Reflections Part II

By Kenny Harmon

History; W.W.2; Music 1960's; The life of baseball legend Mickey

Mantle; Alfred Hitchcock TV Series

• Language: English
• Publisher: Writers Branding LLC
• Release date: Jun 24, 2023
• ISBN: 9781639457069

Book preview

cov_.jpg

Reflections

Part II

sad papaw

Kenny Harmon

Reflections Part II

Copyright © 2023 by Kenny Harmon

ISBN: 978-1639457069 (e)

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

The views expressed in this book are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Writers’ Branding

[phone]

www.writersbranding.com

[e-mail]

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION v

Chapter 1: Part 1: Sink The Bismarck 1

Part 2: Night Witches

Part 3: Smoky

Part 4: First Sergeant John R. Morton

Chapter 2: World War II 17

Chapter 3: Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock 57

Chapter 4: Wild Times 78

Chapter 5: Part 1: Music 81

Part 2: Wrecking Crew

Part 3: The Righteous Brothers

Part 4: The Beach Boys

Part 5: The Monkees

Part 6: The Bobby Fuller Story

Chapter 6: Mr. Chevrolet and the Professor 101

Chapter 7: My First Hero The Lone Ranger 111

Chapter 8: The Commerce Comet 115

INTRODUCTION

Special thanks to my daughter Abby Harmon!

Chapter 1

Part 1 Sink The Bismarck

Adolf Hitler’s ascension to Fuhrer of Germany began a short time after the end of World War 1. Hitler joined the German workers party, DAP in 1919. DAP was the precursor of the Nazi party. Hitler was appointed leader of the Nazis in 1921. In 1923 on Nov. 8th Hitler and several others attempted a coup against the German Government in Munich. The attempted coup was called ‘The Beer Hall Putsch". 16 Nazis and 4 Police Officers were killed during the failed coup! Hitler escaped but was arrested 3 days later. Hitler’s trial for high treason began in Feb. 1924. He was found guilty and sentenced to 5 years in Landsberg prison. Hitler was treated like royalty while he was incarcerated! He was released on Dec 20, 1924 after serving only 1 year behind bars!

Hitler didn’t waste any time in his quest to ultimate authority over Germany. Just 2 weeks after being released from prison he had a meeting with the Prime Minister of Bavaria! Hitler agreed he would only seek political power through a democratic process! The meeting paved the way for the ban on the Nazi party to be lifted on Feb 16, 1925. Thus, the new beginning of the Nazi party stated only 2 months after Hitler’s release from prison for high treason!

One of the things that helped Hitler to rise to the top of the Nazi party was his military record in World War 1. During Hitler’s 6-year military service he received The Iron Cross First Class, Iron Cross Second Class and Black Wound Badge. When the war ended, he was in a hospital recovering from partial blindness caused by mustard gas. Germany’s surrender of World War 1 deepened his hatred for communists in Germany’s government and European Jews!

The Great Depression gave Hitler a great propaganda opportunity. He railed against the Parliamentary Republic for not doing enough to help Germany. During the elections of Sept. 1930, the Nazis won 18% of the seats in Parliament. The Nazis had 107 Parliamentary seats!

In 1932 Hitler ran against Paul Von Hindenburg in the presidential elections because he had gained strong support from powerful industrialists and businessmen! Immediately after the elections those highly influential men signed a letter urging Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as the leader of the government Independent from Parliamentary Parties which would turn into a movement that could enrapture millions of people! At the end of 1932 Hindenburg reluctantly appointed Hitler chancellor and allowed Hitler to appoint the minister of interior for Germany and the minister of the interior for Prussia. Hitler’s inauguration was Jan 30, 1933.

Hitler had a meeting with military leaders on Feb 3, 1933. He made it clear that Germany’s borders of 1914 should be restored! In Oct 1933 Germany withdrew from the league of Nations and The World Disarmament Conference! In 1935 Hitler announced Germany would begin development of an air force called Luftwaffe and increase the size of the navy, Kriegsmarine. The announcements meant Germany would break The Treaty of Versailles that ended World War 1!

One of Hitler’s greatest military desires was for Germany to have several of the largest battleships. The first of the mammoth ships was Bismarck. Bismarck’s sister ship was Tirpitz. Bismarck was built between July1936 and Aug 1940. Tirpitz was built between Nov 1936 and Feb 1941.

In May 1941 Bismarck was sent on her first offensive operation code-named Rheinubung. Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen were ordered to breakout into the Atlantic to destroy as many allied ships as possible! British intelligence had expected Bismarck to attempt to enter the Atlantic.

May 23 the 2 German ships were sighted by 2 British heavy cruisers, HMS Norfolk and Suffolk. Early in the morning of the 24th the British battle cruiser HMS Hood intercepted Bismarck and Prinz Eugen in the Denmark strait between Greenland and Iceland.

The battle began at 5:52 AM when Hood fired at Prinz Eugen. The shells fired by Hood missed! The captain of Bismarck briefly hesitated giving the British ships a momentary advantage. However, at 5:55 both German ships fired salvos at Hood. One of the shells from Prinz Eugen hit Hood’s boat deck where ammunition was stored! The hit caused a large fire! Just before 6:00 Hood was attempting to turn to port to better position her rear guns. Bismarck fired it’s fifth salvo from approximately 10 Mi. The 5th salvo from Bismarck caused a massive magazine explosion that destroyed the aft part of Hood! The explosion caused Hood to break in half! Moments after the explosion Hood’s bow was almost vertical in the water! The HMS Hood with 1,418 men aboard sank in 3 minutes! There were only 3 survivors!

Bismarck was hit 3 times by Prince of Wales. 1 of the hits caused a significant loss of fuel. Immediately after the Hood sank the battle was over. Bismarck headed for occupied France for repairs knowing she would be hunted by every available British ship!

When British Prime Minister Winston Churchill received the news about Hood he said sink the Bismarck! The British naval commanders knew they only had a few days to find Bismarck before she received help from other German ships! The British only had a few ships close enough to help in the search and the weather was very blustery. One of the ships that joined the hunt was the aircraft carrier Ark Royal. However, the Ark Royal only carried World War 1 biplanes called Fairey Swordfish. Thus, if the biplanes found Bismarck it would be David VS Goliath!

In the late afternoon of May 26th 15 biplanes took flight into gale force winds. In the evening twilight Bismarck was sighted! At 9:05 the attack began! One of the pilots was John Jock Moffat. These are the words of Moffat, I saw the enormous bloody ship. I thought the Ark Royal was big, but this one, blimey! I must have been under 2,000 yards, when I was about to launch the torpedo at the Bow, but as I was about to press the button I heard in my ear, not now, not now! I turned and saw the navigator leaning right out of the plane with his backside in the air! Then I realized what he was doing, he was looking at the sea, because if I let the torpedo go and it hit a wave, it could have gone anywhere! I heard him say, let it go and I pressed the button. He said we’ve got a runner and I got out of there.

Miraculously the torpedo exploded near the only vulnerable area underwater, the steering mechanism! Just like David VS Goliath! Bismarck could