The FReeper Foxhole Remembers the Battle at Sidi Bou Zid - Kasserine Pass Feb. 14th, 2003

http://africanhistory.about.com/library/prm/blambushedbytheafrikacorps1.htm ^ | Robert A. Newton

[SAMWolf]

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Ambushed by the Afrika Korps:
Battle at Sidi Bou Zid

The tanks of the 1st Armored Division learned a costly lesson at a desert crossroads in Tunisia.

Angry winds from the Sahara lashed the mountains and plains of central Tunisia just before dawn on Sunday, February 14, 1943-St. Valentine's Day. The howling currents and swirling dust cloaked the maneuvers of advancing German armored battle groups. At 0400 hours, with resolute purpose, elements of the crack 10th and 21st Panzer divisions had launched an attack through Faid and Maizila passes. The German tanks were bound for the village of Sidi Bou Zid, where General Dwight D. Eisenhower himself had inspected forward American troop dispositions just three hours earlier.

The panzer groups were implementing a plan personally approved by Adolf Hitler and calculated to relieve the pressure on Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps. To the east, British General Bernard L. Montgomery's Eighth Army, which had chased Rommel from Egypt, was gathering strength for a final assault. Rommel's western flank was likewise threatened by imminent Allied incursions through the passes of the Eastern Dorsal, a mountain chain running from the Miliane River to Maknassy. The "Desert Fox" viewed the interminable retreat from Egypt with disdain and longed for an opportunity to resume the offensive. To avoid being trapped in a tightening vise, he turned and struck first. The Kasserine campaign, the first major clash between the American and German armies in World War II, had begun.

The essence of Rommel's plan was to counterthrust through those mountain passes, penetrate deeply to the northwest and completely disrupt the Allied rear. He meant to deal the Americans a resounding defeat that would instill a feeling of inferiority in the green troops and give his hard-pressed army some breathing room. Facing the Germans were fragmented units of the 1st Armored Division, stretched thin to cover a 60-mile front. It was the first American division to engage the Germans in combat, the first to fight in the desert and, ironically, the only one of the 16 U.S. armored divisions in World War II not to receive any desert warfare training.

On that fateful morning, German Panzerkampfwagen Mk.IVs, backed by new, 60-ton Pzkw. MK.VI Tigers, churned over, through and around the American lines. Lieutenant General Heinz Ziegler, the deputy to Col. Gen. Hans von Arnim, led the attacking force.

Spearheading Operation "Spring Wind" was the 591st Tiger Detachment. The 7th Panzer and 86th Panzergrenadier regiments supported that shock force. Spring Wind had four thrust points: Kampfgruppe (KGr.) Gerhardt rolled around the northern edge of Djebel Lessouda, while KGr. Reimann advanced directly along the road from Faid. To the south, units of the 21st Panzer Division poured through Maizila Pass and divided into two groups to encircle Sidi Bou Zid. KGr. Schuette advanced to the north and KGr. Stenkhoff to the west.

Forward elements of the Americans' 168th Regimental Combat Team, divided among the Lessouda, Garet Hadid and Ksaira djebels (hills), were bypassed and quickly marooned. At least 2,000 men were trapped. They had been imprudently placed there by the II Corps commander, Maj. Gen. Lloyd R. Fredendall, who had never even visited the front lines.



Strenuous efforts to hold the line continued through the morning. At midday, 51 M-4 Sherman tanks of the 3rd Battalion, 1st Armored Regiment, rolled out to engage the enemy. A fierce fight ensued, resulting in the loss of 44 of the battalion's tanks. The noble sacrifice, brilliantly led by Lt. Col. Louis I. Hightower, temporarily delayed the panzers' progress. But by dusk, the Germans had captured Sidi Bou Zid. Having achieved their objective, they halted, satisfied to consolidate their gains.

At 2320 hours that Sunday, after driving through the night, Lt. Col. James D. Alger arrived at the Tunisian farmhouse that would become the headquarters for Combat Command (CC) C of the U.S. II Corps. "Gentleman Jim" Alger's 2nd Battalion, 1st Armored Regiment, had raced from its concealed bivouac near Maktar to an assembly area at an outpost south of Hadjeb el Aioun. As his tankers refueled, Alger awaited the arrival of Colonel Robert I. Stack and his party from division headquarters. They were carrying his counterattack orders.

The easygoing Alger had walked into a desperate and fluid situation that evening. The Germans knew that the American infantry forces were trapped on the Lessouda and Ksaira hills, and planned to obliterate them. The American commanders in the rear prepared to counterattack the next morning in order to rescue the isolated infantry, retake Sidi Bou Zid and drive the Germans back.



In the vanguard of the counterattacking force would be Alger's 2nd Battalion. It had never been in combat before. The unit had been conducting reconnaissance forays into Ousseltia Valley to the north when the attack through Faid Pass began. At 1500, the 2nd Battalion was ordered to move immediately to Hadjeb el Aioun, and Alger was directed to report to Stack, who had just been placed in command of the hastily assembled CC C. All Alger knew when he reached the command post was that units on CC A's front had been battered and that an unknown number of Germans had moved through Faid Pass.

Advance towards Sidi Bou Zid

Stack and his entourage arrived at the command post at 0230, Monday, February 15. Alger was only given preliminary information during the initial briefing. An hour later, two lieutenants from the regiment's reconnaissance company gave him a firsthand account of the battle around Lessouda. Despite what they had seen, the two had little knowledge of the German strength and disposition. There were no terrain maps of the area for Alger to review.

The march and counterattack orders for CC C were issued at 0400, from a plan personally drafted by Maj. Gen. Orlando Ward, the 1st Armored Division commander. Ward's plan was based upon an intelligence estimate of 40 German tanks near Sidi Bou Zid. In fact, as he would later learn to his chagrin, there were more than 100 in the village, as well as emplaced 47mm and 88mm anti-tank guns.

Ward's order to Stack read as follows: "Mission to CC C....This force will move south, and by fire and maneuver, destroy the enemy armored forces which have threatened our hold on the Sbeitla area. It will so conduct its maneuver to aid in the withdrawal of our forces in the vicinity of Djebel Ksaira, eventually withdrawing to the area north of Djebel Hamra for further action."



Two German armored divisions and part of a third, plus supporting units, waited near Sidi Bou Zid to obstruct Alger's thrust and foil his mission. Against this formidable force, the Americans were sending an uninitiated tank battalion, reinforced by a tank destroyer company consisting of halftracks mounting 75mm cannons. The frontal movement would be supported by the 68th Armored Field Artillery Battalion, less Battery A, and the 6th Armored Infantry Battalion, riding behind in halftracks.

As the briefing continued, Alger learned that his tank battalion had been ordered to attack in a formation consisting of a column of companies, with the center wing back. Two platoons would be on line in a narrow front to provide depth, with the third platoon of each company toward the center rear in reserve. Each flank was to be covered by a heavy tank destroyer platoon.

The commander of the 1st Armored Regiment, Colonel Peter C. Hains, explained the known geographical contours and features of the area to Alger. He advised him of the deep, irregular wadis in his path and indicated that they were passable at certain points. Only three maps were available, and those were all of a scale that provided little in the way of detail. There were still no terrain maps to work from. Worst of all, there had been no reconnaissance forward from the jump-off point to Sidi Bou Zid itself.

At 0500, Alger returned to the battalion assembly area and issued the march and attack orders to his men. At 0620, his battalion moved out and headed from the jump-off position, three miles south of the road junction later to be known as Kern's Crossroads.

Between 0700 and 1100 hours, the battalion's movement along the road to the jump-off point was repeatedly interrupted by reconnaissance operations. As the battalion closed on the crossroads, Alger ordered his reconnaissance platoon to the right flank. He had selected Captain Province M. Winkler's Company D to lead the attack. Captain John L. Peyton's Company F came next, followed by the battalion assault guns, self-propelled artillery commanded by Lieutenant Leo J. Farber. In reserve, was Company E, under Captain Harris O. Machus and Major William W. Emory. The 3rd Battalion, 6th Armored Infantry, and Companies B and C of the 68th Armored Artillery Battalion backed these forward elements. Tank destroyer platoons were located on each flank.



Two forward artillery observers reported to the battalion at the staging area. Alger sent his own radio operator, Warrant Officer Frank D. Leger, Jr., to attempt to adjust their radios to the battalion net. Due to the rush, however, the radios had not been synchronized by the time the attack began.

Alger met with his officers to verify the direction of the assault and confirm the attack orders. In the absence of terrain maps, he used the north nose of Djebel Ksaira as a reference point for his attack.

Company D moved far to the front and east of the jump-off position. Its two leading platoons, on line, preceded the main group by 500 yards, to act as a covering force. Around noon, Alger climbed to a hilltop with Hains and Hightower, and they scanned the attack route east toward Sidi Bou Zid, 13 miles away.

