One of my friends sent me this from his battalion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pt8Gkn3Lypo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSVrZE9_cvU (it is from his helmet cam, so you see everything from his viewpoint)

this is soo sad & soo beautiful


thank you sooo much for posting it


and for being here with your love & support

Awwwwww Myriah.....


thank you Dear Lady


i will check it out right now



hope all is well with You & Your Daughter

http://www.llerrah.com/angelofamerica.htm


ANGEL OF AMERICA


I am only one of many,
With just a simple plea,
Dear Angel of America,
Please look after me.


I've packed my gear, I'm heading out,
I've said my sad good-byes,
I've told my loved ones not to worry,
That you'd not let me die.




Please go with me into battle,
Upon that foreign shore,
And from time to time, remind me,
Of what I'm fighting for.

For the safety of my country,
And for other countries, too,
For the freedom of all persons
To do as they wish to do.



For tyranny and hate to go,
To be replaced by care and hope.
To give men back their self-respect,
And help them learn to cope.


Liberation from oppression,
And equality for all,
Food for every hungry child,
And a chance to grow up tall.



Far fetched ideals and more, I s'pose,
But they've been fulfilled before.
When many, many years ago.
Small ships arrived upon our shore.


So, Angel of America,
Go with me on this quest,
Help me not to be afraid,
And to do my very best.


I count on you to get me through,
And to help us, everyone,
To keep us and our loved ones safe,
Until this war is done.

Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in Your care


Give them victory over the enemy...



Grant them a safe and swift return...


Bless those who mourn the lost.

.

Love and thanks to the soldiers

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-vetscor/2002147/posts




My awesome Dad who is 84 now ,


was 19 & in World War II in December of 1943 going to Italy in the Army


on the exact same day that his Brother lost his life



, My 25 year old Uncle Louie



was one of the many United States Merchant Marines & other Military Personnel




who perished soooo horribly on the terribly unfortunate day of December 2nd, 1943









The Tragedy at Bari



Disaster in the Italian Campaign


Bari was an old city dating back to the Middle Ages, and located on the Adriatic with a population of about 200,000. It had become the main supply base for Montgomery's Eighth Army, plus the new Headquarters for the US 15th. Air Force.

On the 2nd. of December 1943, the port was crowded with 30 Allied ships. One of these, the Liberty ship John Harvey, carried a secret load of 100 tons of mustard gas bombs, a precaution in case Hitler decided to invoke the use of chemical warfare. The seeds of the ensuing disaster were planted, merely waiting to germinate.



Chaos at the port of Bari. The German raid closed the port for three weeks


The Port of Bari, all hustle and bustle.

Absorbed with the task of bringing the US 15th. Air Force into reality, with Major General James Doolittle in command, the Allies gave little thought to a German air raid on the bustling port of Bari. The harbour was crammed with shipping, stuffed with supplies, including aviation fuel for the US bombers crowding the Foggia air base 75 miles away.

Come sunset, on the evening of the 2nd. of December in 1943, with the urgent need to hasten the unloading of ships filling the port, the harbour was brilliantly lit so that cargo might be unloaded thoughout the night.



ME210


German reconnaissance flight during the afternoon of the 2nd. of December 1943.

1st. Lieutenant Werner Hahn had flown his Messerschmidt ME-210 over Bari at 23,000 feet on the afternoon of the 2nd. of December 1943. Unmolested by any AA fire, he made a second pass of the port, and turned North for home, to report that the proposed target was crowded with unloading ships, perhaps 30 plus.

Field Marshal Wolfram von Richthofen, in command of Luftflotte 2, had suggested to his boss, Field Marshal Kesselring, that an attack on Bari could slow down the advancing 8th. Army, and retard attacks from the newly arrived US 15th. Air Force.

He thought he might manage to gather 150 JU 88's for the attack, in the event, 105 was all he could muster. His aircraft were ordered to fly east to the Adriatic, then turn and approach Bari to the west, the Allies no doubt would anticipate any German air raids to come in from the North. The aircraft would drop Duppel, thin strips of tin foil to confuse the defensive Radar. Parachute flares would be dropped to light up the targets in the harbour at about 1930 ( 7.30 PM , ) then the JU 88's, would attack at a low altitude, hoping to avoid Allied Radar installations.

