Presentation

The presentation over the Kasserine Pass was very informative. It was a race to control mountain passes through the Dorsalo Mountains in North Africa. It was a battle to control Africa. Arnin attacked Allied troops in January of 1943. There were 170,000 Axis troops and 150,000 Allied troops led by General Eisenhower and British Lt. General Anderson. Germans took the pass on February 20th, but the Allies retook the pass on the 25th. German forces pulled out of Africa to go to the Russian border. Allied forces now had control of the Mediterranean Sea shipping lanes and they were able to work out their ground forces issues in the battle. It was the US's first major battle with Germans.

Presentations

The presentations on medical advances was very informative and interesting. To see how far they went just during the war years was interesting. It would kinda be weird to see soldiers out on the front lines today with the packet of antibiotics rubbing it on their wounds. Also that malaria was a probably a bigger threat than an enemies bullet was astonishing. I also didn't realize how large Pfizer was in WWII in suppling goods to the military.

I never knew Hitler had chosen his heir so early on. Also to think though that Hermans godfather was a jew was intringing because of the fact that he went along with everything Hitler said and did against them. I wonder if Hitler knew he was using government money to buy art and what he would have done to Herman if he had found out? I also think that he took the cowards way out by killing himself before he was to be hung.

Presentations

The Monday presentations on medical advances of WWII and Hermann Goering were very interesting and informative.

I was somewhat surprised to learn that the Japanese were no more adept at fighting off malaria than the Americans. I guess I just assumed that since they were jungle fighters that they would not be plagued as badly with this problem. To think that on the Bataan peninsula that 500-700 people fell ill per day is a staggering thought that I cannot even imagine. And, to top that off there was an approximate 500,000 cases of malaria reported. Disease seemed to be almost as bad an enemy to all the troops as they were to each other.

I did not realize that Hitler had chosen an heir to his German government considering that Hitler was usually a one-man show. It is interesting to note that Goering surrendered to the Allies and was the highest official at the Nuremberg trials, since those that were equal in command had committed suicide to avoid the inevitable.

Medicine presentation

I thought the presentation on medical advances was very well done. Its hard to imagine just how far we've come in such a short time. Penicillin is such a ubiquitous part of the medical landscape now, it's amazing how we ever did without it.

My thoughts on the presentations

In the Kasserine Pass presentation I found it interesting that due in part to the lack of unity there were so many U.S. casualties, or vice versa. It's interesting that changing command from Anderson to Eisenhower could so strongly impact that feeling of unity.
In the medical advances presentation I was interested to see that we had better drugs/medicine than our enemies and in part this helped us overcome the regional causes of Malaria more so than the locals of the region that we were fighting.
Learning about Herman Goering I was slightly confused on how Hitler could feed his love/interest in art if it truly was becoming a distraction to his efforts in the war. I also thought it was strange that he surrendered to the U.S., yet killed himself before after trial. Did he really think after what he had done that he would face any other options at trial besides execution?

Presentations

Herman Goering

I never knew that Goering was the second in line to the Nazi Empire, and because of that I’m surprised that he was not killed by Hitler since Hitler was so paranoid. I also found it interesting that Goering surrendered to the allies and did not commit suicide with the rest of the Nazi’s higher leadership. I have to wondering what kind of treatment he was expecting from the allies?

Medicine

I thought the presentation on medicine was very interesting. I never thought of medicine as something that would increase military strength but the information presented proved otherwise. I never thought that malaria was such a big problem for the US but I had no idea just how bad it was until she presented the ratios of combat wounded to malaria cases. It makes one wonder how many more individuals would have been drafted if medicine like penicillin or better pills to prevent malaria had not been developed.

Kasserine Pass

I never heard of the battle of Kasserine Pass before the presentation and how it was the first major engagement between America and German forces. I guess I always assumed that this engagement would have taken place during Operation Torch. It was interesting to see that we suffered approximately 65% of causalities in the battle. I think it shows that America did not properly train its soldiers before the battle and then failed to learn from the other allies’ mistakes before the battle as well.

