Monday - June 06, 2005

Legally Blind

_{Dana Summers, Orlando, FL, The Orlando Sentinel}

   Sunday - June 05, 2005

Memo From The Skipper

just received an e-mail from one of the members here at BMEWS regarding a recent post that I published here. The member sent me a link to a news scoop and when I published it I credited the member for tipping me off about it, as per my normal rules of blog etiquette. In the course of posting the news article, I decided to get cute. Since the post was about the recent revelations concerning the identity of “Deep Throat”, I decided to nickname my source “Bottomless Larynx”. It was merely intended as a harmless takeoff on the story. However, it seems the member and her family were deeply offended by the “nickname”. I have apologized to Quidni and removed the offending “nickname” from the post.

With that said, I have to say that it is incidents like this that give me more and more reason to question why in hell I even bother with this blog. For every post I publish here, somebody out there is going to be offended. Whether through my own ignorance (as happened above) or through just plain human nature, every word is going to be examined and scrutinized for a possible rebuttal or accusation. Quite often, the rebuttal is nothing more than someone disagreeing just to start trouble or gain attention. I hate it when that happens because it distracts everyone’s attention from the issue being discussed. Smoke and mirrors never solved anything.

I started this blog over eighteen months ago with a partner who is no longer with me (that’s a “dead horse” that needs no more beating, OK?). I went into this thing with very few goals in mind, other than to (a) have fun, (b) improve my writing skills, (c) make new friends, and (d) explore the world of people doing insane things. Somewhere along the way, my partner and I became obsessed with the sole concept of increasing our visibility and bringing more people to the site. As this site is approaching nearly 2,000 unique visitors daily, is ranked in the Top 200 Blog Sites in the Ecosphere and currently has over 500 registered members in our “community” here , I’d say we succeeded pretty well.

Fortunately for my sanity, I lost the obsession for more and more visibility several months ago. Nowadays, I rarely check out our Ecosystem status. My former partner also used to send out e-mails to advertise posts. I never was very enthusiastic about that because I considered it spamming. Accordingly, since the breakup there have been no more of those e-mails. I believe that if the content here is good, then visitors will come. Some will read and perhaps some minds may be changed. By holding up a mirror to some of the ridiculous behavior of homo non-sapiens, I would consider it a benefit to humanity if I could just convince a few people to just start behaving more rationally and use a little more common sense.

Unfortunately, I see the same obsession with visitors and rankings in other bloggers, some of whom are members here. I cannot tell you how embaressing that is to watch. It is almost like people are jumping up and down, raising their hands and shouting in a crowded room, begging for attention. That is why I gave it up. Sometime back in January, I re-examined my priorities and decided to regroup. I decided that my first priority list (above) was the correct one and the first and foremost priority of any blogger should be (a) have fun. Now that I am blogging alone here, the decision has turned out to be a good one. I will gladly link other new bloggers, trackback their posts and help them rise in the ecosystem - if that is what they truly wish .... but my priorities are different.

Everyone reading this needs to understand the demands this blog places on me. I work full-time and posting interesting articles is almost more than I can handle in order to feed the voracious appetite of our loyal, gentle readers here. I get e-mail notifications of every comment posted. I don’t have time to reply to every one of them. It’s not that I’m being aloof. It’s just that there are only 24 hours in a day. Instead, I reply to some of the more interesting comments and try to put my “take” on things in the posts themselves. I give you food for thought and hopefully a little entertainment along the way to make it easier to manage the insanity all around us. This is why you will occasionally find a twinge of parody, a note of sarcasm and even (God forbid) a little humor in the posts. And yes, I occasionally use “bad words”. This blog is plainly marked as being “Rated R” (see sidebar). It is not intended to be a children’s site.

This blog concentrates on weighty issues that only adults can understand and mentally chew over .. not to mention, the occasional “skin” for entertainment. While we’re on that topic, let me state, for the record, that any adult pictures and/or jokes posted here are carefully screened to avoid bringing “smut” or “porn” before you. Now, everyone has their own definition of pornography, so I try to be as careful as possible. I listen to members and their complaints carefully. That is why there are “brown bags” and “hidden galleries”. I also try my best to use a discrete vocabulary but occasionally my temper gets away from me. I’m only human, after all.

