec] News 2024-07-1503:18 - Wi-Fi Forge07:31 - Story # 1: CISA Red Team's Operations Against a Federal Civilian Executive Branch Organization Highlights the Necessity of Defense-in-Depth22:39 - Story # 2: AT&T says criminals stole phone records of ‘nearly all' customers in new data breach33:35 - Story # 3: FTC study finds ‘dark patterns' used by a majority of subscription apps and websites38:48 - Story # 4: Club Penguin fans breached Disney Confluence server, stole 2.5GB of data41:52 - Story # 5: Heritage Foundation Exec Threatens ‘Gay Furry Hackers' in Unhinged Texts47:51 - Story # 6: German Navy to replace aging 8-inch floppy drives with an emulated solution for its anti-submarine frigates50:14 - Story # 7: 1.4 GB NSA Data Leaked Online – Email Address, Phone Number & Gov Classified Data Exposed53:56 - Story # 8: Hackers Claim to Have Leaked 1.1 TB of Disney Slack Messages
The Personal Computer Show Wednesday July 17th 2024 PRN.live Streaming on the Internet 6:00 PM Eastern Time IN THE NEWS Microsoft Admits Weak Points of Copilot+ PCs with Arm CPUs First it was Japan — Now the German Navy is Phasing Out Floppy Disks ITPro Series with Benjamin Rockwell Recent Study on the Costs of IT Downtime From the Tech Corner Is Windows 11's Built-in Security Enough to Protect Your PC? What Are Trusted Certificates for Computer Programs? New Chrome Security Rules—Websites Have Until 11/1 to Comply Who is Providing the Digital Certification in Your System? What You Need to Know About USB Ports and Speeds Technology Chatter with Benjamin Rockwell and Marty Winston ATM Machines
Podcasts are a big deal, but are they still a big deal? What's new in podcasting? What do the numbers look like? We will discuss that and then get into all the other tech news this week. We've got a rousing round of Just the Headlines, and plenty of other witty banter to help you get out there and tech better. Watch on YouTube! INTRO (00:00) MAIN TOPIC: The State of Podcasts (04:50) Podcasts now support comments on Spotify; should Apple do the same? Podcast Statistics & Industry Trends 2024: Listens, Gear, & More 12 Top Podcasting Industry Trends In 2024 DAVE'S PRO-TIP OF THE WEEK: Disable “Share Across Devices” (23:50) JUST THE HEADLINES: (29:10) Japanese cafe uses robots controlled by paralysed people Microsoft unveils a large language model that excels at encoding spreadsheets Dune-inspired upgrade for spacesuits allow astronauts to recycle urine into water Amazon says it hit a goal of 100% clean power. Employees say it's more like 22% German Navy to replace aging 8-inch floppy drives with an emulated solution for its anti-submarine frigates Nike is killing the app for its $350 self-tying sneakers Whataburger app becomes unlikely power outage map after Houston hurricane TAKES: Samsung Galaxy Unpacked products and AI (30:55) Apple Approves First Retro PC Emulator for iPhone, iPad, and Vision Pro (34:05) Apple Vision Pro unlikely to hit 500K sales this year says IDC - Apple CEO Tim Cook uses Vision Pro every day (35:55) Microsoft Patch Tuesday, July 2024 Editon (37:05) AT&T paid a hacker $370K to delete stolen phone records (38:25) BONUS ODD TAKE: Wiby Search Engine (40:30) PICKS OF THE WEEK: Dave: SmallRig Tripod for iPhone Desktop Mini Tripod - Aluminum Alloy 20 inches/ 50 cm with 360 Degree Ball Head, 1/4 inch Quick Shoe Plate for Vlogging DSLR Camera Video, Load up to 11 pounds-3033 (43:25) Nate: MySit Office Chair Armrest Replacement Arm Pads Universal 4" 5.5" Mounting Hole (Set of 2) Black (46:00) RAMAZON PURCHASE - Giveaway! (49:05) Find us elsewhere: https://notpicks.com https://notnerd.com https://www.youtube.com/c/Notnerd https://www.instagram.com/n0tnerd https://www.facebook.com/n0tnerd/ info@Notnerd.com
www.CPOPLAYBOOK.comEpisode TranscriptAboutA McKinsey article by Ignacio Fantaguzzi and Christopher Handscomb reveals that M&A deals with strong cultural management significantly outperform others. Jochen Werne, CEO of Experian DACH, led Experian's acquisition during the COVID pandemic, highlighting this. Werne's Navy experience shaped his leadership, emphasizing cultural awareness, effective communication, and early successes to build trust. Despite challenges, Experian successfully integrated the new organization, maintaining strengths from both companies.*Jochen WerneJochen Werne is an author, transformative leader and influential figure in the tech and finance scene, recognized as one of the 50 most influential Germans in TytoPR's 2020 ranking. As the CEO of Experian DACH, he spearheads growth in Europe's tech and data sectors. With a rich background that spans roles at Prosegur, Accenture, and global banking giants, he's renowned for driving business transformation. As a member of the Chatham House and former German Navy navigator, he is a passionate proponent for international diplomacy, having founded several NGOs. His efforts have been recognized by top publications internationally, earning him accolades for promoting global understanding and environmental awareness.*All media inquiries: media@cpoplaybook.com
Dee goes incognito while Aj puts himself in a German leader's shoes on this episode of pain. Join us for a deep dive into the enigmatic life of Wilhelm Canaris, the spymaster of World War II. Explore the shadows of espionage and intrigue as we unravel the secrets behind this complex figure, from his early days in the German Navy to his controversial role within the Abwehr. Our Website The Store Insta Reddit Patreon
Dr. Anselm van der Peet of the Netherlands Institute for Military History discusses the history of the Royal Netherlands Navy from the end of World War II to the present with John Sherwood.
Podcast Episode 182
Dr. John Sherwood interviews Dr. Jeremy Stöhs about his new book, European Naval Power: From Cold War to Hybrid Wars. Stöhs is the co-head of the Austrian Center for Intelligence, Propaganda, and Security Studies at the University of Graz.
**Reupload due to corrupt file** Join our hosts for a look at the aviation news and a good dose of conversation on this week's show. Could the search for MH370 be start up again, one Airbus gets shot at again , and Nev takes a look at probably the most luxurious airliner in the world. In the military Boeing might be making a few quid & the German Navy shoots at something it really shouldn't have Shape the conversation of the show by joining the LIVE chatroom. Thanks to everyone in the community who comes out and participates. We wouldn't be able to do it without you! You can get in touch with us all at : WhatsApp +44 757 22 491 66 Email podcast@planetalkinguk.com or comment in our chatroom on YouTube.
John Sherwood sits down with Johannes Peters and Sebastian Bruns of the Institute for Security Policy Kiel (ISPK) to discuss all things Kiel: the history of Kiel, Kiel Week, the Kiel International Seapower Seminar (KISS), and the Institute for Security Policy at Kiel University.
Catch up with the hosts after a wonderful weekend at the Irish Drone Summit. Could the search for MH370 be start up again, one Airbus gets shot at again , and Nev takes a look at probably the most luxurious airliner in the world. In the military Boeing might be making a few quid & the German Navy shoots at something it really shouldn't have.
For review:1. US Central Command (CENTCOM) X:- 09 Feb- CENTCOM Forces conducted self-defense strikes against two mobile unmanned surface vessels (USV), four mobile anti-ship cruise missiles, and one mobile land attack cruise missile (LACM) that were prepared to launch against ships in the Red Sea.- 10 Feb- CENTCOM Forces conducted self-defense strikes against two unmanned surface vessels (USV) and three mobile anti-ship cruise missiles (ASCM) north of Al Hudaydah, Yemen. - 11 Feb- USAF deployed Airmen participate in a Rapid Airfield Damage Repair exercise at an undisclosed location within US CENTCOM AOR.2. German Navy Sends Air Defense Frigate to Mediterranean. The Air Defense Frigate Hessen's final destination could be the Red Sea or Gulf of Aden, once receiving mandates from the German Government and the EU.3. Maersk CEO Vincent Clerc says International Military Operations in the Red Sa cannot guarantee commercial shipping in the region. 4. IDF night time raid rescues two hostages in Rafah. The operation was carried out by the IDF, Shin Bet and the National Counter-Terrorism Unit.5. IDF air strike kill senior Hamas security officials in Rafah. IDF finds Hamas Data Center underneath UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) complex. 6. Senior Israeli Security Officials communicating with Egyptian counterparts ahead of looming Rafah operations. Israeli Officials told their Egyptian contacts that Israel would not make any unilateral moves and that they would work in coordination with Cairo.7. Background on Colonel General Oleksandr Syrsky- General Zaluzhny's replacement as Commander in Chief of Ukraine Armed Forces.8. From Kiev Post: Five Challenges Facing Colonel General Syrsky as new Commander in Chief of Ukraine Armed Forces: 1. Foreign Aid; 2. Mobilization: 3. Defense Lines; 4. Ukraine Airspace (and Airspace Defense); & 5. Filling General Zaluzhny's shoes.9. Op-Ed (Breaking Defense) on US Army Cancelling Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) Program- by retired Major General John Ferrari. (spoiler alert- he is ok with it.)10. US Senate passes $95.34 billion aid package for Ukraine ($61 billion), Israel ($14 billion), and Taiwan ($4.83 billion). Next step- package moves to US House of Representatives.
December 2023 Eighty years ago this month Britain was marking its fifth Christmas of the war with still no end in sight. D-Day still lay in the future and the campaigns in Italy and on the Eastern Front ground on. However on Boxing Day 1943 the Royal Navy achieved a significant, if grim success over the German Navy, sinking the Scharnhorst, one of the few last remaining large warships in the enemy fleet. This victory would help to secure the safety of Allied convoys to Russia for the remaining 18 months of the war. The codebreakers of Bletchley Park played a key role in helping the navy to locate Scharnhorst and were spectators on the final battle via German messages read in Naval Section at BP. For this It Happened Here episode we are joined by Bletchley Park's Research Historian Dr David Kenyon who's recently published a book on the subject entitled, Arctic Convoys; Bletchley Park and the War for the Seas. Many thanks to Dr Ben Thomson & Sarah Langston for voicing our archival documents. Image: © Bundesarchiv, DVM 10 Bild-23-63-46 / CC-BY-SA 3.0 #BPark, #Bletchleypark, #WW2, #Enigma,
Dr. Marcus Jones of the US Naval Academy's History Department interviews Dr. Jorit Wintjes of the University of Wurzburg on naval wargaming in late 19th century Prussia and Germany.
In order:1. USMC Command Directed Safety Review.2. US Foreign Military Sales: Taiwan (F16 Infrared Search & Track Systems) and Japan (Joint Air-To-Surface Standoff Missiles with Extended Range).3. US Security Assistance Package to Ukraine.4. German Navy to lead Multinational Baltic Sea Drill.5. UK's new Defence Minister.6. Spain supports European Defence Investments.7. Japan's defense budget items.8. North Korea ballistic missile launch.9. JADC2 Q&A with USAF Lieutenant General (Retired).10. US Navy F/A-XX Fighter Program news.
This week we're taking to the high seas and departing from the endless misery of the trenches for the endless misery of the WW1 Navy as we are joined by Historian and Podcaster Chris Sams to rage that THE BATTLE OF JUTLAND IS JUST NOT THAT IMPORTANT.We'll be talking the threat of the German Navy, the losses, the point of it all and approaching that sticky question of who really won?You can check out more of Chris's work on the excellent History Hack Podcast and can follow him on Twitter @jerijerod14 Support the showYou can follow History Rage on Twitter @HistoryRage and let us know what you wish people would just stop believing using the Hashtag #HistoryRage.You can join our 'Angry Mob' on Patreon as well. £5 per month gets you episodes 3 months early, the invite to choose questions, entry into our prize draws and the coveted History Rage mug. Subscribe at www.patreon.com/historyrage Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
June 21, 1919. Rather than surrendering their fleet to the British following Germany's defeat in WWI, German sailors deliberately sink their own ships while being interned off the coast of Scotland.Go to HistoryDaily.com for more history, daily.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
On June 21st 1919, the German Navy deliberately sent 52 warships to the bottom of Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands
Episode 120 is posted.Big day for the UK Armed Forces as they support the Coronation of the new King. Also, we have an article about the NATO Exercise in Scotland. A couple of good stories from Lithuania and Germany-plus a cool story about an unmanned submarine from Israel (very capable system). We come back to the US to cover a bit about the FY24 Army Budget and the Army Secretary is questioned in regards to the recent FLRAA decision.
