Holger's blog: "In memorian"

Vietnam War Casualties Estimating the number killed in the conflict is extremely difficult. Official records are hard to find or nonexistent and many of those killed were literally blasted to pieces by bombing. For many years the North Vietnamese suppressed the true number of their casualties for propaganda purposes. It is also difficult to say exactly what counts as a "Vietnam war casualty"; people are still being killed today by unexploded ordinance, particularly cluster bomblets. Environmental effects from chemical agents and the colossal social problems caused by a devastated country with so many dead surely caused many more lives to be shortened. In addition, the Khmer Rouge would probably not have come into power and committed their slaughters without the destabilization of the war, particularly of the American bombing campaigns to 'clear out the sanctuaries' in Cambodia. The lowest casualty estimates, based on the now-renounced North Vietnamese statements, are around 1.5 million Vietnamese killed. Vietnam released figures on April 3, 1995 that a total of one million Vietnamese combatants and four million civilians were killed in the war. The accuracy of these figures has generally not been challenged. 58,226 American soldiers also died in the war or are missing in action. Australia lost almost 500 of the 47,000 troops they had deployed to Vietnam and New Zealand lost 38 soldiers. In the aftermath of the war many Americans came to believe that some of the 2,300 American soldiers listed as "Missing in Action" had in fact been taken prisoner by the DRV and held indefinitely. "Missing in Action" is a term applied to missing soldiers whose status cannot be determined through eyewitness accounts of their death, or a body. While little credible evidence has been shown for this, images of tortured, emaciated prisoners of war (notably in the sequel to Rambo) continue to evoke anger among many Americans. The Vietnamese list over 200,000 of their own soldiers Missing in Action, and MIA soldiers from World War I and II continue to be unearthed in Europe. Both during and after the war, significant human rights violations occurred. Both North and South Vietnamese had large numbers of political prisoners, many of whom were killed or tortured. In 1970, two American congressmen visiting South Vietnam discovered the existence of "tiger cages", which were small prison cells used for torturing South Vietnamese political prisoners. After the war, actions taken by the victors in Vietnam, including firing squads, torture, concentration camps and "re-education," led to the exodus of hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese. Many of these refugees fled by boat and thus gave rise to the phrase "boat people." They emigrated to Hong Kong, France, the United States, Canada, and other countries. Many effects of the animosity and ill will generated during the Vietnam War are still felt today among those who lived through this turbulent time in American and Indochinese history. American involvement in the war was a gradual process, as its military involvement increased over the years under successive U.S. presidents, both Democrat and Republican (including Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon), despite warnings by the American military leadership against a major ground war in Asia. There was never a formal declaration of war but there were a series of presidential decisions that increased the number of "military advisers" to the region. One of the first occurred on July 27, 1964 when 5,000 additional American military advisers were ordered sent to South Vietnam which brought the total number of US forces in Vietnam to 21,000. Then on August 4, 1964 American destroyers USS Maddox and USS C. Turner Joy were attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin. Air support from the carrier USS Ticonderoga sinks two, possibly three North Vietnamese gunboats. The event was labeled the "Gulf of Tonkin incident" by reporters and the next day Operation Pierce Arrow was launched in retaliation; aircraft from the USS Ticonderoga and USS Constellation bombed North Vietnam.

Two Separate Crashes Kill 8 U.S. Troops & Injure 13 Canadians In Afghanistan Sunday February 18, 2007 Eight American soldiers were killed when their helicopter crashed Sunday in eastern Afghanistan and more than a dozen Canadian troops were injured the same day when three military vehicles collided in the southern region of the country. For an unexplained reason a CH-47 Chinook helicopter carrying 22 American service members lost power and crashed in the Shahjoy district of Zabul province, about 270 kilometres northeast of Kandahar. Eight troops were killed. Authorities stressed they believe the crash was caused by a mechanical problem and not by enemy fire. "The loss of these service members is felt by all of us here in Afghanistan, and we offer our deepest sympathy to the families of those who were killed," Lt. Col. David Accetta, a coalition spokesman, said in a statement Sunday. The incident involving the American helicopter came after another accident involving three Canadian armoured vehicles that injured 13 soldiers. The accident happened in Kandahar when a convoy of troops was moving between bases. All of the injuries suffered are said to be minor. "All of these soldiers are expected to go back to work," Canadian Forces spokesman Maj. Dale MacEachern said. All of the injured troops were treated at a nearby medical clinic. One was transferred to a NATO hospital at Kandahar airfield for further observation.

