Who REALLY Discovered the North Pole First?

Arctic Explores Robert Peary and Matthew Hensen
Arctic Explorers Robert Peary and Matthew Hensen

Most of us were taught in history class that Commander Robert Peary was the first to reach the North Pole in 1909.  But in fact, another American, Dr. Frederick Cook, claimed to have reached the pole an entire year earlier.  Ever heard of Cook?  Probably not. 

On September 7, 1909, the New York Times announced with a front-page headline: “Peary Discovers the North Pole.” The North Pole was one of the last remaining unexplored prizes on earth, for which a number of explorers had failed or died trying.  American Robert Peary sent word from Indian Harbour in Labrador, that he had reached the pole in April 1909.

One small problem – just a week earlier, the New York Herald had its own front-page headline: “The North Pole is Discovered by Dr. Frederick Cook.” Dr. Cook had returned after more than a year lost in the Arctic and feared dead.  He claimed to have reached the pole in April 1908—a full year before Peary.

In classrooms and textbooks, Peary is given credit for discovering the North Pole.

So the question isn’t who, but how?  How did Peary’s claim to the North Pole win out over Cook’s?  The two men had once been colleagues, but ended as bitter competitors. Humans have always been competitive. We want to be the best, the first, the fastest.  For explorers, this meant the tallest mountains, the deepest sea or the vastness of space.

By the 1900s, the North Pole was still wide open. But finding the North Pole is not as simple as it sounds, and is extremely difficult to reach. You must first cross miles of dangerous, unpredictable sea ice in subzero temperatures. Every attempt before 1908 by the British, Americans, and Norwegians had failed.

Unlike the South Pole, which sits atop Antarctica, the North Pole floats atop the Arctic Ocean, surrounded by thick sheets of moving ice. So how could one even know, or prove, that they had reached the North Pole? In 1908, it required a chronometer, a sextant, and some careful navigational calculations. Compasses are useless due to magnetic field fluctuations at the pole. And since the ice is constantly shifting, planting a flag there is pointless. Radio transmission was still in its infancy and very limited for communication.

Our two candidates, Peary and Cook, were also very different men. Peary was born in 1856, and had travelled the world as a civil engineer in the U.S. Navy.  He had never lost his wanderlust and throughout his life was laser focused on achieving fame at all costs. His Arctic expeditions relied heavily on the assistance of Eskimos/Inuits, but he treated them more like pawns than people. Peary was a driven man, and this was his 3rd attempt at the North Pole, having fallen short in 1886 and 1905.

“My last trip brought my name before the world; my next will give me a standing in the world.”

Robert Peary

Cook, born a decade later in 1865, was an ambitious, young doctor from New York. He had just graduated from NYU Medical School when his wife and baby both died in childbirth. Emotionally shattered, the 25-year-old doctor sought escape in Artic exploration and joined one of Peary’s early expeditions.  Cook had a far different approach than Peary. He was genuinely interested in the Arctic’s indigenous people who helped them and learned their language and culture.  

The two explored Greenland together, but Cook turned down a second opportunity. Peary wanted him to sign a contract agreeing that Peary alone would get credit and first publishing rights. Cook disagreed and left Peary’s team for several years. They were reunited when Peary was lost in the Arctic and Cook was called in to help rescue him, treating him for scurvy and frostbite.  On a later expedition, Peary fractured both bones in his leg and Cook treated this injury as well.

Nevertheless, instead of colleagues, they became fierce competitors. 

Doctor Cook set off on his attempt from Annoatok in Greenland, 700 miles from the pole.  He left in early February 1908 with two Intuit guides, Etukishook and Ahwelah. He claimed to have arrived at the pole on April 21st. The return trip almost did them in though.  They didn’t make it back to Annoatok for 14 months, until the next spring of 1909. He claimed bad weather conditions and drifting ice had prevented their return.  They were forced to winter in an ice cave, nearly starving to death.

Peary had assembled a large party for his attempt in August 1908—50 men, 50 sleds and 246 dogs. He claimed to have made it to the North Pole on April 6th, 1909, along with four Inuit men and his assistant, Matthew Henson. He placed and American flag in the ice, along with a tin with a note of his achievement. Henson, a black American, had traveled with Peary on all of his Artic expeditions. Though Peary recognized Henson’s contribution, he also minimized Henson’s role.

Once the two competing claims were made in the press, barely a week apart, a long feud ignited between Cook and Peary.  Cook at first welcomed Peary’s announcement and was willing to share the fame.  Peary however, was furious at Cook’s attempt to “steal” his victory and publicly condemned Frederick Cook as a fraud.

Both men stuck to their stories.   Shortly after they returned, Cook and Peary each published their version of the truth in books that discussed their expeditions. Both became bestsellers and fueled a public debate. Two of Peary’s powerful sponsors were the New York Times and the National Geographic Society. With that weight behind him, it didn’t take long for Peary’s claim to overshadow that of the unknown Cook.

Whether either truly made it to the pole or not is unknown. 

Neither explorer’s evidence was very convincing, and the burden of proof lies with them. Cook was never able to produce complete navigational records. He left them, along with his instruments, in a crate at Annoatok, to be shipped home later, while he went on to Copenhagen with only his diary.  The only available ship was The Roosevelt, Peary’s own ship.  When Peary later arrived from the pole and learned of Cook’s claim from the Inuits, he forbid the crate to be loaded aboard his ship. The crate and it contents were lost and never seen again. Experts in Copenhagen determined Cook’s records were insufficient to prove he had reached the pole.

Whether Peary made it all the way is also questionable.  He refused to share definitive proof. No one else on his expedition had the navigational skills to confirm or deny Peary’s claim.  Henson was a skilled explorer, alongside Peary on 7 expeditions. Peary considered himself superior to Henson, and was unwilling to give credit.  He was livid that anyone dare share HIS North Pole victory.  It wasn’t until Henson published his own book in 1947, that he began receiving recognition for his achievements alongside Peary. Henson claimed HE was the first person to reach the North Pole because he was walking ahead of Peary. They later realized they’d overshot the pole, which meant Henson was in fact first!

Peary handed in ‘proof’ of his expedition’s success, which included unbelievable accounts of speeds and distances covered. Today, experts are still debating whether Peary could have reached the North Pole given the route he took, at the speed and time he claimed. Peary’s feat has not been reproduced by anyone over the last 100 years. Cook’s claim was neither proved nor disproved, although his detailed descriptions of the polar region were verified by later explorers.  

“I have stated my case, presented my proofs. Place Mr. Peary’s and my records side by side. Compare them. I shall be satisfied with your decision.“

Dr. Frederick Cook

Nevertheless, having sponsors like the National Geographic Society and New York Times meant Peary’s claim was lent much heavier credence. Despite all the doubts over his account, Peary basked in the glory of being the first person believed to reach the North Pole. 

Robert Peary had finally gotten the fame he so vehemently desired.

Cook’s claim was taken less seriously because 3 years earlier, he claimed to have summited Alaska’s Mt Kinley (Denali) in 1906.  However, the photos he provided as proof later came under question. Not only was his reputation wobbly by the time of his North Pole claim, he simply didn’t have the prominence of Peary. Cook’s claim sadly came to be disregarded as one of the world’s greatest exploratory fakes.

North Pole explorer Dr. Frederick Cook
North Pole explorer Dr. Frederick Cook

In 1926, Norwegian Roald Amundsen (who discovered the South Pole in 1911), flew to the North Pole aboard the airship Norge. 40 years later, American Ralph Plaisted and three others, were the first to reach the pole, by snowmobile, in 1968.  Other adventurers have succeeded as well by plane and submarine.  The notes that Peary and Cook reported to have left at the pole buried in tins have never been found.  However, researchers have since noted that Cook’s account described the polar landscape with remarkable accuracy. If he was a fraud and didn’t reach the pole, how could he have known this? 

Some researchers have concluded that NEITHER one actually got to the North Pole. In 1989, a re-examination of Peary’s account was commissioned by none other than the National Geographic Society.  The commission concluded that Peary’s evidence did NOT prove his claim, and suggested that he knew all along that he had have fallen short by 8 km / 5 miles.

After what he perceived to be a hostile examination of his work by a 1911 U.S. Navy Congressional Subcommittee, Robert Peary never again showed his polar diary, field papers, or other data to anyone. In fact, he rarely spoke publicly of the North Pole thereafter.  He retired from the Navy and died of pernicious anemia in Washington D.C. in 1920, at the age of 63.

Dr. Frederick Cook went into the oil business in Texas. In 1923, he was convicted of mail-fraud charges related to the stock price of his company, and sentenced 14 years, nine months in prison. Paroled in March 1930, he spent his last decade living quietly with his two daughters from a second marriage. President Franklin D. Roosevelt formally pardoned Dr. Cook a few months before he died from a stroke in 1940, at the age of 75.

So we may never know who was really First to reach the North Pole – Cook, Peary, Hensen, … or Amundsen?

