Oral History Project Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Oral History Project - Essay Example So Tucker grabbed this big tall girl with a dark complexion while the shorter blonde-haired girl grabbed Chic by the arm and they started walking. Unbelievably, what was in Chic's mind at the time was economics. "Gee, the price had gone upwe used to pay only 20 bucksmust be all those Army officers and staff who paid a higher price" As these thoughts went around Chic's head, the girl's voice hit him in the gut: "You sure you got the moneyyou got any money" As his stomach turned, he thought of a way to stay clean and get out of this situation. "Just a minute, I'll go get a cab!" Asking the girl to wait, Chic rounded the corner and just kept on walking all the way to the Red Cross office where he knew Tucker would go to get what they called "prophylactic things" they had to use to avoid getting sick with VD. Sure enough, a few minutes after Chic sat at the Red Cross lounge, Tucker came running upstairs. Chic really razzed him, "I pulled one on you, Tucker. I stayed clean!" Their stay in England was not all rest as they continued training and practicing their jumps. Twice, they were about to fly out but, twice, their mission was cancelled. The reason, Chic found out, was General Patton whose tanks were overrunning German positions so fast that there was no need for the paratroopers to be dropped behind enemy lines. Chic and the troops were not complaining because they enjoyed eating oranges and turkey and good food, "being fattened for the kill" so they said. And then Patton hit a dead end as the Germans found a way to stop his tanks close to the border of Belgium and Holland. Paratroopers were needed to drop behind the enemy lines and open a 75-mile highway for Patton's tanks to pass through (The War). Chic still remembers the day they flew out of England. It was a bright and cloudy Sunday, September 17, 1994, when their plane took off as part of what they called the First Allied Airborne Army. Their mission was to land inside enemy territory, attacking the Germans from behind. Aside from the 506th, the 502nd where George was, and the 501st, there were also brigades of British and Polish paratroopers. There were three different landing points, so to decide who gets which, the commanders just flipped coins after a long argument. Chic and the 506th got Eindhoven in Holland, which was closest to the Germans and which they thought was the worst place to be while the British got the farthest point up north in the upper part of Holland (Ambrose). There was a German police dog with Chic and the troops in the plane. The dog was their mascot and had its own parachute, and all throughout the flight, the dog kept on going towards the plane's door until it heard the flack from German anti-aircraft guns exploding around the plane. The dog backed up because the sound of exploding flack is like a dog's bark, "Woof!" Just before he jumped, Chic looked out of the plane and could clearly see everything below: the huge bomb craters along the forest floor, rows of P-38 Lighting fighter planes flying all over to give them air cover during the jump, and even some Germans coming out of the church with their girlfriends. When the Germans saw the planes, they started firing their rifles. That was the time Chic was told to jump, so he threw the dog whose chute popped open automatically ahead of him. Chic wanted to take a picture of the dog landing on the

Herbert Henry Asquith Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Herbert Henry Asquith - Essay Example As Prime Minister Asquith worked closely with his successor as Chancellor of the Exchequer, David Lloyd George to push through the Liberal social reform policies. The People’s Budget of 1909 had shown the government’s reforming credentials yet forced two general elections during 1910 (James, 2003 p. 88). Asquith had not had an easy time as Prime Minister yet had previously maintained the loyalty of the Liberal Party through the various problems faced before his replacement by Lloyd George. The Liberal government had been through enough traumas before the First World War. Disruption was caused through the issues of reducing the power of the House of Lords, dealing with industrial unrest, and votes for women, although the war itself put those issues and the more controversial moves towards Irish home rule on hold for the duration (Schama, 2002 p. 433). Although David Lloyd George was known to be ambitious, he had not from the outset of the First World War planned to oust Asquith and become Prime Minister himself. At the start of the conflict, Asquith and Lloyd George had been united as to Britain’s war aims and that Asquith was the best available Prime Minister. Neither man, for instance, had thought about making peace with Germany, instead of waiting for the outcome of the Somme offensive in 1916 (Stevenson, 2004 p. 148). In the source Stevenson argues that Lloyd George wished to become Prime Minister to help the nation win the war, to add a sense of urgency in the solving of political, military, and economic obstacles that were preventing British victory. Lloyd George’s ambitions are played down whilst the stubbornness of Asquith in refusing to step down is stressed. Asquith was assumed to be selfishly holding on to power to the detriment of the Liberal party’s future and British national interests (Taylor, p . 128).