http://www.icasualties.org/oef/default.aspx

314 11/14/05 Franz, Armin Lieutenant Colonel 44 German Army Not reported yet Hostile - hostile fire - suicide bomber Kabul Bad Rodach Germany 323 08/07/05 NAME NOT KNOWN German Army Non-hostile - vehicle accident Kabul (southeast) Germany 322 06/26/05 Schlotterhose, Christian Master Sergeant 26 German Army PRT-Team Kunduz Non-Hostile - Ordnance explosion Takhar Province (Rustak) Bad Oeynhausen Germany 321 06/26/05 Heine, Andreas Main Sergeant 37 German Army PRT-Team Kunduz Non-Hostile - Ordnance explosion Takhar Province (Rustak) Bad Oeynhausen Germany 111 06/07/03 Kuehlmorgen, Carsten Master Sergeant 32 German Army NA Hostile - hostile fire - suicide car bomb Afghan National Army training facility in Kabul Chemnitz 110 06/07/03 Beljo, Andreas Chief Warrant Officer German Army German Army, International Security Assistance Force Hostile - hostile fire - suicide car bomb Kabul Eldorf 109 06/07/03 Jimenez-Paradis, Helmi Sergeant German Army German Army, International Security Assistance Force Hostile - hostile fire - suicide car bomb Afghan National Army training facility in Kabul Wunstorf 108 06/07/03 Baasch, Joerg Junior Sergeant German Army German Army, International Security Assistance Force Hostile - hostile fire - suicide car bomb Afghan National Army training facility in Kabul Densborn 107 05/29/03 Kamins, Stephen Private 1st Class German Army German Army, International Security Assistance Force Hostile - hostile fire - mine Kabul (12 kilometers south of) 80 12/21/02 Kaiser, Bernhard Main Sergeant German Army 15th Army Aviation Regiment Non-hostile - helicopter crash Kabul (near) 79 12/21/02 Deininger, Friedrich Captain 53 German Army 25th Army Aviation Regiment Non-hostile - helicopter crash Kabul (near) Laupheim 78 12/21/02 Ehrlich, Frank Junior Sergeant. German Air Force NA Non-hostile - helicopter crash Kabul (near) 77 12/21/02 Vierling, Uwe 1st Lieutenant 31 German Army 15th Aviation Regiment Non-hostile - helicopter crash Kabul (near) Thuringia 76 12/21/02 Schmidt, Enrico Main Private 1st Class German Army 25th Army Aviation Regiment, German Army Non-hostile - helicopter crash Kabul (near) Laupheim 75 12/21/02 Schiebel, Thomas Main Sergeant German Army 25th Army Aviation Regiment Non-hostile - helicopter crash Kabul (near) Laupheim 74 12/21/02 Hewußt, Heinz-Ullrich Hewußt Main Sergeant German Army 15th Army Aviation Regiment Non-hostile - helicopter crash Kabul (near) Kreis Steinfurt Germany 46 03/06/02 Rubel, Mike Master Sergeant 27 German Army Kampfmittelbeseitigungskompanie 11 Munster Non-hostile - defusing anti-aircraft missile Kabul 43 03/06/02 Kochert, Thomas Master Sergeant 29 German Army Kampfmittelbeseitigungskompanie 11 Munster Non-hostile - defusing anti-aircraft missile Kabul

Feb. 2, 2007 - Circulating somewhere in the Pentagon is a list of dozens of soldiers and Marines who committed acts of supreme valor during the war in Iraq. One serviceman, for example, charged a row of Republican Guards under fire, killing 20 enemy soldiers. At least three others jumped on grenades to save their brothers. Yet relatively few medals have been issued in the 4-year-old war. The Medal of Honor, for instance, the highest citation a soldier or Marine can receive, has been handed out only twice since the war began, both times posthumously. By comparison, the military gave 245 Medals of Honor to combatants in Vietnam and 464 to veterans of World War II. Lesser medals, like the Distinguished Service Cross, have also been hard to come by for Iraq servicemen.