The village lay across a sun-drenched plain cut by steep ravines and washes. They discussed the terrain, the likely crossing points and the day's objectives. Next, they pointed out the probable locations of anti-tank guns. However, they had only a vague idea of what awaited them near Sidi Bou Zid.

In fact, the Germans had emplaced anti-tank guns and artillery on high ground positions around the village. Others were established in or near it, covered by buildings, walls, wadis and groves. Furthermore, the full extent of the opposing force was disguised by the geographic features.

[SAMWolf]

Under fire at Sadeguia

Despite many causes for concern, the attack had to go on. After surveying the terrain, Hains turned to Alger and said, "Seek the enemy armor and destroy it."

"Yes sir," Alger replied with a smart salute. They all shook hands, and Hightower wished his subordinate luck and said he hoped they would "get 4-to-1" in their favor. Just as they parted, perhaps foreshadowing what was to come, the crossroads was heavily bombed by 14 Junkers Ju-87 Stukas. The aerial strike scattered Alger's vehicles and delayed the start of the attack. Damage was slight, but the German pilots were able to transmit the size and disposition of the American force to their tankers waiting in Sidi Bou Zid.

Alger climbed into the turret of the battalion command tank and at 1300 received the order to begin the attack. As Alger's tank moved into position with Company D, Stack watched the formation pass by from his lofty command post on Djebel Hamra. He was pleased that the attacking force was moving with parade ground precision and keeping proper intervals. It was an organized, perfect, textbook movement-just as if the battalion were going on maneuvers, not rolling to meet a deadly foe. As Stack scanned Sidi Bou Zid through field glasses, the "Stars and Stripes Forever" blasted from a truck radio on the plain below. The small troop moved out into the open desert, fully exposed to the enemy.

By 1350, the lead force had passed south of the town of Sadaguia, and the tank destroyer platoon on the left flank had entered the town. As Company D reconnoitered the first large irrigation ditch and wadi east of Sadaguia to find a crossing, another flight of Stukas dive-bombed the town and strafed the advancing column. The tank destroyer platoon did not exit the town.

Company D found a lone crossing point, and every American was forced to converge and cross at that single location. However, only one tank was lost in the wet irrigation ditch, due to a thrown track.

As his tanks advanced, Alger received a message from Captain Robert L. Sweeney: "Our birds will visit the first objective soon. Delay attack until they have completed mission." Alger told his commanders that aerial support was on the way. To avoid being caught in the midst of a friendly air attack, the Americans slowed their pace considerably. Unfortunately, the expected airstrike never materialized.

As Winkler's command tank and the balance of Company D approached the second wadi, they were showered with airbursts. Winkler's handpicked crew had been together since Northern Ireland. They had endured Stuka dive-bombings and convoy strafings during the long march from Algeria, but they had never experienced such intense artillery fire. Sergeant Everett Gregg, the tank commander, was the assistant driver/gunner that day. Alphonse Urbanovski was the driver. The usual driver, Philip Caldwell, had moved to a trailing tank destroyer to make room for Captain Winkler, who was taking the company into battle. In the turret with Winkler were Lee C. Kaser, the radio operator/loader, and Corporal Robert A. Newton, the 75mm gunner.

All in all, the men were eager to see action and proud of their jobs. "We're damn glad to be tankers," Newton wrote. "Next to the Air Corps, and we dispute that, we are the elite of the Army. We wouldn't be in any other branch of the service. There's a peculiar feeling of pride in being a tanker that only a tanker knows."

The tankers rolled toward Sidi Bou Zid, confident that their new Shermans would see them through. Winkler's crew had dutifully maintained their tank for just this eventuality. "The great tradition of cavalry from which we evolved is still with us," Newton wrote. "The mount comes first."

Winkler's 1st Platoon, on the left flank, started to cross the second wadi and was fired upon by anti-tank guns trained on the crossing from a range of 350 yards. Shells streamed in from the north and burst all around them. Many even landed on the 3rd Platoon, held in reserve 500 yards back. Both the 1st and 2nd platoons then engaged the German anti-tank guns, knocked out all of them and overran their positions. Four 88mm anti-tank guns and two 47mm guns were destroyed. Approximately 50 enemy personnel were killed.

As the tanks continued to cross the second wadi, the shelling intensified. The heaviest fire poured in from the western slopes of Garet Hadid, southeast of Sidi Bou Zid. Company F's progress was slowed by the high-velocity pounding. Alger called for counterbattery fire, but there was no reply to his message. He then asked Winkler to use his reserve platoon on the target if possible. Meanwhile, Battery C of the 68th Armored Artillery Battalion, responding to a request from the forward observer riding with Company F, moved up and provided the needed counterbattery fire. Alger's men continued to scan the skies in vain for air support

Panzer advance, unobserved

At 1420, the hamlet of Sidi Salem came into view. By 1430, Company D had finished crossing the third wadi on the village's west side. It was then that the Germans unleashed the full fury of their emplaced artillery. Dense fire poured in from Sidi Bou Zid, which was still three miles to the east. Stukas rolled down from the sky, adding to the onslaught.

Alger instructed Company F to roll off to the right in order to cover the southern flank. He also directed the company to prepare to sweep toward the western slope of Garet Hadid to destroy the enemy artillery installations that were wreaking such havoc on the battalion. Company E was ordered to remain in reserve, behind the second wadi.

Company D, with Alger in tow, reached the edge of Sidi Salem at 1500. Enemy tanks and wheeled vehicles appeared to the south and charged toward town. Alger's tank and the right flank platoon of Company D engaged and knocked out two German tanks and set some of the other vehicles on fire. They then moved slowly into the town.

By 1515, Company D's occupation of Sidi Salem was completed. Winkler's tanks moved through the town, smashing machine-gun nests set up in houses. While the American tanks moved to the east of town in an aggressive reconnaissance, Alger turned back to check on the progress of Company F.

Just east of Sidi Bou Zid, Lieutenant Kurt E. Wolff, a German tank commander, was about to pour himself a cup of coffee when his communications officer reported clouds of dust on the western horizon. The Germans knew that the dust meant the Americans were coming. Through binoculars, they counted 30 American tanks approximately 5,500 yards away from their position. Two German companies were farther south, and a complete German tank regiment was poised to the northeast. In 10 minutes, the Americans would be close enough for him to open fire.

As Wolff climbed into his tank and ordered the engine started, his commander wheeled by and called out his orders: "Drive straight at the enemy and stop him. The 1st Company will be led into their flank. Do not retreat under any circumstances."

There were 14 tanks in Wolff's center company, including Tigers. The Germans' first objective was a flat hill overgrown with cactus astride Djebel Lessouda. It offered some cover, and ahead of it lay a level plain approximately 900 yards across, which each of the American tanks would have to pass if they did not turn off.

South of Sidi Salem, the 68th Artillery Battalion was still effectively engaging the enemy artillery on Garet Hadid with counterbattery fire. Companies E and F were trying to overrun anti-tank batteries north and south of the village.

As Wolff's tank reached the hill, he could see the white stars of American Shermans as they plunged past him on the right, showing their broadsides. The Americans were apparently preoccupied with KGr. Gerhardt to the north and failed to detect Wolff's company in the center. The main body of the American force throttled back, then halted 3,000 yards away. Wolff's group slowed, awaiting orders.

At 1545, Winkler's 1st Platoon reported the movement of enemy tanks along the road to the northeast. The strength of the panzer force was then undetermined but would later be estimated at 30 tanks. Moments later, Peyton reported an enemy force of 25 Pzkw. Mk.IVs thrusting from the south parallel to the Bir el Hafey Road. He coaxed Company F into defiladed positions southeast of Sidi Salem. Tank guns flashed as the Americans and Germans began firing at one another. KGr. Stenkhoff's panzers had been discovered-but too late.

There was little cover for Company F's tanks as the Germans drove into Peyton's force with fierce determination. They were now in position to turn Alger's southern flank.

Alger joined Company E in maneuvering from the west edge of Sidi Salem to engage KGr. Gerhardt, which was moving steadily toward them from the north. Winkler's 1st Platoon caught four German panzers moving through a cactus patch and knocked them out. Two additional enemy tanks were later destroyed in the same position. The balance of Winkler's tanks opened fire from the cover of the village, with the 3rd Platoon destroying eight enemy tanks. One of Company D's tanks was engaged by seven panzers. The outgunned American tank was able to destroy one of its tormentors before it was wrecked.

As he watched the action unfold, Wolff's mind raced. When would the order to advance be given? The southern force had already broken through the American perimeter. Suddenly, his radio crackled with the order: "4th Company, attack!"

Wolff joined his group in a dash across the broad plain, and they were soon within 2,500 yards of the Americans. The Germans were mystified that the Americans seemed oblivious to their advance-not one of their turrets turned to face Wolff's advancing armor.

