"HISTORY ET AL"

  Nostalgia, Psychoses, Shell Shock, Battle Fatigue: Combat Trauma and the Evolution of PTSD "That 2,000 Yard Stare." Oil on canvas, by Tom Lea, 1944. The eighteenth and nineteenth century conditions of “Shell Shock”, “hysteria”, “nostalgia” and “psychoses” all gave way to the twentieth century condition; the now familiar term known as “PTSD” or ‘Post Traumatic Stress Disorder’. Combat veterans from all wars and all generations have experienced this after effect of the violence and butchery that is combat. “Gassed”, 1919 by John Singer Sargent. Jonathan Shay writes in “Achilles in Vietnam” quoting from Homer’s “Iliad,”  “ …let me pass the gates of Death. I wander about the wide hall and gates of death. Give me your hand. I sorrow. (23:88).” [1] Shay writes of the trauma, the psychology and the effects of battle to the psyche of soldiers in combat. Vietnam veterans were shockingly removed from the battlefield to a stateside assignment and on to the streets as discharged so...

  The Spanish-American War: America’s Experiment with Colonial Enterprise USS Maine   The Spanish-American War of 1898 was the very first overseas conflict of the United States. The United States entered war against Spain and her overseas possessions.  The European powers had very well-established overseas colonies and possessions across the globe, and with it, the prestige and respect that accompanied the colonial status. The U.S., desiring both international respect and prestige, seized the opportunity to expand her possessions and territories for what was regarded to be little effort. Utah Field Artillery Battery, Cuba 1989. By the end of the conflict, the U.S. controlled the Philippines, Guam, Puerto Rico and the protectorate of Cuba. This set the stage for further expansion abroad but more importantly, the U.S. joined the rest of Europe as a military power with reach deep into the Pacific and Asia as well as securing her interests in the Caribbean and Latin America...

  “Blitzkrieg”: A Word or Doctrine? “Blitzkrieg.”  The very word conjures up the image of ‘lighting speed;’ combined arms attacks by ‘panzers’ (tanks) and screaming Stuka dive bombers that leaves  Armies in ruins. Doctrinally speaking, the Wehrmacht (German Armed Forces) had no term employed such as ‘blitzkrieg.’ What they did have was an operational focus on the offensive, combined with the maturity of technology by 1939, and initiative pushed down to the lowest level. The military balance in 1940 was such that on paper, the French and British Expeditionary Force (BEF) actually outnumbered the Germans in both armor and aircraft. So what of the speedy German victory? For the French, “no effective, functioning, Allied command structure existed in 1939-40.” [1] In addition, the French and the BEF believed the defense should have concentration in the Low countries and Holland. The Germans, however, under Eric von Manstein’s plan, boldly struck out well south of the co...

The Bombing Campaign: An Assessment B-17 Bomber close up: Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. A post-war interview with Albert Speer, the Reichminister for Armaments and War Production was asked “which, at various periods of the war, caused most concern; British or American heavy bomber attacks, day or night attack; and why? Speer replied:   “The American attacks which followed a definite system assault on industrial targets, were by far the most dangerous. It was in fact these attacks which caused the breakdown of the German armaments industry.” [1]   The Allied bombing effort against Germany during the Second World War included the first wholesale use of massed heavy bomber attacks against targets of industry, infrastructure, and against the common civilian. Approaches included both ‘area bombing’ via the Royal Air Force (RAF) and ‘precision bombing’ via the United States Army Air Force (USAAF). The entire effort comprised the Allied ‘strategic bombing’ campaign waged agai...

  The Korean War: The Transition to the ‘Jet Age’ The Korean War (1950-1953) saw several firsts; the first major clash of the United States post-World War II, the commitment of the United Nations to armed conflict, the first serious contest between the post-war superpowers (the Soviet Union and the United States) and the employment of jet aircraft in large quantities. Jets did indeed, operate across both, the European and Pacific theaters in World War II. The Luftwaffe were the first to seriously employ jet aircraft in combat with the Me-262, Me-163, the Heinkel 162, the Arado Ar 234. The Royal Air Force successfully employed the Gloster Meteor against the V-1 flying bomb. Although debated, there is zero evidence that the Gloster Meteor, even though deployed against Germany in the final months of the Second World War, ever did meet the Me-262 in combat. The Korean War would see, as a matter of routine, numerous jet aircraft from the United Nations participate in aerial combat...