On July 19, 1545 the Mary Rose, pride of Henry VIII's fleet, sank in the waters near Portsmouth. The King himself witnessed the catastrophe unfold from the shore. Only about 30 out of the crew of around 500 were saved. The exact cause of the tragedy remains somewhat mysterious. According to one survivor's record, the Mary Rose, opposing a hostile French fleet, had fired her guns from one side and was turning to fire again when she dipped her open gun ports below the water and sank immediately. Other accounts suggest that French gunfire may have been responsible.
Commander K. and Henry VIII, Mary Rose Museum
What is certain is that she settled to the bottom that afternoon and about half the ship was eventually covered with silt for over 400 years. It was this silt that preserved half the ship's timbers from destruction. An extraordinary archaeological project spanning many years located the ship in 1971 and recovered many items. In 1982 half of the ship was brought to the surface for the fist time since its sinking in 1545. Prince Charles himself dove to the Mary Rose shipwreck and watched when she was resurfaced on October 11, 1982.
Mary Rose 2013
From 1994 the ship has been spared with a water-soluble wax to strengthen the wooden hull. Now the ships's timbers are being dried in a temperature controlled environment until 2017.
Mary Rose bronze canons
The Mary Rose served for 34 years as a warship in the Tudor Royal Navy. She fought in two naval engagements: Brest in 1512 and the Battle of Solent in 1545. She carried over 70 bronze guns that fired iron and hand-carved stone cannonballs. She also had a complement of archers who fired their longbows from the Castle deck.
Bronze Canon, Mary Rose Museum
The new Mary Rose Museum (http://www.maryrose.org/) in Portsmouth opened in the May of 2013 and has now become one of the premiere tourist destinations in England. Three floors offer visitors a comprehensive view of the ship. Over 19,000 objects that were found from the ship are on display in the Museum. There were, for example, 137 longbows and 3,500 wooden arrows. A visitor can gain a appreciation for many of the realities of everyday life in the Tudor period.
"Hatch" and Backgammon board
Even the skeleton of "Hatch" the dog is on display. You can purchase "Mary Rose" beer in the Museum gift shop!
Britain is an island nation with a proud maritime and naval tradition. The Royal Navy is the "Senior Service" in the British military. The Mary Rose has thankfully been preserved so that future generations will be able to explore this rich history.
Commander K. at Guards Chapel, London
The only part of the Chapel NOT destroyed on June 18, 1944
The Guards Chapel in London is easily visited today. It is just across from St. James Park near the St James Park Tube station. The Guards Museum which tells the full story of the five Guards regiments that guard the Royal family (http://americanconservativeinlondon.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/guards-museum-london.html) is just across the way.
I will allow Rick Atkinson to tell what happened to the Guards Chapel in World War II. The Germans referred to London as "Target 42" at the time...
Guards Chapel, Floor Memorial
"Even on the sabbath morn, antiaircraft crews across Target 42 manned their guns and scanned the southeastern sky for the apparition soon called Doodlebug, Hell Hound, Buzz Bomb, Rocket Gun, Headless Horseman, or, simply, It. Earlier in the week some gunners had crowed in jubilation at shooting down what they believed were German bombers but were now known to be pilotless bombs designed to fall from the sky. This Sunday, June 18, was Waterloo day, and worshippers packed London churches to commemorate the British Army's victory over Napoleon in 1815, and to petition the divine for help again.
British Army Campaign Colours, Guards Chapel
In the Guards Chapel at Wellington Barracks on Birdcage Walk, across front the former pig meadow and leper colony currently known as St. James's Park, a full-throated congregation belted out the "Te Deum" and prepared to take communion from the Bishop of Maidstone. 'To Thee all angels cry aloud,' they sang, 'the heavens and all the powers therein.' At 11:10 a.m. an annoying growl from those same heavens grew louder. Ernest Hemingway heard it in his Dorchester Hotel suite, where he was making pancakes with buckwheat flour and bourbon; from the window he looked for the telltale 'white-hot bunghole' of a jet engine. Pedestrians in Parliament square heard it whistle and fell flat, covering their head. Clementine Churchill, the prime minister's wife, heard it in Hyde Park, where she was visiting the gun battery in which her daughter Mary volunteered. The Guards Chapel congregation heard it and kept singing. Then they heard nothing--that most terrifying of all sounds--as the engine quit, the bunghole winked out, and the black cruciform fell. Through the Chapel's reinforced concrete roof it plummeted before detonating in a white blast that blew out walls, blew down support pillars, and stripped leaves from St James's plane trees. A funnel o smoke curled fifteen hundred feet above the wrecked nave; rubble ten feet deep buried the pews even as six candles still guttered on the altar and the bishop stood unharmed. One hundred and twenty-one others were dead and many more injured. Two thousand memorial plaques accumulated by Guards regiments during eons of war lay pulverised, although a mosaic donated by Queen Victoria remained intact: 'Be thou faithful unto death and I will give you a crown of life.'