Episode: 2536 The Scapa Flow ship cemetery. Today, Scapa Flow.
Celebrities, by definition, live life out in the open. Spies, on the other hand, are happiest in the shadows. But rules are made to be broken. In this True Spies trilogy, Sophia Di Martino tells the stories of three spies whose fame and fortune were no obstacle to their espionage. Whether they used their notoriety to their advantage, or operated in spite of it, these glamorous part-time spooks had a hand in the clandestine history of the 20th century. In Part Two, Hollywood heart-throb Sterling Hayden takes to the high seas at the height of World War Two, earning his stripes in a series of daring naval missions for the OSS. He'll contend with the full might of the German Navy - and a not-so-friendly rivalry with the British secret service. From SPYSCAPE, the home of secrets. A Cup And Nuzzle production. Series producers: Gemma Newby, Joe Foley. Produced by Justin Trefgarne. Music by Nick Ryan.
By Jared Samuelson Rear Admiral Sascha Rachwitz and Commander Mark Baumert of the German Navy join the program to discuss their recent Proceedings article “NATO Navies Must Get the Balance Right.” They argue for a reexamination of force structure to account for the most probable threats and the most demanding threats. Download Sea Control – … Continue reading Sea Control – 412 “NATO’s Navies Must Get the Balance Right” with Sascha Rachwitz and Mark Baumert →
“NATO Navies Must Get the Balance Right,” by Captain Sascha Rachwitz, German Navy and Commander Mark Baumert, German Navy, Proceedings, December 2022.
Captain Sascha H. Rackwitz and Commander Mark W. Baumert, German Navy, discuss their article in the December issue of Proceedings.
The German navy refitted the merchant ship Atlantis with weapons hidden in phony deckhouses and side structures. Using its disguise as a freighter, the Atlantis stalked the ocean for over 600 days in 1940 and 1941. She captured or sank 22 ships until cornered and sunk by the British. Bernhard Rogge was the captain of the Atlantis throughout its service. This is the story of what he and his crew did.
Writer, Director, & Producer Steven Luke discusses with Jan Price his new action-adventure mystery, “Operation Seawolf," starring Hiram A. Murray, with Dolph Lundgren and Frank Grillo. In the last days of WWII, Germany, desperate for any last grasp to defeat the allied powers, formed together the German Navy and the last remaining U-Boats, for one last mission to attack the United States Homeland. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
On 24 May 1945 the Supreme Commander of the German Navy, Admiral Karl Dönitz recorded the following words in his War Diary:‘Wolf Pack operations against convoys in the North Atlantic, the main theatre of operations and at the same time the theatre in which air cover was strongest, were no longer possible. They could only be resumed if we succeeded in radically increasing the fighting power of the U-boats. That was the logical conclusion to which I came and I accordingly withdrew the boats from the North Atlantic. We had lost the Battle of the Atlantic.'In this episode Dr Sam Willis speaks with U-boat historian Lawrence Paterson to find out how the U-boat shaped the global nature of the Second World War. The U-boat war was not confined to the Atlantic but fought in the Baltic, Mediterranean and in every other sea save for the Southern Ocean. It was a truly global conflict. Overstretched and undersupplied, it was this global nature of the U-boat role that ultimately doomed the campaign from the very start. Lawrence helps reset the mythology of the Battle of the Atlantic within the wider context of the war itself, analysing the chaotic German military and industrial mismanagement that occurred in all the theatres and hamstrung brilliant commanders and crews. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
In 1942 the British were fighting for control of the Atlantic Ocean. If they lost this battle they would starve and be put out of the war. German submarines were pushing the British to their limits and they could ill afford to have the German battleship Tirpitz sortie into the Atlantic and join the fight. To stop this from happening the British determined the best way to neutralize the Tirpitz was to destroy the only dry dock on the Atlantic coast that was large enough to accommodate the battleship should it take damage fighting on the open ocean. The Great Raid of All is the the story of how a small force of British sailors and commandos sailed under the noses of the Germans and destroyed the Normandie dry dock in Saint Nazaire.
Slovakia Today, English Language Current Affairs Programme from Slovak Radio
On the show today, we devote most of our time and attention to the Olympic bronze winning Slovak ice-hockey team, and their glorious return to Bratislava. But before that, we will discuss a security cooperation between the Slovak military police and the German Navy. In the coming days, the Slovak Republic will deploy military police officers to the European Union military security operation in the Mediterranean codenamed IRINI.
Slovakia Today, English Language Current Affairs Programme from Slovak Radio
On the show today, we devote most of our time and attention to the Olympic bronze winning Slovak ice-hockey team, and their glorious return to Bratislava. But before that, we will discuss a security cooperation between the Slovak military police and the German Navy. In the coming days, the Slovak Republic will deploy military police officers to the European Union military security operation in the Mediterranean codenamed IRINI.
The William Tell Overture Courtesy of Banjo HangOut. I just love it when they get it WRONG! The current production of Around The World in Eighty Days on so-called “educational TV”, is a prime example of sloppy writing.Tonight's Episode Phileas Fogg in New York City — you know the home of the nation's second-best salsa.A boarding officer of The Henrietta, informs a waiting passenger “You have twenty minutes…,” After glancing at his wrist.Problema/Sp. Around The World in Eighty Days© Written in (1872) GIRARD-PERREGAUX produced the first wrist devices for the German Navy in 1898 & they didn't come into common use for men until The First World World War, after 1914. British officers favored them over the more common pocket watch. In the same episode, Phileas Fogg is shown reading a cablegram at sea, wireless radio had to await Marconi 1895. FYI/in 1943 The Supreme Court of The United States overturned Marconi's patent & declared Nikola Tesla, et al the inventor of the wireless radio.
Are things really as they seem on the surface of the Russia-Ukraine crisis—with Vladimir Putin the aggressor; poised to take Ukraine, unless his ‘hefty' demands are met by U.S.-NATO? Germany's Navy Chief Kay-Achim Schönbach had a different take on things, before he promptly apologized and “voluntarily” submitted his resignation. He said, what Putin wants “is to be respected.” What is driving Putin's current action at the Russian border with Ukraine? And is there a threat more serious to global peace and stability than Russia, that the world may do better to focus more of its attention on? #Putin #Russia #US
On this episode of Fault Lines, hosts Jamarl Thomas and Austin Pelli talk about RT and Sputnik being declared ‘propaganda' by the State Dept., increasing tensions in Europe as the U.S. and Russia appear to prepare for war, and the decision that allows Julian Assange to continue his bid for freedom.Guests:Faran Fronczak - Anchor for RT America | State Dept. Calls RT and Sputnik ‘Propaganda,' It's Audience ImbecilesPeter Oliver - Correspondent for RT | A Bumpy Road Ahead for Diplomacy in EuropeMisty Winston - #FreeAssange Activist | Julian Assange Permitted to Continue Legal Battle for FreedomIn the first hour Jamarl and Austin talked about today's top stories, how Biden needs a major change in personnel if he truly wants a ‘reset,' and debate the ethics of abortion as March to Life protests wrap up in DC.In the second hour Fault Lines was joined by Faran Fronczak for a discussion on the State Department's report that calls RT and Sputnik ‘propaganda,' if firing Anthony Fauci is exactly what Biden needs to ‘reset' his presidency, and the politics of Roe v. Wade.In the third hour Peter Oliver joined the conversation to talk about the latest news from Europe, including a senior German Navy official being forced to resign after making comments on Putin, the U.S. evacuating their embassy in Ukraine, and more. We also talked to Misty Winston about the recent decision out of the UK that allows embattled Wikileaks founder and journalist Julian Assange to make an appeal to the Supreme Court in a bid to avoid extradition to the U.S.
What was so objectionable about the German Navy Chief's observations that it cost him his job? How important is Russia the energy provider to EU? Is this a ruse for China to engage in South China sea? All this discussed in this hangout
①The US orders family members of its embassy staff to leave Ukraine. Is this a signal that Russia will soon attack Ukraine? ②WHO says Europe could be headed for pandemic 'endgame'. Can we start to consider a Covid-19 endemic? ③Kay-Achim Schönbach, who has resigned as German Navy chief, said China has a "hidden agenda" in dealings with countries. Is his mindset representative of German politicians' views about China? ④Taliban begin talks with Western officials in Norway. What can be expected?
The head of the German navy has resigned after coming under fire at home and abroad for saying that Ukraine would never regain the Crimean Peninsula, which was annexed by Russia in 2014. Vice Admiral Kay-Achim Schoenbach also said it was important to have Russia on the side against China, and suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin deserved respect. The comments came at a sensitive time as Russia has amassed tens of thousands of troops on Ukraine's borders. Russia denies it is planning to invade Ukraine.
The head of the German navy has resigned after coming under fire at home and abroad for saying that Ukraine would never regain the Crimean Peninsula, which was annexed by Russia in 2014. Vice Admiral Kay-Achim Schoenbach also said it was important to have Russia on the side against China, and suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin deserved respect. The comments came at a sensitive time as Russia has amassed tens of thousands of troops on Ukraine's borders. Russia denies it is planning to invade Ukraine.
The head of the German navy has resigned after coming under fire at home and abroad for saying that Ukraine would never regain the Crimean Peninsula, which was annexed by Russia in 2014. Vice Admiral Kay-Achim Schoenbach also said it was important to have Russia on the side against China, and suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin deserved respect. The comments came at a sensitive time as Russia has amassed tens of thousands of troops on Ukraine's borders. Russia denies it is planning to invade Ukraine.