Wolff's men kept estimating the distance to the white stars, asking their lieutenant excitedly when they could fire. Their armor-piercing rounds were already loaded in the firing chambers, but they were still 400 yards too far away for effective fire

[SAMWolf]

'Situation is hard'

German artillery positioned in and around Sidi Bou Zid opened up with a murderous barrage as the advance continued and Wolff's tanks drew closer. Finally, the order to fire was given. Wolff's company poured blistering shells at the Americans. In an instant, red flames and black smoke appeared on the horizon. Stack looked on in horror and disbelief as the German force came into view and began cutting into the American tanks. Alger had been sent directly into the jaws of an ambush. The 2nd Battalion would be crushed in a flanking vise by an overwhelming armored force, while simultaneously being hammered in the center-a classic encirclement.

At 1615 Alger lost contact with Winkler. By then, the opposing tankers were fighting at point-blank range. Unbeknown to Alger, Winkler had his head down in the turret when an armor-piercing round exploded in the tank with a brilliant red glow, a splash of molten metal and an eruption of fire. The compartment was immediately engulfed in flames. Kaser was killed instantly by the blast. Winkler's face and hair were seared and his eyes were burned shut. Newton was scorched on the face, hands and chest. Both Gregg and Urbanovski suffered superficial head wounds. The survivors bailed out of the stricken tank as the battle raged around them.



When they were on the ground, Winkler asked who was there. The crew said all but Kaser. He asked them to check on Kaser but one or more came back and told him it was no use. At Winkler's request, Gregg led his blinded commander to the nearest officer's tank to check in by radio with Alger. Winkler was unable to reach Alger on the radio but talked briefly in person with a Lieutenant Holder of Company E. Gregg then suggested that Winkler try to walk out while Gregg returned to the tank to help Newton and Urbanovski put the fire out. He said that they would pick up Winkler if they could douse the fire and restart the engine.

Meanwhile, Stack radioed Alger for a situation report. "Still pretty busy. Situation is hard," Alger calmly replied. That was Stack's last communication with the 2nd Battalion commander. Moments later Alger's radio antenna was blown away by a tank shell.

At 1645, armor-piercing rounds struck the engine compartment of Alger's tank, starting a fire. The early Sherman was nicknamed "the Ronson" due to the propensity of its lightly armored gasoline engine to burst into flames. Now, Alger's command tank was ablaze. Immediately afterward, two armor-piercing rounds ripped through the south side of the turret, killing radio operator Leger. Alger and the rest of the crew jumped from the flaming tank and tried to work northward to join the remnants of Company D.

The hostile armored force now bored in on the American flanks. Multicolored tracer shells streaked through the sky as the Germans rampaged at will among the burning M-4s. The survivors retreated west through lanes of heavy pursuing fire. Soon the envelopment was finished. Just four of Alger's Shermans and some scattered crews returned as night descended.

One of the tanks with a knocked-out gun picked up Winkler, who had walked west alone, guided only by the warmth of the setting sun on his scorched face. Alger and his crew were quickly spotted by Germans and captured, as were Gregg, Newton, Urbanovski and most of the battalion's dismounted crews.

The 68th Armored Artillery Battalion and the 6th Armored Infantry were cut off and threatened with encirclement. Nevertheless, the American artillery continued directing a steady stream of fire at the approaching German panzers, then only 2,000 yards away. Two guns disappeared in brilliant flashes of fire, while the others withdrew into defilade.



Stack was heartsick and had seen enough. Alger's entire battalion had been annihilated. At 1800, he ordered immediate disengagement and withdrawal to Kern's Crossroads. The American infantry trapped on Djebels Lessouda and Ksaira were written off and told to get back as best they could.

The Germans were elated. They had decimated an entire American tank battalion. Acrid, dark gray and black smoke filled the air. The American tanks huddled beside the wadi Oued Rouena, at the edge of Sidi Salem, flames flickering in the desert night.

As the victorious panzers droned and prowled around the village searching for stragglers, Wolff roamed from company to company asking his men and himself: "Did you ever see anything like it? Did you ever see anything like it?"

In just two days, the strength of the 1st Armored Division had been depleted by a total of 98 tanks, 57 halftracks, 29 artillery pieces and 500 men. Instantly swept away were 100 of its highly trained tank crews. These were the darkest days of the division's history. Alger later likened his doomed attack to the Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava during the Crimean War, lamenting that "there was little or no foresight in planning or execution of the operations."

[SAMWolf]

'In Africa we learned to crawl, then walk, then run.'

-- General Omar N. Bradley

'The Americans learn more quickly and adapt to combat as quickly, if not more quickly, than most.'