Mustard gas in Liberty Ship SS John Harvey.

The Captain of John Harvey was not officially informed that his ship would carry a load of lethal mustard gas bombs. These were 4 feet long, 8 inches in diameter, and each held 60/70 pounds of the chemical.

Mustard gas forms blisters, irritates the respiratory system, leaving the skin burnt, with raw ulcers.

Post WW2, in the Royal Australian Navy, I was undertaking an Atomic, Biological, Chemical, Damage Control course at a Sydney NavalEstablishment, during which I was instructed how to combat the effects of mustard gas. Some of this deadly chemical was introduced onto the back of my hands, I was certainly pleased I had paid attention on how to nullify it working, as I diligently scrubbed it off my hands to negate any ill effects of this awful weapon of war. Fortunately I was successful.

On board John Harvey, 1st. Lieutenant Howard D. Beckstrom and his six man team from the 701st. Chemical Maintenance Company were on hand in case of trouble from this deadly cargo. The ship had crossed the Atlantic Ocean without running into any U-Boat problems, then had stopped at Oran in Algeria, thence to Augusta in Sicily, until it made it into Bari on the 26th. of November. Her cargo including 2,000 M47A1 gas bombs filled with mustard gas, which remained a secret, meant she was not given any priority to unload, she must wait her turn.



A flight of German JU 88's in the raid on Bari, December 1943


The German air attack.

Arriving on schedule at Bari, Flight Lieutenant Gustav Teuber, leading in the first wave of bombers could not believe his eyes, the scene below, brilliantly lit, cranes busily lifting cargo from ship's holds, the east jetty crowded with ships.

The attack was a complete suprise, Liberty Ship Joseph Wheeler exploded from a direct hit, John Motley was hit in No. 5 hold, John Bascom next to her, shattered by a rain of bombs, was abandoned.

John Harvey on fire, suddenly blew up, disappearing in a mighty fireball, casting pieces of ship and her deadly cargo of mustard gas all over the harbour. Mustard gas gives off a garlic odour, and now it combined with oil in the harbour, a deadly and volatile mixture. People were noticing a smell of garlic in the air, already doing its deadly work.

Another Liberty ship, Samuel Tilden was sunk.

In all, 17 ships were lost, 5 American, 5 British, 2 Italian, 3 Norwegian, and 2 Polish, another 7 were heavily damaged. Here is a list of the 17 ship losses and those damaged in the raid.

Destroyed:

John Harvey (US Liberty, 7177 gt)
John L. Motley (US Liberty, 7176 gt)
John Bascom (US Liberty, 7176 gt)
Joseph Wheeler (US Liberty, 7176 gt)
Samuel J. Tilden (US Liberty, 7176 gt)
Fort Athabasca (British, 7132 gt)
Fort Lajoie ( British, 7134 gt )
Testbank (British, 5083 gt) ***
Lars Kruse (British, 1897 gt)
Devon Coast (British, 646 gt)
Bollsta (Norwegian, 1832 gt)
Norlom (Norwegian, 6412 gt)
Lom (Norwegian, 1268 gt)
Lwow (Polish, 1409 gt)
Puck (Polish, 1065 gt)
Frosinone (Italian, 5202 gt)
Barletta (Italian, 1975 gt)

*** SS Testbank collided with SS Ceramic off the coast of South West Africa, ( now Namibia ) on the 11th. of August in 1940, forcing Ceramic to seek repairs at Walvis Bay. Ceramic herself was later sunk by U-Boat U-515, in the Atlantic on the 7th. of December 1942, and now Testbank is sunk in this raid on Bari, indeed two ill fated ships.

Heavily damaged ship list.

Grace Abbott (American, 7191gt)
John M. Schoefield (American, 7191gt)
Crista (British, 2590 gt)
Brittanny Coast (British, 1389 gt)
Vest (Norwegian, 5074 gt)
Cassala (Italian, 1797 gt)
Odysseus (Dutch, 1057 gt)


Casualties.

There were over 1,000 military and merchant marine casualties, some 800 were admitted to local hospitals. 628 suffered from the mustard gas, of whom, 69 died within two weeks.

The port was closed for three weeks, it had been rendered into rubble.

