Which WWII Generals Personally Lead their troops in Battle.

 

Only one that I knew about was Rommel,   I'm sure there were others

While most WWII generals led from the safety of the rear, a defiant few fought on the front lines. One even landed in the first wave of D-Day at age 56, armed only with a pistol and a cane.

That man was U.S. Army Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt Jr. As the deputy commander of the 4th Infantry Division, he had repeatedly petitioned his superiors to let him lead the assault, arguing his presence would steady the men. His request was finally granted, and Roosevelt stepped off his landing craft onto Utah Beach under heavy fire. When he realized the landing craft had drifted a mile off course, he personally scouted the area and redirected incoming regiments, declaring, "We'll start the war from right here!" He survived the assault but died of a heart attack in Normandy a month later. Here is some details"General Roosevelt", He had big ties with my division, the 1st Infantry Division.

German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel built his reputation on abandoning his headquarters to ride with his vanguard. During the 1940 invasion of France, he commanded the 7th Panzer Division—nicknamed the "Ghost Division" because even the German High Command often lost track of its location. Rommel drove right alongside his lead tanks, sometimes personally helping soldiers operate anti-tank guns or bridging equipment. In North Africa, he continued this aggressive style, directing battles from a forward command vehicle or flying low over the desert in a Fieseler Storch observation plane to spot British positions.

German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel studies a map in his forward command vehicle during the North African campaign in 1942. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

U.S. Major General Maurice Rose commanded the 3rd Armored Division, nicknamed the "Spearhead" division, and lived up to the name by riding in a jeep at the very front of his armored columns. Rather than managing the advance from a rear command post, Rose preferred to be close enough to hear small arms fire. In March 1945, his hands-on approach cost him his life. While moving forward to locate a cutoff unit in Germany, his command group unexpectedly encountered a column of German Tiger tanks in the dark. Rose was shot and killed while reaching for his weapon to surrender, making him the highest-ranking American killed by enemy fire in the European Theater.

Details from "Wiki about Major General Rose"

 

Some Background, the "ATR Series" of aircraft is a regional turboprop built in France/Italy and utilized around the world for regional service and has a good reputation for reliability and safety. 

    Here is the "WIKI" details on the flight in question."VOEPASS Flight 2283"   We in the aviation industry study all accidents to ensure that the accidents and incidents improve the industry and makes it more difficult for the next accident to happen.  The statistics bear it out.  Flying is safer than driving.

Credit: CENIPA

LYON—All 62 occupants of a Voepass Linhas Aereas-operated ATR 72-500 died on Aug. 9, 2024, because of reckless behavior by the carrier’s managers, maintenance technicians and pilots, Brazil’s air accident investigation bureau has determined.

In its final report on the accident, Brazil’s Aeronautical Accidents Investigation and Prevention Center (CENIPA) found abundant evidence of safety lapses within the company, which it described as contrary to the safety standards upheld by the air transport industry.

Brazil’s national civil aviation agency (ANAC) suspended Voepass’ operations in March 2025, after it noted persistent problems at the regional turboprop operator. ANAC permanently revoked Voepass’ air operator certificate in June 2025. CENIPA’s recommendations target ANAC, as the supervising body for air transport in Brazil, and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), and suggests improvements to ATR aircraft.

The final report says the crew knowingly flew the aircraft into severe icing conditions, although it was not certified for such circumstances and the airframe deicing system was inoperative. The resulting ice accretion increased drag, triggered alerts and eventually caused a stall. Voepass Flight 2283 originated in Cascavel, in the state of Parana, and was bound for Guarulhos, in the state of Sao Paulo. The crash took place in Vinhedo, in Sao Paulo state. None of the four crew members or 58 passengers survived.

The report describes the widespread violations of safety rules and common-sense obligations in maintenance activities as “jaw-dropping” for a company that operated 15 commercial turboprops.

“At some secondary bases, limitations in maintenance resources were identified, as well as ... restrictions on access to the aerodrome apron due to the lack of airport credentials,” CENIPA says, noting the mechanics had only a few hours, usually during the night-shift period, to perform corrective and preventive maintenance on the aircraft.