Finally, everyone visiting here needs to remember .... I am on a stage here. You all see pictures of me, know where I live, what I do for a living and generally have a pretty accurate idea of who I am. On the other hand, there are blinding stagelights in front of me and, for the most part, a faceless audience out there. The vast majority of you are anonoymous to me and the others who come here. The more honest of you hide behind strange screen names and either applaud or throw tomatoes, whatever the mood strikes you. The more evil of you send me e-mails with death threats, flame verbage and even threats of bodily harm or lawsuits. Yes, I receive all of the above almost on a daily basis.

In spite of all this, I somehow manage to keep blogging for your amusement and education and .... to have fun.

Sincerely,
Allan

Democrats Are Spanking The Attack Dog

Oh, well. It was just too good to last, I guess. Democrats are now turning on DNC Chairman Howard Dean, saying they disagree with his recent foaming-at-the-mouth rants ....

WASHINGTON (AP) - Democrats Joseph Biden and John Edwards are criticizing party chairman Howard Dean, saying his rhetorical attacks on Republicans have gone too far.

Dean “doesn’t speak for me with that kind of rhetoric and I don’t think he speaks for the majority of Democrats,” Biden, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”

Asked about Dean’s remark about Republicans and honest living, GOP chairman Ken Mehlman told NBC’s “Meet the Press”: “I’m not sure the best way to win support in the red states is to insult the folks who live there. I think that a better approach might be to talk about the issues you’re for.”

Create-A-Headline Contest

Today’s amusement will be a simple contest to test your creative writing skills. First, go read this story, then pretend you’re the editor and create a headline. My personal entry is ....

FORD FIRES FREAKS OVER OUTRAGEOUS OCTOPUSSY OGLING!

(mheh-heh-heh-heh)

Most Ridiculous Item Of The Day

Bald Chicken Needs No Plucking

Scientists have bred a controversial featherless chicken which they say is faster growing.

The birds, created at the Hebrew University in Israel, will not need to be plucked, saving money in processing plants.

While the researcher behind the breed concedes that they would not be suitable for cooler countries, he says that in hot climates, the birds would fare better.

Professor Avigdor Cahaner, who led the project, told the BBC: “This is not a genetically modified chicken - it comes from a natural breed whose characteristics have been known for 50 years.

Removing the plucking process would also reduce pollution, he said. The process, he claimed, produced large quantities of water contaminated with feathers and fat.

However, animal welfare groups warned that feathers were important to help protect the birds from parasites - and that the featherless chickens were likely to suffer sunburn. In addition, male chickens might not be able to mate, they argued.

Two Problems, One Solution

Problem #1: American troops in Iraq are discovering hidden caches of arms and bombs, used by the insurgents to kill Iraqis, all over the country. Buried in hidden bunkers and hidden in farmhouses, these weapons caches which are being used by Muslim radicals to incite violence and hatred need to be discovered and disposed of. How to dispose of the tons of weapons buried across Iraq is a logistical nightmare. What can we do with all these arms?

Problem #2: Muslim gangs in Sudan are being hired and/or encouraged to murder black Africans in the Darfur region by the Sudanese government. Genocide is fully in progress by Muslims against Africans in this region. Muslim gangs swoop down on villages, kill all the men and rape the women, then proceed to the next village while the UN ignores the problem or just stands idly by wringing its pathetic little hands. How can we help the surviving women of Darfur protect themselves?

Solution: Take all the captured arms from Iraq and disperse them to the African women in Darfur who have survived rape, pillage and torture at the hands of Muslim madmen. It wouldn’t take long for the outraged ladies of Darfur to solve their problem and solve our problem too. Hell, we might even be able to convince Jesse Jackson to go over there to “oversee” the operation .... you never know where a stray bullet may land. It’s a win-win-win situation, I tell you.

I Like This Idea

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In a file photo Armen Derhohannesian, of Hampton, N.H., verifies his fingerprint at the American Airlines terminal at Logan Airport Monday, Aug. 9, 2004, in Boston during a 90-day pilot program allowing frequent fliers to cut down on their airplane boarding times. The passengers must agree to be fingerprinted, have their eyes scanned and submit to background checks first. (AP Photo/Lisa Poole)

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Believe it or not, I like this idea. Why? Because I’m already two-thirds of the way there. Having served in the USAF in Strategic Air Command (SAC - now ACC) and worked for years as a DoD government contractor (both of which require a mimimum clearance of Secret) the FBI already has my fingerprints on file as well as the results of numerous background checks. All I need is a a retinal scan and I can breeze through airports just like O.J. Simpson used to do in those old Hertz commercials .... .... .... on second thought, scratch that analogy. You know what I mean. How about you? Would you be willing to get fingerprinted, retinal scanned and have a background check to avoid the long security lines, removing your shoes, belts and pocket change, etc.?

