Lancer.

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This was a new one on me.

The P-43 fighter plane from the era of the Second World War [WW2]. An aircraft half-way in technological and engineering development between a Brewster Buffalo and the American P-47?

At each stage of development the decision to put into production having been delayed, the war bird found to be lacking when compared to foreign contemporary military aircraft. Almost but not quite!

"The Republic P-43 Lancer was a single-engine, all-metal, low-wing monoplane fighter aircraft built by Republic, first delivered to the United States Army Air Corps in 1940 . . . While no world-beater as a fighter, the P-43A had a very good high-altitude performance coupled with an effective oxygen system."

Only a small and very limited number [t can be suggested that these were prototypes and not full production models] of these P-43 ever put into production, missions as flown by the American Volunteer Group [AVG] China, success hardly achieved!

But flown by the famous American WW2 combat aviator and author Robert L. Scott. "GOD is My Co-pilot".

"In June 1942, Robert L. Scott Jr—an AVG pilot—photographed the peaks of Mt. Everest from 44,000 ft (13,000 m), attesting to the strengths of this aircraft."

I had thought the AVG flew ONLY the P-40 but this is not so! Scott writes quite well concerning the mission to Mt. Everest, the P-43 capable of high altitude performance that was superb, other features of the aircraft found to be lacking however.

Indeed, it can too be suggested that the P-47 is merely a modified and improved version of the P-43? Self-sealing tanks, improved armaments, armor, etc. That same design team when the decision made to NOT GO with the P-43 continued work on future developments from which came the P-47? [proposals, equations, descriptions, diagrams and mathematical justifications for the P-47 put together in a package by three days of intense work by a design team!]

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Von Trapp.

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The "Sound of Music" - - the untold story!

Baron von Trapp as played by the British actor Christopher Plummer in actuality during the First World War an outstanding and heroic even officer of the Austro-Hungarian navy a nobleman serving nobly in a losing cause, a submariner of repute and accomplished in combat.

From the Al Nofi StrategyPage CIC # 386:

"The k.u.k. Kriegsmarine Helps Create a Musical Legend"

The man named to be the first commander of the U-6 was Georg Ludwig Ritter von Trapp, the dashing 30-year-old scion of an old naval family.  Among the guests at the commissioning was the woman who had christened the U-6 the previous June, 20-year-old Fräulein Agathe Whitehead, the rather wealthy granddaughter of Robert Whitehead (who invented the 'automobile torpedo' and founded the Whitehead shipyards).  Agathe and Georg married shortly afterwards."

"During World War I, Baron von Trapp proved one of Austria-Hungary’s greatest naval heroes, completing 19 war patrols in various submarines, accounting for 11 merchant vessels sunk for a total of 45,669 tons, as well as a French armored cruiser and an Italian destroyer, not to mention at least one ship captured.  Meanwhile, the Baron and Agathe began a family, which numbered seven children by 1922, when Agathe died."

The first wife of Baron von Trapp the granddaughter of the man [Whitehead] generally credited with inventing the torpedo as we understand the weapon today. The Baron remarrying to the famous Maria, the family of singers eventually "attaining fame in America"!

"The Baron remarried in 1927, to Maria Augusta Kutschera, with whom he had three more children.  A decade later, the entire family fled Austria and the Nazi threat, settling in America and attaining fame as the 'Trapp Family Singers.'”

And for the rest of the story, according to the revisionist Mark Weber, Hollywood taking a lot of artistic license inventing a fable generally believed as true, embellished to a great extent but however not without foundation:

"What really happened?"

"According to the movie, the head of the von Trapp family decides to flee the country with his wife and children to avoid having to serve in the German navy. While it's true that Georg Ludwig von Trapp, who is played in the movie by Christopher Plummer, was a monarchist who was hostile to Hitler and National Socialism, he was never forced to choose between service in the German armed forces or emigration from the country."