Latest news from 22 January 2022, as reported in the Ukrainian media. Contact us at: highlightsfromukraine@gmail.com
I'm currently reading Ryan Holiday's Courage is Calling, and he talked about a writer, Varlam Shalamov, who, in the 1930s, was sentenced to hard labor in a Soviet gulag. This passage stood out at me:“There he was in one of the darkest places a human could be, and what did he find? He found deep insight into the human condition. “I discovered that the world should be divided not into good and bad people but into cowards and non-cowards,” he wrote. “Ninety-five percent of cowards are capable of the vilest things, lethal things, at the mildest threat.”When we ask about courage, we are thinking about it precisely wrong. It's not our question to ask. For it is we who are being asked the question.”We live in an age of cowards. Of people going along with the crowd because it's the easy thing to do. It feels safer to throw stones at the other side than it does to stand for something positive and hopeful. There's risk in questioning things and seeking other perspectives, whereas joining in the mob costs us nothing (except perhaps our character).But maybe things have always been this way. It's still difficult for most people to wrap their minds around the Holocaust, how so many people just went along with it. The more I learn about psychology, the more I understand how it happened, but it doesn't make the lack of courage any more appalling. As a kid learning about WWII, I had no doubt in my mind that I would have done the right thing had I been in Germany at that time. I'm less sure now that I'm older but I hope I would have acted like a man I learned about when visiting Berlin's Topography of Terror. In a black and white photo at this museum, I saw a crowd of mostly men raising their arms in the nazi salute but one man did not join them.Caption to this photo: “Conformity and refusal: Spectators and workers of the Blohm & Voss shipyards during the singing of the national anthem and the Horst Wessel Song following the ‘Fuhrer's address' given by Adolf Hitler on the occasion of the launch of the German Navy training ship ‘Horst Wessel' Hamburg, June 13, 1936. While all those present raise their right arms in the obligatory ‘German salute' one man refuses and crosses his arms. We have varying, sometimes conflicting, information on the identity of this brave non-conformist. His name was probably August Landmesser.” Wow. Can you imagine yourself doing the same? Really think about that now and how courage plays out in your own life. How often do you stay silent or go along with the crowd because it feels better than standing apart?Courage doesn't have to be as grand as being part of the nazi resistance. It can be as small as offering to help a stranger on the sidewalk. In your mind, you might debate, “Well, do they really need my help? Would I offend them if I offered to open the door for them?” And you might really worry about offending them, but you're likely also worried, maybe more so, that they would make you feel bad if they took offense to your offer.Courage is about stretching out of your comfort zone and doing the right thing. You won't always get congratulated for that, but, when it comes to helping people out, they are almost always appreciative of kind gestures.This episode discusses what courage is anIt's not super easy for U.S. citizens to get visas to live and work abroad (and the U.S. gov doesn't make it easy for people to come in either). But millions of Americans have figured out how to create a life overseas, and so can you.Here's my cheat sheet of the nine easiest countries to move to from the U.S.https://www.sarahmikutel.com/countryguide
It was the 19th of January 1915 and the people of the English towns of Great Yarmouth and King's Lynn were woken by an eerie throbbing sound from above them. No-one there had ever heard it before, this deep rumble of powerful engines in the sky, slowly approaching in the darkness. People left their homes and looked into the inky black sky but nothing could be seen. The noise grew and, now alarmed at this strange roaring, they began to run but nobody was sure which way would be safe… they didn't know if they were running towards danger or away! Then the blackness was cracked wide open by a bright flash, soon followed by the thunder of an explosion as bombs dropped on the defenceless people below. The full horror of aerial warfare had been unleashed on the people of England and when the smoke cleared, the first deaths revealed. The bombing of Kings Lynn and Great Yarmouth. A British recruitment poster. A commemorative wall plaque. Newspaper headlines of the day. The Buckingham bullet. Lt Warneford's downing of the first Zeppelin by a fighter aircraft. The L23 capturing the Norwegian bark, Royal. Using Zeppelins in support of the German Navy was a primary mission and crashes became commonplace. The world's first deck landing on an aircraft carrier, the converted Battlecruiser HMS Furious. Sopwith Camels onboard HMS Furious prior to the Tondern raid. The aftermath of the Tondern raid on the Toska hangar. Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to The Library of Congress, Christopher Braun, Geni, Crosby F Gordon, The War Illustrated, the Imperial War Museum, Marshall Everett, the Ministry of Defence and for images in the Public Domain.
Evidence is that the British prime minister’s girlfriend is exerting undue influence on the government. This is indicative of a broad trend of how much power women are exercising in government in ways people are generally unaware of. And this is specifically prophesied in the Bible. The Department of Education is setting aside millions of taxpayer dollars to ensure Critical Race Theory is taught in America’s K-12 schools. What is this theory, and why is the Biden administration promoting it? Germany is aiming to expand its global reach through its navy, including plans to send a frigate into the Indo-Pacific region this summer. Finally, I share some thoughts I gave to K-12 students at Imperial Academy about making the most of the summer months. Links [02:20] Effeminate Society (20 minutes) [22:30] Critical Race Theory (11 minutes) “Why Does Joe Biden Want Schools to Teach That America Is Systemically Racist?” [33:15] German Navy (14 minutes) “New Pacific Mission: Germany an Aspiring Global Power” [47:25] LAST WORD: Your Summer Educational Program (10 minutes)
During his conscripted service with the German Navy, Christian Dierks learned that if you're the person in charge of rules and administration, you can bring about a lot of change. He took this lesson with him to law school and in the creation of his own law and healthcare consultancy firm, Dierks+Company. Christian was instrumental in the creation of Germany's 2019 Digital Health Care Act (known as DVG in Germany), which mandates full reimbursement of any prescribed digital health application. In fact, Christian was involved in setting up the legal framework for digital health applications (DiGA) in Germany—and importantly, he convinced health insurers in Germany not to nickname them DiVA, an acronym which would have carried distinctly less gravitas. Starting with this episode, Eugene says farewell (for now) to DTx trailblazers in the United States, and shifts the focus to leaders in Europe, where Christian and other thought leaders are working to broaden access to digital health solutions. Eugene and Christian recorded this episode in January, and since then, there have been some exciting updates to the status of DVG. Namely, the list of approved digital therapies for reimbursement has grown to 13, and Germany is starting to publish early data on the impact of the measure. >>Click here to read the transcript Guest Links and Resources: Connect with Christian Dierks: LinkedIn | Twitter Visit Dierks+Company: LinkedIn | Website Host Links and Resources: Connect with Eugene Borukhovich: Twitter | LinkedIn Follow Eugene's journey of writing his first book: Hard Pill to Swallow Connect with YourCoach.health: Website | Twitter Subscribe to Exits & Outcomes Brian Dolan: Twitter | LinkedIn HealthXL: Website | Twitter | Join an Event Follow Digital Health Today: Browse Episodes | Twitter | LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram Follow Health Podcast Network: Browse Shows | LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram Digital Health Today is made possible by the support of our sponsors. Thank you to: Bayer G4A Cedars-Sinai Accelerator Takeda Roche
Shortly after 8am on the 16th December 1914, the German Imperial Navy attacked the British seaside towns of Scarborough, Hartlepool and ...
Turkey has launched a probe into the unlawful search of their ship in international waters. The cargo vessel was carrying humanitarian aid to Libya. The commando style raid took place on November 22nd, where the Turkish crew was held at gunpoint. The inspection was part of the EU-led Operation Irini, which is supposed to enforce an arms embargo on Libya. In the end, German officials conceded that nothing illegal was found. Are tensions likely to escalate further between Turkey and the EU due to this latest incident? Guests Laura Batalla Adam Secretary General of the EU-Turkey Forum Tarik Oguzlu Professor at Antalya Bilim University
Pakistan and India both submit reports to the UN accusing each other of terrorism, A defector from North Korea leaps across the border into the South, a Turkish ship to Libya is forcibly stopped by the German Navy, and the leader of the right-wing party in the Netherlands steps down for racism. Support Us: https://anchor.fm/politics1001/support Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/politics1001/?hl=en --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/politics1001/support
By Jared Samuelson If you haven’t done so, get your hands on Trent Hone’s Learning War and give it a read! Trent and German Navy officer Sebastian Goldstein join the program to discuss the book, the transition from battleships to aircraft carriers, the development of the Navy officer corps, fighting doctrine, tactical plotting, the combat … Continue reading Sea Control 209 – Learning War with Trent Hone & Sebastian Goldstein →
By Jared Samuelson If you haven’t done so, get your hands on Trent Hone’s Learning War and give it a read! Trent and German Navy officer Sebastian Goldstein join the program to discuss the book, the transition from battleships to aircraft carriers, the development of the Navy officer corps, fighting doctrine, tactical plotting, the combat … Continue reading Sea Control 209 – Learning War with Trent Hone & Sebastian Goldstein →
In this episode of Defence Deconstructed, host David Perry talks to Commander Lars Johst, Germany's Defence Attaché to Canada. They discuss Germany's strategic outlook, security cooperation between NATO and the E.U., and the disruptive impact of COVID-19. Participant Bio: - Commander Lars Johst is a member of the German Navy and the Defence Attaché of Germany to Canada. Host Bio: - Dave Perry (host): Senior Analyst and Vice President with the Canadian Global Affairs Institute. Commander Johst's vacation read: - The Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/series/BP9/rivers-of-london Defence Deconstructed is part of the CGAI Podcast Network and today's episode is brought to you by the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI). Subscribe to and rate the CGAI Podcast Network on your podcast app! If you like what we do, think of donating to us at www.cgai.ca/support Recording Date: 7 Aug 2020 Follow the Canadian Global Affairs Institute on Facebook, Twitter (@CAGlobalAffairs), or on Linkedin. Head over to our website at www.cgai.ca for more commentary. Produced by Jay Rankin. Music credits to Drew Phillips.
In 1941 the German Navy commissioned its latest submarine, the U-134 and as it slid out of harbour to join the 5th U boat flotilla, Captain-Lieutenant Rudolf Schendel keenly anticipated the mission ahead. You may be wondering why this Type 7C U Boat should feature in a Plane Tale but bear with me as I introduce the K-74. Built a year after the U-134, the K 74 came from a company with an interesting origin, the Goodyear Zeppelin Corporation. This is their intriguing story. Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to NSA, UK National Archives, Darkone, US Library of Congress, the Goodyear Zeppelin company, USN, Grossnick Roy A, Royal Navy and the US Naval Institute.
