In the early hours of December 13 1944, Henley was flying Swordfish L of 813 Naval Air Squadron from the carrier Campania, part of the escort for convoy RA-62 from Murmansk to Loch Ewe. Oberleutnant zur See Diether Todenhagen in U-365 had already attacked the destroyer Cassandra and blown off her bows, but in disclosing his presence had initiated a long search.
Lt-Cdr Bill Henley Henley and his observer, Lt David Chapman, continued their hunt despite the failure of Swordfish L's radar. Under the radar control of a second aircraft, Swordfish Q, piloted by Lieutenant WJL Hutchinson, Henley carried out a textbook attack. By the light of his flares, Henley saw U-365 running on the surface and immediately dived to attack. He straddled the boat with three depth charges, one of which bounced off the casing before sinking to explode underneath the U-boat. More flares showed an oily patch of water strewn with flotsam and what Henley thought was the upturned hull of his enemy. Postwar analysis showed that U-365 was lost with all hands. Henley and Hutchinson were awarded DSCs.
General John Shalikashvili
Military chief who led the relief effort to aid Kurdish refugees fleeing Saddam
Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff who exercised a pragmatic moderation during the Bosnia conflict
General John Shalikashvili was Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff at the time of UN and European Union attempts to bring humanitarian aid to the peoples of Bosnia-Herzegovina in the mid-1990s.
Perhaps because of his background as an immigrant from a turbulent Eastern Europe, his grasp of the complex politico-military situation had a moderating influence on the policy proposals emanating from Washington and other capitals, particularly with regard to the use of air power to prevent the displacement or slaughter of the country’s most vulnerable communities.
Misunderstandings arose from Security Council Resolution 743 of 1992 establishing the UN Protection Force (Unprofor) in Bosnia. Unsurprisingly, threatened Bosnian Croat, Muslim and Serb communities interpreted the force’s title to indicate that its task was to protect them, an illusion shared by much of the world press and some politicians remote from the scene.
Unprofor’s mandate provided only for the protection of convoys delivering humanitarian aid to besieged or isolated communities, a task regularly thwarted by roadblocks, mines and hostile fire by the warring factions.
Nato became involved, duplicating an already tortuous chain of command, when military aircraft were needed to fly supplies into runways subject to attack and threaten air strikes on Bosnian Serb artillery firing indiscriminately into Muslim enclaves.
During a visit to besieged Sarajevo with Madeleine Albright, the US Secretary of State, in March 1994, Shalikashvili made plain his understanding of the limits on air power operating in support of a mission with a principal objective of delivering humanitarian aid. This was at a time of European clamour for the commitment of US ground troops in Bosnia, a proposal strongly resisted by the US Congress, which saw the relative detachment of airstrikes as an alternative likely to be more acceptable to US public opinion.
Later, under political pressure at home, Shalikashvili informed the commander of Unprofor, the British General Sir Michael Rose, that the US Government was considering unilateral action in the form of a series of punitive air strikes against the Bosnian Serbs.
Rose pointed out that before such action could begin, his lightly armed UN mission must be withdrawn and a replacement peace enforcement mission inserted comprising not less than 100,000 troops, including a US armoured division. Shalikashvili thanked Rose for a “voice from Bosnia” to help to win his case against those of the US Administration who advocated a bombing campaign.
Arguably Shalikashvili was the key voice for common sense and moderation on the western side of the Atlantic, and such was his confidence in Rose that he gave him his private number to call if there was ever an urgent need. When press reports blaming the Bosnian Serbs for a deterioration in the situation in Bosnia were attributed to a statement by Shalikashvili, knowing the Bosnian (Muslim) Army was equally responsible, Rose put in the call. He got through to the American’s mobile phone at Entebbe airport in Uganda. Having been given the facts, Shalikashvili assured Rose that he was being misquoted and put the record straight.
John Malchase David Shalikashvili was the son of the Georgian Prince Dimitri Shalikashvili, a serving lieutenant-colonel in the Republic of Georgia’s army in 1918-21, who was obliged to flee through Turkey and then to Poland when his country was occupied by the Red Army in 1921. He met his future wife, also a Georgian refugee, in Warsaw, where the future US general was born in 1936. Shalikashvili Sr served in the Polish Army before the Second World War, then with the German SS-Waffengruppe Georgien in Normandy, where he was taken prisoner by the British Army and held until the end of hostilities in Europe.
Left behind in Warsaw, John Shalikashvili, his mother and two siblings fled to eastern Germany as the Red Army advanced and were eventually reunited as a family in Pappenheim. In 1952, thanks to the sponsorship of a naturalised American Georgian woman, who had been married to Dimitri’s cousin, the family emigrated to Peoria, Illinois.