Secrecy about the mustard gas.

Although US records did mention mustard gas, Winston Churchill insisted all British Medical records were purged and mustard gas deaths were merely listed as the result of: " Burns due to enemy action."

No doubt his insistence of secrecy could have caused more deaths, as victims, especially Italian civilians might have sought proper treatment for their injuries, had they known the real cause.

Conclusion.

This Bari raid was a disaster on two fronts. It was a Second Pearl Harbor, with 17 ships totalling 75,936 tons sunk, and another 7 ships with a tonnage of 27,289 tons heavily damaged by this sneak air attack by German aircraft, one of the Luftwaffe's success stories.
The Bari raid produced the only poison gas incident associated with WW2, made worse by the perceived need for secrecy in wartime.

Hi everyone,

I haven't been on in a while.....sorry. But God bless out troops and their families. Keep them all safe and strong!

God bless all our troops and there families,love and prayers

> Too Busy for a Friend...
> One day a teacher asked her students to list the names of the other students in the room on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between each name.
>
> Then she told them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each of their classmates and write it down.
> It took the remainder of the class period to finish their assignment, and as the students left the room, each one handed in the papers.
>
> That Saturday, the teacher wrote down the name of each student on a
> separate sheet of paper, and listed what everyone else had said about that individual.
>
> On Monday she gave each student his or her list. Before long, the entire class was smiling. 'Really?' she heard whispered. 'I never knew that I meant anything to anyone!' and, 'I didn't know others liked me so much,' were most of the comments.
>
> No one ever mentioned those papers in class again. She never knew if they discussed them after class or with their parents, but it didn't matter. The exercise had accomplished its purpose. The students were happy with themselves and one another. That group of students moved on.
>
> Several years later, one of the students was killed in Vietnam and his teacher attended the funeral of that special student. She had never seen a serviceman in a military coffin before. He looked so handsome, so mature.
>
> The church was packed with his friends. One by one those who loved him took a last walk by the coffin. The teacher was the last one to bless the coffin.
>
>
> As she stood there, one of the soldiers who acted as pallbearer came up to her. 'Were you Mark's math teacher?' he asked. She nodded: 'yes.' Then he said: 'Mark talked about you a lot.'
>
> After the funeral, most of Mark's former classmates went together to a luncheon. Mark's mother and father were there, obviously waiting to speak with his teacher.
>
> 'We want to show you something,' his father said, taking a wallet out of his pocket 'They found this on Mark when he was killed. We thought you might recognize it.'
>
> Opening the billfold, he carefully removed two worn pieces of notebook paper that had obviously been taped, folded and refolded many times. The teacher knew without looking that the papers were the ones on which she had listed all the good things each of Mark's classmates had said about him.
>
> 'Thank you so much for doing that,' Mark's mother said. 'As you can see, Mark treasured it.'
>
> All of Mark's former classmates started to gather around. Charlie smiled rather sheepishly and said, 'I still have my list. It's in the top drawer of my desk at home.'
>
>
> Chuck's wife said, 'Chuck asked me to put his in our wedding album.'
> 'I have mine too,' Marilyn said. 'It's in my diary'
>
> Then Vicki, another classmate, reached into her pocketbook, took out her wallet and showed her worn and frazzled list to the group. 'I carry this with me at all times,' Vicki said and without batting an eyelash, she continued: 'I think we all saved our lists'
>
> That's when the teacher finally sat down and cried. She cried for Mark and for all his friends who would never see him again..
>
> The density of people in society is so thick that we forget that life will end one day. And we don't know when that one day will be.
>
> So please, tell the people you love and care for, that they are special and important. Tell them, before it is too late.
>
> And One Way To Accomplish This Is: Forward this message on. If you do not send it, you will have, once again passed up the wonderful
> opportunity to do something nice and beautiful.
>
> If you've received this, it is because someone cares for you and it means there is probably at least someone for whom you care.
>
> If you're 'too busy' to take those few minutes right now to forward this message on, would this be the VERY first time you didn't do that little thing that would make a difference in your relationships?
>
> The more people that you send this to, the better you'll be at reaching out to those you care about.
>
> Remember, you reap what you sow. What you put into the lives of others comes back into your own.