Links:1. In the Shadow of Ultra: A Reappraisal of German Naval Communications Intelligence in 1914-19182. Very Special Intelligence: The Story of the Admiralty’s Operational Intelligence Centre 1939-19453.Room 40: British Naval Intelligence, 1914–19184. Germany's First Cryptanalysis on the Western Front: Decrypting British and French Naval Ciphers in World War I5. Technology, Shipbuilding and Future Combat in Germany, 1880-1914.”6. Sins of Omission and Commission: A Reassessment of the Role of Intelligence in the Battle of Jutland7. Ludwig Föppl: A Bavarian Cryptanalyst on the Western Front8. The Ultra Secret
June 6, 1944: One of the most important weather forecasts in world history would occur in early June 1944, as Allied meteorologists prepared to deliver the final word for the long-awaited D-Day invasion of Normandy. From the AccuWeather.com archives the reporting goes that thousands of lives and the tide of the war depended entirely on teams of Allied meteorologists who determined what constituted suitable weather conditions for the invasion in a small-time window. The Allies had decided that they wanted to go in at low tide on the landing beaches and that the airborne needed basically a full moon to have the proper dropping conditions,” Historian and Author John McManus said. High winds and rough seas could impede the amphibious assault and low clouds could block vital air support. The weather factors that would play a significant role in the invasion would be wind, visibility and cloud cover. “On the Allied side, six meteorologists working in three different teams were responsible for the D-Day forecasts,” according to a report by James R. Fleming, president of the International Commission on History of Meteorology. By June 3, the forecasting team determined the June 5 would not be an ideal day for the invasion as high pressure over France and low-pressure northwest of Ireland would maintain strong southwesterly winds in the [English] Channel, meaning seas too rough for landings and cloud coverage too thick for bombing operations. Years of preparation were at stake, but on June 4, hours before the launch of D-Day operations amid an approaching storm, British Group Captain James Stagg urged General Eisenhower for a last-minute delay, according to the History Channel. According to History Channel, only a few invasion dates were possible because of the need for a full moon for illumination and for a low tide at dawn to expose underwater German defenses; June 5 was the first date in a narrow three-day window. “The American team used an analogue method that compared the current weather with past conditions. Their forecast was overly optimistic and would have resulted in disaster on June 5, 1944,” Fleming said. At the last minute, following Stagg’s advice and the other British forecasters’, Eisenhower postponed the invasion. “June 5 becomes quickly off the table because of a terrible storm that is coming in and it’s going to make any invasion basically impossible,” McManus said. “So, Ike has to postpone it a day and then he has to sift through dozens of weather reports to ultimately decide on June 6 as a kind of an opening in the system that allows weather that’s at least good enough, while nowhere near ideal.” German forecasters also predicted the hostile weather conditions; however, they did not expect the high winds or rough seas to weaken until mid-June. The German forecasters did not have the same amount of forecast information as the Allied forces. The German Navy had few remaining vessels in the Atlantic and their weather stations in Greenland had been closed down. This would prove folly, as many Nazi commanders left their defenses. “German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel even returned home to personally present a pair of Parisian shoes to his wife as a birthday present,” the History Channel reported. With a more accurate forecast from Allied forces, Eisenhower would commence the D-Day operations, setting a historic shift in the war. “On Tuesday, June 6, 1944, under barely tolerable conditions, the largest amphibious landing force ever assembled landed on the beaches of Normandy,” Fleming said. More than 150,000 Allied forces would lead the charge to liberate France from the Nazi's control, leading to the death of nearly 2,500 Americans in one of the bloodiest days of the war, according to NPR. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Link: Clausewitz, Corbett & Corvettes
Links:1. ISPK2. Samuel Eliot Morison, The Battle of the Atlantic 1939-19433. NCAGS4. What the Heck is NCAGS?5. Navy Drills Atlantic Convoy Ops for First Sime Since Cold War in Defender Europe 20206. Convoy Across the Atlantic Will Test Delivery of Equipment to Europe7. Admiral, I am Not Ready for War
Wilhelm II or William II (German: Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert; 27 January 1859 – 4 June 1941) was the last German Emperor (Kaiser) and King of Prussia. He reigned from 15 June 1888 until his abdication on 9 November 1918 shortly before Germany's defeat in World War I. The eldest grandchild of Queen Victoria, Wilhelm's first cousins included King George V of the United Kingdom and many princesses who, along with Wilhelm's sister Sophia, became European consorts. For most of his life before becoming emperor, he was second in line to succeed his grandfather Wilhelm I on the German and Prussian thrones after his father, Crown Prince Frederick. His grandfather and father both died in 1888, the Year of Three Emperors, making Wilhelm emperor and king. He dismissed the country's longtime chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, in 1890. Upon consolidating power as emperor, Wilhelm launched Germany on a bellicose "New Course" to cement its status as a respected world power. However, he frequently undermined this aim by making tactless, alarming public statements without consulting his ministers. He also did much to alienate his country from the other Great Powers by initiating a massive build-up of the German Navy, challenging French control over Morocco, and backing the Austrian annexation of Bosnia in 1908. His turbulent reign ultimately culminated in his guarantee of military support to Austria-Hungary during the crisis of July 1914, resulting in the outbreak of World War I. A lax wartime leader, he left virtually all decision-making regarding military strategy and organisation of the war effort in the hands of the German General Staff. This broad delegation of authority gave rise to a de facto military dictatorship whose belligerent foreign policy led to the United States' entry into the war on 6 April 1917. After losing the support of the German military and his subjects in November 1918, Wilhelm abdicated and fled to exile in the Netherlands, where he died in 1941. Wilhelm was born on 27 January 1859 at the Crown Prince's Palace, Berlin, to Victoria, Princess Royal, the wife of Prince Frederick William of Prussia (the future Frederick III). His mother was the eldest daughter of Britain's Queen Victoria. At the time of his birth, his great-uncle Frederick William IV was king of Prussia, and his grandfather and namesake Wilhelm was acting as regent. He was the first grandchild of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert and one of the two grandchildren born in Albert's lifetime, but more importantly, the first son of the crown prince of Prussia. From 1861, Wilhelm was second in the line of succession to Prussia, and also, after 1871, to the newly created German Empire, which, according to the constitution of the German Empire, was ruled by the Prussian king. At the time of his birth, he was also sixth in the line of succession to the British throne, after his maternal uncles and his mother. A traumatic breech birth resulted in Erb's palsy, which left him with a withered left arm about six inches (15 centimetres) shorter than his right. He tried with some success to conceal this; many photographs show him holding a pair of white gloves in his left hand to make the arm seem longer. In others, he holds his left hand with his right, has his crippled arm on the hilt of a sword, or holds a cane to give the illusion of a useful limb posed at a dignified angle. Historians have suggested that this disability affected his emotional development. In 1863, Wilhelm was taken to England to be present at the wedding of his Uncle Bertie (later King Edward VII), and Princess Alexandra of Denmark. Wilhelm attended the ceremony in a Highland costume, complete with a small toy dirk. During the ceremony, the four-year-old became restless. His eighteen-year-old uncle Prince Alfred, charged with keeping an eye on him, told him to be quiet, but Wilhelm drew his dirk and threatened Alfred. When Alfred attempted to subdue him by force, Wilhelm bit him on the leg. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thehistoryexpress/support
So its December 1901 Christmas is a fortnight away for the combatants and Christiaan de Wet was tracking his arch enemy, brother Piet. It was revenge he was after and as we all know – it's a meal best eaten cold and unfortunately Christiaan was overheating. While he stewed on the information that his hated brother was instrumental in setting up the National Scouts, made up of Boer turncoats who now fought for the British, across the world the end of 1901 brought with it a number of fascinating events, incidents and issues. On December 1st : A crowd of 100,000 people turned out at London's Hyde Park to demonstrate in sympathy for recently fired British Army General Redvers Buller. He was now being blamed for the disasters at Colenso and Spioen Kop almost two years previously where the Boers had pulverised the British as they tried to relieve the siege of Ladysmith. But on matters more prosaic. On the 2nd December 1901 a man by the name of King C Gillette began selling his safety razors in the United States. He was inspired by something that could be used and then thrown away, thus ensuring future business. It's a bit like Monsanto's seed business these days, but that's another story. Gillette applied for his US. Patent number 775 134 on December 2 1901. His American Safety Razor Company would become the multi-billion dollar behemoth Gillette Company. Bizarrely Following the commercial success of disposable razors, Gillette refocussed his attention on promoting his views on utopian socialism. Strange but true. On December 3rd 1901 the Australian parliament passed its Immigration Restriction Act primarily to restrict non-Europeans from permanently entering the country. Interesting. Then on December 7 1901 The United Kingdom and Germany delivered an ultimatum to the government of Venezuela, after the South American country reneged on bond payments. Venezuelan President Cipriano Castro was given 48 hours to agree to the terms, or to face a blockade of his nation's ports by the Royal Navy and the German Navy. Well some things never change. On December 9 1901 the first-ever Nobel Prizes were announced, with x-ray discoverer Wilhelm Roentgen receiving the first Nobel Prize in Physics, Emil von Behring being awarded the prize in medicine for his discovery of the first diphtheria antitoxin, Jacobus van't Hoff pioneering work in physical chemistry earning him the chemistry prize, Henry Dunant and Frédéric Passy sharing the peace prize, and Sully Prudhomme winning the prize in literature. The bestowal of the prizes came on the fifth anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel who I mentioned in Episode 1 of this podcast series. The next day December 10 Joseph W. Jones was granted U.S. Patent No. 688,739 for his invention, "Production of sound-records", which was purchased immediately by the Columbia Phonograph Company for production of its disc-shaped Graphophone records. Jones was paid $25,000 – worth around 700 000 dollars in today's moolah. Finally in this series of amazing things that happened in December 1901, Guglielmo Marconi received the first trans-Atlantic radio signal, sent 1,700 miles from Poldhu in Cornwall, England to Signal Hill, St. John's in Newfoundland in Canada on the 12th. December. It was the letter "S" ("..." in Morse code)., He is quoted as saying "there was no doubt that the principle of wireless communication had arrived on a transatlantic scale... This was a utility, and would prove itself beyond argument as a vital aid to shipping and military communication." And on the same momentous day, 12th December in South Africa's Cape Colony, Lieutenant General French finally caught up to General Pieter H. Kritzinger, who had led the Boer incursions into the Cape on three occasion. Unfortunately for him, it was three strikes and he was out.
Once known as the “most beautiful woman in the world,” film star Hedy Lamarr also received a patent in 1942 for a “secret communications system” to safeguard U.S. torpedos from German radio jamming. The technology was the forerunner of “spread spectrum” which is now used in GPS, Bluetooth, and WiFi. She was recently inducted into the Florida Inventors Hall of Fame, an award accepted by her son Anthony Loder, who talks about her life’s triumphs and sorrows. TRANSCRIPT: Intro: 0:01 Inventors and their inventions. Welcome to Radio Cade a podcast from the Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention in Gainesville, Florida, the museum is named after James Robert Cade , who invented Gatorade in 1965. My name is Richard Miles. We’ll introduce you to inventors and the things that motivate them, we’ll learn about their personal stories, how their inventions work, and how their ideas get from the laboratory to the marketplace. Richard Miles: 0:36 What do Hollywood, the German Navy, And the Cuban missile crisis have to do with each other? Turns out they’re all linked by one person. Hedy Lamarr known in the 1930s and 1940s as the world’s most beautiful woman and recently inducted into the Florida Inventors Hall of Fame. Welcome to Radio Cade, I’m your host Richard Miles today. My guest is Anthony Loder , the son of Hedy Lamarr. Welcome to the show, Anthony, and congratulations. Anthony Loder: 1:00 Thank you very much. Richard Miles: 1:01 So Anthony, your mother was both a famous actress and an inventor, and I’d like to talk about the actress part, but I’d like to begin actually with the scientist part, many people do not know, although recently it’s become more public through books and movies and documentaries that she was a scientist and an inventor. So why don’t we start and talk about what her invention was or what her patent was and what it’s been used for and so on. Anthony Loder: 1:25 So Hitler invaded, Austria Hedy’s Homeland, and she grew up very happy there. And she had to flee because of all the negativity that was surrounding her. So she actually dressed up like the maid, escaped her possessive husband and left Vienna for Paris and then Paris for London. And then she bought a ticket on the Normandy to go to New York where she met Louis B. Mayer , who was