Guards Band, Wellington Barracks, London
Clementine Churchill hastened home to alert the prime minister, who was still reviewing papers in bed at 10 Downing street. 'The Guards Chapel,' she told him, 'is destroyed.' Among other, several musicians from the Coldstream Guards were found in a side gallery, still holding their instruments as if in a wax tableau, surely faithful unto death. Churchill wept. That afternoon he motored to Bushy Park and asked Eisenhower to redouble efforts against the flying bomb." (Source: The Guns at Last Light, Rick Atkinson, 2013 www.amzn.com/0805062904).
Instant Classic
The V-1 Rocket that destroyed the Guards Chapel that day was a reliable and cheap weapon that cost about 150 pounds in 1944 values.
The late John Keegan pointed out that the V-1 might actually have been a war-winning weapon under certain circumstances. He writes, "Had it been given priority, and been mass-produced in large numbers during 1943, there is little doubt that the flying bomb would have caused terrible damage to London and other southern British cities; it might even have so disrupted shipping in British southern ports as to have set back or even prevented the launching of the cross-Channle invasion in June 1944." (Source: Intelligence and War, John Keegan, 2002, www.amzn.com/0375700463).
A visitor to the Guards Chapel today can see why the Bishop of Maidstone survived as the apse of the Chapel (see photo at top) where he was standing, is the only part of the original structure of the Royal Military Chapel that remains from its dedication in 1838.
Travel notes: The Guards Chapel is a five minute walk from the St James Park Tube station on the District and Circle line. The Chapel is open to the public for services every Sunday at 11:00am. Here is their web site...http://www.army.mod.uk/chaplains/23369.aspx
Commander K. at ABMC cemetery Florence, IT NOW CLOSED TO THE PUBLIC
Napoleon said, "The boundaries of a nation’s empire are marked by the graves of her soldiers." The boundaries of America's Empire of Liberty* are demarcated by the graves of the American Battle Monuments Commission www.abmc.gov. The Commission has eleven sites in France with soldiers from both World Wars. They lovingly tend the graves of those who died in the Mexican-American war (1846-1848) in Mexico City and those who perished in Operation Torch in Tunisia (1942).
Today a visitor will find this message on the ABMC site..."NOTICE TO ABMC VISITORS Due to a lack of funding for ABMC operations (U.S. Government shutdown), ABMC cemeteries and memorials are temporarily closed. We are unable to respond to your inquiries or provide the services and products described in the “Services Available” section of this Web site. We regret any inconvenience these temporary actions may cause. ABMC will resume normal operations when a new funding measure is passed by the U.S. Congress and signed by the President of the United States."
All US overseas cemeteries are now closed. The Normandy cemetery overlooking Omaha beach is shut. Flanders Field in Belgium is closed. The This means that American family members hoping to visit the graves of loved ones, regardless of how long they may have travelled, are out of luck. The Transatlantic scout troops, among others, are now not welcome to teach the lesson of sacrifice to a new generation across these monuments to our fallen heroes.
General Pershing said that "Time will not dim the glory of their deeds." Our government, however, has managed to limit our access to their memory.
We note that legislators and the Administration have failed utterly to take care of the families of fallen American heroes, denying next of kin insurance payments. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/shutdown-leaves-kin-dead-soldiers-burial-funds-article-1.1480080. Why should grieving military families become "collateral damage" of the political paralysis that plagues our nation? Is this simply "gross incompetence" or is something more sinister at work?
Why does our government seem to exhibit a systematic disrespect for the veterans that have done so much over so many years for our country?
H.L. Mencken once wrote, "Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under." Now, more than ever.
Commander K. at Florence Cemetery
"Requiem For A Soldier"
You never lived to see What you gave to me One shining dream of hope and love Life and liberty
With a host of brave unknown soldiers For your company, you will live forever Here in our memory
In fields of sacrifice Heroes paid the price Young men who died for old men's wars Gone to paradise
We are all one great band of brothers And one day you'll see we can live together When all the world is free
I wish you'd lived to see All you gave to me Your shining dream of hope and love Life and liberty
We are all one great band of brothers And one day you'll see - we can live together When all the world is free
I love this video!