CENIPA says technicians performed maintenance in a superficial manner, without completing the required documentation and delegating critical activities to assistants without proper oversight. Some of them did not have the right qualifications to understand a manual’s content, the report says.

Standard Practices

Aircraft may be dispatched with inoperative systems, as long as they comply with their minimum equipment list (MEL). CENIPA points out that at Voepass, this was standard practice, not the exception, adding that some malfunctions were recorded as resolved, without the corrective action being performed.

“There was also the practice of replacing an inoperative component with another known to be malfunctioning and dispatching the aircraft for flight,” CENIPA’s investigators said. “As a consequence, a new malfunction entry would be recorded on the subsequent flight, allowing a new dispatch based on the MEL.”

The investigation found deficiencies in flight crew and managerial behaviors in which pilots routinely did not report malfunctions in the technical logbook, a deviation encouraged by the company. That was the case with the accident aircraft’s airframe deicing system, the investigators noted. Pilots and maintenance technicians just communicated verbally—another aspect of an organizational culture the investigators describe as permissive.

Between 2022-24, ANAC issued notices of irregular condition to Voepass and suspended several aircraft from flight. CENIPA investigators determined ANAC’s risk management process was insufficient for the strategic decisions that would have been necessary, and the agency’s report recommends a revision of ANAC’s methods.

The CENIPA report also says Voepass’ managers, including those in charge of safety, failed to use flight data monitoring. The ATR 72’s aircraft performance monitoring (APM) system issues three levels of advisories when it detects the effects of icing: Cruise Speed Low, Degraded Performance and Increase Speed. Those alerts indicate a performance degradation due to ice accumulation on the aircraft’s surfaces. CENIPA compared Voepass’ data with that of five other ATR 72 operators and found Voepass had significantly more frequent occurrences of such alerts than its counterparts. Pilots did not always activate protection systems after ice was detected, they add.

The day before the crash, the aircraft’s airframe deicing system malfunctioned and the crew attempted three resets, without success. “After the first system reset and the occurrence of a new failure, the flight crew should have followed the deicing airframe fault procedure, which instructed the crew to exit icing conditions, avoid them and turn off the system,” CENIPA investigators said. The pilots informed the maintenance team verbally, which did not check or repair the system.

Accident Sequence

The system failed again on the day of the accident, during the two flights that preceded the accident. Fault messages were displayed accordingly. The crews, including the one operating the accident flight, did not follow the deicing airframe fault procedure. Faced with speed alerts (Degraded Performance and Increase Speed), the crew who would later operate the accident flight only requested a descent to FL140 (approximately 14,000 ft.), from FL160. Air traffic control approved the request, and the speed alert warnings eventually disappeared. The crew’s response, however, did not comply with the standard procedure, which includes increasing airspeed, the report says.

Before the accident, the flight crew and Voepass’ operations control center had access to a weather forecast of severe icing along the planned flight route. They took off despite the predicted conditions and the airframe deicing system’s known malfunction, which stemmed from the right wing boots. During the climb, crossing FL130, the aircraft’s electronic ice detector indicated ice accumulation. The pilots did not follow the prescribed procedures for the deicing system’s fault or the three successive speed alerts from the APM system. The recommendation was to exit the likely severe icing conditions immediately, since aircraft performance and maneuverability would be severely affected after only a few minutes of exposure. After a stall warning, the crew did not follow the stall recovery procedure and lost control.

ATR Improvements

CENIPA recommends that EASA engage with ATR and consider an improvement in the Degraded Performance speed alert procedure. Speed should be increased by a greater margin above the minimum maneuvering speed in icing conditions. Moreover, ATR could extend the use of the Low Bank mode, which prevents the increase in stall speed due to aircraft bank angle, the investigators suggest. The flight data recorder should register more parameters, including deicing system failure. The Increase Speed alert should be upgraded to a Warning message, up from Caution, the investigators add.

Since the accident, ATR has designed a new version of the APM system software, which EASA certified in June 2025. Speed alerts are now based on the airspeed margins relative to the minimum maneuvering speed in icing conditions, rather than the theoretical airspeed values, CENIPA says. In a simulation, the last Degraded Performance alert was activated 31 seconds earlier than in the accident flight.