in Europe, looking for fresh talent, fresh meat, for his stables, for his race horses back in Hollywood. And Hedy became a race horse, and she had to run fast in order to keep on board. And when she started, her look started to fade, they kind of threw her out. But early on when she was there, World War II was raging. And she always knew about munitions and problems with radio guided torpedoes because she was with her husband who sold munitions to the Germans. And she always knew about this problem about radio guided torpedoes, and it always stuck with her. And she always wanted to help defeat Hitler and help the allies and United States win the war. She was very patriotic. She loved America. She loved being safe. She loved being in tropical Hollywood and she wanted to pay back. So she always thought about what can I do to help win this war? And then she at home and she probably thought of frequency hopping because she had one of these Philco magic radios where you turn the dial on your Philco magic dialer. And it changed the radio station on the radio in the next room. So she , well look, I’m changing radio frequencies constantly here. What if we send a signal to a torpedo and not send it on one frequency, but send it on multiple frequencies in sync with each other. So only the transmitter and the receiver will know the pattern, frequency hopping it’s called and the enemy can only touch one frequency at a time and they won’t get the whole message of just bits and pieces. And all these frequencies jumping around will be secret. And so she thought of frequency hopping and she got a patent in 1942 for a secret communications system. She came up with a way to do radio transmissions secretively. Richard Miles: 4:06 So the U.S. Navy during world war II, did they use this technology? Anthony Loder: 4:08 No, no. Hettie asked her friend George Antile, who was a musician who sinked 16 player pianos on a symphony. And he was Hungarian and spoke German, and my mother did, and his brother was shot out of the skies by the Germans and he too wanted to help win the war. So she went to him at a party and she said, look, can you help me figure this out? I have an idea, but I don’t know how to put it into realistic terms. So he said, well, I can help you. Let’s transmit the radio frequencies. And let’s use player piano rolls to hop around in sync with each other. Richard Miles: 4:49 He was a musician. He was not a scientist. Anthony Loder: 4:52 No and she was an actress, not a scientist. So a musician and an actress got together and they came up with this patent and he drew his part according to piano rolls . And by the time they got it to the Navy brass, they thought it was a joke player, piano rolls, and a torpedo and a submarine . Good luck. Just go back to Hollywood, make movies, sell war bonds. She was already a very well-known actress at this point, famous movie star 39 Algiers came out and all of a sudden, overnight she was a huge star, but all that movie stuff didn’t really satisfy her. She was kind of bored when everyone said , Oh, you’re so beautiful. You’re so beautiful. Oh , ms . Lamar, it’s so beautiful. It was all about the way she looked. And she had nothing to do with that. She was born with that face, but she did like the challenge of being creative and inventive. And she actually wanted to leave the movie business, go to Washington D.C., work at the inventor’s council and look at all the patents that came across their desk and try to enhance it or improve it. She said, well, let me look at these patents. Maybe I can make them better and Oh no. Oh no. You go back to Hollywood and be a nice actress and inspire the troops that way. Richard Miles: 6:09 So she got the patent, the Navy sat on the technology and it eventually was used, but not until like 20 years later, right? During the Cuban Missile Crisis. Anthony Loder: 6:17 Yeah. They shelved the idea. They actually did give the patent to the Sauna Boy Project, which was in the sixties. And actually it was used, but nobody knew that it was used and Hedy should have been paid, but she wasn’t paid. I mean, we’re $30 billion that idea. But at least now with people watching the movie bombshell, which is on Netflix and a wonderful film, very well-made film about her life. If you haven’t seen it yet, you should watch it. It’s very impressive. Richard Miles: 6:50 And just one more question about the technology, Anthony. So the Spread Spectrum, This kind of became the basis for a lot of technologies that we all use today. Everything from what wifi, Bluetooth, GPS, I mean really fundamental. Anthony Loder: 7:06 Right? It’s part of your smartphone . You break up all the radio frequencies and a little bits and pieces. Just your device has that pattern. So everyone’s sharing the same limited radio frequencies because they’re all cut up. Cause they’re all moved around, moving around and different patterns from the source to the phone or the computer basically. And this frequency hopping is widely used in all military wireless things. Like I put on a helmet, 150 miles away, someone else is wearing the helmet. And we’re just talking like we’re talking now and we’re listening to each other, like we’re sitting on the porch having a conversation. So weapons have it. Laser guided bombs use it. Cordless phones use it. Wifi uses GPS use smartphones use it. It’s everywhere. So had at the very least deserves gratitude thought now, and then thank you, Heidi, for coming up with this idea so we can have all of this. Richard Miles: 8:07 So I read somewhere that her patent has been cited in at least 62 other patent applications as sort of a preceding or predicate technology. So just shows you how important this insight was as a building block, to all these other things. If we could go back to your mother and her upbringing, did she ever talk about later in life? Did she want to be a scientist as a young girl? She was raised in a fairly well to do family, right? Anthony Loder: 8:31 President of a big bank. Oh , I never knew about this, but it turns out that Hedy’s family was, or is Jewish. I’ve seen the family tree go back a few hundred years. There’s Moses the tailor and Isaac, the banker and things like that. So we are Jewish and had Hedy’s very bright and she always comes up with solutions and inventors come up with solutions there’s problems and they find solutions and Hedy had a problem. There’s a war going on and what can I do to help the allies win this war? And she knew that there was a problem with radio guided torpedoes. She stuck on that. She said, if we break up all these frequencies, then no one can latch onto a frequency and jam it or interfere with the direction of the torpedo. So I’m going to do frequency hopping. That’ll solve that problem down. We’ll make it a secret communication system. So 20 years later, when the integrated circuit was invented, things can downsize and become small enough where they could incorporate that idea. And they did incorporate Hetty’s idea on torpedoes and radio communications. And 20 years after the patent was invented, the patent was 1942. 1962 was the Cuban missile crisis. And us warships had had his invention on their radios during the Cuban missile crisis. I don’t know whether they used it, but it was on board warships. And now it’s on board. Every ship, every plane, every computer it’s like $30 billion worth of invention is floating around. And Hedy actually never got any money nor credit. But with this movie coming out with you and I talking like this there’s ears that’ll pick it up. And they’ll know that this most beautiful woman in the world that she was known as, and all the accolades came from the way she looked. And she used to say my beauty is my curse because I can’t sustain it as a teenager. And in my twenties, that’s when I peak out. And then it’s all down here from there. And she had nothing else to latch on to for accolades or for attention. But there’s other things she thought of. She wanted to devote her life to invention. And she asked permission to leave the movie business and just focus on being an inventor. And they said, no, no, no, go back. Do movies, do what you know how to do. She didn’t have a close friend or a partner or someone to guide her and to encourage her to feed that wolf on her shoulder, that intellectual smart, quick minded solution-oriented person, she was Dayjah said, be pretty look good, being the movies, be superficial. Richard Miles: 11:26 And Anthony, let me interrupt for our younger listeners who may not be aware of your mom. I’m trying to think of a comparison in today’s terms. I mean, she, wasn’t just a pretty woman for a time. She was the top of the A list in Hollywood. She was probably one of the most recognizable faces in the world. She’s today’s equivalent, Nicole Kidman or Angelina, Jolie , uh , you know, very, very recognizable. What’s fascinating to me is if you look at the subset of people who are inventors, very, very small subset of people who are famous Hollywood actors, very, very small to have them combined in one person. I mean, she’s gotta be a subset of one or two. I don’t think I’ve no of any other story like hers. And as you said more than once that she felt like in some ways the beauty was a curse because you were in the movie business for a while , right? Your actor and a producer, your father was also an actor. What was it like growing up in that environment? I’m sure. From day one, right? You had to get used to having a famous mother. How did she want you to grow up? Did she want you to set aside fame and glory? What do you think her takeaway from her own life was in terms of how she wanted you to grow up? Anthony Loder: 12:33 Being a little boy with this movie star I didn’t know she was a movie star. She was just my mother. So my life was normal the way it was, but it was extremely abnormal. I mean, nothing was normal about it. Richard Miles: 12:47 At what point did you realize that you had a famous mother? How old were you? Anthony Loder: 12:51 Somewhere and people stopped her on the street map your autograph. And when we went somewhere for ice cream at Will Wrights in Beverly Hills, like 10 people used to come up to the table as for her autograph always being interrupted. I knew that all of these equities , my mom didn’t really care about all that. It was kind of like a nuisance. You know, she spoke seven languages fluently. She could join in on any conversation about anything. Richard Miles: 13:17 She’s sounds like she was a brilliant woman. Anthony Loder: 13:19 She loved playing charades. She was on the movie making, movie star path and it kind of bored her. She didn’t really want to be a movie star and, Richard Miles: 13:30 She started very young, like 15 or something? Anthony Loder: 13:33 Yeah. She started for young , uh , in Sasha studios and in Vienna , Austria . And she started as a script girl and then got a little part here, a little part there. And then she made Ecstasy the famous Czech movie where she was naked and romp naked. And she was like the first woman in the movies to have an orgasm on screen. Richard Miles: 13:54 That movie was banned in the United States? Anthony Loder: 13:56 Yeah it was. So it was and made her a household name overnight. And she kind of had to hide all that from the United States audiences who were kind of prudish. Richard Miles: 14:06 Anthony, what point did you realize the invention side of your mom? When did you know about the patent and their scientific? Anthony Loder: 14:13 They’re married , uh, oil man and we moved to Texas and we lived in River Oaks and Houston and , and big old mansion that Howard Lee built for Hedy actually. And we were living in a house in Beverly Hills when I was born. My mother divorced John Loder, who was an actor. That was my father, right when I was born. So I never met him. And we moved into the Beverly Hills Hotel. And then we moved down to Mexico where she married the man who she met on her honeymoon, seven years prior, Teddy Stauffer, who owned the Laverday and La Gila, which was this bar on the hillside where divers dive off the mountains into the water below. And we lived there for two years. And then we went back to the United States and we went off to boarding school at that time when I was young. So we cried and missed our mom. And we went from boarding school to summer camp, to boarding school, to summer camp. So she never really had the patience to be a mom anymore because the movies were actually giving her uppers and downers and Dr. Feelgood. So she became erratic and impatient and short-tempered, and we were actually scared of our mother. So she went through a lot of transformation. I feel sorry for her because she was a single mom trying to earn her way, taking care of us, taking care of a career that wasn’t on track because they were used to gold, but they didn’t have porcelain. And Hedy was specials . She stood out and they didn’t know what to do with her. They didn’t write special parts for her like they did for Betty Davis , for example. So she kind of was, well, we need a pretty girl for this movie, so well let’s use Hedy, let’s put her in. So they didn’t really care about her film career. They didn’t nourish her nurture good parts for her. So she wasn’t really a huge superstar. Richard Miles: 16:10 So even as an actress. She didn’t really get to develop her talent in the acting. The beauty was just sort of overwhelmed everything. Anthony Loder: 16:17 So she was disappointed and bored and , and let down by the parts that she had. And this one thing kept sticking in her mind. She wanted to be an inventor. She wanted full time. Let me think of things to improve society. And she came up with little cubes that you put in a water glass and it turned into fizzy Coca-Cola, but there was different types of acid water and this and that. So the water wasn’t the same. So that didn’t work out at one point Hedy even dated Howard Hughes though. He was the worst partner she had. He was the best partner she had intellectually because he did loan out his scientist that helped her develop that Coca-Cola cube. And she encouraged him to make faster airplanes. She bought a book on fish. She bought a book on birds and she found the fastest bird and the fastest fish. She merged the two together. She said, look, Howard, your airplane, wings, go straight out. Why don’t we bend them back and see what happens? I think the plane will go faster. She said, you’re a genius. And he started doing swept wings. So Hedy actually came up with that idea as well. So she was a smart cookie and I would’ve loved to been with her as a scientist mom, instead of as a cookie movie star mom who had no platform to stand on. I mean, the better you look, the more we’re going to love you that nothing to do with science and the science and the inventive nature is what’s real. And what’s important. What people can really hang their hats on. And Howard Hughes hung his hat on Hedy and Hedy helped Howard and Howard