"In the movie, the von Trapps flee Austria in secret, hiking over the mountains into Switzerland carrying their suitcases and musical instruments. In reality, they left the country by train, and they did so quite openly. And instead of going to Switzerland they traveled to Italy before ultimately settling in the United States. As daughter Maria said years later in an interview: 'We did tell people that we were going to America to sing. And we did not climb over mountains with all our heavy suitcases and instruments. We left by train, pretending nothing,'"

Personally, Mark Weber has made a much to-do about nothing? Baron von Trapp was indeed a war hero with a large family and opposed to Hitler [albeit a monarchist and not a democrat] but please, allow for the story-telling some allowance for "embellishment" and fiction, slight but not excessive!!

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Statues.

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Thanks once more from NewsFeed we have some info on the Chinese terra-cotta army as was found buried from over two thousand years ago, guarding the burial chamber of the Chin Emperor.

Some of those terra-cotta soldiers now on tour and display in America.

"5 Things You Didn’t Know About China’s Terra-Cotta Army"

"Relics from the legendary Chinese archaeological site are now on display in New York. Here's what you need to know."

Terra-cotta statues mass produced but still individualized?

"the Qin dynasty project held all the problems of production on a mass scale. Tens of thousands of individual human and animal statues were manufactured within a series of processes that began with the molding of solid legs."

"It was by constructing each of the hollow statues upon solid legs that the Ancient Chinese craftsemen solved the perplexing problem of how to make a statue free-standing. Hollow heads, arms and legs, made of coiled earth, were joined together with strips of clay and set upon the solid legs. After this rough model was assembled, a fine clay slip was added, and details such as eyes, mouth, nose and details of dress were carved into the clay while it was still pliable. Additional pieces such as ears, beard and armour were modeled separately and attached, after which the whole figure was fired at a high temperature."

My understanding has been that this divisional sized "army" of terra-cotta soldiers were NOT a standardized generic and stylized statue but each and everyone molded and sculpted to resemble a real live soldier each and every model different. Indeed these figures as represented probably the real body guard of the Chinese emperor, at least the facial aspects of each statue the features of a real live person, a soldier in the retinue of the palace guard, an INDIVIDUAL!!

ONLY a portion of the entire burial mound having been excavated, the actual tomb of the Chin Emperor yet to be found, more amazing stuff to follow I am sure.

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Spitfires.

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Here with the story thanks to NewsFeed of buried treasure both literally and figuratively so:


"Buried Treasure: World War II Spitfires to Be Unearthed in Burma"

"Paging Indiana Jones: a British farmer's 15-year quest to find a squadron of legendary fighter planes buried in a far-off land has finally paid off"

"Buried planes? It sounds odd, but in fact this was fairly common toward the end of the war"

Found! An entire squadron of British World War Two [WW2] Spitfire combat fighter planes found buried in Burma. Planes buried as was the customary and quite common disposal technique in the aftermath of the war.

These Spitfires from the era of WW2 IF AND WHEN possible to be restored to flying condition, NOT replica airplanes but the originals, each and everyone worth a fortune. ONLY a handful of such war planes of the various types and versions as used by the combatants of the period still in existence and in FLY-ABLE CONDITION. [some aircraft such as the famous Mosquito NOT ONE flying original in service period!]

Restored WW2 warplanes not only rare and expensive but in addition doubling in value each year!

Dismantling and burying a common disposal technique as previously stated. My understanding is that there was/is a facility located in the USA [Indiana] where there are miles-long trenches containing the remains of American WW2 war planes cut into segments and buried, right wing in one trench, left wing in another trench, tail assembly in yet another trench, etc. Aircraft of all types and varieties segmented and discarded, not of value to anyone at the time.

Indiana Jones indeed would be interested in Indiana!

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Blacksmith.

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In some quarters this particular newly unveiled statue has raised hackles? Thanks to the BBC, coverage of a temporary exhibit in London, a statue dedicated to "Blacksmith". Genghis Khan!

"Genghis Khan sculpture unveiled at Marble Arch"

"The 16ft tall bronze statue will be at Marble Arch until September"

"A bronze sculpture of Mongolian warrior Genghis Khan has been unveiled at Marble Arch in central London."

"The 16ft tall (5m) statue captures the legendary leader wearing Mongolian armour on his steed."