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Electric Vehicles have Existed for OVER 150 YEARS

Thomas Edison in his Studebaker electric vehicle
Thomas Edison and assistant in his Studebaker electric vehicle, 1909

Electric vehicles have been around longer than most people think. Certainly longer than Elon Musk’s Tesla Motors. In fact, electric cars appeared in the mid-1800’s, long before the internal-combustion engine was invented. Given all the time since, electric vehicles have only recently begun to challenge gas-powered engines. Most people don’t know that in 1900, at the turn of the 20th century, there were actually more electric vehicles on the road than gas powered cars! So what happened? Why did gasoline ultimately win out over electricity? For that matter, why did we become a world economy married to petroleum?

As far back as the 1830s, Scotland’s Robert Anderson, created an electrically motorized carriage. It traveled only 12 km/h with a very limited range. Rechargeable batteries were not yet invented so, when his crude battery ran dry, it had to be replaced. Not very practical, nevertheless, he presented it at an industrial conference in London in 1835 to great acclaim. Then in the 1859, French physicist Gaston Plante invented a huge breakthrough, the first rechargeable lead-acid battery.

Now inventors began to build some of the first practical electric cars. In 1890, William Morrison, a Scotland-born chemist living in Des Moines, Iowa, applied for a patent on his 6 passenger electric Surrey carriage. With 4 horsepower, and a top speed of 20 mph/32 kph, it had 24 battery cells that needed recharging every 50 miles. Morrison’s invention was a huge hit at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair Columbian Exhibition and helped spark global interest in electric vehicles.

In 1900, at the start of the 20th century, the reliable horse was still the primary personal mode of transportation around the world. But as Europeans and Americans became more well-off, they looked to the newly invented motorcars. Many people began trading their horse-drawn carriages for motorized vehicles. As a result, the “automobile” rapidly grew in popularity – either steam, electric or gasoline versions.

Roughly 40% of cars were run by steam, 38% were electric, and 22% by gasoline.

Throughout the Industrial Revolution, coal-powered steam was the reliable energy source, powering trains, mills and factories. However, steam wasn’t very practical for personal vehicles. They required long warm-up times – sometimes up to 30 minutes – and needed to be refilled with coal and water often, limiting their range.

While Morrison was working on his electric carriage, Germans Gottlieb Daimler and Carl Benz were developing the world’s first gas-powered automobiles in 1886. However, the new internal combustion engine also had its drawbacks. They had to be started with a hand crank, were difficult to drive with changing gears, were quite loud (frightening people and horses), and had disagreeable exhaust fumes.

Electric cars didn’t have these issues. They were quiet, easy to drive, and smelled far better. Electric cars became popular with urban residents – especially women. They were perfect for shorter trips in cities, given the poor dirt road conditions in the countryside. And thanks to Thomas Edison, more people were gaining access to electricity, making them easier to charge.

The first commercially successful electric car company was the Electrobat. Pedro Salom and Henry Morris adapted battery-electric street cars and got a patent for an electric automobile in 1894. It could travel 25 miles at a respectable top speed of 20 mph. Morris and Salom built electric Hansom cabs to compete with the horse-drawn carriages in New York City.

They sold the business to Isaac Rice, who started the Electric Vehicle Company in New Jersey. By the early 1900s, they had a fleet of over 600 electric cabs operating in New York, Boston and Baltimore. EVC’s battery supplier would grow to become Exide Batteries. Its manufacturing partner, Columbia, created an electric car for public sale long before gas-powered cars were mass-produced in Detroit.

Electric cars proved their grit in early motorsports as well.

Belgian Camille Jenatzy, a French electric car maker near Paris, engaged in several speed races (reaching 60 mph) in 1899 to promote his vehicle’s prowess. US President William McKinley was assassinated while visiting the Pan-American Exhibition in Buffalo, New York, in 1901. He was rushed to the hospital via an electric-powered ambulance. His successor, Teddy Roosevelt was the first President to take a public ride in a car, a Columbia electric in 1902. It could go 25 mph with a range of 80 miles.

Many famous automakers of the era had electric vehicles produced as well. Ferdinand Porsche developed an electric car called the P1 in 1898. Ransom Olds built electric horseless carriages before devising the first mass-market gas-powered Oldsmobile. Studebaker also entered the 20th century as an electric-car manufacturer.

Thomas Edison thought electric vehicles were the far superior tech and worked to build better batteries. Even Henry Ford, a close friend of Edison, agreed to partner on an electric car in 1914! They built one prototype before Ford decided that the gasoline engine had a more promising future. One factor was that Edison’s electricity was not yet widely available outside city centers, severely limiting the market. Drivers could carry a spare can of gasoline, but a heavy spare battery was not practical.

It was Henry Ford’s assembly-line, mass-produced Model T that dealt the greatest blow to electric cars. Introduced in 1908, the Model T made gas-powered cars widely available and Affordable. By 1912, it cost only $650, while a comparative electric car sold for twice as much at $1,750. That same year, Charles Kettering invented the electric starter, eliminating the laborious hand crank.

Electric vehicles got a boost during World War I, when fuel was in short supply due to rationing.

As an example, Detroit Electric built more than 35,000 electric delivery trucks between 1907 and 1929. Then with the discovery of large crude oil fields, first in Texas in 1901, and later in Persia in 1908, gas became cheaper and easier to get. Knowing gasoline was now more widely available than electricity, Ford built a transportation infrastructure based on gasoline, that would last to this day.

“Filling Stations” began popping up across countries. By comparison, very few Europeans and Americans had home electricity, outside of cities. In the end, electric vehicles all but disappeared from the market by the mid-1930’s, replaced by the likes of Ford, General Motors, Mercedes Benz, Daimler, and Rolls Royce. As a result, the electric vehicle sadly lay dormant for the better part of half of a century.

General Motors did experiment with electric cars. The 1964 Electrovair was based on the popular Corvair. Silver-zinc batteries gave it as much power as the Corvair’s six cylinder engine. Its top speed was 80 mph with a range up to 80 miles. However, the batteries could survive only 100 recharges and were cost prohibitive.

In 1965, political activist Ralph Nader testified before a U.S. Senate Committee, charging that General Electric could produce an electric car that would go 200 miles at up to 80 mph. He suggested GE was conspiring with the automotive and petroleum industries to hide this tech from the public. In 1967, GE produced the ugly Delta electric car, but it could go no faster than 55 mph for 40 miles, using nickel-iron batteries.

NASA contracted with General Motors to produce an electric car for the Apollo moon missions.

The Apollo 17 electric Lunar Rover in 1972
The Apollo 17 electric Lunar Rover in 1972

Four Lunar Roving Vehicles, LRVs, were created for the last three missions, Apollo 15 , 16 and 17, from 1971 to 1972. The LRVs used non-rechargeable silver-zinc batteries and could go 8 mph top speed. On Apollo 17, the astronauts traveled about 22 miles around their lunar landing module. Even with the high profile Apollo LRV, engineers agreed that a battery revolution was needed to improve costs, speed, recharge time, capacity, and range.

In the early 1970s, oil prices and gas shortages spiked with the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo imposed by OPEC – creating the infamous Energy Crisis. So an interest in electric cars appeared again as a way to lower dependence on foreign oil. Congress passed the Electric and Hybrid Vehicle Research, Development, and Demonstration Act of 1976. It authorized the Department of Energy to support research and development by industry into electric and hybrid vehicles.

Jump forward again – to the 1990s. In the decades since the long gas lines of the 1970s, interest in electric vehicles had mostly died. Even though there wasn’t much public attention, scientists and engineers – supported by the Energy Department – continued to work hard to improve the batteries for electric cars.

The first turning point was the introduction of the Toyota Prius in Japan. Released in 2000, it became the world’s first mass-produced hybrid electric vehicle, where the gas-powered engine would charge the car’s electric batteries. It became an instant success and Car of the Year, making the Prius the best-selling hybrid ever.

Then Martin Eberhard & Marc Tarpenning incorporated Tesla Motors in 2003.

Named after the eccentric inventor Nikola Tesla, and using new lithium-ion batteries, they pitched Silicon Valley venture capitalists on their bold idea. Lighter and faster, they could deliver zero-to-60-mph in 4 seconds. Pay-Pal’s Elon Musk poured his money into Tesla Motors, with the goal of producing a fast, luxury, electric sports car that could go more than 200 miles on a single charge. The rest, as the saying goes, is automotive history.

In the years since, as lithium ion batteries became cheaper, almost every automotive manufacturer has moved towards electric. By 2035, it’s expected that ALL the largest automotive markets may be electric. So from whichever metric you measure it, its undeniable—the electric car has finally arrived. Tesla co-founder Elon Musk is now the richest man on the planet, reinvesting his wealth in the likes of X (Twitter) and SpaceX.

And the growth of electric vehicles is not slowing down. Multiple governments, manufacturers, AND individuals are looking towards a more sustainable future. Many are looking to electric vehicles as an integral way to combat global Climate Change. As electric vehicle prices continue to drop and batteries become more efficient, the demand will only continue to climb. Thomas Edison would finally be proud.