-- General Erwin Rommel

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On This Day In History


Birthdates which occurred on February 14:
1462 Edzard I Cirksena the Great, earl of East-Friesia (1494-1528)
1483 Zahir al-Din Mohammed Babur Shah prince/founder Mogols-dynasty
1487 Henry II of Bavaria bishop of Utrecht/Worms/Freising
1513 Domenico Maria Ferrabosco Italian composer
1515 Frederick III the Pious, elect of the Palts
1533 Christianus Adrichomius Dutch priest/writer (Vita Jesu Christi)
1546 Johann Pistorius German theologist/historian
1572 Hans Christoph Haiden composer
1602 Pier Francesco Cavalli Italian opera composer
1638 Sybilla Schwarz writer
1670 Georg Gabriel Schutz composer
1679 Georg Friedrich Kauffman composer
1707 Claude-Prosper J de Crébillon French writer (Le sopha)
1760 Richard Allen Philadelphia PA, 1st black ordained by Methodist-Episcopal church
1778 Fernando Joseph Maria Sor composer
1806 Lajos Count Batthyány, revolutionary premier of Hungary (1848-49)
1813 Alexander Sergeyevich Dargomyzhsky composer
1813 John McNeil Bvt Major General (Union volunteers), died in 1891
1817 Frederick Douglass African-American abolitionist/lecturer/editor
1819 James Green Martin Brigadier General (Confederate Army), died in 1878
1824 Winfield Scott Hancock Major General (Union volunteers), died in 1886
1829 Alfred Iverson Jr Brigadier General (Confederate Army), died in 1911
1835 François Haverschmidt Dutch writer (Snikken en grimlachjes)
1838 Margaret Knight inventor, "the female Thomas Edison"
1845 Cecil De Vere 1st official British chess champion (1866)
1847 Anna Howard Shaw US, suffragette
1853 Jan van Rijswijck Flemish journalist/mayor (Antwerp)
1856 Frank Harris England, journalist/writer (My Life & Loves)
1858 Joseph Thomson Scotland, geologist (Thomson's gazelle)
1858 Charles Beach Hawley composer
1859 George Washington Gale Ferris engineer/inventor (Ferris Wheel)
1864 Israel Zangwill England, Jewish author/Zionist (Children of Ghetto)
1864 Robert E Park US, sociologist (human ecology, marginal man)
1868 Henricus A Poels Dutch Roman Catholic theologist/social foreman
1869 Charles Wilson English physicist (Wilson cloud chamber-Nobel)
1880 Aida Overton Walker US dancer/singer (In Dahomey, Salome)
1880 Edgar Leslie Bainton composer
1881 Otto Selz German psychologist
1881 William John Gruffydd Welsh poet/scholar (Ynys yr Hud)
1882 George Jean Nathan US, editor/author/critic (American Mercury)
1882 Ignaz Friedman composer
1886 Theodor Werner German painter
1892 Nikolaj A Orloff Russian/British pianist (Chopin)
1893 Kay Fisker Danish architect (Hornbeck House, Copenhagen)
1894 Jack Benny [Benjamin Kubelski], Waukegan IL, "Oh! Rochester!"
1895 Max Horkheimer German philosopher/sociologist (Studies in prejudice)
1895 Nigel Bruce Baja Mexico, actor (Son of Lassie, Spider Woman)
1897 Jorgen Bentzon composer
1898 Fritz Zwicky Swiss astronomer (super nova)
1899 John Randall Jr Michigan, historian/philosopher (Western Man)
19-- Alan Hunter Birmingham AL, one of 5 original MTV vee-jays
1902 Fred Scott Fresno CA, singer/actor (Vincent Lopez)
1902 Ray "Crash" Corrigan Milwaukee WI, cowboy (Crash Corrigan's Ranch)
1902 Stu Erwin Squaw Valley CA, actor (Stu Erwin Show)
1902 Valentin Ruiz Azner composer
1904 Charles William Oatley electrical engineer
1904 Hanning Phillips Lord Lieutenant (Dyfed)
1904 Hertha Kuusinen Finnish communist
1905 Thelma Ritter Brooklyn NY, actress (Miracle on 34th Street)
1907 Johnny Longden jockey/trainer (1958 Racing Hall of Fame)
1909 A Moses Klein Montréal, poet (Hath Not a Jew...)
1911 Florence Rice Cleveland OH, actress (Double Wedding, Riding on Air)
1911 Willem J Kolff Dutch/US internist/inventor (Artificial Kidney)
1912 Edmund George Love US, teacher/historian/author (A Small Bequest)
1912 Juan Pujol Garcia [Garbo/Arabel], Spanish British/German double agent
1912 Oliver Wendell Harrington cartoonist
1913 James Pike Oklahoma City OK, bishop (Beyond Anxiety)
1913 Jimmy Hoffa Teamsters leader who disappeared in 1975
1913 Mel Allen Birmingham AL, sportscaster (voice of the New York Yankees)
1913 Ab [Albert] Visser Dutch poet/writer (Man Without a Head)
1915 A W H Stewart-Moore CEO (Gallaher)
1915 Irving Gordon songwriter
1916 Edward Platt Staten Island NY, actor (Chief-Get Smart)
1916 Masaki Kobayashi Japanese director (Joi-uchi)
1916 Wawrzyniec Jerzy Zulawski composer
1917 Herbert A Hauptman New York NY, x-ray crystallographer (Nobel 1985)
1920 Arnold Elton consultant surgeon
1921 Hugh Downs Akron OH, TV journalist (20/20, Concentration)
1921 Skeezix of "Gasoline Alley" discovered on Wallets' doorstep
1921 Albert Sloman Vice-Chancellor (Essex U)
1921 Jeanne Demessieux composer
1921 Piet Kraak Dutch soccer player
1923 Jay Herbert golfer (1960 PGA winner)
1923 Derrick Holden-Brown CEO (Allied-Lyons)
1924 Arghyris Kounadis composer
1924 Countess Mountbatten of Burma
1925 Elliot Lawrence Philadelphia PA, orchestra leader (Guide Right, Howard Cosell)
1925 Peg Murray Denver CO, actress (Me & Mrs C)
1926 John Clark CEO (Plessey Company)
1927 Lois Maxwell Kitchener Ontario, actress (Miss Moneypenny)
1928 Ben Garrido Blaz (Representative-R-Guam, 1985- )
1928 Juan García Hortelano Spanish author (Tormenta de verano)
1929 Matthew G Martinez (Representative-D-CA, 1982- )
1930 Duncan Montgomery Stewart principal (Lady Margaret Hall-Oxford)
1931 Phyllis McGuire Middletown OH, singer (McGuire Sisters)
1931 Bernie "Boom Boom" Geoffrion NHL right wing (Canadiens, Rangers)
1931 Lord Rossmore
1929 Vic Morrow Bronx NY, actor (Combat, Roots, Twilight Zone the Movie)
1932 Alexander Kluge writer
1932 Brian Kelly Detroit MI, actor (Flipper, Straightaway)
1932 Jack Hibbert director (Central Statistical Office)
1932 Jocelyn Stevens CEO (English Heritage)
1932 Michael Ball Bishop (Truro)
1932 Peter Ball Bishop (Gloucester)
1933 Andrey Mikhaylovich Volkonsky composer
1933 Bertram Jay Turetzky composer
1933 Evelyn Ebsworth Vice-Chancellor (Durham U)
1934 Florence Henderson Dale IN, actress/singer (Carol-Brady Bunch)
1934 Marlene Matthews Australia, sprinter (Olympics-2 bronze-1956)
1935 Christine CT "Christel" Adelaar Dutch actress (Pipo the Clown)
1935 David Wilson British Governor (Hong Kong)
1935 Lord Wilson of Tillyorn
1935 Mickey Wright San Diego CA, LPGA golfer (4 times LPGA champion)
1935 Peter Phillips printer
1936 Andrew Pine Jennings FL, actor (V, WEB, Wide Country)
1936 Fanne Foxe [Annabella Battistella], Argentina, (Wilbur Mills affair)
1937 John MacGregor British MP
1937 Magic Sam rocker (Chicago Bluesman)
1938 Lee Chamberlin New York NY, actress (Electric Company, Viper)
1939 Chris Pyne trombonist
1939 Michael Rudman English theater director/producer (Donkeys' Years)
1940 Porpoise 1st born in captivity in US (Marineland, Florida)
1941 Paul Tsongas (Senator-D-MA)
1941 John Butterfill MP
1942 Margaret Wright chief commissioner (Guide Association)
1943 Eric Anderson Pittsburgh PA, singer (Avalanche, Be True to You)
1943 Ischa Meijer journalist/critic/actor (Boezemvriend)
1943 Maceo Parker US tenor saxophonist (King's One, Mo' Roots)
1943 Robert J Murphy Jr Brooklyn NY, PGA golfer (1968 Philadelphia Classic)
1944 Carl Bernstein Washington Post investigative reporter (Watergate)
1944 Alan Parker English actor (Bugsy Malone, Evita)
1944 Bruce Summerhays St Louis MO, PGA golfer (Provo Open-1966, 91 93)
1945 Gregory Hines New York NY, actor/dancer (White Nights, Taps)
1945 Hans Adam prince of Liechtenstein
1945 K M Jenkins British director of personnel (Royal Mail)
1945 Vic Briggs England, rocker (Animals)
1945 William Hill Boner (Representative-D-TN, 1979- )
1946 David Green English TV/video producer
1946 Tim Buckley Washington DC, rocker (Blood, Sweat & Tears-When I Die)
1946 Tina Aumont Hollywood CA, actress (Master of Love, Casanova)
1947 Heidemarie Rosendahl German Federal Republic, long jumper (Olympics-gold-1972)
1947 Judd Gregg (Representative-R-NH, 1981- )
1947 Pham Tuan Vietnam, cosmonaut (Soyuz 37/36)
1947 Salah-ud-Din cricketer (played 5 Tests for Pakistan 1965-69)
1948 Pat O'Brien reporter (Entertainment Tonight)
1948 Jackie [Jr John Coger] Martling "Jackie the Jokeman", comedian (Howard Stern Show)
1948 Raymond Joseph Teller Philadelphia PA, magician (Penn & Teller)
1948 Wally Tax Dutch guitarist
1949 Ewa Aulin Stockholm Sweden, actress (Candy, Fiorina LeVacca)
1949 Jimmy Randell rocker
1949 Richard E Neal (Representative-D-MA)
1950 Raymond van het Groenewoud Belgian vocalist/actor (Brussels by Night)
1951 Kevin Keegan British soccer player/manager (Newcastle United)
1951 Michael Doucet singer/musician (Beausoleil)
1953 Wayne Siegel composer
1955 R Jeremy H Lascelles grandson of English princess Mary
1956 Dave Dravecky pitcher (San Francisco Giants), had arm amputated
1956 Howard Edward Davis Jr Glen Cove NY, lightweight boxer (Olympics-silver-1976)
1958 Perry Stephens Frankfurt Germany, actor (Loving, All My Children)
1960 Jim Kelly NFL quarterback (Buffalo Bills)
1960 Meg Tilly [Margaret], Los Angeles CA, actress (Big Chill, Impulse)
1963 D'Wayne Wiggins singer (Tony! Toni! Tone!)
1963 Jeff Dellenbach NFL center (New England Patriots, Green Bay Packers-Superbowl 31)
1963 John Marzano Philadelphia PA, catcher (Seattle Mariners)
1963 Zach Galligan New York NY, actor (Gremlins)
1964 Darrick Brilz NFL center (Cincinnati Bengals)
1965 Jessie Tuggle NFL linebacker (Atlanta Falcons)
1966 Clark Sherwood Dennis Houston TX, PGA golfer (1990 Hawaiian Open-3rd)
1966 Petr Svoboda Most Czechoslovakia, NHL defenseman (Philadelphia Flyers, Olympics-gold-1998)
1967 Calle Johansson Göteborg Sweden, NHL defenseman (Washington Capitals)
1967 Laura Martin LaJolla CA, WPVA volleyballer (Nationals-13th-1994)
1967 Manuela Maleeva-Fragniere Sofia Bulgaria, tennis player (1984 US Open Mixed Doubles)
1968 Chris Lewis cricketer (in Guyana England all-rounder)
1969 Chad Magee Tyler TX, Nike golfer (1993 NIKE Shreveport Open-36th)
1969 Harry Colon NFL safety (Jacksonville Jaguars, Detroit Lions)
1969 Jeff Graham NFL wide receiver (Chicago Bears, New York Jets)
1969 Roy Barker NFL defensive end (Minnesota Vikings, San Francisco 49ers)
1969 Shana Zadrick Grand Junction CO, model (Guess Jeans)
1970 David Podlich Brisbane Queensland, Australasia golfer
1970 Elaine Youngs Orange CA, volleyball outside hitter (Olympics-96)
1970 Guillaume Raoux France, tennis star
1970 Kelly Stinnett US baseball catcher (New York Mets)
1970 Richard Smehlik Ostrava Czechoslovakia, NHL defenseman (Team Czechoslovakian Republic, Buffalo)
1970 Sean Hill Duluth, NHL defenseman (Ottawa Senators)
1971 Derrick Witherspoon NFL running back (Philadelphia Eagles)
1971 Gheorghe Muresan NBA center (Washington Bullets/Wizards)
1971 Kenny Shedd WLAF receiver (Barcelona Dragons, Oakland Raiders)
1971 Lonnie Johnson NFL tight end (Buffalo Bills)
1972 Mayne One rocker (Young Nation)
1972 Bruno Heppell CFL full back (Montréal Alouettes)
1972 Drew Bledsoe NFL quarterback (New England Patriots)
1972 Erika Rachael Schwarz Folsom LA, Miss Louisiana-America (1996-2nd)
1972 Raymond Beerens Dutch soccer player (PSV, FC Groningen)
1973 George Hegamin NFL/WLAF tail back (Dallas Cowboys, Frankfurt Galaxy)
1973 Michael "Mike" Theodore Lambert IV Thomaston GA, rower (Olympics-1996)
1973 Steve McNair NFL quarterback (Houston Oilers)
1973 Tyus Edney NBA guard (Boston Celtics, Sacramento Kings)
1974 Michael Lowery NFL linebacker (Chicago Bears)
1974 Rob Jahrling Australian rower (Olympics-96)
1975 Jennifer Michelle Roberts Greensboro NC, Miss North Carolina-America (1996)
1977 Nathan Osmond Utah, vocalist (Osmond Boys)
1978 Laurie Schwoy soccer forward (Olympics-96)
1985 Jacob Parker actor (Evening Shade)
1998 Arpad Flynn Busson New York NY, son of model Elle MacPherson