* In a 1780 letter written during the American Revolution, Jefferson wrote, “We shall form to the American union a barrier against the dangerous extension of the British Province of Canada and add to the Empire of liberty an extensive and fertile Country thereby converting dangerous Enemies into valuable friends.”
The Fleet Air Arm Museum (http://www.fleetairarm.com/) located near the Royal Navy Air Station in Yeovilton, Somerset is a splendid place to explore Britain's proud naval aviation history.
Sopwith Pup (Replica), FAA Museum
The Royal Navy Air Arm was first launched with Air ship No. 1 in 1909. The first plane launched from a ship (the battleship Africa equipped with a downward sloping ramp) took place in 1912. The Ark royal was launched in 1914 as the world's first aircraft carrier. During the First World War Naval aircraft performed reconnaissance missions and also bombed German submarine pens in occupied Belgium (see earlier post "The Millionaire's Unit"...http://americanconservativeinlondon.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/millionaires-unit.html). The Battle of Jutland in 1916 was the only major sea battle in history featuring dreadnought battleships (see earlier post USS Texas...http://americanconservativeinlondon.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/uss-texas.html). At the conclusion of World War I in 1918, Britain was the only nation on earth with aircraft carriers.
Short S27, FAA Museum
The importance of aviation in warfare was increasingly recognized during the inter-war years. Other nations such as Imperial Japan and the United States began developing carrier fleets. Billy Mitchell in the US championed the power of naval aviation over the hidebound advocates of surface battleships.
Battle of Taranto
November 11, 1940
The extreme vulnerability of surface ships to naval aviation was exposed early on in World War II. On November 11, 1940 a Royal Navy carrier group launched an attack on the Italian fleet at anchorage in Taranto. "In less than an hour the British rendered half the Italian battle fleet hors de combat for about six month and shifted the balance of power in the Mediterranean." (Source: At Dawn We Slept, Gordon W. Prange, 1981, www.amzn.com/0140157344). The Japanese would make a careful study of the battle of Taranto as it became a blueprint for their own Pearl harbor attack plans.
Supermarine Seafire, FAA Museum
On May 26th 1941 the Royal Navy's Fairey Swordfish biplane's launched the torpedoes that crippled the Bismarck allowing the Prince of Wales and other surface ships to sink her the following day. On December 10, 1941 The Prince of Wales and the Repulse were both sunk by Japanese Type 1 "Betty" torpedo bombers operating out of occupied Indochina. Coming three days after the devastating attack on the American fleet at anchor at Pearl Harbor, the era of the surface battleship was over.
Commander K. and RN Corsair KD-431, 1944 FAA Museum
Aircraft carriers became the dominate ships of World War II. They were needed to provide vital air support for amphibious invasions such as D-Day and Iwo Jima. Lighter carriers were used to provide escort for the merchant shipping (see earlier post SS Jeremiah O'Brien...http://americanconservativeinlondon.blogspot.it/2012/08/ss-jeremiah-obrien.html) that was ferrying troops, supplies and Lend Lease in the face of U-boat attacks. Naval air was absolutely critical to winning the battle of the Atlantic.
Ark Royal IV, FAA Museum
After World War II Aircraft carriers were used in support of the United Nations efforts on behalf of the Republic of Korea. American carriers were used extensively during the Vietnam war. British carriers were essential to Britain's victory over Argentina in the Falklands war of 1982.
Hawker Hunter T8M 1958, FAA Museum
The introduction of of jet aircraft increased the power of aircraft carriers to fulfil their mission of "projecting power ashore". The American F-4 Phantom, a Cold War workhorse, was adapted for use by the Royal Navy on their carriers.
RN F-4 "Phantom", FAA Museum
The Fleet Air Arm Museum features an "Aircraft Carrier Experience" that requires about 40 minutes and gives the visitor a real appreciation for life on board these awesome ships. The larger nuclear-powered US Navy carriers are floating cities with over 5,000 crew members on board -- rumors that some even feature their own McDonald's on board are, however, false.
RN Carrier Pilots in the briefing room, FAA Museum
A certain pall hangs now over the Fleet Air Arm Museum as they note the fact that the last Royal Navy aircraft carrier was decommissioned in 2011. The relative carrier strength of the Royal Navy has, therefore, gone from total in 1918 to zero in 2013. Two 60,000-ton Queen Elizabeth Class carriers are on order but delivery is not anticipated until about 2016. Still worse, the new carriers may lack aircraft as well. The British, meanwhile, have an understanding with the French government and Navy that they could "borrow a carrier" if they get into a scrape over the Falklands or elsewhere in the world (See link with an excellent quote from historian Andrew Roberts...http://www.thetrumpet.com/article/7666.21623.130.0/britain/britain-buddies-with-france-what-could-possibly-go-wrong?preview). What could possibly go wrong, indeed!