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The 1945 Yalta BIG THREE Conference – Russia, US and UK

Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin at Yalta Conference, 1945
Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin at the Yalta Conference, 1945

The Yalta (Crimea) Conference was the second World War II meeting by the “Big Three,“ President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Premier Joseph Stalin, heads of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union. The meeting took place for a week in the winter of February 1945 at the Livadia Palace at the Black Sea resort of Yalta in Crimea.  Their ultimate agreements would change the course of history and lay the seeds of the Cold War and beyond, all the way to Putin and the Ukraine.

After their Tehran Conference in 1943, the three leaders promised to meet again before the war ended. The Soviet Premier Stalin refused to travel further than the Black Sea, so once again, Prime Minister Churchill and President Roosevelt had to take the long and exhausting plane trips to attend the Yalta summit.  Stalin arrived by train from Moscow. According to American intelligence, all the rooms were bugged by the Soviet NKVD.

By February 1945, the end of World War II was finally in sight.

Both Nazi Germany and the Japanese Empire were on the retreat.  The Yalta meeting was intended to discuss the re-establishment of all the war-torn nations of Europe, ravaged by the Axis powers. The Allies had successfully liberated France, Belgium and half of Italy. In the Pacific, General MacArthur had retaken the Philippines and was slowly ‘island hopping’ toward Japan. On the Eastern Front, the Soviet Red Army had crossed Poland and Ukraine, taken East Prussia, and were now a mere 50 miles from Berlin.

All three leaders came to the conference with an agenda for governing post-war Europe, and keeping peace on a post-world war Earth. Because Russia had beaten the Allies to Berlin, Stalin felt his position at the conference was strongest.  According to the U.S. delegation, “It was not a question of what we would let the Russians do, but what we could get the Russians to do.”

Roosevelt and the U.S. desperately wanted Soviet support in the Pacific War against Japan, specifically for the planned invasion of Japan.  The U.S. also wished for Soviet participation in the new United Nations to prevent future such wars.  Winston Churchill pressed for open trade, free elections and democratic governments in Eastern Europe (especially Poland).  Stalin demanded a Soviet ‘sphere of influence’ in Eastern Europe, as a part of the USSR’s national security strategy against future aggression.

The first topic on the agenda was the future of Poland, and Stalin was quick to state his case:

“The question of Poland is not only a question of honor, but also of security. Throughout history, Poland has been the corridor through which the enemy has passed into Russia.”

Soviet Premier Josef Stalin

Stalin said that the Soviet Union would help create a “mighty, independent Poland.” He made it clear that his demands regarding Poland were not negotiable.  The Russians were to gain territory from eastern Poland, and Poland was to be compensated by extending its western border into Germany. Roosevelt and Churchill pushed for free elections in Poland, and Stalin grudgingly agreed.  He had recently installed a Communist puppet government in Warsaw.  

But the agreement on Poland was so elastic that the Russians could stretch it all the way from Moscow to Warsaw without ever breaking it. Roosevelt’s response to this comment was, “I know, but it is the best I can do for Poland, at this time.”

On the agenda for Roosevelt and the U.S. was to get the Soviets to enter the Pacific War against the Japanese Empire ASAP and join in the invasion of Japan later that year.  The Manhattan Project had yet to provide a viable atomic bomb.  As it turned out, Stalin did not need convincing. The Soviets had been humiliated by Japan and the loss of Manchuria during the Russo-Japanese War. The Soviets were keen on regaining those lost territories. 

But President Roosevelt did not know this.

Stalin’s ‘poker face,’ hid his true objectives from Roosevelt – control over Eastern Europe.  The President met Stalin’s price, and Soviet Union agreed to enter the Pacific war within 90 days of Germany’s surrender. He also got the Soviets to agree to join the new United Nations.  However, this was on one condition: they be given one of 5 permanent memberships on the UN Security Council with veto power.  This provided the Soviets with more control in world affairs and greatly weakening the power of the UN.  Roosevelt nevertheless agreed.

Roosevelt and Churchill also got Stalin’s agreement to a Declaration of Liberated Europe. The Big Three agreed that all original European governments would be restored to the invaded countries and that all civilians would repatriated. Democracies would be established and all territories would hold free elections as early as possible.

“The establishment of order must be achieved by enabling the liberated peoples to destroy the last vestiges of Nazism and fascism and to create democratic institutionism .”

Declaration of Liberated Europe, 1945

Of course, by February 1945, Soviet armies were already in control of Poland, and Stalin was installing a communist government there. The Big Three also agreed on the postwar division of Nazi Germany itself into four sectors, one each for the U.S., Britain, France and Soviet Union.  The same was true for Berlin, which would lead to the Berlin Wall years later. Germany would undergo demilitarization and denazification. Nazi war criminals were to be found and put on trial. Overall, Roosevelt felt confident that Yalta had been successful and left in high spirits.

1945 Partitioning of Nazi Germany
1945 Partitioning of Nazi Germany by the Allies

Yalta was the last trip of Roosevelt abroad. To many observers, including a keen Stalin, he appeared ill and wasted.  Stalin essentially got everything he wanted, namely a significant sphere of influence in Easter Europe as a ‘buffer zone.’  Roosevelt and Churchill were willing to sacrifice the freedom of those small nations for the sake of stability.  So Stalin also left Yalta very pleased with the overall results.  Franklin Roosevelt died two months later in April 1945.  Vice President Harry Truman took over. Winston Churchill was replaced as UK Prime Minister by Clement Attlee in July of the same year.

As it turned out, with the atomic bomb, the U.S. never needed Russia’s help with Japan. Post-World War II, Russia gained the southern half of the Sakhalin Islands and Kuriles from Japan, half of German East Prussia, and control of Finland. Roosevelt had let slip that the U.S. would not protest if the Soviet Union annexed the three Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) for reasons of ‘security.’  Or for that matter, if they established puppet governments. 

Josef Stalin did exactly that.

It also became apparent that Stalin had no intentions of holding free elections in Poland.  It would be 50 years, after the Solidarity Rebellion, before the Poles first held free elections.  Stalin further broke the Yalta pledge by forcing Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia to construct Communist governments, instead of allowing free elections as promised. These countries fell behind the “Iron Curtain.”

The Yalta Conference is regarded by Eastern European countries as the “Western Betrayal.” Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia believed the Allied powers, despite promising democratic governments, allowed those smaller countries to be made Communist states, controlled by the Soviet Union.  At the Yalta Conference, the Big Three sacrificed their freedom for the sake of post-war stability. Those concessions of Roosevelt and Churchill lead to the power struggle of the subsequent Cold War lasting 45 years through the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

What lessons does Yalta hold for us today?  In the name of peace, the U.S. and UK accepted weak promises from a ruthless dictator on behalf of an ally. In exchange for what it needed in Germany and Japan, the U.S was essentially throwing up its hands as the Soviet Union imposed Communist rule on all of Eastern Europe. Immediate victory over Nazi Germany and Japan took priority, and the war-weary US was not willing to risk a subsequent showdown with Stalin over Poland.

Yalta still evokes powerful emotions to this day. For Poles, Hungarians, Lithuanians, and others, Yalta means an abandonment of the US, the UK and their core values. For Russians, Yalta symbolizes a time of great victory and power.  After the Russian invasion of Chechnya in 2000 and Crimea in 2014, Russia President Vladimir Putin suggested having a Yalta 2.0 Conference to discuss the future of modern Eastern Europe. Ironically at the time, the Ukraine feared the West would be tempted by a “Second Yalta,” in which NATO and Moscow would once again make deals at their expense, in the name of ‘peace.’

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Podcast: The Black Hole of Calcutta Night of Horror

In 18th century India, the power of the Mughal Empire lay in the despotic hands of the Nawabs, or provincial princes. At the same time, the British and French East India Companies had built competing commercial empires on the lucrative sub-continent. The British had established a port and trading hub at Kolkata (Calcutta) and built Fort William to guard it from French attack. But then the Mughals attacked and the infamous Black Hole of Calcutta occurred.

Depiction of the Back Hole of Calcutta, 1756
Depiction of the Back Hole of Calcutta in 1756
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7 Peculiar Facts about the 1st Modern Olympic Games of 1896

Panathenaic Stadium at the 1896 Olympic Games
Greek Panathenaic Stadium at the 1896 Olympic Games

The first of the modern Olympic games were reborn in April, 1896 in Athens, Greece. It had been 1,500 years since they were banned in 393 AD by Roman Emperor Theodosius I.  Since then, they have occurred every four years, with a few exceptions, moving to a new host nation each time.  We take them for granted now, and look forward to a global competition where athletics supersede politics for two unique weeks. But how did they manage to get restarted over a century ago, when they’d been defunct for more than a millennia?  Let’s take a look at 7 curious facts about that first modern Olympics of 1896.