Presentations

I thought the presentations on Monday were very well done. I had heard of Kassarine Pass but never really knew what the battle entailed and the presentation explained it very well. This was obviously an important battle because thats when the US Army became known as an effect ground force in combat.

I have never even thought about the importance of medical advances in WWII. The fact that penicillin wasn't readily available for use or that plasma had to be collected opened a whole new side of the war.

Presentations

I liked both presentations on Monday, both were well-rehearsed and provided new information to us all. For the Kasserine pass duo, I never knew that Rommel had another general, Arnim serving on the continent, kinda watching his back end. It was interesting that they both realized that the American-led invasion was a grave threat to their presence on the continent, since it would be able to server their supply lines if they did not attend to business. And attend to business it seems they did. The first fight against Axis troops that Americans faced was quite a rude awakening. Yet they were able to come back and push the Germans back, due to what I can imagine was yet another shortage of supplies in the Afrika Korps. I actually know someone who went through that campaign, and then hit Omaha beach with Big Red One in '44. He had some fascinating stories.

The medical presentation was absolutely fascinating. That area I never have gotten a chance to research, and you provided a good background on 1940's medicine as well as the military aspect of infectious diseases. As several people have mentioned, the toll malaria alone took on the troops was staggering. We never think about the pacific was in terms of fighting more illness than enemies, but apparently that's how it went. I myself thought that being such excellent jungle fighters, the Japanese would have suffered less from disease, but with their supply system being hammered as it was, I guess they too had their time. On another note, I never really knew what the relationship between sulfa and penicillin were. Thank you for touching on that as well.

Medical advances

I thought all of the presentations were good. I learned a lot from all of them. The medical presentation was especially interesting. I knew about the a lot of the information before the presentation but it wasn't until Monday that I realized the significance of these advances. I had never before connected them to WW II. I can see why they were so important now and can also see how the advances in medicine had a huge impact on the soldiers.

Kasserine Pass

The Battle for Kasserine Pass was a hard fought battle between the United States and Germans. I had not realized how important this battle was before the presentation in class. The Germans attacking during a sand storm was a great camouflage tactic! General Alexander taking control after General Anderson oviously was very important to the success of the Allied troops. Not being allowed to retreat makes required the soldiers to literally fight for their lives.

Medical advances

I thought the presentation on medical advances was interesting. I knew Malaria was bad in the Pacific but I didn't realize how it affected our army. This presentation really shows how hard it is to fight a war and how every little thing matters. The medical advances really helped win the war and keep soliders alive. It was nice to see a different part of the war that was so important.

Herman Goring

i didn't know before the presentation how much of an art collector/thief he was. many top nazi's were told to commit suicide rather than surrender, and many had operations done to install poison capsules inside one of their back teeth so all they had to do was flip it open and bite down.

Herman and Kassarine

The Kasserine Pass presentation was good because it showed what happened when the United States Army made contact with the Germans for the first time. This really was a wakeup call to the U.S. in the regards that it showed them that their equipment, in particular their armor was no match for the mighty German Panzers. The battle also showed that the German Army was a tough foe with much experience on their side the the Americans were at this time in the war without.
This is a strange thing to find interesting about Herman, but I never new that he was such an accomplished pilot in the First World War. I also did not know that since that time he let his body go because of his lust for life. One final area of interest I have with Mr. Herman is that he was a large collector of art.

March 10-12: Only post on Presentations

For this week, you only have to post on the Presentations. You do not have to comment or post on anything else, if you do not want to. You do not have to post over the break.

Have a Good Spring Break!!

Presentations on 3/5

Very nicely done gentlemen, you both handled your presentations over the Russian battles well. Isn't it strange how we can sit back and analyze exactly what the Germans and Russians were doing, and with our 20/20 hindsight see the inherent flaws or opportunities? It was interesting to learn about the Wehrmacht's later advances, up til now I had assumed it was mostly a defensive war they were fighting after Stalingrad went down.