"Why are Pistols dropped during a hit, but keep the Canolli's"

 

    I have an affinity for movies that deal with payback and revenge for wrongs dealt to the person in question.  Part of the reason why I like the "Godfather", the 1984 version of "Dune", and others, I think it is part of the American psyche for Justice to right the wrongs kinda thing I suppose.

                                                      Here is the scene in question.                  

     This question was asked on Quora...

Why do gun owners in movies and TV shows always drop the gun they used to make the hit? They often do it in the Sopranos and there's the famous scene in The Godfather where Al Pacino does it after shooting two men in the restaurant.

When Michael Corleone drops his gun in The Godfather, it isn't just cinematic flair. A fleeing man caught with a warm weapon is a murderer. Empty-handed, he's just a panicked bystander.

This cinematic staple—often seen in The Sopranos and Goodfellas—reflects a real-world tactic employed by organized crime syndicates to break the physical chain of evidence immediately after a murder. The highest risk of apprehension occurs in the minutes immediately following a shooting, when responding police lock down the perimeter and stop anyone fleeing the area. Abandoning the weapon ensures the shooter can survive the getaway.

To make this strategy work, the firearm must be a "drop piece"—a weapon that cannot be traced back to the killer. Organized crime members traditionally use stolen guns and file off the serial numbers to prevent law enforcement from tracing the purchase history. Before the hit, the weapon is wiped clean of fingerprints. In The Godfather, Clemenza covers the trigger and grip of Michael’s .38 caliber revolver with special tape so it will not hold prints, ensuring that when the police inevitably recover the gun at the restaurant, it provides them with no actionable leads.

Taking the gun home introduces massive, unnecessary legal exposure. Every firearm leaves microscopic, unique striations on the bullets it fires. When crime scene investigators recover the bullets from a victim’s body, they can definitively match them to the weapon used. If a hitman keeps the gun and their home or car is raided weeks later on an unrelated charge, discovering that weapon provides prosecutors with the physical link needed to secure a murder conviction. Leaving the gun at the scene hands the police a dead end, forcing investigators to rely on witness testimony—which, in cases involving organized crime, is notoriously difficult to obtain.

A Smith & Wesson Model 642 compact revolver. Organized crime hitmen often preferred snubnose revolvers because they were easy to conceal and did not eject spent shell casings.

"In Vietnam Could a Soldier Smell their enemy in the jungle?"

 

I had a couple of senior NCO's in my first unit"Big Red One", we had most of the division at Fort Riley and the rest of it forward deployed in Germany scattered over several Kasernes and barracks in the "VII Corp" area of responsibility in the 1980's.  They were serious about the smell thing and the leaving trash.  I had eaten an orange and chunked the peels out of the cargo hatch of the "Track", we were on maneuvers,   Well I fessed up when he asked about it, and he had me dig a grave for the peels and do a service for the peels and for the crew because my stupidity got everyone killed.  They were serious about the smell and trash thing, needless to say, the lesson stuck.  From what I saw, not everyone was serious about the trash and smell thing.

By RJ Holland

 

Yes. But it was more the NVA and VC smelling us instead of us smelling them.

American soldiers smelled like their rations; meat and dairy products gave them a distinct and different body odor than local citizens.

 

Cigarettes also gave Americans a distinct scent. Winston and Pall Mall cigarettes, which were packed with the C rations, gave a particularly strong odor that clung to clothes.

Guns had the scent of oil, cleaner, and protectorant. Gear like packs had an army smell, as I called it: musty, dirty, sweaty canvas. I can still smell it now. Wet canvas smelled like misery, musty mildew and muck. Every combat US soldier would know that smell. So did the enemy.

 

Another giveaway that GI’s were in the area was the smell of pot and weed, or Bleu de Hue and Cambodian Red. I knew a tanker that called it JC, Jazz Cabbage. That stuff clung to the clothes like crazy. There were no skunks in Vietnam, if you know what I mean. Weed contains sulfur compounds as does skunk. The human nose is extremely sensitive to sulfur compounds, meaning even tiny amounts create a very strong, noticeable punch.

North Vietnamese and Viet Cong fighters often reported that they could detect U.S. troops from a distance due to these odors.