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Deaths which occurred on February 14:
0869 Cyrillus Greek apostle of Slaves, dies
1400 Richard II British King (1377-99), murdered at 33 at Pontefract Castle
1405 Timur/Tamerlan "Lenk" [Crippled], Mongols monarch, dies at about 68
1528 Edzard I the Great count of Austria-E Frisia (1494-1528), dies at 66
1571 Benvenuto Cellini Italian sculptor/metalsmith/author (Perseus), dies at 70
1571 Odet de Coligny Cardinal of Châtillon/count of Beauvais, dies at 53
1681 Francesco Nigetti composer, dies at 77
1760 François Collin de Blamont composer, dies at 69
1779 James Cook British explorer, murdered by natives in fracas with Hawaiians
1780 William Blackstone English lawyer, dies at 56
1790 Capel Bond composer, dies at 59
1818 John C Hespe Dutch journalist/politician, dies at 61
1820 Charles F Duke of Berry, murdered at 42
1831 Vincente Guerrero Mexican revolutionary hero, dies
1841 Antun Sorkocevic composer, dies at 65
1846 Cornelis F van Maanen Dutch supreme court justice, dies at 76
1857 Johannes B van Bree Dutch violinist/composer/conductor, dies at 56
1873 Charles Samvei Bovy-Lysberg composer, dies at 52
1891 William Tecumseh Sherman Union Civil War General (captured Atlanta), dies at 71
1901 Edward John Hopkins composer, dies at 82
1908 Georges Jean Pfeiffer composer, dies at 72
1916 Petko J Todorov Bulgaria writer (Zmejova), dies at 36
1937 Erkki Gustav Melartin composer, dies at 62
1943 David Hilbert German mathematician (Hilbert Space), dies at 81
1943 Frieda Reiss French 11 month old baby, murdered in Auschwitz
1950 Eduard Hermann German linguist (Homer), dies at 80
1950 Karl G Jansky Czechoslovakian discoverer of cosmic radio sources, dies at 44
1955 Charles Cuvillier composer, dies at 77
1960 Sven R Lidman Swedish writer (Tvedräktens Barn), dies at 77
1961 Wallis Clark actress (Easy Money), dies at 78
1965 Desire-Emile Inghelbrecht French composer/conductor, dies at 84
1967 Sig Ruman actor (Schultz-Life With Luigi), dies at 82
1967 James Schneider actor (Keystone Kops), dies at 85
1969 Vito Genovese US mafia chief, dies at 71
1969 Wolfe Barzell actor (Blue Angel), dies of heart attack at 72
1972 Lambertus "Bertus" van Lyre composer/conductor (Dike), dies at 65
1974 C S Dempster cricketer (10 Tests for New Zealand, 723 runs), dies
1975 Heintje Davids [Hendrika David], Dutch cabaret artist, dies at 87
1975 Julian S Huxley English scholar/director-general (UNESCO), dies at 87
1975 Pelham G Wodehouse English/US writer (Piccadilly Jim), dies at 93
1979 Adolph Dubs US ambassador to Afghanistan, murdered
1982 Henk Schaer [Hendricus J M Schaareman], Dutch actor, dies at 79
1987 Bola Sete guitarist, dies at 63
1987 Dmitry Borisovich Kabalevsky composer, dies at 82
1988 Frederick Loewe US composer (My Fair Lady), dies at 84
1990 Graeme Hole cricketer (18 Tests for Australia, 789 runs), dies
1990 Jean Wallace [Walasek], actress (Big Combo), dies of hemorrhage at 66
1991 Arno Breker German sculptor (Third Reich), dies at 90
1991 John A McCone Head of CIA (1961-65), dies
1992 Angelique Pettyjohn actress (Biohazard), dies of cancer at 48
1992 Jacob "Bob" de Uyl journalist/author (Restless Travel), dies at 61
1992 Roepie Kruize hockey player (Olympics-bronze-48/silver-52), dies at 67
1993 Buddy Pepper composer, dies of heart failure at 70
1994 Christopher Lasch author (Culture of Narcissism), dies at 61
1994 Gary "BB" Coleman blues vocal/guitarist/producer, dies at 47
1995 Alberto Burri Italian physician/sculptor/painter, dies at 79
1995 Ischa Meÿer journalist/critic/entertainer/interviewer, dies at 52
1995 Michael Vincent Gazzo US actor/playwright (Godfather 2), dies at 71
1995 Nigel Lucius Graeme Finch TV Director/film-maker, dies at 45
1995 Patricia Highsmith writer, dies at 74
1995 Roger de Grey English chairman of Royal Academy (1984-93), dies at 76
1995 Siem Suurhoff TV-director (Behind the News, Sonja), dies at 58
1995 U Nu PM of Burma (1948-56, 57-58, 60-62), dies
1996 Bob Paisley football manager, dies at 77
1996 Caroline Blackwood writer, dies at 64
1996 Eva Hart Titanic survivor, dies at 90
1996 Ivan William Hannaford sociologist, dies at 64