Most Ridiculous Headline Of The Day

HERO CHIHUAHUA BITES OFF GRIZZLY’S NUTS TO SAVE MISTRESS!
(even worse, a picture is included)

Star Wars: Revenge Of The Nerds

A long time ago (last week) ....
In a galaxy far, far away (Brooklyn) ....



This geek masterpiece was built by 23-year-old David Barry, of Brooklyn, New York. Barry said a man came to him in a dream, dressed all in black and breathing heavily through a black helmet, and gave him instructions on how to build this .... uh .... workstation. I see it’s running Windoze. Tsk .. tsk .. tsk ....

   Saturday - June 04, 2005

Monday Morning Reveille

Just to prepare you all a little ahead of time .... our official BMEWS Historian, Tannenberg, has asked to take leave this weekend and has left the task of covering the anniversary of D-Day to yours truly. I have gotten spoiled reading Tann’s excellent war stories of Jutland and Midway. My love of history has been well satisfied with his submissions.

Last year, I covered the anniversary of D-Day with maps and strategic overviews. This year I’ve prepared something entirely different. I have spent the last four hours surfing the net, going through my library and putting together an interesting tribute.

I hope you’ll join me this Monday, June 6. Reveille will be at 5:00am, at which time the tribute will be posted. Until then, enjoy the weekend and enjoy the freedom that was given to you by those brave men on the beaches of Normandy ....

Most Ridiculous Item Of The Day

Wachovia Bank is going to pay “black-blackmail” and apologize for slaves it never owned before it ever existed (thanks to Fark.com for that beautiful headline) ....

Charlotte, NC-- Wachovia Corporation is following up its apology for its slave-owning past by offering to help educate people about black history. The bank this week announced that it had discovered two predecessor institutions owned slaves.

The Charlotte-based bank also says it will make a financial contribution to education in black history. A spokeswoman declined to say how much the bank would pay, saying it wants to avoid appearing to place a price tag on the damage caused by slavery.

The historic investigation came after criticism by a member of the Chicago Board of Aldermen. She said Wachovia lied on a statement in January claiming it had no evidence of slave-owning by its predecessor institutions.

Chicago law requires companies it contracts with to disclose any past profits from slavery. Alderman Dorothy Tillman said she’ll review Wachovia’s follow-up statement and decide whether to urge the city to break its contract with the bank.

News For Nerds Only

Apple Computer announced today that apparently Hell has frozen over and the company will start using Intel chips in their PC’s.

Apple Computer plans to announce Monday that it’s scrapping its partnership with IBM and switching its computers to Intel’s microprocessors, CNET News.com has learned.

Apple has used IBM’s PowerPC processors since 1994, but will begin a phased transition to Intel’s chips, sources familiar with the situation said. Apple plans to move lower-end computers such as the Mac Mini to Intel chips in mid-2006 and higher-end models such as the Power Mac in mid-2007, sources said.

Apple successfully navigated a switch in the 1990s from Motorola’s 680x0 line of processors to the Power line jointly made by Motorola and IBM. That switch also required software to be revamped to take advantage of the new processors’ performance, but emulation software permitted older programs to run on the new machines. (Motorola spinoff Freescale currently makes PowerPC processors for Apple notebooks and the Mac Mini.)

Note: if you must know, the “endian” architecture is a definition of how a computer chip handles bits in its registers at the very lowest level, machine code, which is pure one’s and zero’s. Suffice it to say that one of the architectures reads bits normally and the other is dyslexic. I’ll leave it to the geeks to argue which is which. You just had to ask, didn’t you?

Sleeping With The Enemy

_{Robert Ariail, The State, South Carolina}

SPOT ON THE OCEAN, PIVOT OF HISTORY:  3-5 JUN 1942

“Far to the northwest of Hawaii lies a small coral atoll known as Midway.  No nodding palm trees, no languorous Polynesian maidens entice the tourists.  Only rough coral sand, scrub grass, and gooney birds characterize this featureless bit of waste real estate…

Pre-war Japanese planning had envisioned a campaign of conquest to be carried out in phases.  Only the first phase was specifically defined; the plans of succeeding phases would naturally depend on the outcome of the first phase.

