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☆ The incredible story of how POWs played golf at the ‘Great Escape’ prison camp
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-09 | by ( Jack Bantock | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

In comparison to other POW camps under German control, captives at Stalag Luft III received “excellent” treatment for the majority of the war, according to a 1944 US Military Intelligence Service (MIS) report. The rubber from such items would wrap around the core and then be cased within leather stripped from shoes — a process eerily reminiscent of “featheries,” some of the earliest post-wooden golf balls ever made. Immortalized in a book and then a film of the same name, what became known as the “The Great Escape” wasn’t even the first breakout at Stalag Luft III. When three prisoners made a successful escape, suspicious German eyes homed in on the golf course and its sprawling mounds and greens. In 1979, he donated two balls he made while in Stalag Luft III to the USGA Golf Museum, artifacts that headline its exhibit on golf during the Second World War.

Persons: — “, Stalag Luft, —, “, ”, John Strege, Pat Ward, Thomas, Victoria Nenno, ” Nenno, Tee, Sydney Smith, Smith, Ward, John Mummert, Thomas ’, Sagan, Stalag, Roger Bushell’s, Tom, ” “ Dick, Harry ” —, Adolf Hitler Organizations: CNN, Luftwaffe, British Royal Air Force, RAF, United States Army Air Force, Military Intelligence Service, Geneva Convention, USGA Golf, PGA, Stalag Luft, USGA Museum, Ward, Thomas, USGA, RAF Squadron, Guardian, USGA Golf Museum Locations: Nazi Germany, Berlin, Zagan, Poland, Norway, New Zealand, Geneva, Netherlands, New Jersey, Ward, Germany, —, England

☆ China's air force is far from ready for a crucial mission it needs to seize Taiwan
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-27 | by ( Michael Peck | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

A key component will be close air support , or CAS, which the US Air Force defines as "air action by aircraft against hostile targets that are in close proximity to friendly forces." But air support became more responsive "as the ground forces became more motorized and mechanized, and PLAAF capabilities improved." But the biggest limitation for Chinese close air support remains command and control. AdvertisementWhile China is beginning to make strides here, the PLA's approach to close air support has key differences with America's. Chinese CAS also "appears to have a simpler and streamlined command and coordination system compared to U.S. close air support," wrote McCauley.

Persons: Kevin McCauley, McCauley, Ethan R, Jones, Brendan Mulvaney, Mulvaney Organizations: Service, Business, US Air Force, Air, Marine Corps, People's Liberation Army, People's Liberation Army Air Force, US, Foreign Military Studies, CAFS, US Army, US 9th Air Force, CAS, US Marine Corps, PLA, US Air, China Aerospace Studies Institute Locations: China, Taiwan, Ukraine, Russian, Soviet, Normandy, Britain, Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq

☆ The US and Chinese air forces are rethinking whether it's possible to control the air
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-03 | by ( Michael Peck | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

The US and Chinese air forces are both thinking about how they'd try to control the air in a war. "It will be a struggle back and forth for air superiority," added Hinote, whose last position was as the Air Force's chief futurist. The most comprehensive is air supremacy, which the US Air Force defines as when "the opposing force is incapable of effective interference within the operational area using air and missile threats." The next level is air superiority, which the Air Force defines as "control of the air by one force that permits the conduct of its operations at a given time and place without prohibitive interference from air and missile threats." AdvertisementAdvertisementUS Army Air Force B-17s bomb an aircraft factory in eastern Germany during World War II.

Persons: they'd, Clinton Hinote, Carlin Leslie, Giulio Douhet, Douhet, Zhou Guoqiang, Derek Solen, Solen, Yu Hongchun, Hinote, haven't, Michael Peck Organizations: Service, US Air Force, Aviation, Air, Air Force KC, Atlantic, Staff, American, Air Force, North, Army Air Force, Getty, Zhuhai Air Show Center, China's Air Force Command, military's, PLA, US Air, China Aerospace Studies, Jamestown Foundation, Defense, Foreign Policy, Twitter, LinkedIn Locations: Wall, Silicon, China, Iraq, Afghanistan, Normandy, Vietnam, Germany, Japan, North Vietnam, Ukraine, Soviet, Taiwan, Guangdong, Xinhua, America, Forbes

☆ What ‘Oppenheimer' and Ukraine Teach Us About War - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-15 | by ( Paul Krugman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

I was a bit puzzled when I watched, because I happened to know that Rabi wasn’t a resident at Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project. But the film was historically accurate: Rabi did visit Los Alamos on occasion, and was present for the Trinity bomb test. Why wasn’t Rabi at Los Alamos? But the truth is that he was involved in another secret project applying cutting-edge science to the war effort, M.I.T.’s Radiation Laboratory, which basically worked on advanced radar. All of this was made possible not just by America’s economic might but also by its cultural and social openness.