1. It took the perseverance of one single man restart the Olympic Games.

The very first Olympics were held at Olympia in the Greek city-state of Elis in 776 B.C.  By the 5th century B.C., contestants came from more than 100 cities from throughout the Greek Empire. The ancient Olympics were held every four years, like ours, during a festival for the Greek god Zeus. Competition was limited to foot races, pentathlon, wrestling, boxing, horse and chariot racing. The Pentathlon consisted of a foot race, the long jump, discus, javelin, and wrestling.  With the rise of the Roman Empire, the Olympics were eventually banned in 393 AD by Emperor Theodosius I.  He was a Christian and abolished the ‘Greek Games’ to suppress paganism.  

It was not until 1892 that a young French baron named Pierre de Coubertin proposed reviving the ancient Olympics. It would be an international athletic competition, occurring every four years like the original. Despite being quite young (he was only 31), he managed to start an international campaign.  He first set up an International Olympic Committee (IOC), then proceeded to lobby governments for assistance. His aim was certainly noble:

“To bring the youth of all countries periodically together for amicable trials of muscular strength and agility.”

Pierre de Coubertin

In 1894, Coubertin’s new IOC held a congress at the Sorbonne University in Paris.  They made plans for the inaugural modern Olympic Games and boldly decided to hold it in just two years.  AND that Athens, Greece was the symbolic and obvious location for their launch. The 79 delegates from 9 countries unanimously approved his proposal.

One big problem was that Greece was hardly economically stable at the time, and a lot of preliminary work had to be done.  Luckily, it received financial assistance from the Zappas, a pair of Greek philanthropist cousins. Their estates helped finance major projects, including the restoration of the ancient Panathenaic Stadium, which would host the opening ceremonies and track & field events. In Coubertin’s words – “it resembled a deep gash, made by some fabled giant.”

French Baron Pierre de Coubertin
French Baron Pierre de Coubertin, 1st President of the International Olympic Committee

So Athens had a mere two years to get itself ready for a spectacle that would honor the historic event. The building program was both swift and impressive. Painted wood had to replace some of the original marble, but the Panathenaic Stadium was made ready.  The citizens of Greece turned out in droves and the mood was full of both celebration and expectation.  Public buildings and houses everywhere were draped in blue & white bunting and streamers.

2. Only 14 nations competed in the first modern games.

Despite the best efforts of Baron Coubertin, the 1896 Olympics met with little interest outside Greece.  With the exception of Europe, Australia and the US, most nations did not send official Olympic teams. Some countries, like Spain, didn’t send competitors because of the ban on professionals, which prevented their best athletes from competing. The U.S. team consisted of only 14 amateur college athletes (primarily Princeton, Harvard, and the Boston Athletics Assoc.) who would compete in only 3 sports – track & field, swimming, and shooting.

The Games opened on the 75th anniversary of Greek independence from the Ottoman Empire. At the opening ceremony in Athens, King Georgios I of Greece and the royal family, plus 80,000 spectators packed the ancient, U-shaped stadium. They welcomed 241 athletes from 14 nations to the competition, who would compete in 43 events across 9 sports.  These included track-and-field, swimming, gymnastics, cycling, wrestling, weightlifting, fencing, shooting, and tennis.

Courbertin and the IOC were met in center field by the Crown Princes and King Georgios who proudly proclaimed: “I declare the opening of the first international Olympic Games in Athens. Long live the Nation. Long live the Greek people!”  The Greek national anthem and a newly composed Olympic hymn were played. There was no Olympic flag yet, nor was there a flame.  The famous 5 ring flag was created by Coubertin in 1914 at the start of World War I, and not used until the 1920 Stockholm games.  The Olympic flame was not added until the 1928 Games in Amsterdam.

3. All the 1896 competitors were men.  

Sadly, Coubertin’s energy and drive were only matched by his unrelenting chauvinism. He declared that the participation of any women would be “impractical, uninteresting, unaesthetic and incorrect.”  Fortunately, his attitude didn’t last long. Women were thankfully allowed to compete in the second modern Games of 1900, just 4 years later in Paris.

Baron Coubertin and the IOC took the ancient Olympics as their prototype. Some events were modernized. The athletes would not be required to compete naked. The IOC replaced boxing with fencing, considered to be more civilized. They also replaced chariot racing with the more logical cycling.  The youngest athlete was Dimitrios Loundras, a 10 year old Greek boy who participated in the team parallel bars event. His team finished third, putting him in the record books as a medalist. He remains to this day the youngest Olympic competitor ever.

Greece fielded the largest team with 169 athletes. Many of their competitors were local Greeks who decided to sign up at the last minute. One accidental Olympian was Irishman John Boland.  He was a spectator who ended up participating in the tennis competition for Great Britain. He had to scrounge up a racket and play in leather-soled shoes, but actually claimed victory in both the singles and doubles tournaments.

4. All the Swimming events were held in the open sea, not swimming pools.

Called “nautical games,” swimming consisted of four events staged in the nearby Bay of Zea.  After the renovation of the Panathenaic Stadium, there were few funds left to build pools.  Competitors were ferried out on rafts, then raced to shore with a string of floating lane markers. It was April, and the Bay’s up to 12-foot seas and 55-degree water! turned the races into battles of survival. One American bowed out of the 100 meters after doing a test swim in the chilly sea.  Hungarian winner Alfréd Hajós covered his skin with grease to stave off the cold for the 1,500 meters, later saying: “My will to live, completely overcame my desire to win.” The winner of the 100-meter freestyle was a 16-year-old sailor, Ioannis Malokinis.

Discus wasn’t part of modern track and field in 1896. Before leaving for Athens, American shot-putter Robert Garrett studied images from ancient Greek art and built one from scratch. His prototype was 25 pounds—far heavier than the regulation five pound disc. When Garrett competed in Athens, he failed his first couple throws with the lighter disc, but eventually threw it over 95 feet—beating the Greek favorite, Panagiotis Paraskevopoulos. “It was a great tragedy for the Greeks, but great Comedy for the Americans,” said a US coach.  The American collegiate Olympians dominated track and field, claiming 9 of 12 events.

5. The famous Marathon Race was invented for the modern Games.

The marathon was the brilliant brainchild of Michel Breal, a friend of Pierre de Coubertin’s, who was inspired by the legend of the Greek soldier Pheidippides.  The soldier ran from the city of Marathon to Athens in 490 B.C. to relay word that the Greeks had beaten the Persians in battle.  Their modern race would follow the same symbolic route as Pheidippides, just a bit shorter at over 25 miles. The IOC changed the marathon to todays 26 miles in 1924. Roughly half the runners dropped out from exhaustion.  One was disqualified after he hopped on a horse carriage for part of the race!

Most appropriately, a Greek runner won the first modern marathon.  The unlikely victor was Spiridon Louis, an obscure peasant villager. He was a 23-year-old water-carrier from Amarousion, who ran the course at a steady pace, even stopping halfway to eat an egg and have a glass of wine!  When he finally staggered into the Panathenaic Stadium in first place, he was shocked by the reception. The ecstatic crowd cried, “Hellene! Hellene!” The noise was deafening as the cheers of 60,000 spectators filled the arena.

Greek Olympic Marathon winner Spiridon Louis
Greek first Olympic Marathon winner Spiridon Louis, 1896

Greece’s royal princes rushed to run alongside him as he crossed the finish line. Louis was greeted by King Georgios I, himself. A flight of white pigeons was let loose, women waved their handkerchiefs, and the men of his team lifted him up and carried him in triumph. His time was just under 3 hours at 2 hours 58 minutes. The young man, who was unknown to the crowd just a couple of hours ago, had made history and was to soon to be a national hero.

An aristocratic lady unfastened her gold watch, ringed with pearls, and sent it to him as reward.  An Athens innkeeper gave him an order good for 365 free meals, and it went on.  Louis himself, however, refused all these generous offers. His sense of Greek honor, strong even amongst its peasants, would not allow it. That single act though, embodied the Olympic values that placed glory over reward.  Louis was propelled to national stardom, but soon returned to his village and never ran a race again.

For a nation known as one of Europe’s most backward, his victory brought a sense of national unity. As one reporter noted:

“It might very well have been Philippides of old bringing to the anxious inhabitants of Athens the news of their glorious victory against the Persians.”

6. There were no Gold Medals, and winners didn’t receive awards until the Closing Ceremony.

The Olympic tradition of awarding gold, silver and bronze medals to first, second and third places didn’t begin until the 1904 games in St. Louis. Officials instead presented the winners at the 1896 Games with silver medals, a wreath of olive branches from Olympia, and a certificate.  Runners-up received bronze medals and laurel branches. Third place finishers were not yet recognized and sadly got nothing.

The 1896 Olympic Games were formally brought to a close in 10 days. Back at the Panathenaic Stadium, a Herald-at-Arms loudly proclaimed the names of all the victors. The King and the royal family presented the awards. The crowd once again hailed the name of the winner of the Marathon, Spiridon Louis and the Greek team ran a celebratory lap around the track. The U.S. Team won the most silver medals, 11, while the host Greek team won the most medals at 47. No world records were set, however, as few of the top international competitors had competed.