That had proceeded well ahead of schedule.  HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse had been ambushed off Malaya by Japanese land-based air.  In this sequel to Pearl Harbor, two of the Royal Navy’s finest capital ships were sunk (and so was a longstanding controversy over the vulnerability of capital ships to aircraft).  By the end of March 1942, the Japanese had overrun much of Southeast Asia and were thrusting through Burma.  Indochina, Malaya, and Thailand were all gone.  India was threatened.  Singapore had fallen on February 15. 

Bataan and Corregidor were still holding out, but the fall of the Philippines was plainly only a matter of time.  The remnants of Allied Western Pacific sea power had been shattered in the Battle of the Java Sea at the end of February, and gallant USS Houston CA-30, one of the last survivors of the ill-starred “ABDA” fleet, had gone down with blazing guns at the Battle of the Sunda Strait.  The Netherlands East Indies (now Indonesia), with their glut of oil, were securely in the Japanese bag.  The greater part of Japan’s war effort was still engaged with the Chinese dragon, but that made Japan’s conquests of early 1942 appear that much more incredible.

By April, Admiral Nagumo’s carrier striking force was ravaging the Indian Ocean in an attempt to remove threats to their western flank.  They smashed Colombo in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and sank the old carrier HMS Hermes and two cruisers, and they played havoc with merchant shipping in the area.  The Royal Navy was driven back from India and Ceylon to bases on the east coast of Africa.  The tide of Imperial conquest had almost reached its high-water mark.

“First discovered in 1859, Midway served variously as a coaling station and a treasure trove for Japanese feather collectors during the nineteenth century.  In 1903 a cable station was established there, but it was not until 1935 that Pan American World Airways began to develop the island as a stopover point for its trans-Pacific Clippers.  They established airport facilities and a small hotel for their passengers.  Five years later the Navy built a small naval air station on Eastern Island, the smaller of the two habitable ones that make up ninety-nine percent of Midway’s dry ground.  The larger, Sand Island, was already in use for the Pan Am facilities….

With the first phase of Imperial conquest largely complete, the Japanese were faced with the problem of what to do next.  Some wished to revert to a strategic defensive, taking the view that Japan now had all the territory and resources it would need to withstand any Allied counterattack, and should concentrate on holding what it had.  Others, however, notably in the Naval General Staff, wanted to push on to the south.  They saw Australia as the base for a counteroffensive that it was, and they wanted it taken, or at least isolated and neutralized.  Their chosen targets were Fiji, Samoa and New Caledonia.

Others wanted to strike west and “liberate” increasingly tumultous British India, and eventually tie up with Rommel in the Middle East.  And still others, primarily in the Army, always had their eyes aimed northward at the old foe of Port Arthur, Mukden and Tsushima--Russia, lately the Soviet Union.

At Combined Fleet Headquarters, however, they wanted to go east, toward Midway and Hawaii, in search of the “decisive battle” with the U.S. Navy that had dominated Japanese naval doctrine since well before war’s outbreak.  Pearl Harbor, however gratifying, had been only a partial success, and the more thoughtful Imperial Navy men knew it well enough.

”Midway Island acts as a sentry for Hawaii,” wrote Admiral Nagumo.  Therein lay its key role.  Of little value in itself, Midway, by its location, was the key to the American position in the Hawaiian Islands.  The Americans had to hold Midway.”

Yamamoto knew it, too.  He also realized that in order to draw the U.S. Navy into the “decisive battle” he so greatly desired, he would have to take or at least threaten something the Americans could not afford to lose.  Midway filled his bill admirably.  The debate over future Japanese strategy was acrimonious; however, Yamamoto stuck to his guns:

”Midway was the key to Japanese victory, as Admiral Yamamoto saw it.  He knew he had to defeat the American Navy in 1942, or Japan would lose the war.  Far more than most Japanese, Yamamoto had a thorough respect for the American capacity to build ships, planes, and guns enough to overwhelm the Japanese Empire.  As he saw it, the only chance was to inflict such an overwhelming defeat on the U.S. Navy while it was still weak that America would lose all will to fight and would be content to permit Japan to have her way in Asia.  In his mind, the capture of Midway was of far less importance than the expected battle nearby….”

