Home | The Fifth Field | French MacLean | Author | Books by French MacLean

Time 2020-10-14 17:04:12

Web Name: Home | The Fifth Field | French MacLean | Author | Books by French MacLean

WebSite: http://thefifthfield.com

ID:82062

Keywords:

Fifth,Field,Home,

Description:

The 1874 Yellowstone Wagon Road and Prospecting Expedition and the Battle of Lodge Grass Creek 96 American Soldiers Sentenced to Death, Executed in Europe & North Africa in World War II The Cruel Hunters: SS-Sonderkommando Dirlewanger Hitler's Most Notorious Anti-Partisan Unit Welcome to an Adventure !Do you enjoy solving mysteries ?  Do you like to travel in time when you read ? Are you looking to discover history books that tell what really happened ?  Then come on in.  I had a great life spending over thirty years in the Army; was able to help defend the country in two wars with a bunch of tremendous soldiers and any success I may have had was due to each and every one of them; as I frequently tell my friends I am no hero, but I served with heroes and you can t do any better than that.  I was also able to see the world, help develop complex technology and understand that I lived in a pretty special country.  The only downside to all that Army time was that after I retired, doing regular day-to-day living was pretty boring.So I started to write.  It didn t and doesn t bring you much money, but it sure has been interesting traveling around the country and the world to chase after historical mysteries.  I came across a page or two in some World War II history books, for example, on some special Waffen-SS unit in World War II that was composed of criminals let out of jail but there were not that many details about it  and by luck I ran into detailed records of the unit buried in our National Archives.  That led to The Cruel Hunters: SS-Sonderkommando Dirlewanger Hitler s Most Notorious Anti-Partisan Unit.Several more books on Germany in World War II followed: the dark side with works on concentration camps, Einsatzkommandos, and the Destruction of the Jewish Warsaw Ghetto, and more-traditional writings on Luftwaffe Knights Cross winners and U-Boat sailors.  That was fun, because I was able to interview many of them.On a trip out to the Little Bighorn, I began to wonder what life was like for the basic enlisted cavalryman.  All the existing books talked about officers George Custer, Marcus Reno and Frederick Benteen but what about the hundreds of privates and sergeants?  That search led to Custer s Best: The Story of Company M, 7th Cavalry at the Little Bighorn, which was able to win the John M. Carroll Award.Then, in 2001, I discovered U.S. Army records that were languishing outside Washington, D.C. that contained the story of 96 American soldiers who were court-martialed in Europe and North Africa in World War II and subsequently executed by the Army not the German Army, but our own Army.  And they were buried in a secret cemetery northwest of Paris that is not shown on any map!  It took me a decade to run down all the loose ends, but we finally got the story, which led to The Field Field: The Story of the 96 American Soldiers Sentenced to Death and Executed in Europe and North Africa in World War II, which subsequently received the Lieutenant General Richard G. Trefry Award.  In fact, if you only read one of the books, read this one!More recently, I stumbled across a little known battlefield in southeast Montana on a bed breakfast ranch, and just turned in into Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Gold and Guns: The 1874 Yellowstone Wagon Road and Prospecting Expedition and the Battle of Lodge Grass Creek.  It is the saga of a Montana wagon train in Montana in 1874 that was searching for gold.  The 150 gold miners, buffalo hunters and Civil War veterans did not find any gold, but they did run into Sitting Bull and 1,400 of his closest friends.  You can visit the route they took today as many of their campsites and their three major skirmishes with Sitting Bull are all shown with GPS coordinates that you can just plug into your device.I helped a great friend finish his own mystery on the murder of Tsar Nicholas II (it didn t happen the way the Bolsheviks claimed it did,) as well as analyzing the Little Bighorn Cook-Benteen Note (it might have been doctored after the battle.)  His book is titled Romanovs  Murder Case: The Myth of the Basement Room Massacre.Finished a massive book on the German offensive at Verdun in 1916, but so far have been unable to contract with a publisher, so if you know of one that might be interested let me know!More successful is a book, which came out in October 2019, a biography of Master Sergeant John C. Woods, the U.S. Army hangman in Europe at the end of World War II, who stayed on to hang numerous Nazi war criminals at Landsberg and Nürnberg in 1945-46.  American Hangman: MSgt. John C. Woods: The United States Army s Notorious Executioner in World War II and Nürnberg Have finished a book on the Tiger tank crews of the 2nd SS Panzer Corps at the Battle of Kursk in July 1943.  This will be the first work concentrating on the crews, rather than the tank; there are over 220 crewmen that road on these super tanks.  It is being published by Schiffer and will be out in October 2020.Another observation I made while in the Army was that the world is a dangerous place and unfortunately a lot of that danger is coming to our own country.  