---

On this day...
0842 Charles II & Louis the German sign treaty
1014 Pope Benedict VIII crowns Henry II, Roman German emperor
1076 Pope Gregory VII excommunicates Henry IV
1130 Jewish Cardinal Pietro Pierleone elected as anti-pope Anacletus II
1349 2,000 Jews burned at the stake in Strasbourg France
1540 Emperor Charles V enters Ghent without resistance, executes rebels
1556 Archbishop Thomas Cranmer declared a heretic
1610 Polish king Sigismund III, Forges Dimitri #2 & Romanov family sign covenant against czar Vasili Shushki
1613 King James I's daughter Elizabeth marries Frederik
1630 Dutch fleet of 69 ships reaches Pernambuco Brazil
1670 Roman Catholic emperor Leopold I chases Jews out of Vienna
1689 English parliament places Mary Stuart/Prince Willem III on the throne
1711 Händels opera Rinaldo, premieres
1746 Henry Pelham appointed English premier
1766 Dutch governor Falck signs Treaty of Batticaloa with rebels
1778 "Stars & Stripes" arrives in foreign port for 1st time (France)
1794 1st US textile machinery patent granted, to James Davenport, Philadelphia PA
1803 Apple parer patented by Moses Coats, Downington PA
1848 James K Polk became 1st President photographed in office (Matthew Brady)
1859 Oregon admitted as 33rd state
1862 Galena, 1st US iron-clad warship for service at sea, launched, Connecticut
1867 Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection & Insurance Company issues 1st policy
1867 Morehouse College organizes (Augusta GA)
1872 1st state bird refuge authorized (Lake Merritt CA)
1876 A G Bell & Elisha Gray apply separately for telephone patents; Supreme Court eventually rules Bell rightful inventor
1879 Chilean troops occupy Antofagasta
1883 1st state labor union legislation; New Jersey legalizes unions
1887 Cubs sell Mike King Kelly to Boston for record $10,000
1889 1st trainload of fruit (oranges) leaves Los Angeles for the east
1890 1st New South Wales vs South Australia 1st-class cricket game
1894 Venus is both a morning star & evening star
1895 Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest" opens in London
1896 George Lohmann takes a hat-trick vs South Africa, 8-7 for inning
1896 South Africa all out for 30 vs England - their lowest ever
1896 Stanley Cup Winnipeg Victorias beat Montréal Victorias, 2-0
1896 Theodor Herzl publishes "Der Judenstaat"
1899 US Congress begins using voting machines
1900 Date of events in movie "Picnic at Hanging Rock"
1903 US Dept of Commerce & Labor established
1907 1st US fox hound association forms in New York NY
1912 1st US submarines with diesel engines commissioned, Groton CT
1912 Arizona becomes 48th state
1914 High Council of Labor forms in Hague Netherlands
1918 USSR adopts New Style (Gregorian) calendar
1918 H Atteridge & S Rombergs musical "Sinbad" premieres in New York NY
1919 United Parcel Service forms
1920 League of Women Voters forms in Chicago
1921 Little Review faces obscenity charges for publishing "Ulysses", New York
1921 Canadian 5¢ nickel coin is authorized
1924 IBM Corporation founded by Thomas Watson
1925 State of emergency crisis in Bayern ends, NSDAP re-allowed
1929 St Valentine's Day Massacre in Chicago IL, 7 gangsters killed
1931 Bradman scores 152 Australia vs West Indies, 154 minutes, 13 fours 2 fives
1931 Spanish government of General Damasco Berenguer falls
1932 South Africa all out for 36 in 1st innings vs Australia (Ironmonger 5-6)
1934 NHL Ace Bailey Benefit Game Toronto beats All-Stars 7-3 in Toronto
1936 National Negro Congress organizes in Chicago
1936 US female Figure Skating championship won by Maribel Vinson
1936 US male Figure Skating championship won by Robin Lee
1939 Victor Fleming replaces George Cukor as director of Gone With the Wind
1940 British merchant vessel fleet is armed
1941 Carson McCuller's "Reflections in a Golden Eye" published
1941 Cebrie Park in the Bronx renamed Halsey Street
1941 1,000,000th vehicle traverses the New York Midtown Tunnel
1941 German Africa Corps lands in Tripoli, Libya
1942 Japanese parachutists land near oil center Palembang Sumatra
1942 Rotterdam's Maas tunnel opens
1943 German offensive through de Faid-pass Tunisia
1943 Soviets recapture Rostov
1944 Carl Wick publishes "Salmon Trolling for Commercial & Sport Fishing
1944 Anti-Japanese revolt on Java
1945 Perú, Paraguay, Chile & Ecuador join the United Nations
1945 8th Air Force bombs Dresden
1946 Bank of England nationalized
1949 1st session of Knesset opens in Jerusalem
1949 Dutch Drees government presents plan for the building of 30,000 houses
1950 Moroney scores cricket twin centuries for Australia at Johannesburg
1950 USSR & China sign peace treaty
1951 Sugar Ray Robinson defeats Jake LaMotta & takes middleweight title
1952 6th Winter Olympics games opens in Oslo, Norway
1952 Comedian Joey Adams marries gossip columnist Cindy Heller
1954 Senator John Kennedy appears on "Meet the Press"
1954 Beverly Hanson wins LPGA St Petersburg Golf Open
1954 WTOC TV channel 11 in Savannah GA (CBS) begins broadcasting
1955 WFLA (now WXFL) TV channel 8 in Tampa-St Petersburg FL (NBC) begins
1956 Khrushchev denounces Stalin at USSR Communist Party Conference
1956 20th Congress of CPSU opens in Moscow
1956 Indonesia withdraws from Netherlands Indonesian Union
1956 Verhoeven/Nauta/De King/Wijnhout win Dutch 11 city skate
1957 Georgia Senate unanimously approves Senator Leon Butts' bill barring blacks from playing baseball with whites
1958 Arab Federation of Iraq & Jordan forms
1959 $3.6 million heroin seizure in New York NY
1960 Beverly Hanson wins LPGA St Petersburg Golf Open
1960 Marshal Ayub Khan elected President of Pakistan
1961 Element 103, Lawrencium, 1st produced in Berkeley CA
1961 Louise Suggs wins LPGA Royal Poinciana Golf Invitational
1962 1st lady Jacqueline Kennedy conducts White House tour on TV
1963 US launches communications satellite Syncom 1
1966 Australia introduces 1st decimal currency postage stamps
1966 Wilt Chamberlain breaks NBA career scoring record at 20,884 points
1966 Writers Andrei Sinjavski & Joeij Daniël found guilty
1967 Aretha Franklin records "Respect"
1967 Latin American nuclear free zone proposal drawn up
1968 Pennsylvania Railroad/NYC Central merge into Pennsylvania Central
1968 WHKY TV channel 14 in Hickory NC (IND) begins broadcasting
1970 "Gantry" closes at George Abbott Theater NYC after 1 performance
1971 Movie "Ben Hur" 1st shown on television
1971 Richard Nixon installs secret taping system in White House
1972 John & Yoko co-host "Mike Douglas Show" for entire week
1972 Luna 20 (Russia) launched to orbit & soft landing on Moon
1975 Bomb explodes at annex of Amsterdam metro station
1976 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1978 In girls' HS basketball, Chicago Latin beats Harvard St George
1978 1st "micro on a chip" patented by Texas Instruments
1979 "Whoopee!" opens at ANTA Theater NYC for 204 performances
1980 13th Winter Olympics games open in Lake Placid NY
1980 US launches Solar Maximum Mission Observatory to study solar flares
1980 "West Side Story" opens at Minskoff Theater NYC for 341 performances
1982 "Night of 100 Stars" takes place at New York's Radio City Music Hall
1982 Hollis Stacy wins LPGA S&H Golf Classic
1984 Singer Elton John marries Renate Blauel in Sydney Australia
1985 Hostage CNN reporter Jeremy Levin is released in Beirut
1987 53,745 largest NBA crowd to date-Philadelphia at Detroit
1988 Bobby Allison at 50 becomes oldest driver to win Daytona 500
1988 General hospital star Jackie Zeman marries Glenn Gorden
1988 49th PGA Seniors Golf Championship Gary Player
1988 Alfredo Stroessner re-elected President of Paraguay
1988 Patty Sheehan wins LPGA Sarasota Golf Classic
1989 Robin Givens is granted a divorce from Mike Tyson in Dominican Republic
1989 Union Carbide agrees to pay $470 million damages for Bhopol disaster
1989 African National Congress (ANC) opens office in Amsterdam
1989 Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini offers $1 million-$3 million bounty on Salman Rushdie's death due to his novel, "Satanic Verses"
1989 World's 1st satellite Skyphone opens
1990 Alan Ayckbourn's "Man of the Moment" premieres in London
1990 Perrier recalls 160 million bottles of sparkling water after traces of benzene, a carcinogen, are found in some
1990 Space probe Voyager 1 takes photograph of entire solar system
1991 "Mule Bone" opens at Ethel Barrymore Theater NYC for 67 performances
1991 Air raid shelter at Baghdad bombed killing 300
1991 NL Cy Young winner Doug Drabek wins record $3 million salary arbitration
1992 Andre Cason runs world record 60 meter indoor (6.41 seconds)
1992 Cease fire in Somalia begins
1992 Kieren John Perkins swims world record 800 meter freestyle (7 minutes 46.60 seconds)
1992 Merlene Ottey runs world record 60 meter indoor (6.96 seconds)
1993 Fire in Linxi department store in Tangshan China, kills 79
1994 Alexander Golubev skates Olympics record 500 meter (36.33)
1994 Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia (51) weds Deborah Koons
1995 Roseanne weds bodyguard Ben Thomas
1995 Wellington 2-498d & 4-475 beat Canterbury 496 & 2-476d

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Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

Arizona 1912, Oregon 1859 : Admission Day
Bulgaria : Viticulturists' Day/Trifon Zarezan, cult of Dionysus
China : Chinese New Year-The Year of the Tiger (2010/4708)
Denmark : Gaekkebrev/Fjörtende Februar-gift exchanges by school kids
Mexico : Day of National Mourning (Vincent Guerrero-1831)
World : St Valentine's Day (269)

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Religious Observances
Methodist : Race Relations Sunday (2nd Sunday in February)
Roman Catholic : Commemoration of St Valentine, physician/martyr/patron of lovers
Lutheran, Anglican, Roman Catholic : Memorial of Cyril, monk/missionary to the Slavs
Lutheran, Anglican, Roman Catholic : Memorial of St Methodius, bishop/missionary to the Slavs

---

Religious History
1760 Richard Allen, the first black ordained in the Methodist Episcopal Church (1799), and founder of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in 1816, was born in slavery in Philadelphia.
1805 Colonial American theologian Henry Ware, 41, was confirmed as the first Unitarian professor to teach at Harvard University. Soon after, the Trinitarian Congregationalist teachers began withdrawing from the school, and in 1808 established Andover Theological Seminary.
1914 Birth of Ira F. Stanphill, Assemblies of God clergyman and song evangelist. He is best known today for the hymn, "Room at the Cross," which he penned in 1946.
1949 Russian-born English chemist and Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann, 74, was elected first president of the newly restored modern state of Israel.
1985 The U.S. Rabbinical Assembly of Conservative Judaism announced their decision to begin accepting women as rabbis.

---

Thought for the day :
"Show affection, it will probably meet with pleasant response."