What came next? The 1900 Games were held in Coubertin’s hometown of Paris.  The Intl. Olympic Committee added the Tug of War and it remained an unusual competition until 1920.  The IOC also added new equestrian and sailing events.  There was one lasting legacy of the 1900 Paris Games: women were finally allowed to take part, competing in croquet, equestrian, golf, tennis and sailing.

7. Athens almost became the permanent home of the Olympics.

The first modern Olympic Games were a great success.  During a banquet at the end, the Greek king proposed that, like the ancient games, Greece be the permanent home of the Olympics. Founder Pierre de Coubertin would have none of that. He intended and insisted the Olympics be an international competition with the hosting shared by the competing nations. The IOC doubted the weak Greek government could consistently host it every four years. Due to frequent political turmoil in Greece, the idea was eventually abandoned.

Pierre de Coubertin became IOC President after the 1896 Games. He guided subsequent Olympics through difficult years, when it first lacked popular support, and was then overshadowed by World War I. By 1924, when the games returned to Paris, it had 3,000 athletes, including over 100 women, from 44 nations. The first Winter Olympic Games were also held that same year, in Chamonix in the French Alps. After a full and successful career, Coubertin retired from the IOC in 1925 and died of a heart attack in 1937, at the age of 74.

Athens 2004 Olympic logo
The logo of the Athens 2004 Summer Olympic Games

The IOC cancelled the 1940 and 1944 Summer and Winter Olympic Games due to World War II. Ironically, they were scheduled to be held in the winters at Japan and Germany. In 2004, the Summer Olympics proudly returned to Athens, Greece after 108 years. They had lost the bid for the 100th anniversary of the Games in 1996 to Atlanta, USA. More than 11,000 athletes competed from 202 countries, in 28 sports. In addition to their medals, the winners were given a symbolic wreath of olive branches to wear as a crown. And yes, the Olympic Marathon race once again ended at the Panathenaic Stadium. It was a proud and celebratory moment for Greeks and athletes around the world.

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Crimea in the Crosshairs for Centuries

Map of Crimea location in reference to Ukraine and Russia
Map of Crimea location in reference to Ukraine and Russia

This is not the first time Crimea has a been in the cross-hairs.  Why is tiny Crimea yet again a global hotspot?  One word – LOCATION.  The Crimean (Tauric) Peninsula lies off the north shore of the Black Sea.  It is bordered by, and connected to, the Ukraine in the north by a skinny 5km wide isthmus (Perekop Isthmus).  The Russian Federation lies to the east across an equally skinny strait (Arabat Strait).  So Crimea was more less where X Marks the Spot when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.

Over the centuries, this diamond shaped peninsula of half plains, half mountains, has been fought over by the greatest empires of both modern AND ancient times.  Originally an outpost of the Greek Empire, you can still find the columns of Greek ruins near the modern capital of Sevastopol.  It was conquered and ruled by the ancient Bosphoran Kingdom in 513 B.C., but was routinely threatened by the Huns and Mongols over the centuries.  The mighty Roman Empire took control in 15 B.C. at the time Caesar Augustus was Emperor.  When the Roman Empire finally collapsed in 476 A.D., Crimea remained part of the Eastern or Byzantine Empire, centered in Constantinople.  It would remain there for the next 500 years.

Because of its key maritime location on the crossroads of three continents, it was always sought after. 

Kievan Rus, the Slavic precursor to the Russian Empire, recognized its strategic location and invaded from the north in 988.  This was during the reign of the legendary St. Vladimir I, who united the Slavic states under Christianity.  Three centuries later in 1238, the Tatar Mongols famous Golden Horde invaded from the east and snatched up Crimea next.  When the Tartars switched to Islam, they began to align themselves with the growing Ottoman/Turkish Empire, just across the Black Sea to the south.

Byzantine Constantinople finally fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1453.  Crimea, still controlled by Muslim Tatars, became one of its vassal states.  The Ottoman Empire, ruled by a succession of Sultan dynasties, then grew to encompass much of the Middle East, the eastern Mediterranean and the Balkan states.  Crimea remained under Turkish control for the next 300 years.  That is, until the age of the Russian Tzars came about.  Then Crimea found itself more or less at ground zero once again.

Tzar Peter the Great modernized the Russian Empire, turning it into a force to be reckoned with.  From then on, the Russian and Ottoman Empires fought a series of fierce Russo-Turkish Wars for control of the Black Sea.  There were twelve wars in all, stretching for 200 years from 1676 to 1878.  The treaty of one of those wars briefly established, for the first time, an independent Crimean Tatar state in 1774.  It was short lived however (only 9 years) until the Russian Empire, now ruled by Catherine the Great, annexed it in 1783.   After 2 centuries of wars, Crimea finally fell under Russian control.

CRIMEAN WAR (1853-1856)
CRIMEAN WAR (1853-1856)

One of those 12 conflicts is known as The Crimean War, from 1853-1856, when the battleground was on the peninsula itself. Angered by Russian encroachment into Romania; Turkish, French and British troops declared war on Russia.  After several naval battles, the allies landed at Sevastopol and laid siege to the fortified city for an entire year.  The Russians finally were forced to sign a treaty.

Everything changed again of course when two 20th century pivotal events occurred, back-to-back.  World War I erupted in 1914 with the entire globe taking sides:  Austria-Hungary, Germany, and Turkey against Britain, France, the US, and Russia. Then in 1917, the Bolshevik Revolution began in Russia. It ended in the death of both Tzar Nicholas and the Russian Empire, and the emergence of Vladimir Lenin and the new Communist Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Soviet Union). 

After the war, Crimea became a part of the Russian Soviet Socialist Republic.  Then came World War II! During WWII, the Nazis invaded Ukraine and Crimea, and took Sevastopol in 1942.  Two years later, the Soviet Red Army repulsed the Nazis and took back the port and peninsula.  After the war, Communist Premier Josef Stalin was particularly cruel to the ethnic Crimean Tatars.  Calling them Nazi sympathizers, he sent over 200,000 into forced labor in Siberian gulags.    

In 1954, on the 300th anniversary of Russian rule over the Ukraine (Treaty of Pereyaslav), Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev (a Ukrainian by birth) transferred Crimea from Russia to the Ukraine Soviet Socialist Republic as a gift. After the death of Josef Stalin, many ethnic Muslim Tatars were finally able to return back to their Crimean homeland, now occupied mainly by Russians.

The brings us to more modern times.  Soviet Communism and the USSR spectacularly fell to pieces in 1991 after the fall of the Berlin Wall.  The Ukraine became an independent nation, which included Crimea, as a semi-autonomous republic.  Ukraine signed an agreement with the new Russian Federation, dividing the Black Sea Fleet between the two of them, and allowing Russian ships to remain stationed in the port of Sevastopol for 20 more years.

So everything was now settled?  Fast forward to our present decade. 

Having long been a part of Russia, the majority of Crimeans are ethnic Russians and Tatars, not Ukrainians.  In 2010, Ukraine narrowly elected a pro-Russia President, Viktor Yanukovych. After 4 years and a collapsing economy, the unpopular President was facing impeachment, and fled the capital Kiev to Moscow.  A violent rebellion had erupted in the streets after he implemented a number of pro-Russia moves: to scuttle joining the European Union and prolong the Sevastopol lease for another 30 years. 

Crimean’s march in favor of Putin and Russian Annexation

The next month, during the chaos in Kiev, Crimea’s parliament declared its independence from Ukraine. Russian President  Vladimir Putin deployed Russian troops to Crimea, claiming they were sent there at parliament’s request to protect ethnic Russians and Russian assets.  The Crimean people appeared to approve. A disputed popular referendum was held where over 90% supposedly voted for reunification with Russia.  In March 2014, Putin signed a law formally annexing Crimea into Russia.

The entire world blinked and … did little.  Heavy economic sanctions were levied against Russia by the west. Ukraine withdrew its troops from Crimea.  In the eyes of the United Nations, United States, NATO and European Union, Russia is still an occupying power and Crimea remains a part of the Ukraine.  As you can imagine, tensions between Ukraine and Russia have remained VERY tense ever since.  This brings us to today and the current Tit-for-Tat troop build-ups we watch erupting on either side of the Ukraine-Russia border. 

So, as you can see, because of its key location, tiny Crimea has a history lasting millennia of being sought, conquered and ruled by empires and nations.  Its small population, originally Tatars, were diluted over the centuries with Romans, Turks, Ukrainians and Russians.  Who has rights to Crimea today?  The people, you say?  Which people? Hence, with the War in Ukraine, Crimea is once again in the crosshairs.