 

What did the NVA and VC smell like? If GI’s were close enough to smell them, which wasn’t that often, and if they were, they would be in trouble. The NVA and VC would carry the scent of steamed rice, fish sauce called Nuoc Mam, which was made from fermented fish among other things, and Chinese cigarettes. This was very rare, though. The NVA and VC were good at covering scents. When an American soldier said he could ‘smell the enemy,’ he really meant that he had a feeling, a sixth sense, the enemy was near, not that he actually smelled them. [he could have smelled their cooking fires]

Our TC would often say into our tank coms, “They’re here, they’re around, I can smell them.” I always felt those words chilling. Well, he couldn’t really smell them; he could feel it. They were close, and he was usually right. He was good at that. Usually the ones with that sixth sense were lucky; it kept them alive. They were the ones that usually, I say usually, made it home.

 

‘Fee Fie Foe Fum, I smell Wrigley’s chewing gum!’ (We got those with our C Rations)

This post was taken from Quora.

 

Admin addition: When returning to a firebase or the rear area after a lengthy stay in the jungle, we could smell the cleanliness and soapy smell of those soldiers within the camp. In turn, we smelled ripe and vinegarish to them. In the bush, one could also smell the bug juice, which left a hint of alcohol in the air.

Any more examples or disagreements?

Monday Music " Bat Out of Hell II:Back Into Hell" MeatLoaf

 

I decided to go with a Meatloaf song for my Monday Music, I was driving into work and this song came on the "90's channel" on my Sirius/XM, and it brought back memories.  I saw Meatloaf back in 1994, My girlfriend(now my wife) knew that I liked "Meatloaf" and he was coming to Lakewood Amphitheatre.  She gave me a Hallmark card(One of her Superpowers, LOL) and when I opened it, 2 tickets fell out.  I was very happy and surprised.  We made jokes now about the "salad days" but they were more like "Ramen" noodles days...Salad days would have been an improvement.
     We had the cheapo lawn seats, and they were still good, from the recreational pharmaceuticals that were present to the couple behind us that didn't need a room, it was a very good show.  At the end Meatloaf would say " thank you to his fans for sticking with him from the good times and bad.  he was very sincere about it.  His album Bat out of hell II..Back into Hell was climbing the charts but the critics were still lambasting the album as a joke. he showed them though, the sucker went double platinum or something like that.  Even now I would play the song and the album if I go on a road trip.

"I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)" is a song composed and written by Jim Steinman, and recorded by Meat Loaf. The song was released in 1993 as the first single from the album Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell.
The last six verses feature a female vocalist who was credited only as "Mrs. Loud" in the album notes. She was later identified as Lorraine Crosby, from North East England. She does not, however, appear in the video, in which her vocals are lipsynched by Dana Patrick. Meat Loaf promoted the single with American vocalist Patti Russo performing the live female vocals.
The title of the song confused some listeners, who were curious to know what "that" is. The song was a commercial success, reaching number one in 28 countries. The single was certified platinum in the United States and became Meat Loaf's first number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and on the UK singles chart, and was the best-selling single of 1993 in the UK. The song earned Meat Loaf a Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Solo.
    
The song opens with a guitar played to sound like a revving motorcycle, which scholar Anne Bader interprets as foreshadowing "the male angst to come". This is a reference to Todd Rundgren's contribution in the middle of "Bat Out of Hell". Roy Bittan's piano begins to play, along with the guitars. The vocals begin at the 1:50 point, which is where many pop songs are beginning their second chorus. Steinman "alternates ... [a bombastic] style with mellow moments where the hard-hitting piano licks are fleshed out with ethereal synthesizer and choral-styled backing vocals."

And I would do anything for love

I'd run right into hell and back

These opening vocals are accompanied by piano and backing vocals. The song then becomes much louder as the band, predominantly piano, plays the main melody for twenty seconds. An instrumental section follows the first verse and chorus, lasting over 45 seconds, with piano playing the title melody, accompanied by guitar and wordless background vocals by Todd Rundgren, Rory Dodd and Kasim Sulton. The lead vocals recommence with another verse. The popular phrase "sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll" was edited to become "Some days I just pray to the god of sex and drums and rock and roll" on the recording (though not always in live shows).
    