Persons: you’ve, “ Oppenheimer, Isidor Isaac Rabi, Rabi, wasn’t Rabi, Johns Hopkins, Oppenheimer Organizations: Los Alamos, Manhattan, Trinity, Luftwaffe Locations: Los, Los Alamos, Britain

BERLIN, May 14 (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy thanked Germany for its support as he met with President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Sunday in his first visit to the country since Russia's invasion. Zelenskiy arrived in Berlin from Rome, where he met separately on Saturday with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Pope Francis. "In the most challenging time in the modern history of Ukraine, Germany proud to be our true friend and reliable ally," Zelenskiy wrote in the guest book of the German presidency. Zelenskiy last visited Germany for the Munich Security Council in February last year just before the war broke out. Germany was constrained in its support for Ukraine at that time both by its energy dependence on Russia and a pacifism rooted in its bloody 20th century history.

☆ Ukraine's Zelenskyy thanks Germany for support in visit to Berlin
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-14 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier (left) says goodbye to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (right), as he departs the Bellevue Palace on May 14, 2023, in Berlin. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked Germany for its support as he met with President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Sunday in his first visit to the country since Russia's invasion. Zelenskyy arrived in Berlin from Rome, where he met separately on Saturday with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Pope Francis. Zelenskyy last visited Germany for the Munich Security Council in February last year just before the war broke out. Germany was constrained in its support for Ukraine at that time both by its energy dependence on Russia and a pacifism rooted in its bloody 20th century history.

☆ Three Russian aircraft intercepted over Baltic Sea - German air force
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

BERLIN, April 26 (Reuters) - Three Russian military aircraft flying without transponder signals have been intercepted in international airspace over the Baltic Sea, Germany's Luftwaffe said on Wednesday. German and British forces were deployed to identify the two Sukhoi Su-27 fighter aircraft and one Ilyushin Il-20 aircraft, the German air force said on Twitter. It posted several images of the Russian aircraft mid-flight. Reporting by Friederike Heine, Editing by Andrew HeavensOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Germany forced to halt evacuation mission from Sudan - Spiegel
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BERLIN, April 19 (Reuters) - A mission by the German military to evacuate around 150 citizens from Sudan had to be halted on Wednesday due to fighting in the capital Khartoum, the Spiegel news magazine reported citing unnamed sources. Spiegel said the Luftwaffe air force had dispatched three A400M transport planes for the mission early on Wednesday. The Bundeswehr military aborted the mission amid reports of renewed clashes and airstrikes in Khartoum, according to the report. Fighting erupted in Sudan on Saturday, killing at least 185 people and derailing an internationally backed plan for a transition to civilian democracy in the country. Writing by Rachel More, Editing by Friederike HeineOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Ongoing headaches with F-35 fighter jets are rippling through the rest of the US military's combat aircraft fleet
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Michael Peck | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

US Air Force maintainers work on an F-35A at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada in February 2020. Nial BradshawRussia's air force has been mocked for poor maintenance that has undercut its airpower in the Ukraine war. Particularly troubling was a November 2022 GAO study that analyzed readiness of 49 US military aircraft models between 2011 and 2021. A reassembled F-35A is hoisted during a training course at Hill Air Force Base in September 2022. The Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps together plan to spend $20.2 billion a year for tactical aircraft development and procurement between now and 2027.

☆ It Would Be Hard for Ukraine to Lose the War to Russia
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-07 | by ( Holman W. Jenkins | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

World War II revisionist historian Phillips O’Brien has been fighting the good fight lately on Twitter, upholding the thesis of his 2015 magnum opus, “How the War Was Won.” To wit, Russia’s contribution to victory in the world war was relatively minor after all. German weapons and materiel consumed in battle on the eastern front calculate out to a modest fraction of those destroyed or prevented from being created by the Western air and naval war against Germany’s productive capacity. He turns on its head an old belief that allied bombing was ineffective because Nazi production for a time continued to grow in absolute terms. Mr. O’Brien suggests the effect on potential output is what matters. According to Mr. O’Brien’s figures, the lion’s share of resources went to the Luftwaffe and German navy even at the height of the ground campaign in the east.

☆ Prolonged fighting in Ukraine is revealing the Russian air force's fragility, researchers say
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-01 | by ( Michael Peck | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Other decisions by Russian commanders are setting the air force up for future problems. Another sign of poor discipline is the habit of stacking munitions next to aircraft parked at Russian air bases. RUSI believes they have "corresponded with a significant reduction in the scale and complexity of VKS air operations over Ukraine since the beginning of the conflict." Mihail Siergiejevicz/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty ImagesStill more ominous are the implications for future Russian air operations over Ukraine. Russia needs to maintain a flow of properly trained pilots, as well as competent and disciplined ground crews.

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