"If you don't know who I am by now..." Anna Nicole Smith wrote in the "All About Me" section on her purply-pink website. After that teasing, pouty pause she added a couple of cursory sentences and then wrapped it up: "There's so much more, but bios are a bore and I don't feel like writing any more. What else do you need to know?" As the media gathered outside the Hollywood, Fla., hospital where her body lay, one cable network correspondent observed there were more cameras present than he had seen at Yassir Arafat's funeral. But Anna Nicole Smith, 39, possessed a different kind of claim to fame and infamy. She went from a flat-chested, smalltown girl who worked at Wal-Mart and Jim's Krispy Fried Chicken in Texas to become a mega-celebrity of the 21st century sort, all name, little resume. Born in Houston on Nov. 28, 1967, her parents moved quickly to Mexia, a small town of some 6,000 that lies just 40 miles east of Waco in the heart of Texas. Three weeks before her second birthday, her parents were divorced. She dropped out of school by eighth grade and at 17 married Billy Wayne Smith, the 16-year-old fry cook at Jim's Krispy Fried Chicken. The fried chicken drive-in is still there and Billy still lives in Mexia. He was one of the 50 mourners at a memorial service last fall for his son, Daniel, who was born 10 months after their marriage and who died almost 20 years later in the Bahamas from a drug overdose. Anna Nicole did her mourning in the Bahamas. She had slipped away from Billy Wayne and small town Texas in 1987 and found her way back to Houston, a city with a brash and brassy side. There, in October 1991, an aging oil millionaire, grief stricken with the loss of both a wife and a mistress, was taken by his chaffeur for a little cheering up to Gigi's Cabaret. It was the kind of place where young women dance exotically for their suppers. And that is how Anna Nicole found her second husband, Howard Marshall II, one of the richest men in Texas. They married in June 1994. He was 89 and she was 26. "He wanted to make me happy," she said. "His wish was my command." The rest is tabloid history. Marshall died 14 months later and Anna Nicole joined James Howard Marshall III, who had been disowned by his father, in a still ongoing legal war with her other stepson, E. Pierce Marshall over the $1.6 billion estate. That battle, however, ensures that not all of Anna Nicole's story will be told in tabloid form. A year ago, the aggrieved widow, dressed in black, her blonde curls tamed, appeared inside the hallowed chamber of the U.S. Supreme Court. What followed was a unanimous decision authored by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg that gave new life to Anna Nicole's quest to inherit her late husband's fortune. She aspired to rich widowhood but she was born to be her generation's model of the eternal American blond. "I want to be the new Marilyn Monroe and find my own Clark Gable," she said in her Playboy interview when she was named Playmate of the Year in 1993. Her acting credits — Carrie Wisk, a daredevil helicopter pilot in the self-produced action move Skyscraper or Lucy, in another self-produced flick Illegal Aliens a tale of of space aliens rescuing Earth from evil — never matched Monroe's. Her short-lived reality show, "The Anna Nicole Show" was the highest rated program on the E! network. It was quickly cancelled but not before it offered a glimpse of her battles with drugs and weight, the plagues of other Great American Blondes. She never found her Clark Gable. But she seemed to have wanton fun in the search. Her last beau, lawyer Howard K. Stern, perhaps the father or not of her five-month-old daughter, had joined her in a legally non-binding "commitment" ceremony in the Bahamas in late September last year, two weeks after her son's death. Together, they had jumped off a catamaran after the ceremony, swimming to a nearby island where they celebrated with champagne and fried chicken. This week, she checked into the glitzy Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. She'd been there in the past. It was the sort of place you'd expect to see Anna Nicole Smith. And that was where she collapsed. As the word spread in Texas that she had died, they began to gather in Mexia. The satellite trucks, that is, lining up in the parking lot at Jim's Krispy Fried Chicken. As Anna Nicole said, "What else do you need to know?"