As winter gave way to spring, Yamamoto’s desire for the “decisive battle” was given progressive impetus.  Roving American carriers, missed at Pearl Harbor and now tuning up their battle skills, probed at various island groups comprising Japan’s eastern sea frontier.  The dashing Admiral Halsey in USS Enterprise CV-6 hit Marcus Island, 999 miles from Tokyo, causing such alarm in Japan that an air-raid alert was sounded in Tokyo.  These were mere pinpricks, compared to the victories rolled up by the Imperial forces, but they nettled Yamamoto and made him more determined than ever to finish off the U.S. Pacific Fleet.

Other priorities, however, could not be ignored.  Those who wanted to isolate Australia had a point.  General MacArthur, supreme Allied commander in the southwest, was only a nuisance now, but he would be a menace if allowed to gather forces for a counterattack.  And he had an advance base in the unoccupied southern coast of New Guinea (never completely overrun by Imperial forces).  This base was Port Moresby, and the Imperial attempt to take it culminated in the Battle of the Coral Sea in early May 1942, the first carrier battle of the war, and the first naval battle in history in which the opposing forces never came within sight of each other.

Coral Sea would go down as a tactical victory and strategic defeat for Japan.  The Port Moresby invasion was “canceled” (and in the event, never rescheduled).  The U.S. Navy lost fleet carrier USS Lexington CV-2 at Coral Sea, and USS Yorktown CV-5 was heavily damaged. On the other hand, however, on May 17, fleet carrier HJMSShokaku hobbled into the naval base at Kure with a shattered flight deck and a bow burned out by American bombs.  Her sister, HJMS Zuikaku, followed, undamaged but with a decimated air group that could not be quickly replenished.  Both carriers (unlike USS Yorktown) were to be absent from Midway, a loss that proved crucial in the event.

Even as late as April, with the Port Moresby campaign firmly in the cards, Yamamoto’s proposed Midway operation was still the subject of fierce debate, in the Imperial Navy and outside of it.  But on April 18, all debate on the topic went by the board.

On this day, Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle’s sixteen B-25’s, launched from USS Hornet CV-8, swept in on their famous “Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo” raid.  With USS Enterprise CV-6 providing escort and air cover, swashbuckling Admiral Halsey had carried off his most daring raid to date.  The material damage was small, but the Japanese leaders (Yamamoto especially) were mortified and incensed.  A number of bad decisions grew out of their shock and wounded pride.

And no more debate about Midway now.

”,,,possession of Midway would plug the gap through which Halsey’s carriers had raced to bomb Tokyo.” The profound embarrassment felt by the Japanese military at their failure to protect the Emperor from such danger determined them to make amends at whatever cost.”

Much of the necessary groundwork for a Japanese eastern thrust had already been laid, and many were certain that sooner or later, the Japanese would be back to take care of unfinished business left over from Pearl Harbor.  Japan had advance bases scattered eastward across the Pacific in the islands (formerly German colonies) now known as the “Mandates,” spoils of World War I.  Among these islands were the Carolines, the Marianas, and the Marshalls. 

The Marshalls were uncomfortably close to Hawaii, and indeed, it was thought at first that the Pearl Harbor strike force came from bases in the Marshalls.  The anchorages and bases of the “Mandates,” such as Truk, Saipan, Jaluit, Eniwetok and Kwajalein, would become well known over coming months and years.  Later they would serve as defense perimeters that had to be cracked; now, they provided valuable forward staging areas for such operations as the Midway campaign.

Guam, sole American possession in the Marianas, had been snapped up within days of war’s outbreak.  Wake Island was now part of Japan’s outer defense perimeter, and Hawaii as well as Midway was highly exposed.  In the wake of Pearl Harbor and the retreat of remaining American battleships to the West Coast, Admiral Nimitz, CINCPAC, had only a handful of carriers and supporting ships, plus his submarines, to stand between the Japanese and Hawaii. 

If Hawaii fell, nothing would stand between Yamamoto and the West Coast.  And as Yamamoto saw it, the key to Hawaii was Midway.

”Yamamoto did not anticipate that the cost would be very great.  The Japanese fleet available for the operations outnumbered the battered U.S. Pacific Fleet in every category.  Fresh from their victories in the South Pacific, the Japanese Navy men, officers and enlisted alike, believed that any meeting with the U.S. Navy would be a pushover….”