Speaking almost no English, Shalikashvili learnt the language by watching films, and at Peoria High School, while his father worked for the Illinois Light Company and his mother was a filing clerk in a bank. He attended Bradley University, Illinois, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in 1958. He was granted US citizenship only in that year.
Drafted into the US Army as a private soldier, he discovered he liked the military life, applied for officer training and was commissioned as an artillery second-lieutenant in 1959. He served in Vietnam with No 19 Advisory Team from 1968 to 1969, winning the Bronze Star for valour. He commanded an artillery battalion at Fort Lewis in the US and then the artillery of the 1st (US) Armoured Division in Germany. From command of 9th Infantry Division at Fort Lewis, he was promoted lieutenant-general to be Deputy C-in-C US Army in Europe in 1989 and then sent in 1991 to take charge of Operation Provide Comfort in northern Iraq.
Established in the aftermath of the war to expel the Iraqi forces from Kuwait, Operation Provide Comfort was intended to defend Iraqi Kurds fleeing the wrath of President Saddam Hussein and to provide them with humanitarian aid and supplies. Under cover of a no-fly zone for Iraqi aircraft north of the 36th parallel imposed by US, British and French combat aircraft, a similarly constituted ground force operated with a Turkish component under Shalikashvili’s command.
It was the diplomatic skill that he demonstrated in dealing with authorities in Turkey that drew him to the attention of President Bill Clinton.
Clinton appointed Shalikashvili Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in October 1993, making him the first immigrant in US history to become a four-star general. He continued to enjoy the complete confidence of the US President throughout his tenure of office as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, which was extended to four years until he retired from the US Army in September 1997 after completing 38 years’ service.
In contrast to the customary athletic image of US senior military commanders, Shalikashvili was bespectacled, squarely built and looked more like a businessman than a soldier, yet he was well decorated, having added the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Distinguished Service Medal and the Legion of Merit to the Bronze Star he earned in Vietnam.
On leaving the service he took up a post as visiting professor at the Centre for International Security and Co-operation at Stanford University. He was also an adviser to Senator John Kerry during the latter’s contention of the US presidency in 2004, but a severe stroke in August that year seriously limited the general’s participation in the later stages of the campaign.
He married in 1963 Gunhild Bartsch, who predeceased him. He is survived by his second wife, Joan, née Zimpelman, and a son.
General John M. D. Shalikashvili, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff 1993-1997, was born on June 27, 1936. He died on July 23, 2011, aged75
Michael Anstice
Officer awarded an MC in Korea after helping the Black Watch at 'The Hook'
Anstice was a troop leader in B Squadron 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards (5 RIDG). His Regiment, equipped with Centurion main battle tanks, was supporting the 1st Battalion The Black Watch, and deployed in a strategically important position along a complex junction of ridges – known as "The Hook" – which dominated the Samichon River valley.
On the evening of November 18 1952 the Chinese launched a massive attack on "The Hook" and 5 RIDG came under heavy and continuous shelling, mortar and small arms fire. The Black Watch were forced back and at one o'clock the next morning, their CO asked for a tank to lead his men back to the top of the "The Hook" and to give support and searchlight assistance in the confused and bitter fighting.
Several tanks had already been hit and Anstice, appreciating the extremely slim chances of getting a tank up the narrow track in the darkness, decided to go himself. One side of the track was open to a precipitous drop and, on the way up it, sustained shelling and accurate sniper fire forced him to close the hatch – making the ascent yet more hazardous.
Infantry followed him to the top where a hail of enemy fire blew out the searchlight and set part of the tank ablaze. The tank was then hit by a bazooka at close range which gravely wounded the driver.
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From the WebFORM THE WEB:Norway Suspect Deems Killings Atrocious But Needed24 Jul 2011(CNBC)Dog Body Language: Do Not Pet29 Jun 2011(Petside)Divorce Diaries: Marie Osmond Remarries Her Ex11 May 2011(WomansDay.com)[what's this]With his tank immobilised, and under intense shell and mortar fire with fierce close-quarter fighting going on all around him, Anstice succeeded in getting the wounded man out of the driving compartment and into the turret. Then, with the wireless operator driving, he reversed his tank down the hill to a point where he could evacuate his casualty.
He then went back to another fire position and continued to engage the enemy. At first light the Chinese, unable to consolidate their position, withdrew. Anstice was awarded an immediate MC. His skill and courage in an action which lasted for some nine hours, the citation stated, was far in advance of what might have been expected of a very young and inexperienced officer.