help Hedy and, Richard Miles: 18:03 That’s a great story. Anthony Loder: 18:04 There’s a lot of little stories like that in their life. So she didn’t have a friend to encourage her to go down the path of a scientist as inventor. So she kind of let it go. And she was resigned to be a famous movie star. And the fame part of it was she was known as the most beautiful woman in the world. And how long can that last, when gravity is pulling your beauty, making wrinkles and becoming not a young firm, pretty beautiful actress anymore. I mean, her life was kind of sad in a way that she didn’t have anyone to encourage her bright mindedness. And she was very inventive and she didn’t know how to add two plus two, really, but she was very bright minded and she knew of the problem. There’s a problem though . Torpedo gets interfered with, by the enemy, it’s a radio guided torpedo, but the enemy takes over the signal and changes the direction or jams your transmission controller. How can I fix that ? Richard Miles: 19:08 You know , Anthony, that almost captured perfectly the essence of a true inventor, this intellectual curiosity in which you’re wanting to know the answers to questions or wanting to find solutions to problems that don’t even directly concern you. I mean, she was an actress. This was not really in her orbit, but yet she had that intellectual curiosity. And I was struck by something you said earlier, Anthony, in which you said, if all my mother was, was just a beautiful woman and a famous actress, no one would really remember her past a generation, right? Cause actors and actresses come and go depending on the generation. But because of this, the invention part of her, her reputation and her memory is going to live much, much longer. That’s why we’re talking about her. Now. We wouldn’t really be talking about her, except for she had this inventive part of her mind. Anthony Loder: 19:54 When she was alive and active in the forties. All everyone clamored about, Oh, you’re so beautiful. And it was a short term superficial thing that everyone focused on and raised her up on a platform of superficiality. And now the science part of her is a long term , significant, not a shallow, but a deep understanding where it reaches out to millions of people helping improve their lives. So Hedy, without people knowing it is touching most everybody’s life on the planet. And in ways we don’t even know of that, Richard Miles: 20:31 Like that time we pick up our cell phone, right? Anthony Loder: 20:33 Right, like in the future, you’re going to walk into a store and the store is going to recognize you with your electronic cell phone device as being, Oh, this person’s still lives at the same place. Their credit is good. They’re welcome to the store, and they go and take everything they want put it in a bag and they walk out of the store. And immediately everything you took is charged to your cell phone because of the little transmitters that are in all the products for inventory control, for charging people. So there’s a whole bunch of stuff that’s not even happening yet. That will happen with this idea. Most all military wireless things have it . The satellites have at TRW, Lockheed Martin they sends signals to satellites that are frequency hopping. So nobody can listen to it or jam it or interfere with it. And it’s controlling the communications with the onboard computers on these $38 billion satellites that are going on around the planet. Richard Miles: 21:34 And this is truly a revolutionary idea. And it’s reminds me of the phrase, beauty fades, but ideas lasts forever. Anthony Loder: 21:40 That’s a good point. Richard Miles: 21:41 I got to say of all the guests I’ve interviewed. I think this story really captures the imagination because again, you just sort of see this pure intellectual pure inventiveness coming out, but yet from a woman who was so gifted in other ways, and maybe didn’t get to capture that talent in many different aspects. Anthony Loder: 21:57 She, she was living in a time where women weren’t taking seriously. They were just pieces of meat. They were just like a human adornments that men had and men ran the world and women were just put in the background, but how do you have to fight to be heard and had to fight to get good parts and at the fight to be taken seriously. And she wasn’t, and she didn’t have anyone on board on her side when she was going through all that, to respect her or to give her the encouragement she needed to keep going down that path. So the hot end people, the inventors who come up with the ideas, it seems that the flow of ideas go in one direction to the marketing people and the developers into the people who buy the product and the money comes back upstream and it stops to the inventor. But if we fed the inventor, the inventor might come up with more ideas. So we have to encourage inventors and support inventors and pay inventors to do more. We have to like include the hot end in the gratitude payments and into the monetary payments. We have to be grateful to all of these people who enhance our lives, Steve Jobs, Isaac Newton, Howard Hughes, whoever it is, we need to wake up in the morning and be grateful to all these individuals who helped enhance our lives. Because without all this stuff, we would be horrible. Imagine not being able to flush a toilet or do the basics. So many people thought of so many things to make our life better. We better be grateful human beings, because if we’re not grateful, we can’t be happy. One of the formulas to be grateful is to enjoy what you’re doing. Look forward to doing something that you’ll enjoy in the future. Richard Miles: 23:48 That is a great way to sum up this episode, Anthony, thank you so much for joining me this morning, telling your story. Anthony Loder: 23:54 There’s so much more to say, Richard Miles: 23:56 We could go on for quite a long time. Anthony Loder: 23:58 Hopefully people get a chance to see Bombshell, The Hedy Lamarr Story. Richard Miles: 24:01 Right, Bombshell it’s on Netflix. Bombshell, The Hedy Lamarr story, Netflix, encourage listeners to look that up. Anthony Loder: 24:08 And your website’s important too, because you basically are making a platform for inventors to stay alive and for people to understand what inventors went through, to bring their idea to market and your museum and your idea of promoting invention and inventors and keeping that whole stream alive with youngsters that come and see you. I’m just very touched by what you’re doing to keep the ball moving. Richard Miles: 24:39 Well, thank you very much. Anthony, I think we’re going to put you on the Cade Museum marketing team because And we encourage listeners to come visit the Cade Museum in Gainesville. What’s that website it’s cademuseum.org. Anthony Loder: 24:52 How do you spell that ? Richard Miles: 24:53 C A D E museum.org. And in fact, we do feature an exhibit on Hedy Lamarr, an audio tour on your mom. So I think people will enjoy seeing that. Thank you very much. Anthony Loder: 25:03 Thank you, it’s been fun. I mean, there’s so much more to say and we had such little time, but I hope you got something out of this. Richard Miles: 25:10 Absolutely. Thank you very much. Anthony Loder: 25:11 Thank you, Richard. Richard Miles: 25:13 I’m Richard Miles. Outro: 25:14 Radio Cade would like to thank the following people for their help and support Liz Gist of the Cade Museum for coordinating and vendor interviews. Bob McPeak of Heartwood Soundstage in downtown Gainesville, Florida for recording, editing and production of the podcasts and music theme. Tracy Collins for the composition and performance of the Radio Cade theme song, featuring violinist, Jacob Lawson and special thanks to the Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention located in Gainesville, Florida.
Here it is, the most significant episode yet, which is fitting considering the topic! We have Dreadnoughts, the Royal Navy, German technical ability, and pretty much anything you'd want to cover on the battle of Jutland. This titanic fistfight between to two most dominant navies of the first half f the 20th century is full of wild little facts and fascinating tales. We also dive a little bit into the reasons the battle happened at all and why it might not have needed to taken place at all. If you like your WWI with a side of the sea and a twist of broadsides, give this a listen! Even before the Arch Duke was cut down in Sarajevo, the Royal Navy was planning for war. Churchill had sent the Grand Fleet, the colossal home water force, to its Scottish berths at Rosyth and Scapa Flow. The Royal Navy had the right ships in the right place to hold the German Navy in place. The concern now was did it have the will and the men to defeat them. The century since Nelson commanded the "hearts of oak" had improved the equipment of the Navy and its technical abilities but not it's fighting experience. The great European peace had offered little opportunity for large scale fighting, especially at sea. What little experience was to be gained was mostly done on rivers or in colonial combat. In fact, Admiral Beatty, a critical British commander, cut his teeth in Sudan against the Mahdi. Churchill feared that when the war broke out, "we had more captains of ships than captains of war." Sailing, navigation, exploration, seamanship were the balliwhack of the Royal Navy. Listen for more… Devastation and Revenge by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100694 Artist: http://incompetech.com/ This week’s main source - The Price of Admiralty by John Keegan Questions or Corrections - https://www.cauldronpodcast.com/sendustheories To support the show got to https://www.patreon.com/user?u=8278347 and search Cauldron Podcast For images, videos, and sources check us out on Facebook @cauldronpodcast Instagram @cauldronpodcast Spotify iTunes GooglePlay https://play.google.com/music/m/Daq75ucopay5xe2hnyya56d4gka?t=The_Meat_Grinder_-The_Battle_of_Hamburger_Hill_10-20_May_1969-Cauldron-_A_History_Of_The_World_Bat
In Episode 81 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Safi Bahcall, a physicist, biotech entrepreneur, and the author of “Loonshots,” a book about how to nurture the types of crazy ideas that win wars, cure diseases, and transform industries. In the early days of World War II, the Third Reich’s commander of submarines Karl Dönitz submitted a memorandum to the German Navy, advocating for a system of submarine warfare that would devastate allied supply lines, merchant vessels, and warships. For a nation with a second-rate navy, this was asymmetrical warfare at its finest. With the implementation of the plan, known as “Rudeltaktik,” allied losses began to rise rapidly, from 750,000 tons of cargo lost in 1939 to 7.8 million in 1942. Every month, U-boats were sinking ships faster than the Allies could build them, and the losses kept mounting. By early 1943, food supplies to Britain had dwindled to two-thirds of normal levels. Less than three months of commercial oil reserves remained: The British were on the verge of defeat. At just the time when all hope seemed lost in the Battle for the Atlantic, an American physicist by the name of Alfred Loomis appointed to assemble and lead a team of the country’s best engineers and physicists, presented the Army with the first of two timely innovations. When mounted on Americas’ B-24 Liberator bombers these tiny boxes with their microwave antennas could detect the periscopes of surfaced submarines, through daytime cloud cover or fog of night. By the spring of 1943, these long-range bombers, equipped with Loomis’ microwave radar and pulsed-radio navigation were fully operational and actively patrolling the Atlantic. What ensued was a massacre. In the month of May alone, Allied bombers operating through fog and darkness and who could now see the once invisible German submarines lighting up their oscilloscope screens, sank 41 U-boats nearly one-third of the German commander’s total operational fleet and more in one month than in any of the first three years of the war. Allied shipping losses, in 90 days, decreased by 95 percent: from 514,000 tons in March to 22,000 tons in June. The lanes to resupply Europe had been opened making way for the ground invasion at Normandy only a year later. The Allies turned what had appeared by all accounts to be an imminent loss into the first great Allied victory of the War, all because a small group of scientists working out of an anonymous building at MIT, had the crazy idea to use an unproven technology to turn a German hunting ground into a turkey shoot for the allies and their microwave configured, B-24 bombers that were busy lighting up the Atlantic. This week, on Hidden Forces, we explore how to nurture the types of crazy ideas that win wars, cure disease, and transform industries, with our guest Safi Bahcall. Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod
By Cris Lee Join us for the latest episode of Sea Control for a conversation with Vice Admiral Lutz Feldt (ret.), former Commander-in-Chief of the German Fleet and Commander-in-Chief of Naval Staff, about the challenges of defining and conceptualizing maritime security. Download Sea Control 147 – Former German Navy Chief Lutz Feldt on Defining Maritime Security, … Continue reading Sea Control 147 – Former German Navy Chief Lutz Feldt on Defining Maritime Security, Pt. 2 →