And well they might.  They had 11 battleships available; the U.S. Navy had none.  They had 8 carriers available, and the U.S. Navy had only 3, one of them (USS Yorktown) crippled from her Coral Sea damage.  In ships available for Midway, the Americans were outnumbered 22 to 13 in cruisers and 57 to 30 in destroyers.  Only in submarines did they hold a slim advantage (one boat).  By all “conventional wisdom,” they should be a hands-down loser in any “decisive battle” with the Imperial Navy.

“A lesser man than…Nimitz….might have thrown in the sponge.  But never for an instant did he lose heart.  He had one enormous advantage.  For some months now, the Americans had been reading the Japanese naval code, and although not all details were sent by radio, the Japanese had rather thoroughly compromised their plans.  Nimitz, as early as May 10, had known pretty much that the Japanese were going to make a major move in the Central and North Pacific, that it would come in the first week of June, and that nearly all of the Japanese Navy would be committed…”

Codebreakers operating in the basements of Pearl Harbor soon provided Nimitz with the final clues to Japanese intentions.  Repeated intercepts concerning “Objective AF” were thought to mean Midway, and at the instigation of leading black-chamber code-cracker, Commander Joe Rochefort, Midway faked a radio message to the effect that its fresh-water machinery had broken down.  Two days later, the Americans intercepted a Japanese message reporting that “AF” was low on fresh water.

So “AF” was determined to be Midway.  Other intercepts designated objectives “AL,” “AO” and “AOB,” all definitely in the Aleutian Islands, stretching westward in a forlorn, dreary, fog-bound arc from Alaska.  From these intercepts, Admiral Nimitz correctly divined a major Japanese thrust at Midway, with a subsidiary thrust into the Aleutians, and he correctly evaluated the Aleutian thrust as a diversion.  It had to be covered, however; a force of cruisers and destroyers under Admiral Theobald headed north.  Admiral Nimitz forwarded the remainder of his strength, built around carriers USS Enterprise, Hornet, and Yorktown, to the Midway area.

He did this under heavy sniping from the flanks and rear.  Many in Washington and elsewhere believed that Hawaii or the West Coast was the real target.  In the spring of 1942, the prospect of Japanese carrier strikes, or even troop landings, on the West Coast was not fantasy.  I-boats had shelled targets on the West Coast.  Fear of Fifth Columnists and saboteurs was rampant, and contributed mightily to the notorious internment of Japanese-Americans.  Many believed that Nimitz should guard against an attack on Hawaii and the West Coast, instead of guarding Midway.

He had faith, however, in his officers and men, and in the intelligence they provided him, and he resisted the naysayers.  He knew the risks of trying to outguess the Japanese, but he was convinced that the calculated risk of preparing for battle at Midway was a calculation in his favor.
And so it proved.

Thus, on June 3, 1942, in the vicinity of two sandspits a thousand miles from anywhere, the fate of the Pacific War would hang in the balance. And by dawn on June 6, four Japanese fleet carriers and a heavy cruiser would be on the bottom, joined by USS Yorktown and a destroyer, USS Hammann DD-412.

Yamamoto ordered the Imperial Navy to retire, Midway was saved, and by extension Hawaii. All the Japanese had to show for their effort were two desolate Aleutian islets, Attu and Kiska, forlorn fruits of their diversionary campaign.

Parity had been restored to the Pacific War, and the ball changed hands.  On the defensive until Midway, the United States would shortly assume the offensive at Guadalcanal.

As Walter Lord noted, “They had no right to win.  Yet they did, and in doing so they changed the course of a war.  More than that, they added a new name—Midway—to that small list that inspires men by example…like Marathon, the Armada, the Marne.  Even against the greatest of odds, there is something in the human spirit—a magic blend of skill, faith, and valor—that can lift men from certain defeat to incredible victory.”

---

There are many excellent accounts of the battle that ensued.  My favorite among them remains Walter Lord’s Incredible Victory (New York:  Harper & Row, 1967).  Many, more detailed accounts have been published since; however, Lord’s work is probably still the best one for the layman.

A good online accounts may be found at

http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq81-1.htm

This is the official U.S. Navy historical site, and there is much good information here on a variety of naval historical topics.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS:  Quotations are drawn from Captain Henry H. Adams, 1942:  The Year that Doomed the Axis (New York:  David McKay, 1967).

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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

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It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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