Henry A. Wallace

Operation Valfajr-4 was an Iranian operation of the Iran-Iraq War launched in 1983. At the end of the operation Iran had captured a small amount of... territory from the Iraqis. Units of Iraq's First Army Corps spent two months in their trenches waiting for the Iranians to attack. The offensive came on 19 October 1983 as the Iranians and guerillas of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan took 250 square miles of territory. This included a number of Kurdish villages and exerted a significant amount of pressure on Penjwin. Saddam Hussein responded with a counterattack, using the Iraqi Republican Guard and poison gas. However, they failed to dislodge the Iranians, who were dug-in and reinforced by Kurdish fighters. The attack was successful but the Iranians suffered high casualties due to Iraqi gas attacks. Unlike other operations and battles of the Iran–Iraq War, environmental conditions and operative restrictions were of high significance for this operation. Also the military medicine organization of the Pasdaran was important in this battle; they used special methods to save the wounded and carried out rescue operations.
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The Invasion of Lingayen Gulf was an Allied amphibious operation in the Philippines during World War II. In the early morning of 6 January 1945, a... large Allied force commanded by Admiral Jesse B. Oldendorf began approaching the shores of Lingayen. U.S. Navy and Royal Australian Navy warships began bombarding suspected Japanese positions along the coast of Lingayen from their position in Lingayen Gulf for three days. On 9 January, the U.S. 6th Army landed on a 20 mi beachhead between the towns of Lingayen and San Fabian. During World War II, the Lingayen Gulf proved a strategically important theater of war between American and Japanese forces. On 22 December 1941, the Japanese 14th Army—under Lieutenant General Masaharu Homma—landed on the Eastern part of the gulf at Agoo, Caba, Santiago and Bauang, where they engaged in a number of relatively minor skirmishes with the defenders, which consisted of a poorly-equipped contingent of predominantly American and Filipino troops, and managed to successfully invade and occupy the gulf. Following the defeat, the next day General Douglas MacArthur issued the order to retreat from Luzon and withdraw to Bataan.
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Operation Bodenplatte launched on 1 January 1945, was an attempt by the Luftwaffe to cripple Allied air forces in the Low Countries during the... Second World War. The goal of Bodenplatte was to gain air superiority during the stagnant stage of the Battle of the Bulge, to allow the German Army and Waffen-SS forces to resume their advance. The operation was planned for 16 December 1944, but it was delayed repeatedly owing to bad weather until New Years Day, the first day that happened to be suitable. Secrecy for the operation was so tight that not all German ground and sea forces had been informed of the operation, and some units suffered casualties from friendly fire. British signals intelligence recorded the movement and buildup of German aerial assets but did not realise that an operation was imminent. The operation achieved some surprise and tactical success but was ultimately a failure. A great many Allied aircraft were destroyed on the ground, but the losses of the Allied Air Forces were replaced within a week. Since the majority of Allied losses were empty planes sitting on the ground, Allied aircrew casualties were quite small.
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Kesternich is a small village just inside the German border from Belgium. It was the site of two major battles during World War II. These battles are... tied to the Siegfried Line Campaign, Battle of the Huertgen Forest, Battle of the Bulge, and Roer Dam Assault at the outset of Operation Lumberjack. Kesternich is a small village, which in 1944–45 consisted of about 112 houses constructed in a method of timber frame and stucco construction called Fachwerk-Häuser. Poised on a spur ridge, the landform inside the village along the main east-west road is relatively flat. The land falls off sharply to the north into a gorge known as the Weidenbachtal, and to the south into a gorge named the Tiefenbachtal. To the east, at the end of the village, the terrain steps down quickly into the Roer river gorge. Surrounding the village along the ridge was a series of small field plots divided by the traditional hedgerow of the region. The houses were not tightly packed, but were surrounded by small yards containing many out buildings and sheds. The yards were often separated by another form of traditional tall dense hedge that is used as a windbreak.
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