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The Most Heroic Rescue – The Great Raid at Cabanatuan

POWs rescued by the Great Raid at Cabanatuan
POWs rescued by the Great Raid at Cabanatuan

There have been many heroic rescues in recent years, the Thai youth soccer team in 2018, the Chilean copper miners in 2010, but neither compares to perhaps the most daring heroic rescue in modern times – the Great Raid of Cabanatuan in the Philippines during World War II.  Sadly, with the passing of the ‘Greatest Generation,’ it is also becoming the most forgotten.

“The Great Raid” occurred on January 30, 1945, on the Philippine Island of Luzon.  A team of bold US Army Rangers and Filipino guerrillas led a daring mission behind enemy lines. Their goal was to free 500 Allied prisoners of war, facing mass execution at the Japanese POW camp at Cabanatuan.  Why was such a risky mission so urgent?

By late 1944, Allies had been slowly pushing back the Japanese forces in the Pacific. The Imperial Japanese Army only dug in deeper. They had already shown a willingness to never surrender and fight to the last man.  The liberation of the Philippines began in October 1944, when General Douglas MacArthur landed his forces on Leyte island, having vowed to return. As the Japanese retreated, the Americans had good reason to fear they would execute their POWs before withdrawing.

The Japanese War Ministry had already issued a directive to their Pacific forces in late 1944. Realizing Allied units would liberate POW camps, they circulated a “Kill All” policy.  Their motive being that the POWs had witnessed gruesome atrocities committed by the Japanese. Thousands had been slaughtered, tortured, starved, and used in forced labor.  These witnesses had to be eliminated.

The Allies had already obtained proof the Japanese forces were capable of such horrific acts.

In December 1944, the Japanese army had forced 150 American POWs on Palawan Island into make shift air-raid shelters.  The guards locked them in, dousing the structures with gasoline, and set them on fire, burning the helpless POWs alive. Any who crawled out were machine gunned to death.  Somehow, 11 men managed to escape and join the Filipino guerillas.

By early January 1945, US forces had landed on the big island of Luzon, containing Manila, the nation’s capital. The Cabanatuan POW Camp was the largest on Luzon and had once housed over 5,000 prisoners! However, most had been moved to the Japanese mainland to work as slave labor.

As American troops began to sweep across Luzon, there was great fear the same fate could happen to the 500 remaining POWs at Cabanatuan, as had happened at Palawan. The POWs remaining had been left there due to their health and weakened condition. Most men had been at the camp for 3 years, survivors of the horrific Bataan Death March in 1942.

Scouts reported that a full Japanese division was withdrawing on the main road that ran past the prison. The US Army had every reason to believe that, once that division had left, a similar fate awaited the emaciated men at Cabanatuan. Major Robert Lapham proposed an immediate raid to free the prisoners. Best estimates put about 300 Japanese guards in the camp, and as many as 5,000 Japanese troops in Cabanatuan City, a few miles away.

Approval for the raid came from the highest levels: General Douglas MacArthur himself.  

A team was quickly formed from the 6th Ranger Battalion. Lieutenant Colonel Henry Mucci, an Army Ranger, was give overall command. He handpicked Captain Robert Prince to lead the Rangers that would enter the camp and extract the POWs. To get to the camp, the rescue force would have to march 30 miles through enemy lines. The small rescue force would consist of only 121 Army Rangers, 14 Alamo Scouts, and about 200 Filipino guerrilla fighters.

Japanese soldiers in the region could be as high as 9000.  The Alamo Scouts would go in first to provide reconnaissance. The Filipino guerrillas would hold off the Japanese soldiers in the city closest to the camp. The Rangers would attack the Japanese camp guards, gather up the POWs, and get them moving back toward the American lines. Everyone knew the chance of success was low and risks high.

The Colonel gathered his Rangers and asked them to meet in a nearby church.  An emotional Mucci addressed the men before departure:

“Remember, these boys have been in that hell hole, beaten and starved for nearly three years. If they can’t walk to the river, we will carry them. We don’t leave one of them behind. Not a single one! Go with God—and bring our boys home.  They have not been forgotten.”

Lt. Colonel Henry Mucci

Mucci then asked his men to take an oath to die fighting, if necessary, to free their brothers.

After the briefing, Mucci had all of them meet with their chaplains to pray.

The Alamo Scouts departed January 28, the Army Rangers the following day. The Rangers were heavily armed for the mission, carrying automatic rifles, submachine guns, knives, pistols, grenades, and bazookas.  The Alamo Scouts (US 6th Army Special Reconnaissance Unit) had performed many missions behind enemy lines. They were seasoned soldiers, what today we call Special Forces. 

The next day, dressed as Filipino peasants, the Scouts slipped into an abandoned hut only 300 yards from the POW camp. What they saw was not welcome news.  The attacking Rangers would have to navigate a 300 yard, completely cleared perimeter around the entire compound, crawling on their bellies under the cover of darkness.

At a rendezvous point on the Pamanga River, the Rangers met up with the 200 Filipino guerrillas.  They had intimate knowledge of the surrounding area and would escort them through the back-country. They were lead by Captain Juan Pajota of the US Armed Forces Far East. The Alamo Scouts reported to the officers on their reconnoiter, with details of the entire camp layout. 

Mucci and Prince decided to subdivide their Rangers into two elements. Thirty Rangers would flank the camp from the opposite side and initiate the assault, destroy rear guard towers and provide fire support.  A 90 Ranger man assault team would storm the camp through the main gate, kill the Japanese guards, and secure all the prisoners.

The Filipino guerrillas would set up blocking positions to the east and west of the camp to hold off any attempt by the nearby Japanese troops in the city to interfere with their escape. By nightfall, all elements were in place.  If all succeeded, they would meet back at this rendezvous point in a couple hours.

On January 30, the Rangers and guerrillas stepped-off, crossing the Pamanga River. 

The camp was just a mile and a half away.  Mucci radioed in for his special air support.  Within minutes a P-61 Black Widow night fighter appeared overhead. The pilot, Captain Ken Scribner, from the 547th Fighter Squadron, immediately began faking engine trouble. Cutting his engines off-and-on, causing backfires and white smoke, the plane dove dramatically towards the jungle, then careened off, only to return, and do it all over again.

To the Japanese guards, the plane appeared to be in serious trouble and might crash at any moment. The soldiers watched transfixed as the struggling plane circled around their camp for 20 minutes.  As Scribner kept the guards’ attention, the Rangers painstakingly crawled the 300 cleared yards to the camp on their stomachs. They cut the barbed wire of the camp fence, then took precise aim at every Japanese guard they could see. 

On Tuesday night, January 30th, 1945, at 7:40 p.m, the Rangers burst upon the unsuspecting Japanese guards in a sudden, ferocious assault. The 30 Ranger detachment in the rear attacked first, then all hell broke loose.  The camp exploded with grenade bursts, rifle and machine gun-fire, wiping out the closest guard towers and rear defenses of the camp first.

Rangers and Scouts then poured into the compound. They kicked-open the doors, and riddled the Japanese guards with machine gun-fire. They charged boldly into the crowded guard’s barracks and officer’s quarters. Bazooka shells blew-apart guard towers, bunkers, and pillboxes. Any resistance was rapidly dealt with using deadly force. The bodies of dead Japanese soldiers began to cover the dark grounds of the prison camp.

The entire POW camp was under American control in just ten minutes.

The Americans had surprised and overwhelmed the Japanese guards, killing them all. When the firing started, many POWs thought it was the Japanese coming to kill them and they hid.  Most of these men had taken part in the infamous Bataan Death March. Held captive for 3 years, they had experienced beatings, executions, and starvation from their Japanese guards. Emaciated to the point of death, it took time to locate, calm down, and gather all the POWs together.

Many of the veteran Rangers, used to the ravages of war, shed tears openly when they saw their fellow soldiers emerge as mere human skeletons.  Many could not walk. Others had no shoes. Most were sick. The Rangers gave their shoes and clothes to the men who need them most. Some Rangers carried the skinny POWs on their backs. Others rigged improvised stretchers using their uniforms.   

Within 35 minutes, every Japanese soldier had been killed and all the POWs assembled at the main gate for the still dangerous journey back. It was then, one surviving Japanese soldier managed to fire several mortar rounds at them, wounding a few. The Rangers quickly surrounded and killed the gunner. At 8:15 pm, Mucci fired a red flare into the air, letting the Filipino guerrillas know the camp had been taken and the POWs secured. 

They still had a 30 mile journey back through enemy lines in the dark. As they passed through friendly Filipino villages, locals offered their carabao carts for the weak POWs, wooden buggies pulled along by water buffaloes. By the time the American lines were reached, some 106 carabao carts were contributed.

The Filipino guerrillas fought savagely, holding off a counter-attack by Japanese forces. 

The 200 guerillas held back several Japanese attempts, destroying enemy tanks. This allowed the slow moving prisoners to escape on the long journey back. Pajota and his guerrillas placed charges under a nearby bridge over the Cabu River. As the Japanese advanced, they detonated the explosives. Japanese infantry attempted several crossings, but were repeatedly repulsed. The Black Widow returned, strafing and bombing the Japanese troops on the riverbank.