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Monkeys infected with a resurrected virus that was responsible for history's deadliest epidemic have given scientists a better idea of how the 1918 Spanish flu attacked so quickly and relentlessly: by turning victims' bodies against them. The research, which found that an over-stimulated immune system killed even as it tried to fight the flu, helps explain why many of the 50 million people who died in the epidemic were healthy young adults. Conventional flu usually claims mostly the very young and very old. This new look at an old killer gives doctors ideas on how to fight the current bird flu if it develops the ability to spreads from human to human, as many scientists fear it will. The 1918 virus, which was reconstructed with reverse genetics, exists today only in two labs where scientists are studying it. Scientists said they were struck by how suddenly and overwhelmingly the 1918 flu struck seven macaques that were tested in a high-level biosafety lab in Winnipeg, Canada. The virus spread faster than a normal flu bug and triggered a "storm" response in the animal's immune systems. Their bodies' defenses went haywire, not knowing when to stop, researchers said. The lungs became inflamed and filled with blood and other fluids. The scientists believe the virus had the same effect on humans. "Essentially people are drowned by themselves," said University of Wisconsin virology professor Yoshihiro Kawaoka, lead author of a study published Thursday in the journal Nature. The experiment was supposed to last 21 days, but after eight days the monkeys were so sick -- feverish, in pain and having difficulty breathing -- that ethical guidelines forced the researchers to euthanize them. "There was some surprise that it was that nasty," University of Washington virologist and study co-author Michael Katze said. "It was the robustness of the immune system that helped victimize them." 'Simply overwhelming' The virus was simply overwhelming, researchers said. "It's a very good replicating virus and therefore it can affect more of the immune system and thereby triggers what one refers to as a cytokine storm," said Peter Palese, chairman of the microbiology department at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, who wasn't part of the study but has worked on the resurrected virus before. Cytokines transmit messages among cells in the immune system. No other flu virus is deadly to monkeys, and the speed in its spread and the overwhelming immune system response is only similar to those in the H5N1 bird flu, Kawaoka said. The bird flu has spread around the world intermittently, but has yet to develop the ability to transmit person-to-person. If it does, scientists believe understanding the 1918 flu may give them clues about how to protect people from it. The new work "gives us another tool," said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, who was not part of the research. Fauci praised the study and said what it found in the effects on the body are stunning: "There aren't a lot of things that can induce that robust of an inflammatory response that quickly." The 1918 flu research suggests that those fighting the bird flu in the future could try using drugs that reduce inflammation and control the body's immune response, Katze said. In the Winnipeg research, the first-of-its-kind controlled introduction of the 1918 flu to primates, the monkeys were given extra high doses of the flu virus by nose, mouth, eye, and direct injection into the trachea to ensure infection. The virus had been tested before on mice, but macaques provide better models of how viruses work on humans, the scientists said. The virus was reconstructed from tissues of victims from 1918. Besides the Public Health Agency of Canada's lab in Winnipeg, it exists only at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. The fate of the monkeys was sealed within hours of their infections, Katze theorized. In normal flu, the immune system response wanes, but in the 1918 flu "the innate response stayed up and didn't go down," Katze said. "There was an uncontrolled or aberrant response." Adolfo Garcia-Sastre, a Mount Sinai microbiology professor who conducted some of the earlier mouse work, said it may be a mistake to focus so heavily on immune system response. The 1918 flu virus "induces an overwhelming and probably damaging immune response system" but it is largely because the virus grows so much, he said. In mice, when the overactive immune response was eliminated, mice died because of high viral levels. "It's like a vicious circle, you get more viruses, you get more immune response and this results in damage," Garcia-Sastre said. Copyright 2007 The Associated Press.

Antony Beevor - Berlin 1945 S. 445: Insgesamt wurden etwa 2 Millionen deutsche Frauen vergewaltigt....