September 11, 2001 should have been a wake-up call, but too many lessons have already been forgotten and acts of terror now occur in large cities and small towns across the country.  So I have also started several projects to help people organize their thoughts on personal protection (such as the Walther PPQ M2 .45 ACP pistol,) and how we might want to analyze some of these enemies to our nation (click on S,W T, which stands for Strategy, Weapons and Tactics).So come on inside and go on Your Own Adventure! This Date in History: October 14 Posted on October 14, 2020 french Daily Factoids Death mask of Erwin RommelErwin Rommel, Army Field Marshal, born November 15, 1891 in Heidenheim, winner of the Pour le mérite in World War I, author of Infantry Attacks (Infanterie greift an), commander of the 7th Panzer Division, commander of the Africa Corps, commander Army Group B in France until 1944, winner of the Knight s Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds, committed suicide by poison on October 14, 1944 at Herrlingen after implication in the July 20, 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler; his last words were: I shall die in fifteen minutes.   (2,000 Quotes From Hitler’s 1,000-Year Reich)**********Execution of Clemens Wiegand (Vincent J. Martino, holding noose, assists)Vincent J. Martino, former assistant hangman for Master Sergeant John C. Woods, died on October 14, 2003 in Naples.  He is buried at the Florida National Cemetery at Bushnell in Plot 1100 of Section 329.  (American Hangman: MSgt. John C. Woods: The United States Army’s Notorious Executioner in World War II and Nürnberg) 7. Panzer-Division, 7th Panzer Division, Africa Corps, Afrikakorps, Army Group B, Clemens Wiegand, Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel, Heeresgruppe B, Herrlingen, I shall die in 15 minutes, I shall die in fifteen minutes, Infanterie greift an, Infantry Attacks, Master Sergeant John C. Woods, Pour le mérite, Vincent J. Martino This man knocked out 77 enemy armored vehicles in World War II as a panzer gunner.  Do you really want to take him on in tank combat?It s almost here.  I always wanted to write about Kursk, and not have just another recount of the fight.  Not a rehash of Tiger tanks at Kursk but a whole new treatment of the machines and men at this pivotal battle: Waffen-SS Tiger Crews at Kursk: The Men of SS Panzer Regiments 1, 2 3 in Operation Citadel, July 5-15, 1943 which is published by Schiffer.They were as hard as Krupp steel and as swift as greyhounds, the men who crewed the Waffen-SS Tiger tanks at the Kursk Offensive in July 1943.  Primarily enlisted men, not only did they fight – and fight well – at one of the largest tank battles in history, they also later formed the nucleus of Tiger operations in key future battles.  Franz Staudegger, Michael Wittmann, Bubi Wendorff and Bobby Woll became household names as the men who rode the Tigers to victory, but over 200 other crewmen had fascinating careers as well.The SS men who fought in these Tigers were not ten feet tall, although the Russians may have believed that during those few days that the Tigers shook the earth at the attack on Kursk in central Russia.  No, these men were far more ferocious than huge physical goliaths.  These soldiers had no concept of defeat.  This is their story.At Kursk, often described as the “Greatest Tank Battle in History,” the Wehrmacht fielded a total of just 120 Tiger tanks, including 35 operational Tigers from the 2nd SS Panzer Corps in its powerful Leibstandarte, Das Reich, and Totenkopf divisions.  The Tiger became a legend, but any tank is only as good as its crew.  For the first time, we know the identities of over 220 Waffen-SS Tiger crewmembers at Kursk – not just the few dozen officers, but the enlisted men as well.Their biographies are stunning: some were veteran panzer men; others were previously in the infantry and a few had just transferred from the Luftwaffe.  Eight would win the Knights Cross of the Iron Cross; others would receive very few medals.  Eighteen would die at Kursk, while thirty-five would be wounded.  And the survivors?  Unfortunately for many an American, British, Russian tank crew, these SS Tiger men in their black uniforms would go on to form the deadly nucleus of the Waffen-SS Heavy Panzer Detachments that fought at Normandy, the Battle of the Bulge, and the Battle of Berlin.Daily battle maps show the location of each of the three Tiger companies in the 2nd SS Panzer Corps.  Original German Luftwaffe aerial photos show the terrain taken within days that the Tigers rolled over it.  Over 110 photographs of Waffen-SS Tiger tanks, crewmen, award documents, anti-tank ditches, including many from private archives never before published show you what life was like from combat to eating a meal.Before the offensive, German Colonel General Heinz Guderian, one of the “fathers” of modern armored warfare, who wanted the offensive postponed, dramatically chided the Führer, Adolf Hitler, to his face with this acerbic question: “How many people do you think even know where Kursk is?”You are about to find out.Look for the title:Waffen-SS Tiger Crews at Kursk: The Men of SS Panzer Regiments 1, 2 3 in Operation Citadel, July 5-15, 1943 Bobby Woll, Bubi Wendorff, Das Reich, Franz Staudegger, Heinz Guderian, Kursk, Leibstandarte, Michael Wittmann, Tiger tank, Totenkopf

TAGS:Fifth Field Home 

<<< Thank you for your visit >>>

The Cruel Hunters, Custer's Best, Little Bighorn, Tsar Nicholas II, Marcus Reno, Cook-Benteen Note, John M. Carroll Award, The Fifth Field, Denial

Hot Websites