When the Rangers and prisoners reached the rendezvous point, Mucci fired a second red flare in the air. This notified the Filipino guerrillas to finally withdraw. A small field hospital had been erected in a nearby village to care for the wounded, but the column of carts pushed-on, struggling along at barely 2 mph. Filipino villagers gladly supplied food and water to the exhausted Americans.

When the freed POWs first saw a tattered American flag, hanging from a muddy Sherman tank, they were overcome with emotion.  The ‘ghost soldiers’ slid off their carts, steadying one another as best they could to stand at attention.  Then with tears in their eyes, they saluted the flag that many had not seen for 3 years.  At the village of Talavera, a welcome truck convoy was waiting to drive them the remaining distance to the American lines.

The Great Cabanatuan Raid is the largest rescue in American history.

US Army Ranger rescuers in the Great Raid of Cabanatuan
US Army Ranger rescuers in the Great Raid of Cabanatuan

 When the smoke and exhaustion finally cleared, the raid had rescued 522: 464 American soldiers, 22 British soldiers, 3 Dutch soldiers, plus 33 American, Norwegian, British, Canadian, and Filipino civilians. Casualties were surprisingly light: 2 American soldiers killed & 4 wounded, with 9 Filipino guerillas wounded. Two of the prisoners, died during the trek out. Japanese casualties were far heavier, ranging somewhere near 1,000, along with untold wounded.

The final outcome of the Cabanatuan Great Raid was nothing short of miraculous. General MacArthur pronounced that , “No incident of the Pacific campaign has given me such satisfaction.” When news of The Great Raid reached American shores, there was jubilation! Throughout the Allied military, and among citizens across the war-torn globe, spirits lifted in response to the heartwarming news. Mucci and Prince were personally awarded the Distinguished Service Cross by General McArthur.

However, as so often happens with history, The Great Raid soon became a distant memory.  In the final months of WWII, headlines announced the German surrender, Hitler’s suicide, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and the 2 atomic  bombs. Few today remember, or have even heard, of the most heroic rescue mission ever.

Let us never forget The Great Raid of Cabanatuan, the daring rescuers, and the brave men they set free. They represent a generation of us that gave so much for their countries, and the entire world, during the dark days of World War II, when evil was on the brink of success.  Let us pray we never need such a great heroic rescue again.

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The Forgotten Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau

Captain Jacques Yves Cousteau wearing the Calypso red beanie
Captain Jacques Yves Cousteau wearing the Calypso red beanie

For an entire generation, the name Jacques Cousteau was synonymous with undersea exploration.  He was a famous French explorer, inventor, and researcher. He co-invented the Aqua-Lung, better known today as SCUBA.  On board his equally famous ship, the Calypso, he hosted dozens of TV documentaries from the 1960s thru the 1980s, exploring the world’s oceans. He started the non-profit Cousteau Society for the preservation of the earth’s polluted seas.  But today, he is nearly an after-thought, often forgotten, or worse yet, completely unknown to the millennial generation.  Who was this famous explorer of the oceans?

Jacques-Yves Cousteau was born near Bordeaux, France in 1910. He learned to swim and snorkel at an early age, and to speak English fluently.  As a teenager in the Mediterranean city of Marseilles, he bought a movie camera and began to experiment with filming underwater.  In 1930, he entered the Ecole Navale (French Naval Academy), later joining the French Navy’s information service as a 2nd Lieutenant.

Cousteau took his movie camera with him and began filming throughout the South Pacific.

He started training to become a naval aircraft pilot, but a near-fatal car crash brought that hope to an end. Cousteau swam in the sea daily to strengthen his battered body. The beauty of the sea-floor made such an impression on him, he decided to make diving his life’s work.  In 1937, Cousteau married Simone Melchior and they had two sons together, Jean-Michel and Philippe. Both sons, in time, would join their father in his underwater expeditions.

During World War II, when France surrendered to Nazi Germany, Cousteau and his family stayed in the country. He worked with the French Resistance in intelligence operations, for which he was awarded France’s Military Cross and Legion of Honor.  In 1943, he met Emile Gagnan, a French engineer who shared his passion for exploration. Compressed air cylinders had been invented and the pair experimented with a new on-demand breathing regulator.

Together they developed and patented the Aqua-Lung, allowing divers to stay underwater for long periods of time without hoses connected to the surface. Cousteau also helped develope a waterproof movie camera that could withstand deep pressures. During this time, he made his first documentary on underwater exploration, Par dix-huit mètres de fond (18 Meters Deep).

After the war, Cousteau worked with the French navy to clear underwater mines. Between missions, he continued his underwater explorations while filming all his excursions. His wife Simone traveled with Cousteau at sea, even selling her jewels once to help buy boat fuel. Their two sons, Jean-Michel and Philippe, went off to boarding school.

Cousteau set a new depth record in 1947 for free diving, descending to 300 feet under the sea. 

The Aqua-Lung allowed him to swim freely under the ocean’s surface without a heavy helmet, diving suit, and surface air tubes. In 1948, Cousteau and Philippe Tailliez, completed an underwater expedition in the Mediterranean to find the Roman shipwreck Mahdia off the Tunisian coast.  This was the first ever underwater archaeology expedition using Scuba.

Cousteau shared his idea to make more undersea explorations with wealthy British philanthropist Thomas Guinness in 1950. Guinness was so impressed with the Frenchman, he bought a former British minesweeper, leasing it to Cousteau for a mere 1 franc a year.  Jacques refurbished it for exploration, renaming it Calypso, after the Greek nymph.  Like Cousteau, the ship was destined to become equally famous the world over. 

The next year, Cousteau took scientific leave from the French Navy to begin sea exploration full time.  To fund it, he conducted underwater surveys of the Red Sea on behalf of British Petroleum. To pay for it without oil money, he needed media attention.  Captain Cousteau co-authored the 1953 book The Silent World, about their adventures in Scuba diving.  The book was an instant best seller and has sold over 5 million copies. In it, Cousteau was the first to theorize that whales and dolphins were able navigate using echo-location.

In 1956, Cousteau released a color movie documentary, The Silent World.

The movie was an international hit, transforming people’s ideas about the amazing plethora of life beneath the surface of the blue-grey oceans. It won Cousteau the 1957 Academy Award for Best Documentary. He had succeeded in capturing the world’s imagination and there was now a huge demand for Scuba equipment and Scuba diving.

The success allowed him to finance another expedition to the Indian Ocean, sponsored by the French government and the National Geographic Society.  In 1960, Cousteau’s documentary, The Golden Fish, won the Academy Award for Best Short Film. The 50-year-old was then featured on the cover of Time magazine and became world famous. In 1961, American President Kennedy presented the National Geographic Society’s Gold Medal to Cousteau.

Jacques Cousteau research vessel Calypso
Jacques Cousteau’s famous research vessel Calypso

Over the years, Captain Cousteau became an environmentalist and organized a campaign against the French-government’s plan to dump nuclear waste into the Mediterranean in 1960—taking his fight all the way to President General Charles de Gaulle.  The train carrying the waste to Marseilles was turned back after French women and children staged a sit-in on the tracks!

“For most of history, man has had to fight nature to survive; in this century he is beginning to realize that, in order to survive, he must protect it.” – Jacques Cousteau

By 1963, Cousteau and his Calypso team experimented with manned bases on the sea-floor, using divers as ‘oceanauts.’  The 3 Conshelf Bases were partly funded by French petroleum companies, who were interested in exploring the sea-floor for oil – a fact he was later criticized for.  The documentary on the Conshelf bases, World Without Sun, won him his 3rd Academy Award, for Best Documentary, in 1965.

Exploration was expensive and Cousteau needed constant funding.  In 1966, he approached ABC TV and produced his 1st special, The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau. It too was a hit and in 1968 became a regular TV series, running for 9 seasons. Millions of people, including myself, followed the red-beanied Calypso team and their adventures around the globe.  With his French accent, Cousteau narrated the series himself, offering his personal experiences on marine life and their habitat.

The crew now included his two sons, Jean-Michel and Philippe, his heir apparent.

Cousteau began to realize how human activity was destroying the oceans. Using his celebrity, he founded The Cousteau Society for the Protection of Ocean Life in 1973, to raise awareness of the underwater ecosystems of the world. The organization quickly grew and soon had over 300,000 worldwide.  Cousteau also wrote several more books, including The Ocean World in 1985. That same year, on his 75th birthday, American President Reagan presented him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

In 1975, folk singer John Denver sailed with Jacques Cousteau and released the tribute song Calypso on his album Windsong, which became a hit, reaching No. 2 on the charts. A 2nd docu-series, The Cousteau Odyssey, ran from 1977 to 1982 on public television stations.  These now had a more environmental message and a plea for stronger protection of ocean habitats.  