ONLY temporary! Genghis that one man in the history of the world having the most living descendants! Sixteen million reputedly from all the wives and concubines. Genghis is reported with regard to happiness as having said:

"The greatest happiness is to scatter your enemy, to drive them before you, to see his cities reduced to ashes, to see those who love him shrouded in tears and to gather into your bosom his wives and daughters."

The Mongol tribesmen and those rulers in those generations following Genghis conquering and in many cases destroying irrevocably so societies many time more populace, many times much more so wealthier possessing technology much more advanced the societal development of which at a much more so higher level! MUCH MORE SO!

The Caliphate of Baghdad at the time of destruction by those Mongol forces under Hulagu the MOST ADVANCED AND POWERFUL SOCIETY ON THE PLANET!! Destroyed, again, irrevocably, the population of that area of the world [now Iraq] not recovering for a period of seven hundred years!!

It should also be noted that it was said of Mongol rule: "a maiden could walk naked from one end of the Empire to the other with a pot of gold on her head and do so unmolested!!"


Fancy that!

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Retreat!

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Once more from the National Geographic Internet web site we have an extract concerning the military sketch artist from the time of the American Civil War. The sketch and observations as published in the English press, the American Federal forces in the aftermath of the First Battle of Bull Run in pell-mell retreat to the rear, disorganized and without thought, panic stricken troops fleeing in object defeat and shamefully so NO LONGER UNDER COMMAND OF THEIR OFFICERS, UNIT COHESION HAVING TOTALLY DISINTEGRATRED!!

“The stampede from Bull Run—From a sketch by Our Special Artist.”

Source: Frank Vizetelly, Illustrated London News, August 17, 1861

“'The Stampede From Bull Run,' along with this blunt description: 'At half-past five the Federal troops were in full retreat, pursued at different points by the black horse cavalry of Virginia. Retreat is a weak term to use when speaking of this disgraceful rout … The terror-stricken soldiers threw away their arms and accoutrements, herding along like a panic-stricken flock of sheep, with no order whatever in their flight … Wounded men were crushed under the wheels of the heavy, lumbering chariots that dashed down the road at full speed. Light buggies, containing members of Congress, were overturned or dashed to pieces in the horrible confusion of the panic.'” - - Frank Vizetelly.

Retreat, a movement to the rear [retrograde operation] best understood in terms of ORGANIZED [good] or DISORGANIZED [bad]! The Union army at First Bull Run retreating in an disorganized manner, including that contingent of Fire Zouaves, those personnel thought to be least likely to crack and break under pressure!

The U.S. Army recognizing three forms of retrograde operations, retreat, movement to the rear:

1. Delaying. 2. Retirement. 3.. Withdrawal.

Must be undestood to be NOT merely superfluous jargon but conveying a specific situation on the ground:

* In contact with the enemy, a fighting retreat to the rear.
* Moving to the rear while attempting to break contact with the enemy.
* Moving to the rear and having broken contact with the enemy.

Organzed GOOD, disorganized BAD! For the case of the Union forces at First Bull Run BAD!!

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Sketcher.

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"The world came to understand the Civil War through the eyes of battlefield artists. Living alongside the troops, combat illustrators risked death, injury, and disease to convey the blow-by-blow of battle with pencil and pen, charcoal, and crayon. Their work, sketched in the direst of circumstances, shows terrible violence but also moments of surprising grace."

From the Internet web site and the May 2012 edition of the of the National Geographic magazine we have the story of the military sketch artist. Thanks to the text from Mr. Harry Katz:

"Civil War Battlefield Art"

Indeed, cameras of that period being what they were, the photographer such as Matthew Brady was confined to images of the "posed picture", the portrait, or the a depiction of warfare in the aftermath of a battle! Action photography NOT possible!

That void of visual reporting that the public desired satisfied by the artistry of the military sketch artist. Persons of immense talent doing yeoman work in furtherance of reportage. Sketch artists representations of American Civil War combat in a manner as it actually occurred and in a manner not possible for other media as they existed at the time.

These sketch artists referred to as specials a most fitting designation, well deserved!

See also this prior blog entry of mine dealing with the military sketch artist, a venerable trade and still in practice today!

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