Highlights The Government's Expanding Power | @10:30 America Emerges: 1st Division learns tough lessons - Edward Lengel | @08:55 War in the Sky: First US planes get shipped to France | @13:15 GWP Blog: Wrapup on Tuscania - Mike Shuster | @15:30 A Century in the Making: A busy week for the memorial project | @20:15 Remembering Veterans: the 370th Infantry Regiment - Colonel Eugene Scott | @24:00 Education: Poppy Program in middle school - Taylor Gibbs & Lyvia bartoli | @31:35 Speaking WW1: Camouflage | @36:55 WW1 War Tech: Depth Charge | @39:00 WWrite Blog: This Colored Man Is No Slacker | @41:00 Buzz: The flu then, the flu now - Katherine Akey | @42:05----more---- Opening Welcome to World War 1 centennial News - episode #60 - It’s about WW1 THEN - what was happening 100 years ago this week - and it’s about WW1 NOW - news and updates about the centennial and the commemoration. Today is February 23rd, 2018 and our guests for this week include: Dr. Edward Lengel, with a story about the 1st Division’s early encounter with gas warfare Mike Shuster, from the great war project blog with a wrap up story of the sinking of the Tuscania Colonel Eugene Scott - US Army Retired - with the restoration of the 370th regiment Victory Monument in Chicago Taylor Gibbs and Lyvia Bartoli sharing their experience fundraising with the Commission’s Poppy Program Katherine Akey, with the centennial of WWI in social media All now -- on WW1 Centennial News -- a weekly podcast brought to you by the U.S. World War I Centennial Commission, the Pritzker Military Museum and Library and the Starr foundation. I’m Theo Mayer - the Chief Technologist for the Commission and your host. Welcome to the show. [MUSIC] Preface In October of 1917, Wilson signs the "Trading with The enemy" act into law giving him sweeping new powers to manage and control international trade. We covered this in some detail during episode #42 and here are the highlights: Enemy owned property can be seized Enemy intellectual property can be ignored The Treasury department gets extensive powers over the international movement of precious metals and securities The postmaster General gets total censorship rights over international communications including telegraph Interestingly - “enemy” is defined as someone we have declared war on OR a nation that the President simply proclaims as an enemy OR a company engaged in commerce with an enemy OR a company incorporated or operating in enemy territory OR a company that has ties to one of the many things above. With free reign to seize and capture foreign properties - the administration sets up the Office of the Alien Property Custodian putting a guy named A. Mitchell Palmer in charge of “appropriating” enemy held properties. This week 100 years ago - Using the “Trading with the Enemy” and the “espionage” acts as foundations - President Wilson goes the next mile and issues a series of proclamations including taking total control of all the foreign commerce of the United States. With that that as a setup - it's time to jump into our centennial Time Machine and roll back 100 years to the war that changed the world. World War One THEN 100 Year Ago This Week [MUSIC TRANSITION] It is mid February 1918. From the pages of the Official Bulletin - the government war gazette published by George Creel - the nation's propaganda chief comes the following: [radio and telegraph sound effect] Dateline: Friday February 15, 1918 The headline in the Official Bulletin Reads: PRESIDENT ISSUES PROCLAMATIONS FOR CONTROL OF ENTIRE FOREIGN COMMERCE OF UNITED STATES LICENSES REQUIRED FOR ALL IMPORTS AND EXPORTS And the story reads: The President has today issued two proclamations which will become effective to-morrow. After February 16, 1918, no commodities may be exported from this country or imported into this country except under license. The administration states that: “the military situation and the tonnage situation have made increasingly apparent the necessity of Instituting a complete and thorough control of all our exports and imports. [theo] The entire second page of the article - all three columns -- are dedicated to the detailing of the scores of types of goods now under import and export regulation as well as the dozens of countries now under commerce restrictions. You can read the full text of the proclamations yourself, since we re-publish every issue of the official bulletin on the Commission’s web site at ww1cc.org/bulletin - go to the February 15th issue and read the story on page 1 and 2. In the same issue the treasury department announces that they have begun a nation-wide hunt for Alien Property to be impounded or confiscated. [SOUND EFFECT] Headline: Nationwide Hunt for Alien Property Is Begun by U. S. Custodian Palmer WARNING NOTICE GIVEN Persons Evading Law Liable to $10,000 Fine or Ten Years' Imprisonment or Both. [Theo] As an aside - $10,000 in 1918 is the equivalent of $180 grand today. The story reads: Mitchell Palmer, Alien Property Custodian, authorizes the following statement: Federal agents have begun a search of the country from coast to coast to get in alien property still outstanding. Holders of property thus uncovered who have failed to report it, may be fined or imprisoned, or both. The law will be impartially enforced against all individuals or corporations who fail to report the possession of enemy property. But the Wilson administration is not stopping there - They are also going for total control of the railroads - Dateline Feb. 22. 1918 A headline in the NY times reads The Senate Passes Railroad Bill [Theo] And the story reads: With Administration forces victorious · on every contested point, the bill for Government control of railroads passes the Senate tonight without a roll call. Determined efforts to prescribe limitations beyond which the President or the Director General might not go in managing the railroads, failed when Senators of both parties rallied strongly behind Senator Smith of South Carolina --- the Administration spokesman on this measure. [Theo] The story goes on to read: So generous was the Senate that the President is to be untrammeled by any existing law that he deems will handicap or hinder effective governmental control and management of the transportation systems. [Theo] But there are those in the government that are getting worried about the Executive branch gathering so much dictatorial power - and where this may leave the nation after the hostilities cease. [SOUND EFFECT] Dateline: February 19, 1918 In a New York Times headline: WATSON CRITICIZES POWERS GIVEN TO WILSON Senator Watson opposes power extension for after the war ends In the story senator Watson, a Republican is quoted: I am willing to confer upon the President all the power necessary to Win this war: I have voted for several measures, the necessity of which I doubted, because he stated that the authority sought was essential to the successful prosecution of this conflict; but I am not yet convinced that, ln order to win this war, it is necessary to confer upon the President these tremendous powers for a period of peace after the conflict shall have ceased. To that end let us firmly resolve that, with the proclamation of peace, the President shall surrender all the vast powers willingly conferred upon him by an aroused people, because of the exigent necessities of war: and that this nation shall return to the kind of republic founded by the revered fathers of this Union! And so the Wilson Administration consolidates its unprecedented and overarching power across all sectors of American industry, food production, transportation, finance and trade 100 years ago this week in the war the changed the world. Follow our research links in the podcast notes. Links: http://www.worldwar1centennial.org/index.php/educate/places/official-bulletin/3327-ww1-official-bulletin-volume-2-issue-240-febuary-21-1918.html https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1918/02/19/103191523.pdf https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1918/02/19/103191559.pdf https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1918/02/19/103191562.pdf https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1918/02/21/102672512.pdf https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1918/02/22/102673051.pdf https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1918/02/23/102673526.pdf America Emerges: Military Stories from WW1 This week on: America Emerges: Military Stories from WWI… Dr. Edward lengel recounts the story of the First Division - the Big Red One in action, as they face off a deadly gas attack. Welcome Ed. [ED LENGEL] Ed - Next week you’ll be joining Katherine and I for our March preview roundtable - looking forward to speaking with you then! [Thanks Theo] Dr. Edward Lengel is an American military historian, author, and our segment host for America Emerges: Military Stories from WWI. There are links in the podcast notes to Ed’s post and his website as an author. Links:http://www.edwardlengel.com/big-red-one-action-ansauville-1918/ https://www.facebook.com/EdwardLengelAuthor/ http://www.edwardlengel.com/about/ War in the Sky This week for the War in the Sky we are going to look at some articles from the times and the Bulletin. [SOUND EFFECT] Dateline: Thursday February 21, 1918 A headline in the NY Times reads: FOE COMES AND GOES AT WILL Enemy Airplanes View Positions and Take Observations Freely Above The Reach of Guns Only Fighting Air Machines Can Stop Their Calm Parade Over Enemy Lines And the story reads: Control of the air in the American Sector belongs to the enemy. Any officer at the front will make this declaration - and all have made it. Every time the Germans come over, their path through the sky is followed by fleecy shrapnel puffs, but the the chances of hitting an airplane with anti-aircraft shells at those high altitudes is so remote that the enemy aviators calmly fly along, as if on a pleasure tour. The article closes with the question: "When are some American Planes Coming Here?" The answer is published on the same day in the Official Bulletin this week: [SOUND EFFECT] Dateline: Thursday February 21 1918 Headline: First American-Made Aerial Warships Now on Way to the French Battlefront, A statement by the Secretary of War reads: The first American-built battle planes are to-day en route to the front in France. This first shipment, though in itself not large, marks the final overcoming of many difficulties met in building up this new and intricate industry. These planes are equipped with the first American “Liberty motors” from machine production. One of them in a recent test surpassed all records for speed and climbing for planes of that type. Engine production, which began a month ago, is now on a quantity basis and the peak of production will be reached in a few weeks. [theo] And so the first planes are shipping to France from the US with the aim of changing the dynamics of the war in the sky 100 years ago this week . See the links in the podcast notes. Link: www.ww1cc.org/warinthesky http://www.worldwar1centennial.org/index.php/educate/places/official-bulletin/3327-ww1-official-bulletin-volume-2-issue-240-febuary-21-1918.html https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1918/02/21/102672505.pdf https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1918/02/21/102672510.pdf https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1918/02/22/102673069.pdf [SOUND EFFECT] Great War Project Now on to the Great War project with Mike Shuster - former NPR correspondent and curator for the Great War project Blog…. This week Mike takes another look at the Tuscania sinking in the context of the great troop movements over the Atlantic. Our research for the podcast shows that this singular ship sinking was in news for weeks and somehow marks a psychological watershed for the US. Perhaps it was the realization that we were in a real life and death struggle. What are your headlines Mike? [MIKE POST] Mike Shuster from the Great War Project blog. LINK: http://greatwarproject.org/2018/02/18/a-gathering-flood-of-doughboys/ https://cdn.loc.gov/service/sgp/sgpbatches/batch_dlc_argonne_ver03/data/20001931/print/1918022201/0001.pdf [SOUND EFFECT] The Great War Channel For videos about WWI we recommend the Great War Channel on Youtube. These veteran WWI story producers are offering several new videos this week including: Russian Pistols of WW1 No War, No Peace - Trotsky’s Gamble France’s War Aims and Refugees To see their videos about WWI follow the link in the podcast notes or search for “the great war” on youtube. Link:https://www.youtube.com/user/TheGreatWar World War One NOW It is time to fast forward into the present with WW1 Centennial News NOW - [SOUND EFFECT] this section is not about history, but rather - it explores what is happening NOW to commemorate the centennial of the War that changed the world! A Century in the Making A century in the making - the story of America’s WW1 Memorial in Washington DC. In this segment we take you on an insider’s journey that explores this grand undertaking, and the people behind it. It’s been an exciting week for the Memorial Team. Late last week, Maquette in hand - the maquette being the 10 foot long first draft miniature of the stunning sculpture for the memorial - the team set up for a meeting and review by the Washington Commission of Fine Arts - one of the governing bodies for what is -- and what is not built in the Nation’s Capital. Good progress was made with the CFA commissioners providing their insight and feedback to the team. Then it was off to New York for the project’s first exposure on national networks television, as Commission Chairman Terry Hamby, Sculptor Sabin Howard and the Maquette joined host Steve Doocy for an interview recording on the set of Fox and Friends - The segment aired this past Tuesday Morning [RUN EXCERPT CLIP FROM INTERVIEW] The airing resulted in thousands of page views of the memorial webiste and most important hundreds of people making their first donations to the project. Now the Maquette and team have set up a special showing the historic Willard Hotel in Washington DC - located directly across the street from Pershing Park - the future home of America’s WWI Memorial in Washington DC. It’s been a big week for a wonderful project that has been A Century In The Making. If you are not familiar with this great project, let me invite you for a direct look at ww1cc.org/memorial or follow the link in the podcast notes Link: http://ww1cc.org/memorial Remembering Veterans/100 Cities 100 Memorials Today we are combining our Remembering Veterans AND our 100 Cities / 100 Memorials segments with an interview with Colonel Eugene Frederick Scott - US Army Retired -- born in the South - Raised in Chicago - and forged in the US Army with a 28 year military career included two tours of duty in Vietnam. A man like this does not retire - and in his post military career he became the publisher of the Chicago Daily Defender Newspaper, and a very busy social activist. Colonel Scott - along with his equally formidable wife - Beverly - who I suspect may be his secret weapon - showed up in my world during the 100 Cities / 100 Memorials project where they submitted a Chicago Monument to the 370th Infantry Regiment. Welcome Colonel Scott. [Colonel: Let me start by talking local Chicago history - Can you give us an overview of the 370th and their role in WWI?] [could you tell us a bit about the monument that is one of the awardees for the 100 Cities / 100 Memorials project] [Colonel - what other WWI centennial projects are you working on or with?] [Thank you for joining us today] Colonel Eugene F. Scott US Army Retired and Former publisher of the Chicago Daily Defender Newspaper. Link: get links http://www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/col-eugene-scott https://www.pritzkermilitary.org/whats_on/video-rucksack/2016-liberty-gala-oral-history-video-remarks-colonel-ret-eugene-f-scott/ Education Poppy Packet Fundraising Today in our Education section, we are joined not by an educator but by two very special entrepreneurial and dedicated young students. Taylor Gibbs and Lyvia Bartoli from St. John the Evangelist Middle School in Watertown, Connecticut. They brought the Centennial Commission's Poppy Seed Fundraising Program to their school, to help raise awareness for our World War I veterans, and to help raise money for America’s World War I Memorial at Pershing Park in Washington, DC. Welcome Lyvia and Taylor! [greetings] [How did you hear about the WW1 Poppy Program and what made it