Steinman's songs are usually much longer than most other songs, and "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)" is no exception.The song is a full 12 minutes, and Steinman broke down when executives advised him that he had to cut it down to get radio play. Manager Allen Kovac warned that any song over five minutes would not be played on radio, saying that if Steinman and the group did not make the cuts then the stations would. Even after they made the cuts, Steinman sent his own version to the stations.
The single version was edited down to five minutes and 25 seconds, where the entire motorcycle introduction is omitted. The video version was whittled down to seven minutes and 38 seconds, where the motorcycle intro remains, but not in its entirety. In the video version and single version, the lengthy instrumental break is completely omitted. In the video and single versions, the refrain, which reads "I'd do anything for love, anything you've been dreaming of, but I just won't do that", which is sung before the instrumental bridge, was to be repeated three times, but was whittled down to having the one line repeated twice. Lorraine Crosby sings six verses in the complete song. In the video version, the second and third verses are omitted. In the single version, the second, third, and fifth verses are omitted.

    
Michael Bay directed the music video. He also directed the videos for "Objects in the Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer than They Are" and "Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through", also from Bat Out of Hell II. Filming took place in Los Angeles County, California in July 1993; the opening chase was filmed at Chávez Ravine, with the interior mansion scenes filmed at Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills. The cinematographer was Daniel Pearl, particularly known for filming The Texas Chain Saw Massacre in 1973. Pearl says that this video "is one of my personal all-time favorite projects... I think the cinematography is pure, and it tells a story about the song."
The video is based on Beauty and the Beast and The Phantom of the Opera. Bob Keane did Meat Loaf's make-up, which took up to two hours to apply. The make-up was designed to be simple and scary, yet "with the ability to make him sympathetic." It went over budget, and was filmed in 90 °F (32 °C) heat, across four days. According to one executive, it "probably had the budget of Four Weddings and a Funeral. It is the abridged seven minute single version, rather than the twelve minute (11:58) album version.
The actress in the video, Dana Patrick, is miming to Crosby's vocals,however, as she would to Patti Russo's in the 1995 song "I'd Lie for You (And That's the Truth)".According to the captions aired on Pop-Up Video, Patrick received several offers for record deals after the video aired, by executives who assumed she was actually singing in the video.
    
The story begins with the opening credits saying: "I have travelled across the universe through the years to find her. Sometimes going all the way is just a start." We then see "The Beast" character – a deformed man portrayed by Meat Loaf, on a motorbike being chased by police officers and a helicopter. As the chase continues into night, the Beast passes through into his castle hiding from his pursuers. He mournfully examines his deformed hands and features; as the officers enter the castle, he ducks out of sight before resuming the chase on his bike. Crashing through the wall, he accidentally knocks down a police officer while the impact causes one of the chandeliers on the ceiling to fall and kill the officer.
In desperation the Beast flees into the nearby woods where he comes across a beautiful woman bathing/cooling herself by a fountain. Oddly enough, the woman appears to be in sunny daylight, while the rest of the woods and castle clearly show that it is night-time, although this may be a symbolic representation of the woman being the light to the Beast's own mental torture or "darkness" or a romance cliché. The woman looks into a mirror and glimpses the Beast watching her. She turns and he flees leaving only an amulet hanging on a branch. The woman picks it up and pursues him.
As she approaches the castle, the Beast is watching her movements through the reflection of his drink. As she comes into the castle the Beast hurriedly removes himself. The woman sits in his chair and rests by the fire. The beast watches her from his hall of mirrors and contemplates approaching her but is ashamed of his appearance. She later is seen having a bath interspersed with the police officers finding the dead officer's body and preparing to raid the castle. She is later seen trying to sleep while being seduced by 3 vampy women while the Beast sits in a chair (a reference to Dracula and the Brides). The Beast leaves the room and, seeing his reflection, begins to smash up the mirrors. The woman, hearing the noise, comes out and follows him into a presumable living room. The Beast observes her from above and levitates the chaise she is sitting on.
The Beast, then hearing the officers are near moves away, pulls the chaise back down breaking a lamp. The two run away and the woman removes the Beast's hood so she can look at him clearly. She accepts him and caresses his face while they embrace. As they pull away, the Beast is returned to his human form, and the two disappear just before the police catch them. The woman and the transformed Beast finally ride off into the sunrise on his motorbike.