Wars and violence

It was during his first mission, on May 1, 1943 that Staff Sergeant Smith, who was assigned to the ball gun turret, helped save the lives of six of his wounded comrades, put out a blazing fire, and drove off wave after wave of German fighters.

The target of the mission was the U-Boat pens at Saint-Nazaire in Loire-Atlantique, France, on the Bay of Biscay. Saint Nazaire was heavily defended by antiaircraft guns and was nicknamed "flak city" by the airmen.[4]

Several of the bombers failed to rendezvous as intended, and others had mechanical problems and had to turn back. The middle portion of the bombing mission went well, with no German fighters engaging the mission until after they had released their bomb loads. The bombers managed to drop their payload on target with little resistance from the Germans in occupied France. As the fighters came up, the bombing group managed to elude them by flying into a large cloud bank.[4]

Due to a navigational error, after being in the cloud bank, the navigator in the lead plane believed he was approaching the southern coast of Britain. In fact, the aircraft were approaching the heavily fortified German-occupied city of Brest, France and the southern coast of the Breton Peninsula. The pilot began to descend to 2,000 feet and was almost immediately overtaken by several German fighters and intense anti-aircraft fire.[5]

Staff Sergeant Smith's bomber was hit, rupturing the fuel tanks and igniting a massive fire in the center of the fuselage. The damage to the aircraft was severe, knocking out communications and compromising the fuselage's integrity. Smith's ball turret lost power and he scrambled out to assist the other crew members. Three crew members bailed out, while Smith tended to two others who were seriously wounded.

In between helping his wounded comrades, Smith also manned the .50 caliber machine guns and fought the raging fire. The heat from the fire was so intense that it had begun to melt the metal in the fuselage, threatening to break the plane in half.

For nearly 90 minutes, Smith alternated between shooting at the attacking fighters, tending to his wounded crew members and fighting the fire. To starve the fire of fuel, he threw burning debris and exploding ammunition through the large holes that the fire had melted in the fuselage. After the fire extinguishers were exhausted, Smith finally managed to put the fire out, in part by urinating on it.

Staff Sergeant Smith's bomber reached England and landed at the first available airfield, where it broke in half as it touched down. Smith's bomber had been hit with more than 3,500 bullets and pieces of shrapnel.

The three crew members who bailed out were never recovered and presumed lost at sea, but Smith's efforts on that day undoubtedly saved the lives of six others aboard his aircraft.[3]

Journalist Andy Rooney, at the time a reporter for Stars and Stripes, was at the base where Smith's plane landed and wrote a front-page story about it. While reflecting on Smith's award years later on 60 Minutes, Rooney indicated "I was proud of my part in that."[6]

Smith was assigned to KP duty the week that he was awarded the Medal of Honor as punishment for arriving late to a briefing. Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson placed the medal around Smith's neck during a formation.[7]

The Pariser Einzugsmarsch ("Paris Entry-March") (Armeemarschsammlung AM II, 38) is a well known German military march composed by Johann Heinrich Walch during the Napoleonic Wars.

History[edit]
The piece was probably already well known around 1800 in Frankfurt am Main. On 31 March 1814, it was played in the presence of Emperor Francis II, Tsar Alexander I, and King Friedrich Wilhelm III during the expedition of the allied troops in Paris at the end of the War of the Sixth Coalition.

Due to its clearly anti-French title, the march became popular during the time of the German Empire. In addition, still later during the Weimar Republic and the later in the Third Reich, it was a popular symbol of Franco-German "hereditary enmity“. .

In 1940, after the victory of the German armed forces over France, the march was played, as in 1814, during the formal entry of the German troops into Paris. In the Federal Republic of Germany it is rarely played in public due to its problematic history. Abroad, it is particularly popular in Russia where it has formed part of the traditional repertoire of the country's military music repertoire since 1814.

The Year 1812, festival overture in E♭ major, Op. 49, popularly known as the 1812 Overture,[1] is an overture written in 1880 by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to commemorate Russia's defense of its motherland against Napoleon's invading Grande Armée in 1812.

Veröffentlicht am 16.09.2015
Die syrische Youtuberin SyrianGirlpartisan beschäftigt sich schon seit längerem mit der syrischen Politik, den Kriegen im Nahen Osten und der Interventionspolitik der westlichen Staaten. Im aktuellen Video erklärt sie die Zusammenhänge der Flüchtlingskrise in Europa.

Schon 2007 begannen die USA und die NATO, die radikalen, islamistischen, al-Qaida-nahen "syrischen Rebellen" zu unterstützen und so einen Bürgerkrieg in Syrien zu provozieren. Diese Terroristen wurden seither immer weiter darin unterstützt, Syrien zu zerstören und so die Syrer aus ihrem eigenen Land zu treiben. Hauptfinanzierer dieses Terrors sind die USA, die Türkei und Saudi Arabien, wobei insbesondere letztere eine dem IS nachstehende Ideologie haben.

Syrien war noch vor 2007 ein so reiches und aufstrebendes Land, dass sie 2 Millionen irakische Flüchtlinge aufnehmen konnte, die wegen des Angriffskriegs der USA gegen den Irak 2003 geflüchtet waren. Und so verwundert es nicht, dass viele Syrer nichts weiter wollen, als in ihre geliebte Heimat zurück kehren, wo sie oftmals ein Haus, einen Beruf, Freunde und Hab und Gut zurück ließen.

Umso perfider und hinterhältiger ist die Verzerrung der Situation durch westlichen Medien und Politiker. Die englische Sun-Zeitschrift titelte, dass Syrien zerbombt werden soll - für Aylan Kurdi, den syrischen Jungen, der tot am Meer gefunden wurde. Ironischerweise musste dessen Vater nur deshalb nach Europa, weil er eine Zahnoperation brauchte. Diese konnte er aber in Syrien, wo vorher das Gesundheitssystem kostenlos war, nicht mehr bekommen, weil das Land von der NATO und den vom Westen finanzierten ISIS-Terroristen zerstört wird. Darüber hinaus konnte seine Familie ihm die nötigen 14.000 Euro nicht überweisen, weil der Westen gegen Syrien Sanktionen verhängt. Und so wird klar, dass hier westlichen Medien und Politiker einen Zustand anklagen, den sie selbst verursacht haben.

Im Video kritisiert SyrianGirlpartisan auch Israel für sein Moralaposteltum gegen die Europäer, während sie selbst keine Flüchtlinge aufnehmen, obwohl sie eine Grenze direkt zu Syrien haben. Auch die Türkei behandelt ihre syrischen Flüchtlinge nicht gut und finanziert im Gegenteil noch weiter die ISIS in Syrien.

SyrianGirlpartisan ruft Europäer dazu auf, ihre eigenen Regierung zu stoppen, weiter gegen Syrien Krieg zu führen und stattdessen den syrischen Flüchtlingen zu helfen, wieder in ihre geliebte Heimat zurück zu kehren.