[Jen]

Fall in to the FReeper Foxhole!

To be removed from this list, send me a BLANK FReepmail with "REMOVE" in the subject line. Thanks! Jen

[SAMWolf]

1941 German Africa Corps lands in Tripoli, Libya

The legend of "The Desert Fox" begins.

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!

[WhiskeyPapa]

That's a late model M4A3 with the 47 degree front plate. They weren't at Kasserine.

But it's still "tanks for the memories."

Walt

[SAMWolf]

Thank you Cote! I used to know that song in German, My mom sang it to me and explained what it meant in English. That brings back some memories.

Just goes to show that music know no borders.

[alfa6]

I just finished reading "An Army at Dawn" by Rick Atkinson.
It is the first of a trilogy on the US Army in the European half of WWII. Pretty good read, it is a wonder that we didn't get our tails kicked out of North Africa.

Regards

alfa6 ;>}

[SAMWolf]

I know WhiskeyPapa, but I had a real hard time finding pictures of Kasserine Pass.

I don't believe that was a camo scheme used by the US.

Nice to know there's someone out there keeping me honest, Thanks.

[SAMWolf]

Earlier models of the Sherman.

[SAMWolf]

We had a lot to learn early in WWII, it's a good thing we learned quickly and that the German's made more mistakes than we did.

[WhiskeyPapa]

Nice to know there's someone out there keeping me honest, Thanks.

Thanks for exposing me as a whacko who can tell early model M-4A3's from late models.

My recruiter promised me I could be a tanker, the lying S.O.B.

Walt

[manna]

Present!

[WhiskeyPapa]

The early Sherman was nicknamed "the Ronson" due to the propensity of its lightly armored gasoline engine to burst into flames.

Studies later showed that the majority of the fires were caused by main gun propellant. German tanks were also mostly powered with gasoline engines and suffered similarly from fire for the same reason.

Walt

[facedown]

Hi guys!

Early Combat in the M4:

The first shipment of Shermans arrived in the Middle East on September 11, 1942. The English 8th Army immediately modified these Shermans for desert combat. On the evening of October 23, 1942, the battle of El Alamein started. The new Sherman medium tank would see its first combat the following day. On the morning of October 24, 1942, the 2nd Armored Brigade engaged elements of the 15th Panzer Division. The British M4A1s destroyed some of the opposing German Mk. IVs at a range of 2000 meters and caused the Germans to withdraw after suffering the losses. The British also lost some of their M4s in this engagement. The M4 had proven itself on par with the German long barreled (KwK 40) armed Mk. IV in its initial engagement.

The US M4's first saw combat with the 2nd Battalion, 13th Armored Regiment. All five tanks were knocked out on December 6, 1942 by well placed anti-tank guns. The initial use of the M4 by US tankers proved to be disastrous. Again on February 14-15, US tankers of the 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the 1st Armored Regiment were almost completely wiped out in an attack on Sidi Bou Zid.

One of the tanks from the 3rd battalion, 1st Armored Regt. knocked out by an 88mm gun on February 14-15

This is a quote from Lieutenant Colonel Louis Hightower describing some of the action in an M4A1 Sherman around Sidi Bou Zid, in January 1943(Ralph R. Zumbro "Tank Aces" from Armored Magazine).

"We pulled out about 1700 that morning, in response to a call that 30 German tanks were attacking a hill called Djebel Lessoude, not far from the town of Faid. When we got there, 15 German Mk IV tanks were ahead of us on the eastern crest. To our left, there seemed to be 22 more German tanks. My battalion pulled up in rough line, and we began to slug it out. In the first engagement, we lost three Shermans and knocked out 5 or 6 German tanks. Then the 22 tanks came over the hill at us, which turned out to be 50 Mk IVs and at least 4 of the new Mk VIs, the awesome Tiger I. Our battalion, seriously outnumbered to begin with, we began to pull back as the Germans tried their usual trick of envelopment. They sent out a long pincer on each side of us, trying to get behind us from both sides. We kept pivoting and shooting at first one German pincer and then the other. We kept from being surrounded, but at a heavy cost. We were losing tanks, knocked out but not killed, just disabled, when their dive-bombers caught us and came in wave after wave.

They didn't hurt us much, as the TCs could see the bombs falling and have their drivers dodge them, but they smoked us up so bad that we couldn't see. I had my artillery FO call in some 105mm barrages while we pulled across 2 miles of open field in Sidi Bou Zid. The front line here was very fluid, and the town had changed hands several times. Now we'd gotten back to our artillery, self-propelled 105mm guns, and they covered us by using their guns for direct fire against the German tanks. They were now hitting Krauts with every pop, and I saw 3 Mk IVs flame up with just three shots.

We reorganized in the town, but after about 2 hours, they began another huge double envelopment, and we had to pull back again. We got our artillery and supply trains safely on the road and then started down the road back to Gafsa ourselves. After getting all our tanks under way, except for my HQ section, which we were 2 light tanks and 2 medium tanks. We took out across country, very cautiously as were outnumbered and, considering the existence of the Tigers, seriously outgunned. We meant to cover ground more quickly than a road-bound column, and it was fortunate that we had. Suddenly we heard gunfire and, coming over a rise we came upon a debacle.

Nine Mk IVs and a Tiger were shooting up one of our columns of half-track and light vehicles. The gun on the other medium tank was jammed and the 2 light tanks were too thinly armored for the task before us, I sent them away. I ordered our column of light vehicles to swing in behind us, as my driver raced to put us between them and the Germans.

As the Germans turned for what they thought would be a picnic, we let go and struck their commander's tanks with our third shot. He stopped cold as if he had hit a tree. We got a second tank with one more shot, and the German tanks braked to a halt and began to fire at us in earnest. We could fire on the move, though, and kept going at about 15 mile per hour. We put three more shots into another German tanks before discovering that it was the Tiger. I saw the shells burst against him, but I don't know if he was disabled. However, he didn't shoot at us again, so we must have done some damage.

Another Mk IV came up to him, and we got that one with one shot, still moving ourselves. He flamed up like a flower. The another Mk IV approached the Tiger and the burning tank, which was stupid because all my gunner had to do was move his sight over a hair, and that tank also flamed up with the first shot. Then our gun overheated and jammed, and we were in serious trouble as the remaining Mk IVs really opened up on us. We could actually see the shells coming along close to the ground, like a ricocheting stone on the water. One shell fragment came straight down our gun tube, rattled around the but caused no serious damage. Another shell went through the bogie wheels, under the tank. Then with a sound like a giant bell, a shell hit our turret, but didn't penetrate. Another hit made our ears ring, but we kept on working on that jammed breechblock. As soon as our gun was unjammed, we began firing again, but now a German 75mm shell smashed the bottom of our left gas tank, and blazing gasoline spurted out over the back of the tank, the tracks and the ground around us. Heavy black smoke began to roil up from our hull. I shouted to my boys, "Now is the time to git" and we boiled out like peas from a hot pod."(Zumbro: 107-110)

The M4 Sherman, after its initial losses, began to prove itself as an adequate adversary to the German Mk IV tank. Tank crews learned from their mistakes and began to develop tactics to defeat a very experienced enemy. The M4 and M4A1 would undergo many improvements to help make it more survivable and better suited to face German armor on the battlefield.

One of the many problems associated with combat in the early and mid production M4 and M4A1 Shermans was the problem of "brewing up" when penetrated by an AP round. "Brewing up" is when a tank catches fire in the interior-fighting compartment. The M4 gained a seriously bad reputation for catching fire immediately after it was hit, limiting the survivability of the crew. Initially this problem was blamed on the gasoline-powered engine because the fuel used was highly combustible. The British nicknamed the Sherman the "Ronson" after a popular brand of cigarette lighter that was advertised to light on the first try every time. What actually caused the Sherman to "brew up" most of the time was AP hits to stored ammunition. The ammunition storage on the early and mid production M4 and M4A1 was in the right and left sponsons and at the rear of the turret. Extra ammunition was also typically stacked on the turret bottom. With many different locations for the stored ammo, it was fairly easy for a penetrating round to light up some of the stored ammunition causing the entire interior of the Sherman to catch fire.

Another example of a tank from the 1st Armored Regt. that was knocked out around Sidi bou Zid. This tank experienced a catastrophic ammunition explosion and its turret was blown off by the explosion. This is the reason that the early M4s were nicknamed the "Ronson".

[SAMWolf]

The Panther had a lot of engine fires at first, they were able to trace it to the exhaust system, they never did solve the problem 100%. The main problem with German tanks was they were over-engineered and proved to be maintenance nightmares.

The Sherman may have been a piece of junk but for the most part they were reliable, easy to maintian and we had thousands of them.

[SAMWolf]

My recruiter promised me I could be a tanker, the lying S.O.B

ROTFLMAO!! You too? I enlisted to be a tanker, found out I was colorblind and was disqualified for Armor.

[SAMWolf]

Excellent facedown. I can always count on you to find some excellent background information for the thread.