Jacques and sons Philippe and Jean-Michel Cousteau
Jacques and sons Philippe and Jean-Michel Cousteau

In 1979, tragedy struck when Cousteau’s younger son, Philippe, died unexpectedly.  He was an experienced pilot and was killed while piloting their Catalina flying boat, crashing in a river near Lisbon, Portugal.  He was only 39.  Captain Cousteau was devastated, and his grand ambitions were never quite the same. Philippe left behind a wife and two children.  Jean-Michel stepped in to take his place.

Though Cousteau’s films made the oceans seem like a bountiful, endless wonderland, the captain knew better. The ocean flora and fauna were at risk from human water pollution and Cousteau never hesitated to point that out.  He intervened with heads of state and helped get passed the International Whaling Commission moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986.   That moratorium remains in place today.

The sea, the great unifier, is man’s only hope. Now, as never before, as the old phrase says: ‘We are all in the same boat.‘ – Jacques Cousteau

His wife Simone, who had lived her life aboard Calypso, died after a battle with cancer in 1990.  A year later, Cousteau, now in his eighties, married Francine Triplet.  He had fathered a daughter, Diane, and a son, Pierre-Yves, who were born in the 1980s.  Cousteau then had a legal battle with his son, Jean-Michel, over his son’s wish to use the Cousteau name for commercial purposes. In 1995, he sued his son, who was advertising the “Cousteau Fiji Islands Resort.”

In 1996, Calypso was rammed by a barge and sank in Singapore Harbor! It was raised and towed back to France.  Cousteau tried to raise money to build a new vessel, but tragedy then struck again.  Captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau died of a heart attack in Paris in 1996 at age 87.   His estate fell into dispute among his survivors, most of which were settled by 2000.  His son, Jean-Michel, left the Cousteau Society and formed his own organization, The Oceans Futures Society. Philippe’s two children likewise formed EarthEcho International.

If Jacques Cousteau were alive today, he would probably be deeply saddened by how little has been done to address global air and water pollution, overfishing, and the very real threat to the world’s seas by climate change and ocean warming.  The Cousteau Society still exists today, with Cousteau’s second wife Francine as President. The Society continues the captain’s legacy with its ongoing mission to Explore, Document and Advocatefor our blue planet.

For more by historical writer, Paul Andrews, click BOOKS.
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Catcher, Lawyer, Soldier, Spy – the Odd Life of Moe Berg

moe berg 480_poster
Moe Berg in his Boston Red Sox baseball uniform, 1935

Morris (Moe) Berg was all that and more, a life-long bachelor, devoted Jew, and eccentric intellectual.  The son of a pharmacist in Newark, New Jersey, young Moe fell in love with baseball.  He began playing baseball at age seven, first for a local Christian church, then high school, then at Princeton University.  The sport became his lifelong passion.  Moe Berg graduated with a BA magna cum laude in of all things – Modern Languages.  He left Princeton fluent in seven of them: Latin, Greek, French, Spanish, Italian, German and even Sanskrit.

By 1925, he moved up to the big leagues with the Chicago White Sox.  Berg skipped spring training though to complete his first year at Columbia Law School.  Nonetheless, by the end of the season, Berg found himself the White Sox starting Catcher.  In 1930, he received his law degree, passed the bar, and took a job with a Wall Street law firm.  Moe didn’t last there long and switched back to his first love, baseball.  His strict father disapproved of making a sport your living, and never attended a single one of Moe’s games.  Though a decent fielder, hitting was always Moe’s weakness.  The Cleveland Indians picked Moe up next, then later the Washington Senators.

“Perhaps I could not hit like Babe Ruth, but I spoke more languages than he did.”

Moe Berg

In 1932, Berg traveled to Japan with 3 other major league players to teach a baseball seminar at Japanese universities.  He used the opportunity to travel the country and learn yet another language. In 1934, he traveled back to Japan with none other than Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, playing exhibition games against a Japanese All-Star team. When they arrived, Moe shocked both his teammates and his hosts by giving the welcome speech himself in fluent Japanese. 

In 1939, Moe Berg made several appearances on a radio Quiz Show, Information Please, putting on an impressive and charming performance.  He became known by sportswriters as that eccentric, ‘scholar athlete,’ an unusual combination to say the least.  Fans called him the professor, obviously the strangest man ever to play the game of baseball. 

He was indeed an odd duck – a loner, well-dressed dandy, and definitely a know-it-all.  Despite a lengthy affair with a woman in New York, they never married.   There were quiet rumors that ‘bachelor’ Moe was secretly a closeted homosexual. An average hitter at best, Berg was picked up by his 4th and final team, the Boston Red Sox. 

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, Berg accepted a civilian position with the Army Office of Strategic Services.  With his intellect and grasp of languages, Moe was well suited for the OSS, not to mention he’d be a Jew fighting Nazis.  On his first mission overseas, he parachuted into Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia to evaluate the Serbian resistance forces fighting the Germans. 

In 1943, Moe was officially assigned to the top secret Alsos Project.  Alsos was started by Brigadier General Leslie Groves, of the famous atomic bomb Manhattan Project, lead by Robert Oppenheimer.  Alsos’ mission was to investigate the Nazi’s atomic weapons development. Given his intelligence, natural charisma, and linguistic skills, he was a natural for the job.

In 1944, German physicist Werner Heisenberg was to lecture in neutral Switzerland on Germany’s atomic research.

Heisenberg had won the 1932 Nobel Prize in physics. More importantly, he lead the so called Uranverien, the Nazi’s Uranium Project.  Berg was ordered to attend the lecture in Zurich.  And, if anything Heisenberg said convinced him the Germans were close to an atomic bomb, he had orders to assassinate the physicist that night!  So Moe Berg, baseball catcher, lawyer and now soldier, was asked to be a military assassin as well.  But could he do such a thing when the time came?

Moe Berg sat quietly in the audience and listened intently. But Heisenberg’s Zurich lecture was inconclusive as to Germany’s real progress when it came to nuclear weapons.  So with a loaded pistol in his pocket, Moe managed to meet personally with Werner after a dinner that evening.  Berg had studied up on physics and could hold his own in a conversation. 

During their casual chat, Berg came to realize Adolf Hitler had foolishly never devoted the money nor manpower to their Uranverien Project that the Americans had thought. The Allies had also successfully sabotaged the Vemork heavy water plant in Norway the previous year. The Nazis were in fact no where near as advanced as the Americans! 

Moe Berg sighed heavily, uncocked the pistol in his pocket, and let Heisenberg live.

Robert Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project won the race and developed the first atomic bomb. Following Victory in Europe (VE) Day at the end of World War II, Berg returned to the U.S. and resigned from the OSS.  He was awarded the Medal of Freedom in 1945, but declined it when he was told he could not divulge his secret war missions. 

Both the White Sox and Red Sox offered Berg coaching positions, but Moe declined them as well.  He never rejoined his law firm either.  Past his athletic prime, and unable to boast of his war escapades, Berg became moody, bitter and snappish. He no longer seemed to care much for anything, but reading books and recanting his baseball memories.

In the 1950s, Berg worked briefly for the new CIA, using his old WWII contacts to gather intelligence about the Soviet’s atomic research.  When his contract expired, the CIA chose not to renew it and Moe turned bitter once again.  For the next 20 years, Moe never married and had no real job, living off first his brother’s, then his sisters’ charity.  He read stacks of books, daily newspapers and of course went to major league baseball games. 

A charming storyteller, he loved to talk with anyone about his days at Princeton, baseball, Japan, and even Alsos. He avoided the ups and downs of his career, or the fact the CIA no longer wanted him. When anyone asked what he currently did for a living, he would put a finger to his lips, wink an eye, and whisper “Shhh,” implying it was top secret and he was still a spy.

Moe Berg later in life
Moe Berg later in life, 1972

Recognizing his unusual life, Berg received a request from a New York publisher to write his memoirs.  But Moe angrily turned it down when he discovered one of the editors thought he was also Moe of The Three Stooges comedy trio. 

Berg died in New Jersey in 1972 at age 70, from an aneurysm sustained in a fall at his sister’s house.  A nurse at the hospital recalled his last words, ‘How’d the Mets do today?‘ She told him. They had won. The same could not be said for the enigmatic Morris Berg – catcher, lawyer, soldier and spy.  Though never a devout Jew, at his request, his remains were spread in Jerusalem.

In 2018, a low budget movie was made of his odd life, The Catcher was a Spy, starring actor Paul Rudd as Moe Berg.

如需阅读历史作家保罗·安德鲁斯的更多作品，请点击书籍。
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Podcast: The Forgotten Great Chinese Famine of 1959

From 1959 to 1961, the Chinese people were decimated, not by a virus, but by a devastating famine. The death toll, concealed by the Communist government at the time, is still a matter of debate. The consensus however is that at least 30 million people died, though some take it as high as 50 MILLION. The death toll is staggering,  greater than all the people killed in World War I. The root cause of the Great Chinese Famine remains a taboo subject in China even 60 years later.

Victims of the Great Chinese Famine of 1959-1961
Victims of the Great Chinese Famine of 1959-1961

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