appealing to you to get involved with?] [How did the fundraising go?] [Did you find that the Poppy Packets increased interest in WW1 from the buyers?] [What advice would you give to anyone else using the Poppy Packets to raise funds?] [Have you been surprised at how much recognition you’re getting for this effort?] [goodbyes] Taylor Gibbs and Lyvia Bartoli are students at St. John the Evangelist Middle School, and are Poppy Seed Fundraising pros! Learn more about their efforts, and the Poppy Program, by visiting ww1cc.org/poppy or at the links in the podcast notes. Links: http://www.worldwar1centennial.org/index.php/communicate/press-media/wwi-centennial-news/4038-watertown-ct-students-support-memorial-with-poppy-seed-sales.html http://www.ww1cc.org/poppy Education Newsletter To wrap up Education this week -- The latest WW1 education newsletter just came out! Issue 11 is “Women in War!” and focuses on the diverse roles women took on to support the war, both abroad and at home. This issue includes resources for teaching about The Hello Girls, Female Yeoman, Women Warriors in Russia, Women’s Rights in Turkey -- and the legacy of the Women’s Suffrage movement. The newsletter is published by the National WW1 Museum and Memorial in partnership with the WW1 Centennial Commission. Go to our new education website at ww1cc.org/ e d u where you can sign up for the education newsletters and connect with the commission education program - or follow the link in the podcast notes. Link: ww1cc.org/edu Updates from the States This week for our updates from the States - we are actually going to look at something from 100 years ago. In our research this week for our THEN history section - we found this very interesting map that was published in the February 21 issue of the Official Bulletin on page 8. The headline reads: COST PER MAN DRAFTED FOR SERVICE AS INDICATED, BY STATES It’s worth a look with Delaware recruitment the most costly per soldier at $19 and Oklahoma the least at a dollar fifty-seven. The average draftee inducted cost the government $4.93 each. Check out the article and the map to see what it cost in your state - see Page 8 of the February 21st issue of the Official Bulletin at ww1cc.org/bulletin or follow the link in the podcast notes. link:http://www.worldwar1centennial.org/index.php/educate/places/official-bulletin/3327-ww1-official-bulletin-volume-2-issue-240-febuary-21-1918.html [SOUND EFFECT] Speaking WW1 And now for our feature “Speaking World War 1” - Where we explore the words & phrases that are rooted in the war --- In 1914, the French army still used the same military uniform they had for decades, with vibrant red pantaloons and bright white gloves. The “see me - shoot me” uniforms were one of the factors that led to their route by the German army in the first few months of the war. In response, the French launched a special unit in 1915, whose members, mostly artists, were known as camoufleurs. The french term “se, camoufler” means to hide oneself. This led to this week’s “speaking WWI “ word camouflage. Quite popular as a clothing style most often used as the slang - Camo In the military sense, the word denotes “the disguising of military personnel, equipment, and installations by painting or covering them to make them blend in with their surroundings.” With planes scouting every mile of active front for troop movements, ammunition stores and other valuable information -- hiding in plain sight became increasingly important. So armies looked to nature for ideas on how to hide tanks, hospitals, snipers, bridges and even ships from the enemy’s prying eyes. Camouflage-- this week’s speaking ww1 word -- See the podcast notes to learn more! link: http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1906083,00.html https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/5-facts-about-camouflage-in-the-first-world-war Stars and Stripes While we talking about words - in this week’s Stars and Stripes issue from their on-going feature “ A Doughboy’s Dictionary”--- Our favorite definition this week is: Socks Socks are defined as: Foot coverings composed of substance represented to the Government or the Red Cross as being wool, and possessed of the same capacity for contracting holes as is a machine gun target at fifty yards. Read this all of this week’s stars and Stripes newspaper from 1918 - by following the link in the podcast notes. Link:https://cdn.loc.gov/service/sgp/sgpbatches/batch_dlc_argonne_ver03/data/20001931/print/1918022201/0003.pdf [SOUND EFFECT] WW1 War Tech Depth Charge For WW1 War Tech -- we are going to talk about the Depth Charge. U-boats were the scourge of the seas -- taking out almost five thousand ships over the course of the war. German U-boats especially focused their attacks on British shipping, both military and commercial, the Royal Navy considered many possible strategies to defeat this threat, but none seemed viable until the summer of 1916, when naval engineer Herbert Taylor perfected the hydrostatic trigger, allowing for a weapon that could be detonated when it experienced certain levels of water pressure -- in other words - at certain depths.The underwater pressure explosions were devastating to submarine hulls while not damaging surface ships. Though only 2 U-Boats were sunk by depth charges in 1916, production was increased as the conflict went on, and by the end of the war, the Royal Navy had used depth charges to sink 20 submarines, limiting the ability of the German Navy to halt Allied shipping. And that’s THIS Weeks, WWI War Tech. Read more about depth charges during WW1 at the links in the podcast notes. Links: http://online.wsj.com/ww1/depth-charges http://mentalfloss.com/article/31882/12-technological-advancements-world-war-i https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depth_charge https://www.ussslater.org/tour/weapons/dpthchrg/dpthchrg.html Articles and Posts African American Nurses in WW1 In articles and posts-- from our rapidly growing website at ww1cc.org -- this week, we are featuring an article about the African American women who served in the Army Nurse Corps during WW1. Eighteen African American women served stateside -- and their story is not well known. Their courage in overcoming the discrimination and segregation barriers still resonates today. The story of one of these Nurses, Frances Reed Elliott Davis of North Carolina, is particularly poignant. She was the orphaned, illegitimate daughter of a white woman and a half-Cherokee, half-black sharecropper. She faced enormous challenges in her life, overcoming them to become the first officially registered African American Nurse in the Red Cross. Read more about her, and other African American nurses, at the link in the podcast notes. Link: http://www.worldwar1centennial.org/index.php/communicate/press-media/wwi-centennial-news/4047-world-war-i-nurse-frances-reed-elliott-davis.html http://www.worldwar1centennial.org/index.php/communicate/press-media/wwi-centennial-news/4046-honoring-african-american-women-who-served-in-the-army-nurse-corps-in-wwi.html WWrite blog In our WWRITE blog, which explores WWI’s Influence on contemporary writing and scholarship, this week's post also helps us wrap up February’s theme as African American History month. The posts title comes from a poster that reads: This Colored Man Is No Slacker - “Slacker” was a WWI terms for those who avoided the draft. In 1919, the slogan on this WWI-era poster inspired two young African American sisters from West Virginia to write and publish a book of poems whose intention was to “show the Negro’s loyalty to the stars and stripes in the war with Germany and to show the need of unity of all men in the fight for democracy." Read the story about these young women’s literary work supporting the patriotism of African Americans in WW1-- at ww1cc.org/wwrite or by following the link in the podcast notes. Link: http://www.worldwar1centennial.org/index.php/articles-posts/4058-the-colored-man-is-no-slacker-wwi-poems-by-the-peters-sisters.html The Buzz - WW1 in Social Media Posts And that brings us to the buzz - the centennial of WW1 this week in social media with Katherine Akey - Katherine, what do you have for us this week? Hi Theo! Flu Flu Flu This week’s most popular posts on Social Media were all about one thing: the flu. With this year’s flu season proving long and deadly, it’s no surprise that people are drawing parallels to the great flu of 1918. Against the backdrop of this year’s flu season, WWI Centennial Commissioner Dr. Libby O’Connell discussed the deadly “Spanish Flu” pandemic at the Museum of American Armor in New York. Dr O'Connell observed that 20 to 50 million people died from “The Spanish Flu” Pandemic, far more than all those who perished during World War I. An estimated 43,000 American Doughboys died of the disease out of a total of 675,000 American who would succumb. A third of all Americans would become infected with the “Spanish Flu” which would ravage the world for an entire year. You can find links to some photographs and an article from Newsday of Dr. O’Connell’s talk in the podcast links. I’ve also included a link to an article we shared from The Wichita Eagle, a newspaper out of Kansas, outlining the spread of the so-called Spanish Flu from it’s epicenter: that’s right, it seems that Kansas, not Spain, was the ground-zero for the deadly, world-changing flu of 1918. Read more about the flu’s origins in Kansas 100 years ago, and how they tried, in vain, to stop its spread, by visiting the link in the podcast notes. That’s it this week for the buzz. link:https://www.facebook.com/ww1centennial/posts/930053607169938 https://www.facebook.com/ww1centennial/photos/a.311069102401728.1073741832.185589304949709/930363853805580/?type=3&theater http://www.kansas.com/news/local/article200880539.html Outro Thank you for listening to this week’s episode of WW1 Centennial News. We also want to thank our guests... Dr. Edward Lengel, Military historian and author Mike Shuster, Curator for the great war project blog Colonel Eugene Scott, US Army Retired and former publisher of the Chicago Daily Defender newspaper Taylor Gibbs and Lyvia Bartoli, students at St. John the Evangelist Middle School Katherine Akey, the commission’s social media director and line producer for the podcast Thanks also to our intern John Morreale for his great research assistance. And I am Theo Mayer - your host. The US World War One Centennial Commission was created by Congress to honor, commemorate and educate about WW1. Our programs are to-- inspire a national conversation and awareness about WW1; this podcast is a part of that…. Thank you! We are bringing the lessons of the 100 years ago into today's classrooms; We are helping to restore WW1 memorials in communities of all sizes across our country; and of course we are building America’s National WW1 Memorial in Washington DC. We want to thank commission’s founding sponsor the Pritzker Military Museum and Library as well as the Starr foundation for their support. The podcast can be found on our website at ww1cc.org/cn on iTunes, Google Play, TuneIn, Podbean or the other places you get your podcast and even on your smart speaker.. Just say “Play W W One Centennial News Podcast.” Our twitter and instagram handles are both @ww1cc and we are on facebook @ww1centennial. Thank you for joining us. And don’t forget to share the stories you are hearing here today about the war that changed the world! [music] Can you see me… I wearing my camouflage - Oh wait - this is audio only. Never mind! So long!
By Cris Lee Join us for the latest episode of Sea Control for a conversation with Vice Admiral Lutz Feldt (ret.), former Commander-in-Chief of the German Fleet and Commander-in-Chief of Naval Staff, about the challenges of defining and conceptualizing maritime security. Download Sea Control 146 – Former German Navy Chief Lutz Feldt on Defining Maritime Security, … Continue reading Sea Control 146 – Former German Navy Chief Lutz Feldt on Defining Maritime Security, Pt. 1 →
On December 31, an Allied convoy bound for Russia was intercepted by a fleet of large Nazi warships. Over a three hour period, the British destroyer escort fought with the Germans. The conflict came to be known as the Battle of the Barents Sea, and the German Navy had been routed.
On December 31, an Allied convoy bound for Russia was intercepted by a fleet of large Nazi warships. Over a three hour period, the British destroyer escort fought with the Germans. The conflict came to be known as the Battle of the Barents Sea, and the German Navy had been routed.
The outbreak of the Great War saw one of the German Navy's newest and most powerful battlecruisers in the Mediterranean. She was a threat to the Entente and had to be stopped. Only...what exactly is she trying to do?
By Matthew Merighi Join the latest episode of Sea Control for a conversation with Captain Klaus Mommsen (ret.) of the German Navy to talk about the Russian Navy and its latest developments. Download Sea Control 138 – Russia’s Navy: Potemkin or Power Projection? The transcript of the conversation between Captain Mommsen (KM) and guest host … Continue reading Sea Control 138: CAPT Klaus Mommsen (ret.) on Russia’s Navy: Potemkin or Power Projection? →
May 2017 Highs and lows of the codebreaking operation at Bletchley Park are the subject of this month’s episode. There were a lot of lows, but it’s not all doom and gloom. We know how the war ended but, back then, the threat of invasion still hung in the air and Hitler’s forces were making great gains, not only in Europe. This was also around the time when the German Navy decided to tighten the security of its radio traffic in the Atlantic, where Allied shipping convoys were being found and sunk with horrifying success. We explore this - and the expansion and change of leadership at the Government Code and Cypher School - with Bletchley Park’s Research Historian, Dr David Kenyon and the late Captain Jerry Roberts. Also this month, Helen Leadbetter was a wireless telegrapher in Canada during World War Two, providing the codebreakers at Bletchley Park with the raw material they deciphered and turned into vital intelligence. She told her story to the broadcaster CBC, who we have to thank for letting us share it with you. And we bring you details of some of the coming summer’s exciting events at Bletchley Park, featuring live vintage music, fashion, food and Bletchley Park’s own beer, as well as plenty to challenge and entertain young would-be codebreakers. Image: ©Bletchley Park Trust 2017 #BPark, #Bletchleypark, #Enigma, #WW2,#Veteran, #History
Ian Pfennigwerth. This year marks the centenary of the Royal Australian Navy. Join naval historian, Ian Pfenningwerth as he discusses the important and often overlooked role of the Navy during the First World War. Hear about the significant role this new Australian fleet had in persuading the German Navy to leave the Pacific.
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