[WhiskeyPapa]

My recruiter promised me I could be a tanker, the lying S.O.B

ROTFLMAO!! You too? I enlisted to be a tanker, found out I was colorblind and was disqualified for Armor.

Yes, I wanted to go Combat Arms, and Master Gunnery Sergeant Beatty (who I definitely liked -- he was a great guy), told me, "They will take care of that when you get to P.I." Of course when you get to Parris Island, it's all "shut your bleeping mouth and get on the yellow footprints!"

Twelve weeks later, my orders said TEMPDUTYINS Camp San Onofre at the Infantry Training School.

Walt

[SAMWolf]

Thanks for the German version. I can hear my mom singing it now.

Does that mean you like Anne Murray? Shania Twain? Celine Dion? Paul Anka? Bryan Adams?

But of course!!

[WhiskeyPapa]

That's great stuff. Another thing, especially for the Brits in N. Africa about the Sherman, I bet, was that you could engage the triple damned 88' crews with HE. That would impress the buggers. Brit made tank guns had no HE rounds.

Walt

[SAMWolf]

I ended up in the Engineers. Somehow it just wasn't quite the same.

[Psalm 73]

Thanks for the PING, I remember my dad (1st Armored Div. tanker vet), talking about the horror of Kasserine Pass, as he lost a lot of friends there, but just served to steel their resovle.
When he passed he left his military photo albums to me - lots of great pics of the North African campaign.
PLEASE pray for our service men and women, and their families.
God Bless America.

[WhiskeyPapa]

The Sherman may have been a piece of junk but for the most part they were reliable, easy to maintian and we had thousands of them.

The Sherman was never a piece of junk, we just didn't keep up with tank development. There was one instance where some Shermans were driven from Normandy to Belgium on their tracks, by the Service of Supply guys. There's no way a German tank could have done something like that.

I remember seeing some film of the Israeli pull out of the Sinai in the mid-80s or before. Yep. There were some Sherman's on tank transporters in the background.

Walt

[SAMWolf]

We thank your dad for his service. Treasure those photos, they're an important part of his life.

[Aura Of The Blade]

Just wanted to wish all the ladies at the Foxfire a happy Valentines day.

[SAMWolf]

The Israeli's used an upgunned version of the Sherman as late as the Yom Kippur war. The first Arab-Israeli wars were fought with the Syrians even using some of the old German Mk-IV's.

Unfortunately the Sherman was under armored and under gunned for most of it's service life. IMHO the best versions were the British Firefly with the 17 pounder gun and the "Jumbo" which had excellent frontal armor. The M4A3E8 served well late in the war and in Korea.

Reliabilty was it's strongest point.

[SAMWolf]

Good Morning Jen.

[WhiskeyPapa]

Seems like I read an article years ago that gave the average WWII engagement range for tank combat as 500 meters. At that range it still took 13 main tank rounds to kill one tank. That's a LOT of adjusting onto the target. By 1973, the Israelis reported that they could consistantly get a kill at 1800 meters (about a mile) with the second round. Now of course, our guys can get consistant first round kills out to 3,000 meters and beyond in almost all conditions of visibility.

Walt

[WhiskeyPapa]

Reliabilty was it's strongest point.

I was interested to see in Facedown's text indications that the Shermans were firing with the gyrostabilizer on the move. I've read that the gyro was difficult to master and mechanically intricate. According to the one source I read, they were mostly disconnected.

That would be a big advantage in WWII, firing acurrately on the move.

Walt

[facedown]

...you could engage the triple damned 88' crews with HE.

Too bad they didn't have these toys.

M830A1 High Explosive Anti-Tank-Multi Purpose - Tracer (HEAT-MP-T)

[SAMWolf]

The big advantage the Germans had was the Zeiss Optics. They had an excellent sight. The American sights to put it mildly "sucked".

Above you see the "aiming help" or recticles the Germans had in their Zeiss Optics. Its an early version, the later version differed a little in layout, but the functionality remained the same. Note that the gunner only saw the 4 small and the large triangles, I added the description to explain their use.

What you have to understand is that the shell travels in an arc. The shape of the arc is dependent on the muzzle velocity among other things. Late German guns had a very high muzzle velocity and traveled in a stretched arc which gave the Germans more advantages than just penetration power.

In World War II there were no laser range finders. The gunner had to rely on his sight in the scope to judge distance to the target and to raise or lower his gun accordingly to increase the range the bullet flies. If the gunner raises his gun the bullet flies far, lowering does reduce that range. Sounds easy, right? Wrong. How did they guess the distance?

Take a look at the center large triangle. That triangle was calibrated to be "4 Strich" (in German) wide, or 4 mils. On 1000 meters range one mil resembles 1 meter if the gun was properly calibrated (thats a big "if"). Lets say there is a target 4 meters wide. Align the center triangle to the target and see if its larger or smaller and reduce the range accordingly. If the target is half the size of the triangle its twice a far away, ie. 2000 meters. If it is covering the large triangle and a small, ie. 6 mils wide, its:

4 mils = 1000 meters for 4 meter size, 6 mils = 750 meters for 4 meter size

So all you got to do is to know the targets size and match it against your sights. The small triangles are 2 mils, the large 4 mils, the distance between the small is 2 at their base, 4 mils at their tip. German gun crews knew the size of their targets from target tables and later instinctively knew distances. They practiced with their thumb all the time. Your thumb is on average 40 mils wide on 1000 meters, if you stretch your arm. Try it and guess ranges and verify if you're right or wrong. When aiming use the left and the right eye and the thumb will switch "targets". that jump is 100 meters or 100 mils at a distance of 1000 meters on average.

Now the exact range is NOT the range you want to aim to. Why? Because the shell would hit the ground exactly in front of your target, the range you guessed. But you want to HIT the target, ie. you have to aim higher. In order to hit the gunner has to change his "Visier" (turn the range wheel) of his sight which raises or lowers the aiming sight shown above, thus forcing him to lower or raise his gun to set the aiming sight again on target. The aiming sight of the Panzergranate 39 (Armor Piercing ammunition) was ranged form 0 to 4000 meters. Note that there is a different aiming set for each ammunition the tank carried because its flight path differs from the different muzzle velocity. Tanks with early Zeiss optics needed to add/deduct from their guessed range for each ammo type while later ones had different recticles for each.

Its not as easy as its sounds. Some more factors are playing in. On sunny clear days targets seem to be closer, on dawn or cloudy days targets seem to be further away. If a target drives you have to aim in front of it because the bullet needs its time to reach the target. Muzzle velocities of 750 meters/second means that the shell needs 1.3 seconds to reach its target. A tank driving with 25 km/h travels 7 meters in 1 second. You have to take that into account.

German gunners were known to hit weak spots on enemy tanks. The gunner in German tanks sits to the left of the gun (to the right of the gun in American tanks). So the gun shoots a little over 70 centimeters to the right if you aim perfectly. The machine gun even hits over 1 meter to the right of the spot you aimed at. Also the shell is set to a spin and that spin will force the shell from its ideal path slightly to the left and down. Ask an Engineer why that is. all those factors were trained properly and the german gunners were experts taking those into account during combat.

In order to calibrate their guns they bore sighted it against a target they knew the size and range.

The americans had poor optics and could NOT measure the range through them. All shots beyond 800 meters were lucky guesses on their part. This is an image of their M61 sight they used. The early version was even worse. It was used through a persicope which was looking above and to the left of the gun and had poor recticles. The only way to shoot is to raise the gun until your target matches the ranges horizon shown on the recticle.

[Aura Of The Blade]

SAM - It's too bad that "military history" is not taught a t first grade on up. A teacher I was talking to told me that many of the kids she teaches (teens) are crack head babies and have serious attention deficit disorders. These are the kids that will one day be running things.

BTW, if your wife is set on renovating the bathroom, you might want to hire someone else to pull up the old vinyl flooring, along with the scraping, prepping and toilet removal. It's worse than ditch digging :(

[SAMWolf]

I'd settle for then just teaching American history in our classrooms. It's all this new PC crap, evil white Europeans, slavery, internment camps, keeping women down, ruinging the environment, yada, yada, yada. It's enough to make you puke.


LOL! I know I've done one bathroom already, I'm trying to avoid doing another.

[bandleader]

US forces suffered their first defeat(european theater)at Kasserrine.This prompted the removal of Gen.Lloyd Frendedandall.He was replaced by Gen.George S.Patton Jr.This was one of the very few "WISE"decisions that The US Army made in WWll!!

[bandleader]

I mis-spelled Fredendall.Sorry!

[Aura Of The Blade]

Uh Uhh. Those bathroom's are pretty bad, especially without knee pads and a gas mask :o)

[colorado tanker]

Yep. The movie "Patton" opens with Bradley inspecting the battlefield at Kasserine and concluding they needed Patton to take command of the Corps.

Thanks for this story, Sam; it's a fascinating read.