Stonehenge (Just a few miles from Yeovilton)
Commander Kelly Concludes
"Si vis pacem, para vellum," ("If you want peace, prepare for war") wrote Flavius Vegetius around 375 AD. Britain would do well to heed the old Roman's advice rather than relying solely on the rocks of nearby Stonehenge to protect her island's freedom and preserve the peace.
Special thanks to Toby Pierson for driving us out to the Fleet Air Arm Museum.
Commander K. with Tiger II
The Tank Museum, Bovington, UK
The Tank Museum in Bovington (http://www.tankmuseum.org/) is one of the greatest museums devoted to Armored cavalry in the world. In addition to its vast collection of tanks, it also has a demonstration area where visitors can see armored vehicles in action.
Scale model of the da Vinci tank
The Tank Museum, Bovington
Leonardo da Vinci himself has been credited with inventing the schematics for the first tanks in the 15th century. He summed up the essence of tank warfare in a 1482 letter to Ludovico Sforza, "I know how to construct secure and covered wagons for the transport of guns into the enemy's lines and not to be impeded by ever so dense a mass and behind which the infantry can follow without danger". The connections between art, science and the military arts are deep and abiding (see earlier post http://americanconservativeinlondon.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/argo-and-need-for-camouflage.html).
Winston Churchill, a former cavalryman himself, was an early proponent of the tank. In a 1915 letter to the Prime Minister he wrote, "It would be quite easy in a short time to fit up a number of steam tractors with small armoured shelters...forty or fifty of these engines, prepared secretly and brought into position at nightfall, could advance quite certainly into the enemy's trenches, smashing away all the obstructions and sweeping the trenches with their machine-gun fire."
French WWI Renault light tank
Tank Museum, Bovington
At the Tank Museum you will find tanks from their introduction in World War I when they seemed to provide a solution for ending the horrific stalemate of trench warfare on the Western Front. Tanks offered the Allies an opportunity to re-introduce mobility into a static battlefield.
British WWI Armored Car
Tank Museum, Bovington
The British were in the vanguard in terms of the introduction of armoured warfare. In 1916 "a tank called "Mother" (later "Big Willie") became the first operational armoured vehicle produced by the British. The machine was equipped with a six-pounder gun inside a small turret on each side, and four machine guns...On September 15, 1916 forty-nine "Big Willies" participated in the the Battle of the Somme." Source: Patton: A Genius for War, Carlo D'Este, 1995
George Patton + Renault Tank
Bourg France, July 1918
Between the wars it was the most progressive military thinkers in all countries that were drawn to the potential of the tank -- De Gaulle in France, Patton in the US and Rommel, Guderian and others in Germany. The German were the most aggressive proponents of armored warfare that would allow them to launch Blitzkrieg campaigns that conquered most of Europe and revolutionized warfare. The Germans eventually developed some of the largest and most powerful tanks of the war.
Jagdtiger - tank destroyer
The Tank Museum, Covington
The German Jagdtiger (see photo above) was the heaviest armoured vehicle produced by any nation in World War II. It weighed 72 tons and was equipped with a 128mm gun that could out range any allied tank. Fortunately Allied bombing of their Austrian production facilities reduced the their effectiveness and output. The Wehrmacht's efforts at mobile warfare were also severely constrained by fuel shortages.
M4 Sherman tank
Quantity over quality
The Americans, with their industrial might, produced more tanks than any other nation in World War II -- nearly 50,000 M4 Shermans, for example. Churchill insisted on naming American tanks after US Civil war generals. The Sherman, due to its weak armor and propensity to catch fire, was dubbed the "Ronson" by its German opponents.
M3 Grant tank, desert markings
The Tank Museum, Bovington
Many M3 Grant tanks were sent by FDR as part of his Lend Lease to Egypt where they helped to turn the tide again the Germans in the desert. After the battle of El Alamein Rommel admitted, "The new American tank has torn great holes in our ranks." Churchill told Parliament that Lend-Lease was "the most unsordid act on the history of any nation."
Soviet T-34, The Tank Museum, Bovington
At the largest tank battle in all history, Kursk, the Soviets relied heavily upon the T-34. This tank featured improved armor that often deflected the 37mm anti tank projectiles fired by German infantry.
