In November 2023, the United States will celebrate its 200th anniversary of independence from Great Britain.

The la times letter to the editor submission is a letter written by an individual to the editor of a newspaper. This letter was submitted on November 20, 2023 and published in the la times on November 21, 2023.

Bore Polar The Lee-Enfield is mentioned as lasting until 1993 in your article on the five longest-serving weapons in military history [by James Elphick, available at Historynet.com]. They were, nevertheless, employed by Canadian Rangers patrolling the Arctic until 2018 as a form of self-defense against polar bears. Although it was not used in battle, it was their primary weapon.

Ward, Mark Brockville is a city in Ontario, Canada.

The Lee-Enfield No. 4 was operated by the Canadian Rangers from 1947 to 2018. The Colt Canada C19, a 7.6251 mm NATO/.308 Winchester bolt-action rifle intended to function in temperatures as low as -60 degrees Fahrenheit, was introduced that year. It comes with a removable 10-round box magazine, which is ideal in the case of a bear attack.

The Rangers of Rogers The tale of British Maj. Robert Rogers [“Rogers’ Remnant,” by Ron Soodalter, May 2023] piqued my interest. When Rogers’ Rangers entered Abenaki country, they encountered guerilla warfare, something they had never encountered before. The French and Indian War was a new situation for them, since they were accustomed to civilized combat. The brutality of guerilla warfare is shown by the scalping of Indians and Anglo soldiers.

Roberts, Paul Dale Elk Grove, California is a city in the state of California.

Connected

I was particularly interested in two stories in the [March 2023] issue since I have personal and professional ties to each.

The first was William John Shepherd’s essay on Cedar Creek [What We Learned From…]. My connection to the article on the pivotal 1864 fight in the Shenandoah Valley is that I completed my history master’s thesis on Maj. Gen. Alfred T.A. Torbert of Delaware, the cavalry commander of Phil Sheridan’s Army of the Shenandoah, at the University of Delaware in 1969. Lt. Gen. Jubal Early, whose common-law wife was Julia McNealy, my great-great-grandmother, was his CSA opponent. My great-grandmother was Julia’s sixth child, Lilly.

November 2023 Readers’ Letters

The crew of the USS Moberly gathers to see a crewmate paint a victory sign on the frigate’s funnel, ecstatic over the sinking of U-853. (Photo courtesy of the United States Coast Guard)

The second fascinating piece was Dave Kindy’s “Last Shot at Glory,” about the legendary German submarine U-853 and its assault on the East Coast in the spring of 1945, and its destruction near Block Island in early May. Few people know that in the late 1960s, Millsboro businessman Mel Joseph obtained authorization from the German government to not only send a diving team to find the boat, but also to raise her up. Mel had to first agree to pay for the reinterment of the German sailors’ remains in Germany. Unfortunately, the Joseph dive team couldn’t pull the U-boat up because it was so badly wounded, with so many unexploded hedgehogs [antisubmarine weapons] surrounding it and live torpedoes dangling from the tubes. They did, however, recover the remaining Flak 38 gun tub, which contained both 20 mm guns as well as the entire mount, including the armored shield (except the sights, which were evidently blown off during the attack), which Mel brought back to Delaware along with other items recovered from his team’s dives. The Flak 38 was discovered in the woods near a local college in 2004 (that’s another tale), and it was repaired by our team at the Fort Miles Museum. It’s currently on permanent exhibit in our museum at Cape Henlopen State Park’s Fort Miles.

Lewes, Delaware’s Dr. Gary D. Wray

Schmidt I thought David T. Zabecki’s article “What We Learned From the Battle of Schmidt, 1944” [January 2023] to be both fascinating and instructive. I likewise found the lessons not to be learnt by our troops, as we performed everything you mentioned not to do six years later in Korea at Chosin. Everything.

Clarksburg, Pennsylvania’s Dan Ingham

Charles Martel is a French author. In your January 2023 edition, Patrick S. Baker’s cover article “Under the Hammer” is fantastic. The Battle of Tours resembled a crossword puzzle more than a physics problem. The Immovable Object didn’t only defeat the Irresistible Force; it outsmarted it in fights.

Adelanto, California’s Evan Dale Santos

Villain? A book review of Malcolm Gladwell’s The Bomber Mafia appeared in Military History in July 2023. Gen. Curtis LeMay was described as a “villain” by reviewer Mike Oppenheim in the same phrase. That comparison to that great American hero offends me much. A more appropriate descriptor would be “patriot.” Hideki Tojo of Japan and Hermann Göring of Germany, both contemporaneous opponents of LeMay, would be better described as “villains.”

Los Angeles’ Edison Harris

Send messages to Editor, Military History, 901 N. Glebe Road, Fifth Floor, Arlington, VA 22203 or [email protected]. Name, address, and phone number should all be included.

This essay was published in Military History in November 2023. Subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Facebook for more stories.

 

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