Ogier the Dane (Danish: Holger Danske, French: Ogier de Danemarche) is a legendary Danish hero who first appears in an Old French chanson de geste, in the cycle of poems Geste de Doon de Mayence. Despite his Danish origins, his surname—“of Danemarche”—is speculated to have signified the marches of the Ardennes and not Denmark. According to his legend, he was the son of Geoffrey (the historical Gudfred), king of Denmark. In La Chevalerie Ogier de Danemarche, he had a son who was slain by Charlot, son of Charlemagne; seeking revenge, he sought out and slew Charlot, and was only barely prevented from killing Charlemagne himself. He resisted Charlemagne for seven years, but made peace with him in order to fight at Charlemagne's side against the Saracens, in which battle he slew the giant Brehus. There may be a dim flicker of history in the tale, in that Danish sources reveal that in around 800, while Charlemagne's empire was at its peak, a Danish king named Godfred or Godfrid made successful war against Frankish expansion into Frisia and Schleswig for many years. After a long stalemate, peace is declared between the two rulers. Like Frederick Barbarossa, Saint Wenceslas and King Arthur, in Danish legend Ogier becomes a king in the mountain; he is said to dwell in the castle of Kronborg, his beard grown down to the floor, and to sleep there until some date when Denmark is in mortal danger, at which time he will rise up and deliver the nation. In some versions, Morgan le Fay takes him to Avalon, from where he returns after two hundred years to save France. Poul Anderson's fantasy novel Three Hearts and Three Lions (ISBN 0-671-72186-0) (1961) draws upon these legends and also alters them. Its protagonist Holger Carlsen (a Danish resistance fighter) is transported to a fantasy alternate history where the Matter of France is historical. He eventually learns that he is Ogier the Dane, sent to our universe to remove him from the conflict between humans and Faerie in that one. During World War II one of the of the groups of the Danish resistance movement operated under, and issued communiques signed by, the name "Holger Danske". In the catacombs beneath the Kronborg castle in Helsingør, there is a statue of Holger Danske (Ogier the Dane). According to folklore the statue will come alive when Denmark is in great danger, and Holger Danske will save the country. Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holger_Danske_%28Mythology%29" Holger Danske ist ein dänischer Sagenheld, der zuerst im altfranzösischen chanson de geste Erwähnung findet. Nach der Legende war Holger der Sohn Geoffreys, des Königs von Dänemark. In einer Überlieferung hatte er einen Sohn, der von Charlot, dem Sohn Karls des Großen erschlagen wurde. Holger sann nach Rache, stellte Charlot nach, erschlug ihn und schaffte es um ein Haar, Karl den Großen selbst zu töten. Er widerstand Karl dem Großen über sieben Jahre und schloss dann mit ihm einen Friedensvertrag, um an seiner Seite gegen die Sarazenen ins Feld zu ziehen, wo er in der Schlacht den Riesen Brehus erschlug. Um 800, als das Reich Karls des Großen seine Blüte erreicht hatte, führte der dänische König Gudfred oder Godfrid einen langjährigen erfolgreichen Krieg gegen die fränkische Expansion nach Friesland und Schleswig. Nach langen Fehden wurde zwischen beiden Herrschern Frieden geschlossen. Wie Friedrich Barbarossa und König Arthur wurde Holger in der dänischen Legende ein König im Berge; man sagt, er wohne im Schloss von Kronborg, sein Bart wachse herunter bis zum Boden, und er schlafe dort bis zu dem Tag, da Dänemark höchste Gefahr droht. Zu jener Zeit werde er aufstehen und die Nation in die Freiheit führen. Poul Andersons moderner Fantasyroman Three Hearts and Three Lions (ISBN 0671721860) ist teilweise eine moderne Nacherzählung des Holger-Stoffes, dessen Protagonist Holger Carlsen (ein dänischer Widerstandskämpfer) in eine allegorische Fantasy-Welt versetzt wird. Von „http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holger_Danske“

21. Juli 1942 Theodor Heinrich Haunhorst (201. Sicherungsdivision) stirbt im Kriegslazarett Polozk (Weißrußland) died in military hospital Polozk (White Russia/ Byelorussia) 14. Juli 1941 Paul Bernhard Haunhorst (126. rheinisch-westfäische Infanteriedivision) verwundet bei Schickino wounded near Schickino 09. Mai 1944 Heinrich Walter Haunhorst ( Heeresküstenartillerieabteilung 149 ) wird bei Sewastopol auf der Krim als vermißt gemeldet missing in action in Sewastopol (Crimea) 28. August 1944 Josef Theodor Haunhorst (Luftwaffennachschub Flughafen Wien) wird seinem Standort Wien als vermißt im Südostraum gemeldet missing in action in the southeast of europe 22. April 1945 Hubert Heinrich Haunhorst (Festunsmaschinengewehrbataillon 3102) wird in Penzig verwundet wounded in Penzig