Tank Man on Tiananmen Square, Bejing, 1989
Tanks, in addition to being critical components on the battlefield, have also been used as an instrument of repression. The Soviets rolled out their tanks onto the streets of Prague in the spring of 1968 to inspire terror. The image of "Tank Man" defying Chinese authorities in Tiananmen Square was instantly seared into the global consciousness in 1989.
UN Scout Car
Tank Museum, Bovington
Tanks and armored vehicles have also been used as peacekeepers though out the world.
The US Army has developed the superlative M1 Abrams tank which was used in Operation Desert Storm (1991) and subsequent campaigns. "During the war the M1A1 Abrams was credited with destroying over 2,000 Iraqi tanks, with not a single Abrams being destroyed by hostile tank fire." (Source: Tank Spotter's Guide, Marcus Cowper and Christopher Pannell, 2011.)
The fire control system for Britain's most advanced modern tank, the Chieftain, resembles a Sony PlayStation. Toys for boys indeed.
Landship Beer
"The Full Flavour of History"
The Tank museum offers a rich experience for anyone interested in modern land warfare. You can even purchase Tank-themed beer ("Landship") in the gift shop!
Commander K. and Georgi Markov "In the Cause of Freedom"
These days it is often chic, particularly in academic circles, to identify oneself with the extreme left. Millions of people wear Che Guevara T-Shirts and Che, who died in 1967, has over 1.1 million "likes" on Facebook. Many others enjoy quoting Marx on their social media pages. Conversely, those few who quote right wing extremists such as Hitler, Goebbels, Franco or Mussolini in their social media are, quite rightly, dismissed as being lunatic cranks. Don't look for Hollywood's "Motorcycle Diaries" version of Heydrich's life anytime soon.
Commander K. at Church of St. Candida and Holy Cross, Dorset
The strange case of Georgi Markov helps to remind us how foolish nostalgia for communism's faded glory can be.
On a recent cycling tour of Dorset I stopped at the Church of St. Candida and Holy Cross where Georgi Markov is buried. His tombstone reads, "In Memory of Georgi Ivanov Markov, Novelist, Playwright, Most dearly beloved by his wife Annabel and daughter Sasha, Born Sofia 1/3/1929, Died London 9/11/1978, In the Cause of Freedom."
What is sometimes forgotten is the ruthless brutality with which communists waged the cold War. Georgie Markov was a distinguished Bulgarian writer. In 1969 he defected to the West, first to Italy and, later, to London where he worked as a journalist for the BBC and Radio Free Europe. He married an Englishwoman from Dorset.
Georgi Markov, 1929 - 1978, RIP
In his novel, The Truth that Killed, Markov wrote, "Today, we Bulgarians present a fine example of what it is to exist under a lid which we cannot lift and which we no longer believe someone else can lift...And the unending slogan which millions of loudspeakers blare out is that everyone is fighting for the happiness of the others. Every word spoken under the lid constantly changes its meaning. Lies and truths swap their values with the frequency of an alternating current...We have seen how personality vanishes, how individuality is destroyed, how the spiritual life of a whole people is corrupted in order to turn them into a listless flock of sheep. We have seen so many of those demonstrations which humiliate human dignity, where normal people are expected to applaud some paltry mediocrity who has proclaimed himself a demi-god and condescendingly waves to them from the heights of his police inviolability."
On September 7, 1978 Markov was walking across Waterloo bridge in London about to catch a bus to work when he felt a sudden sharp stinging pain in this thigh http://st-james.hubpages.com/hub/The-Notorious-Umbrella-Assassination-of-Georgi-Markov-Upon-Further-Investigation. He saw a man with an umbrella fleeing the scene. He developed a fever and died a few days later. His autopsy revealed that he had been injected with a lethal ricin pellet in a platinum casing. Markov, an outspoken critic of communism, had been silenced by the long arm of the KGB. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgi_Markov. The umbrella assassin, working for the Bulgarian government, was never brought to justice.
Travel Notes: If you would like to visit Markov's grave and see some of the beautiful surrounding Dorset countryside you can hire electronic bikes (very handy on the rolling hills) from Martin at Marshwood Trails (martin@marshwoodtrails.co.uk, www.marshwoodtrails.co.uk). Martin also offers guided cycling tours that feature stops at local pubs such as the Bottle Inn (http://www.bottle-inn.net/) which, founded in 1585, is the home every summer of the world nettle eating contest!
Special thanks to Toby Pierson for organizing our Dorset cycle trip.
